Chapter 129
Baek-Roe slowly advanced toward the unknown, parting the pure white clouds.
Among the Five Elements Golems, Baek-Roe was made of Metal-Wood and was the sturdiest of them all.
Even if a demonic beast were lurking, it would be able to withstand at least one strike.
As Baek-Roe advanced, the silhouette beyond the clouds gradually drew closer.
However, even as the distance narrowed, its true identity remained completely elusive.
No matter how much she pushed her Divine Sense forward, it kept slipping away.
It was like trying to feel it with her fingertips, only to grasp nothing and Stir the empty air.
There was definitely something there, but her Divine Sense couldn’t even trace its outline.
‘What is this - why can’t I grasp it?’
Baek-Cheong tilted her head and extended her Divine Sense as if to surround it.
Yet the result was exactly the same.
It merely felt as though the very center of the clouds was completely empty.
Her Divine Sense had been able to clearly detect even a single piece of trash.
That such a Divine Sense couldn’t even sense it felt unsettling.
“What in the world is it?”
At that moment, Baek-Roe stepped close enough to touch the unknown entity.
Swallowing nervously, she brought Baek-Roe to a halt.
If it were a demonic beast, it should have reacted by now.
And yet, even with Baek-Roe shoved right in front of its nose, there was not the slightest movement.
There was absolutely no resistance hindering the approach.
“…This is strange?”
An object that couldn’t be grasped by Divine Sense allowed an approach docilely.
It simply didn’t add up.
“Whatever it is…”
After hesitating for a long while, Baek-Cheong had Baek-Roe carefully extend its hand.
Just in case, she had already fed plenty of spiritual energy into the Ilseong Sword.
She also tightened her grip, ready to crush the jade token at any moment.
Eventually, Baek-Roe’s fingertips gently grabbed the mass of incongruity.
Something hard was docilely caught in Baek-Roe’s grasp.
Once again, there was no resistance whatsoever.
Far from struggling, it remained completely still without a single twitch.
It could be a demonic beast playing dead.
Without letting her guard down, she made Baek-Roe tighten its grip.
Even as the gripping force increased, the entity remained quiet.
“Is it not a demonic beast?”
If it were alive, it would have already lashed out by now.
Yet the unknown entity remained as docile as the dead to the very end.
The more it did, the more the doubt in her mind swelled.
She couldn’t figure out its identity at all.
If Divine Sense didn’t work, she had no choice but to see it directly with her own two eyes.
‘At least it doesn’t seem dangerous.’
While holding the mass, Baek-Cheong ordered Baek-Roe to return.
Since there was no resistance, bringing it back didn’t seem difficult either.
Baek-Roe embraced the unknown entity and returned, moving back through the clouds.
If things went wrong, she intended to abandon Baek-Roe without hesitation and immediately crush the token.
She swallowed dryly as she carefully controlled Baek-Roe with her Divine Sense.
Her small heart pounded as Baek-Roe drew closer.
But just as Baek-Roe closed the distance to a certain point,
“Huh?”
Out of nowhere, a bizarre phenomenon occurred.
The clouds that had been packed as densely as water scattered instantly.
The pure white clouds that had been constricting her from all sides rapidly cleared away.
With that, the muffled sensation of being buried in cotton returned all at once.
The muffled sounds became clear, and the dampness weighing down her body vanished.
Her vision, which had been no different from having her eyes closed even when open, opened up wide.
As her five deadened senses returned to their proper places, her mind felt refreshed.
Even the unsettling feeling that had been tickling the back of her neck disappeared as if washed away.
“The sense of incongruity… is gone?”
Baek-Cheong blinked at the open view in bewilderment.
Baek-Roe stood tall in the spot where the clouds had cleared.
And she lowered her gaze to Baek-Roe’s embrace.
The moment she confirmed its true identity with her eyes,
She went blank as soon as she saw what was held in Baek-Roe’s grasp.
“An orb…?”
What Baek-Roe was holding was a tiny orb.
It was as tiny as what one would typically think of as a glass marble.
She had thought it was something huge, but it was different from her expectations.
Confirming its identity only made her confusion grow.
She simply couldn’t believe that the sense of incongruity had come from such a small orb.
‘It doesn’t seem like an ordinary orb, though…’
But upon closer inspection, the orb did not look like a normal object.
With the orb at the center, the clouds within a radius of about ten zhang were constantly being sucked inside.
The sucked-in clouds didn’t leak anywhere and neatly piled up inside the orb.
It was as if a single small orb had entirely trapped countless clouds.
The closer she looked, the more she saw that its core was densely packed with milky-white clouds.
She couldn’t even begin to guess how a tiny orb could be so full of clouds.
“Ah!”
Only after observing that much did Baek-Cheong realize the cause of the incongruity.
It was because the orb was sucking up all the clouds in its radius.
Only the area where the orb was located was completely empty, without a single speck of cloud.
Within the Cloud Sea, the orb’s surroundings were practically an isolated world.
“What, it was just this?”
The true nature of the unsettling feeling was ultimately just due to the environment around the orb being completely different.
Above all, the orb prevented it from being properly detected by Divine Sense, as if protecting itself.
“This is ridiculous.”
Once Baek-Cheong understood the reason, a Hollow Laugh escaped her.
Since it was merely an orb and not a demonic beast, there was no need to be on guard.
She relaxed her heightened vigilance and put away the Ilseong Sword.
Then, she slowly scrutinized the orb in Baek-Roe’s hand once again.
Suddenly, something flashed through her mind.
“Could it be a Spirit Orb?”
As the thought of a Spirit Orb came to mind, her small heart pounded.
A Spirit Orb was one of the Heaven and Earth Spirit Treasures that could only be formed when a specific environment matured.
It could be called a treasure condensed from spiritual energy in a place dense with the Qi of Heaven and Earth.
The spiritual energy it harbored was so immense that it was worthy of being called a Heavenly Treasure crafted by nature itself.
Even in the Nameless Forum, she had only heard rumors about it; it was rare for a Dao Friend to have actually possessed one.
It was a genuine fortuitous encounter that any Cultivator would drool over.
“Heek.”
As her thoughts reached this point, she unconsciously took a sharp breath.
She had been completely deflated by the trivial level of fortuitous encounters so far.
But as it turned out, a true fortuitous encounter had rolled right up to her nose.
“A true fortuitous encounter for me too!”
Once its identity was realized, there was no longer any reason to just stand and watch.
Without hesitation, she directly grabbed the orb from Baek-Roe’s grasp.
Placing it on her palm, she found the orb quite heavy for its small size.
‘It’s impossible to Refine it right away, but…’
Baek-Cheong immediately tried slowly infusing spiritual energy into the orb.
The moment her spiritual energy seeped in, a change occurred in the orb.
The suction that had been endlessly drawing in clouds stopped instantly.
Once the suction stopped, she could properly detect the orb with her Divine Sense as well.
She pushed her Divine Sense deep into the orb just like that.
However, even her Divine Sense examining the inside of the orb could not see the end of it.
The tiny orb was filled with unfathomable amounts of clouds and spiritual energy.
Even stretching her Divine Sense far, she couldn’t gauge its depth at all.
“It truly lives up to being a Spirit Orb.”
Finally satisfied, she nodded her head.
Examining the cloud-filled interior made the orb’s identity clear.
It was undoubtedly a Spirit Orb originating from clouds, harboring this much cloud and spiritual energy.
‘A Spirit Orb of clouds… It’s a Cloud Spirit Orb.’
Baek-Cheong personally gave the orb the name Cloud Spirit Orb.
Calling it a Cloud Spirit Orb made the treasure in her hand look even more incredible.
But what she was most glad about was something else.
Thanks to her infusing her spiritual energy, the Cloud Spirit Orb obediently responded to her in her hand.
When she lightly infused spiritual energy into it, the Cloud Spirit Orb sucked in the clouds within a ten-zhang radius.
And as she continuously supplied spiritual energy, the clouds became transparent like air.
When she infused a lot of spiritual energy at once, she even spewed out the trapped clouds.
Sucking in clouds, seeing through them, and spewing them out all happened exactly as she willed.
“Fufu…”
Since she hadn’t gone through the process to Refine it yet, the abilities she could wield were simple.
Still, this was more than enough for roaming the Cloud Sea Secret Realm.
Above all, she couldn’t help but be amazed by the Cloud Spirit Orb’s unique nature.
She could tell that it was growing in real-time, perhaps because it hadn’t been long since it was formed.
“Seo Dao Friend is quite pitiful.”
Roughly estimated, its grade seemed to be well over the 3rd tier.
If by any chance one were to use such a Heaven and Earth Spirit Treasure as an inner core to reach the False Core stage, the story would be different.
Despite merely being at the False Core stage, they would be able to unleash power on par with the Mid Golden Core Stage.
Originally, the False Core stage was like the last resort of a Cultivator who had failed to form a Golden Core.
For such a False Core stage to rival the Mid Golden Core Stage was no ordinary matter.
“The fortuitous encounter from the Cloud Sea Map he went out of his way to buy probably can’t compare to mine, fufu.”
Even though it was a half-finished product that fell far short of a complete Cloud Spirit Orb,
With a windfall like this, one of the items she would take out of the Secret Realm was already decided.
She couldn’t suppress her overwhelming joy.
She spoke the words she had wanted to say for a long time but hadn’t had the chance to, as if relieving a deep-seated grudge.
“What good luck.”
Baek-Cheong felt good actually saying it out loud.
Honestly, the Cloud Spirit Orb alone was more than enough to make entering the Secret Realm worthwhile.
As she thought this was enough, the thought of slowly making her exit crossed her mind for a moment.
However, as she thought it over carefully, it hadn’t even been that long since she entered the Secret Realm.
‘Isn’t it too early to leave already?’
Since the Cloud Spirit Orb hadn’t been formed long ago, it still had plenty of room to grow.
If she diligently fed it clouds, it would grow, even if only a little.
Moreover, the appearance of one true fortuitous encounter meant there could be others as well.
‘Since I’ve entered the Secret Realm anyway, I should sweep up every single valuable thing.’
Baek-Cheong infused spiritual energy into the Cloud Spirit Orb, making it greedily suck in the surrounding clouds.
Then, she spread her Divine Sense once again and directed her steps toward the depths of the Cloud Sea.