Chapter 23: Benevolence
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Astonished and angry, Meng Qi struggled hard. However, Zhen Guan also fully exerted his strength. So Meng Qi was still pinned down tightly by Zhen Guan, even though he lifted Zhen Guan a little bit.
After a short period of panicked struggle, Meng Qi suddenly realized that although he was breathing with difficulty, he was not suffocating at all. It seemed that Zhen Guan’s hands were tucked in his muscle, so Meng Qi could breathe tolerably.
“Oh, I have the Iron Skin skill!” This idea occurred in Meng Qi’s dizzy mind.
Because this was not just his own practice, he forgot that he had the ability of “Iron Skin” during this crisis!
In fact, “Iron Skin” had little effect on enhancing strength.
Realizing that he was not in danger, Meng Qi gradually controlled his flustered emotions and attentively actuated his Dantian. A warm current slowly rose.
With the onset of his inner force, Meng Qi utilized his strength with his waist, belly, and hands, and then threw Zhen Guan out against the wall.
Zhen Guan was staggering but still struggled to get up. With swollen and rosy eyes, he constantly growled, “I’ll kill you,” and “You grabbed my opportunity to be a Warrior-monk Yard,” and jumped upon Meng Qi insanely.
“You’re crazy!” At this moment, Meng Qi had just turned over the bed and stood on it in astonishment and indignation. He did not try to evade but rather gave Zhen Guan a hard blow on his chest with the “Black Tiger Digging Heart” skill.
Although Zhen Guan hit Meng Qi with his hands, the attacks were just like tickles to Meng Qi.
With a bang, Zhen Guan hit again on the wall, making a muffled sound.
He covered his chest with his right hand and struggled to stand up, but he failed no matter how hard he tried. The blow that Meng Qi gave him was very heavy, as Meng Qi used almost all of his strength.
“Kill, I’ll kill you!
“You bastards, deceptive Buddhist monks!
“I want revenge. I want revenge…”
He murmured madly, with a runny nose and watery eyes.
At this moment, Zhen Ying and Zhen Hui were both awakened by the great noise—one was dazed and the other was stiff while blankly staring at this scene.
When Meng Qi saw Zhen Guan’s manic condition, he thought that if he had not exchanged the “Iron Skin” in the “Samsara World”, he would have been killed by Zhen Guan. Immediately, a great anger emerged from his heart, so he jumped out of the bed, and waved his fist toward Zhen Guan.
However, Meng Qi’s fist directly hit a suddenly appearing yellow cloth instead of Zhen Guan, making a “Puff!” sound.
“Stop!” Xuan Xin yelled and pulled back his sleeves.
As soon as he saw Xuan Xin, Meng Qi shouted, “Uncle Master Xuan Xin, Zhen Guan was crazy. He wanted to kill me!”
And Zhen Guan was ferociously staring at Meng Qi and Xuan Xin, constantly repeating, “I’ll kill you.”
Xuan Xin looked at Zhen Guan angrily, curled his lip, and said, “How can you kill him in this condition?”
He hastened to Zhen Guan and then kicked him. The hit was so hard that Zhen Guan could not say any words.
“What are you looking at? Go back to bed! Do you want to use a metal bucket to carry water tomorrow?” Xuan Xin shouted at the Chores Monk who had come to the door to see what had happened.
“This gang of rubbish!” Xuan Xin turned around and soliloquized. Zhen Ying, lying on the bed, looked more and more gloomy.
Then Xuan Xin looked at Meng Qi, smiled, and asked, “Nephew Zhen Ding, what do you think about this matter?”
Meng Qi, in fact, was a man of experience and had already recovered from his anger. Because he suffered no substantial damage, he glanced at Zhen Guan and said, “Everything is in your hands. But Zhen Guan was already out of his mind. I’m afraid that he’ll kill others.”
Xuan Xin coughed and beckoned Zhen Hui to close the door of the meditation room.
At first, Zhen Hui was a little excited when he saw Xuan Xin kicking Zhen Guan, as if the Stories of rivers and lakes really happened before him. Hearing Xuan Xin, he replied and ran to close the door, then continued to stare at Xuan Xin and Meng Qi.
“This matter has, after all, occurred in our Chores Yard. We’d better keep this matter to ourselves. How about this… tomorrow, I’ll find an excuse to expel Zhen Guan from our Shaolin Temple,” said Xuan Xin, smiling broadly.
Meng Qi realized that if the matter was taken over by the Commandment Yard, he, a Deacon Monk in the Chores Yard, would shoulder the responsibility.
He was thinking about seizing this opportunity to befriend Xuan Xin when the door was suddenly pushed open and a monk in yellow came in, who was wearing brownish-red Buddha beads on his right hand.
“Junior Brother Xuan Xin, you planned to conceal this matter if I hadn’t come here and heard the noise.” The Commandment Monk, who was a little over 30 with long skinny eyes, simpered at Xuan Xin.
Xuan Xin’s complexion changed as he advanced toward him. Smiling, he said, “Senior Brother Xuan Kong, I didn’t want to bother you with these minor matters.”
He took out something from his arms and stuffed it into Xuan Kong’s hands snugly.
Xuan Kong weighed it and smiled warmly. “No one was injured or killed, so it isn’t serious. But we can’t let this madman stay in.”
“Don’t worry, Senior Brother, we won’t trouble you,” Xuan Xin assured him.
Meng Qi stared up at them in stupefied amazement. This temple was, in fact, also a dirty place, at least the Chores Yard was. The “traditional code of conduct” was also applied here.
Xuan Kong looked at Zhen Guan, who was struggling to stand up, and turned to Meng Qi, saying, “Nephew, your Thwart Kung Fu is great.”
Meng Qi subconsciously touched his neck and felt several deep finger marks. A myriad of thoughts crowded into his mind, then he said, “Uncle Master Xuan Kong, I learned some martial arts from my family before becoming a monk, and I often practice them after finishing my work.”
“Eh, don’t be nervous. We all know,” Xuan Kong said with a sneer. “If you didn’t have such a relationship, successors of the Sword Washing Pavilion and the Zhen Wu Sect won’t speak for you, even with eloquent words.”
“They all think this way…” Meng Qi was relieved. He could satisfy the two successors, for this explanation could easily be accepted and it concealed his true relationship with Zhang Yuanshan and Jiang Zhiwei.
Xuan Kong bent his mouth with a spurious smile and said, “As for taking apprentices, our Shaolin Temple never cares where they come from. If you make mistakes, our Commandment Yard will punish you severely. Oh, Junior Brother Xuan Ku and I are good friends, so his attitude is the same as mine.”
After saying this, he turned around and went outside, only leaving the words: “Junior Brother Xuan Xin, remember to deal with it properly.”
“F*ck, these Commandment Yard bastards can’t stand the pride of others in front of them.” After Xuan Kong left, Xuan Xin cursed with bitter hatred without the consciousness of breaking the commandments. “Zhen Ding, were you arguing with them?”
Meng Qi curled his lip and said, “I’m not afraid of them because I’m right.”
“Yeah, they hate this attitude the most,” Xuan Xin looked at Meng Qi and said. “Where are you from? Only you, a highbred and fearless man, can act so courageously.”
“How should I know!?” Meng Qi pretended to be deep and said, “I’ve stayed away from the mortal world, so it has nothing to do with me.”
Xuan Xin spat, completely distrusting Meng Qi’s excuse. Recently, he had found that Zhen Ding was a little precocious, like an adult instead of a child, so he just looked at him and sighed without any words.
“When it comes to Zhen Guan, he’s such a poor fellow who became an orphan from a rich family. All his family was killed by 72 bandits during their itinerary trade route. In order to get revenge, he threw himself into Shaolin Temple, but Xuan Ku knew all of his resentment, so he was finally arranged to stay in our Chores Yard.”
“Now that, due to this reason, you can’t accept Senior Brother Zhen Guan, why do you still give him a glimmer of hope?” Meng Qi frowned.
“Hey, Xuan Ku is such a kind of person. He accepted Zhen Guan to dissolve Zhen Guan’s hatred through the sound and Buddha in the temple. Amitabha, the Teachings of Buddhism are unlimited.” Xuan Xin prayed to Amitabha sarcastically.
“Hehe, why not persuade those 72 bandits to drop their butcher’s knives and become the Buddha?” Meng Qi said angrily.
Xuan Xin answered, “Because he’s unable to defeat them.”
He turned around and looked at Zhen Guan who gradually calmed himself down. “Hey, Nephew Zhen Guan, it would better for you to leave the mountain tomorrow. Maybe you’ll obtain a chance of becoming more skillful.”
“Go down the mountain?” Hearing this, Zhen Guan suddenly sobered up, covered his face with his hands, and murmured painfully, “Dad, mom, I’m a disobedient son, an unfilial son! Five years have passed, but I haven’t taken revenge on anyone…”
Meng Qi sighed and did not prevent Xuan Xin from letting Zhen Guan go because there was little chance for him to stay here.
But this confirmed Meng Qi’s determination to learn martial arts well. Otherwise, in the future, he might not have the ability for revenge.
…
“You?” Zhen De looked at Meng Qi and Zhen Hui in amazement, who appeared in front of the group of new Warrior Monks.
“Wasn’t it said that no one had become a Warrior Monk for a long time?”
“This cunning guy and stupid boy could become Warrior Monks?”
They, who took pride in their Warrior-monk Yard, all repelled them.
Meng Qi observed their expressions and laughed in his heart. He really wanted to shout: “I’m here again.”
Xuan Chi looked at the Warrior Monks who came in recent years, and said to Meng Qi and Zhen Hui, “From today on, you’ll learn from them. Zhen Miao is the Teaching Monk.”
“Zhen Miao?” Meng Qi cocked his head and looked at the gentle young monk.“Him? At my age, he has already become a Teaching Monk, while I am only a Warrior Monk who still remains in the exercise period.”
Zhen Miao wore a yellow frock and looked like a gentleman. And he actually gave off a sense of calm standing over there.
He nodded without smiling. “You all follow behind them.”
Meng Qi and Zhen Hui complied and found their place at once.
“Today, we’ll continue our practice of Arhat Fists. I’ll perform it for all of you, and you must watch carefully.” Zhen Miao saw Xuan Chi off, then lifted his frock, took up a horse stance, and demonstrated the “Prayer Before the Mountain”.
“First, practice in this manner. When learning martial arts, you must establish a solid base, so don’t be greedy or pushy.” Zhen Miao told all the monks to practice.
Both Meng Qi and Zhen Hui had been learning Arhat Fists for several months, so they were able to keep up with the speed of the others. They practiced again and again from the first to the 18th type. After some time, they were sweating profusely.
“Stop!” Suddenly, Zhen Miao walked up to Meng Qi and looked at him seriously. “Your Arhat Fists isn’t good. How do you usually practice it? Now, if you continue to practice in this way, you’ll meet some troubles in the future.”
Meng Qi clearly knew that in his Arhat Fists, which he practiced from the book and Zhen Yong’s help, there had to exist many problems. So he said to Zhen Miao sincerely, “I practice it by following the book. I hope you can give me some directions.”
“You might as well not practice it because it’ll cost you a lot of time to correct it.” Zhen Miao frowned, cocked his head, and looked aside and said, “Zhen De, come here and practice with him. Let him know the bad effects of the wrong movements.”