Reincarnated Swordmaster

Chapter Title: Dark Heaven Village

After finishing a series of tasks, I returned to Jiangryeong Valley once more. And now, I decided to set aside my sorcery training and rededicate myself to martial arts. That was because Zhuge-sa had firmly stated his opinion on the direction of my growth.

"Strength's has reached its peak, so until you break through the boundary with Yin God Power, studying sorcery any further is a waste of time. Go back and train your martial arts instead."

Following Zhuge-sa's words, I sought out Yi Cheong-un.

"Hah!"

Yi Cheong-un was in the midst of teaching Geuk-ho at a training ground on one side of Jiangryeong Valley. Geuk-ho was creating Eight Shadow Clones at tremendous speed, sparring against Yi Cheong-un, who moved at a level matched to Geuk-ho's own—just as he had with me. Roaring waves of qi energy scattered about as their spear arts clashed dozens of times, each exchange producing variations from the Seven Great Absolute Arts' essence.

Boom!

"Urk."

In the midst of it, Yi Cheong-un slipped in lightly and struck Geuk-ho's waist. Geuk-ho let out a suppressed groan of pain and flew back far away. Having ended the spar with victory, Yi Cheong-un turned toward me.

"You always spar like this?"

"Six times a day."

"Isn't that too intense?"

I couldn't help but worry. The area around the training ground was so devastated from the clashes that it barely retained its original shape. That was why Zhuge-sa grumbled about the high repair costs. Moreover, the participants in these spars would have to endure terrifying levels of physical strain and inner power consumption repeatedly.

"This is what's right for Geuk-ho. He's a warrior who grows through sparring."

"And Jin So-cheong..."

"I teach him differently, in a way that suits him. Right now, I'm instructing him in the essentials."

"The essentials?"

"I'm having Jin So-cheong undergo closed-door training."

With that reply, Yi Cheong-un gazed at me with serene eyes.

The profundity of that gaze made me flinch as I spoke.

"Wh... what did you want to say?"

"Baek Woong. While you passed your martial arts training to study other fields, I did a great deal of thinking. If I led you down the path of the Thunder God Spirit Soul despite your lacking talent, you would surely fall into heart demons. It was truly a problem even I struggled to resolve."

Having broached the subject, Yi Cheong-un turned his gaze to Geuk-ho, who lay sprawled nearby.

"Geuk-ho. Come here. You need to hear this too."

"Yes, Grandmaster."

Geuk-ho sat down beside me. He grinned at me and said,

"Hey. Been well?"

"So-so."

Then Yi Cheong-un spoke.

"Baek Woong, I once told you there are five stages to reach the Absolute Realm."

"Yes, you did."

"The latter two are simple and clear: the transmission and training of the Thunder God Spirit Soul. But there was no way you could achieve that, so I tried to raise you to the maximum level where you could assimilate what you possess by teaching you the essence of Thunder God Style martial arts. Once you master the realm of wondrous arts and refine your Thunder God Style fist techniques a bit more, you could reach that point regardless of talent."

Yi Cheong-un crossed his arms.

"...But after you left, upon deep reflection, I realized I had overlooked something crucial. Until then, I had been viewing everything solely from the perspective of a Thunder God Style grandmaster."

"What was it?"

"It was what the Cult Leader left behind. You discovered a precious clue through your reincarnation."

"...?"

As I looked at him with puzzlement, Yi Cheong-un said,

"Do you remember? You witnessed the White Lotus Cult Leader kill and then revive the Dragon Flower Tree in a miracle-like scene."

At those words, the memory suddenly surfaced. It was definitely from the 18th cycle, when I joined the White Lotus Cult and became the Cult Leader's disciple. Though I died absurdly, the memory remained vivid even now.

"Ah... That's when I exchanged words on martial arts with the Cult Leader."

"Recall that conversation well."

I rested my chin on my hand and dredged up the memory.

[Baek Woong. What do you think qi is?]

[In the midst of countless trainings to reach the Martial Pinnacle, I came to one realization. It was that the Primordial Spirit Body I had achieved did not originate from the Divine Void—that is, the Great Void.]

[The Great Void is another term for qi. The Great Void is qi, and qi scattered is the Great Void.]

[Behold. What lies at the end of this world.]

[You cannot comprehend it now. However... there is one person in the world who understood the Great Void. Even the fact that it leads to the Four Tribulations...]

[He is dead now.]

He had indeed said those things.

The Cult Leader had spoken so enigmatically that I believed it was a clue to reaching the peerless realm of martial arts, and in later lives, I delved into his words. But there were no substantial results; he had merely shared a few thoughts while probing my explorations of the Netherworld Flames. Afterward, swept up in various situations, I hadn't revisited it.

As I recounted what I remembered, Yi Cheong-un nodded.

"Yes. The Great Void is qi. That is a profoundly meaningful statement."

"I know that much, but... it was too metaphysical for me to understand."

Yi Cheong-un burst into laughter.

"Truth be told, I was the same."

"What? Even you, Yi Cheong-un?"

"Reaching the Absolute Realm doesn't mean you understand every word from another in the Absolute Realm. Each grandmaster arrives at absoluteness through their own martial path, so even in the same realm, there are subtleties one cannot grasp. I merely thought the Cult Leader was expounding on the method of establishing the Thought Heaven Lord."

Yi Cheong-un's expression grew more solemn.

"But lately, as my realm deepens through training the Seven Great Absolute Arts and Eight Immortal Divine Arts, I sensed something off... Perhaps the Cult Leader at that time had reached a height beyond my imagination."

He spoke as if in lament.

"The qi of heaven and earth gathers and scatters in a hundred ways, but the Supreme Harmony collides and intertwines without limit. Do you remember those words too?"

"Yes. It seemed the Cult Leader gained some enlightenment while facing the Great Thunder Immortal's attack."

"I'll tell you the key point now. Those words may seem difficult, but they mean something else entirely."

Yi Cheong-un's eyes gleamed.

"The Great Void is crucial. It is the one and only clue that can surpass even the Absolute Realm."

I was startled.

"Really?"

"I delved into the Horizontal River scholar's texts because that passage puzzled me. Sure enough, the Cult Leader had quoted it verbatim. But interpreting it as nameless and formless void—that is precisely Buddhism's emptiness."

"It's all over the place."

"In my view, the Cult Leader didn't take the Horizontal River or Buddhist theories literally to apply to his martial enlightenment. It's more like stumbling upon a rat while stepping backward from an ox."

Yi Cheong-un wore an intrigued expression.

"He used their theories because they were the most fitting metaphors for his own enlightenment. In truth, what the Cult Leader realized was in an entirely different domain. And from my research, extracting only the essence, I arrived at the Great Void itself."

"It's difficult..."

Yi Cheong-un's words were too profound, and I struggled to keep up, groaning. It wasn't just me; Geuk-ho, sitting beside me, also looked dazed. Then Geuk-ho suddenly slapped my back repeatedly and said,

"Hey! Even if you don't get it, just listen hard."

"Ugh..."

Yi Cheong-un gave a wry smile.

"I've been beating around the bush too much."

"No, it's fine."

"Let me explain more simply. Originally, the Horizontal River explained the Great Void to expound his own theory of Daoism. But the White Lotus Cult Leader attached emptiness to the Horizontal River's Daoism by discussing the double nothingness. Nothingness, emptiness... Yet even in that void world, the Great Void exists—a contradiction."

From Yi Cheong-un's words, I caught on to something.

"What the Cult Leader truly meant to say was 'nothingness'?"

"Exactly."

Yi Cheong-un continued.

"Something that exists while simultaneously not existing. Isn't it strange? This is the ultimate contradiction. But the Cult Leader realized with his own body that this contradiction does exist."

"Realized with his body?"

"The Primordial Spirit Body."

"...?"

"The Cult Leader candidly confessed to you that his Primordial Spirit Body did not originate from the Divine Void—that is, the Great Void. Then, where did the Primordial Spirit Body come from?"

"He said he received it through a contract with a god, borrowing power from the Throne of Chaos."

As I finally showed signs of understanding, Yi Cheong-un said,

"It seems the Cult Leader realized the infinite potential inherent in the Great Void itself, separate from the power of the Primordial Spirit Body... but I think he discovered that the Great Void is encompassed within the chaos he possesses."

"The Great Void within chaos? What does that mean?"

"That's the [contradiction] I just mentioned. If the Great Void weren't encompassed in chaos, there'd be no reason to speak of Buddhism's emptiness."

Yi Cheong-un clenched his fist.

"The Cult Leader likely realized one definitive fact about the true nature of the Great Void."

"What fact?"

"The Great Void is indestructible."

"Pardon?"

Yi Cheong-un emphasized forcefully.

"In other words, it does not vanish. The power of chaos borrowed from the ultimate demon god at the universe's center—who utters a profane word to annihilate the Three Thousand Worlds—that chaos is the Primordial Spirit Body. It annihilates qi merely by existing, yet the ultimate essence that does not vanish persists within qi!"

"......!!"

"That is the existence known as the Great Void. And because of that, the Cult Leader could wield not the chaos of the Primordial Spirit Body directly, but all sorts of absolute arts using Thought Severing Qi and qi."

Having understood Yi Cheong-un's explanation, I felt a sense of absurdity.

"Th... that doesn't make any sense, does it?"

Indeed.

What Yi Cheong-un had just described was the ultimate contradiction. Chaos is the power that annihilates all, yet within that chaos, the essence called the Great Void survives, allowing the use of qi. That is precisely what it means for the Great Void to be encompassed within chaos.

Yi Cheong-un chuckled.

"It sounds impossible, but after a year of scrutinizing the Cult Leader's words, that's the only conclusion I reached. The Cult Leader learned that chaos and the Great Void can coexist. He was saying that one can wield chaos's power while simultaneously commanding the powers of qi and thought."

"Hmm..."

"And that carries yet another immense implication."

Only now could I follow the flow of Yi Cheong-un's words. And I recited a phrase from the Cult Leader that lingered in my memory.

"['Realizing this, one can know that humans may surpass even gods.'...]"

"Exactly."

Yi Cheong-un snapped his fingers in excitement as he continued.

"The Cult Leader figured out that fusing and using the powers of chaos and the Great Void grants temporary absolute power. With that power, humans can surpass gods."

My face stiffened. Slowly, I said,

"You're talking about when the Cult Leader defeated the three Great Thunder Immortals alone... and when he fought the Fighting Immortal Yeo Dong-bin, transforming his body into a form of chaos."

"Yes. The Cult Leader's transformation was the fused state of chaos and the Great Void. It wasn't the original power of the Primordial Spirit Body, but a transformed form he researched and developed."

Yi Cheong-un clenched his fist tightly.

"And the anticipated form of that fusion is the embodiment of emptiness. Thus, the Cult Leader used Buddhist theory as a metaphor for that realm."

It all fit together.

Until now, I had wondered what that form was when the Cult Leader inexplicably transformed, embracing chaos. I thought it might be an inmate transformation ability of the Primordial Spirit Body. But in reality, it was a proto-form where he resonated the power of chaos with the power of the Great Void, causing it to rampage.

At that moment, Geuk-ho, who had been listening, spoke up.

"But Grandmaster, isn't the White Lotus Cult Leader's research a bit weak to claim it surpasses gods?"

"Geuk-ho."

Geuk-ho scratched his head.

"Of course, the Cult Leader's abilities in the 19th cycle were formidable, on the level of apostles or demon kings... but not at the true [Ancient Ruler's] level, right?"

I inwardly agreed with Geuk-ho.

If it were the true power of an [Ancient Ruler], even Yeo Dong-bin with all sorts of divine artifacts couldn't subjugate it. If it were possible, I would have already gathered divine artifacts by any means and gone with Yeo Dong-bin to take down the Sea God first. But in our current state, no matter how much power we amassed, we couldn't match the Sea God's might.

Yi Cheong-un shook his head slowly.

"Think about the strategy the Cult Leader took then. He couldn't handle the Heavenly Realm alone, so he joined an [Ancient Ruler's] forces for protection. He clearly knew the limits of his maximum power. From this, we can infer that achieving the god-surpassing power through chaos-Great Void fusion, as the Cult Leader envisioned, would require an extremely long period of cultivation."

"Cultivation period..."

"We can only hear the honest details from the Cult Leader himself, but I suspect it's related to the Dharma Text."

I questioned him.

"The Dharma Text?"

"While you were adventuring through reincarnations, the White Lotus Cult Leader consistently pursued one goal. No matter the situation, finding the Dharma Text came first. There must be a reason beyond saving the world."

Yi Cheong-un spoke in a slightly parched voice.

"The Dharma Text of the Mother of No-Life. Obtaining it might grant tremendous power. Perhaps the Cult Leader intended to amplify his own power with the Dharma Text's might, ultimately surpassing gods with the fused power."

"......!!"

Yi Cheong-un continued.

"So, Baek Woong, Geuk-ho. Pack your things and let's depart now. I've already relayed all the information to Zhuge-sa."

"Where to?"

"To the home of Yangming Wang Shouren."

"Why there...?"

"I don't believe Daoist scholars like the Horizontal River or Wang Shouren proclaimed theories of the Great Void by mere coincidence. They surely know [something] about chaos and the Great Void. We must speak directly with Wang Shouren to fully dispel our doubts about the Great Void."

"If we dispel the doubts..."

Step.

Yi Cheong-un took a step forward and looked up at the sky.

With a voice full of conviction, he said,

"Then we humans, like the Cult Leader, can discover the technique to fuse chaos and the Great Void, surpassing gods with human martial arts."

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