Chapter 465
I swallowed the entire decoction that Buk Hyang-hwa had given me, then stood up and brushed off my clothes.
*Even meeting that bandage freak was unexpected... but in the end, everything turned out well.*
I had met Cheongmun Ryeong and Buk Hyang-hwa.
Now it was time to enter Cheongmun Ryeong’s disciple line and learn mathematics. I would meet Changhoza and Siho later.
“By the way, may I ask for your honorable name, young lady?”
I wrapped fresh bandages around my body as I questioned Buk Hyang-hwa.
The name in this world could be different, so I had asked.
“Ah, my name is Baek Ran. Please call me Baek Yeon.”
“Baek Ran... what a beautiful name.”
It felt strangely familiar.
It must be her name in this world.
“How much do I owe for the treatment?”
“Ah, the person who brought me here already paid all the fees. You don’t need to pay.”
“Ah, I see. Still, I wish to express my gratitude. If you could tell me a place where I can repay you later, I will find you.”
“You need not bother, but if you insist... come to Baek Ryeon Village in Cheongha County. I will be waiting there.”
“I understand. I will pay my respects later.”
I offered Buk Hyang-hwa—Baek Ran—my gratitude and left the room.
*Am I in a manor?*
The place I had emerged from was a manor. In the vast courtyard, dozens of people sat cross-legged and were diligently practicing.
*This place...*
“This manor was lent to us by the Master. From now on, you will participate in disciple recruitment. Here, you will train in basic cultivation arts until the Master finds you worthy. However, if the Master declares you unworthy, you must leave immediately. Do you agree?”
“I came here intending to become a disciple, so of course I agree...”
I asked the bandage fiend.
“What if I decide not to participate in disciple recruitment?”
I had no intention of refusing, but something about the fiend’s offer displeased me, so I voiced my objection.
“In that case, the Master’s name will no longer matter to you. I will kill you where you stand.”
“Ha!”
I looked straight into the fiend’s eyes.
*What kind of tone is that... Are you jealous that I might become a disciple of Daein Cheongmun Ryeong? Is that young man’s disciple so narrow-minded?*
“It’s fine.”
“What?”
“Only when you follow the Master’s will will you be broad-minded. Otherwise, even if your mind is narrow, petty, vile, and filthy toward all things in the myriad phenomena and the three thousand great thousand worlds, it will still be acceptable.”
“This is...”
“I will follow the Master’s name. I can cut out my own throat right now. For the Master’s name, I have come here ready to accept any unreasonable act. For the Master’s name alone, I stand here with the resolve never to accept anything else in the three thousand great thousand worlds. What about you? Do you have such resolve?”
“...”
“Receiving instruction from someone and serving them as a Master... it requires at least that kind of resolve. If you lack it, leave right now. Earlier I said I would kill you in a fit of anger, but if you leave on your own feet at this moment, I won’t.”
I stared back at the bandage fiend.
Those eyes... they burned with madness.
I saw someone familiar in that madness.
It was me.
There was nothing in that madness but madness and evil.
Infinite respect for the Master, boundless reverence, and limitless loyalty were there.
I recalled the past beyond that: ten prostrations before Cheongmun Ryeong and my death.
With a serious expression, I said,
“You came here without such resolve.”
“...”
“Even at death, I had resolved to prostrate before him and die. Don’t test me with your yardstick.”
The fiend remained silent for a moment, then turned.
“Follow me. I will guide you to the Master.”
I followed the bandage fiend.
Some time later, I was able to meet Cheongmun Ryeong.
“You are the one who fought my disciple?”
“I’m deeply sorry. I caused a disturbance. Forgive me.”
“It is all right. It is good that you have realized now. The way I recruit disciples is simple. From today, I will teach you the basic cultivation method. If you practice it with sincerity, I will decide whether to accept you as a disciple after observing your results.”
“Yes, whatever you give me, I will practice with all my heart.”
“Good. Then receive this.”
I received the basic cultivation manual from Cheongmun Ryeong.
The manual had no title. It was simply an art for accumulating basic spiritual power.
“This is...”
*How astonishing...!*
I quickly scanned the manual and, with my experience reaching the Integration/Unity realm, immediately understood its essence.
*It’s ridiculous...*
Not a joke. It was actually less valuable than any cultivation manual I had ever seen.
*How can the speed of accumulating spiritual power be slower than even the basic Wuyue Rudu Gyeong, which is called the most fundamental method? No... this is deliberately a method to make spiritual power accumulate even more slowly.*
That was it.
This felt like a method created not to speed up spiritual power like ordinary arts, but to force it to accumulate more slowly.
*If I practice this in a world where the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is already scarce... it would take a hundred years just to reach the first layer of Qi Condensation even for a heavenly-rooted genius.*
I was momentarily stunned, but I bowed my head to Cheongmun Ryeong anyway.
“Thank you for this boundless grace.”
“Good. Also... occasionally one of my disciples named Gwagwam will assign you menial tasks like the other candidate disciples. See that you practice diligently as well.”
“Yes, I will practice with all my heart.”
“Then go.”
“Yes, I won’t disappoint you.”
I bowed to Cheongmun Ryeong and went to find a place to begin practicing this nameless method.
That was when...
*Oh, I almost forgot. Take this.*
“Eh?”
Cheongmun Ryeong handed me a plum.
“This is a fruit I specially harmonized. Carry it with you at all times. It will aid your practice.”
“Ah, yes...”
I examined the plum after receiving it.
No special spiritual fluctuations were felt.
He said he had harmonized it, but it was just a plain plum.
For a moment I wondered if he was teasing me, but since he had given it, I believed there must be a reason and placed it in my mouth.
*He said to put it in my mouth, not swallow it, right?*
I did not swallow the plum. I kept it between my lips and, after bowing to Cheongmun Ryeong, left and headed back to the courtyard I had seen earlier.
There, candidate disciples who had participated in Cheongmun Ryeong’s recruitment exam sat cross-legged, practicing the nameless method.
I joined them and began the practice.
That was when...
“Hey, you. Newcomer. If you just arrived, you should greet your seniors?”
A burly fiend and a bunch of young master types came over and folded their arms.
I carefully kept the plum in my mouth and asked.
“The Master told me to perform the basic cultivation...”
“Ha! If you don’t greet us, basic cultivation or whatever...”
Piit!
I drew my sword from my robe without a word and swung it at the sky.
No sound.
But the result was clear.
Crack!
A cloud passing overhead split in half.
“Don’t talk. If you want to become a disciple of Daein Cheongmun Ryeong, go practice the cultivation diligently.”
“Yes, yes, Master...”
The group shrank back and hurried away.
*Now I can practice the cultivation...*
But just as I sat down to begin, other guys started bothering me.
“Wow, amazing, brother!”
“What kind of technique was that just now? Maybe you could teach me too...”
“You took down that group in one move. You’re a hero!”
“If you don’t become a disciple of Teacher Hamjaeja, you can become the big brother’s disciple...”
“Hehe, oppa. Let’s be friends. My name is Won Rip...”
“Pity! Since you split the clouds in one go, I’ll call you Pity Brother...”
Even though some of them were annoying, I ignored them and continued operating the nameless method.
Days passed.
* * *
*Spiritual power isn’t gathering.*
It was gathering.
But only about one-tenth of the amount a single low-grade spiritual stone could hold.
Still, there was no need to rush.
I had continued practicing the nameless method for days on end.
*Eventually it will come.*
Continuous effort is what it takes.
That was the truth I had realized after countless regressions.
“Hey, number one. You. You. This time you. Everyone wake up and follow me.”
The bandage fiend.
At this point, the only disciple of Cheongmun Ryeong was Gwagwam. He called several of us, including me.
The menial tasks he assigned were upon me.
We had to collectively pull corpses or chop wood and distribute them to the poor village.
“You chop the wood. You move grain from the warehouse over there. You...”
Gwagwam looked at me and said,
“Take the wood you chopped and burn it into charcoal.”
“Charcoal?”
“Don’t you know what charcoal is? Don’t ask stupid questions and move!”
“I... I understand.”
I had somehow become a charcoal worker again.
Of course I wasn’t the only one. Several charcoal workers and I moved together.
We carried wood and burned charcoal.
While doing so, I noticed other workers removing plums from their mouths.
“Wait, don’t you remove that fruit?”
The plum given by Cheongmun Ryeong produced no spiritual fluctuation, yet it had stayed in my mouth for days without rotting.
It must have been harmonized by some law of this world that I didn’t understand.
I asked in surprise when I saw them remove their plums, and they looked at me as if I had asked something strange.
“What are you talking about, brother? Daein Hamjaeja only said to carry the plum, not to remove it.”
“That’s right, brother. How could a person carry a plum in his mouth all the time? It would be uncomfortable when sleeping.”
“What if it rots from staying in your mouth?”
I asked with a puzzled expression.
*...Does it rot?*
“Of course it does. It’s been in your mouth with saliva for so long... We took out the plum from Cheongmun Ryeong’s disciple and saw it was already rotten the next day?”
*What? Mine is still fresh.*
Not just fresh. It was as if it had been plucked moments ago.
But why was theirs already rotten while mine was still fresh?
I was suspicious but kept burning charcoal.
* * *
A month passed.
I kept in touch with the workers nearby through letters and continued my practice.
And gradually I began to feel something.
*Strength is leaving my body.*
The more I practiced the nameless method, the more my physical strength drained and my body weakened.
Previously, even one gong of internal energy could lift an entire house. Now even lifting a brick or a spoon was difficult.
*If it weren’t for Cheongmun Ryeong, I would have thought I was cursed.*
I looked at my arm.
The more I practiced the nameless method, the more my body wasted away.
A month earlier, my body had been sturdy. Now it was nothing more than a scarecrow.
*...But... my heart is clearing.*
Spiritual power wasn’t increasing, yet my body was wasting away.
However, as I practiced in Cheongmun Ryeong’s manor, my mind gradually became at ease, my thoughts clear, and my worries vanished.
I felt the plum in my mouth, extinguished the lamp in my assigned room, and thought.
*What kind of harmony is this giving me?*
Gradually, all the candidate disciples had failed, and only a handful remained in the manor.
I had no idea why each of them had not failed yet.
I understood the Master’s conditions for keeping disciples.
*It must be the plum.*
The ones who had kept the plum given by Cheongmun Ryeong in their mouths from beginning to end were the only ones who remained.
It was surprising how many had tested the plum by taking it in and out, thinking it unimportant. They had all been expelled.
*But the others will soon realize too.*
The remaining candidate disciples were only four, including me.
*Yet the Master’s test is said to be so harsh that only Gwagwam has passed... Is this the end?*
That was when I began to feel uneasy.
“Everyone come out!”
Gwagwam dragged us out of the room and shouted.
“Since all the menial task workers are gone, from now on you will take over all the menial tasks everyone used to do! Got it?!”
The faces of the three others besides me looked as if they were about to die.
Gwagwam continued.
“And the Master has given one piece of advice for the few of you still remaining! Listen carefully!”
Cheongmun Ryeong’s decree was as follows.
*“Well done for enduring. But many more menial tasks will await you. Whenever that happens, remember the plum in your mouth. When you’re hot, thirsty, tired, or hungry, remember the plum I gave you and regain your strength.” ...That is all!*
The others looked bewildered.
I was a little bewildered too, but I interpreted Cheongmun Ryeong’s words in my own way.
*This plum is the fruit harmonized by the Master for us.*
To remember such a plum is the same as remembering the Master’s grace.
*With the Master’s grace in mind, I will muster my strength.*
The other candidate disciples looked as if they were about to die.
They, too, had become as wasted as I was.
Thus, we plunged into endless menial task hell.
* * *
A month passed again.
Scraping, scraping, scraping...
Only I and one other remained as candidate disciples.
We were chopping potatoes in the kitchen,
and our current state was nothing short of skeletons.
*Even the potato peeler is too heavy.*
My inner energy had completely dried up.
Honestly, I didn’t understand how I was still moving.
*There’s not a drop of spiritual energy left in my body... If that’s the case, dying should be normal, but how am I moving at all?*
I rolled the plum in my mouth with my tongue and thought.
*...The plum?*
Following Gwagwam’s instruction, every time I licked the plum and thought of Cheongmun Ryeong, my body moved with a creaking sound.
*There’s clearly no prayer or spirit power, yet it’s an astonishing harmony.*
I thanked the Master with my skeletal hands for his grace while chopping potatoes.
That was when...
“Kyaaak spit!”
The woman opposite me spat out the plum and shot to her feet.
“Damn it! I can’t stand it anymore! If I keep this up, I’ll die!”
The plum she spat was already rotten.
“Now I know! Cheongmun Ryeong was a fraud! How could he give people a rotten plum to keep in their mouths for months while teaching a cultivation method that makes the body change, then still not accept them as disciples! I have to get out of here! Oppa! Let’s leave quickly too?”
“Go ahead and leave.”
I didn’t even look at her and continued chopping potatoes.
“Hmph, damn it! What’s the point of practicing under this fraud! Look at me! My beautiful, almost perfect appearance is ruined! I’m leaving. Damn it, you can keep being exploited by the fraud here!”
She cursed the Master in front of me, changed into her own red clothes from the kitchen uniform, and ran away from the manor without looking back.
She had called me oppa, so I guessed she was one of the ones who had acted spoiled in front of me on the first day...
*She lacks guts. No... she lacks respect.*
I had seen her plum from time to time when she ate or drank.
*The plum stayed fresh.*
It rotted the instant it was spat out.
*The Master’s harmony is real. He won’t let us die.*
I carried that belief in my heart and continued working in silence.
Some time later, Gwagwam came to me.
*...When will the test end?*
I asked him.
With only me left as a candidate disciple, I wondered if the final trial was approaching.
He laughed dryly.
“The firefly doesn’t know what the sun thinks. Only he knows what he has decided. You just do what you have to do.”
Gwagwam tossed me another ten baskets of potatoes and left.
I continued chopping potatoes in silence.
Six more months passed.
* * *
*What am I?*
I looked at my nails falling off my fingers and thought.
My body had long since passed the point of weakness and was nearing death.
*How am I still alive?*
I carried a broom as heavy as a thousand catties and cleaned the manor, thinking.
My appetite had disappeared.
I hadn’t eaten in a long time.
Eventually I hadn’t even drunk water.
It had probably been about a month.
I wasn’t relying on internal energy or external force.
*My one gong of internal energy... has completely dried up...*
There was no spiritual energy left in my body.
Yet I was still alive.
I stared at my dried-up body like a mummy and took a breath.
*I don’t know... but what’s certain is...*
I had come here to become Cheongmun Ryeong’s disciple.
I remember the grace I received from him.
I remember the time I spent with him.
I remember the prostrations I offered him.
I remembered my disciples.
I had given my life for them.
*The relationship between Master and disciple... is like that.*
A relationship where one side can give their life for the other.
The same as parent and child.
That is why the title Sa-bu (Master) includes the character for father.
But the Cheongmun Ryeong I had prostrated before had vanished beyond the time stream.
The one standing here is a “different” Cheongmun Ryeong.
Yet...
Even so, I had followed his traces here and was trying to establish the Master-disciple relationship again.
*Why?*
I asked myself.
*Why am I trying to form a connection with someone else?*
I had asked myself this question many times.
It was a question I had answered many times, yet I kept asking it again.
Perhaps because it was so important.
*Is it because the names are the same? The faces are the same? Even if I have regressed, the souls are identical?*
No matter what answer I gave, it felt lacking.
I chewed on it.
Why?
Why was I so obsessed with my relationship with him?
No, not just Cheongmun Ryeong.
*Buk Hyang-hwa is the same. Kim Yeon is the same...*
I knew.
I was obsessed with connections.
Sometimes to a degree that felt excessive.
And the result of that obsession was the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram.
*Why do I obsess?*
I felt doubt toward the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram itself.
*The Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram is the implementation of my connections.*
And to reach the point of void annihilation, I had to cut off obsession and realize the void.
I had embraced all the connections of the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, stacked them, and created the formless.
A thought from someone’s words flashed through my mind.
*“The mind is death.”*
Countless koans brushed past my mind.
And I snapped to my senses.
“...!”
I suddenly recalled the moment when countless messengers were massacred.
And the owner of the massive mountain that seemed to crush the universe appeared.
Mount Tai!
It was Mount Tai!
“...!”
But when I came to my senses, the person in front of me was Gwagwam.
Gwagwam was staring down at me with a whip.
*My body is at the level of a corpse, so I must have hallucinated for a moment.*
*“...What?”*
“You lazy fool! You’re slacking off again! This is work the Master entrusted to me through me! Stop slacking and do it properly!”
He began whipping me.
With all my inner energy depleted and my body like a corpse, I could not resist Gwagwam, who was in perfect condition.
It tore at my flesh.
Intense pain filled my mind, but not a drop of blood came out.
It seemed my body was no longer in a normal state.
I looked up at Gwagwam.
The eyes are the window to the heart.
Somehow, I felt I could understand his heart.
*He’s angry.*
Not just angry.
Anger mixed with fear.
He was afraid I might become a disciple of Hamjaeja.
*So... it’s almost over.*
But why did it not feel joyful even though I knew the test was at its final stage?
*Right now, rather... it’s more important to shed the worries in my mind.*
Strange.
My mind was unusually peaceful and clear.
It was not on the level of the consciousness realm becoming pure and the world seeming clearer.
It felt like an unknown sixth sense had entered my hand.
Gwagwam, who had been beating me for a while, sighed and turned.
“You damned stupid fool. Aren’t you afraid of death?”
*“More than death...*
I slowly opened my mouth.
“Just dying... is scary.”
For some reason, polite speech came out.
Why?
Normally I hated it, but I felt I needed to speak respectfully now.
“Just dying?”
“Yes. Dying without doing anything...”
The emotion I felt at my first death.
At that time...
I had thought it was sadness.
The loneliness and sorrow of failing to achieve anything and dying miserably in this world.
But now, upon thinking, it was not that kind of sadness or misery.
It was injustice.
There was time from morning to evening, yet...
I died without knowing anything.
That was what was unjust.
“Dying without doing anything... without being remembered... not remembering... dying like that is scary.”
“Then aren’t you afraid now? I can kill you with just one tap.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“Why?”
“Because... this time...”
I smiled warmly.
“Because I have comprehended the Dao.”
Someone had once asked me.
What was my Dao?
I had answered like that.
Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity.
Yes...
My Dao was Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity.
Unlike the time I died when I had only met someone, remembered his grace, been remembered by someone, and done something with someone... I am infinitely happy now.
I had comprehended the Dao.
My Dao was Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity.
To comprehend Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity was to hold a heart that had exchanged countless connections.
*“The mind is death.”*
I finally understood the true meaning of the words someone had given me.
How could the mind become colorless at the end?
It was...
If connections and hearts were exchanged to completion, it was to comprehend the Dao. To comprehend the Dao was to become formless after death, and it became colorless.
In three lines:
I was obsessed with connections and the mind is death. What did it mean?
Connections meant exchanging hearts. Comprehending it was the same as comprehending the Dao.
Therefore, if one comprehended the Dao in the morning, dying in the evening was acceptable. It meant one could enjoy life within connections and accept death willingly.
*“The life of a person is exchanging hearts with hearts... because everyone’s hearts are already inside it, death is not scary.”*
I finally understood how I was moving with a body like a corpse.
It was not the plum.
I was no longer afraid of death.
Because I had confirmed that the hearts I had accumulated would remain even after death.
That was why I was still moving even as death enveloped me.
*“This is it?”*
Recognizing that the power moving my body, even without fearing death, is the heart.
*“This, is this not the final trial that everyone must pass to become the Master’s disciple?”*
I asked Gwagwam, who had turned his back.
Gwagwam said nothing and suddenly swung his whip at me.
Whack, whack!
I quietly received several lashes from him.
He glared at me and said.
“I do not recognize you. Do not call me Sa-hyeong. Got it? And...”
He grabbed the handle of the whip and said,
“My name is not Gwagwam.”
*“What?”*
“Gwagwam is a phonetic borrowing of my real name. My exact name is ॐ गा.”
*“What does it mean?”*
“I don’t know either. My mother, who was a bit senile, picked up words from near the temple and made an unthinking name. It has no meaning or grammar. It’s just garbage. No significance at all. But call me that anyway.”
“Um... the accurate pronunciation is difficult. Gwagwam? Ga-am? Ga-om?”
I tried pronouncing his name and found one that sounded natural.
“From now on, I will call you Gwagam. Sa-hyeong.”
I greeted Gwagam, and he glared at me and left.
“Don’t call me Sa-hyeong. I am not your Sa-hyeong.”
He disappeared in front of me.
I turned around.
There was Cheongmun Ryeong.
“Do you know why you didn’t die?”
“Because there are countless hearts within me.”
“Do you know how you could move with a body that is as good as dead?”
“Because I am not afraid of death.”
He smiled at me.
“Congratulations on passing the test, disciple.”
I silently prostrated ten times before Cheongmun Ryeong.
Thus, after crossing several lives, I became Cheongmun Ryeong’s disciple once more.
*“And I congratulate you on entering the foundation of immortal arts, disciple.”*
*“Eh...?”*
“Without using any prayer, spirit power, or cultivation method, to explore the principles of the world with the heart alone. To truly accept death and reshape the world with it. That is what is called... immortal arts.”
*“...Did not dying mean I had entered immortal arts?”*
“In a sense, yes. For a moment, I used the power of my heart to unfold immortal arts. From now on, you will learn true immortal arts and cultivation from me.”
Thus, on the day the connection with Cheongmun Ryeong was reestablished,
I had entered the realm of immortal arts.
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