The First Day of the Eleventh Loop
I slowly opened my eyes.
Unlike before, this death felt peaceful, more so than ever.
And at the same time…
It was also the most agonizing death.
Squeak…
Tears welled up, but I wiped them away once and regained my composure.
In the final moments of life, I had felt her heart deeply enough.
She had wanted me to live, to survive.
And not to grieve anymore.
In the future, while I continue living, it will be impossible not to grieve.
But I must not break myself from the pain.
Because she will grieve.
I made that resolve and sealed it.
The consciousness domain rippled as I silenced my companions who were about to wake.
A familiar headache was about to form, but…
Whoosh!
I instantly suppressed my consciousness through the Five Elements Blood Curse Flag inside my head.
It was much more comfortable since I didn’t need to split my consciousness or swallow pills urgently.
And then it happened.
Throb!
“!?”
I staggered, clutching my abdomen.
‘What’s this…?’
The headache had resolved, but now it was my stomach?
I didn’t understand and clenched my teeth while clutching my belly.
Suddenly, it felt as if my abdomen would tear apart.
Precisely near my dantian.
‘Why again…?’
After clenching my teeth, I decided to head to the medicine store first.
After some time, I swallowed the pills and underwent a rapid rebirth, quickly forming my inner dan.
Only after forming the inner dan did I feel the pain in my abdomen gradually subside.
‘What on earth…?’
That was when my confusion peaked.
Suddenly, something was felt near my inner dan.
‘This is…?’
My eyes widened as I sensed the familiar energy emanating from my inner dan.
“This is…!”
And first, I sprayed qi from the inner dan, refined it with the pure qi and blood force, and sealed it in a simple manner.
Spat spat spat!
Then…
Fwoosh!
Around me, three thousand familiar things appeared.
The Dharma treasure — the Colorless Glass Sword.
The dharma treasure Buk Hyang-hwa had made for me had followed me beyond time itself.
And…
The hug!
After the Colorless Glass Sword emerged, the final glowing jewel also shot out.
I stared blankly at them, then wiped my eyes with trembling hands.
I had just thought not to shed too many tears, yet here I was crying again.
With a trembling voice, I murmured.
“It… has been transmitted…”
The bond between humans.
It had crossed time and been passed down.
The moments we spent together.
The instants.
All of it.
Had not completely vanished.
For the first time, I had obtained a companion who could cross time with me.
***
After savoring the Colorless Glass Swords for a while to steady my heart,
I began to ponder.
‘How did it follow me?’
This was an important question.
Did I follow it because it was a self-named dharma treasure I had refined?
Or was there something special?
And if there was something special, what was it?
While pondering, I reached one conclusion.
‘White Hong-ju.’
The White Hong-ju called the Immortal Wine.
I recalled the abilities of White Hong-ju.
‘It clearly strengthened the link with the dharma treasure.’
And I thought carefully about it.
When I first drank White Hong-ju, in a desperate situation, I didn’t remember well, but clearly…
‘I felt a sense of integration as if it connected with the soul itself and the dharma treasure…’
It wasn’t simply that the link was strengthened.
This was clearly…
‘Thanks to White Hong-ju, my soul and dharma treasure connected in an instant. And as the soul reversed time, the dharma treasure followed me?’
That was the only explanation that fit.
Simply saying a self-named dharma treasure followed me wouldn’t work, because Buk Hyang-hwa had only refined the dharma treasure with the pills at the end.
‘White Hong-ju helped the dharma treasure follow my regression?’
There was no other way to think about it.
‘Then…’
First, in this lifetime, I would obtain White Hong-ju again and test it.
And if possible…
If possible…
‘Not only the dharma treasure…’
If it were possible for others’ souls to regress with me…!
If that were the case, it could be a tremendous discovery.
‘Yes, later I’ll go to Bongmyeong Castle again, obtain White Hong-ju, and confirm it.’
After organizing my thoughts, I rose from my seat.
‘And… I’ll reproduce the enlightenment from my past life.’
Whoosh!
Focusing my consciousness, I lifted the strong halos.
Nine in total.
No… including the inner dan.
Ten strong halos.
Whoosh!
The halos in the void domain dissolved into my consciousness domain, and those in the dantian likewise melted, connecting with the formless sword outside the body.
And the formless sword connected to the inner dan within the body began to nestle into every corner of my entire body.
Once more, that feeling enveloped my entire body.
A formless sword nesting in every single muscle fiber.
This felt like…
‘Like a Foundation Establishment Taoist…?’
A Foundation Establishment Taoist’s qi flowed through the veins, but this ultimate martial artist had the enlightenment of the Wol-do-ip-cheon throughout the body.
And what that meant.
‘Perhaps, once one reaches the realm of Wol-do-ip-cheon, a martial artist may even gain longevity!’
I didn’t know because I hadn’t undergone the Qi Condensation Seven-Star Ceremony, so there was no way to confirm my lifespan, but I had an intuition that it was so.
I decided to examine more closely what I had obtained upon reaching the Answer to the Sky.
And then…
Krr krr r…
The familiar fellow appeared.
“As expected, I knew you would come out.”
The fox and I exchanged the same familiar question and answer.
Watching him desperately try to devour me three times, I let out a faint sigh.
“If that’s how it is, let’s first test the power of the Answer to the Sky through you.”
“…?”
And…
Boom!
I charged at the fox and kicked him.
“Kyeek!”
The fox screamed and bounced away.
The first power of the Wol-do-ip-cheon realm.
Since the body had fully synchronized with the Wol-do-ip-cheon, striking any part left the same trace as using the formless sword.
The fox’s momentum was dead after realizing the difference in the first strike, but I didn’t care and kept chasing him.
Boom boom!
Even though the body had fully synchronized with the formless sword, swinging it like I originally did was still possible.
When he took the second blow, his tail drooped significantly.
The second power of the Answer to the Sky.
Basic offensive and defensive capabilities had improved immensely. Whether from using all ten halos or directly linking to my lifespan.
The limit of power that could be drawn with the formless sword had risen.
Furthermore, acceleration was only possible by constantly holding the formless sword, but now it was simple — since the formless sword was already one with me, acceleration was possible.
And even more, acceleration exceeded a simple tenfold and became much faster.
Boom!
Charging in at extreme speed, I struck the fellow. Now the fox realized he couldn’t react to me at all and began looking at me with fearful eyes.
The fellow measured the distance, compressed his consciousness domain into the same state as his body, and fled even faster.
The third power of the Answer to the Sky.
In the past when I only handled the formless sword, I mostly flew through the air using Void Step. Since I couldn’t use the pigeon technique of Core Formation Taoists, long-distance flight was difficult, and using Void Step to pursue pigeons had limits.
But now, since the formless sword was completely one with me, flying swiftly through the air was possible, just like the pigeon technique.
Squeak squeak squeak!
Boom!
I flew straight at the fleeing fox using the formless sword itself and impaled him.
His size made the ground shake.
The fellow tried to resist, but I reached out toward his chest.
Whoosh!
The final power of the Answer to the Sky.
Swish!
My hand reached near the fox’s chest, and his body stiffened.
At first glance, it looked like I was simply touching his chest, but in reality, my formless sword extended from my hand and passed straight through the fox’s skin, reaching his dantian and manifesting existence.
The first through third powers had been the enlightenment of ‘all halos are one, martial intent and I are integrated,’ as Brother Young-hoon had said.
But the final power was the difference between me and him.
‘Brother Young-hoon cut space.’
And I, who had imitated Brother Young-hoon’s ability, had also successfully cut space in an instant.
Therefore, it seemed the power gained when reaching the Answer to the Sky was space cutting or space escape.
Perhaps it was because our pursuits were different.
He wanted to surpass light, while I wanted to escape everything.
In the end, the one who surpassed space had truly surpassed light, and the formless sword that could choose what to cut had truly escaped all limits.
“Y-yo, please… spare me.”
The fox said to me, trembling.
‘What should I do…?’
I could immediately use the formless sword that had infiltrated the fox’s body to extract his dantian right away.
Actually, until just now, struggling with this fellow had only been testing the power of the Answer to the Sky, and I could have extracted his inner dan in one second from the beginning.
I pondered his treatment for a moment, then removed my hand from the fox’s chest.
“Fine, I’ll spare you.”
“Th-thank you… thank you…!”
The fellow bowed his head to me and, like fleeing, jumped over the mountain.
A grudge remained against the fox fellow, but…
In the past life, having received too much pain, the grudges I had received from the fox fellow had long since been mostly forgotten.
‘And receiving that punishment once would be enough…’
I let out a faint laugh.
Having been devoured by the fox’s arm felt like yesterday, yet I had already risen to the point where I could extract the dantian in one second without any effort.
Of course, it was because I had trained for nearly four hundred years after reaching the Wol-do-ip-cheon.
I slowly returned to my companions.
And I used the consciousness technique to enter Kim Young-hoon’s mind first, transmitting the full wisdom from Void Step to Wol-do-ip-cheon.
‘It would be nice if there was a proper memory transmission technique.’
Until now, I had been transmitting knowledge through consciousness to Kim Young-hoon, but actually, the term ‘memory transmission’ wasn’t quite right — it was more like ‘wisdom transmission.’
Rather than transmitting proper memories, the function of passing organized wisdom was larger.
When I had fully transmitted the memories to Kim Young-hoon.
Tap tap…
‘It seems the Answer to the Sky has one more power.’
The one I had been waiting for approached from behind.
‘My perception had become even more sensitive. The senses of the fox beast, the flow of consciousness. Far clearer and more detailed than before.’
Previously, I wouldn’t have noticed his approach at all.
But even at this level, it seemed noticing was acceptable.
I rose from my seat and bowed my head respectfully.
“Junior Taoist Seo Eun-hyun greets Senior Brother Goe-gun, the one called Jo Yeon.”
[Ho, I found the fight with the fox quite interesting.]
Why I hadn’t extracted the fox’s dantian in one second and fought noisily to draw attention…
That was to summon Goe-gun.
[You are truly an odd one. You’re not a Nascent Soul Taoist, yet how do you toy with a Core Formation mid-stage fox like a toy doll? And is that the illusion technique? The consciousness covers the body… amazing, amazing.]
“It is a disgrace for me to show my shallow talent before a senior who has lived through countless eras.”
[Hoo, curious. I don’t sense any dharma power…]
Goe-gun didn’t recognize my inner dan this time.
Of course.
After reaching the Answer to the Sky, the inner dan had completely melted into the formless sword.
I looked at Goe-gun and spoke.
“Senior, do you know the story of a man and a woman?”
[Hm?]
“In the mountainous regions of the Seongje Empire… there is a story of two immortals, and people saved by their righteousness built a sacrificial ceremony in their honor.”
Startled,
I trembled as I saw the eyes of the Goe-gun looking at me.
He was staring at me.
With flickering eyes, as if urging me to continue.
If I spoke wrong about Goe-gun, I might be captured alive and become his puppet.
But…
What I was about to say was my own story.
“I, in a very distant ancient past, fell in love with one person in the mountainous regions of the Seongje Empire.”
So, I told Goe-gun my story, excluding the part about regression.
***
“And so, I embraced my loved one’s remains and swore. I would rip his limbs apart, scatter them east, west, south, and north, tear his body into pieces for stray dogs, and then offer the remains to my loved one’s spirit tablet.”
[…]
Goe-gun still stared at me with flickering eyes.
To an outsider, it looked like he was listening to my words or staring at me.
But while watching Goe-gun’s consciousness, I knew.
‘It’s working.’
And Goe-gun spoke.
[What… what was his name?]
“Won Rip, the Blood Wood Daoist. A Nascent Soul cultivator hiding his strength in the black castle at coordinates Dabcheon Desert…”
[I see…]
Crunch, crunch, crunch…
Suddenly, he put his own fingers in his mouth and began chewing vigorously.
Spittle dripped from his chin.
Goe-gun, with gleaming eyes in that state, met my gaze.
[Guide me.]
The first day of the eleventh loop.
Originally, I had told the story to Goe-gun hoping to receive a little help from remote cursing.
It had resulted in going to Won Rip’s castle with the fox.