89 Chapter 88 (1/2)
Ji Myung lived deep inside a hill near Sorim Temple, in a small temple he built himself. This was more or less due to his hot-tempered temperament. The leader of his clan persuaded him to do so, and with that, Ji Myung was appointed as the monk of his temple.
Then again, Ji Myung preferred the life of solitude as he did not like listening to others lecturing him at his old age. The only problem of the solitude was the loneliness it brought.
It was good that he retired from the Commander position of the Hwachun Clan's Demon Destroyer Regiment, but it was quite lonely living in quite a wide temple alone.
Ji Myung was a monk, but he never liked training in solitude or memorizing sacred Buddhist doctrines, so being alone was another form of burden to him. For him, it felt like when he was locked up alone in a gladiator ring's iron cell back in his youth.
To get out of solitude, Ji Myung left his temple and began traveling around. Six years had passed since then. It was then when the limit of his actions had come. Soon, he returned to his temple. Sorim Temple had maintained his temple every month, so the temple he built was still in a liveable condition.
”Amidabuddha… Buddha, you shouldn't do this to me! Damn it! It's too boring to live like this!”
Ji Myung then began cursing at the Buddha sculpture at the center of the worshipping room. It would've been considered a heresy for others, but Ji Myung had a habit of doing this from time to time. He always believed that it was right to raise an objection when there was one.
It was then that...
”Kyaaaaa-!”
A girl's shrill scream was heard coming from within the forest. Ji Myung immediately ran toward the location of the sound. He didn't think about why there was a girl deep within such a forest since he wasn't the type to think about that sort of thing anyway. When he got to the location, Ji Myung found a girl below a large man, trying to resist.
”NO! NOOO! Kyaaa! HELP!”
”Shut up! No one's around here to help you! Shut the hell up and stop resisting, or I'll make you shut up myself!”
”NOOO!”
It was clear what was going on. Ji Myung immediately knew what to do.
”The fuck are you doing, you bastard!”
Ji Myung immediately ran towards them and kicked the man away.
”UGH!”
At once, the man's friends realized that something was wrong and ran towards the scene.
”Who the hell are you?!”
”A M-monk!?”
They all bowed at Ji Myung once they realized he was a monk.
”B-Bhante, I think there's a small misunderstanding here. This girl is our servant girl. We were just trying to give her medicine, but she resisted because it was too bitter. With no choice, we had to force her to eat… and may have caused a commotion. Please understand.”
Ji Myung could not help but scoff at such an explanation.
”Ey! You! Yeah, you. The ugly one. Do you think you can just explain your way out of this? Who in their right fucking mind would give medicine through their middle leg? Huh?!”
The one who was kicked away by Ji Myung had his pants down, and his friends gritted their teeth as they saw that.
”Shit…”
”And with that, cut the bullshit and get lost. Will ya?”
”We can't do that.”
At that, they all pulled out their weapons.
”There's no harm killing one old monk.”
”Hmph! How dare you speak like that in front of a monk?”
”Hah! You think a human trafficker would care about that?”
”Tsk tsk tsk. This area is under Sorim Temple's rules and I'm their monk, you know?”
”That makes us feel concerned, but you won't be able to say anything if you die.”
Ji Myung then grinned at their reply.
”Right? Dead men tell no tales! And well shit, since you folks are trying to kill me, it ain't a crime killing you all as well, right? Uh, self defend? Defending?”
Hearing those words, a girl, who was shivering with fear, spoke in a small voice.
”It-it's self-defense, Bhante.”
”Oh. Yeah. Self-defense. It's self-defense, you fuckers! I'll pull your spines out and stick it up your asses, you assholes!”