Chapter 170
Something that had been sleeping at the bottom of her dantian finally opened its eyes.
A prickling throb crept up along her spirit roots.
Baek Cheong pulled herself together before her resolve could unravel.
‘No wonder it felt like the hidden spirit root was about to have a fit.’
It was something that had vaguely nagged at her from the moment she began drawing up Quasi-Unity.
It was the price of mobilizing even Quasi-Unity in her greed for Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.
And so, the hidden spirit root that had been lying dormant had finally awakened.
‘As expected, Quasi-Unity was the problem.’
Still, there was no reason to panic.
She had prepared for something like this long ago.
She hurried to the edge of the courtyard and rummaged through her storage pouch.
Before long, she pulled out a Five-Elements Suppression Pill shimmering with a radiant light.
It was an emergency pill that Grandpa Yak-seon had personally made and given her right before she entered closed-door cultivation.
It was an emergency remedy prepared for the day her ferocious hidden spirit root ran wild.
Since there was no reason to hesitate, she immediately tossed it into her mouth.
The pill melted softly on the tip of her tongue, and its medicinal force seeped straight into her dantian.
As expected, it was truly a pill crafted with the hidden spirit root in mind.
The medicinal force evenly nourished the five-element spirit roots and filled her dantian to the brim.
The hidden spirit root, which had been running wild from hunger, gradually quieted before the surging five-element energy.
The hidden spirit root that had awakened so forcefully sank back to the bottom of her dantian.
In the blink of an eye, the throbbing subsided as if washed away.
‘As expected, Grandpa Yak-seon’s pills really hit the spot.’
Only then could Baek Cheong finally breathe a sigh of relief.
But it was only after she relaxed that she noticed an unsettling trace.
The hidden spirit root that had quieted down had grown considerably in the meantime.
Compared with the last time she had examined it, it was thicker and its presence was much stronger.
She had let her guard down because it had stayed quiet for quite a long time.
Without her realizing it, it had been quietly enlarging itself bit by bit.
That was probably why it had run so wild after just one use of Quasi-Unity.
The Five-Elements Suppression Pill had forced it back down, so it would likely remain quiet for a while.
Still, she couldn’t bring herself to feel completely at ease.
If a hidden spirit root this large ran rampant again, it would cause no end of trouble.
Simply taking single-pattern elemental pills as she had until now would probably no longer be enough to maintain her five-element spirit roots.
‘From now on, I need to make sure I take Five-Elements Suppression Pills regularly.’
That was when she was calculating what to do about the hidden spirit root.
Familiar presences were rapidly climbing up from below the peak.
She abruptly put those thoughts aside and first surveyed her surroundings.
In the middle of the courtyard, the things she had deployed to withstand the heavenly tribulation lay scattered exactly as they had been.
The Five-Elements Banner, the Cloud Spirit Pearl, and all sorts of other items that would be best kept out of sight were strewn everywhere.
She hurriedly gathered up the Five-Elements Banner and Cloud Spirit Pearl and shoved them deep into her storage pouch.
The scorched Five-Elements puppet was already known to the family, so she had no reason to hide it.
She had barely finished cleaning up when her family burst into the courtyard.
It seemed that Grandfather, Father, Mother, and Uncle had all rushed over in one go.
Behind them, she could also see her third brother and Grandpa Yak-seon.
The heavenly tribulation had struck, so they had obviously been startled and run up the peak.
Yet the moment they saw her, the family stopped in their tracks as if they had planned it.
And none of them could hide their astonishment.
She had only just stepped into Foundation Establishment, but the spiritual force pouring off her was extraordinary.
It was an aura utterly impossible to believe belonged to a cultivator who had only just entered Foundation Establishment.
If someone else saw her, they wouldn’t be wrong to think they were facing a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator rather than a novice.
Uncle and her third brother, who were both Foundation Establishment cultivators themselves, seemed to feel the difference especially keenly.
Grandfather and Grandpa Yak-seon, however, reacted differently.
They gazed at her with pleased expressions, as if they had expected this from the beginning.
Grandfather was the first to smile kindly and open his mouth.
“Ho ho, our Cheong has finally achieved Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.”
Grandpa Yak-seon, who was standing beside him, also stroked his beard in satisfaction.
“The true essence formed in your dantian is flawless.”
The two elders seemed to have predicted long ago that she would reach Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.
They had believed without a doubt in the distant path that would take her there with Five-Element Spirit Roots.
Only then did Father cautiously begin to speak.
“Then the heavenly tribulation that struck earlier was...”
A faint worry showed on Father’s face as his voice trailed off.
The other family members also turned their eyes toward Grandfather, unable to understand what was going on.
They looked as though they couldn’t figure out why a heavenly tribulation had descended for nothing more than a Foundation Establishment breakthrough.
Grandfather calmly opened his mouth, as if to resolve their confusion.
“Most people enter Foundation Establishment through the Earth Dao or Human Dao, so it’s only natural that they wouldn’t know. Normally, when someone enters Foundation Establishment through the Heavenly Dao, the heavens send down a heavenly tribulation. Cheong climbed that path, so the heavenly tribulation followed.”
The family nodded repeatedly, accepting the explanation.
The words Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment had deepened the astonishment on their faces.
‘If it hadn’t been Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, I would’ve been in real trouble, since there’d have been no way to explain the heavenly tribulation.’
Baek Cheong secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
She couldn’t exactly blurt out that the heavenly tribulation had also been carrying karma.
It was tremendously fortunate that Grandfather had neatly come up with such a plausible explanation on his own.
Before long, Father stepped closer and carefully examined her.
“Cheong-ah, how is your body? Are you hurt anywhere?”
He was clearly worried about his daughter, who had even endured a heavenly tribulation.
Baek Cheong deliberately puffed out her small chest bravely.
“Yes, I’m perfectly fine! A heavenly tribulation like that was nothing.”
She talked big, but she couldn’t quite hide the exhaustion in her expression.
She had just gone through Foundation Establishment, a heavenly tribulation, and the hidden spirit root awakening one after another.
No matter how thoroughly she had prepared, it was enough to leave her drained.
Her mother noticed her fatigue and stepped forward.
“We can celebrate later; let’s let our Cheong rest first.”
Her mother quietly took her hand and tugged her along.
She didn’t insist and obediently nodded.
“Yes, Mother. To be honest, I am a little tired.”
The moment she finished speaking, her third brother approached and supported her.
“I’ll take you there. You can lean on me, so make yourself comfortable.”
She walked to her quarters with her third brother supporting her for the first time in a long while.
As they descended the peak, her eyelids grew heavy as lead.
The moment she entered her quarters and lay down on the bed, her consciousness grew hazy.
Perhaps because the tension that had held her taut finally loosened, she fell asleep as if she had fainted.
***
When she regained consciousness, ten whole days had passed.
After sleeping for ten full days, her body felt refreshed beyond measure.
Even the flesh that had ached after being battered by the thunder tribulation had completely recovered.
The harsh aftereffects of the heavenly tribulation had vanished without a trace.
‘...It wasn’t a dream.’
Baek Cheong got up and quietly examined her body first.
A sensation distinctly different from her Qi Refining days wrapped around her entire body.
Spiritual force filled her from the tips of her fingers to the tips of her toes, creating a deep sense of fullness.
Only then did it truly sink in that she had become a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
‘So this is Foundation Establishment.’
It was a realm on an entirely different level from Qi Refining.
People often said that only after entering Foundation Establishment could one truly be called an immortal.
After devoting five years to cultivation, she had entered the ranks of genuine immortals.
A wave of emotion welled up anew in the depths of her small chest.
She had gone through so many things at once that she hadn’t had a chance to examine her dantian.
‘I wonder how my dantian looks.’
Baek Cheong turned her consciousness inward and peered into her dantian.
The size of her dantian was not much different from when she had been at the tenth level of Qi Refining.
But in the middle, which had once been completely empty, sat the symbol of Foundation Establishment: true essence.
The radiant true essence, as if a star had been forged and set in place, rested at the very center of her dantian.
Foundation Establishment was said to be the process of filling the dantian completely, then condensing spiritual energy to build true essence.
By repeatedly filling and condensing it, one gradually had to build up layers of true essence.
The realms were divided into one star, two stars, and so on according to the layers of true essence one accumulated.
Only after filling true essence to the very limit and forming a core would one enter the Golden Core stage.
However, forming a Golden Core was still unimaginably far away.
She had only just formed her first true essence, so she had a long road ahead of her.
‘Golden Core? I’m still nowhere near that.’
She dismissed that distant thought at once.
Instead, there was something else she had suddenly grown intensely curious about.
More than anything, she wanted to know how much her divine sense had grown.
Throughout her Qi Refining days, her divine sense had been her greatest asset.
‘It must have grown more than four zhang, right?’
Baek Cheong eagerly unleashed her divine sense with all her might.
Her still-compressed divine sense shot freely in every direction.
But its momentum showed no sign of stopping.
The divine sense that had once stopped around twenty zhang continued racing onward.
When she finally gauged how far it had reached, her eyes went wide.
It had doubled outright, reaching forty zhang.
‘It doubled?’
The increase was so enormous that it was frightening.
She had never heard of anyone’s divine sense multiplying severalfold just from advancing one realm.
Still, she had an idea why, and nodded to herself.
It was probably because she had crossed a major realm, from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment.
The fact that she had crossed a major rather than minor realm had manifested in her divine sense.
‘If it weren’t for the Soul Condensation Art, my head might have burst the moment I entered Foundation Establishment.’
The thought alone was horrifying enough to make her shudder.
She soon shook her head and threw away the pointless thought.
With this much accomplished, she had more than earned the right to enjoy everything she had put off.
‘Maybe I can browse the Nameless Forum for once...’
She had been away from it for a long time, too busy with Foundation Establishment and the heavenly tribulation.
When she logged in after so long, there were bound to be mountains of posts waiting for her.
She was also curious how much the top-grade Cloud Tribulation Pill she had put up for auction had sold for.
The moment she thought of that, her mouth began to water.
She happily lay back down on the bed.
She was just about to gather her divine sense and connect to the Nameless Forum.
‘Argh, of all times.’
But her third brother was striding toward her from outside her quarters.
Baek Cheong reluctantly clicked her tongue and withdrew her divine sense.
‘Next time.’
She had no choice but to put the Nameless Forum off for a little while longer.