Chapter 488: Shaolin Sweeping Monk

The sigh seemed ethereal and faint, yet it resounded like evening drums and morning bells, filled with supreme Buddhist hymns, striking heavily on the hearts of everyone in the courtyard. The Shaolin disciples, who had been filled with a sense of desperate sorrow, felt all their stray thoughts vanish, regaining a state of tranquility."The courtyard I just cleaned is messed up again because of you people... Get out of the way! Get out of the way! I will clean it up again!"

Following the sigh, an elderly voice sounded. Accompanied by the voice, an old monk’s figure slowly appeared at the entrance of the courtyard.

The people in the courtyard turned to look and saw the old monk wearing a patched robe, holding a broom in his hand. As he slowly walked towards them, he swung the broom to sweep away the debris on the ground. He turned out to be a Sweeping Monk of Shaolin.

The Sweeping Monk had long eyebrows and beard, a face full of wrinkles, and his age was indiscernible. He had a stooped back and a slim figure, as if a gust of wind could blow him away.

"Elder Xuan Ku!"

Even though this Sweeping Monk’s status in Shaolin was not high, his seniority was a generation above monks like Jueren. Therefore, when monks like Jueren saw him, they all performed a respectful Buddhist salute.

"Abbot! Elders! Why aren’t you practicing your Cultivation Techniques and chanting scriptures, but gathering here instead? I need to clean the courtyard, so please leave!"

The Sweeping Monk named Xuan Ku returned the salute with one hand and said expressionlessly.

Abbot Jueren and the six Elders exchanged wry smiles upon hearing this.

Xuan Ku had been in Shaolin for who knows how many years; anyway, Jueren remembered that he was already there when he first joined Shaolin.

Back then, Xuan Ku was sweeping the floor, and now, decades later, Jueren had become the Abbot of Shaolin, but Xuan Ku was still a Sweeping Monk.

All the monks within Shaolin, including Abbot Jueren, thought Xuan Ku was just a diligent, no-matter-the-weather, ordinary Sweeping Monk. He was respected superficially because of his seniority, but in reality, many monks never really looked at him directly, considering him to be dispensable.

Perhaps Xuan Ku’s eyesight was failing; upon entering the courtyard, he seemed neither to see the drawing of swords on both sides nor to feel the tense and oppressive atmosphere. After greeting Jueren and the other monks, he continued sweeping the ground and gradually approached the Shaolin Monks who were sitting cross-legged in front of Fang Bai.

"Elder Xuan Ku..."

Jueren was about to persuade Xuan Ku to leave, but before he could finish his sentence, his facial expression froze, witnessing a scene that shocked him.

Suddenly, with a light swing of his arms, a strong gale swept out from under Xuan Ku’s broom, and the twenty or so Shaolin Monks sitting in front of Fang Bai couldn’t maintain their posture against the fierce wind. They tumbled and were "cleared" from the area.

Even Abbot Jueren and the six Great Elders, under this rampaging gust, felt a suffocating sensation and were forced to take several steps back, having to Circulate their True Yuan to resist.

More than twenty Shaolin Monks, equating to more than twenty Profound Level Martial Artists, were forcibly cleaned away from their spots by a sweep of Xuan Ku’s broom. Just what kind of immense power was hidden in it?

All the Shaolin disciples, including Jueren, stared in stunned silence at the hunched-back Xuan Ku, feeling as though they were in a dream. What followed was endless joy and excitement.

So this unremarked and overlooked Sweeping Monk was actually an exceedingly skilled master who had kept a low profile!

With such a master in Shaolin, those two young intruders who had brashly made their way up the mountain to demand justice would find it difficult to stir up any trouble now, wouldn’t they?

Jueren observed Xuan Ku with meticulous attention for the first time and realized that with his own cultivation level, he couldn’t sense even the slightest martial artist aura from Xuan Ku, making this seemingly ordinary and frail old monk completely inscrutable.

Jueren knew that the more inconspicuous such martial artists seemed, the more powerful they were.

"Amitabha! For the tribulations faced by Shaolin this time, I am grateful for Uncle Master Xuan Ku’s resolution," Jueren chanted solemnly, bringing his palms together and bowing deeply.

This time, his respect for Xuan Ku truly came from the heart.

"Ah... You young monks, instead of chanting scriptures and deeply cultivating your spirituality within the temple, how come you engage in worldly trifles, swayed by mortal desires? It’s fortunate that you didn’t wander into committing killing sins, otherwise, I would not have helped them!" Xuan Ku stopped his sweeping and, leaning on his broom, looked at the twenty-plus martial monks he had just "swept" aside, shaking his head and sighing, as if disappointed by their lack of progress.

"I know you all yearn for Heaven Level Techniques, but our Shaolin has plenty of cultivation techniques to pass down. If you can properly cultivate what has been passed down to you, that will be more than enough! Sometimes, a single thread of greed can breed endless disaster! If it weren’t for the fact that this incident is crucial to the rise and fall of Shaolin, I would have preferred not to get involved and let you all deal with your own headache!" Xuan Ku’s usually turbid eyes suddenly flashed with sharpness as he scanned over the twenty-plus Shaolin monks. They felt an overwhelming pressure akin to a mountain descending upon them, involuntarily shuddering.

The slight display of pressurized aura from Xuan Ku intimidated nearly everyone present. Jueren and the other monks gazed at the old monk with a mix of reverence and worship, feeling as though his seemingly frail frame was now as majestic and grand as a mountain.

"Grandpa, do you recognize that sweeping monk? He seems very powerful!" The Dragon Maiden on a distant ancient tree held a telescope, shifting her gaze from Fang Bai to Xuan Ku, her face showing surprise as she whispered.

Although the Dragon Maiden couldn’t hear what Xuan Ku was saying, from his demeanor and the reverent attitudes of old monks like Jueren toward him, she knew that this old monk was extraordinary.

Abbot Jueren is a mid-Earth Level strength powerhouse, so a monk capable of commanding such respect from him must at least be a high-Earth Level strength fighter, right? The source of this content ɪs No(ᴠ)ᴇlFire.nᴇt

"I knew it... I knew it... There truly are crouching tigers and hidden dragons within Shaolin... That sweeping monk, Xuan Ku, must be over a hundred years old, and his cultivation level is not much weaker than mine..."

The Dragon Maiden exclaimed, "Could he be a Heaven Level Martial Artist?"

Long Jingtian shook his head and said, "Not quite Heaven Level, but rather a Half-Step Heavenly Level. But just think about it, he is but a sweeping monk! Who knows whether Shaolin harbors even more powerful martial artists?"

The Dragon Maiden’s face turned to worry as she murmured, "I wonder if Fang Bai can defeat that sweeping monk... Grandpa, we should show ourselves and intervene. If they truly start fighting and something happens... it wouldn’t be good for either side to get hurt!"

"Don’t rush; let’s wait and see... I am quite curious to see how much strength that lad Fang Bai has truly hidden," Long Jingtian gazed intently at the center of the action, seeing Fang Bai’s unchanging expression and calm demeanor when facing Half-Step Heavenly Level Sweeping Monk Xuan Ku. He was inwardly amazed, finding Fang Bai more and more unfathomable.

Even a high-Earth Level Martial Artist would struggle to cope with the pressure from a Half-Step Heavenly Level Martial Artist, but Fang Bai maintained a serene composure; evidently, his cultivation level was absolutely not just high-Earth Level. No wonder he had boldly declared earlier that he wanted to challenge the Shaolin Eighteen Arhats Formation.

(PS: Seek votes! Seek support!)