Chapter 123 - Act 18. Cheong Un, the Sword of Small Defeats (3)

Yise’s flying cloud began spiraling through the air. He had escaped even a demonic practitioner at Core Formation Perfection. It was a little embarrassing to call it a point of pride, but he was reasonably confident in his ability to run away.

'I just have to evade this one attack.'

The Dream-Saving Cloud climbed steeply in a graceful arc. He intended to enter a powerful updraft and evade the attack by flying an unpredictable course. Yet the pollen’s floral light pursued him against the wind as though it were alive.

'It’s tracking me?'

This was no demonic spell fired in a straight line. It was clearly a homing spell that followed its target. In that case, he had no choice but to block it.

The attack contained no primordial energy. Judging by the power he perceived through his divine sense, it was an illusion-type spell. He calculated that he could block it well enough.

Yise immediately cast the Hardening Art. His skin hardened under the spell, and he raised the Yellow Grand Parasol over it. In case it was a mind-affecting attack, he gripped the Vajra in his left hand, from which the Yellow Grand Parasol hung. Finally, he coated the Black Phosphor Axe’s blade with primordial energy, ready to strike the attack aside.

Just before the pollen reached his body, he swung the primordial-energy-infused Black Phosphor Axe in a short, powerful stroke.

He had cut at precisely the right moment, yet felt nothing, as though he had sliced through empty air. It left the hollow sensation of a missed swing. While he flinched, the floral light touched his body.

'What?'

He had clearly seen it touch him, but he felt nothing at all. No pain, no alien presence invading his mental imagery—not even Demonic Energy. It was as though nothing had happened.

Then the creature’s voice struck his consciousness. Like a sound transmission, the message drove directly into his mind.

["Impudent human. One day, I will make you pay for interfering with me."]

Only then did Yise understand the nature of the demonic spell the creature had sent after him. It was probably some sort of tracking spell, one that also carried its message. He breathed a sigh of relief, then retorted.

“I don’t know if you can hear me, but next time I see you, I’ll hunt you down properly. You’re more than welcome to come to me.”

If it came to the Heavenly Ice Palace, where great Core Formation and Nascent Soul Cultivators stood guard, it would only end up in a flower arrangement. If he remained uneasy, he could simply stay out of the Thousand-Demon Mountains for a while. He only needed to find another hunting ground.

He had already been planning to attack one of the demonic practitioners’ Foundation Establishment cities at least once. The sight of those filthy bastards styling themselves city lords and living in luxury was more than he could stomach.

Once he found the Twin Principles Reversion Art, he would never need to return to this land anyway. The teleportation formation was to the north.

It was a pity to have missed his chance to hunt a Core Formation creature, but the attempt had been worth making. Seeing a heavenly tribulation with his own eyes had also been a valuable experience.

An overwhelmingly vast wall that would one day bar his path. Yet somehow, it felt more surmountable than he had expected.

Fairly satisfied, Yise leisurely headed north—to reach middle-stage Foundation Establishment.

* * *

Back at his lodgings, Yise took his time preparing immortal cuisine and stored it in the Meat Preservation Chest before entering the Living Spirit Abode. First, he broke off small portions of the Qi-Condensing Pill and balanced his yin and yang with practiced ease, then prepared to break through the minor threshold.

Unlike Qi Refining, which was divided into ten stars, realms from Foundation Establishment onward had only four stages: early, middle, late, and Perfection.

The state in which all preparations were complete and only the attempt at Core Formation remained was sometimes distinguished as Great Perfection, but it was generally included within Perfection.

Two terms ran through the stages of Foundation Establishment: the soul and primordial energy.

If Core Formation was the realm of earnest preparation for Nascent Soul, Foundation Establishment was the realm in which one laid the groundwork. In the early stage, one opened one’s divine sense. In the middle stage, one contemplated the soul, and in the late stage, one sensed primordial energy.

Upon reaching Perfection, one finally filled the deficiencies in the soul and underwent the process of separating spirit from flesh. Once the body grew accustomed to the energy-repulsion phenomenon, in which two or more attributes pushed against and devoured one another, one was ready to reach Core Formation.

It was the very process that had made Yise’s body burst apart. Single-attribute spiritual root bearers, who had happily advanced through the realms until then, encountered their own wall of despair here: at least two attributes had to combine to produce primordial energy.

With his yin and yang in harmony, Yise strove to contemplate his soul. The formula for breaking through to middle-stage Foundation Establishment was: If you peer into the soul, the soul will also look upon you.

If you look into the soul, the soul will gaze back at you.

Sensing the soul was different from sensing spiritual energy. While spiritual energy felt like controlling a nonexistent part of the body, the soul was more akin to divine sense. Considering that opening divine sense was the process by which a human took one step closer to the soul, delving deeper into the sensation of wielding divine sense was the right approach.

There were moments in life when one experienced such a thing. After wondering whether the life one lived was merely a dream, an illusion, or a figment of imagination, one suddenly realized one was truly alive—and life itself felt all the stranger for it.

A peculiar daze in which the sheer intensity of reality instead wiped away one’s thoughts and faintly clouded the mind. Some called it the trace left by glimpsing a fragment of the soul.

Yise cleared away all thought and sank into selflessness. Strangely, the harder he tried to attain perfect selflessness, the more thoughts intruded upon his consciousness, obstructing him. It was the exact opposite of energy circulation, during which all thought vanished.

["My dear rascal of a disciple."]

Of all his memories, it was the one he least wanted to recall—so precious, and thus so painful.

His master had been smiling. Even at the very end. He must have known the difference in their realms before he fought Bihyeong Rang, the Tyrant of Ten Thousand Demons. Even knowing he would die, he had joked to the last so his disciple would not worry.

Then the faces of the Dokkaebi he had known appeared one by one. The moment Gwisu Temple fell. The rage and helplessness he had felt then rose within him once more.

'An inner demon.'

Yise recognized it at once. He conjured flames and burned away the inner demon through pain.

He would not forget. He would remember, but he would not be consumed. He would simply keep moving forward, keeping his goal firmly in mind.

* * *

Yise rose, opened the door of the Living Spirit Abode, and stepped out into the central hall—the sitting room. The letters Ryu Seonghan had left were stacked neatly on the table. Reading them, he found they were yearly reports. Seonghan, too, was working hard in his own way.

- I completed my first mission safely.

- I have reached Great Attainment. I will devote myself to preparing for the Foundation Establishment breakthrough.

- I caught the eye of Patriarch Song Sobaek, a Core Formation Cultivator, and have joined his faction. I will do my best to serve him well so that we may receive his help if needed in the future.

- I hear the promising young talents of the Dao from each sect, all under fifty, will soon gather for a spell combat tournament. Cultivator Cheong Un will be coming from the Tyrant Sword Sect. Would you like to watch?

The last piece of news was particularly interesting. Cheong Un. Of all the Cultivators he had met in passing, he stood out in Yise’s memory. Having come all the way to the Northern Continent, Yise wanted to at least ask how he had been. He immediately sent Seonghan a reply.

- Let me know the time and place.

Yise slowly adjusted to the range of his divine sense, which had expanded by roughly fifty percent. And there was one other thing. Somewhere inside his body, he could distinctly feel something as faint as mist.

The soul. At last, he could physically sense what had previously been no more than an abstract word to him.

He had reached middle-stage Foundation Establishment. It had been approximately five years since he crossed over to the Northern Continent.

To adjust to his expanded divine sense and sell his first harvested Full-Moon Hundred-Year Herb, Yise headed to a spiritual-herb shop in a nearby market town. This was the Living Spirit Abode’s first harvest, from the very first herb he had planted and tended with particular care. It had already accumulated some thirty years of age when he planted it, so the harvest had come sooner than expected.

He walked unhurriedly into the shop and took out the herb.

The shopkeeper picked up the herb, set it down, then paused.

“This is a Full-Moon Herb. It’s rare for one to reach a hundred years...”

Naturally. The Northern Continent was bitterly cold, and the only places a Full-Moon Herb could grow were Cultivators’ gardens. Unless it had grown in the wild, no one would be mad enough to spend a hundred years raising one.

“How does a thousand sound?”

“Is there much demand for it?”

“Plenty. It can substitute for Frost Jade Grass. Since Frost Jade Grass costs two thousand spirit stones, pill refiners in a hurry will pay fifteen hundred for this.”

It was a fair price—nearly twice what it would fetch on the Eastern Continent. Above all, Yise appreciated the shopkeeper’s honesty in openly stating his resale price.

“Good.”

“Thank you.”

He currently had fifty ten-year herbs planted in his abode, which meant he would have fifty thousand spirit stones in a few years. He was practically a walking Silver Dragon Mine.

'I need to improve my Life-Promoting Art quickly.'

His Life-Promoting Art was currently at the fifth star. It was the art he was training most intensively. Once he turned all fifty of his planted ten-year herbs into hundred-year herbs, a lack of spirit stones would no longer stand in his way.

'If only I could buy time.'

Twelve watches in a day were not enough. If an elixir pill or ritual implement could double the length of a day, he felt willing to pay a fortune for it.

After repeatedly earning and spending, he now had about twenty thousand spirit stones on hand. That should spare him the need to go bounty hunting solely for money. He had wasted so much time searching for Jang Yeonggeol that he never wanted to do it again.

Yise sold off all the Qi Refining talismans he carried and replaced them with Foundation Establishment talismans. Until now, he had begrudged spending spirit stones on consumables, but he intended to invest a little in his armaments now.

He sold the Yellow Grand Parasol as well. Qi Refining Cultivators could not penetrate his Hardening Art, while the parasol was largely useless against Foundation Establishment Cultivators. It was about time to let it go.

'A defensive ritual implement that activates on its own would be better than a shield.'

Even though it slipped over his wrist, it had often hindered him in combat. He would be better off casting defensive spells with an empty hand.

Yise had finished a circuit of the market town and was about to return to his lodgings when a strange sight caught his eye as he passed the entrance to the Heavenly Ice Palace’s main mountain.

A woman at middle-stage Qi Refining lay fully prostrate, banging her head against the ground. Her hair hung loose, and her entire Daoist robe was blackened with dirt.

Passing Cultivators kept glancing at her. Unconcerned by their stares, the woman remained bowed like an ancient tree rooted to the spot. She must have quite a story, Yise thought, and was just about to walk past.

As two Cultivators emerged from the main mountain’s entrance, the woman lifted her head and shrieked. Her voice was cracked, almost a scream. The desperation in her mental imagery was unmistakable.

“Please listen to me, honored Cultivators! The Essence-Draining Ghost-Demon Valley is betraying the Heavenly Ice Palace!”

Yise stopped in his tracks. Those were not words he could simply walk past.