Jaekyung contemplated himself for a long while, but found no problems. His mind was utterly calm, as if it had never raged, and his spiritual nature was also stable.
‘What in the world is the problem?’
After finishing his contemplation, Jaekyung was lost in thought. The transformation was successful. It was definitely successful.
He thought it over again, and again several times, but the conclusion did not change.
‘There’s no problem with the transformation. If there is a problem, it’s me.’
He had lost his reason to anger. Just like the demon races of the Upper Demon Forest who, incited by the Great Spirit Beasts, had lost their minds. At that time, watching the demon races rush to their deaths, he had been wary and tense, determined not to become like them, but he had unexpectedly experienced something similar.
‘I’ve never heard of others who learned the Transformation Secret Art experiencing such a problem.’
If a transformation failed, it failed; there was no such thing as side effects after a success. At least, as far as Jaekyung knew.
‘It’s not a problem with the transformation, nor with the secret art. Therefore, the problem must be with me.’
Jaekyung began to pinpoint the ways in which he was different from others. A reincarnator, born with the body of a demon race but possessing a human soul. Lacking a bloodline, he had cultivated his spiritual nature on his own with a spiritual seed, and based on that, he had reached the Great Spirit stage.
And luckily, he had obtained a Transformation Secret Art that was perfectly suited for him, achieving transformation with ease. There were a few other minor things that came to mind, but these three were the suspicious ones.
‘Unlike the other demon races in the Garden of Remembrance, my mind is sound.’
This was something the senior cultivators had mentioned, so there was no room for doubt. Jaekyyung himself had never once felt or been swayed by the fickle and violent nature of the demon races.
‘Could it be that the feelings of frustration and anger I felt after the transformation stemmed from the nature of the demon race?’
If so, the anger made sense, but what about the frustration? Jaekyung clearly remembered that the unbearable frustration had turned into anger. When that anger grew in size to the point where he could no longer bear it, he had lost his reason.
‘I felt frustrated when I was in human form. Why? Was the form wrong?’
But when he had briefly checked his reflection in the water, he couldn't find anything strange. His head was properly attached, and his limbs were intact. His face was somewhat beautified, but it resembled his past self…
‘Could that have been the problem?’
When Jaekyung transformed, he had skipped the process of carving out the human form. Because the human form he wanted to change into already existed. That form was not one crafted from imagination and will, but his own appearance from his past life, existing in his memory.
‘Is that why? Because I didn’t create a new human form, but just brought over another version of myself?’
Jaekyung’s knowledge of transformation came entirely from what he had seen and learned from the Pulse-Stimulating Transformation Art, so he couldn't be certain. But the more he thought about it, the more this speculation gained weight.
‘Considering I’ve never once been troubled by the nature of the demon race, it’s safe to say my soul and mind have sufficiently adapted to the body of a demon.’
The mind of a human in the body of a demon. Jaekyung had actively accepted and assimilated into his new identity. From the moment he broke out of the egg, he had been faithful to his new life, and after setting foot on the Immortal Path, he had steadily honed himself.
And so, he had reached his present state. The him of now was complete. While there might be some minor shortcomings, there were no deficiencies.
‘In that state, I tried to add my past self on top.’
If one were to compare the spirit and soul to a lump of clay, creating a form from scratch would be like slowly sculpting a part of the soft clay lump. In other words, even after the form is fully sculpted, it remains a single lump. On the other hand, the method Jaekyung chose was slightly different.
It was like taking a separate, existing clay model and sticking it onto the original lump of clay. And on top of that, a clay that had already hardened. It's fast and convenient, but the two are only briefly attached, still remaining two different lumps.
‘Normally, my method shouldn’t have caused a major problem.’
The real issue wasn't the model that was brought and attached, but the base lump of clay. Because his soul and mind were already complete, the attached model couldn't become one with it, ending up awkwardly placed on top.
‘It seems plausible.’
From start to finish, it was all assumptions and speculations, but Jaekyung couldn't think of any other possibilities.
‘If that’s really the case, how should I solve it?’
To put it bluntly, his excellent adaptation as a demon had, in turn, become a poison. Would things have been different if he hadn't tried to take such a shortcut with the form-carving process? No. Even if he had, the situation would have been similar.
As long as his past life remained in his soul and mind as an identity, as a memory, nothing would have changed. In the end, the form he would have created from scratch would have had the same face reflected in the water.
‘I’ve already transformed, so I can’t undo it.’
In the house called Jaekyung, an uncomfortable cohabitation had begun between the past owner and the current owner. Unless the house is expanded or blown up entirely, this uncomfortable cohabitation will continue to the end. The only silver lining was that the one who wielded the Pulse-Stimulating Transformation Art was the current owner—Jaekyung the snake.
As long as he didn't use the transformation art, he could continue his peaceful life.
‘But the problem is, I’ll have to transform frequently from now on.’
Then what should he do?
‘There’s no choice but to kill my temper.’
A simple, yet by no means easy conclusion, but it was the only one he could think of right now. * The man with pale skin, Jaekyung, sat cross-legged, muttering words whose meaning was hard to grasp. It sounded at times like a Buddhist chant, at others like the meaningless humming of a drunkard.
The monotone voice, its meaning impossible to guess, carried a subtle mystique. Anyone who saw Jaekyung now would have mistaken him for a Daoist of profound practice or a monk with deep Buddhist faith. Cheong-o was closing his eyes on his shining nest, which he had painstakingly restored.
At first, he had been afraid, thinking Jaekyung might go on a rampage again at any moment, but now he was completely immersed in Jaekyung's low voice.
'Cheong-o......'
Though his body was on the splendid nest in the cave, Cheong-o's mind had returned to his crow days, when he used to listen to the Immortal master's words. Just recalling that memory brought him peace. The voice of the Immortal master calling his name.
The last words he had spoken. And the small smile that followed.
‘Huh?’
Soaked in reminiscence, Cheong-o suddenly realized Jaekyung's voice had stopped and hurriedly lifted his head. Jaekyung was still sitting cross-legged, but his expressionless face was slowly beginning to contort.
“Jaekyung! Get a grip!”
Cheong-o, who had shrieked sharply, didn’t stop at just words. He swiftly flew over and began to peck Jaekyung’s head without mercy.
“Get a grip! Get a grip!”
With an emotional peck, Jaekyung let out a single groan, came to his senses, and immediately returned to his original form.
“You…...”
“Jaekyung, that was dangerous! Dangerous! You were about to cause a ruckus again!”
Jaekyung fell silent, looking at Cheong-o who was flying before his eyes as if asking for praise.
‘It was your nest that was in danger, not me.’
In any case, he had been woken up at the right time, so there was nothing he could say.
‘By the way… my body definitely gets weaker when I’m transformed.’
When in his original form, it would be nothing more than a tickle no matter how much the fellow pecked for a hundred days, but when Cheong-o had just pecked his head with all his emotions, it was quite painful.
Still, seeing as he wasn't wounded, he seemed much stronger than a typical human, but by the standards of Jaekyung, who prided himself on his tough body, it was far from satisfactory.
‘That aside, it’s certainly effective.’
It felt like he had lasted for about an hour, maybe even longer. It was still not enough, but compared to when he first transformed, it was a huge improvement. The White Mountain Clear Mind Incantation.
That was the incantation Jaekyung had been chanting until just now. It had the effect of clearing the mind, and according to Gwak Jeong-shin, it was quite popular among cultivators who practiced mental training.
‘The incantation is definitely effective. The problem is, it only works properly when I keep chanting it.’
If he kept chanting, he could maintain his sanity for about an hour, but if he stopped, anger would surge within less than ten minutes. Even that ten-minute period had gradually increased through consistent practice of the White Mountain Clear Mind Incantation.
‘To properly practice a cultivation technique, I need to be able to maintain my sanity for at least two hours without chanting the Clear Mind Incantation.’
The road ahead was far too long. At this snail's pace, there was no telling when he would reach his destination.
“Are you going to do it right away?”
“No. I’ll rest a bit.”
If he had his way, he would want to practice the Clear Mind Incantation even while resting, but unfortunately, it could only be practiced in human form. He wondered what kind of restriction it was for something that wasn't even a cultivation technique… but what could he do, that was reality.
“Jaekyung. Can’t I learn that? Do I have to become human?”
“Yes.”
Cheong-o, displeased, sat in his nest and snorted. The fellow had shown interest from the moment Jaekyung first chanted the Clear Mind Incantation, saying it reminded him of the Immortal master.
He kept singing about how he wanted to learn it too, but unfortunately, the Clear Mind Incantation could only be practiced by humans, so for Cheong-o to practice it, he would have to at least reach the Great Spirit stage and learn a Transformation Secret Art.
Blocked by the cold wall of reality, Cheong-o was reluctant to accept it, but he would eventually have to.
‘Can that fellow become a Great Spirit Beast?’
Jaekyung didn't know if Cheong-o had a bloodline or not. But recalling the process of how the fellow became a spirit beast before, it was highly likely that he didn't, and if so, becoming a Great Spirit Beast was next to impossible.
‘It might be possible if he uses the same method as me, but…?’
It was difficult. Finding a spiritual object to use as a spiritual seed was difficult, but planting the spiritual seed and cultivating spiritual nature was even more so. Jaekyung thought his method was the one chosen by the first Great Spirit Beasts in the distant past, who had neither bloodlines nor anything else.
That method was like randomly swallowing poisons, hoping for an antibody to form. Countless spirit beasts must have tried, failed, and died. Only a small fraction, one in a million, or perhaps even fewer, would have survived to become Great Spirit Beasts and open a new path.
Jaekyung had walked that dangerous path, and succeeded.
But Cheong-o?
Could he do it too? Jaekyung rated Cheong-o’s intelligence highly, but he was still pessimistic about the possibility of the fellow becoming a Great Spirit Beast like himself.
‘Well… it’s not really my place to worry.’
Of course, Jaekyung was willing to help Cheong-o if there was anything he could do. But the Immortal Path was one walked alone, and no one could do one's Cultivation for them. Whether or not to cross the Great Spirit barrier, and if so, how, was something Cheong-o had to contemplate and decide for himself.
“Hoo.”
Having rested enough, Jaekyung uncoiled his body and gave a signal. Cheong-o quickly flew over with a gourd in his beak. In the meantime, Jaekyung transformed back into a human and sat cross-legged.
Gulp! Gulp!
What was inside the gourd was wine. This too was obtained through the Prosperous Treasure Guild. It wasn't ordinary wine, but a spirit wine made by mixing various herbs with spirit rice.
After drinking this spirit wine, Jaekyung could maintain his reason without chanting the Clear Mind Incantation until the drunkenness, no, the wine energy, wore off.
Woong~!
Feeling his body heat up, Jaekyung began to circulate his technique without delay. It was the Heat Gathering Technique, also purchased at a discount from the Prosperous Treasure Guild. It was a basic fire-attribute technique practiced by Qi Refining cultivators.
As a basic technique, its cultivation speed was slow, but its stability was flawless. Jaekyung purchased this basic technique to test his theory and to familiarize himself with human cultivation techniques. He still vividly remembered the strange look in Gwak Jeong-shin's eyes when he said he would buy this technique.
It was a natural reaction. He hadn't overcome the Transformation Tribulation to transform, but had done so through a secret art as a loophole, so it was normal for him to be unable to practice human cultivation techniques. From Gwak Jeong-shin's perspective, it must have seemed like Jaekyung was wasting money.
When Jaekyung made the excuse that he wanted to research human cultivation techniques and tried to buy other basic techniques of different attributes, Gwak Jeong-shin finally seemed to understand, praising Jaekyung's spirit of inquiry and recommending some techniques.
Jaekyung had casually picked the other attribute techniques based on Gwak Jeong-shin's recommendation, but he had carefully considered and chosen only this one, the Heat Gathering Technique. It was a choice made based on one thing and one thing only: stability.
Flicker!
Even after circulating the Heat Gathering Technique at full power until the wine energy wore off, all he could produce was a single ember. It was a shabby result befitting a basic technique, but Jaekyung was satisfied. He could vividly feel that his spiritual nature had grown by exactly the size of that small ember.
‘My Immortal Path is a smooth road!’
Drenched in a sense of accomplishment, Jaekyung was about to circulate the Heat Gathering Technique again when he paused and cast his gaze at the gourd placed beside him. The sense of accomplishment that had uplifted him just moments ago vanished without a trace, and hesitation filled his heart. To train once more, he had to take another sip.
But having already consumed mental energy in one session of training, if he trained again consecutively, the efficiency would not be as good as the first time. Was it necessary to gulp down that expensive spirit wine for such an inefficient training session? It was as if he were drinking not wine, but money, spirit stones.
“Urgh!”
Letting out a groan, Jaekyung succumbed to reality and quietly began to chant the Clear Mind Incantation. He had to train as diligently as possible with the little time he had left before his patience ran out. As Jaekyung's voice chanting the Clear Mind Incantation quietly echoed through the cave.
The fruit of Mook-soo, placed on the spiritual soil, began to rot rapidly. The fruit, which had been as fresh as if just picked, turned to sand and crumbled in less than a few seconds. And a moment later.
From within the remnants of the powdered fruit, a small sprout emerged.