WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 169: If I Hear the Dao in the Morning, I Can Die by Evening (9)
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Yeon Sowol looked upon the universe within himself.
Deep and distant, like a universe shrouded in gas and dust. Powers and concepts that had yet to take shape flowed, gathered, then flowed again, one after another.
‘It’s almost complete.’
The unique qi one gained upon reaching the peak realm.
Yeon Sowol’s qi was neither wind, water, nor fire. Nor was it something like heaven or brightness.
Yet it was all of those things.
The universe.
The distant qi he had pursued ever since taking the Profound Enlightenment Elixir in Hengyang had already taken on a form.
‘If this were a computer, I’ve got the hardware.’
He had all the parts, CPU, GPU, memory, and had more or less put them together.
‘All that’s left is the software.’
He only needed to install an operating system and various programs, then make it actually run.
‘When that time comes.’
Shiver.
Goosebumps rose on his skin.
When that time came...
‘It’ll shine.’
Within that universe, still dark and formless.
Countless stars would be born as though exploding.
Colors of every kind, colors the eye could not see, even colors that had never existed, would race without end. They would whirl. They would spin round and round, linking together in dizzying vastness.
When that time came...
He would be able to contain every harmony in the world.
He would hold heaven, earth, wind, and mountains within a single sword stroke.
Things far greater than those.
Things nobody had yet seen.
He would be able to depict them all.
“But it won’t be easy.”
Terrible hardships would follow.
Even now, his qi was too vast and too deep.
It was even intricately interconnected.
And Yeon Sowol himself would have to seize and wield it.
‘It’s already this difficult before it’s even complete...’
What would happen once it was complete?
The difficulty of gripping and wielding something dead was entirely different from gripping and wielding something alive and struggling.
One could freely swing a heavy sword, but not a living salmon.
Moreover, Yeon Sowol’s qi had overwhelmed the qi of countless peak-realm masters even when it had been far weaker than it was now.
Once it was complete and began to move as a living thing, the path to controlling it would surely be covered in unimaginable hardship.
But why fear it now?
Fortunately, he had grasped the meaning of Clear Heart.
‘Clearer. Greater.’
Yet clarity alone was not enough. His heart needed to become greater.
Great enough to contain the universe.
With such a great and clear heart, he would embrace and guide the universe, like a conductor.
Stars born at his call.
Galaxies flowing at a gesture.
A realm of true freedom, where he could do anything he wished.
Only one step remained.
‘Then what is the universe?’
What was it?
What did it need to become?
If he found a single answer.
If he could sink that answer into Clear Heart...
The more he imagined it, the more naturally a smile came to him.
Yeon Sowol suddenly opened his eyes.
“...”
“...”
Whoooosh.
Cold air passed through the bamboo grove.
Wudang’s Sect Leader and elders stood among the stalks, watching Yeon Sowol with strangely blank expressions.
* * *
Wudang’s sixty-eighth patriarch.
Chungdam True Man.
A patriarch referred to a founding patriarch.
A founding patriarch could mean either the founder of a sect or a disciple who inherited the founder’s robe-and-bowl transmission. The latter became part of the orthodox lineage.
When that orthodox disciple passed on the robe-and-bowl transmission in turn, they too became a patriarch.
The sect’s founder was the first patriarch.
The disciple who inherited their transmission was the second patriarch.
The one below them was the third patriarch.
While ordinary people built family registers through bloodlines, cultivators carried on their Dao lineage through this succession of teachings.
To call Chungdam Wudang’s sixty-eighth patriarch meant Chungdam was the sixty-eighth master in the orthodox Dao lineage stretching back to Wudang’s founding patriarch, Zhang Sanfeng.
Chungdam was the Martial Uncle of Hwagokja, Wudang’s current Sect Leader.
“When my master, the sixty-seventh patriarch, reached their final years, they said Martial Uncle Chungdam’s Dao had surpassed their own and passed the lineage to Martial Uncle. That is why I am currently Wudang’s Sect Leader, yet Martial Uncle Chungdam is Wudang’s greatest master. I too treat Martial Uncle as a master and seek their teachings.”
After hearing this, Yeon Sowol blinked.
Pardon? That person said they would teach me?
Only after swallowing several times, utterly speechless, could he finally speak.
“I am... fortunate.”
“Perhaps.”
Hwagokja smiled somewhat bitterly.
“Martial Uncle’s teachings are harsh. The greater one’s talent, the harsher they become. Even that will seem insufficient in Martial Uncle’s eyes. That is why Martial Uncle has never taken a direct disciple. They say that taking in disciples who cannot keep up only becomes suffering for both sides. In truth, even I suffer at times. Even at my age. Even the occasional teachings I seek from Martial Uncle are... painful.”
Yeon Sowol’s eyes widened.
Painful enough to trouble Wudang’s Sect Leader...?
When Yeon Sowol’s expression froze, Hwagokja gently reassured him.
“Still, you will be fine. You have grown straight and true. One truly suffers when one is walking the wrong path. There were only one or two times when I strayed the slightest bit, but Martial Uncle then... Heh. I nearly gave up on the Dao.”
Wudang’s Sect Leader had nearly given up on the Dao?
“Anyway, congratulations, Dao friend. Martial Uncle Chungdam has said they will teach you personally. You will be able to learn Wudang’s deepest teachings.”
No...
It was good, but not entirely good. Yeon Sowol’s feelings were complicated, and it felt as though his insides were drying up.
“Anyway, thanks to you, I have a headache now. The question of seniority has become terribly complicated.”
“If you mean seniority... Ah. Because I will become a disciple under Chungdam True Man.”
“Indeed, Dao friend. Though you will be neither a direct disciple nor an inner disciple, but a lay disciple, you will still become a disciple of the sixty-eighth patriarch. And since Martial Uncle has no direct disciples, you will effectively become Martial Uncle’s only disciple.”
“Ah.”
Strictly speaking, he would still only be a lay disciple.
Being the sole disciple did not mean inheriting the robe-and-bowl transmission.
As he was not an inner disciple, there was no need to concern themselves with seniority.
But people’s hearts did not follow principles so rigidly.
The sole disciple of Chungdam True Man, Wudang’s greatest master at present and its sixty-eighth patriarch.
Who would dare ignore that?
Then should they grant him the respect due to that seniority?
To a lay disciple?
That would mean honoring him as being of the same generation as the Sect Leader and elders... It made no sense.
Yet neither could they readily say that they should not.
He was a lay disciple, so let us follow the rules!
Let us simply disregard him! Lay disciples do not receive treatment according to seniority anyway!
Could they really say that? Even if it were right, could they dare... could they truly do so?
That was why Hwagokja and the elders could not help but worry deeply.
“Anyway, that is why we have been thinking hard about how Wudang should treat you from now on, Dao friend. So...”
Hwagokja suddenly smiled warmly.
“Would you tell us about how you have lived until now? If we know what sort of person you are, it may help us decide how we should treat you.”
Yeon Sowol straightened his posture.
He took a deep breath and settled his nerves.
‘Truthfully. I must tell them truthfully, without even an inch of lies or exaggeration.’
In fact, the atmosphere in the room itself was quite comfortable.
Though Wudang’s Sect Leader and all its elders had gathered, their qi was gentle and mild.
He could not sense any qi at all from Hwagokja, the First Elder, the Second Elder, and the Sixth Elder.
That meant he had no reason to feel tense under the pressure of masters.
And so Yeon Sowol became even more tense.
‘Four people whose presence I can’t sense at all. That means there are four transcendent peak-realm masters here...’
Simply realizing it sent cold sweat streaming down his back.
Four transcendent peak-realm masters.
How could that make sense?
Wudang was not called the foremost sect in the martial world for nothing.
There was no way transcendent peak-realm masters would fail to recognize lies and exaggerations hidden in someone’s words.
Though his back became soaked with sweat from nerves, Yeon Sowol sat upright and, humbly yet clearly, told them his story.
‘...First, leave out the tale about the woodcutter in Annam.’
He omitted the story he had told Yi Yubaek.
It was a lie, after all.
Instead, he began directly with the tale of serving Yi Yubaek as his master and beginning his martial arts training.
“Good heavens. You only entered the martial arts when you were nearly twenty years of age?”
“Indeed. Your adoptive father taught you properly. It was a dangerous path, but without doing so, he could not have opened a path for someone who began at your age.”
“Even so, to endure that... Well, this Great Hero must have seen that you were someone who could endure it, or he would not have given such teachings.”
They were somewhat surprised to hear the age at which Yeon Sowol had entered the martial arts, but as they listened to the training that followed, they merely nodded.
“So that is how you eradicated the bandits of Heavenly Road Mountain. A truly admirable deed.”
“You punished Daoists who used dark arts. You have done something truly great.”
“Water raiders at Dongting Lake. Was that not an excellent chivalrous venture?”
“You are a rising young talent. The finest even among rising young talents.”
“I paid no attention to the affairs of the Jianghu, so I did not even know such things had happened.”
“I heard of it through rumor. Yet hearing it from the person involved gives it a different flavor. It is truly precious.”
As his story continued, all of them wore pleased expressions and regarded Yeon Sowol fondly.
The mood changed when he spoke of the Flood Dragon.
“A Flood Dragon?”
“You saw a Flood Dragon?”
Clatter!
The elders shifted as if they might rise from their seats.
Even Hwagokja’s eyes widened as he leaned forward.
“Is what you just said true?”
“Yes, Sect Leader. I also possess the fragment of the wish-granting pearl I mentioned earlier.”
Yeon Sowol searched through his luggage and took out a fist-sized fragment of the wish-granting pearl.
“Mm!”
“Good heavens... It truly is...”
“Demonic qi so intense it makes one’s legs tremble...”
Wudang’s Sect Leader and elders examined and touched it, swallowing low groans.
“You encountered a Flood Dragon that forged such a wish-granting pearl and survived? You even destroyed that pearl?”
The way they looked at Yeon Sowol changed completely.
Even Hwagokja, the Sect Leader, now regarded Yeon Sowol as though he were something incomprehensible.
“Is this why Martial Uncle said they would take him...”
Hwagokja let out a quiet sigh.
Yeon Sowol sat in embarrassed silence, then suddenly remembered a question.
“There is something I would like to ask.”
“Please, go ahead.”
“Do ordinary people not regard dragons as sacred beings? Yet the Flood Dragon I saw, just before its ascension, was an utterly wicked fiendish demon. Does something like that become sacred after ascending?”
“How could it?”
Hwagokja firmly shook his head.
“There are sacred dragons. Ordinary people merely praise and revere those. But dragons are, by nature, far more often wicked and savage.”
“Is that... so?”
“Of course. Dao and demon differ by only the slightest margin. If one’s direction shifts even a little while walking the Dao, one falls into demonhood.”
There were few who walked the Dao, and many demons.
What could become the most sacred could also become the most savage.
Hwagokja murmured softly.
“Celestial Worthy of Great Yin Transformation...”
“Celestial Worthy of Great Yin Transformation...”
The elders recited a Daoist invocation in somber voices.
“Anyway, I understand now. You must be tired after today, so return and rest. You will receive word soon.”
“Yes. Understood.”
“And this wish-granting pearl fragment is a ghostly artifact steeped in human resentment. Ordinarily, we should take it and lay it to rest... but for now, keep it with you. Martial Uncle will consider the matter.”
“Yes. Thank you, Sect Leader.”
Yeon Sowol received the pearl fragment back and carefully took his leave.
Hwagokja gazed quietly at the vacant spot, then smiled and murmured,
“Will we be getting a youngest brother...?”
* * *
Chungdam True Man stood quietly among the Daoists.
The Daoists avoided Chungdam True Man without feeling inconvenienced by it. Rather, as they lifted their heads to clear the way, they would suddenly recall something important with an “Ah!” and hurriedly turn elsewhere.
“Whew... This time, it has to work... It can’t break again... This is the last one...”
When first-generation disciple Hyeonso approached with an anxious expression, Chungdam True Man spoke gently.
“It is all right. We meant to break it from the beginning. I assigned you this task in order to break it.”
“But, Patriarch, if the purpose is to break it, is there any need to make it?”
“You fool. Doing nothing is simply nothing. It is neither the Supreme Ultimate nor Nonaction. It is merely futile.”
“Then what must we do?”
“When you learn how to make something in order to break it, you will understand.”
“This disciple is dull and does not yet understand.”
Hyeonso muttered as he walked past Chungdam True Man.
Chungdam True Man merely clicked their tongue and paid him no mind.
Hyeonso did not pay it any mind either. In the first place, he had not recognized that conversation at all. He had merely exchanged words unconsciously. He was not even aware that he had spoken.
Chungdam True Man stood quietly once more.
Then Hwagokja approached from behind.
“Martial Uncle, you are here.”
“You have come.”
Chungdam True Man turned around with a mischievous expression.
“Did you suffer a little in your heart? Because I suddenly barged in?”
Hwagokja sighed.
“You know that, and yet...”
“I am sorry. But I had no choice.”
Hwagokja nodded as he looked at Chungdam, who spoke so playfully.
“Well, Yeon Sowol has that much capacity. I understand completely. His talent is enough for even you, Martial Uncle, who have never taken a disciple, to offer your teachings.”
“Hm?”
Chungdam True Man tilted their head.
“Talent? Well... His talent is indeed outstanding. Talent so rare, even a hundred years would not suffice to measure it. But Hwagok, that is not why I intend to take him.”
“What? It was not?”
“No.”
“Then...”
“In truth, it is closer to the opposite.”
Chungdam clasped their hands behind their back and turned their gaze.
They watched quietly toward where Yeon Sowol would be in the distance.
“It is fortunate that he came to Wudang.”
“I think so too...”
“The world nearly became drenched in blood.”
...?!
Hwagokja was startled.
Chungdam True Man’s eyes had turned cold and still.
“If he had reached the peak realm in that state, he would certainly have fallen into demonhood. Dao reaches demonhood if it strays by only a hair’s breadth. It is dangerous. Even if I look after him, I do not know whether I can set him right. If I fail, I will end his life with my own hands. That is why I must take him.”
“How could that be...? To my eyes, he seemed boundlessly great and clear...”
To the shocked Hwagokja, Chungdam True Man said,
“You saw correctly. He is great. He is clear. Too great, even for greatness. Too clear, even for clarity. That boy has forged an absurdly enormous vessel.”
“Ah.”
Hwagokja flinched and turned his gaze.
What caught their eye was a mountain of shards.
A towering pile of fragments from huge jars that had cracked apart during firing.
The larger they were, the harder they were to complete...
Sorrow entered Hwagokja’s eyes.
“Then... how do you intend to teach him?”
“Not teach.”
Chungdam’s eyes also turned toward the mountain of shards.
They were utterly impassive.
“I must break him.”
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