Echoes of the Immortal Path
The characters inscribed in the book were clearly logographic rather than phonetic. They bore a faint resemblance to Chinese characters at first glance, but the longer he looked, the more that impression faded, revealing them as the utterly alien script of another world.
Still, the important thing was the content.
Rather than a strict historical record, the book was a collection of short stories resembling the sort of “I heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy” rumors and legends. Many sections had been damaged by the passage of time, making it impossible to grasp the full picture, yet what remained proved incredibly enlightening.
Most fascinating of all was the insight it offered into this world’s general structure and culture.
How much time had passed?
When Han Yujin carefully returned the book to its shelf, his face was flushed with excitement.
‘A world this similar to the xianxia novels… I never expected it.’
Of course, it wasn’t identical. There were countless differences. Yet taken as a whole, it would not be an exaggeration to call it a genuine xianxia world.
The idea of cultivating to become an immortal, growing infinitely stronger and attaining eternal life, struck him especially hard.
‘If only I could obtain and learn a proper cultivation method…!’
Forcing down the surging excitement, Han Yujin continued exploring the interior of the library pavilion. At the same time, he organized the information he had just learned inside his head.
Yet an unavoidable stray thought kept surfacing.
Considering the near-infinite vastness of the universe, the existence of countless other worlds was only natural. Even so, the fact that a world so eerily similar to Earth’s genre fiction existed was nothing short of astonishing. It almost felt as if the very existence of these worlds had influenced humanity’s collective unconscious through some cosmic, incomprehensible mechanism.
‘Wait a second…’
A far more plausible hypothesis suddenly occurred to him.
The concept of immortals on Earth had not appeared all that long ago. However, according to the Records of Immortal Paths he had just read, this world’s cultivation civilization had lasted for at least tens of thousands of years—perhaps even hundreds of thousands.
If one were to determine the original source, the odds overwhelmingly favored this world as the origin.
‘What if dimensional collisions and rifts had been occurring faintly since far earlier times?’
The officially recorded first appearance of rifts came after the Second World War, but perhaps undocumented or undiscovered rifts had existed long before that.
In that case, fragments of this world’s culture might have flowed into ancient China through those rifts, influencing Taoism and eventually giving birth to the concept of immortals on Earth as well.
There was no way to prove it, but the more he thought about it, the more thrilling it felt—like uncovering one of the universe’s hidden secrets.
A short while later.
To his immense delight, Han Yujin discovered books containing actual cultivation methods.
They had been heavily weathered by time, of course, but perhaps because of high borrowing demand, more than twenty copies were stored there. Moreover, the books themselves seemed to have been made exceptionally sturdy from the beginning and remained relatively intact.
By comparing and reading all twenty-plus volumes against one another, he would be able to reconstruct the complete content.
The title of the book was Hoe-won Gong, which roughly translated to “returning to the origin.” It sounded somewhat profound, yet it didn’t seem to carry any overwhelmingly grand meaning.
Han Yujin sat down on the nearby floor and immediately began absorbing the book’s contents. He had braced himself for something extremely complex and esoteric, but to his surprise, it was nothing of the sort.
It wasn’t because he was a genius.
‘It’s thanks to my ability to understand any language…’
He could comprehend every sentence with perfect clarity, without the slightest misunderstanding. The same applied when deciphering the beopmun—the mystical patterns that formed the framework of Hoe-won Gong.
Beopmun served a role similar to the runes commonly found in fantasy novels. They possessed mysterious powers in and of themselves, and anyone could tell they had an extraordinary origin.
They were incredibly intricate in form, carried multiple layers of meaning, and some were written in such overlapping strokes that understanding their original shape required commentary texts. They even possessed mutual generation and overcoming relationships.
For beginners first encountering cultivation, deciphering these beopmun was likely the most difficult hurdle.
Yet thanks to his language comprehension ability, Han Yujin could devour it all effortlessly.
‘I’m not a genius, but I might as well be one.’
He had already been excited; now the heat inside him only rose further. He had never realized how intoxicating a clear hope for the future could be.
While he was absorbed in deciphering the book’s contents—
The sudden pang of hunger snapped him back to reality, as if waking from a trance. He had no idea how much time had passed, but the surroundings had not grown any darker.
‘At least several hours must have gone by…’
Thinking that, Han Yujin stepped outside for a moment and looked up at the gloomy, ash-gray sky.
It was then that he realized a very important fact.
There was no food here. No water either. And nowhere to obtain any.
‘I wished for a world where humanity had gone extinct so there would be zero danger, but now I’m the one who’s going to die of thirst in a few days!’
As expected, gaining one thing meant losing another. The saying that nothing in the world was purely good came to mind.
After pondering for a moment, he returned to the library pavilion and picked up two of the better-preserved copies of Hoe-won Gong. Then he stepped outside again and resumed his exploration.
No matter how slim the chances seemed, he refused to simply lie down and die.
It wasn’t just that he didn’t want to. It would also be a waste of time. If he could find something like mushrooms to eat, the amount of time he could stay here would increase dramatically.
He conducted his exploration on a large scale, mentally sketching a rough map as he went. Even though he passed by many locations with only a glance, the ruins of the Ohaeng Sect showed no sign of ending; they were impossibly vast.
Just as exhaustion began to set in and he felt like sitting down, Han Yujin’s eyes landed on a large building labeled “Yeondanjeon.” Although some corners had collapsed, the heavy use of stone meant the structure remained largely intact.
‘Perhaps…’
It might contain the byeokgokdan that frequently appeared in murim novels—the kind of pill that could keep a person from feeling hungry for an entire day after eating just one.
Carrying that faint hope, he entered. Surprisingly, there was no particular smell. It was probably because, unlike the library, the doors had not been sealed.
The interior layout was not overly complicated, and its purpose was easy to guess. He quickly located the area where medicinal ingredients were stored and began opening one jade container after another to check their contents.
One section seemed to hold unprocessed herbs, while the other stored processed, rounded medicinal pills.
The problem was that almost none of the contents remained intact.
The processed pills had at least kept some of their shape, but whether their medicinal effects remained was unknown, and he could hardly test them by consuming one.
Moving to a different area that stored books rather than herbs, he managed to obtain a few volumes in decent condition and quickly skimmed through them.
‘Spirit pills…’
There were books explaining the true nature of the medicinal pills, as well as ledger-like records detailing which pills were made for what purposes and where they were stored.
Thanks to them, Han Yujin learned one fact he had not known before.
The area of the Ohaeng Sect ruins he had been exploring so far was merely the outer court. The inner court, where the sect’s core members had resided, existed separately further up the mountain.
‘I haven’t even explored half of the outer court, yet it’s larger than the inner court…?’
He would not know until he went there himself.
After finishing his exploration of the alchemy hall, he confirmed once again that there was nothing to eat or drink, picked up one additional book, and stepped back outside.
It was time to make a choice.
Should he continue exploring the rest of the outer court, or head straight for the inner court to save even a little time?
There might be a spring somewhere in this outer court. But if such a thing existed here, it would surely exist in the far more important inner court as well.
Even if he gained something from further exploration, the rewards in the inner court would undoubtedly be far greater.
‘Let’s go.’
Having made up his mind, he headed in the direction he had roughly guessed earlier. During his previous exploration he had spotted a path leading up the mountain but had passed it by, not knowing where it led.
He walked at a pace that was neither hurried nor leisurely. Perhaps because he now fully realized he could neither eat nor drink, thirst was beginning to creep in, yet he did not fall into panic.
‘Even if I die, it’s fine.’
The terrible failure he had experienced in the demon-worshipping world of Icapa Pangea felt like it had accumulated inside him as a kind of inner strength.
‘It’s not that easy to die so horribly.’
Even if the death was similarly gruesome, the feeling would be completely different from being helplessly toyed with without any knowledge versus facing it with full awareness and preparation.
In truth, Han Yujin believed that even if he reached the inner court, survival would be nearly impossible.
That was why he had already mentally prepared himself to die of thirst.
‘I’ll simply wake up in reality again.’
While thinking that, he found the path leading upward and began climbing the mountain.
This ascent was no easier than the last. The hunger and thirst made it especially difficult. Whenever he rested, he had no choice but to read the copies of Hoe-won Gong he had brought with him.
By the time he had read Hoe-won Gong from beginning to end—
Han Yujin looked at the ruins that appeared before him, which he presumed to be the inner court of the Ohaeng Sect, and smiled. The arduous climb had not been in vain.
This was clearly a far more important area. Traces remained everywhere that allowed him to imagine how splendid and majestic this place must once have been.
‘I wonder where the library pavilion is…’
Since he had obtained Hoe-won Gong in the outer court, he would surely be able to acquire even higher-level cultivation arts here. Even if not cultivation methods, he might obtain useful spell techniques or secret arts.
At the very least, books containing various stories of this world would be welcome. The more common knowledge he had about cultivation, the better.
Once again, he planned to explore thoroughly and first grasp the overall layout. However, not long after he began circling the area, he discovered an unusual terrain.
It resembled a gorge. Both cliff faces had caves bored into them at regular intervals, and neat staircases led up to each one.
‘Cave dwellings?’
They were the cave-type training residences for cultivators that frequently appeared in xianxia novels. The Records of Immortal Paths he had read earlier had also mentioned them.
If these were the cave dwellings of the inner court, they must have belonged to important figures. It seemed likely he would obtain something valuable.
Carrying both interest and anticipation, Han Yujin began exploring the nearest cave first.
The first cave he carefully climbed the stairs to explore yielded nothing. To be precise, the interior was pitch black, making proper exploration beyond the area near the entrance almost impossible.
“……”
After some thought, he decided to abandon his greed and only explore the areas near the entrances of each cave. He had no desire to stumble around blindly and injure himself.
After investigating several caves this way—
He finally discovered something unusual at the entrance of one particular cave.
‘A skeleton…’
It was clearly human, yet despite the immense passage of time, it was a special skeleton that remained pure white and lustrous like white jade. Even though thick dust had settled upon it, its color was not obscured.
He could not tell whether it was an artistic sculpture or a real person’s remains.
Of course, given the background situation and the various personal belongings scattered nearby, it could not possibly be a sculpture.
‘Even a cultivator’s bones become special.’
Han Yujin carefully examined the skeleton and the belongings left beside it.
There was a pouch made of dark gray leather, an oriental-style longsword that had not rusted but whose color had grown extremely dull, and finally a jade-green gourd bottle that must once have shone with a brilliant luster.