The Old Ghost’s Farewell
There was only one truth.
Martial arts and I were one and the same.
That single line had been the first sentence left by Kim Young-hoon.
It was a riddle, of sorts.
Yet I chose to accept the words as they stood rather than force my own interpretation.
For us, who walked the same path, explaining them away would only have spoiled the hidden meaning.
‘Kim Young-hoon said there is only one truth…’
I floated nine of my own invisible swords around me.
Were these nine swords, which looked identical, truly one and the same?
Well, thinking about it, they all came from me.
They were one inside the frame of who I was.
Uwoong―
Changes rippled through the swords. They melted into the air and transformed into invisible swords.
‘But realizing that the swords are one within myself is nothing more than the awakening of an invisible sword. Perhaps something more is needed…’
Martial arts and I were one.
“Hmm…”
I gripped the invisible sword. The meaning of “martial arts and I were one” still escaped me.
The invisible sword and I were already the same existence.
A true clone!
There was already nothing left to become one with, so what more could I become?
I kept turning the problem over in my mind as I held the invisible sword.
“…I still don’t understand.”
I would learn slowly. There was plenty of time.
I continued reading the words left by Kim Young-hoon.
The first line had been about martial arts, but the rest were simply a farewell letter meant for me.
Eat well and live well. Live leisurely, don’t let life get too harsh, try seducing your juniors or something. Live a little more fun.
And so on…
―You pathetic man. It sounded like Kim Young-hoon was speaking directly in front of me.
―He deliberately wrote the martial arts gunguls in such a confusing way so that a dumb like you wouldn’t understand and would just live leisurely.
―There are other ways to live besides constantly changing every moment like you. But…
―None of that is true living. Living is joy. Live while doing what makes you happy.
“…He nags so much.”
―And the porridge you cooked for me tasted disgusting. Practice cooking. You brute. I’m going now.
“Hahaha…”
―Eat well, and live well. The last line. That was the end. No farewell, no “take care.” Just hope that we would meet again one day.
“…I will endure.”
No matter how long the remaining time was, holding the koan he had given me, I nodded toward the spatial rift and turned my body. I offered no farewell of my own.
After carving the positions and forms of Kim Young-hoon’s footprints into my mind, I slipped out from near the Ascension Gate.
And from that day on, I settled once more in Deungsunhyang, forgetting everything except cultivation.
The Yin Soul Ghost Curse and the Ten Thousand Scales Tree Ocean.
The Ten Thousand Scales Tree Ocean was a wood-attribute cultivation manual. The Yin Soul Ghost Curse was a manual that mapped the five elements onto the eight trigrams, specifically soil onto Kun. Since Kun represented yin, it was a method for accumulating yin energy based on soil.
‘Wood and soil… wood controls soil. They stand in mutual opposition. Yet…’
The effects of mutual production and mutual control were not limited to simple birth and control.
Roots dig into the ground below, loosening it, but they also stabilize it, making it harder. Sprinkling water on fire puts it out, but it can burn even hotter. Metals melt when they meet fire, yet fire is needed to refine them more finely and strongly. In short, control was the true meaning of opposition. Earth controls water, water controls fire, fire controls metal, metal controls wood, wood controls earth. Opposition did not simply make the energy stronger, but it allowed one energy to be manipulated and controlled in great detail by another.
Uwooong…
Yin energy of the Yin Soul Ghost Curse began to form. The dark curse characters rose around me, entered my nose and mouth, and were absorbed as law power into the spirit stars. Beside the spirit star of horn, the spirit star of kang, newly born from the law power of the curse, began to stir. I observed its awakening, paused the Yin Soul Ghost Curse, and continued with the Ten Thousand Scales Tree Ocean.
Paaaat!
Green spirit energy gathered and mixed with the law power formed by the curse. The law power of the Ten Thousand Scales Tree Ocean suppressed the law power of the Yin Soul Ghost Curse according to the effects of mutual production and mutual control, restraining the yin energy that the curse carried so it would not spread carelessly. I alternated between the Yin Soul Ghost Curse and the Ten Thousand Scales Tree Ocean, my eyes half-closed. ‘This… the Yin Soul Ghost Curse… is clearly a method that suits me perfectly.’ A method that contemplates suffering? A method that creates a curse from my own suffering? Woong-eol woong-eol… After chanting the secret art, the law power of the Yin Soul Ghost Curse gathered and formed the curse. Swuuaah―
Even though I had formed only one curse, the surrounding temperature dropped and my entire body tingled. Yet that tingling feeling was something I was quite familiar with. It was the despair and pain toward myself, the anger and despair toward this world that I felt so often. The Yin Soul Ghost Curse was a method that forced the opponent to fight with the same suffering as me. ‘Ha, the one who is more used to pain would win.’ It was said to be a secondary method for demons, but who would bother learning it? ‘Every time I use the curse, I must feel the pain too.’ Of course, if I mastered the latter half of the Yin Soul Ghost Curse, I could send over nine-tenths of my suffering through the curse to a pre-designated target. But to master that far I would need to be used to pain, and even after mastering it I would still feel the remaining one-tenth. ‘What an absurd method.’ I laughed bitterly and converted the curse into law power, then absorbed it again. It was the worst method any normal person would never learn, yet for me it was the best. Kuwooong― ‘Is it right for law power to accumulate this fast?’ I had originally accumulated law power at a speed close to my spiritual root with the Eonsiksul. Yet with the Yin Soul Ghost Curse, the law power piled up at a speed close to triple spiritual roots. I would carve the path with the Yin Soul Ghost Curse, then root and control the yin energy with the law power of the Ten Thousand Scales Tree Ocean. ‘If it’s this fast…’ Perhaps I could complete even Foundation Establishment one host within this lifetime. I would solidify the earth with the accumulated suffering, plant seeds with my master’s method, and watch them sprout in the field of my heart. A forest was gradually growing in my mind. * * * “…How many years has it been…” I cultivated the Yin Soul Ghost Curse, the Ten Thousand Scales Tree Ocean, and the invisible sword again and again in Deungsunhyang, and was startled. How quickly time had passed. “Senior-nim? Can you hear me, can you hear me?” The transmission jade that Seo Ran had given me began to ring. “I don’t know where Senior-nim is. I’m contacting you to tell you that I have discovered the method to break the weakest point of the gold barrier in Bongmyeong Castle’s outer perimeter.” The time when Seo Ran had promised to break the gold barrier was upon us. “If you come, Senior-nim, you can enter Bongmyeong Castle. If you enter with the Seopmyeong Ship to the space perimeter, I can bring you inside and you can harvest the longevity fruits. I’m waiting for Senior-nim’s answer.” “…Longevity fruit.” I laughed hollowly and muttered to myself. “I don’t need that anymore anyway.” I stared at the void for a moment, then smiled and rose from my seat. Right. It was clearly unnecessary now, but it would do no harm to learn the method to break the gold barrier and locate the longevity fruit. It would become the foundation for the future. I left Deungsunhyang and leaped down below. Chwaaaa! After scattering the invisible sword, the Seopmyeong Ship that had been buried in the sand revealed itself. Gugugugu! As a result of my cultivation of the Yin Soul Ghost Curse and the Ten Thousand Scales Tree Ocean, three spirit stars now sparkled in my danjeon. The spirit stars holding the energy of horn, kang, and ji sparkled and emitted pure yang power. The output and duration of the invisible sword had increased far beyond what it had been before. Chwaaaak! The sand was completely dug out. I quickly swept the surroundings with the invisible sword, but could only click my tongue. “Tsk.” No matter how strong the force, what could I do? There was no partner with whom to share the form. Even if I discovered the method to obtain the longevity fruit in this life and passed it to the next life’s Kim Young-hoon… he was in fact an entirely different person. In this life I had trained with him, watched him obtain the invisible sword, received his enlightenment, and he obtained the enlightenment first, left the other side before I could see his final moment. The Kim Young-hoon of the next life was essentially a different existence. No, in fact all existences were like that. Kim Young-hoon had said he missed his family? I missed a life that would not end. Lonely. In the middle of the desert I stirred the Seopmyeong Ship and turned the steering wheel toward the coordinates Seo Ran had sent. The remaining spirit energy was almost gone. The ship would break after one or two more voyages. Kuugugugu! The Seopmyeong Ship moved. ‘But even if lonely, I could not stop.’ Even if life was painful, one day for sure, if I escaped the gravitational pull of this entire fate, I could find a truly empty life. The longevity fruit I would find in this life would be meaningless, but from the next life onward it would be meaningful. Nothing is meaningless. I muttered that and headed toward where Seo Ran was. * * * “Senior-nim, rejoice! We can finally find the longevity fruit!” Seo Ran held a talisman engraved with strange spell patterns in one hand, his expression excited. “I contacted our brothers and even invited the human formation master. We barely finished it. The anti-gold-barrier formation!” “Is that so?” “Now that we find the longevity fruit…” As Seo Ran chattered excitedly, he suddenly read the atmosphere coming from me and lowered his voice. “…Senior-nim.” “What is it?” “That other senior-nim you used to be… did he…” I smiled at Seo Ran. What had become of Kim Young-hoon? “…Ascended to the immortals.” Right. It must have been so. He had become a celestial, and he was surely waiting for me from that far sky. Seo Ran let out a low sigh. “…I should have broken the gold barrier faster. It’s my fault.” “No. Do not worry about it, Seo Doo. He must have… truly ascended.” “…” We fell into a quiet silence for a moment. “Anyway, there will be something to obtain once we enter Bongmyeong Castle. Let’s go.” “…! Thank you, Senior-nim.” I boarded the Seopmyeong Ship and gripped the steering wheel toward the coordinates Seo Ran showed me. It was time to enter that place called Bongmyeong Castle. * * * Kuugugugu! The Seopmyeong Ship jumped through space. In the dark void we arrived at the perimeter and saw the floating Bongmyeong Castle. As always, the castle still floated on the space perimeter just as before. “Senior-nim, I will break the gold barrier.” Seo Ran flew beside the jade-green main gate and unfolded the talisman he had brought. Paaaah! A strange light shot from the talisman and struck the gold barrier of Bongmyeong Castle. Paji-jik! Numerous spell characters flowed over the gold barrier and resisted the light of the talisman. Yet the light of the talisman wove together and unleashed the same spells without delay. Pachiji-jik! The spell characters of the gold barrier canceled those of the talisman, and a gap began to appear in one corner of the gold barrier. “The gap in the gold barrier has appeared. Senior-nim! Please break through there with your law technique!” I raised the invisible sword and shattered the outer wall of Bongmyeong Castle. Kwakwa-gwang! Seo Ran followed me inside and I looked around from the inner side of the outer wall. ‘Even the inside is overwhelmingly larger than the outside.’ It seemed they had compressed space enormously here. Countless corridors and buildings stretched in every direction. “Hoo, amazing.” Seo Ran said as he entered and looked around. Udddeuk… Suddenly I turned and saw the earth-attribute spirit energy rushing toward the outer wall I had broken through, automatically beginning to repair it. There was even an automatic repair function. “It’s fine to go back out, right?” “Yes, I brought one more anti-gold-barrier talisman.” Seo Ran took the talisman and said. “Hmm…” I looked at the talisman and memorized the formation and spells engraved on it in my mind. It would be useful in the next life. “Based on the information given by the Sea Dragon tribe elder who visited Bongmyeong Castle before, I will guide you to the spirit tree garden where the longevity fruit is.” Seo Ran took out an old map from his bosom. The map looked worn, as if several decades old. I silently followed Seo Ran through the corridors of Bongmyeong Castle. And during that time I felt something strange. ‘This is…’ What was it? Like entering the interior of the Seopmyeong Ship for the first time. Quiet. And many of the structures were broken. “…Seo Doo.” “Yes, Senior-nim.” “Does something seem wrong?” “Hmm, what do you mean?” I pointed at a collapsed hall with a large slash mark. “Were the structures inside Bongmyeong Castle built like this from the beginning?” “Ah…” Seo Ran’s expression grew bewildered and he scratched his head awkwardly. “Actually, I only heard about it, so this is the first time I’ve seen it….” “Hmm…” I frowned. It felt strange. And that strange feeling grew stronger after I saw the remains while passing through the corridors. ‘Goe-gun’s… puppets?’ Remains of decorations like those I had seen inside the Seopmyeong Ship. And not only Goe-gun’s remains, but other remains as well. Stone statues holding exactly the same spirit energy as Bongmyeong Castle’s. “This is…” By now Seo Ran could no longer ignore the feeling of unease and frowned. “Seo Doo. Thinking about it, we haven’t come this far too easily. For a relic of this scale, shouldn’t there be some guardian of the ruins…?” “…Yes. Everything… is smashed to pieces.” Seo Ran’s face darkened. “Not only Goe-gun’s traces. The slash marks I saw earlier, some places still had lingering qi, some were smashed, and some were torn out roughly.” I looked at him and said the most ominous inference I could imagine. “Bongmyeong Castle wandering inside the spatial rift, appearing every few hundred years. Before the Ascension Gate opens and before the Cheonin cultivators invade, is there no possibility that they all rushed in and looted every bit of treasure inside the castle?” “…” Seo Ran’s face twisted. “No way… Did that ghost give me this information on purpose?” ‘No, it can’t be.’ The last memory of Song Jin I had read was that he truly wanted to help Seo Ran. ‘Perhaps the time when Bongmyeong Castle last appeared was after Song Jin died. After he died it appeared, and then the Cheonin cultivators looted it completely, so Seo Ran was given the coordinates without knowing anything remained.’ “…For now. How about going to the spirit tree garden?” Seo Ran said with a stiff face, forcing a smile. “There might be some useful spiritual herb remaining in the garden… just one… it might still be left…” “…” I kept my face stern and followed Seo Ran toward the spirit tree garden. After a while I arrived at the spirit tree garden of Bongmyeong Castle and let out a small sigh. ‘Curse those Cheonin cultivators.’ The garden was full of pits dug everywhere, and the remaining trees had all their fruits harvested, leaving only bare branches. Seo Ran looked around in astonishment for the place where the longevity fruit grew. The longevity source tree where the longevity fruit was supposed to ripen. Yet no fruit hung from it. On the contrary, several branches had even been cut away. The Cheonin cultivators had thoroughly looted the entire castle. “…Damn it.” Seo Ran muttered as if biting down. I let out a deep sigh as well. ‘Even if I go to the next life, Kim Young-hoon’s lifespan will…’ The answer was unknown. I grew frustrated and looked up at the ceiling of the garden while wandering around. Desolate. The spiritual veins flowing through the garden itself were substantial, but the spirit seedlings and spirit trees that had absorbed the spirit energy and grown were all pulled up and cut down. “…Tsk.” Kim Young-hoon had ultimately been unable to escape the cage of lifespan. Even after several lives, his restrictions… thud, thud… That was when I was wandering through the spirit tree garden. “Um?” Suddenly, between the spirit trees whose fruits had been harvested and cut down, I found one tree that emitted a strange spirit energy. “That’s…” It was the same type of tree as the longevity source tree I had seen earlier. The only difference was that it was younger and much smaller. “!” But what caught my eye was not that. “Wait, wait… Seo Doo! Come here…!” I rushed toward the young spirit tree with a start. The young spirit tree had several flowers blooming on it. One of the flower buds swelled and began to change into fruit like an apple. “Seo Doo!”