Heavenly Demon Cultivation Simulation-Chapter 545: Cheon Miryeo (1)

Cheon Miryeo (1)

Chirp, chirp.

With the birdsong, transparent sunlight poured over the village.

A dirt-colored mountain range stretched long at the edge of the sand-mixed fields.

Each time the wind blew, the dry scent of earth came with it, carrying the damp breath of melted water from the mountains.

Only a few years ago, this place was a land of death.

Sandstorms raged endlessly, even the wells ran dry, and the harshness made them perform rain-invoking rites every night.

But this spring, timely rains wetted the earth and even the dry fields sprouted new shoots.

“Hoo.”

Seol Hwi stopped in front of a small earthen-walled house at the edge of the village.

Outside, warm spring sunlight shone, yet the door of his house was frozen solid.

White frost bloomed along the door’s seams.

Creak.

The moment he opened the door, a cold gust burst out with a ‘kwaaak-’ and wetted his face.

Frost bloomed like flowers on the floor, and tiny crystalline ice particles glittered and floated in the air.

“Not yet. Stop it.”

At Seol Hwi’s single word, the current halted.

In the center of the room, Cheon Miryeo sat cross-legged.

When she opened her eyes, the frost began to melt with a ‘chiiik’ sound.

“Just now… I felt the qi of nature seeping into my body.”

Cheon Miryeo’s pupils trembled slightly.

Her expression mixed excitement and fear.

“It wasn’t demonic arts… it was something entirely different.”

“You could be mistaken.”

Seol Hwi’s voice was calm.

“That’s only an omen. There’s a difference between the shell cracking and it being completely broken.”

He added matter-of-factly.

“Supreme Demon is subdued by demonic power. But Profound Demon is…”

Seol Hwi looked out the window.

“It must accept the order of nature, and the whole body must change from the root. That’s why it’s dangerous, and slow.”

Cheon Miryeo bit her lip.

The scars from the demonic qi deviation were still vivid.

A Supreme Demon trap born from the clash of enlightenment and desire.

She had barely returned from the brink of death.

“Master is…”

She opened her mouth cautiously.

“What kind of person are you, really?”

Seol Hwi did not answer at once.

His gaze went off into the distance, then returned to her.

“Why do you ask that?”

“Because you don’t seem like a human.”

Her calm tone nonetheless carried instinctive awe.

A sensation only those who have reached the supreme can feel.

An intuition that the being before her had transcended all boundaries.

“…That may be so.”

A strange light passed through Seol Hwi’s eyes.

Memory and loss.

Unfinished questions.

The words the old man had offered in the desperate moment when he first faced Jang Dal.

“Well, you’ll know at the moment of death. Maybe… you’ll be able to live a very special life.”

“If a bit of luck, no, quite a lot of luck, is added to that…”

“You might overcome this Demon God and meet that being again.”

The prophecy was faint then.

Now it had become a memory made real.

‘It seems he… knew everything.’

This meeting too.

This moment too.

Even the current me who watches from outside memory.

‘But why did he make me continue this bond?’

One question still remained: the real reason he deliberately pulled him into his past.

‘It surely wasn’t just longing for her.’

Seol Hwi was curious about the old man’s intent.

Sshhh.

A wind blew at that moment.

A fallen leaf landed on his knee.

“Do not be impatient.”

“….”

“A flower that blooms in darkness won’t bloom faster if hurried. Profound Demon is the same. The more you rush, the farther it will be.”

Cheon Miryeo nodded.

A faint ripple under the ice reflected in her eyes.

That spring was unusually cold.

Summer arrived.

The fields brimmed with green life, and the sun beat down hot.

Splash, splash.

Seol Hwi walked along the ricebank again today.

He tamped the soil of the irrigation ditch, filled the cracked gaps, and let water trickle into the parched fields.

Sometimes he looked after mountain goats at the request of the lower village.

There were times he tripped on a naughty goat’s hoof while carrying a leather pail and ended up soaking his clothes.

At dusk, Seol Hwi returned home.

Creak.

The moment he opened the door, a cool breath brushed his face.

Though it was midsummer, the room was chilly like winter.

Cheon Miryeo sat cross-legged.

Her breathing was calm, but beads of sweat dotted her forehead.

“Don’t keep resting; circulate the qi in meridians.”

Seol Hwi said as he crossed the threshold.

“A body that has suffered the qi deviation… if given a gap, will fall back into that path.”

Cheon Miryeo opened her eyes.

Her complexion had improved from before, but deep in her eyes a heavy fatigue still remained.

“How was today…?”

The only conversation time of the day.

A half-hour or so for a meal and small talk.

Other than that, it was solitary training alone.

“It is nothing special.”

Seol Hwi said while tossing a dry desert twig into the brazier.

“I fixed the waterway and cut the roadside weeds. Old man Lee Sak called me and I milked some goats too.”

He paused and snorted a laugh.

“That fellow seemed displeased and squirted milk everywhere. My favorite clothes got ruined.”

A small smile spread at the corner of Cheon Miryeo’s mouth.

“Master always wears the same plain robe, doesn’t he?”

“Then just think I must treasure that one robe.”

“Heh heh… that makes sense.”

A brief silence passed.

Only the crackle of dry twigs burning and the distant jingle of camel bells could be heard.

“This morning, a caravan came up to this house and then turned back.”

Cheon Miryeo said suddenly.

“There was the sound of the door opening… but why did they do that?”

“Hm.”

Seol Hwi answered indifferently.

“They probably thought you were a corpse.”

Cheon Miryeo’s eyebrows twitched.

“…Do I look like that?”

“You haven’t looked like a normal human for quite some time. To people from the Western Regions, you’d probably seem like a mountain spirit.”

“….”

Cheon Miryeo lowered her head.

A small sigh escaped.

“…Ha. I see.”

A lonely laugh that could have been resignation or self-mockery.

She knew too that she stood on the border between human and something beyond.

That she was slowly awakening into a new being within a cold, hard shell.

“Still, that’s fortunate.”

“What’s that?”

“Corpses don’t talk. You still talk back, so you’re at least alive.”

Cheon Miryeo stared at Seol Hwi.

And she snorted a laugh.

“…Your consolations are quite unique, Master.”

Instead of answering, Seol Hwi boiled water until it bubbled.

He prepared to brew tea from the Western Regions.

The cold aura in the room gradually lifted.

That summer, the small village at the foot of Heavenly mountain felt unusually cozy.

Before they knew it, autumn had deepened.

The winds of Heavenly Mountain blew cold, and the fields smelled of the dry residue of harvested barley.

Cheon Miryeo’s color returned little by little.

A faint blush returned to her cheeks, and her steps gained strength.

Yet the room still held an icy chill, and deep fatigue lingered in her breath.

In the evening, Cheon Miryeo stepped outside for a moment.

“Your body is more or less controlled now, so it’s time to let your mind rest.”

When Seol Hwi approached and spoke, Cheon Miryeo blinked.

“Let my mind rest… Do you mean I should sleep more?”

“It’s a pity to lose one pair of hands during harvest season, but it can’t be helped.”

“Ha…”

Cheon Miryeo shook her head in mild disbelief, then snorted a laugh.

“…Then, when will I ascend to Profound Demon?”

“That depends on you.”

“You are truly an irresponsible saint.”

“Indeed. I’m worlds apart from the master you expected.”

Whooooo—

A wind blew during the brief silence.

It brushed the earthen wall and shook fallen leaves.

The cry of desert crickets came from afar.

“Relying only on qi is insufficient.”

Seol Hwi spoke slowly.

“They call it a mind method… but to be precise, it’s just cultivation.”

“You mean polishing the mind?”

“Yes.”

“How do I polish it?”

“The way to be still, the way to empty yourself.”

Seol Hwi said as he looked toward Heavenly Mountain in the distance.

“Don’t forcibly draw down the qi of heaven and earth… let it seep in like water.”

Cheon Miryeo exhaled quietly.

A white breath dispersed into the autumn air.

“Is it like the Taoist notion of oneness of self and nothing?”

“Taoists always use grand words. Put simply: ‘sit quietly for a while.’”

“…Saying it that way somehow takes away its nobility.”

“Cultivation is like that. If you act fancy it’s pretending; the real thing is so boring it could kill you.”

Cheon Miryeo smiled broadly. The chill in the wind loosened for a moment.

Meanwhile, Seol Hwi glanced up at a patch of mountain shade.

‘Perhaps he wanted to see whether I would ultimately sit in nothingness or choose a different path from him.’

Seol Hwi still felt like he faced an unsolved problem.

“So… you’re telling me to live boringly?”

“For the time being. You must learn how to survive.”

She nodded slowly.

Her gaze calmed and a deeper stillness settled in.

“How long must I do it?”

“Until you go crazy with boredom.”

“…Just hearing that is already tormenting enough.”

“That means it’s already having an effect.”

A cold wind sighed—

Though the wind was cold, a strange warmth flowed between the two.

That autumn was particularly clear.

And Seol Hwi began, little by little, to enjoy this strange bond.

Winter came.

Heavenly Mountain’s knife-like winds bit at the bones, and the ridgelines were covered white with snow.

Seol Hwi carried firewood down the mountain path.

He walked the narrow path littered with animal tracks and frost, and arrived at the yard in silence.

Thunk. Thud.

The sound of laying down the bundle of wood cut through the quiet air.

He soon opened the door, and his movement froze.

‘This is…’

A chill, no, a stillness in which even the notion of cold had vanished.

Not that the ice had gone, but a space where the very concept of cold had been emptied.

When the extreme of energy passes, silence arrives in return.

In the center of the room.

Cheon Miryeo sat cross-legged.

But not even her breathing could be heard. She stood perfectly still like a statue.

“Ah…”

Seol Hwi’s eyes trembled slightly at the corners.

This was not his achievement.

Nor something he had accomplished.

Yet something hot rose from deep in his chest.

It felt like watching the first sunrise over a winter river.

Perhaps this was how his master in Qingcheng Sect had once looked upon him, long ago.

“…Yes. That’s how it’s done.”

Seol Hwi quietly entered the room.

A span of time passed.

A long silence passed.

“Huu…”

Cheon Miryeo exhaled a faint, trembling breath.

Then she slowly opened her eyes and spoke.

“Master… I…”

Her voice was thin but filled with certainty. Her eyes were deep and clear like a tranquil lake.

The flow of her qi and blood had completely changed.

The energy of heaven and earth flowed in and out naturally, resonating with the cosmos.

It was the aura of someone standing at the threshold of Profound Demon.

“First, control it.”

“Yes…?”

Cheon Miryeo took a deep breath.

Joy and excitement colored the edges of her voice.

“This is the most dangerous moment. The gate is open, but the mind has not yet settled. If you falter even a little, you’ll fall back into qi deviation.”

Cheon Miryeo’s expression stiffened in an instant.

“…I will remember.”

Seol Hwi clasped his hands behind his back and looked out the window.

The earthy scent of the Western Regions rising from the firewood spread faintly.

“Slowly, and to the end. Profound Demon isn’t about power; it’s where an unshakable mind arrives.”

Tears welled at the corners of Cheon Miryeo’s eyes.

She knew how precious each of those words was.

“…To me… thank you for not giving up on this disciple until the end.”

Seol Hwi tilted his head and looked at the sky.

Fine snow was falling outside the window.

It was likely snow blown from Heavenly Demon.

“The path is one you found yourself.”

Cheon Miryeo’s tears fell.

Her shoulders trembled faintly.

Only she would know whether it was joy or overwhelming emotion.

“I merely kept the flame by your side.”

The breath of winter.

Mixed with the breath of a new realm just opening.

‘You’ll know after a bit more time.’

Seol Hwi’s question rose into the sky with them.

That winter felt unusually warm to the two of them.