Ten Paths of the Master - Chapter 78

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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 78. Do Not Forgive Me
Gwak Estate.
Inner Hall.
Gwak Ido stared at Dan Yeop with disbelief written across his face.
He couldn’t fathom a word of what Dan Yeop was telling him.
He could accept that his mother had been too frightened to do anything but follow Haowen — up to that point, it made sense.
‘But what? She learned martial arts from Haowen and fell into Demonic Possession Cultivation, so her mind comes and goes?’
The words “Don’t talk nonsense” had risen to his throat, but seeing the earnestness in Dan Yeop’s eyes, he swallowed them down.
“So the person who showed up a month ago — that’s Simma?”
“Yes. Her consciousness flickers in and out with gaps of a day or two between episodes.”
Gwak Ido remained skeptical, but he didn’t press the matter further.
There was no point in pursuing it — nothing would change.
“Do you resent your biological mother?”
“How could I not? She tried to kill me for so long.”
“Your mother is suffering from what you said to her. When you told her you couldn’t forgive her, the shock sent her into a collapse from which she hasn’t recovered.”
…….
Dan Yeop couldn’t voice it aloud, but he thought it was, to some degree, Karmic Retribution.
In that sense, Simma was impressive in her own way.
Even when her biological mother begged for forgiveness, she turned away coldly.
If he had been in that situation, he would have wavered with an “Oh, well?” and let it slide.
Gwak Ido, watching Dan Yeop’s silence, asked a question.
“Will you meet your biological mother?”
…….
Dan Yeop didn’t answer, but Gwak Ido could see from his expression that he wanted to meet her.
“If you wish to see her face, come with me. I won’t say anything more about forgiving or not forgiving.”
As Gwak Ido rose from his seat, Dan Yeop followed in his wake.
Forgiveness was beside the point — he had come this far to meet his mother.
***
Inner Quarter.
Gwak Ido entered the room first and explained to Jin Eunseol that Dan Yeop had come, then stepped back out into the corridor.
“Go in.”
As Dan Yeop entered, Gwak Ido turned and made his way to the veranda.
Dan Yeop, stepping into the room, looked around at its interior.
There were no ornaments — the walls were lined densely with bookshelves.
The room was suffused with the smell of medicinal broth.
Jin Eunseol, forcing her torso upright to sit, parted her lips with visible effort.
“Are you in pain?”
“My body is sound. It’s only my mind that flickers.”
Silence settled between them.
Neither Jin Eunseol nor Dan Yeop could speak easily.
After a long while, Jin Eunseol murmured as if speaking to herself.
“I was a coward. I wanted to die, but I didn’t have the courage. So I tried to kill you instead — it seemed easier.”
“Then why didn’t you go through with it?”
“If I killed you……, then I would truly have to die too. I was afraid of dying.”
In other words, she had spared him in order to live.
Dan Yeop felt a strange sensation stir in him.
Until now, he had always killed others in order to live.
Jin Eunseol’s words continued.
“After I gave birth to and raised your younger brother, I understood what I had done. I prayed you would live well, as if to prove something.”
Thick tears rolled down Jin Eunseol’s cheeks.
That such a child had been driven mad — the heavens seemed bitter in her eyes.
“I am living well.”
Jin Eunseol quickly wiped away her tears and spoke with a composed expression.
“Yes, I’m sorry, and I’m proud. I won’t shamelessly ask you to forgive me. I only ask that you understand — that I am reflecting, and that I do regret.”
Dan Yeop looked at Jin Eunseol.
She had aged, yet traces of her past face remained.
Shameless.
That was right.
Nineteen years ago, the woman who had tried to strangle him at any moment, now spoke of reflection and regret.
Then, all at once, Jin Eunseol lifted her head and met Dan Yeop’s eyes.
The moment their eyes met, Dan Yeop found himself looking away without thinking.
It was the fear carved into his mind.
Jin Eunseol, watching this, remembered the infant who once avoided her gaze.
The weight of what she had done pressed upon her chest anew.
“……Don’t forgive me.”
Dan Yeop answered.
“I won’t.”
Strangely, Jin Eunseol felt relieved by those words.
Silence fell again, but it carried none of the heaviness from before.
Jin Eunseol broke the quiet with a question.
“Have you eaten dinner?”
“No.”
“I’ll have something prepared. Would you like to stay and eat?”
“Yes.”
***
The Inner Hall.
Well past the dinner hour, food was laid out once more in the Inner Hall.
As Dan Yeop ate alone, someone slipped hesitantly through the doorway.
It was Gwak Jeong-an, the son of Gwak Ido and Jin Eunseol.
Dan Yeop glanced at his half-brother but said nothing.
Gwak Jeong-an eased himself into the seat across from Dan Yeop.
Then he began sipping his tea.
Dan Yeop, who had been tearing lengthwise into a boiled chicken leg, suddenly asked a question.
“Are you confident you’ll pass the civil service examination?”
“No.”
“Are you good at fighting?”
“No.”
“Have you ever learned martial arts?”
“No.”
Dan Yeop, nodding slightly, pursued the matter no further and returned his attention to his meal.
“I heard your mother tormented you.”
“No.”
“I heard it too. They said she tormented you.”
“She didn’t torment me. She tried to kill me.”
Having finished speaking, Dan Yeop obligingly showed the scar along his throat.
“Hah! Then why did you come back? To extort money?”
“Why? Would that be wrong?”
“You’re off the mark. My mother has no money. It’s all grandfather’s and father’s.”
“Then I’ll take it from your grandfather or your father instead. You’re all one family anyway.”
“What wrong have grandfather and father done to you that they should give you money?”
“You’re family.”
Gwak Jeong-an, gritting his teeth, asked with a bitter expression.
“Did you really come to extort money?”
“I don’t know. What should I do?”
Dan Yeop set down the chicken bone he’d been holding and stared directly at Gwak Jeong-an.
“What are you talking about? My mother’s been bedridden for over a month because of you. I understand you have grievances, but have some restraint.”
“You’re a devoted son, aren’t you?”
“That’s not it at all!”
Gwak Jeong-an, his pride needlessly wounded, denied it forcefully.
“Believe what you like.”
Dan Yeop rinsed his mouth with tea, his expression indifferent.
“Are you a martial artist?”
“Why?”
“I’m just asking because you carry a sword.”
“Haowen.”
At those words, Gwak Jeong-an let out a small laugh.
To common folk, Haowen was scarcely better than street rabble.
“Are you laughing at me?”
“Does Haowen really get to walk around flaunting a sword like that?”
“What’s to stop them?”
“Well, street thugs carry swords and axes, so it’s not like it’s anything unusual.”
“No, you don’t understand. Those people can’t even meet our eyes.”
“I haven’t seen that myself, so I can’t really say anything about it.”
The two of them conversed naturally about Haowen.
As the night deepened, Dan Yeop rose from his seat.
Gwak Jeong-an spoke at the sight of him.
“Where are you going? Leaving?”
“I have to.”
“It’s late. Why don’t you just sleep and leave in the morning?”
“Why would I stay here when there’s a perfectly good inn?”
“Tsk! Suit yourself. Will you come back again?”
“Not anymore.”
“Why not? You should come back to squeeze us for money.”
“Kid, I make decent money too.”
“You’re all talk. How much could you possibly earn in Haowen?”
“I get five silver taels a month.”
“That’s a lie…….”
Gwak Jeong-an, who understood the value of silver, could not believe it.
“Think what you like. Either way, I’m leaving.”
As Dan Yeop turned to go, Gwak Ido and Jin Eunseol entered the Inner Hall together.
Gwak Jeong-an spoke as if tattling.
“He says he’s leaving now.”
At that, Gwak Ido glared and scolded him.
“You — what do you call this man to your seniors?”
“What should I call him then?”
“Dan Yeop, Lord, or Dan Yeop, older brother — that’s how you should address him.”
“Come on, ‘Lord’ to a Haowen person — that’s…….”
“You, you — still!”
“Tsk.”
Gwak Jeong-an pretended not to hear and looked away.
In place of his wayward son, Gwak Ido apologized to Dan Yeop.
“Lord Dan, my apologies. Please understand — he’s still young and hasn’t learned better.”
“It’s fine. It’s not even wrong. If you call someone a lord in Haowen, people just laugh.”
“…….”
Gwak Ido had no words to reply and clamped his mouth shut.
Jin Eunseol, standing with the support of her husband, spoke with difficulty.
“You’re leaving now?”
“Yes.”
“Go safely, and if you need any help, come find us anytime.”
Dan Yeop did not reply.
He would have no occasion to need help, but her words alone touched him.
Then Gwak Jeong-an interjected.
“Don’t worry. He earns five silver taels a month.”
Gwak Ido and Jin Eunseol looked at Dan Yeop with astonished eyes.
“It’s true. I’m grateful for your concern. Then I’ll take my leave.”
Dan Yeop bid farewell to the two of them and departed from the Inner Hall.
***
Leaving the Gwak Estate, Dan Yeop returned to the inn.
Though it was the dead of night, the proprietor greeted him warmly, as if there were no other guests.
After paying the lodging fee and entering his room, Dan Yeop sat at the table.
Once the tension released, exhaustion came over him, yet sleep would not come.
He lit the oil lamp with the Fire Tinder he carried.
“Sigh.”
Meeting his birth mother in memory, he felt the transience of life all the more keenly.
He had not sought her out in expectation of anything in particular.
But seeing his birth mother’s aged and sickly form made him feel that living itself was futile.
He could endure living — so why had he vented his frustration on himself…….
What thoughts had Simma harbored after meeting his birth mother?
He had departed as if never to see her again, so he must have been deeply resentful.
Yet he had no memory of her — why had he felt that way?
Yet the one who ought to have been angry—himself—remained unmoved.
Dan Yeop drew the White Record Book from his pack and set down these thoughts of his own.
Not that he meant to show it to Simma.
He simply wanted to leave some trace that he had lived, in whatever form he could.
“There’s truly nothing left to do now.”
It felt as though he had reached the final point of his life.
Sitting in the chair, he drew up the Heart-Stabilizing Cinnabar Work.
A luminous thread that rose from his Dantian burrowed toward the Heavenly Eye between his brows and burst forth in brilliant radiance.
Flash—!
Dan Yeop opened his eyes and looked around with a strange expression.
The furnishings and atmosphere of the room seemed oddly like an Inn.
This was the first time he’d awakened in such a place in the middle of the night.
“What wind blows now, I wonder?”
Muttering to himself, he turned his gaze to the open White Record Book.
There was an entry about going to the Gwak house and meeting his birth mother.
Dan Yeop murmured as he read on.
“She’s quite enlightened indeed.”
His birth mother had told him not to forgive her, and he’d answered yes, but the entry said he no longer held any resentment.
Dan Yeop read to the end and closed the White Record Book.
His feelings were strange.
The dull-witted Dan Yeop’s emotions became strangely clear to him.
Even the hollowness of his heart.
“This makes me seem like a bad man, doesn’t it?”
Dan Yeop’s eyes caught sight of his pack as he sat with a sour expression.
Looking more closely, he recognized the Maha Cloth he’d received from his master.
It seemed he’d packed various things since the journey would take several days.
‘If I practice while wearing the Golden Tower Jade Robe, wouldn’t the completion of the Two Origins Return to One Achievement accelerate as well?’
Until now, he’d worn the Golden Tower Jade Robe only when practicing the Taeul Original Source Resonance Method.
But there was no rule against wearing it while cultivating the Two Origins Return to One Achievement.
If the robe helped with the Taeul Original Source Resonance Method, it should help with Two Origins Return to One as well.
“Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”
He locked the door, then drew the Golden Tower Jade Robe from his pack and put it on.
Then he extinguished the lamp, climbed onto the bed, and lay down.
His heart quickened slightly with an inexplicable sense of anticipation.

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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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