Chapter 57: Water Too Clear Has No Fish (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 57: Water Too Clear Has No Fish (5)
"What in the world is going on? What is this?"
A man dressed in a light yellow dopo, extravagantly adorned with all manner of beads and tassels, grumbled incessantly as he strode through Xinxing County.
"Me, the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion of the Heavenly Demon Cult! Stuck in this remote backwater! Squandering my time like this... does this make any sense?"
He stomped along, his voice booming, yet no one turned to look at him. It was as if he were invisible, his voice unheard. The residents of Xinxing County moved around him with calm indifference.
He, too, acted as if this were perfectly normal, shouting at the air as he wandered about like a drunkard. Suddenly, he paused and twitched his nose.
"Sniff, sniff. Damn it."
His brow furrowed once more.
"I can't figure it out at all."
He had successfully tracked the scent of the Ten-Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense all the way to Xinxing County. But here, the trail had gone cold.
"The scent is too muddled…"
Considering the potency of the Heavenly Demon Cult's prized Ten-Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense, this should have been impossible. It shouldn't have mattered if the trail was faint or distant—not unless a decade had passed.
However…
"Is this person practically marinated in incense…?"
The scent being masked, altered, and distorted by other fragrances was another matter entirely. If the target hadn't been directly doused in it but had merely come into contact with it, leaving only a faint residue, it could easily be obscured by other smells. After all, the Ten-Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense was, at its core, still a fragrance.
The man heaved a deep sigh.
"I have no idea. I know they’re somewhere in this area, but where? Huh? Where the hell are you? If you’d just pop out in front of me… I’ll be gentle."
Should he give up?
He had asked himself that question several times. But in the end, he shook his head.
"Elder Sa is dead. If I go back empty-handed… Ugh. Scary, so scary."
He gnashed his teeth, then decided to change his approach.
"No. Instead of this blind search, maybe I should seek out people who are likely to be steeped in incense. Who would that be…?"
His gaze drifted beyond the walls of Xinxing County.
"I heard there's a temple called Gugeunsa on the Jipseong River. Could it be there…?"
The great Dark Shadow Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Demon Cult slapped his fist into his palm. A truly brilliant deduction!
"That's right. No one burns more incense than those baldies. After that would be a Daoist hall… Good. Let's check them one by one."
His heart a little lighter, he turned on his heel. His destination: Gugeunsa Temple.
Just then, he noticed martial artists from Guangdong flocking about.
"Hmm."
A snort escaped his nose. Having spent some time gathering information, he had a rough grasp of the current situation in the Xinxing martial world.
Mount Cheonro. Lee Yu-baek. Hang In-woo and Seo Mu-ryang…
He let out a smirk and turned away.
"Country bumpkins bickering with country bandits."
* * *
"Time to go."
Yeon So-wol stood at the mouth of the cave. The entrance was blocked by a massive boulder.
Yeon So-wol placed his hand upon it. He pushed with all his might, but it didn't budge.
"But what if I use my True Qi?"
Whoosh!
He ignited the fire in his dantian.
Wooooong!
The Eight Extraordinary Meridians writhed like dragons in the heat. As the Conception, Governing, and Penetrating Vessels—warmed by the dantian's heat—began to move, the Yang and Yin Linking Vessels, the Yang and Yin Qiao Vessels, and the Girdle Vessel at the waist resonated with them, surging in unison.
The Conception, Governing, and Penetrating Vessels were the three primary meridians that moved by directly receiving heat from the dantian. The other five were secondary, moving merely in resonance with the first three. Together, they were the Eight Extraordinary Meridians—eight channels that existed as a separate system within the body.
As the Innate True Qi within the Eight Extraordinary Meridians moved vigorously, the Acquired Qi that filled his entire body resonated with it, giving rise to True Qi.
True Qi.
Though a degraded form of the power and harmony of Innate Qi, it was a force far more transcendent and fundamental than mere physical strength.
"This is incredible."
A power unimaginable before his closed-door training enveloped Yeon So-wol's entire body. Filled with a sense of wonder, Yeon So-wol pushed the boulder, confident that even this massive rock would roll away like a pebble before his newfound strength.
Tzzeeong!
As it turned out, Yeon So-wol failed to push the boulder.
"…Huh?"
He stared at the rock in front of him, dumbfounded.
Kuddeuk!
The spot where his palm had touched cracked and crumbled away. Not the entire boulder, but about a quarter of it had simply disintegrated.
He was baffled.
"…How did I do that?"
He had clearly pushed with his palm, yet the result was a rock split along its grain as if struck with a chisel. It was an event that defied the laws of motion.
Yeon So-wol gathered his True Qi once more and pushed the boulder.
Kukuguguguuuung!
"…"
This time, the boulder vibrated immensely, as if it were a musical instrument. He had pushed it. He had definitely pushed it. But it hadn't been moved; it had split and vibrated. An inexplicable phenomenon.
"Ah!"
Yeon So-wol finally understood.
"So this is what 'Harmony' is."
If Essence was the root of power, then Qi was the root of Harmony. Harmony was a concept more fundamental and far-reaching than power. The action of pushing with a palm to produce the result of a chisel-like split was impossible through the application of force, but within the Harmony of Qi, it was entirely possible.
The only problem was…
"…How did I do that?"
Yeon So-wol still couldn't properly control that power.
"Hmph!"
In the end, Yeon So-wol just pushed. The massive boulder split, stuck to his hand, crumpled, swelled, and went through all sorts of chaos before, finally…
BOOM!
The rock was blasted away as if it had exploded.
"Hah!"
Yeon So-wol leaped out. He greedily inhaled the fresh air.
"It's night…"
A bright full moon and stars hung in the dark sky. The starlight seemed to swell and subside, over and over, as if the entire world were breathing.
"Ah."
For some reason, Yeon So-wol felt a lump in his throat.
"So this is the world."
Once he began to truly feel and handle Qi, his Qi Sense became completely different. Even as a second-rate martial artist, he had shown a Qi Sense superior to that of most first-rate experts, but now that he had actually reached the first-rate realm…
"The whole world is filled with Qi."
In the sky, a light and hot energy. In the earth, a heavy and cold energy. In the stars, the energy of the stars. In the moon, the energy of the moon. In the flowers, the energy of the flowers. In the trees, the energy of the trees.
Everything looked completely new. Just by seeing and feeling, he came to a natural realization.
"The energy was here first. All over the world. The energy came first. Matter is just… what's left after that energy becomes turbid and limited, coldly diminished…"
Qi could do everything that matter and Essence could, but matter and Essence could never do the many things that Qi could. This was the cosmological hierarchy. That was why refining Essence and returning it to Qi was the essence of cultivation.
"Nice. I can even see the moon's shadow."
Yeon So-wol looked at the shadow cast at his feet by the bright full moon and kicked off the ground.
Whoosh!
His body flew. It literally flew.
"Aaaahhh!"
Yeon So-wol's scream, still unable to make the Harmony of Qi his own, faded into the distance.
* * *
"So-wol?"
"Oh. Father."
Having returned quietly to the Pungryu Martial Arts Hall, Yeon So-wol had just washed himself at the well and changed into fresh clothes with a new fragrance pouch. All the lights in the hall were out. He had planned to greet Lee Yu-baek the next morning.
"As it happens, I couldn't sleep. I must have been meant to see you. Come out to the garden. Let's have a drink."
"Yes."
Yeon So-wol finished tidying up and hurried to the garden. It was filled with the scent of Lee Yu-baek's favorite incense—a slightly smoky yet tangy aroma that repelled insects and added to the nighttime ambiance.
Yeon So-wol sat to Lee Yu-baek's right and gazed at the small pond. The bamboo planted by the wall rustled, and the chirping of insects echoed from the shadows.
Lee Yu-baek spoke.
"You're out early."
"Am I? To be honest, I completely lost track of time."
"It's been a fortnight."
"Is that all?"
Yeon So-wol explained how long his beard and hair had grown inside the cave. Lee Yu-baek laughed.
"That was likely your body reacting to the effects of the Great Restoration Pill. It really has only been a fortnight."
"Huh."
"The inner demon must have been difficult. It would have been especially hard for you."
"I really thought I was going to die this time. It was no joke."
"How did you overcome it?"
"Well, as it turns out…" Yeon So-wol scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. But his voice held a note of pride. "I'm not such a pushover myself."
"Haha. You rascal."
Lee Yu-baek chuckled and offered him some fruit: chilled lychees, tangerines, and mangoes that looked a bit like peaches. To Yeon So-wol, who had eaten nothing but dry beef jerky and bland fasting pills, they were unbelievably sweet.
"So-wol, I believe in fate. When it's your time to die, you'll die no matter what you do. But when it's not your time, you won't die no matter what happens."
"…"
Yeon So-wol wanted to argue, but he held his tongue. It was a philosophy Lee Yu-baek had built over a lifetime; arguing would be pointless. And besides…
"I knew you would be all right, So-wol."
In the way Lee Yu-baek's hand felt as he placed a piece of fruit into his, Yeon So-wol could feel his father's worry and, ultimately, his relief.
"Thank you."
Yeon So-wol expressed his gratitude simply.
"So. What was the inner demon like?"
"Ah, well…"
Yeon So-wol thought for a moment, then decided to embellish the story slightly. It wasn't that he was trying to hide anything, but explaining a world called Earth was just too difficult.
After hearing the story, Lee Yu-baek's face twisted strangely. The shadows cast by the lantern seemed to flicker along with his expression.
"So, you're saying that your journey across the sea to meet me was all a dream? And in reality, you were a woodcutter who was crushed by a tree and was being cared for by your sick parents… That was your inner demon?"
"Yes."
"And every time you practiced the Soft Willow Art, you heard your parents' voices telling you to wake up, to take their hands. Is that right?"
"Yes."
"That… was an inner demon?"
Yeon So-wol saw it—the trembling in Lee Yu-baek's eyes. Now it was Yeon So-wol's turn to be bewildered.
"Uh… was it not an inner demon?"
"No, it was. It was an inner demon, but… An inner demon that vivid, that cunning, that malicious… I've only ever heard of such things in legends."
The lantern's shadow flickered across Lee Yu-baek's face.
"So-wol. You really could have died, couldn't you?"
"It wasn't easy."
Lee Yu-baek squeezed Yeon So-wol's shoulder once, hard, then let go. The weight of that touch and the smoky scent of the incense comforted a corner of Yeon So-wol's heart.
"What on earth did you see? When you became first-rate. What did you see that…?"
Yeon So-wol was lost in thought again, unsure how to explain.
"Well. Um."
Yeon So-wol quietly looked up at the sky. The full moon, the stars, and the vast universe beyond.
Lee Yu-baek's voice trembled.
"You saw the Heavens?"
"Something like that, yes."
The "Heavens" Lee Yu-baek was thinking of and the "universe" Yeon So-wol had seen were likely very different concepts. Still, since the night sky was a part of the universe, it wasn't entirely wrong.
"Hah!"
Lee Yu-baek let out a sharp breath.
"You saw the Heavens? The Heavens? It's not just a legend from stories... people can actually see such a thing?"
He held out his hand.
"May I examine your body for a moment?"
"Yes, Father."
Having his pulse taken was still a frightening prospect, but Yeon So-wol extended his arm without hesitation. Lee Yu-baek took his wrist and gently sent a stream of Gathering Fire into him. A moment later, Lee Yu-baek opened his eyes, beads of sweat on his brow.
"You're in the late stage of the first-rate realm."
"Yes. The Great Restoration Pill was very effective."
At that, Lee Yu-baek shook his head.
"No. The true effect of the Great Restoration Pill is not something so trivial."
Lee Yu-baek's voice was trembling, his words taut and strained in the night air.
"I saw the flame in your dantian."
"Yes."
"It was several times hotter than my own."
"What?"
"On top of that, your entire network of meridians has been completely refined. If you had trained normally, you couldn't have polished them to such a degree even if you ate an elixir like human-shaped ginseng every year for a decade."
"Does that mean…"
"I taught you at the beginning. A martial artist uses their own body as an alchemy furnace."
An internal cultivation method was the study of transforming a person's energy into an elixir of immortality.
"Your body is now almost complete as an alchemy furnace. The flame is peerlessly strong, the path to raising your Fire Phase is wide open, and every corner of your body has been refined so that you can hold that heat with almost no loss."
"So you're saying…"
"It's a matter of time. Even if you do nothing, you will reach the Peak Realm within three years. I, on the other hand, might reach the Peak Realm in five years if I train to death every day. And that's if I'm lucky."
"Surely it can't be that much of a difference…"
"Of course it is. The flame you possess is far stronger than mine. Your Essence will all melt into Qi even if you just sit still. If you add technique to it, the process will be even faster."
"…"
"Looking beyond that will be much easier and faster for you as well. Your vessel is already nearly complete, so you can skip the long, tedious process of cultivating the spirit that others must endure. You need only focus on the crucial enlightenments."
Goosebumps rose on Yeon So-wol's skin.
It was… that significant?
He had thought that reaching the late stage of the first-rate realm was a sufficient reward. But that was merely the visible achievement. The real prize was the accelerated growth that would follow.
"Truly. You've absorbed the effects of the Great Restoration Pill without leaving a single drop. On top of that, you overcame an absurdly powerful inner demon... I can't even begin to imagine how polished your mind has become. At this point, I don't even know what I'm looking at anymore."
Lee Yu-baek abruptly offered him the liquor bottle. Yeon So-wol politely took it and filled Lee Yu-baek's cup.
"Excellent! To think I'd be served liquor by an immortal fallen from the Heavens!"
Lee Yu-baek laughed heartily and downed the cup in one go.
"An… an immortal?"
"If I don't think of it that way, I simply can't believe it."
Lee Yu-baek smiled and picked up the bottle. This time, Yeon So-wol accepted the cup. The liquor poured out, not too much, not too little—just the right amount.
Lee Yu-baek spoke, his tone meaningful.
"So-wol."
"Yes."
"Let's start preparing for the 49-Day Memorial Ceremony."
"…!"
In that moment, Yeon So-wol's mind flashed back to when he first learned the truth of the Xinxing Danger Avoidance Manual.
Tiger Ghosts. The people captured by the bandits, high on Dream Soul Powder, tied up all over the mountain.
How could they do such a thing? Why do we have to stand by and watch? This can't be right.
The indignation and fury he had felt then surged back. Yeon So-wol drained the cup Lee Yu-baek had poured for him in a single gulp. Swallowing the hot liquor that burned its way down his throat, he answered, his voice cold and sharp.
"Yes. I, too, will take up my sword."
The night air grew taut. For a brief moment, the intensity of his resolve seemed to push away even the sound of the chirping insects.
Lee Yu-baek once again offered the liquor bottle.
"Excellent. The liquor tastes fine."