Ten Paths of the Master - Chapter 73

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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 73. Are there any Saekmokin among your ancestors?
Son Taek.
Dan Yeop, who had returned home early, finished his evening meal and then taught Son Jiheon the Jinsam Daedobeop to aid digestion.
Since Son Jiheon had a solid foundation, he learned faster than the masters of Jeommun.
Of course, that held only until the Jincheonji Dobeop.
When it came to the Jinbaekriyu Dobeop, his progress matched that of the Jeommun masters.
Frustrated by the slow pace, Son Jiheon asked during a rest period.
“Friend, why isn’t the progress moving faster? Is it because I skipped over the White Willow Blade Method?”
“No, it’s just how it is. My adoptive father taught the masters of Seonmun too, and they progressed at a similar pace to you.”
“Really?”
“If anything, I think you’re progressing quickly because your fundamentals are so solid. You’re keeping pace with people who spent their whole lives studying the White Willow Blade Method.”
“I see.”
Only then did Son Jiheon’s expression brighten.
He thought to himself that it had been wise to study martial arts under the masters of Hyeonmugwan and Elder Gwok of Jongnampa.
Shortly after parting with Son Jiheon, Dan Yeop returned to Byeolchae.
His expression had grown slightly taut as he stepped into his room.
Soon enough, he would know his condition.
Would it end again with him feeling fear at a woman’s face?
Thanks to the prior incarnation of Dan Yeop, all the woman’s shrieking curses had returned to memory.
While it might have been fear in infancy, now even the thought of it made anger surge within him.
‘Let’s see who wins.’
Dan Yeop climbed onto the bed and sat in lotus position.
Then he recalled the incantation of the Taeul Bonwon Yeonseong Gyeol.
—In stillness, shining upon the Danjeon, stars reflect within it.
From emptiness, fire arises and transforms into the Sin-ui Yeonkkot.
His mind, which had been churning with stray thoughts, slowly settled.
In that state, Dan Yeop concentrated his consciousness on his Danjeon.
As if the night sky reflected upon a lake, stars arose in his Danjeon.
Soon the stars in his Danjeon transformed into flames, which then became a lotus blooming with closed petals.
‘It’s coming now.’
Dan Yeop calmly observed the Sin-ui Yeonkkot slowly unfurling.
And just as before.
As the Sin-ui Yeonkkot scattered, a white hand appeared.
‘Hmph! I’m not afraid of you.’
Dan Yeop gritted his teeth and focused his consciousness on the white hand.
Then, from deep within his mind, a faint voice reached him.
—I can’t! No!
—Please don’t do this. Please.
—Someone help me. Is anyone there?
—No! No, please…….
Dan Yeop recognized it as Jin Eunseol’s sleep-talking.
For a moment he felt pity, but then Jin Eunseol looked at him with bloodshot eyes and shrieked.
—You wicked creature! You’ll become like that villain too, won’t you? You should never have been born!
—Die! You deserve to die! You’ll bring nothing but ruin to the world!
—Ahhh! Die! You’ve destroyed my life!
Before, her lips had merely moved silently, but now her voice came through.
It must have been because of the words left by the prior Dan Yeop in the Baekchop.
Dan Yeop, who had endured without understanding, now shouted back.
—Who are you calling a villain! You’re the demon who tried to kill your own child! Did I ask to be born? I never even had the chance to refuse!
His heart pounded, but his breath did not catch as it had before.
Anger and emptiness weighed heavier than fear.
This was the change that had come from reclaiming the lost memories of his infancy.
Had he known this earlier, he would never have been so afraid.
Then Jin Eunseol spoke through sobs and weeping.
—Hng-hng-hng! I’m sorry, little one……. What fault is yours? I’m the one who’s mad. I should have died…….
Without thinking, Dan Yeop muttered in a hollow voice.
—Don’t say such things. Don’t apologize either. No matter what you say, I won’t forgive you.
In that instant, Jin Eunseol’s face scattered like glittering powder and dispersed.
Dan Yeop understood immediately.
He had been freed from the terrifying phantom of Jin Eunseol.
He murmured absently to himself.
‘…Never going to see it again, am I?’
A confused wash of emotions—relief and regret tangled together—swept over him.
Then the Eunggi Dan that had been compressed in his Danjeon began to melt like snow.
How long had passed?
Five-colored radiant light flowed from Dan Yeop’s entire body.
It was the Taeul Seongwang, the entry-level stage of the Cheonggye Taegojong.
The result of Jeok Songja’s Eunggi Dan and the talent of genius converging.
Dan Yeop opened his eyes after circulating the Taeul qi through one complete cycle.
It was the first time since awakening the Sin-ui Yeonkkot.
His chest swelled with the pride of breakthrough—of having crossed a wall.
“So now I just need to perfect the Iwon Gweuil Gong?”
Freed from the grip of death, the path of Naegong cultivation lay open before him; mastering the Iwon Gweuil Gong was now merely a matter of time.
Riding this momentum, he recalled the incantation for the Iwon Gweuil Gong.
There is a saying: all streams flow to the sea.
For one who had already shattered the wall and reached the realm of Taeul Seongwang, training in the Iwon Gweuil Gong was not difficult.
As the saying goes, a thief who learns late forgets when the cock crows.
Dan Yeop, who had kept his distance from Naegong cultivation to avoid Jin Eunseol’s phantom, spent the night until dawn practicing the Iwon Gweuil Gong.
And finally, as dawn broke, he ascended to the Gu Seong realm of the Iwon Gweuil Gong.
The Iwon Gweuil Gong was originally a method for merging two different types of qi into one.
Naturally, it had little to do with increasing inner force.
Rather, it had been created to refine the spiritual energy one had absorbed.
In any case, the moment the Iwon Gweuil Gong reached Gu Seong, Dan Yeop sensed someone watching him.
‘What? What is that?’
He extended his sensory perception, but there was no one around the Byeolchae.
‘It didn’t feel like they were that far away…’
The moment he focused his consciousness, the sensation of being watched vanished without a trace.
Finding nothing, Dan Yeop stopped paying attention.
‘Must have been my imagination.’
It was probably an illusion.
Thinking it was time to rise, Dan Yeop opened his eyes.
His Taeul qi had grown stronger; even after practicing through the night, his body and mind felt refreshed.
Rising from his seat, he washed his face, then sat at the table and unfolded the Baekchop.
Looking at it again, Dull-Wit Dan Yeop’s writing overflowed with solemnity and melancholy.
‘It’s like reading a farewell letter.’
Dan Yeop’s feelings were complicated.
What did Dull-Wit Dan Yeop know, holding dominion over the physical body, that made him write this way?
Seized by compassion for Dull-Wit Dan Yeop, he picked up the brush.
As he finished writing, an attendant came to fetch him.
***
The Naedang.
The moment Dan Yeop entered, he bowed respectfully to Son Yubaek.
“Did you sleep well through the night?”
He began to raise his head but then froze.
Son Yubaek was staring directly at him.
“Pardon me—is there something you wished to ask?”
“Do you happen to have any Saekmokin ancestry?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Your eyes look odd. That’s why I’m asking.”
“My eyes?”
Dan Yeop grasped what was being said but played ignorant for now.
‘What’s this? I was told my eyes turn golden only at full mastery…’
But he was only at Gu Seong—the color had already changed.
“Look, it’s yellowish, definitely gold eyes. Son Jiheon, come look. Tell me if I’m right.”
Son Jiheon leaned his face close to Dan Yeop’s and spoke.
“Golden, definitely. Strange—they weren’t like this yesterday.”
“See? I was right, wasn’t I? He must have had Saekmokin ancestors.”
It was not unreasonable to think so, as many peoples had long mingled within the empire.
Rather than deny it, Dan Yeop chose an ambiguous stance.
“I wouldn’t know for certain, but as far as I’m aware, there’s nothing like that in my family.”
This time it was Son Yeonhwa who stepped closer to examine Dan Yeop’s eyes before speaking.
“My goodness, it’s not just Gumanㅤ then. It’s like gold catching sunlight—so mysterious. I find myself wanting eyes like that.”
Son Jiheon let out a cold laugh.
“Ha! Who wouldn’t want them? Right now even the dirt between your toes probably looks beautiful to you. I give it exactly one year before you come to your senses.”
“Must you speak so coarsely at the dinner table?”
Son Jiheon then turned his gaze toward Yu Hwayoung.
“Mother, as someone seasoned by life, might you offer a word of wisdom to this foolish child?”
“Heavens! You should talk. Stop haunting the Giroo every day and put some effort into your studies for once.”
“Mother, even Li Bai and Du Fu composed poems in the Giroo. Don’t look at such places through tinted spectacles.”
“So is that why you visit the Jayungak to compose your poetry? Won’t you share one of the poems you’ve written there?”
In the end, Son Jiheon shook his head vigorously and returned to his seat.
Dan Yeop, listening to the exchange between Son Jiheon and his family, muttered something to himself.
‘I suppose I need to wear tinted spectacles myself.’
For Dan Yeop, tinted spectacles were not a choice but a necessity.
If word of his eye’s secret ever reached a descendant of the Soyojong, his life would be in mortal danger.
***
Seonpyeongbang.
Jipdanghyang Ansickheon, the headquarters of the Jeommun.
The masters and instructors of the Jeommun stared at Dan Yeop with bewildered expressions.
It was because he had arrived rather late wearing dark tinted spectacles across his face.
Baek Chogong, the Sect Leader, could not contain his curiosity and asked.
“Instructor Dan, isn’t that which covers your face a pair of tinted spectacles?”
“It is.”
“I’ve seen the Sect Leader of the Gakmun carry those, but weren’t those meant for summer use?”
“Both to protect my eyes and to change the mood, I’ve decided to wear them as a matter of convenience.”
“Ah, to change the mood…. I see.”
Baek Chogong, the Sect Leader, regarded Dan Yeop with sorrowful eyes.
It seemed Dan Yeop had suffered a greater shock than he himself, despite having lost a nephew.
Others’ reactions were no different from Baek Chogong’s.
It made sense—in the Jeommun these days, there was hardly anyone who had not heard of Dan Yeop and Baek Yuhwa.
Training resumed.
Dan Yeop taught the instructors the first move of the Jincheonji Dobeop.
Just as before, they mastered this move in a single day.
One move learned per day—that was the pace.
Because of this, the instructors’ shoulders grew heavy with strength.
Dan Yeop was curious what expression they would show when learning the Jinbaekriyu Dobeop, but he decided to leave that to the other Dan Yeop.
Training without sleep for two days straight was physically taxing.
That night.
Returning to the Byeolchae at Sontak, Dan Yeop wrote out a note of instruction for the other Dan Yeop, then climbed onto his bed and closed his eyes.
***
The next morning.
The moment Dan Yeop opened his eyes, he let out a sigh of relief.
“Hah!”
When he had written everything in the Baekchop, he had thought he might disappear.
Though he maintained control of the body, he had felt as though something crucial was missing from him.
This new morning was quite moving.
“Not a bad way for things to go, actually.”
In this moment, he forgot even his vendetta against his blood relatives.
To this degree, Dan Yeop felt a thrill at simply being alive.
Shortly after, he rose from the bed and retrieved the Baekchop from the bookshelf to read it.
His mind was in such a rush that he didn’t even sit down.
As he read the Baekchop, his expression changed several times.
‘He overcame the wall of fear and succeeded in Naegong cultivation, and now he’s in the process of merging two personalities into one?’
The fact that ‘as a side effect his eyes changed to gold and he must wear tinted spectacles’ hardly registered in his mind.
Dan Yeop unconsciously murmured to himself.
“So they will merge in the end.”
The thought that one of them would disappear left his heart feeling heavy.
“But this fellow seems pleased.”
Unlike himself, who felt deflated, a strange vitality emanated from his handwriting.
His gaze suddenly turned toward the table.
A blackened Yeonan Gyeong lay at the center.
“So I’m supposed to wear this thing and go about my business? Of all the ridiculous demands.”
Perhaps Sim Maya possessed the skill to bear such an encumbrance without complaint, but he did not.
The thought of fastening something so absurd to his head was already making his temples throb.

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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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