Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Once Su Qin returned to the Miscellaneous Court, he discovered that the Miscellaneous Court head was rebuking several disciples in a loud voice.
As soon as he saw Su Qin, he nodded his head slightly. After all, the Miscellaneous Court head watched Su Qin grow up. He knew that Su Qin was always diligent in his duties and that he did his duties without complaining.
If he compared all the other disciples to Su Qin, they all paled in comparison. Those other disciples either tried to secretly learn martial arts or slacked off from their duties.
Su Qin was the only one who never once slacked off in the five years that he was there. He always headed off to a different corner of the Shaolin temple to sweep the floors. Where else could a disciple as obedient as him be found?
The Miscellaneous Court head stared at Su Qin with great pride and he wondered if he should have entrusted Su Qin with more important tasks.
“So you’re back Zhen Guan,” he greeted Su Qin with a smile.
Su Qin was part of the “Zhen” generation of disciples. Hence, he was given the name of Zhen Guan when he entered the Shaolin temple.
“Yes, sir!” Su Qin answered as he walked to stand among all the other disciples of the Miscellaneous Court.
“Well then, the Shaolin temple’s under stricter security now. All of you need to be more careful,” said the Miscellaneous Court head with a stern look he had toward the other disciples.
“Sir, what happened? All the disciples of the other courts are acting suspiciously…” asked one of the Miscellaneous Court disciples curiously.
As soon as those words were said, all the eyes of the other disciples lit up with interest and they were all ears for the court head’s reply.
The Miscellaneous Court head hesitated for a moment before he decided to say, “All this has something to do with an embarrassing matter for the Shaolin temple. So, you must never let the news get out.”
In reality, the matter was not a secret. The Miscellaneous Court head was being dramatic to capture the attention of his disciples to what he was about to say. After all, the Shaolin temple went into high alert because of the matter. If he did not reveal anything to his disciples, he would be the one who would have had to bail them out if they got into trouble.
“900 years ago, the Shaolin temple was at the peak of its power when a traitor appeared. This traitor, despite being a disciple of the Shaolin temple, left the Way. He called himself the ‘Demon Buddha’ and wanted to destroy the Shaolin temple.”
“Luckily, at the time, the temple was headed by a patriarch who was of the Luohan rank. The patriarch attacked him and ‘Demon Buddha subdued very quickly. After he defeated the ‘Demon Buddha’, that patriarch passed away soon after.” The Miscellaneous Court head sighed softly as soon as he said that.
If the Shaolin temple still had a mighty martial artist of the Luohan status watching over it, they would not have needed to cower in fear like they did.
All the disciples exchanged looks. With their current rank, they could scarcely have grasped the concept of ‘Demon Buddha’ or ‘Luohan’. Su Qin alone seemed to understand the situation and his gaze turned serious.
In the world of martial arts, there were nine ranks of martial artists. The first-rank martial artists were the strongest and the ninth-rank were the weakest. If a person attained the third-rank, they would have been renowned as one of the greatest martial artists in the world. All of the Shaolin temple court heads belonged to that rank.
As for abbot Hui Wen, he was a martial artist of the second-rank. In the eyes of the entire world, a second-rank martial artist was a martial arts master.
As for the first-rank, they were known as martial art grandmasters. Any school that had a single first-rank martial artist could have called itself one of the great martial arts sects in the world. Even in the Shaolin temple, a first-rank martial artist had the title ‘Divine Master Abbot’.
All the ranks above the first-rank belonged to the Luohan status. The people of Jianghu1 liked to call martial artists who attained that realm, ‘Martial Arts Legend’.
Whether they were known for having Luohan status or being Martial Arts Legends, both names represented the kind of extreme martial arts power that could have controlled both wind and air. Even destroying cities was a mere child’s play for them.
According to the Miscellaneous Court head, after the patriarch of the Luohan rank had subdued the Demon Buddha, he passed on soon after.
Subdued did not mean killed…
It was very likely that the patriarch suffered devastating injuries trying to subdue the traitor which led to his early passing. Apart from that, Su Qin also knew that the Shaolin temple sect’s greatest technique, the Buddha Palm technique was passed on personally to them by Buddha himself. It disappeared 900 years ago. That was the same time the Demon Buddha appeared.
Su Qin deduced that the Buddha Palm technique was lost because the patriarch of the Luohan status died during the Chaos of the Demon Buddha.
While Su Qin was deep in thought, the Miscellaneous Court head continued to speak, “Even though the Demon Buddha was subdued, his evil intent did not die. Every hundred years, it will break through the seals holding it and transform into strands of evil intent that possesses and bewitch the disciples of the Shaolin temple.”
“Over the past 900 years, our Shaolin temple has had 8 successors of the Demon Buddha due to the enchantment of the evil intent. These Demon Buddha successors were all Shaolin disciples but they were under the influence of the evil intent. All of them wanted to destroy the Shaolin temple!”
“In a few years, the ninth Centennial Period will be upon us. Hence, if any of you encounter the enchantment of the evil intent, you must report it right away. Is that clear?”
As soon as the Miscellaneous Court head said that, he gazed sternly at the crowd of disciples before him.
“Yes sir,” answered all the Miscellaneous Court disciples immediately.
*****
Once the Miscellaneous Court head had left, Su Qin went ahead with his plans. The Demon Buddha was a matter for the temple heads and the abbot to worry about. It had nothing to do with Su Qin. A temple sweeper was too insignificant to amount to much. Unless the Shaolin temple was burning down at that instance, it did not affect him at all.
Life passed in that manner for half a year.
Over the past six months, Su Qin only focused on signing-in at the Bodhi Court and managed to obtain a great number of pills and tonics.
“I’m almost ready.”
Su Qin wandered casually into the woods in preparation for a breakthrough. These woods were located on the outskirts of the Shaolin temple. No one ever went into that part of the woods.
If Su Qin achieved his breakthrough there, even if it caused a ruckus, it would not have been noticed by the abbot and the temple court heads.
Swoosh.
Su Qin lifted his right hand and retrieved the pills from the system. These pills were piled up before Su Qin and appeared to number around a thousand in total. There was an assortment of pills like the Essence Cleansing Pill and other tonics that could have strengthened the physical body.
If the Shaolin temple court heads saw all the pills, their jaws would have dropped to the ground. The entire Bodhi Court would not have been able to produce more than 100 Essence Cleansing Pills in one year.
The pills produced by the Bodhi Court were to be distributed among the various courts and each court head usually received a maximum of 10 pills a year.
Despite that, Su Qin had more than a thousand Essence Cleansing Pills before him. It was equivalent to the amount the Bodhi Court could have produced if they worked around the clock for 10 years without food or sleep.
“I’m going to start!”
Su Qin sat cross-legged on the ground and started shoving Essence Cleansing Pills into his mouth continuously. It was like he was eating candy. After half an hour, the aura within Su Qin’s entire body began to contract violently.
That was followed quickly by endless waves of heaven and earth vitality rushing frenziedly toward Su Qin’s body as if the floodgates had opened. The gush of heaven and earth vitality that would have caused a typical fourth-rank martial artist’s body to explode seemed to be as gentle as a kitten after it entered Su Qin’s body. It was rapidly absorbed into his body and it swiftly altered his physical body, making him stronger.
A full hour passed. Su Qin opened his eyes in surprise.
“That’s it? It’s done? So I’m now a third-rank martial artist?”
Su Qin could not believe it. The process for him to have advanced to the third-rank was easy as ABC. It was not as difficult as the rumors he heard from the outer world.
‘Is it because I’ve mastered the Impenetrable Armor technique?’ wondered Su Qin as he got up slowly. He carefully checked himself to sense the changes that came with being an Upper Realm martial artist.