Chapter 81
At Gakyak’s command, the monks of the Great Buddha Temple were dispatched to Ulleungdo.
The monks—who hadn’t even known a place called Ulleungdo existed—looked around with the curious eyes of first-time island visitors, but they couldn’t find anything strange enough to warrant Gakyak’s orders.
After wandering from place to place, they finally arrived at Ulleungdo’s most popular spot.
“This must be it. The Wind Cave.”
It was the Wind Cave.
“Why is the line so long here?”
At one monk’s question, the youngest monk grabbed someone who looked like an employee and asked.
“Why is this place so famous?”
But there was no way for the employee to understand the monk’s fluent Chinese.
“What’s he saying? Just a moment.”
Unable to understand a word, the employee looked around before raising a hand and calling out.
“Guide! Where is Guide Kim Sang-gyu?”
“Huh? Why Kim?”
“These monks are asking something, but I think they’re Chinese and I can’t understand them.”
“Ah~ He should be bringing his clients over soon. Ah! There he is. Guide Kim! Guide Kim Sang-gyu!”
As the guide waved, Guide Kim Sang-gyu—leading a group of tourists—nodded and continued his explanation.
“This is the Wind Cave everyone’s been curious about. It’s famous for being the Lengthening Cave.”
“Ah~ so this is the place?”
“Wow, is the line really this long? Will we even get to see it? This is what we came for.”
Kim Sang-gyu smiled brightly at their questions.
“Today’s tour ends here. You can spend as much time as you like, and when you’re ready to leave, just let me know. I’ll guide you to the most delicious dinner course around here.”
“We still have a lot of time left? Awesome!”
“Yes! I’ll see you all in a bit! Hurry and get in line. The line!”
With the tour finished, Kim Sang-gyu approached the employee.
“They’re from China, and you’re the only one who speaks Chinese, Guide Kim Sang-gyu. Sorry~ Thanks for your help!”
The employee—clearly swamped by the long line—hurried off to manage the people who had just joined.
With his work done, Kim Sang-gyu let out a long sigh, his face practically saying, “It’s over.”
“What can I help you with?”
“Oh! You’re from China?”
The Great Buddha Temple monks lit up at Kim Sang-gyu’s fluent Chinese.
“No, I just studied abroad in China for a long time. Is there something you’re curious about?”
“It’s nothing much. We were just wondering why the line here is so long.”
“Ah~ This is the Wind Cave. It’s gotten famous recently as the Lengthening Cave, which is why there are so many people.”
“The Lengthening Cave?”
Kim Sang-gyu’s expression hardened for a brief moment as he gazed toward the Wind Cave.
But seeing the massive crowd, the other guides enjoying their extended break, and the promotional director’s countless efforts plastered all around the Wind Cave, he put on his business smile again and nodded.
“Yes. Even though we’re not doing any special maintenance, it’s getting longer and deeper day by day.”
At the words “Lengthening Cave,” the Great Buddha Temple monks exchanged looks.
It was the strange phenomenon Left Darma Protector Gakyak had told them to investigate.
“What could be the reason?”
“Hmm, we don’t know the reason either, so we’re getting help from experts. We still don’t have an answer.”
“I saw a waterfall up above earlier. Could that be the cause?”
“It’s a possibility, but we can’t be sure. We haven’t received the experts’ opinions yet.”
“Have you been inside?”
“Of course. I go in every morning to check.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“Would you like to go in and see for yourselves?”
A Great Buddha Temple monk silently pointed at the other monks standing in the long line.
“Ah~ You’ll know once you go inside. It’s a peculiar cave, so we check it every morning. Do you have any other questions?”
“Thank you for your help. It seems we’ll have to go in and see for ourselves.”
“Very well.”
After Kim Sang-gyu left, the monks looked at one another and nodded.
A strange feeling.
A sense of reverence filled their faces at the thought that they might be able to bring back what Gakyak wanted.
However, after enduring the long line and coming back out of the Wind Cave, the monks could only click their tongues in disappointment.
Because there was nothing to be found in the Wind Cave, where they’d thought something unusual was occurring.
“Master, what should we do?”
“We cannot create something out of nothing. We simply report what we saw, heard, and felt. That is all.”
“Shall we depart, then? If we book now, I think we can make the flight.”
“Let’s do that.”
And so the Great Buddha Temple monks made their way out of the crowded Wind Cave.
Some people describe what is called fate in a certain way.
A whim of the gods.
Not even ten minutes after the Great Buddha Temple monks left the Wind Cave, a loud scream echoed from within.
“Aaaaaaaah!! H-Help me!”
Everyone flinched at the sudden commotion.
Countless people stared toward the Wind Cave with shocked expressions.
“Excuse me! Excuse me!”
“Please move aside!”
The staff and guides hurried into the Wind Cave.
And there they saw the man who had screamed.
“Aaaaaaaah!! Help me! Help!”
The moment they saw him, the staff and guides all let out deep sighs.
Because the reason the man was screaming was a large bug sitting on his shoulder.
“Aaaaaah!”
“Excuse me? Sir?”
A staff member approached with a weary sigh.
“Y-Yes…! Ughhh…”
Finally feeling a sense of relief, the man shivered and squeezed his eyes shut.
The staff member grabbed the bug on his shoulder and pulled.
The bug clung desperately—then dropped off with a plop.
Fwoosh.
“….!!”
Kim Sang-gyu’s eyes widened.
“You can’t scream like that. You’re scaring people.”
“I-I’m sorry. I was just so surprised…”
“I’ll escort you outside. Follow me.”
The trembling man was guided out.
“Geez, what was that? You scared me.”
Just as the guides—relieved it was only a minor incident—were turning back—
Kim Sang-gyu grabbed one of them by the arm.
“Didn’t you see it?”
“Huh? See what?”
“Just now… when the staff member pulled that bug off. You saw that puff of blue smoke, right?”
“Blue smoke? I didn’t see anything like that.”
“What? You didn’t see it?”
“Hey, did anyone just see something like blue smoke?”
The guide Kim Sang-gyu was speaking to asked the others, but they all shook their heads.
“Nobody saw it, they said. Guide Kim, we need to go out and reassure people. Let’s get to work.”
And with that, the guides left Kim Sang-gyu behind and headed outside.
“There he goes again.”
“Is he feeling drained lately?”
“I’m feeling drained too. Heh heh.”
Blue smoke and a blue scab.
And now, a bug tinged with a blue light.
Left alone, Kim Sang-gyu broke out in a cold sweat as he stared at the spot where the bug had fallen.
Then he swallowed dryly.
“That… that was Mana. The bug was holding Mana… you idiots…”
The powerful force that formed the foundation of the current world.
Kim Sang-gyu’s expression darkened as he looked at that blue power of unknown origin.
The worries and anxieties that plagued him…
Ultimately surfaced that evening as a major incident—something that couldn’t even be compared to the small commotion from earlier.
“Ugh, aaaaaah!!!”
Inside the Wind Cave, long after everyone had left.
A guard on night patrol fell backward, dropping his flashlight.
“Aaaaaah!!!”
Behind the screaming, fleeing guard…
A corpse was visible inside the Wind Cave, illuminated by the flashlight’s beam.
A corpse in a guide’s uniform, completely dried out.
= = =
Chang-kyung and Right Darma Protector Mantae stood before the main hall of the Great Buddha Temple, looking down at Hyuk-min and his party.
“Supreme Monk.”
The awaited Left Darma Protector Gakyak appeared, approached Chang-kyung, and whispered in his ear.
“The report from the monks you sent to Ulleungdo has arrived.”
“Yes. What did they say?”
“There were no particular signs of suspicion… but just one thing. A place called the Wind Cave is said to be unusual.”
“The Wind Cave?”
“They say it’s a cave that deepens on its own. The reason has not been confirmed.”
“A cave that deepens on its own… isn’t that normal for all caves? Though it takes a long time.”
“But they say the speed is so fast it feels different from one day to the next.”
Chang-kyung nodded.
It was unusual.
A cave deepening so quickly you could feel the difference day by day.
Because of Hyuk-min, the arrow of a fate different from his past life was about to be twisted in yet another direction.
“Then have them stay there longer and…”
But the gods’ whim did not stop there.
If only the report had ended there, it would have been better…
If so, the war Hyuk-min feared might not have happened…
“It seems there is a waterfall above it, and the current there is strong, so they surmise it might have started from there.”
The monks—feeling they had to report something—had returned fate to its original course.
“Hm. If the monks say so, then it must be so. I see. So you’re saying there’s nothing unusual.”
“They say there isn’t. Could it be… that man was lying? As you know, if a war were to break out, things should have started happening by now, but there’s nothing.”
Chang-kyung’s and Gakyak’s eyes turned to Hyuk-min at the same time.
The war that was supposed to happen on December 26th.
Was this a ploy targeting Chang-kyung, Gakyak, and Mantae—former members of the Karma Unit who knew the pain of war all too well?
But.
“That can’t be. I had a long conversation with him yesterday, and there was no sign of that. In fact, he earned even more of my trust.”
“Is that so. If you say so, Supreme Monk, then it must be true.”
“They should be on their way back by now.”
“Yes. They said they’re on the plane.”
“Gakyak, you go and see them yourself. There might be something they didn’t notice.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“You won’t have any training from me for the time being, so until I call for you, focus on that place—Ulleungdo. We must prevent the war, must we not?”
“I will obey your command.”
As Gakyak left, Chang-kyung swallowed the bitter taste of guilt from the deception.
Mantae approached and whispered.
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. This is all for Gakyak’s sake.”
“That’s the only thought keeping me going. Please proceed quickly. Before something really happens.”
“I understand.”
Mantae stepped toward Hyuk-min’s party.
Then he shouted to them.
“I’ll ask one thing. Is this man, Bang Hyuk-min, truly your leader?”
“He is.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what your leader intends to do here?”
At Mantae’s question, No Death and Hyun-jung answered.
“No idea. He’s not the type to talk about things like that.”
“Wherever my uncle says to go, I’ll go. No matter where it is.”
Mantae scoffed at the different answers.
Then he put on a grave expression, letting a frightening atmosphere settle.
“Even if it means death, is your answer the same?”
A heavy question.
At the word “death,” everyone had to think again.
But unlike the others, the two answered immediately.
“Oh! That sounds good. I’m in!”
“Yes! Even if it’s the path to death, if my uncle is there, I’ll go!”
One strange answer, and one filled with loyalty too heavy for a child to possess.
Both were odd, but they were clearly what he wanted.
Mantae turned his head to Chang-kyung, who gave a firm nod.
“Begin.”
Instantly, Mantae gathered his Internal Energy and struck No Death and Hyun-jung on the forehead with his palm.
Thwack!
“Ah.”
With short, final groans, the two collapsed limply.
Mantae supported their heads so they wouldn’t get hurt, then gently laid them down.
“From now on, we will proceed with the Small Heavenly Circulation to push all the Mana you possess into your external bodies.”
As Mantae closed his eyes over their heads, Chang-kyung stepped closer and looked at Hyuk-min.
“Shouldn’t you receive it as well?”
In martial arts, there were cases where learning one style made it impossible to learn another.
That was why Hyuk-min hadn’t learned the Cloud Flow Sword Method, in order to accept a new martial art.
In other words, his body had never once experienced the Small Heavenly Circulation that every martial artist went through.
“I’m in your hands.”
At Hyuk-min’s request, Chang-kyung nodded and moved his Internal Energy.
The depth of the Internal Energy—moving based on the Cloud Flow Sword Method—gathered in his palm.
Then he tapped Hyuk-min’s head.
Thwack!
Just like his party members, Hyuk-min’s consciousness was severed, and Chang-kyung caught him.
“What a monstrous body. How did he get so strong in such a short time?”
To think he only fainted after Chang-kyung used no small amount of Internal Energy.
Looking at Hyuk-min’s unconventional body, a pleased smile crept onto Chang-kyung’s face as his eyes slowly closed as well.
The first step had been taken.
Now…
It was the beginning.
Whether they would become monsters, or whether they would die.
One of Hyuk-min’s biggest plans—to survive the fallout of the war that would spread on December 26th—was about to begin, becoming a whim of the god named Fate.
And the result…
Began to flow in a direction that neither Chang-kyung, nor Hyuk-min, nor anyone else could have predicted.
= = =
At that moment.
As the fates of a past life—changed by Hyuk-min—were finding their way back to their original places, another of the gods’ whims was about to occur.
“Greetings, Left Darma Protector.”
When Gakyak arrived at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, five Great Buddha Temple monks cupped their fists in salute.
Normally, he should have heard their report and returned per Chang-kyung’s orders.
But for some reason, a different command came from him.
“You said it was the Wind Cave.”
“Yes! It’s a cave that’s lengthening because of the waterfall!”
“I’ve looked into it, and a cave cannot deepen that quickly.”
“Does that mean it’s not because of the waterfall? What did the head monk say?”
“The Supreme Monk ordered you to return. However…”
A twisted fate.
“I intend to send you back to that place—Ulleungdo.”
“Then…”
“I have a bad feeling. I feel like something is about to happen at the Wind Cave.”
A strange light glinted in Gakyak’s eyes.
“Or perhaps it’s already happening.”