The World Has Become Much More Interesting
The boy stared into the darkness.
The images and characters he had confirmed by touch rose vividly in his mind.
“Could this person be the Usa?”
Among the three gods who governed the weather—the Wind Earl, the Rain Master, and the Cloud Master—only the Rain Master was missing, so the suspicion naturally arose.
“Hmm! Whoever it is, the picture and the inscription are quite provocative.”
Cut off the Wind Earl’s head and smash the Cloud Master’s skull.
It even commanded, ‘Obey the decree that defies heaven.’
Honestly, the part about heavenly energy or whatever left him unmoved.
That was not a realm for humans.
The boy thought with his genius mind.
Did someone truly wish for the Wind Earl and Cloud Master to be killed?
Or was it the arrogant nonsense of a madman?
It was hard to believe, yet considering the scale of the tomb, it didn’t seem like empty words.
“Cut off the head, smash the skull. Obey the decree that defies heaven… It’s telling me to clearly choose which side I’ll stand on, isn’t it?”
As he pondered, he suddenly reached out and stroked the head of the snake on the left.
As expected!
A faint crack was felt between the head and the body.
He touched the snake on the right as well and found the same crack in the identical spot.
“Oh, a mechanical formation!”
The contents of mechanical formations he had read about in books flashed through his mind.
Confidently, the boy reached out and pressed down hard on the snake’s head—the one held by the man in the picture—but it didn’t budge.
“Not that? Then that won’t work.”
Muttering to himself, he groped along the floor and found a stone that fit perfectly in his hand.
Then he felt for the head of the left snake again and struck it without mercy.
Crack!
With a shattering sound, the snake’s head exploded.
He immediately smashed the head of the right snake with the stone as well.
The moment he destroyed the two snake heads, something unexpected happened.
The floor suddenly sank downward.
“Uwaaaaah—!”
Amid the boy’s scream, the floor continued to descend endlessly.
How much time had passed?
With a heavy thud as rock met rock, the fall finally stopped.
The boy looked ahead with startled eyes.
A passage carved into the rock had opened in the previously blocked wall ahead, and a soft glow flowed out from within, illuminating the way.
Before entering the passage, the boy looked up.
But it was pitch black, so he couldn’t tell how far down he had come.
“Can I even go back?”
He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and began walking.
There was no point in staring at something he couldn’t reach, so he decided to give up and seek a new path.
After walking quite a distance along the passage, a stunning sight greeted him.
Three square terraces, each side roughly ten zhang (about thirty meters) long, descended like stairs. In the center of the lowest terrace, about five zhang (about fifteen meters) below ground level, sat a massive stone coffin.
‘Is this where the master of Byeongmachong is buried?’
A short while later, the boy cautiously descended the stairs.
Since this seemed to be a dead end, he intended to examine the coffin.
Each step was a full zhang (about three meters) high, so descending wasn’t easy.
After finally reaching the bottom, he approached the stone coffin hesitantly.
He pushed the lid with both hands—the slab was a full ja (about thirty centimeters) thick—but it didn’t move an inch.
“Whoa! It’s heavy. How do I open this?”
As the boy circled the coffin, examining it with sharp eyes, a low grinding sound echoed.
Drrrrrrrrk—
With a heavy friction noise, the stone lid slid aside on its own.
Soon after, with a thud, one end of the lid touched the floor.
It was completely open.
Faced with the unimaginable, the boy could only blink, at a loss for what to do.
At that moment, a hand shot up from inside the coffin, gripping the edge. Then a man in bizarre attire slowly rose to his feet.
The moment the boy saw the man’s eyes, which shone like stars, he was so startled that he slammed his forehead to the ground and cried out.
“Divine Spirit! Please spare this lowly one! I did not come with any ill intent! I lost my way and wandered here by accident! Please show mercy and forgive me! And teach me the way out!”
The man, looking down at the back of the boy’s head, spoke.
“Rise.”
His clear, heavy voice rang through the tiered tomb like thunder.
Only then did the boy slowly stand up and cautiously look at the other man.
The middle-aged man wore pure white robes and had blue jade plates woven with golden thread draped over him like armor.
The square jade plates were the size of a palm, and the fact that they were spaced about a finger’s width apart made calling it armor somewhat strange.
As the boy stared blankly, the man asked,
“Who are you?”
“Well… um… I think I’m a disciple of Haomun, but I can’t remember who I am.”
In that instant, the man’s body vanished from the stone coffin with a pop and reappeared right in front of the boy, grabbing his head.
The startled boy tried to say something, but the man withdrew his hand before he could.
“You’ve cultivated the Soyo sect’s Iwon Gwiril Gong incorrectly. Where did you learn such nonsense?”
“Divine Spirit, what I learned was the Soyo faction’s Bunsim Gong.”
“Recite it.”
“When a person is born, the True Spirit resides in the Heavenly Eye, and the Thinking Spirit, the Conscious Spirit, resides below in the heart…”
When the boy finished reciting the entire formula of Bunsim Gong, the man shook his head.
“Where did such a hybrid come from… So your Origin Spirit has split. Tsk.”
“What? What did you say about my Origin Spirit?”
The boy was beyond bewildered—he was dumbfounded by the words ‘your Origin Spirit has split.’
According to Taoist teachings, the Origin Spirit was the inherently sacred mind granted by heaven and earth. What Taoists cultivated was precisely to attain this Origin Spirit.
When Taoists trained their essence, energy, and spirit to reach harmony with heaven and earth, an Origin Spirit would be formed. Yet with his current internal and external cultivation, he couldn’t even reach the toes of those Taoists.
Moreover, there were no secret Taoist techniques in his memories, so it should have been impossible.
“It means your Origin Spirit has divided into two. In other words, two personalities now live within one body.”
“No, Divine Spirit. It’s not that I don’t believe you, but… I have never created an Origin Spirit.”
“What mental technique did you learn?”
“It’s called Simjeong Dan Gong, a heart method from Haomun.”
“Recite the formula.”
“When the mind becomes pure, one attains essence. When essence is emptied, one attains spirit. When spirit transforms into truth, pursue the light…”
“It’s a heart method that trains the inner elixir using Taoist life-nurturing techniques, but it seems only a part was passed down.”
“Only a part?”
“It’s named Simjeong Dan Gong, yet there is no mention of the elixir itself, is there? Clearly, only the introductory formulas were transmitted.”
“Ah! So that’s how it is. I didn’t know.”
“It is rare, but your Conception and Governing Vessels, as well as your Thrusting Vessel, are all open. In that state, you clumsily reached the Origin Spirit realm with Simjeong Dan Gong, but the faulty Bunsim Gong ultimately caused your Origin Spirit to split.”
“Then what happens now?”
“What can you do? You’ll have to live with two personalities until they merge.”
“Huk! Can they be merged?”
“It is possible if you cultivate Iwon Gwiril Gong.”
“In that case, Divine Spirit, thinking of saving one pitiful wretch, could you please teach me that Iwon Gwiril Gong?”
“There’s no reason I can’t, but since it belongs to the Soyo sect, it’s a bit…”
“Is there something that concerns you?”
“Pfft, do you think there is anything that would concern me? It’s because of you.”
“Me?”
“If it becomes known that an outsider learned the techniques of the Soyo sect, do you think they would stay silent? They would instantly annihilate not only your body but your Origin Spirit as well.”
“Wouldn’t it be fine if I just don’t reveal it? I’ll hide it for the rest of my life.”
“You cannot hide it. Upon reaching great success in Iwon Gwiril Gong, your pupils will turn golden.”
“Then I just won’t reach great success.”
“You must reach great success in Iwon Gwiril Gong for the two personalities to become one.”
“Ah! Well… if it’s only because of the eye color, then I can wear Yeonangyeong.”
Yeonangyeong were tinted spectacles imported from the Western Regions to protect the eyes.
Among the leaders of the Six Gates, there was one who wore Yeonangyeong purely for style.
“What is Yeonangyeong?”
“It is an artifact from the Western Regions that shields the eyes from sunlight. If I wear it, no one will know my pupils are golden.”
The man thought for a moment, then readily nodded.
“Very well. If you are willing to bear the consequences yourself, there is no reason not to teach you.”
Right there, the man recited the formulas of Iwon Gwiril Gong.
The boy memorized the thousand-character formula after hearing it only once.
The man then looked at the boy with strange eyes.
The Soyo sect’s Iwon Gwiril Gong was not a formula one could memorize after hearing it once.
Combined with the fact that his Conception, Governing, and Thrusting Vessels were open, the boy was clearly no ordinary child.
“Tell me everything you remember about yourself.”
“I lived with children my age in Byeongmachong. We learned Haomun’s martial arts from the instructors and read all sorts of books in the library.”
“What kind of sect is Haomun?”
The man was curious why Haomun would raise children inside a tomb.
“Haomun is the collective name for six sects that engage in lowly occupations…”
The boy explained in detail about Haomun’s Six Gates and the One Hundred Year Plan.
“Then were you sold here as well?”
“The only things I remember are my time in Byeongmachong. Since everyone else says they were sold, I must have been sold too.”
“Then of course you have no memories of your parents.”
“That’s right.”
“Interesting. The world has become much more interesting.”
The man looked at the boy with renewed eyes.
At first, he had been intrigued by the boy’s extraordinary talent, but after learning the truth about Haomun, he could only laugh.
When the boy saw the Divine Spirit’s expression soften, he carefully asked,
“Um… may I ask you something, Divine Spirit?”
“What do you wish to know?”
“Are you, by any chance, the master of this royal tomb?”
“No. This tomb belongs to a king I once helped.”
“Before coming here, I saw strange pictures and characters. Did the master of the royal tomb leave those as well?”
“Those were left by me as well.”
“Ah… I see.”
The boy felt a chill and decided not to ask any more.
The Divine Spirit had left behind words commanding to ‘defy heaven’…
It somehow felt like something he shouldn’t know any more about.
Seeing the boy’s reaction, the corners of the man’s mouth rose slightly.
“Are you not curious why I left such pictures and words?”
“No, how could I dare? Absolutely not.”
The startled boy denied it, but the man’s smile only deepened.
“You came all the way here out of curiosity, woke me from my cultivation, and now you say you’re not curious?”
“Oh no! If I have disturbed your cultivation, please forgive me. I merely lost my way and wandered…”
“Do not make excuses. Simply wandering cannot explain how you smashed the heads of the snakes. And if it had been only one, I might let it slide. But you destroyed the heads of two snakes. You cannot call that a coincidence. Isn’t that right?”
“T-that… yes, it is true that I acted presumptuously out of curiosity. But I truly had not the slightest intention of disturbing your cultivation.”
“Do not worry. You did not disturb my cultivation. The fact that you came here may even be the will of heaven.”
“The will of heaven?”
“A long time ago, I fought my enemies and suffered severe damage to my vitality. So I hid here, donned the Gold Thread Jade Garment, and practiced the ancient Soyo sect’s revival technique called Nakil Daesu. As time passed, my Origin Spirit recovered, but my Conscious Spirit—the one in my heart—could not escape from mu-mang. Then you touched the coffin and woke me. In fact, you could be called my benefactor.”