WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 95: The Milky Way Has No End

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Long ago, a man named Jianwu went to see Jieyu of Chu, then returned and said,

“His words were exaggerated and fantastical. Once spoken, they never returned, stretching out like the Milky Way with no end in sight. I was startled, even afraid. I thought he was mad and did not believe him.”

Yan Shu replied,

“The blind cannot see patterns and colors, and the deaf cannot hear bells and drums. There are also those who are deaf and blind in their understanding. You are one of them.”

* * *

As it turned out, the Hengshan Sect had definitely sent them food.

It had all been piled up before the enormous zelkova tree along the road to the shrine.

When they questioned the young servant who had supposedly delivered the meals, his eyes went wide.

“Pardon? What do you mean? I definitely went inside the shrine and gave you the food! No, Young Hero Jin. Didn’t you greet me and take the meal yourself just yesterday?”

Jin Geol, whom the servant called Young Hero Jin, blinked in disbelief. He had never seen this servant before, yet the servant spoke to him as if they were acquainted.

“Seriously, this is scary! Please don’t joke around like this, Young Hero Jin.”

In the end, they had to take the servant to the zelkova tree.

Dishes of every kind had been stacked layer upon layer before it like an altar, left to rot. Anyone could see they had been untouched from the start.

The servant went pale and fell backward onto his backside.

“Th-this... This... This...?”

They could get nothing more from him than those foolish sounds. He only repeated that the shrine had been there when he came before, and that Jin Geol had come out to meet him and accepted the food.

Was it a ghost?

A monster?

Or something too difficult to define as either, something that could only be called strange?

It was truly bizarre.

After receiving the medicine and returning to Hengyang, Jin Geol sighed.

“The world really is this vast. I thought I’d seen a fair bit after entering the Jianghu, one thing and another. I never thought I’d experience something this strange.”

Won Huiseung nodded beside him.

“Me too. I thought ghosts and monsters might exist, but I never imagined they would be so vivid and powerful.”

Even now, thinking about what they had gone through made a chill run down his spine. They had lived through it, yet it still did not feel real.

“No wonder Jianghu people look insane. They go through every sort of story and incident ordinary people could never believe.”

Jin Geol looked up at the sky and recited in a sing-song voice.

Like the Milky Way, it had no end.

I thought it madness and did not believe it.

Yeon Sowol tilted his head.

“What does that mean?”

“It’s from the Zhuangzi. A man named Jieyu once said something that went on and on like the Milky Way, so Jianwu thought it was nonsense and didn’t believe him.”

“Jieyu? Was he famous?”

“Very. The Madman of Chu.”

“How mad was he?”

“He was famous for approaching Confucius as he passed by and mocking him.”

“Oh.”

“When I studied writing, I thought he was just some crazy man. Now, though, I see it differently. Maybe Jieyu became that way because he’d experienced things too vast and numerous for ordinary people.”

Jin Geol’s eyes grew distant.

Watching him, Won Huiseung muttered, “I thought you wore scholar’s robes just to look impressive. You really did study.”

“What did you say, punk?”

“What?”

Jin Geol and Huiseung locked eyes.

After a moment, Jin Geol snorted and searched through his robes, taking out a small wooden box.

“Anyway, I still can’t believe all that happened. All because of this tiny pill.”

Inside the box was a reddish pellet.

A Spirit Elixir made for Jin Geol during this round of alchemy.

“They said if I take this, the passage to the Niwan Palace will open, letting me reach whatever stage of maturity I want and direct qi freely, right?”

The Niwan Palace was the place within the head where the spirit resided.

A person was made of essence, qi, and spirit. Essence and qi existed in the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, while spirit resided in the Niwan Palace.

In the twenty-first century, the Niwan Palace was sometimes called the pineal gland.

“They said it’ll make my head hurt like hell and my body burn up. For over a week.”

The alchemists had recommended taking the pill beneath a cold waterfall while chewing herbs that eased the pain.

Jin Geol refused.

“I already spent nearly a month suffering inside that mountain shrine without getting to have any fun, and now you want me to go back into the mountains? No chance. I’m going to enjoy myself. I haven’t had nearly enough fun. I’ll drink away the pain, and as for the heat...”

He gulped down liquor.

He emptied a bottle of potent distilled alcohol that seemed intoxicating from the smell alone, then tossed the elixir pill into his mouth. He crunched it up and swallowed.

Chuckling, he began to sing.

I Was Once a Madman of Chu.

I sang the phoenix song and mocked Confucius.

“Ah, it’s hot!”

Jin Geol stripped to the waist, then grabbed another bottle of liquor from somewhere and guzzled it as he vanished into the streets of Hengyang.

It looked like he intended to spend the next week drinking.

‘What a public nuisance...’

Yeon Sowol stared blankly at Jin Geol’s retreating back. When Jin Geol refused to go to the waterfall, Yeon Sowol thought he might have had some kind of plan. He had not expected him to suddenly go off the rails in the streets like that.

“Hmm. Then should I take mine too?”

Won Huiseung did not seem bothered by Jin Geol’s behavior at all. Calmly, he opened his own wooden box.

Inside was a yellow pill.

“It changes your constitution so you can commune with heaven and become friendly with wind and thunder. With this, even beside a dragon...”

Won Huiseung’s eyes gleamed wildly. He had clearly lost it.

Still, Yeon Sowol was not too worried about Won Huiseung.

‘That pill isn’t supposed to give him a headache or make him overheat...’

They had only said that, for about a week, he could not keep a roof over his head so that he could commune with the energy of heaven. That was all.

‘At worst, he’ll climb onto a roof.’

Considering the bizarre behavior of Jianghu people, that hardly even counted as causing trouble.

Sure enough.

Gulp.

Won Huiseung swallowed the elixir pill in one go, used a lightness art, climbed onto the roof of a nearby building, and sat down.

Then he stripped to the waist.

His sculpted torso, covered in lean muscles, was exposed beneath the sun.

Passersby whispered as they looked up at the roof.

Yeon Sowol shouted in alarm.

“No, Huiseung! Why are you taking off your clothes?”

“I need to become friends with heaven. It’ll be better without anything on if I want to get closer.”

“The alchemists didn’t say anything like that.”

“I think this is right. This is a way to get closer to a dragon. I have to do everything I can.”

Then he stripped off the rest of his clothes as well, neatly folded them, and set them beside him.

“...”

Yeon Sowol looked around. People whispered as they glanced back and forth between Won Huiseung on the roof and Yeon Sowol on the street.

Yeon Sowol quickly opened his fan, hid his face, and fled.

‘Why am I the one who has to be embarrassed?!’

To Yeon Sowol, Jianghu people were still far too embarrassing.

* * *

Heaven was dark, and Earth yellow,

the universe vast and untamed.

Heaven, earth, dark, yellow.

House, house, vast, untamed.

The alchemists had named Yeon Sowol’s elixir pill the Profound Enlightenment Elixir.

The character for Enlightenment meant "to awaken."

Profound meant dark, and referred to heaven.

Heaven was the principle governing the universe.

The four directions and above and below were called space, while the span from ancient times to the present was called time.

Therefore, the Profound Enlightenment Elixir was a medicine that let one understand heaven and perceive the principles that ran through the universe.

“...They said it would let me see not only what I couldn’t see before, but things I shouldn’t see.”

A Golden Elixir.

That was the name given to the highest grade of elixir pill alchemists could create.

Every alchemist who had made Yeon Sowol’s elixir pill said the same thing.

‘Young master, we have created a medicine that cannot be made.’

‘This is not a medicine a person can bear.’

‘There may be pills greater and more potent than this, but there can be no pill more absurd.’

‘Heaven is too mysterious, and the universe is too vast. If a person gazes into them, they cannot help losing themselves, like a bucket of well water cast into the sea.’

After warning him in unison, they handed him a white pellet.

‘This is a Mind-Rest Elixir. If you take it, even the spirit that communed with heaven and earth will rest, so it should stop the medicine’s effects. After taking the Profound Enlightenment Elixir, if you can no longer endure it and feel you are about to lose yourself, take this Mind-Rest Elixir.’

Yeon Sowol was deeply grateful for the alchemists’ thoughtfulness. Still, he had no intention of taking the Mind-Rest Elixir.

‘Because I really have seen the universe.’

His goal was to draw out at least one hundred and twenty percent of the Profound Enlightenment Elixir’s effects, despite their claim that no person could bear it.

“Then shall I begin too?”

Yeon Sowol took out the Profound Enlightenment Elixir in the inn room he had rented in Hengyang. Unlike his friends, he had no intention of causing embarrassing trouble for others.

He planned to take the medicine quietly, alone.

Click.

When he opened the small porcelain box, black liquid sloshed within. It smelled like winter wind.

It was a scent he felt he had caught now and then while standing guard.

“Nice to see you. And thank you.”

As Yeon Sowol murmured softly, the surface of the black liquid rippled as if answering him. Something like gold dust sparkled across it.

‘It really is miraculous.’

Looking down at the thing that seemed almost alive, Yeon Sowol reflected once more on the contemplative question he had been holding in his mind.

“What is orthodox, and what is demonic?”

It was the question he had carried since fighting the demonic practitioners of the Demonic Cult. What was the difference between the martial arts of orthodox schools and demonic arts? Why were orthodox martial arts orthodox, and why were demonic arts demonic?

He had already found one clue.

‘Orthodox is... what is natural.’

It was the thought that had come to him while sparring Won Huiseung and seeing his Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven.

Because it was natural, because it did not force itself, harmony continued endlessly without breaking. That was the trait of orthodox martial arts.

Then what was the trait of demonic arts?

Had he truly explained everything about orthodox martial arts?

Holding countless questions in his mind, Yeon Sowol raised the Profound Enlightenment Elixir to his lips.

Gulp.

He swallowed it.

“...”

Yeon Sowol sat still as a stone statue.

“...Hmm?”

He looked down at his hand.

“...Hmm?”

He cocked his head.

“What changed?”

Puzzled, Yeon Sowol got to his feet.

Creak.

The wooden floor groaned.

At that moment,

“Ah...!”

Yeon Sowol felt it.

No. He saw it.

No. He heard it.

No, it seemed as though he could touch it, smell it, and taste it.

“This is... wood...”

How could he explain it?

It was like a hallucination.

The wooden floor beneath his feet seemed to come alive and move. The energy of wood within it stretched out, capturing all five senses and his sixth sense.

This was only a corner of an inn room built from dry wood.

Yet Yeon Sowol suddenly felt as if he stood in the heart of a forest.

“Haa...”

As he let out a stunned breath, the energy of wind rose next.

It felt as if he had been thrown into the middle of a typhoon. Wind surrounded him on all sides and seemed ready to swallow him whole.

“This... This is...”

Yeon Sowol felt like he would suffocate beneath the overflowing energy, but he could not look away.

This was completely unlike sweeping the world with clear qi sense.

The entire world looked utterly different. Everything gained meaning, came alive, and unfolded before him.

“Ah... So this is how energy moves and acts. If I use this...”

This new experience left Yeon Sowol entranced.

It could not have been otherwise.

The first-rate realm was the realm of surpassing essence and controlling qi.

If he could understand the harmony of qi, the martial arts erupting from his fingertips could only become far more profound.

From now on, every moment would be a fortuitous encounter.

Drip.

Blood ran from Yeon Sowol’s nose.

Yet he casually wiped it with his sleeve and stood.

Fierce curiosity and the desire to improve set his mind ablaze.

“Fire... Can I see fire too?”

Swaying like a drunk, he descended the stairs.

The first floor of the inn was used as a dining hall, so there had to be fire in the kitchen.

“Ah! Fire! Fire! This is fire!”

Yeon Sowol staggered through the kitchen curtain and stared at the flames burning in the stove. His face filled with joy.

Then he saw a kitchen worker bringing water up from the well and cheered again.

“Water! This is water!”

He plunged his hand into the water and splashed about, delighted as a child.

“Ah! You scared me! Wh-what is this? Why is some lunatic in the kitchen?”

“Shh! Be quiet. He’s a martial artist.”

“What?”

“Uh... Young Hero Yeon.”

“Ah, the one from Guangdong...”

“Shh!”

The people in the kitchen froze and watched him carefully, but Yeon Sowol did not notice.

Drip.

Holding back another nosebleed with his sleeve, he staggered out into the street.

“Ah...!”

A greater spectacle awaited outside.

The energy of wind blanketed the entire sky. The energy of water flowed within it.

Each building radiated the energy of wood.

The energy of metal gleamed from the smithy.

The energy of earth clung to his ankles.

He saw countless energies filling the world, following one another without end.

“Amazing. Incredible. What is all this? Wow...”

Yeon Sowol walked unsteadily, his eyes wide like a child’s.

A passerby frowned and asked, “What’s so amazing?”

Yeon Sowol answered in a dazed voice.

“This. Can’t you see it? This filling heaven and earth, flowing everywhere. Can’t you see it?”

“...What is he talking about?”

“Ha. Hahaha.”

“What a lunatic...”

Yeon Sowol laughed. The passerby tapped a finger against their temple and spun it in a circle before walking away.

Drip. Drip.

More blood fell from Yeon Sowol’s nose.

His forehead throbbed.

“Ugh...”

In the world Yeon Sowol saw, the energies were growing denser.

Earth, wind, water, and countless other energies he could not identify surged like a typhoon and crashed into his senses.

“Urgh... Ugh...”

Yeon Sowol was swept up in them to the point he could barely stand.

The whole world twisted with energy, and he could no longer distinguish even the street and people around him.

Instinctively, Yeon Sowol understood.

This was the state the alchemists had warned him about.

If he was not careful, he might be swept away and lose himself.

But.

‘Not yet... I haven’t seen the universe yet.’

He had seen earth and wind, and all kinds of enormous energies raging like a typhoon. Yet this could not be called the universe.

The universe Yeon Sowol knew was something that made all of this seem as small as dust.

‘If I look at all this energy... from very far away...’

Though the energies battering his senses made him feel as if he would collapse, Yeon Sowol planted his feet and endured.

Bigger. Farther.

Everything that made up the world was broken down piece by piece within Yeon Sowol’s senses.

Matter was essence that had completely hardened and cooled.

Before becoming matter, turbid essence formed one hundred and eight Malefic Stars according to the degree of its clarity and turbidity.

Essence refined to the utmost formed the Twelve Earthly Branches according to its heat and lightness.

Essence that became fully hot and light dissolved completely into qi. Qi purified itself into the Five Elements, then purified further into yin and yang.

“Ah...”

Yeon Sowol felt all those changes.

He did not simply understand them in his head. He saw, heard, touched, smelled, and tasted them.

Yin and yang became the Five Elements, then essence qi, then gave birth to all things.

All things became essence qi again, changed into the Five Elements, and returned to yin and yang.

‘What is all this?’

It continued.

Everything continued without end, connecting and connecting.

And yin and yang once again...

Yeon Sowol sank completely into it.

Spurt.

Scarlet blood streamed from his nose, but he did not even notice.

At last.

“Ah...”

He raised his head.

“Ahh.”

Where did yin and yang come from?

The single qi before heaven, the one energy said to have existed before the universe was born.

What did it mean?

It...

Yeon Sowol felt it.

He did not yet know.

But vaguely, he felt it.

He saw everything that had split from that one source connect and circulate.

From the earth.

From heaven.

From the universe.

Linking endlessly, one after another.

He felt that immense current.

“Ahahahahaha!”

Without realizing it, Yeon Sowol burst into laughter and jumped up and down, like some Greek philosopher from the textbooks he had read as a child.

He laughed with joy.

He wiped away the blood running from his nose with his sleeve, then tore the sleeve off entirely when it became bothersome. He wiped his nose and threw it aside.

People scattered through the street in alarm, but Yeon Sowol did not see them.

“Khahahaha!”

What was orthodox?

It was connection. Endless connection. Because everything in the world came from one and returned to one.

When everything changed and changed, flowed and flowed, and became one, its original meaning shone through the whole.

A part had no meaning on its own. Everything had originally been one.

Orthodoxy always flowed, always changed, and embraced all things.

It explained everything only through everything.

Then what was demonic?

It was confinement.

It was cutting things apart and defining limits.

The stubborn obsession of trying to explain everything through only one thing.

Yeon Sowol looked at the sky.

From all things, to one hundred and eight forms of essence qi, then twelve forms of essence qi. Five forms of qi, then two, and beyond them, one.

He saw the world, where all of it gathered and scattered to form one vast meaning.

He saw the universe.

“Everything is connected.”

Within that dark, distant principle.

Like the Milky Way.

Without end.

“Hahahahaha!”

Yeon Sowol laughed.

- - -

I Was Once a Madman of Chu.

I sang the phoenix song and mocked Confucius.

- Li Bai, poet of the Tang dynasty

- - -

Footnotes:

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