The Salt Pillar (4)
The sound of the boat slicing through the waves was steady as we crossed the southern sea.
_Slowly?_
With my speed and Kim Young-hoon’s, we could have reached the Sea Dragon Palace in the blink of an eye. Slowing down like this had to mean something.
It was clear he didn’t want to go see Cheongmun Ryeong’s condition.
I followed him from behind and slowly noticed the sea had changed in many places.
_Originally… there were small islands scattered everywhere…_
I couldn’t see any islands.
It looked like every last one of them had sunk after the previous battle.
I asked the one ahead of me, walking slowly.
“One thing I want to ask.”
“What is it?”
I asked about the strange stone that had come out of Cheongmun Ryeong’s body.
“That stone… did Buk Hyang-hwa keep using it without any problems?”
“No. Later I found out the stone was quietly releasing a trace of madness. The crew of the Buk Hyang fleet had to be replaced with puppets. But strangely, Buk Hyang-hwa herself wasn’t affected by the madness at all. Even though she was only at the late Foundation Establishment stage.”
“Hm…?”
_How did that happen?_
I had believed in her mental strength, but how had she managed it?
“I don’t know the details, but she always carries a little accessory with her. She believes it protects her. I’m not sure if it’s real or not…”
“…”
“And, using the knowledge extraction method Cheongmun Ryeong taught me, she extracted part of the stone’s knowledge. Then she gathered all the stones and sealed them away. What’s interesting is… that accessory.”
“…Huh?”
I was surprised by the unexpected words.
“She said the only material in this world that can seal stones is that accessory. I want to know what she made it out of…”
“…”
I felt something strange about her words.
_That accessory was made of the mystic jade found in the Dabcheon Desert…_
It was a very common material for refining magical artifacts.
Yet that accessory was the only thing that could seal stones?
The strangest part was what came next from Kim Young-hoon.
“After she sealed all the stones inside the accessory, she placed the accessory inside the main cannon of the Buk Hyang ship and connected power from the main ship to other Buk Hyang ships. She made the fleet’s control even stronger that way. From what I can see, her talent is no less than Cheongmun Ryeong’s…”
As I listened, I felt like I was sinking into an endless maze.
_The accessory sealed away the stones?_
Sealing something required space inside it.
But the accessory was a magical treasure I had refined with my Danfire.
I knew that better than anyone.
There was no space inside the accessory.
Maybe because of the regression, the overlapping nature of the treasures had changed it? But when I tore open the Colorless Glass Sword, there were no signs of material deformation or added space.
_What in the world?_
The accessory’s only function was inter-ship communication.
Nothing more.
_Buk Hyang-hwa… what was she thinking?_
I couldn’t figure it out yet.
_Perhaps the knowledge she extracted from the stone helped her…_
I thought that as I ran after Kim Young-hoon.
He crossed the sea using nothing but his own martial skill and the power of his boat. No Gong-nung or acceleration techniques.
I followed him, then looked up at the sky.
_At the third stage of manifestation, life expectancy increases by roughly three hundred years._
Exactly 343 years.
_This is weird. It’s not even Foundation Establishment._
We had reached a realm comparable to Heavenly Person, yet the increase in lifespan was only at the Foundation Establishment level. I felt a little disbelief.
And I grew curious.
“Young-hoon hyung.”
“What is it?”
“Does your main body still exist beyond the limit of one hundred?”
“Yes.”
“Then… do you know how much your lifespan has increased?”
I hesitated after asking.
_Kim Young-hoon can’t know his own lifespan._
He hadn’t even gone through the Chilseong-je, so how could he know?
But the next words from Kim Young-hoon surprised me.
“Hm… I think it’s over ten thousand years.”
“…What?”
“I’m not sure. But that’s how it feels.”
_Ten thousand years? No, more than that…_
I was stunned by the vast unit of time, but since Sachuk and Integration used tens of millions of years, it wasn’t strange.
What surprised me more was that Kim Young-hoon knew _his own_ lifespan.
Heavenly, earthly, and mind roots each had their own unique qi.
That was why the Heavenly and Earthly roots could sense each other’s power, and the Heavenly root called it “defect qi” when the Earthly root used force.
And that sensitivity became even clearer to me at the Heavenly Person stage.
_Kim Young-hoon hasn’t learned any Heavenly qi techniques._
It was obvious.
He couldn’t see Heavenly qi.
“How… did you know your lifespan?”
After my question, he thought for a moment and answered.
“Something… different from before. I now feel like I know where my soul will end up. At this realm, my soul moves toward the higher place it desires, driven by its own power toward death.”
“Hm…”
Only then did I understand why Kim Young-hoon could read his lifespan.
_The same way as with Earthly roots._
The qi, spirit, and life ranks all influenced each other.
They were connected, so changes in one affected the others.
That was why the Earthly root cultivators, who trained at the qi level, could read the great qi flow of heaven and earth and predict something like fate, or guess at their own lifespan.
By the same logic, once the Mind root reached a certain stage, it became possible to read one’s own lifespan without sensing the Heavenly or Earthly qi.
_New information unlocked._
We kept exchanging questions and answers while flying.
Finally we arrived at the southernmost edge of the Water Realm.
Right above the sea where the Sea Dragon Palace stood.
_I think this is the first time I’ve been to the Sea Dragon Palace Observatory._
I had been to the Sea Dragon Palace before, but I had never entered the space specifically to observe the stars.
It was also because Seo Hyul had set so many traps that I couldn’t find it inside the palace.
So I had kept my guard up, just in case.
_Thinking about it, I should have visited the Sea Dragon Palace Observatory._
Perhaps I could find out what terrifying thing Cheon-hyeong had learned.
“Where is the Sea Dragon Palace Observatory?”
I asked Kim Young-hoon.
He pointed at the sky.
“There.”
“…What?”
“Come.”
Whoosh!
Kim Young-hoon stepped into the air and shot upward.
_It wasn’t under the sea?_
I flew after him, puzzled.
I had thought the Observatory was beyond the limit of one hundred at the southern edge of the world.
But unexpectedly, the Observatory was high up.
_Yeah, logically, a place that observes the stars should be high up._
After following Kim Young-hoon high into the air, something hidden by an array appeared in my consciousness.
_That’s…_
It was a building nearly as large as the Sea Dragon Palace.
The building was built on a space like the Deungsunhyang forest, floating in the air.
The space was small and clearly man-made.
_And its height is a little lower than the Deungsunhyang._
I entered the Observatory feeling that way.
But.
Boom!
I was blasted back in the opposite direction by a powerful repulsive force.
“Ugh, what is this?”
“Be careful. There was already a formation that was hard for a ghost ship to break through. After Cheongmun Ryeong strengthened it from inside, it became even stronger.”
“…How did you break through it originally?”
“I shot the main cannon of the ghost ship.”
“Hm…”
I felt irritated and took out one of the Colorless Glass Swords.
Whoosh!
The Triple Taiji rose behind my head.
I used the power of the Triple Taiji to swing the sword down.
Ka-boom!
A deafening explosion rang out as the formation collapsed.
Crackle—
“…Even when I shattered the dimensional barrier, it still felt like you’ve become a monster all over again.”
Kim Young-hoon looked at me with a shocked expression.
“Every time I broke through that, it was incredibly annoying…”
“Eh? It’s weaker than the dimensional barrier…”
“True, but if I failed to break it in one hit, the backlash would be even stronger. It was extremely difficult. But you destroyed it in one shot without any effort…”
Kim Young-hoon clicked his tongue as we crossed the ruined formation.
The moment I stepped into the Observatory.
Whoosh!
A sense of clarity washed over me.
_This…_
It was the same again.
The spiritual technique that made the mind clear, unique to Seo Hyul, covered the entire Observatory.
_What in the world was this guy using these spiritual techniques for in buildings?_
It wasn’t even for mental health.
Everything felt like he was brainwashing himself later. I wondered why he would even place such a technique.
The spiritual technique on the Sea Dragon Palace Observatory felt even stronger than the one on the Sea Dragon Palace.
_I really need to visit every place where Seo Hyul set his traps._
I remembered his words.
_He said he stacked the qi axis at the Sea Dragon Palace, Bongmyeong Castle, Black Ghost Castle, and the Deungsunhyang._
Perhaps stacking the qi axis was related to the mind.
Or maybe something else.
Either way, learning his true intentions and the method of stacking the 正法 qi axis would be useful.
Just as I thought that.
“Young-hoon hyung?”
I suddenly realized that after entering the Sea Dragon Palace, Kim Young-hoon had stopped speaking and stood still.
“What happened?”
I could have guessed without asking.
Kim Young-hoon must have felt awkward being where he had cut down Cheongmun Ryeong with his own hands.
“…No. Let’s go.”
He hesitated for a moment, then led the way.
I gritted my teeth and followed him.
_Cheongmun Ryeong… what happened to you?_
How far into the Observatory had I gone?
I found characters carved into the walls.
_That’s…_
Because of the automatic restoration spell, the Observatory looked mostly intact.
Even though Kim Young-hoon and Cheongmun Ryeong had fought, it still looked fairly whole.
But no matter what, the parts that hadn’t been restored were carved with slanted characters.
“Young-hoon hyung, what are these…”
“Cheongmun Ryeong left these characters behind. Even we don’t know exactly what they mean.”
“Is that so…”
I read each one of the characters Cheongmun Ryeong had left.
Mountain…
Peak…
Thirty-three…
“…?”
They were all words I knew and didn’t know.
After a while, Kim Young-hoon and I entered the center of the Observatory.
“…That’s…”
“Look.”
Kim Young-hoon pointed at the thing in the center of the Observatory with his hand.
“That’s the Cheongmun Ryeong I sealed. In the end… he turned into that.”
“Ah…”
I stared at Cheongmun Ryeong with a stunned expression.
Cheongmun Ryeong had become a giant _salt pillar_ and stood in the center of the Observatory.
And below the salt pillar was another word carved.
I slowly read the slanted characters.
“…Audience Chamber.”