Heavenly Calamity (1)
Slap, slap, slap…
I sat quietly and watched Kim Yeon dance the Wing-to-Wing Dance. She moved with light, precise steps, every motion flawless. How long had I been staring blankly at her?
“Seon-hyun oppa? I’ve done all ten thousand Wing-to-Wing Dances!”
She wiped sweat from her brow and approached me. “Seon-hyun oppa?”
Only then did I snap back to my senses when she shook me. “Ah, sorry. I spaced out for a moment.”
“Hmm…”
She gazed at me for a moment, then looked at me with concern and gently touched my forehead. “Seon-hyun oppa, have you been doing that often lately?”
“Mm? Ah…”
I gripped my head and nodded. “Sorry. I’ll be careful.”
“No, that’s not what I meant… Just don’t overdo it.”
“….”
“I’ve been practicing the Strange Star-Mind Scroll to its limit and I know. Seon-hyun oppa, you’re definitely pushing your consciousness to the extreme and causing depletion, aren’t you?”
“…Yes.”
I gave a bitter smile. I tried to hide it, but she had clearly noticed. I had been teaching Jeon Myeong-hoon and Kim Yeon, sharing poison knowledge with the burned corpse of Hong Beom, and it had already been several months. Lately I had spent more time like this, blank and distant. Her words were right—the result of pushing my consciousness to the limit. “Thank you for worrying, Yeona. Shall we try the Wing-to-Wing Dance again?”
“Yes.”
After watching her perform, I reviewed her qi flow, finished today’s training, and stood. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow, Yeona.”
“Yes. And as I said… don’t overdo it!”
“…Alright.”
Swish…
I opened my eyes and rose. “Huu…”
Sweat soaked my entire body. The Strange Star-Mind Scroll had set my body to move the sword during sleep, so I had trained relentlessly through the night. It was almost sunrise. Yet I had no intention of letting the sun rise. “Acceleration…”
Tsutsutsut…
My consciousness accelerated. Time gradually slowed. “Accelerate… accelerate… accelerate…”
At Deungbongjogeuk, I could only gain about tenfold acceleration. “Accelerate… accelerate… accelerate!”
But since reaching the Integration Grand Completion…
Tenfold became the baseline. I could accelerate far beyond that, whatever my current state demanded. How many times had I compressed my mind to the limit? I watched the morning sun hovering just above the horizon, moving with agonizing slowness. The wind had slowed so much that dust particles drifted visibly. Grass stood frozen in place. Dew hung motionless in the air. It was not truly stopped—it moved too slowly to register as motion. Or rather, my consciousness accelerated so rapidly that it appeared frozen. I had pushed my consciousness to its absolute maximum. Deungbongjogeuk, Cheonin, Integration Grand Completion. And the vast consciousness field of the Strange Star-Mind Scroll and Heavenly Person. Using every ounce of power, I compressed time to near-stagnation. “Tch… it feels like my head is burning.”
I wanted to escape this mad world at once. My upper dantian was about to burst from overload. “Tch-tch-tch…”
This state could not be sustained long even with full concentration. But I endured. I forced myself to remain in this extreme stasis, enduring at all costs, experiencing time that was infinitely close to stopping. And in that state I unleashed every martial art I had mastered, every one I had created, every one I had used. Danak Sword Art emerged. Inside it, the subtleties of Danmaedo, the secrets of Tu-goe-am, the mysteries of Tu-gomuhan-gwon, the movements of Yonghyeongbihogo, and the intertwined powers of Biik-chang and Wing-to-Wing Dance. Because my sword exceeded ordinary realms, even though it swung at monstrous speed, no shock waves scattered. In the dead of night, I arose from the eastern continent without a sound and unleashed forty-two thousand Danak Sword Arts in a single instant. “Huu…”
Sweat poured down. My mind felt on the verge of shattering. My body was not in pain, but forcing myself to survive in this world of extreme stasis was agony. “Haa…”
Yet I did not stop. Instead, I muttered, “Time… is insufficient.”
It was. Far too little. In the blink of an eye, a True Immortal would rip the sky open and look down. I had only fifty years at most. Fifty years was nothing for a genius. What was I to do? I had to squeeze every drop. I would crush my brain to create time and push forward as far as possible within the limit. I must reach Integration Grand Completion and beyond within the given time! Bang!
With the final Danak Sword Art, shock waves exploded. In the world of near-stasis, the protective formations I had set in the eastern continent activated. Ku-gu-gu-gu! The shock should have shaken mountains, but the formations absorbed it. Only the air inside the eastern continent churned. “Huu… huu…”
I gasped for breath. The pain in my skull eased slightly. But that was the end. I abandoned the brief rest and immediately began Danak Sword Art again. Chii—
Steam rose from my head. My consciousness, and the True Soul itself, were being squeezed and exhausted. My True Soul would suffer if this continued. But I did not stop. Woo-woo-woong! The burden on my True Soul from the compressed world poured into Yeonyu like a curse. My True Soul entered the blood essence of Yeonyu. Puk! Yeonyu’s head exploded. Yet it did not stop. The neck swelled and boiled for a long while before healing properly, and the blood essence suffered severe damage. The burden I had dumped on Yeonyu was overwhelming. A desperate attempt to extend the time granted to a regressor. It was never ordinary. But…
I still could not reach the next stage. Gradual cultivation was still lacking. “More… more… more…”
If I was still lacking, fill it! Gritting my teeth, I swung the sword until sunrise, consciousness accelerated to the limit. * * *
Originally I had planned to gather my followers inside Geumsincheonroemun to uphold the pact with Heon-wi. But recently the young disciples of Geumsincheonroemun had been avoiding me. Ttuk…
Jeon Myeong-hoon, whom I trained steadily, alone greeted me each morning with a bolt of lightning. Buung! I swung my club and deflected the lightning. Recently I had only infused the minimum qi at Qi Condensation level; I did not reinforce it further. I faced Jeon Myeong-hoon and swung the club, practicing Danak Sword Art. Accelerate… accelerate… accelerate! Pa-aang! Shock waves erupted. I enjoyed the sensation of air rebounding off my body as I stared into Jeon Myeong-hoon’s eyes inside the world of extreme stasis. His pupils briefly reflected me. Beard unkempt, hair disheveled, eyes bloodshot. A madman. “So that’s why the disciples who claimed to follow me all disappeared.”
I chuckled inwardly. But I had no time to beautify myself. No time to speak kindly to those who approached. No time to greet. No time to smile. No time for anyone else. While watching Jeon Myeong-hoon train, I repeated my own training without pause. Yet time was still insufficient. I lived a full day under accelerated consciousness. Yeonyu’s blood essence was recovered through training and qi restoration while I poured endless burden upon it and endlessly sought the Way of Martial. I repeated the act of drawing life force to its limit to bring my physique close to Heavenly Person. I also analyzed and tested the insights of Cheonin that Hong Su-ryeong and Jin-hwi had taught me, sharpening them in my mind. Although I claimed to train martial arts, my techniques had long since become extensions of myself. Sitting to cultivate qi or unfolding arts to cultivate qi reached the same realm. Lately I no longer forced seated cultivation. Training the Heavenly Tribe method alongside martial arts, I constantly craved the next stage. Buung!
Eventually the club in my hand became a sword. After countless Danak Sword Arts, the club itself was worn down by wind pressure into the perfect wooden sword for unfolding the art. What lay beyond the Integration Grand Completion, then, when I swung the club until it turned into a sword? The third stage of Manifestation was as follows. The realm of forcing one’s ideal onto the world. What did that really mean? Forcing an ideal onto the world? It was roughly this— “Perfection—what is perfection?” I recalled Jang Ik’s teaching. “‘Perfect’ or ‘complete’ does not exist in this world. Do you know why?” “…Why?” “Perfectly slice left, right, up, down, and thrust. Do it.” I did as he commanded. “Is the technique you just performed perfect?” “…Yes.” “Good. But you were also wrong. If you were in a battlefield with howling winds, would you use the exact same technique as before?” “No.” “Then, inside a volcano where lava burns, would you use the same technique as in the howling-wind battlefield?” “Absolutely not.” “What if your arms were cut off and could never regenerate? Would you still perform the technique using only your mouth?” “Impossible.” “Exactly. Nothing in this world is perfect.”
I swung Danak Sword Art, recalling Jang Ik’s words. “Your sword art was created under the same law. You swing the sword under that law, but the law always changes depending on the target and place of the swing. In other words, you have never swung the same sword art twice since learning it.” “……”
Buung, buung, buung! The tip of the wooden sword felt like it carried Jang Ik’s advice. “The space one second before and after is completely different. Not only the air, but the flow of qi, the opponent’s psychology, your own psychology—all change. Therefore the sword art you swing one second before is different from the one you swing one second after.” “Then… what should I do?” How could I execute the same martial art? “Since you have reached this stage, you must know that your fighting spirit is more than simple combat technique. Your fighting spirit contains your entire life and all your beliefs.” Bang, buung, buung!
I unfolded Danak Sword Art. Kwa-aang! The boom echoed. My sword, barely at Core Formation level, shattered Jeon Myeong-hoon’s lightning tribulation of Integration Grand Completion and sent shock waves crashing into him. “Forge your beliefs in your fighting spirit to the utmost. I have forged the belief in ‘destruction’! Yu-hwa forged the belief in ‘tranquility’. What belief do you hold?” “My belief…”
“The outward fighting spirit can change endlessly and must adopt new identities. But! The mind does not change. Fill your fighting spirit with an unchanging mind! No matter how the external changes, no matter how the sword changes, only that unchanging mind will remain and be engraved as law in this world.” That was it. In simple terms, awaken the true nature of your martial art and create a standard that never changes in any situation. If that standard was not merely a standard but something that truly never changed, it would be engraved as law in this world. Heavenly Tribulation was what heaven performed to enforce the law of Following Heaven upon those who reversed it. Perhaps the Heavenly Tribulation the Heart Tribe performed in the third stage of Manifestation was similar to enforcing one’s own law. Kwa-aang! I swung once more, only enough force to unleash a single sword qi. I hurled Jeon Myeong-hoon, transformed like a thunder god, back. But hurling was not the end. Even the recoil of Jeon Myeong-hoon being hurled was slow enough to make me yawn—my acceleration was so great. I rolled forward and arrived at the spot where he would land. Only then did I swing the club again, striking the slowly returning Jeon Myeong-hoon. He tried to block but failed and his head split in two. The mind I had infused into my martial art. The belief I wished to convey. Kwa-ang, kwa-ang, kwa-ang! The wooden club, wrapped in qi sufficient only for a single sword gang, unleashed shock waves that shattered the training ground and sent nearby mountains crumbling. Bloodied Jeon Myeong-hoon rose, eyes bloodshot, and charged at me. The same situation repeated. Jeon Myeong-hoon had evolved and advanced a millimeter at a time, but from my perspective it was still slow. “Seo Eun-hyun!!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon charged at me with murderous intent, eyes bloodshot. After training he returned to the eastern continent with Geum So-hae. I watched him, carried by Geum So-hae, vent his complaints and curses about me. After his training I returned to the eastern continent and saw the disciples of Geumsincheonroemun secretly avoiding me while gossiping. I saw the clash of swords and the elders and ancestors passing by, occasionally greeting me. Before entering the eastern continent, I looked down at the scenery of Geumsincheonroemun once more. This place was Geumsincheonroemun. Yang Su-jin’s failed creation, a gathering of inhumans. “…No.”
Looking at Geumsincheonroemun, I suddenly realized why my mind had been wandering. In the distance I saw Hong Su-ryeong kidnapping fresh new disciples. Seeing her, I smiled. “…I am truly a fool.” I had awakened again to the fact. For the disciples in the main text, for Hong Su-ryeong, Yeon-jin, Jin-hwi, Geum Byeok-ho, Geum So-hae… for Geumsincheonroemun itself. I had feared the sect that would inevitably fall. I had sworn not to give affection to Hong Su-ryeong. But look. I was already feeling this place was like home while gazing at its scenery. This place was Geumsincheonroemun. My master’s sect and the place where my family lived. “Listen, Yang Su-jin?”
I looked at the sky and spoke. “I am a regressor, a fool, an idiot. I don’t know what ‘inhuman’ means or whether fate, freedom, or slavery exists. Honestly, I have never lived thinking such things whenever I meet people. So…”
Of course Yang Su-jin’s logic was still not completely refuted. But I could still deny it. I was not a sage. I had much selfishness. I had much greed and was not capable enough to solve every problem. I did not possess the virtue of a sage. But before me were my family members connected to me. “I will protect them.” I would not let the sect fall. The name of the belief that filled my martial art was Sincere Heart. I had not lived like a sage or a virtuous man. This world was so full of inhumans that it was impossible, so I may have become cruel on Earth. But there was one certainty. I had applied Sincere Heart in every single event. I had applied Sincere Heart to every connection and every moment. Protect the family members I have connected with in this very moment from dying. “Heaven…”
I looked at the sky and swore with absolute resolve. “I will change the fate of my family this time as well.” And time flowed. Twenty years passed. Jeon Myeong-hoon had finally reached the True Soul stage. ---