The blue beam containing the trickery of the dog-curse pierced through the roar of the Iron-Head Dragon.
KWA-AAAAAAANG!
The shockwave from the attack shook the surroundings, and the Iron-Head Dragon, struck head-on, was sent flying far away.
But it wasn’t over yet.
"G... Gomo-doshi!"
The exhausted figure of the Taoist crawled out, dragging their tired body.
"The Iron-Head Dragon... has an indestructible body."
Indestructible, huh?
Being a spiritual being of Shaolin, I suppose that’s to be expected.
After all, even a Dilophosaurus could use some of the secret techniques and even a little bit of the poisonous master's powers. The Iron-Head Dragon, being stronger, must surely have something on that level.
That’s why the Taoist wasn’t trying to land a direct blow but instead hoped to do something with a lion’s roar.
Still, it didn’t seem perfect.
There was a small wound on my claws, so there was some bleeding.
It was a defense I could break through.
Of course, one hit from the Dog-Curse Death Beam probably wouldn’t be enough to finish it off.
"Krrr..."
"I hate to ask, but could you possibly spare his life..."
They’re asking not to kill.
I saw the remains scattered around.
The devastation of this snowy mountain was clearly visible.
The crushed bodies of the monks could be seen.
The current Iron-Head Dragon was pure evil.
It had clearly killed humans.
Even if they were unrelated to me, this was something irreversible.
If I hadn’t intervened, the Taoist would have likely been dead by now.
"...Could you at least spare his life?"
How should I deal with this frustrating human?
Even if the Iron-Head Dragon miraculously repented, you can’t refill spilled water.
Being expelled from Shaolin, it would surely be executed immediately.
Even if I saved him, the outcome for him would remain unchanged.
...Getting involved in this for no reason at all.
It's only causing me distress.
"Krrr..."
After a low growl, the Iron-Head Dragon leaped in the direction it had flown off.
First, I need to face him.
FWOOSH!
"Gggh... GRAAAAH!"
The Iron-Head Dragon grabbed its head in apparent pain.
So, this really is the indestructible body...
...Maybe that indestructibility is only in the head area.
"To be this... strong..."
The Iron-Head Dragon gasped for air.
"But it’s not over yet."
The Iron-Head Dragon slowly regained its posture.
Its center of gravity shifted forward, assuming an extremely unstable stance.
It was preparing its strongest attack.
Normally, I would avoid taking that hit head-on.
If I continued to chip away at him from a distance, I’d easily win.
Even if not, with enough force in my neck, I could overpower him without exhausting myself.
But that would be meaningless.
His eyes turned red.
Even if I win, he won’t acknowledge his defeat.
He thirsts for human blood and will continue slaughtering until his death.
Killing him would resolve the problem, but that wasn’t an option.
"...Are you waiting for me?"
"The client made an unreasonable request."
"The client? Right. What did the executioner request? Keep my inner core intact? Or retrieve the fox bead? Recover Bingjo’s inner core?"
With eyes filled with hatred, I glared in the direction of the Taoist.
Whatever the Taoist was thinking, it was none of my concern.
I didn’t respond, instead focusing on my stance.
"...That reckless arrogance, that boldness. You’ll regret it for sure."
KUGOOUU...
Immense internal energy gathered at a single point.
The final stage.
I too set my stance, preparing to counter his attack.
To defeat him, I must break that attack.
No excuses. I must give it my all and overcome it.
"Shaolin, how it was called the Mount Tai of the Martial Arts, I will engrave that into your bones!"
KUUUUNG!
The force of the Dragon Gate gathered in one spot, and every time he moved, the space around him warped as if heat waves were rising.
If it wasn’t for his so-called indestructible head, he wouldn’t have been able to withstand this force.
"GRAAAAH!"
With a roar, the Iron-Head Dragon charged at me.
With every step he took, low mounds of snow seemed to evaporate into thin air.
The snow that covered the mountain rapidly turned into water and melted away.
But due to the cold, it quickly refroze, turning into sharp shards of ice instead of soft snow.
The Iron-Head Dragon wielded a force capable of altering the terrain.
I focused my mind.
Shaolin martial arts are curved.
That was something my master had told me.
When I was still a small lizard, I didn’t understand it well.
When I thought of Shaolin martial arts, strength and directness were the first things that came to mind.
My master, Baek Yeon-yeong, loved straight lines but hated curves.
Was it because the straightness resembled her own nature?
What was it about curves that bothered her so much?
What is the mystery of straightness?
What is the mystery of curves?
Even now, I didn’t quite understand.
KAAAAAAANG!
Shaolin’s spiritual beast, the Iron-Head Dragon, was also drawing a straight line.
No matter how I looked at it, that was a straight line, not a curve.
Why did my master say they drew curves?
I’ll try to answer in my own way. Straight lines are strong and upright.
That is the martial way my master sought and the life she led.
Since straight lines are strong and upright, does that mean curves are weak and not upright?
The world doesn’t work that simplistically.
If it did, all martial arts would be straight lines.
Straight lines are fast and strong.
But they are also prone to breaking.
If you’re not as strong as my master, you’ll eventually snap.
On the other hand, curves are weaker and slower than straight lines, but they never break.
Like water that cannot be cut.
So my master probably hated martial arts that made curves.
She practiced the straightness that didn’t break.
She couldn’t understand those who made curves because they were too easy to bend.
That doesn’t mean that curves are necessarily bad.
Not everyone is as strong as my master.
They have no choice but to draw curves.
Knowing that, my master didn’t hate the curved martial arts altogether.
She just probably wanted those who started the sect to stick to their original intention until the end.
Stealing from innocent commoners, starving them.
Killing children just for speaking a word.
If they had to bend in such a way, my master would choose to break.
That’s why my master hated sects of justice.
That’s why she hated the curves those sects drew.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.
KWA-KWAK!
The Iron-Head Dragon rushed toward me at overwhelming speed.
If I hadn’t known any better, I would have just thought it was charging straight.
But as my master said, Shaolin martial arts started to curve.
An unavoidable trajectory. His strike bent mid-course.
However.
Just because it was unavoidable didn’t mean it was unpreventable.
I grabbed his head with my left hand.
Thud.
With my right hand, I placed it on his tail.
It wouldn’t be right to say I grabbed it—I merely placed my hand there.
This alone wouldn’t be enough to block his attack.
With a movement as natural as a dragon swimming,
I allowed his destructive power to circulate through my body.
Redirecting the force.
Drawing a graceful curve that even my master would recognize.
GEON-GON-DAE-NAI.
KWA-AAAAAAANG!
"GRAAAAAH!"
The Iron-Head Dragon was driven into the ground.
"My... my head... my head!"
He howled in agony.
The battle was over.
No matter how indestructible, the Iron-Head Dragon had to take damage from his own attack.
"Huh... huff!"
I saw the Taoist running from far away.
I had subdued him as per his request, but the next issue remained.
"Ggh... Grrrr..."
Sudden blasts of cold energy began seeping from his body.
"Stay away from me!"
The power of the Dragon Gate was rampaging.
"Grrr... AAAAAAH!"
The Iron-Head Dragon continued clutching his head in torment.
I turned my head and looked at the Taoist.
At this point, I should just end it for him.
If the rampaging energy kept escalating, the Taoist could get caught in it.
But the Taoist shook his head.
"Bak Gi-Gae!"
He called out his name as he dragged his broken leg toward me.
"S... Executor? Don’t come here!"
"You brat! Hold on, just a little longer!"
He was a frustrating human, and a frustrating spiritual being too.
It was obvious both of them would die at this rate.
...
Things weren’t aligning.
This was why I hated getting involved with humans.
I drew on my dantian’s power.
The rampaging energy of the Dragon Gate could be stopped by another power of the Dragon Gate.
Swoosh!
In the deepest part of the snowy mountain, plants began to sprout rapidly.
"Kehhh!"
The Iron-Head Dragon spat out a violet orb along with blood.
"You bastard! Get your head straight!"
It was over now.
The Iron-Head Dragon would fall after the rampage ended.
The Taoist, though injured, would make it out alive.
It had been a long tale, but it didn’t end well.
"S... Executor... my... head... it’s too much..."
...The Iron-Head Dragon hadn’t died yet.
A huge shard of ice embedded near his heart started to melt, and his gigantic body began to shrink.
Though it was clearly night, it felt as though warm sunlight was washing over me.
...The power I had gained from the Dragon Gate should be in my neck, so why was this happening?
It was like ice melting under the sun’s rays.
The snow covering the area began to melt slowly.
Thud.
As the wet ground squelched beneath him, the Taoist crawled toward me.
He placed his hand on the Iron-Head Dragon’s head.
With a gentle expression, he looked down at him.
It was like a gesture he had done many times before.
The Iron-Head Dragon’s convulsions from his headache stopped.
"Finally... finally... you’ve come to your senses..."
Tears streamed down the Iron-Head Dragon’s eyes.
"What... what have I done..."
The Taoist neither scolded nor blamed him.
"Namu Amitabul..."
He simply murmured those words.
***
"Namu Amitabul..."
The head of Shaolin, Hye-Myung, murmured softly.
"To think it tried to devour its own kin..."
In the embrace of the massive evil dragon, there was a small young dragon.
The tiny dinosaur stood frozen, staring blankly at its fallen parents.
"Such a pitiful sight."
Hye-Myung gazed at it with pity.
"Taoist. We must erase its memory."
"...Erase its memory? Even though it’s still young, it's the offspring of the evil dragon. It must be removed before it causes any trouble!"
"What crime does this little one deserve?"
"It was born with a murderous star! If it doesn’t kill, it will go mad! It’s destined to bring destruction!"
The stars are not something that appear only in humans.
This spiritual being was born with a murderous fate.
If it is not killed now, the consequences will be disastrous.
"I will take responsibility."
"...Master, what do you mean by that?"
"I will take this child to Shaolin."
"To Shaolin, with its murderous fate?"
It was unprecedented to initiate someone with the fate of murder into Shaolin.
However, when the head of Shaolin, known as the True Victory, spoke like this, it was not something that could be simply opposed.
Still, the Taoist vehemently opposed it.
He knew what it meant to take responsibility.
"Does this mean you will bear the consequences for everything this child does?"
A child born with a murderous fate can only commit murder.
The more it is suppressed, the more explosively it will erupt.
That’s why Hye-Myung was willing to take on the burden of all the child’s sins, bearing its disgrace and its karmic consequences.
"Why... why go so far?"
The eyes of the old monk, Hye-Myung, looked at the young dragon, seeing something else in it.
The child he had once seen on a cold winter day.
The memories of lotus flowers and snowflakes.
Children born with a fate that couldn’t even be compared to a murderous fate.
They had been too afraid to raise them, and it was something they would regret for the rest of their lives.
"Think of it as the whim of an old man, or cowardly hypocrisy, if you must."
The head of Shaolin, Hye-Myung, gently cradled the young dragon.
"Piyah..."
The small dinosaur cried weakly.
Hye-Myung smiled kindly.
"After seeing this, do you still think this child is guilty?"
He handed the young dragon to the Taoist, who seemed at a loss for what to do.
"...Well, its head is round like a bead, and its body is thick like armor."
Its crying was cute, and the way it looked somehow made the Taoist’s heart soften.
The Taoist placed his hand on the young dragon’s head.
"Ppyak..."
Hye-Myung raised the corner of his mouth as he watched the Taoist.
"Ha... To think you’d freely give a law name to a child who hasn’t even been initiated yet. It seems I misjudged you, my friend."
"Master, what do you mean...?"
Hye-Myung laughed as he saw the Taoist’s bewilderment.
"Ppyak! Ppyak!"
The Iron-Head Dragon, now in the Taoist’s arms, flailed its little arms about.
"This little rascal...!"
"It seems this child likes you as well."
"Master?"
"Ah, I see. It’s not that child anymore. Now, it has an official law name."
"Bak Gi-Gae (拍璣鎧)."
The young dragon, born with a murderous fate, received that law name.
Although the name disregarded all traditional procedures, no one voiced any objections.