Dropped into Murim with an Instant-Kill Skill - Chapter 57

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 57: When Water Is Too Clear, There Are No Fish (5)

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"What is this? What the hell is this?"

A man in a pale yellow robe, draped in countless beads and tassels, walked through Shinheung County.

All the while, he grumbled without stopping.

"Me, the Lord of Dark Shadow Pavilion of the Divine Cult! Wasting time in a backwater like this! Does that make any sense at all?"

He strode along, waving his arms and raising his voice, yet nobody looked his way.

It was as though they could not see him. As though they could not hear him.

The people of Shinheung County calmly stepped around him.

As if that were only natural, he continued wandering about and shouting whatever came to mind, like a drunk man.

Then he stopped and wrinkled his nose.

"Sniff, sniff. Damn it."

His brow furrowed again.

"I can't make sense of this at all."

Following the scent of Ten-Thousand-Li Tracking Incense all the way to Shinheung County had gone well enough.

But he had lost the trail here.

"The scent is too muddled..."

Considering how the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's prized Ten-Thousand-Li Tracking Incense was made, this should have been impossible.

It made no sense for the trail to become difficult simply because it was faint or distant. Not unless ten years had passed.

But...

"Does this person live soaked in fragrances beyond anything I imagined...?"

That was another matter if other scents had covered it, altered it, and distorted it.

The target had not been directly anointed with the incense. They had only come into contact with someone carrying its lingering fragrance. In that case, it could easily be masked and changed by other scents.

Ten-Thousand-Li Tracking Incense was still a fragrance, after all.

The man let out several heavy sighs.

"I have no idea. I know they're somewhere around here, but where are you? Hmm? Where the hell are you? Just show yourself right in front of me and... Hmm? I'll be gentle."

Should he give up?

How many times had that thought crossed his mind?

In the end, he shook his head.

"If the Fourth Elder died and I returned empty-handed... Whew. Scary. Very scary."

He ground his teeth, then decided to change his approach.

"No. Instead of searching blindly, should I look for people who might live drenched in incense? Who would fit that description...?"

His gaze shifted beyond the walls of Shinheung County.

"I heard there is a temple called Gukeun Temple by the Jipseong River. Surely not there...?"

The Lord of the great Heavenly Demon Divine Cult struck his fist into his palm. What an inspired deduction!

"Right. Nobody burns more incense than shaved heads. Taoist temples would come next... Good. Let's search them one by one."

Feeling somewhat lighter, he turned around.

His destination was Gukeun Temple.

Then he noticed martial artists from Guangdong moving about in groups.

"Hmm."

A faint snort escaped him.

After gathering information for some time, he had gained a rough understanding of the current state of Shinheung County's martial world.

Heavenly Road Mountain. Yi Yubaek. Hang Inwoo. Seo Muryang...

He snickered and turned away.

"Country martial artists squabbling with country bandits."

* * *

"Time to head out."

Yeon Sowol stood at the entrance to the cave.

A massive boulder blocked the way out.

He placed a hand against it.

Even when he pushed with all his strength, it did not budge.

"But what if I raise true qi?"

Whoosh!

He kindled a fire in his dantian.

Wooooong!

At that heat, the Eight Extraordinary Vessels writhed like dragons.

When the Conception Vessel, Governing Vessel, and Penetrating Vessel were warmed by the dantian's heat and began to move, the Yang Linking Vessel, Yin Linking Vessel, Yang Qiao Vessel, Yin Qiao Vessel, and the Belt Vessel around the waist resonated with them and swelled in turn.

The Conception, Governing, and Penetrating Vessels were the three primary vessels that moved by directly receiving heat from the dantian. The remaining five were somewhat secondary vessels that moved through resonance with those three alone.

Together, they were called the eight separate vessels within the body, the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

When the innate true qi within the Eight Extraordinary Vessels moved vigorously, the acquired qi filling his entire body resonated with it and gave rise to true qi.

True qi.

It was inferior to the strength and transformative workings of innate qi, yet far more transcendent and fundamental than physical force in the real world.

"This is incredible."

Power beyond anything he could have imagined before entering closed-door seclusion wrapped around Yeon Sowol's entire body.

Filled with awe, he pushed the boulder.

He had been certain that even this enormous rock would roll away like a pebble before this strength.

Clang!

In the end, Yeon Sowol failed to move the boulder.

"...Huh?"

He stared at the boulder before him in bewilderment.

Crack!

The spot his palm had touched split open, and fragments came crumbling down.

The whole boulder had not collapsed, only about a quarter of it.

He was dumbfounded.

"...How did I do that?"

He had clearly pushed it with his palm, but the result was a rock split along its grain as though he had driven a chisel into it.

It was impossible to explain with the laws of motion.

Yeon Sowol gathered true qi again and pushed the boulder once more.

Kugugugugung!

"...."

This time, the boulder produced a tremendous vibration, as though it were some kind of instrument.

He had pushed it.

He had definitely pushed it.

Yet it did not move.

It split apart.

It vibrated.

This incomprehensible phenomenon.

"Ah!"

Only then did Yeon Sowol understand.

"So this is what transformative workings are."

If essence was the foundation of strength,

then qi was the foundation of transformative workings.

Transformative workings were a concept more fundamental and broader than strength.

By the action of force alone, it should have been impossible for a palm strike to split a boulder as though a chisel had been driven into it. Yet within qi's transformative workings, it was entirely possible.

The problem was...

"...How did I do that?"

Yeon Sowol still could not properly control that power.

"Whatever!"

In the end, he pushed.

The enormous boulder split apart, stuck to his hand with a smack, crumpled, swelled, and caused every kind of bizarre commotion.

Bang!

At last, the boulder was blasted away.

"Hah!"

Yeon Sowol burst out of the cave.

He drew in a lungful of fresh air.

"It was nighttime..."

A full moon and countless stars shone brilliantly above the dark world.

Blink, blink.

The starlight in the sky repeatedly swelled and faded, as though the whole world were breathing.

"Ah."

For some reason, Yeon Sowol felt his throat tighten.

"So this is the world."

Now that he had truly begun to feel and handle qi, his qi sense had become completely different from before.

Even as a second-rate martial artist, he had possessed qi sense beyond that of many first-rate masters. Yet now that he had actually become first-rate...

"The whole world is filled with qi."

The sky held light, hot qi.

The earth held heavy, cold qi.

The stars had the qi of stars.

The moon had the qi of the moon.

Flowers had the qi of flowers.

Trees had the qi of trees.

Everything looked entirely new.

Simply seeing and feeling it brought understanding.

"Qi came first. Throughout the whole world, qi came first. Matter is only what remains after it became more and more turbid, more and more limited, and contracted into coldness..."

Qi could do everything matter and essence qi could do, but matter and essence qi could never do many of the things qi could.

That was the cosmological hierarchy.

Therefore, the essence of cultivation was refining essence and returning it to qi.

"Nice. I can even see the moon's shadow."

Looking at the shadow cast at his feet by the bright full moon, Yeon Sowol kicked off the ground.

Whoosh!

His body rose into the air.

He literally flew.

"Aaaaaah!"

Yeon Sowol's scream grew faintly distant as he flew away, still unable to make qi's transformative workings his own.

* * *

"Sowol?"

"Ah. Father."

Yeon Sowol had quietly returned to Windflow Martial Academy. He had washed himself once more by the well, put on fresh clothes, and just finished straightening himself up with a new sachet.

Every light in the academy was out.

He had planned to greet Yi Yubaek the next morning, but...

"I couldn't sleep. Perhaps it was because I was meant to see you. Come to the garden. Let's have a drink."

"Yes."

After tidying up, Yeon Sowol hurried toward the garden.

The garden was thick with the incense Yi Yubaek liked.

It carried a faint charcoal scent along with a tart note. It was the sort of incense that kept insects away while deepening the mood of the night.

Yeon Sowol sat to Yi Yubaek's right and looked at the small pond in the garden.

Swoooosh. The bamboo lined up by the wall rustled, while insects chirped somewhere in the darkness.

Yi Yubaek spoke.

"You came out early."

"Did I? Honestly, I completely lost track of time."

"It has been fifteen days now."

"Only that long?"

Yeon Sowol explained how long his beard had become inside, and how long his hair had grown as well.

Yi Yubaek smiled.

"Your body was probably reacting to the Greater Rejuvenation Pill's medicinal effect. It really has only been fifteen days."

"Huh."

"The heart demon must have been difficult. Especially for you."

"I really thought I was going to die this time. It was no joke."

"How did you overcome it?"

"Well, as it turned out..."

Yeon Sowol scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

Still, pride rang in his voice.

"I'm not so easy to beat either."

"Heh heh. You brat."

Yi Yubaek laughed and offered him fruit. Lychees as cold as ice, tangerines, and mangoes that looked somewhat like peaches.

After living on dry jerky and bland fasting pills for so long, they tasted unbelievably sweet and refreshing to Yeon Sowol.

"Sowol, I believe in fate. When it is time for someone to die, they will die no matter what they do. But when it is not their time to die, they will not die no matter what they do."

"...."

Yeon Sowol wanted to argue, but held back.

It was likely a worldview Yi Yubaek had built over his entire life. Arguing would not change anything.

And...

"I knew you would be all right, Sowol."

Yi Yubaek speared a piece of fruit with a pointed wooden skewer and placed it in his hand.

In that gesture, Yeon Sowol finally felt Yi Yubaek's worry and relief.

"Thank you."

He could only offer his thanks comfortably.

"All right. What was the heart demon like?"

"Ah, well..."

Yeon Sowol hesitated for a moment, then altered the story a little.

It was not that he wanted to hide it. Explaining a world called Earth was simply far too difficult.

After hearing the whole story, Yi Yubaek's face twisted strangely.

Even the shadows cast by the lit lanterns seemed to ripple with it.

"So, everything about you crossing the sea, coming here, and meeting me was a dream. In reality, you had been gathering firewood, then were crushed beneath a tree while your parents cared for you through your illness... That was your heart demon?"

"Yes."

"Every time you cultivated the Willow Serenity Art, you heard your parents' voices. They told you to wake up now, to take their hands. Is that right?"

"Yes."

"That was... a heart demon?"

Yeon Sowol saw it.

The tremor in Yi Yubaek's eyes.

Now it was Yeon Sowol's turn to be flustered.

"Uh... Was it not a heart demon?"

"No. It was. It was a heart demon, but... A heart demon that vivid, cunning, and malicious is something even I have only heard of in legends."

Lantern shadows flickered across Yi Yubaek's face.

"Sowol, you nearly died, didn't you?"

"It wasn't easy."

Yi Yubaek gripped Yeon Sowol's shoulder tightly once, then released it.

The weight left behind on his shoulder, along with the charcoal-scented incense, somehow comforted Yeon Sowol.

"What in the world did you see when you became first-rate? What did you see that..."

Yeon Sowol sank into thought again.

It was difficult to explain.

"Well... Hmm."

He quietly looked up at the sky.

The full moon and stars, and the vast universe beyond them.

Yi Yubaek's voice trembled.

"You saw the heavens?"

"Something like that."

The heavens Yi Yubaek imagined and the universe Yeon Sowol had seen were probably very different concepts.

Still, the night sky was a view of the universe, so it was not entirely wrong.

"Hah!"

Yi Yubaek let out a sigh.

"You saw the heavens? The heavens? Not a legend from a story, but can someone truly see such a thing?"

He held out his hand.

"May I examine your body for a moment?"

"Yes, Father."

Having someone take his pulse was still frightening, but Yeon Sowol did not hesitate to offer his arm.

Yi Yubaek took his wrist and gently sent in the kindling of the inner fire.

A moment later, Yi Yubaek opened his eyes, beads of sweat gathering across his face.

"You are at the late first-rate stage."

"Yes. The Greater Rejuvenation Pill was very effective."

Yi Yubaek shook his head.

"No. That is not where the Greater Rejuvenation Pill's true medicinal effect ends."

His voice was trembling.

It tightened in the night air amid the chirping insects.

"I saw the flames within your dantian."

"Yes."

"They were several times hotter than mine."

"What?"

"Even every fine meridian throughout your body has undergone bodily cultivation. If you had cultivated normally, you could have eaten a spiritual elixir like Human-Shaped Ginseng every year for ten full years and still not refined yourself to this extent."

"Then..."

"I taught you this at the beginning. A martial artist makes their own body into an Elixir Furnace."

The elixir was the medicine that turned one into an immortal.

An inner cultivation method was the study of transforming a person's qi into that elixir, the medicine that made one immortal.

"Your body is now nearly complete as that Elixir Furnace. Your flames are incomparably strong, the path to reaching a stage of maturity lies wide open, and every corner of your body has undergone bodily cultivation. You will be able to hold that heat tightly and scarcely lose any of it."

"Are you saying..."

"It is only a matter of time. Even if you do nothing, you will reach the peak realm within three years. If I cultivate myself to death every day, perhaps I will reach the peak realm within five years. And that would be with good fortune."

"Surely not to that extent..."

"Of course it is. The flames you possess are far stronger than mine. It truly is only a matter of time. Even if you simply sit still, all your essence will melt into qi. If you add technique to that, the pace will become even faster."

"...."

"Looking beyond that will also be much easier and faster for you. Your vessel is nearly complete already, so you may skip the long and tedious process of Spirit Cultivation that others must undergo. It will be enough for you to focus only on important realizations."

Goosebumps rose over Yeon Sowol's skin.

'It was that much...?'

Reaching the late first-rate stage.

He had already considered that more than enough reward.

But it was only the visible achievement.

The true achievement was the accelerating growth it would grant him afterward.

"You truly absorbed every last trace of the Greater Rejuvenation Pill's medicinal effect. And you overcame such an absurd heart demon, so I cannot even begin to imagine how much your mind has been refined as well... I no longer know what I am looking at."

Yi Yubaek suddenly held out a jug of liquor.

Yeon Sowol respectfully accepted it and filled Yi Yubaek's cup.

"Wonderful! I am receiving drinks poured by an immortal fallen from the heavens!"

Yi Yubaek laughed heartily and drained the cup in one gulp.

"An, an immortal?"

"I cannot believe it unless I think of you as something close to one."

Yi Yubaek smiled and lifted the jug.

This time, Yeon Sowol held out his cup.

The liquor flowed in, neither too much nor too little, exactly the right amount.

Yi Yubaek spoke casually.

"Sowol."

"Yes."