Survival Guide for the Reincarnated - Chapter 434

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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 434
“Won’t you play?”
“….”
“This is the ‘final match,’ after all. Shouldn’t you play?”
Seol Woon-hwi chuckled softly and placed a white stone down.
At the center point—the place that would become the world’s heart.
The very spot Seol Jung-cheon had deliberately yielded.
And it wasn’t just this move; everything Seol Jung-cheon had said carried profound implications.
Yet Seol Woon-hwi had no intention of accepting all of it as presented.
There was only one thing.
He wanted to deny that one thing.
“This is not the final match.”
“Is that so.”
“Yes. I’m not going anywhere to die, and Father will live as long as I do.”
Seol Jung-cheon burst into hearty laughter.
“A child dying before the parent—isn’t that unfilial?”
“I agree. So I’ll live exactly one day longer than you, Father.”
Seol Jung-cheon shook his head.
“You’ll live much longer than that. You’ll build a family, have children, and watch how a child who resembles you navigates this world. There’s a certain joy in that—as I know now.”
With those words, Seol Jung-cheon placed a stone at a vital point.
Click.
The sound echoed.
Seol Woon-hwi placed his stone as well.
Click.
The game had begun.
In silence, only the sound of stones being placed rang out.
Click.
Click.
Click.
How much time had passed?
Seol Jung-cheon spoke.
“Go resembles life.”
“It does.”
“A single stone can transform the board.”
Click.
He placed a stone.
“Yet sometimes multiple stones must move together to hold meaning.”
Seol Woon-hwi replied as he placed his stone.
“Everything is connected.”
Seol Jung-cheon nodded.
“Exactly. One affects the whole, and the whole defines the one.”
“….”
“You must be a more skilled baduk player than I am, for you already understand this.”
Seol Woon-hwi laughed softly.
“It means that elevating Father to Primordial Sole Existence was no accident.”
“Hehehehe….”
Seol Woon-hwi gazed at the Go Board for a moment.
Black and white.
They were entangled.
As if they were fighting.
Yet they achieved harmony.
“Father.”
“Speak.”
“There is no correct answer in baduk.”
“There isn’t.”
“Any move you make could be the best or the worst.”
Click.
I placed a stone.
“The outcome depends on the moves that follow.”
Seol Jung-cheon chuckled.
“You’ve become a philosopher.”
“I haven’t.”
“No, a martial artist is a philosopher.”
Click.
Seol Jung-cheon placed a stone.
“What is the martial way? Is it strength? Technique?”
“….”
“No. The martial way is the Path. It is the way forward.”
Seol Jung-cheon’s voice deepened.
“Those who walk that path are martial artists, and those who seek to understand it are philosophers.”
Seol Woon-hwi looked at Seol Jung-cheon.
He spoke.
“My son. You already walk that path.”
“Father walks that path as well.”
“Indeed.”
Martial artist to martial artist.
Father and son.
There is no correct answer in how one defines oneself. One need only walk the path one believes is right.
Thus, Seol Jung-cheon did not stand in Seol Woon-hwi’s way.
And Seol Woon-hwi, understanding his father’s heart, accepted it.
There is nowhere on the Ten Thousand Year Snow Mountain where the cold energy disappears.
The outer Byeol Won where I spent my childhood was no exception.
But in this place alone, all the cold energy had vanished.
The conversations we shared while placing baduk stones.
All of it was will, expression, and consequence.
Seol Woon-hwi picked up a stone.
He paused in thought.
Where should he place it?
Multiple options presented themselves.
Each held meaning.
Each held possibility.
But he had to choose one.
Click.
He placed the stone.
“Choice is always difficult.”
Seol Woon-hwi spoke.
“There are many times when we cannot know what is right and what is wrong.”
“What do you do then?”
“I trust.”
“Trust what?”
“Myself.”
Seol Woon-hwi gazed at the Go board.
“The path I have walked. The choices I have made. The person I have become through their accumulation.”
Seol Jung-cheon nodded.
“A good answer.”
Click.
He placed a stone.
“But trusting oneself differs from arrogance by only a sheet of paper.”
“I understand.”
“Then how do you distinguish between them?”
Seol Woon-hwi fell silent for a moment.
He thought.
Then he answered.
“I doubt endlessly.”
“Doubt?”
“Yes. I constantly doubt whether my choices are right, whether my path is correct, and I verify them.”
Click.
He placed a stone.
“But doubt does not make me stop. I advance even as I doubt.”
Seol Jung-cheon looked at Seol Woon-hwi.
A long silence.
Then he laughed.
“You really have… grown to a point where even I find you difficult to handle.”
“….”
“When did you become so large?”
Seol Jung-cheon’s voice carried emotion.
“Just yesterday, it felt like you were sitting on my lap.”
Click.
He placed a stone.
“Now you speak from the same eye level as me, or perhaps from an even higher place.”
Seol Woon-hwi lowered his head.
“I apologize.”
“Why do you apologize?”
“For growing too quickly.”
Seol Jung-cheon chuckled softly.
“Don’t say such foolish things. What parent grieves when their child grows?”
“….”
“I’m proud of you. Truly.”
Click.
Seol Woon-hwi placed a stone.
Territories were forming on the Go Board.
Black’s territory.
White’s territory.
They contested each other’s domains.
Yet within that struggle, balance was taking shape.
“Father.”
“Yes.”
“I had a choice.”
“A choice?”
“Though it should be classified as a previous life, I’ll call it a regression for convenience. When I first became aware of this regression, I could have recreated my childhood and shown a slow, gradual growth.”
“That would have been possible.”
“But I did not.”
That was true.
Seol Woon-hwi had not done so.
“It didn’t suit my nature, but more than that, I didn’t want to act out what I already knew, to pretend when the future lay plain before my eyes, to exhaust myself with such tedious deception.”
“I understand.”
“Because of that, Father must have found me very unfamiliar.”
“I won’t deny it.”
“Thank you for understanding and accepting it all.”
Seol Jung-cheon chuckled softly.
“No matter how many times you’ve regressed, you must be younger than me. Shouldn’t an elder yield?”
Seol Jung-cheon spoke casually, but from his position, it couldn’t have been easy.
He suddenly employed the Blood Cult’s martial arts and created a new technique called the Heavenly Snow Domain using it.
This couldn’t be classified within the ordinary bounds of genius.
There exists something beyond genius.
That alone is what makes him appear as a genius.
“There is someone I met at the Wind Wall.”
“I have ears to hear and know of whom you speak. You mean Jeol Gal Hyeon.”
“Yes.”
Seol Woon-hwi gazed at the Go Board.
“He has been trapped here for five hundred years. To protect his conviction.”
“….”
“Watching him, I pondered. What is a martial artist?”
Click.
I placed a stone.
“Someone with great strength? Someone with superior martial arts? No.”
“Then what?”
“A martial artist is someone who protects their conviction. Someone who stakes their life on what they believe to be right.”
As Seol Woon-hwi had mentioned countless times, the ideal image of a martial artist in his mind was someone like Jeol Gal Hyeon.
Seol Jung-cheon nodded.
“Correct.”
Click.
“A martial artist is a being of conviction. That conviction may sometimes become poison, yet a martial artist without conviction is merely a swordsman.”
Seol Woon-hwi picked up a stone.
I deliberated for a long time.
Where should I place it.
This single move would change the board.
Click.
I placed it.
Seol Jung-cheon’s eyes narrowed.
“…An aggressive move.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It seemed there would be no opportunity if not now.”
Seol Jung-cheon studied the Go Board.
For a long while.
Then.
Click.
He placed a stone.
“I accept.”
Their eyes met across the Go board.
Across the expanse of black and white stones.
“Father.”
“Speak.”
“I will be leaving soon.”
As if he had anticipated this, Seol Jung-cheon did not so much as flinch.
“Is it the Original Blood Sect?”
“Yes. There is still work that I must do.”
Seol Woon-hwi’s voice was resolute.
“The Heavenly Righteousness Alliance, the Martial Alliance, and the Four Heaven Alliance—these three organizations currently maintain perfect equilibrium.”
“Because of you.”
“Yes. But as is the nature of human affairs, that balance will not endure indefinitely.”
“Still, it should hold for several decades, should it not?”
“If no ‘problem’ erupts within those decades, then perhaps it will.”
Seol Jung-cheon perceived the implication.
“Is the interior of the Original Blood Sect more chaotic than the Snow Palace once was?”
Seol Woon-hwi paused to consider.
How should I express this?
Hmm.
“The center holds firm, but the periphery trembles.”
“Trembles, you say…”
“Without Cheon Do-ja’s sanction, the Original Blood Sect does not move. Yet even he cannot ignore certain things.”
“What is that?”
“The will of the people.”
“The will of the people?”
“The population dwelling on the Ilwol Plateau exceeds tens of thousands. The surrounding forces not formally belonging to the Original Blood Sect number in the hundreds. From what I understand, voices have been rising from within—not merely now, but for some time.”
“Voices, you say…?”
“Unification of the Central Plains.”
At those words, Seol Jung-cheon’s hand stilled.
“…A grand ambition indeed.”
Seol Woon-hwi shook his head.
“It is no mere dream. If the power of the Original Blood Sect were truly unleashed upon the world, the Murim would be unified under one banner.”
“…Is it truly that formidable?”
“Cheon Do-ja alone could face every martial artist of Primordial Sole Existence in the Central Plains. What further need is there for words?”
“It is difficult. Most difficult.”
“There are problems to resolve with him as well. In the end, I must depart.”
“I will not stop you. However.”
Seol Jung-cheon’s eyes were unwavering.
“Make me a promise.”
“What promise do you speak of?”
“I will survive. No matter what.”
Seol Woon-hwi nodded.
“I promise you.”
Click.
He placed a stone.
“I will return alive, Father.”
Seol Jung-cheon gazed at the Go board.
The game was nearly finished.
Black and white.
Perfectly balanced.
There was no way to know who would win.
But that was the beauty of Go.
“Give your utmost effort until the very end. I too shall do the same from my position.”
Seol Jung-cheon paused before continuing.
“Go.
Click.
“Life itself.”
Seol Woon-hwi smiled.
“I will do so.”
Click.
He placed a stone.
The two continued playing in silence.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Only the sound of stones being placed echoed.
Time passed.
How long had it been?
The game ended.
A difference of two territories.
Seol Woon-hwi had won.
“I have won.”
“Hmm… yes, that was an excellent game.”
Seol Jung-cheon cleared the stones.
“I thought I would win this time.”
“You will be able to win next time.”
Seol Jung-cheon chuckled softly.
“You will return alive.”
“And you and I will play Go again.”
“Then I must train harder if I am to win.”
Seol Woon-hwi laughed.
“You won’t go easy on me. Please do your best.”
“Hehehehe.”
The two rose to their feet.
They faced each other.
Father and son.
Seol Jung-cheon extended his hand.
To Seol Woon-hwi’s head.
He stroked it gently.
As he had when I was young.

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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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