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The Cheonryong Library was a place equivalent to the Pavilion of Scriptures (Jang-gyeong-gak) in Shaolin.
It was a treasure house equipped with everything from basic martial arts, which are the foundation of the Cheon Family, to high-level martial arts.
“The Eldest Gongja can enter and exit without restriction.”
Inside, the books available for reading differed according to rank.
The section Mumyeong intended to enter was a restricted area where only the direct bloodline could enter.
“Hmm.”
From basic martial arts to high-level martial arts, they were arranged well.
Among them, martial arts Mumyeong learned in the past also existed, but he did not even give them a glance.
‘There is no way they would fill my eyes.’
Cheon Muryang walked with long strides to the area permitted only to him.
Inside the Cheonryong Library, since there were countless books, there was a peculiar musty smell.
However, smelling that scent, he already felt as if he had learned peerless martial arts.
“Hoo-woo…….”
There was only one problem.
Perhaps because this space permitted to Cheon Muryang could only be accessed by the direct line, unlike other spaces, it was not organized at all.
“Would it hurt to organize it a bit?”
Looking at the books arranged haphazardly, it was naturally dizzying to decide what to look at first.
“What should I look at first?”
He took out one book without any thought.
Although traces of time were evident to the point it was impossible to infer when it was written, the title was not written.
Cha-reu-reuk.
Cheon Muryang, who opened the book, read down slowly.
As he did so, Cheon Muryang tilted his head.
“Is this not it?”
It could not be seen as a martial arts manual.
Cheon Muryang, who closed the book, nodded his head as if it was natural.
“Well, how could there be only martial arts manuals?”
As is proper, other books might be mixed in among them.
So, he took out another book.
That too could not be seen as a martial arts manual.
“What is this……?”
Rather, it was the biography of past ancestors.
In other words, it was close to an autobiography.
All books without titles were just written in that format.
“…….”
Those with titles were merely martial arts of the Cheon Family that could be seen even if not necessarily here.
What he wanted was higher-level martial arts, but there were none here.
“How did this happen?”
Clearly, they were high-level martial arts.
But didn't he come here to learn merely that?
“Don't tell me…… this is all? No. That cannot be. Clearly, there is something.”
Didn't Cheon Seon-hak say it?
[When you enter the Cheonryong Library and when you come out, it must be clearly different.]
He remembered those words clearly.
That clearly meant a secret was hidden here.
“I must find out what that is.”
That secret must be somewhere in those books like autobiographies located here in the end.
“Right, Uncle said he decided on his own path from the day he first entered the Cheonryong Library in the past.”
[If I were to express the experience of that time in words, Gae-an (Opening Eyes/Enlightenment), I could say so.]
To Mumyeong who was curious about the Cheonryong Library, Cheon Seon-hak answered so.
Therefore, Cheon Muryang decided to sit down and examine slowly from the book he saw first.
Since he had no intention of leaving for two days anyway.
“It is fortunate, that there is plenty to eat.”
Wolyeong bothered to pack food that did not smell much like beef jerky or Byeok-gok-dan (Grain Avoidance Pill).
[I heard you would need this.]
It was clear from whom she received the hint.
“It must be Uncle.”
Like that, Cheon Muryang’s intensive reading of books began.
How much time passed?
“Mm…….”
Around the time he even forgot the flow of time.
Cheon Muryang could discover the commonality of the contents of these autobiographies.
“Everyone is discussing their own respective skies.”
The sky was never one.
These books contained the countless skies they saw.
“Ah…….”
Sky, Heaven (Cheon).
It was the path the sword of the Cheon Family would advance.
However, how could one prejudge the sky as one?
The sky was truly free-spirited.
“Was it like that?”
With what would one limit the sky?
Just as the Tao cannot be called the Tao, the sky could not be limited as the sky.
The sky systematized into martial arts manuals was truly merely a part.
“All of this…… was no different from martial arts manuals.”
The books recording respective skies were no different from martial arts manuals to Cheon Muryang.
“Uncle’s sky also…….”
Was just a part.
There existed a blue sky full of sunlight, a wet sky pouring heavy rain, a sky of thunder and lightning where thunderbolts strike down, a sky embracing stars, a sky embracing the moon, a sky covered by clouds.
Cheon Muryang saw countless skies.
Also, he intended to contain them.
“My sky is not one.”
All of these merely embraced only one sky.
As if saying that was the limit.
However, Cheon Muryang wanted to surpass this.
“I must become stronger than anyone else.”
To do that, I must embrace all skies.
Cheon Muryang closed his eyes.
Because this place was cramped so he could not bear to swing the sword.
‘My sky…….’
In his mental image, Cheon Muryang stood alone on a desolate land.
Hoo-ung!
Cheon Gwang emitted light.
At that moment, a blue sky where birds flew freely unfolded before Cheon Muryang’s eyes.
The sky unfolded vastly was wide to the point one dared not fathom its end.
[What is the sky you saw?]
The sky asked so.
It was Cheon Muryang’s turn to answer.
He had no choice but to speak only with the sword.
‘I will embrace all skies. Cheon-oe-cheon (Sky beyond the Sky/Heaven beyond Heaven), I will embrace such a sky that looks down even on the sky from afar.’
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga-gang!
The blueness darkened in an instant.
Along with the roar of thunder and lightning.
Dozens of streaks of thunderbolts scattered in all directions and fell toward Cheon Muryang.
[You do not have such qualification.]
Cheon Muryang shook his head.
‘The one determining the qualification is not you. It is solely my share.’
Who discusses qualification?
Who discusses limits?
That was the one and only authority permitted only to himself.
Kkwa-ak!
Cheon Muryang swung Cheon Gwang.
The thunderbolt split.
‘If I intend to embrace, I embrace.’
It was greed.
It was avarice.
However, he had to do so.
Because Cheon Muryang wanted to become stronger than anyone else.
[I will watch.]
The sun rose in the sky.
Although it couldn't be, the moon also rose at the same time.
‘Ah…….’
The harmony of Yin and Yang mingled.
Moon and sun, in the end.
Don't they have to rise above the sky?
Even if the rising times are different.
Yin and Yang coexisted.
Hwa-reu-reuk!
What was it?
The area around Dan-jeon became hot.
The nature of the internal energy Cheon Muryang harbored began to change slowly.
‘Cheon Yang Divine Art is…….’
Cheon Yang Divine Art was an introductory martial art that everyone knew if they were a martial artist of the Cheon Family.
As known from the name, Cheon Yang Divine Art symbolized the sun.
‘It is changing.’
However, Cheon Yang Divine Art contained the sky where both the moon and the sun were floating.
Yin permeated into Cheon Muryang’s Cheon Yang Divine Art, which was biased toward Yang, and achieved balance.
Sa-reu-reu-reu.
The huge energy of spiritual elixirs located inside Cheon Muryang’s body began to melt down.
‘Balance is being matched.’
Cheon Yang Divine Art was a Yang mental cultivation method.
Therefore, although it melted a lot of Yang essence, Yin essence remained relatively much, so the balance was slowly breaking at that moment.
Cheon Yang Divine Art, which began to change anew, matched the balance of Yin and Yang.
Kung!
Kung-kung!
The speed of Qi became faster.
It must be because the size of Qi vessels widened as the Yin essence melted.
Then, pain as if the five viscera and six entrails were burning covered Cheon Muryang.
‘I must maintain consciousness…….’
If I cannot do so, I will fall into Qi Deviation (Ju-hwa-ip-ma).
Therefore, Cheon Muryang desperately grasped the string of consciousness.
Time that was merely an instant felt like an eternity.
“Hoo-woo…….”
Cheon Muryang, who opened his two eyes with a rough breath, felt not exhaustion, but a feeling of internal energy filling his whole body.
It was a refreshing feeling he felt for the first time after being reborn as Cheon Muryang.
“Did I succeed?”
Cheon Yang Divine Art progressed.
Cheon Yang Divine Art, which was biased toward Yang, achieved perfect balance as Yin energy permeated.
“Only now can I know why Cheon Yang Divine Art is called a Divine Art.”
Cheon Yang Divine Art was half-complete.
Therefore, it could be completed.
However, that too was a completion tailored only to Cheon Muryang.
“Cheon Yang Divine Art must remain incomplete.”
Only then could it be completely tailored to the one who learned it.
Although there was no one who remembered that fact now.
“Something called high-level martial arts did not exist from the beginning.”
Cheon Yang Divine Art was not completed.
Therefore, he thought there would be high-level martial arts somewhere in the Cheonryong Library to fill the empty parts of Cheon Yang Divine Art.
He thought there would be chants (Gu-gyeol) in those martial arts that Cheon Yang Divine Art could not embrace.
“It wasn't chants.”
However, it wasn't chants.
In the first place, this was an enlightenment that could not be conveyed through chants.
If it could be conveyed through chants, all those autobiographies would have become a single martial arts manual.
“Standardized chants were merely an extremely small part.”
Free-spiritedness wasn't just good.
It has meaning only if it is passed down through generations.
Because the succession of martial arts could have been cut off at any time.
“So, they intended to leave their respective skies even like this.”
Clearly, the ancestors must have been aware of these problems.
Therefore, the autobiographies about countless skies gathered here were their contemplation.
“Also, it must have been systematized and organized into the martial arts of the Cheon Family we know.”
Standardized sky.
It eliminated free-spiritedness and became stereotyped, but it became able to contain only the clear sky.
“That is the sky forming the current Cheon Family.”
Only one sky.
Became the sky of the Cheon Family.
Paradoxically, in the Cheon Family which intended to embrace the freest sky, only one sky remained.
“Therefore, a limit might have been drawn…….”
It was sufficient.
However, because the sky of the Cheon Family lost free-spiritedness, its limit was also relatively clear.
『Ten Great Families under Heaven.』
This was clearly a title of glory.
Because it meant being counted on ten fingers among countless families in the Central Plains Murim.
『However, it is ambiguous to enter the Five Great Families under Heaven.』
From then on, opinions became divided.
『If we pick the Three Great Families under Heaven, there is no place for the Cheon Family.』
That was the reality of the Cheon Family.
Cheon Muryang could realize what the cause was.
“Funny. A family of the sky that lost the sky. Tsk.”
Cheon Muryang let out a bitter smile naturally at that paradox.
“Mm…….”
Cheon Muryang soon frowned.
It was because of the stench felt from somewhere.
“Don't tell me……?”
The source was himself.
It was waste discharged unknowingly when operating Cheon Yang Divine Art.
However, that amount was much and terrible to the point it couldn't be compared to until now.
“It seems…… I have to go out in less than a day.”
It was to the extent of worrying about contamination.
Therefore, Cheon Muryang organized the books and stepped out of the Cheonryong Library.
“Gong, Gongja-nim!”
Outside, naturally, Wolyeong was waiting.
However, the expression was subtle.
“What. Why are you like that?”
“Why did you come out now!”
“Now, you say?”
“Yes. You said you would come out in two days! Ten days have passed now.”
“Ten days……?”
Cheon Muryang doubted his ears.
Ten days.
How did time pass so quickly?
“Ten days, you say? Are you sure?”
“Yes. Look at your clothes. Since you wore them for ten days…….”
Wolyeong blocked her nose.
Even for her, who was used to cleaning Cheon Muryang’s room, it was a stench transcending imagination.
“Let’s go quickly before anyone sees!”
It was just the moment when favorable rumors about Cheon Muryang were circulating.
However, isn't a rumor of stench in this situation pouring cold water?
Wolyeong led Cheon Muryang while guarding the surroundings lest anyone see.
“Ten days, huh…….”
Cheon Muryang being dragged along still couldn't believe it.
“Come to think of it…… am I hungry?”
Kko-reu-reuk.
He was hungry.
It seemed ten days had passed.