Chapter 34 – The Visit of Master Baek In-gyeom
The Small Heavenly Cycle – Part III
Again.
Continue.
The meaning that had echoed in Yeong-woo's mind suddenly changed.
Good.
Baek In-gyeom quietly stepped back.
Without a word he left the room.
He closed the door gently.
Holding the doorframe so that it would not make a sound,
he slowly released it.
Then he sat down on the wooden veranda outside the room.
A moment later, a nurse approached with medicine.
She stopped in surprise.
Baek In-gyeom raised a hand and signaled her to step back.
The nurse bowed deeply.
Then she turned and walked away without a word.
Soon after, the physician peeked out from the hallway.
His eyes met Baek In-gyeom sitting on the veranda.
The physician immediately withdrew his head.
After that, the corridor remained silent for a long time.
Baek In-gyeom's senses reached quietly into the room.
Yeong-woo continued the Small Heavenly Cycle.
His body had been cut open.
Poison had entered him.
Even the fact that he still breathed was a miracle.
That was why Baek In-gyeom had taught him now.
Something that should have been taught later—
he taught now.
Because it was the only path that might save him.
Otherwise he might spend the rest of his life weak and broken,
unable to use his strength.
His body had been opened.
Try it.
Yeong-woo had followed that path.
And in the end—
he opened it.
Now the qi moved on its own.
One circuit.
Then another.
Baek In-gyeom no longer counted how many cycles had passed.
Yeong-woo's mind no longer needed to guide the flow.
The qi found its path by itself.
No one knew how many more cycles might follow.
If it continued smoothly,
it might pass ten.
Perhaps dozens.
Deep within the dantian, a tiny seed of qi might form.
No larger than a mustard seed.
Something very small.
Yet that tiny seed could transform the entire body.
The beginning is always the hardest.
But once a seed takes root,
it grows by itself.
It may grow as large as Mount Sumeru.
It may spread wide enough to cover the world.
Baek In-gyeom sat on the veranda,
guarding the door.
A master sitting before the door,
protecting his disciple's practice.
It was waiting.
And it was prayer.
That the man abandoned by the world,
cast aside by his own organization,
might be reborn through another kind of fire.
A person wishing, truly wishing,
for another person's life.