The Wraith's Lament
SIZZLE
I quietly turned beside the jade throne and watched Baek-woon, who had shattered the lightning prison activated by Jeon Myeong-hoon, dismantle the writhing tree-like shell that had just been opposite us.
I lowered my head to her.
“Since our interests differed, an unfortunate event may have occurred today. Yet I have no resentment toward the saintess. Please understand that.”
With the lightning prison shattered, the jade throne where Baek-woon had stood moments ago was revealed.
There, in place of the tree-like shell that had just faced us, stood Baek-woon’s “husk” from moments earlier.
It seemed as if she had shed her outer layer like the Golden Blade Unshelling Art for a moment, escaping Jeon Myeong-hoon’s attack.
She then absorbed her own husk back, pushing Jeon Myeong-hoon toward me without even glancing my way.
‘She had hidden the lightning spear in the secondary dimension of her body for a while.’
In my current state, I realized that facing her would make it even more difficult to deal with than before.
Of course, judging by Baek-woon’s condition, she did not seem particularly eager to clash with me any longer. Still, pushing her too far could prove truly dangerous.
I paid her a respectful courtesy, then lifted Jeon Myeong-hoon, who was suspended in the frozen world, and turned around.
And at that moment, Baek-woon’s voice came from behind me.
“Yu-o has been looking for you. From the moment you drove the Star Shattering grade treasure into the Star Realm, I received contact from her. She wishes to invite you. Her invitation is rare, so please visit Myeong-gwi Realm at an appropriate time.”
I turned back, only to find Baek-woon gone.
TSETSEUCH
Following the aura she had left behind, it seemed she had entered somewhere deep inside Cheon-ryeon-san.
PAAAAHT
At the same time, the Baek-ok-ru I was standing in transformed into a pure white light cluster and began to scatter.
FLASH
When I came to my senses, the world began to flow again.
CHWAAARAAAA
It seemed the Baek-ok-ru itself had been a specific power of Baek-woon’s.
I once again paid my respects with courtesy, then took one step forward.
PAAHT
After placing Jeon Myeong-hoon into the domain and rising to the soul rank, the world reversed.
KURURURURU
If the qi rank was the familiar ordinary world we knew, the soul rank differed greatly from it.
Clouds were abundant everywhere.
The color tones of the clouds dense across heaven and earth shifted moment by moment.
I looked at the clouds where I stood.
My current location was near Cheon-ryeon-san.
The clouds around Cheon-ryeon-san bore a crimson hue.
‘The Sim Clan.’
It seemed that Baek-woon, the saintess, was no different from a goddess to the Sim Clan.
If, suddenly, a madwoman with twenty-one heads was being tortured in front of their goddess, how could they not feel anger?
‘Forgive me, saintess.’
I felt remorse toward Baek-woon and the Sim Clan.
About one-twentieth of the Sim Clan’s color tone showed a sticky blend of pink and black, but they were likely the ones practicing a special technique. Given that the majority displayed such fierce will, it was clear that many Sim Clan members were raging.
I had done my best not to get entangled with the [higher beings], but the result was that Baek-woon’s honor had been tarnished. I would have to apologize and offer compensation at an appropriate time in the future.
‘I should arrange compensation at a later time.’
Thinking this, I stepped into the world of clouds.
Step, step…
In the upper dimension, even slight movement covered far greater distance than in the lower one.
‘What a strange feeling. A complete soul rank place is…’
Countless clouds visible over there.
Each grain of those clouds was the emotion of living beings.
Thinking back, right after I defeated Kang Min-hee and became a venerable, I immediately entered seclusion to stabilize my realm.
After leaving seclusion, I immediately clashed with Baek-woon.
Thanks to that, I had almost never had the chance to study my own realm.
‘A person’s heart is… just like a cloud.’
It has form and yet none.
It blocks the sun’s light while also bringing rain that sprouts life,
and sends down lightning to judge the earth.
When they gather in great numbers, they become storms and shake the world.
‘Thinking about it… all the Sutra of the Integration Realm can be interpreted in connection with clouds.’
Rain, Yang, Warmth, Cold, Wind, Time.
Cloudiness is when clouds gather and the sky closes,
Clearness is when clouds scatter and the sky opens,
Warmth is when the sky stays open for a long time,
Cold is when the sky stays closed for a long time,
Wind is the power that controls all those phenomena,
and the changes of those phenomena together create Time.
The method that becomes the Sutra of Union when the Integration Realm’s self-domain unifies with the self is called the Sutra of Union and Emptiness.
And that Sutra of Union and Emptiness connects with part of one’s inner mind.
The inner mind is ultimately a cloud.
‘I see.’
I read the connection between the Sutra of Union and Emptiness, the Sutra of the Integration Realm, and the soul rank, and felt my understanding of the realm itself deepen.
The Sutra of the Integration Realm and the Sutra of Union and Emptiness are connected.
Most cultivators of the Integration Realm will understand the six clauses as “the method of applying heaven and earth phenomena to one’s own domain.”
Yet I understood it.
This was not about applying heaven and earth phenomena to one’s own domain.
Rather, it was a method of realizing that heaven and earth phenomena already exist within one’s own mind.
‘Ah… I see.’
I could grasp one crucial fact.
‘Was I really a fool…’
A fresh realization, but one I keep encountering.
Yet this time it did not end with simply “I” being a fool.
‘Everyone who cultivates the Integration Realm in this world, including me… is ultimately just a fool.’
In my past life I thought I had fully understood the six techniques of the Sutra.
But that was not true.
I had not even grasped a fragment of the Integration Realm technique.
From the Integration Realm onward, the shortcut of raising the realm comfortably with after-understanding-before-consumption no longer works.
‘That’s why so few reach the Star Shattering realm.’
Was that the reason?
Step, step…
I walked a few steps and arrived at the Sim Clan territory after crossing thousands of miles from the soul rank.
The “clouds” in the Sim Clan territory looked somewhat different from those in other realms.
The “clouds” of the Sim Clan territory each grain glowing.
I gazed at the countless cloud grains.
‘Those are the peak and Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown?’
Souls at the very beginning of will.
Those souls moved more actively inside the clouds.
‘Those are Five Qi Consorting with the Origin…’
Beings who accept the infinity of will and obtain wisdom.
Those souls had a smoother shift in color tone.
The countless clouds seen from the soul rank had a “group unconscious,” and when some souls released strong emotions, that emotion would spread to other souls.
Yet souls of Five Qi Consorting with the Origin or higher caught the infection later and, if infected, shifted color tones far more naturally.
‘Those are Entering Heaven…’
Stage 1.
The souls of those who reached Entering Heaven according to my standard were quite special.
‘They are spinning…’
The souls that reached Entering Heaven were spinning violently among the cloud grains of the soul rank.
And through that spin, I saw the power of the soul rank being lowered to lower ranks.
‘That must be Annihilating Heaven?’
I thought while gazing at the cloud grains whose spin had grown even stronger.
Some cloud grains had become so powerful in spin that the force was reaching out to surrounding clouds.
I learned the principle of intent from reaching Entering Heaven and Annihilating Heaven.
‘I see. The intent is the act of placing nearby clouds within the influence radius of one’s own spin force.’
And then, Great Heaven.
WUUUUUUNG
I saw the clouds that had risen to Great Heaven.
These were the ones called Implementation Stage 3.
KURURUNG
The nightmares of the Heavenly Clan, said to number only ten thousand in the Sim Clan.
‘…I see.’
I fully understood how the power of Implementation Stage 3 Sim Clan members takes the form of “Heaven’s Annihilation.”
The souls of Sim Clan members who rose to Great Heaven formed the shape of a massive spiral by their own spin force, gathering surrounding cloud grains.
And Implementation Stage 3 Sim Clan members were no longer individual cloud grains but “cloud masses” formed from group unconsciousness.
Why do cultivators of the Great Heaven realm add Heavenly Annihilation when battling?
Heavenly Annihilation is Heavenly Punishment.
Heavenly Punishment falls only upon those who commit the act of reversing heaven.
The act of reversing heaven is “beating against the principle of the world” and changing the fates of countless beings.
And the one who stands at the peak of the Great Heaven realm is a being that completes by “hosting the hearts of countless beings” within his own heart.
Battling one at the peak of the Great Heaven realm is therefore battling “the hearts of countless beings,” and that is why Heavenly Punishment falls upon the one who reverses heaven against it.
‘And… those are Jang Ik’s disciples.’
I looked at the souls of the disciples of the Seat Before Throne.
Each of their souls was a massive cloud mass.
Inside those cloud masses I saw a faint illusion.
No, it was not an illusion.
Those were the “domains” of the Seat Before Throne Sim Clan.
Just as cultivators of the Integration Realm possess their own union domain, the Seat Before Throne Sim Clan implements their inner-mind domain at the soul rank.
‘Then I…’
I observed my own figure.
In the soul rank, my appearance was a pure white light.
‘I see.’
The sight of clouds gathering, becoming dense, and a light appearing at their center.
In the Sitting Liberation and Standing Death era, I would have been a form of illusion flickering within a massive cloud mass like Jang Ik’s disciples.
But that illusion had now entered into this light.
This light would gradually grow brighter the more it connected with countless beings and eventually shine like the sun.
‘Ah… I see.’
I alternated between gazing at the qi rank and the life rank in the soul rank.
The qi rank was an explosion.
A world where countless time and space exploded, creating and destroying every moment.
The soul rank was clouds.
The clouds of ash or dust after an explosion.
The life rank was light.
Dust clumped and clumped until it became stars in the sky, bright stars illuminating the sky and shining away the darkness.
I finally understood why Jang Ik, despite not having reached the peak of the Seat Before Throne, defined the realm up to three seats of the Seat Before Throne.
One day Jang Ik must have thought that when this light reached the stars of the life rank, even the Sim Clan’s power could twist fate.
‘The correspondence between the Sim Clan realm and the Heavenly Clan realm is quite precise.’
I had understood what Jang Ik had seen.
And at the same time, I understood how the world overlapped.
The Origin River lay beneath the life rank’s light as a shadow of the “non-living clouds” among the clouds of the soul rank, overlapping the qi rank.
The Underworld lay beneath the clouds as a shadow of the “living clouds” of living beings, overlapping below.
The East Heaven Flower Garden lay beneath both as a shadow of the qi rank itself.
The Void Space’s shadow was invisible but existed somewhere.
‘Was it cast as a shadow through the light of the life rank…’
The shadows each exerted attraction.
‘It was truly dangerous….’
If I had risen to complete soul rank with only my Myeong-gak, I suspected that the moment I stepped on the Underworld’s “shadow,” I would be pulled straight into the Underworld.
While stepping on both the Underworld’s shadow and the Origin River’s shadow and belonging to this world, I was not pulled in either direction.
Suddenly realizing that fact, I at the same time sensed a chilling realization.
‘…Wait.’
Why must the venerables of the Gwanghan Realm have “light” and “heaven” in their names?
CHILL
If before I had just felt uneasy and rejected, now that I had assimilated the realm, I finally realized how wise it had been to reject Baek-woon’s name.
The life rank, which symbolizes heaven, is light itself in the eyes of the Sim Clan.
In that case, isn’t light and heaven actually the same being?
I turned around.
Cheon-ryeon-san where Baek-woon was.
There I saw Baek-woon’s soul.
Baek-woon’s soul was being intensely illuminated by light from the sky.
In the soul rank I gazed at the life rank filled with light and naturally felt a chill in my chest.
‘Don’t think about it.’
I stopped gazing at the life rank, sighed, and looked away.
Thinking back, I should have guessed.
Seeing color requires light.
Color without light is ultimately just meaningless black.
I quickly adjusted my mind and erased thoughts of light.
Thinking too long could alert the [above].
Step…
I took one more step and descended from the soul rank.
TSETSEUCH
The familiar Sam-mok-chong.
I emptied my mind for a moment of the complicated facts about the life rank, the Origin River, the Underworld, and the East Heaven Flower Garden, and collected the enlightenment I had gained from the soul rank.
‘The Sim Clan’s power draws in the hearts of others.’
In that case, is it swallowing their souls?
No.
‘What the Sim Clan draws in is not their souls but their hearts.’
A person’s heart is not completed by possessing only their own.
Just as a person cannot exist solely as an individual, the stronger the Sim Clan becomes, the more it completes its inner mind through the hearts of the many.
The reason I had not yet understood the Entering Heaven for years standing beside Kim Young-hoon.
Kim Young-hoon had told me “it is already inside you,” but that was wrong.
Even if it was truly inside me, without Kim Young-hoon I would not have been able to obtain it.
The Sim Clan draws in others’ hearts to complete itself.
The countless beings who gave hearts to the Sim Clan and helped complete their inner mind possess the possibility of reaching higher realms because they are stimulated by the hearts they gave, especially since a high-realm Sim Clan member stands beside them.
In other words, the path of the lone cultivator cannot be completed alone; one must have a higher predecessor in front.
‘That weird older brother who reached Entering Heaven alone was strange.’
I gave a bitter smile toward the one from my distant past who had once shouted at me “Swing it.”
The clouds of the Sim Clan territory, which I had called “hearts,” were actually close to “fleeting moments.”
The essence of lightning is a fleeting moment.
The essence of a heart is also a fleeting moment.
Our lives are made of countless fleeting moments.
Those fleeting moments connect, and ultimately make up our lives.
And fully comprehending and understanding that life.
That is the true essence of martial arts.
PAAAAAHT
Understanding the essence of martial arts at the same time, I felt the Sutra of Time in my union domain activate completely.
“I have understood Time.”
I placed Jeon Myeong-hoon, who had exhausted all his qi after fighting Baek-woon, beside me and looked around the Sam-mok-chong.
I understood.
The fastest way to complete the union domain is not after-understanding-before-consumption, but before-consumption-after-understanding.
I must fully understand my own heart.
Therefore.
‘I’ll have to fight the remaining four.’
Recalling the sensation I had felt from Gyeong-chang’s death, I decided to seek out the remaining four disciples of Jang Ik.