Chapter 6
Chapter 6.
The emotion welled up, but only for a moment.
I immediately focused intently on the Dao-Bone Scripture.
My spiritual sense, which had reached forty zhang, seemed to pour into it without end. Then, as if a book had opened inside my mind, something suddenly came into view.
[Dao-Bone Scripture (道骨新書) - Observation]
■ Affiliated Realm: Lower Realm
■ Owner: Gyo Ran (蛟瀾)
■ Race: Purple Cloud Jiaolong (紫霞蛟龍)
■ Realm: Early Yao Knot - Yao General
[Personal Attributes]
* Lifespan: 100 / 1,000
* Stamina: 2,000 / 2,000 (Low-High)
* Spiritual Power: 2,000 / 2,000 (Low-High)
* Spiritual Sense: 1,000 / 1,200 (Low-High)
* Luck: 150 (High-Low)
* Perception: 80 (Mid-Low)
* Fame: 0
* Charm: Extraordinary (Mid-High)
[Combat Attributes]
* Critical Hit: 150 (Low-Mid)
* Guard: 200 (Mid-Low)
* Technique Resistance: 145 (Low-High)
* Spiritual Root Resistance: 150 (Low-High)
[Body Cultivation Aptitudes]
* Saber Arts: 58
* Spear Arts: 63
* Sword Arts: 41
* Fist Arts: 43
* Palm Arts: 50
* Finger Arts: 43
[Yao Root Aptitudes]
* Fire Root: 30
* Water Root: 60 (Jiaolong)
* Lightning Root: 85 (Innate Bloodline)
* Metal Root: 41
* Earth Root: 32
* Wood Root: 36
[Skills]
* Alchemy: 10+100 (Yang-Void Cauldron)
* Artifact Refining: 12
* Feng Shui: 10
* Talisman Making: 15
* Medicinal Herbs: 11
* Ore: 14
[Innate Fate]
* Dragon Claw Shadow Form (龍爪影式): Innate combat instincts that tear through an enemy's defenses and barriers with a jiaolong's sharp claws.
* Ancestral Treasury (荒祖遺庫): Possesses an ancestor's preparations hidden within the cave abode.
* Murderous Qi Path (殺神氣道): Instinctively converts and unleashes the murderous poison and ferocious aura accumulated within the body.
[Acquired Fate]
* None
[Owned Treasures and Skills]
* Fleshly Alchemy Furnace (Yang-Void Cauldron)
[Dao-Bone Warnings and Special Notes]
* With no storage item or protective treasure, your defenses have a critical gap. Acquiring equipment as soon as possible is recommended.
[Overall Assessment]
* A Third Realm Yao Beast at Yao Knot, with the rank of Yao General. Born with an innate bloodline, you can wield power beyond the Fourth Realm.
However, your magic is weak compared to your physical cultivation. It would be best to continue cultivating in order to make up for that.
“Whoa, what the hell?”
The chart was far more detailed than I’d expected.
It felt as if I’d opened the book that had appeared in my mind, only for a status screen to pop up right in front of me.
It was a rather familiar chart, too.
It was definitely the kind of thing I’d often seen while playing games.
Though it had the feel of a book, this was unmistakably a status screen.
Who knew that the Dao-Bone Scripture would enter my body and turn into something like this?
I was already getting excited.
“Time to humblebrag... Hmm. Maybe not.”
I didn’t know much about it, but even a fake Dao-Bone Scripture was a precious item. And now, looking at it, I had a pretty good idea.
“This is the genuine article.”
They said there was no complete original, so this had to be a fragment. But even a fragment was spoken of as a treasure capable of shaking the world.
But what if I posted this on the Yao Immortal Gallery? What if I gave them even the slightest hint?
“That’d probably be dangerous.”
That was when they might realize there was something unusual about my origins or cave abode and start tracking me down in earnest.
After all, every cultivator was equally desperate to cultivate. They’d surely see me as a fortuitous opportunity.
“I should be careful from now on.”
People were still replying to my post.
They were asking me to share my thoughts on the Dao-Bone Scripture, and some were keeping the possibility in mind that it might be genuine.
Disappearing now was one option, but that would only make them suspicious, so it was best to pretend it was fake.
[Baby Jiaolong: Ooh! Ooooooh!!]
-My picture and stats showed up in the book. Is this the genuine article?
A reply came right away.
└Black Wind: It's fake.
└Yao Immortal (178.1): Figures. Even so, there's no way the genuine article actually exists, lol. Whew, I nearly died of envy.
└Yao Immortal (66.66): Aren't fakes precious, too? Even the great sects have them.
└LotsaTails: That's true. You'll never get your hands on one in your entire life, though ㅠㅠ
└Yao Immortal (178.1): Looking down on me because I'm just a wandering cultivator?
└LotsaTails: Yep ㅠㅠ
Since I didn’t say anything else, they seemed to believe it was fake. Maybe it was a good thing I hadn’t mentioned how it had entered my body and all that.
[Baby Jiaolong: But what would be different if it were genuine? It already seems like a big help with cultivation.]
└TurtleTurtle: It's practically a legendary item, so there are all sorts of stories about it. But the common thread is that it can improve your aptitudes.
└Baby Jiaolong: Aptitudes? Like perception?
└TurtleTurtle: The Dao-Bone Scripture has no fixed grade, so its rank rises alongside its owner's realm. I hear it enters your mind and becomes a seed of the Dao. When it blossoms, your various aptitudes improve explosively. I've heard high-grade fakes can do that too, but they're nothing compared to the genuine article.
└HumansSuck: I hear fakes can rot your yao roots.
└Yao Immortal (178.1): How would you know that, Fellow Daoist?
└HumansSuck: One of the human prodigies I captured had a fake.
└Yao Immortal (178.1): Damn.
A Dao Seed (道種).
It seemed to mean a seed of the Dao.
I knew about this, too.
In the game, there was something called a seed of the Dao inside your mind. When it blossomed, you became a heavenly prodigy and grew several times stronger than an ordinary cultivator.
Usually, people called the promising young disciples of great sects prodigies, but that was just a boastful label for the outside world. A true prodigy was someone born with talent bestowed by heaven.
Most of the aptitudes and attributes shown by the Dao-Bone Scripture had limits.
But becoming a prodigy broke through those limits, allowing you to grow even stronger.
“So if the Dao-Bone Scripture becomes a Dao Seed and I raise it well, I could become a prodigy, too?”
My heart was racing.
But my mind was in a jumble.
To be honest, I was even a little dazed.
I could feel someone’s deliberate intention to make me stronger.
Becoming an overpowered character sounded nice, but this was a bit much. I couldn’t help wondering if it was a True Immortal’s scheme.
“Still, my name...”
My name, enshrined in the Dao-Bone Scripture.
The feelings I sensed in that name undeniably warmed my heart.
A wistful, heartfelt emotion.
It was unmistakably tinged with a tenderness like a mother’s love.
Thinking of that, I felt less that this was a True Immortal’s scheme and more that it was the love of parents who had tearfully left me behind.
“...Whatever. I don’t know. I’m sure it’ll work out somehow.”
There was no point in worrying about it.
I turned off the noisy Yao Immortal Gallery, went back to my room, ate a spiritual fruit, and decided to take a nap.
Too many things had happened today.
I’d sleep first and think about it later.
‘Come to think of it, there’s no storage item. Why is that the only thing I don’t have when I have everything else...’
As I pondered that, I slowly drifted off to sleep.
*
A few days later.
[Baby Jiaolong: I’m starting serious cultivation.]
-Everyone, cheer me on!
└Yao Immortal (66.66): Are you the yao immortal who’s training to go outside because your cave abode is full of all kinds of treasures except a storage item?
└Yao Immortal (444.44): That's the most ridiculous reason for cultivating I've ever heard.
└Yao Immortal (777.54): That's so stupid.
└Baby Jiaolong: What do you know?! You have no idea how painful it is to have 300 top-grade spirit stones and still be unable to use them!!
└Yao Immortal (178.1): I wouldn't know. I don't have 300 top-grade spirit stones, lol.
└Yao Immortal (66.66): Hey! Don't cry! You may be short on spirit stones, but you've still got your pride!
└Yao Immortal (178.1): ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ You're even meaner.
I stood in the training ground.
The Arts Room was packed with treasured books describing all kinds of skills and Yao Knot cultivation methods I could begin learning. But I didn’t have a storage item, and there was no particular reason to start learning any of those skills. Besides, it was still a valid reason to go out and find a storage item, wasn’t it?
‘Then I should get stronger.’
According to the Dao-Bone Scripture, I had quite a talent for physical cultivation, probably because I had jiaolong blood.
I had a fair aptitude for spear and saber arts, and among those, I chose the saber.
There were all sorts of sabers prepared for me.
But the one I picked was a slim, long saber.
My transformed form was female, and looked about twelve years old—young and small.
I thought it suited me perfectly.
Besides, the highest of my yao roots was none other than my lightning root.
If I was going to cultivate, I figured it would be better to focus on that.
[HumansSuck: About innate bloodlines.]
-Innate bloodlines are powers that yao immortals use instinctively, unlike humans. The quality and nature of an innate bloodline determine the innate limits of that yao immortal.
Innate Bloodline (生得血系).
It was something that had appeared in the Dao-Bone Scripture, too.
My innate bloodline leaned toward lightning qi.
“Considering my race is Purple Cloud Jiaolong, I guess I’m a jiaolong that wields purple lightning qi.”
Because my innate bloodline manifested as a lightning root, my aptitude for it was quite high. So I decided to choose lightning for magic and the saber for physical cultivation, and try training in both body and magic.
Dual cultivation of body and magic. It sounded pretty cool.
Ordinarily, dual cultivation of body and magic wasn’t popular.
Even cultivating just one path took a long time, and you could run up against the limits of your lifespan.
And both at once?
Unless you had a lifespan to spare or were the most diligent person alive, you wouldn’t do it.
Even if you spent your whole life cultivating one path, you might not reach the heavens’ limit.
It was the same for yao beasts, though not nearly as bad as it was for humans.
I was only at the Third Realm, Yao Knot, and I had a lifespan of a thousand years.
Maybe I had a longer lifespan than ordinary yao beasts because of my jiaolong bloodline.
‘Then I can dual cultivate, can’t I?’
Anyway, I’d asked the people on the Yao Immortal Gallery for advice and done some research before deciding.
“Most of them told me not to, but I can’t resist how cool it sounds. Besides, jiaolong are supposed to be gifted in both magic and physical cultivation.”
I’d leave the pain to my future self and try starting my cultivation for now.
The Dao-Bone Scripture was supposed to assist with cultivation, too, so there was nothing to be afraid of.
I’d give it a try, and if it didn’t work, I could do something else.
Life was hard if you made it hard, and easy if you made it easy. That’s all there was to it.
There was a suitable cultivation method, too.
It was a treasured text that contained cultivation methods for both body and magic, called the Purple Cloud Divine Thunder Saber (紫霞神雷刀).
It was a rankless scripture with nine stages, and its grade was decent enough for a beginner to learn.
The mental cultivation method was the Purple Cloud Thunderbolt Art.
The body method was the Divine Thunder Slashing Saber Forms, making it a scripture for dual cultivation of body and magic that was perfect for me.
-When purple qi (紫氣) wraps around the dantian (丹田), the mystic sunset drenches the hundred meridians (百脈). Thunder is Heaven’s whip, and the blood vessels are the nest in which it dwells...
The dull, abstruse formula was already making my head spin.
But, more or less, it meant...
“Use your innate bloodline to create thunder within your blood vessels. That’s what it’s saying.”
I had to create thunder using my purple lightning qi, my innate bloodline, and then use that thunder as the foundation for the Divine Thunder Slashing Saber Forms.
And so, I continued cultivating.
Then a year passed.
“Aaaah!!”
A year.
It took that long for me to reach the first stage of the Purple Cloud Divine Thunder Saber.
“You said I had talent! You said I had a Dao Seed!!”
Maybe my talent hadn’t properly blossomed yet, and I wasn’t ready to see the effects...