CHAPTER 364: BODY TRANSFORMATION (3)

A thousand years ago, there was Bodhidharma.

He did not consider himself a martial artist.

He was a seeker and a practitioner.

Bodhidharma’s mission was to save the common people of the Central Plains suffering under Emperor Yang’s tyranny, and to spread the teachings of Buddhism to them.

However, if one were to judge him by martial standards, Bodhidharma had reached the Absolute realm.

How was that possible? It was because Bodhidharma’s level had already transcended that of mere mortals.

To him, martial arts were not the goal, but merely the means.

Naturally, it was possible because he was a genius.

He independently delved into the Buddhist scriptures, mastering countless rituals, and pushed the martial arts from Tianzhu, passed down through Kanchipuram, to their extremes.

Eventually, he took countless martial monks as disciples and even founded the martial arts of Shaolin.

He played the role of a Great Ancestor that didn’t quite suit him.

However, his disciple Huike was different from Bodhidharma.

Huike was undoubtedly a martial artist.

Even before Bodhidharma accepted him as a disciple, he was a swordsman, and remained so even after becoming one.

Bodhidharma reprimanded such stubbornness in his disciple many times.

He would ask how someone seeking the truth of Buddhism could still cling to the act of cutting down others.

Each time, Huike would only bow his head in silence, often leaving Bodhidharma feeling frustrated.

But such bickering couldn’t last forever.

Unlike Bodhidharma, his disciples aged far too quickly.

Huike was no different.

“When did your hair turn so gray, and your face wrinkle so much?” Bodhidharma said as he looked at Huike lying in bed.

To him, it was truly incomprehensible.

“Master, you’re still exactly the same.”

With a dying voice, Huike smiled brightly.

Bodhidharma’s appearance remained that of a young man.

Even though his actual age was nearing two hundred years, it was as if the roles of master and disciple had reversed.

“You know well that my appearance is nothing but a false shell.”

“Yes, I do.”

Huike’s breath rattled with thick phlegm.

It sounded like he might stop breathing at any moment.

Bodhidharma looked down at his disciple with eyes full of sorrow.

And once more, he pleaded, “Do not die. I will save you.”

For one born human, death was something that could not be avoided.

But Huike was only about eighty years old.

Considering that his disciple had mastered the Marrow Cleansing Tendon Changing Sutra, undergone body transformation, and become a martial artist of the Absolute realm, it could hardly be called a long life.

Bodhidharma had the ability to extend his disciple’s lifespan.

He could easily have extended it to one hundred fifty years, or even beyond that with slightly different methods…

Huike smiled faintly.

A disciple who rarely smiled began to do so more often as death approached.

“Are you lonely?”

Bodhidharma’s expression faltered at the unexpected question.

“You little rascal…”

“My apologies.”

Huike declined Bodhidharma’s offer.

“My duty is already fulfilled. I have nothing left behind, so I wish to attain nirvana first.”

The eyes of Huike, who said this, were clear, as though all attachment had disappeared.

Bodhidharma found his disciple’s eyes, seeping with fluid, more enviable than his own golden ones that gleamed with brilliance.

“When I die, lay my body in a field.”

Huike gave his final wish.

“Let the wild beasts tear it, the birds peck it, the flesh be taken by insects, and the earth turn it into soil so that grass may grow.”

Bodhidharma was silent for a long time before promising to do so.

Huike smiled faintly, then exhaled his final breath.

Bodhidharma deeply envied that.

When Yi-gang parted the clouds that had gathered in the sky, the unstable clouds turned into raindrops and began to fall to the earth.

It was surreal—sunlight blazing brightly while a torrential downpour fell.

Even as the rain poured down on him, Yi-gang smiled.

Thanks to the newly gained, healthy body, he probably couldn’t even feel the cold.

His senses had become sharper, and now every drop of sunlight and rain would feel vividly real.

His body and mind must be filled with a sense of elation.

However, it didn’t take long for Yi-gang to realize that something had happened to Bodhidharma.

Bodhidharma smiled faintly.

As expected, the boy was quick-witted and considerate, unlike his first disciple.

That was what Bodhidharma thought.

“…Venerable.”

Yi-gang noticed that Bodhidharma’s golden scales had lost their color, and the mandala that had been floating around his body had dimmed.

Bodhidharma was half-floating on the surface of the lake.

As if he had lost even the strength to lift his head, he looked at Yi-gang while his body remained half-submerged in the water.

Yi-gang flinched when he saw that Bodhidharma’s once-brilliant golden eyes had grown dull.

“Why all of a sudden…?”

“I have lived long enough. No, far too long.”

Bodhidharma’s voice carried the weight of a thousand years.

“I delayed death thinking I would become a dragon, but now even that seems like a vain attachment—as you can surely see.”

“Aren’t you… greater than any dragon?” Yi-gang said.

And he meant them.

Even though Zhang Sanfeng was said to have hunted an evil dragon, even that dragon likely didn’t match Bodhidharma’s level.

Bodhidharma chuckled faintly.

Yi-gang couldn’t understand why someone so powerful was dying like this.

To think that such a mighty being would become so drained just by helping someone undergo rebirth.

But Yi-gang couldn’t know that his new blood vessels had been completely recreated through Bodhidharma’s power.

Blood vessels weren’t something visible to the eye…

“Even an imoogi cannot truly live a thousand years,” Bodhidharma spoke with labored breaths.

His life force was, in truth, dissipating.

His life force, now melting into the lake, would likely enrich the ecosystem and turn the area into a forest.

“A life I clung to out of attachment… it is now time to let it go.”

Bodhidharma was ready to accept his death.

Yi-gang’s eyes trembled.

‘So he’s capable of making such an expression,’ Bodhidharma thought.

He felt he could finally understand how Huike had felt.

“When I die… leave my body in the lake.”

He hadn’t prepared any final words in advance, but somehow they ended up sounding quite similar to Huike’s.

“Let the fish tear it apart. Inside my mouth is my internal elixir. Give it to Mu Myung. It will extend his life by at least ten more years.”

“Venerable…”

Yi-gang stepped down from the ice.

Then walked across the water to stand before Bodhidharma’s head.

He bowed and placed his hand on Bodhidharma’s scale.

It was startlingly cold.

Bodhidharma’s eye, as large as Yi-gang’s torso, gazed quietly at him.

“Now I wish to return to the other shore. But you must not follow yet. Burn as much as you wish to burn—like someone still alive. Life may be a sea of suffering…”

Yi-gang realized that now was the time for silence.

The end always came suddenly. To avoid regret, this moment could not be wasted.

Bodhidharma spoke his final words, “Turn your head, and there lies the Other Shore.”

The life faded from Bodhidharma’s eyes.

Yi-gang’s eyes also turned vacant.

Yi-gang knelt down.

Then, with the hand still touching the scale, he tried to feel a warmth that was no longer there.

Was Bodhidharma finally free?

Yi-gang couldn’t be sure.

At the lakeside, the Divine Monk and the Four Great Vajra began chanting the Amitabha Sutra.

“Through the Buddha’s great compassion, may he be reborn in the Pure Land…”

As the chants continued, Yi-gang knelt and leaned his body against Bodhidharma.

The Divine Monk continued the chanting, despite his tongue barely moving.

Tears welled in his scarred and blistered eyes.

Thus departed a sage of Shaolin who had silently pursued the Dharma for a thousand years.

As a Shaolin monk, his heart trembled as if ripples spread across the lake.

It seemed the same was true for Hyun Cheok and Hyun Mu.

‘It seems I still have something left to do.’

Bodhidharma had left his internal elixir behind for the Divine Monk to consume.

Just like before at Songshan, the Divine Monk’s death had been averted once again.

The Divine Monk realized there was still something he had to do in the martial world.

Until their chanting ended, Yi-gang did not move, remaining draped over Bodhidharma’s body.

The Divine Monk and the other monks looked at Yi-gang with pity.

It seemed his heart was not at peace.

“Well, of course he feels that way… tsk tsk.”

Bodhidharma had given Yi-gang so much.

Naturally, the sorrow of losing someone like Bodhidharma must have pierced him deeply.

Suddenly, Yi-gang shot to his feet.

Startled, he took a step back in shock.

The Divine Monk and the Four Great Vajra couldn’t understand Yi-gang’s reaction.

Yi-gang addressed the empty air where nothing was visible.

“…Who are you?”

And then, Yi-gang…

Yi-gang saw something.

He stared blankly, stunned, at ‘that’ which emerged from above Bodhidharma’s head.

There was one key difference between Immortal Divine Sword, Blue-Eyed Mad Demon, Zhang Sanfeng… and Bodhidharma.

The former three were spirits of those who had already died once, but Bodhidharma, though in the body of an imoogi, was still undeniably alive.

Perhaps that’s why it happened.

The translucent human figure that gently slipped out from between Bodhidharma’s brows was clearly…

「…Me.」

It was Bodhidharma.

“…Haven’t you attained Buddhahood?”

「Buddhahood? Something like that, I suppose.」

Perhaps it was because they had just shared such a moving farewell.

Bodhidharma seemed a bit awkward about the situation.

His appearance resembled the young manly form he often took.

But the translucent nature of his figure clearly showed he was in a spiritual state.

「It seems the cycle of reincarnation has been broken.」

That was the true meaning of seongbul in Buddhism—

To attain enlightenment and escape the wheel of samsara.

Yi-gang wondered if Bodhidharma wasn’t leaving after all, but Bodhidharma shook his head.

「I may return someday… but for now, I must go.」

With those words, Bodhidharma looked up to the sky.

Yi-gang also looked up to the sky, following Bodhidharma, and was startled.

“What is that…?”

A hole had opened in the sky, higher than the clouds.

Through that hole, a white light shone down upon the earth.

Strange birds, unlike any he had seen before, flew gracefully around it, and from within the hole, fleeting silhouettes resembling people appeared now and then.

「The heavenly realm is calling me.」

So that was the heavenly realm.

“Then…”

「I shall return to this place again. Before I go, do you have anything you’d like to ask of me?」

Of course there was. Thoughts surged within him.

Yi-gang conveyed his curiosity to Bodhidharma.

「You want me to find out about your ancestor, the Immortal Divine Sword, and the Sword Emperor’s whereabouts? Whether they’re doing well?」

‘Yes, and if possible… the girl named Sohwa too.’

「You mean that personal maid. Very well, I shall look into it.」

Whether it would be possible or not was uncertain.

But Bodhidharma made that promise.

「Then, live well.」

Bodhidharma gazed at Yi-gang for a moment, then soared into the sky.

The speed was extraordinary.

As he ascended higher, his form began to change—like a dragon made of light.

Bodhidharma entered the heavenly realm, and the hole in the sky vanished.

Yi-gang stood still for a while, staring at the spot where Bodhidharma had disappeared, then turned around.

When he returned to the lakeside, the Divine Monk asked what he had seen.

“Venerable Bodhidharma has entered the heavenly realm.”

The Divine Monk was surprised, then let out a hearty laugh.

And just like that, Bodhidharma was gone.

Yi-gang and the Divine Monk’s group remained at Potala Palace, waiting for Dam Hyun to return.

The Divine Monk consumed the internal elixir Bodhidharma had left behind and began to recover his body.

For the first time in a long while, peaceful days passed.

At least until Dam Hyun returned with the Heavenly Demon Plaque.

Yi-gang and the lama monks, then the Divine Monk and the other monks turned to look at Dam Hyun’s lips with serious expressions.

“Uh, so… it seems things are in a really bad state right now.”

“…The Kunlun Sect?”

“Yes. And also…”

Dam Hyun had brought back intel on the front line that had been formed on Mount Kunlun to stop the Demon Cult.

There, Ha-jun and other successors had gathered to fight against the cult.

“It’s been crushed. The Kunlun Sect has been wiped out.”

It was the news that the defense there had collapsed.