“A ruler creates law, but does not enter inside that law. Only then can he control it.”
“That is correct.”
“That is the limit.”
Unhwi’s eyes narrowed.
“To be outside means to be apart.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer said,
“It means there is distance between you and the snow.”
“.......”
“If there is distance, a gap appears. If there is a gap, it breaks.”
Unhwi remained silent.
He was right.
Heavenly Snow Force was strong. It ruled space through law. But the one maintaining that law was Unhwi himself. If Unhwi wavered, the law wavered as well. If Unhwi was injured, the law broke as well.
Because there was distance between the ruler and the law.
“Then.”
Unhwi opened his mouth.
“What lies beyond that?”
The Heavenly Wayfarer laughed.
Heh heh.
His distinctive laugh.
“Unhwi.”
“Yes.”
“Snow falls.”
“.......”
“Snow falls enough to cover the whole world.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer lifted his teacup. He took a sip of tea. Then set it down.
“At that time, is the snow ruling the world?”
“.......”
“Or has the world become snow?”
Unhwi stopped.
He thought.
Snow ruling the world.
The world becoming snow.
It was the same scenery. The whole world was white. But the meaning was different.
The former meant snow had piled atop the world. Snow and the world were separate. When the snow melted, the world would be revealed.
The latter had no boundary.
Snow and the world had become one. There was nothing to melt, and nothing to reveal. Because they had been one from the beginning.
“.......”
Unhwi could not open his mouth.
He understood.
In his head.
But transferring that into martial art was an entirely different matter.
Rule was establishing law from the outside. What lay beyond it was the disappearance of the boundary between inside and outside itself. Becoming the law. Becoming snow itself.
“Heh heh.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer laughed.
“Is it difficult?”
“......Yes.”
“Of course. If it were easy, there would be no reason for me to throw you a question.”
“.......”
“There is no need to realize it immediately. But remember it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Seizing control is done by force, and ruling is done by law.”
“Yes.”
“What lies beyond that.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer paused for a moment.
He looked at Unhwi.
“You must find it.”
“.......”
“If I give you the answer, then it is my answer. It is not yours.”
Unhwi looked at the Heavenly Wayfarer.
This man had always been like that.
He showed the path, but did not make him walk it. He pointed to the door, but did not open it for him. He had to walk on his own and open it on his own.
Unhwi nodded.
“I will remember it.”
“Good.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer placed a Go stone.
Tuk.
“And one more thing.”
“Yes.”
“When you find it.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer smiled.
“The name Heavenly Snow Force will no longer fit.”
“.......”
“You will have to give it a new name.”
Unhwi quietly looked at the Heavenly Wayfarer.
A new name.
That was not simply a matter of naming. It meant the martial art itself would change. From the root.
“That is a distant matter.”
At Unhwi’s words, the Heavenly Wayfarer gave a faint laugh.
“Is it?”
“.......”
“It may be closer than you think.”
“.......”
“You are faster than I thought. And faster even than you think.”
He placed a Go stone.
Tuk.
“It is your turn.”
The thirtieth move.
The game of Go had already entered the middle stage.
The Heavenly Wayfarer’s black stones were spreading influence through the center.
Unhwi’s white stones were occupying the sides and corners.
The Heavenly Wayfarer said,
“A contest between the center and the sides. An interesting board.”
“Which side will win?”
“Both will win.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer smiled.
“The center in its own way, and the sides in their own way.”
Unhwi tilted his head.
“What does it mean for both to win?”
“There are many kinds of contests.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer explained.
“A contest one wins, a contest one loses, and a contest one draws.”
“A contest one draws?”
“A contest where both obtain what they want.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer pointed at the Go board.
“I obtain the center, and you obtain the sides. If both obtain what they want, have they not both won?”
Unhwi gave a faint laugh.
“One could think of it that way.”
“One must think of it that way.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer spoke firmly.
“If you try to possess everything, you lose everything.”
Tap.
He placed a stone.
“You need only take what you need.”
Unhwi raised his head.
“From what I see, it seems you have gained a ‘new enlightenment.’ Was it after your fight with Seok Junseo?”
He did not deny it.
“Yes.”
“Enlightenment does not always point to something new.”
Unhwi’s eyes stared straight at the Heavenly Wayfarer.
The Heavenly Wayfarer smiled gently and said,
“Do not hurry. Take it slowly. Like water flowing.”
“......Yes. I understand.”
The game of Go ended in Unhwi’s defeat.
By five points.
***
Moonlight was pouring down.
Unhwi stood alone in the small courtyard of Blood Spirit Hall.
He did not draw his sword.
He was merely standing there.
But the air around him was different.
It was trembling faintly.
Unhwi closed his eyes.
Slowly, he entered energy circulation.
Energy rose from his dantian.
Void-Origin Energy.
But it was different from before.
Deeper and purer.
Void-Origin Energy created by refining the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
The root among roots.
The beginning among beginnings.
Energy flowed through Unhwi’s body.
Along his meridians.
Along his blood vessels.
Along his bones.
Soaking everything.
His body grew warm, and his mind became clear.
His meeting with the Heavenly Wayfarer had not simply been a place to report.
He had recognized it at once.
What Unhwi was thinking.
This was far too clear.
The limit of a martial art.
To be precise, the limit of the Heaven-Defying Vast Azure Sword.
The Heaven-Defying Vast Azure Sword was certainly a martial art Unhwi had created.
A martial art that mixed song and forms.
But the foundation of this martial art was the experience of his previous life.
Unhwi was living his present life now. A martial art bound to his previous life did not suit his present life.
He had to break out of the frame.
He had gained a small enlightenment in his fight with Seok Junseo, and the moment he saw the Heavenly Sun Boundless Art that Chief Seong and the others had brought back from the secret realm.
Everything connected.
A perfectly clear lesson that he must not remain still.
A new martial art.
One that would move forward.
It was time to create a martial art of his own.
All kinds of martial arts arose in Unhwi’s mind.
Ha Yooncheon’s Heavenly Sun Boundless Art had not been transmitted directly into his head as it had been for Chief Seong and the others, but he could sense it just from its formula and form.
Not martial god–level, but above it.
A martial art seated in the Innate Three Realms.
And Unhwi had a martial art that could compare to it, perhaps even surpass it.
The Reverse Muscle Scripture he had received from Venerable Goseung.
A martial god–level martial art and an Innate-level martial art were clearly different.
Unhwi interpreted that difference as one thing.
Heavenly Origin.
Enlightenments merged together.
Light flowed from Unhwi’s body.
Silver-white light.
But it was different from before.
Deeper.
Clearer.
Purer.
It was like light flowing from the origin of the sky.
The origin of the sky.
His energy began to change.
Void-Origin Energy transformed into a new form.
It was no longer simple Void-Origin Energy.
Based on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Yet more fundamental than Void-Origin Energy.
An entirely new energy.
Boundlessness.
Unhwi murmured inwardly.
That which has no end. That which has no limit.
The enlightenment of the Heavenly Sun Boundless Art seeped in.
The meaning of Boundlessness.
The truth of infinity.
But that alone was not enough.
The enlightenment of the Reverse Muscle Scripture joined with it.
The space around Unhwi began to shake.
Cracks appeared in the void.
Small cracks.
But something was visible through those cracks.
A deeper space.
A more fundamental world.
This is.
Unhwi realized it. A name naturally formed.
No name suited it better than this.
Heavenly Origin Boundless Sword.
He drew his sword.
Slowly.
Light flowed from the sword blade.
It was not silver-white.
Transparent light.
A light of the origin, like water and yet like the sky.
Unhwi raised his sword.
The first form arose in his mind.
—First Form.
The sword rose upward.
It was a simple movement.
But.
Kuuuuung—!
The sky split.
It truly split.
The sky above the courtyard was cleaved in two.
Something was visible through the gap.
A higher sky.
A deeper sky.
A sky beyond the sky.
—Heavenly Origin Opens Creation.
Unhwi murmured.
The name of the first form.
A sword in which the origin of the sky opens the world.
A sword containing the power of heaven-and-earth creation.
The split sky slowly restored itself.
But the aftereffect remained.
Space itself was trembling.
Unhwi drew his sword sideways.
The second form.
Kuuuuuuung—!
This time, space unfolded.
The courtyard suddenly widened.
No, it had not widened.
Space itself had expanded.
Infinitely.
Endlessly.
—Infinite Heavenly Origin.
The name of the second form.
A sword in which the origin of heaven and earth unfolds infinitely.
A sword that removes the limits of space.
The expanded space slowly returned to its original state.
But the sensation remained.
The sensation of infinity.
The sensation of endlessness.
Unhwi thrust his sword forward.
The third form.
Kaaaaa—!
It was a strange sound.
Not an explosion, and not the sound of wind.
It sounded like something being born.
Light burst from the tip of Unhwi’s sword.
But it was not ordinary light.
Light with form.
Light with will.
Light with life.
That light rose into the void.
It was like a small sun.
But purer than the sun.
More fundamental.
—Boundlessness Manifests Heaven.
The name of the third form.
A sword in which heaven appears from the realm of Boundlessness.
A sword that creates a new heaven.
The small sky made of light slowly disappeared.
But something remained in its place.
Something unseen, yet felt.
A new possibility.
Unhwi raised his sword from below to above.
The fourth form.
This time, there was no sound.
Complete stillness.
But within that stillness, everything changed.
Time flowed backward.
No, time stopped.
No, time returned to its starting point.
The origin point of all things.
The beginning of all things.
—Primal Beginning Returns to One.
The name of the fourth form.
A sword that returns to the beginning of all things.
A sword that regresses to the origin.
Time began to flow again.
But it was different from before.
Purer.
Cleaner.
Like time newly born.
Unhwi prepared the final form.
He gripped the sword with both hands.
Raised it above his head.
He concentrated all the energy in his body into the sword.
Void-Origin Energy exploded.
No, it did not explode.
Like a flower blooming.
Like the sun rising.
Slowly, yet irresistibly.
Light flowed from Unhwi’s sword.
A light completely different from before.
A light vast enough to cover the sky.
A light deep enough to soak the earth.
That light wrapped around heaven and earth.
Everything became one.
There was no distinction between sky and earth.
Time and space held no meaning.
Only Boundlessness existed.
Endless Boundlessness.
Limitless Boundlessness.
—Heaven and Earth Boundless.
The name of the fifth form.
The supreme form that turns all of heaven and earth into Boundlessness.
The ultimate sword that makes all things one.
And through it, a single line was swung.
Though it was not perfect, it contained martial learning.
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