WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
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◈ Memoir of a Regressor ◈
Chapter 74: Five Qis Return to Origin
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It was a separate residence.
There was a pavilion, and I laid Myeong-hyeon down at its center.
No one else was around.
There were only three people here: Yang Il, Myeong-hyeon, who was dying, and me.
Yang Il looked up.
“How do you know? No one in this world knows that.”
“After living in the martial world for so long, you still don’t understand?”
“I don’t understand? What don’t I understand?”
“There are no eternal secrets in the martial world.”
“...Insolent brat. You haven’t even undergone Rejuvenation, yet you speak like an old man.”
“I want two things.”
“Two things?”
“First, treat all this brat’s wounds. Second, completely remove the demonic qi from his body.”
“...Are you saying he’s a demonic practitioner?”
“Does that matter?”
“It doesn’t. But removing demonic qi is another matter entirely. Do you think it’s easy?”
“If it were easy, I would’ve gone to another Divine Physician in the Wi Martial World, not you.”
Yang Il’s brow furrowed.
“...It seems you know quite a bit about me. Even what I hate most. You truly are a strange child.”
“I want to be certain. Can you guarantee the two things I mentioned?”
“I can. But only if what you told me about that matter is true.”
I looked at Myeong-hyeon for a moment.
“How much time does he have?”
“If you mean his remaining lifespan, exactly five sichin.”
“I’ll extend it by two sichin.”
“Why?”
“I’ll pay in advance.”
“...Look at this brat. Are you that confident?”
I stared at Yang Il.
“I’ll emphasize one thing.”
“Go on.”
“I know where the White Spirit Medical Clan’s relic is hidden. You’ve wasted over ten years searching this clan for it. You’ll waste over ten more years searching for it. If I find that relic for you, I’ll have done you a great favor.”
“...And?”
“If you find the relic and stab me in the back, I’ll stake my life, every moment I’ve been granted, and everything I possess on killing everyone connected to the name White Spirit Medical Clan.”
Yang Il, a master of Five Qis Return to Origin, flinched.
“Your wife, your children, those who follow you, everyone connected to you. I’ll hunt them to the ends of the martial world and kill them. Not a single one will be spared. Do you understand?”
“...Look at this brat. You haven’t even learned Demonic arts, yet your killing intent surpasses that of the Heavenly Killing Star. They call me the Mad Physician, but I’ve never taken debts and grudges lightly. If you truly know where that relic is, then I’ll guarantee it. This lump of flesh will recover as though he’d never been injured. Demonic qi? I’ll scrape out every last trace. But.”
Yang Il approached.
Their face stopped scarcely an inch from mine. Yang Il was large, about my height of six cheok. Our faces were level as Yang Il growled.
“Shouldn’t you consider the opposite possibility as well? If you’ve deceived me, not only will this brat below us die, but so will you. Beyond that, I’ll stake everything I have on killing those connected to you. The Asura Sword Sect? I’ll bring it down as much as I can. If fortune favors me, I may even destroy it. If not, I can still smash half of it to pieces. Can you bear that?”
A smile formed on my lips.
Only now.
“That is worthy of the Mad Physician.”
“...”
“What are you waiting for? Take his pulse.”
“...Fine.”
Yang Il silently lifted Myeong-hyeon’s wrist. After sending qi into his body, Yang Il took out a needle case from their waist.
It held needles of varying lengths. Yang Il selected five. One went into the crown of Myeong-hyeon’s head, one into his solar plexus, one into his dantian, and the remaining two near his heart.
“It is done. I’ve extended his lifespan by exactly two sichin, from five to seven. He’ll die in seven sichin.”
I turned away.
“Follow me.”
“...Do you know your way around?”
“Have you always talked this much?”
“...Insolent brat.”
“Stop prattling and follow me.”
I started walking.
What Yang Il had been searching for was the family treasure hidden within the White Spirit Medical Clan.
There was something that needed to be made clear. The masters of the White Spirit Medical Clan had always borne the Yang surname.
The reason it was not called the Yang Clan was that the White Spirit in its name came from nearby White-Spirit Mountain.
Yang Jun had founded this family.
He was the great-grandfather of Yang Il, the current Clan Head, and a man from two hundred years ago. In other words, the White Spirit Medical Clan had a history of two hundred years.
Before his death, Yang Jun left behind a final testament.
-I have hidden a treasure somewhere in the White Spirit Medical Clan. Try to find it.
However, it did not clearly state what this treasure was. The successive Clan Heads had searched endlessly but could not find it.
More importantly, countless events had unfolded in the martial world over those two hundred years, leaving little time to search.
Then it became Yang Il’s generation, and Yang Il grew curious.
What could it be, for Yang Jun to call it a treasure?
It began as curiosity and later became obsession.
The goal of finding it, whatever it might be, was what had made Yang Il so eccentric.
Yang Il searched the entire White Spirit Medical Clan without finding anything, so White-Spirit Mountain had been searched as well.
As far as I knew, Yang Il must have only recently begun searching White-Spirit Mountain.
I knew because, in my previous life, I had spent about two months at the White Spirit Medical Clan after suffering serious injuries. While recovering, I had searched for that treasure with Yang Il. We searched White-Spirit Mountain and the White Spirit Medical Clan alike.
And that was how we found it.
I glanced at Yang Il.
“Hoho... Are you nervous because your bluff will soon be exposed?”
“I’ve said this repeatedly. I’ll only find the treasure for you. Whatever that treasure may be, our agreement must not change.”
“Hohoho. Don’t worry.”
I watched Yang Il, practically trembling with anticipation.
I had clearly warned them.
Whatever the treasure was, I would only find it.
Yang Il and I headed for the ancestral shrine.
This place housed the spirit tablets of the White Spirit Medical Clan’s previous Clan Heads, and it was rather gloomy.
“Why have we come here?”
“The treasure is here.”
“...Impossible. I’ve spent over ten years searching for it. Do you think I wouldn’t have investigated this place as well?”
“Then perhaps you failed to find it because you didn’t search properly.”
Yang Il looked flustered.
“...I’m beginning to wonder where your confidence comes from. Go on, then. Find the treasure.”
“There’s no need to look for it. It’s right before us.”
Yang Il’s brow knitted fiercely. The expression in their eyes plainly asked what nonsense I was spouting.
I extended my index finger and pointed at the floor.
The ancestral shrine was spacious.
The Four Directional Deities were carved into its floor.
They had not been crudely gouged out. They were meticulously engraved by a master artisan.
The Four Directional Deities.
Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise.
Yang Il stared at them. Even after looking again and again, Yang Il only tilted their head as though unable to understand.
“Where exactly is it?”
“Don’t you feel that something is off?”
“Something is off?”
“Azure Dragon in the east, Vermilion Bird in the south, White Tiger in the west, and Black Tortoise in the north. Don’t look at it so narrowly. Look at the whole shrine as though viewing it from above.”
“...”
“Where is Azure Dragon looking?”
“...Where else would Azure Dragon be looking...”
“What about Vermilion Bird?”
“...”
“White Tiger? Black Tortoise?”
“...Oh?”
Yang Il’s eyes widened.
It seemed Yang Il had finally noticed.
“These four deities are all looking at one spot. About two chi from the center.”
I walked over and stomped on that spot.
Crack!
The ground broke apart.
I stomped again.
Crack!
Then I nodded at Yang Il, telling them to come look.
Yang Il approached on trembling legs and pulled something from the floor I had smashed apart.
It was a small box.
“M-My heavens... It was... here?”
Yang Il slowly opened the box.
The moment they saw what was inside, their brow furrowed deeply.
There was a single sheet of paper.
“...What is this?”
“What else would it be? The treasure left behind by the White Spirit Medical Clan’s ancestor.”
Yang Il shook the paper.
“This is the treasure? This pathetic thing?”
Yang Il was furious.
It was understandable.
Only one character had been written on the paper.
Emptiness (空).
Yang Il’s hand trembled as it held the paper.
“...This can’t be the treasure. It can’t. You’re playing with me.”
I let out a sigh.
“You know that isn’t true.”
“...”
“We made an agreement. Do you intend to break it?”
“...You’ve been saying strange things from the start. So you knew what the White Spirit Medical Clan’s treasure was.”
Of course I did.
And in my previous life, Yang Il had reacted the same way. There had been no stream of curses directed at me then, but Yang Il had been so shocked that they collapsed where they stood.
The circumstances of this life differed from my previous one, so I had to change my plan as well.
I calculated that it would take about five sichin to subdue Yang Il before me, Seomun Hyeok waiting outside, and all the martial artists beyond.
That was why I had extended Myeong-hyeon’s life by two sichin.
For a moment, I considered drawing the Cloud Dragon Sword.
Not yet.
I spoke evenly.
“Your ancestor wished to leave that behind for his descendants.”
“Emptiness (空)? He left behind something like this? This is a treasure?”
Tsk.
I sighed.
I needed to save Myeong-hyeon, yet this fool was on the verge of falling prey to an inner demon because Yang Il could not overcome their own anger.
“What is Emptiness (空)?”
“...What kind of random question is that?”
I reached out and took the box from Yang Il’s hand.
“What is this called?”
“...Is it not a box?”
I crushed it.
Fragments scattered across the floor.
“Then what are these called?”
“...You... What are you doing...?”
“A box is merely a false name we have given it. When it breaks, it loses its identity as a box. In other words, it has no fixed, unchanging essence.”
I showed Yang Il the fragments remaining in my hand.
“Yet if you gather these fragments again, you can make a box. It will be smaller than the original, but it will still be a box. Nothing in this world has a fixed, unchanging essence. Everything you see and everything you possess is merely a name that has been attached to it. These fragments can become a box, powder, or even hidden weapons. All things are interconnected in relationships of cause and effect, so they are without self (無我). And because they are without self (無我), they are Emptiness (空).”
“...Is that advice not to remain bound by things, but to do what I can?”
“That interpretation is yours to make. So...”
I trailed off.
I could feel it.
My senses were sharpening.
Of all times, it had to be now.
“...Yang Il.”
“...Why are you calling me?”
“I kept my promise. Now it’s your turn.”
“...Ha. This is driving me mad.”
“Will you keep it or not?”
Yang Il heaved a deep sigh before answering.
“I’ll keep it. That treasure may be useless to me, but from today onward, you are a benefactor of the White Spirit Medical Clan. I can’t break a promise made to a benefactor...”
I did not listen any further.
Without a word, I sat down cross-legged.
I already knew this, but revisiting it was different.
I had reached the Creation Realm, and through that experience, I had understood countless things. But they were not realizations I had attained now.
They were merely memories. They were not insights carved into this body.
Even if they belonged to the past, who had defined them as such?
I had.
They were not things of the past. They were things of the present and the future.
And they were also things of the past.
Nothing in all creation possessed a fixed, unchanging essence. Not memories, not sensations, not the world, not qi.
Everything was without self, and without self was Emptiness. The process of filling oneself.
That, too, was Emptiness.
I began circulating my qi.
* * *
Yang Il was stunned.
With an incredulous expression, Yang Il stared at the man before them.
What in the world was this man?
In the middle of speaking, he had suddenly sat down cross-legged.
Above his head, five rings formed from five kinds of qi: blue, red, white, black, and yellow.
The Azure Emperor, the Three Qis of Jia-Yi Wood Virtue (甲乙木德).
The Red Emperor (赤帝), the Two Qis of Bing-Ding Fire Virtue (丙丁火德).
The White Emperor (白帝), the Four Qis of Geng-Xin Metal Virtue (庚辛金德).
The Black Emperor (黑帝), the One Qi of Ren-Gui Water Virtue (壬癸水德).
The Yellow Emperor (黄帝), the Five Qis of Wu-Ji Earth Virtue (戊己土德).
The Four Qis and the One Qi combined to make five.
The Three Qis and the Two Qis combined to make five.
Centered on the Five Qis of Earth Virtue, the three fives gathered. The four great elements settled into harmony, and the return to origin converged at the crown of his head.
That was Five Qis Return to Origin.
The realm where a martial artist reached the end of the Four Qi-Cultivation Realms and could now seek the Four Realms of Heaven and Earth.
It was absurd.
“...What the hell is this bastard?”
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