Dropped into Murim with an Instant-Kill Skill - Chapter 168

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 168: If I Hear the Dao in the Morning, I Can Die by Evening (8)

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“I cannot teach you Nonaction.”

Hwagokja’s answer was absolute.

“Ah.”

Regret flickered in Yeon Sowol’s eyes.

Seeing it, Hwagokja smiled gently.

“It is not that I do not wish to teach you. I mean exactly what I said. I cannot teach it.”

Hwagokja clasped their hands behind their back.

“Dao friend, what do you think Nonaction is?”

“My learning is too shallow for me to know. Judging only by the meaning of the characters, I understand it to mean ‘doing nothing.’”

Yeon Sowol thought of it.

Nonaction and Naturalness.

Zhuangzi.

Laozi.

All were familiar to him from twenty-first-century Korea.

But he did not rashly bring them up.

Teachers might not blame someone for knowing nothing at all, but they tended to rebuke those who knew things incorrectly or only half-understood them.

Perhaps that judgment had been right. Hwagokja smiled and kindly elaborated.

“Correct. Nonaction is not ‘not doing.’ It is ‘being without forced action.’ It is the state in which nothing is done forcibly, yet nothing is left unfulfilled.”

Everything gets done without forcing it?

‘...Does that mean you’re ridiculously experienced?’

They said that if someone made a task look easy, it meant they had spent an absurd amount of time mastering it.

“So would that be an ordinary Dao? Nonaction is what the Supreme Ultimate does. It is the pinnacle of the Dao. Difficult to attain, and difficult to pass on.”

“I see...”

“Indeed. Nonaction can only be taught through Nonaction. Even if you, Dao friend, had the capacity to learn it, how could I teach it when neither I nor my fellow disciples can practice Nonaction ourselves?”

“Ah.”

“To begin with, even if one counted all those in the world capable of teaching such a thing, they would not exceed three. But those people are elders of the previous generation who have already withdrawn from every worldly matter.”

Hwagokja looked warmly at Yeon Sowol.

“So I cannot teach you Nonaction. Still, I can at least pave the path that leads toward it.”

Light returned to Yeon Sowol’s eyes. He straightened his posture, clasped his hands, and bowed deeply.

“Thank you.”

“Hehe.”

Hwagokja chuckled, turned away, and murmured as if speaking to themself.

“Many have come to Wudang to quench their thirst. Each drank a ladleful of water from the well before returning home.”

But you, Dao friend, wish to dig a spring yourself.

“Follow me.”

With an airy laugh, Hwagokja began walking.

* * *

Among the many training grounds at the Hall of Manifest Dao, one was particularly unusual.

In truth, nobody seeing it for the first time would consider it a training ground. They would simply think, There is a bamboo grove here.

“This is...?”

Yeon Sowol looked around.

A forest of bamboo, with the stalks scattered roughly six paces apart.

Silent and still.

“It has been a long time.”

“Yes. It has been a long time, Elder.”

Yeon Sowol offered his greetings, then turned his attention back to the training ground.

Hwagokja, Sect Leader of Wudang, smiled faintly as he spoke.

“This is my training ground.”

“...This place?”

The training ground of Wudang’s Sect Leader was merely a quiet bamboo grove.

Was there some hidden significance to it?

“That is right. Since you have already attained Clear Heart, I simply wish to observe your martial arts here. Do not harm the bamboo. Display your martial arts and qi naturally. I wish to judge what instruction you require at this point.”

“...Yes. I may be lacking, but I will do my best.”

Fwoooosh.

Yeon Sowol slowly let out a deep breath.

At a suitable distance, Wudang’s elders gathered in a cluster, their curiosity evident.

Countless geniuses had climbed Wudang Mountain seeking instruction, but they had never seen someone arrive having already attained Clear Heart.

“Indeed. What kind of martial arts will this child show us...?”

Flutter.

Within a faint heat haze, Yeon Sowol’s robes stirred.

“His qi is exceedingly abundant.”

“Yes, Martial Uncle.”

Flutter, flutter.

Heat shimmered thickly above Yeon Sowol’s shoulders. His veins bulged along his arms, neck, and forehead as he contained the pressure of True Flame.

Within that heat, his body sublimated from matter into essence qi.

Like dull clay reborn as clear, ringing porcelain in the flames of a kiln.

Tempering.

His hands became lighter and more supple. They seized the hilt of Clear Mirror without hesitation.

Wooooong!

Yeon Sowol’s beloved sword let out a deep cry as it left its sheath.

Whoosh!

Before anyone knew it, he was moving through footwork.

His whole body swayed and bent like a willow.

Innate essence and qi stirred through his Eight Extraordinary Vessels. The postnatal qi in his limbs and body resonated with it, and true qi containing boundless harmony arose.

From his fully tempered body, even more true qi surged forth, naturally infused with the qualities of the qi Yeon Sowol had cultivated in his Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

“Huh...?”

“Hoo.”

“Celestial Worthy, Incarnation of the Golden Palace Who Subdues Demons...”

He had not even begun to properly display martial techniques.

He had only just stirred his true qi.

Yet exclamations already escaped the Wudang elders.

“It is vast. What kind of qi can be so vast?”

“Namgung... No. It is different.”

“It contains every kind of qi. Does it embrace not merely heaven, but the entire world?”

“And it is distant and mysterious.”

“Ah, yes, Martial Uncle. Distant and mysterious...”

The elders, each offering a remark, flinched as realization dawned on them. They turned to Hwagokja.

“Come to think of it, earlier, the Sect Leader clearly said...”

Only now did they recall what Hwagokja had said upon first seeing Yeon Sowol.

“Your qi is distant. How could you hold it without Clear Heart?”

They had focused on the words that followed, how truly clear it was, and had not thought deeply about the earlier remark.

But now that they considered it, Hwagokja had been referring to the strange, vast, and distant qi Yeon Sowol carried.

“Hwagokja had already seen this then...”

“Hoo. As expected.”

Hwagokja smiled at their admiration.

“Watch carefully. It is not merely vast and distant. As you said, it is also mysterious.”

The elders narrowed their eyes and summoned their qi senses to the fullest.

Soon, their eyes widened once more.

“This is...”

At that moment, Yeon Sowol’s martial demonstration began in earnest.

Swaying gently through his footwork, he darted between the bamboo.

At its end came sword strikes swept out like the wind.

His internal cultivation art was the Willow Serenity Art.

His lightness skill was Windborne Drift.

His footwork was Willow Leaf Steps.

His swordsmanship was the Windflow Sword Formula.

They were the unique martial arts he had inherited from Yi Yubaek.

Yet they were entirely different from the arts he had first learned from Yi Yubaek, in form, technique, and substance.

Every movement held the assassin’s concealment he had learned from Eun-yeong.

Every circulation of qi carried the delicate control of qi he had witnessed and learned from Noh Huideok.

His sword paths changed and flowed as Won Huiseung’s had.

His sword momentum was as unrestrained as Namgung Ujin’s.

And as persistent as Jin Hyeogo’s spear.

And the sword qi carried at the end of it...

Resembled the universe.

Everything Yeon Sowol had experienced in Yuezhou dissolved into his qi.

He had read dozens of secret manuals recording the insights of countless masters.

He had watched the matches of hundreds of masters and fought them himself.

He had replenished his qi by consuming many elixir pills and spiritual elixirs.

He had faced dark arts and confronted a Flood Dragon, broadening even his understanding of the world.

It was vast.

It contained every kind of qi in the world.

It was deep.

He had cultivated each of them with purity.

It was mysterious.

Those qi were linked together, following one after another in an endless cycle of harmony.

“What in the world is this...?”

Shock appeared on the elders’ faces.

Or perhaps it was exhilaration.

“Excellent.”

Even Hwagokja’s face had reddened slightly.

Whoooosh.

The bamboo grove swayed.

Wood draws water.

Fire draws wood.

Earth draws fire.

Metal draws earth.

Water draws metal.

Round and round, they cycled.

Yeon Sowol’s sword qi harmonized with the entire bamboo grove, gathering greater and greater force.

Yet strangely, not a single hollow stalk of bamboo broke or was cut by the sword qi.

The bamboo simply danced.

It surged wildly. It swayed softly.

It trembled faintly. It did not move at all.

It bent. It staggered.

Snap! It sprang back, then quietly settled.

Sword qi moved through the gaps in the bamboo, dancing alongside it.

Strong, yet gentle.

Chattering, yet solemn.

Seeming to cling, then suddenly withdrawing.

Thump! Striking, then seeping in without a trace.

The universe.

Yeon Sowol’s sword qi contained the universe.

That was why, even when his sword qi brushed against the bamboo, it did not harm the stalks.

Like heaven and earth, however vast and heavy, leaving the living things between them unharmed.

“What... is that?”

One elder, staring blankly in a daze, asked with their mouth hanging open.

“I do not know either.”

How mysterious.

Even Hwagokja’s answer carried a faint warmth.

Fwoooong!

The bamboo grove danced along with Yeon Sowol’s sword.

It was as though winter sunlight mingled with the bamboo shadows, forming a mysterious shape.

“The Supreme Ultimate... Is that the Supreme Ultimate?”

“I do not know.”

“Was he not still... first-rate?”

“That is right. Which is why I do not know. I do not know even now. What will that become once it is complete?”

What would it become?

Indeed. Once that qi was complete and he ascended to the peak realm, what would be born?

The dragon had already been drawn.

All that remained was to paint in its eyes.

Who would add those eyes?

With that single touch, they could witness the birth of a new qi unlike any they had ever seen.

The gazes of the elders upon Yeon Sowol gradually changed.

From admiration,

to desire.

* * *

‘Clear Heart. Clear Heart...!’

Yeon Sowol was exhilarated.

Even something he had owned for a long time could look entirely new when someone explained how precious it truly was.

Yeon Sowol looked anew at his own heart.

‘Clear. Heart.’

A fierce heart capable of casting everything aside.

Yet a steadfast heart that did not change even in failure.

A heart that simply wished, without desiring anything more.

Once he embraced that mindset...

‘This is enjoyable.’

It was quietly enjoyable.

The arduous and difficult task of binding all these countless qi together and wielding them no longer felt like pure hardship.

He did it.

He simply did it.

Without pitying himself for working hard.

Without rebuking himself for what he could not do.

He simply did it.

Like water flowing on its own.

Like dust settling by itself in water.

‘This is... Clear Heart.’

His realization advanced another step.

Forgetting where he was and even what he had been doing, Yeon Sowol swung his sword for a long while before suddenly sitting down where he stood.

A faint smile rested on his lips as he quietly entered meditation.

What was Clear Heart?

How could one grasp the qi of the universe through it?

What should the next realm become?

He sank into thought.

“...”

The Wudang elders stared blankly at Yeon Sowol, then suddenly turned their gazes and unleashed a flurry of voice transmissions.

Wanting not to disturb him, they merely moved their lips as their qi-borne conversation erupted like a swarm of bees.

These were not voice transmissions sent to a single person, but transmissions delivered to several people at once.

A magnificent display of profound qi arts, performed as naturally as breathing.

「I will teach that child, Sect Leader.」

「Wait a moment, Senior Brother! Did you not say earlier that you did not wish to teach him?」

「That was before I saw this. You all saw it, did you not? His qi is immense. Since I have cultivated the Supreme Ultimate Heart Formula, would I not be best suited to guide him toward the peak realm? The greatest qi in the world will be born.」

「Senior Brother, you have only seen one aspect, its size. More important is the purity and depth of his qi. Since I have cultivated the Pure Yang Limitless Art, I should teach him. The purest and loftiest qi will be born.」

「Sect Leader, no. You are all speaking only of the qi’s size and depth. You fail to see that what matters is the harmony of those boundless qi. He must learn the Yin-Yang Divine Art. Leave him to me.」

They argued back and forth.

Then Hwagokja, who had been quietly listening, spoke.

「I said I would pave the path toward Nonaction for him. Would that not make him my responsibility?」

「Wh-What?! Sect Leader! What are you saying? The Sect Leader cannot teach an outsider!」

「That is right! Even if we accept him as a lay disciple, the seniority hierarchy will become strange if he becomes the Sect Leader’s disciple!」

「...」

Hwagokja closed his mouth while the elders argued even more fiercely.

That was when it happened.

“Hoo. You have grown tremendously in such a short time.”

A Daoist priest stood among them. Nobody knew when the Daoist had arrived.

At a glance, they appeared elderly. Yet the longer one looked at them, the more impossible it became to guess their age.

A plain Zhuangzi Cap.