Chirp, chirp.
With the birdsong, transparent sunlight poured over the village.
A dirt-colored mountain range stretched long at the edge of the sand-mixed fields.
Each ti the wind blew, the dry scent of earth ca with it, carrying the damp breath of lted water from the mountains.
Only a few years ago, this place was a land of death.
Sandstorms raged endlessly, even the wells ran dry, and the harshness made them perform rain-invoking rites every night.
But this spring, tily rains wetted the earth and even the dry fields sprouted new shoots.
“Hoo.”
Seol Hwi stopped in front of a small earthen-walled house at the edge of the village.
Outside, warm spring sunlight shone, yet the door of his house was frozen solid.
White frost blood along the door’s seams.
Creak.
The mont he opened the door, a cold gust burst out with a ‘kwaaak-’ and wetted his face.
Frost blood like flowers on the floor, and tiny crystalline ice particles glittered and floated in the air.
“Not yet. Stop it.”
At Seol Hwi’s single word, the current halted.
In the center of the room, Cheon Miryeo sat cross-legged.
When she opened her eyes, the frost began to lt with a ‘chiiik’ sound.
“Just now… I felt the qi of nature seeping into my body.”
Cheon Miryeo’s pupils trembled slightly.
Her expression mixed excitent and fear.
“It wasn’t demonic arts… it was sothing entirely different.”
“You could be mistaken.”
Seol Hwi’s voice was calm.
“That’s only an on. There’s a difference between the shell cracking and it being completely broken.”
He added matter-of-factly.
“Supre Demon is subdued by demonic power. But Profound Demon is…”
Seol Hwi looked out the window.
“It must accept the order of nature, and the whole body must change from the root. That’s why it’s dangerous, and slow.”
Cheon Miryeo bit her lip.
The scars from the demonic qi deviation were still vivid.
A Supre Demon trap born from the clash of enlightennt and desire.
She had barely returned from the brink of death.
“Master is…”
She opened her mouth cautiously.
“What kind of person are you, really?”
Seol Hwi did not answer at once.
His gaze went off into the distance, then returned to her.
“Why do you ask that?”
“Because you don’t seem like a human.”
Her calm tone nonetheless carried instinctive awe.
A sensation only those who have reached the supre can feel.
An intuition that the being before her had transcended all boundaries.
“…That may be so.”
A strange light passed through Seol Hwi’s eyes.
mory and loss.
Unfinished questions.
The words the old man had offered in the desperate mont when he first faced Jang Dal.
“Well, you’ll know at the mont of death. Maybe… you’ll be able to live a very special life.”
“If a bit of luck, no, quite a lot of luck, is added to that…”
“You might overco this Demon God and et that being again.”
The prophecy was faint then.
Now it had beco a mory made real.
‘It seems he… knew everything.’
This eting too.
This mont too.
Even the current who watches from outside mory.
‘But why did he make continue this bond?’
One question still remained: the real reason he deliberately pulled him into his past.
‘It surely wasn’t just longing for her.’
Seol Hwi was curious about the old man’s intent.
Sshhh.
A wind blew at that mont.
A fallen leaf landed on his knee.
“Do not be impatient.”
“….”
“A flower that blooms in darkness won’t bloom faster if hurried. Profound Demon is the sa. The more you rush, the farther it will be.”
Cheon Miryeo nodded.
A faint ripple under the ice reflected in her eyes.
That spring was unusually cold.
Sumr arrived.
The fields brimd with green life, and the sun beat down hot.
Splash, splash.
Seol Hwi walked along the ricebank again today.
He tamped the soil of the irrigation ditch, filled the cracked gaps, and let water trickle into the parched fields.
Sotis he looked after mountain goats at the request of the lower village.
There were tis he tripped on a naughty goat’s hoof while carrying a leather pail and ended up soaking his clothes.
At dusk, Seol Hwi returned ho.
Creak.
The mont he opened the door, a cool breath brushed his face.
Though it was midsumr, the room was chilly like winter.
Cheon Miryeo sat cross-legged.
Her breathing was calm, but beads of sweat dotted her forehead.
“Don’t keep resting; circulate the qi in ridians.”
Seol Hwi said as he crossed the threshold.
“A body that has suffered the qi deviation… if given a gap, will fall back into that path.”
Cheon Miryeo opened her eyes.
Her complexion had improved from before, but deep in her eyes a heavy fatigue still remained.
“How was today…?”
The only conversation ti of the day.
A half-hour or so for a al and small talk.
Other than that, it was solitary training alone.
“It is nothing special.”
Seol Hwi said while tossing a dry desert twig into the brazier.
“I fixed the waterway and cut the roadside weeds. Old man Lee Sak called and I milked so goats too.”
He paused and snorted a laugh.
“That fellow seed displeased and squirted milk everywhere. My favorite clothes got ruined.”
A small smile spread at the corner of Cheon Miryeo’s mouth.
“Master always wears the sa plain robe, doesn’t he?”
“Then just think I must treasure that one robe.”
“Heh heh… that makes sense.”
A brief silence passed.
Only the crackle of dry twigs burning and the distant jingle of cal bells could be heard.
“This morning, a caravan ca up to this house and then turned back.”
Cheon Miryeo said suddenly.
“There was the sound of the door opening… but why did they do that?”
“Hm.”
Seol Hwi answered indifferently.
“They probably thought you were a corpse.”
Cheon Miryeo’s eyebrows twitched.
“…Do I look like that?”
“You haven’t looked like a normal human for quite so ti. To people from the Western Regions, you’d probably seem like a mountain spirit.”
“….”
Cheon Miryeo lowered her head.
A small sigh escaped.
“…Ha. I see.”
A lonely laugh that could have been resignation or self-mockery.
She knew too that she stood on the border between human and sothing beyond.
That she was slowly awakening into a new being within a cold, hard shell.
“Still, that’s fortunate.”
“What’s that?”
“Corpses don’t talk. You still talk back, so you’re at least alive.”
Cheon Miryeo stared at Seol Hwi.
And she snorted a laugh.
“…Your consolations are quite unique, Master.”
Instead of answering, Seol Hwi boiled water until it bubbled.
He prepared to brew tea from the Western Regions.
The cold aura in the room gradually lifted.
That sumr, the small village at the foot of Heavenly mountain felt unusually cozy.
Before they knew it, autumn had deepened.
The winds of Heavenly Mountain blew cold, and the fields slled of the dry residue of harvested barley.
Cheon Miryeo’s color returned little by little.
A faint blush returned to her cheeks, and her steps gained strength.
Yet the room still held an icy chill, and deep fatigue lingered in her breath.
In the evening, Cheon Miryeo stepped outside for a mont.
“Your body is more or less controlled now, so it’s ti to let your mind rest.”
When Seol Hwi approached and spoke, Cheon Miryeo blinked.
“Let my mind rest… Do you an I should sleep more?”
“It’s a pity to lose one pair of hands during harvest season, but it can’t be helped.”
“Ha…”
Cheon Miryeo shook her head in mild disbelief, then snorted a laugh.
“…Then, when will I ascend to Profound Demon?”
“That depends on you.”
“You are truly an irresponsible saint.”
“Indeed. I’m worlds apart from the master you expected.”
Whooooo—
A wind blew during the brief silence.
It brushed the earthen wall and shook fallen leaves.
The cry of desert crickets ca from afar.
“Relying only on qi is insufficient.”
Seol Hwi spoke slowly.
“They call it a mind thod… but to be precise, it’s just cultivation.”
“You an polishing the mind?”
“Yes.”
“How do I polish it?”
“The way to be still, the way to empty yourself.”
Seol Hwi said as he looked toward Heavenly Mountain in the distance.
“Don’t forcibly draw down the qi of heaven and earth… let it seep in like water.”
Cheon Miryeo exhaled quietly.
A white breath dispersed into the autumn air.
“Is it like the Taoist notion of oneness of self and nothing?”
“Taoists always use grand words. Put simply: ‘sit quietly for a while.’”
“…Saying it that way sohow takes away its nobility.”
“Cultivation is like that. If you act fancy it’s pretending; the real thing is so boring it could kill you.”
Cheon Miryeo smiled broadly. The chill in the wind loosened for a mont.
anwhile, Seol Hwi glanced up at a patch of mountain shade.
‘Perhaps he wanted to see whether I would ultimately sit in nothingness or choose a different path from him.’
Seol Hwi still felt like he faced an unsolved problem.
“So… you’re telling to live boringly?”
“For the ti being. You must learn how to survive.”
She nodded slowly.
Her gaze cald and a deeper stillness settled in.
“How long must I do it?”
“Until you go crazy with boredom.”
“…Just hearing that is already tornting enough.”
“That ans it’s already having an effect.”
A cold wind sighed—
Though the wind was cold, a strange warmth flowed between the two.
That autumn was particularly clear.
And Seol Hwi began, little by little, to enjoy this strange bond.
Winter ca.
Heavenly Mountain’s knife-like winds bit at the bones, and the ridgelines were covered white with snow.
Seol Hwi carried firewood down the mountain path.
He walked the narrow path littered with animal tracks and frost, and arrived at the yard in silence.
Thunk. Thud.
The sound of laying down the bundle of wood cut through the quiet air.
He soon opened the door, and his movent froze.
‘This is…’
A chill, no, a stillness in which even the notion of cold had vanished.
Not that the ice had gone, but a space where the very concept of cold had been emptied.
When the extre of energy passes, silence arrives in return.
In the center of the room.
Cheon Miryeo sat cross-legged.
But not even her breathing could be heard. She stood perfectly still like a statue.
“Ah…”
Seol Hwi’s eyes trembled slightly at the corners.
This was not his achievent.
Nor sothing he had accomplished.
Yet sothing hot rose from deep in his chest.
It felt like watching the first sunrise over a winter river.
Perhaps this was how his master in Qingcheng Sect had once looked upon him, long ago.
“…Yes. That’s how it’s done.”
Seol Hwi quietly entered the room.
A span of ti passed.
A long silence passed.
“Huu…”
Cheon Miryeo exhaled a faint, trembling breath.
Then she slowly opened her eyes and spoke.
“Master… I…”
Her voice was thin but filled with certainty. Her eyes were deep and clear like a tranquil lake.
The flow of her qi and blood had completely changed.
The energy of heaven and earth flowed in and out naturally, resonating with the cosmos.
It was the aura of soone standing at the threshold of Profound Demon.
“First, control it.”
“Yes…?”
Cheon Miryeo took a deep breath.
Joy and excitent colored the edges of her voice.
“This is the most dangerous mont. The gate is open, but the mind has not yet settled. If you falter even a little, you’ll fall back into qi deviation.”
Cheon Miryeo’s expression stiffened in an instant.
“…I will rember.”
Seol Hwi clasped his hands behind his back and looked out the window.
The earthy scent of the Western Regions rising from the firewood spread faintly.
“Slowly, and to the end. Profound Demon isn’t about power; it’s where an unshakable mind arrives.”
Tears welled at the corners of Cheon Miryeo’s eyes.
She knew how precious each of those words was.
“…To … thank you for not giving up on this disciple until the end.”
Seol Hwi tilted his head and looked at the sky.
Fine snow was falling outside the window.
It was likely snow blown from Heavenly Demon.
“The path is one you found yourself.”
Cheon Miryeo’s tears fell.
Her shoulders trembled faintly.
Only she would know whether it was joy or overwhelming emotion.
“I rely kept the fla by your side.”
The breath of winter.
Mixed with the breath of a new realm just opening.
‘You’ll know after a bit more ti.’
Seol Hwi’s question rose into the sky with them.
That winter felt unusually warm to the two of them.
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