What Is a Human? (11)
It seemed she had some trick up her sleeve, trying to get me even though I kept resisting.
But compared to the schemes Seohyul pulled, hers were almost endearing.
“So, I’m sorry to the elders who’ve gone before, but I hope you put the marriage issue aside now.”
“Ha, you think I’ll give up? I’ll keep coming until you say yes!”
Heonwi pouted, then shot up in a fit of pique.
“…What a ridiculous formation.”
It was an array laid to guide the dragon vein.
With the bizarre troops’ circuits planted everywhere and my dragon vein sensitive law success perfected, I would never have spotted it without learning array theory from Cheongmun Ryeong.
“If properly activated, it can perfectly suppress a single heavenly person. Even stronger—if it’s a heavenly person with earth attribute, it could instantly turn them into a prisoner. And…”
The flow of that array was, quite literally, designed to restrain her own self.
“Why would she create an array like this?”
I decided to think from her perspective.
“She wants me. So she keeps giving me elixirs and spreads that she’s favorable with everyone around her. At the same time, she plants an array that can suppress her own self in a pinch.”
Why would she make that array?
Of course she would make it to use it.
Who would she use it on?
From her point of view, I was a genius who had mastered the Thunder Technique.
There was no reason to lay an earth-attribute array to suppress me.
“High chance of suppressing someone from the same Bongrae Palace.”
It was a formation that perfectly reversed the technique she had learned.
So why plant it here?
“Drive the people of Bongrae Palace here and use the formation here…”
The people of Bongrae Palace could not resist for a single instant.
“Suppress the faction that opposes her own self in the palace and dump the responsibility on Geumshincheonroemun? No. She really did want me. Love is worthless, but greed is real.”
Then what was the true purpose of that array…
“…Maybe to use on herself.”
She was looking for a moment when it was just the two of us.
And then, in that gap, she could activate the formation and neutralize her own power.
After that, if she timed it so that another person from Bongrae Palace saw the scene, perhaps she could make me look like I was trying to do something to her.
“That would mean, for trying to do something to the daughter of the Integration Grand Completion, her reputation at Geumshincheonroemun would hit rock bottom… and she might be forced to marry me just to beg for forgiveness.”
It was quite a dark plan.
“But this is just one trap. Maybe there are traps behind it, double, triple.”
Perhaps this array was just a test to see what kind of ability I had.
“Well, from here on I’ll have to use the Gigoego.”
I immediately started using the Gigoego to watch her and her escorts.
* * *
“Has the medicine been prepared?”
A cold voice rang out.
[Yes, Master. I have successfully transported the supreme-grade medicine made in the Inhyeon Ghost Sect. Even a late-stage heavenly person who inhales it will lose reason in an instant. It is that strong.]
And the sound of Yeong-eon echoed.
“If used on a nascent soul Integration Grand Completion, they would lose reason and charge.”
[Of course.]
“The next month to the month after that. Make sure there is a place where Geumhyun and I are alone. In that gap, you shoot the medicine-filled needle from far away and hit him, right?”
[It is more than possible. What is the range of his consciousness domain?]
“Twenty ri is his consciousness domain.”
[Nascent soul Integration Grand Completion, but the consciousness domain is at the level of early-to-mid heavenly person… Still, from fifty ri away you can hit the target perfectly, so don’t worry.]
“Excellent. Not a single mistake. When that guy tries to pounce on me, you must record everything and appear at the scene.”
[Understood.]
“Since he tried to sneak into the taesu bloodline, I have taken the initiative. I will definitely… get my hands on Geumshincheonroemun!”
* * *
“…Is that it?”
I laughed through the Gigoego while monitoring her and her escorts.
If it had been Seohyul, there would have been no doubt he would have pulled some extra scheme behind that array.
But watching how obvious and childish her schemes were, I found them almost cute.
“No, since it’s me, I just saw through it. A normal nascent soul Integration Grand Completion wouldn’t have noticed anything.”
She had done her best.
But it seemed the problem was that my eyes had grown too sharp.
“Well, then I can just let these petty schemes slide….”
Just as I was wondering how to turn the tables on that scheme…
Kwa-rurung!
“You’re still far…”
Bam!
“…!?”
Jeon Myeong-hoon’s fist punched straight through my inner strength and smashed into my face.
“Finally!”
“…Huh?”
I touched my cheek in confusion.
“…How did you do that?”
No one at his level should be able to reach me.
Even Geumbyeokho or Changhoza, who weren’t using any law, I had confidence I could win against fairly smoothly.
Without a miracle, Jeon Myeong-hoon absolutely could not reach me.
Yet he had.
“How?”
I wasn’t irritated so much as amazed, staring at Jeon Myeong-hoon.
“That move just now… it wasn’t your usual style. Who taught you that?”
The attack that had surprised me so much wasn’t a thunder technique at all; it was closer to the mystery of martial arts.
“Is it Hong Su-ryeong?”
Jeon Myeong-hoon lifted his crimson lightning, grinning.
“Would a man really have a loose mouth like that? I won’t tell you. You damn bastard.”
“Oh ho…”
“He’s growing, too.”
I felt a strange sensation and raised my staff.
And just after the 1st Kyong.
“Kuaaaack! Kuaaaack! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you!”
“…Didn’t you say men have loose mouths and all that?”
“Just tell me, damn it.”
“….”
I clicked my tongue and asked.
“So, who was it? It must have been Hong Su-ryeong, right?”
In Geumshincheonroemun, the only person who could teach martial arts-like things besides Hong Su-ryeong was… probably her, nine out of ten.
“I did exchange quite a bit of insights with Hong Su-ryeong about martial arts recently…”
She had grown that much in the meantime that she was already teaching it to Jeon Myeong-hoon?
I was about to ask when he answered.
“Hong Beom.”
“Yeah?”
“I learned it from Hong Beom. He calmly told me my weaknesses, my habits, and the gaps where my habits can be pierced.”
“…What?”
I was momentarily dumbfounded and asked.
“You learned the movement from Hong Beom just now?”
“Yeah.”
“….”
Jeon Myeong-hoon had never taught me martial arts like that before.
“Of course I practiced martial arts in front of Hong Beom a lot…”
Jeon Myeong-hoon wasn’t lying.
“So right now… Hong Beom just watched me do martial arts and understood the mystery of martial arts and taught it to Jeon Myeong-hoon?”
What the hell was this guy?
“I kneeled before a bug to beat you! Right now I get beaten like a dog… but I will definitely, definitely surpass you!”
Kwajijijijik!
Jeon Myeong-hoon spat red lightning beneath me.
“…Ah.”
I stepped back from the foot I had placed on him.
Looking at that, I understood.
“…Ha ha, hahaha…”
“…? What? Did you fall apart, Seoeun-hyun?”
“Haha… Thanks. Jeon Myeong-hoon.”
“Wha—”
My heart was fluttering.
And in that moment, the shadow in my mind that had been churning everything suddenly lifted.
“Jeon Myeong-hoon found his lessons even from Hong Beom.”
So then.
Even if, as Yang Su-jin had said, the entire world was no better than bugs, no better than non-humans.
Even if the bonds I had built were nothing but trash.
“They taught me.”
Even if they were dust, there is something to be learned there.
“I’m really grateful.”
I opened my mouth and took out the colorless glass sword.
“T-thanks… why the sword…”
“I gained a great realization thanks to you.”
Whether human or non-human, if the very heart itself was just woven into a script, what then?
I had completed myself as that script.
And I had gained meaning within that script.
If there is meaning to be given and received, isn’t that the definition of humanity?
I danced the sword dance in silence.
“Still lacking.”
With this sword dance I could never reach the next stage.
But what I had just done was enough.
Yet the score was insufficient.
But that was the other side of the coin.
If the score was lacking, then filling the gradual cultivation would let me reach the other side!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
I plunged instantly into the no-mind state.
And in my mind I recalled Jang Ik’s words.
―I’ll tell you the law that reaches the third stage of realization.
―The power of the Heart Tribe begins by forcing the world to obey your mind, your own ideal.
―My ideal of fighting spirit was precision and destruction at the limit. I went through three stages by forcing that destruction’s power on the world.
―What is your ideal of martial arts?
Forcing your own ideal on the world.
At first I didn’t understand what that meant.
Now I understood.
“Wait a moment. Seoeun-hyun, what are you doing!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon saw the momentum rising from me and hurriedly fled.
Whoosh, boom, boom!
Kurrurung—
He must have lost the thunder technique, but thunder began to boom all around me.
“Forcing… your own ideal on the world.”
It meant engraving the extreme point of my martial arts into the laws of the world.
Then what was the extreme point of my martial arts?
How could I advance to the next stage?
What meaning did my martial arts hold?
“None at all.”
Because meaning was something given.
I finally understood.
I wasn’t the only one with a heart.
Martial arts had a heart, had meaning.
The meaning I had lived my whole life under had already been embedded in my martial arts.
Awakening the meaning I had lived my whole life under within my own martial arts.
This was the stage beyond the answer sky!
“Entering!”
Kwa-rurung!
I swung the colorless glass sword.
Even without drawing the invisible sword, an absurdly huge thunderclap accompanied the distant mountain ridge being sliced away as if it were nothing.
The mountains trembled with an overwhelming momentum, a great resonance shaking the entire world.
Clouds split apart. Far away, the heavenly person elders who had been cultivating hurriedly looked around.
“W-what is going on!”
“An attack!?”
“No, who’s practicing the thunder technique?”
“No, it’s heaven’s tribulation! It’s the aura of heaven’s tribulation!?”
Even at the level where I had been fighting Jeon Myeong-hoon and holding back power to the point of Qi Condensation, the overwhelming force that emerged!
Kurrurung…
The thunder gradually subsided around me.
“Still lacking.”
I had not reached the next stage.
But I was no longer lacking in realization.
What was needed was effort. Effort!
The confidence to engrave will into the world!
In this life I might not even reach the heavenly person stage.
But there was no doubt.
To the realm beyond the answer sky, I was now only one step away.