1440 - Chapter 41

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 41
Yeonsu laughed, squatting beside Deokwoo without a care that her skirts were getting soiled. The man she called ‘him’—just thinking of him brought a wistful, uncontainable joy to her face.
Deokwoo recognized that expression well enough. But not its depths.
Yeonsu’s love was unlike that of an ordinary twenty-four-year-old. It was pure and chaste, yet fierce and obsessive, and absolutely unwavering. A swamp of emotion so vast and fathomless that it frightened Deokwoo to wonder if the man who received such affection might find it overwhelming.
“I’ll save him. This is where it starts.”
As Yeonsu gestured toward Jayun, Deokwoo found herself with nothing to say. She could neither cheer on her love nor tell her to stop, so instead she simply fidgeted with the makeup tools.
As though understanding Deokwoo’s heart, Yeonsu rose as well.
As Yeonsu walked toward the ridge to read the mountain’s breath anew, her silhouette to Deokwoo’s eyes seemed like something transcendent, not of this world.
Deokwoo rubbed her eyes for no reason. Behind them, Sanghyung and Jayun were locked in debate over when to expose the truth.
***
Yeonsu walked through a dream. Clouds lay low beneath her feet like mist. Yet her steps were not soft. They felt no different from walking on solid ground.
Having come many times before, she walked a familiar path toward a massive tree. It resembled a mulberry, though its leaves were far larger, and its height was extraordinary. No matter how high Yeonsu craned her neck to look, she could not see where the tree ended.
It was always a wondrous sight. A thick, enormous tree that pierced the clouds—and beneath it sat a man clothed entirely in white.
He sat upon a flat rock with a cushion laid out, slowly fanning himself. His gaze rested on the Peach Orchard Forest visible far in the distance.
As Yeonsu settled herself beside him, the man who had been pretending not to notice her arrival finally lifted his head.
“You’ve come. It’s been a long time.”
The man wore cloth wound at his crown bearing mysterious patterns; half of his snow-white hair was bound up, the other half trailing down to his waist.
Dressed in a robe equally white, he wore the outer garment loose and unbound, at ease. At his loosely tied waist hung a long sword much like Yeonsu’s own.
It dangled from the cloth without a scabbard, attached in a rather free manner, and its blunted blade made it look like a ceremonial sword. Six stars were carved upon its surface.
The man poured a cup of wine from white porcelain and offered it to Yeonsu. She accepted it respectfully with both hands.
“Are you still creating the Cycle of Circulation today?”
Yeonsu asked, wetting her lips with the wine. The man, refilling his own cup, nodded with a wry smile.
“Doing alone what two of us did together—it takes twice the strength.”
“But I’ve heard that Namdu Yuseong did this alone from the beginning.”
At that, the man called Namdu Yuseong—a deity already forgotten by humans—drained his cup heartily and grumbled.
“That’s just it. My predecessor, I’m told, had the two of them consult together amiably to decide lifespans. And look what I’m saddled with! Bored to death, I tell you. Having to hand a chatty fellow like me a task that requires silence and no one to talk to…… Should I call that a kind of discipline?”
He sighed with the question, and Yeonsu burst into laughter. As if Namdu Yuseong’s complaint wasn’t entirely sincere, he laughed along with her.
“Mm, yes. Strange thing is, whenever I see you, my mood lifts. I can even fool around like this.”
At that, Yeonsu set down her empty cup and adopted a playful, serious expression.
“I already have someone in my heart.”
“Ha, well then. Are you saying I’m trying to start a romance with my own disciple?”
The two of them, having made their light jest, sat side by side in silence for a moment, tilting their cups.
This place was mysterious no matter how many times she came. Beneath the enormous mulberry-like leaves draped with clouds, not a single trace of moss had ever grown on the stone.
The swing where the Three-Fold Goddess sat swayed slightly in the gentle breeze. At the end of its arc lay the Peach Orchard Forest that Namdu Yuseong gazed upon. Of course, it was only visible—one could not actually approach it.
Yeonsu could move only about fifty paces in any direction from the tree where Namdu Yuseong sat. She believed this small distance was precisely the extent that the deity had granted her.
“You’ve been up to something interesting lately.”
At those words, Yeonsu flinched and studied Namdu Yuseong’s expression. But contrary to her concern, he seemed pleased. The deity, who did not grow drunk no matter how much wine he drank, smiled at her with a slow, languid warmth, as though pleasantly intoxicated.
But deities were capricious. Unable to know his true thoughts, Yeonsu respectfully clasped her hands.
“Your disciple would never dare to trouble you, my lord.”
At her earnest words, the deity waved his hand, saying he already knew. The gesture held not the slightest hint of displeasure.
Yeonsu felt relieved. If she made a mistake and incurred the deity’s wrath—if that happened—she might be struck down by divine punishment before she could even remove that man from the Baekga.
Whether Namdu Yuseong understood the turmoil in Yeonsu’s heart or not, he spoke after waving his hand for some time.
“Yes, I know. You have a goal, and you won’t do anything that would hinder it.”
His tone suggested he understood that her reason for keeping her body pure and avoiding the deity’s punishment stemmed less from serving the divine and more from the man in the separate quarters.
“Still, I am doing my best in cultivation and meditation, my lord.”
Yeonsu emphasized once more that regardless of her goal, she had not been negligent in her service to the deity.
At that, the deity laughed with a playful air and refilled her cup.
“I know, I know. So don’t be so serious about it.”
……
“You’ve been harsh with yourself. Training and meditation both. Even before your descent, you maintained your body so that all the deities coveted it. After the descent, you were so strict that even your mother tried to stop you. Climbing the mountain day and night, fasting while praying.”
“That was…”
“Thanks to it, at that tender age, your body became one that communicates with all things and all ages. That’s what humans call a Mansin, isn’t it?”
Mansin. Literally, a shaman who serves very many deities.
A shaman does not have only one deity dwelling within her body. The more one prays and cultivates, the more one can hear the words of different deities.
So when divining, performing rituals, or when healing is needed, the appropriate deity lends their power, and the shaman—vessel and conduit of that deity—performs it for the human world.
But if becoming a Mansin were easy, every shaman on the peninsula would be one.
From the moment Yeonsu left her home, she cut ties with the secular world with ruthless intensity. Keeping her body pure while maintaining an attitude of eternal service and receptiveness to teaching, she had to train daily, ascending and descending the mountain to receive the breath of Earth Deities and Heavenly Deities.
It may have sounded simple to say, but actually carrying it out was truly difficult.
40
In fact, Yeonsu never even went to university after receiving her divine descent and beginning her cultivation. Apart from the Divine Siblings and Divine Sisters, she kept human contact to a minimum. She touched neither alcohol nor tobacco, let alone other indulgences. And except for brief periods of light sleep, she spent all her time in prayer.
She prayed with such fervent desperation: grant this disciple your teaching. Let me receive your divine will and live with the power to help those who suffer in hardship and pain. Give me strength.
“Continue to work hard in the days ahead. Your purpose doesn’t have to be wholly noble—don’t frighten yourself needlessly.”
At the deity’s words, which seemed to see through every corner of Yeonsu’s heart, she said nothing, only touching her teacup with the silence of one who has swallowed honey.
Namdu Yuseong had already grown weary of drinking; somewhere along the way, he had set out before him a heavy Go Board that looked as though it were made of jade.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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