The Dao Severed by Heaven
Whoa…
I closed my eyes for a moment as I gazed upon the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper through the Heart Vein Array — those Qi Condensation experts among the True Immortals.
‘Is it even possible…?’
Logically speaking, no way I could take on seven True Immortals with nothing but my own strength.
From what Yeong-seung had said, they were among the higher ranks even within the True Immortals.
Anyone who could project themselves as such would already be at the True Immortal level on their own.
And on top of that…
I was now a Qi Condensation expert.
That meant I was the most vulnerable being in this world when facing True Immortals.
Why were Qi Condensation experts the most vulnerable to True Immortals?
It had to do with how True Immortals ascended.
Even True Immortals had realms and stages.
According to Yeo-hui, the first realm one stepped into after becoming a True Immortal was called Corpse Liberation — Shi-hae-seon.
From the very name, one could see how it was possible to climb to that level.
Corpse Liberation.
Beings who freed themselves from their mortal flesh and rose completely into the world above Qi, Soul, and Name.
In other words, the True Immortal ascension ceremony was nothing but liberation from the body.
That meant discarding one’s entire “lifespan,” “flesh,” and “everything enjoyed in the mortal realm” to reach True Immortality.
It was, in the simplest terms —
we call it suicide.
Dying.
So simple, yet the most terrifying of all rituals.
Why then did the Qi Condensation experts of Myeonggwi Realm keep staring at the corpse of Yu Su-ryeon, the Reincarnation Judge who held the secret of revival, instead of challenging the True Immortal ascension?
Why had the scrap of Jin Shin’s flesh told me, “We all must eventually come to the Underworld once”?
It was because the True Immortal ascension ceremony was precisely this suicide.
And why Qi Condensation experts could almost never resist True Immortals, and why they had to “band together” to stand against them — it all came down to this very reason.
True Immortals who had completed Shi-hae-seon and gained their ranks already carried life and death in their bodies.
Those who reached a certain realm could, just by facing their opponent, obtain “knowledge.”
Therefore, Qi Condensation experts who witnessed True Immortals would inevitably witness “death” itself.
And those who witnessed death would immediately perform the True Immortal ascension ceremony on the spot.
In short… the Qi Condensation experts would die right there upon simply looking at True Immortals.
Those with the luck to survive would become True Immortals, but in the chaotic moment of suddenly confronting a True Immortal and suddenly performing the ascension, who could say how successful the ritual would be?
For a Qi Condensation expert without mental preparation, confronting a True Immortal was an absolutely terrifying act.
In truth, the difference in rank between Qi Condensation experts and Shi-hae-seon was said to be almost negligible.
Yet because Shi-hae-seon carried life and death itself in their embrace, it boasted an “absolute” advantage over Qi Condensation experts.
Thus the experts had to band together to fight Shi-hae-seon.
Even if they banded together, they might still be able to wound Shi-hae-seon through their own fate-based prophecies without directly facing them.
But… honestly, in this entire realm, where was there a single being capable of standing with me and seven True Immortals to fight?
Just to face one Shi-hae-seon, fifty or more Qi Condensation experts would be needed.
Yet the ones about to descend were True Immortals even higher than Shi-hae-seon, and I had no idea how profound their experience as True Immortals truly was.
Each one was undoubtedly stronger than a normal True Immortal.
Moreover, Yeong-seung had said that if their projections were perfectly gathered, even Hyeol-eum could be killed.
‘Hyeol-eum…’
He was the benchmark.
Yeong-seung spoke.
Originally forty-eight experts would have drawn the Heart Vein Array to summon the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper, but since Yeo-hui was absent, only forty-eight remained, so the summoning would not be perfect.
Therefore the projections of the Seven Stars about to be called this time could never defeat Hyeol-eum.
Yeong-seung himself seemed to have no intention of directly helping me, so from his words it seemed he wanted me to go find Hyeol-eum and beg him for aid.
‘But… that’s too dangerous.’
With Seo Hyoel perfectly suppressed at the moment.
The most dangerous thing right now was the projection of the Seven Stars being summoned and Hyeol-eum himself.
Especially since Hyeol-eum saw me as a follower of light, I had no idea what he might do if he caught me.
That was why going to Hyeol-eum was the lesser of two evils.
‘But looking at the situation right now, the lesser of two evils is the only option left.’
So I would have to turn even that lesser evil into the second choice.
‘I have to get stronger.’
I thought while contemplating the All-Heaven Sword.
I had reached the ultimate of the Void Refinement.
All that remained was to reach the next realm.
And… normally I should not have had even the slightest clue how to reach the next realm.
If not for meeting Jang Ik.
Yet through Jang Ik’s final strike…
I had obtained the clue to the next realm.
***
“I shall show you. This is the fighting spirit with which to cut down the end!”
Kiiying!
Jang Ik’s emerald-green light flooded the entire Samokdo.
I watched the emerald-green intent of Jang Ik and quietly infused the All-Heaven Sword into the Colorless Glass Sword.
The Colorless Glass Sword melted into the All-Heaven Sword and transformed into pure white lines.
And I pulled out one final technique I had been perfecting.
Dan-ak Sword Art.
The ultimate final move.
The thirty-sixth move — the concluding technique to stabilize the flow of the Dan-ak Sword Art.
Kiiying!
Pure white light began flooding into the All-Heaven Sword.
Seeing this, Jang Ik laughed mockingly.
“What crude power. What do you intend to cut with it?”
I felt ashamed and had to clear my throat.
Although the power was crude, there was no momentum.
It was nothing but a club.
“…This technique is not yet complete. To complete it… it may take ten thousand years. Or perhaps… billions of years.”
I had already finished conceptualizing the technique.
The problem was that the period I had spent “practicing” the conceptualized technique had been far too long, so I had no idea when it would finish.
Jang Ik clicked his tongue.
Stop wasting time. If that’s the case, just crash into me with your own power.
It was a rather insulting remark to make to someone of the same Heart Tribe.
But I accepted it.
Accepting a half-finished technique from the master I had been honing for a lifetime was the true rudeness.
I changed my stance and prepared the linkage between the Thirty-third Move, Sumeru, and the Thirty-fourth Move, Gollyun.
“This might actually be better! Much more magnificent momentum.”
“…Yes, no matter how much of a master you are… you should still be tense about this.”
It wasn’t just about the power of Sumeru Gollyun.
“…It seems so. In any case, by conceptualizing the final move of your martial arts, you have stabilized the very flow of your own Martial Path.”
It was exactly as he said.
I had completely conceptualized and stabilized the entire thirty-sixth move of the Dan-ak Sword Art.
And I had stabilized it for the purpose of linking all thirty-six moves from start to finish.
The Dan-ak Sword Art had been stabilized as the foundation for unfolding the thirty-sixth move, and all the techniques that had lacked unity until then had been recombined to create perfect unity.
That was why the Sumeru Gollyun I was now unfolding was no longer the same technique as before.
This ultimate final strike that had once pierced Hyeol-eum’s hand and temporarily sealed Yeo-hui’s cultivation could now be fired three times in succession.
‘If it hits, it is a technique that can help Qi Condensation experts complete the True Immortal ascension in a single shot.’
Yet despite preparing this Sumeru Gollyun, I could not bring myself to face Jang Ik.
Jang Ik looked at me with a smirk.
By the way, if your technique is destroyed, block it even if you have to use your own power.
“What?”
“I said I reached this technique in order to cut down the end. And now the one who is causing the end is you. Therefore… I will cut the end from you.”
“But….”
“If a master commands it, you obey.”
Swish—
The emerald-green light overflowing around Jang Ik gradually thickened.
“Or if not, just die here.”
Insidious green light poured from Jang Ik’s eyes.
I remained silent for a moment, then nodded.
We prepared our stances to clash with each other’s most confident techniques.
‘I wanted to fight with thirty-six moves… but it would take too long to train enough to face Jang Ik… there’s no choice.’
Kiiing!
Emerald-green intent burst forth from Jang Ik’s body, bright and boiling.
The color of intent was diverse.
For example, joy was gold.
Anger was red.
Sorrow was dark blue.
Joy was purple. Depending on the person, it sometimes appeared silver.
Love was pink.
Hatred was dark red.
Desire was colorless.
These were the seven basic colors of intent.
Countless intents mixed, split, deepened, or lightened from these basic colors to form their own hues.
And… so what did the green intent symbolize?
Green intent symbolized consolation and the pacification of the soul.
From Jang Ik’s intent flowed the story of his entire life.
It was the life of a slave race.
He was born forty-five thousand years ago during the chaos of the Gwanghan Realm.
Jang Ik realized he had talent for wielding the sabre amidst the chaos, yet as a slave race he was nothing but a performer for his masters.
One day his master died in the war of the Gwanghan Realm, and Jang Ik, to protect the youngest and his comrades from the heavenly race that had come to hunt them, picked up the sabre.
And from that day his talent blossomed.
He slaughtered countless cultivators with the sabre.
Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul.
Countless cultivators fell like autumn leaves beneath his sabre.
Yet Jang Ik always felt he lacked something.
‘Have they all died today?’
His own tribe had been slaughtered without mercy, their lives taken by slaves, or they had simply worn themselves out and died.
‘I… remember you all.’
That was why Jang Ik remembered them.
He could not remember everything like I could with the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, but through his fighting spirit he commemorated them.
The moments of value in their lives.
He realized those moments in his own fighting spirit.
Jang Ik’s sabre technique gradually became more refined and beautiful.
Since his dance was created to honor the lives and hearts of the dead, Jang Ik always wanted to remember and honor those he had killed.
So at last he established his fighting spirit through comforting, honoring, and pacifying the dead.
To commemorate the painful past of his own tribe…
He pursued the ultimate destruction in the pacification song so that such things would never happen again.
Pacification meant a vow.
Before the dead, swearing that such things would never happen again.
Jang Ik had pursued the meaning of that vow through destruction.
I trembled as I gazed upon the emerald-green light itself, which contained his entire life.
Ddddddddddd!
‘…This… I probably can’t stop with my own martial arts.’
Perhaps if I had reached Accumulating Dust to Form a Mountain it might have been possible.
But Accumulating Dust to Form a Mountain required the power of the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, which I could not use in this situation.
Then the only remaining option was…
to block it using my own power as Jang Ik wished.
Jang Ik raised his sabre and struck.
A simple, straightforward, and powerful one-move technique.
Strike Down!
I had no intention of receiving it.
So…
I would receive it.
Paang!
Through the Sumeru Sword Technique I borrowed the world’s power and thrust with Gollyun’s force.
The first thrust was merely a feint.
Gollyun bounced off Jang Ik’s enormous sabre.
But because I could thrust three times in succession, only two remained.
And I added my own power to those two thrusts.
Line Technique: Seong-jeong, Line Technique: Gye-ui, Line Technique: Ogi Samryeong and Paldo.
I added every Line Technique I could use right now to reinforce those thrusts.
Jang Ik’s sabre met my combined Line Techniques, its speed slowed and its edges chipped.
Yet it was still falling toward me.
I even realized that Jang Ik’s sabre was now unleashing even greater power.
‘Intent… so that’s it.’
I had discovered the secret of Jang Ik’s might.
So I prepared the final thrust once more.
‘Third thrust. If I am pushed back here… I will suffer fatal damage from Jang Ik.’
This situation could not happen.
Then I would have to add the most destructive law technique I possessed.
Wiiiiing!
At the tip of the thrust, the Jade of Yin-Yang and Five Elements rose.
‘I haven’t used this in a while.’
Immediately after, my final thrust collided with Jang Ik’s sabre.
Flash!
The world filled with emerald-green light.
“Taesan!”
Kwaaaaaaaa!
My thrust, which had merged with Taesan Yeolje-gong, pierced through Jang Ik’s slashing strike like a hole, shattered his sabre, and then turned his very flesh into paste.
Skkang!
My body too was split in two in an instant, but I borrowed the power of Samokdo to restore it.
Shiiiiii—
“…Master…”
I looked at Jang Ik with sorrowful eyes.
I had seen it.
Through his final strike, the clue to the [next realm] that he had obtained.
“…Aren’t you sad?”
Jang Ik spoke while his entire body dissolved into paste.
Treat me first. I’m dying.
“Don’t. Right now I… as you saw, I have reached the extreme of fighting spirit.”
He sincerely told me not to treat him and even shot killing intent.
“…Master…”
Don’t be sad. Among the Heart Tribe you have killed, is there even one who regrets their death at your hands? There isn’t. I am no different… not sad at all.
Shiiiiii—
From Jang Ik’s body, pure white souls began to emerge.
Gradually the number of souls increased, and Jang Ik shrank.
Yet these were not real souls.
Then what…?
It was.
They were artificial souls similar to those of Goe-gun.
But unlike Goe-gun’s, they were created through his own fighting spirit, not circuits.
The reason Jang Ik could unleash “much stronger than before” explosive power.
It was because he had recorded the intent of the people he had lived with in life, then stored it inside his body as artificial souls.
From those artificial souls he drew the intent of his past life and used it…
Because he danced the dance created to pacify the souls of his comrades from the past, the artificial souls accepted his heart and lent him strength.
“It is a technique called Gimyoseongsimjeon.”
Jang Ik slowly explained about the artificial souls.
“I made it long ago, but I never used it. But for facing you, I brought it today.”
“…It’s amazing.”
Ha…! It has to be amazing. Not only the core, but a self-contained power-generating mechanism was created in the very rank of the soul itself, into which the intent of his old comrades was inputted… and then the power was drawn out with the heart of honoring them. It would probably be possible with your Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram too. It would be even more efficient than mine.
“….”
“…You saw it too. The clue to the next realm I found….”
“Yes.”
I made a bitter face.
Jang Ik’s final move had undoubtedly contained the next realm.
“…I could have reached the next realm. But… I deliberately did not. Because I did not want to understand the hearts and worldviews of the heavenly race that had slaughtered my tribe, eaten them, and turned us into slaves.”
That was why… I had only shown you the Gimyoseongsimjeon from just now, for the purpose of showing you.
Jang Ik slowly closed his eyes while dying.
“…But… if it’s you… you will definitely reach it. Kim Young-hoon is the same too… heh.”
“….”
“One more thing… swear… to me.”
“Speak.”
“You… one day… reach the ultimate of fighting spirit. What you call… the Wugeuk. If you do, then one day… when your power is strong enough… please create a world where the strong… cannot easily oppress the weak….”
Having finished speaking, Jang Ik closed his eyes.
He had used the Gimyoseongsimjeon, cutting away his own pride and life, only to show me the technique.
I knelt before Jang Ik and offered ten bows.
I was the master of sainthood, and he was the intruder, but that did not matter.
He had been my master until the very end.
***
Taat!
The Qi Condensation experts in front of me were drawing the Heart Vein Array.
Soon the array would be complete.
No, in truth, all I had to do was input the summoning words and the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper would descend.
I had already understood that no matter what I did, it was useless.
The affinity between me and the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper had already been generated in the Ilwol Cheonyeok.
So I calmed myself and raised the All-Heaven Sword instead of getting excited and destroying the array and the forty-eight experts.
The next realm Jang Ik had shown me.
The realization of the One Step Before the Throne was that.
Wiiiiing!
Gradually the All-Heaven Sword brightened and danced at the rank of the soul.
The condition for rising to Qi Condensation was ultimately to master the rank.
Whether the Name rank or the Qi rank.
Then the One Step Before the Throne, which could confront Qi Condensation, was reaching the next realm — to master the soul rank?
It was wrong.
The soul rank was not the “dimensional” concept people generally thought.
It was far different.
Instead, it had some resemblance to the “flowers” of the East Heaven Flower Garden ruled by Sarasu Cheonjon.
The Mind assigned to each individual!
That was the soul rank.
In short…
The soul rank was the hearts of all living beings existing in this world, each called the soul rank.
Therefore the Heart Tribe, in contrast to the Heavenly and Earthly races, mastered the soul rank they were personally assigned from the very first step of the Wol-doipcheon realm.
The Heavenly and Earthly races only achieved it when they became Qi Condensation experts.
And after that the realms divided according to how they drew power from the mastered rank and how much influence they exerted on other “soul ranks.”
And the ultimate of the realm that could master and wield only one soul rank was the Void Refinement.
Or the One Step Before the Throne, also called Mandala.
What Jang Ik had shown was, in truth, the ultimate he could show — his own life and his own mind.
At the same time, Jang Ik had greatly increased the output with which he could generate other artificial souls inside his body.
Because the artificial souls were very similar to the Heart Tribe’s techniques, they could be classified as such under Goe-gun’s Gimyoseongsimjeon.
But…
Only that they could be classified.
The artificial souls Jang Ik had shown were undoubtedly very similar to the consciousness methods of the Heavenly and Earthly races.
The Heavenly and Earthly cultivators who trained the Qi and Name ranks could, as their realm rose, interfere to some extent with other ranks.
From the Nascent Soul stage onward they perceived other ranks, and at the Seongban stage they could reach out even to ranks other than their own as sages.
And now that I had become a Qi Condensation expert, I felt that even a cultivator of the Name rank could use the power of the Qi rank at the Star Shattering level.
Yes.
As the Heavenly and Earthly races continued their realm, they could interfere with other ranks.
But what about the Heart Tribe?
The Heart Tribe did not even try to understand any other rank.
Just by looking at the names of their implementation, one could see that they were beings with extremely strong self-awareness of their own lives.
And.
Jang Ik’s realization had told me that.
[Who are you? The madman who twisted the edict and shook the Ilwol Cheonyeok.]
The Qi Condensation experts began mocking me.
Perhaps they believed I would summon the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper.
[How did you come here? Ah, perhaps you came to serve us? Whether female or male, serving as a junior in any form is truly a noble deed.]
[Hahaha, go ahead and burn in the fire. Or perhaps you came to find us and repay the old favor?]
[Go ahead and go wild. It seems you have gained a lot of confidence after delaying the end of the Ilwol Cheonyeok…]
[Show us the outside heaven.]
I answered their words with silence and continued compressing the All-Heaven Sword.
The Colorless Glass Sword infused with the All-Heaven Sword also compressed further and thinner with the All-Heaven Sword.
What Jang Ik had realized was, in the end, this.
To reach the One Step Before the Throne, meaning the realm corresponding to Qi Condensation, one had to understand other ranks.
The Heavenly and Earthly ranks had understood other ranks from the very beginning, so mastering their own ranks was more important, but the soul rank had mastered its own rank first and had failed to understand other ranks, making it difficult to reach the ultimate realm.
Heavenly, Earthly, and Heart all grew more similar as they approached the ultimate.
Uuuuuung!
It grew thinner.
My All-Heaven Sword grew thinner and thinner until it became a sword that could cut through anything in the world.
[Hey, as a senior, didn’t you ask? Are you preparing to use the Dharma-Destroying True Word? Ha, why don’t you try using it again!?]
Intimidation began shooting from the experts toward me.
They were clearly preparing to attack if I did not answer.
But I had no interest in such things.
‘Thinking back, I was curious.’
If Line Techniques could transform the world with the mind, then what was different between martial arts unfolding with the mind and the techniques of the Heart Tribe?
Perhaps… Line Technique and Martial Path might have been fundamentally similar.
Or rather, they might have been completed only by complementing each other.
Because… the Triple Taiji itself was a circle formed by the union of three extremes.
Kiiiiing!
[Do you really intend to humiliate us like this? If you don’t immediately kneel and beg and hand over our sister Yeo-hui…]
And finally.
The All-Heaven Sword, compressed like a line, completely lost its balance and dissolved into nothing in the void.
Paakang!
And the Colorless Glass Sword that had been thinning with the All-Heaven Sword shattered right there in the void.
I let out a cry as I looked at it.
[…So that’s it.]
And the experts glared at me and shouted.
[You really are looking down on us!!!]
I felt countless Line Techniques activating.
The malice of the experts began targeting me.
And I, without caring about them, swung the void inside my own hand.
Neither the All-Heaven Sword nor the Colorless Glass Sword was in my hand.
Yet the next instant.
[-----!!!]
[---]
[!!!]
[------!]
The experts all screamed as their prepared Line Techniques simultaneously froze.
I looked steadily at the experts and smiled.
[I finally obtained it. The Heart Sword.]
Martial Path is not completed by oneself alone.
A pure Martial Path cannot exist.
Human dreams are completed not only by the dream itself, but together with countless other events and dreams that accompany the path to reaching it.
The ultimate of the Martial Path was the same.
Yes.
The One Step Before the Throne.
The condition for reaching there was to train the Six Pairs of the Six Virtues, or the double sword of Simcheon.
And because Jang Ik had no desire to learn the methods of the Heavenly and Earthly races that had oppressed them.
He had only given me the clue as a thin consciousness method honed solely for mourning.
‘Jang Ik had probably also only recently realized…’
He too had only reached the ultimate of his One Step Before the Throne after searching for every method, then learned the Heavenly and Earthly methods and understood their hearts, only to realize he could reach the One Step Before the Throne.
Then… he had eventually realized it was impossible to forgive the Heavenly and Earthly races from the depths of his heart, and had set himself the nonsensical goal of challenging the end.
‘…Even so, your will… I will inherit it.’
I do not hate the Heavenly and Earthly races.
But I can bear the protective will for the weak that Jang Ik bore.
Jang Ik had probably made that request to me at the end for that very reason.
Wiiiiing!
I named my new realm.
The Master of Emptiness was Udumbara.
The Golden Monster was Yonghwa.
Both lived, as if alive, to guard the Martial Path.
I finally understood.
‘Martial Path alone cannot obtain life in the first place.’
The sword itself had no meaning.
It needed a target to cut and a person to swing it.
A flower needed a bee, soil, the light of heaven, rain clouds, and wind!
Life in this world could not be lived alone from the beginning.
That was why the one who named it united Heavenly, Earthly, and Heart, and naturally gave life the names of living flowers and trees.
Yet…
I decided to give this realm a slightly different name.
The experts, thinking about it, quickly sensed my skill and began summoning the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper, and I watched their summoning scene.
My eyes passed over the scenes of the past.
Third-rate.
Second-rate.
First-rate.
Peak…
The result of struggling to escape from the despair of my own talentlessness and inability.
Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown.
Five Qi Consorting with the Origin.
Peak Ascent…
The result of struggling to escape the oppression of cultivators who only knew me as a pill.
Wol-doipcheon.
Wol-do dapcheon.
Wol-do swae-cheon…
The result of struggling to escape not just from cultivators, but from the very talent deficiency of fate itself, my own birth.
Sitting Liberation and Standing Death.
Void Refinement…
The result of struggling to go beyond escaping fate and to confront and accept fate itself.
It had been long.
I had fought against fate, against those who oppressed me, against myself, for a long, long time.
I looked at the vast cosmic space before me.
Boundless emptiness, the sky.
I perhaps…
wanted to cut this sky.
Perhaps I wanted to cut down this world itself and be free.
That was why I recalled a name symbolizing freedom.
The first thing that came to mind in my head was the famous line from a literary work on Earth.
The bird breaks its shell.
For the bird, the shell is the world.
Those who wish to be born…
[Whatever they are, they must break the sky they have lived in.]
I, imagining the life born by breaking my own shell, finally spoke the name of the last realm.
[Dancheon.]
The All-Heaven Sword melted completely into the void and began to mix with my practices.
Practices, Line Techniques, affinities, explosions.
One in this heart.
At the same time, behind my head the complete Triple Taiji rose again.
The Triple Taiji I unfolded after becoming the benchmark of Qi Condensation.
At the same time I finally realized that Paryeodohae-seong had been properly completed.
Originally, since it was not the Heavenly and Earthly Double Sword method but the Triple Taiji method, I had had to pull all three Triple Taiji to the same realm to complete the Line Technique.
I looked at the Paryeodohae-seong that had completely melted into the void and gave a name to my Line Technique.
My Line Technique and the new name of the All-Heaven Sword.
It was…
something that had already been passed down for a long time.
[When all the Intent is gathered into colorless…]
I gazed upon the pure white天地-qi that rose around my body like salt and looked up at the seven colossal beings about to be summoned.
[When all the Affinity is embraced to become impermanent…]
Paryeodohae-seong
Extreme Intent
Line Technique
[Impermanent Sword.]
I had obtained the Triple Taiji and obtained my own Line Technique, and looked at the projections of the seven gods about to be summoned without stepping back and smiling.