The Storm's Wake
I completely read through the Hofung Eungryongbyeon manual from start to finish.
Whenever I came across unfamiliar demon beast terminology, I asked Seo Ran to explain it, and he helped me fully grasp the entire text.
“This isn’t anything like the mortal cultivation manuals we use. The foundation is completely different.”
Instead of the five elements that humans rely on, these manuals rest on the primal wildness that demons possess.
They do not precisely classify attributes within the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy and manipulate it.
Instead, they blindly absorb heaven-and-earth spiritual energy, force it through the body to purify it, and then wield it through the demon’s wild nature.
That was the core of the demon cultivation method.
Looking at the entry point for absorbing heaven-and-earth spiritual energy, my eyes narrowed.
“This… isn’t it similar to my own Inner Force Technique?”
It was exactly the same.
The only difference was that after absorbing the turbulent energy, you then force it to purify itself—whereas my method stops at the purification step.
“If a mortal also learned to purify their inner force like this… could I actually master the demon cultivation method?”
It would never work.
The key to the demon method was the ji sensation—the sense of yin and .
No ordinary mortal could perceive such a thing.
And if the inner force inside a mortal suddenly erupted, that person would literally be torn apart and die.
“This is dangerous.”
It was a perfect way to die.
“But it’s worth mastering.”
Fortunately, I already had the perfect trigger inside my body—Qi Condensation Thirteenth Layer, One in One Response.
Using that foundation, I would next aim for Qi Condensation Fourteenth Layer, Formless Spiritual Cloud.
From there, I would have to challenge Foundation Establishment again.
Normally, once you complete the Twelfth Layer—Two in One Union—and merge all the spiritual meridians into one, you’re considered ready to enter Foundation Establishment.
That’s because the Thirteenth Layer is basically a stepping stone toward Foundation Establishment.
“Brother Seo, I’m going to do closed-door cultivation near here to master the entry point.”
“Fine. I’ll need to prepare a formation myself. Come back within three years.”
Leaving Seo Ran’s cave, I climbed to a suitable rocky island in the nearby sea.
There, I dug a hidden cave and began my first Foundation Establishment attempt together with Hofung Eungryongbyeon.
Qi Condensation Thirteenth Layer, One in One Response.
The stage where spiritual energy condenses inside the body into a point inside the dantian.
To reach the next stage—Formless Spiritual Cloud—I had to ignite the point of spiritual energy inside the dantian and create a cloud of spiritual energy within it.
“Ignite the point of One in One Response!”
Kuuuung!
Inside the dantian, a thunderous tremor shook everything.
Kwa-kwak!
The point of spiritual energy erupted.
Within the explosion, the inner force inside the dantian began to purify itself.
“But this isn’t enough.”
After the point erupted and the cloud of spiritual energy spilled out, the Qi Condensation Fourteenth Layer.
I had entered the stage of Formless Spiritual Cloud.
“Through this cloud…”
Ku-kugugu-gu!
I condensed it.
Condensed it further.
When the cloud finally reached its limit…
“I challenge for Foundation Establishment!”
Flicker!
It flashed like lightning inside the dantian.
The cloud began to shrink.
Exactly when its contraction hit the critical point…
Kwa-kwak-kwak!
A thunderous sound struck my ears.
A far stronger explosion erupted inside the dantian.
If I had been even slightly weaker, the dantian would have exploded and I would have died.
But I blocked the explosion’s force from leaking out using the inner force from my dantian.
The force never exceeded the critical threshold, and the dantian itself was never damaged.
“Huu… is it over?”
The cloud of spiritual energy that had formed from erupting the point had dissipated, its power completely gone.
The training that had once shot up to Fourteenth Layer had fallen back to the level of completing the Twelfth Layer.
With future training cycles, I could regain One in One Response and Thirteenth Layer.
But for now, the progress had been lost.
The first Foundation Establishment attempt had failed.
Yet…
Uuuung!
At the center of the dantian, my inner dantian glowed brightly.
Thanks to the two massive eruptions that had pierced the boundary, the inner force inside the dantian had become exceptionally pure.
“Using this purified force to operate the entry point of the demon cultivation method…”
The dantian vibrated.
At the same time, my consciousness began to tremble in sync with the vibration.
“Aligning my consciousness with the wildness the manual speaks of…”
Ku-kukuk!
My consciousness changed.
Just as Seo Ran’s consciousness had enveloped his body in the same shape as his own, my consciousness—once wrapped around me in a sphere—began to transform into the form of a dragon.
“It’s a little uncomfortable.”
Still, a human was mastering a demon’s method.
No matter how carefully Seo Ran had prepared, there would be some disharmony.
“It feels like wearing clothes that don’t fit my body…”
But anyway.
After aligning my consciousness with the dragon’s wildness, I began to operate the force.
Ku-kugugugu!
Spiritual energy began to erupt outward.
The demon method did not activate the meridians one by one in the correct order.
Instead, it ran madly in the direction the completed manual indicated, without a care for anything else.
The practitioner’s constitution had to change to match the completion point of the manual.
Ku-kuguk!
Spiraling outward, the flow of spiritual energy gradually made the internal meridians adapt to it.
Once those changes finished, I would be able to use several of the mysterious techniques listed in Hofung Eungryongbyean.
I would become far stronger.
Yet…
“Aaaaaah!”
It hurt like hell!
Because I was a human.
Every time my meridians were forcibly adapted to Hofung Eungryon, I felt as if they were tearing.
But I clenched my teeth.
Kwaduk!
Inside the cave on the rocky island, my fingers dug deep into the rock, leaving dents in the cave wall.
I gritted my teeth and kept pushing the method forward.
“I’ll find the next path…!”
The next realm of martial arts.
A way for someone without talent to reach Foundation Establishment.
I would find it no matter what!
***
One year passed.
Over the Black Wind Sea.
On a rocky island.
A calm rocky island—something was changing.
Ddeuk, drdrdrdr!
The island began to shake.
Drrrrrrr!
The vibration from the island grew stronger.
Then…
Kwadududuk!
The island began to crack.
Kwaaaah!
The island exploded, and a dragon’s roar began.
A fierce whirlwind surged from inside the island, tearing it apart from the inside.
Ku-kugugugugu!
Black rocks were torn away and shot into the air, flying in all directions.
At the center of the sea.
A small-scale whirlwind struck.
Kuuuooo!
And at the center of the whirlwind, there was a dark, shadowy figure.
The figure sucked in the wind and moved the whirlwind toward the nearby island.
Gradually the wind died down, and the figure landed on the island.
***
I felt the breeze that had lowered me onto the island and moved my consciousness.
My consciousness area, which had taken the form of a sea dragon, returned to its original spherical shape.
“This… is Hofung Eungryon.”
The demon cultivation method that calls the wind.
And recalling the mysterious technique I had just used, a familiar memory surfaced.
Before I activated that technique, the sense of familiarity I had felt while practicing this method exploded completely.
This felt like…
“It’s similar to the things from the Makri family, isn’t it?”
The wind-type magic arts used by the Makri family.
They felt incredibly similar.
The difference was…
Unlike the faint demonic energy I sensed in the Makri family’s wind, this method felt the ferocity of a beast in the wind.
That was the difference between Hofung Eungryon and the Makri family’s wind-type mysterious techniques.
“Thinking about it… most of the Makri family’s mysterious techniques were related to dragons.”
Before, I had thought they were yin-type.
But now…
The techniques from the Makri family all involved rotting corpses, wind dragons and wind peaks, and spells that rained down by covering the sky with yin.
They were all related to water and wind.
Water and wind.
That was power related to tempest.
And dragons had always been called the race of tempests.
Especially the sea dragons, who symbolized the storms of the sea.
“What is the relationship between the Makri demonic family and the sea dragons?”
Also, how was Hofung Eungryon related to the Makri family’s demonic arts?
Perhaps this demon cultivation method was a type of demonic art as well?
“No, it’s not demonic art.”
The people who mastered demonic arts didn’t carry that unpleasant demonic energy.
But as soon as I realized Hofung Eungryon was related to the Makri family, a strange sense of disgust arose.
“Its power is outstanding…”
It also felt more suited to me than Jiwol Ipdogyeol, and the progress was faster.
But the uncomfortable feeling of wearing ill-fitting clothes remained, and the connection to the Makri family only amplified the unease.
“I don’t know. Thinking about it won’t help. Better to ask Seo Ran directly later.”
I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
I thought for a moment what to do next.
Go back to Seo Ran’s place?
Or return to the mainland?
“Since Seo Ran only needs to return within three years, I’ve only just learned the basic mysterious techniques of Hofung Eungryon.
Should I go to him, receive his guidance, and raise my mastery of the method further?”
Or head to the mainland and search for traces of the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect in the Daesan Mountains west of the Seong Empire?
According to Geum Byeok-ho, there were several records left about the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect in the Daesan Mountains west of the Seong Empire.
They were probably findable.
“What should I do?”
I thought for a while and decided where to spend the remaining two-plus years.
“Fine. I’ll head toward the mainland.”
After thinking it over, I turned my gaze toward the Seong Empire.
Seo Ran had said the formation I needed to break with him would be safe.
I didn’t know what might happen, so while thinking about the possibility of losing my life, I decided to gather a little more information this life.
Whooooshoo!
Reactivating Hofung Eungryon, my dantian responded and spat out spiritual energy.
Wind swirled around me, lifting me into the air.
I flew north from the Black Wind Sea toward the Seong Empire.
***
The Seong Empire was a country ruled by countless demonic families.
Because of that, countless rules established among the demonic families were deeply rooted throughout the entire empire.
I was caught by one of those rules.
West Jue City.
One of the cities near the Daesan Mountains in the west.
I was surrounded by several Qi Condensation high-level demonic cultivators in the estate of a single demonic family.
“No flying? What are you saying?”
“Hmph. You don’t know the Seong Empire’s laws just because you came here? That’s ridiculous. In every city of the Seong Empire, flying is forbidden to prevent large-scale battles between demonic family disciples.
Since you violated that, you have to pay a fine of one hundred spirit stones right now.”
“…”
I looked at the stern-looking green-skinned man and asked.
“Captain, as far as I know, the place I flew over was slightly outside the estate of the Gui family.
Why do I still have to pay a fine?”
“Hmph! What nonsense. The place you flew over was definitely above the family’s estate.
If you don’t pay the spirit stones, you’ll have to serve life imprisonment inside the family’s own estate prison. That’s what you need to know.”
“What kind of nonsense is this…”
I wasn’t completely ignorant of the Seong Empire’s laws.
I had visited the Seong Empire in my previous life.
There were flying restrictions, but the place I had flown over was slightly outside the boundary of a restricted area.
Yet this green-skinned man was using the fact that I was a foreign “insect” to arbitrarily fine me.
“I don’t even have a single spirit stone on me…”
More importantly, I didn’t even carry the usual spirit stone storage pouch.
What should I do?
After thinking for a moment, I asked him.
“If I can’t pay immediately, but can deposit it in front of my family, is that possible?”
“Family?”
The green-skinned man and the other demonic cultivators looked at each other.
“It’s not an insect, is it?”
“No. I am someone with a family.”
“Hmph. Which family?”
I grinned and introduced my “family.”
“The Makri family.”
At my words, silence fell over the group.
“…What kind of nonsense… Are all the disciples of the Makri family wearing green robes?”
“Well, I couldn’t help it since I came to the Seong Empire secretly.”
“Secretly? What business did the Makri family have that required them to come to the Seong Empire without telling anyone?”
“I can’t say. It’s a family secret.”
“This guy is getting more suspicious by the second. He’s even pretending to be a Makri family member…”
“Pretending?”
I smirked.
“You call this pretending?”
Ku-kugugugugu!
I activated Hofung Eungryon and drew in the wind.
“I am the Elder of the Makri family—Makri Hyeon! No one may block my path!”
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The whirlwind swept around and hurled the green-skinned demonic cultivators away.
“Stop him! He’s attacking us!”
“That’s definitely Makri family magic!”
“The Makri family is attacking us!”
However, because they were law enforcers of the Seong Empire, they endured the wind of Hofung Eungryon with their high-level Qi Condensation strength and began preparing to counter with other magic arts.
But it was all a bluff.
Buung!
The whirlwind enveloped the area, blocking their vision.
I shot out my Gangwhan from my chest.
The Gangwhan spun, then split into three and rotated above my hand.
“Listen well! I am Makri Hyeon, Elder of the Makri family! No one may block my path!”
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwak!
While dust and wind blocked everyone’s view, the three Gangwhan shot toward the green-skinned demonic cultivators at the speed of lightning.
Kwang! Kwang! Kwa-ahang!
I shattered their defensive magic and inner energy, delivering a powerful shock to the demonic cultivators.
“Kwaaaah…!”
“T-that power…”
“Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator level… T-the Elder!”
One green-skinned demonic cultivator hurriedly poured law power into a talisman.
Pointing at the sound-transmitting talisman, he shouted with a pale face.
“The Foundation Establishment Elder of the Makri family has infiltrated the Seong Empire by crossing the border! The Makri family of the Yeon Kingdom has violated the pact!!”
Kwa-aah!
I used the wind to scatter the demonic cultivators and flew quickly toward the Daesan Mountains in the west.
“Pact violation! The demonic families ruling the Seong Empire will officially protest the Makri family!!”
“Protest if you want.”
I left the green-skinned demonic cultivators shouting behind me and continued flying through the air.
The Daesan Mountains were coming up soon.
If I entered there, they would never catch me easily.
Protesting to the Makri family was not my concern.
Paaaah!
Paaah, paaah
Since the sound-transmitting talisman’s effect had taken hold, green light rays appeared below and began chasing me.
The demonic cultivators of that family.
They were forcing me downward and forming an eerie array.
Looking at the array’s formation, it was not an ordinary array.
“An array for Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators?”
I had borrowed the realm of Deungbongjogeuk to pretend to be Foundation Establishment, but if I got caught at Qi Condensation peak, it would be troublesome.
“I can’t get caught.”
Uuuung!
A Gangwhan shot out from my chest.
The Gangwhan split into three and then was absorbed back by me.
“Triple acceleration.”
Paaaaah!
My consciousness area, transformed into the form of a sea dragon, radiated an even stronger sea-dragon-like aura.
At the same time, the wind of Hofung Eungryon grew fiercer.
Paaaaah!
I wrapped myself in even stronger wind and flew even faster toward the Daesan Mountains.
I had already left the range of the array formed by the Qi Condensation demonic cultivators.
“Is that the Daesan Mountains ahead?”
I looked at the scenery of the Daesan Mountains and began preparing to slow down.
At that moment…
Ku-kugugugugu!
A terrifying aura came from behind.
“That’s…”
Goosebumps ran down my arms and legs.
Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator.
Even though it was still far away, in the shape of a point, I knew how quickly it was approaching.
“Tsk, I have to make a move.”
Ku-kugugugugu!
I increased my wind speed.
The whirlwind that enveloped me grew larger, revealing its immense size that connected heaven and earth for a moment.
Ju-reuk―
Blood flowed from the corner of my mouth.
But I ignored it and expanded Hofung Eungryon even further.
A whirlwind of Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator level!
A massive dragon’s roar sucked in the surrounding dust and turned the surroundings pitch black.
Pu-fak!
I slipped outside the dragon’s roar and formed a sword seal.
“Haap!”
Ku-kugugugugu!
The whirlwind moved.
The ash-colored whirlwind shot toward the Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator and the green-skinned demonic cultivator chasing me.
I saw the Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator hurriedly drawing out a magic art to respond in panic.
I wiped the blood from my mouth and focused my consciousness.
I was forcing law power too hard at the Qi Condensation peak level.
This attack could only be used once, and if I used Gangwhan, Kim Young-hoon—who was active in the Yeon Kingdom—might get framed.
So I would disrupt them with this attack and escape.
Shuk!
My sword severed the air and cut through their awareness.
My consciousness was concealed by the Eonsiksul.
Paaaaah!
I quickly fell below the Daesan Mountains and formed a mud concealment seal.
“Jiwol Ipdogyeol!”
Ku-kuk!
The ground opened toward me.
I used the earth escape technique and dropped below the ground beneath the Daesan Mountains.
The earth’s spiritual energy flowing through the Daesan Mountains would greatly amplify my earth escape technique.
Also…
“Kwaak! You Makri family bastards! Everyone, pursue him! If it’s a Makri family member, they’ll have fled to the sky!”
That preconception of theirs toward the Makri family did not work on me, who was hiding underground.
I hid underground, smashed my own whirlwind, and watched the green-skinned Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator flying toward the wrong sky while wiping the remaining blood from my mouth.
“…Now, I’ll go search for the records of the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect.”
***
A few months later.
On the Shattered Heaven Peak in the Daesan Mountains, I found the archive that still contained records of the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect that Geum Byeok-ho had mentioned.
Indeed, what was the relationship between the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect and the Ascension Gate?
Kki-ik―
I opened the door of the archive and entered.