"Junior Brother?!"

As soon as Baek Yoonjun kicked open the Biyeolmun, no, the master-door, and entered, what he faced was.

Literally, a dog's mess, no, a pig's mess.

"Oink! Oink!"

"Keuaak! Help me! Please!!"

A pig was holding a person's ankle, holding him upside down, and was slamming him towards the floor as if bringing down a rice cake mallet.

And on the floor, a large man was holding Biyeon tightly like a rice cake dough and was holding him in place.

It was a fantastic collaboration of a human mortar and a human pestle.

Thump! Thump!

"Keuaak! This crazy pig bastard!!"

The head of the man who was playing the role of the pestle collided with Biyeon's head in succession, creating a cheerful hitting sound.

'...What is this?'

Forgetting even the urgency of having run over after hearing the scream, Baek Yoonjun stared blankly at that sight.

'What on earth is it?'

The scene of a rice cake pounding, which seemed to have even a madness in it.

Baek Yoonjun stared blankly at that sight, at a loss for words.

Although the first impression was bizarre, as he continued to watch, it was a sight that felt strangely addictive.

'Wow, look at the rhythm. He's got rhythm?'

Before he knew it, Baek Yoonjun was leisurely watching this chaotic scene with intrigued eyes.

'His hip movements are not ordinary.'

It was not just slamming down with force.

The pig was using the rebound of its lower body when lifting the human pestle, and was utilizing the rotational force of its waist when slamming down.

It looked similar to the principle of the Dog Beating Staff Technique that Baek Yoonjun had taught Hong Yungae.

'No, what crazy nonsense am I thinking?'

Baek Yoonjun let out a hollow laugh, finding his own thoughts absurd.

'I must have been really into martial arts recently.'

Had he not just made a martial art when he came to the Biyeolmun?

But due to the nature of a homebody introvert, negative thoughts soon crept up and encroached on his mind.

'What's with the second-rate...'

Feeling bitter, Baek Yoonjun clicked his tongue and then focused on the sight in front of him again.

'Wow. It's a complicated act that requires 4 people, but how did they gather so perfectly?'

Baek Yoonjun leisurely watched that sight, with the feeling of appreciating a performance art.

'It looks fun.'

Since Baek Yoonjun, who lacked social skills, had never even thought of the act of gathering and playing with others, although the act in front of him was bizarre, it looked fun.

Of course, it didn't seem so for Biyeon, who was in the position of the rice cake.

"Ack! Great Senior Brother!? S-save me!"

At Biyeon's desperate scream, Baek Yoonjun stopped his appreciation and moved his feet.

"Oink?"

As he approached, the pig stopped its pestle-work and tilted its head.

It was a sight as if it had become a person.

Baek Yoonjun held out his hand towards the pig.

"Hey, let me try it too."

"Oink?"

"Isn't it the best when you take turns doing something like this?"

"Oink!"

The pig handed over the human pestle to Baek Yoonjun.

Baek Yoonjun, who had received the human pestle, observed it slowly.

'He's bald.'

Whether it was because his head was shiny from continuously performing the role of the pestle, or whether it was originally like that, he felt a sense of pity.

Baek Yoonjun carefully lifted the human pestle.

"G-Great Senior Brother?"

The corners of Biyeon's eyes, who was looking at that, trembled like crazy.

Regardless, Baek Yoonjun indifferently looked down at Biyeon.

"You'll bite your tongue. Shut your mouth."

"What? Keck!!"

The person swinging the pestle had changed from a pig to Baek Yoonjun, but the situation had not changed.

Thump!

"Ugh!"

Biyeon's scream began to echo again inside the Biyeolmun.

Baek Yoonjun was impressed by the chewy hand-feel of the human pestle, and the pig that had originally been hitting the pestle sat on a nearby eave and lit a pipe that he had taken out from somewhere.

It was a strange sight if you say so, and a funny sight if you say so.

Of course, Baek Yoonjun was not doing this because he had lost his mind.

Rather, he had many thoughts.

'What is this situation?'

The confusion about the unknown situation.

'It's not a situation where I'm in danger, but...'

The sense of relief that there would be no immediate harm to him.

'But it doesn't seem like there's anything I can do.'

Until now, Baek Yoonjun had solved everything with the solution of avoiding if he met an ordinary person, and cutting them down if he met a villain.

But now, he had come to face a situation where it was difficult to apply that solution.

His mind became very complicated.

However.

Thump!

"Keuaak!"

Thump!

"Aak!"

Although his mind was complicated, for some reason, as he hit Biyeon, his mood felt refreshed.

Naturally, it was not so from Biyeon's point of view.

"S-Senior Brother!! Ugh!"

"What is it?"

"Keok! Why on earth, keoheok! are you doing this to me?!"

At Biyeon's screaming question, Baek Yoonjun was lost in thought.

The conclusion that came out was just one.

'There's no particular reason...?'

If you say so, it was natural, but he was not hitting him with any particular thought.

He had just tried it without thinking because it looked fun, and the hand-feel was good.

Although Baek Yoonjun thought of saying those words as they were, feeling that he would be looked down upon by a human who was less than him, he pondered a little more and then opened his mouth seriously.

"Isn't your current action not very different from yesterday's training? Think of it as training."

"What?"

Biyeon's anger burst at those words.

However, since it was training, he had nothing to say.

'No!!'

A word to refute flashed through such a Biyeon's mind.

"Yesterday it was the back of my head!! Keok! Now it's the top of my head!! Keoheok!"

Hearing those words, Baek Yoonjun flinched for a moment.

Although it was true, Baek Yoonjun did not want to admit those words.

"Am I right?"

As he had stopped hitting for a very short moment, he also disliked the sight of Biyeon becoming triumphant.

Baek Yoonjun once again slammed the pestle-human towards Biyeon's top of the head.

"No, why?! Keok!!"

Biyeon screamed. And at the same time, he felt something strange.

'The place I was hit was definitely the top of my head, but why does the back of my head hurt?!'

Biyeon, who was flustered, was hit on the top of his head in succession by Baek Yoonjun.

Every time that happened, Biyeon was flustered by the hot pain he felt on the back of his head.

Baek Yoonjun, being petty, was modifying the mystery of his martial arts in real time, so that even if he hit the top of the head, the back of the head would hurt.

'This is the mystery of grafting a flower to a tree. Just as a flower is moved and grafted to a tree, the impact of the hitting point is transferred.'

Although it was an act that contained the mystery of ascension, it was just a useless and even petty act that had only the effect of making the back of the head hurt if the top of the head was hit.

Of course, for the one being hit, it was a situation where one would be at a loss for words.

"Keuaak! S-Senior Brother! My back of the head feels like it's going to break!!"

Biyeon screamed in astonishment at the situation where his back of the head hurt as if it would break even though he had been hit on the top of his head, a situation where even a ghost would cry.

And so, as he was hitting for a long time.

"Ugh!!"

Biyeon's eyes rolled back.

Not only did his eyes roll back, but his figure became blurry.

"Die!!"

Before he knew it, Biyeon's figure appeared behind Baek Yoonjun and he threw a punch at the back of his head.

Baek Yoonjun sensed that and stealthily pulled the pig that had been holding a pipe in its mouth by his side.

"Oink!!"

Thwack!

The pig, which had been hit on the back of its head by Biyeon's punch, let out a squeal and collapsed on the spot.

"Damn it!!"

Biyeon spat out a curse, having confirmed that what his fist had hit was not the back of Baek Yoonjun's head that he had been aiming for.

A very short silence fell.

And.

Clap, clap, clap.

Baek Yoonjun quietly looked at Biyeon and clapped his hands.

At Baek Yoonjun's sudden action, Biyeon stopped on the spot.

Baek Yoonjun continued to clap and opened his mouth indifferently.

"You're finally using what I taught you."

"What?"

Looking at Biyeon's dazed appearance, Baek Yoonjun continued to speak indifferently.

"Did you not feel it? If you look now, you had the ability to escape from the beginning, but you couldn't come out."

"What do you mean..."

"Therefore, I helped you to exert your ability."

"What?"

Biyeon was lost in thought.

The action of Baek Yoonjun, who had not saved him but had rather joined in hitting him.

However, thanks to that action, Biyeon had now safely escaped and had even knocked down the opponent.

'Could it be? Did Great Senior Brother do it for my sake?'

As Biyeon was confused, Baek Yoonjun was inwardly relieved.

'Phew, I went too far.'

In Baek Yoonjun's standards, Biyeon was clearly a being who was humanly inferior to him.

Therefore, he did not feel any particular guilt even if he beat him to his heart's content.

But now, the sight of Biyeon, whose eyes had rolled back, was a little scary.

Although in terms of martial power, he was a being he could win with a single finger, since Baek Yoonjun's nature itself was extremely timid, he was more afraid.

'Anyway, since it went over well...'

Baek Yoonjun decided to drive a wedge when Biyeon was confused.

"Let's move first."

Without even listening to Biyeon's answer, Baek Yoonjun grabbed the scruff of his neck and then kicked off from the spot.

"Huh? Huh? Ugh!!"

Biyeon screamed as his body suddenly floated up.

Regardless, Baek Yoonjun continued to step on the empty air and climbed onto the roof of the tallest building in the village.

"Heok... heok? Where is this?"

"Come to your senses."

Baek Yoonjun put down Biyeon, who could not come to his senses due to the rapid movement, on the floor.

Having put down Biyeon, Baek Yoonjun scanned the village.

As expected, as he had just seen, it was a pandemonium.

'What is this sight, it's not even a cheap comedy show?'

Although he had been startled at first, now, and on top of that, looking from a distance, the scenery of the village itself looked like a single comedy.

Baek Yoonjun, who had gained a peace of mind, carefully analyzed the current situation.

'To say that all the villagers have taken drugs, the actions of the animals are a concern.'

Although he had considered that the villagers had seen a collective hallucination and had gone crazy after coming into contact with something bad, there were quite a few things that did not make sense.

'If so, then the story of the shadow I heard from Monk Shinseung would probably fit...'

The reversal of the master and the guest of the shadow and the main body.

If it was not a simple hallucination, it meant that something essential was twisted.

Baek Yoonjun narrowed his eyes.

A faint eye light flickered in the depths of his pupils.

He had slightly drawn up the energy of the Heart Sword formed in his mind-image to his eyes.

At that, the world was reversed into black and white, and the other side of the sight that was spread out in front of his eyes began to be seen.

'...As expected.'

The shadows that were stretched out in various parts of the village were wrapping around the ankles of the people, who were the main bodies, like a sticky tar.

No, it was not just wrapping.

The shadow was sucking the energy of the main body and was becoming obese, and on the contrary, the main body was becoming faint like a shadow.

That process was truly bizarre.

Just as a leech sticks to the ankle of the main body and sucks its blood, every time the shadow wriggled, the vitality of the people was draining out like an ebb tide.

Perhaps because of that, there was no vitality in the eyes of the people.

The shadow under the cheerful, comedy-like actions of the people was no different from a corpse that had lost its vitality and was stretched out.

'Should I cut that joint?'

Baek Yoonjun pondered for a very short moment whether to try cutting the shadow that was stuck to the people's shadows.

If it was the Heart Sword that cut concepts themselves, it seemed quite possible.

However, Baek Yoonjun soon shook his head.

'No, what if there's some kind of danger.'

That was already no different from being entangled and having become one.

If he were to cut it, there was a high possibility that the entire shadow would be cut.

On top of that.

'What if I get caught up in it after touching it for no reason.'

Baek Yoonjun immediately shook his head.

'I already have a record of sending one off.'

The patient from the imperial palace, whom he had sent off, came to his mind, and he shook his head.

'If I'm not sure, let's not touch it.'

If he was not sure, it was best not to touch it.

No, in the first place, there was no reason for him to step forward.

'Shall I just return to Shaolin?'

Since Biyeon's lifeline seemed longer than a cockroach's, he would survive on his own, and whether this village was destroyed or not was none of Baek Yoonjun's business, who was a natural homebody introvert.

But.

-Creak.

A sound of an old hinge, as if an auditory hallucination, was heard from somewhere.

No, it was not an auditory hallucination.

Biyeol, who had become a door, was moving in time with the blowing wind and was making a sound with his mouth.

Baek Yoonjun's feet stopped.

'...Ah.'

That sight, for some reason, was funny, and on the other hand, it looked pitiful.

'If I leave that old man as he is... what about my shield?'

If Biyeol were to end his life as a door, the plan to pass on various troublesome things would be ruined.

Since he had been thinking of passing on everything to the existence of a master in the first place, he could not pass it on to a door.

"...Damn it."

Baek Yoonjun frowned and turned his body again.

'My precious shield!!'

Biyeon was startled at Baek Yoonjun's sudden movement.

"W-why? What's the matter?!"

The sight of him sitting on the floor and trembling was extremely funny, in contrast to his appearance when he had first gotten drunk and had caused a ruckus.

A strange sense of incongruity flashed through the mind of Baek Yoonjun, who was letting out a hollow laugh, looking at Biyeon.

'Why is this brat fine?'

Although he had not checked all the villagers, the people he had encountered had all gone strange.

But although Biyeon was being treated like a rice cake, he was fine.

Baek Yoonjun was lost in thought and continued to look at Biyeon.

Biyeon, burdened by Baek Yoonjun's intense gaze, which had come from his unconscious, stepped back.

After pondering for a long time, Baek Yoonjun could not find an answer and finally uttered a question.

"Why are you fine?"

(End of Chapter)