The Void Within (Chapter 433)
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.>
Rain poured down after the death of the Small Person Clan elder.>
“The river bend of Kyung-chang is known as the sudden storm,”>
a Yuhwa Clan historian announced, stepping forward to give the name of the manifestation that had once lived inside Kyung-chang.>
“You felt the power erupt suddenly from that tiny needle while you were exchanging blows with him,”>
the man said, watching my reaction.>
“Indeed. It was a power that should never have come from such a small body.”>
I had already guessed the reason, but I asked anyway, wanting the full truth.>
“Kyung-chang was an individual, yet he was far more than that. He was the king of the countless Small Person Clans gathered in the Three Wood Grove, the ruler of them all. He had always fought connected to his people, borrowing their strength. By gathering their tiny sparks of qi and amplifying them in an instant, he created a storm that turned disaster into victory. That was the river bend of Kyung-chang. And… as you would expect, if you borrow something from someone, you must eventually return it.”>
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.>
I stood in the downpour, watching the will of Kyung-chang scatter around me like embers in the rain.>
It was breathtaking.>
Moments earlier, countless will-spirits had flooded the sky above, delivering power to Kyung-chang. Now, without their king, that same mass of will poured down as sorrow, drenching the heavens and drenching the earth in black rain.>
Beneath the falling water, the qi of every clan Kyung-chang had once borrowed began to return to its rightful owner.>
But that was not the end of it.>
“If you borrow something, the world demands you repay it with interest. The Small Person Clan king has returned every spark of enlightenment and every oath he gained from his people during that battle.”>
“…I see.”>
I finally understood why Kyung-chang had accepted my Asim-geom without the slightest hesitation.>
“He never had much time left… did he?”>
“Yes. The Small Person Clans live less than one-fifth as long as humans. Even reaching One Step Before the Throne could not extend their lives beyond three thousand years. He endured for twenty thousand years by eating the spiritual medicines stolen from the sage-envoys of the Three Wood Grove and the Heavenly Realm of the Spirits. But it seems even that was his limit.”>
The king who had offered his own life for his people, lifting the entire clan one step higher in cultivation.>
That was Kyung-chang.>
The man who had awakened just before my eyes that very morning and died that same evening.>
I looked at the Yuhwa Clan historian and asked.>
“You people have the same fierce resolve as Kyung-chang. Is there some reason you still choose to fight?”>
“…I cannot speak in detail, but we each carry our own burdens and the twists of life. After countless hardships and storms, we have survived and forged our oaths to reach this realm.”>
He met my eyes steadily.>
“My name is Ryeo-hwa. I am a disciple of the Heaven-Sinking Venerable. I cannot tell you my entire life, but one truth is certain: even if I had stood before my master moments ago, I, along with the entire council, would have thrown away my life without hesitation. Anyone who had reached the third stage of manifestation would have done the same.”>
Only then did I realize where I stood.>
The territory of those who could sacrifice their lives for something other than themselves.>
Those who could risk everything for something greater than survival.>
We called them kings.>
And so everyone here was a king in his own right.>
This place was the forest where palaces were built for kings.>
The Three Wood Grove.>
The Small Person Clans had gathered to watch the funeral of their king until the very end.>
Perhaps because they had shared his feelings, none of them resented me.>
The short, intense meeting with Kyung-chang and the death that followed had left me with a clear understanding of the Sim Clan realm.>
Later, I respectfully asked the names of all twenty-one members of the Supreme Council of the Sim Clan.>
Among them, the five names I most deeply engraved into my heart were those who had endured my pressure best: the Small Person Clan king Kyung-chang, the Grand Warrior Jae-hu of the Miri Clan, the Elder Du-yeong of the Yak-gyun Clan, the Prophet Ryeo-hwa of the Yuhwa Clan, and the strongest Yu-yeon of the Hakok Clan.>
Somehow, my instincts told me these five would remain strongly bound to me even after leaving the Three Wood Grove.>
Thus I truly joined the Sim Clan.>
* * *>
It had been several days since I began exchanging with the Sim Clan.>
At the edge of the Three Wood Grove, in a small shrine built entirely of Three Wood, I was guided inside by the Supreme Council.>
“Our master left you a final instruction. According to his will, you must enter seclusion inside this Three Wood Shrine.”>
“Seclusion…?”>
Ryeo-hwa, who had become deputy leader of the Supreme Council after Kyung-chang’s death, nodded.>
“Yes. Our master said that when a new person reaches One Step Before the Throne in the Sim Clan after his departure, that person must be left completely alone and forced into seclusion. You are not to emerge until the task is completed.”>
“I see…”>
It sounded impossible, but I nodded anyway.>
Somehow it reminded me of Jang Ik’s intentions.>
‘He wants me to properly absorb the enlightenment of One Step Before the Throne.’>
The Heavenly Realm’s journey was never easy to leave behind.>
But the Sim Clan’s path sometimes let go as well.>
Their cultivation relied solely on enlightenment, so once they gained a realm they could lose it again.>
Jang Ik was probably urging seclusion to prevent that from happening.>
Inside the Three Wood Shrine, a formation blocked all light from entering.>
It looked like it had been made to represent an endless void.>
“What is the condition for emerging from seclusion?”>
“Simple.”>
Whoosh.>
Ryeo-hwa lifted a single lowest-grade spiritual stone into her palm.>
“Fill this shrine with qi at the level of the spiritual stone in your hand and you may leave.”>
“I see…”>
It sounded easy enough, like filling an entire house with a single coin.>
After sensing the qi within the stone, I nodded and sat in the center of the dark shrine.>
Whoosh.>
Upon closer inspection, the inside of the shrine had a spatial compression formation active. Sitting in the center made the space feel far larger than it was.>
‘No, it’s not just spatial compression…’>
It felt as if the Sim Clan’s secret arts had reshaped the very space itself, much like how Jang Ik had transformed part of Park-do into a habitable planet for living beings.>
“Then I shall borrow your fortune, my disciple. I hope you complete our master’s task and emerge safely.”>
“I will.”>
Creak. Bang!>
After handing me the spiritual stone, Ryeo-hwa closed the shrine door behind me.>
In the darkness, the lowest-grade spiritual stone gave off only the faintest light.>
‘This is roughly the amount of qi a martial artist exhales through breathing meditation once.’>
To fill an entire shrine with so little… the task sounded difficult and strangely enjoyable.>
‘Since it has come to this, I should stabilize my realm and leave.’>
There were already too many complicated events involving Buk Hyang-hwa. Taking time here to organize my thoughts would be good.>
Whoosh.>
I observed my own body while simultaneously scanning the trends of humanity through my consciousness domain.>
‘No forbidden techniques like the Golden Coffer or anything of that sort.’>
My consciousness domain could easily slip outside the shrine.>
It seemed the formation was based purely on the conscience of whoever entered, leaving cultivation to them.>
Most humans living among the Sim Clan felt resentment at having to survive in their midst, yet a few found genuine interest and seriously explored the Sim Clan way of life.>
Especially Kim Young-hoon, who had boldly joined the Supreme Council as a human, had gathered many followers and even created a strange organization called the Gwanghan Martial Alliance centered around him.>
Jeon Myeong-hoon had held a farewell ceremony for the four Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect disciples who had died alongside Yeon Wi and the others.>
Oh Hyun-seok was preparing to inherit Cheong-mun’s Chun-cheon-gab as he continued unlimited sparring with him.>
And Kim Yeon… she was with Buk Hyang-hwa.>
She was researching the Strange Star-Mind Scroll at the same time as helping Buk Hyang-hwa give birth to her next masterpiece.>
I turned my gaze toward where they were.>
“Hyang-hwa. How are your eyes?”>
“They’ve grown a little hazy.”>
Buk Hyang-hwa’s curse was said to gradually blur the senses until all sensation disappeared and the nervous system went numb, leading to death.>
Not just a curse, but a Heavenly Punishment born into her as a Geum-gi Martial Law user.>
Kim Yeon had once asked me, through the Seopmyeong Ship’s propulsion device, if she should try to bind Buk Hyang-hwa’s will with the Goe-gun method.>
But I had refused.>
I had spent a thousand years trapped in a puppet, clearly realizing it was a miserable existence that was neither living nor dead.>
Crunch.>
The symptoms of Buk Hyang-hwa’s condition had worsened recently.>
She had occasionally felt her eyes hazy or her fingertips numb when she woke, but now the Heavenly Punishment had suddenly grown far worse.>
I could guess the cause.> __GT
‘Tai-san… you…’>
Her condition had begun to decline sharply right after we left the Goryeok Realm.>
That meant the greatest event that had occurred in the meantime was the cause.>
‘You keep trying to take more from me…’>
Crunch.>
I clenched my fist and grabbed the earth beside me.>
Clods of dirt slipped between my fingers as I felt the soil in my palm.>
I had no idea what to do.>
Should I simply watch Buk Hyang-hwa wither away helplessly?>
‘If I use the Myeonsin-gob-cheon… is it impossible?’>
Rewriting her fate with the ultimate Geumsin-cheon technique was not beyond reach.>
But it would create its own problem.>
‘Myeonsin-gob-cheon originally changes fate by offering calamity as a sacrifice.’>
Using it on someone else would turn it into “I become the sacrifice, offering calamity to them,” which would kill me and leave her to live her remaining life buried under misfortune.>
She would never want that.>
‘How am I supposed to do this?!’>
I suppressed the rising panic threatening to overwhelm me.>
‘…It is dangerous.’>
Up to now, the demons inside me had never posed a real threat.>
Because I was more dangerous than the sum of all my inner demons.>
They came near me only to be eaten by me.>
But this time was different.>
The final judgment on Buk Hyang-hwa had become a wedge that was about to make all the demons I had swallowed without mercy explode inside me.>
If one demon burst, every single one I had previously endured in pain would erupt at once.>
‘The Three Wood Grove will become hell…’>
Not a metaphor. The newly evolved black blood lotus flower could very well send forth monsters that would shove the entire Three Wood Grove into a cursed abyss.>
There were no special golden arrays inside the shrine, making the danger even greater.>
‘First… calm down.’>
I turned my thoughts back to cultivation to quiet the boiling rage, despair, and fury inside me.>
I pulled my consciousness domain back inside the shrine.>
Whoosh.>
For some reason, the faint light of the lowest-grade spiritual stone in front of me suddenly went out.>
‘…It only needed to shine for a few years to be normal… but among the lowest-grade stones, the qi was especially scarce.’>
I turned off the stone and sat in full lotus, entering my realm.>
Whoosh whoosh.>
My current realm was late Integration.>
Whoosh whoosh whoosh.>
The divine powers of time, wind, cold, heat, and yang had activated inside my domain.>
The last of my previous life.>
After eating the Heavenly Lotus, I had nearly been corrupted by an inner demon.>
But the effect had been absolute, and my realm had climbed all the way to Integration Great Perfection.>
By slicing my realm down to reach One Step Before the Throne, I had become late Integration.>
Normally, after regression, my realm should have dropped back to early Integration.> __GT
But reaching One Step Before the Throne had helped me.>
‘I can now elevate my entire body to the level of the soul.’>
And my regression is based on the soul.>
What does that mean?>
‘From the moment I reached One Step Before the Throne, my realm will never decline even if I regress again.’>
In other words, I no longer needed to store my cultivation level inside the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram to recover it.>
All that remained was to recover the late Integration Great Perfection level and awaken the divine power of rain before attempting a promotion to Star Shattering.>
That was it.>
While working to awaken the remaining divine power of rain, I also melted the cultivation level stored in the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram inside the Colorless Glass Sword to refine it.>
Since the Star Shattering promotion ritual required the Embracing Law Book to be of high quality, it was necessary work.>
Crack crack crack.>
As the cultivation level inside the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram began to melt into the Colorless Glass Sword, the entire Three Wood Grove began to shake with heaven-shaking power.>
The power stored in the Colorless Glass Sword had always matched the treasure perfectly, so it needed no extra time to strengthen itself.>
It simply absorbed.>
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.>
A faint mist rose from the Colorless Glass Sword and was immediately sucked back in.>
At the same time, my swords began to resonate.>
The three thousand Colorless Glass Swords all became Embracing Law Books.>
They could now resurrect at any time by syncing with my consciousness even if they broke or were destroyed.>
But each sword remained at only the late Integration level.>
Yet the moment the cultivation level from the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram began flowing into the Colorless Glass Sword, change began.>
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh!>
The latent energy of each of the three thousand Colorless Glass Swords grew even more ferocious, and their density increased even higher.>
The three thousand swords began to climb toward the Heavenly Person early stage.>
‘The cultivation level stored in the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram is at the level of Embracing Law Book mid-Integration.’>
That was more than enough to raise the power of three thousand Embracing Law Books to Heavenly Person early stage.>
Using only one-hundredth of the cultivation level in the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, I elevated the three thousand swords to the early stage of Heavenly Person.>
I poured even more power into them.>
The Colorless Glass Swords evolved once more into Embracing Law Books of the Heavenly Person mid-stage level.>
Using the power of three-hundredths of the cultivation level in the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram.>
Heavenly Person late stage.>
Using six-tenths of the remaining cultivation level.>
Heavenly Person Great Perfection!>
Using one-tenth of the remaining cultivation level.>
Crack crack crack.>
At some point, the three thousand Colorless Glass Swords all glowed at once and erupted in brilliant light.>
Flash!>
With the feeling of a cicada shedding its shell, I felt the power of my Colorless Glass Swords rise dramatically once more.>
‘Four Pillars….’>
Each of the Colorless Glass Swords had now reached the Four Pillars level.>
And yet I had used only half the cultivation level stored in the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram to reach here.>
I poured the remaining half entirely into the three thousand Colorless Glass Swords.>
Swoosh!>
At the same time, the three thousand Colorless Glass Swords glowed once more and rose in power.>
‘Four Pillars mid-stage…’>
Embracing Law Books of the Four Pillars level were called non-standard Embracing Law Books.>
While some, such as Cheong-cheon-gab of the Chang-cheon Gae-byeok-mun, exceeded the power of Four Pillars level Embracing Law Books, the definition of non-standard was simply “standard.”>
Once an Embracing Law Book was non-standard, it could not unleash its full power unless it reached at least Four Pillars, which is why it was called a Four Pillars level Embracing Law Book.>
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh!>
The Colorless Glass Swords, which had been razor-sharp before, now lost their sharp edges and became ordinary-looking glass swords upon becoming non-standard.>
If an ordinary person saw them, they would look like simple glass models of swords.>
But the moment I picked one up from the ground, its latent energy began to emit the same aura as a Four Pillars expert’s qi shield, capable of cutting through the ground like a blade.>
Any Four Pillars expert swinging a Colorless Glass Sword would be able to overwhelm an opponent of the same realm.>
Whoosh whoosh!>
I gathered all the scattered Colorless Glass Swords back into one and observed the treasure.>
I had melted and absorbed every bit of cultivation level previously stored inside the Colorless Glass Sword, elevating each one to non-standard Embracing Law Book level.>
‘The realms still have not properly fused.’>
It was only natural after such a rapid rise in power. If I took the time to properly fuse the realms, each Colorless Glass Sword would eventually reach Four Pillars Great Perfection.>
The power when combining them would be so overwhelming it made me afraid to test it.>
But that was not the important part.>
Crackle crackle crackle.>
I unfolded the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram inside the Colorless Glass Sword.>
The Colorless Glass Sword glowed brightly and exhaled a faint mist around it.>
The phenomena of all things spread out around me, visible only to my eyes.>
‘…I will never lose it again.’>
Previously, if I lost the Colorless Glass Sword, I would also lose the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram and could not prevent memory leakage.>
But now that the Colorless Glass Sword had become an Embracing Law Book and melted into my consciousness, the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram had also melted into my consciousness.>
In other words, I could never lose the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram again.>
‘Embrace all bonds and become impermanent…’>
The enlightenment I had gained upon reaching One Step Before the Throne.>
Word for word, I had embraced all phenomena inside my consciousness.>
‘Even reaching impermanence through filling was emptiness….’>
I observed the enlightenment of impermanence and looked at the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram.>
The Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, originally created as a technique for storing realms, was now completely empty.>
‘Ah….’>
Looking at the bonds inside the completely empty Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, I had finally fully “understood” the enlightenment I had only understood on a sensory level until now.>
The enlightenment I had only known instinctively upon reaching One Step Before the Throne was now fully realized in my soul.>
‘I see.’>
Why was impermanence emptiness?>
Many people had been wrong from the beginning.>
Emptiness was not originally void.>
“Void” was not the meaning. It was “perforation.”>
Someone might look at an empty cave and think “it is empty.”>
But if you walked all the way to the end of that cave and kept digging…>
The cave would eventually become a path connecting two places.>
That was perforation.>
That was the true nature of emptiness.>
And the true enlightenment of impermanence that I had reached.>
Embracing all bonds and becoming impermanent meant opening every path leading to those bonds.>
In the realm of One Step Before the Throne, the training method had been to fire compressed strikes at the consciousness.>
But at this level, the training method was to open every path of my bonds and my heart beyond emptiness.>
‘I see, Jang Ik…’>
I finally understood why he had implanted his Park-do into every single one of the Sim Clan members, no matter how insignificant they seemed.>
Perhaps it was so they could all stay connected to him…>
Swoosh!>
I gathered all the bonds from the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram together.>
The faint mist shrank to the size of the lowest-grade spiritual stone in front of me.>
Because I had melted every realm into the Colorless Glass Sword, the inherent qi of the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram was now even less than that of the spiritual stone.>
And looking at that qi, I understood Jang Ik’s task perfectly.>
Swoosh!>
The Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram erupted with light.>
That light illuminated the entire dark shrine.>
This light was the grace I had received from understanding the hearts of the people from my “previous life.”>
The dark shrine was now filled with the light I had accumulated.>
From now on, I would continue to understand the hearts of my bonds, filling the darkness inside the shrine with this light.>
The light would grow brighter and brighter.>
When the light finally became as bright as the sun, I would finally reach the next realm.>
Opening the endless emptiness in my heart and filling the void.>
That was the name of One Step Before the Throne.>
The position of erasing emptiness with the heart!>
Therefore… the name of this realm came to me naturally inside my heart.>
“Void Fragmentation.”>
The realm that allowed the empty heart to be filled by the paths of bonds, filled with the grace received from those bonds, and to erase emptiness.>
‘Ah….’>
I recognized that I had completely entered Void Fragmentation.>
Inside the Three Wood Shrine.>
There, I observed the structure of the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram alongside impermanence.>
The Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram was a path.>
My timeline of past time.>
The path where the memories of those timelines overlapped.>
And at the center of that path stood Buk Hyang-hwa’s bead.>
I reached out and, without knowing why, grasped the connection to her bead.>
Crackle crackle crackle.>
And then, memories came rushing in like a flood.>
“Ah…”>
Thud, thud, thud.>
That was the memory from the tenth regression.>
That day, that final moment.>
It had felt so vivid.>
She had appeared before me as a will-spirit.>
Her heart, her feelings, the almost-touching emotion.>
The feeling when we kissed.>
The sense of release when the curse became a blessing…>
“Ah… ah…”>
Tears flowed down my face as I fully understood Jang Ik’s intention.>
Anyone who reached Void Fragmentation had to understand emptiness.>
Just as the answers to the Asim-geom were all different, the answers to emptiness were also all different.>
But one truth was certain.>
Humans all easily forget emptiness.>
No matter how you bore it or empty it, it was far too easy to forget.>
And it was grace received from people.>
I had always thought I remembered everything through the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram.>
And now I understood how arrogant and foolish that thought had been.>
‘I had not remembered even a single thing properly. I…’>
Memories had not been forgotten, but the hearts of that time had never been remembered until now.>
The hearts of Buk Hyang-hwa, other countless people, and the memories of time spent with them flooded my chest like a wave.>
The moment I trained the Wind-Calling Responding Dragon Transformation with Seo Ran and shared life and death with him.>
The moment I taught my disciples and told them to live…>
Recalling the hearts of countless moments, I looked at the bead connected to me.>
Whoosh whoosh whoosh.>
Through the bead, hearts that were not mine were also flowing in.>
The current owner of the bead.>
The heart of Buk Hyang-hwa from this regression was flowing through it.>
I felt the heart of this regression’s Buk Hyang-hwa vaguely and finally understood, even if only a little, the heart of the woman facing death in this life.>
“I will definitely complete it.”>
“…I see.”>
I had thought Buk Hyang-hwa was dying.>
I had thought she was abandoning me to the curse.>
It was a misunderstanding.>
It was arrogance that had come from seeing her only as “my person.”>
Hadn’t it been the same with my disciples?>
Had I not repeated the same mistakes of not respecting their inner thoughts about their life’s purpose and simply telling them to live blindly?>
This life’s Buk Hyang-hwa was “living” right now, in this very moment, completing her work while dying.>
I saw Hong Su-ryeong’s image.>
“If we cannot defeat fate, then even inside fate, should we not choose?”>
“If death and destruction are already predetermined, shouldn’t we find the path our heart wants to walk inside it?”>
My disciples, Hong Su-ryeong, all of them had wanted to end their own lives with their own hands.>
The important part was not “wanting to end” but “with their own hands.”>
And Buk Hyang-hwa right now also wanted to complete her work “with her own hands.”>
“…”>
I thought that.>
If everyone were to spend a thousand years with me, would that truly mean “together” with me?>
People always leave each other eventually.>
Just as Song Jin had left forever beside me and Seo Ran this time.>
People always have a farewell time.>
So, before that time comes, let us respect each other as much as possible and cherish what remains in each other’s hearts.>
Wouldn’t that be true “together” forever?>
Swoosh!>
I opened my eyes as the light from the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram grew stronger.>
“…Yes.”>
I had decided my attitude toward Buk Hyang-hwa.>
“Let us prepare for farewell.”>
Prepare the best path to avoid the curse, but if impossible, let me say goodbye to her final moments.>
From now on, as long as I can, I will stay with her and see her off as a companion of this regression.>
Thud, thud…>
I organized all my hearts and inner demons and left the shrine.>
After organizing the Embracing Law Books, I had completely reached Void Fragmentation.>
And I had decided my attitude toward every bond that would one day leave me, including Buk Hyang-hwa.>
Creak…>
Whether coming or going was their will.>
If the inevitable fate was trying to take my bonds away, I would grieve but not despair.>
I would protect but not cling.>
I would respect their lives and cherish their remaining time even more.>
Creak…>
That was when I closed the door of the shrine.>
Kim Yeon appeared in front of me.>
“Only ten years?”>
“…?”>
The moment I turned around, the Three Wood Shrine I had just left crumbled into dust.>
It had been blown away in an instant.>
Jang Ik had probably arranged some kind of harmony.>
“…I see.”>
Only now did I understand why the light of even the lowest-grade spiritual stone had gone out so quickly.>
The moment I had focused my consciousness inside the shrine, my perception had twisted and time had flown by at an incredible speed.>
“…In ten years, a tremendous amount has happened.”>
She turned and walked away, speaking.>
“First, go see Hyang-hwa. I’ll explain while I walk.”>
“Alright.”>
I smiled faintly and asked.>
“A tremendous amount of what kind of thing?”>
“First… the Avatar of Saintess Baek-woon has come to the Sim Clan realm. She has declared that she recognizes your status and granted you the title of Venerable.”>