Editors: Ytho, LaidBackGuy
Huge thanks to CARLfor sponsoring 6 chapters of Possessing Nothing! (5/6)
“Long time no see.”
Lee Sungmin caught up with Seungjo while climbing the stairs to the entrance. Seungjo closed his mouth, which was wide open in surprise and swallowed a gulp. He looked at Lee Sungmin disbelievingly and nodded his head after a moment’s hesitation.
“Yes… Long time no see.”
It had been a year since Lee Sungmin had left for Drimoor to run an errand for Grandmaster Bulyoung. What happened on the Volcano had already spread all over Eria and been reported to the Shaolin Temple.
“That… I heard what happened a year ago. You did a great job.”
“Somehow, it turned out that way.”
Lee Sungmin answered, but didn’t elaborate further. Seungjo felt sorry for him, so he dropped the matter.
“Is Jihak inside?”
“Ah… Yes. You are probably staying at the residence of Grandmaster Bulyoung.”
Lee Sungmin smiled and nodded. Seungjo blinked his eyes once and-
“Huh?”
Lee Sungmin had disappeared.
It had only been a year since he left the Shaolin Temple, but Lee Sungmin still felt like he had already been here for a very long time. His body remembered. Although the lost memories were restored to him by Denir, the year’s Lee Sungmin had spent in his subconscious had piled up in his mind, not his body.
“… Ahem.”
When he was near the cave dwellings where Grandmaster Bulyoung lived, Lee Sungmin heard a sound. In fact, even before hearing the sound, he noticed a presence.
“What happened?”
Jihak revealed himself. The Jihak that Lee Sungmin remembered wasn’t someone who expressed what he was thinking on his face. But Jihak didn’t hide his expression of surprise when he saw Lee Sungmin today.
“There were several things to do.”
He was glad to see Jihak’s face after a long absence. He replied to him with a slight salute.
“Several things.”
Jihak echoed Lee Sungmin’s reply and shook his head.
“I heard that you defeated Ghost Blade.”
“It was dumb luck.”
“Are you saying that it was only by chance that you defeated the Ghost Blade who murdered the leader of the Volcanic Sect?”
“How else can I explain it other than dumb luck? At that time, I was weaker than Ghost Blade.”
“… Was Ghost Blade too careless?”
“Maybe he was. I don’t know.”
“… When did it happen?”
Jihak asked with a sigh. Lee Sungmin laughed because he did not understand the meaning of the question.
“What?”
“When did you reach ascendance?”
“Ah… ”
Lee Sungmin belatedly laughed after understanding the words of Jihak. He replied while scratching his head, trying to play it off nonchalantly.
“It was half a year ago.”
In his subconscious world, it took a thousand years to break past the wall. However, when he challenged himself in reality, he was able to penetrate the wall of ascendance within half a year because of that memory. It was much easier to do it a second time around since he already had the experience and because Denir’s trial greatly inhibited progress the first time around.
“Half a year… Half a year huh?”
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“No… It’s nothing. It’s just that when I look at your eyes, it feels like there’s more to it than just taking half a year.”
“It’s true that I reached ascendance half a year ago.”
“I know. It just… feels like there’s more to it than meets the eye.”
Hearing that statement, Lee Sungmin just smiled and grabbed the spear on his back as a reply.
“If it’s okay, can I ask for a duel?”
“Sure. I’m just… a little worried. I don’t know if what I’m seeing is right. I’m going to have to do my best if I want to compare to you now.”
“Really?”
“At least, that’s how I feel right now.”
Jihak put his hands before his chest as he said that. Although he was an expert who had mastered Shaolin’s 72 techniques, Lee Sungmin knew that he could use martial arts and skillfully wield weapons as well.
“Don’t bother.”
It was at the moment when Lee Sungmin tried to pull out his spear that an old man’s voice broke through the gap between him and Jihak. Jihak trembled and looked in the direction of the sound.
The Grandmaster stood at the entrance of the cave. He was staring at Lee Sungmin with a strange expression that carried the hint of a smile. When their eyes met, Lee Sungmin bowed his head toward the Grandmaster.
“Why are you stopping us?”
“If you two fight now, it won’t end with nothing. Unless one of you admits defeat.”
“… Ughh. ”
At the words of Grandmaster Bulyoung, Jihak let out a groan. That was because Lee Sungmin’s ignorance was equivalent to intelligence.
“Jihak, unless either of you is willing to admit defeat, you will either die or be crippled.”
Grandmaster Bulyoung added. At those words, Jihak’s mouth opened half-way. He looked back at Lee Sungmin and Grandmaster Bulyoung with disbelief written on his face. Lee Sungmin smiled bitterly while listening to Grandmaster Bulyoung.
“You’ve rated me too highly.”
“Ahahahahaha… In the one year that I haven’t seen you, you’ve learnt to talk big. What on earth have you come here to confirm?”
“… I wanted to see how far I have come.”
“You’ve progressed quite a bit. But in comparison to whom are you asking?”
“Wijihoyeon.”
Jihak’s shoulders trembled at his answer. Wijihoyeon. She was the first and only person that Jihak had lost to, and was a figure that humbled him.
“Hmm.”
The Grandmaster touched his chin.
“Ah. I don’t know the current situation, but all I know is that the genius born under an ill-fated star, Wijihoyeon, has definitely not been twiddling her thumbs ever since she came to this mountain saying she wanted to see Shaolin. There would be a big gap between the Wijihoyeon, who defeated Jihak and the Wijihoyeon of the present.”
“How about in comparison to me?”
“You couldn’t have stood against Wijihoyeon when you first came to this mountain.”
The Grandmaster replied without hesitation.
“I don’t know what you’ve done over the past year. I didn’t believe a word of the rumours that you’d killed Ghost Blade, the killer of Master Sungha. I couldn’t believe it. The ‘you’ I knew couldn’t even be considered a tenth of Master Sungha.”
Lee Sungmin accepted those words calmly. Because it was true, At that time, Lee Sungmin was far from ascendance, and Master Sungha was already at the height of ascendance.
Grandmaster Bulyoung repeated himself for emphasis.
“Then you killed Ghost Blade, who killed Master Sungha. How could I have believed it? I thought it was just rumours. But now you… tsk-tsk! What have you been doing for a year?”
“ Lots of things happened.”
In the past year, Lee Sungmin had lived in Denir’s house and trained in the world of his subconscious. After half a year, he was able to cross the wall of the peak and make a breakthrough through the poisonous qi vein.
Then in another half year, he reached ascendance. But Lee Sungmin was not satisfied. He wielded the spear, channeling his spear force over and over again, to get closer to the level he had achieved in the world of his subconscious.
It didn’t go well. The mind had travelled far, but the body had not yet been able to catch up. Eventually, he failed to balance his mind, body, and heart completely.
“How close you are to Wijihoyeon. Is that what you’re here to confirm?”
“I needed to be sure.”
“You probably couldn’t rest assured. Since you are much weaker than Wijihoyeon.”
“I thought that might have been the case.”
Lee Sungmin let out a laugh, sounding refreshed. At his present level, he didn’t expect to make Wijihoyeon admit defeat anyways. Lee Sungmin had yet to reach the level from his subconscious.
‘It’s not like he can see through everything.’
No matter how great the Grandmaster of Shaolin’s insights were, he wouldn’t be able to see through the level Lee Sungmin had achieved in his subconscious.
Lee Sungmin descended from the mountain that day, despite being asked to stay for a day by Jihak and Grandmaster Bulyoung. He couldn’t delay anymore. He stopped at the mountain only because it was on the way.
In the next two months, the dungeon would open.
Could he do it? He had already considered the question hundreds of thousands of times. Lee Sungmin was well aware of the fact that he eventually gritted his teeth in despair with a sense of shame and inferiority toward the answer he ended up with.
So he wouldn’t ask.
He should just do it instead of asking himself if he could. He thought he could do it. Lee Sungmin adjusted his gat over his head. There was a lot to do. First of all, the most urgent was to stop Baek Sogo’s death.
(T/N: a gat is one of those black Korean hats)
After that, he must go north and meet Giin – as advised by Grandmaster Bulyoung. He didn’t know who this ‘Giin’ was, but he needed to go.
(T/N: Giin also means zombie or an eccentric kinda person. The writer mentions it as a name so will be leaving it that way)
After that.
Before the day, he promised to meet Wijihoyeon. There was one more thing to do.
He had to find Preskan.
(E/N: ly translated as Prescan)
He currently possessed a Black Heart. Five years had passed since he first got it, but Lee Sungmin still hadn’t been able to figure out what it was supposed to do in all that time.
The only one who could give him an answer was Preskan.
‘… This is a problem.’
Lee Sungmin looked down at his chest. He wanted to open his chest and see the color of the heart beating in it. He felt the urge several times, but in the end, he didn’t act on it. Whenever he felt such an impulse, Lee Sungmin realised anew that the long years spent in his subconscious had instilled a kind of madness in him.
It was only a few months ago that he began to think that he should find out more about the Black Heart.
Among the things he had experienced since getting it, several of them came to mind. The sudden attack of Aine. The moment when he suddenly realized how to use spear force just as he was about to die. If he wasn’t able to manifest it right at that point in time, Lee Sungmin would have been killed.
He had another similar experience when he fought Ghost Blade. Lee Sungmin had unconsciously stretched out the spear and pierced Ghost Blade’s chest the same moment Ghost Blade was about to slice through his body with his sword. At the time, he had thought that he moved unconsciously. But he came to the conclusion that that probably wasn’t the case after cultivating in the subconscious world and sorting through his experiences in reality,
Lee Sungmin was still unable to replicate the same move he used to kill Ghost Blade. No matter how much he tried. Even if it was unconscious, his efficiency in wielding spear force was poor. He was still unable to reproduce the same force that was used to kill Ghost Blade.
Eventually, his thoughts reached the Black Heart. After gaining the Black Heart, Lee Sungmin had always survived every life-threatening situation.
‘Maybe it was the Black Heart.’
It wasn’t a very pleasant idea. He remembered the tears that he shed when he defeated Ghost Blade. He recalled the feeling he felt. Lee Sungmin was sincerely thrilled that he had reached this level, which he had never reached in his previous life.
But if it were due to the Black Heart-
“… I can’t keep a strange thing with unknown origins in my heart.”
Lee Sungmin muttered those words and lowered his hat.