The Path of the Cultivator
A mysterious hum filled my mind, as if an entire tome of teachings had materialized there.
I examined the scrolls one by one, absorbing every detail.
The name of the techniques was **Eonsiksul**, or the Hidden Insight Art. It allowed the user to conceal their consciousness and make their presence appear slightly weaker.
I could wield it using nothing but inner will, no spiritual energy required.
At its core, the principle involved compressing the consciousness and forcing it deep into the dantian. This made the consciousness appear smaller, yet momentarily denser and purer. As a result, cultivation speed could be subtly accelerated.
*Perhaps because these are arts of handling the yi, there are echoes of Wansuigungmurok and its variations.*
I studied every scroll left behind by the hunchbacked old man with quiet reverence.
The final testament of the old man remained readable at the end.
*
*
“…I gratefully accept this fine gift.”
I offered the old man a quiet bow in my heart.
I then had Kim Young-hoon sit nearby.
After that, memories of the bandits around us surfaced.
*The ones called the Tiger Alliance.*
Those thugs had left indelible marks on my life.
**In the first life, before regression.**
*The village was struck by famine, and the Tiger Alliance had swept in, looting everything.*
*Paang, pang!*
I kicked off into the air, heading toward their lair.
The area around Seongseong was far more familiar than any other part of the Yeon Kingdom.
As I reached the cave where the Tiger Alliance had made camp, the stench that greeted me brought a hearty laugh.
*Smell of wine. Rotten vegetables. Dried semen. Rusting weapons. Sweat that had never been washed from the skin.*
Yes, the overwhelming aroma of poverty, ignorance, and violence.
I knew that stench all too well.
The memories of that first life began to replay.
“Come out, everyone.”
My voice was soft yet perfectly clear, echoing inside the cave where the bandits had gathered.
*Sniff, sniff…*
A bandit, face flushed from drinking since noon, staggered toward me with a curved blade in hand.
“You… what are you…?”
“Hahaha…”
Even in his foolish, pathetic state, I felt a strange amusement rise inside me.
Back then, at the peak of my first life, I had wiped out the entire Hyosu River Alliance in moments—far more organized and powerful than these fools.
Truly wretched bandits.
That was the Tiger Alliance.
And I had once bowed my head before their leader, offering everything I owned just to stay alive.
“You… you came to our Tiger Alliance, you brat…”
“It must have been hard, right?”
“Huh…?”
“In your next life, be born with better opportunities.”
*Tuk!*
No sword qi needed.
No fist raised.
I simply flicked the drunken bandit’s head with a finger.
His eyes rolled back, foam spilled from his mouth, and he collapsed.
I had used the technique of piercing the acupoints with my fingertips, shattering the brain in an instant.
No pain, of course.
I stepped deeper into the stinking cave, letting the memories of my first life wash over me once more.
The Tiger Alliance were cruel men.
Yet ironically, most of them had been farmers.
Too weak to muster fighting spirit, they had lost their land to landlords, fled their homes, and become bandits.
Perhaps if my will had been even slightly weaker in that first life, I might have joined them.
These men were simply another possible version of my miserable first life.
*Tuk, tuk!*
I tapped each bandit’s head as I passed, stirring their brains until death came in an instant.
How pitiful they had been.
Yet undeniably guilty.
Deeper into the cave, kidnapped civilians and women lay naked, sprawled across the ground.
I felt their sleeping breaths, then quietly slaughtered every last bandit.
After wandering the cave for what felt like hours, I reached its end.
There, an old man with a beard, drunk and swaying, stared back at me.
He was the leader of the Tiger Alliance.
“…What brings a man like you to command such a lowly bandit gang?”
*Hic…*
The old man blinked, eyes dull, staring at me.
He knew me.
He had been the one who burned my village to the ground in my first life.
Yet now, he was barely a Second-Class Martial Artist at best.
“…What does it matter? Life is painful, so I thought, maybe stealing someone else’s happiness would make mine a little better.”
“So… your life has improved?”
“Haha, you don’t understand? Look at me—do I look happy? Life is pain itself.”
“Why is life pain?”
“Because… pain is pain. Why do you need words?”
Life is pain.
For some reason, I felt a strange sense of sympathy.
Though we stood in different positions, different circumstances.
I could somehow see my own younger self reflected in him.
The weak, fragile man who had been given pain by life but could never understand why it hurt.
Through another weak person’s eyes, I could verify my own past.
“Yes. Life is pain.”
*Heh heh…* Yes… life really…
“But…”
I looked at the bandit leader with pity.
“Even after living, I realized pain is not the end.”
*Tuk.*
I pushed the bandit leader’s head lightly.
Under the pressure of my fingertip, his brain shattered instantly, and he died.
He had probably gone to peace.
I took some silver and cash from the Tiger Alliance’s lair, then stepped back out.
Under the sunlight outside, I could finally breathe.
The nightmare that had haunted me in my first life was no longer there.
Holding the silver I had taken, I went to Seongseong and had an amulet made for me and Kim Young-hoon, along with new clothes.
Then I stormed into the Demonic Sects in the city and wiped them out completely.
After selling the gold and loot from the sects, I bought a suitable manor.
For the next month, I threw everything into teaching Kim Young-hoon.
After about a month, following my instruction to reach **Ogijowon**, Kim Young-hoon smoothly stepped into the realm of **Samhwa Chwijeong**.
*
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*
*
Three flowers bloomed in the air, then returned into Kim Young-hoon’s body.
After a while, light filled his eyes. He moved his **yi** with wonder, practicing forms left and right.
When his **yi** brushed against my consciousness region…
“…! Wait, that… that **yi** of yours… what is it…?”
He stared at me for a long time, eyes wide with astonishment, as if my consciousness ringed around my forehead was something incredible.
I smiled and pulled a blade from the training field.
I raised the **gisu** and quickly demonstrated the **Danak Sword Art**.
Danak Sword, one second—mountain peak.
Danak Sword, two seconds—mountain range.
Danak Sword, three seconds—endless mountains.
Danak Sword, four seconds—mountain wind.
Danak Sword, five seconds—mountain heat.
Danak Sword, six seconds—mountain sparrow.
Danak Sword, seven seconds—mountain echo.
Danak Sword, eight seconds—mountain sound.
Danak Sword, nine seconds—mountain waist.
Danak Sword, ten seconds—dragon tomb.
Danak Sword, eleven seconds—white head.
Danak Sword, twelve seconds—great stem.
Danak Sword, thirteen seconds—cross mountain.
Danak Sword, fourteen seconds—return home.
Danak Sword, fifteen seconds—blade tomb.
Danak Sword, sixteen seconds—endless mountains beyond mountains.
The final, seventeenth second…
*
*
The sixteen- and seventeen-second stances were identical to the twenty-three- and twenty-four-second forms of the original **Danak Sword Art**.
The rest of the technique was fundamentally very similar to the original as well.
After all, it stemmed from the same root. Of course there was no strangeness.
I handed Kim Young-hoon the blade and said, “Did you see just now?”
“…I saw.”
What I had just shown was not a simple sword art.
I had mixed the comprehension of **Ogijowon** and infused thousands of strands of **yi** into the forms, revealing them.
If he continued to explore the true meaning of **Danak Sword**, he would one day reach **Ogijowon**.
“You truly are… a genius. How did you learn such high-level martial arts…”
He exclaimed in amazement, and I let out a bitter smile.
A genius.
“…I am not a genius. Like some colleagues I knew, I simply awakened an unusual ability. Thanks to that power, I reached **Ogijowon** immediately, but after that… there is no limit.”
I spoke so he would not misunderstand, but those few words stayed with me for a long time.
A genius.
A single word that completely denied all my past lives.
But I could not deny it.
The world was full of people who had never been given even the chance I had been offered in every past life.
Instead of arguing against the word “genius,” I taught Kim Young-hoon my swordsmanship, gave him characters and words, and instructed him in martial arts.
Three months later, when he had mastered the characters and words and become familiar with the techniques…
I left the **Wansuigungmurok** at the manor and departed with a message that he should read it upon reaching **Ogijowon**.
In this life, I might never form a great connection with him.
* * *
I left Kim Young-hoon behind and headed toward Seongseong.
Once inside the city, I used **Wansuigungmurok** and **Wansuigungmurok** to slip into the imperial palace undetected.
Then—
*
*
I severed his consciousness region with **Wansuigungmurok**, closed in, and beheaded Emperor Makri-jeong without a sound.
At this time, it seemed the imperial guard had not yet been established, so only the royal guards remained.
I took the head, severed the formations and talismans with invisible spells, and safely exited the palace.
As I left the palace, I quickened my steps and walked for days until I reached familiar terrain.
The territory of the Jin Clan.
*
*
The Jin Clan’s formations glowed softly under the midnight moon.
*This should be easy…*
I easily sliced open the formations, slipped into their territory, and entered unseen.
Though called the Jin Clan territory, most residents were low-level Qi Condensation cultivators who had no connection to cultivation arts.
And because most people in the manor had no talent for cultivation, the formations were not particularly formidable.
I erased my presence completely with **Wansuigungmurok** and headed toward the training grounds.
Beside the training field lay a dormitory.
Countless breaths and **yi** flowed from within.
*
*
I walked slowly toward the building.
The scent of sweat rose.
*
*
My disciples.
No, the children I had taught in a previous timeline.
Yet I knew.
These children no longer remembered me.
The ones I remembered were those who had received training, who had helped me develop martial arts, who had grown alongside me.
Yes, they were the same children I had known.
But the target was not the same.
The disciples I remembered could never be seen again.
“…Even in your sleep, does it hurt?”
I looked at the sleeping children’s **yi** and smiled bitterly.
They were probably dreaming of the nightmare where their relatives had been slaughtered by Makri Clan cultivators.
Most of the **yi** carried a dull light.
For these children, this life held only pain.
*These children are clearly not my disciples.*
However.
*Still… I cannot pretend not to know them.*
I had lived long enough to realize that pain was not the end.
*
*
“Live.”
Even if life is pain, if something else can be found beyond pain, then life itself holds sufficient value.
“Please… live.”
I smiled one last time at my disciples, then headed toward a warehouse behind the Jin Clan territory.
The warehouse was thick with ominous qi.
I threw open the door.
Hundreds of crystal orbs hung inside, each containing a soul.
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*
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The hundreds of orbs shattered at once, and the souls inside began to emerge.
*
*
The souls emerged, suddenly free of their grudges, and rose into the sky as pure light.
The sight of countless souls flying into the heavens and gradually fading was both melancholic and beautiful.
After watching for a while, I stepped out of the warehouse, kicked into the air, and left.
The surrounding talismans and characters flared to life as if I had touched some inner technique, but I sliced through the formations and quickly escaped.
After that, I hurriedly left the Jin Clan territory and bid farewell to my disciples in my heart.
*Farewell…*
In this life, I would live a somewhat better life.
Once outside the Jin Clan territory, I headed toward the border of the Yeon Kingdom.
Beyond the border lay the Byeokra Kingdom.
I planned to visit the Cheongmun Clan.
There, I would learn about the path of the cultivator.