CHAPTER 363: BODY TRANSFORMATION (2)

The revealed true form of Bodhidharma was surreal.

Though the Great Desert Yellow Dragon was the same, Bodhidharma’s mystique felt like it belonged to a different dimension.

A massive body.

Its surface covered in black scales.

The clear sunlight of the Tibetan Plateau refracted off those scales, scattering in iridescent colors.

The outer walls of Potala Palace were, for the most part, a pristine white.

Bodhidharma’s figure, gliding down the palace walls, drew every eye.

Bodhidharma no longer concealed himself.

A black imoogi departed from the palace.

The meditating lamas brought their palms together in respect toward the imoogi that had saved Potala Palace.

The commoners of Lhasa also bowed their heads with reverence toward the black creature, contrasting so vividly with the white palace.

Bodhidharma carried the ailing Yi-gang on his back.

According to Bodhidharma, he had never once allowed anyone to ride on his back before.

From that back, Yi-gang looked down upon the land below.

And he thought.

Hadn’t Bodhidharma already transcended the rank of a spiritual dragon?

Only obsession with the concept of ‘dragon’ remained.

Even that enormous and monstrous Great Desert Yellow Dragon was merely a dangerous beast.

Bodhidharma, however, already possessed a power that transcended worldly limits.

An imoogi bound by the law of causality—he was someone even greater than a dragon.

“The weather is nice.”

Whether he knew Yi-gang’s thoughts or not, Bodhidharma spoke in an oddly lighthearted tone.

“Yes, it is.”

Yi-gang, too, could not guess what Bodhidharma was thinking.

At that moment, Bodhidharma’s thoughts were on an old disciple.

Bodhidharma had taken on countless disciples.

There was even a time when every monk of Shaolin had been his disciple.

He truly was a Great Ancestor in every sense.

But if he had to choose just one among his treasured disciples, it would be Huike.

The stubborn one who had knelt in the snow until his body froze, begging to be accepted as a disciple.

Back then, the path Bodhidharma had to walk was no different from a road of thorns, so he had no intention of accepting disciples.

When Huike begged for teachings—

“If crimson snow falls, I shall grant you the Dharma,” he had replied, simply rejecting him.

But that madman, as if he had been waiting, cut off one of his own arms.

Blood spurted and stained the snow—was that not crimson snow?

He was a lunatic who transcended reason.

In the end, Bodhidharma accepted him as a disciple and gave him a Dharma name.

He thought that if such a madman wandered the world, chaos would surely follow—so better to accept him and guide his heart through cultivation.

Yet, Huike wasn’t as strange as his first impression suggested.

In fact, he was the opposite.

He was simply desperate—and reckless.

Bodhidharma’s first disciple was always Huike.

Even when they were being pursued by Emperor Wu’s grand army.

Even when they had to cross the river on reed leaves.

Huike had protected Bodhidharma, swinging his sword with unwavering strength using just one arm.

‘You lived a better life than I did.’

As time passed, all of Bodhidharma’s disciples died before him. Huike was no different.

Bodhidharma carried guilt in his heart for Huike.

It felt like it was his fault that Huike had lost an arm.

Whether or not Huike had reached the pinnacle of martial arts as a one-armed swordsman was irrelevant.

It was simply the heart of a master for his disciple.

That was why Bodhidharma granted his disciple a complete body transformation.

What he had once promised Yi-gang, he now gave to his disciple.

It was a process fraught with great tribulations.

But in the end, it succeeded.

The aging disciple became young once more.

All his meridians and energy channels were cleared, and more than anything—his severed left arm regrew.

The regrown arm was the most extraordinary achievement of all.

Though it was a great challenge, Bodhidharma ultimately succeeded.

Huike looked back and forth between his arm and his master.

The newly grown arm was not its original color.

It had a sleek black sheen, as if it were no longer human flesh.

“How is it? That arm shall now be impervious to blades and resistant to fire.”

“…Thank you.”

Meanwhile, the lustrous black scales of Bodhidharma began to dull, and some cracked and broke away.

Even a normally indifferent disciple could tell that something was wrong with Bodhidharma.

Huike realized that he had gained his arm at the cost of his master’s life force.

One day, he came back with his arm severed once again.

Bodhidharma erupted in fury.

How could he bring back the arm that had been reattached with such hardship, only to sever it again?

Huike must have had a lot on his mind.

Perhaps the black hue of the new arm reminded him of his master’s sacrifice.

Or maybe he didn’t want to become a disciple who consumed his own master.

But the words Huike actually spoke were simple.

“I’ve gone so long without a left arm that it only gets in the way when I wield my sword.”

Bodhidharma, furious as he was, couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at that.

“That’s something a sword demon would say, not a cultivator!”

Though he roared with anger, there was no helping it.

Bodhidharma regained his strength.

His scales regained their luster, while his disciple fell back to being an ordinary human.

And now, a thousand years later—

Bodhidharma resolved once more to grant someone a complete body transformation.

Yi-gang’s limbs were intact, but the main meridian running through his whole body was in utter disarray.

Though he had encountered many fortuitous opportunities and managed to reconnect several major meridians, it still wasn’t enough.

Bodhidharma would cure Yi-gang’s meridian blockage completely.

Rather than simply connecting his damaged meridians, he would reconstruct an entirely new set.

It was an even more difficult task than restoring a severed arm.

It was far more difficult than prolonging the life of that dying sage monk sitting by the lake.

This time, he would have to sacrifice much more.

Bodhidharma had prepared himself for that.

He shattered the ice on the lake’s surface and stepped into the water.

Crackkk—!

A great roar echoed as his massive body submerged into the lake.

Bodhidharma was unimaginably enormous as a living being, but even he was no match for the lake’s size.

Only his head poked out above the deep blue waters.

“Keep chanting the Marrow Cleansing Tendon Changing Sutra.”

With that instruction, Bodhidharma began swimming across the lake.

And where was Yi-gang? He was at the center of the lake.

To be precise, he was sitting in a lotus position atop a floating sheet of ice right in the middle.

It had been about two hours since he started.

Steam poured off of Yi-gang’s body.

His body temperature had risen to a level unbearable for an ordinary person.

He was rushing through all three stages of the Marrow Cleansing Sutra, which he hadn’t had time to learn properly.

It was originally an impossible feat, but just as Bodhidharma had expected, Yi-gang pulled it off.

The only issue would be the excessive strain on his body.

From this point on, it was Bodhidharma’s domain.

He slowly began to trace a circle.

It was as if he were forming a ring around Yi-gang.

And then, ripples began to stir across the lake’s surface.

Bodhidharma hadn’t told Yi-gang that he would be making a sacrifice.

Because of that, Yi-gang could focus all his mind on his body transformation.

“Gyeok—rank—is something achieved through the growth of both soul and body. Your goal is to reach the Absolute realm.”

Yi-gang couldn’t reply as he was in deep concentration.

Bodhidharma continued without waiting for a response, “The Absolute realm is just another name for a higher rank.”

That was how Bodhidharma saw it.

And in truth, Yi-gang—

“Your spirit has already reached the rank of the Absolute realm.”

He had already taken one step into that realm.

Considering his age, it was a miraculous feat.

If the martial world’s pundits were to find out, the stir would be enormous.

But in truth, it had been somewhat anticipated ever since he defeated Gal Sa-hyeok, the Tyrant King of Green Forest, who had reached the apex of Supreme Peak.

“The reason you can imitate Zhang Sanfeng’s supreme ultimate techniques so well is because of that. But since you haven’t acquired your own supreme ultimate technique, that must come first.”

Yi-gang had yet to gain his own supreme ultimate technique.

As the supreme ultimate technique symbolized the Absolute realm, this was a rare exception.

Martial artists who pursued the limits of martial arts usually ascended to the Absolute realm through acquiring a supreme ultimate technique.

In a way, Yi-gang might have taken an unusual path.

In fact, Bodhidharma understood well why Yi-gang had grown this way.

“You have had martial masters as your teachers whom one might not encounter even once in a lifetime. People whose gyeok was unimaginably high for a human.”

The Immortal Divine Sword, Zhang Sanfeng, and even the Blue-Eyed Mad Demon who inherited the blood of the Heavenly Thunder White-Tail Fox.

The sage monk, the Sword Emperor—they were all extraordinary figures who shaped the world.

Surrounded by such brilliance, Yi-gang had been too busy absorbing their teachings.

But there must be a limit to following the path of others.

“That is why you have not yet found your own path. From now on, you must discover it.”

Bodhidharma offered these words as his final counsel.

The lake’s surface grew still.

From Bodhidharma’s body, which had formed the circle, a soft white light began to radiate.

It flowed toward Yi-gang, who sat in the center.

Through the breath of Yi-gang seated in lotus position, the white spiritual energy was drawn into him.

Yi-gang’s body rose slightly off the ground.

It was said that this often happened when an Absolute master performed the major circulation.

Qi entered along with Yi-gang’s breath, then exited through the Heavenly Gate at the crown of his head.

The flow of qi surged, growing in intensity.

Eventually, the qi split into five streams.

The five directional colors—obangsaek.

Blue, red, yellow, white, and black.

There was no doubt he had entered the rare state of Ogi Chowywon—the Five Qi Returning to Origin.

“Close your eyes and focus your mind.”

Bodhidharma gave the instruction, and Yi-gang obeyed.

Because of that, he did not see the light fading from Bodhidharma’s scales.

At last, Yi-gang’s body was engulfed by materialized qi, blazing as though it were on fire.

“The body transformation begins now.”

Yi-gang’s skin began to peel away like a shedding husk.

Soon, it was replaced by flawless, smooth, white skin.

The old skin was consumed in flames and vanished.

Crack—Crackkk—

Bones twisted and joints snapped.

Agonizing pain followed, but Yi-gang didn’t so much as flinch—he remained focused.

Thanks to that, his muscles and bones were restructured.

He had likely grown at least an inch taller.

His shoulders broadened and his back straightened. His bones became harder, no longer prone to breaking, while his muscles and joints grew incredibly flexible.

“Lastly, the major meridian,” spoke Bodhidharma, concealing the life force draining from him.

Yi-gang’s blood vessels began to burn and snap one by one.

He could feel the vessels in his head bursting apart.

Fireworks erupted before his eyes.

It was a shock that made the world itself seem to flicker out of existence.

The blood vessels that spread like spiderwebs across his body burned and ruptured, only to be rebuilt by a mysterious force.

Yi-gang, born under the heavenly curse of the Great Yin Meridian Blockage—though there were gains from having severed meridians, what he had lost far outweighed them.

The blood vessels that had always threatened his life were now being reborn.

From the heart outward, strong veins extended like spiderwebs.

Splurt.

Black blood gushed from Yi-gang’s nose and mouth.

The impurities left in his body had been fully expelled.

Inner Qi that had been dormant within his dantian began to flow through its place.

The newly formed blood vessels from the body transformation were stronger and broader than ever before.

Internal energy began circulating through Yi-gang’s new bloodstream.

That circulation quickened and quickened until Yi-gang felt his whole body brimming with power.

At this rate, his body might explode and kill him.

With that thought, Yi-gang’s eyes snapped open.

He saw Bodhidharma’s massive black form surrounding him.

Looking up, he saw that puffy clouds had filled the sky without his notice.

Yi-gang, overwhelmed with surging fullness, raised his hand.

Like the moment when the Sword Emperor ascended, he pointed his finger toward the heavens.

Whoooosh—

The enormous clouds tore apart like sheets of paper.

Sunlight, hidden behind the clouds, now shone down upon Yi-gang and the lake.

“Haa, haa…”

Yi-gang looked at his body.

It had changed.

Powerful, and nearly perfect.

Even his physical form had now reached the gyeok of the Absolute realm.

“Well done.”

Bodhidharma smiled faintly.