Chapter 145
Three months slipped by as the same days rolled on.
When Baek-cheong lay with her back against the Profound Jade Bed and drifted in and out of the Nameless Forum, her Dantian filled on its own.
When she sat inside the Spirit Gathering Formation and sank into a trance, spiritual energy flooded in like water from a burst dam.
The topic that had been hounding the Buddhist cultivators had long since gone stale.
After that, all sorts of topics rose and faded in turn.
It was secluded cultivation that left her no time to be bored.
At last, the Dantian that had seemed as vast as a sea was filled to the brim.
'Finally, it’s full.’
Baek-cheong sat in the lotus position atop the Jade Flat Platform in the Training Room where the Spirit Gathering Formation had been laid.
When she turned her gaze inward, the barrier blocking her Dantian’s eighth level stood there, massive and immovable.
But this time, she meant to use a different breakthrough method.
“Nothing good will come of provoking the unification latent spirit root like last time.”
She recalled her previous breakthrough to the seventh level.
Back then, as she had wrapped the Sword Intent of the Falling Star Style around quasi-Unification and hammered at the barrier, the unification latent spirit root that had been lying quiet suddenly poured out power and interfered.
The trouble had begun because delving into formation Glyphs had deepened her understanding of the principles of the five elements, sharply raising the completeness of her quasi-Unification.
The closer that crude quasi-Unification came to true Five Elements Unification, the more the latent spirit root crouched at the bottom of her Dantian caught the scent and woke.
Her breakthrough power grew stronger, but that savage spirit root stirred along with it; it was the very definition of a double-edged sword.
“Then I just have to leave quasi-Unification out entirely.”
If she removed quasi-Unification, there would be no pretext for the latent spirit root to wake.
The problem was what she would use without it to break the barrier.
Fortunately, she had prepared early for this.
“Huu…”
As tension welled up, Baek-cheong took a deep breath and settled her mind.
Then she took a jade bottle from her Storage Platform and tipped one Inscribed Realm-Breaking Pill into her mouth.
Realm-Breaking pills were originally among the best pills for demolishing barriers, but the troublesome part was that pill poison accumulated in the body each time one was taken.
However, pills crafted with inscriptions bore no poison.
In other words, this was a realm-Breaking pill she could swallow without worry.
“Hup.”
No sooner had the medicinal effect spread than fine cracks began to branch across the barrier inside her Dantian.
As expected, the power of the inscription was tremendous, far beyond even that of a top-grade realm-Breaking pill.
The hairline cracks that had barely appeared after hammering away with quasi-Unification again and again now split outward like a spiderweb from a single pill.
“Now all I need is the wedge.”
It was time to drive through those cracks and bring the whole barrier down.
Since she could not use the quasi-Unification that had served as her wedge until then, she needed another method.
She pictured a sword in her mind.
It was a sword with neither shape nor weight.
After all, she could hardly swing a flying sword inside her Dantian; this was a sword of imagery, forged solely by the mind.
The Falling Star Style was a sword art familiar enough to her that she could raise its Sword Intent with nothing but her mind, without having to load it onto a flying sword.
She poured the Falling Star Style’s sword art completely into the Mind Sword.
It was a destructive Sword Intent that fell like a meteor and shattered a single point.
Once the sword art settled into the formless blade, energy gathered along it.
“Falling Star Style.”
The sword forged by her mind plunged like a meteor toward the cracks in the barrier.
Craaaack.
After the fissures had spread like a spiderweb, the barrier collapsed all at once.
Compared to her last breakthrough, where quasi-Unification had made her sweat for every inch, it was almost absurdly easy.
Spiritual energy rushed into the emptied Dantian like water through a broken dam.
Her Dantian swelled, expanding to twice its previous breadth.
At last, she had reached the 8th level, artifact forging.
But before she rejoiced, she turned her gaze to the deepest part of her Dantian.
She was worried that the latent spirit root might, by some chance, reveal itself.
She had even kept the Five Elements Latent-Sealing Pill that Yak-seon had made tucked inside her robes.
Fortunately, her Dantian remained utterly still.
Since she had not used quasi-Unification, there was nothing to provoke the latent spirit root.
Forget emitting power; it did not so much as twitch.
“I knew it.”
Baek-cheong gave a triumphant snort toward the bottom of her Dantian.
'If I don’t use quasi-Unification, what are you going to do about it?’
She had neatly outmaneuvered the troublesome thing that had tormented her with every breakthrough until then.
Once she simply put quasi-Unification away, even a spirit root that fierce had no way to respond.
It was almost embarrassing that she had hugged the Five Elements Latent-Sealing Pill close to her small chest and worried for nothing.
'I should keep Grandfather Yak-seon’s pill safe.’
Just as she was basking in her triumph, a stench sharp enough to stab the nose filled the Training Room.
“Ugh, this again.”
When she opened her eyes, her entire body was plastered with sticky impurities.
It was a phenomenon that followed without fail every time she raised her realm.
Nine times out of ten, it had to do with her five spirit roots, but how long it would keep happening was anyone’s guess.
‘I’d better clean this up fast.’
Baek-cheong familiarly took a cleansing talisman from her Storage Platform.
When she infused it with spiritual energy and shook out the talisman, the impurities clinging to her body and the Jade Flat Platform were swept cleanly away.
Only after the stench had faded as well did she finally breathe out.
As she composed herself, she first unfolded her newly expanded Divine Sense.
Since her realm had risen, her Divine Sense should have grown too.
She easily extended her Divine Sense past the Training Room and out in every direction, and it reached a full thirty-one zhang.
Her Divine Sense, which had been twenty-seven zhang, had increased by four zhang.
At this point, it was no longer merely comparable to the golden core stage; it could firmly be called golden core-level.
“Hmm.”
And yet something felt faintly suspicious.
Her Divine Sense spread smoothly as usual up to twenty-nine zhang, but from thirty zhang onward, its movement grew strange within the Talisman Formation.
Most of all, one corner of her head throbbed.
Her head usually felt stiff when she expanded her Divine Sense at full power.
'Is it because my Divine Sense has grown, so there’s more information?’
The wider the range of her Divine Sense, the more information poured in all at once; the load had doubled.
It seemed natural enough, but it felt different from usual.
Still, she could not find the cause or reason clearly.
“Is this the problem the Sword Saint mentioned?”
When she met Pacheon Sword Saint in Yeonha Immortal City, he said as much after seeing her Divine Sense.
He had said that the vessel of her qi condensation body should be far too lacking to hold it, and that it was a wonder she had not gone mad.
But the burden on her Divine Sense felt as though it had only just set one foot on some kind of threshold, so it was hard to judge for certain.
'Well, I’ll find out sooner or later.’
For the moment, Baek-cheong withdrew her Divine Sense.
Once she gathered the Divine Sense she had spread back, the throbbing in her head gradually faded as well.
What remained now was her Dantian, which had once again doubled in size.
It had already been as vast as a sea, and now that it had grown even larger, the thought of it was daunting.
“When am I supposed to fill all this again?”
Still, when she calculated it out, there was no answer at all.
If she devoted herself to nothing but training in an Eastern Region like this, without getting distracted, she could fill it completely in half a year with room to spare.
“Half a year.”
Even if that seemed similar to the pace of an ordinary Qi Condensation cultivator, when her Dantian and environment were taken into account, the difference was like the sun and the moon.
But there was something more important than filling her Dantian.
The urgent task was to refine the cloud spirit Pearl lying dormant inside her Storage Platform.
Only then could she control the cloud spirit Pearl’s cloud absorption, feed it clouds to her heart’s content, and let it grow.
Before her breakthrough, she had not attempted it because the spiritual energy she had saved up felt too precious.
'Now I’ve got plenty to spare.’
There was no better time to attempt refinement.
After she spent days shut up in secluded cultivation, the inside of the Eastern Region had started to feel stifling too.
To get some air, she left the Eastern Region and headed for the courtyard.
When she stepped out of the Eastern Region and into the courtyard, the open sky came into view all at once.
The clouds girdling the peak’s waist were close enough to touch.
The scenery was one thing, but with clouds everywhere, it was also the perfect place for refinement.
'Let’s see…’
Baek-cheong took the cloud spirit Pearl from her Storage Platform and placed it on her palm.
For the moment, she tried it on the assumption that there was nothing to lose.
She sent only the spiritual energy naturally filling her Dantian into the cloud spirit Pearl, coaxing and soothing it.
If it could be refined without any special preparation, nothing could be easier.
However, the cloud spirit Pearl did not even pretend to listen.
'As expected, that won’t be nearly enough.’
As anticipated, Baek-cheong took out an inscribed spirit gathering pill from her Storage Platform.
Since she was refining a territory lord, a handful’s worth of spiritual energy was not enough to make it so much as budge.
But if she swallowed an inscribed spirit gathering pill, an immense amount of spiritual energy would fill her Dantian.
However, since it was supplemental spiritual energy, it was better used on the spot than for raising her realm.
The reason she had deliberately forgone the Spirit Gathering Formation and come all the way to the courtyard was that performing Qi Absorption and releasing qi at the same time amid such dense spiritual energy could strain her meridians.
“This should be about right.”
She sat down in the open courtyard.
The moment she placed an inscribed spirit gathering pill in her mouth, enormous spiritual energy filled her Dantian.
She sent the spiritual energy filling her Dantian straight into the cloud spirit Pearl and began the refinement in earnest.
The refinement was slow. Agonizingly slow.
Since it was the work of making an external object her own, progress could be made only within the Talisman Formation.
.
.
.
Only after she had clung to it for a full day was the cloud spirit Pearl refined by a little over one percent.
One inscribed spirit gathering pill, an entire day, and all she had managed to refine was one percent.
It was far slower than she had expected.
Most exhausting of all was the fact that she could not look away for even a moment.
With Qi Absorption, once she sank into trance, spiritual energy filled her Dantian on its own.
Refinement was different.
If she let her concentration slip for even an instant, the cloud spirit Pearl immediately went awry.
She had to keep every nerve taut from beginning to end, making it such grueling work that ordinary training seemed easier.
“This is pure drudgery.”
For someone whose creed was effortless gains, this was not at all to her liking.
Even so, she could not simply shove the cloud spirit Pearl into her Storage Platform and forget about it.
“For now, I just need to make it so I can control how it sucks in clouds.”
There was no need to be greedy and aim for complete refinement right away.
First, she only needed to reach the point where she could control its cloud absorption at will.
If she could tame it that far, she could put one worry behind her.
Once she set that goal, her small chest felt much lighter.
“I wish someone else would do this for me.”
Baek-cheong complained softly as she put another inscribed spirit gathering pill in her mouth.
For the next several days, she stayed in the courtyard, coaxing and soothing the cloud spirit Pearl again and again.
It was grueling work, as far from easy gains as could be, but for the sake of a cloud spirit Pearl that would one day prove useful, this much was worth enduring.