The speed of Honyuan Bu (Mixed Origin Step) was beyond even Seo-jun's full control.

BOOOOMMM!!!

With a tremendous blast, Seo-jun's figure streaked across the sky.

The intense pressure made it feel as though his body would shatter, but he held himself together with the support of Pa-ryeok-gwae-shin-mu and Georyeong-shin-gong.

As he whizzed past the clouds, Seo-jun laughed freely.

"Haha…!"

The ridiculous speed made his heart race.

More. Just a bit more.

As he continued using Honyuan Bu, he modified the technique on the fly, optimizing it to better suit his body, which only increased both his speed and the crushing pressure.

At some point, a realization struck him.

‘This should do for now. I can call it complete.’

With a radiant smile, he unleashed Honyuan Ilwol Gong beneath his feet.

BOOOOMMM!!!

The uncontrollable speed turned the scenery around him into mere streaks of light.

But was it because he hadn’t fully mastered the technique yet? His direction was slightly off.

By the time Seo-jun realized it, he was about to crash into the ground.

"Oh, crap—!"

 

WHIRRRR—

The surrounding energy reacted violently.

A formation? Why would a formation activate here?

Despite his confusion, Seo-jun’s body instinctively reacted. He broke through the oppressive pressure of the formation and struck down an incoming iron net with his fist.

The scenery around him warped.

'An illusion?'

This was also a type of formation.

Twisting his body as he shot forward, Seo-jun focused for a moment.

He sensed the flow of energy that comprised the formation, inserted his own internal energy, and disrupted it.

Thunk!

With a small sound, the illusion shattered, just as Seo-jun’s body slammed into something.

 

BOOOOMMM!!!

A massive cloud of dust rose into the air.

"Cough…! What the heck?"

Stretching his sore body, Seo-jun waved his hand, dispersing the dust with a gust of wind.

What appeared before him was a crowd of monks.

"Huh?"

"Activate the Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation!"

The monks moved in perfect sync, forming a formation around him.

108 monks surrounded Seo-jun, and as he realized this, a heavy pressure settled onto his shoulders.

'The Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation?'

Seo-jun recognized it as a famous formation from Shaolin.

Why would they use that on me?

Before he could ponder further, his eyes instinctively saw through the formation.

The 108 points were intricately interwoven like gears. Seo-jun infused his internal energy into the formation, twisting it.

"Ugh…!"

A few monks staggered.

However, the formation didn’t collapse. The other monks quickly filled the gaps, maintaining its structure.

"Oh."

Seo-jun understood.

This Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation was a remarkable blend of martial arts, formations, and sorcery.

Although he wasn’t deeply familiar with formations, he knew enough to recognize it involved manipulating the surrounding energy.

Besides, he was quite proficient in martial arts and sorcery.

Two out of three—plus energy manipulation? The solution was apparent.

Seo-jun's eyes gleamed with a golden light as he pierced through the essence of the formation.

"Like this?"

Clink! It sounded like a key unlocking a lock.

At that moment, the axis of the formation twisted, and the monks' eyes widened.

"This… this is…!"

"Stop him…!"

But it was pointless.

The monks tried to stabilize the collapsing formation, but Seo-jun’s internal energy triggered a chain reaction, disrupting the interlocking gears.

"Urgh…!"

All 108 monks fell to their knees simultaneously.

Since they had become the anchors of the formation, they suffered internal injuries as it was destroyed.

Standing in the middle of the kneeling monks, Seo-jun glanced around.

The crater he had created upon landing was huge, with shattered buildings surrounding it.

‘This Honyuan Bu could practically be used as a living missile.’

The scene looked as if it had been bombarded.

"Whew…"

"Enough."

At the sound of a deep voice, the monks’ pale faces regained some color.

Seo-jun looked toward the source of the voice.

A half-destroyed building.

An elderly monk rose from within, standing tall.

"Who are you to cause such a commotion in the heart of Shaolin?"

"Shaolin?"

Seo-jun quickly scanned his surroundings.

Sure enough, the buildings around him (most of them in ruins now) resembled a monastery.

And there, standing behind the elder, was a familiar face—a woman glaring at him with wide eyes.

The bald woman from the Mount Emei Sect.

"Oh…"

Realizing the situation, Seo-jun chuckled awkwardly.

"Uh… well… I didn’t mean for this to happen. It was… an unfortunate accident."

It hit him—he was in deep trouble.

The elder before him had an aura that merged with the space around them. He was undoubtedly hwa-kyung.

A hwa-kyung monk from Shaolin?

Whoever he was, if a fight broke out here, an army of bald monks would swarm to beat him senseless.

That wasn’t the kind of large-scale incident Seo-jun wanted to start.

"I, uh, I was testing a new movement technique and… couldn’t quite control the speed…"

The elder’s gaze shifted to the monks around Seo-jun.

His eyes seemed to ask, “And why are they in this state?”

Seo-jun had an explanation for that too.

"When the formation activated all of a sudden, I instinctively…"

On second thought, that didn’t sound like much of an excuse.

He quickly added, "It looked interesting, so I got a bit carried away… Haha… It breaks pretty easily, though…"

"Hmm…"

The elder closed his eyes, chanting under his breath.

Seo-jun darted his gaze around.

"Head Monk!"

Suddenly, a group of monks rushed over.

Head Monk?

From what Seo-jun knew, the Head Monk was the leader of Shaolin.

"Oh…"

He was seriously in trouble now!

He considered pulling off a flashy escape when a savior appeared.

"Oh! You’re here!"

Seo-jun turned his head quickly.

There stood Ji-baek, looking at him with wide eyes.

"Elder Ji-baek…!!"

With a familiar face around, Seo-jun figured he had bought himself enough time to explain.

He quickly relayed the situation, explaining that he’d created a new movement technique, Honyuan Bu, and lost control while testing it, resulting in his crash here. In the process, he’d accidentally destroyed some buildings and shattered the Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation, leaving the monks with minor injuries.

Though it wasn’t much different from his previous explanation to the Head Monk, having someone vouch for his identity lent his words more credibility.

Seo-jun disclosed his identity as a member of the Namgung family and an elder-in-law, scratching his head with a sheepish grin.

"I apologize for the damage. I’ll personally cover the cost of the repairs."

"Hmm… If there was no malicious intent, then it’s fine."

"Even so, I feel responsible. I did quite a bit of damage."

Not to mention, he’d left the monks with internal injuries.

The Arhats were an important part of Shaolin’s strength.

It wasn’t that the monks were weak. They would have put up more of a fight if they hadn’t activated the formation, which Seo-jun managed to dismantle rather easily by destabilizing the key points instead of breaking each component.

If all 108 monks had attacked him at once, it might have been a different story.

So it wasn’t the monks' fault but rather the flaw in the Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation.

Although formations deployed by martial artists were meant to allow the weak to confront the strong, this particular one had too many gaps from Seo-jun’s perspective.

Realizing this, an idea popped into his head.

"I don’t mean to overstep, but I feel bad for injuring your men. Would you allow me to improve the Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation?"

"Improve it?"

The Head Monk frowned, shaking his head.

"No. We cannot disclose the Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation to an outsider, and it is already near perfect as it is."

Perfect? Doesn’t seem that way to me…

Seo-jun had a lot to say but kept quiet.

If they didn’t want it, he couldn’t force it.

Just then, a loud voice called out.

"Brother!"

"Huh?"

It was Chun-bong’s voice.

Turning around, Seo-jun saw several figures approaching quickly.

Naturally, they were people from the Namgung family.

Chun-bong raced over, leaped into the air, and landed skillfully beside him, drawing her sword and scanning the surroundings.

"What’s going on? Are we fighting?"

Her eyes swept over the monks surrounding Seo-jun, the numerous Shaolin monks, and the elderly monk standing amid what appeared to be an important (and now half-destroyed) building.

Knowing what she was thinking, Seo-jun quickly lifted her into his arms.

"As expected, you came to save me, Chun-bong!"

"W-what are you…!"

Chun-bong quickly realized the situation wasn’t that serious.

And with that realization came a clear course of action.

"You idiot! Didn’t I tell you not to cause trouble, you fool!"

She twisted her body in mid-air and delivered a spinning kick.

"Ouch…!"

Seo-jun crumpled to the ground as she stomped on him furiously, while more monks rushed over.

It turned out to be no big deal.

In their haste, Chun-bong and her party had nearly broken through Shaolin’s front gate, prompting Shaolin reinforcements to arrive.

In simple terms, it wouldn’t be wrong to say the Namgung family was staging a minor invasion of Shaolin.

"Whew…"

This might be the biggest mess he’d made in his life.

Seo-jun laughed gleefully, gauging the situation.

"Are we screwed?"

"Seems like it."

"Then we should bring in the big guns."

With Pa Jin-gwang and Namgung Hyeok present among their party, perhaps things would turn out okay.

He certainly hoped so.

 

Mu-hye, Cheong-song, and Wol-mang, who had inadvertently followed the others, gave a simple summary of the events that had transpired.

The head monk nodded after confirming that their account matched what Seo-jun had said earlier.

"I understand it was an unavoidable situation. Furthermore, since the injuries to the arhats aren’t severe and can be attributed to their lack of training, I won’t make an issue of that. However, I can’t easily overlook the fact that you forced your way through Shaolin’s gate."

"Ah, come on. Isn’t that being a bit petty? It was urgent, and no one got seriously hurt," Pa Jin-gwang chimed in.

The head monk furrowed his brow.

"King of Fists, I must ask—why are you involved in this?"

"I’m friends with that guy over there," Pa Jin-gwang said, pointing at Seo-jun.

When the head monk’s gaze fell on Seo-jun, he raised a thumbs-up with a grin.

"Yup, that’s right."

"Hmm… What do you think, Bohyeon Shinni?"

The woman referred to as Bohyeon Shinni was the bald monk from the Mount Emei Sect.

She seemed to struggle to follow the conversation, her brow furrowed, but when her eyes met Seo-jun’s, she wore a conflicted expression.

"Personally, I would suggest leniency. There was no malicious intent, and no one was seriously harmed, so there’s no need for severe punishment."

Was she helping out because she felt she owed him for past events?

By now, she must have realized she had been tricked before, yet she showed surprising generosity.

Or perhaps she planned to repay this favor later in some other way.

Regardless, Seo-jun was grateful for the moment.

As he nodded in satisfaction, a question crossed his mind.

'Isn’t Shaolin supposed to be a place that bars women?'

How were Bohyeon Shinni, Chun-bong, and Namgung Su-ah allowed here?

Especially Su-ah; she could easily be a distraction for the monks’ peace of mind…

It seemed they were on the outskirts of Shaolin rather than at the heart, which might explain it.

But honestly, it wasn’t really his business.

"However, Shaolin’s rules have been disrupted, so I cannot let this go unaddressed," the head monk continued as Seo-jun mulled it over.

Pa Jin-gwang grumbled at this.

"Does a bald monk like you have no mercy? People make mistakes now and then, don’t they?"

"When a mistake is made, there must be appropriate consequences to ensure it doesn’t happen again."

"Listen, I don’t care about Shaolin’s rules, but you’re talking about the Namgung family here. Are you sure you want to pick this fight? That Namgung Jin-cheon is no joke."

"He would understand if he heard the situation. I never intended to impose a severe punishment anyway."

At that, Pa Jin-gwang suddenly smirked as if he’d thought of something.

"Oh ho, now that I think about it, this could work."

He grinned and said, "Shaolin will be participating in the Yongbong Gathering, right?"

"Indeed."

"Then let the youngsters settle this themselves. Wouldn’t that be fair?"

"What do you propose?"

"Martial artists speak through their fists. Let’s have those under thirty duel—if we win, you let this slide. It’ll be good practice for the Yongbong Gathering, too."

The head monk’s expression turned contemplative.

"It’s a ridiculous suggestion, but… not a bad one."

"Right? This doesn’t need to be blown out of proportion."

Normally, this would indeed be a serious issue, but with Shaolin and the Namgung family involved, things were a bit different.

The Six Great Clans and the Nine Schools had some level of mutual respect and connections between them.

It was best to resolve the matter amicably at this level.

Besides, as someone reluctantly acting as the head monk, he wasn’t inclined to escalate matters.

While he would prefer to simply overlook it, he couldn’t ignore the incident entirely…

"Very well, then. But if Shaolin wins, what will you offer in return?"

Pa Jin-gwang pointed to Seo-jun.

"That’ll be up to him."

Seo-jun tilted his head, then nodded in understanding.

After all, it was his fault the Namgung family had barged into Shaolin. Shifting the responsibility to Chun-bong or Namgung Su-ah would be a cowardly move.

"I doubt Shaolin has an abundance of manpower these days. I can handle a few tasks for you."

The head monk nodded.

Considering Seo-jun was capable of breaking through the Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation, having him on their side would be a boon for Shaolin.

"Very well."

The head monk looked over at the gathered monks and called a name.

"Heyun, you may step forward."

At his summons, Heyun came forward and bowed with palms together.

"Namo Amitabha… I will do as you wish."

Then, Pa Jin-gwang grinned and patted Seo-jun on the shoulder.

"Alright, looks like our guy’s up."

"What?"

Seo-jun looked at him as if he were insane, and then it dawned on him.

"Oh!"

I’m still under thirty, aren’t I?