Chapter 22
It took Baek-Cheong two full days to properly recover her spiritual energy and Divine Sense.
Posting an image post on the Nameless Forum while lacking the capacity was an immense burden that gnawed at her meridians and mind far more than she had imagined.
While holed up in her Abode under the excuse of recovery, Baek-Cheong constantly directed her mind toward the Nameless Forum.
During those two days, the Chat Board was as noisy as if a storm had swept through it.
It was because the image post and mocking text she had fired off carelessly had ignited a massive debate.
[Fellow Daoist (553.24): Dao Friend (913.14) is a hundred percent right. It’s like not cultivating for fear of failing to overcome a bottleneck. To let the useful functions of the Nameless Forum rot because you’re terrified of a Jinseonkasu that might appear at any moment - you should be ashamed as Cultivators!]
[Dao Friend (82.378): Cut the crazy talk. Jinseonkasu pollutes even the soul; do you have multiple lives or something? Unspoken rules exist for a reason.]
[Dao Friend (21.522): Utilizing the Image Function would make it much easier to share the Incantations of secret manuals or diagrams of Formations, so it is a waste, honestly.]
[Dao Friend (11.234): If you like it so much, go look at image posts by yourself all you want and become a True Immortal’s residue.]
The Cultivators who wanted to overcome the fear of Jinseonkasu and fully utilize the Nameless Forum and those who refused to make a dangerous gamble with their lives as collateral, clashed fiercely in a mudslinging fight.
With tens of thousands of posts updating every day, the Nameless Forum took on the aspect of a battlefield.
A pleased smile never left Baek-Cheong’s lips as she watched such cutthroat debates.
‘Everyone’s gotten used to the word Jinseonkasu.’
The word she had thoughtlessly jotted down was naturally on the lips of the Lower Realm Cultivators, being used like a proper noun that had existed from the start.
A strange sense of accomplishment at having popularized a newly coined word among Cultivators filled her small chest.
“I’ve left my mark on the Nameless Forum!”
Feeling proud, Baek-Cheong spectated the blood-spattering debates of the Dao Friends.
However, her peaceful Armchair Forum Browsing Life came to an end with a maidservant’s cautious call.
“Young Lady, has your body recovered somewhat? The Grand Patriarch wishes to see you. He asked that you enter the Grand Patriarch’s Hall as soon as your recuperation is complete.”
She couldn’t keep ignoring her grandfather’s summons and clinging only to the Nameless Forum.
“I’ll be right there.”
Leaving her regrets behind, Baek-Cheong withdrew her Divine Sense from the Nameless Forum.
She neatly adjusted her Attire, left her Abode, and headed for the Supreme Clan Head’s Hall.
The Supreme Clan Head’s Hall was situated in the deepest part of the Clan, where the spiritual energy was the densest.
Baek-Cheong carefully opened the door and stepped inside.
There, Baek Mu-Ae welcomed his Granddaughter with a benevolent smile.
“Oh, our Cheong-Yi is here. I heard your meridians were damaged from cultivation, but how is your body now?”
“Thanks to your concern, grandfather, I am completely healed.”
Baek-Cheong bowed respectfully in greeting.
Baek Mu-Ae nodded and offered her the Seat opposite him.
As Baek-Cheong sat down, Baek Mu-Ae’s expression settled into something a bit more serious.
“The reason I called you is none other than this. This grandfather plans to enter a lengthy closed-door cultivation soon. Before that, I wanted to pass down at least a small teaching to our Baek Clan’s treasure, Cheong-Yi, which is why I called you.”
Anticipating that this business would take a while, Baek-Cheong forced a smile.
However, at Baek Mu-Ae’s next words, Baek-Cheong nearly choked and coughed.
“I heard from your father. He said you suffered internal injuries when your energy scattered while trying to attain the enlightenment of Five Elements Unification on your own.”
It seemed her father had ultimately reported his daughter’s immense Talent to the higher-ups.
She hadn’t even imagined that the excuse she had babbled randomly to escape a crisis would snowball like this and come back to her.
Mistaking his Granddaughter’s flustered demeanor for shame over her Training failure, Baek Mu-Ae gently consoled her.
“There is no need to be so ashamed. Just catching a glimpse of the threshold of Five Elements Unification at the Qi Condensation Stage is incredible in itself. As this grandfather is also devoting himself to Training with his sights set on the Nascent Soul stage, I have some knowledge regarding the profound principles of handling the Five Elements. I called you to reduce the trial and error you will experience in attaining that high enlightenment, even if only a little, so listen closely.”
Baek-Cheong bit her lip hard.
“I actually just lied because I used up all my energy trying to post an image.”
She couldn’t even confess that honestly.
Left with no choice, she nodded and had to listen silently to her grandfather’s speech on his insights.
“Cheong-A, the Five Elements are originally the five pillars that make up heaven and Earth. Water soaks downward and gives birth to all things, while fire blazes upward and burns away the dregs. Wood stretches outward to take shape, and metal gathers that shape to forge it solidly inward. And Earth embraces all of this to achieve balance.”
Baek Mu-Ae gently closed his eyes and slowly opened his mouth.
His voice was heavy, accompanied by a strange resonance that lingered inside the Supreme Clan Head’s Hall.
“The Five Elements Mutual Generation you achieved connects these five pillars in a circle, making them revolve endlessly. But Five Elements Unification goes beyond the circle of mutual generation. It can be called the process of extremely condensing that revolving circle and returning it to a single point.”
Her grandfather’s echoing voice struck Baek-Cheong’s eardrums.
It was clearly a story no different from the boring, pedantic enlightenments she had seen countless times in the wuxia or Xianxia novels of her past life.
“Within the Cycle of Mutual Generation, you must intentionally clash the Conflicting Energies, but instead of scattering that explosive force outward, you must embrace it inward. Wrap the explosion of fire with the flexibility of water, dull the sharpness of metal with the vitality of wood, and crush all repulsion with the weight of Earth. You must realize that the origin of the energy divided into five branches ultimately started from one. Only then can it become the path toward unification beyond the Five Elements.”
However, reading insights in text from the third-party perspective of a reader in her past life, and hearing the enlightenment of a Core Formation Grand Cultivator with her own ears as a direct participant in the Xianxia World, were the difference between heaven and Earth.
“Ah…”
Her grandfather’s insights fully contained the years of Training built up over hundreds of years and the Principles of Heaven and Earth.
Without realizing it, Baek-Cheong fell deeply into her grandfather’s story and began to listen intently.
Her blank eyes gradually regained their brilliance, and a deep crease formed between her brows.
At some point, a massive enlightenment occurred in Baek-Cheong’s mind.
The knowledge she had picked up while flipping through xianxia in her past life.
She had learned the sensations of mutual generation and conflict through her current body.
The miscellaneous theories the Dao Friends of the Nameless Forum had chattered about existed.
All these fragmented pieces began to interlock precisely like cogwheels, using her grandfather’s insights as the medium.
“Embrace the spiritual root divided into five branches and return it inward to a single point…”
Baek-Cheong completely forgot her surroundings.
She was forgetting even the fact that she was sitting in the Supreme Clan Head’s Hall.
She unconsciously closed her eyes and began to Contemplate her deep inner self.
The bottom of the sloshing lake of spiritual energy deep within her Dantian.
The Five Elements Spiritual Root of five different colors situated in her Dantian was clearly visible.
She extended her Divine Sense and gently grasped the spiritual roots.
Rather than forcefully clumping them together, she traced in reverse the Flow of Qi intertwined in the Cycle of Mutual Generation, beginning to search for the vertex of their origin.
The water spiritual root covered the fire spiritual root, the wood spiritual root absorbed that heat, and the metal spiritual root refined the remaining dregs, stacking them neatly atop the Earth spiritual root.
The spiritual roots that had been scattered into five branches slowly tangled together, and the bizarre spectacle of them merging into one unfolded inside her Dantian.
The murky colors of the Five Elements Spiritual Root gradually changed into an achromatic color, as if all light had been mixed together, and began to take on a solid form like the single, primordial spiritual root.
“This is… unification.”
A faint groan slipped from Baek-Cheong’s lips.
However, the moment she reached the threshold of unification arrived.
A fatal limit caught her by the ankle.
CRACK - A microscopic crack appeared in the achromatic spiritual root that was clumping.
The vessel of her Dantian, which was merely at the 3rd Stage Qi Condensation, screamed, unable to bear the weight of the massive enlightenment that was Five Elements Unification.
If she tried to forcefully maintain the state of unification
The spiritual root she had just clumped together would completely crumble, putting her at risk of never being able to walk the path of a Cultivator again.
Baek-Cheong urgently withdrew her Divine Sense and carefully unraveled the tangled spiritual roots back into their original five branches.
At the same time, she snapped out of her Trance and her eyes flew open.
“Haaa…”
A sigh tinged with deep regret flowed from Baek-Cheong’s mouth.
Her entire body was drenched in cold sweat, and her heart pounded fiercely as if it would burst.
As her vision gradually cleared, the scenery of the Supreme Clan Head’s Hall and the sight of her grandfather sitting opposite her came into view.
Baek Mu-Ae had been watching his Granddaughter’s bizarre Meditation process from beginning to end.
Awe that surpassed astonishment lingered in his eyes.
One can hear just a few words of insight and gain enlightenment on the spot, even going so far as to attempt fusing the Five Elements Spirit Root into one.
Although she had stepped back at the final stage due to her lacking realm, her current achievement alone was enough to rewrite the history of the Cultivation World.
“It is all right, Cheong-A.”
Baek Mu-Ae laughed heartily and gently stroked Baek-Cheong’s sweat-drenched hair.
“To set foot on the threshold of unification with just a single teaching! You truly were born with a comprehension that even the heavens would fear. This time, your realm was simply too low and your vessel lacking; your principles were not wrong. Enlightenment does not run away, so do not be impatient. Slowly solidify your realm and wait for the right time.”
At her grandfather’s pleased smile and encouragement, Baek-Cheong nodded with a bewildered expression.
A fortuitous encounter occurred where something that started as a lie led to true enlightenment.
“That means I can reach Five Elements Unification again at any time once I raise my realm.”
The moment she had achieved Five Elements Unification was deeply embedded in her mind.
The desire to raise her realm quickly squirmed just as strongly as her obsession with forum browsing.