Kim Yeon's Surprise Visit
I had no time to be startled.
Kim Young-hoon shot his saber at me.
Whoosh!
Crack!
Golden saber light slammed into my body.
Since my cultivation had already reached the stage of Foundation Establishment, my body was as natural as if I were always using protective energy. I suffered no flesh wounds—only a jolt as I was flung backward.
The Dabcheon Desert just outside Cheon-saek Castle.
With no one around to watch, I made no hesitation and pulled out my formless sword.
Kim Young-hoon’s face changed as he felt the sword’s pressure, yet he smiled and rushed toward me.
Whoosh!
Crack!
The golden saber clashed against my formless sword.
It was fast.
It was powerful.
And...
“Hyung Kim.”
“Hm?”
That was all he said.
“You haven’t reached Wol-do-ip-cheon yet, have you?”
Crack!
I flung the golden saber aside and swung my formless sword at him.
He tried to block it with his golden saber, but for an instant the formless sword accelerated faster than his speed and surpassed him.
Clang!
Kim Young-hoon barely managed to parry the blade with a split-second gap, but that was the end of it.
He could not show me anything more.
‘The speed of the Golden Saber being caught up by the formless sword?’
That was impossible.
The Golden Saber was the incarnation of absolute speed.
In other words, it was a martial art that ruled over the fleeting moment of time itself.
It was not a level of skill that would be so pathetic as to be overtaken in speed by a sword that ruled over the freedom of trajectories.
I judged Kim Young-hoon’s realm.
‘The extreme of Deungbongjogeuk. Has he slightly surpassed the extreme?’
That was probably all.
Kim Young-hoon laughed hollowly and dissipated the golden saber light.
‘As I thought…’
The golden saber had not returned to his consciousness.
It was nothing but golden saber energy.
“Correct. I have not reached Wol-do-ip-cheon.”
“It must be the extreme of Deungbongjogeuk.”
Honestly, even that level was insane speed.
‘Has it been only a little less than seven years since I returned?’
In just seven years, this man had broken through Deungbongjogeuk and partially left even its extreme.
‘The person who once took ten full years just to reach Ogijowon…’
Because I knew of the existence of realms beyond Wol-do-ip-cheon and understood the martial principle, his growth period toward my goals had grown shorter.
“Even that is insane growth speed. You are truly remarkable, Young-hoon-hyung.”
Even my past-life Kim Young-hoon would have needed decades just to reach Wol-do-ip-cheon.
Kim Young-hoon’s talent in pre-simulating Wol-do-ip-cheon with the speed of Deungbongjogeuk was already beyond reason.
Yet he looked at me with a dissatisfied expression, as though he did not think so.
“Who are you mocking? The guy who reached Wol-do-ip-cheon and Foundation Establishment in under half a year…”
“…”
“And as you saw yourself just now, the golden saber energy I showed you was simply me imitating the realm you reached with the formless sword.”
He lifted the golden saber energy with a dissatisfied look.
Whoosh!
Nine gang-hwan powers could be felt inside the golden saber energy.
It was not a natural fusion by dissolving the gang-hwan into consciousness, but an artificial method of forcibly crushing and merging the gang-hwan, then controlling and swinging them within one saber energy.
Overwhelmingly inefficient, with a short maintenance time.
Any tiny mistake while splitting the gang-hwan would instantly shock the entire body’s meridians and risk turning the user into a cripple.
“That is a dangerous martial art. It looks like you should not keep using it.”
“It is fine. If one can sense and control every single subtle flow, one will never become crippled.”
I watched his golden saber energy in silence.
‘Ordinary people cannot control those subtle flows…’
It was a martial art only he himself could use, thanks to his overwhelming talent.
But I shook my head and said,
“No matter what, even if you somehow catch up to Wol-do-ip-cheon in an instant, it is too inefficient, and in front of real masters it is extremely inefficient and dangerous.
Right now I can suppress you in ten seconds with nothing but my formless sword—without using pure force or consciousness output—because I am stronger than you.”
“…?”
It was not a joke. It was a fact.
Even though the Golden Saber had become the incarnation of speed, even in front of the formless sword that had become the incarnation of trajectories, the saber energy that was suppressed by speed was simply the extreme of useless inefficiency.
Only someone at a higher realm than me could say such a thing.
‘Most of all, that…’
Originally one of the many trial-and-error attempts Kim Young-hoon had repeated at the extreme of Deungbongjogeuk.
In this life, Kim Young-hoon had not shown me the countless errors he had gone through from the third rate to Wol-do-ip-cheon.
‘There is no point in digging up the past.’
I told the slightly dejected Kim Young-hoon,
“By the way, you came all the way to the far eastern edge of the Byeokra Kingdom…”
“Yes. As I said, I entered this strange path because of you. I came to find you to train with you and break out of the framework of Deungbongjogeuk.”
“An excellent choice.”
I nodded.
Wol-do-ip-cheon had already been reached more than two hundred years ago.
I knew the path to him well, even if he did not.
I smiled faintly at him.
It was gradually accelerating.
Every time a life was repeated and a new goal was presented, Kim Young-hoon’s talent rose like a spring and shot higher toward the goal.
At the same time, his growth speed was also slowly accelerating.
‘If, by any chance, I cannot raise the Longevity Fruit in this life…’
He might still see the realm beyond Wol-do-ip-cheon within the next fifty years.
‘Good…’
A new realm would be opened within this life!
“Well then, Young-hoon-hyung.”
“Hm?”
“You must have meant that when you first trained with me, there were other things besides the saber energy you just showed me, right?”
“Eh… No, the one I just showed you was also something I had been pondering for a long time…”
I smiled at his flustered expression.
“Then you should come up with something new right now.”
Crunch crunch crunch!
It had been so long since I last saw Kim Young-hoon, yet it was going to end with just this?
I could not properly spar with the martial arts, so honestly my hands had been itching.
“Do not worry. I will not use pure force either, and I will match my consciousness with yours. If you wish, I will not even pull out the formless sword. Honestly, whether I pull it out or not, I have already mastered the changes of trajectories, so the difference would be negligible…”
“Eh, eh…”
I walked toward the opponent in front of me—the only one I could spar with in years—while laughing.
Now I could understand the feeling of Kim Young-hoon back when I was just at the beginning of Ogijowon and Deungbongjogeuk, and he had beaten me up excitedly.
People who had long been alone at the top wanted to play with anyone who was even slightly close to the peak, no matter their realm.
It did not matter how much lower their realm was than mine.
Most people could not even find the entrance to the mountain, let alone the peak.
I matched his level, summoned nine gang-hwan, and rushed at him.
***
“This is my friend, Kim Young-hoon, the Buk Sunja. Kim-hyung, this is Buk Sunja, the Buk Hyang-hwa Sunja who recently worked with me on some formations.”
“…It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Yes, nice to meet you… But more importantly…”
Buk Hyang-hwa looked up and down at Kim Young-hoon with a small look of pity and asked in a soft voice,
“Did you encounter a bandit? The eastern part of the Byeokra Kingdom has some distance between castles, and bandits often appear in those gaps.”
“…?”
“Wait here a moment. I will bring you some clothes.”
She looked at the tattered Kim Young-hoon with an anguished expression and went to retrieve clothes from inside the formation array.
“…Last time it was this young lady, huh.”
“Yes.”
“…After making me look like this, you are introducing me? Does that make you happy?”
He touched his slightly swollen jaw from where I had hit him and glared at me.
“Hmph. I even treated you, didn’t I?”
“Did the company pile up a lot?”
“…I suppose so.”
Honestly, I could not even remember what had happened on Earth anymore, but I simply brushed it off and avoided Kim Young-hoon’s gaze.
“Phew. By the way, I did not expect you to already have made a young lady friend. Your love life seems to be going well.”
Kim Young-hoon had clearly read the intention between me and Buk Hyang-hwa and looked at me sharply.
“It is not really a love thing, though.”
“Not love?”
He gave a dumbfounded look and pointed outside the formation array.
A man and a woman who looked like a couple were walking outside the formation array.
“Can you not see their intention?”
“…I can.”
“And since you are at a higher realm than me, you must have seen my own intention and that young lady’s intention as well, unless your brain is broken.”
“…?”
“Two people who have far richer emotions than those lovers who just passed by are not in love?”
‘Damn…’
Peers in the martial world were both fun and unable to hide their feelings from each other.
“It is not… nothing like that.”
“What do you mean? If you have eyes, you can see it. What intentions you are both sending to each other.”
“…?”
I avoided Kim Young-hoon’s gaze, and he patted his chest as though he was fed up.
“The company was the same. Why are you so frustrating, huh?”
“What are you talking about, company?”
It had happened nearly seven hundred years ago. Honestly, I could not remember it.
My memory and thinking power had grown with the size of my consciousness, but seven hundred years was not a light amount of time.
“…Yeah. The company really would not have known. Back then you could not read intentions, you dullard.”
“Eh?”
“Everyone in our department except you knew, you idiot.”
“What are you saying?”
I would rather hear about martial arts.
I could not follow Kim Young-hoon’s words and looked at him.
Kim Young-hoon looked at me with contempt and simply clicked his tongue.
“…?”
I looked at him oddly because his attitude was incomprehensible.
Even after a while, when Buk Hyang-hwa returned with fresh clothes for Kim Young-hoon, I still did not understand what he was saying and simply tilted my head.
***
It had been two days since Kim Young-hoon arrived at Cheon-saek Castle.
I helped Buk Hyang-hwa collect materials for the formation array while she told me the things Kim Young-hoon had said to me.
“So, he said something like ‘all the people in my hometown know about you out of nowhere.’ Do you know what that means, Buk Sunja?”
Puhuhu…
As soon as she heard me, Buk Hyang-hwa burst out laughing.
“No way, Seo Dong-woo. You really do not know?”
“…Am I strange?”
“No, not strange. Just a little dull, I guess.”
“I have heard people say that for a long time.”
She smirked and said,
“Among the people in Seo Dong-woo’s hometown, there was someone who liked Seo Dong-woo!”
“Hm?”
I was taken aback by the unexpected answer.
‘There was someone in our department who liked me?’
Our department had very few female members.
About eight were women. One was older, and three of them had boyfriends.
‘If someone who did not have a boyfriend liked me…’
Deputy Kang Min-hee, Deputy Oh Hye-seo, Team Leader Kim Yeon, Team Leader Shin…
‘Team Leader Shin would not have had much chance to meet me anyway, so no…’
One of the colleagues who came with us? Then who?
I pressed my temples in confusion.
Buk Hyang-hwa gave me a subtle expression and watched me for a moment.
“You are bothered, aren’t you, Seo Dong-woo?”
“Hmph… A little flustered, but it does not bother me that much.”
I shook off the thoughts that had risen in her voice.
Honestly, I could barely remember what the other colleagues were like anymore—except Kim Young-hoon.
Seven hundred years.
I had not been able to talk properly to anyone for fully seven hundred years.
Whether there was someone I liked, someone who liked me, someone I hated, someone who hurt me, someone who was indifferent, someone I trusted…
‘I do not know who is who anymore. My memories and emotions have all weathered away.’
“Because the people who are not next to me right now, I do not feel any special emotion. Rather, the people around me now come to mind more often and feel more precious.”
“Ah…”
“Hm? Are you in a lot of pain? Let me listen.”
I took the formation materials from her reddened face and held them.
They felt quite hot.
We had arrived at the workshop of the White Formation Alliance.
“By the way, Seo Dong-woo, there is something I want to show you…”
Buk Hyang-hwa took the formation materials from me, entered the workshop, organized them, and called me inside.
“Come in. It will probably be fun.”
“What is it?”
I followed her into the workshop.
In the center of the workshop, something draped in pure white cloth was placed.
I trembled slightly as I looked at its outline.
That cannot be…
“Yes, it is.”
Whoosh!
When she pulled away the cloth, the thing inside appeared.
A wasp puppet.
A puppet from Goe-gun, brought from Bongmyeong Castle.
“You restored the puppet of Goe-gun?”
“The core circuit of the puppet has not been restored yet. It was too delicate a part. But the other circuits have all been restored, and by filling them with spiritual energy I can control them directly. The power is low because the core circuit is broken, but I can output about sixty percent.”
She looked at me and said,
“Do you want to try it?”
“Good.”
I gladly accepted.
If this was a puppet that could output sixty percent of the original power of Goe-gun, what level would it be?
I took her and the puppet outside the desert.
“I am going!”
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
When she inserted a spiritual stone into the groove on the puppet’s body and filled it with consciousness, the wasp puppet flapped its wings and flew up.
‘Incredible…’
I let out a small sigh of admiration inside the puppet at the dense circuits swirling within.
Compared to the blood vessels of a living being, this was even denser.
Amazing…
And I saw her giving orders to the puppet with her consciousness.
The next instant.
Boom!
“!”
I was startled and raised the gang-hwan in front of me.
Crack!
Pure force from the puppet’s rear sprayed out in the shape of sharp needles and struck the gang-hwan in front of me.
‘What speed…?’
The next instant the wasp puppet moved again, flew behind me, and thrust out the needle from its rear.
Crunch!
I wrapped my hand in pure force and grabbed the puppet’s needle.
‘This speed…’
It was the speed of Kim Young-hoon who used five gang-hwan.
Combined with the needle-shaped attack that used the pure force the puppet employed.
‘This is a Foundation Establishment level attack…’
Moreover, this was only sixty percent power.
In other words, if the puppet’s power were fully activated at one hundred percent, it would be a puppet of late Foundation Establishment strength.
Goosebumps rose.
I felt the power of Goe-gun indirectly through the wasp puppet.
Goosebumps covered my entire body.
How many such remains had there been, left like trash at Bongmyeong Castle?
There were more than a few such remains inside the Seopmyeong Ship as well.
‘If the puppet could fully unleash its power, its speed would match Kim Young-hoon using nine gang-hwan at the extreme of Deungbongjogeuk…’
Was it possible to obtain such speed from a mere puppet?
Pat!
When I was lost in thought, the wasp puppet sliced off the needle-shaped pure force and flew away from me, then sprayed the needle again from its rear.
Peet!
The wasp puppet rushed at me again.
Crack!
I grabbed the puppet’s head and drove it into the ground.
“Impressive. Not only Goe-gun, but also the Buk Sunja who restored the puppet of Goe-gun…”
“Well, it is not a combat-type puppet and there is no broken part, so it was not that difficult.”
“Eh?”
A puppet that moved at the speed of Deungbongjogeuk and could strike a Foundation Establishment level blow in an instant was not a combat-type?
“This is not a combat-type, you say?”
“Yes. There are no special attack functions other than the needle, only speed is fast, and there are no strange devices. You can tell just by looking at the functions inside the puppet.”
Buk Hyang-hwa came closer and pointed at the puppet.
An unusual formation was engraved on the part her hand pointed to, and thick spatial waves flowed from the formation.
“This is a transport puppet used for carrying goods. I happened to mark a spatial coordinate inside the workshop, so look.”
When she touched the back of the puppet, it rumbled and changed posture.
It shifted from thrusting the needle forward to a gentle, comfortable stance with its front legs extended.
Buk Hyang-hwa placed a glass bracelet on the extended front legs, and the puppet accepted it and held it in its arms.
“By using the engraved spatial formation and the unique speed…”
Whoosh!
When she manipulated the puppet’s back and input some command, the wasp puppet shot forward at high speed and disappeared at some point.
“A transport puppet set with coordinates like that to teleport and carry goods.”
“…”
“It arrived at my workshop and placed the bracelet down, then came back…”
She took out a small formation disc from her pocket.
The disc was engraved with countless circuits and drew a small spatial formation.
Whoosh whoosh!
The next instant the spatial formation shone, and the wasp puppet appeared in front of me.
A hammer from Buk Hyang-hwa’s workshop was hanging from the front legs of the wasp puppet.
“It seems it was a puppet that carried goods like this. The Puppet City of Goe-gun’s senior Jo Yeon must have had countless such puppets.”
“…”
This was not even a combat puppet, but a mere goods carrier?
I let out a hollow laugh while feeling Goe-gun’s power indirectly.
‘Even if I reached Heavenly Person with both talisman and martial arts in the future, I do not know if I could match Goe-gun.’
I poked my tongue out while looking at the puppet in front of me.
And suddenly I felt a strange emotion while looking at the puppet.
‘But this puppet…’
“Buk Sunja, you said the core circuit of this puppet could not be restored?”
“Yes. I could not even understand what the circuits meant.”
“…Could I try controlling this puppet as well?”
“Eh? Seo Dong-woo? You do not handle other formations well besides forbidden talismans, right?”
“Somehow I have a feeling I can handle this puppet well.”
“Hmph…”
She looked at me with a doubtful expression for a moment, brought the puppet in front of me, and briefly explained the operation method.
“First, fill your consciousness into this circuit and try moving it.”
“Understood.”
I filled my consciousness into the wasp puppet.
The countless circuits flowing inside the wasp puppet sucked in my consciousness.
“There are seven circuits in total. The ones that must be filled with consciousness sequentially…”
Buk Hyang-hwa was explaining beside me, but I focused on the feeling coming from those circuits.
‘As I thought, this is…’
My guess was correct.
Whoosh whoosh!
I separated my consciousness from inside the wasp puppet.
The consciousness was soon the collection of intentions.
And intentions were a combination of countless colors.
Among those countless colors existed the colors that formed the skeleton of human emotions—the colors of the Seven Emotions.
I separated the consciousness I had filled into the puppet into seven colors.
Whoosh whoosh!
Seven enormous circuits absorbed the seven colors.
At the same time I felt completely one with the wasp puppet, and I understood how to manipulate it as though it was in my hand.
“Buk Sunja, I have mastered the puppet.”
“If you inject consciousness periodically like this…”
“Watch.”
Whoosh whoosh!
Following my will, the wasp puppet naturally flew into the sky and spun around.
It was far more natural than Buk Hyang-hwa’s manipulation.
“Eh, how…?”
The wasp puppet that Buk Hyang-hwa had controlled could only move in a stiff straight line, but when I controlled it, I could see it moving completely freely.
‘If Goe-gun had the sight of Wol-do-ip-cheon, he would naturally have the sight that sees the colors of intentions, which are the basis of Wol-do-ip-cheon sight…’
“Eh, how did you do it, Seo Dong-woo?”
“I will explain.”
I naturally controlled the wasp puppet for a while, pulled it back in front of Buk Hyang-hwa again, and explained what I had felt.
About the Seven Emotions.
And the colors of intentions that those who reached Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown or Ogijowon in the martial world could see.
Buk Hyang-hwa took out a notepad and recorded what I said.
***
That night.
Buk Hyang-hwa was lost in thought, touching the circuits of the wasp puppet inside the workshop.
‘The consciousness of the Seven Emotions…’
It was a field I had never even thought of.
From the beginning, I thought of applying human emotions to rigid formations.
‘What on earth did Senior Goe-gun make…’
Moreover, this wasp puppet was only the one intact puppet among countless remains from that day at Bongmyeong Castle.
‘Usually his place is filled with such puppets in enormous numbers…’
Chirit, chirit!
Buk Hyang-hwa felt goosebumps just as Seo Eun-hyun had felt a chill when he felt Goe-gun’s power indirectly.
‘Unbelievable talent… As expected of the Demon Dao Refiner…’
It was talent that even surpassed the devil himself.
Clack, clack.
When she was analyzing the circuits.
Suddenly Buk Hyang-hwa’s face hardened a little.
‘Wait, according to Seo Dong-woo’s words, this puppet is not simply a puppet filled with emotions.’
Whoosh whoosh!
Four colors of patterns appeared over her face, and her eyes focused intensely, as though being sucked into the puppet.
‘Connected…?’
Buk Hyang-hwa tore apart the puppet’s circuits and analyzed them.
‘This puppet is interconnected with other puppets of Goe-gun’s senior based on emotions. That is how it was designed. And by analyzing the flow of emotions felt from this puppet as the flow of circuits…’
After fiddling with the circuits for a while, Buk Hyang-hwa suddenly stopped moving.
Thud!
One of the tools in her hand fell inside the puppet’s body.
The circuit was slightly crushed, but Buk Hyang-hwa only trembled with a pale face.
Drip…
Blood flowed from her nose.
Chiii!
The four colors of patterns on her skin burned brightly brighter than ever.
“It is… impossible.”
Buk Hyang-hwa stood up and took a step back from the wasp puppet.
“Goe-gun’s senior… What on earth were you trying to make?”
Her breathing became sharp.
Buk Hyang-hwa stared at the puppet in shock.
‘In other words, the talent and idea that surpass even the devil… No, if my illusion is correct, the domain that man sought is a domain granted even to heaven… A forbidden domain for mortals…’
An impossible illusion and fantasy.
That was the goal of Goe-gun’s senior that Buk Hyang-hwa had discovered.
‘But since he was mad, did he simply break the taboo and create it…?’
Chiii—
Thanks to the extra realization and glimpsing the madman’s illusion that had broken the taboo, Buk Hyang-hwa’s talent, which had been activated without limit, began to slowly calm down.
Buk Hyang-hwa, calming her startled heart, turned her gaze to the painting hanging on the wall of her workshop.
An image of some talisman’s design was drawn on the paper.
It was the design she had been gradually making for Seo Eun-hyun.
A design that would satisfy the unbelievable conditions Seo Eun-hyun had mentioned.
But by glimpsing Goe-gun’s plan and witnessing the countless emotions contained in that puppet, she felt that the design she had been making until now had been greatly supplemented.
Buk Hyang-hwa approached the design of the talisman.
‘If Goe-gun’s senior’s crazy illusion is true, no matter what I make, it will never be possible to follow his work. But…’
She picked up the painting brush and slowly redrew the design of the talisman.
‘When it is held in Seo Dong-woo’s hand, I will be able to create a work that at least follows the heel of his work.’
Scratch, scratch…
Buk Hyang-hwa polished the design of the talisman with a serious gaze.