Chapter 248
**CHAPTER TITLE: A Fragmented Form (3)**
The souls of the you beasts were said to take human forms during their metamorphosis, which is why they were called the Huahing stage rather than the Yuanye stage.
“Before I knew it, you had already reached the Huahing stage…”
I recalled the time when Hong Beom’s little snake had crawled onto my foot and clung to it.
That tiny snake had already reached the realm where it could form a Yuanye.
“It is all thanks to Master’s guidance.”
“No. It is all because of your talent. Your talent is truly an incomprehensible talent. You are even superior to me.”
If it had been older brother Young-hoon, I would have accepted it as the Talent of Terminating Ones. Yet there are those who possess such an absurd talent that defies understanding.
Jo Yeon of Goegun and Hong Beom were precisely such beings.
Hong Beom shook his head at my words.
“Perhaps, to follow in Master’s footsteps, one must reach this level. My life is bound to Master. This thousand-year talent might be nothing more than the talent needed to cling to Master’s side. Even Master did not reach the Yuanye stage within a year, did he?”
“…Hmph. Enough talk of my talent… When shall we begin? The time is nearly upon us.”
When one had to undergo the Chilseongje ritual at the seventh layer of Qi Condensation to advance, the importance of celestial timing had been nine-tenths of the equation. After that, however, the importance of celestial timing gradually decreased as one climbed the ranks.
At Core Formation, celestial timing held roughly four-tenths importance. By Nascent Soul, it fell to barely two-tenths.
Of course, you beasts who cultivated basic martial techniques did not rely heavily on celestial timing. Compared to Celestial humans, its importance had dropped from a whole unit to mere fractions. To Hong Beom, celestial timing might hold only three or four tenths.
Yet despite having the basic aptitude to break through to Nascent Soul, Hong Beom had not missed even the slightest possibility. He had chosen the celestial timing that suited him best.
“Master, please lend me a little help. I cannot see celestial qi directly and I get confused.”
I looked at the sky and told the fellow what to look for.
“The qi of the two stars—Dou, Niu, Wei, Shi, and Bi—had intertwined with your fate qi to almost perfect alignment. After one hundred days, your fate qi would align completely, and at that moment your probability of reaching Nascent Soul would rise.”
“Thank you. Though my body is humble, if it is still a beast, I beg you to lend me the heavens’ timing so that this lowly body may ascend.”
“…You keep saying ‘humble’ and ‘lowly.’ Isn’t that just flattery?”
I watched Hong Beom feign modesty and smirked.
The stars Dou, Niu, Wei, Shi, and Bi were the constellation that suited Hong Beom best. Of those, the stars Dou, Niu, and Wei were the ones whose qi most perfectly elevated his fate qi. When those three stars aligned, that was Hong Beom’s celestial timing.
After chatting and waiting for exactly one hundred days, a few friends Hong Beom had made at Geumsincheonroemun, along with myself, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Geum So-hae, and Hong Su-ryeong, stood guard around him.
“Then, Master… it begins now.”
“Mm… now.”
I read the celestial qi and told him the power of the stars.
“The qi of Dou, Niu, and Wei is full. Begin.”
[Yes.]
Spiritual energy flowed into his voice and became an incantation.
Hong Beom’s qi began to surge.
His consciousness transformed from the top of his head and molded itself into the shape of Hong Beom himself.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
Hong Su-ryeong tied a ribbon and drove eight lightning banners around Hong Beom.
“Thunderbolt, External Heaven!”
The banners glowed.
Eight images of the Bagua appeared above the banners, and each banner spewed the power of the Bagua. Inner and outer hexagrams combined to form sixteen hexagrams.
The sixteen hexagrams rotated and produced sixty-four changes, and within those changes thunderbolts lashed.
Hong Su-ryeong laid a formation that controlled space and created a barrier around Hong Beom.
It protected him from external harm, but it also shielded us who served as his guards.
Pfft…
Dark poison gas sprayed from Hong Beom and tried to spread outward, but Hong Su-ryeong’s formation trapped it and it formed a cylindrical cloud in mid-air.
Ssssh—
The stones and rocks around him began to melt in the poison gas.
The Core Formation qi unleashed an immense poison technique. Inside the formation, everything instantly became a barren wasteland where no living thing could survive.
‘Now it starts.’
At the same moment, Hong Beom’s consciousness began to shrink rapidly.
The consciousness that had enveloped his body in the shape of Hong Beom compressed itself into his core!
Boom! Boom!
It seemed Hong Beom had sensed the change, because his celestial qi shifted and spewed a cloud of black clouds.
Whoosh!
Hong Beom, receiving the timing of Dou, Niu, and Wei, finally succeeded in compressing all his consciousness into the innermost part of his Yuandan.
Flash!
His lifespan changed, and the heavens began to reveal their power.
Crackle! Rumble!
Golden thunder rolled across the sky.
If he could only overcome this, the beast would truly become a Nascent Soul qi.
That was when I thought it.
“Hm…?”
I frowned.
Something was wrong.
Far too much.
“…Hong Elder. When one reaches Nascent Soul, is something like that… normal?”
“…No. Never.”
The amount of golden lightning was far too excessive.
Crash!
A pillar of golden light descended from the sky and slammed into the center of the poison gas where Hong Beom was condensing his Yuanye.
It was literally a pillar of golden light.
Not a mere lightning bolt.
Lightning gathered and gathered and gathered.
It was so enormous that even a sincere strike from a Celestial’s qi might have seemed small by comparison.
“It’s insane…! What the hell is that!”
I startled and looked up at the sky.
‘My dual-colored thunder…’
The power was at least seven times greater.
It was not even the dual-colored thunder that came from me or Myeong-hoon. It was pure golden lightning meant for the Nascent Soul stage, yet the power was this immense.
“Hong Beom! Scatter it! It is not ready yet! This level of power is too much for you!”
I shouted in terror at Hong Beom, staring at the insane scale of the falling thunder.
This was the wrath of the heavens that descended to punish those who tried to reverse heaven upon sensing the condensation of Yuanye.
Thunder.
The heavenly thunder descended upon Hong Beom.
‘Since the heavenly thunder strikes only when it senses the Yuanye, if I scatter the Yuanye the lightning will be cut off!’
“Hong Beom!!”
Just as I cried out in panic, pointing at him.
“Huh…!”
But inside the pillar of light I saw a shadow.
It was Hong Beom’s shadow.
He was dancing.
Using the Shadow Rock Technique I had taught him, he moved with his long body, faster and more precisely than anyone, traveling inside the pillar of light to the ‘weakest point’ of the lightning.
‘Is that… the Eye of the Thunderbeast?’
I momentarily recalled the Thunderbeast Eye technique that used a Celestial’s vision to locate the position of heavenly thunder.
That was the only way to explain such movement.
‘No, no…’
Hong Beom was not a Celestial.
Then how could he move like the Eye of the Thunderbeast?
I suddenly thought of one possibility—simple, yet utterly incomprehensible.
‘Could it be that he did not use the Thunderbeast Eye through Celestial vision at all, but instead hammered every gap in the lightning with nothing but his own senses, then held on inside the storm?’
What kind of talent was required for that?
* * *
Jeon Myeong-hoon stared at the pillar of light with dazed eyes.
That terrifying golden thunder!
Inside it moved like a snake—a snake.
He felt an unknown voice echo inside his mind as he looked at the thunder.
—Heaven’s punishment…
—Come cleanse…
—Great heavenly punishment’s cleansing…
Suddenly, Jeon Myeong-hoon thought he saw the shape of a woman pass inside the thunder.
Wearing a bow made of thunder, long white hair flowing, bare white feet walking through the sky—a fairy whose face was hard to make out.
“Beautiful…”
He unconsciously reached out toward the faint image that had briefly appeared inside the massive lightning.
It was as if blood had flowed downward.
But before he could touch it, the image vanished as if it had been a mirage.
“Huh!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon looked around.
‘What was that? Did I missee?’
The others were simply watching Hong Beom inside the thunder.
He pressed his throbbing temples with his thumb and forefinger and frowned.
‘The voice of the lightning seems louder recently. Sharper too… Was that vision because of the lightning’s voice?’
* * *
“Among those born with powerful player bloodlines, there are those who occasionally receive such absurdly powerful thunder, they say…”
Hong Su-ryeong murmured in admiration.
“Player bloodlines receive thunder that strongly?”
I, who had accepted the player bloodline, asked in confusion.
“Mm, yes. According to what I heard, a player’s direct descendants are born with terrifyingly strong power and authority, yet they too must receive thunder that is absurdly strong, fitting for descendants of immortals.”
“…”
That meant Hong Beom was a direct descendant of a player?
‘I have never heard of a player among the people of Sumi Mountain…’
I looked at Hong Beom with curiosity.
Perhaps Hong Beom had secrets that I did not know.
“Hm?”
While I watched Hong Beom anxiously, suddenly an odd flow of spiritual thought caught my eye and I turned my head.
“…Beautiful…”
“…”
It was Jeon Myeong-hoon.
‘What is this crazy bastard doing?’
He stared at Hong Beom’s thunder, his eyes full of ecstasy, and reached out toward Hong Beom with lecherous thoughts.
‘Now he’s even eyeing a bug like Hong Beom.’
I clicked my tongue and kept watching Hong Beom, wondering how to snap Myeong-hoon out of it.
Crackle! Rumble!
Hong Beom continued to dance inside the pillar of light.
The Shadow Rock Technique I had taught him was not simply about throwing rocks.
Logically, a snake with short limbs could not throw rocks.
That was why the Shadow Rock Technique I had taught Hong Beom had become something other than a rock technique—it had changed into something like a human flesh charge, quietly firing from his body and scattering poison.
I had also inserted the secret of Gyuryeon’s movements from the Dragon-Shaped Flying Tiger Claw I had taught Gyubaek, so Hong Beom wriggled and danced as if a yellow dragon were moving.
What he used now was closer to a completely new martial art than the Shadow Rock Technique.
‘Once he reaches the Huahing stage, I’ll be able to teach him proper Shadow Rock Technique and other skills.’
The trial of thunder that had seemed eternal was almost over.
How would Hong Beom’s metamorphosis look?
Rumble…
The power of the thunder began to weaken.
“Hm?”
Then I noticed the many elders of Geumsincheonroemun who had gathered around us.
“Ho ho, they say that is the beast Master Hong has raised.”
“It is truly remarkable.”
“Master Hong really does raise beasts far beyond the ordinary.”
Because Hong Beom’s thunder was so beyond comprehension, most of the sect elders had also gathered to watch his metamorphosis.
Boom!
Geum Byeok-ho had come to see Hong Beom’s thunder and clicked his tongue.
“Such an enormous thunder. Elder Geum Hyun-hyun, is your beast perhaps born with a player’s bloodline?”
“Hmm… I do not know. He was a beast that was attached to me just before I won in Deungsunhyang…”
“Deungsunhyang… Well, there are many bizarre beasts with immense potential in Deungsunhyang.”
He nodded, and I looked at Hong Beom’s shadow inside the pillar of light.
The pillar of light, now greatly weakened, had become ordinary thunder strength, and Hong Beom stopped dancing and sat on the ground. He straightened his back and looked up at the sky.
The giant snake’s shadow that had raised its head toward the sky inside the light looked as if an immortal had lifted its head.
And at that moment.
“Hm?”
Suddenly, Hong Beom’s shape began to collapse.
The shadow I had seen inside the light seemed to crumble, and I startled and took a step forward.
But seeing that his consciousness and qi were still intact, I stayed where I was.
A moment later.
Rumble…
At last, the long trial of thunder ended.
Ssssh—
I looked at the place where the thunder had vanished.
There, piled high, were the ‘shells’ of Hong Beom that had collapsed.
‘I see. Hong Beom’s shape collapsed because his shell collapsed?’
He had shed his shell upon reaching Nascent Soul.
‘Then…!’
I looked under Hong Beom’s shell.
Hong Beom had completely succeeded in his metamorphosis.
Jiggle! Jiggle!
One section of the shell shook.
And something small began to emerge from inside.
“Hong Beom…?”
I slowly approached it.
Hong Su-ryeong and several elders had also come closer, curious about Hong Beom’s metamorphosis, and I sensed Geum Byeok-ho focusing his gaze on the scene.
And finally, from under the trembling shell, Hong Beom fully emerged.
“Hong Beom…”
“Ah… Master…?”
I let out a laugh upon seeing Hong Beom’s appearance.
“Indeed, that is a form that suits you.”
“Umm… Is this my metamorphosis form?”
Hong Beom was speaking with ‘human speech,’ not his beast speech.
He touched his neck as if the human voice felt awkward.
Hong Beom was an old man with long white hair.
The old man looked over a hundred years old, with deep wrinkles, wearing pitch-black robes, bushy eyebrows like snake whiskers, and a two-inch beard.
His speech was exactly the old man’s dialect, so I thought it suited him well.
“Hmph… Is this not too old a form… Master, is it not all right with you?”
However, Hong Beom looked embarrassed at his own appearance and asked me.
“It is fine. I think it is perfectly possible.”
“Since Master says it is fine…”
Hong Beom seemed satisfied with my answer and naturally took out a jade pipe from his robe, lit it, and sucked on a cigarette.
“Hoo…”
His appearance—sucking on a jade pipe and exhaling cigarette smoke as an old man—looked quite natural.
“Hmm, fascinating.”
Hong Su-ryeong stepped forward and said.
“When you beasts first reach metamorphosis, although there are individual differences in appearance, most are said to take young or childlike forms. How is this fellow, who should be in his early twenties, appearing so old?”
At her words, Geum Byeok-ho descended and spoke.
“I seem to have heard something similar about that friend before. It is from an ancient text of Black Ghost Valley. When you beasts reach metamorphosis, most take young or childlike forms… but those with very ancient souls appear as old men.”
“Ancient souls? What does that mean?”
I asked in confusion.
“In plain words. There is the Six Paths cycle of reincarnation, and souls go to the underworld after death and reincarnate in the next life. When such souls are reborn, they are said to forget the memories of their previous lives. However, occasionally there are souls whose memories of the previous life remain faintly in their souls. Such souls are called ‘ancient souls’ who still retain memories of their previous lives, according to what I was told by that friend.”
“Hmm…”
‘Previous life…’
Then perhaps the source of Hong Beom’s talent was something incomprehensible from his previous life.
“Anyway, congratulations on your metamorphosis, Hong Beom.”
“Thank you, Master…”
“Does it feel as if you sense your previous life, as the Taesang-jangmun said?”
“Hmm… I do not know such things.”
It was probably not a lie, but Hong Beom seemed to have inherited qualities or instincts of his previous life rather than the memories themselves.
“I see. Then, as a commemoration…”
I was about to head east with Hong Beom when I suddenly looked around.
“Ah, by the way, Supreme Elder.”
“What is it?”
“Have you seen Myeong-hoon?”
I was puzzled because I saw that Myeong-hoon, who had come with me to watch Hong Beom’s metamorphosis, had disappeared.
‘Where did he go?’
At my words, Geum So-hae stepped forward and answered.
“He said he had something to find and went east.”
‘East?’
I looked toward Myeong-hoon’s east near Bongroedang.