Meanwhile Yung Wun, with absolute determination, climbed higher and higher until he reached the sacred mountain, where he found a secluded place near the summit of Mount Jijang Bong. There he fasted and meditated for a thousand days until he had attained complete clarity of mind, thus gaining bright insight into all human affairs and the Way of Life and Knowledge. Consequently, he knew that his former master Dong-ji was dying, and when he had died he heard the voice of the god of the Underworld say, “Bring hither the soul of Myung Dong-Ji.”

Yung Wun heard Dong-ji being sentenced to spend a thousand years in the Black Serpent Hole and thereafter another thousand years in the Yellow Serpent Hole. The young monk prayed for a thousand days that his master might be released from Hell and be allowed to be reborn on earth as a baby in order to start his apprenticeship all over again. As a result, Dong-ji was advanced to the Yellow Serpent Hole at a very early date.

Again Yung Wun prayed and fasted until Dong-ji’s soul was finally released from the underworld. The young monk kept watch at the entrance to the cave that gave access to the other world, and true enough, he recognized the soul of Dong-ji when it came out, fluttering like a bat or floating sleepily like a cloud.

Yung Wun followed it, watching carefully lest it enter the wrong body. When the soul was on the point of entering a cow Yung Wun stopped it just in time; and again when it wanted to enter a bitch. After many miles of wandering, Yung Wun finally saw the soul-cloud flying into an old cottage. Inside he found a childless old couple, but Dong-ji’s soul was nowhere to be seen.

Yung Wun knew immediately what had happened. He announced solemnly to the couple: “You will have a son within a year, and when he is seven years old I will come back to claim him as my pupil.” The old man protested that he and his wife had never been able to have children, but that if they did have a son they would certainly be prepared to entrust him to the care of a great scholar. And thus it happened. A son was born to them, and after seven years Yung Wun came back to claim his pupil.

By that time Yung Wun had built a monastery in the hills. The monastery is still there; its name is Yung Wun Am. Now he brought his young pupil (who had been his master in a previous life) to the monastery and took the boy to his room. The window of the boy’s room looked out onto a courtyard, where Yung Wun had ordered a bull to be tethered.