Ten Paths of the Master - Chapter 1

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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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Episode 1. The Way of Heaven
Guannei Circuit—in those days, the province of Shanxi.
Nakan County.
Spring, in some year long past.
Jin Gahan arrived at Guangfo Temple, his wife and daughter in tow.
After walking briskly for some time, he paused quietly before the Temple Gate to wait for his wife and only child to catch up.
Just then, a wind swept down from the mountain and brushed across his body.
Looking at the clear blue sky, the white clouds, and the mountain luminous with fresh leaves, with the Temple Gate standing serene within it all, he found himself thinking anew: “I was right to return home.”
After passing the imperial examinations and rising to the rank of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, he had felt the impermanence of life when a dear friend died suddenly, and he had laid everything down.
His family had hoped he would rest a while and then return to office, but his heart harbored no such intention.
‘How splendid!’
He had not spoken openly of it to those around him, but of late Jin Gahan’s attention had been wholly absorbed by the path to Immortality, which he had recently discovered.
Someone might ask, “If you wish to become an Immortal, why go to a temple instead of a Taoist sanctuary?”
Yet that remark reveals ignorance of Guangfo Temple.
At Guangfo Temple, they taught not only the Buddha and the Immortals, but also the mysterious knowledge of the deities of the Western Regions.
‘The Buddha, the Immortals, and the deities of the West—all branches from the same root….’
When he thought about it, it seemed only natural.
If such things truly existed, could the world of the Buddha, the world of the Immortals, and the world of the Western deities possibly exist as separate realms?
The abbot of Guangfo Temple had explained the Buddha, the Immortals, and the Western deities using a metaphor of water.
―They are like water itself. There is a principle—Extremity Reversal—by which water freezes to ice in winter, yet boils into steam and rises to heaven. Water, ice, and steam differ entirely in form and function, yet their source is one. A Buddha who has attained Enlightenment is an Immortal, and an Immortal is the child of the divine. Therefore, do not vex yourselves or quarrel over differences of faith. There are many paths up the mountain; concern yourself only with reaching the summit.
As Jin Gahan nodded in contentment, his wife and daughter drew near.
He stood in a sunny spot, waiting for the sweat to dry from his wife and daughter’s brows, then strode purposefully back through the Temple Gate.
Guangfo Temple.
The Dharma Hall.
That day, the conversation between Abbot Mak Jungan and Jin Gahan grew long.
“……The Immortal Yeong Donbin said that what comes naturally is the Way. The Way is a nature without name or form, the Primordial Spirit that governs all life. This nature and spirit, unseen by the eye, depend upon the light of heaven. When we circulate this heavenly light within our own bodies, again and again, it becomes the Primordial Celestial Taiyi Technique.”
Without pause, Abbot Mak Jungan proceeded to teach Jin Gahan the Cultivation Method of the Primordial Celestial Taiyi Technique.
So absorbed was he in this divine play that he did not notice the handle of his axe rotting away—the discourse on the Primordial Celestial Taiyi Technique did not end until the night had grown deep.
Late in the night, Jin Gahan left the Dharma Hall and hurried toward the Guest Hall, where his wife and daughter waited.
Elated at the thought of practicing with his newly acquired Cultivation Method, his joy was short-lived; the moment he saw his wife’s face, pale and drawn with worry before the Guest Hall, a terrible premonition seized his heart.
“What has happened? Where is Eunseol?”
“She said she was going to the latrine and left, but she hasn’t come back for more than half an hour.”
“Have you looked at the latrine?”
“We’ve searched every latrine in this place, and she’s not there.”
“Heavens! What are we to do? If a mountain beast has taken her, it would be a disaster.”
Jin Gahan hurried to find Abbot Mak Jungan and informed him that his daughter had gone missing within the temple grounds.
The startled abbot sent his disciples to search every corner of Guangfo Temple thoroughly.
Yet the disturbance of that night did not last long.
Jin Eunseol was found asleep in the Firewood Storage, not far from the Guest Hall.
When the disciples woke her and brought her back to the Guest Hall, Jin Gahan, who had been frantic with worry, erupted in anger.
“You said you were going to the latrine—what were you doing asleep in the storage shed, a grown girl like you!”
“I don’t know. After I met some man carrying a pack frame…… when I opened my eyes, I was in the storage.”
“A pack-carrier? Abbot, is there a pack-carrier at Guangfo Temple?”
Abbot Mak Jungan, after a moment’s thought, asked Jin Eunseol carefully.
“Miss Jin, did this pack-carrier perhaps have thick brows and a narrow face?”
“Yes, I think that’s right.”
Recalling the pack-carrier in the midst of her confusion, Jin Eunseol nodded.
Thereupon Abbot Mak Jungan spoke to his disciples.
“It is a pack-carrier with the family name Seok, who lives in the village below. He cannot have gone far yet—find him and bring him here!”
Abbot Mak Jungan intended to question Seok about what had transpired.
Yet though they searched the vicinity of Guangfo Temple and the surrounding towns, the man who had vanished was never found.
From the circumstances, it appeared that Seok had caused some mischief and fled.
Abbot Mak Jungan apologized profusely to Jin Gahan, his wife, and Jin Eunseol, then swore his disciples to silence.
Thanks to their efforts, the secret was kept—but not even such diligence could forestall the will of heaven.
Though Jin Eunseol had not yet been married, her belly began to swell, and in the first month of the following year, she gave birth to a boy.
***
The Annex of Jin Family Manor.
“Ah-buh-buh……, mah-mah-mah…….”
As the child babbled, Jin Eunseol’s gaze reflexively turned toward him.
Looking at the small, delicate child, she found herself suddenly filled with tenderness.
But such soft, murmuring feelings did not last long.
Her tender expression twisted into something harsh and alien in an instant.
After giving birth, Jin Eunseol had become the family’s shame, golden cage and all.
As her belly swelled, she was banished—not in name, but in fact—to the Annex, and that confinement only continued after the birth.
Two years now, locked away like this.
To her, the child was a shackle for life, a curse incarnate.
Grinding her teeth, when the child’s babbling continued, she clamped both hands over her ears.
When even that didn’t silence it, Jin Eunseol shrieked “Stop!” and strangled the child’s throat.
As the child’s face drained of color, Jin Eunseol finally pulled away, gasping for breath.
“Hah! Hah! Stop it, please, just stop…….”
When evening came, a maidservant entered the Annex to collect the accumulated laundry.
But Jin Eunseol, drained of all spirit, lay beside the child and stared blankly at the ceiling.
The maidservant, gathering an armful of soiled cloth, happened to glance down at the child.
The child’s neck was covered entirely in fingernail marks.
The child, who had been smiling brightly to itself, froze like ice the moment its eyes met another’s.
‘Tsk, tsk…….’
The maidservant clicked her tongue silently and hurried to her feet, afraid Jin Eunseol might hear.
She closed the door carefully behind her and shook her head as she left.
Curse or fate—there could be no worse one than this.
The young mistress had even brewed bitter medicines trying to erase the child, but failed and gave birth regardless.
And this was what had become of her since.
The young mistress’s mind wavered with the seasons, while the child precariously clung to life in her trembling hands.
‘Heaven help us, someone will die at this rate…….’
***
Life, it seems, has a stubborn grip.
Four years had passed since the unwanted child was born.
The child’s neck bore the ugly marks of fingernails, yet still drew breath.
Jin Eunseol, who had lived as a prisoner in the Annex for five years since conception, had withered beyond decay into something like a living corpse.
In the Jin Family Manor, the Annex was forbidden ground.
The Annex’s walls stood high, and its gate was—save when servants passed through—always locked tight.
The Inner Residence of the Jin Family Manor.
A summer night.
Jin Gahan sat before a low table, counting off days on his fingers, when he murmured absently:
“Has it already been four years?”
His wife, Sin Yewon, ventured a careful reply.
“Surely it’s time the child started moving about—shouldn’t we at least give it a name?”
She did not call it by any name.
In the Jin Family Manor, a child of the Annex was disgrace incarnate.
“…….”
Emboldened by her husband’s silence, Sin Yewon pressed further.
“And perhaps you could unlock the Annex’s bolt. Eunseol isn’t a criminal, after all…….”
“Hmph. I can’t deny that’s so.”
When Jin Gahan, who had been silent until then, found he could not accept even that much, he bristled.
“It wasn’t Eunseol’s fault to begin with.”
“If someone pokes out your eye and steals your nose, you blame the nose-thief, not yourself. Whose fault would it be?”
“The Abbott himself said that Seok was likely a hidden master of the martial world.”
“Which is precisely why I didn’t cast her out. Had it been otherwise, I’d have severed ties long ago.”
Contrary to Jin Gahan’s stern demeanor, the Annex’s bolt was unlocked the very next morning.
Yet that mercy became poison.
The four-year-old child of the Annex, whom no one had cared for, vanished.
Jin Gahan and his wife only learned of the child’s absence that afternoon.
But neither the grandparents, Jin Gahan and Sin Yewon, nor the mother, Jin Eunseol, sought the child out.
***
Early summer.
At the Hour of the Sheep—one o’clock in the afternoon—a pleasant-looking man in his early forties ambled slowly into the Market.
It was Dan Bulwi, a low-ranking administrator of Hawomen, a human trafficking ring.
“Let’s see—is there any merchandise worth picking up?”
There had to be.
If there wasn’t, he’d have to buy, but the situation was unfavorable.
With it being a bumper harvest year, even raising prices found no buyers.
His eyes suddenly widened as he pushed through the crowd.
A child no more than three or four years old stood at the mouth of an alley, staring intently at the wares spread across the peddlers’ stalls.
From the plainness of his clothes, he didn’t appear to be a child of nobility.
Dan Bulwi quickly scanned the area around the boy but saw no adult accompanying him.
‘Perfect.’
Suppressing his delight, he drifted naturally toward the child.
“Well now, what noble household does this little bright-eyed thing belong to? Say there, little one—how old are you?”
The boy lowered his head and held up four small, fern-like fingers.
“Four years old, then.”
Suddenly, Dan Bulwi’s eyes caught on something at the back of the boy’s neck.
The tender skin, still soft with baby down, was covered in wounds.
They looked as though someone had pressed and clawed at them with fingernails.
Even a dog on a leash didn’t bear marks like that. He couldn’t fathom what could cause such a thing.
“Where are your mother and father?”
The child flinched in sudden alarm and hunched his shoulders.
Dan Bulwi spoke gently, stroking the small head with care.
“Oh dear, your mother and father have been careless indeed. How could they leave such a tiny one alone? Tell me, little one—what’s your name?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t? That’s all right. You don’t need to know now. You’ll learn such things as you grow. Now then, it’s nearly midday—have you eaten?”
“No.”
“Good gracious, our little friend hasn’t eaten yet. You must be hungry. I’ll buy you something delicious. Will you come with me?”
The boy, who had kept his head down, suddenly looked up with wide eyes.
Could such a kind and gentle person really exist in this world?
His mother only ever cursed at him, and whenever she caught his eye, she’d beat him as if she wanted to kill him.
Without thinking, the boy’s hand drifted toward his neck.
He felt the rough scabs where his mother’s nails had clawed him.
Suddenly his chest began to pound and his ears felt heavy; he couldn’t do anything at all.
As the boy hesitated, Dan Bulwi quickly seized his hand.
“Your uncle will go over there and buy you some delicious sweets. They have the best sweets there, you know? So good that even if one of us dropped dead eating them, neither would notice.”
Dan Bulwi, whom he’d met moments before, had become his uncle.
When the boy offered no resistance, Dan Bulwi’s lips curved upward into a smile.
‘Is it really this easy? Fortune smiles on me today.’
Dan Bulwi’s step felt impossibly light as he walked forward, gripping the child’s hand firmly.

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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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