Chapter 86
Baek-Cheong closed his eyes on the Jade Flat Platform and contemplated his inner self.
After he completed the breakthrough, his Dantian had expanded to twice its previous size.
The Amount of Spiritual Energy flowing through his Four Limbs and Hundred Veins had become abundant, and the sensation of it flowing through his energy meridians had grown much smoother.
However, he had no time to savor the joy of his breakthrough.
“That energy.”
The unknown energy that had surged from his Dantian right before he almost failed the breakthrough wouldn’t leave his mind.
It was different from any attribute of the Five Elements, and from lightning qi.
It had surged without warning or signal, joining the quasi-unification to help tear down the Barrier.
There was only one thing capable of doing such a thing.
‘It’s definitely the Unification Latent Spirit Root.’
The entity that lay dormant deep within his Dantian was slowly eroding the nutrients of his Five Elements Spirit Root.
There was no way the thing that had emitted that unknown energy to aid his breakthrough was anything other than the Unification Latent Spirit Root.
He turned his inner gaze to the deepest part of his Dantian.
He contemplated the spot in his Dantian where the latent spirit root would be crouching.
But nothing was detected.
It had been spewing energy just moments ago, yet now it completely vanished, as if feigning innocence.
“Are you kidding me right now?”
It was irritating how it would appear abruptly only when manifesting, then immediately hide itself away.
A nuisance that he couldn’t catch or tear away, and whose very presence was normally impossible to confirm.
If it could communicate, he would have loved to give it a piece of his mind, but there was no chance it would be a willing conversational partner.
“Still, I should check what I can.”
Even if he couldn’t observe the Unification Latent Spirit Root directly, there was a way to gauge it indirectly.
Since the Unification Latent Spirit Root grew by stealing nutrients from the Five Elements Spirit Root, he could estimate its activity by looking at the state of the Five Elements Spirit Root.
He shifted his gaze and contemplated the Five Elements Spirit Root.
The five stars that had taken root in his Dantian.
Wood, fire, Earth, metal, water.
The once-murky spirit root had grown rapidly and repeatedly, its appearance now distinct.
However, just from looking at the surface, he couldn’t tell how many nutrients were being stolen.
Baek-Cheong didn’t rush; he peered into it for a long time.
After contemplating it for quite a while, he felt a minute difference.
“…It got faster.”
The speed at which the nutrients were draining was the problem.
Over time, the nutrients of the Five Elements Spirit Root had been slowly eroded by the Unification Latent Spirit Root.
To make up for the erosion, he had been taking one Inscribed Attribute Pill every month and a half.
One pill every month and a half was enough to amply replenish the nutrients the latent spirit root stole, and this cycle had never changed, whether he was at 5th-Stage Qi Condensation or the 6th stage.
But now, he felt that the flow of nutrients draining from the Five Elements Spirit Root had increased compared to before.
It was a change so minute that it would have been hard to notice without contemplating it for a long time, but now that he had looked closely, he couldn’t deny it.
At a rough guess, it had been pulled forward by about a day from the usual month and a half.
“One day.”
It was a difference of merely a single day.
A one-day reduction in his dosage cycle was something he could easily handle with Inscribed Pills.
It wasn’t urgent enough to instill a sense of crisis.
But what mattered wasn’t the number of days itself, but the fact that the erosion speed, which had remained constant until now, had changed for the first time.
When something unchanging suddenly changed, there was no telling what kind of change would come next, or when.
‘I guess I won’t be able to rest easy until I properly achieve Five Elements Unification.’
The only fundamental solution to the Unification Latent Spirit Root was Five Elements Unification.
Once he achieved Five Elements Unification, the Unification Latent Spirit Root would no longer act as a parasite, but would fully fuse with the five elements.
However, Five Elements Unification was a state where only upon reaching the Golden Core stage could one barely even approach the threshold.
For him, it was a distant tale far beyond his reach, currently at Qi Condensation Stage, 7th Level.
“But why only this time?”
Unlike other times, Baek-Cheong pondered deeply over the reason why the Unification Latent Spirit Root had manifested its energy this time.
He had broken through realms before.
When he passed the 5th and 6th stages, he also used quasi-unification as his means of breakthrough.
Each time, the Unification Latent Spirit Root showed no reaction.
Only this time had it spewed its own energy to aid the breakthrough.
He recalled what had changed since his breakthroughs to the 5th and 6th stages.
The most noticeable change was Formations.
After breaking through to the 6th stage, he devoted himself to the Jinmun Formation Diagram.
By deciphering each Formation Glyph one by one, he had come to embody the providence of heaven and Earth, and slowly awakened to how Five Elements Qi generated and overcame each other to intertwine into a single Formation Glyph.
Formations were an art that directly handled the providence of heaven and Earth.
Since it was a process of experiencing and learning the Principles of the Five Elements through Formation Glyphs, it was an inevitable consequence that his understanding of Five Elements Unification would deepen alongside it.
“And with that, the perfection of my quasi-unification increased as well.”
As his enlightenment deepened, it influenced his quasi-unification.
Quasi-unification was an incomplete state that had not yet reached Five Elements Unification.
But even as an incomplete state, if its level of perfection rose, it drew closer to true unification.
Because his quasi-unification had drawn closer to true unification, the Unification Latent Spirit Root had been stimulated.
“By handling Formations, my enlightenment deepened; as my enlightenment deepened, my quasi-unification drew closer to true unification; and as my quasi-unification drew closer, the Unification Latent Spirit Root reacted.”
Cause and effect were linked like a chain.
‘This isn’t easy.’
Having his quasi-unification’s perfection rise without properly achieving Five Elements Unification was a double-edged sword.
The higher the perfection, the stronger his breakthrough power became, but the risk of stimulating the Unification Latent Spirit Root grew alongside it.
It was a problem if the perfection of his quasi-unification rose, and if he stimulated the Unification Latent Spirit Root.
‘From now on, I’ll have to change my method of breaking through realms.’
He couldn’t keep using a method that relied on quasi-unification every time he raised his realm.
He needed an alternative, whether that meant preparing other means or reducing his use of quasi-unification.
“…But reaching the 8th stage is still a long way off.”
However, he had only just broken through to Qi Condensation Stage, 7th Level.
It would take at least a year, generously speaking, to reach the next realm, the 8th stage.
He was an eleven-year-old with plenty of growing left to do.
‘I’ll think about it later.’
Unless it was an urgent fire to put out, there was no need to rack his brain over it in advance.
The accelerated speed of the latent spirit root’s Nutrient Erosion wasn’t at a dangerous level right now, and it wouldn’t be too late to worry about changing his Breakthrough Method when his next breakthrough came into sight.
“Phew.”
Baek-Cheong gathered his thoughts and let out a deep breath.
He stepped down from the Jade Flat Platform and pushed open the stone door.
He navigated out of the Labyrinth-like cave passages and informed elder Jin that he had finished using the Training Room.
“Oh, are you finished already?”
“Yes, I broke through safely.”
“What an admirable child.”
Elder Jin’s grayish-white eyebrows rose and fell.
After hearing that brief word of praise, he bowed his head and headed back.
His steps were light as he headed toward his Abode.
His worries about the latent spirit root hadn’t completely washed away, but concluding that it wasn’t an immediate problem brought a sense of ease to his mind.
As soon as he entered his Abode, he sat straight down on his bed.
“Qi Condensation Stage, 7th Level.”
Finally savoring the joy of his breakthrough, he felt his small chest swell with pride.
It had been just a little over a year since the day he received the trash-tier judgment of having a Five Elements Spirit Root during his Spiritual Root Examination, yet he had already made it this far.
Compared to a Heavenly Spiritual Root Holder of the same age, it was on the slower side, but for a Five Elements Spirit Root Holder, it was an impossible speed.
His lips curled up naturally in pride.
‘I can’t skip it this time either.’
He had a habit that solidified every time he raised his realm.
He was unfurling his Divine Sense at full power.
It was like a small annual event, for him to experience the expanded size of his Divine Sense with his entire body.
He closed his eyes, refined his Divine Sense, and then released it at full power.
His Divine Sense, spanning twenty-seven zhang, effortlessly bypassed the room and stretched out in all directions.
It crossed the walls, passed over the roads, and swept across the tiled roofs of neighboring buildings.
A range that reached noticeably further than the twenty-three zhang he had at the 6th stage.
The very edge of his Divine Sense wavered at a distance that just barely reached the outskirts of his Abode.
“It definitely got wider.”
Just as he savored the sensation with satisfaction.
“…?”
A strange presence was caught on the edge of his Divine Sense.
A sense of suppression, as if it were pressing down from the sky.
A pressure that felt as though the entire atmosphere had turned into a massive boulder crushing the ground was transmitted through his Divine Sense.
It was an extremely familiar sensation.
“I think this happened last time too.”
He had felt the exact same inkling when he unfurled his Divine Sense after breaking through to the 6th stage.
Back then, his father was in the middle of breaking through to the Golden Core.
‘Don’t tell me, again?’
Baek-Cheong jumped up and approached the window.
As he threw the window open, the sky outside entered his vision.
Pitch-black clouds were swirling toward the sky above the Clan.
Thick, dark storm clouds were taking shape like a typhoon, covering the sky.
It was a heavenly tribulation cloud that anyone could recognize at a glance.
What kind of annual event was this, where a heavenly tribulation cloud would float in the sky every time he unfurled his Divine Sense after raising his realm?
‘First of all, it’s not me.’
Baek-Cheong confidently excluded himself.
His breakthrough was already finished, and he hadn’t done anything heaven-defying.
There was no way the Heavenly Dao would be offended just because he acted as a troublemaker on the Nameless Forum.
“Probably.”
Feeling a sudden, unwarranted prick of guilt, he added that caveat.
“Then whose heavenly tribulation is it?”
And leaning against the window, he observed the direction in which the heavenly tribulation cloud was condensing.
The heavenly tribulation cloud was forming toward the deepest section of the Clan, further inward than the Family Head’s Hall.
It was the direction in which his grandfather’s Supreme Clan Head’s Hall was located.
“Grandfather.”
Baek Mu-Ae, the Supreme Clan Head of the Yeonha Baek Clan and a Golden Core stage Old Ancestor.
It had been quite a while since he entered Secluded Cultivation; he must have been building up his internal energy inside.
He guessed that his grandfather, who had stayed in the Golden Core stage for a long time to solidify his realm, was finally trying to cross a minor Boundary and advance to the Late Golden Core.
‘If he passes the heavenly tribulation, he’ll be at the Late Golden Core.’
His grandfather had been the pillar of the Clan since long ago.
As a Great Cultivator who had deeply embodied the state of a half-immortal, he would easily be able to handle a lightning tribulation meant for crossing a minor Boundary.
He thought it would be different from the dizzying breakthrough his father had to endure, vomiting blood and surviving when leaping from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core.
Rather than worry, he was filled with the certainty that his grandfather would break through safely.
“More importantly,”
In the space left by his fading worries, another thought reared its head.
“Lightning tribulation…”
The lightning tribulation was falling from the heavenly tribulation.
Observing the lightning tribulation up close during his father’s Golden Core Heavenly Tribulation had been the decisive catalyst for him to awaken to lightning qi.
By closely watching the energy of the lightning tribulation pouring from the heavenly tribulation cloud, he experienced the principles of the Lightning Glyph with his entire body, and later, by mastering the logic of Lightning Dispersion, Illusionary Form, Remaining Essence, he succeeded in manifesting lightning qi from the Lightning Glyph.
“Lightning tribulation, lightning qi, and the Lightning Glyph are different.”
The opportunity to observe the lightning tribulation again and examine the differences had arrived.
However, he couldn’t be satisfied with merely observing it up close.
Before, he had observed it by chance while completely unaware of the existence of lightning qi.
The harvest had been great, but it was ultimately a coincidence and an opportunity he had encountered without preparation.
The situation now is different from back then.
He already knew about lightning qi, he knew how to handle Formations, and he could execute a Deployment of a Formation using the Five Elements Banner and the Five Elements Golems.
‘I don’t want to stop at just observing.’
He wanted to awaken to even a fragment of the lightning tribulation.
His understanding of lightning qi was still shallow.
If he could directly experience the flow of lightning qi in an environment where the lightning tribulation was pouring down, he felt he could reach an even deeper level.
“To do that, I need to set up a similar environment.”
To set up a similar environment, a Formation was indispensable.
The Five Elements Myriad Lightning Formation was a Formation that generated lightning qi through the collision of the Metal Element and Water Element within the Five Elements Formation.
He had to activate the Formation at the exact moment the lightning tribulation fell, to simultaneously experience the Heavenly Dao’s lightning qi and the flow of lightning qi recreated within the Formation.
Merely looking at the lightning tribulation from the outside and tracing the logic of lightning qi from within his own Formation simultaneously were bound to be worlds apart.
“The problem is the location.”
He couldn’t unfurl a Formation in a place where everyone was watching.
When he tested the Five Elements Myriad Lightning Formation at the Training Ground before, the sound of thunder rang out, causing his father to come running.
If lightning erupted in an unexpected place while the heavenly tribulation was striking down, the entire Clan could be turned upside down.
It had to be a place hidden from people’s eyes.
Baek-Cheong finished his thoughts and moved quickly.
He grabbed the Storage Platform he had placed next to his bed and tied it around his waist.
Inside were the Five Elements Banner and five Five Elements Golems.
He opened the door of his Abode and stepped outside.
The Clan’s Family members were already in a Stir.
As the heavenly tribulation cloud covered the sky, murmuring voices and hurried footsteps were converging toward the Supreme Clan Head’s Hall.
It was a scene similar to his father’s Golden Core Heavenly Tribulation.
“Since everyone is heading that way.”
Baek-Cheong directed his steps in the opposite direction of the crowd’s flow.
Now, with everyone’s attention focused on the heavenly tribulation cloud, this was his chance.
Avoiding attention, he headed toward Baeknyeon Mountain.
He ventured into the mountain, searching for a place where unfurling a Formation wouldn’t catch anyone’s eye.
The pitch-black heavenly tribulation cloud flickered through the tree branches.
As he went a little deeper, a Clearing surrounded by old trees appeared.
The thick branches obscured the surroundings, but it was a distance from which he could sufficiently observe the heavenly tribulation cloud.
“This should do.”
Baek-Cheong took the Five Elements Golems one by one out of his Storage Platform and stood them up in the Clearing.
Cheong-Roe, Jeok-Roe, Geum-Roe, Baek-Roe, Heuk-Roe.
The five golems of wood, fire, Earth, metal, and water lined up in a circle, laying the foundation for the Formation.
He attached the Glyph Talismans he had prepared in advance to the chests of the golems, one by one.
Source, Main Body, Boundary, Anchor, support.
Once the five roles were assigned, he took out the Five Elements Banner and planted it in the center of the golems.
The Five-Colored Cloth fluttered in the wind as Five Elements Qi began to circulate.
The framework of the Formation was complete, and it was in a state where it could be activated immediately upon the Infusion of energy.
However, he didn’t unfurl the Formation just yet.
He had to activate it at the exact moment the lightning tribulation fell to simultaneously experience the Heavenly Dao’s lightning qi and the Formation’s lightning qi.
If he activated it too early, it would be out of sync with the heavenly tribulation, and if he was too late, he would miss the opportunity.
That split second was the key.
Having finished his preparations, he looked up at the sky.
In the center of the heavenly tribulation cloud visible through the branches, the lightning tribulation was condensing.
Just like during his father’s time, the distant, profound gaze of the Heavenly Dao was pressing down on the ground through the hole in the clouds.
“Grandfather, please pass it safely.”
While praying for his grandfather’s safety, he was mentally retracing the sequence for the Infusion of energy into the Five-Colored Cloth of the Five Elements Banner.
The sequence of infusing the energy and the Directional Role by attribute.
He calculated it over and over in his head as he waited for the right moment.
There was no room for error.
Rumble.
The heavenly tribulation cloud growled from high up in the sky.
A vibration that shook the Earth traveled up through the tips of his toes.
It was the precursor, occurring right before the lightning tribulation fell.
Baek-Cheong held his breath and reached his hand toward the Five Elements Banner.