The Talent Heaven Has Bestowed
“Looking at this situation… I don't think I'll go that far.”
“Oh… yes…”
Still, Yeong-hoon-hyung seemed more concerned about the current situation than about my breathing techniques or health exercises. He didn't show much interest in them at all.
‘It can't be helped. Time… plenty of it.’
The next day.
I faced the fox and had my left arm ripped off.
The pain was still the same, but thanks to the rise in my mental strength and the medical knowledge I had accumulated from my past life, I pressed my blood points to stop the bleeding and the agony. I chewed some herbs and applied them right there.
We were given the right to reside in this land by the fox.
Just like in my past life, Jeon Myeong-hoon used his skills, learned everything he could from me, and offered himself up to the fox.
And just like before, I made the best of it. The next day I had him drained of blood by a red snake, and I tormented him mercilessly for days on end.
And on the third day.
Just like my past life, these same people came and kidnapped Jeon Myeong-hoon Deputy Director, Kang Min-hee Assistant Manager, and Oh Hyun-seok Team Leader, then vanished.
And on the fourth day.
“This child is the one I’m taking.”
The Hae-ryong King Seo Hyoel arrived, scooped up Oh Hye-seo Assistant Manager, and stood up.
“Hae-ryong King, this humble one dares to ask one thing.”
“Hmm? What is it?”
Seo Hyoel looked at me with clear interest.
“You took away our Assistant Manager Oh. She’s a commoner without spiritual roots. No matter how long a mortal lives, they can’t exceed a hundred years. Yet you intend to take her?”
“Haha, quite the knowledgeable mortal about the ways of the sage. But there’s no need to worry. I’ll give her my blood and she’ll be accepted into the Hae-ryong clan. Once she accepts our blood, she’ll awaken the proper spiritual quality. Then she’ll be able to walk the path of cultivation.”
“…!”
Spiritual quality!
Another way to say spiritual root.
In other words, receiving the Hae-ryong King’s blood would turn her into a cultivator in one fell swoop.
“Could you perhaps grant us the same opportunity? She’s a fellow countryman of ours. Who knows, she might even have some special ability…”
“Haha, listen here.”
A flash of light.
Seo Hyoel’s eyes stretched like a reptile’s as he stared at my suggestion.
“During the period when the Ascension Gate opens, many high-level cultivators will pass through Deungsunhyang… so I’ll give you one piece of advice out of kindness.”
Kugugugugu!
“Gahk! Gahk!”
I clutched my heart and collapsed to the ground.
“It’s not wise for high-level cultivators like me to casually voice our opinions. We’ve lived for hundreds or thousands of years. We’ve seen things you haven’t, known things you don’t, and obtained wisdom you haven’t. I’m kind-hearted, but those with twisted personalities find it repulsive. They’d rather kill you like an insect.”
“Hahk… haahk…!”
“I brought this child because I believe her ability will be a tremendous boon to the Hae-ryong clan. You have no spiritual roots and no special abilities. Even if you did, they wouldn’t help as much as hers. Besides, the more companions we take through the Ascension Gate, the higher the difficulty becomes. Bringing you along would be a considerable burden on me.”
With those words he walked out of the cave entrance.
Kwarrung!
At the same moment thunder cracked and lightning flashed, and his figure vanished from the entrance.
Already a blue dragon soared gracefully through the clouds high above.
“…What in the world is this?”
Yeong-hoon-hyung and Kim Joon stared blankly at the sky.
That evening I gathered some especially good mushrooms, roasted them over the fire, and shared the last dinner with Kim Joon.
After she awakened her ability, the hunchbacked old man riding his giant Hae-tae puppet came looking for us.
Just like in my past life, the old man had decided to take Kim Joon.
I knelt before the old man and begged.
“Esteemed cultivator! Kim Joon is a commoner without spiritual roots. How can she become your disciple?”
The hunchbacked old man chuckled at my words.
“There are certainly rare medicines or artifacts that pierce the spiritual channels of commoners. Once an ordinary person obtains such a thing, the path of cultivation opens to them.”
“…!”
Tremendous information sent a shiver through my body.
‘The path to becoming a cultivator… another one!’
“What… you mortals who master martial arts can reach the Five Elements Spiritual Roots when refined to their limit… but it takes far too long. Besides, even if you awaken the spiritual quality that way, the result isn’t satisfying. I’ll find a medicine for you to feed your disciples. Well, have you understood? Follow me and you’ll become cultivators!”
As he spoke he naturally turned his gaze toward Kim Joon and tried to seduce her. But she had no idea what a cultivator was, what spiritual roots or spiritual channels were, and simply stared blankly.
After some haggling the hunchbacked old man pointed at us.
Uuwung!
A dark rift opened behind us. We were pulled toward it.
I grabbed the herbs I’d brought along. Yeong-hoon-hyung tried to run, but the old man’s strength caught him and flung him through the rift as well.
The last thing I saw before losing consciousness was Kim Joon reaching out toward us, just like in my past life.
***
When I came to, we were once again inside a dark cave.
“So this is…”
Once more.
Because the old man had randomly transported us, a tiny butterfly effect had sent us to a completely different place.
I slowly walked toward the light at the inner end of the cave.
“…A forest.”
It was.
This time we had landed in a dense woodland.
The eerie spiritual aura of Deungsunhyang was missing, so I knew we had left the forest behind.
“Haa…”
I sat down and began circulating the Heavenly-Earth Heart Method I had practiced for the last three days.
The Heavenly-Earth Heart Method was the foundational technique that activated the dantian, sensed qi, and controlled it.
Most martial artists learned the Heavenly-Earth Heart Method before attempting to master their skills.
‘I have no idea where we are.’
It might not even be Yeon Kingdom. Reaching a human settlement could take days or weeks.
“Ugh… ugh… ugh…”
I pulled out the six-hundred-year-old yellow-spirits ginseng I had picked in Deungsunhyang and swallowed it.
Uuwung…
Powerful qi surged into my dantian.
In my past life, even if I had found yellow-spirits ginseng, I had no internal skill other than the Heavenly-Earth Heart Method, so I couldn’t consume it myself.
But now things were different.
‘I spent decades grinding away as an advisor to the Gwanghan Martial Alliance and learned many usable internal skills.’
I circulated the internal skill I had paired with the Danak Sword Art that Yeong-hoon-hyung had crafted for me in my past life.
Dragon Vein Qi Gong.
Kuuuung—
The dense qi flowed into my dantian.
Controlling the surging qi was difficult.
Yet I had practiced the exact same internal skill for forty years.
It was only natural that I could circulate it.
Following the meridians and acupoints inside my body, I reopened the path of Dragon Vein Qi Gong that I had honed for forty years.
Kuwoong!
Kuwoong!
Kuwoong!
Qi traveled around my body as I pierced the blocked acupoints.
Even though the Heavenly-Earth Heart Method had cleansed my body for two days, my body was still soaked with instant coffee and nicotine, making it hard to open the meridians.
“Haa…”
After completing a hundred circulations I snapped a branch from a nearby tree and began sharpening it on a sharp rock.
The branch instantly became smooth wood shavings and formed a suitable handle.
“This should do.”
Buung, buung!
I held the handle and demonstrated the sword forms of the Danak Sword Art.
The sword qi that barely managed to escape my hand was only at the second level.
In my past life my pure skill had been average for the second level.
Perhaps because I hadn’t held a sword for a long time before death, the edge felt dull.
‘Still…’
Buung!
Kwadeuk!
I infused the handle with qi and slashed at a massive ancient tree in front of me. The sword qi cut straight through, slicing the tree in half at the base.
‘Even this will be enough to survive in the mountains for days.’
In a forest teeming with demons and spirits like Deungsunhyang, survival would have been easy with just my second-level sword skill.
That was when—
“Deputy… what was that just now? What happened…?”
Yeong-hoon-hyung—no, Kim Young-hoon Deputy Director—asked me with a bewildered expression.
“Wh-what? How did you… that strength?”
“Ah… this.”
I thought for a moment and gave him a reasonable answer.
“It’s a fortunate encounter.”
“F-fortunate encounter?”
“Yes. Inside that cave… I picked up an old book. While the book was burning, the content and its qi seeped into me. It seemed like an extraordinary object created by some martial artist to pass on his skill to his disciples by borrowing the power of a cultivator. Thanks to it, I became the successor of that martial art in a single instant.”
“Hah… hahk…!”
It was unbelievable.
But having survived four days of impossible events, he seemed to accept it.
‘I’ve fallen into this world, had my subordinate’s arm ripped off by a giant fox, been kidnapped by sky-moving freaks, and dropped through a dark spatial rift. What else could possibly surprise me in this situation…’
I laughed inwardly and explained the situation to Kim Young-hoon Deputy Director.
We had been sent to an entirely different place by the hunchbacked old man.
There were no civilian settlements nearby, so we would have to keep moving until we found one.
There seemed to be martial arts in this world, so I would teach him…
Kim Young-hoon Deputy Director, who had just been told “I’ll teach you martial arts,” didn’t look quite so despondent.
I taught him the Heavenly-Earth Heart Method, the basic vocabulary of this world, and the basic acupoints. We left the forest together.
***
Looking at the stars in the night sky, I eventually guessed our location and arrived at a nearby town.
“Yeon Kingdom again…”
I arrived at Yong-hyeol City, one of the cities of Yeon Kingdom, and felt an odd sense of déjà vu.
‘The old man keeps randomly tossing us around. But… the range of his randomness doesn’t leave Yeon Kingdom.’
There were other nations like Seongje Empire and Byeok-ra Kingdom.
Moreover, the old man didn’t seem to care much about us.
‘Then why… do we keep falling into Yeon Kingdom?’
Was there some reason?
Or…
‘Is it just fate?’
If this was pure coincidence…
‘Fate…’
Somehow I felt the word “fate” more strongly than any logical reason.
‘I… died on the exact same day and time as in my past life.’
Was that even possible?
I had lived a completely different life.
I had maintained completely different medical standards and nutrition levels.
Yet I had died on the same day and at the same time as before my regression.
‘Was the lifespan I was given only that far?’
Perhaps the fate that had been granted to me ended right there.
Fate.
Extremely metaphysical and something I never wanted to think about.
Perhaps I still didn’t fully understand that the fate that drove all existence was real.
‘…I can’t know that now.’
I shook my head and entered the city with Kim Young-hoon Deputy Director.
I sold herbs at the nearby pharmacy and used the money to buy a badge, clothes, and a house.
‘Basic needs are covered. Now I need to set short-term goals again.’
The first short-term goal I set was reaching Five Qi Consorting with the Origin.
Only after reaching that realm could I awaken the Five Elements Spiritual Roots of a cultivator and then learn the cultivation techniques to truly become one.
But…
‘Maybe I won’t reach Five Qi Consorting with the Origin in this life.’
In my past life, even though I had been following Yeong-hoon-hyung around, my sensitivity was a bit off, but reaching the peak realm was never easy.
Reaching Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown and Five Qi Consorting with the Origin was the same.
‘The gap between different peak experts is huge, and even mastering one level after another is exhausting…’
That was the opinion of ordinary Peak Martial Artists.
Besides, I was a dullard who lacked talent for martial arts.
No matter how much time I devoted, I probably couldn’t even reach first-rate expert level in this life.
‘Then…’
I watched Kim Young-hoon Deputy Director practicing the Danak Sword Art I had taught him, now refined into a dao art, in the backyard of the new house I had bought.
The Danak Sword Art was the sword technique that Yeong-hoon-hyung himself had said could reach the peak realm if mastered properly.
If Kim Young-hoon Deputy Director’s talent was as great as I thought, he would reach the peak realm in six months with the Danak Sword Art.
‘I’ll bring Kim Young-hoon Deputy Director to the peak realm as fast as possible.’
And I would teach him.
That was the shortcut that would shorten the path to the peak realm to the maximum.