Chapter 210: I've Been Waiting For This
Read more at Nineheavens.org
The abyss of chaos where the energies of demon and buddha ceaselessly clashed.
In the pitch-black darkness, Cheol Ryu-heun was lost in a state of no-self, walking the path of mental imagery that transcended even pain.
At some point, his breathing had stopped.
However.
The pores across his entire body expanded and contracted repeatedly, breathing in life-sustaining energy as a substitute for breath.
Not through nose and mouth, but through his whole body, he was exercising the wondrous application of unfathomable breathing.
Thanks to his unprecedented body where all meridians and blood vessels had vanished.
At a certain moment, Cheol Ryu-heun opened his eyes.
Not externally but internally – that is, his self within the mind realm.
Nothing was visible.
Everything was pitch-black.
All ten directions were black.
Unable to even distinguish up from down.
So numb he couldn’t tell if he was floating in the void or standing on the ground.
Right then.
JJEOK…!
A sound of something cracking rang out.
Following that, a thin light leaked in.
From above.
When he raised his head, cracks of light filled his pupils.
On the ceiling of darkness.
JJEOK… JJEOJJEOK, JJEOK…!
The expansion of the cracks accelerated.
Was the sky collapsing like this?
Cracks bearing light were spawning countless branches and spreading to cover the entire ceiling of darkness.
It was an enormous size.
So vast one couldn’t know the end.
A faint smile formed at the corner of Cheol Ryu-heun’s mouth.
‘It’s come!’
The conflicting energies he had summoned with the absorption formula.
The powers of the two transcendents – the Heavenly Demon and Bodhidharma.
They had finally infiltrated into the mind realm’s space.
Soon, a blinding flash HWAK rushed into his eyes.
JJEOJEOJEOJEOJOK- URURURURURUNG-!
Starting from the ceiling’s collapse, the darkness in all directions vanished.
No.
It was destroyed.
Thus the space of darkness changed to white.
The moment the dark debris vanished by wind.
KUKUKUKUKU, KUKUKUKUKU…
Slightly apart from where Cheol Ryu-heun stood, on the left and right, black energy and yellow energy poured down wildly as if evoking massive waterfalls.
A fearsome wind raged from both sides.
KWAKWANG…!
Pillars of black and yellow seeming to connect heaven and earth settled into place and squirmed.
‘The real beginning is from now…!’
Just as Cheol Ryu-heun flashed his eyes, the two differently-colored pillars vibrated and transformed into giants larger and taller than any mountain peak.
Energies that had taken human outlines.
The black giant was the Heavenly Demon, the yellow giant was Bodhidharma.
DEUDEUDEUEU, DEUDEUDEUEU-!
Soon the two giants moved their feet.
Movement of charging at each other.
With Cheol Ryu-heun between them, the two collided fiercely.
KWANG, KWANG- KWAKWANG- KUKUNG, KUNG- KWAANG, KWANG-!
Thus the battlefield had moved to the mind realm.
The power of the two energies symbolizing the Heavenly Demon and Bodhidharma was terrifying.
It was an intense match as if watching the world’s end.
Evenly matched, neck and neck.
When one side seemed to be pushed, the other side would be pushed.
Each time a thunderous sound burst, Cheol Ryu-heun’s body wobbled and shook this way and that.
‘EUUK!’
Having twisted his face, he closed his eyes again.
The essence of layered meditation.
The cultivation of the Realm of Shattering into Void, proceeding from mental imagery within mental imagery, from no-self within no-self.
It was the ultra-ultimate domain transcending even time and space.
He had broken through even the wall of no-self – the state of utmost extremity transcending the limits of the mortal world.
This was the crossroads of life and death.
It was qualitatively different from what people commonly call qi deviation.
A part of the infinite universe, perhaps.
If the mind gathered here became scattered – in other words, if the highly concentrated consciousness showed a gap – he would be trapped here forever.
Both body and mind would die.
Like a vegetable.
Forgetting through achievement was the only escape.
He forgot.
The world and himself.
He erased.
The past and present.
Through the infinite wisdom of contemplation and transcendence regarding all creation.
Unconsciousness dominated mind and body.
At that moment.
Changes occurred externally.
SHUSHUSHUSHU, SHUSHUSHUSHU…
A whirlpool exploded around the lotus submerged in the abyss along with Cheol Ryu-heun.
Following that.
FLASH!
Brilliant radiance emitted by each broad petal softly bound Cheol Ryu-heun’s body wrapped in the snake skin.
It wasn’t over.
Strange phenomena occurred in succession.
BUBBLE BUBBLE, BUBBLE BUBBLE, BUBBLE BUBBLE…
The entire abyss bubbled furiously, generating foam.
In an instant.
Cheol Ryu-heun’s body, positioned on the pistil, shot upward.
The lotus rose along with him.
CHWAAAAT-!
With the sound of splashing water, Cheol Ryu-heun, placed on the lotus center, broke through the wildly churning water surface.
Seeing that, the party flinched in surprise.
Soon, Namgung Sang-rin let out an exclamation.
“WOW…!”
Hae Su-yeon beside him and Gal Jung-heon’s reactions were the same.
“MY, it seems the fortuitous encounter’s achievement has begun!”
“So it seems.”
It was a mystical sight.
The lotus and Cheol Ryu-heun, wrapped in light, hovered one zhang in the air.
BOBBING.
As if drawn upward by some inexplicable supernatural power.
Immediately after.
CHUCHUCHUCHU, CHUCHUCHUCHU…
The black and yellow energies that had been bubbling and boiling in the pond shot upward, intertwined.
Thus the Demon Buddha Secret Pool regained its primordial color.
It had become the Demon Buddha Secret Pool as it was at the beginning.
In an instant, the party witnessed yet another amazing phenomenon that followed.
Stillness.
The waterfalls on the circular surrounding rock walls had suddenly stopped.
‘…!’
Everyone was spellbound.
This was their first time seeing such a thing.
Soon, as the combined black and yellow energies merged with the lotus’s radiance and rapidly circled around.
CHWACHWACHWACHWA, CHWACHWACHWACHWA-
The stopped waterfalls were drawn toward it.
A curtain of water decorating the void.
That soon transformed into a large transparent sphere.
Awe struck.
The quiet descending moonlight seemed to add to the mysteriousness.
Perhaps because of the high-power rotation of the merged energy.
HWIRIRIRK, HWIRIRIRK, HWIRIRIRK-
The snake skin peeled off layer by layer, revealing the full sight of Cheol Ryu-heun with his eyes closed.
At that moment.
SHWISHWISHWISWIT, SHWISHWISHWISHWISWIT…
The merged energy that had been rapidly circling around Cheol Ryu-heun was entirely absorbed into his body.
The light disappeared.
The party each held their breath and watched him intently.
Suddenly, the transparent sphere formed by the waterfalls shook greatly.
PAPANG- SPLASH-!
An explosion had occurred from Cheol Ryu-heun’s body.
A formidable formless shockwave.
Gal Jung-heon and others finally understood.
That the sphere made of waterfall water was a kind of barrier preventing the intense shockwave from spreading outward.
It was probably the mystical power of nature in its unaltered state activating to protect the secret realm.
Hae Su-yeon, sticking out her tongue, spoke quietly.
“I feel like I’m in the heavenly realm or the immortal realm.”
“Yes. Same here.”
Just as Namgung Sang-rin nodded in answer.
HWAHWAK-!
Dazzling radiance burst intensely from Cheol Ryu-heun’s entire body.
Dazzling rays of light breaking through the clothes covering his body from head to toe.
Amid that, his flesh was meeting a strange transformation.
Hair and eyebrows alike, without exception – all of Cheol Ryu-heun’s body hair fell out.
In addition, the skin across his entire body alternated between flushing red and turning blue.
How long did that continue?
Feather-soft hair grew back again.
Very quickly.
Following that, the skin across his body also shed a thin layer and returned to its original color.
Namgung Sang-rin, his eyes round, murmured quietly.
“No way, could that be…”
At that, Gal Jung-heon beside stated what he had guessed.
“Yes. It’s clearly cleansing of hair and marrow.”
That was a supreme enlightenment that was one and the same with the essence of complete body transformation.
Hae Su-yeon couldn’t close her surprised mouth.
“MY GOODNESS… That’s really possible.”
Cheol Ryu-heun’s body, having achieved cleansing of hair and marrow, headed toward complete body transformation.
WODEUK, WODEUDEUK, WODEUK…
With chilling sounds, skin tore away and bone joints twisted.
Thus his entire body’s muscles and bones were being reconfigured.
However, it was different from before.
The complete body transformation proceeded at rapid speed.
Cheol Ryu-heun, fallen into deep meditation, made not a single scream.
As if forgetting everything.
The moment the complete body transformation ended impossibly fast.
‘Done!’
A smile formed at the mouth of Cheol Ryu-heun, who had escaped the mental imagery.
A strange feeling as if his whole body had become a feather and was floating up.
A sign of ascending to immortality.
That was the reason for his smile.
Because he had come here aiming for that from the start.
Before long, the sensations of floating upward to the sky and sinking downward beneath the sea came simultaneously.
‘Now’s the time!’
The moment he finally opened his eyes wide.
SWASHASHASHASHA…
A great ray of light burst from his head and shot toward the sky.
No one could see it.
That ray was visible only to Cheol Ryu-heun himself.
Suddenly.
-ARE YOU STARTING AGAIN!
From somewhere impossibly high above, a grand voice resembling majestic transmitted sound echoed down.
Words that likewise were inaudible to others.
Simultaneously, Cheol Ryu-heun’s smile became a shade more distinct.
‘HA. Yes, you’ve appeared. Whatever you are, deity living in the heavens… I’ve been waiting for this.’
-STOP!
‘Don’t want to.’
Speaking as if sneering inwardly, Cheol Ryu-heun completely surrendered his body to the wondrous sensation of ascending to immortality.
-YOU! STOP, I SAID!
It was an even louder roar of rage, but Cheol Ryu-heun paid it no mind.
‘As if. I have no intention of doing that until I obtain what I want to obtain. Go ahead and try to block me again like last time!’
-YOU WOULD TRULY…!
* * *
At the same time, outside the secret realm.
Divine wind, who had been waiting with bundles attached, suddenly pricked up both ears.
Had he sensed something?
Then.
PAPAK!
Kicking off the ground, he dashed into the gap-path revealed in the cliff beside.
As if trying to alert the party beyond to something.
DUDUDUDUDU, DUDUDUDUDU…
Immediately after, PEOPEO-NG piercing sounds rang continuously, and three figures appeared ghost-like in the very spot where Divine wind had vanished.
SEUK, SESEUK…
The three cloaked figures who had broken through the illusory barrier formation with their bodies protected by energy membranes.
They soon discovered the gap-path generated along with hazy mist and exchanged glances.
“As we expected.”
“Yes. Someone has found the secret location.”
“Let’s go. We must confirm the fortuitous encounter’s reality and the uninvited guest’s identity.”
Thus the three cloaked figures raced through the gap-path with rapid lightness technique.
* * *
Gal Jung-heon and others suddenly turned their heads backward.
‘HM?’
They had sensed the rapid approach beyond the gap-path.
Soon.
DUDUDUDUDU, DUDUDUDUDU…!
Hoofbeats drew nearer and Divine wind revealed himself.
KWAKWAKWAKWAK-!
Divine wind, having stopped while scraping the ground, breathed roughly and gestured with his body.
Namgung Sang-rin, quickly approaching, stroked his mane and spoke.
“This fellow, what’s wrong all of a sudden?”
Divine wind, having flicked his ears back and forth, snorted loudly.
“PUREUK, PURUREUK.”
Seeing that, Hae Su-yeon quietly said.
“Young Master Namgung, it seems like he’s signaling some kind of danger.”
“Pardon?”
“I think so, somehow. Looking at his behavior…”
Right at that moment, Gal Jung-heon, who had been staring at the gap-path, deeply sank his gaze.
“They’re coming. Three of them.”
At that, Namgung Sang-rin and Hae Su-yeon also sensed the charging presence and raised their guard.
Cheol Ryu-heun’s achievement was still in progress.
If the unidentified three were by any chance a group with ill intent, they would have to subdue them with their own strength.
Before long.
FLUTTER FLUTTER, FLUTTER FLUTTER-
Along with the sounds of long garment hems fluttering.
STEP, CHEOCHOK, STEP!
Three figures in black cloaks stopped all at once at an appropriate distance in the space ahead of the party.
Gal Jung-heon, having fixed his gaze, spoke in a calm voice.
“Who are you all?”
However, those three drew their swords first without a single word of response.
Formless killing intent radiated like a storm.
Soon, the cloaked figure standing in the center radiated fierce eyes and tossed out a quiet voice.
“You needn’t know.”