Chapter 229

It was peaceful.

Not because the state inside his body was quiet like the surface of a windless lake.

Even though hot and cold energies alternately rose and fell, being created and disappearing, the process itself maintained the body’s equilibrium, giving a sense of peace.

‘So this is what it meant when they said yin and yang are harmonious only when they maintain relative equilibrium?’

Mutual Opposition of Yin and Yang. Yin and yang oppose each other but mutually restrain one another.

Mutual Dependence. Yin and yang are opposite but depend on each other and utilize one another.

Mutual Waxing and Waning. Yin and yang repeat declining and generating, maintaining harmony without bias.

Mutual Transformation. When the states of opposition, dependence, and waxing and waning reach their extreme, yin and yang naturally become yang and yin respectively, achieving the primordial equilibrium without distinction between yin and yang.

The Primordial Limitless differentiated into yin and yang to become the Supreme Ultimate, yet the Supreme Ultimate again seeks the primordial Limitless.

That is Primordial Unity!

Flash!

Jin Ja-gang achieved enlightenment. Though his eyes were still closed, he received a shock as if a blind person had opened their eyes.

His heart was greatly moved, bringing tears as if he had seen a sad scene, and laughter as if he had witnessed something joyful.

But his mood was very good. As his internal energy continued circulating through the mystery of Water Ascending, Fire Descending, he felt a pleasure he had never experienced before.

He felt as if the dirty things inside his body were continuously being washed away, his ruptured qi and blood were being restored, and he was being reborn.

As if just a little more and he would return to a pure white pristine state!

“You brat.”

“Huh?”

“Look at this greedy fellow? You’ve grasped opposition, dependence, and waxing and waning all at once?”

“A fellow who doesn’t seem to have talent is really working hard. Has effort surpassed lack of talent?”

“But why skip transformation? Tsk tsk. So impatient.”

“Stop it. You’re far from reaching Primordial Unity.”

“Don’t act beyond your station and get up.”

The voices continuously interfering with Jin Ja-gang scattered his concentration.

Jin Ja-gang even felt killing intent toward those interfering. His body shivered. He even had the illusion that his own body was being invaded by his own killing intent.

His body began to ache.

‘Don’t interfere with me!’

Jin Ja-gang’s desire for the enlightenment he was experiencing was that intense. And the more so, for some reason he felt his body becoming stiff and rigid.

“Won’t you get up?”

‘Just a little, just a little more!’

Jin Ja-gang realized his head was heating up and the internal energy in his body was going berserk. The internal energy that had been flowing naturally and healing his body suddenly tried to become a dagger and tear him apart.

‘Ugh! Just, just a little more.’

Jin Ja-gang sweated profusely.

“If you don’t get up, I’ll touch your thing.”

Perhaps because he heard such an absurd statement, at that moment Jin Ja-gang’s breathing stopped short and he woke up instantly.

‘What kind of…’

Jin Ja-gang looked ahead with an incredulous face.

A young old man with red cloth wrapped around his eyes was standing there. Though “young old man” was a very strange expression, it was a thought that came because he looked young on the outside but was clearly an aged elder.

He was a mysterious Taoist from whom no aura could be felt no matter how sharply he raised his qi perception. He was even hollow like wind, like a tree.

“Ahh…!”

An exclamation of regret naturally burst out. But the Taoist clicked his tongue and said.

“You don’t have the ability but forced yourself to learn martial arts, so you ended up like that.”

Jin Ja-gang didn’t know what the Taoist meant. However, when he looked at his left arm following the Taoist’s gaze, he was greatly surprised.

Black sweat was seeping out from the pores of his left arm, forming droplets. But this didn’t give a clean feeling at all. The sweat droplets looked dirty and unpleasant just to see. Not just his left arm, but his entire left half was like this.

Yet his left half felt more refreshed and light than ever before. It seemed to be because this filthy black sweat had flowed out.

Jin Ja-gang tried to endure the disgust and wipe the sweat with his clothes.

“It’s Turbid Energy. Leave it alone.”

But it began seeping back into the pores it had emerged from, wriggling as if alive.

That nauseating filth was returning into his own body!

Then this refreshing feeling in his left half that seemed to make him fly would disappear and he would return to a blocked and uncomfortable body.

Jin Ja-gang’s hair stood on end. He got goosebumps. He felt like he absolutely shouldn’t leave it alone.

But there must be a reason the Taoist stopped him. Jin Ja-gang bit his lower lip tightly, enduring the urge to wipe it immediately, and looked at the Taoist.

The Taoist asked.

“Why do you think I explained the theory of yin and yang to you?”

Jin Ja-gang thought for a moment and then realized.

This filthy black sweat was turbid energy that had been blocking the qi and blood of Jin Ja-gang’s left half. Naturally, if the turbid energy disappeared, Jin Ja-gang’s left half qi and blood would become clean.

However, if that happened, the equilibrium with his right half would be broken.

Mang Ryo had forcibly opened Jin Ja-gang’s right half qi and blood and even implanted the Mad Blood Heaven technique. On top of that, Jin Ja-gang had continued developing only his right half’s qi and blood.

He had thought that someday he could open his left half with that power.

But his left half never opened at all. The more Jin Ja-gang’s right half developed, the more solidly his left half hardened.

Opening qi and blood meant dying from qi and blood destruction due to the Mad Blood Heaven technique, so the turbid energy of his left half had chosen Meridian Blockage by solidifying itself to protect Jin Ja-gang’s life.

The more the right side opened, the more the left side closed. When the right side softened, the left side hardened. When the right side’s circulation became smooth, the left side’s circulation was blocked.

This contradictory yet simultaneously natural phenomenon was the harmony of yin and yang that Jin Ja-gang’s body in its special situation had achieved by itself.

He had thought his body’s balance was seriously tilted, but rather, it was the result of another balance for survival.

“It seems you understand now. Then you also know how your body can return to normal?”

“Mutual Transformation.”

“Smart.”

Mutual Transformation of Yin and Yang. The realm where yin becomes yang and yang becomes yin.

When that time came, the distinction between yin and yang would disappear, allowing the turbid energy of the left side to be eliminated.

While Jin Ja-gang was thinking, the turbid energy was completely absorbed into Jin Ja-gang’s left half. Stains remained on his skin.

Jin Ja-gang immediately stood up and cupped his fists.

“I was rude. I am deeply grateful for your teachings.”

“Right. I am Woo-am. You said you wanted to see me?”

Venerable Woo-am!

“Since the talk will be long, let’s move to another place.”

Venerable Woo-am walked ahead. As Jin Ja-gang followed him, he clearly felt the changes that had occurred in his body. His body had become much lighter than before.

* * *

Venerable Woo-am walked well despite not being able to see, moving briskly. Yet he was almost as fast as running.

Venerable Woo-am crossed the boundary line that Taoist Bok-cheon had drawn. When Jin Ja-gang stopped, he looked back.

“What’s wrong?”

“There are some complications in going that way.”

“It’s fine.”

Venerable Woo-am smiled while slightly stroking his beard.

“I am the sect leader.”

“I see.”

There was no need to say anything more. Jin Ja-gang again followed behind Venerable Woo-am.

They walked up a precarious plank road only a few spans wide as if it were nothing.

After walking for at least one watch period, the place Venerable Woo-am brought Jin Ja-gang to was a peak that rose steeply along a side ridge of Qingcheng Mountain.

On a small clearing where a few people could lie down, there was a large, square rock with a go board placed on top.

Venerable Woo-am climbed onto the rock and sat down, having Jin Ja-gang sit across from him at the go board.

“Do you know how to play Go?”

Go is the game of baduk.

“I haven’t had time to enjoy it.”

“If you’re young, act like a young person. Don’t lump things together with arrogant answers.”

“I was grateful for the earlier teaching, but…”

“Don’t teach others about character? Do you know how many people beg me to receive that one teaching?”

“If I’m alive, I’ll repay the debt someday.”

“It’s fine. With that attitude, you don’t need to repay it. You’re going to die soon anyway.”

No matter how tough Jin Ja-gang was, these weren’t pleasant words to hear. Jin Ja-gang’s expression hardened, but somehow knowing this, Venerable Woo-am laughed.

“You’re feeling very bad right now, aren’t you? Thinking what kind of old man this is.”

It wasn’t a sarcastic tone but an amused one.

“Though it may be hard to believe, I have tremendous goodwill toward you. Because you changed someone I couldn’t change for decades. So I’m tremendously grateful to you. If the disciples of this mountain saw me talking this much, they’d be shocked.”

“Honestly, it doesn’t feel like the attitude of someone who’s grateful.”

“I’m the sect leader of Qingcheng, aren’t I? If I became sect leader and then bowed and scraped while expressing gratitude, it wouldn’t look dignified. You should understand that much.”

Jin Ja-gang was speechless.

He spoke as if he didn’t care about things like the position of sect leader, yet unexpectedly he did care.

How should one carry on a conversation with such a person?

As Bian Bu had said, Qingcheng Taoists had strong personalities, making them inevitably difficult to deal with.

“I understand.”

“Good, you’re magnanimous. Then I’ll teach you go.”

“I’ll learn go later.”

“It would be good to learn now. If you know go, you’ll be able to see the world.”

“Can you play go when you can’t see?”

“A fool who can’t play go despite having perfectly good eyes is more of an idiot than a blind cripple.”

“Hahaha.”

Jin Ja-gang couldn’t help but laugh. It wasn’t wrong, but he was serious then not serious, doing whatever he pleased, so laughter just came out.

“I promise. It will be fun.”

Venerable Woo-am also laughed.

“There are stones there, so pick them up.”

Jin Ja-gang was about to casually pick up the stones placed beside him when he was greatly surprised.

They weren’t smooth and pretty shaped stones like the ones Venerable Woo-am had placed. They were round, thick shells that were all different shapes.

“They’re Clam Shells. It would be good to make them from carnelian, agate, yellow dragon jade, or jade, but we can’t enjoy such luxury in these deep mountains, so we have no choice but to make and use them ourselves.”

Using seashells that only come from the sea in deep mountains was even more luxurious!

“Since I can’t see, they need to make clear sounds so I can tell where you place them. So don’t think of doing it carelessly and carve them well.”

Venerable Woo-am’s stones were reddish stones. Venerable Woo-am picked up a red stone piece, placed it between his palms, and rubbed his palms together.

Scrape scrape. Grind grind.

The stone was ground and stone powder fell like scales.

After roughly making a round shape, he used his fingernail to push and carve the edges on the side. Then he bent his right index finger, fitted the stone into the bent space, and polished it by pushing with his thumb.

After holding the stone and feeling it all over, he nodded in satisfaction.

Venerable Woo-am held the go stone between his index and middle fingers and raised his hand.

“Since it’s your first time, I’ll go first. I’ll start at Small Eye.”

Click.

A crisp sound rang out as the go stone was placed.

A flat, round stone with a reddish luster was placed on a line next to a black dot in one corner of the four sides of the go board.

“You should place yours here. The opposite side where there’s a dot. That’s the Flower Point.”

But Jin Ja-gang just held the shell and stared at it.

Venerable Woo-am urged Jin Ja-gang.

“What are you doing? I’m waiting.”

When Jin Ja-gang didn’t answer, Venerable Woo-am smiled.

“Just playing doesn’t excite you? Then let’s do this. After we finish playing one game of go, I’ll tell you an old story. If you want the Jade Void Nine Light Five Thunder Toad Technique, you won’t be able to resist listening.”