Chapter 98
In her mind, her thoughts quickly took it a step further.
Nascent Soul Great Cultivators couldn’t cross over to the Central Continent, he had said.
What about those above them, at the Soul Transformation stage?
“Then the great powers at the Soul Transformation stage should be able to cross over anywhere without issue, right?”
Baek-Cheong tossed out the remark brightly, having reached an innocent conclusion.
Eldest Brother paused for a moment before a faint smile spread across his face.
“Hmm, that would certainly be the case, but…”
“Is it not?”
“However, the great powers who have reached Soul Transformation rarely reveal themselves, so it is unknown if they would ever bother crossing continents.”
“They don’t reveal themselves?”
“Every Great Sect serves a Soul Transformation Old Ancestor, but where they are and how they spend their time is not something easily known.”
Her ears perked up once more at the interesting story.
“I think a Dao Friend mentioned something similar.”
The replies from the Dao Friends surfaced in her mind.
They had said that once one reached Soul Transformation, staying in the Lower Realm became a restriction in itself.
There was also talk that restrictions followed them, whether due to an agreement among Soul Transformation cultivators or pressure exerted by the Lower Realm, so people tended to take their time and enter Soul Transformation at a leisurely pace.
‘Since our Soul Transformation Old Ancestors don’t show themselves either.’
The stories the Dao Friends had told naturally meshed with Eldest Brother’s words in her mind.
It was as if she was hearing the exact same story from both sides.
At the Soul Transformation level, there seemed to be a rough Consistency regardless of the Lower Realm.
The next question naturally came to mind, and she opened her mouth.
“Then are there seven Soul Transformation Old Ancestors in total?”
“Seven?”
Baek Gyu looked at his younger sister with questioning eyes.
“I heard there are seven great sects across all the continents, combining both the Righteous and Demonic paths. If there’s one per Great Sect, wouldn’t that be seven?”
He closed his mouth for a moment and gently placed a hand on his sister’s head.
“Where did you learn such math?”
“I guess it’s because I have seven fingers.”
Baek-Cheong evaded the question with an absurd remark.
She then held up exactly seven fingers across both hands.
Eldest Brother gave a small, dry cough.
“Sometimes, even this Older Brother finds it hard to keep up with what goes on in Cheong-A’s head.”
“I was just curious.”
“It’s not a difficult question to answer, so I’ll tell you.”
Eldest Brother counted, carefully folding his fingers one by one.
“First, the righteous Great Sect located on the Eastern Continent does not have a Soul Transformation Old Ancestor.”
“What?”
Her expectations were already derailed from the start.
“They don’t have one?”
“I don’t know the exact details either, but I heard that for some unknown reason, the Great Sect in the East doesn’t have a single Old Ancestor who has reached Soul Transformation. It’s difficult for me to speak lightly on whatever internal circumstances their Sect might have.”
It was bizarre in itself that a place called a Great Sect didn’t have a single Soul Transformation Old Ancestor.
‘A Great Sect, yet it doesn’t have a single one.’
It was simply a wonder how they maintained their status as a Great Sect.
However, since it wasn’t her business, she pushed her curiosity aside.
At the same time, Eldest Brother folded his next finger.
“On the Western Continent, there is a demonic Great Sect, and it’s said they have one.”
“One.”
Baek-Cheong murmured along as if counting the numbers.
“And if you go to the Central Continent, the Three Great Sects are gathered there. Two are Righteous, and one is Demonic. But I heard that the single demonic Great Sect has two Soul Transformation Old Ancestors.”
“Just two in the demonic Great Sect?”
“I don’t know the exact details of why they have two. It just seems to be the case.”
“Ah.”
It wasn’t the place to pry into the exact reasons.
Eldest Brother folded two more fingers.
“The righteous great sects on the Central Continent each have one Old Ancestor. This means there are two.”
“Yes, two.”
“However”
Suddenly, the corners of Eldest Brother’s mouth crept up.
“Your Master will also reach Soul Transformation before long.”
“…Ah.”
“Pacheon Sword Saint.”
Her Master’s name naturally came to mind.
Once he finished his business and returned to the Heavenly Sword Sect, he was someone who would soon step into Soul Transformation.
The image of the man, who had left with a promise to meet again someday, reappearing after ascending to Soul Transformation, flashed through her mind.
“Therefore, you should actually count it as three. If the Supreme Elder of the Heavenly Sword Sect adds one more Seat, the righteous great sects of the Central Continent will have three.”
“Yes.”
“Until now, the Central Continent has maintained a balance with two Righteous and two Demonic Soul Transformation Old Ancestors, but if the Righteous side gains a third, even I find it hard to gauge how things will unfold.”
Baek Gyu closed his mouth for a moment before adding a small footnote.
Still, the political situation wasn’t something to carelessly meddle in.
He soon opened his mouth to continue counting how many Soul Transformation Old Ancestors there were.
“And on the Southern Continent, there is the Soul Transformation Old Ancestor of our Biun Sect. His Daoist Name is Unjin-gun.”
“Have you ever met him, Eldest Brother?”
“As for me, I haven’t even seen his shadow since becoming a True Disciple. Other than Eldest Senior Disciple Brother, Unjin-gun has no disciples permitted to be by his side.”
‘It’s not like the Soul Transformation cultivator is hiding their identity or something, right?’
Baek-Cheong had a useless thought while listening to the story.
She then shook off her stray thoughts and listened attentively to Eldest Brother’s words.
“On the Northern Continent, there is a righteous Great Sect, and it has one.”
“One in the North too.”
“And from what I’ve heard…”
Eldest Brother folded his last two fingers.
“I heard there are two Old Ancestors on the Eastern Continent who reached Soul Transformation as rogue cultivators.”
“Rogue cultivators?”
The very idea of rising from a Rogue Cultivator to Soul Transformation felt unfamiliar.
To think they cultivated alone without a Sect to reach Soul Transformation, a stage that was difficult even for a Soul Transformation Talent who received all the resources of a Great Sect.
“The East is quite an eccentric place too.”
Baek Gyu showed his folded fingers to his sister and spoke.
“Even excluding the Pacheon Sword Saint for now, that makes nine of them.”
“Nine…”
Baek-Cheong couldn’t hide her surprise at the number of Soul Transformation cultivators, which was more than she had vaguely guessed.
If it had been seven, one for each Great Sect, she would have accepted it as a given.
But for some reason, the Great Sect on the Eastern Continent didn’t have a single one, and it seemed as though two Soul Transformation cultivators among the rogue cultivators existed to fill the void.
‘It’s not just a matter of each Great Sect having a Soul Transformation cultivator.’
She recalled a story Dao Friend (3.7) had told her in the Nameless Forum once.
It was a story that a Lower Realm with more than three Soul Transformation cultivators might have a problem related to Ascension.
‘It’s not just a problem; it’s simply hopeless.’
If it was an unusual situation, nine times out of ten, it couldn’t be called a good thing.
Because of that, she couldn’t even grasp how massive a problem was lurking.
‘Don’t tell me this is a Lower Realm created by merging other Lower Realms together.’
The continents were different enough to be called separate worlds, and Realm walls even existed between them.
Add to that the seriously excessive number of Soul Transformation cultivators, it made sense.
If there was anything questionable, it was that the size of the continents was slightly small for a single world.
Most rogue cultivators found it overwhelming to travel around even a single Continent, but that had nothing to do with her.
“…But does this have anything to do with me?”
She was still a cultivator at the Qi Condensation Stage, 7th Level, but Foundation Establishment stage, let alone Soul Transformation, was a distant dream.
Regardless of the Lower Realm’s circumstances, it was better to just take care of one’s own business.
Above all, even if she couldn’t ascend, it wasn’t like she couldn’t use the Nameless Forum.
‘Even if I become a Soul Transformation cultivator later, it’s not like I won’t be able to browse the forum, right?’
Of course, since they used Fixed Names in the Upper Realm, she was slightly tempted, but even Ascension wasn’t easy.
In the end, the most important thing to her was browsing the forum.
“And the New Spring Exchange Gathering.”
From the arts festival to the auction and the Martial Arts Competition, it was full of appetizing events.
Furthermore, if she could learn the Concealment Art, she could fly around without worrying about being a clumsy person.
As a bonus, she could sprinkle water on other people while doing so.
“The clouds of the Concealment Art are still clouds, so I should be able to make them into rain clouds too.”
Baek-Cheong thought carefree thoughts while outwardly giving a slow nod.
Then, hiding her inner thoughts, she opened her mouth with a nonchalant expression.
“Eldest Brother, is it difficult to meet the Old Ancestors of the other great sects too?”
“That’s…”
Eldest Brother closed his mouth for a moment before giving his answer.
“From what I’ve heard, the situation isn’t much different for the other great sects. It’s known that the Old Ancestors are definitely present, but almost no one has encountered their shadows or traces. It’s said that stories of anyone daring to see them since they reached Soul Transformation can be counted on one hand.”
“Where could they all have gone?”
“Because of that, quite a few rumors are floating around: stories that the Old Ancestors gathered somewhere and reached an agreement, stories that there’s a blockage on the path to Ascension and they’re devising a solution, even stories that something is fundamentally wrong with the world we live in… It’s hard to gauge how much is the truth and how much has been inflated by the mouths of gossips.”
Baek Gyu quietly shook his head, tying up his words.
“In any case, the affairs of great powers are not a realm for Junior Disciples like us to lightly fathom. It’s not something we need to keep in mind and worry about.”
“Okay.”
Baek-Cheong nodded obediently and subtly cast her gaze far away.
This seemed enough to successfully divert her brother’s attention.
While waiting for the New Year’s Banquet, she spurred on her schemes to thoroughly exploit every corner of the New Spring Exchange Gathering.