Chapter 726: If You Want It, More Earnestly Than Anyone
“Here you are.”
At the words of Geom Mugeuk that came from behind, Blood Heaven Blade Demon turned his head with a startled expression.
“How did you know I was here?”
This was the very peak of the Daecheon Mountains. Blood Heaven Blade Demon was standing at the summit, gazing up at the stars in the night sky. Long ago, Seo Daeryong had once told him that whenever his master needed to clear his head, he would climb up to the Daecheon Mountains.
“There’s nothing I don’t know about you, sir.”
Blood Heaven Blade Demon said to Geom Mugeuk,
“You must have come up here because you were feeling stifled too.”
Geom Mugeuk smiled without denying it.
“The celebratory feast?”
“It ended well.”
Neither his father nor Blood Heaven Blade Demon had attended from the beginning, and most of the Demon Supremes only stayed for a short while before leaving. They knew Seo Daeryong would enjoy himself more comfortably with his peers if they were not present.
From the noisy hall, he and Dan Ah had quietly slipped away after seeing Seo Daeryong enjoying himself. Perhaps, by now, they might be watching the drunken Underworld Pavilion Leader reciting poetry.
“Your officiating words were truly good.”
“I didn’t expect to forget them so many times.”
“It’s because you’re getting old.”
Blood Heaven Blade Demon laughed as he looked up at the stars.
“You’ve married off your right arm. What will you do now?”
Up until now, he had only said he would distance himself from the Completion of the Nine Calamities Demon Art. But this time, the answer was different.
“Now, I will run toward the Completion of the Nine Calamities Demon Art.”
When the Ten Star greatness of the Nine Calamities Demon Art had felt almost within reach, he had planned to enter closed-door training, but Blood Heaven Blade Demon had stopped him.
If one desired too earnestly, it would only drift farther away.
He had learned a great lesson then. The path toward mastery had been something he had attained through others, yet he had abandoned all that in pursuit of achievement, led astray by desire.
But the Completion he spoke of now was different.
For this was something he said after even marrying off Daeryong.
In Geom Mugeuk’s eyes, there now lay a transformed fervor. Blood Heaven Blade Demon no longer stopped him.
“If you have chosen to want it, then desire it more earnestly than anyone.”
* * *
That morning, Geom Mugeuk packed his belongings.
A change of clothes and spices needed for cooking, hides to lay on the ground for sleeping, dried food that could be stored for a long time, and even a few items just in case.
After preparing a full load like that, he climbed the Daecheon Mountains once again.
Among the many places within the Daecheon Mountains, he sought the most suitable spot. Eventually, he found a place where the terrain was so rugged that no one would come, yet there was a wide open clearing. Behind it, a cliff rose sharply with a cave carved into it, and nearby a stream flowed.
A cliff to the back, an open expanse to the front. It was the perfect place to train.
Geom Mugeuk unpacked his load inside the cave.
For this training, he had resolved not to use the Temporal and Spatial Transference Technique’s Heavenly Time Secret Art. Since the Completion felt almost within his grasp, he had decided to train by directly absorbing the energy of the Daecheon Mountains with his body.
Not long ago, his father had told him. When training made his chest feel stifled or he felt blocked, he should climb here. The energy of the Daecheon Mountains would help him.
The next morning, he began training.
First, he sat cross-legged, meditating while feeling the vital energy of the Daecheon Mountains.
After a hearty meal, he then began training the Nine Calamities Demon Art in earnest.
From the First Form to the Fifth Form, he performed them in the clearing. For the Sixth Form, Heavenly Demon World Annihilation, he had to open the Temporal and Spatial Transference Technique in order to execute it.
For if he performed Heavenly Demon World Annihilation here, after absorbing even the energy of the Flying Blood Serpent, the entire mountain would vanish into nothingness.
Thus, after performing even Heavenly Demon World Annihilation and exhausting all his inner energy, he finally exited the Temporal and Spatial Transference Technique.
Geom Mugeuk, who had completely drained his inner energy with Heavenly Demon World Annihilation, sat down and began replenishing it.
“Once!”
He planned to repeat this process continually. Because he had put his entire devotion into each form, it was by no means easy.
Five times a day was his goal.
How long would he need to remain here?
A hundred times? A thousand times? Or perhaps ten thousand?
* * *
Eat, train, walk, and sleep.
That cycle repeated every day.
The Great Achievement, which had seemed almost within reach, was not actually that close.
It was like something that appeared to be right in front of him but was, in truth, far away—something so vast that he had mistaken its nearness.
Fortunately, the teachings of Blood Heaven Blade Demon displayed their power once he began full-fledged training. The two lessons he had passed down.
Do not be too earnest.
And yet, be more earnest than anyone.
Geom Mugeuk practiced both of these conflicting pieces of advice.
On days when anxiety gnawed at him, making him wonder if this training method was wrong, he recalled the first lesson.
When thoughts tempted him to go down and seek another method, he recalled the second.
People thought of him as someone skilled at building relationships with others, but his true strength lay in accomplishing things alone. He was the kind of man who could dedicate his entire life, alone, to a single goal.
And today, when he performed the Two Hundred Twenty-Fifth execution of the Nine Calamities Demon Art, he received an unexpected visitor.
With hands clasped behind his back, strolling as if on a walk, the one who ascended was Geom Woojin.
“Father!”
Geom Woojin looked at him with an expression of pity.
“You look like a beggar.”
Only then did Geom Mugeuk realize that he hadn’t shaved in some time, his appearance utterly neglected as he devoted himself solely to training.
“You would meet him in that state?”
“Meet who?”
In the silent gaze of his father, Geom Mugeuk understood whom he meant.
When the Heavenly Demon Spirit manifested—was he planning to meet it looking like this?
This was something he had long yearned for. There was no way he could allow that.
“Please, sit here, Father.”
Geom Mugeuk quickly unrolled the tiger hide he had kept wrapped inside his satchel. What was already spread on the ground was only ordinary leather.
“You expected me to come?”
“I brought it just in case.”
Had it been any other place, he would not have bothered to bring it. But this was the place his father had recommended. He had thought there might be a chance his father would come at least once.
Geom Woojin sat down on the tiger hide.
“Have you eaten?”
“I haven’t.”
It had taken truly a long time just to hear that simple admission. His father had come because he wished to share a meal with his son.
“Please wait a moment. I will quickly catch a boar or something.”
As Geom Mugeuk was about to go hunting, Geom Woojin stopped him.
“Let’s just eat what you’ve been eating.”
“It’s all cold by now.”
“That’s fine.”
Geom Mugeuk brought out the meat and food he had kept.
He raised his Heat Yang Energy to warm the food and served it to his father. Of course, in his satchel he had also prepared clean tableware, anticipating his father’s visit.
The two of them ate silently. They said nothing while eating, yet there was no awkwardness anymore.
When the meal was finished, Geom Mugeuk brewed tea. Inside his satchel, he had also packed the tea his father enjoyed most.
“I didn’t bring any wine. I thought if we drank, I might feel like going down the mountain.”
“The taste of this tea is enough.”
And so, father and son sat across from one another, drinking tea.
Geom Mugeuk spoke his honest feelings.
“It feels like I’ve almost reached it, that if I just finish this training, I will achieve it. Is the Ten Star Greatness always like a mirage in the desert?”
After taking a sip of tea, Geom Woojin replied.
“Ordinarily, you would not have even stepped into that desert.”
It meant Geom Mugeuk’s progress was that fast.
Achieving the Completion and growing stronger was important, but truthfully, his greater longing was to behold his Heavenly Demon Spirit.
What would it look like?
Did the Heavenly Demon Spirit truly possess a soul?
How would it connect with him?
He had countless questions, but he did not ask his father. He wanted to experience everything himself.
Yet there was one thing he had to ask.
“After achieving the Completion, how does one summon the Heavenly Demon Spirit?”
“You will be able to summon it by your own will.”
“How much inner energy is required?”
“The descent of the Heavenly Demon Spirit itself requires no inner energy. But for it to wield martial arts, it will need yours.”
In the end, it meant the Heavenly Demon Spirit was deeply bound to the one who had mastered the martial art.
The descent of the Heavenly Demon Spirit.
Just hearing the words made his chest tremble.
After finishing the remaining tea, Geom Woojin rose to his feet.
“When you come down from the mountain, let’s play a game of Go.”
His father had not said a single word of advice—no “Do well,” no “Do it this way.” He had truly come only to share a meal and then left.
But from this visit, a change had come.
The day after his father’s visit, as always, he went for a walk after finishing his training.
Because he had poured his full strength into the training, the exhaustion of mind and body was immense, and when it ended, he was completely drained. But he never omitted his walks.
As he walked, he pondered. He thought about the events before the regression, about the enemies he had slain. He recalled martial art mnemonic verses, and he contemplated new methods of training.
At that moment, Geom Mugeuk’s eyes fell upon a massive tree that had toppled after part of the valley wall had collapsed.
“What a shame.”
A thousand-year-old tree had broken and lay fallen.
He had been about to pass it by, but then Geom Mugeuk turned back to the tree.
Shaaak! Shaak!
Geom Mugeuk cut into the tree with the Black Demon Sword.
He trimmed the fallen wood into pieces the size of large blocks and carried them back to his dwelling.
Geom Mugeuk began to craft something from it.
Shaak, shaak.
As his sword shaved it away, its form gradually appeared—a thick Go board with sturdy legs.
The reason Geom Mugeuk had not ignored the fallen tree was because it was a Torreya tree, the finest material for a Go board. And this was a thousand-year-old Torreya.
“When I come down, we can play a game of Go.”
He had wanted to gift his father a Go board crafted with his own hands. For his father who loved the game, there could be no better present.
Geom Mugeuk poured his heart into making the Go board.
Training continued, and in the remaining time he devoted himself to its construction.
Ten days later, at last, the Go board was complete.
It was so finely made that anyone would have believed it was the work of a master craftsman purchased outright.
Now only one step remained, the most important task.
After gazing down at the board for a moment to steady his mind, Geom Mugeuk began drawing lines upon its surface with the Black Demon Sword.
Sak! Sak! Sak!
Lines cut without hesitation.
Nineteen horizontal lines were carved, followed by vertical lines.
Though even a single mistake could have ruined the entire board, Geom Mugeuk did not lose focus.
The spaces between each line were perfectly measured, without the slightest error.
Geom Mugeuk was satisfied. It had turned out even better than he had imagined.
Having finished the board, he now felt he wanted to craft the stones as well.
He cut more Torreya wood and fashioned Go bowls. Surprisingly, making the bowls was even harder than the board. It required more delicate skill than it appeared. Only after several failures was he able to produce bowls he was satisfied with.
And finally, he made the stones.
During his walks, he found white stones that gleamed like crystal, and a few days later he discovered black stones that shone with a jet-black luster.
Geom Mugeuk began to emit sword energy from the Black Demon Sword and shaped them into Go pieces.
Even though it was more inconvenient and difficult, he chose to craft them with the Black Demon Sword instead of a dagger. By delicately controlling his sword energy, he shaped the Go stones. At the final stage, he polished them smooth with his protective energy.
He had never imagined he would one day use martial arts to make Go stones.
The first stone had taken a long time, but gradually the time required shortened.
It was almost the first time he had ever made such fine adjustments with sword energy.
Shaaak! Shaak!
The more stones he made, the more familiar he became with the subtle control of sword energy and protective energy.
Train, then craft Go stones. Train again, then craft more.
One piece, then two, sometimes three or four. In this way, he made the stones every day with care.
No matter how exhausted he became, he never neglected either his training or the crafting of the stones.
Each day passed like this, and Geom Mugeuk endured the monotony.
At last, today, he completed the three hundred and twenty-first stone, the final one.
“It’s finally done!”
With trembling hands, Geom Mugeuk placed the last crafted stone into the Go bowl. Stones of identical size gleamed together inside.
With a heart full of emotion, he touched them, then carefully placed them in the corner of the cave and covered them with tiger hide. Rather than dwell in that feeling, there was something else he needed to do now.
Geom Mugeuk stepped out of the cave and drew his sword.
Though the day’s training was already over and night had fallen, he was about to unleash the Nine Calamities Demon Art again.
At the very moment he had completed the final stone, the thought had struck him that he must perform it. He didn’t know why the idea came. It was simply what his heart told him.
The First Form, Human Annihilation, unfolded.
Seogeok! Seogeok! Seogeok! Seogeok!
From the east, west, south, and north, four Demonic Ghosts appeared, slicing through a single space.
Before they vanished, he unleashed the Second Form, Great Annihilation.
Now, Geom Mugeuk linked all five forms together in a sequence.
Ssssss!
The terrifying ghosts split apart before his eyes. Their number grew to twenty-six!
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
They tore the space apart as they charged forward.
Before he even saw the result, Geom Mugeuk’s sword had already executed the next form.
Whiiiing!
With a rush of wind, a wall of protective energy formed before him.
Before the transparent radiance of the Third Form, Great Demon Wall, fully vanished, the Fourth Form, Dark Flash, was unleashed.
Whoosh.
As if a deep darkness descended.
Shiiiiing.
A streak of light cut through the darkness.
When brightness returned again, sword energy poured from the sky like lightning. It was the Fifth Form, Soul Severing Demonic Strike.
Shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk!
Pak-pak-pak-pak-pak-pak-pak-pak-pak-pak!
Fragments of stone sprayed upward.
The marks left in the ground by the sword energy were evenly spaced. And the depth of the holes was exactly the same.
Even after unleashing from the First Form to the Fifth Form in succession, Geom Mugeuk felt no burden on his body. He was wielding the Nine Calamities Demon Art with perfect freedom.
But the Sixth Form, Heavenly Demon World Annihilation, he could not perform here.
He could not risk destroying the Daecheon Mountains.
Geom Mugeuk opened the Temporal and Spatial Transference Technique and unleashed Heavenly Demon World Annihilation within it.
Flash!
From the Black Demon Sword, light burst forth, blanketing the world in white.
In that instant, the world inside the Temporal and Spatial Transference Technique was annihilated.
It was the Heavenly Demon World Annihilation he had repeated hundreds of times after coming to the Daecheon Mountains.
Ordinarily, after completely erasing that world inside the Temporal and Spatial Transference Technique, he would simply dissolve it himself and return outside.
But today’s Heavenly Demon World Annihilation was different. After soaring endlessly forward, obliterating all—
Kwa-jijijijik!
Cracks began to spread and shatter across the four corners of the Temporal and Spatial Transference world.
‘!’
Before Geom Mugeuk’s eyes, the world of the Temporal and Spatial Transference began to crack, though he had not undone it himself.
‘The Temporal and Spatial Transference is breaking apart!’
Heavenly Demon World Annihilation was smashing through and destroying the Temporal and Spatial Transference Technique. Such a thing had never happened before, and Geom Mugeuk was shaken.
Kwaaaaang!
As the Temporal and Spatial Transference collapsed, Geom Mugeuk was hurled back into the outside world.
Thud.
The tremendous shock slammed him into a cliff. With no inner energy left, he was defenseless.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
Even after shattering the Temporal and Spatial Transference, the residual shockwaves of Heavenly Demon World Annihilation ravaged the surroundings.
Kwang! Kwarrrung!
The cliff where the cave had been collapsed under the aftershocks.
Warurururung!
Geom Mugeuk’s eyes widened. He rolled his body to dodge, but he could not escape another massive boulder. It all happened in an instant.
‘No!’
Boom!
A roar—and then darkness engulfed him.
‘Am I dead?’
Judging by the searing pain that wracked his body from the earlier impact with the cliff, he had not died. But how had he survived?
At that very moment—
The darkness surrounding him began to stir, and then, slowly, it began to open its eyes.