WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 54: When Water Is Too Clear, There Are No Fish (2)

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Thud!

When the massive boulder sealed the entrance, the cave became so completely dark that he could not see a thing.

'Your attainment is no longer insignificant, so you cannot undergo closed-door seclusion just anywhere. If necessary, you might smash your way out. That is why I prepared the cave I used for seclusion. Once you advance, you should be able to break out yourself.'

Recalling Yi Yubaek's words, Yeon Sowol slowly looked around.

Not that looking helped. He could not see anything.

He could only recall the vague sight he had caught before the entrance was blocked.

'There were fasting pills and jerky piled up over there. A change of clothes over there too. Hmm... The sound of water is the spring, so I should use that to keep my bearings. He dug a latrine with running water some distance from the spring...'

As he went over the inside of the cave in his mind, Yeon Sowol grew a little depressed.

How long would he have to spend in a place where he could not see a step ahead?

No matter how often he did it, he did not think he would ever get used to closed-door seclusion.

Yi Yubaek's voice kept replaying in his ears.

'Still, Sowol. It will not take as long as before this time. You only need to absorb and completely digest the medicine. At most, it should take a month. And honestly, it will be fun until you absorb the Human-Shaped Ginseng. I cannot say the same about the Greater Rejuvenation Pill.'

Really? Closed-door seclusion could be fun? He was already getting depressed sitting in this darkness...

'The darkness cannot be helped. This time, the danger of a heart demon is greater than the danger of Cultivation Deviation. Always remain aware that your surroundings are completely dark and you cannot see anything. Then you will know that anything you see is a lie.'

I understand what he means. But it's so dark I can't even see my own hands. I feel like I'll develop a heart demon already...

Grumbling to himself, Yeon Sowol plopped down on the floor.

He searched inside his robes, took out the incense he had received beforehand, and lit it with a fire striker.

A single red dot floated in the darkness. There was nothing special about the incense, only a faint scent like mugwort.

This incense was not meant for its fragrance, but to estimate the passage of time.

One stick took four hours to burn out. Excluding the time he slept, burning roughly four sticks meant a day had passed.

Yeon Sowol stared at the faint red dot that did not illuminate even a sliver of his surroundings, then shook his head.

"Whew. Shall I begin? There is no reason to drag this out."

He set a wooden box the size of half his forearm in front of him.

The wooden box containing the Human-Shaped Ginseng.

Click.

He opened the box.

"Ugh?"

Yeon Sowol flinched.

"Was that... my imagination?"

He remembered it having a strong forest scent, sharp and earthy, with a smell like a baby's milk beneath it.

Maybe it was mixing with the cave's odor, but that scent somehow seemed fishy now.

Yeon Sowol ran his fingertips over the Human-Shaped Ginseng.

Its pale flesh, outstretched limbs, even its fine roots.

It was the same Human-Shaped Ginseng he had seen before.

Yet perhaps it was only his imagination.

"...It's trembling."

The Human-Shaped Ginseng seemed to be trembling ever so slightly. He could not be sure.

Was the darkness making him scared and softhearted? Before he realized it, Yeon Sowol had lifted the Human-Shaped Ginseng with both hands and apologized.

"I'm sorry. But I'll eat you as painlessly as possible. I won't chew."

Was this his imagination too? The Human-Shaped Ginseng seemed to tremble less. The fishy feeling lingering in his nose had faded as well.

It was dark, so he could see nothing and be certain of nothing. Still, Yeon Sowol somehow felt he had done the right thing.

"I'm going to swallow you."

He carefully brought the Human-Shaped Ginseng to his mouth.

Opening his mouth as wide as he could, he swallowed it headfirst without chewing.

Yi Yubaek's teachings echoed in his mind.

'Once you consume the Human-Shaped Ginseng, you will enter the first-rate realm. But depending on how you absorb it and deepen your enlightenment, even those in the same first-rate realm can differ in potential.'

Yi Yubaek had said,

'If you properly awaken your qi, you will first feel the harmony of heat, pressure, and weight.'

'Next, you will feel the harmony of sound, color, and fragrance.'

'If you deepen your enlightenment beyond that, you will see something immense.'

'Some see a great tree or a great beast. I saw a great mountain. They say those who see that advance faster and farther than others.'

'Among them, those who see something especially immense gain a deeper enlightenment. When I told my master that I had seen a great mountain, he rejoiced and said I would one day reach the peak realm.'

Gulp.

The entire Human-Shaped Ginseng, down to a single fine root, passed down his throat. It slid down smoothly, far more easily than he had expected.

"Haaah... Huuup."

Yeon Sowol slowly began the breathing and movements of the Willow Serenity Art.

As he did, he suddenly remembered his last period of closed-door training. It had not been as dark then, but...

'That was really hard. I barely slept at all for seven days and nights.'

Compared to that, perhaps this seclusion really would be easier.

At least he could sleep as much as he wanted this time.

"But what's this? I swallowed the Human-Shaped Ginseng, but I don't feel anything. I'm just a little tired and hot...?"

Yeon Sowol abruptly fell silent.

"...What?"

It was dark.

No matter which way he turned his head, there was not a shred of light.

It had always been dark, of course.

"Where did the incense go? The one I just lit."

The incense that had been burning with a single red dot only moments ago was gone.

Yeon Sowol groped around the floor.

"..."

Warm incense ash crumbled beneath his fingertips.

"...It burned out?"

He had been told each stick lasted four hours.

"Four hours passed?"

He was thirsty. Cold. His skin felt rough.

Yeon Sowol slowly touched his body.

It was blazing hot. He was drenched in sweat.

Yes. Just as if he had desperately practiced his art for four hours straight.

But Yeon Sowol had no memory of practicing for four hours. He only remembered just beginning.

"What is going on...?"

You said it would be fun! You said it would be fun!

Cursing Yi Yubaek in his heart, Yeon Sowol wiped the sweat running down his forehead.

Now that he noticed, his body was truly burning hot.

It wasn't just his body heat. The flames coursing through his body were hotter than they had ever been.

Spiritual elixirs were fire.

The fire contained within the spiritual elixir called Human-Shaped Ginseng was moderately hot, immensely large and clear, and gentle by nature, easily guided and gathered.

As a result, circulating his qi was not difficult at all. Every time he did so, it added more heat to his body.

Hotter than anything he had ever experienced.

That was why Yeon Sowol broke into a cold sweat again.

'No. The flames became this hot, and I circulated my qi without any awareness?'

Fortunately, when he checked, it seemed he had circulated his qi properly without issue. But there was no way that could put his mind at ease.

It would be terribly unfair to make a mistake or have an accident while unconscious, melt away, and die.

"Why did this happen... Ah."

After asking himself, Yeon Sowol found the answer.

"My qi is too hot right now."

During his last closed-door seclusion, he had been tormented by all manner of hallucinations just because warmth had suddenly entered his cold body.

Because it had been heated so suddenly, a disharmony had arisen in his spirit, the part of him tied to his mind and soul.

But now, his once-warm body was becoming hot.

It was only natural for his spirit to be startled as much as before, perhaps even more.

'Even so, how could my consciousness simply disappear...?'

How could anyone call this fun?

Thinking about the Jianghu people he could not possibly understand, Yeon Sowol steadied himself again.

"Whew... I still have to continue. Come on. This time, stay sharp."

He slapped his cheeks hard enough to nearly squeeze them, then took out another stick of incense and lit it.

For an instant, the surrounding scenery appeared before vanishing again.

"Hoooh..."

He settled his breathing and began the Willow Serenity Art. Slowly, he put his heart into every movement and watched everything carefully so he would not lose consciousness.

'He said I should first kindle the True Flame.'

Postnatal essence qi constantly formed inside the human body. It formed in the shapes of the 108 Malefic Stars.

The key to kindling the True Flame was heating that essence qi until it scattered like sparks.

Whoosh!

The world was completely dark.

Yet invisible flames filled Yeon Sowol's body.

Through the Twelve Regular Meridians, the Twelve Divergent Meridians, the Fifteen Collaterals, and even the netlike collateral vessels, Yeon Sowol diligently ran the fire through every place his stage of maturity could reach, heating the postnatal qi throughout his body.

Fwoosh! Whoosh!

Then at last,

Fwoooooosh!

The postnatal energy gathered throughout his body melted into the Twenty-Two Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, rising like sparks.

'It worked! This is the beginning! Faster than I thought...!'

Just as Yeon Sowol thought that, he glanced to the side and fell silent once more.

The incense had gone out again.

Another four hours had passed like a streak of light.

'What on earth...?'

His senses were gradually growing strange.

His sense of time was not the only thing affected. All five senses seemed to be melting into something soft and soggy.

Though he had eaten nothing, his mouth became impossibly sweet, then suddenly so astringent that his whole face twisted.

'You said it would be fun! You said it would be fun!'

Yeon Sowol wiped his sweat-soaked eyes and screamed only in his heart.

His hand trembling, he lit another stick of incense.

Still, the ash from the burned incense was warm, so the time that had passed could not have exceeded nine hours.

'Whew. Stay focused and keep going. Today's goal is to kindle even the tiniest True Flame.'

Whoosh!

Following Yeon Sowol's breathing and movements, the flames inside his body grew hotter and hotter.

Under the heat and pressure, the turbid qi in his body also flared up. Smoke endlessly billowed from Yeon Sowol's mouth.

The residue that had not burned away was forced out through his skin by the heat and pressure. The sweat streaming down him gradually became sticky and black.

But Yeon Sowol did not notice.

His consciousness had vanished again.

Despite his worries, though, his cultivation continued without the slightest obstruction.

Yeon Sowol had practiced martial arts for barely more than a year.

But he had carved those martial arts into his instincts while surviving countless brushes with death.

A short time did not mean shallow depth.

Even unconscious, Yeon Sowol continued circulating his qi without the slightest wavering. No, he did so more perfectly than ever.

Whoosh! Fwoosh!

The essence qi that rose like sparks filled every part of his meridians with greater heat.

As the innate flames whirled through those meridians, they grew ever hotter and more purely compressed...

Until at the end,

Fwoosh!

A True Flame bloomed.

Yeon Sowol still had not regained consciousness.

Even so, he continued circulating his qi as Yi Yubaek had taught him.

He drove the tiny True Flame onward and gathered it in the dantian network surrounding the dantian, where the Eight Extraordinary Vessels began.

The dantian was where the Conception Vessel, Governing Vessel, and Penetrating Vessel, the three largest of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, began.

This was called One Origin, Three Qi. By kindling fire in the dantian network, which enclosed their shared origin like a net, he could heat the Conception Vessel, Governing Vessel, and Penetrating Vessel all at once.

Though he was unconscious, Yeon Sowol executed this unfamiliar circulation perfectly.

His inner cultivation method had already reached the point where it was carved deep into the essence of Yeon Sowol himself. It was a realm where conscious control was no longer essential.

Shimmer, shimmer.

The air around Yeon Sowol's body grew a little hotter.

Not the heat of qi, but an actual change in temperature.

Whooosh-

A faint wind blew.

'If you properly awaken your qi, you will first feel the harmony of heat, pressure, and weight.'

In the darkness, flashes of red, blue, white, and yellow light appeared and vanished. Faint voices seemed almost audible, and a soft scent like grass drifted past.

'Next, you will feel the harmony of sound, color, and fragrance.'

Then,

'Ah.'

Yeon Sowol suddenly came to his senses.

No. He did not.

Was this a hallucination?

'What on earth...?'

He was dumbfounded by the sight that suddenly spread before him.

It was a dark world, but unlike the darkness from before.

'Space...?'

Endless lights shone brilliantly within endless darkness.

Swirling galaxies, clouds of light scattered through the void of space, stars glittering like dots, and faint, specklike planets barely catching that light.

There was no perspective. Great or small, near or distant, everything entered his sight at once in a surreal landscape. The whole world was light, and the whole world was darkness.

He could see the endless connections of colossal superclusters formed by galaxies, and something even greater still...

'Ah.'

Why?

Tears suddenly welled up in Yeon Sowol's eyes.

Transcendence.

Martial arts were a journey toward transcendence.

Never before had he felt the meaning of those words so vividly.

It was different from when he had crossed dimensions.

Different again from when he used the power of the Heaven-Killing Star.

Once more, Yeon Sowol glimpsed the other side of the world.

With nothing more than a human body.

He faced the universe.

'If you deepen your enlightenment beyond that, you will see something immense.'

'Among them, those who see something especially immense gain a deeper enlightenment.'

One year after falling into the martial world.

Yeon Sowol finally entered the first-rate realm.

Footnotes:

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