Together at Last
“Umm…”
I recalled that madman who had charged at me with feral rage, only to be instantly regenerated after absorbing my attack. Even in my fury, I could not shake the image of him. That warrior’s body was a perfect vessel for endless cultivation. He carried every condition a true fighter could desire.
“You truly possessed a body ideal for martial training.”
Every swing of a weapon, every blow landed, every clash with an opponent. It was not mere physical advantage. It was a race born of raw lust. Any species that felt sexual arousal during combat would find every martial art and body-refining technique effortlessly mastered.
‘I should not have allied with the human race, who devour and exploit others for their own ends. We were the true Yin-Yang opposites, after all.’
Honestly, the sticky emotion left me feeling slightly uncomfortable. Yet in every other respect, he was the ideal fighter.
Kim Young-hoon, watching my reaction, let out a smug laugh.
“You finally understand why I am not a warrior, do you?”
“Hmm…”
I hesitated a moment, then shook my head.
“Umm… I am sorry. Honestly, I still do not know. Why am I not a warrior?”
I truly had no idea. I spoke honestly without pretense.
Kim Young-hoon condensed the surrounding qi into a weapon. A golden blade materialized in his grip.
“What do you see in my hand?”
“A sword.”
I answered at once, gazing at the will embedded in the blade.
“Correct. A warrior is one who moves with a weapon in hand.”
Kim Young-hoon and I stepped outside the hall to continue our conversation.
Whoosh!
Upon reaching the edge of the martial domain, he swung the blade he still held.
“What did I just swing at you?”
“A martial art.”
“Precisely. We are the ones who train martial arts.”
He swung again. This time, he meant to kill me, so I drew the All-Heaven Sword and met him head-on.
Boom!
We had poured enough power to split oceans into both weapons, yet our force control was perfect. No shockwave erupted.
“What clashed just now?”
“Intention.”
“Correct. Warriors swing weapons to create martial arts, then clash those arts with their own intention.”
Uuuung!
His eyes blazed golden.
“In the end it is all about intention. That intention is our soul. We carry countless intentions and manifest artistry through them. Though we fight with weapons, we are never lost in the fight itself. But do you remember what the Tuma Pirates held in their hands?”
I pictured Jin Ma-yeol, eyes shining with lust as he charged at me.
What he held was no ordinary chain scythe or sword. It was desire. He had drowned in raw lust. He was utterly consumed by it.
“…I see.”
Only now did I understand what Kim Young-hoon had been trying to say.
“You meant the ‘what’ to be placed inside the weapon, did you not?”
“That is correct. Thinking back, I remembered something from before. Come down here.”
Whoosh!
Kim Young-hoon spoke and immediately stepped downward.
It was the deep sea of the ancient-power realm.
Thud—
He was still standing on the surface of the deep sea as though it were solid ground.
“You are strong. But if what I felt that day was not my illusion, then your martial path is incomplete.”
“Indeed… I had merged the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram with puppetry and martial arts.”
“That is not what I mean.”
He shook his head.
“I said it plainly: the martial path is about what you place inside the weapon.”
“That is correct.”
“Yet how many weapons do you possess?”
Sluuurp, sluuurp!
The surface of the domain rippled. The water above where Kim Young-hoon stood trembled.
“I had wondered for a long time why you could not stand on this domain surface. I thought that once one reached our realm it would not be difficult, yet you struggled. Later I found the answer.”
He smiled.
“The martial path is the pursuit of what to place inside the weapon. But you have too many weapons. You have not placed true intention into every one of them. Therefore your martial path remains incomplete. Because it is incomplete, your martial realm is unstable and you cannot stand on the domain surface.”
Whoosh!
The golden blade in his hand blazed as though the stars themselves had been summoned.
“You asked me how to cut stars? The real stars cannot be cut, but I can cut things similar to them.”
Whoosh—
When he swung the blade, the sea seemed to ripple and split. Countless worlds below the domain sea began to flicker. Among them floated fragments of realms filled with starlight.
Kim Young-hoon swung toward one such fragment. He spun once in the air. The blade traced a perfect circle. The moment it finished, the starlight split apart. Following the circle’s path, the ‘light’ of this entire sea split.
Crack!
Splitting the Heavens!
An illusion of the sky dividing into two halves rose over the entire sea.
Kim Young-hoon wiped sweat from his brow and laughed heartily.
“I know you possess many weapons. At least four of them contain true intention. The rest are meaningless. So either discard every trivial one, or if you refuse to discard them, make every single one your own. Do that and…”
Through Kim Young-hoon I felt the key to solving Jang Ik’s trial.
“Stars can be cut.”
Whoosh—
The split sky returned. He had not cut space itself, only the light inside the space. A divine technique.
I bowed to Kim Young-hoon.
“I am grateful for your guidance.”
The path ahead had become clear.
‘As I thought…’
I thanked Kim Young-hoon, then drew the jade blade from my heart. A jade blade of emerald hue rested in my palm. One swing and I could shatter an entire sea. No—Jang Ik’s words were right. I could cut stars.
Yet I did not swing it at the sky. Instead I aimed the jade blade straight at Kim Young-hoon’s heart.
Boom!
Jang Ik’s jade blade lodged inside Kim Young-hoon’s heart. It vanished into the depths of the heart like a pin sunk into a cushion. Kim Young-hoon blinked and asked,
“What is this? It does not seem to be inside my heart…”
“Try injecting intention into the jade blade and letting it resonate. You will meet someone interesting.”
‘My disciple must become Kim Young-hoon.’
“Thank you for the advice. I shall take my leave now.”
After delivering Jang Ik’s strike, I gave Kim Young-hoon the key to contact him and returned.
The lesson was brief, yet it was profound.
‘Yes… that was right.’
I had mastered too much now. Could I truly imbue every single thing I had learned with true meaning?
‘No.’
I had once believed that combining the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram with martial arts while forging a sword with Hong Su-ryeong was true integration. But now I saw it was merely the creation of one extra weapon.
I drew the All-Heaven Sword and began practicing the simplified Danak Sword Art from the very beginning, from the first second of Moonblade all the way to the thirtieth second of Mountain Heart.
‘I should have made the thirty-first second as well.’
I went to the Martial Unity Training Ground and began organizing everything I had learned. The Wol-do-ip-cheon scripture, the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram from the Cheongmun Clan Estate, the Ten Thousand Scales Tree Ocean, Goe-gun’s circuits, Gigoego, Gui-tong Jang-seong-gong, Eumhon Gwijumun, Baekran Chukseongmun, Changryeong Seonggwang Ochae Daebop, Myeonsingeobcheon and Leido Gongbeop, Mansang Inyeondo and Yuk-geuk Eum-rae-shin, Dae-mak-sa-hae-seong, and many others.
‘I had mastered quite a lot.’
I had even forged many of them myself. The Black Ghost Valley Secret Scripture I made recently, along with everything I used daily, was numerous.
I recalled the countless technique manuals and rethought Kim Young-hoon’s words.
‘I have many weapons, yet I cannot place true intention into every one…’
What then? How could I place intention inside the weapons?
‘There is only one way.’
I unfolded the Danak Sword Art and began comparing the countless technique manuals to the martial arts movements of Danak Sword Art.
‘I will melt every single one of my techniques into one unified form.’
And then I would merge martial arts and cultivation. It would not be the simple integration of heart-and-sky seen in the latter half of Danak Sword Art. This would be the process of uniting everything I had ever learned.
‘Let us begin.’
To cut the stars. And to advance further! No matter how many years it took, no matter how much hellish training, I would do it!!!
And so twelve years passed.
‘It is not easy.’
I had successfully melted Eumhon Gwijumun, Baekran Chukseongmun, Heuksaek Hyeol-ru-hwa, Yuk-geuk Eum-rae-shin, and Dae-mak-sa-hae-seong into the sword. But the sword itself possessed forms. Even if I melted those techniques into one movement, forms arose from the combination of movements. I had to melt the techniques into every single form and every connection of forms.
‘It is endless.’
I had started without hesitation, yet I had no idea when it would end. Still, I continued. Twenty years passed.
‘The curse I felt last time was no illusion.’
It still lingered above the sky. I consulted Yeon Wi and Song Jin, but they could not see the heavenly calamity I saw. Yeon Wi said I must be possessed by an evil spirit and prepared a burning exorcism, but I hung her upside down and brought her back to her senses. My illusion was real—the curse never ceased. Raids on other seas had become frequent, and they kidnapped cultivators often. I rescued them each time, and those who had been taken learned caution, yet my heart remained uneasy. Recently, the Yuan-ying stage demon Yuk-yun of the Half-human Half-beast race had been torching places and attacking cultivators across the branches of Mugeuk Sect. I wanted to capture and interrogate him, but he always vanished when I searched. It was frustrating. As sect leader I handled official duties, built the Gangnyeong Axis, and focused on melting my martial arts and cultivation into one. Thirty years passed.
Crack, whoosh!
While I was cultivating, a heart demon arrived. I had succeeded in melting every technique into one single form. The problem came after. I had to apply the same melting process to every single form and connection of the Danak Sword Art. It was beyond endless! My talent was far too lacking!
Crack, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The demon of self-immolation had come. I was devouring the heart demon that had come to me.
“I can do it! I can do it! I can do it…!”
Eyes rolling back, I swallowed the heart demon and shouted.
“I must do it…!”
I had grown tired of whining and sitting in despair over lacking talent long ago. My age was already four thousand and seven hundred. I could not sit in childish excuses for talent any longer!
“I can! No! I can!”
Talent was only an excuse. If I lacked it, I would melt my own body and still succeed! I had experienced this many times. So…
“I will!”
I rose, not sat, and swung the sword while melting the techniques into it. Forty years passed.
‘It seems once I sink into cultivation I fall into madness.’
At some point my mind had begun accelerating like before. I did not notice how much time had passed until I regained awareness. What I did know was that integrating every technique into the Danak Sword Art had made me feel time was running short. How many times had I repeated this madness? I was certain I had now melted every technique into the first half of the Danak Sword Art—the forms from the first second to the twelfth second. Only the middle and latter halves remained.
‘I am going! I am going…!’
I crushed sea monsters and melted the techniques. Fifty years passed.
‘How many times have I flared while crushing sea monsters and building the Gangnyeong Axis?’
I finally succeeded in melting every single one of the thirty-second forms of the Danak Sword Art with all my techniques. The remaining task was to melt the hundreds of thousands of forms and connections that the Danak Sword Art contained.
“Khhahahaha!”
Crack, crack, crack!
I tore the face of the heart demon attacking me and swallowed it, then smashed the head of a sea monster to mine gemstones. Remarkably, this sea monster had been strong; its skull held an enormous gemstone, and inside it lay the rare eye-observing demon. I hummed while mining the gemstone and saw my own reflection in it. Why? I felt that the mad Jin Ma-yeol and my appearance were remarkably similar. Did that mean I was not a warrior? Was what I was doing not the martial path? I had almost asked Kim Young-hoon, but I remembered he had been absent lately. He must have been communing with Jang Ik in a secluded place. If my talent was like his, how would Jang Ik react? What insight would he gain from Jang Ik? Could he surpass the wall and show me hope beyond Sitting Liberation and Standing Death? A sudden self-contempt washed over me. The contempt I felt toward my former self who believed Kim Young-hoon would reach the next realm first was profound. And along with that self-contempt I realized I was still a warrior. The very fact that I craved the next realm proved I still sought higher martial paths. I was different from Jin Ma-yeol! The Tuma Pirates’ martial path held only lust, but mine held the burning desire to reach higher! I found comfort in that fact and continued training. Sixty years passed.
“Groooooaarrrraaaahhh!!!”
Finally!
I had melted every single one of my techniques into every single form! In actual time, when I asked cultivators it was around seventy years, but because I had accelerated my mind and integrated the martial arts, it felt as though centuries had passed. I was not happy, however.
“Why does this keep happening to me?! Why?!”
I unfolded the sword. Countless techniques followed each form of the sword. This sword was a curse, a blessing, the master’s grace, the fruit of my effort, the heart of Seo Lip, the will of Myeonsingeobcheon, the research of Black Ghost Valley, the will of Changcheon Gaebyeokmun. And inside the forms, Mansang Inyeondo had seeped in.
Whoosh—
“Groooooaarrrraaaahhh!!!”
A thick white mist seeped into the forms and I screamed while trying to unfold them. But it was wrong. They twisted. They warped. They began to break. The forms spiraled out of control.
Boom!
In the end the forms refused to follow my intention and collapsed. At some point they exploded. I had succeeded in merging every form. But once Mansang Inyeondo entered, the forms went mad. While I desperately tried to capture the forms and dance the sword dance, I experienced something I had never felt before.
Boom!
The All-Heaven Sword slipped from my hand.
“…”
I had dropped the sword. I could not understand how such a thing had happened and my hands trembled.
“I… I…”
I had dropped the sword? It was something that should never have happened. But it had. No—more accurately, the sword had vanished from my hand for an instant. My grip, forged over a lifetime, had reached abnormal strength. I was confident I could withstand a Star Shattering stage cultivator’s grip with nothing but my grip. Yet even the strongest grip could not hold something that suddenly disappeared. I stopped martial arts training for a while and focused only on sect duties. Why had this happened? Eighty years passed.
‘It seems my sword art was not listening to me.’
Recently I had seen Buk Hyang-hwa and Kim Yeon together often. They now slept in the same bed and called each other “sister.” “Why are you so late, Buk?” “I told you not to call me that, Kim.” “You have a sky-like older sister!” “Kyaaak! Stop grabbing my hair!” They bickered over small things, yet they always held hands and walked together as if nothing had happened. I suddenly realized something.
“Ah…”
That was why my sword art had not listened. I had thought Mansang Inyeondo was my own technique, but it was not. As Song Jin had said, affinity is something created together with the other party. Since it was created with the other party, it was not my own technique. I had tried to weave something that was not mine into my sword, so of course it did not listen. I still did not know why it exploded at the end, but I knew one thing.
“We must resonate.”
From that day I began training stopping energy, not moving energy. It was training to feel Mansang Inyeondo even more deeply. And ninety years passed.
‘I gazed at the orb Buk Hyang-hwa had given me and compared it to the Colorless Glass Sword.’
Inside her orb, a gemstone she had spat out was sealed, acting as an enormous power source. The orb indeed radiated terrifying power. But Buk Hyang-hwa seemed to have made one mistake. She was still only mid-Yuan-ying stage and had not noticed something. If I placed my consciousness inside the orb, I felt nothing. That meant the gemstone was not sealed inside it. The orb was connected to ‘somewhere,’ and the power source used by the Buk Hyang-hwa fleet was not the gemstone’s power but power drawn from ‘somewhere.’ I had once experimented and wondered if Mansang Inyeondo was the connection, but it was not. Mansang Inyeondo and the orb produced no reaction.
‘I will have Kim Yeon search for the place connected to the orb using her huge consciousness.’
‘…So even with the orb I cannot understand the secret of Mansang Inyeondo.’
I gazed into the Colorless Glass Sword, the origin of Mansang Inyeondo. Three thousand swords fused together became a normal law treasure, but when fused as one it became a Four Pillars level law treasure. The Colorless Glass Sword, the foundation of my most precious memories, fused with the All-Heaven Sword would become a true Integration stage law treasure. The glass of the Colorless Glass Sword, refined for thousands of years with my Danfire, had changed; it was no longer glass but something like another mineral. I observed the Colorless Glass Sword for a long time, but there was nothing special.
“Sigh…”
Even now I had not conquered Mansang Inyeondo. Even now! I had! Not fully understood Mansang Inyeondo! I wanted to shout “Heaven!” but Mansang Inyeondo was not a call to heaven; it was my own creation of affinity. Shouting at heaven would change nothing. I sighed and handed the orb back to Buk Hyang-hwa, then held my breath and held it again. I discussed affinity with Song Jin, Yeon Wi, Hong Beom and others who had experience or were trustworthy. About a hundred years passed. Song Jin died.