Chapter 90
Translator: T_Fan
With his spirits restored, Lee Hyun first took out the stone tablet.
It was a flat piece of stone with slightly worn corners.
He wiped away the dust with his hand, revealing the characters he had carved into it long ago.
【Age: 2,208】
【Realm: Foundation Establishment Stage 7 (lower dantian), Foundation Establishment Stage 4 (rest of the body)】
“…I haven’t updated this in ages.”
The record dated back to when he had advanced his lower dantian to late Foundation Establishment at Baoguang Temple.
It would have been convenient if the numbers changed on their own.
Unfortunately, his handmade status screen had no such function.
Lee Hyun closed his eyes and slowly circulated his qi according to the Primordial One-Qi Art.
After several qi circulation cycles, a gentle warmth spread throughout his body.
He examined his body from within, then began updating the stone tablet.
【Age: 2,840】
【Realm: Foundation Establishment Stage 8 (entire body)】
【Spiritual Power: 7,460 → 18,100】
【Constitution: Primordial Body, Foundation Establishment Stage 8】
【Cultivation Art: Primordial One-Qi Art (Foundation Establishment Section)】
‘These numbers have gotten ridiculous…’
In terms of total spiritual power alone, he probably surpassed most Golden Core cultivators.
The figures on the stone tablet were estimates of his current reserves, calculated using the same scale he had always used. There was still room to accumulate more even within Stage 8, and he would need ever greater amounts of spiritual power as he progressed toward Stage 9 and Great Perfection.
Although he had spent the past hundred years living without much motivation, he had made tremendous progress while living with Wang Shulin. Her successive breakthroughs must have spurred him on at the time.
Rather than focusing on further advancing his lower dantian, which was already ahead, he had worked to bring his cultivation level into balance throughout his body.
Had he cultivated alone, moving between tunnels where spiritual qi was sparse and the Two Heavens Society’s vein seats, he would have struggled to reach this point in the same amount of time.
Throughout his time with Wang Shulin, he had continually obtained and taken pills for his own cultivation, shared her access to a Tier 3 spirit vein, and practiced a dual cultivation art with her. Those advantages had made his progress possible.
Lee Hyun next examined his primordial spirit.
The vow power that arose as he practiced the Sutra of Refining Intent into Vow was purer and more potent than before.
In this cultivation art, a mind seal was formed when the ability to establish and sustain an intent became ingrained in the primordial spirit through visualization and spirit refinement. That tempered will provided a foundation for cultivating vow power without being bound to any particular vow.
His primordial spirit and divine sense, both honed through long cultivation, had also grown stronger.
‘I see. Is it because I’ve experienced life’s joys and sorrows and finally found it in myself to start living again…?’
Wang Shulin’s face suddenly came to mind. His heart ached, but the vow power he had summoned did not waver.
He no longer needed to shut out his grief or force his mind to remain still. He could hold to his intent even as emotions rose and fell.
He could now control more vow power with greater precision and less effort.
…
Updating his handmade status screen made Lee Hyun think he ought to review the techniques he had learned as well.
He took jade slips from his storage pouch and laid them out on the table.
Some were old, while others had been acquired during the latter part of his stay at Baoguang Temple. A few included brief explanations left by Wang Shulin.
Spiritual qi and cultivation pills were not all he had gained during his centuries at Baoguang Temple.
He had used his accumulated merit to study inheritances and, as Wang Shulin’s direct disciple, had also received Dharma teachings from her in person. Two in particular had appealed to him.
《Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal》, 《Vajra Wisdom Sword Scripture》
The former was a much more demanding seal art than the Demon-Subduing Seal.
The technique did more than create a giant palm imprint and slam it down. The spiritual power forming the seal interlocked in layers, concentrating force at the point of impact and suppressing the target’s movement.
It required considerable vow power and precise control, and consumed so much spiritual power that an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator could scarcely hope to execute it properly.
Lee Hyun, however, was already well practiced in condensing Buddha-Light True Qi with the Demon-Subduing Seal. Through the Condensed-Essence Grasping Hand, he had also learned to control spiritual power shaped into a hand with great precision. Since the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal layered power within a fixed palm imprint, he could draw on the foundations he had built through both inheritances.
He formed a hand seal with one hand, and a deep golden palm appeared in the air.
Fine golden lines overlapped across its palm and fingers. The energy condensed within the small palm imprint was far denser than that of his previous Demon-Subduing Seal, enough to make the surrounding air feel heavy.
Lee Hyun glanced around Tunnel No. 3, then released the hand seal.
‘Using this in here would be a disaster.’
There was no need to wreck the tunnel on his first day back in action.
Next, he tried the Spirit-Jolting Needle Method.
As he gathered a strand of divine sense, vow power seeped into it.
The needle, slender and firmly condensed, rose above his head before circling behind his back. It then split into several strands and merged back into one.
Its movement was smooth and unimpeded. Even with more vow power and divine sense infused into it than before, the needle held its form.
Rather than launching it, Lee Hyun dissolved it and drew its power back into his primordial spirit.
‘Not bad.’
Lee Hyun then slipped into the cavern wall and began traveling through the ore veins around the tunnel. He slowed where different minerals were intricately intertwined, but nothing blocked his way. After making a full circuit, he returned to the tunnel passage.
It was the Metal Escape Art.
‘I’m not as proficient with it as I am with the Earth Escape Art, but I’ve reached Minor Attainment….’
…
The Vajra Wisdom Sword Scripture was a Way of the Sword inheritance from the Buddhist tradition. It refined the intent carried by a sword, combining divine sense and vow power with sword qi.
Its foundational Dharma teachings trained the practitioner to form a clear image of a sword in the mind and gather intent and divine sense into that image. The Sword Condensation Section that followed explained how to infuse that refined power into actual sword qi and condense them into a single whole.
What he found especially appealing was that it could complement the sword qi and sword light he had learned from the Great Unity Heavenly Dipper Sword Canon. The vow power and divine sense carried within the sword qi would pressure an opponent together, allowing it to do more than cut flesh. It could also disrupt the opponent’s control over their primordial spirit.
He would not need to abandon this foundation even after reaching Golden Core and learning the Great Unity Earthly Fiend Sword Canon. He could still infuse his intent into stronger sword qi.
For now, however, he had only reached Minor Attainment in the foundational Dharma teachings. He was accustomed to forming the image of a sword in his mind, but when practicing the Sword Condensation Section, his vow power and sword qi still refused to merge properly.
Among his other inheritances from Baoguang Temple, the most profound remained the Sumeru Visualization Scripture.
When he visualized the All-Hearing Heavenly King, even the tiny patterns on the parasol and pagoda appeared distinctly in his mind. He could maintain the visualization while using other techniques without difficulty.
Yet giving the form he projected outside his body any real force would require magical power that had undergone the qualitative transformation of the Golden Core realm. The technique helped temper his primordial spirit, but he still could not use the Dharma manifestation to attack an enemy or defend himself.
…
He continued updating the stone tablet.
【Techniques (Minor Attainment): Vajra Wisdom Sword Scripture, Sumeru Visualization Scripture (All-Hearing Heavenly King manifestation), Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal, Metal Escape Art…】
【Techniques (Major Attainment): Sutra of Refining Intent into Vow…】
【Techniques (Perfection): Great Unity Heavenly Dipper Sword Art, Spirit-Refining Essentials, Spirit-Jolting Needle Method…】
【Crafts (Tier 2): spirit-plant cultivation, alchemy, insect control, puppet crafting, formation, artifact refining】
His proficiency varied so much from one craft to another that classifying all of them as Tier 2 was a stretch. Yet neither Tier 1 nor Tier 3 quite fit either.
These specialized disciplines, also known as the Hundred Cultivation Crafts, encompassed an enormous variety of subjects and methods even within the same tier.
For example, even a Tier 3 alchemist could fail to refine an unfamiliar Tier 2 pill. Conversely, a Tier 1 artifact refiner with modest overall attainments might, after a lifetime working with the same materials and restrictions, refine a supreme-grade magic tool for Foundation Establishment cultivators to an astonishing standard.
Of course, the latter would still need something to compensate for their shortcomings, such as a Tier 2 spirit beast capable of controlling flames.
Lee Hyun considered spirit-plant cultivation and alchemy his only real strengths. In the other fields, he still had far too much to learn.
But listing all six fields like this did have one advantage: it made him feel good!
For the first time in ages, he propped up the stone tablet and admired it, savoring his sense of accomplishment.
…
Lee Hyun turned his attention to the water tanks next.
He had kept them filled, but he now realized how long he had left Tunnel No. 3 almost entirely unattended.
When he drained a tank, he found fine roots and silt matted together in the bottom corners, along with dry leaves that had washed in from somewhere.
“What a mess…”
Lee Hyun lifted the debris from the bottom with spiritual power and used the Cleansing Art to remove everything clinging to the walls. He replaced the cracked bamboo pipes with new ones and adjusted the slope wherever water tended to pool.
The fuzzbees swarmed over to watch whenever he drained a tank, and peered inside each pipe he lifted out. Whenever a small spirit insect emerged from a pile of soil, several of them pounced at once.
The fellows seemed delighted by the thorough cleaning of Tunnel No. 3. Pretending to help Lee Hyun, they sent the Bonefuzzes creaking about the place.
The sight prompted Lee Hyun to inspect the Bonefuzzes as well once he had finished cleaning.
He dismantled nearly fifty Bonefuzzes one by one, replacing every worn or damaged part. He also replaced their spirit stones with fresh ones before reassembling them.
…
After the maintenance was done, Lee Hyun took out broad, shallow stone bowls, gathered clear water with the Spirit Rain Art, and mixed in plenty of Hundred-Flower Honey.
As the sweet fragrance spread, the buzzing of wings suddenly grew louder.
“You’ve worked hard all this time. Let’s have a special treat.”
The snack would make the fuzzbees happy, but it would do nothing to further their growth as spirit insects.
Lee Hyun watched them crowd around the bowls for a while.
There were old fuzzbees in the tunnel that had been alive since he first brought them there, as well as younger fellows born afterward. But because their bodies renewed themselves with every molt, it was hard to tell from their appearance how long any of them had lived.
Without these fellows, he might have let his spirit fields go to ruin. They acted as though they took pride in protecting the countless plants in the fields, and whenever the water tanks ran dry, they came to get Lee Hyun up and moving.
“Thank you.”
…
Sorting out his records for the spirit fields took longer than cleaning the water tanks.
He had been planting young spirit herbs in the gaps left whenever he removed older ones to sell off or use in alchemy, until each spirit field had become a confusing jumble.
Lee Hyun compared the entries in his old cultivation records with the spirit herbs themselves, one by one.
Perhaps because he had neglected them for a time, or perhaps because of Tunnel No. 3’s environment, the rate at which the older spirit plants accumulated medicine age had been steadily slowing.
He examined the veins in their leaves and the color of their stems, probing around their roots with his divine sense. Then he rested a finger against the stem of an old Bone-Rot Flower.
‘About nine hundred years.’
At the growth rate recorded in his old ledger, its medicine age should have exceeded 920 years. Yet its actual medicinal strength was a little less than expected.
If its medicine age could exceed a thousand years and its medicinal potency grow to rival that of a Tier 4 spirit plant, its value would rise even further. Whether simply giving it enough time would suffice was something he would have to investigate.
‘The spiritual qi drawn in by the Earth Vein Flowers doesn’t seem quite enough. I may need to apply the principles of a Tier 1 Qi-Gathering Formation to improve the way spiritual qi circulates through the entire tunnel.’
Lee Hyun recalled the buildings he had seen in his past life. Engineers on Earth designed all manner of circulation systems for large buildings. Such installations circulated air and water, supplied electricity….
But he had no background knowledge in that field.
That was all right. He could simply start researching it now.
‘What if I sent each spirit field as much spiritual qi as it needed, the way a central air-conditioning system sends air throughout a building?’
He could not conjure spiritual qi out of nothing, and running a Qi-Gathering Formation consumed spirit stones.
Still, if he could keep energy from accumulating in one area or leaking away needlessly, the same number of spirit stones might provide a better environment.
Drawing in large amounts of spiritual qi from outside, however, might reveal the traces he had hidden with the Spirit-Concealing Formation.
‘It would be hard to make this work in Tunnel No. 3… I should keep it in mind for when I build Tunnel No. 4.’
…
The older Yin Water Lotuses and Stone Honey Peach trees had medicine ages of around 870 years.
Lee Hyun picked the ripe Stone Honey Peaches and carefully placed all but one in jade caskets.
After putting the jade caskets into his storage pouch, he bit into the peach he had set aside.
Crunch.
Sweet juice and a refreshing coolness flooded his mouth.
…
He paused briefly before the Ringless Divine Tree.
He took out the old ledger to check. It seemed the tree had sprouted around 1,400 years ago.
“Didn’t it say dark blue lightning markings appear after two thousand years, and it starts emitting Profound Nether Frost Lightning after five thousand?”
Lee Hyun looked at the tree and laughed despite himself.
“You’re even slower than I am.”
Concentrating spiritual qi around this tree with a Qi-Gathering Formation would do no good. A reference guide he had read long ago stated that forcing its growth with dense spiritual qi would only stunt it instead.
Only the passage of time could nurture the Ringless Divine Tree. That made this barren tunnel unexpectedly well suited to growing it.
Lee Hyun checked the moisture beneath the tree, then simply adjusted the water channels so the water pooled near its roots could drain away slowly.
He closed the ledger and moved on to Spirit Field No. 3-9.
The Heaven-Origin Divine Tree’s branches stretched along the rocky ceiling. Spirit Field No. 3-9 was simply too cramped for it.
He widened the cavern a little and thinned out only the small branches that were pressing against one another and hampering growth.
He also adjusted the existing Tier 1 Qi-Gathering Formation to cover the expanded root system.
‘Keeping it running at this strength will cost about twenty low-grade spirit stones a year. Still, that works out to twenty mid-grade spirit stones every hundred years, so it’s hardly a burden.’
He had planted it more than six hundred years ago, yet there were still no flower buds at the branch tips.
…
A few days later.
Lee Hyun was sorting through some ten thousand drawings.
As he laid two drawings of the same crack in a rock face side by side, a passage from the Vajra Wisdom Sword Scripture suddenly came to mind.
「Let intent precede the sword tip, yet do not let the sword tip stray from that intent.」
When he first read it, he had thought it was merely stating the obvious.
Wasn’t it simply a matter of deciding where to cut and then cutting there?
Yet whenever he practiced the Sword Condensation Section, his vow power had failed to permeate his sword qi evenly.
Without thinking, Lee Hyun traced a line in the drawing with his finger. The motion resembled the gestures he had made while contemplating Zheng Yubai’s demonstration of the Mind Sword.
‘Huh…?’
Lee Hyun picked up the Sinking Moon Sword.
He formed a clear image of a single thrust in his mind, then guided his spiritual power, divine sense, and vow power together, following that intent.
Sword qi gathered at the tip, and his vow power and divine sense condensed together along the slender blade.
He moved his wrist, and the sword tip advanced, piercing a narrow hole in a stone slab he had set up for practice.
He immediately withdrew the sword qi and picked up the stone slab to examine it.
The vow power had held together even at the moment the sword qi struck the stone.
‘This is….’
He raised his sword again.
This time, the condensed power came apart. He paused to recall the sensation, then repeated the thrust. Only on the third attempt did energy similar to what he had felt before gather at the sword tip.
He lowered his sword and let out a long breath.
‘To think the drawings would help…’
Of course, what had helped him most was the Vajra Wisdom Sword Scripture, along with the growth of his primordial spirit and mind seal.
Just as the martial path inheritance passed down through Zheng Yubai’s family had provided the basis for his Mind Sword, the Vajra Wisdom Sword Scripture could serve as Lee Hyun’s foundation.
***
Fifteen days later, Xianghe Kingdom.
Lee Hyun walked along the lower slopes of a mountain, keeping out of sight.
The stone steps leading to the burial grounds had been replaced.
The gravestones were well tended, and an incense burner that seemed to have been replaced recently stood in front of Wang Shulin’s grave.
He briefly visited the children’s graves as well.
The longing had not faded, but memories of the times they had laughed together now came to him before the grief.
He ran a hand over the gravestones, then left without lingering long.
…
A few days later, at a cultivator market in eastern Xu Kingdom.
A small shop selling medicinal ingredients.
When Lee Hyun entered wearing his Badger mask, the member inside struggled to conceal their surprise as they asked,
“Are you looking for any particular medicinal ingredients?”
Lee Hyun held out a jade token instead of answering. Only after checking its restrictions did the member bow deeply.
“Greetings, Society Head.”
“Is the person in charge here?”
“They are in the back.”
Lee Hyun descended into the underground stone chamber.
A cultivator wearing a Goose mask rose from their seat.
“I’ve been in charge of this place for thirteen years.”
“And your predecessor?”
“They reached the end of their lifespan.”
Lee Hyun nodded.
Jade slips were already laid out on the table.
“Some of the newer members have asked whether the Society Head actually exists.”
Lee Hyun answered while reading the jade slips.
“I heard much the same thing twenty years ago.”
“Some have asked whether the name Badger is passed from one person to the next….”
“What does it matter? The person behind the Goose mask keeps changing too. What’s the latest on the Nanming Twelve-Sect Alliance?”
Lee Hyun asked a few more questions, then settled the trading matters that had been on hold for so long.
Once he had checked the payments for the goods he had entrusted to them and listed the medicinal ingredients and pills he planned to sell from now on, the voice behind the Goose mask brightened.
“Will you be supplying Foundation Establishment Pills and Tier 2 Spirit-Calming Pills again as well?”
“There won’t be many.”
“There are people waiting for them.”
Lee Hyun left a few trade requests with them, then checked the news from the outside world as well.
The reports covered changes in kingdoms and sects, developments involving spirit veins and cultivator markets, and the activities of well-known cultivators.
There were records concerning Baoguang Temple too, but fortunately, nothing in the reports struck him as an immediate threat.
The Nanming Twelve-Sect Alliance had not expanded its territory in quite some time. He could not tell whether it had given up on expansion, whether the Nine Kingdoms of Yunzhou were too powerful, or whether there was some other reason.
***
Twenty years later.
An uninhabited valley a short distance from Xu Kingdom’s southern coast.
Lee Hyun sat before a pill furnace, his fingers moving.
Fine flame threads wove in and out of the pill furnace. With Refining complete, the medicinal liquids swirled at different speeds, gradually mingling through gaps opened by the flames.
Essence-Cultivating Pill.
Of the cultivation pills Baoguang Temple passed down for late Foundation Establishment, it was among those with the greatest medicinal strength. The Refining process was more demanding than for the Essence-Augmenting Pill, Dew-Condensing Pill, or Jade Marrow Pill. Its medicinal strength was so intense that even late Foundation Establishment cultivators needed ample time to refine and absorb it after taking the pill.
Lee Hyun had been making these pills since his days at Baoguang Temple. Since resuming cultivation, he had been refining his own supply while exploring how much further he could improve their quality using the same pill recipe.
Raising his entire body’s realm by a single Stage required far too many pills. If he could increase the medicinal strength each pill provided, he could save both materials and time.
In the process, he had reread the old jade slip recording Chen Xiaoying’s demonstration countless times.
Before, he had not understood why she chose those exact moments to adjust her fire control or divide the medicinal liquid. But as he gained experience through repeated failures in his own alchemy, he gradually came to understand her reasons.
In several recent attempts, spiritual qi had even begun gathering around pills refined to supreme grade.
That was why he had left the tunnel for this attempt.
On the off chance that the phenomenon he had witnessed long ago occurred again, he did not want to face it underground, with his spirit fields nearby.
…
The medicinal strength within the pill furnace separated into several clusters.
The pills that took shape first descended toward the bottom. Lee Hyun kept only the one with the smoothest internal flow near the top.
Instead of rushing to form the next hand seals, he watched how the medicinal strength responded. Outwardly, the flow seemed even, but one current inside had yet to align with the rest.
When a single flame thread touched that spot, the knot of energy loosened a little.
Lee Hyun immediately shifted the flame to one side, opening a path for the loosened medicinal strength to flow through.
The medicinal strength made a full circuit, then settled into its proper place.
At that moment, the light seeping from the pill’s surface receded inward.
Lee Hyun’s fingers slowed almost to a stop.
A wind stirred in the valley.
The surrounding spiritual qi was moving toward the pill furnace. It was not being drawn in by a formation. The scattered energy gathered as though responding to the flow within that single tiny pill.
Lee Hyun slowly lifted his head.
A black speck formed in the clear sky.
‘Huh? It actually worked?’
The speck expanded as it drew in water qi, soon becoming a small cloud a little over one zhang (about 3.3 m) across.
Lightning flickered beneath it.
Crackle.
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