Walking My Own Path, Part 3
Could this be called a blessing in disguise?
He had never imagined that the tedious investigations he had diligently conducted alone in his past life—tasks everyone else had shunned—would return to him as such a blessing.
The place Han Cheong-un had arrived at was a sheer cliff deep in the mountains, untouched by human presence.
Unless someone came looking for it on purpose, it was a spot that would never see a single soul.
Han Cheong-un carefully surveyed the surrounding terrain before speaking with absolute certainty.
"This is the place."
In his past life, Cheong-un had personally visited this location.
The herb gatherer had reportedly climbed down the cliff on a rope to harvest quartz mushrooms growing on the rock face.
While doing so, he had discovered a small cave in the cliffside. Driven by curiosity, he had ventured inside and stumbled upon the elixir.
Although the Cheong-un of the past had not gone down to the cave himself, he was certain it lay just below.
"Shall we go down, then?"
Cheong-un tied a rope he had prepared beforehand to a thick tree. After wrapping the other end securely around his waist, he threw himself over the edge without a moment's hesitation.
His movements were incredibly fluid as he fed out the rope, descending the cliff face with practiced ease.
"They say no experience in life is ever wasted..."
This, too, was a skill acquired during his past life as a low-ranking warrior.
During his deployment to the northern military border, his training had included scaling fortress walls using nothing but ropes.
That training was paying off now. And then...
"Found it."
Cheong-un's eyes sparkled.
A small cave yawned in the middle of the cliff face.
It was positioned in such a way that no human could ever spot it unless they possessed wings like a bird.
"That's it. It has to be."
Elixirs like the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng possessed a spiritual nature, instinctively taking root in places far beyond the reach of humans.
There was no doubt the elixir was inside.
Though excitement surged through him, Cheong-un remained cautious to the end.
He carefully maneuvered along the cliff face until he reached the cave entrance. Once inside, he untied the rope from his waist and secured it to a large boulder near the mouth of the cave.
Stepping deeper into the cavern...
"Oh..."
He had found it.
This was it.
Spotting the spiritual herb emitting a faint, ethereal glow in the darkness of the cave, Cheong-un finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness. It really is here."
He had traveled all the way from the Wulin Alliance to this remote land of Guizhou solely relying on this single piece of information.
He had been confident.
But what if his certainty had been misplaced?
What if he had come all this way for nothing?
He had worried quite a bit, but it had all been for naught.
Cheong-un exhaled a breath of relief and reached out toward the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng. Or rather, he was about to.
Shhhk.
He would have, if not for the chilling wave of killing intent that suddenly pierced through him.
"Tch!"
Startled, Cheong-un leaped backward and leveled his spear forward.
Something was there.
Something that was clearly radiating pure malice toward him.
Out of the darkness, a pair of glowing red lights, resembling polished carnelians, slowly emerged.
As the crimson glow drew nearer, its true identity was revealed...
Sssssssss...
It was a massive serpent.
It possessed pitch-black scales that melted into the shadows and eyes that burned like red gems.
The moment Cheong-un laid eyes on the beast—large enough to swallow a bull whole—his entire body tensed.
"Crazy..."
Cheong-un did not possess vast knowledge regarding spiritual beasts or monsters.
But anyone could tell at a glance that this was no ordinary snake.
The black serpent slowly slithered forward, coiling itself protectively around the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng. It raised its head, glaring down at Cheong-un.
It was as if the beast were claiming the herb as its own.
"Damn it. I wondered why things were going so smoothly..."
Cheong-un gripped his spear tightly.
This was a common occurrence.
Drawn by the spiritual energy of rare herbs, spiritual beasts or monsters would often migrate to nest near them. However, there was one thing he couldn't understand...
"If a monster like this was guarding it, how did an ordinary herb gatherer manage to harvest the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng?"
Cheong-un had no way of knowing, but the spiritual beast before him was on the verge of shedding its skin.
It was waiting for the perfect moment to shed and then consume the energy of the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng.
The herb gatherer had simply been incredibly lucky.
He had arrived to harvest the ginseng precisely when the serpent had temporarily left its nest to prepare for its shedding.
It was nothing short of divine luck. However...
Shhh.
Cheong-un's timing was terrible.
The serpent, currently at its most venomous and aggressive, directed its raw killing intent toward him.
While some spiritual beasts were docile and would not attack humans first...
"Tch..."
This one was not among them.
It was fiercely territorial and deeply possessive of its treasure.
It had absolutely no intention of letting the human who dared covet the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng leave alive.
The serpent's massive body slowly slithered toward Cheong-un.
I have no choice but to fight.
Cheong-un gripped his spear firmly and took a stance.
In his current state, let alone a spiritual beast, he was weak enough that he would have to run from a mere third-rate bandit.
But running was not an option here.
The cave opened up to a sheer, bottomless cliff. Where could he possibly run?
As Cheong-un showed his intent to fight, the serpent's head recoiled slightly. And in the next instant...
Swish!
The massive head lunged forward like a bolt of lightning, striking at Cheong-un.
Facing a strike meant to swallow him whole in a single bite, Cheong-un threw himself to the side.
Crash!
Having read the signs of the attack beforehand, Cheong-un successfully evaded the strike.
He immediately prepared to counterattack the moment the serpent's jaws slammed into the ground.
He planted both feet firmly on the earth.
A precise stance.
A perfect center of gravity.
It was a posture his soul remembered, even if his current body did not.
"Hah!"
With a sharp shout, Cheong-un thrust his spear straight forward.
It was a thrust so sharp and precise that it was hard to believe it came from someone without a single shred of inner force. However...
Clang!
Cheong-un's spear missed its mark.
He had aimed for the eye, but sensing danger, the serpent had jerked its head away at the last second.
Cheong-un's spear struck the side of the serpent's head, but it only managed to chip away a few scales.
Considering the massive size of the beast, it was nothing more than a scratch.
— Kieeeeeeek!
Enraged at having allowed a hit, the serpent let out a screech that seemed to rise from the depths of its throat.
The sound reverberated through the cavern.
At the same time, its appearance began to shift.
Its scales bristled like the quills of an angry porcupine, and thick green saliva began to drip from its jaws.
The liquid hissed and sent up acrid smoke the moment it touched the ground. It was clearly a highly corrosive venom.
"Looks like I pissed it off."
The moment the words left his mouth, the serpent launched a relentless barrage of attacks.
Crash! Bam!
Two consecutive snaps of its jaws.
Though Cheong-un lacked inner force, he read the premonitory signs of the attacks perfectly and dodged them.
After all, a serpent's only method of attack was biting, wasn't it?
As long as he kept a close eye on the movement of its head...
Thwack!
"Cough..."
As if to mock Cheong-un's assumption, the serpent's tail whipped horizontally out of nowhere, striking him dead-on.
Unable to dodge the sudden strike flying out of the darkness, Cheong-un was sent flying, crashing hard against the cave wall.
The impact rattled his entire skeleton.
"Cough... Damn it..."
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Cheong-un assessed his condition.
This was bad.
Several of his ribs were definitely broken.
His internal organs had also sustained damage.
"Damn it... I'm a total mess."
Death stared him in the face.
His enemy was strong, and he was weak.
His body was broken, and his escape route was cut off.
It was a desperate, life-or-death situation. In other words...
"Just the kind of situation I'm used to."
He had started as a low-ranking warrior of the Wulin Alliance, crawling his way up from the absolute rock bottom.
A desperate crisis?
He had long since lost count of how many times he had faced them.
Yet, despite crossing countless lines of death, he had never once died.
Because no matter the circumstances, he had never given up.
And that remained true even now.
Cheong-un steadied his stance once more.
A precise stance.
A perfect center of gravity.
The absolute basics of the basics.
Yet, the sheer, death-defying resolve radiating from Cheong-un as he took that basic stance was enough to make even the enraged serpent hesitate.
Shhh...
The serpent instinctively sensed danger.
However, its rage far outweighed the warnings of its instincts. This insolent human had dared to trespass into its nest, covet its treasure, and even wound its flesh.
It could never forgive him.
Sssssssssk!
Blinded by fury, the serpent lunged.
It did not care if that tiny spear managed to stab it.
By opening its jaws wide and charging forward, it could protect its eyes. Besides, the human's attack had done nothing more than scratch its scales. A weapon of that caliber could never pierce its hide.
Having calculated its victory with the cunning of a spiritual beast, the serpent sought to swallow Cheong-un whole. Meanwhile, Cheong-un...
Not yet. Not yet...
In the span of a split second stretching into eternity.
Cheong-un accelerated his perception, waiting for the perfect moment.
Unlike in his prime, he had to exploit the briefest window of opportunity to slip past the beast's defenses.
The massive jaws of the serpent drew closer and closer, but Cheong-un stood absolutely still.
He did not make even the slightest movement of a living creature, remaining as motionless as a stone. And then...
Now!
Just before the serpent's massive jaws could swallow him, Cheong-un stepped forward.
At that exact moment...
A strike unleashed while expanding his domain.
Did he have the inner force to execute such a technique?
He had none.
Thus, in place of non-existent inner force, he squeezed out the barely existing handful of his innate primordial qi.
It was a strike of absolute desperation, channeling everything Cheong-un currently possessed.
The spearhead plunged directly into the open maw of the serpent. The moment the tip of the spear made contact...
Thump.
A sound like the striking of a hollow drum echoed through the cave.
At the same time, the serpent felt as if its entire world were spinning.
An impact that started at a microscopic point rippled outward like waves on a lake, directly striking its brain.
No living creature in the world could withstand its brain being rattled.
Thud!
The massive serpent collapsed heavily to the ground.
And Cheong-un...
"Cough..."
He spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed right beside it.
The backlash of exhausting his primordial qi.
The severe injuries sustained during the battle.
And the serpent's venom that had splattered all over him during his final strike...
"D-damn it... I barely won..."
He had won the fight.
But the problem was his injuries, which were severe enough to kill him at any moment.
Cheong-un desperately tried to reach out toward the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng lying a short distance away.
He had to consume it.
If he didn't eat it, he would...
"Ugh..."
As his vision faded to black, Cheong-un finally lost consciousness.
After Cheong-un collapsed.
Shhh.
The serpent slowly raised its head.
The Shockwave Annihilation Strike unleashed by Cheong-un.
Had he been in his prime, the strike would have turned the serpent's brain to mush, causing it to bleed out from all seven orifices of its head.
But in his current state, it had only been enough to temporarily knock the beast unconscious.
He had won the battle of martial arts, but in the law of the wild—the survival of the fittest—he had failed.
And...
Shhh.
In the wild, the loser paid with their life.
Having regained its senses, the serpent slithered toward the unconscious Cheong-un. It opened its jaws wide.
It was going to swallow the human whole. But just as the serpent was about to devour him...
"..."
Cheong-un's body rose.
He stood up without saying a single word.
He stared at the serpent before him with eyes that held an unfathomable depth.
In that instant.
The serpent's entire body froze stiff.
It was a terror that transcended despair, bringing absolute resignation.
It was the primal instinct felt by prey standing before an absolute predator.
It was a feeling the spiritual beast had never experienced in its entire existence.
"..."
Cheong-un reached out his hand toward the serpent.
Terrified by that simple gesture, the serpent trembled and tried to retreat.
Yet, the hand continued to approach, indifferent to its retreat.
Backing away from that pale hand, the serpent eventually found itself cornered against the cave wall.
When a creature is pushed to the absolute limits of fear, it lashes out with spasmodic aggression.
Just like a cornered rat biting a cat, the serpent did the same.
Kieeeeeeek!
And Cheong-un...
"Heh."
He smirked.
It was a cruel and arrogant smile.
That smile was the last thing the serpent ever saw.
"Ugh... Nnh..."
When Cheong-un finally regained consciousness...
"What in the world?"
He couldn't help but be shocked.
His body was in perfect condition.
He was certain he had been on the verge of death before passing out.
He had exhausted his primordial qi and had been severely poisoned.
Yet now, he felt completely fine.
"How is this even possible..."
He flexed his arms and legs.
The injuries he had sustained during the battle were gone, and his limbs moved without any pain.
How could this be?
Did I somehow consume the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng while unconscious?
But that wasn't it.
The Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng was still sitting exactly where it had been. Instead...
"What happened to this?"
What caught Cheong-un's eye was the massive serpent, now shriveled up like a dried mummy.
It was completely desiccated, devoid of any life force.
He reached out to touch it...
Crumble.
The moment his fingers brushed against it, the serpent's body crumbled like rotten leaves.
This was the same beast that had only taken a scratch from his full-power strike.
"What on earth happened... Huh?"
As Cheong-un examined his own body, he noticed a change.
The black pattern on his chest had altered slightly.
It seemed to have grown a bit larger, and its shape had shifted.
It had transformed into a small, swirling vortex.
The proof of his regression.
The mark had changed.
"Seriously... what is going on?"
He still had no answers.
Cheong-un pondered the mystery for a long time.
Eventually, he came to a conclusion.
"There's nothing I can do about it now. Let's put it aside for now."
What he didn't know, he didn't know.
There was no point in obsessing over it.
For now, he would simply keep it in mind and investigate it later.
Right now, he needed to focus on what he could do.
"First, I need to consume the elixir."
Because he lacked strength, he had nearly died fighting a single serpent.
Above all else, he had to gain power.
Using the blade of his spear, Cheong-un carefully dug around the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng, ensuring not a single fine root was damaged.
He gently brushed the dirt off the harvested ginseng. As the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng fully revealed itself...
"Huh?"
Cheong-un gasped.
For a split second, he saw the shape of a palm-sized infant.
Startled, he rubbed his eyes and looked again. Only then did it appear as a normal ginseng root.
"A spiritual herb indeed. It even knows how to play tricks on human eyes."
As expected of the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng.
It was a legendary elixir, widely considered one of the top ten rarest treasures among all spiritual medicines.
If this thing were to be taken out into the world, it would undoubtedly cause a massive bloodbath.
In his past life, the bloody conflict in Guizhou over this very herb had claimed the lives of over three hundred martial artists. Therefore...
"Consuming a dangerous treasure like this is for the good of the world."
Whether the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng would agree with that sentiment was highly debatable.
Regardless, the elixir went straight into Cheong-un's mouth. And then...
"Mmph!"
Cheong-un clamped his mouth shut.
The moment he swallowed the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng, a torrent of energy began to flood his body.
If he opened his mouth now, the precious energy would escape.
He kept his lips sealed tight and immediately began to guide the energy.
This is the crucial part.
When consuming an elixir, the most important factor was how much of its energy one could actually absorb.
The cultivation method taught to apprentice warriors in the Wulin Alliance was the Three Origins Divine Art.
While safe, it was an extremely mediocre and inefficient technique. It could never fully digest the massive energy of the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng. Therefore...
The Taiji Xuan Heaven Divine Art.
It was the only high-level cultivation method Cheong-un knew.
It was a favor he had received from "him" in his past life.
A man who had held a mere low-ranking warrior in high regard and personally passed down his own uniquely developed inner force cultivation method.
Unable to forget that kindness, Cheong-un had dedicated his life and body to the cause of justice.
In that sense, it wasn't a cultivation method associated with pleasant memories.
But at this moment, he had no other alternative.
If we meet again in this life, I will repay my debt to you.
Steeling his resolve, Cheong-un entered a state of deep meditation.
The Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng was one of the top ten elixirs that could be found in the wild.
It did not conflict with any type of inner force and carried no specific side effects. Furthermore, consuming it immediately granted sixty years of inner force.
Sixty years of cultivation.
In terms of raw internal energy, it was enough to surpass the average First-Class Expert.
To accumulate that much inner force through normal means, even with a high-level cultivation method, would require at least a decade of arduous training.
Because one could obtain it in a single moment, the people of the Jianghu had lost their minds and bathed the land in blood.
"This is beyond my expectations."
Cheong-un's face flushed with excitement.
He had completely absorbed the energy of the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng, his primary goal. The dense, heavy energy settled in his dantian easily exceeded sixty years of cultivation.
The corners of Cheong-un's mouth curled upward.
The overflowing qi had completely revitalized his body. He was itching to unleash this newfound power.
"Finally, the first step is complete."
A wide grin spread across Cheong-un's face.
In a wide, empty clearing with no one around.
Cheong-un stood alone, holding his spear and taking a stance.
Slowly, he began to move his spear, following the deep-seated memories of his past.
The spear sliced smoothly through the air, gradually picking up speed until...
Whoosh! Shhhk!
The trajectory of the spear blurred out of sight.
A brilliant halo of light flashed as the sound of parting air echoed continuously.
Lost in a trance, Cheong-un continued to move.
In the past, his spear had pursued the path of the Eight Trigrams.
By building upon the brief teachings he had received from "him," Cheong-un had naturally developed his own direction in martial arts.
Qian—vast as the heavens.
Kun—firm as the earth.
Zhen—swift as lightning.
Gen—immense as a mountain.
Li—passionate as fire.
Kan—fluid as water.
Xun—light as the wind.
Dui—serene as a lake.
Cheong-un's spear embodied the principles of the Eight Trigrams.
Every martial art required a clear direction and purpose.
The Sword of the Emperor pursued by the Namgung Clan.
The Tyrant's Path pursued by the Hebei Paeng Family.
The pinnacle of swift illusions pursued by the Mount Hua Sect.
A martial art without direction could never reach the peak.
And this was the destination Cheong-un had reached by following the teachings of Taiji passed down to him.
The Celestial Eight Trigrams Spear.
Though it was a martial art created with partial assistance, it was an exceptional, high-level technique.
After all, it was the very technique that had earned Cheong-un the title of the World's Greatest Spear in his past life.
He executed each form of the spear art stored in his memories.
And the result...
"Fuuu..."
Exhaling a long breath, Cheong-un opened his eyes.
Within a radius of twenty feet around him, not a single fallen leaf remained; the ground had been swept completely clean.
For a fifteen-year-old youth, such martial prowess was nothing short of miraculous. However...
"Tch, I still have a long way to go."
Cheong-un clicked his tongue, his face filled with dissatisfaction.
This level of power was not even a twentieth of what he had possessed in his prime.
In truth, he had expected this.
Even though he had consumed the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng and acquired over sixty years of inner force, it was impossible to fully restore his past strength with just that.
His current body was simply too weak to fully express the martial arts he remembered.
He lacked physical conditioning, and above all, he was still growing.
Currently, Han Cheong-un's physical age was fifteen.
He had not yet reached full maturity.
"Tch, only time can solve this."
At this point, Cheong-un had two choices.
The first was to seclude himself deep in the mountains and perfect his martial arts.
If he remained in isolation for about three years, he would likely regain at least half of his peak strength.
The second was to take action immediately.
Although his current martial power was somewhat lacking, he had at least secured a baseline of strength. Above all else...
"There are things I can only do if I move now."
Obtaining the Human-Shaped Heavenly Ginseng had made him realize something.
Right now, his greatest advantage was neither his Domain ability nor the Celestial Eight Trigrams Spear.
It was his knowledge of the future.
Depending on how he utilized this knowledge, he could gain far greater advantages. Therefore...
"I have to move now."
It would be a waste to just sit around.
There were certain pieces of information that would become useless as time passed.
He could not afford to let them go to waste.
Having reached a decision, Cheong-un nodded to himself.
"First... shall I head to Sichuan?"