The next day, Cheonma really came to visit.
Cheonma, who showed up at the house, watched Soo-oh train and said weird sentences claiming they were the essence of Cheonma Martial Art.
At first, he told me to decipher the verses he shared, and when I spoke whatever came to my mind, he looked at me like I was the dumbest human he had ever seen.
Honestly, it was shocking.
No, but I seriously didn’t understand!
What’s even funnier is that Soo-oh started to get it.
Why does studying literature turn into physical skills? I just can’t comprehend it. Isn’t there a fatal flaw in the laws of physics somewhere?
No, I guess Qi and magic power are just like that.
Guess I’ll just accept it.
“Why can’t I use it?”
Thinking about it made me sulk, and Cheonma turned his head to look at me with a dubious expression.
“You’re not lying, are you?”
“I don’t lie.”
Cheonma looked at me with uncertainty and suddenly realized something.
“Well, with that brain of yours…”
He was basically saying I’m too dumb to use it.
“Eunjai used the Sangdanjeon to pull my power. So shouldn’t I be able to use it too?”
Cheonma sat in a strange posture at my words.
The memory of the Faded Man shines at this moment. That “Lotus” pose isn’t really necessary though.
What can you do when it’s just a memory?
There isn’t a separate personality. There’s just a mass of memories, and those memories connect like a spider web to form consciousness.
It’s easier to understand if you compare it to the universe.
Planets represent trivial information. The sun stands for crucial memories. Star clusters are single events, and galaxies are episodes.
If you’re a galaxy group, it’s your school years; if a galaxy cluster, it’s your childhood. A massive gravitational body forms the memories of the self, while the entire universe includes even the nearly forgotten ones.
And the gravity spreading across the universe is my consciousness.
The very phenomenon of interactions pops out as consciousness. So, there aren’t separate consciousnesses. Even a tiny local gravitational field is still a part of the larger gravitational force, right?
But that’s it.
If the memory of the solar system was when I was the Faded Man, then all those stars in the sky were memories from a time when the sea was cold. The Andromeda galaxy would be the first world’s memory.
Most memories are just pain, despair, and cold, so they’re hard to distinguish, but it shows in the ratio in my head.
Memory shining, huh?
That’s it. Exactly that.
Lying under the blanket, lying in bed, and suddenly my brain thinks, “Let’s enjoy classic memories today!” while pulling out cringe-worthy pasts.
Anyway, it feels like classic memories have been popping up a lot lately, but I guess that’s because of many realities that could trigger those memories.
I thought that as I looked at Cheonma, who was half-awake.
“What are you doing?”
Soo-oh, who had been exercising, turned away from Cheonma and approached me by going around. Judging by how she trembled, it looks like some energy is leaking again, huh?
“I don’t know. Suddenly this happens. Aren’t you working out?”
I pointed to the yard, meaning she should go and do something else, but Soo-oh shook her head.
“They say if the Qi is shaken like this, you could get injured or get twisted.”
Twisted Qi? Is that the energy in your body getting tangled? I may not understand, but if that’s how it is in this world, I nodded and looked at Cheonma.
Soo-oh then tightly wrapped her arms around my waist.
The pressure was starting to reach the level of pain. If this goes wrong, she might hurt herself.
When reprimanding, it must be immediate.
I flicked Soo-oh’s forehead.
“Don’t squeeze so tight; it hurts.”
“Ah! Oh, sorry!”
Suddenly using honorifics? When did she learn that?
Soo-oh looked flustered and waved her hands around like she forgot what to do with them.
“Control your strength, okay?”
When I explained how, she cautiously approached and grabbed the hem of my clothes. Why is she being so careful?
Still, at first, she grabbed it awkwardly, but as we spent more time watching Cheonma, she started to grip tighter like before.
But she was managing her strength. That’s good.
After a moment, Cheonma stood up.
With a blank expression, he raised his hand. A purple orb formed on his palm and gradually started to spin, becoming a ring.
Then, with a fist clenched, it turned into a thin line.
Holding that, Cheonma walked over to a spot behind the mansion. Wondering what he was up to, I followed and saw him standing on the cliff, swinging the line toward a rock pillar rising across from him.
At first, it seemed like nothing happened, but the stone pillar slowly slid aside.
Boommm!
Half of the stone pillar crumbled.
The remaining pillar had been sliced diagonally in the middle, gleaming like a glass plate.
Cheonma kept clenching and unclenching his hand repeatedly.
Then he looked at me.
“How much of your power did I take?”
Power?
I couldn’t understand Cheonma’s question.
No, surely he used the power he drew from the Sangdanjeon just like Eunjai did. I can’t feel that power directly, but I know indirectly because I can sense the distortions in the body flowing with Qi.
So, I know there’s a considerable amount of power flowing out.
And that this power is coming from me.
But…
“I don’t know. I don’t feel anything.”
There’s absolutely no sense of drawing it out. A faint fear appeared in my expression.
“You drew more energy in one go than I’ve gathered my whole life. And still, you don’t feel anything? At all?”
Even if it’s the energy accumulated over a lifetime, then he must have used it during fights, so it can’t be a massive amount, right? Or does it increase with ability levels, making the recovery and total amount higher over time?
Even then, it shouldn’t be that much.
“I might just collapse at any moment. I genuinely have no sense of it.”
Cheonma stared at me with a serious expression, as if examining if my words were true or false. But I was telling the truth.
It’s definitely connected, but honestly, I feel no sensation at all.
“I hope it’s just that you can’t sense it. That it’s too small to notice.”
Cheonma said that and paused for a moment. Then he looked straight at me and slowly began to speak.
“I too will follow in the footsteps of the three great Cheonmas.”
Is that what he means by resisting like Eunjai?
But from my perspective, he looked way too old and muddled in the mind to resist.
So I thought it wouldn’t matter if he left scary words for me.
In any case, my response is the same.
“Do as you please. I don’t force anyone.”
Even without forcing, since people live according to their desires, I believe they will give me warmth.
“This feels like something an immortal would say.”
“Well, hmm? So you found out about me? I remember you inspecting wrists and scrutinizing inwardly.”
Remembering the episode when Gijacheon had a look at me and then hurriedly ran away, I brought it up.
At that, Cheonma showed interest.
“Are you going to let me take a look?”
I quietly extended my arm.
Then Cheonma pointed to the house. Does that mean he wants to do it inside? Following him, I headed to a place a little away from the cliff where the house was.
Leaving Soo-oh, who was gazing blankly at the split stone pillar, behind. She ought to come to her senses and follow.
We sat on the eaves where we watched Soo-oh earlier.
Then Cheonma turned me around, pulled off my upper garment, and placed his hand on my heart.
From Cheonma’s perspective, he looked at Choseol’s back.
She has milky-white skin. Well, considering Choseol is Eunjai’s descendant, that’s only natural.
Still, from Cheonma’s viewpoint, I can’t feel any Qi.
But there are traces to see.
Just like seeing sand or dirt displaced when water flows even if you can’t see the water, I can sense something being pushed into me through my back.
But then he suddenly stopped.
Really, just like that.
In addition, Cheonma was trembling. It didn’t seem like anything was wrong with his body, but his back was damp with sweat, and he looked as if he’d seen something unbelievable.
“Cheonma?”
He seemed not to hear my voice, slowly taking his hand off my back and looking at the palm of his hand. From Cheonma’s viewpoint, nothing appears particularly wrong.
So why is he like this?
I turned to look back.
Cheonma’s face was pale.
“It’s cold.”
With that, he curled up as if he couldn’t do anything against the cold. Despite feeling warmth around, he was shaking.
His body was warm enough to sweat, yet he felt cold somewhere.
Hmm.
He really knows what’s happening.
Oh dear.
I held onto Cheonma. It’s not genuinely cold, but in times like this, having a warm image might help a bit.
At least, it wouldn’t be increasing coldness like me.
I took him to the kitchen and set him in front of the fire.
After making him take off some clothing due to sweating profusely, I fetched water from the jar and filled a bowl.
Since he was still shivering and couldn’t shake off the cold, I called for Soo-oh.
“Soo-oh! Come to the kitchen for a second!”
“Huh? Yeah! Coming!”
I don’t know why she’s staring at the pillar, but I first brought her over and pointed to Cheonma.
“Ah, naked!”
I’ve only taken off the upper half. Why is she calling it naked? Sure, her chest is pretty big, but isn’t it just because she’s another woman?
Maybe it’s the color difference.
No, this isn’t the time to be thinking about that.
“Go and hug him. Hurry.”
“Huh? Uh… Okay!”
Soo-oh looked a little unsure as she glanced back and forth at me and Cheonma but then walked over and hugged Cheonma. But her face was all red. I guess she’s embarrassed.
Having the warmth of a person should help Cheonma settle down a bit.
Since there’s still warmth from the light, he probably isn’t genuinely cold.
After a while, Cheonma eased up. Even so, he reached out and held Soo-oh, not letting go for a long time afterward.
Time passed, and Cheonma, who finally stood up, looked at me.
“There exists an endless void, where there’s an absence of anything, even the absence of nothingness disappears. There’s no harmony in it. There are no responses for harmony. There’s no chaos in it, nor is there any unknown that exists for chaos. What are you then? Did you really ever exist as a human?”
His speech was a bit off, maybe he wasn’t all there. I extended a bowl of water to Cheonma.
“Here, drink some water first.”
Water’s the best way to get your senses back.
