You Trod Upon It (17)
I walked through the city with a dazed expression.
Shwaaaaah—
The sound of rain sounded oddly comforting.
And at the end of the path I walked while letting the rain soak me—
She was standing there. The one person I had dreamed of.
Or rather, the one who had left.
“Hyang… Hwa…”
I called out to her in a voice thick with dryness.
Countless thoughts raced through my mind.
“How…?”
Suddenly I felt a gaze and turned to the side.
No one was there.
It had been a trick of the mind.
She smiled faintly.
“I was sure… that time…”
I still remembered the moment her spirit had ascended into the sky.
Suddenly she glanced at the place I had been staring at, then smiled faintly while looking back at me.
“…”
Right.
One was dead, the other alive.
Yet our hearts still understood each other.
I immediately sensed what she wanted.
“…Wait just a moment. I will prepare at once.”
I pulled the Colorless Glass Sword from my waist and poured my full strength into the Law Power.
Paahhat!
Originally crafted from the tombstones of people living in Cheon-saek Castle, the three thousand glass swords followed my will and returned to each of their graves, sinking back into the earth.
After that I extended my hand toward her.
We smiled at each other without a word.
Since we had no fans, we struck the pose with empty hands as if holding them.
There was no music, yet we danced slowly to the sound of the rain.
We slowly matched each other’s steps.
Because there were no fans in our hands, the tips of our fingers brushed.
I stepped three times to the left and completed a full circle.
She moved exactly as I did, completed a full circle, and our fingertips brushed once more.
A living ghost and a dead ghost slowly circled among the rain within the graveyard where glass swords had been planted.
Shwaaaaah—
The countless spirits watching us slowly turned into light and rose into the sky.
Cheongmun Ryeong. Buk Jung-ho.
I saw the faces of countless friends and neighbors excluding Kim Young-hoon.
As the spirits disappeared, the rain gradually ceased, and the clouds in the sky began to recede.
Just as I had done in that festival long ago, I reached for her face.
Without a cloth, my fingertips lightly brushed her cheek.
Our fingertips brushed again.
The color of the sky was purplish.
The sunset had set, and the night sky was beginning to rise.
We stepped three times to the right and completed another full circle.
Our fingertips brushed countless times, and finally—
We returned to the exact spot where we had started.
Plop, plop…
Tears came.
Surprisingly, they were not the black tears I had shed for two hundred years.
For the first time in two hundred years I was crying clear tears.
I stared at Hyang-hwa in a daze and said,
“In a world without you… I do not have the will to live.”
Once the next life began, I might kill myself countless times without hesitation.
“I just… want to die.”
I wanted to kneel before the sky and beg with both hands.
Please, please let me die.
Now I truly want to die.
“If I must die in this life, at least I could meet in the Yellow Springs.”
But death is not permitted to me after this life.
As soon as I reach the Yellow Springs I would be sent to the next life.
So I simply stared at her face.
I was holding back the sobs I wanted to pour out.
And then—
She gently cupped my cheeks with both hands and spoke.
“Hyang-hwa… a world without you is a curse. The very fact of living is a curse.”
She laughed.
I shook my head with trembling lips.
“No. It is not.”
She pointed at the Colorless Glass Sword.
I shook my head.
She closed her eyes and brought her lips to mine.
She kissed me.
I stood dazed for a moment, quietly feeling the cold, unreal sensation of her lips.
After a while she pulled away and asked,
“…No.”
Hyang-hwa hugged me.
Anyhow, the reason I came to see you was one thing alone./div>
The thing buried deep in my chest for two hundred years felt as if it had been swept away into pure whiteness.
I pulled her close and spat out the words that had been lodged in my chest.
“I love you too.”
Human hearts are like this.
While I spilled out the regret, and she read my heart in the pinkish mist of emotion—
I read countless changes and suddenly understood the hidden side of the Yin Soul Ghost Curse.
Perhaps even the creator did not know this realm beyond realms.
Or rather, the realm I discovered because I had surpassed the creator by far.
Paahhat!
The pitch-black curse seals embedded throughout my body began to reverse.
Although a person’s life is pain and curse—
If the hearts of people connect and resonate—
Couldn’t that then be an immeasurable blessing?
The pitch-black curse seals reversed one by one, revealing their hidden side.
“Um…?”
In the black tomb of Won Rip’s death.
The Core Formation cultivators were rummaging through the remnants, still searching for the treasures Won Rip had hidden.
“The family of the Nascent Soul oddball has been thoroughly investigated but something keeps coming out.”
“He almost died, but it is definitely…”
One of the cultivators looked for Seo Ran.
“Um, I don’t know. He suddenly flew off somewhere. He seemed like he had discovered something… but I wonder what kind of treasure made that crazy bastard fly off so madly while keeping such a blank expression.”
“That’s intriguing… but actually it doesn’t matter. We have already scouted enough anyway.”
While they were chatting like that, one of them suddenly sensed something unusual.
“Um? Wait, that’s…”
The Black Ghost Curse Banner that Seo Eun-hyun had used to fix Won Rip’s body.
From the Black Ghost Curse Banner, pure white light was spurting forth.
* * *
The black clumps hanging from the sticks that Seo Eun-hyun had planted across the desert and left behind.
The ends of the clumps on those sticks began to glow white.
And then—
Paahhat!
The clumps burst open and bloomed like flower buds.
The blooming flowers were completely covered in white and had six petals.
Paat, paat, paat!
Following the path Seo Eun-hyun had tread, hundreds of white orchids began to sprout buds in the desert.
* * *
Paahhaat!
I laughed while looking at the white curse seals blooming from my body.
The white blessing seals blooming all around felt to have the opposite property of the curse seals.
“I simply expressed the Yin Soul Ghost Curse through the feelings I shared with you.”
We chatted and laughed together.
It had been two hundred years since I had last laughed, yet strangely it felt completely natural.
“Whatever you like.”
She reached for the blessing seal floating in the air and supported it.
The white blessing seals seemed to be sublimating into the form of white orchids.
Is it acceptable?
I supported my hand under hers and said,
“I will remember.”
We watched the blessing seal floating in the air for a moment, then met eyes.
Her spirit was gradually becoming more and more transparent as it rose into the air.
“…”
I could not hold back my trembling voice and looked at her.
Suddenly I opened the wine cabinet.
A memory from the old books Seo Ran had read came to mind.
“The immortals of the upper realm said that when a couple forms a bond they do this.”
Fortunately, a bottle of Baek-hongju remained in the cabinet.
“Is it all right?”
She nodded her head while rising gradually into the air.
I rummaged through the cabinet.
There were no cups.
Having no choice, I replaced the pouring of half the Baek-hongju before her grave.
And then I drank the remaining half of the Baek-hongju in front of her.
Wooong!
When Baek-hongju entered the golden pill on the verge of exploding, its effect triggered, and the connection to Law Power was restored once more.
Woo wooong!
The three thousand glass swords planted all around vibrated in unison.
And then—
With that, her spirit became a small group of light and began to lose its form completely as it rose into the sky.
The light group spiraled in the air while rising toward the sky.
As if dancing the Double Fan Dance again with someone.
Perhaps she was dancing with the memories of the living days, the memories of those happy moments.
I gazed endlessly at the sky and slowly sat down.
Now my strength was draining away.
I pulled the bead from my waist.
And with my last strength I heated the bead with Dan Fire and made it Law Power.
I closed my eyes and gently placed the precious bead on my chest.
Because Baek-hongju’s medicinal power remained, I felt a strong connection with her.
Strength began to drain away.
The words Won Rip had screamed in his final struggle came to mind.
“What is the difference between blessing and curse…”
Blessing and curse might not be divided by life and death.
Perhaps if a person’s heart is connected, that is blessing.
If a person’s heart is cut off, that is curse.
This life had been hell.
Yet at the end of hell I shared my heart.
Perhaps hell and heaven are—
Curses and blessings are—
Determined by the connection of people’s hearts.
I obtained that realization and freed myself from Won Rip’s final cry.
“I… loved you. Thank you. For giving me… that heart.”
I gave a faint smile and completely drained the strength from my body.
The meridian that should have collapsed long ago, and the golden pill, began to lose strength.
Thus I peacefully closed my eyes at the edge of hell.
* * *
Woo wooong!
As Seo Eun-hyun closed his eyes, the three thousand glass swords scattered all around slowly rose into the air one by one.
The glass swords that had formed a strong connection with their owner began to slowly return to their owner’s body one by one.
The three thousand glass swords flew one by one and stabbed into the body of the dead Seo Eun-hyun in order to return to his golden pill, which was laughing.
At one moment—
The bead held in Seo Eun-hyun’s hand and the three thousand glass swords simultaneously emitted bright light.
* * *
The mother of Buk Hyang-hwa.
The wife of Buk Jung-ho, the tomb of Yeon.
Two trees had grown in front of the white orchid tree at that grave.
For two hundred years how those two trees had survived and grown—
By pure coincidence they bloomed on the same day.
Loquat tree and white orchid.
From the two trees, one flower each fell downward.
The flowers of the two trees landed on the altar prepared for a wedding two hundred years earlier.
But at one moment—
Whoosh whoosh whoosh—
The wind blowing inside the grave took the loquat flower and flew it out into the desert somewhere.
The white orchid remained in its place.
Only the loquat flower flew off to some unknown place.
That was Seo Eun-hyun’s eleventh regression.