WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 8: Read a Book a Hundred Times and Its Meaning Reveals Itself (7)

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Yi Yubaek spoke.

"Training in an inner cultivation method is truly perilous, especially when great warmth suddenly begins circulating through essence and qi that have long gone cold and stiff, as yours have."

He tapped Yeon Sowol's forehead with a finger.

"It is not only the body that becomes endangered. The mind is also put at risk. When essence and qi stir, the spirit is shaken along with them. You may suddenly believe you have understood everything. Strange thoughts may come to you out of nowhere, and you may mistake them for profound enlightenment and believe in them completely."

Yeon Sowol thought,

'Mania? Delusions of grandeur?'

"You will also hear things that do not exist and see things that do not exist for some time. You may believe something that never happened was real. You will no longer be able to distinguish truth from falsehood."

'Auditory and visual hallucinations. Is this schizophrenia?'

"Therefore, you must enter closed-door seclusion. If you freely wander about and continue interacting with people in your current state, a serious incident may occur."

Closed-door seclusion.

It meant locking oneself inside an entire building and doing nothing but cultivate.

In practice, it was close to isolation. Imprisonment, even.

'Isn't this a bit too much?'

He already had to undergo difficult training where he could not make even the smallest mistake, and now he had to do it locked away alone, without anyone's help.

"......"

Yeon Sowol fell silent, depressed.

Yi Yubaek calmly explained why it had to be done.

"In Jianghu, there have been countless tragic incidents caused by people cultivating without entering closed-door seclusion when they needed it."

A disciple of Shaolin had once mistaken himself for having attained enlightenment while practicing an inner cultivation art.

He had firmly believed that burning away every affliction and karmic sin with fire was the path to true accomplishment.

Rather than put his enlightenment into practice alone, he had wanted all his martial brothers to attain enlightenment alongside him.

That night, a great fire broke out at Shaolin Temple, and thirty warrior monks burned to death.

"......"

Yeon Sowol swallowed hard.

Yi Yubaek continued.

"I have experienced such a thing myself."

About thirty years ago, a master of a renowned sword art settled in Shinheung County. He took in two disciples there.

Yi Yubaek had been the younger of the two. The elder had been someone whose name Yi Yubaek had erased from his memory.

Because that person had stabbed their master to death.

While practicing an inner cultivation art, he had become firmly convinced that his master had insulted his parents.

Of course, nothing of the sort had happened. Yet he had believed it alone, hidden his feelings for fifteen long years while receiving sword instruction, then stabbed his master to death at the decisive moment.

Yi Yubaek had severed the man's limbs and asked why he had done it. Only then did he learn of the heart demon the man had nurtured for fifteen years.

"That is why, when undertaking cultivation that may invite a heart demon, absolutely no one must be allowed near you. The simple fact that nobody was there becomes the standard by which you can tell what is real and what is false. If that person had properly entered closed-door seclusion back then..."

As Yeon Sowol listened, a chill ran down his spine.

'Why is this world like this...?'

Yi Yubaek went on.

"Because closed-door seclusion is undertaken alone, you must always devote your entire heart to it. If your heart is not wholly devoted, you will be unable to perceive your own condition. And if you cannot perceive your condition, you will suffer Cultivation Deviation."

Cultivation Deviation meant the fire in one's cultivation running astray and leading to disaster.

"A person is made from the harmony of essence, qi, and spirit. Stoking a fire within essence, qi, and spirit must always be done in a way that does not break that harmony."

Long ago, there had been a Daoist.

He had wanted to heat his essence to the extreme and make his body supple.

But he had regulated the fire too fiercely, thinking only of heating his essence until it burned hot. He never considered preserving the harmony that essence had formed.

He simply touched his increasingly soft body and felt satisfied, believing he was becoming more flexible and younger.

Then one day, his disciples were shocked.

They had come to pay their morning respects and found their master with his bones and flesh completely melted, flowing across the floor.

Wrapped in his clothes and spread across the ground, the master had not died even in that state. He moved his mouth and spoke.

"Put me in a mold. Put me..."

Screaming, his disciples had fled without looking back.

"......"

Yi Yubaek also told him of a fist master who had neglected his breathing method until his essence and qi rotted, causing his decayed organs to spill from his abdomen, and of a strongman who failed to spread the heat from kindling the inner fire evenly, let it pile up in random places, and burned to death in a heap of ash.

"......"

"So, Sowol. Once you enter closed-door seclusion, you must practice the Willow Serenity Art with your whole heart."

"......How can I cultivate with my whole heart?"

"I will give you this meridian chart."

Yi Yubaek held out an illustration of the body's Twelve Regular Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

It was simply a picture covered in lines running through various parts of the body and the names of acupoints. There was no explanation at all.

"Study the Willow Serenity Art while looking at this. If you devote your heart to it, that alone will allow you to understand how the Twelve Regular Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Vessels function."

Yeon Sowol felt his mind go blank.

"Academy Master, this is my first time seeing this diagram."

"Yes. But you learned the Willow Serenity Art, did you not?"

"I only learned the breathing method and the movements. Academy Master, it would greatly help me if you could give me even a little instruction about this diagram."

"Sowol. Read a book a hundred times, and its meaning reveals itself. The Willow Serenity Art contains the principles of the Twelve Regular Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Vessels, so if you repeat it with all your heart, you will naturally come to understand."

"......"

"You must not break your closed-door seclusion until you understand."

"......Yes, Academy Master."

Yeon Sowol did not argue further.

'There is no point arguing with someone who casually teaches dangerous training that could kill or cripple me.'

Seeing Yeon Sowol give up, Yi Yubaek smiled faintly.

"That attitude of not asking over and over again. It is truly good. You will do well."

"Thank you."

Yeon Sowol simply lowered his head. If he had to do it anyway, he thought it was better to at least make himself liked.

"Oh, and Sowol."

"Yes, Academy Master."

"This."

Yi Yubaek handed him a basket of raw garlic.

"Chew it when you feel sleepy. It will help."

"......Thank you."

Yi Yubaek immediately led Yeon Sowol to the place where he would undergo closed-door seclusion.

It was an emptied, spotless warehouse.

Inside were several changes of clothes, a lit oil lamp, a spring that bubbled gently from the ground, and heaps of fasting pills and jerky to fill his hungry stomach.

"This paper is a seal. If it remains intact, it means this door has never been opened."

Yi Yubaek smeared ink over Yeon Sowol's palm and pressed it against the paper.

"Then I wish you good fortune in the martial world."

Thud!

The door closed.

The windowless warehouse became pitch-black. The faint oil lamp barely illuminated the space around him.

"Attach the seal paper."

At the voice from outside, Yeon Sowol silently placed the sheet bearing his palm print in the very center where the two doors met.

Rattle!

Clank!

The loud sounds of a crossbar being fastened and chains being secured echoed outside the door.

Soon, everything outside fell quiet.

"......"

For a moment, Yeon Sowol thought of his mother.

"This crazy world."

How long would he have to live so precariously?

'Still, this training will help me survive in this crazy world. Yeah. Let's do it. Let's get it over with.'

Gritting his teeth, Yeon Sowol slowly began moving his body. He started practicing the Willow Serenity Art.

Seven days and nights passed.

'I feel like I'm going to die. I feel like I'm going to die. I feel like I'm going to die.'

During that time, Yeon Sowol barely slept.

He was too worried to sleep.

Tap. Shhhhhh.

One gak was fifteen minutes.

The seclusion chamber had an hourglass that measured exactly one gak.

Yeon Sowol compulsively flipped it over.

So that the breathing method would never stop for longer than that.

He checked himself, then checked again.

That made it impossible to sleep.

He was afraid that if he fell asleep, he might get the breathing method wrong.

Fortunately, practicing the Willow Serenity Art made his entire body grow hot and refreshed, as if sleep were retreating from him.

That had let him endure for quite a while, but he had finally reached his limit.

With bloodshot eyes, Yeon Sowol stood in the center of the seclusion chamber, swaying as he dozed.

At that moment, the door opened slightly, and Mo Cheong walked inside.

"Whew. Sowol, what kind of hardship is this? It is hard, isn't it? Get some sleep. If your breathing goes off while you're asleep, I'll wake you. Rest easy. Master permitted it."

At those words, Yeon Sowol was overjoyed.

He lacked the strength to show it, but inside, he was truly happy.

"Thank you."

Tap.

Yeon Sowol turned over the hourglass. He sat down and lightly closed his eyes, but sleep did not come right away. He had been tense for too long.

He opened his eyes again.

Mo Cheong was there.

Half the sand remained in the hourglass.

"It's all right. Get some sleep."

"Yes."

Tap!

Yeon Sowol flipped the hourglass again.

He closed and opened his eyes several more times.

Each time, Mo Cheong reassured him.

"Go to sleep."

"Yes......"

Only then did Yeon Sowol's tension ease a little. He flipped the hourglass one final time and slowly closed his eyes.

?

After shifting around for a moment, he habitually cracked his eyes open.

"Huh?"

He shot to his feet and looked around.

!!

A shiver ran through him.

"......"

The sand in the hourglass was nearly gone.

And.

"......"

Nobody.

There was nobody.

Mo Cheong was gone.

Had he not said he would watch over him all night?

"You... bastard...!"

Yeon Sowol erupted in anger.

"You son of a bitch!!!"

You deceived me even now?

You said you would wake me, then left the moment I fell asleep?!

His rage rose to the top of his head.

The entire world felt thin as a thread. The earth, the sky, even the faintly burning lamp.

If Mo Cheong had been in front of him, he would have killed him.

He definitely would have killed him.

His heart pounded.

Only about sixty seconds of sand remained in the hourglass.

'I almost died!'

His essence and qi had almost rotted, and he had almost died!

Yeon Sowol hurriedly resumed the breathing method.

"Inhale. Exhale......"

A horrible stench poured from his exhaled breath.

If he had to compare it to something, it was like wet laundry left in the rain. Except ten times worse.

"......"

Goosebumps rose all over his body.

'It was true.'

Less than one gak had passed.

Yet there was such a stench.

Even the final shred of doubt remaining in a corner of his heart vanished.

Yi Yubaek had not exaggerated at all.

'My essence and qi really will rot, and I'll die.'

Yeon Sowol clenched his teeth harder.

"Mo Cheong... Mo Cheong..."

He did not think he would ever forget this grudge.

It had been too hard.

Humiliation suffered during hard times was even harder to forget.

Yeon Sowol abruptly rose.

Wondering whether Mo Cheong might be standing outside the warehouse door, snickering, he approached it with silent steps.

"......"

Then he realized.

Rattle. Clink.

The warehouse door was completely locked.

The seal paper bearing his palm print was damply stuck to the center of the door.

The door had never opened even once.

"Come to think of it..."

The Mo Cheong in his memory had said he had entered with Yi Yubaek's permission.

But had Yi Yubaek not repeatedly emphasized that Yeon Sowol must not meet anyone during closed-door seclusion?

There was no way he would permit Mo Cheong to enter.

Then.

"It was all a hallucination?"

A cold shiver ran through Yeon Sowol.

Mo Cheong's expression and voice were still vivid in his ears.

But they were not real?

He fumbled for a handful of raw garlic and crammed it into his mouth.

The garlic was so spicy that tears welled in his eyes.

"Hoo. Hoo. Hiss."

Chewing the garlic, Yeon Sowol began moving his body.

He practiced the Willow Serenity Art with wet eyes, steadying his breath as it grew rougher and rougher.

Following the breathing method, he kindled fire throughout his body, then spread that fiery energy through his entire body with the movements.

So he would not be afraid.

So he would not go mad.

Yeon Sowol repeated the Willow Serenity Art without rest.

"Hoo. Hoo. Inhale...... Exhale......"

Crazy world.

This crazy world.

What the Twelve Regular Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Vessels were remained as distant as ever.

Footnotes:

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