Episode 397

Mount Emei was famous for its many strangely shaped rocks.

The entire mountain boasted amazing scenery, so even climbing just the smaller peaks could be considered an amazing task.

A famous mountain with many places, it had been visited by hundreds of scholars and poets in admiration.

Thus, Seol-Hwi and Satae Du Myung did not have to go far to find a beautiful spot where they could talk.

“It has been so long since I last saw you, Great Sage.”

“…?”

The man, whom the warriors called Seol-Hwi, looked quite excited, calling her Great Sage.

Du Myung tilted her head slightly at the excessive respect.

“If we think about it, isn’t this our first meeting?”

“Ah, right. Now that I think about it, this is my first time seeing you in this life. But…”

The man hesitated and held an awkward smile.

“Actually, we seem too familiar with each other for this to be a first meeting, right?”

Du Myung nodded.

It might be their first meeting, but as the man said, they were aware of each other.

How could she not know the man who continued to appear in her dreams?

“If it is alright, I would like to ask first. How did you come to know me?”

“I had a dream. It is hard to tell how much time had passed…”

Du Myung decided to be honest.

“So many dreams I had, and hundreds of encounters. I dreamed it overnight; it felt like daydreams or like a dream within a dream with numerous things.”

In it, the man and she had exchanged numerous discussions and conversations for guidance. And she saw him suffering too.

Sometimes, she saw him having a great awakening and was filled with joy. That was why, even though this was their first meeting, she talked about her dream.

It was not known what kind of nature or situation this was, but she felt comfortable speaking.

“It’s amazing. Meeting you, countless repetitions of life and death, to me, this is all but a dream…”

“Great Sage, this is absurd. And it’s not just my thing.”

“…?”

Seol-Hwi looked slightly flustered.

However, Du Myung shook her head slightly.

“The state known as Profound Master is infinitely incomprehensible to the eyes of a criminal. I thought it was real, but in reality, we might have met in the Nine Heavens,”

“Nine Heavens… The words of someone devoted to Buddhism might say. Does the Great Sage mean an encounter in a different world, a different life, than this one?”

“It could be so, or maybe not. You seem convinced that our meeting had already happened, but it could have been a dream too. Just as I have had many dreams, surely you must have had a strange number of dreams.”

The man went silent.

They seemed confused by what she said and also could not trust it.

Seol-Hwi, perhaps gathering his thoughts in such silence, calmly opened his mouth.

“…Whether it is Taoism or Buddhism, when you reach the peak, one says something similar.”

“Could be so.”

It felt like a reference to the butterfly dream.

The Spring and Autumn Warring States period said that one day there was this dream in which he turned into a butterfly, and the dream was so vivid that he remembered all about the life as a human.

-Did I dream of a butterfly, or did the butterfly dream of me?

Is this that? Everything in the world was as such; it was meaningless to distinguish between what is false and what was real.

“It seems like you have studied a lot so far. It seems like you have made a lot of progress, so I am also happy.”

“Now you are talking like it wasn’t a dream.”

“Does it matter if it is a dream or reality? If it is a dream too, it felt too close to reality; it cannot be called just a dream. If it is an infinitely fleeting reality, it will be no different from a dream.”

“…Obsession, you mean it like that?”

The question came with a slightly different look.

“It is difficult to answer that.”

Du Myung shook her head.

It can be called obsession or bondage too.

It was said that there were 108 forms of suffering, and Nirvana was achieved by escaping them.

But was it not also said that if one becomes obsessed with escaping the 108, they end up falling into another, which is the 109th suffering?

“So… did you find what you were looking for?”

Seeing the man with a troubled look, she calmly talked about it.

In the past, within a dream-in-a-dream, this man came to her for advice numerous times.

It might have felt like once, or it could have been a hundred times. And during those times, she passed down everything she had learned.

Even about things she had not yet mastered and did not have full knowledge of.

Together, not alone, they were going to find answers. Because it was the process in which both could think.

And today—

The long dream ended. The familiar yet unfamiliar man in front of her finally surpassed the state.

He reached a certain level.

“If I were not careful, it could have turned into a fable.”

The person smiled as he joked lightly.

“Fortunately, I managed to control the level due to the balance of the two energies. In the end, it is all thanks to the advice that Great Sage gave me.”

“But there were many failures. Because of my words which were lacking, and I apologize for that.”

“You have too much humility. How could they be your shortcomings? It was more because what I knew didn’t change into real experience.”

Seol-Hwi said with a long sigh.

“After practicing for a long time, the moment I completed it in the dantian, I felt energized. I was able to coordinate and control it. It was based on the gratuitous strength of yours.”

“Thank you.”

“As expected… so does that mean you can control all seven desires?”

“No, it is a little different. Although the emotions had to subside more than usual, I still had a lot of emotions left. I just don’t get swayed by them…”

Seol-Hwi shook his head humbly and then quietly turned his head.

With a sigh that felt remorseful.

“You know this, Great Sage? This life is the last, the life before that…”

“…?”

Du Myung tilted her head. Last life? And the life before that?

What kind of riddle was this? Everyone lived only once, but the man was talking as if he had lived many times.

…Ah.

In an instant, Du Myung’s expression changed. She realized it.

When the man spoke, it was no joke but the truth.

It seemed that the man named Seol-Hwi had actually continued to live dozens, perhaps hundreds, of lives.

The proof was in the dream she had.

It seemed like it happened just once, and yet like it happened a hundred times in one night.

A long, strange dream.

It was not known why, but he had lived a hundred lives related to her.

“I think it was around the time when I had about a hundred lives left… hundreds of failures and successes. Somewhere along the way, I started to think about giving up everything. Will it just disappear like this? Wouldn’t it be nice to just quit and give up?”

“…”

Du Myung waited quietly without asking or answering Seol-Hwi’s unexpected words.

Words which did not expect an answer. It was something this man just wanted to say.

“Living countless times over and over again was driving me insane. I couldn’t see the answer, like a hamster spinning in a wheel, I had to continue moving ahead. Living didn’t feel like living, and I didn’t know the meaning of life.”

“Amitabha.”

Du Myung chanted quietly.

This wall, which felt so distant. A heavy punishment that must be faced over endless years, be it a warrior or a Taoist.

Because she had reached the highest level of Buddhism, she could not help but feel the pain of Seol-Hwi. She understood it far better than anyone.

“So in the next life, and the life after that, I continued to look for you. Do you know the reason?”

“What is it?”

“A different answer to the same question. That is what I wanted to hear.”

“…?”

Du Myung stopped. Seol-Hwi’s words this time were something she could not have expected at all.

“Unlike life, where everyone repeats life in a certain order, you lived differently each time, with different thoughts, reactions, and hearts. It was always different.”

“…Was I like that?”

“Yes, so I could feel the passage of time. Without going insane.”

Seol-Hwi had a weak smile. A sad laugh.

In one life, at least ten years or more. Having more lives was not a good thing.

Seol-Hwi meant infinitely, literally. Through repeated training, he almost reached a point of insanity. No, he did have some crazy lives.

There was a time when he lived as a cripple for a life due to an imbalance of energy. And he looked for her every time.

In this life, consumed by the system, was she not the only woman living a different life?

“Then… how do you plan to spend this life, your last one?”

Du Myung asked.

If what this man said was true, his fate was decided.

The fight he longed for in all his lives, the life in which he was left with only one life ahead.

Because she was curious about how he would use it.

“I don’t know either. I wonder if it will end here.”

“…Uh.”

Seol-Hwi, surprising Du Myung, continued to speak calmly,

“There was something that had to be done. It is because of that one thing that I have endured and persevered like this.

“But that has to be done in the last life. So this life is just one to wrap it up.”

“Isn’t this a conclusion that has been too hasty? There is no such thing as a meaningless life. If you achieve the goal, is there a reason you have to do it only in the last life?”

Du Myung asked cautiously.

The man named Seol-Hwi did not seem to be speaking in vain. Nothing in life was.

It seemed like there was no obsession or meaning to his life… so he wanted it to end.

Did he not seem like one who wanted to commit suicide? No matter how much Buddhism says to throw away the obsession and pain to enter Nirvana.

This meant that life inherently had many twists and turns, so one should not get too caught up in them.

Life was different from suicidal thoughts and giving up.

Scratching his chin, Seol-Hwi said,

“Hmm… because of what you said.”

“…?”

Du Myung was shocked. Seol-Hwi smiled and said,

“This repetition of living has turned me weak. The hottest and fiercest, wasn’t the life of fighting back when there was only one life to live? I did something wrong.”

“I… you mean?”

Du Myung frowned.

She could not remember if she had said it or not. Even if she tried to remember, it was not like she could recall when hundreds of dreams overlapped.

The feeling continued.

“Right. And I agreed to it. For my last life, I decided to burn away everything. In the end, what Sa Yu-kang said was right.”

“…Sa Yu-kang?”

A random name. The situation felt confusing for Du Myung, but she still knew that this man spoke what he meant. It was probably the name of someone who had spoken to him.

Everyone has one life. The reason it is one, is that not what made it valuable?

“We are always at the crossroads of choice, but as much as we want to turn back time… there is nothing more than regretting it.”

“Indeed.”

“And… truly, thank you.”

Seol-Hwi, who stared at her, felt like her form was slowly fading, and so, she blinked.

Whishing

Seol-Hwi was not there.

The only noise was the wind passing through the odd rocks.

“…Amitabha.”

Du Myung mumbled.

A man who approached like a goblin said random things and then disappeared like the wind.

Seol-Hwi.

She could not tell if this was reality or a dream.

“Was it me who had the dream? Or was it him?”

Drrrr

The prayer beads rolled in her hand.

She could never understand. But still, a subtle smile appeared on her face.

“Now then, let us go. To that high place…”

Step

She regarded all this as training and fate, consoling herself as she descended the mountain.

Her steps were infinitely light.

That was because she saw a Taoist vanishing before her eyes. It was because she thought that perhaps her current life had been too safe.