The Fifth Trial
“It’s true. My grandfather confirmed it himself.”
“Oho! The Poison Emperor!”
Since the Poison Emperor had verified it, there was no possibility of falsehood.
At that, even Namgung Cheon-hwi showed interest.
“What was your impression? While it’s true he inherited the lineage of the Kunlun Sect, surely that alone isn’t enough to speak of his future prospects?”
It was undeniable that the Kunlun Sect had once enjoyed a golden age, but the sects and clans represented by those present were no less prestigious.
When evaluating the late-stage geniuses—especially those worthy of being called Dragons and Phoenixes—what mattered far more than whose disciple they were was the individual themselves.
Dang Mi-ju answered with an expression that suggested she wasn’t entirely certain.
“Our meeting was so brief, after all. However, it is a fact that my second brother was no match for him. Beyond that, even I cannot say for sure.”
At those words, Gu Ja-yun narrowed her eyes slightly and asked,
“If that’s the case, then why do the rumors say that the one who recommended him for this gathering was you, Lady Dang? Is that true?”
This wasn’t just any question—it came from a member of the Beggars’ Sect.
She clearly hadn’t asked based on mere hearsay.
Yet Dang Mi-ju remained perfectly composed.
“Who can say? Perhaps our family stepped forward to protect my second brother’s honor.”
When Dang Mi-ju smiled softly, all the men flushed red, while Gu Ja-yun ground her teeth in frustration.
Honestly, men lose their minds the moment they see a pretty face. If I dressed up a little, I could…
She was confident that her natural features weren’t bad at all.
The only reason she didn’t bother was because decorating herself as a beggar of the Beggars’ Sect would be utterly ridiculous.
“Tch!”
Whether she sulked or not, Yeongho Jun turned to Namgung Cheon-hwi and asked,
“So what about you? What was the final stage of the Heavenly Wheel Five Palace Formation like? I’m ashamed to admit I couldn’t even get a glimpse of the fifth trial.”
Yeongho Jun had passed the third trial but stumbled at the fourth.
Naturally, attempting the fifth had been out of the question.
At his question, the others wearing white name tags turned toward Namgung Cheon-hwi with faces full of curiosity.
Feeling their gazes, Namgung Cheon-hwi scratched the bridge of his nose, looking slightly embarrassed.
“It was a horrific ordeal—so much so that I don’t even want to think about it. Honestly, I’m not sure I could succeed even if I tried again.”
“Oh! Even the one they call the Heavenly Dragon of Namgung speaks so humbly?”
Yeongho Jun recalled the past as he continued.
“The first and second trials were quite basic.”
Every year, the Yongbong Gathering set five fixed themes for the absolute formation that first-time participants had to overcome.
The first trial simply tested strength and internal energy.
Within a completely enclosed basin, one had to break through solid stone walls using martial arts.
The second trial demanded swift reflexes and keen judgment.
One had to advance across a single rope bridge while dodging or blocking hidden weapons fired from all directions.
Of course, even those two trials were by no means easy.
Most martial artists would likely fail to pass even the first gate.
But to participate in the Yongbong Gathering, one had to clear them as lightly as a warm-up.
“The real challenge began from the third trial.”
The third trial tested self-control and endurance.
One had to alternately cross a lava field where molten rock bubbled furiously and a snowy mountain ridge that sliced at the skin with bone-chilling cold.
Any hesitation or backward step meant immediate failure.
And it wasn’t just the extreme temperatures.
While pushing through volcanic heat and blizzards, dozens of enemies would appear and launch indiscriminate attacks.
Only by overcoming that much could one earn the right to participate in the Yongbong Gathering.
“Yet even that third trial felt like child’s play compared to the fourth.”
The difficulty of the fourth stage was truly nightmarish.
Its theme was death itself.
The method to pass was surprisingly simple.
Take exactly ten steps and cross the threshold.
But with every single step, an inescapable death came rushing in.
One genuinely felt as though they had died.
Being hacked to pieces, drowning, freezing to death, dying from poison, suffocating, starving, falling to one’s death—the forms of death varied endlessly.
Yeongho Jun shuddered and rubbed his arms as if the mere thought horrified him.
“For me, six steps was the limit. The moment I collapsed, the illusory formation vanished.”
Since they couldn’t actually kill the late-stage geniuses, the illusion had simply disappeared.
He had preserved his life and escaped the terror of death, but he could never challenge the fourth trial again.
“So what about the fifth trial? I can’t even imagine what subject or trial could possibly be harder than death itself.”
Namgung Cheon-hwi hesitated for a moment, but when he saw all those shining eyes fixed on him, he spoke as if he had no choice.
“The one standing at the final gate… was me.”
“You? It was you yourself, Young Master Namgung? Did you encounter a ghost or something?”
“Haha, it wasn’t like that. What stood before me was my own weakness, my impatience, my fear, my foolishness, and…”
Namgung Cheon-hwi steadied his trembling voice.
“My arrogance.”
His voice suddenly grew lower.
Everyone present held their breath, unable to speak.
“The fifth trial is not an external ordeal. It is internal. There, I saw how shallow my self-satisfaction and vanity had truly been all this time.”
Namgung Cheon-hwi slowly clenched and unclenched his fist as he continued.
“That was the most terrifying part. I wanted to run away, but… that would have meant running from myself.”
Yeongho Jun swallowed hard and asked,
“So what happened?”
“Fortunately, I was eventually able to swing my sword at myself. And in the end, I overcame it.”
At that, Yeongho Jun spoke as if he had realized something.
“To fight and overcome oneself. Self-conquest, self-overcoming… So that was the true nature of the final trial.”
Namgung Cheon-hwi answered humbly.
“Exactly.”
What the Heavenly Wheel Five Palace Formation wished to impart to the late-stage geniuses who would lead the future of the Murim was this:
Not how to defeat external enemies, but how to conquer oneself.
Hyun-jong let out a sigh of regret.
He had ultimately failed to pass the fifth trial.
When the atmosphere grew too heavy, Yeongho Jun deliberately spoke in a bright voice.
“Anyway, our juniors should be passing the second trial about now.”
Gu Ja-yun agreed.
“It’s already been two gaks since the trials began. Some of the faster ones may have already reached the third.”
“I fell at the third trial after half a sijin—twice as long. Didn’t you clear all five trials in just one sijin, Young Master Namgung?”
“It took me about one sijin and one gak more than that.”
The higher the trial, the more time it naturally took.
Therefore, arriving here quickly didn’t necessarily mean one had performed well.
But then…
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of someone walking up the stairs toward them reached their ears.
Yeongho Jun tilted his head and said,
“Someone’s already coming. That’s far too fast.”
To qualify to come here, one had to at least pass the third trial.
Yet at this point, most people should only just be finishing the second trial, no?
It was simply too quick.
“Don’t tell me… they gave up without even attempting the fourth trial?”
While the Yongbong Gathering’s tests were supposed to be kept strictly secret, there were no true secrets in the world.
It was inevitable that bits of information would leak to fellow disciples or blood relatives.
That was why, occasionally, some chose to give up without challenging the fourth trial.
Yeongho Jun assumed the person approaching now was one of those cases.
“No matter how frightening the terror of death is, to not even attempt it… Whoever it is, they can hardly be considered worthy of the Yongbong title.”
The spirit of challenge was an essential virtue for the late-stage geniuses who would lead the next generation.
No matter how quickly they had cleared the first three trials, such a person could not be acknowledged.
And finally, the door opened, and…
“Wow. This place is seriously over-the-top extravagant.”
Seomun Hwan looked around with an utterly calm expression.
He spotted the six men and women staring at him.
“What? Did someone pass the formation faster than me? Ah! You must be the ones who passed earlier.”
Seomun Hwan instantly grasped the situation and waved his hand half-heartedly.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Seomun Hwan. Can I sit anywhere?”
He strode confidently toward an empty seat.
Yeongho Jun frowned, intending to approach and deliver a stern lecture about the importance of a late-stage genius’s fighting spirit, but then…
“Huh? The name tag?”
He saw Seomun Hwan’s name tag gleaming brilliant gold.
“Gold rank? How…?”
A gold-rank name tag was something that appeared only once every two or three years, if that.
Every single one of them had already made a name for themselves in the Jianghu—people like the Heavenly Dragon of Namgung, whose reputation alone commanded respect.
But Seomun Hwan was still just a rising newcomer whose name had only recently begun to spread.
And yet he had reached gold rank.
While Yeongho Jun himself hadn’t even managed to reach silver…
“Whoa, this wine smells amazing. As expected of something hosted by the Murim Alliance—they really went all out.”
The moment he entered, Seomun Hwan immediately reached for the alcohol.
The others stared at him in stunned silence.
No matter how they thought about it, this was simply impossible.
Even if they generously conceded that Seomun Hwan had inherited the legitimate lineage of Kunlun and therefore possessed the qualifications, how could they explain the time?
The time?
Namgung Cheon-hwi, the first to regain his composure, asked carefully.
“It is an honor… I am Namgung Cheon-hwi.”
“Namgung Cheon-hwi? Do you happen to know a guy named Namgung Baek?”
The Namgung Baek he had met at the Tang Clan. The one who had been with Dang Mun-yeong.
“…He is my brother.”
“Aha! No wonder people said you two look alike.”
Even though Namgung Cheon-hwi was only twenty-three, his fame had already spread across the entire Jianghu.
It was only natural for young martial artists of similar age to take interest in him.
Since they had to live in the same era, only by defeating him could one claim to be the strongest.
Yet Seomun Hwan acted as if he had never even heard of Namgung Cheon-hwi.
Realizing this, Namgung Cheon-hwi stammered in shock before quickly regaining his senses and asking,
“Young Master Seomun. Did you truly break through all five stages of the Heavenly Wheel Five Palace Formation?”
“So that’s what it’s called? Whoever named it certainly has a flair for the dramatic.”
“……?”
When Namgung Cheon-hwi continued to stare at him, Seomun Hwan tilted the wine bottle to his lips and pointed at his name tag with one hand.
“You can tell just by looking, can’t you? The person who gave me the tag said the color changes with each stage.”
“I-I see. So you really did break through all five stages.”
He had assumed the Murim Alliance attendant on duty must have made a mistake.
That they had misjudged in the darkness.
But that wasn’t the case?
He had truly cleared the entire Heavenly Wheel Five Palace Formation in just two gaks?
The time itself was shocking, but Seomun Hwan’s condition was even more astonishing.
After overcoming the final trial, hadn’t he himself been completely exhausted for several sijin afterward?
Jeok-un of Shaolin, who had earned gold rank before him, had even comforted him by saying that was perfectly normal.
Yet here was Seomun Hwan, his complexion completely unchanged, happily devouring both wine and snacks.
He himself hadn’t been able to eat properly until the next day.
“This is…”
When Namgung Cheon-hwi was too stunned to speak, Yeongho Jun couldn’t hold back any longer and spoke up.
“Could the structure of the Heavenly Wheel Five Palace Formation have changed? Otherwise, how could anyone clear it this quickly?”
Yeongho Jun made his own judgment and then pressed him directly.
“Tell us, young master. What was the structure of the Heavenly Wheel Five Palace Formation like?”
Seomun Hwan answered as if the question annoyed him.
“First came rocks, then hidden weapons, fire and ice, death, and finally a ridiculously handsome young master who looked exactly like me was standing there.”
The structure had not changed.
That meant Seomun Hwan had also overcome the same ordeals they had faced.
Hyun-jong of Wudang asked with a slightly stiff expression,
“By the Primordial Sovereign. This is embarrassing, but I must ask one thing. How exactly did you pass the final stage?”
He had slipped at the final stage and remained at silver rank.
He had believed there was no rival among his peers…
Hyun-jong had come to realize how vast the world truly was and had trained relentlessly every single year.
Could he pass the fifth stage now?
He couldn’t say for certain.
Compared to the Heavenly Dragon of Namgung beside him, he still felt inadequate.
But in comparison to that, Seomun Hwan looked…
Too weak. He doesn’t even look strong enough to beat the second-generation disciples, let alone qualify as a Dragon or Phoenix…
There were only two possibilities.
Either he was genuinely weak, or he possessed abilities beyond what Hyun-jong could possibly judge.
If he had truly passed the fifth stage, it had to be the latter.
Seomun Hwan let out a sigh, clearly tired of the persistent questions.
These brats really are something else.
In his previous life, Seomun Hwan had reached the Life and Death realm, surpassing both Transcendent and Profound.
He had long since transcended concepts like self-conquest and self-overcoming, even reaching the realm of conquering demons.
In fact, the fifth trial had been the easiest for him.
He couldn’t possibly share all those insights with them.
Even if he did, they wouldn’t understand even half of it.
So he gave them a simple, easy-to-understand explanation.
“I don’t particularly like difficult phrases like self-conquest or self-overcoming.”
For a brief moment, both Hyun-jong and Namgung Cheon-hwi’s eyebrows twitched simultaneously.
“It seems there’s a common misunderstanding about the concept people call ‘overcoming oneself.’”
Yeongho Jun asked with interest,
“A misunderstanding? Isn’t that the path every martial artist in the world pursues?”
“That’s true. But the premise itself is flawed.”
“A flawed premise?”
“Yes. People treat the weaknesses within themselves as enemies. They see them as things that must be fought and eliminated. But tell me—is it truly possible to erase such things as weakness, cowardice, or fear?”
Hyun-jong muttered quietly.
“…Are you saying it’s impossible?”
Seomun Hwan spread his hand and slowly twirled the wine cup between his fingers as he spoke.
“That’s right. It’s impossible. In fact, the harder you struggle to erase them, the more clearly they reveal themselves.”
Seomun Hwan stopped twirling the cup and looked each person in the eye in turn.
“So I didn’t fight. I didn’t even try to fight.”
“If you didn’t fight, then how did you pass?”
Seomun Hwan let out a small chuckle.
“It’s simple. I just became friends with my weak self, my fearful self, my anxious self.”
For a moment, bewilderment flashed across everyone’s faces.
“Friends? Don’t joke around!”
Hyun-jong spoke with a rather angry expression. But Seomun Hwan simply leaned back comfortably.
“I’m being serious. That weak ego isn’t an enemy—it’s a companion I must live with for the rest of my life. We have to find a way to coexist. Sometimes I get scared too. Sometimes I become a coward. When that happens, I simply acknowledge it honestly and choose to live alongside it.”
Seomun Hwan’s voice was calm, yet it carried profound insight.
“The moment I stopped fighting my weak self and accepted it instead, there was no longer any need to fight. Because from the moment it is acknowledged, it ceases to be a weakness.”
Gu Ja-yun looked at him with a strange expression and asked,
“Then, Young Master Seomun, are you saying you didn’t overcome yourself at all—you simply accepted it?”
“That’s also incorrect, miss.”
Seomun Hwan smiled and continued slowly.
“The act of acceptance itself is the surest way to truly overcome myself.”
At those words, everyone present was rendered speechless.
What had sounded lighthearted at first now sank deep into their hearts with undeniable weight.
And once again, they realized exactly who the young man before them truly was.
…A Peng.
Above the Dragon and Phoenix, a Peng had taken flight.