Chapter 226: What Are You Doing Here?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 226: What Are You Doing Here?
“Mmm… I suppose it’s not something one can understand just by hearing it.”
Even though I was making a foolish face, she didn’t scold me.
It seemed she knew it was difficult for a one-year-old lizard to understand.
Chodo sipped her tea with an elegant gesture, while the foolish lizard flicked its tongue.
“To put it simply, you can think of the movement of a tree.”
“Gek?”
“How does a tree grow? Does it not start from the ground and constantly reach for the sky?”
I could understand that much.
Even a young lizard knows how a tree grows.
“The energy that rises straight up. In other words, Wood signifies expansion.”
Mmm…
Put that way, I think I kind of get it.
“Do you understand?”
I nodded slightly.
“As expected of His descendant, you are truly brilliant.”
The first Gomodo must have been a good lizard.
Honestly, I don't think I did anything special, but she was praising me to the skies just because I was a Gomodo.
It wasn't bad.
Though it would be even better if it wasn't just empty praise.
“…Hmph.”
Gongbok didn’t hide his displeasure.
Woooong.
“These bastards…”
Seeing the fox marble tremble violently, it seemed he was about to torment the vengeful spirits inside.
Did something upset him?
If he did, I’d be grateful.
“If I had my way, I would teach you everything about the Five Elements, but there are things even I have not yet realized. So, I will only tell you what Wood is.”
“Gek.”
What a relief.
For now, it was better to learn just one thing.
Honestly, just Wood was making my head spin. When would I ever learn Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water?
Learning them might not be the problem, but they would surely get all jumbled up in my head.
“The trigrams of the Bagua that correspond to Wood are Zhen and Xun.”
Bagua?
Did she mean stuff like Qian, Kun, Kan, and Li?
“The Bagua are the eight trigrams created by Fuxi, representing the meaning of all things in the universe… That is, Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, and Kun.”
Seeing my blank face, she seemed to try to explain it more simply, but even that wasn't easy.
“Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, and Earth. These represent the phenomena and order of all things in the universe.”
Now I was starting to get it.
By ‘universe,’ she probably didn’t mean that dark, empty space, but this world.
I was smart enough to figure that out.
But could you really explain the whole world with just those eight things?
“Because the eight trigrams can be divided into sixteen, then thirty-two, and again into sixty-four hexagrams.”
Yeah, I guess that’s enough to explain it.
The eight trigrams seem more than enough.
“Returning to our original topic, the reason the power of Wood you used was like that, Hero, is because that is how you understood Wood.”
Since she said I was using the energy of Wood, I had indeed thought it was just about manipulating plants.
There was no room to think otherwise.
What Yin and Yang were, what the Five Elements were… I had neither the thought nor the reason to contemplate such things.
Chodo flicked her hand lightly.
Crackle.
A small spark of static electricity appeared.
The lightning that Chodo had continuously struck down.
That, too, was the power of Wood.
“Zhen signifies thunder. Thunder that stretches out intensely. This is Wood.”
Chodo flicked the fingers of her other hand.
Whoosh.
Her green hair swayed slightly.
“Xun signifies wind. It extends gently, so this too corresponds to Wood.”
The power of Wood wasn't limited to just plants.
Thunder and wind also corresponded to Wood.
“The more you broaden your universe, the more you will be able to expand the concept of Wood. However, this is the limit of what I can teach you.”
Just wielding thunder and wind was amazing, but she said it was possible to do even more.
Because even within a single tree, Fire, Water, Metal, and Earth are all inherent.
I was vaguely starting to get a feel for it.
But it would be impossible for me to call down lightning and create storms right now.
Before I was reborn as a lizard, I lived a life far removed from such things, and even after becoming a lizard, I was just busy trying to survive.
If you could call it training, it was just eating others to take their power and relying on the status window to level up.
Of course, I sometimes gained enlightenment on my own and learned martial arts from my master, but that wasn't the main focus.
“The important thing is to broaden your world, Hero. Broadening your world is, in itself, enlightenment.”
Enlightenment.
It must mean advancing to the next realm.
“Those at the Peak Realm use sword qi, those at the Supreme Peak use sword silk, and those in the Transformation Realm use sword flux. That is how people classify the realms these days.”
My master had told me the same thing.
To be precise, she had explained it simply because I couldn't understand the complicated version.
…Part of it was that I couldn't understand, but my master's strange way of explaining was also a big factor.
Chodo's explanation was difficult enough, but my master's was even more convoluted.
“However, that is only half-right and half-wrong. If it were truly the case, how could you, Hero, who are merely at the Peak Realm, have cut down my brother?”
If you divided the realms that way, since I had managed to use sword flux once, I should be called a Transformation Realm master.
But that wasn't the case. I was still at the Peak Realm.
“The realm permitted to most humans is the Peak Realm. Once you stand on the summit of a mountain, is there anywhere higher to climb?”
Many looked down on the Peak Realm as something mediocre, and even in this world, it was common to see martial artists who had reached it.
But the original meaning of ‘Peak’ is a realm from which there is nowhere higher to climb.
“But not all humans are satisfied with reaching the summit. They lift their heads and gaze at the sky. Some ask why they do such a thing, while others simply reach out their hands.”
They have surpassed the Peak.
“That is what we call the Supreme Peak.”
The Peak Realm is the limit of a human.
Surpassing it—it made sense to call that the Supreme Peak.
“To not stop at merely reaching out, but to touch the sky in one's own way. That is the Transformation Realm. In other words, it is to create one's own world—the realm where one can manifest a mental image.”
Reaching out your hand from a mountain is easy.
But actually touching the sky is impossible.
“Because their hand has touched the sky, they can naturally imbue their sword with starlight. That is sword flux.”
That must be why the gap between the Supreme Peak and the Transformation Realm was so vast.
“And the Profound Realm is to walk upon the sky. It is to expand one's own world.”
Climbing to the summit is the Peak Realm. Gazing at the sky and reaching for it is the Supreme Peak. Touching the sky is the Transformation Realm, and walking freely upon it is the Profound Realm.
It felt like something that had been blocked was finally breaking through.
“The Five Essences gather in the Lower Field, the Five Qi in the Central Field, and the Three Yang in the Upper Field. When this gathering is complete, they fill the three thousand worlds, and cranes and dragons dance in the distance. When the Golden Elixir takes form, the bones take on a golden hue, the body emits a golden light, and golden flowers manifest piece by piece in the air. Soon, the Five Qi will Return to the Origin and the Three Yang will Gather at the Summit; it is the time to transcend the mortal body, the day the Golden Pill is greatly achieved.”
And I felt blocked again.
It was more difficult than anything else I had heard today.
But for some reason, I could understand a little of it.
The Lower Field must mean the Lower Dantian. The Central Field, the Middle Dantian. And the Upper Field, the Upper Dantian.
“The Five Essences originate from the five viscera: the liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys.”
The fluids secreted by the five viscera achieve harmony in the Lower Dantian.
“The Five Qi signify the Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.”
The Five Elements achieve harmony in the Middle Dantian.
“The Three Yang refer to the Yang within Yin, the Yang within Yang, and the Yang of Yin-Yang. You could see it as Essence, Qi, and Spirit.”
The Three Yang are achieved in the Upper Dantian.
“That is the Three Flowers Gathering at the Summit, and the Five Qi Returning to the Origin.”
Three Flowers Gathering at the Summit and Five Qi Returning to the Origin. She said she'd explain later, but she was cramming it into my head anyway.
Thanks to her, my head was about to explode, but strangely, I didn't hate it.
It was as if my rarely used brain was screaming that it could accept everything she was telling me now.
“Spirit Beasts are stronger than humans. Most humans are blocked by the wall of the Peak Realm.”
Confirming that I was following along well, she gave a slight smile.
“Spirit Beasts are different. Not only are they far stronger at the same realm, but enlightenment also comes to them more easily.”
That was certainly true.
Baek Woon couldn't reach the Peak Realm for years, but hadn't I reached it in just three months?
“But the further the realms advance, the more disadvantageous it becomes for Spirit Beasts. The gap widens even more when it comes time to reach the Five Qi Returning to the Origin.”
Five Qi Returning to the Origin.
Even setting aside the Three Yang and Five Essences, the Five Qi must achieve harmony in the Middle Dantian.
And I realized that was an absurd task.
“Those who climb the summit, reach out, and touch the sky will naturally accumulate the Five Qi. Since the Five Elements are woven into human life, perhaps it is only natural.”
Humans coexist with the Five Elements just by living.
But Spirit Beasts are different.
“Even I, who have lived for hundreds of years, can only manage the energy of Wood. I cannot even dream of the Five Qi Returning to the Origin.”
I, too, had gained the power of Wood because I occupied one Dragon Gate.
I had occupied two more Dragon Gates and gained Water and Metal, but I couldn't yet call them completely my own.
Despite possessing three Dragon Gates, I couldn't handle the Five Qi.
So how could an ordinary Spirit Beast ever reach the Five Qi Returning to the Origin?
“…That is why my father feared humans.”
My head felt like it was going to split.
But she was saying something I couldn't afford to ignore.
“After a lifetime of effort, he achieved the Five Qi Returning to the Origin and reached the Profound Realm, only for a human who hadn't even lived a hundred years to surpass him.”
From a Spirit Beast's perspective, it might feel unfair.
They were humans, clearly much weaker than them, but their speed of growth seemed fast, and then one day, they had surpassed them.
“That is why he sought to kill all humans before they could form a powerful force, and why Lord Gomodo stopped him.”
Right, he wouldn't have tried to kill humans for no reason.
If some human achieved in an instant what I had barely managed after hundreds of years of training, I'd be afraid too.
If Tang Soyeong suddenly started shooting Gekgek Death Beams, I'd also…
……Actually, I don't think I'd be scared.
But just what kind of human could have reached a realm equal to, no, possibly even surpassing, a True Dragon?
“That person has no name.”
No name? Did she mean she didn't know his name?
“However, I do know what he was called.”
So the story was passed down to later generations after all.
Since the True Dragon was recorded as a divine beast and Gomodo as a ferocious beast, I thought he would have been forgotten.
“One who was not satisfied with touching the sky, but stood upon it.”
Wait, if Gomodo was distorted into a ferocious beast, then the human who made even a True Dragon jealous must have been framed with some serious accusations too.
“My father, with the meaning of a curse, defined that person as evil and called him a demon.”
Yeah, I knew it would be something like that.
“The Lord of Ten Thousand Demons, and the one who tried to harm the heavens.”
The one who stood upon the sky.
And a demon.
Wait a minute.
Don't tell me…
“The Heavenly Demon (天魔).”
Why is the Heavenly Demon showing up here?