Tuapacheonmu, Fourth Form: Changcheon.
An arrogant name, as if it could create the heavens.
Recalling that the Fifth Form is Pacheon, I can't help but wonder if this wasn't a naming intended by Paejon.
Create the heavens.
Shatter the heavens.
I don't know what meaning lies within, but while the First, Second, and Third Forms are all single-strike martial arts, Changcheon was not a technique for striking.
If forced to compare, it is the process of using the heat of the Nine-Flame Fire Wheel Technique to activate the body.
It could be seen as similar to that.
Tuapacheonmu was a martial art that made it easiest to reach Transcendence through an artificial bone transformation and rebirth.
The Fourth Form, Changcheon, was its extension.
An artificial state of no-self.
That momentary process which martial artists undergo once for the sake of enlightenment.
Creating something that artificially reaches that place.
That is Changcheon.
With a single movement, needless thoughts are erased and hesitation disappears, allowing energy to flow naturally throughout the body.
Since energy can move more smoothly, the power of martial arts invariably grows stronger.
This signified a kind of physical awakening.
Subjectively, it felt as though my power multiplied several times over.
The problem was:
'The recoil multiplies as well.'
This insane efficiency of doubling a martial art's power naturally came with fierce drawbacks.
At first, I had wondered if such a crazy martial art could even exist, but after using it, I understood.
Use this wrong, and you die.
It was also the warning Paejon had hinted at when I first succeeded.
Use it only at the absolute last moment if possible.
He had warned me that using it midway meant I'd kick the bucket, and to be careful until I got used to it. After using Changcheon, I could understand.
Tuapacheonmu was already a damn painful martial art, but Changcheon's recoil was incomparable even to that.
I used it, then used the First Form, and was bedridden for three days.
And that was from unleashing it just once.
Anyway...
The recoil was damn severe, but put another way, it meant tremendous firepower accompanied its use.
That was why.
*Cough.*
The reason I could feel considerable relief even while coughing up blood.
"Hoo... dammit."
I wiped the blood caked around my mouth.
At the same time, I looked ahead.
The scene hadn't changed much.
The floor was still filled with ink-black liquid, and the surroundings were pitch dark.
A sight not much different from the beginning.
But.
[...Astounding.]
Looking at the old man before me, I rose to my feet.
The center of my chest felt hollow.
A large hole had been torn in the old man's upper body.
The result of Dou Ya Wu Quan accompanied by Changcheon.
[Since when?]
The old man asked. Hearing the question, I tilted my head.
"What do you mean?"
[I know this entire process was not born of instinct or coincidence. Since when had you planned this?]
"..."
Since when, he asks?
Of course.
"From the very beginning."
[...]
From the moment I first challenged the old man.
Until this very moment the fight ends, it had all been calculated.
Ah, the part about Senior Dangjemun hadn't been in the plan.
Aside from that, everything had gone according to plan.
However...
'It wasn't that everything matched perfectly; I had merely prepared several calculations.'
I had predicted the old man's actions and prepared five or six scenarios.
I had simply moved according to them.
I knew the opponent possessed the Ghost Eye.
The effect of the Ghost Eye seemed no different from reality.
First, I established that.
'Ten chances.'
The ten chances the old man had given me. I recalled them.
If I attack with all my might ten times, is that an existence I can reach?
'No.'
Not a chance.
I always said it. You have to maintain thorough self-objectivity.
Whether that old man is real or fake, he is an existence I cannot defeat.
Then what must I do?
'I have to make it so I can win.'
If I couldn't win, I had to make it possible to win.
So I thought.
I would use those ten chances differently.
For that purpose, I showed my full power in the first seven.
I couldn't act then.
The opponent would notice.
I had to attack with true, full power. And I actually did.
This is the limit of my attack.
I made it so the opponent would 'recognize' that.
Honestly, it felt like shit.
'That was my real full power, yet I couldn't even singe his clothes.'
No matter how much I've been through in my past and present lives, I couldn't even touch that old man's clothes.
It was a truly shitty life. But what can you do? Even if it's shit, I have to find a way.
Seven.
I had to use seven of the ten, but thanks to that, the opponent must have realized.
What the peak of my power was like.
Having succeeded in this, I introduced variables from the eighth onward.
To suppress any possible doubt, I had to create the variables myself.
What I can use isn't limited to flames.
I have another energy as well.
The reason I bothered to use Tuapacheonmu was because of that.
Make him recognize it, create variables to sow confusion.
I even showed that I was doing my best not to let my thoughts race.
I used all ten like that.
Honestly, I had placed great importance on the reasoning.
But the conclusion of these ten was one.
'To keep that old man from knowing about my Ghost Eye.'
Then one might ask, why not just not show the Ghost Eye from the start?
'The old man said it. He was watching me.'
He had already noticed that my body held Sin Noya's energy.
Who knows.
He might know of the Ghost Eye's existence as well.
If so, doing it this way was faster.
Fight by planning and planning and planning.
Fighting dirty and shittily is the right way.
There may be no honor in a dogfight, but survival exists.
That was more important to me.
[Haha... remarkable.]
The old man burst into an admiring laugh upon hearing my words.
*Slip.*
"...!"
Meanwhile, I saw the old man's body gradually recovering.
Uh oh, is this screwed?
Since he's a soul to begin with, I didn't think he could really die, but isn't that a bit dirty?
Just as I thought I needed to devise my next plan.
[You won.]
The old man spoke to me, a smile remaining on his face.
[I admit it. I lost, and you won.]
"..."
In the end, the old man acknowledged his defeat.
*Thud.*
"Haaa..."
Only after hearing that did I collapse onto the ground.
It felt like all my strength drained away.
"This is really damn hard...."
I sighed with lament, and the old man soon tilted his head.
[You believe me so readily? How do you know I'm not speaking nonsense?]
"Because you said so."
[Hmm?]
"You said you know when swords cross. I'm not so different."
The old man wasn't one to spout nonsense.
That was something I could sufficiently tell from our recent exchange.
[You seem like a weakling, yet this side of you is quite different. A peculiar fellow.]
"I hear that often."
[Then, youngster.]
"Yes."
[What was that you said earlier?]
"What?"
[That Dangjemun is a woman.]
"Ah."
—Dangjemun is a woman.
Words spat out to buy time to overlay Changcheon.
If nothing else, this had been a real gamble.
It was a relief it worked; if not, it would've been the end.
Recalling that, I smirked and answered.
"Who knows."
[...Huh?]
It was a sign I had no intention of answering.
The old man made a dumbfounded expression.
Looking at him, I moved my hand.
*Whoosh—!*
Then the bound Ghost Eye came undone, transforming into a bandage, and I threw it to the old man.
*Tap.*
The bandage rolled and was caught in the old man's hand.
"I used it well."
[...]
The old man's eyes looking at the returned Ghost Eye were peculiar.
[...Youngster.]
"I'm listening."
[Did you not say you are my reincarnation?]
"Yes, well. That's what they say, apparently."
I raised myself again.
My entire body ached. The recoil was gradually setting in.
So pain remained the same even in a mental space.
I briefly wondered what would happen when I returned to where I came from.
[Looking at the Ghost Eye... it may indeed be so.]
My words about the Ghost Eye.
Had he gained his conviction from that?
[But that is strange. How is it that you are not a child of Huashan?]
"..."
Words fraught with meaning.
Hearing that, I loosened my neck slightly. It was something I heard all too often.
That I was Sin Noya's reincarnation. Around the time I heard that.
There was also what Hwang Ah Bulyeong had mentioned upon seeing Noya in the past.
He failed.
The Noya who should have been reborn in Huashan had failed in reincarnation and become a wandering spirit.
Hwang Ah Bulyeong had fallen into despair upon seeing that.
That was how significant it was.
[Youngster. Then...]
"Wait a moment."
I cut off the old man and raised my hand.
"I'm sorry, but shouldn't I be the one asking? What are you sneaking questions in for?"
We had agreed the winner of the bet would ask. Yet the old man kept asking me.
I said it because it was absurd.
[Oh, you caught me.]
The old man clicked his tongue as if disappointed.
That guy...? Was he doing it knowing full well?
This is absurd. What kind of Daoist is so shameless?
I frowned and immediately asked him.
"What are you?"
It was finally my turn.
[As I said from the start, I am of Huashan...]
"That's not what I'm asking."
[Then what are you asking?]
"I have met the Huashan Sword Immortal before."
[...What?]
"Not you. A different gentleman."
When I mentioned Sin Noya, the old man's reaction was palpable.
Reading that reaction, I added an explanation.
Though not in detail, I briefly explained what had happened from when I met Sin Noya until now.
Then.
[...What is the meaning of this.]
Bewilderment mixed into the old man's reaction.
"That is why I cannot believe you are real."
[...]
"...Circumstantially, it seems you are the real Huashan Sword Immortal..."
Both circumstances and suspicion pointed that way.
Not to mention the secret vault in Shaanxi? The probability also fit perfectly. But.
"No matter how much I think about it, I don't feel you are real. What in the world are you?"
For some reason, the old man before me didn't seem real.
What the hell are you.
What are you doing here.
To those questions, the old man's reaction was.
[...]
First, silence.
Whether to organize his thoughts, or because of a great shock. Or perhaps both, I couldn't be sure.
I waited for the old man's answer.
For some reason, I felt I had to.
After waiting for quite some time.
[I see.]
The old man spoke in a calm voice.
[So that was it.]
In the voice uttered as if realizing something, there was somehow an indescribable sorrow.
[Youngster.]
"Yes."
[You said it. The Sin Cheol you know cannot remember his end.]
"Yes."
Sin Noya's memory was like that.
Right after the Blood Demon's seal ended.
That he lived his whole life maintaining the position of sect leader.
That while spending time like any other day, he opened his eyes to find himself sealed inside a ghost artifact.
That wasn't all.
Noya's memory was incomplete. There were far too many scattered gaps.
Time had passed, and he seemed to have realized a few things by now, but it meant his situation was different from the old man before me now.
[Hearing that, I now understand.]
"What do you mean?"
[There was always a part that puzzled me.]
*Step.*
The old man stepped closer.
[Youngster. Do you know where this place is?]
"...This place?"
The ink-black liquid filling the floor and the black energy covering the sky.
"I don't know."
It was a space I couldn't possibly know.
I had simply thought it was a mental space.
The old man answered thus.
[This place is Huashan.]
"What?"
A rather shocking answer.
"...What?"
Huashan?
Hearing that, I looked around.
What kind of bullshit is this?
How could this be Huashan?
I know because I've been to Huashan.
It is a mountain bearing splendid flowers and blue light.
A place where plum blossoms bloom in full, infused with the inner energy of martial artists, where one always senses their fragrant scent.
Because I knew that, I frowned.
[To be precise... it is a place that was Huashan.]
The old man continued in a pained voice.
[You said it. That this world had succeeded in sealing the Blood Demon.]
"...Yes."
Honestly, we hadn't completely succeeded in the seal.
The Blood Demon was still wandering about, but since it had been done, I answered thus.
At that answer, the old man smiled bitterly.
[I see.]
"Why do you ask?"
[It is nothing. I had held hope. Only to realize it was but a dream.]
*Splash.*
The old man sat down on the floor, powerless.
The moment he sat, ripples formed and spread through the water path.
They were gentle ripples.
[It was strange. From the beginning, there was no way I could meet a child of Huashan. It seems I was swept up by hope and dreamt a dream. Shamefully so...]
"...Um. What do you mean..."
['We' failed to stop the Blood Demon.]
"What?"
Just as irritation rose at the incomprehensible words.
I was rendered speechless by the old man's words.
There was no other way.
['We'... ultimately failed to stop the Blood Demon. This place is Huashan, destroyed by his hands.]
They were shocking words.