The Outside.(1)

After six years passed, many changes had come to the temple. Firstly, as each year passed, the number of new disciples decreased drastically. When Jin first arrived, the usual number of yearly admissions was about 1000-1200. Now, that number barely passed 100.

Secondly, due to the more modern era, most disciples started leaving after they reached a certain age to follow different careers or other personal goals. Of course, this wasn't a bad thing, but due to that, the temple now had a lot of empty space and sometimes it just looked plain abandoned.

Overall, the temple was in a bad state, but, the monks didn't seem to mind. To them, the times were just different and people didn't need the temples as much.

"That's why if you want to leave, you can, Jin. Sigh, I wouldn't stop you."

High Priest Eiei had a sad expression on his face as he spoke to Jin. The two were standing in front of a tunnel dug into the cliffside that Jin promised to himself he would dig out with pure martial arts. The tunnel was about 30 KM long and reached a frightening depth within the mountain.

A wild guess would be around 1,200 meters deep. Of course, this tunnel was treacherous, to say the least. Many times had he almost been buried under falling rubble after the tunnel caved in at some parts but he managed to fight his way out.

He achieved this feat a month ago and had been entering the tunnel since to carve the statue of the Bodhisattva to complete his goal. But, he wasn't satisfied with this outcome.

Six years was just too long.

He was sure that any martial artist could achieve this feat in this timeframe.

It was almost embarrassing that he only managed to reach this level after around 18+ years of daily training. In his opinion, at least.

"Eiei, I'll leave when I'm done carving this statue. If I leave before, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Heh, I have enough trouble resting already."

Jin's deep, monotone voice assaulted Eiei's ear, and all he could was sigh. Jin had grown up so much. He remembered when Jin was just a little child screaming at the top of his lungs as he trained like a maniac to master his martial arts.

It was adorable then.

It was almost frightening now.

Eiei could read the expression on Jin's face as the latter stared down into the darkness of the tunnel. It was clear that Jin was in deep thought about something.

"Jin, why do you seek strength so fervently?"

Eiei motioned his head at the tunnel and continued, "This tunnel that you dug, still leaves me in awe. Any martial artist would claim that it was his life's greatest work if they achieved this. But yet, you seem unsatisfied. Why?"

Jin placed one hand on the edge of the entrance of the tunnel and raised two fingers with the other.

"Two reasons, Eiei. One, without it, without this, I would be incomplete. Strength is something I refuse to live without. Honestly, if there was a day where I lost all the strength I had built up over the years, I would rather kill myself than live without it."

The shock was an understatement compared to the great disturbance that just gripped his heart. Never in his life had he heard of someone so obsessed with the idea of strength or power.

This mindset was dangerous.

"Jin, you-"

"Listen, Eiei. Two, I love martial arts. It is what I'm defined by and it is what I define life by. The most important thing to me is becoming the best martial artist I can be. I wanna enter a stage where the best martial artists gather from around the world and defeat all of them. Not to prove to anyone that I'm the best, but to prove to myself that every hour I spent training wasn't a waste of time."

Eiei was speechless for a long time after hearing this. He knew that Jin liked martial arts but he never imagined that it was to such an extent. Now, everything made sense.

The look of desperation on his face when he used to train.

The way that he would take all kinds of inhumane punishments upon himself just to train.

The scars that covered his body from neck to toe as a result of his harsh training.

This mindset explained all of it.

"Jin, are you sure this is love, or is this an obsession?"

Jin chuckled as he glanced at Eiei.

"It is my conviction. Whether it is love or obsession doesn't really matter."

Jin entered into the torch-lit tunnel with quick steps as his tan shaolin robes fluttered behind him. It was clear that he had meant every word he just said.

Eiei shook his head as a deep feeling of regret and sorrow assailed his heart.

'I should've been more of a father to him when he was younger. I should've paid more attention to who he really was. I should've been more stern on him when he injured himself so recklessly. Maybe things would've been different then. Sigh. May the buddha guide him on the right path.'

Eiei slowly walked to Jin's house and sat down cross-legged in front of it to wait for his return. He decided that it was time for Jin to leave the temple and explore the outside world. Maybe then, he would find another reason for living.

About half an hour later, Jin had finally arrived at the back of the tunnel where the boulder that he started crafting the statue from laid.

In fact, the statue was already halfway done. He had already carved out Guan Yu's weapon and half of his body in the past month. Now, he just needed to complete the other half.

"I'm going to end this today. I've spent too long here. I need experience in actual fights If I'm gonna put all this training to maximum use."

Jin raised two fists in front of his body with his middle knuckle slightly protruding from them. This was what he used to carve the boulder.

WHOOSH!

Jin sent out multiple strikes in less than a breath, all of them hitting multiple points on the boulder. Pieces of rock started falling off with each hit, revealing the undefined shape of humanoid fingers.

Now, he dedicated all his focus to the task. What he struggled with wasn't breaking the boulder, but the precision each hit took. He had to be precise with his application of power to avoid damaging the boulder too much or too little. He had to be mindful of every strike to make sure he didn't make any mistakes during the process as failure meant an instant restart with an entirely new boulder.

Jin was using the culmination of all the years of martial art practice and theory he had in this one moment. That culmination was the fusion of, Snake, Bajiquan, and Mishima Style Fighting Karate into his own style.

It was mostly centered around Mishima Style Fighting Karate and Bajiquan, meaning that it excelled in quick, powerful strikes using the entire body as a lethal weapon. While it had a glaring weakness against grapples and throws, the power of his strikes was enough to ward off most grapplers before they could touch him.

Both of Jin's fists were a blur as he struck with power and increasing precision.

"Even if end up peeling the skin off my fingers as a result of doing this, I will not stop until it's complete! HAH!"

[Several hours later.]

"Ha, hah, ha, ha..."

Jin lay on the ground breathing heavily with bloodied hands. Sweat ran down his face like a fountain as he struggled to lean up against the wall of the tunnel.

When he turned to the completed statue of Guan Yu in front of him, an excited smile adorned his face. He started laughing as loudly as his waning breath would permit.

"This feeling...ahhh...this is why I do this. Nothing could make me happier."

Jin took about an hour to rest and then climbed his way back out of the tunnel to the surface.

It was time to leave the temple.