Split Soul
“Yes. If you reach the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, then by taking two Lords, you will be able to walk the path of Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.”
Seop Myeong-gyeol’s tone was so calm as she repeated the fact that it sounded like no great matter at all.
But in truth, it was astonishing. She was speaking of passing not only the two bottlenecks that existed within Foundation Establishment, but of leaping straight past Core Formation and becoming a mighty Golden Core cultivator in one breath.
When I considered how many cultivators spent their whole lives in bitter training only to perish without ever crossing the barrier of Foundation Establishment, it was even more absurd.
Yet I did not know why Seop Myeong-gyeol treated it so lightly.
Was it because it was someone else’s matter, not her own?
Or because, from the vantage point of a Nascent Soul cultivator, it all seemed equally insignificant?
Her listless reaction was entirely unlike the way she had just been speaking with such fervor about dual cultivation, and I decided there was no need to continue that line of conversation with her.
In any case, I had my answer now. All that remained was to safely store the two Lords in my cheobokdae and wait for the right time to come.
But just as I was about to put the Lord away, I sensed something different in Seop Myeong-gyeol than before.
“Have you really found a way into Nine Palaces Tower?”
Originally, this Nine Palaces Tower had been more desperately desired by her than by me. She had wanted to obtain a new body through a special formation hidden within this place.
And yet, none of that longing remained in her now. Even the answer that followed my question was the same.
“I can’t make sense of anything at all. It seems I’ll have to find a painting that depicts Nine Palaces Tower’s true form first.”
So I spoke of something she had overlooked.
“The San-su Jinmyeong here was the bastard who tried to steal my body. He would naturally have known how to switch souls. I don’t know whether he knew how to find Nine Palaces Tower’s true space, but fortunately I do know where the formation he painstakingly drew is located. That should be the formation that can exchange the souls within two bodies, so you ought to be able to use it to obtain a body as well.”
Yet again, contrary to my expectations, she did not seem especially pleased.
“There is certainly such a method.”
Her suspicious reaction bothered me, but for my part, I did not mind much that she was not eager to gain a new body. The her housed within the puppet was in a state where she could not defy my words anyway, so it made no difference; but once she obtained a true body, she would immediately slip beyond my control.
“If I find a suitable body later, I’ll show you the formation.”
And yet even after I pushed off the matter to the future, she offered no objection.
“I’ll have to look forward to it…….”
In the end, I was the one who brought up her strange behavior again.
“You may be able to have a body again, and yet you don’t seem very happy.”
Then she gave an answer that was rather interesting.
“Thanks to the many aspects of Nine Palaces Tower I experienced just now, I came to understand something too. Even if I gain a body again, it won’t be a complete version of me.”
I nodded and replied, “That would be so. But just as this place is but one aspect of Nine Palaces Tower, you too would still be you, even after gaining a new body.”
But she immediately pushed back against my words and said something unexpected.
“No. In that way, I can’t become the real me. In the end, I am only a counterfeit that has split away from the original. I don’t know whether you have heard of something called a bunhon, but I think that is what I am.”
A bunhon? A soul divided into several parts?
At that moment, I remembered again what she had just said—that by virtue of the many aspects of Nine Palaces Tower, she had realized her own condition.
Just as this place was one of the many forms Nine Palaces Tower possessed, she too had realized that she was one fragment split off from a single person’s soul.
“So for a Nascent Soul cultivator, even something that grand is possible?”
“Even cultivators who have not yet reached Nascent Soul can do it if they learn a special cultivation method. I think I must be a bunhon created by separating the base desire of lust from the true soul of Seop Myeong-gyeol. My emotions and thoughts are all too heavily tilted in that direction.”
Her frank answer made it clear why she had kept obsessing over dual cultivation, despite knowing so little about it.
“Then the words you first said—that your will had not yet been broken……?”
“Back then, I was only expressing my joy that my soul had not scattered over that long span of time. Of course, now I could use those words in a completely different sense. My true body is probably still alive.”
A human alive for as long as five hundred years. In the martial world, there were occasionally masters who achieved banrohwandong, and from time to time experts who reached the level of Hwagyeong or Hyeongyeong might live for two hundred years or so.
But I had never even heard of a human living for more than five hundred years. Such a thing was only possible here, where the higher one’s cultivation became, the more swiftly one’s lifespan expanded as well.
“Do cultivators in the Nascent Soul realm naturally live that long?”
“Ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators live for about twelve hundred years. If my true body had broken through its former realm and become a stronger existence beyond Deity Transformation, then perhaps it could live for more than two thousand years. Of course, if it had already surpassed Nascent Soul, then it would have ascended to the upper realm and no longer be a person of this Heavenly Flag World. Cultivators of Heavenly Flag World cannot surpass Nascent Soul, after all.”
The word ascension that came from her mouth was a concept similar to the hwareodungseon I once experienced after reaching the realm of life and death in my past life. I had also heard of the Hwagyeong and Cheongeong she rattled on about so eagerly.
But until now, those things had been far removed from me, a mere Qi Refining cultivator. I had never had the chance to hear such direct and detailed explanations.
So I let out a sincere sigh of admiration.
“An astonishing tale.”
“If one day my true body truly wants me, I’ll return to it at once. But spending time with you isn’t boring, so for now I’ll remain by your side and help you.”
At her unexpectedly kind words, I answered with indifference.
“You are not false, either. Only smaller in power.”
Come to think of it, she had given me quite a lot of help. Thanks to her, I had been able to shatter the inborn fate that had been branded on me like a slave’s mark, and in my struggle against the fox demon beast, she had effectively saved my life in the end.
“If you find a suitable body later, I’ll help you move into it. When that time comes, build your strength with that new body. So you won’t waver before the one you believe to be the true you.”
My added words drew no response from Seop Myeong-gyeol. Only the wooden puppet, missing one arm, gazed quietly back at me.
Meeting those eyes, I soon gave a faint laugh and turned away.
“When we get back, I’ll repair that body first. Now that I look at it, it’s truly a pitiful sight.”
Then she hurried to my side and said, “And make it so it has a mouth and ears too! Don’t forget the nose!”
I did not know what kind of person Seop Myeong-gyeol had been in life, but if even the being formed by stripping away only her lust still showed such innocence, then she could not have been all that wicked.
“Very well. Shall I be generous and make two of everything, then—mouth, nose, ears, and eyes?”
I had tossed out the joke on a whim, and I did not dislike the way she laughed as she answered…….
She had only ever made room beside her for her second older brother, but if it was her, I thought it would be all right to keep her close from now on. Even if she eventually gained a new body, I could not imagine her betraying me.
What I gained from this expedition to Nine Palaces Tower was by no means small.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Neung So! You really got assigned as an examiner for this year’s entrance trial?”
Three months had passed since my return from Nine Palaces Tower. My second older brother was still in closed-door cultivation, and my sago who had promised to visit me ten days later had not come, contrary to her word.
I went to visit her, only to find her eastern residence empty. As a mere outer sect disciple, I had no way of learning where an inner sect disciple had gone, and in the end all I could do was wait for her.
But that did not mean I spent all my time idly. I still had the work of the Shadow Talisman Department to attend to, and I never neglected my own training either, pushing myself toward the Great Perfection of the late Qi Refining stage.
Of course, Yang Jeon had also been coming to see me constantly, just as he did now.
“Yes. It’s one of the easiest assignments for raising contribution points among the tasks available to disciples at mid-stage Qi Refining or higher.”
After discovering that I was not a woman, Yang Jeon had been terribly disappointed, but whether he still harbored some lingering feelings or simply had no one else he was close to, he treated me with unusual familiarity.
“If I had only trained a bit harder, I could have done it with you. What a pity. Still, I can give you one piece of advice. This assignment won’t be as easy as you think.”
“Everyone says it’s an easy task. You’re saying it won’t be easy?”
“That’s right. The chief overseer of this year’s entrance trial is Elder Nam, the head of the Discipline Hall. You’ve heard of Elder Nam before, haven’t you?”
He asked as though it were obvious, but in truth I did not know much about this Elder Nam. He had never visited the Shadow Talisman Department where I was, nor had I ever gone to see the Discipline Hall he led.
So I described, in broad strokes, the sort of elder that sect disciples were likely to hate.
“Let me guess—some old man stingy with rewards and generous with punishments?”
“You really don’t know? The man favors female disciples so blatantly that in the Discipline Hall he leads, male disciples end up handling all the dirty work? Since he’s the chief overseer for this trial, you, being a man, will surely be saddled with one of the hardest jobs.”
At his words, which were less remarkable than I had expected, I laughed and replied, “How worrying. He’ll probably have me carry away the participants who collapse during the trial.”
But even after hearing my joke, Yang Jeon did not relax his stiff expression.
“That’s not all. One of the examiners for this trial is Namso Ryong, the son of that very Elder Nam! You’ll have to read not only your superiors’ moods, but your colleagues’ as well.”
Well…… did I really need to read anyone’s mood?
Considering that the two were father and son, that boy was probably like me—a person admitted through guanxi. Someone like that had no reason to pick a fight with me.
And even if he did, it would only mean I had to give him a light lesson.
“Do you really think I’d care about some fool who struts around on the strength of his father’s authority?”
Then Yang Jeon, hearing me, smiled and said, “Of course I’ll always be on your side. But making an enemy of an elder is more dangerous than you think.”
At his declaration that he would always stand with me, another laugh slipped out of me, and I answered him.
“Don’t worry. I never said I would treat him as an enemy from the start.”
Reassured, Yang Jeon and I exchanged a few more light words before parting with farewells, and I soon headed for the place where the entrance trial would be held.
There, along with a few vaguely familiar faces, I saw several others I would never have had the chance to meet under ordinary circumstances.
And among them was one person who, the moment our eyes met, immediately broke into a bright smile.
“Welcome. Brother Neung! I’ve heard so much about you from my disciple! I am Namso Ryong of Jibodan.”