Together with Everyone
My head was hazy. The sunlight was clear. And a chaotic flood of information rushed into my mind. Age: 30. Hobbies: gambling and whoring, drinking and singing. Occupation: a charcoal maker, a charcoal peddler. Single… My head felt like it was splitting apart. It had felt like a dream. I had been Seo Eun-hyun, the charcoal peddler. Yet in a moment of confusion, I had dreamed something strange. How many thousands of years I had lived… A flash of light! I grabbed my head and roared. “I am me!” Those memories I would never forget. How could I forget that I was me? I was not the charcoal peddler Seo Eun-hyun! I was Seo Eun-hyun from the soap company! “I am Seo Eun-hyun!” I gripped my head and rose from the spot. I had not forgotten. A moment ago, I had been looking at the salt mountains outside Bongrae-do, and I had fainted while being bathed in the light that the salt mountains had emitted. “Yuk Rin said that if I enter the inside of Bongrae-do, I will fall into the illusion formation inside it and become one of the characters in the formation.” And that this formation changes to fit each of us every time. “At the very least, this is certain.” When he had said that, Yuk Rin had not been lying, and I had continued to interrogate him for over a hundred years to find out the truth. When I, clutching my throbbing head, stood up and sorted out my situation… Murmurs filled the air from all around. Regaining my senses, I looked around and found that I had woken up on a small raised platform in front of some thatched hut. And beyond the low fence of the thatched hut, the humans who seemed to be neighbors were whispering while watching me. “That bastard Seo, after drinking himself senseless last night, must not have his wits about him.” “Hey, hurry up and go on your way. If you get caught by that punk again, you’re in big trouble!” “Ugh, the village having a gangster like that makes my heart uneasy.” “Still, why is he always like that today?” “Don’t know. If it’s that guy Seo’s personality, he might be thinking of dumping him in the mountains!” “Hi-guy, it’s terrifying. Such an unfilial son!” “….” I looked at the memories implanted in my mind and the reactions of the people around me and understood the situation. “The original charcoal peddler Seo Eun-hyun in this formation is a character who lost his parents to cholera when he was thirteen and lived in this village as a complete thug without ever marrying until he was thirty.” This illusion formation was extraordinarily detailed. As I looked around at the neighbors, they all fled with expressions as if they had stepped on something foul. “…?” For a moment, I thought a few of them hadn’t seen it, but was it just my imagination? After glancing at them, I reached out my hand. It had been an attempt to use raw human labor to uproot the rear mountain directly behind the charcoal peddler Seo Eun-hyun’s house. However, the human labor did not move. I tried to pull up some other techniques such as Cheong-mun-ryeong’s Ten Thousand Scales Tree Ocean or my own Great Desert Dead Sea Formation or some other grand formation, but nothing registered. “Hmph…” I plucked one of the rice straws used to make the fence and swung it straight on the platform. Swoosh! I had trained with swords for thousands of years. Even without any inner energy, swinging that single rice straw alone made a dent on the platform. I briefly gazed at that dent, then swung the rice straw at my arm. Slash— A slash on my arm, blood seeping out. “Even the physical strength and toughness accumulated through the Chang-ryeong Seong-gwang Ochae Daebop is now at the level of an ordinary person.” When I tried to focus my consciousness on my dantian, I realized it had also regressed to the time when I was a criminal. “This is…” Of course, even without consciousness, I could still observe my own body, so I calmly examined my dantian. “The Golden Elixir is gone.” The Law Treasure inside it had vanished as well. I was completely, exactly like Seo Eun-hyun at the beginning stage in Deungsunhyang. “Not quite that much.” Now that I thought about it, it wasn’t quite that much. The charcoal peddler Seo Eun-hyun in this formation had always had black hands and feet from working with charcoal, and his skin had been rather rough. “Huuu…” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. And I felt something strange. “There is no qi.” Remarkably, there was no spiritual energy in the air. Recalling the events on the surface of the Thunder Star Sea from when I had been with Jang Ik and those hot springs, I tried to draw upon the All-Heaven Sword. However. “….” Nothing happened. “…This damned world.” It seemed fundamentally that the laws themselves were twisted in this world. “That damned Yuk Rin…” What kind of simple illusion was this! It was no different from another world! At least, I didn’t have much fear because the ability to see karma and the martial arts I had accumulated itself remained, but upon realizing that there had been something false in Yuk Rin’s information, I grew irritated. “That damned guy said he could use qi…” However, while rummaging through the memories of the charcoal peddler Seo Eun-hyun, I realized there were also youkai-like beings in this world. I clutched my head. “Damn it, can youkai in this world use youki to some extent?” In other words, it was not a lie that Yuk Rin had said he could use qi according to his own standard. Gritting my teeth, I first circled around the area to find companions or Mugeuk Sect disciples. I had some approximate memories as the charcoal peddler Seo Eun-hyun, but not all memories were complete. I could find Yeon Wi right nearby. She was in the tiled house across from mine, playing with her three-year-old son while dressed cleanly. “That boy looks like Yeon-jin…” “Uhm… Venerable Yeon Wi.” I first spoke to her, and she looked at me, her eyes blazing, went into the kitchen, and came running with a rice paddle, slapping my cheek. “You’re asking for rice again! Shameless thing! Get out of here! All you’ll get from me is the rice grain stuck to this cheek, so scram!” “Hmph, Master. Why so much commotion?” “No, honey, another village thug came, didn’t he?” Creak— From inside the tiled house, the door opened, and a dignified man who looked like Heon-won poked his head out. He saw me and, glancing upward, clicked his tongue and said, “What a pitiful young man. Master, you understand, don’t you? Didn’t I tell you before? The parents of the Seo family helped our parents back then. Just give them a bag of rice and send them off.” “Ugh… I understand, honey.” Yeon Wi trembled, then obediently went to the kitchen according to Heon-won’s words, scooped up a bag of rice, and handed it to me. “Ugh… Why to someone like me… the precious rice for my husband and son to eat…” She handed me the rice with her hands shaking, and I received the rice from Yeon Wi in a daze. “You’ve got the rice, now scram! And if you come asking for that so-called parental favor once more, I’ll give you a good beating!” When I received the rice, she kicked me and chased me out the gate, then slammed the door shut. I examined the rice I had received. Gravel and sand were mixed in with the rice. “…Judging by her personality, Yeon Wi is certainly the one.” I recalled Heon-won’s face as a husband. “He didn’t have any karma visible.” I recalled Yuk Rin’s words. “This formation creates illusions based on the target’s memories.” It seemed that Yeon Wi’s husband had been a pure character of this world created based on her memories. “Then the neighbors who could see karma earlier…” I remembered their appearances and recalled that they were characters I had seen in the Mugeuk Sect. “I see, so the disciples are set to appear in their living forms, not as ghosts.” I frowned. “That aside, why hasn’t Yeon Wi regained her senses?” I had already regained my senses, but she seemed to still mistake herself for a character in this world. “Yeon Wi has already died, but she still possessed the consciousness of a Four Pillars cultivator.” Yet she was clinging so desperately to her own essence and the world’s settings. “I need to find the other companions…” I decided to first circle the entire village. And while circling the village, I unexpectedly learned that my reputation was terrifying. Children burst into tears the moment they saw my face. Village maidens would happily chat until I approached, then turn serious and walk as far away as possible. The village elders, seeming like old men, trembled in fear and fled with their canes. Muscular young men spat on the ground. “Damn it, why did my setting have to be a thug?” In the meantime, I stopped in my tracks, startled. Because I had spotted Kim Yeon and Buk Hyang-hwa ahead. They were walking along the road, laughing cutely. Since their appearance was too similar to that in the Mugeuk Sect, I approached them just in case. “Hey…” And Buk Hyang-hwa and Kim Yeon both jumped back in fright. “Kyaaah! You scoundrel! What are you trying to do to us!” “You’re not letting Yeon-unnie out of your sight? You pervert! What are you trying to do this time!” Kim Yeon backed away with a terrified face, and Buk Hyang-hwa also backed away while blocking my path. “Wait a minute, I have something to say.” I approached them in surprise that even Kim Yeon, who had the largest consciousness domain exceeding Integration Grand Completion, had not regained her senses. “Even the one with the largest consciousness domain, Kim Yeon, hasn’t regained her senses? Then how am I supposed to regain my senses in this formation? Do I need some kind of stimulus?” Buk Hyang-hwa’s face gradually turned fierce as I approached, and she pulled a small silver dagger from her pocket and gripped it. “Hey, calm down. I just want to check something for a moment!” “You want to check my bosom too, you villain! If you come any closer, I’ll swing this!” “No, Buk Hyang-hwa, just put that down for a second…” “Get out! Remove that hand!!” Bang, swoosh! Buk Hyang-hwa let out a sharp sound and swung her silver dagger at me, and I, startled, reached out my hand. “Hey, wait, it’s dangerous, stop swinging!” In an instant, I grabbed Buk Hyang-hwa’s hand and subdued her. Kim Yeon began to sob, grabbing the hem of my pants and pleading. “P-please don’t touch our Hyang-hwa! N-no, just touch me instead!” “It’s not like that…” At that moment. Swoosh! I felt something flying toward me from behind and immediately turned around and caught the incoming stone. “Oh…! You were there too.” With a relieved face, I waved at the man with a furious expression who had thrown the stone at me, Jeon Myeong-hoon. “Hey, Jeon Myeong-hoon! You remember me?” However, Jeon Myeong-hoon approached me with a furious expression and slapped my cheek. “…?” “Getting hit by him is rare…” Since this guy’s anger had been there for more than a day, I decided to speak to see if Jeon Myeong-hoon had recovered his memories. “Hey, why are you hitting me all of a sudden?” However, Jeon Myeong-hoon relentlessly scolded me with a furious face. “Shut up! You damned thug, stop harassing the village maidens! You don’t know the village is in chaos because of you! You think I’ll let it slide just because you were friends before! If you keep acting like this in the village, I’ll ask my sister to have you kicked out of the village!” He raised his hand as if he was about to slap my cheek again, and at that moment, a woman pulled him from behind. “No! Honey, no matter what, slapping your own son right in front of us…” “What? What are you talking about?” I shuddered when I saw her. She looked like Geum So-hae. She pulled Jeon Myeong-hoon closer and then awkwardly smiled at me. “Haha, hello. We’ll be going now.” The character resembling Geum So-hae grabbed Jeon Myeong-hoon’s wrist and fled with him somewhere. Jeon Myeong-hoon entered the tiled house where Yeon Wi had been. It seemed that the “sister” Jeon Myeong-hoon had mentioned was Yeon Wi. Thanks to Jeon Myeong-hoon stopping me, Buk Hyang-hwa and Kim Yeon quickly fled and disappeared from my sight. I sighed. “…Damn it.” When I opened my eyes, I had become the village thug charcoal peddler of Bongrae-do.