Chapter 21. Enlightenment

Hwiooo!

A biting, knife-like wind arose.

My weakened body creaked and my breath grew ragged after taking only a few steps.

White vapor escaped from Lee Byeok's mouth. But even that felt unreal.

Braving the increasingly fierce snowfall, Lee Byeok climbed the mountain path.

His heart was desperate, and only one thought occupied his mind.

Shwaaaa!

A waterfall cascaded down.

The place Lee Byeok had reached was a valley.

Although he had been here several times before, the valley deep in the mountains during winter had become a completely different place from what he knew.

The foam, shattering like blades on the partially frozen water, was enough to make one's blood run cold just by looking at it.

Splash!

Lee Byeok jumped in without hesitation.

His entire body was instantly soaked, and a sharp, blue chill rushed at him.

His body trembled, convulsing.

Lee Byeok paid it no mind and swam.

His limbs swayed in the current like wet paper, and though he was nearly swept away by the rapids several times, he managed not to be pulled in.

After crossing the valley, Lee Byeok finally closed the distance to the waterfall.

As he got closer, he could feel its sheer force on his skin.

At the middle of the waterfall's drop, there was a wide rock.

A rock that had been worn flat by countless years and the cascading water.

Lee Byeok climbed onto it.

He pushed his entire body into the waterfall.

Kwakwakwaka!

Immediately, the water pressure mercilessly pounded his entire body. The current was ruthless, and the noise felt like it would tear his ears apart.

Lee Byeok collapsed onto the rock and sat down. In the bone-chilling cold, he barely managed to assume a seated meditation posture.

Clack-clack-clack!

As his body temperature dropped rapidly, his upper and lower teeth began to chatter, and his complexion turned pale in an instant.

But Lee Byeok did not move.

He looked like someone who had resolved to die. But in truth, it was the exact opposite.

A struggle to live.

He had to escape this dreadful sense of unreality where every sensation, even pain, felt like it was happening to someone else.

He needed the certainty that this was not a dream.

Kwakwakwaka!

In the midst of extreme pain, Lee Byeok finally felt a slight sense of comfort.

A faint sensation that ‘I’ was here.

A faint warmth rose from within his body. It flowed through his blood vessels.

It seemed to be trying to warm his cooling body somehow.

But it was not enough.

Lee Byeok's gaunt and weakened body continued to grow cold and stiff, slowly approaching the brink of death.

He was dying in order to live.

Soon, his vision began to blur, and even the energy warming his body subsided.

Lee Byeok's head drooped.

The cold became more comfortable.

And a heavy sleep washed over him.

Even after lying there for so long.

“Uwaaah! O-Oppa!! Byeok oppa!!”

It was then.

A sharp voice cut through the cold air, awakening Lee Byeok's sinking consciousness.

Lee Byeok's eyes struggled to open.

Through the curtain of water obscuring his vision, he saw a figure standing in the distance. The figure was panting heavily.

It was someone he knew.

But… who was it?

“What—”

The girl who found Lee Byeok opened her mouth, then seemed at a loss for words, letting out a sharp gasp. She squeezed her eyes shut.

“What the hell are you doing, you crazy bastard—!!”

Splash!

The girl leaped into the water.

She began to make her way toward Lee Byeok, cutting through the ice-cold valley. But her struggle against the current was precarious.

‘Don't come.’

Suddenly, Lee Byeok became afraid.

But he couldn't say a word. He couldn't lift a single finger. Only his heart tightened.

Fortunately, despite being pushed around, the girl somehow managed to reach the spot where Lee Byeok was.

Chwaat, she climbed onto the rock.

“Are you insane, trying to die?! You-you can’t die!! Says who! You think I’ll let you?!”

Drip, drip, the girl, looking like a drenched mouse, shivered. But her expression was filled with rage.

“Hic, damn it! D-did I tell you about this place for this?! Heup, I’m telling everyone! You need to get beaten by Unnie until your legs are broken! Hwaaah!”

The girl irritably wiped her eyes. Then she strode toward Lee Byeok.

“So let’s go home for now!”

The girl suddenly stretched out her hands.

With a forceful motion, she pulled Lee Byeok's body out from behind the waterfall.

And with her slender shoulders, she supported Lee Byeok, who was bigger than her own body.

Splash!

The girl jumped back into the water without hesitation. Holding onto Lee Byeok, she began to fight her way through the current.

But supporting two people, the girl could barely move forward, unlike when she had approached alone.

“Chiit!”

The girl paddled her arms desperately.

But far from moving forward, the two of them began to be slowly swept in an unintended direction.

Kwakwakwaka!

The point where the waterfall hit the water's surface.

A vortex was forming at the epicenter of the rapids.

If they continued to be pulled in like this, they would sink to the deep bottom of the valley.

Suddenly, Lee Byeok came to his senses.

The sense of reality he had so craved seeped into him in a single, unbelievable moment. This was dangerous. At this rate, neither of them would survive.

“…Let me go, Suyeon.”

Lee Byeok forced out his voice.

“Shut up!! I’ll never let go!!”

Wang Suyeon held onto Lee Byeok even tighter.

But no matter what Wang Suyeon did, overcoming the current in this situation was a distant hope.

Lee Byeok had to let go himself.

Having made his decision, Lee Byeok tried to move his arm. But his already paralyzed body had no sensation. At most, his fingertips twitched.

Kwakwakwaka!

And the next moment, a fierce current swallowed both of them whole.

The two sank helplessly in the swirling water.

Bugeureureu.

Underwater, Lee Byeok opened his eyes.

He could clearly see Wang Suyeon, who seemed to have swallowed water instantly, clutching her throat in agony.

She tried to save me.

She, who had no martial arts, not even much physical strength, had jumped into the cold water without a moment's hesitation.

As a result, she was now in danger.

He could not tolerate her life ending like this, along with his own.

Lee Byeok felt the inner energy within his body.

When he desperately thought that he had to protect her, a handful of energy was naturally present within his body.

A power squeezed out at the cost of life.

But… what was the point.

It was the same when facing the tiger, and when facing the martial artist from Qingcheng. A mere handful of power was far from enough.

He couldn't protect anything.

He needed a more substantial power.

Twitch.

Just then, Lee Byeok felt it.

The inner energy… moved ‘on its own’.

It was only for a fleeting moment, but Lee Byeok was certain. It was as if it was responding to his heart.

“……!”

A sudden realization struck him.

Yes, maybe I understand now.

The true nature of this energy… it isn't just ordinary inner energy that simply moves and is consumed according to my control.

Hoo-wook!

Lee Byeok relinquished control.

And he just quietly observed the existence of the energy. He gave it the freedom to move on its own.

Woooong!

At that moment, the inner energy vibrated lightly. It was as if it was pleased that Lee Byeok had finally acknowledged it.

The next moment, it began to move. It flowed on its own along the path of the Azure River Flowing Leaf Art.

No, it was less a flow and more like a ball of yarn.

As if unraveling itself, it continued to pour out and lengthen. What had been a mere handful grew endlessly.

“……!”

A solid thread wrapped around Lee Byeok's acupoints and continued to advance. It was as if the internal art was operating ‘by itself’.

Soon, it completed a full circle, and the beginning and end met.

Kwaak, a knot was tied.

A circulating loop was completed.

Woooong!

His body was filled with a sense of fullness.

It was a rather ecstatic feeling.

An inner energy with no visible bottom.

It… was fundamentally different from the two previous experiences where he had forcefully squeezed out inner energy.

He grasped the solid presence of the circulation flowing within his body.

At last, Lee Byeok realized that the new path he had so desperately sought had opened.

The essence of that power was not inner energy, but it contained inner energy and could do everything inner energy could do.

However.

Even so, it would be impossible for him to escape this rapid current with his body already growing cold and stiff.

Pfft, a laugh escaped him.

What a ridiculous ending this has become.

But there was still something he could do. Woong, the power wrapped around Lee Byeok's acupoints moved according to his will.

The unidentified inner energy wrapped around his two arms, and power gathered at his fingertips.

The moment he had finally accumulated enough energy.

Teong!

The inner energy was unleashed all at once.

The pushed-away water surged upward, and Wang Suyeon's body, swept up by it, also shot upward.

For an instant, their eyes met.

Wang Suyeon's distant gaze desperately tried to say something. Lee Byeok gave a small smile.

Chwaat!

He confirmed that Wang Suyeon's body had emerged from the water's surface.

But due to the recoil, Lee Byeok's body sank even deeper.

His breathing grew labored.

Lee Byeok sensed his end.

It was disheartening, but his heart was at ease.

Of course, he didn't want to die. But for some reason, he felt it wasn't such a bad ending after all.

Teong!

Finally, Lee Byeok's back touched the bottom of the valley. At last, he had reached the ground he so desperately wanted to touch.

The fall was over.

Lee Byeok relaxed his entire body.

—Big brother, please die.

Accepting his belated end—

Chwaaaak!

But it was then.

As if by a lie, Lee Byeok's body began to shoot up toward the surface. The fierce current brushed past his entire body.

This was not his own power. Some unknown force was pulling Lee Byeok up.

It would not permit him rest.

Chwaak!

Lee Byeok's body, fished out of the water in an instant, was set down on the shore.

“Heok! Heok.”

The moment he was on the ground, Lee Byeok's body reflexively gasped for air. Fresh air filled his lungs.

And when he turned his gaze, he saw Wang Suyeon lying prostrate in the distance, coughing up water.

Neither of them had died.

But… how on earth?

“……”

Before his eyes were someone's feet.

As he raised his gaze, a man with a fishing rod resting on his shoulder was looking down at Lee Byeok with a piercing stare.

“Tsk tsk tsk, a big catch, a big catch indeed.”

“……”

Lee Byeok confirmed that a fishhook was lodged in the collar of his clothes.

Lee Byeok's life had once again been reeled in by the same man.

“Honestly, if I look away for even a moment, you try your damnedest to just drop dead, don't you? Little one. Are you some kind of sick chicken?”

“…I apologize.”

Smirk, Lee Jincheon smiled.

“Well, still, you did well. Now that you know the value of your own life, you probably won't go around getting beaten up anymore.”

* * *

Exhausted, Lee Byeok once again dreamed of the Seonwoo Clan. But he no longer confused it with reality.

Seonwoo Byeok was dead.

There was only Lee Byeok.

In the empty training ground of the clan, Lee Byeok drew his sword. The Azure River Sword Style flowed without obstruction.

Azure River Flowing Leaf Sword Style.

First Form of the Sword-Withdrawal Style.

Curved Sword.

The gracefully arcing sword cut through the air once before being sheathed back into Lee Byeok's scabbard.

He stood at the entrance of a new path.

Suddenly, Lee Byeok felt someone's presence behind him. Lee Byeok did not look back.

As long as Lee Byeok had his sword, the presence was nothing more than a formless shadow.

—Big brother, please die.

The shadow spoke.

“I cannot do that.”

—Why not?

“I have things to protect again.”

—Will you be alright?

Hook, the shadow loomed over Lee Byeok's head.

Having something to protect means it can be unprotected, or betrayed.

But even so, a sword needs a scabbard. Humans reside in relationships and flow within them.

Fear is just something that is there.

He removed the stone that blocked his heart. Then, a handful of power seeped out from the gap like a stream of water.

Woooong!

With each breath, the water circulated within his body.

The handful of power that remained even after losing the vessel of the flesh was a power that reflected the heart.

This is called the ‘Innate’.

An unknown voice whispered.

He didn't even know why such a voice was contained within his own head.

The heart lives and moves on its own, and the sword is merely a mirror reflecting such life.

Hook, the shadow disappeared.

Lee Byeok closed his eyes again.

The nightmare would visit from time to time.

It would hide, coiled deep in his chest, and lie in wait, ready to prey on Lee Byeok whenever he was weak.

Even so, he would live on.

Lee Byeok opened his eyes.

Chirp, chirp chirp!

A bird sang outside the window frame.

It was a morning as refreshing as if it had been washed clean.

He felt as if he had been asleep for a very long time.

Staggering, Lee Byeok got up, dragging his gaunt body. There was much to do, and a long way to go.

Creak!

He opened the door and stepped outside.

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