Chapter 16
Lingbao had never once thought that he was tormenting Agong.
He was the grandmaster of the current Zhongnan Sect, one of the Three True Ones of the Mountain Peak.
A peerless master, once even called a Sword Immortal. Why would he, of all people, torment a child like Agong?
Moreover, the fact that he had been called a fake Taoist by a chestnut-sized brat was a great shock to Lingbao.
"Did you just call me a fake Taoist?"
"Yes! How can you be called a Taoist when you torment a child with your fists whenever you get the chance!"
Agong was already anxious to death, and Lingbao had suddenly appeared and hit him on the head, so his anger had reached its peak.
"You don't even know what you're doing, and you call this True Man a fake Taoist! Immeasurable Buddha... Immeasurable Buddha..."
"Is it a sin to sweep?"
"You brat, you're still lying to this immortal!"
Lingbao, who was about to give him another flick on the head, saw Agong glaring at him with wide eyes and stealthily lowered his fist.
"What does it matter to you, Taoist, whether I learn the Heavenly Demon Hand or whatever!"
"It does matter!"
The Hermit's Valley was a place where the balance of power between the Mountain Peak Sect, the Sea Isle Sect, and the Non-Duality Gate was precariously maintained.
But the fact that Tongtian was teaching the child brought by Hongjun, whom all three of them were most wary of, was a very big incident.
There were already frequent discussions about whether Agong was becoming Hongjun's disciple.
But for such a child to become close to Tongtian and be taught his unique martial art was like a bolt from the blue for the Mountain Peak Sect, which was most wary of the Sea Isle Sect.
"Answer me. Did you perform the nine bows to Tongtian?"
The nine bows meant the nine bows a disciple performs when taking a master.
"I didn't, so stop tormenting me and go away!"
"He taught you the Heavenly Demon Hand of the Manifest Demon True Art without even establishing a master-disciple relationship? Hoho! This brat is still lying!"
He wouldn't believe him even if he answered, so Agong was the one who was frustrated.
"I must check how far you've practiced!"
Lingbao instantly stretched out his hand and tried to snatch Agong's arm.
The startled Agong, without realizing it, raised his internal energy, and his body shot up like a bow.
The extreme emotion had circulated his internal energy to the Yongquan acupoint, allowing him to display Cook Li's Nine Palaces Divine Steps.
"No!"
Lingbao, surprised to see Agong avoid his grasp with a strange footwork, immediately clenched his fist and displayed the Seven Severing Heavy Hands.
In the first place, it was a surprising thing that a child like Agong had avoided his hand even once.
Agong, as if determined, used the Nine Palaces Divine Steps with all his might to avoid Lingbao.
It seemed his training, which had made his legs tremble, had paid off. Once he used his internal energy, he was able to dash a distance of about thirty feet in an instant.
"Nine Palaces Divine Steps!"
As Agong clumsily displayed the unique martial art of the Shadowless Divine Thief, the Nine Palaces Divine Steps, and ran away in front of him, Lingbao looked at his empty hand as if it were absurd and clicked his tongue.
He didn't know when he had learned the Nine Palaces Divine Steps of the Shadowless Divine Thief, but it was enough that he had escaped his grasp twice.
Lingbao instantly displayed his lightness skill and chased after Agong in one go.
He had caught up with Agong, who was running with all his might, in a single step.
"Grr!"
Agong, feeling defiant, displayed the True Heart Auxiliary Method to its extreme.
At that moment, a tingling pain arose.
A hot sensation arose in Agong's chest, and the energy of his whole body drained away like the wind.
"Ack!"
Agong let out a final scream, vomited blood, and rolled on the ground.
His strength was gone, and his whole body was in pain as if it had been cut by a knife.
He couldn't open his mouth, and no words came out.
Pain came every time he struggled.
At that moment, from right behind Agong, Lingbao slowly walked towards him.
Agong, thinking that this pain was caused by Lingbao, wanted to scream, but no voice came out.
Anger welled up in the eyes of Agong, who couldn't move an inch.
As the unbearable pain passed, his throat became so dry, as if he had been left alone in a desert.
"Ugh... ah... ugh..."
Even when he tried hard to speak, no words came out.
With his face buried in the ground, he was on the verge of suffocating.
"You live and you learn. To think there's a guy who eats dirt!"
At the moment when even the feeling of the dry, coarse dirt on his lips was fading, Lingbao's fingers entered Agong's mouth without hesitation.
"Keek! Keck, keck!"
"It's called a Life Returning Pill. This immortal's pill-making skills are skills that even the Old Lord would envy, so don't have a single doubt."
As a lump the size of a fist was forcefully pushed into his mouth, Agong struggled in agony.
Behind the coarse, cow-dung-like taste, there was a clarity.
As he swallowed a large amount of something that was suffocating, it felt as if a small breeze was blowing in his chest, which had been on fire.
"What... are you doing?"
At the voice that burst out, Agong was startled and his eyes widened.
The pain was gone, and saliva began to pool in his dry mouth.
As the pain and thirst subsided, Agong suddenly felt a wave of drowsiness.
"How foolish, Immeasurable Buddha..."
* * *
When Agong came to his senses, a ceiling he had never seen before in his life came into his eyes.
"Where is this..."
As he took a deep breath, his chest soon became tight.
"Are you awake?"
Lingbao's voice reached the ears of Agong, who had come to his senses.
As Agong barely raised his aching body and looked around, the Taoist Lingbao was looking at him in a room filled with an unknown fragrance.
"Where am I?"
"This is this immortal's home. What did you have in your stomach, you little brat, to be so heavy?"
"Why am I here..."
Agong soon remembered the situation where he had run away from Lingbao and suddenly collapsed.
"What grudge do you have against me!"
"What an ungrateful thing to say to your savior?"
"You attacked me."
"Huh... Heavenly Lord... Are you saying I attacked you and made you like that?"
"N-no?"
Looking at Lingbao's expression, it seemed that it wasn't what he had thought.
"You brat! I even used a spirit pill to save you! There's a limit to how ungrateful you can be!"
Thwack!
"Aack!"
Perhaps because his body was aching, this flick on the head was so painful that he saw stars.
Agong rolled on the ground as if he were about to pass out and then barely righted his posture.
"Then why am I suddenly like this?"
"What did I say would happen if you practiced the martial arts of the Slender Moon Squad?"
"What!"
The startled Agong raised his voice.
"I said that if you practiced the martial arts of the Slender Moon Squad, you would grow a lump for a head. I also said that this immortal is a man who always keeps his word."
"Ugh!"
Agong hurriedly protected his head.
Looking at such an Agong, Lingbao let out a low sigh.
"It's this True Man's fault too. I never thought that that fellow Hongjun would have neglected it to this extent..."
"What do you mean?"
"What did you hear when you were taught the martial arts by the Slender Moon Squad?"
At Lingbao's question, Agong hesitantly gave an answer.
"That I'm also a member of the Slender Moon Squad..."
"So you want to become a member of the Slender Moon Squad of the Black Contemplation Fortress?"
"That... I don't know."
He couldn't stay here forever, so if his life was intact, he might be able to leave the Hermit's Valley someday.
But after that?
He had thought about going back, but now that he knew about something called martial arts, it was impossible to go back to his old life.
"The martial art that the Slender Moon Squad taught you is the most vicious among demonic arts."
"What?"
"It's a cultivation method that accumulates true energy by gnawing away at life. If I had been a little late in acting, you would have already been walking the path to the underworld."
"Gnawing away at life...?"
Agong couldn't easily understand Lingbao's words.
"This kind of cultivation method gives the practitioner tremendous power in an instant when their emotions become intense. But after that, it consumes everything and becomes a dying ember."
Hadn't the people of the Slender Moon Squad and Zhao Wei told him that he was now one of them, a member of the Slender Moon Squad, when they taught him the martial arts?
Moreover, the master who had visited the tavern had even declared that if Agong left this place and came to find him, he would give him a suitable reward.
"They probably intended to use you as bait to enter this place from the beginning."
Agong was greatly shocked by Lingbao's words.
His gratitude to Zhao Wei, who had taught him the martial arts, and his pride and sense of belonging in becoming a member of the martial arts group called the Slender Moon Squad, although he didn't know its identity well, had had a great influence on Agong's self-esteem without him realizing it.
But if what Lingbao said was true, it meant that they had just used him as a disposable item, like a worn-out shoe, and had lured him with sweet words.
"That... that..."
As the shocked Agong couldn't sort out his confused mind, Lingbao opened his mouth as if it were pitiful.
"Originally, things like righteousness, affection, and revenge are all futile. A person just lives following their desires and in the end goes with empty hands and an empty heart. It's as easy to change as the wind. But if you give your heart to such things, you will ruin your life."
It was the first time the Taoist Lingbao had said something like a Taoist, but Agong let out a scream like a cry of despair.
"They... used me, and taught me martial arts to kill me!"
Although he was young, it was the first great kindness he had received, so his sense of betrayal was great.
Although they had not been able to keep their promise to take him back, Agong had not doubted for a moment that they were comrades during the time they had traveled together to find the Hermit's Valley.
"Although this immortal's divine pill is great, your blood and qi are greatly damaged, so you will have to rest for a while."
Agong didn't hear Lingbao's words.
Lingbao, feeling the burning killing intent in Agong's eyes, clicked his tongue briefly.
"Are you thinking of revenge?"
"Can I?"
The answer came without a moment's hesitation.
"Everything lives according to the natural order."
"Then are you, Taoist, living according to the natural order?"
"If I had lived according to the natural order, I would have already ascended. Would I be staying in the lower world? This immortal is the biggest long-nose of all long-noses."
As Agong looked at him with a dumbfounded expression, Lingbao burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! Yes, you give as much as you receive. Originally, that is the human heart. If you don't even have that kind of grit, you're not a man!"
Thump!
"Take it."
Lingbao, who had been laughing for a while, took out a few books from his sleeve and threw them.
"What's this?"
"This is the martial art you will have to learn from now on."
"I'm sick and tired of martial arts now."
In the first place, there was no law that said he wouldn't be backstabbed by Lingbao either.
"Then what are you going to do about revenge?"
"Does a Taoist also recommend revenge?"
Agong, who was retorting bluntly, turned his gaze to the books lying under his legs.
"Nine Gates Harmonious Heart Art... Nine Gates True Scripture."
"Adding a path on top of a path. There is nothing better than that for laying a new path on a damaged path."
In contrast to Lingbao's expression, Agong's eyes showed that he did not like the martial arts books that Lingbao had offered.
"Do I have to learn this?"
"In the world, the only divine arts that can help you are the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic of Shaolin and this immortal's Nine Gates. Since you're already learning the Nine Palaces Divine Steps of the Shadowless Divine Thief, you might have a connection with the number nine."
"Isn't Shaolin Temple a place where there are monks with great martial arts? Are your martial arts as great as the martial arts of Shaolin Temple?"
He had heard of the name of Shaolin even when he didn't know about the martial world.
Agong, thinking that Lingbao was bluffing, disliked the Nine Gates Harmonious Heart Art in front of him even more.
Lingbao closed his eyes tightly at Agong's attitude.
To see a treasure and not know it was a treasure was no different from teaching a blind man to read.
"Have you heard of the Twelve Honored Ones of the World?"
"Yes, I heard about it from Master Gongsun a while ago."
"Recite it."
"There are twelve strong men in the martial world, but among them, the Heavenly Demon, the Sword Immortal, the Living Buddha, and the Flame Emperor are the best. Among them, the one who looks down on the world is the Flame Emperor, so naturally, the Flame Emperor is the number one in the world."
"The martial arts of the Flame Heavenly Emperor are powerful, but even with his palm that melts rocks, he could not defeat the Great Thunder Golden Divine Art of the Fireless Flame."
"Then is the Living Buddha the number one in the world?"
"No. The Living Buddha does not reign, so he cannot be called the number one in the world. How can one who does not reign be called the number one in the world?"
"What about the Heavenly Demon?"
Lingbao showed a particular displeasure towards the Heavenly Demon.
"The demon who abandoned everything and left on his own is not even worth mentioning."
"Then... is it the Sword Immortal?"
"He is a hero of the world and an immortal, so he is not someone to be spoken of carelessly."
Agong, from Lingbao's attitude, could guess the reason why he had led this questioning.
"You're the Sword Immortal, aren't you, Taoist!"
(End of Chapter)