Chapter 361: Great Desert Yellow Dragon (2)
It was difficult to watch the meeting between Bodhidharma and the Great Desert Yellow Dragon from the flat ground.
To witness the sheer size of the two colossal beings, one had to tilt their head up quite a bit.
Yi-gang climbed a hill.
It could be called a VIP seat for spectating.
Yi-gang was the only spectator who could closely witness the duel between a thousand-year-old imoogi and the yellow dragon of the desert.
Kweeeeeeek—
The appearance of the revealed Great Desert Yellow Dragon was, to be frank, horrifying.
It wasn’t a dragon—it was a sandworm.
A legendary creature said to dwell in the desert, a death worm that swims underground and swallows entire villages whole.
Even though most of its body was still buried underground, its size surpassed that of Bodhidharma. Until now, the largest living being Yi-gang had ever seen was Bodhidharma’s true form, but the sandworm looked capable of swallowing even that in a single bite.
In its wide, circular maw, blade-like teeth squirmed.
At the moment it tried to swallow Bodhidharma—
Pffwoosh!
Bodhidharma’s mandala shone, and the worm’s massive head split in half.
As something the size of a hill was torn apart, the pouring blood looked like falling rain.
The supernatural phenomenon, akin to a natural disaster, did not end there.
Pffwaaaak!
Even though its head had already been split in two, the giant creature’s head split again.
Once more, a rain of blood poured down.
Yi-gang’s expression stiffened.
‘Psychokinesis…?’
What could have possibly split apart that enormous monster? He couldn’t even begin to guess.
‘No. It’s not psychokinesis.’
No matter how powerful Bodhidharma was, such a feat couldn’t be achieved with mere psychokinesis.
If that were possible, Yi-gang wouldn’t have needed to use complex techniques like the Qi Control Sword Technique.
He would have just torn his opponents apart.
Yi-gang, struck by a sudden thought, chanted the Sutra of Inexhaustible Mind and Body.
And what he saw before him was utterly overwhelming.
‘…This is unbelievable.’
From the place where Bodhidharma’s head was, waves of qi shimmered and spread in every direction.
It was the same method once used to subdue the Absolute master Seomun Jae at Mount Song.
However, this time, the threads woven from spiritual energy and Qi were exerting overwhelming physical force.
Like a sharp blade, it shredded the sandworm’s body into pieces.
Thud-thud—
Large and small chunks of flesh dropped onto the blood-soaked ground.
Yi-gang trembled.
Bodhidharma was truly a remarkable being.
It was the power of one who had transcended humanity, free from the laws of causality.
However, a problem arose.
Whether human, yokai, or dragon—if the head was split, death should be certain.
But the sandworm’s body still stood upright and rigid.
That wasn’t all.
The blood pooling on the ground began to ripple strangely.
Even without wind, waves formed, and slowly, droplets of blood began to float into the air.
The blood defied gravity and rose upward.
It shot up along the same trajectory it had fallen.
A sight even more surreal than the rain of blood.
Even the scattered chunks of flesh returned to their original places.
It didn’t take long for the sandworm’s body to regenerate.
The creature appeared almost completely unscathed.
And as if it didn’t even remember what had just happened, the sandworm charged straight at Bodhidharma’s torso.
Kwaaaang—
It looked as though the creature had bitten into Bodhidharma’s neck.
Bright red blood gushed out with a fwoosh.
“You wretch…!”
But it wasn’t Bodhidharma’s blood.
Just before the creature bit into Bodhidharma’s torso, Bodhidharma had once again split its head open.
Yet again, the blood that poured out was sucked back in as if it were all a lie.
This time, the creature regenerated differently.
The wound healed while its head was still split in half.
Then the divided head transformed into a massive dragon-like maw.
Blade-like teeth finally grazed Bodhidharma’s body.
The fangs tore through his scales, and Bodhidharma’s blood spilled onto the ground.
For the first time in a thousand years, the imoogi bled.
Bodhidharma twitched, overcome with surging rage.
The red fury painted over the sense of futility that had enveloped him just moments ago.
That rage wasn’t due to pain.
The first time he had sensed something unnatural was when he had shredded the creature’s body into pieces.
Within the thickly scattered droplets of blood, Bodhidharma caught a strange scent.
‘…That can’t be.’
The true identity of the Great Desert Yellow Dragon was a sandworm.
A disgusting worm unworthy of being called a “yellow dragon.”
Bodhidharma had felt a deep sense of futility upon realizing that the dragons he had been seeking were, in fact, all such vile creatures. Yet, when he split open its body, he was certain of what he sensed.
‘Why… does it have the energy of a dragon…?’
The strange sense of discomfort he had been feeling became even clearer.
The sandworm emitted the aura of a dragon.
Even clearer than what he had felt from the shed skin of the Fire Dragon.
That applied to how it manipulated its own blood as well.
The essence of blood is water.
Dragons command water.
And water holds the power of regeneration.
The fact that such a massive creature could move and live in a dry desert didn’t make sense in the first place.
Even a yokai couldn’t survive without water.
Yet every time Bodhidharma tore its body apart, blood gushed out in torrents.
As if it stored water in its body using blood.
Kweeeeegh!
But a pathetic creature that could only scream like that could never be a dragon.
Amid that clash of perception, Bodhidharma made his decision.
“So persistent!”
This time, instead of tearing the creature apart, he tightly restrained it.
The creature was so monstrously strong that even Bodhidharma could not hold it down for long.
But a brief moment was all he needed.
Bodhidharma activated the ability he had acquired by devouring the Fire Dragon’s shed skin.
The scales beneath his throat flushed red with heat.
The splattered blood on his body hissed and sizzled as it burned away in acrid smoke.
And then, from Bodhidharma’s massive mouth, the flames of karmic fire erupted.
It was less like fire, more like pure light.
A nearly white flame coiled around the sandworm.
A wave of heat swept in all directions.
Yi-gang, standing a bit away, was unharmed, but every drop of blood and dew on the ground instantly evaporated.
The air ballooned outward in all directions.
The expanded air erupted in a shockwave.
Kugugung!
And then, the charred-black form of the sandworm was revealed.
This time, it couldn’t regenerate as easily as before.
That was the nature of the Fire Dragon’s flame—because it bore the same property as the karmic fire that burned the sinners of hell.
However, it was still regenerating, albeit slowly.
Bodhidharma’s pupils widened significantly.
As new flesh formed beneath what had seemed like a hardened exoskeleton, something previously unseen began to emerge.
“Scales…!”
Yellow scales.
Still translucent and tender as they had just grown in, but unmistakably reptilian scales.
Having roamed beneath the desert for so long, the sandworm’s skin must have adapted to its environment.
The once-radiant scales of a dragon had been worn away by coarse sand, eventually replaced by tough keratin.
Its whiskers and hair were pulled out, horns broken, its jaws rounded for burrowing, and new teeth likely formed.
“Ahh!”
It was still an abominable, grotesque figure—but the sandworm, no, the Great Desert Yellow Dragon, still bore traces of a dragon.
Bodhidharma felt a complex and sticky surge of emotion.
“Are you truly a dragon?!”
Was this what a dragon was supposed to be?
Was this really the kind of dragon he had long sought after?
Bodhidharma, who once preached that there was no such thing as an evil dragon when he heard that the immortal Zhang Sanfeng had slain one, now found himself shaken.
To Bodhidharma, who had been obsessed with dragons while trapped in the body of an imoogi, the sight of the Great Desert Yellow Dragon was pure shock.
“How could you fall so far!”
Kweeeegh!
The Great Desert Yellow Dragon let out a pained shriek as its head burst open once more.
“If you’ve ascended, then you should rise to the heavens. Why have you become a worm that burrows through underground soil!”
He could not accept it.
Even after a thousand years, Bodhidharma was still just an imoogi, and yet a fully formed dragon had turned into a monster that devoured humans.
Enraged, Bodhidharma drew out all of his power.
Dududududu—
The body of the Great Desert Yellow Dragon, half-buried in the earth, began to be forcibly pulled upward.
Threads of light.
Even in his imoogi form, what Bodhidharma was unleashing was a supreme ultimate technique he had attained in life.
The threads became so vivid they could be seen with the naked eye, tangling and intertwining until they formed a net.
The net of light wrapped around the body of the Great Desert Yellow Dragon.
Kuguguguk—
How much could the Great Desert Yellow Dragon weigh?
Ten million geun? A hundred million?
Impossible to guess, but surely astronomical.
Yet that massive body was lifted by the net of light.
Such was the power of a supreme ultimate technique wielded by a transcendent being.
A net said to stretch endlessly above the palace in the heavens where Śakra resides.
A supreme ultimate technique manifested from that very vision.
Its name—
Indra’s Net.
Bodhidharma tightened the net with his will.
From the body tightened to its limit—
Thudududuk—
Blood poured out.
Kwajajajak!
The Great Desert Yellow Dragon, suspended in the air, fell to the ground in hundreds of pieces.
Thunk— Thunk— Kugoong—
Its entire body had been shattered by the power of a supreme ultimate technique imbued with spiritual energy.
The Great Desert Yellow Dragon could no longer regenerate its body.
“Hoo-ooh.”
Bodhidharma exhaled a hot breath through his nose.
Most of the dozens of mandalas swirling behind his head lost their power and dispersed.
Even for him, deploying Indra’s Net to such an extent was no easy task.
He had also exhausted all the karma he had inherited from Potala Palace and the Dalai Lama.
On the ground were scattered flesh and blood from what was once a dragon.
And within that wreckage, Bodhidharma found something.
Discolored, yet still radiating an extraordinary light—it was like a jewel.
It was a round red orb the size of a human head.
‘…Dragon’s Orb!’
The dragon’s heart, internal elixir, or Dragon’s Orb.
All referred to the same thing.
The dragon aura that had radiated from the Great Desert Yellow Dragon had come from that very object.
Bodhidharma realized he stood at a crossroads of choice.
‘If I consume that…’
The Dragon’s Orb that had just fallen from the Great Desert Yellow Dragon—
Originally, one of the ways an imoogi could become a dragon was by obtaining a Dragon’s Orb.
Though it had fallen from grace and its color was unusual, Bodhidharma—perhaps—could even digest the evil energy contained within it.
If he swallowed it, could Bodhidharma too ascend and become a dragon?
Bodhidharma froze like a statue.
A short moment, yet it felt like an eternity of contemplation.
“You’ve done well.”
Just then, a familiar voice rang out.
Bodhidharma turned his head and looked down at Yi-gang.
Yi-gang looked up at Bodhidharma with a pale face.
“That was a horrifying monster. To think that was a dragon.”
Bodhidharma quietly looked at Yi-gang.
Yi-gang’s condition was not light.
Though he had tempered his body with the Marrow Cleansing Tendon Changing Sutra, even just the wound on his side would require a long period of rest.
And yet, he didn’t show it and stayed by Bodhidharma’s side.
“Let’s go back. Both you and I need some rest. And we still need to rescue Senior Brother Dam Hyun.”
Yi-gang seemed unaware of Bodhidharma’s internal conflict.
Bodhidharma felt ashamed.
He had made a promise to Yi-gang—
To help him achieve rebirth and cure his meridian blockage disease.
And yet, in a moment of desire to ascend by consuming the fallen dragon’s heart, he had forgotten everything else, including Yi-gang.
“I am still… writhing within this sea of suffering.”
Even after a thousand years, had he still not been able to let go of desire and attachment?
“No.”
Bodhidharma reduced the size of his body.
He soon returned to the form of a young man.
“Let’s go.”
As Bodhidharma said this, a bitter smile appeared on his face.
Yi-gang and Bodhidharma retrieved the heart of the Great Desert Yellow Dragon and returned to Potala Palace.
Together with the lamas, Yi-gang and Bodhidharma restored the collapsed entrance of the labyrinth.
They carefully lifted the debris from above, and after five full days, they finally reopened the passage.
The first to emerge were Dam Hyun, Tsering, and Cheongho.
And last to come out was Gal Dong-tak.
His face had turned pale.
“Huff, huff. I—they tried to eat me!”
The lamas widened their eyes and looked at Dam Hyun.
But Dam Hyun shook his head as if he knew nothing about it.
Gal Dong-tak seemed to be suffering from serious mental trauma, so the lamas took them away to rest.
Once things settled down a bit—
Yi-gang examined the heart of the Great Desert Yellow Dragon with Dam Hyun.
“Huh, this is…”
And Dam Hyun discovered something astonishing inside the dragon’s heart.