Chapter 303
**CHAPTER TITLE: A Conversation Under the Cold Moonlight**
I let out a sigh as I pondered it.
‘Hmm, the second personality…’
It felt as if I had gone mad, but upon deeper reflection, I realized I had already been insane, so I simply accepted it.
I looked fine mentally, but in truth, I had only lost my mind once during the Seven Star Ceremony and gone mad again to return.
I had already been insane a very long time ago.
‘A split personality…’
When I had fallen asleep earlier, I had clearly been separate from Seo Lip, but now I felt the connection.
It felt as if I and Seo Lip had been reunited once more.
‘If the personality were truly to split… it wouldn’t be so bad.’
Feeling the link to Seo Lip, I sensed that if I died, Seo Lip would regress with me.
Because the soul itself still felt as one, it would not leave me.
If that happened, we could endure the loneliness of regression just a little better.
Seo Lip was not scary to me at all.
I did not think he had the ability to steal my body, and even if he did, he valued his own body enough to let me know his personality had changed.
Information between me and Seo Lip had never been completely separated, and we had been one body.
So, as one body, I was prepared to accept it if he took mine.
After all, Seo Lip was nothing more than me.
‘Well, fine. Setting that aside…’
I adjusted my posture.
Druureuk―
I brought out a pot of tea that I had boiled inside the hermitage.
“Oppa, please drink some tea. I learned how to boil tea from the monk, and I made it very well.”
“Ah, thank you.”
After drinking the tea she offered, I tidied my resting place and looked around the room of the hermitage.
‘There are quite a few books.’
Even in the living quarters of the monks, shelves were placed everywhere, and many books were stored.
I picked out one of them at random and began reading.
‘Hmm, this fairy tale is one I saw in the Water Realm…’
I flipped through the familiar fairy tale book and then put it away.
A fairy tale book centered on the topic of kindness and gratitude existed even in the Gwanghan Realm.
I read several other books on the Buddhist Gongfa and broadened my understanding of the Gongfa and the Seven Kings.
After a while, Kim Yeon, who was using the Gimyoseongsimjeon, spoke.
“Eun-hyun oppa, Seonnim is calling for you.”
“Ah, I see. Then let’s go now.”
I placed the books back on the shelf and returned with her to the guest hall of Tae Yeol Temple.
There, Tae Yeol-jeon was waiting with several books laid out.
“These are the Buddhist Gongfa that Seon-sa requested. There are consciousness-based Gongfa, body-based Gongfa, and ordinary Gongfa as well. They are categorized, so take what you need and study them.”
I thanked her and picked up one book to glance through, then suddenly felt a jolt of surprise.
“Wait… aren’t all of these Gongfa that start from Nascent Soul and reach Integration?!”
I had assumed they were at most Foundation Establishment or Core Formation level, but having seen the true value of the Gongfa, my hands trembled with excitement.
Tae Yeol-jeon smiled faintly.
“After all, I don’t have the aptitude for the Heavenly Clan Gongfa, so my own Mind cultivation is at most Core Formation. The Gongfa books in my possession have no value beyond their worth as commentaries on the scriptures.”
“…What do you want?”
“I don’t want anything. I already told you—they hold no great value to me. I’m giving them to you without charge, Seon-sa. Since we’re both disciples of the same Great Saint.”
“Hmm…”
I skimmed through the consciousness-based, body-based, and Heavenly Clan Gongfa once each with intent, then selected only the ones that would help me the most.
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing special.”
After greeting Tae Yeol-jeon, we chatted a little more.
Then a question suddenly occurred to me.
“By the way… Tae Doo, there’s something I’d like to ask.”
It had been on my mind since we met.
“What is it?”
“Your cultivation, that name is Simcheon-taeng-hwa-do, correct?”
“Yes.”
“I felt that the main lineage of that realization was the Core Formation Gongfa you learned, the Heavenly Clan Gongfa.”
It was so.
She, who looked like a martial artist, had reached the heart of the channel through Qi Condensation.
Since she came from the Central Plains and had never learned a martial artist’s inner energy method, it was correct to say she had reached the heart of the channel by cultivating the Heavenly Clan Gongfa.
In short, it was the same as saying Cheongmun Ryeong had become obsessed with the Forehead Tong and reached the heart of the channel.
I wondered how that was possible.
If such a thing were possible, why weren’t all those obsessed with Mind cultivation becoming Heavenly Clan cultivators?
When I asked, Tae Yeol-jeon smiled with a grin.
“I became a monk before I became a martial artist. I am a practitioner of religion. I have developed the faith of the Seven Kings to its extreme as a disciple of the Buddha lineage, and as a result, I reached realization.”
“Hmm…”
In the end, it wasn’t obsession with Mind cultivation itself, but the pursuit of the specific enlightenment contained within it that brought me to realization.
A sense of pity and question for Cheongmun Ryeong suddenly arose in me, so I asked her.
“What if it’s possible to reach the heart of the channel even with a Forehead Gongfa? For example, by pursuing the Forehead Tong and reaching it…”
“Theoretically it is possible, but Forehead Gongfa would be far more difficult than Buddhist Gongfa.”
“Why is that?”
“Buddhist Gongfa always includes the existence of Yi-nyeon and the understanding of its circulation. The Seven Kings themselves even said that Yi-nyeon dwells inside us in the form of a statue. Forehead Gongfa is different. It is only something one can perform alone. That is why the difficulty of reaching realization with Forehead Gongfa is infinitely higher than with Buddhist Gongfa.”
“Hmm…”
“There’s one more thing.”
She explained another difference between Forehead Gongfa and Buddhist Gongfa.
“If Buddhist Gongfa seeks its foundation from the Seven Kings, then Forehead Gongfa seeks its foundation from the absolute majority of Heaven and Earth. The Heavenly Clan Gongfa and the Earthly Clan Gongfa, in particular, because the Heavenly Clan Gongfa is based on Heaven, the more one cultivates it, the less one becomes concerned with human Yi-nyeon, making realization even more distant.”
“Hmm… I see.”
It seemed that the Heavenly Clan Gongfa, belonging to the Forehead lineage, actually moved one farther from the enlightenment of realization the more one cultivated it.
That made sense, since I had felt the required enlightenments from Heavenly, Earthly, and Mind clans to be opposing as I rose through the realms.
After chatting with her a little more, I thanked her and stood up.
“Thank you for giving me so much enlightenment. Please continue to take care of me as a fellow Great Saint and as a fellow Mind disciple.”
“Haha, a Mind disciple? I only left my master to become independent, so I’m not a disciple… but Seon-sa isn’t the only one who is a disciple.”
With my joke, she countered with her own and saw In-yeon and me off.
At the gate of Tae Yeol Temple, I suddenly wondered about one more thing and asked.
“Oh, by the way, there’s one more thing I’m curious about.”
“What is it?”
“If you don’t want to say it, it’s fine not to. But is there any reason why the name Tae Yeol-jeon of Tae Yeol Temple and your name are the same?”
“….”
“If it’s rude, I apologize.”
“Hmm, no. It’s not such a huge question. It’s nothing special. I have no original name. I was born and raised in Tae Yeol Temple. I don’t know who my real parents are, nor do I want to. I have always identified Tae Yeol Temple with myself as I learned paintings from the great monk who was the previous owner.”
Tae Yeol-jeon kindly explained the origin of her name.
“The great monk told me to return to the secular world, enter Nascent Soul, and find my parents, but he never gave me a Dharma name. But I didn’t want to abandon my connection with Tae Yeol Temple, so I chose my own Dharma name. Tae Yeol-jeon, like the name of the temple itself.”
She bowed and saw us off.
“My name is Tae Yeol-jeon. It’s just the name of a stubborn child who never received one.”
After bowing to her, we turned and left.
The meeting with her made me think of many things and gave me much to gain.
I returned to Cheonbu Mountain from Tae Yeol Temple and asked In-yeon.
“Min-hee unnie?”
“Yeah. Could you do that? You know I didn’t get along with Jeon Myeong-hoon, and you know that my relationship with Kang Min-hee wasn’t good either, right?”
“Hmm, you two weren’t on good terms?”
Kim Yeon looked at me with half-closed eyes.
I was puzzled because I didn’t know the reason.
“Yeah. I’ll contact her once. After all, I have things to talk about with Min-hee unnie… and I wanted to see her.”
“Alright, thank you.”
After a while, Kim Yeon contacted the Black Ghost Valley.
The reply came quickly.
Kkyaaaaah―
A ghost from the Black Ghost Valley had arrived at the training ground where Kim Yeon was cultivating.
Kim Yeon, who had been practicing Wing-to-Wing Dance in front of me, looked at the ghost and it approached her.
She connected her mind with the ghost through the Gimyoseongsimjeon.
After a while, her expression brightened after receiving an answer.
“Ah, oppa! Min-hee unnie says she has about two weeks, so let’s meet right away two weeks from now!”
“Really… as expected…”
The most adorable girl in the world.
She answered so quickly.
However, I felt a strange sensation.
‘Wait, the Kang Min-hee from Seo Lip’s perspective seems to have quite a bit of free time now. Why does she want to meet only after two weeks?’
As I said.
Currently, I was quite close to Kang Min-hee as Seo Lip.
She had quickly become friendly with Seo Lip, strangely feeling as if she knew him.
Thanks to that, I knew she had a decent amount of free time now.
‘But why only after two weeks?’
I thought there must be a reason and tried to read the heavenly secrets.
‘Two weeks from now is the day when yin energy is strongest once a year in the Gwanghan Realm.’
It was like a kind of Winter Solstice.
There seemed to be a reason why it had to be then.
And the two weeks passed.
***
Wuuuung!
‘I’ was flying through the sky using the Flying Technique.
Recently I had been performing many missions for the Black Lin Eagle Gate and had already gathered three hundred merit points.
If I gathered seven hundred or reached the Heavenly Person realm in between, I could officially enter the Ghost Gate.
And today I was also performing a mission.
It was a seven-hundred-point mission personally bestowed by the Ghost Gate Master, Kang Min-hee.
‘Now I understand why she asked In-yeon to meet today.’
Shiiishik―
I cut through the night sky with the Flying Technique and entered the area outside the Human Alliance’s operational zone.
The Han-eum Swamp, a vast marshland on the east side of the operational zone.
The Han-eum Swamp was a yin-rich marshland, and a territory of the Eta Clan, a Heavenly Clan of reptilian form.
I went to the outer edge of the Eta Clan territory and found a place with strong yin energy where human access was allowed.
‘This should be good.’
I found an appropriately yin-laden and deep marsh and released the ghosts I had brought from the Black Ghost Valley.
Already a yin-filled Han-eum Swamp, countless ghosts were released in the middle of the night, and an enormous ghost qi and wailing spread everywhere.
Kkyaaaaah―
Eughh eughh…
Unlike before, since the Ghost Immortal Star Demon Art had entered its orbit, I could change the form of death so that it wouldn’t scare the ghosts, and they no longer fled from me in terror.
[Align the formation!]
As the Ghost King, I issued the command, and the ghosts immediately began drawing formations according to my order.
This was the formation Kang Min-hee had taught me.
After a while, a giant diagram made of ghosts appeared above the swamp of the Han-eum Swamp.
The diagram depicted a great Ghost King, with the character for longevity (壽) inverted on the face of the Ghost King.
I gathered the surrounding yin qi and ghost qi, formed a connection, and chanted the incantation.
And at some point.
Paahhat!
The formation that had been absorbing the yin qi of the Han-eum Swamp suddenly began to spit out yin qi on its own.
Swaaah―
The surroundings became even more yin and eerie.
When the eerie aura reached its peak, I completed all the connections and chanted the final incantation.
[Rotten Soul Secret Door. Open!]
Chwaaah!
For a moment the space seemed to tear apart by a great beast, and the entire area drawn with the diagram instantly rotted.
At the same time, I could see streaks of black darkness flowing into the Gwanghan Realm.
‘Hmm, this looks like some great demon summoning ritual.’
It was only a summoning ritual for my ex-girlfriend, after all.
After a while, the black darkness settled, and I gradually began to sense something coming over from beyond the darkness.
It was a giant ghost object with long disheveled hair, leading thousands of Ghost Kings, and holding black ghost bones in both hands.
Finally, the ghost object inserted the hand holding the ghost bone into the ground of the Gwanghan Realm and began to ascend.
Chiiish―
I wrapped the Ghost Immortal Star Demon Art on the Yin Soul Ghost Curse so that no pain would be felt, and made a long chain to bind the ghost object’s wrists.
Then I began lifting the ghost object into the sky.
After a while, the palm-sized ghost object, with arms that were now about one palm long, finally stepped onto the ground of the Gwanghan Realm.
The numerous Ghost Kings who followed behind the ghost object screamed sadly as the ghost object entered the Gwanghan Realm and remained beyond the darkness, while the dark space I had opened gradually began to close.
And a while later, the body of the palm-sized ghost object began to shrink.
Tsu tsu tsu―
Finally the palm-sized ghost object shrank to the size of a human woman and became a naked woman in the darkness.
[Huuwuuu…]
Like a ghost wail, a breath swept across the Han-eum Swamp.
The swamp within a seventy-li radius froze solid with just that breath.
[It’s warm. As expected, the Gwanghan Realm is nice.]
She smiled wickedly and took one step.
Responding to the surrounding ghost qi, her body was naturally enveloped, and after a while she transformed into the appearance of a woman wearing the black robe of the Black Ghost Valley.
‘That’s…’
The Black Ghost Valley’s black elder.
The original body of Kang Min-hee.
I let my hair down and bowed my head before her.
Now that I was wearing the black robe that was the hallmark of the Black Ghost Valley, she and I looked like a clear master and subordinate.
“The Yin Soul Disciple of the Black Ghost Valley, Seo Lip. The mission given by the elder has been completed.”
[Ah, I see. Well done, Seo Lip.]
She spat white frost with every breath and laughed.
[I’ll give you merit points from the Ghost Gate. That aside… did you bring it?]
“Here it is.”
I offered the censer I had often used to the original body.
[Ah, thank you. In the side path, such things aren’t allowed, you know.]
The seven-hundred-point mission I had been given.
It was to help the Ghost Gate Master and Black Elder Kang Min-hee’s original body enter the Gwanghan Realm from the side path.
[Huuwuuu…]
Using the Wisp Fire to light the censer, she walked to an appropriate spot.
Her shadow then rose with Ghost Kings at least Heavenly Person level, and she froze the water in the direction her gaze was pointing to create an ice chair.
Kang Min-hee sat on the ice chair.
The ice became even more solid with the cold she exhaled and froze tightly.
Kang Min-hee sat on the ice chair and lit the censer.
Blue smoke rose from her mouth.
[I originally wanted to give you this mission to let you enter the Ghost Gate as merit points…]
Kang Min-hee looked at me and said with surprise.
[I didn’t know as the clone, but as the original body, your death… it really goes deep, doesn’t it? Even if I said you’re a Ghost King who faced the god of death at the darkest bottom of the Underworld and crawled back up, I’d believe it. Hahaha…]
“…”
[Your talent, seeing it again, you could reach the Heavenly Person realm with just a little enlightenment in a short time. Rather than entering the Ghost Gate with merit points, aim for the Heavenly Person realm. Save the merit points and use them when you need them. Got it?]
With her kind suggestion, I bowed my head and thanked her.
“Thank you, elder. And… I’ll be going now.”
I knew why Kang Min-hee had not immediately returned to the Black Ghost Valley but had taken a seat in the Han-eum Swamp.
Today was the day she would meet Kim Yeon.
Kang Min-hee had contacted Kim Yeon and added the condition ‘Do not bring Jeon Myeong-hoon and Seo Eun-hyun.’ So I should not be here.
However, Kang Min-hee asked with wide eyes as if to say what kind of words he was speaking.
[What are you saying, Seo Lip? Come here. I have someone I want to meet, and you have to wait until then. Keep me company until then.]
“Hmm… Then when that person comes, I can go?”
[You don’t like me?]
“Ah, no…”
[Why do you keep wanting to leave? You can stay with me. It’s just like meeting an old friend from home…]
I ended up staying with Kang Min-hee by chance.
For a while we chatted, and at some point I was combing her hair.
[Aa, ah. Ah. Hmm.]
“Are you alright?”
“Hmm. Aaaaa. Hmm hmm.”
She began emitting sounds from her throat and said.
“Hmm, good. You comb your hair well. Who taught you?”
‘To you.’
“There was someone who taught you before.”
“Whether I know who or not, you taught it beautifully.”
I recalled the memory of combing her hair when she was tired and combed her hair, occasionally acupressure on the scalp.
Kang Min-hee felt my touch and took a puff of the censer.
Blue smoke rose as she remained silent for a moment.
“It’s cold. The side path… it was a place directly connected to the Ghost Realm, so yin and ghost qi poured in from the Ghost Realm.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s why I miss this warmth. Even as a clone I could feel it indirectly, but as the original body the warmth felt is definitely more intimate.”
She leaned her head on my hand and rested comfortably for a while.
“Should I knead your shoulders?”
“Please.”
I naturally massaged her in the order she used to like.
Under the night sky, warmth gradually spread even to her shoulder that had always been cold.
And time passed.
Paahhat!
From far away, a pink light was coming.
In-yeon.
I felt uncomfortable for breaking my promise, but since Kang Min-hee had said not to go, I stayed.
Taaat!
In the light, In-yeon came out.
Our eyes met with Kang Min-hee’s.
Tuk tuk―
Kang Min-hee immediately took the censer and put it in the pocket dimension, welcoming Kim Yeon warmly.
“Yeon-ah~ It’s been so long! Our little cutie! How have you been?”
“Unnie~ I haven’t been able to… but I wasn’t at my limit.”
Kang Min-hee held both of Kim Yeon’s cheeks with both hands and looked at her cutely, and Kim Yeon smiled happily in response.
After a while of laughing and chatting, Kang Min-hee introduced me to Kim Yeon.
“This is Seo Lip. He’s my close attendant who takes care of me, so you can be together.”
“Ah, of course. Hello, Kim Yeon, the sister of Min-hee unnie. Unnie looks very pretty too!”
“Eh… um… um… thank you.”
There was something I wanted to correct, but I smiled awkwardly and decided to move on for now.
After a while of noisy conversation, they moved to a nearby rock and made a seat with the Pocket Dimension Technique, then began to talk seriously.
I was squeezed between the two and felt the qi rushing, but I endured for now.
During that time.
Kim Yeon, who had been talking to Kang Min-hee, coughed and said in a slightly serious voice.
“Min-hee unnie.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
“Have you met the other colleagues, unnie?”
“Colleagues?”
“The company… people.”
“…No. I haven’t met them. I’ve heard rumors, but I haven’t gone looking, and… Jeon Myeong-hoon that bastard… they said he died?”
“…? The chief hasn’t died.”
“Ah… it seemed like the whole sect was somehow… I must have misheard. Ah, just die. Why isn’t that bastard dead.”
She spoke that way, but deep down she was letting out a relieved thought.
“Hehe, well… it seems like oppa Eun-hyun saved him somehow.”
“….”
“…Unnie.”
“What.”
“I…”
After thinking for a while, Kim Yeon hesitated, then glanced at me and said in Korean so I wouldn’t understand.
“I… Eun-hyun oppa… started dating…”
Kim Yeon looked at Kang Min-hee’s reaction.
For a while they remained silent.
Kim Yeon asked with a glance at Kang Min-hee.
“It’s… fine, right?”