The Divine Generals Descend
“Aaaah...”
With that faint, faraway echo, a mighty Divine General descended.
Gi-mun-dun-gap Divine General...
Lady Gyeongsin held back the shudder that raced through her whole body. He was a supreme heavenly deity, the highest of the high—worth a full 7,000 points. Many shamans hung portraits of this military god in their shrine, but that was out of reverence; he was not their body deity.
So this really is...
The blood drained from Lady Gyeongsin’s face. Her spiritual brother, the divine maiden Cheonhae, had seen this all along—her premonition had been that immense.
Shrrk.
Gi-mun-dun-gap Divine General was so formidable that even to meet his gaze was difficult. Lady Gyeongsin raised the portrait of the Divine General, densely engraved with spirit-carving talismans, and sacred radiance burst out from it like a lighthouse beam.
“Kieeek!”
Thousands of vagrant spirits panicked in a frenzy of terror. But that did nothing to save them from the Divine General’s holiness.
Whoosh.
As the portrait sliced through the wind, blade-light scattered in all directions, north, south, east, and west. In one stroke, it swept away countlessly many wandering ghosts. Such majesty, such authority—indeed, it could only be Gi-mun-dun-gap Divine General.
[Who shook the Seven Bell Bell and summoned me?]
Through the fading light, a miraculous voice rang out.
“......?”
Lady Gyeongsin, still bowing her head, nearly convulsed again.
My heavens...
Now even her teeth and spine were trembling. Gi-mun-dun-gap Divine General alone was an awe-inspiring dignity, hard enough to look upon. But this voice was not coming from him.
[I asked who shook the Seven Bell Bell.]
Along with a telepathic force that struck straight to the bones, the space above Gi-mun-dun-gap Divine General’s head brightened with an ethereal glow.
“Aaaah...”
Lady Gyeongsin bit her tongue. She had no other way to endure it. Gi-mun-dun-gap Divine General was already overwhelming enough, but Lee Kang-to’s body deity was even beyond him.
“Nine Heavens Maiden...”
Lady Gyeongsin’s voice shook as though it might tear itself apart.
In shamanism, there were a few gods called sovereign heavenly deities. One of those sovereigns—the Heavenly Sovereign, the Nine Heavens Maiden—had descended.
[Was it you who rang it?]
The Nine Heavens Maiden drew near. The path by which she had come was visible in dazzling auroral traces. So vivid that even her trajectory had become a form of divinity, she was a level-9,000 heavenly deity. Above her existed only one being: the Buddha. It was no exaggeration to call her the solitary sovereign.
“Kang-to, receive your body deity.”
Lady Gyeongsin’s voice was almost a scream.
When Kang-to unfolded his crossed legs and stood, the light of the Nine Heavens Maiden flowed toward him. It was as sharp as a blade, yet warm and embracing. And yet the depth of that presence was impossible to measure, so encountering it through the five senses was perhaps the most accurate way to describe it.
[Where did this Seven Bell Bell come from?]
When the Nine Heavens Maiden asked, the Seven Bell Bell rose of its own accord.
“It belonged to my mother.”
[Who is your mother?]
[I am Cheonhae Divine Maiden.]
“......?”
Kang-to lifted his gaze. It was unmistakably his mother’s voice. And indeed it was. Smoke rising from the Seven Hills took shape into a figure: the Cheonhae Divine Maiden in spirit robes, the ghost of his dead mother.
[And you?]
[You remember, don’t you? The promise you made me long ago.]
[That was...]
[Would you call a promise made by a deity with 9,000 years of divine power a lie?]
[So... you really made the Seven Bell Bell according to my instructions?]
[Kang-to, shake the spirit bells.]
At his mother’s command, Kang-to obeyed.
Jing-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling.
The clearer ring of the bells than before shook Chiluijae to its core. It was not merely sound, but purification; even the surrounding air grew cleaner, sharper, more pristine.
[I made them. So please keep the promise of the sovereign.]
[Oh, so that day I shouldn’t have come here to play baduk with the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord... When you play here, you fall into the delight of guljung and sometimes lose your head.]
Guljung referred to the joy of playing baduk. In other words, even sovereign heavenly deities considered this place auspicious ground.
[Are you trying to dodge it?]
[Not at all, but to my son?]
[As you can see, I am not in a living body. Besides, if one is to become a kangsinmu over three generations, one should become the very best. That, too, was my mother’s wish.]
At those words, the mother turned her head, and yet another form appeared. It was the grandmother who had died long ago.
[......]
[Lady Nine Heavens Maiden.]
[Very well. In any case, it was a promise I made, so I shall keep it. But the danger, the trial, and the outcome—that is the vessel and destiny of your son.]
The Nine Heavens Maiden rose, slicing through the air. At once, the drifting paper flowers stilled. Into that silence descended a Divine General—the summoning of the Gyeongsin Divine General, who governed the six divine powers of vision and spiritual perception.
Gyeongsin Divine General.
A heavenly general who had occasionally appeared in Kang-to’s spirit-sickness visions. But today, this was neither hallucination nor phantom sound.
The Gyeongsin Divine General governed the six spiritual powers revealed on a Gyeongsin Day. Normally, he passed in an instant. If one could hold that fleeting presence for five seconds and receive divine energy, one’s spiritual eye would open, one would awaken to truth, and the six supernatural powers would come alive.
That was why spirit disciples filled cups of alcohol and waited for that moment. Once the Gyeongsin Divine General responded, they would raise the cup at once and buy themselves time.
It was a path to spiritual sight and spiritual hearing that normally required success through all six Gyeongsin Days. Kang-to, however, was standing at the threshold of a leap beyond his level.
[......?]
The Gyeongsin Divine General’s face hardened as he looked at Kang-to.
It was because of the three streams of light pouring from Kang-to’s body. The third-eye point, the jade pillow point, and the yin-yang twin dao dan below his abdomen had united into one trinity.
It was the first time he had ever seen a human like this. The six spiritual powers were not something just anyone could receive. Unless one’s training had reached its absolute limit, it was impossible to maintain twenty-four hours of reverence without a single second of lapse. And once the Divine General’s sleep-demon assault began, there was no way not to doze off.
Even if one somehow resisted the sleep-demon assault, most people had blocked third-eye points, so even if they were granted spiritual sight and hearing, they could not absorb them.
But.
This human, who still stank of beginner incompetence and seemed hardly more than an apprentice, might actually be capable of spiritual sight—and, if pushed, perhaps even spiritual hearing, given the state of his trinity.
Moreover.
He also bore the flows of vital energy, water energy, and earth energy. That meant he carried the power of the Mountain King, the Dragon King, and the Seven-Star Deity together; there was no need to question his qualification for divine power any further.
[Listen, human Lee Kang-to.]
“......”
[In addition to the request of the Nine Heavens Maiden, you are of a bloodline that, for the first time in centuries, can properly receive the six divine powers. But that does not mean you may skip the procedure of divine passage.]
The Gyeongsin Divine General swung a sword adorned with five-colored talismans, and the human’s fate mirror appeared. It was a mirror that reflected the destiny of a person’s life.
[Choose the one that pleases you most.]
With the general’s words, the fortunes in the fate mirror came sharply into view.
Wealth, health, romance, human relationships, merit, past life, exorcism of vengeful ghosts—guiding spirits onward.
There were seven options.
In other words, which kind of shaman did he aspire to be?
There was no need to think about it. Wealth, of course. Most humans wanted success, and success was directly tied to wealth. If he were a shaman who made people rich, his shrine would be packed to the rafters.
The next best option was health. In truth, health mattered more than money, but only after one had lost it. If he had to choose a tertiary option, romance fortune was nice. That worked on young people too—it was a form of shamanism they could all understand.
[No time.]
At the Gyeongsin Divine General’s urging, Kang-to made his choice.
[......?]
A blue blaze rippled across the Gyeongsin Divine General’s blazing eyes. Kang-to’s choice was...
Exorcism of vengeful ghosts—guiding spirits onward.
It produced a result utterly different from any other shaman’s.
[Why?]
The Gyeongsin Divine General asked.
“Because the duty of a shaman is to serve as a mediator between gods and humans, isn’t it? Then the shaman’s foremost task is to resolve the grudges and lingering attachments of the vengeful ghosts that torment the living, and to send the lost spirits of the dead back into the wheel of reincarnation.”
[Correct. This was not only a test of your aptitude, but of your mind; I was checking whether you might become a wicked shaman who, having received high divine power, would bring ruin to the mundane world.]
“......”
[Originally, you would govern the six spirit-general talismans ruled by the Nine Heavens Maiden. But since the origin of this matter was the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord’s request for a match, you will also be able to wield the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord’s six Jia talismans.]
“......”
[Furthermore, to the extent that your capacity can bear it, you may harbor all six spiritual powers. But your training is short; one is possible, and two are perilous. Still, given the condition of your third eye, jade pillow point, and yin-yang twin dao dan, it will not be easy to achieve the six divine powers again. What will you do?]
“I’ll take both.”
[Even though there will be a price?]
“I’ll do it.”
That was Kang-to’s answer. He remembered what his mother had said. Numbers one and four. Those were clearly two separate numbers.
[Close your eyes.]
The Divine General’s portrait aimed directly at Kang-to’s third-eye point.
Flash.
Six radiances burst from the portrait.
First power — heavenly eye, to pierce the world and see the future.
Second power — heavenly ear, to hear the sounds of the world.
Third power — mind reading, to read another’s heart.
Fourth power — past-life knowledge, to read one’s previous lives.
Fifth power — divine travel, to go anywhere and transform into anything.
Sixth power — exhaustion of defilements, to attain boundless wisdom beyond the worldly.
The mass of Kang-to’s body vanished. He was now standing face-to-face with those six trails of divine power. Boundless and without thought—yet one wrong step and he would be flung straight into the Yellow Springs. At that life-or-death crossroads, Kang-to’s consciousness began to turn transparent.
In truth, there was one more reason he could not die here.
Sol-bi.
That name became another source of strength.
Fwoosh!
Kang-to’s consciousness was torn to shreds. It burned, exploded, and reduced itself to ashes. After all that transcendence, only one core remained: the pineal gland of the brain.
Into that pineal gland, two divine powers began to enter. They were not human things, but an infusion of divinity. As that holiness crossed into calm beyond chaos, the twelve Divine Generals of the six Jia talismans and the six spirit-general talismans descended upon clouds.
[My son.]
His mother’s voice washed in through the haze. She was there with the Nine Heavens Maiden.
[This has been prepared for a very long time. To escape it, I sent you to the mainland—but destiny’s pull was stronger.]
“......”
[When I suffered spirit sickness, I obtained a desperate stroke of luck. In the dreamlike world of that illness, I met the Nine Heavens Maiden, who was playing baduk in the immortal realm.]
“......”
[She told me that if I found the stone fragments of the spirit bridge made by Bi-hyeong in the Silla era and crafted seven spirit bells by my own hand—bells that would sound even without beads inside them—she would grant me the spiritual power of a national immortal.]
“......”
[Whether it was fate or not, while I was traveling to famous mountains and sacred sites, I found the fragments of the spirit bridge near Gyeongju. You know the bridge from legend, the one Bi-hyeong-rang supposedly made by summoning ghosts. While praying at Mt. Toham in Gyeongju, I discovered a nest of wandering spirits. Fearing they might harm passing travelers, I guided them onward, and there on the spot I found fragments of the ghost-faced roof tile and, with them, fragments of the spirit bridge.]
“......”
[I wondered if it was possible, so I asked the last wandering spirit left there, and it said yes. So I carved them as practice, and when you happened to make them ring, I was certain the Nine Heavens Maiden’s dream had not been a lie.]
“......”
[When I looked back as a shamanic disciple, your mother had achieved nothing. As the years piled up, people called me a Manshin, but that was a ridiculous exaggeration. I could see greater ghosts, and the direction of a greater destiny, but my own ancestral gods were not enough.]
“......”
[If I died like this, I would have been fated to cling to you as your ancestral god, just as your grandmother did. That could not happen. You were raised with the bloodline of Chiluijae, so you possess water energy, earth energy, and heavenly energy all in one body. You were always more than enough to become a national immortal, so I judged that you needed the guidance of the Nine Heavens Maiden more than you needed a mother like me to deal with nothing but wandering ghosts.]
“......”
[That’s why I asked my spiritual sister for help. I would have only one chance to call the Nine Heavens Maiden: the day when Gyeongsin Day and my forty-ninth-day rite overlapped. So I asked her to perform the spirit descent and, in addition, to try the six divine powers on that day. Of course, if this had been any other disciple, the greed would have clogged the bloodlines and killed them. But you endured it beautifully.]
“So you made the day of your death fit this date too?”
[Your grandmother helped me. She knew how pitiful my skill truly was. I was originally meant to die four days before Gyeongsin Day arrived.]
“......”
[Clear out Mother’s shrine and move to a new place. The place I prepared for you is...]
Her gaze shifted to the white building shining at the far end of Chiluijae, the one that still held every trace of his grandfather...
[Mother is going now, to prepare for the next life. You have the ability now to restore the lost honor and glory of shamanism, so I hope you will become a lighthouse for those who are lost and a divine earth immortal who leads rampaging evil spirits to the road of reincarnation, raising the banner of shamanism high.]
His mother’s words became countless white butterflies. Like cherry blossoms scattering in a spring courtyard, the butterflies surged toward Kang-to’s eyes.
“......?”
When he had accepted the last butterfly, Kang-to opened his eyes. White clothing filled his vision.
Mom?
But once his focus sharpened, he realized it was the coat of the village health clinic director.
“Mr. Lee Kang-to, you’re back with us.”
The director checked Kang-to’s eyes. The third-eye point on her forehead brushed into his line of sight. The fate mirror of the human destiny that the Gyeongsin Divine General had shown him. He could see it now.
This...
Kang-to extended his hand. It was because of the vengeful ghost hovering behind the director. Her hand was quicker, though, pressing his down and tucking it under the blanket.
“Kang-to!”
Sangju-daek, who had been cleaning the shrine, rushed in.
“Manager Seo...”
“Oh, thank goodness. Thank goodness you’re alive.”
She grabbed his hand and let tears fall. He could see how worried she had been.
“I’m heading to the clinic,” the director called as she stepped outside.
“Please do. Thank you.”
Sangju-daek’s voice was bright as she saw her off.
“Even though there are so many elders at the clinic, she came all the way here for three straight days.”
She helped Kang-to up.
“Are you all right? The director said you might need to go to a mainland hospital.”
“I received the body deity my mother sent me. I have to endure at least this much.”
“How was it?”
Sangju-daek asked carefully.
It had been a long time since he’d had shrine food, so she could guess something had happened to him. She couldn’t see Kang-to’s body deity, of course, but between the situation revealed during the spirit descent and the hint Lady Gyeongsin had given after dragging her exhausted body to the mainland the day before, she had a fairly good idea.
“Just a moment.”
“Why?”
“Could you stay still?”
Kang-to blinked. The fate mirror that had seemed like a hallucination to the director. In it, the battery state of seven fortunes appeared vividly.
[Health fortune ▮▮▯▯▯]
[Wealth fortune ▯▯▯▯▯]
[Family fortune ▯▯▯▯▯]
[Career fortune ▯▯▯▯▯]
[Human relations fortune ▮▮▮▯▯]
- Merit ledger ▯▯/▯▯/▮▮
“......?”
Kang-to didn’t trust his eyes.
He closed them and opened them again, but nothing changed. Even the three-generation merit ledger at the end was dragging. That meant Kang-to could read the three generations of blood relatives in that family line.
Sangju-daek’s fortune was a complete disaster, a woman so drained she had no luck left at all. Starting with poor health in youth and down to ancestral fortune at rock bottom, her health would recover in middle age, and her human-relations luck would slowly begin to open as well. It was all due to the power of her own good heart—her kindness was so well known that everyone on the island recognized it.
Ah.
A silent sigh escaped him. It was the spiritual eye, the divine eye, and the spiritual hearing that every shaman disciple dreamed of. He had achieved them.
“Please wait a moment.”
He got to his feet at once. The second he stepped outside, he stopped in place.
Kieeek.
The ear-splitting shriek was the wailing of vengeful and wandering ghosts. They flew in from all directions, with the sea at the center. This world was not inhabited by the living alone.
When he steadied his mind, he could see Gil Gwang-deok. The village drunk everyone had given up on. Even today he was drinking heartily and stirring up fear beneath the quince tree.
“That fucking village headman, just you wait. What the hell has he ever done for me when I’m drinking?”
A soju bottle flew through the air and stopped right at Kang-to’s feet.
“What the hell?”
Sensing something, the man glared around, but that was all. Unlike any other day, his expression turned complicated, and he merely blinked dumbly. The Nine Heavens Maiden was a deity of the level-9,000 celestial realm. Having received that divine authority, even the drunken man’s eyes could sense something strange. Gil Gwang-deok—the island’s walking headache. A man marinated in alcohol twenty-five hours a day.
Could even a bastard like this be reached?
Gulp.
The moment he swallowed dryly, the fortune battery became clear.
[Health fortune ▮▮▯▯▯]
[Wealth fortune ▯▯▯▯▯]
[Family fortune ▯▯▯▯▯]
[Career fortune ▯▯▯▯▯]
[Human relations fortune ▮▮▯▯▯]
- Merit ledger ▯▯/▯▯/▯▯
Still only two sections. The first five belonged to ordinary human life, but the last two traced three generations of family lineage. In any case, it was nearly completely drained. In a word, a life converging on zero hope.
Aaah...
Sangju-daek’s fortune battery had not been an illusion. Gil Gwang-deok truly was a disaster of a life, a human so rotten there was no worse “shit-torch” of a drunkard to be found. As Kang-to’s knees nearly buckled under the shock of his unbelievable spiritual sight and hearing, the voice of Chairman Song Gil-dong from the boatmen’s association reached him.
“Lee Kang-to.”
“Chairman?”
“Don’t have anything to do with that man. You never know when he’ll bring disaster down on you...”
As he said that, Kang-to could read the chairman’s third-eye point as well. Even his fortune battery was legible.
“Honestly, I wonder what the hell the ghosts are doing. Why don’t they take guys like that away?”
The chairman clicked his tongue and headed toward the dock.
Three confirmations.
There was nothing left to doubt.
When he returned home, he finished reading the rest of Sangju-daek’s fortune.
Oh no.
Kang-to’s face went white. Through the heavenly eye, misfortune had been detected.
Damn it.
It was a big one.
He opened his mother’s merit box. Inside, merit offerings were stacked in neat piles. Not an enormous sum, but not small change either. He took what he could and stuffed it into a white envelope.
“When the boat comes in later, go out for a bit.”
“Should I bring Sol-bi?”
“No, it’s not that... you know you have a younger brother, right? It looks like he passed away this morning.”
His first oracle after awakening had come out.
“What are you talking about? I spoke with him last night.”
“......”
“Huh?”
Seeing Kang-to’s reaction was odd, Sangju-daek took out her phone. She had long been fed shrine meals, and she knew the shamanic world well.
The absolute maxim of the trade was this:
Leave divination to newly awakened apprentices, and let experienced Manshin handle the rituals.
A shaman freshly descended upon was at their most powerful. That was true even if they had received a dubious deity. But Kang-to had received something far greater: a terrifying spirit descent.
“......?”
While she was on the call, Sangju-daek dropped her phone at once.
“Oh my goodness...”
She stared at Kang-to, rendered speechless. He had been right. Her younger brother was an old bachelor. He had just been in a traffic accident, and when his death was declared, the police were checking every contact through his phone number. Sangju-daek had just been speaking with that police officer.
“Good heavens, Dharma Master Kang-to.”
Sangju-daek dropped to her knees. Male shamans were called baksu or baksa, but their ordination name was usually beopsa—Dharma Master. Sangju-daek, who had spent decades in the shamanic world, had never seen this kind of power before. Not even Kang-to’s mother, who was herself rather famous for her spiritual gift, had managed this.
The oracle that sat on the island and looked out toward the mainland. She could not help but kneel.
“What kind of spirit descent did you receive?”
Her voice trembled as she asked.
“With my mother’s help, I received the Nine Heavens Maiden... and I think I also gained a little of the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord’s power.”
“Oh my...”
Sangju-daek went pale.
The Nine Heavens Maiden and the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord.
They were the heavenly sovereigns all shamans longed for. And not just one, but two. Her jaw practically dropped, but she couldn’t deny it either. The atmosphere at the spirit-descent site, combined with the proof in Kang-to’s shamanic power, made it undeniable.
“Then at least understand that and go on quickly.”
“I’ll finish cleaning the shrine before I leave. There’s still more than an hour until the boat comes in.”
“The shrine?”
“Aren’t you going to take over the shrine after the divine maiden here?”
“Clean it, sure. But I’m not going to use Mother’s shrine.”
“Then where?”
“I’ve got another place in mind.”
“There’s another auspicious site on this island?”
“Of course.”
“Just tell me where. I’ll clean it up nice and sparkling for you.”
“There’s something I need to do first, so please go on for now.”
“Sol-bi?”
“If I’m setting up on the island anyway, I’ll have to bring her here.”
“Right, that makes sense. Now that our Dharma Master Kang-to’s spirit sickness is all better, and the Nine Heavens Maiden herself has descended... I’ll finish my brother’s business in a couple of days and bring her over.”
“No. It’ll take longer than that, so go on with that in mind.”
“Longer?”
“When you come back, Secretary Seo will have to help me quite a bit.”
“What’s this ‘secretary’ business now?”
“I’m not going to use the word ‘assistant’ anymore. Just understand that.”
“Fine by me. I’m grateful for anything. I was going to end up wandering around anyway after the divine maiden passed, but now I get to work the shrine again... You know I’m only not sick when I’m doing shrine work, Kang-to.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you. Here, your phone—call Sol-bi, all right?”
Sangju-daek handed him his phone.
LittleCutie-Solbi
The moment he touched the number, a seven-year-old girl’s voice thundered out.
“Daddy.”
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