The Heavens Reject the Path
“Hmph… this damned dummy. I never imagined teaching it would be this much of a struggle. I should have kicked it out right away.”
He gave a dry cough, shoved me aside, and stroked his beard while speaking.
“Master didn’t throw me out, which is why I’ve made it this far.”
I smiled faintly and answered him.
Qi Condensation first layer — ten years.
Second layer — twelve years.
Third layer — six years.
Fourth layer — five years.
Thirty-three years in total.
My body, already transformed through bone-breaking and flesh-reforming, was still in its prime at sixty thanks to slowed aging. But the end of my lifespan was steadily approaching, and that troubled me.
‘This time I even achieved bone-breaking and flesh-reforming. Yet will I still die of old age in this life?’
Who could say?
Still, I couldn’t help growing a little uneasy.
“…Master, this disciple is sorry, but could you perhaps grant me instruction on the next realm?”
“Of course you know your place. A talentless wretch like you should advance to the next layer as quickly as possible. Qi Condensation fifth layer follows the principles of the Nine Palaces.
You must unify your one hundred and eight spiritual veins and sixty variations of spiritual power into nine points.
Attempt the Nine Convergences of the Heavenly Ones — Taiji, Sheche, Xuan Yuan, Zhaoyao, Tianfu, Qinglong, Han Chi, Taiyin, and Tianyi — and begin the integration of the spiritual veins flowing through your body.”
I sat quietly and listened intently.
“The Nine Palaces also connect to the Eight Trigrams and mark the threshold to the next stage. Once you master the Nine Palaces, you will be able to freely alter formations within them.”
He spread a wooden-and-iron formation before me.
A formation made from the flow of the Ten Zodiacs, enhanced by the Ten Heavenly Gates to its limit.
When the Nine Palaces changed, the formation shifted.
The wood-and-iron qi spread in all directions, changing wildly according to Master’s will — even though the imbalance felt unnatural.
“Success in melting the Nine Palaces’ principles into the formation allows you to seize a formation completely in your palm and change it at will. You will find true freedom within the formation.”
His words made several fifth-layer Qi Condensation masters who had once fought beside me flash through my mind.
Indeed, at fifth layer it was already incredibly free to use magical arts.
Together with Master, I began by recognizing the nine points of the Nine Convergences.
How to integrate countless flows into nine separate branches.
How to merge magical arts into even stronger ones.
I studied the Nine Palaces and practiced the Nine Palace Seals until my hands bled.
I chanted the related incantations until my throat burned for seven years.
—
Integration complete.
The one hundred and eight spiritual veins flowing through my meridians.
The sixty variations.
All merged into nine large branches. The messy veins sank into perfect order.
“Qi Condensation, sixth layer!”
I shouted in joy.
I moved the spiritual energy of the veins coursing through my body.
Instantly the formation expanded, and according to my will the pattern changed freely.
—
I activated the public method of the Earth Origin Law.
Six hexagons condensed around me like shields.
But when I clenched my fist, the earth shields crumpled and turned into earth spears.
Now that I could freely alter formations, the public method — originally for defense — could be used for offense as well.
Its defense was still stronger, of course.
“Heh.”
I summoned the sword that had been flying itself from afar.
—
The sword flew straight at me through the air.
For forty years I had operated the Moon-Swallowing Moon-Blood Record without a single moment of rest.
Now it was simply a matter of inputting actions, yet its movements had become incredibly free.
A technique for sending thoughts had also appeared, making thought-based commands far easier.
I summoned the sword before me, infused it with inner energy to charge it, then sent it flying far away and brought it back.
—
The sonic boom rang out.
I launched the earth spear I had made from a deformed Earth Origin formation straight at the sword.
—
The spear collided with the sword.
At the same moment a gale roared and a thunderous boom echoed. The dust settled to reveal only my sword.
But since I was controlling the sword, I felt the rebound through it and knew the spear carried power on the level of inner energy used by Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown martial artists.
It would shatter any Qi Condensation master’s defensive magical art with a casual strike.
“Hah… this brute. Did you get excited from the very morning?”
Master walked toward me through the dust, smiling.
“Congratulations, you worthless brat. It took you seven years to reach sixth layer because your talent is so pitiful.”
“Hehe, but… I’ll complete sixth layer as fast as possible.”
“That’s the spirit! Sixth layer is the easiest stage in Qi Condensation — the complete road of the Eight Trigrams! If you can’t even do this, I’ll beat you to death with one palm!”
He spoke that way, but his smile showed genuine joy. The aura of his thoughts was golden, the color of happiness.
“Don’t worry. I’ve already studied the sixth layer. I understand it unifies the veins according to the Eight Trigrams’ principles. It’s a field where I feel somewhat confident.”
“Hmph, so the meridians are where you excel? Even so, your internal cultivation technique will be completely different from the ones mortals learn. You can do nothing without understanding the shapes of the Eight Trigrams!”
He placed another thick book in front of me.
“Read all of it. This is a book I personally annotated because you’re such an idiot. You have poor talent and if you can’t understand it either, it would just be wasted time.”
“I will be eternally grateful.”
“Then study diligently.”
I dived deep into the Eight Trigrams.
Mastering the eight trigrams — Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, Kun.
I finally answered some of the questions I had always had about spiritual roots.
For example, there were only five spiritual roots corresponding to the Five Elements.
How could Makri Se-ga practice methods outside the Five Elements?
I had heard of special roots, of course — the true rare ones like Jeon Myeong-hoon’s Heavenly Golden Thunder Body and Kang Min-hee’s Ghost Dao Sound-Flower Spiritual Root.
Ordinary masters could not escape the Five Elements.
By studying the Eight Trigrams I finally understood why.
‘The Five Elements correspond to the Eight Trigrams.’
Qian and Dui were metal. Li was fire. Kan was water. Zhen and Xun were wood. Gen and Kun were earth.
By interpreting the trigrams as the Five Elements, I could create a method using the Xun trigram symbolizing wind for a wind-attribute magical art.
The more I studied the trigrams, the more I could overlay their flow with the formation flow, and merging the trigram flow with the meridians proved the easiest part of my training.
The difficult part was truly understanding what the trigrams symbolized. I spent a great deal of time doing so.
I delved into the Eight Trigrams for three years.
In three years I succeeded in completely mastering and completing formations using the Eight Trigrams.
The moment the formation completed, I felt every spiritual vein in my body activate — all the meridians aligned with the Eight Trigrams’ principles.
The veins in my entire body connected, drawing a circle!
—
The flow of magical power coursing through my veins became infinitely free, its speed incredible.
And within that pure, fast flow I discovered something strange.
‘Something impure… ah, this is…?’
Compared to the pure spiritual power of a master’s cultivation method, the impure inner energy of the Earth Origin Law remained impure within the veins.
‘It gives me a strange feeling, but I don’t know why…’
I ignored the Earth Origin Law and reported the result to Master.
“Hahaha! Excellent! You really are my disciple!”
Master patted my shoulder, beaming.
“You idiot. It took forty-three years to complete sixth layer and enter seventh? Is that right? You really are the biggest dummy in the world!”
He spoke that way, yet he looked extremely pleased. Suddenly Master looked at me and pulled something from his robe.
‘That…’
I shuddered when I saw what he held.
“Your progress is still slow. I’m relieved. This is a gift because I wish even a little achievement for this pitiful disciple of mine…”
Inside the small silk pouch was a familiar scent.
Master opened the pouch. Three round pills glowed with a faint red light.
“Qianxu Pills. If eaten by the culprit, they add ten years to lifespan. For a Qi Condensation master, they can add up to eight years, or six if they develop tolerance.”
“…Master.”
“Hmph, I know you’ll be grateful. But I’m sick of hearing the words ‘thank you.’ Just eat them already…”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Then from now on…”
He frowned as if he had heard something wrong.
“Did I mishear? You really did hear me, right?”
“…I heard you properly, Master. I… cannot eat those pills.”
“What? Are you insane? It’s a spiritual medicine that adds eight years to lifespan! You idiot, don’t you know how precious and valuable this medicine is?!”
“Master, do you know the ingredients of Qianxu Pills?”
He looked at me as if I had said something absurd.
“How would I know?! I spent two hundred and fifty years pouring all my effort into law and incantations. When would I have had time to study pills?! Besides, that kind of knowledge isn’t something anyone can understand unless they’re a professional alchemist!
Makri Se-ga is famous for its alchemy; even its branch families know some techniques…
I keep saying the same thing — a dummy only excels in one field…”
I see.
Master himself, and many others, had no idea what Qianxu Pill was made from.
Should I tell him?
“….”
I closed my eyes and said,
“…I’m sorry. But this disciple cannot eat those pills for a reason. Please believe me…”
“You wretched brat. The master who worked hard to obtain these pills and you refuse to eat? Fine. You can eat them or sell them — do as you please. I’m leaving!”
Master left in a huff, thrusting the pouch at me.
I stared at the three Qianxu Pills in my hand, expression blank.
Makri Hyeon’s words still rang in my ears.
Pills made from humans.
Should I really eat them?
…
I bit my lip.
No. No matter what.
No matter how precious a medicine that extends life,
no matter how it allows me to continue the bonds of this life,
giving up my humanity in this life makes it nothing more than a corpse.
I apologized to Master inwardly, then went to a mountain behind the main estate of Cheongmun Clan.
There I dug a hole, buried the three pills, covered them with earth to make a small grave, and recited a formal heavenly purification ceremony.
Of course no soul remained in the discarded pills, so no spirits were purified.
But I prayed that even a little, the spirits of those sacrificed to the pills might find peace.
‘…I’m sorry, Master.’
No matter what Master gave,
it could never be eaten if it meant abandoning humanity.
“…I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore.”
In truth, I should have eaten it for my own benefit.
How long was my lifespan left? How would I know?
I should have extended it whenever possible.
I had only just reached seventh layer, and I had no idea how much more training I needed.
Although I had made progress with the public method of the Five Qi Consorting with the Origin, the next realm still seemed a world away.
Unlike the supreme attainment of a lifetime — Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, Five Qi Consorting with the Origin — Deungbongjogeuk felt impossibly distant.
This life was never going to make it. Perhaps I needed another full lifetime.
In that case, the medicine that added more than ten years of life was clearly a tremendous opportunity.
But…
‘…No matter what, I cannot bring it to my mouth.’
It was not just those pills.
I had no intention of swallowing any medicine made by evil methods.
I slowly descended the mountain and returned to the main estate of Cheongmun Clan.
I went to apologize to Master.
“…You’re back.”
“Yes.”
“…Good. For now, let’s study seventh layer…”
Master looked slightly depressed because I had refused his gift. He opened a book.
“Seventh layer is called the Seven-Star Ceremony. It is the act of offering sacrifices to seven of the twenty-eight stars that govern the spiritual nature of heaven and earth. It is the act of declaring before the stars of heaven that from now on you will walk the path of cultivation.
Up to now, completing your meridians through the Sixty Zodiacs, Thirty-Six Thousand Rivers, Ten Zodiacs, Ten Heavenly Stems and Branches, Nine Palace Unification, and Eight Trigram Complete Road, and completing your formations — in a way, that was preparation for the altar used in the Seven-Star Ceremony.
Use your body as the altar, your formations as the altar, your methods as the altar, and connect your spiritual nature with heaven and earth.”
Master continued explaining.
“In truth, at this stage you don’t need to understand anything special. In the Seven-Star Ceremony you use your body as the altar, your soul as the priest, and perform the ritual to connect with the spiritual nature of heaven and earth.
Of course you must learn how to perform the ritual and how to calculate the best auspicious timing for the stars to grant power, and how to read the stars….”
Reading the stars was not difficult; I had learned the basics as a scholar of the Murim Alliance.
In fact, apart from the symbols the masters used and a few stars I didn’t know, I had only learned a little about the stars’ connections.
‘Seventh layer might actually be a rather easy stage…’
Most masters said seventh layer was crossed quickly because you simply received heavenly spiritual energy from the stars and evolved your meridians with it.
‘Of course, those with heavenly spiritual roots must calculate the timing precisely, so their seventh layer is the slowest….’
That was a special case. It didn’t apply to me.
Following Master’s instruction, I read the constellations and calculated the stars with him to find the best timing.
Fortunately the timing suited me perfectly. Master built a small altar using the authority of the elders near the main estate of Cheongmun Clan where spiritual power gathered.
“Tonight is the perfect timing for you.”
“Yes.”
“Prepare thoroughly. Have you memorized how to perform the ceremony?”
“Yes, of course.”
“And do you like the constellation tonight?”
Among the twenty-eight heavenly constellations representing the spiritual nature of heaven and earth, the Seven-Star Ceremony’s core was choosing the seven stars whose spiritual nature best matched the day’s timing.
It was said that the stage you received help from at seventh layer depended on which star constellation you offered the sacrifice to.
“Yes, I like tonight’s constellation the most. It was the one Master chose.”
“Hmph! Stop flattering… Fine. The sun will set soon. Prepare the ceremony.”
“Yes!”
I arrived before the altar, completed the work of turning my body into a small altar by operating my method.
Once the sun set and the stars covered the sky, I would begin the ceremony.
The sun set.
And the stars began to rise.
“Start! I’ll assist you!”
“Yes!”
I moved my formation around the altar and began the ritual offering to the spiritual nature of heaven and earth.
It was in the middle of the ceremony that it happened.
“Thus, I pray to the heavenly gods and spirits of heaven and earth….”
—
The wind blew.
‘Eh…?’
And both Master’s and my expressions changed.
—
It was clear skies.
Just moments ago there had not been a single cloud, and Master had calculated the exact weather for this night.
Tonight was supposed to be clear.
Yet suddenly dark clouds gathered in the sky.
The sky was covered.
The clear moonlight and starlight hid behind the clouds.
My altar, which had been preparing to communicate with the stars, lost its target and became empty.
The spiritual energy descending from the sky was cut off abruptly.
“…Don’t panic. It’s unexpected clouds. Besides, I don’t sense any water qi. It’s not a storm that can bring rain — just a passing cloud. Since there’s a lot of wind, it should disappear soon.”
“…Perhaps Master could….”
“You idiot! What did you hear me say?! I can only assist your ritual — I cannot intervene directly! Especially regarding anything to do with the sky!
If I interfere with the sky right now and blow away the clouds, your ceremony will fail immediately!”
“…Then I’ll wait.”
I briefly paused my ritual and looked at the sky.
Waiting for the clouds to disappear.
And morning came.
The stars vanished and the sun rose, and only then did the clouds scatter as if it had all been a lie.
As if the purpose had simply been to block my ritual last night.
“W-what… how could this….”
I was also quite shocked, yet Master looked even more dazed, staring at the sky.
“H-how can the heavens interfere with a master’s timing like this? This… this can’t be. There must be some mistake. S-sorry, disciple. This master must have calculated an unlucky timing…”
“Master…”
But I felt an ominous premonition and asked him,
“If the timing is calculated wrong, does such a heavenly phenomenon appear…?”
“Ah, no, of course not. That’s just an abnormal phenomenon. Um, yes. Perhaps I miscalculated the weather instead of the timing. Disciple, I’ll recalculate a suitable timing soon. Then we’ll perform the ceremony again.”
“Understood.”
I sighed softly and came down from the altar.
Life, after all, never goes exactly as planned.
No one understood that better than I did.
I would wait.
As I always had.
We calculated another timing and prepared the altar and the ritual once more.
“This time it’s definitely right! This time we will definitely receive the spiritual energy of the spiritual nature of heaven and earth! This time I calculated the weather perfectly, so…”
But…
When night fell, the sky had turned pitch black.
It was not darkness.
Dark clouds.
A huge curtain had covered the entire sky.
It had happened suddenly and without warning.
“W-what?! This can’t be! My calculation can’t be wrong!”
Master shouted in despair.
“Again! Again?! This… this…”
Thus the second ceremony failed.
“Again! Let’s prepare the next ceremony! Twice like this can happen! Hahaha! This time this master will calculate the right timing. And I’ll build the altar in the perfect place.”
Several months later…
Master had calculated the timing for me again.
This time we headed east toward Byeokra Kingdom. The spiritual power was not abundant,
but the central region of the Dabcheon Desert where clouds never gathered.
“This is the wind-blown region of the Dabcheon Desert. The wind is fierce and the air dry — it never, never rains!
Also, within tens of li there are rocky deserts, so no sand will fly. This time we can complete the ceremony perfectly!”
Thus the sun set again and the stars rose.
I prepared the ceremony once more.
And this time, until the middle of the ceremony, it went smoothly.
Right before the final gate of the ceremony — receiving the heavenly spiritual power from the stars.
—
In the sky, dark clouds began to gather.
Before I finished the entire ritual procedure,
those clouds covered the dry desert sky completely.
“Nooooo!”
Master screamed as if his own ceremony had been interrupted, but the clouds did not move — they blocked the sky and cut off the heavenly spiritual energy.
“Uwaaaa! Why is my disciple’s ceremony failing?! Why?!”
—
Master’s spiritual power shot into the sky and tore away every cloud.
The tremendous magical power of a Foundation Establishment master illuminated the night sky as the clouds were pushed back.
But because Master had touched the sky, the stars who had been sending power for the ritual no longer did so.
That was how the ceremony ended.
“Why… why is this happening… why, why…”
He chewed his lip, paced for a long time, and then sighed.
“First, let me find out why this is happening. Let’s go, disciple.”
I rode Master’s flying technique and returned to the main estate of Cheongmun Clan.
After that, Master rummaged through the bookshelves of Cheongmun Clan and read countless ancient books.
He had always been a bookworm, but for my sake he brought out even more and read them all at once.
And about a month later…
Master came to me with bloodshot eyes.
“…I’ve found the cause of your symptoms.”
“…! How is this possible…?”
“….”
Master hesitated for a moment, then chewed his lip.
And the moment I heard what he said next, I felt my world collapse.
“The world… rejects you. It is said that the phenomenon of heaven rejecting those who walk the path of cultivation….”
“Rejecting… the path…?”
“…You were not born with the destiny to become a master. …I’m sorry, disciple. This master cannot do anything.”