Chapter 86: Pursuit (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 86: Pursuit (3)
Three years and eight months ago.
The very first person to grant me their teachings was none other than the female Taoist holding a lotus.
Among my masters, two in particular treated me with a blunt and prickly attitude, and Master Ha was one of them.
Despite her demeanor, she could not hide her astonishment while teaching me.
[How do you know the Seonwon Energy Circulation Method?]
When she asked how I had managed to accumulate Innate True Qi in my middle Dantian, I told her that I had learned the Innate Heart Method left behind by the Namcheon Sword Guest.
However, after hearing a brief explanation of the Innate Heart Method’s circulation technique, she referred to it as the Seonwon Energy Circulation Method.
I was shocked when I heard the operational oral formula she recited.
[It seems the man who left you that formula discovered the first half of the Transformation Eye Scripture I left in the secular world.]
[The first half?]
According to her, the Transformation Eye Method was the pinnacle of suggestion techniques.
She had left it behind to sever her lingering attachments to the secular world, but because she considered the power too dangerous, she had split the secret manual of the Transformation Eye Scripture into a first and second half.
[Hmph. It seems you and I were destined to cross paths after all.]
She spoke bluntly, yet her eyes betrayed her interest.
At any rate, since I already knew the Seonwon Energy Circulation Method and possessed sufficient Innate True Qi in my middle Dantian, she intended to begin teaching me the Transformation Eye Method in earnest.
However, I already knew the oral formula for the second half of the Transformation Eye Scripture as well.
This was because it was the exact same formula as the Illusion Eye I had inherited from the Blood Hand Witch, Han Baek-ha.
[You... just what are you?]
The memory of Master Ha staring at me in utter bewilderment is still vivid in my mind.
With that brief, passing recollection, I returned to reality.
‘Ho Jong-won?’
How could this be?
What a staggering coincidence.
This boy, who practiced the unrefined basic forms of the Life Bright Sword Technique and hailed from Yunnan Province, was named Ho Jong-won.
Swish!
At that moment, the Namcheon Iron Sword flew through the air and returned to my scabbard.
The boy, Ho Jong-won, whose blade I still held between my fingers, widened his eyes at the sight.
“The—the sword moved on its own?”
Even for those in the martial world, witnessing the Self-Moving Sword Art was an extremely rare occurrence.
In fact, it was something most would never see in their entire lives.
Of course, this was actually the work of the spirit fragment, but to his eyes, it could only look like the Self-Moving Sword Art.
—Un-hwi, who is this boy?
‘...He said his name is Ho Jong-won, and he’s from Yunnan.’
—What?
The Namcheon Iron Sword could not hide its shock.
As expected, it seemed the sword recognized the name as well.
‘He even knows the basic forms of the Life Bright Sword Technique, though they’re unrefined. Do you know this name?’
—Ahhh!
The Namcheon Iron Sword let out an exclamation before answering.
—Among the memorial tablets in my former master’s ancestral hall, there is one for a Ho Jong-won. I know him as the ancestor hailed as the creator of the Life Bright Divine Art.
The creator of the Life Bright Divine Art?
Was this boy, Ho Jong-won, the origin of the Life Bright Divine Art?
Though I didn't show it outwardly, I was internally stunned.
Who would have thought I would meet the man called the peerless Grandmaster who devised the method of utilizing Innate True Qi in the middle Dantian?
—Then he’s basically your grand-ancestor master.
As the Lesser Conversation Sword said, he could be considered my Sajo—a grand-ancestor master.
Fate is truly a terrifying thing.
Who could have imagined I would connect with the past in such a way?
—Try acting like you know him.
‘...That’s impossible.’
Unlike the Sword Immortal Master, who was essentially a transcendent immortal I had a direct connection with, this ancient ancestor was currently nothing more than an ordinary boy.
I couldn't exactly treat him with the reverence due an elder and claim to be a disciple from the distant future.
It was then.
Ho Jong-won suddenly let go of his sword hilt and prostrated himself on the ground with lightning speed.
“What are you doing?”
“Great Hero! Please, show me the way!”
“Show you the way?”
“Did you not say so, ...Master? That even if one lacks a Dantian, there is a path!”
‘!?’
Was he asking me to teach him how to cultivate the middle Dantian right now?
For a moment, I was dazed.
Could it be that I was the one who taught the ancestor of the Namcheon Sword Guest the Seonwon Energy Circulation Method—the very source of the Innate Heart Method?
Master Ha had said it too.
She said the Seonwon Energy Circulation Method was a technique that people of the secular world could never have created.
At the time, I had simply assumed the ancestor of the Namcheon Sword Guest was a Grandmaster.
‘...Was it me who taught him all along?’
Everything fell into place with uncanny precision.
From the coincidence of saving him from being taken prisoner to meeting him while he was in despair over losing his Dantian—it was as if this were destiny.
“Please, open the path for me! Great Hero!”
Thud!
Ho Jong-won slammed his forehead against the ground as he spoke.
I could feel the desperation in his voice.
I, too, had once despaired over the reality of being unable to learn martial arts after losing my Dantian.
Perhaps because of that, I couldn't help but be moved by Ho Jong-won’s plight.
‘...Is it truly fate?’
It was a strange feeling.
To think I would be teaching the ancestor of the Namcheon Sword Guest, the very source of my own martial arts.
But thinking about it, perhaps this was how it was meant to be.
If I hadn't saved him, he might have lost his life as a prisoner.
Perhaps this, too, was the natural order.
I let out a long breath and spoke to Ho Jong-won.
“Very well. I shall open the path for you.”
“Is that true?”
At my words, Ho Jong-won lifted his head, his face brightening.
Blood was trickling down from his split forehead.
Just how desperate must he have been to do that?
I looked toward the northwest and said to him:
“However, I do not have much time. I will teach you a method to accumulate energy to replace your Dantian.”
Since the Imperial Army was continuing their march and I had to wake the unconscious soldiers to find a way to infiltrate, I couldn't teach him too much.
If this boy was indeed the Grandmaster who would create the Life Bright Divine Art using the middle Dantian, I believed he would be able to forge his own path if he only knew the oral formula for the Seonwon Energy Circulation Method.
“Thank you! I shall serve you as my ...Master!”
I frowned at his joyful exclamation.
It was strange.
I couldn't quite hear part of what he just said.
However, I could guess what he was trying to say.
“I will recite the formula, so stand up and commit it to memory.”
“I understand, ...Master.”
‘!?’
What was this?
Again, I couldn't hear the last word.
Even the shape of his lips as he spoke was strangely unrecognizable.
Even though I was looking right at him.
—What’s wrong?
‘It’s nothing.’
I didn't have much time, so I had to recite the formula.
“I will recite it three times in a row, so listen carefully. Self-Sealing Internal Art, Meridian of No Blood...”
The Innate Heart Method can only be learned if one seals their own internal power.
This is because it is designed to accumulate original vitality, not internal energy.
But the boy’s expression was odd.
“What is it?”
“Um... ...Master, I am terribly sorry, but I cannot hear a single word you are saying. Could you please say it again?”
“What?”
I raised an eyebrow and asked him.
“You couldn't hear me?”
“No, sir. I couldn't.”
I stared at Ho Jong-won for a moment before reciting the formula for the Innate Heart Method again.
“Self-Sealing Internal Art, Meridian of No Blood, Mystery Within the Rise...”
However, Ho Jong-won frowned, looking at me with a face full of confusion.
As I continued the formula, he interrupted as if he couldn't take it anymore.
“...Master, you are just moving your lips. I have no idea what you are saying.”
“Just moving my lips?”
I was momentarily speechless.
Just as I couldn't hear the title Ho Jong-won used to address me, he couldn't hear my words.
It seemed to be the same phenomenon.
‘Could it be...’
On a hunch, I used Void Object Retrieval to pull an Imperial soldier’s sword from the ground into my hand.
I intended to use the tip of the sword to carve the characters into the earth.
If my voice couldn't be heard, I would have to show him visually.
Scritch!
The moment I wrote the first character and tried to write the next...
Ping!
My hand was jerked upward of its own accord.
‘!?’
I couldn't understand what had happened.
My hand had been flung up by some powerful repulsive force, but it felt completely different from internal power or any such physical strength.
“...Master? What is wrong?”
“Wait.”
I tried to carve the character into the ground once more.
But again, before I could even finish the stroke, my hand was flung upward as if repelled.
“Ha!”
I was momentarily flabbergasted.
It was as if some unknown force was forcibly preventing me from teaching the formula of the Innate Heart Method to Ho Jong-won.
From the sound being blocked to the inability to even write the words.
I was even applying my full Ten Stars of Internal Power now, yet my hand trembled violently and refused to touch the ground.
Grit!
I gritted my teeth and tried to write, but my hand was flung back up.
It was entirely different from physical resistance.
It was as if I were trying to do something that was fundamentally impossible, and there was no way to convey the information.
‘What on earth is this...’
I couldn't understand why.
Why was I being blocked from transmitting anything at all?
Then, the voice of the Namcheon Iron Sword echoed in my mind.
—It seems it was an impossible task from the start, Un-hwi.
‘What do you mean?’
—I was going to mention it earlier, but doesn't it seem strange? You, who learned the martial arts left by my former master, are trying to teach those same martial arts to that master’s ancestor.
‘That’s...’
—It’s like the question of whether the chicken or the egg came first. No, it’s even stranger than that. If you teach him, then where did the Innate Heart Method you learned actually originate from?
‘Ah...’
In an instant, I understood what the Namcheon Iron Sword was saying.
As it said, this was something that could not exist.
A martial art cannot have no point of origin, yet here I was, a person from the future, trying to teach it in the past.
This was, in the end, a paradox...!?
At that moment, something flashed through my mind.
I don't remember exactly when, but I had once asked the Sword Immortal Master.
[I asked your spirit fragment in my mindscape why he sent me back to my childhood, but he gave me no answer. Do you know the reason, Master?]
[Sent you back to your childhood?]
[Yes.]
At that question, my master had let out an exclamation and said:
[Hoo. An existential contradiction.]
[What does that mean?]
[Even for someone as advanced in the Way as the Great Immortal Jeongyang, it is impossible to send someone back to their childhood.]
[What? Then how did I regress...]
[It is not regression, but an existential contradiction.]
I didn't understand it then.
My master had simply told me this:
[How can a single existence like you exist in two places at once? It is a byproduct born of contradiction.]
Now I think I understand.
I couldn't be certain, but the Sword Immortal’s spirit treasure had sent me to the past.
—What does that mean?
It didn't send me back to my own childhood.
The very fact that the past 'me' and the future 'me' exist at the same point in time is a contradiction.
To make an impossible fact possible, only my spirit had come to the past.
—It’s not regression?
‘That’s right.’
To prevent a temporal paradox, only my spirit came to the past.
Because at that time, my physical body had to be young.
“Ha...”
The more I learned, the more profound it became.
Even if one could defy everything to travel between the past, present, and future, this world would somehow adjust to ensure that things remained consistent and no paradoxes occurred.
It seemed this world possessed flows and truths that humans, with their narrow vision and knowledge, could never fully grasp.
I felt as if I understood, yet I didn't.
“...Master? Why are you acting like this?”
I gazed at Ho Jong-won.
Just as the chicken and the egg problem suggests, I could not teach him the Innate Heart Method, which had no original creator.
Since something that cannot be established cannot exist, it becomes an existential contradiction.
‘I have to lead him to something that already exists.’
I steadied my breath and spoke to Ho Jong-won.
“Do not call me that.”
“What?”
I could not be his master.
That was why I couldn't even hear him calling me 'Master.'
“...Then, what should I...”
Ho Jong-won looked disappointed.
He seemed to think I had given up on teaching him.
I looked toward the southwest and said:
“Somewhere deep in the mountains to the southwest of Yunnan, in an ancestral hall, a renowned noble person left behind an enlightenment. If you obtain it, you may be able to reclaim your life as a martial artist.”
“Ah!”
At those words, Ho Jong-won’s darkened face brightened again.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
This was the best I could do.
No, perhaps this was the destiny ordained for me.
After all, Ho Jong-won could not have created the Innate Heart Method—or rather, the Seonwon Energy Circulation Method—out of nothing.
“Go. If your path as a martial artist has not been severed, you will find what that noble person left behind.”
“...Master.”
“I told you not to call me that.”
“Then I shall call you my benefactor. I was taught to repay a debt of gratitude unless one is a mere beast.”
“Forget it.”
Your survival is enough for me.
Only then will I be able to learn the Life Bright Divine Art, the Life Bright Sword Technique, and the Innate Heart Method in the future.
“It’s fine, so if you want to live, run. The Imperial Army will arrive before long.”
At my words, Ho Jong-won said to me:
“You tell me to run while you stay here... is it because you intend to fight the Imperial Army, Benefactor?”
“That is none of your concern...”
“Even if your martial arts are strong, Benefactor, how can you face four of the Twelve Peaks of the World?”
“The Twelve Peaks of the World?”
It was a grand title.
Was it a term used in this era to describe the peak masters, like the Eight Great Masters or the Five Great Villains?
As I looked puzzled, Ho Jong-won spoke with resentment.
“You must not have heard the rumors.”
Paradoxes aside, I knew almost nothing about this era.
The only thing I really knew was that this was the Yan Dynasty.
Ho Jong-won continued.
“Not long ago, it spread far and wide that Ghostly Bow Chosa, Seol Baek of the North Sea Ice Palace, Wondrous Moon Yang Myeong-shin, and Noejangjo had entered the palace.”
I couldn't recognize them by their titles or names alone.
Unless they were masters from within fifty years of my original time, I wouldn't know them.
Seeing as they were completely unknown to me, this might indeed be the early days of the Yan Dynasty.
Then, Ho Jong-won burst out in anger.
“Damn it! Who would have thought those people would serve that wretched Emperor? To think that those called the Twelve Peaks of the World would lead the persecution of the martial world...”
“What? Did you just say the persecution of the martial world?”
I was momentarily stunned.
The martial world and the government had always been in conflict throughout history.
However, there was one period when they clashed most violently.
The worst era, when the government tried to wipe out the very seeds of the martial world—that was the Persecution of the Martial World.
“Benefactor? Why do you look so surprised?”
“...By any chance, do you know what the current Emperor is called?”
“How could you ask such a...”
“Just answer the question.”
He looked puzzled but eventually answered.
“Is he not the Golden Emperor?”
‘The Golden Emperor!’