Baek Yoonjun had completely settled down in Shaolin.

"It seems the case of the Martial Alliance leader's assault has ended as a false alarm. They say that Namgung Jehyun just collapsed from fatigue."

Because the news coming in was of a different dimension in quality compared to the rumors of the beggars.

"Thank you every time, monk."

"Not at all. You are my guest, so this much is only natural."

Shinseung was very favorable to Baek Yoonjun.

At the news that the visits of the martial monks had increased, Baek Yoonjun expressed his deep gratitude.

Although Baek Yoonjun also had a very small amount of shame, he did not just receive the favor.

'Don't they get tired of this every night?'

Baek Yoonjun cut down and cleaned up the suspicious martial artists, presumed to be from the Martial Alliance, who crawled in every night.

Since Shaolin was a temple, he did not announce that he had cut down the martial artists, but his mind was at ease.

Since Shinseung had shown him a favor without expecting anything in return, Baek Yoonjun also just acted accordingly.

And so, time passed.

"Benefactor Baek. Is your study of the heart sword going well?"

One day, Shinseung asked about the heart sword.

Baek Yoonjun thought about the heart sword.

Although he had cut down all the suspicious martial artists who came every night with the heart sword.

But he hadn't particularly realized anything or increased his usage.

"That's not really the case..."

Perhaps because of that, although Baek Yoonjun had not done anything wrong, he felt a little guilty and his words trailed off.

Since Shinseung was smiling benevolently as usual, he seemed to feel even more guilty.

"Benefactor Baek, if your studies are not going well, would you like to take a walk with me for a while?"

At the word 'walk', Baek Yoonjun could not answer.

For Baek Yoonjun, a walk with another person was more difficult than murder.

Although Shinseung was a comfortable type despite being an adult.

'Although there are few people outside, it's not that there are none.'

Since he felt he would run into people if he went outside, and since it was still comfortable to be cooped up in his room, he was reluctant.

Whether Shinseung knew such thoughts of Baek Yoonjun or not, he was still smiling benevolently.

"The place we are going now is a place with no people, so Benefactor Baek can rest assured."

"Good."

At the words 'a place with no people', Baek Yoonjun reflexively uttered his consent.

"Then please follow me slowly."

Baek Yoonjun followed the slowly walking Shinseung.

As Shinseung had said, he headed for a deeper place than his current residence, a place with not even a hint of human presence.

It was a place with no hint of human presence, and only small stone pagodas were lined up.

"This place is?"

"This is the history of Shaolin."

The stone pagodas were small but many.

As Shinseung had said, it seemed to show the long history of Shaolin.

But for Baek Yoonjun, it didn't really resonate with him.

"A long history... are your ancestors buried here?"

"Yes, these are the traces of the successive masters."

Only then did Baek Yoonjun understand this place to some extent.

'So this is a place where the remains or relics of monks are kept?'

Thinking so, he felt a little eerie, but thinking that it was a Buddhist place, and a place where monks were buried at that, he soon calmed down.

Shinseung walked without a word.

Baek Yoonjun also followed him.

Although it felt very eerie at first, for some reason, as he walked, he began to feel a solemn feeling.

'With such a long history, it must be hard to leave.'

Although the place he was staying now was also quiet, this place was a quiet place where not even the sound of birds, let alone human voices, could be heard. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Perhaps because of that, Baek Yoonjun's mind was at ease.

Following Shinseung to a deeper place, the line of stone pagodas ended, and an open space appeared.

Baek Yoonjun scanned the open space with his eyes.

It was not an ordinary open space.

'This feeling is?'

Baek Yoonjun quickly recognized the identity of that place.

"Is it a formation?"

"Yes, it is a formation that has protected Shaolin for a long time. It is called the Arhat Formation."

"It's wondrous."

Baek Yoonjun scanned the formation with his eyes.

"Why is the name something a person would use?"

"Since it is a structure where the successive masters actually protect Shaolin with the formation, that statement is not wrong."

"Ah. I see."

Baek Yoonjun realized why the formation was between the tombs of the successive masters.

He felt a strange feeling that they were protecting the Shaolin they had stayed in even after death.

With a more solemn heart, Baek Yoonjun analyzed the formation.

And he realized that this formation was not working properly now.

"The axis is empty?"

"That's right. Embarrassingly, because we lost the Shaolin's divine object, the Green Jade Buddhist Staff, which is the axis, the formation is not working properly."

"That's a pity."

Although Shinseung said he was embarrassed, his appearance was calm.

It was truly the appearance of an enlightened monk.

"If there is a connection, it will come back. If not, I think it will have fallen into the hands of someone who needs it."

For some reason, the Dog Beating Jade Staff that Hong Yungae was carrying came to Baek Yoonjun's mind.

'Could it be? No way.'

Although Baek Yoonjun was inwardly startled, since it was not certain, he kept his mouth shut for now.

In the meantime, Shinseung moved his feet without any lingering attachment, and Baek Yoonjun also carefully followed him.

Since the Dog Beating Jade Staff kept coming to his mind, he was continuously fidgety.

"Even if the Green Jade Buddhist Staff were in front of me, I would not be able to recognize it."

"What?"

At Shinseung's words as he was walking, Baek Yoonjun let out a slightly dazed sound.

"There is no one in the current Shaolin who has seen the real Green Jade Buddhist Staff. Since the literature has also been lost, there is no one who can recognize it even if the real thing is in front of them."

"That's..."

"I heard it was lost a long time ago, and now I don't even know if it exists."

Although Shinseung was talking with a futile laugh, for Baek Yoonjun, since the Dog Beating Jade Staff kept coming to his mind, his heart was continuously uneasy.

And so, in an uneasy state, he followed Shinseung into a stone cave.

"The master enshrined in this place is a master with a slightly unusual history."

Having entered the stone cave, Shinseung quietly began to explain about that place.

"He was a master who valued martial arts more than studying Buddhism, and he was a person who claimed that his martial arts training was studying Buddhism, saying that if one reached the peak of martial arts, it would eventually lead to Buddhism.

This is a place he prepared for his own training, and it is also the place where he ended his life."

Listening to Shinseung's explanation, Baek Yoonjun scanned the stone cave.

'It's certainly not a bad place to train martial arts.'

It was spacious, and without any external interference, it seemed to be a place that existed only for training.

In fact, the owner of this place had also trained martial arts endlessly, as there were countless traces left on the walls.

Looking at those traces, Baek Yoonjun felt a sense of frustration.

"The reason I brought Benefactor Baek to this place is because that person had said that beyond the transcendent, in a far-off place, there is a stage where one has a sword, not Buddhist scriptures, in one's heart."

At Shinseung's subsequent explanation, Baek Yoonjun could understand why he had felt a sense of frustration from the traces on the wall.

'The owner of this place must have confirmed the existence of the heart sword.'

He had confirmed it but had not reached it, so it was a trace of desperately trying to reach it.

For Baek Yoonjun, who had already obtained the heart sword, albeit unstable, it was a trace that could only be frustrating.

Baek Yoonjun felt not just frustrated, but pitiful.

'I was also so frustrated because it seemed I could catch it but couldn't before I reached the second-rate, so how frustrated must he have been if he couldn't reach it until he died.'

Thinking that it was a trace of a person who had pursued the same realm of the second-rate, he even felt a subtle sense of kinship.

And so, Baek Yoonjun, who had been lost in appreciation, only then realized that there was something strange about Shinseung's words earlier.

'Transcendent?'

As far as Baek Yoonjun knew, it was the highest realm in this world.

For Baek Yoonjun, it was a realm that was so far away that he could not even imagine it.

'Why is transcendent coming up all of a sudden?'

With a dumbfounded feeling, Baek Yoonjun scanned Shinseung's martial power.

A slightly high realm among the third-rate or lower.

Having reconfirmed Shinseung's martial power, Baek Yoonjun finally understood the situation.

'Since his martial power is third-rate or lower, he's misunderstanding something.'

It is a law that a person who does not know something can speak about that field easily as if it were nothing.

Baek Yoonjun thought that the mention of transcendent just now was something like that.

Therefore, he decided that he, who knew this field a little more, should explain.

"The heart sword is a sword that one comes to have in one's heart upon stepping into the second-rate."

Since it was a realm he had already stepped into, Baek Yoonjun said it confidently without a moment's hesitation.

At those words, Shinseung showed a noticeably flustered appearance, unlike usual.

Seeing that, Baek Yoonjun was convinced.

'As expected, since his martial arts level is low, he doesn't know well.'

Baek Yoonjun, who had gained confidence, was unhesitating in his actions.

"The person who trained in this stone cave probably entered the third-rate. That's why he was able to vaguely know the existence of the heart sword."

As Baek Yoonjun's explanation continued, Shinseung's mind went blank, and he just stared at Baek Yoonjun with a dazed look, his mouth open.

"Third-rate... third-rate..."

As if he had lost his mind, Shinseung continued to mutter 'third-rate'.

"There is a heart sword in the second-rate... ah... I see. It was such a metaphor."

As if he had come to his senses, his eyes flashed, and he smiled.

"Benefactor Baek was trying to give me a great enlightenment."

Unlike his appearance of having lost his mind just now, it was an appearance of having realized something.

Although Baek Yoonjun didn't know what Shinseung had realized, since that appearance was satisfying, he decided to show something more.

'Since it's a place where a person who couldn't reach the heart sword trained, it would be good to show the heart sword.'

Baek Yoonjun looked at the wall where there were relatively few traces of martial arts.

At the same time, he tried to grab the heart sword in his mental image.

At that moment.

'Since it's a Shaolin temple, isn't a trace of a blade a bit much?'

Baek Yoonjun's disposition as a homebody introvert stopped the action of grabbing the heart sword in his mental image.

'Uh, hmm, isn't a heart sword also a blade in the end? No, no. A heart sword is a sword of the heart. It might not have a blade.'

Baek Yoonjun's mind became extremely complicated.

Baek Yoonjun, who had been worrying like crazy for a long time.

'Can't I do anything other than a sword technique with the heart sword?'

The direction of his thoughts reached a place other than a sword.

'The heart sword in my mental image is definitely a sword. But since its form is unstable now, couldn't it not be a sword?'

Thinking so, instead of grabbing the heart sword, Baek Yoonjun stretched out his palm.

'For now, a palm technique.'

As if responding to Baek Yoonjun's heart, the heart sword's form collapsed.

Although there was no form or anything, Baek Yoonjun could tell that the heart sword was responding to his palm.

After that, what Baek Yoonjun would do was obvious.

Baek Yoonjun slowly approached the wall he had been eyeing and then placed his palm on that wall.

The palm, as if it had been placed on water, dug into the wall.

Kwaang!

After that, as if a thunderbolt had exploded, it exploded with Baek Yoonjun's palm at the center.

Thanks to that, a huge palm-shaped hole was created in the wall of the stone cave.

Since it had completely pierced the stone cave, light came into the stone cave in the shape of a palm.

'Uh... I think I made a bigger mess than I thought...'

Baek Yoonjun stared blankly at the sky visible through the gaping hole and then stealthily turned his head and looked at Shinseung's face.

Shinseung was staring at the huge palm-shaped hole in the wall, dazed.

At that sight, Baek Yoonjun sweated coldly inwardly.

'Don't tell me I have to pay for it? Will I have enough silver coins?'

Baek Yoonjun's head spun endlessly as he began to convert what he had into silver coins.

'How much did I give to Suhye? I also spent money in Luoyang, so I probably don't have much left. How much does it cost to repair a wall like this?'

Since Shinseung was silent, Baek Yoonjun's heart became even more anxious.

Anxious, Baek Yoonjun.

'Damn heart sword! I was just trying to leave a small trace, so why did you make such a big mess?!'

Cursing the heart sword, Baek Yoonjun continued to look at Shinseung's face.

And so, after a time that felt like an eternity had passed, Shinseung, who had come to his senses, turned his gaze to Baek Yoonjun.

'I have no choice. If I don't have enough silver coins, I'll have to pay with my body.'

At that gaze, Baek Yoonjun decided to pay with his body if he didn't have enough money.

As Baek Yoonjun made that resolution, as if on cue, Shinseung opened his mouth.

"Benefactor Baek has bestowed a great treasure upon Shaolin. Amitabha."

"What?"

Since the words that came out of Shinseung's mouth were unexpected, Baek Yoonjun's mind went blank for a moment.

"Benefactor Baek has given me another great teaching. Thanks to that, I also, to borrow Benefactor Baek's expression, think I will be able to enter the third-rate. Amitabha."

"Uh..."

Shinseung's appearance was more benevolent than ever.

It was definitely not a face that would ask him to pay for something.

"Congratulations?"

Thinking that what was good was good, Baek Yoonjun congratulated Shinseung.

(End of Chapter)