The Seven-Colored Treasure Pagoda (6)
Meanwhile, most of those who had entered the Seven-Colored Treasure Pagoda still had not escaped the first floor.
There were many reasons for it. To begin with, almost no one could use their spiritual power as freely and comfortably as Jin Somyeong. Their flight speed slowed accordingly, and if they were unfortunate enough to be drawn into even a single battle, they had to spend days on end struggling to recover their spiritual power.
A month had passed since the Seven-Colored Treasure Pagoda opened. By now, only a tiny handful of cultivators had entered the second floor of the Secret Realm. They were either extraordinarily skilled, extraordinarily lucky, or had come thoroughly prepared because they knew the pagoda well.
If it was none of those things...
Then they were, conversely, terribly unlucky. Entering the second floor of the Secret Realm was not always a blessing.
Amid such circumstances, there was one woman who had entered the second floor through a string of coincidences. Her name was Ryeo Jeong, though others called her Madam Ryeo.
Flying through the sky with exhaustion written across her face, she suddenly frowned.
Crack.
The high-grade Spirit Stones she held in both hands had crumbled into powder.
Already?
With a sigh, she took out fresh Spirit Stones and restored her spiritual power. Ever since entering the Seven-Colored Treasure Pagoda, she had barely rested, let alone slept. Absorbing Spirit Stones while flying was draining, but she had no choice. If she did not recover her spiritual power whenever she could, she would be helpless should an enemy appear.
After flying for a long while, she discovered a restriction.
What might she gain if she broke it? An instinctive craving surged up within her, but she soon shook her head.
No. The Myriad Soul Tree Fruit comes first.
What she sought in this Secret Realm was not a rise in cultivation. It was a medicine capable of healing a broken mind. Only with the Myriad Soul Tree Fruit could she save her lord—no, the child she had raised like a daughter.
Ryeo Jeong herself did not realize it, but if that had not been her purpose, she would never have reached the second floor so quickly. Every time she encountered a restriction, greed would have seized her.
Forcing herself to look away from the restriction, she was pressing straight toward the third floor when—
"Fairy. Where are you hurrying off to? Why not stop and have a conversation with me?"
Boom!
Along with a resounding voice, an enormous iron staff stabbed vertically into the ground directly in front of her. It was so impossibly heavy that the mere impact of it striking earth sent shockwaves howling in every direction, and the vibration thrumming from the quivering staff made her stomach churn.
Urgh...
She forced down the urge to vomit and hurriedly retreated. A dreadful chill crawled up her spine, because she could sense no spiritual power from the iron staff blocking her path.
Her eyes shook as she stared at the devastated earth.
That wasn't a spell?
Could he truly have displayed such destructive force simply by throwing a heavy object?
A bead of cold sweat slid down the nape of her neck. Then—
Thud!
A man landed atop the enormous iron staff, which looked more like a city wall than a weapon. He was a giant, nearly nine feet tall, and his bulging muscles looked as though they might burst through his clothes at any moment.
The blood vitality and spiritual power pouring from his entire body left her breathless. He made no attempt to hide it, flaunting his domineering aura openly—a clear sign that he cultivated both body and energy.
Law-Body Dual Cultivation... and Late Core Formation.
He was an overwhelmingly powerful opponent, one she could not possibly stand against. She barely swallowed the groan threatening to escape her throat.
The man who had hurled the iron staff and blocked her path spoke with a smile.
"I am Wi Munseok, Grand Elder of the Yongsang Demonic Palace."
"...I am called Madam Ryeo."
Wi Munseok's tone was polite and amiable, but the more courteous he sounded, the more certain she became that she had run into the wrong person.
Ryeo Jeong answered as respectfully as possible while using her Divine Sense to inspect her surroundings.
Ah...
She had hoped to find some way—any way—to escape this situation, but all that rose within her was despair. Two more figures had appeared behind her before she knew it, blocking her retreat.
They kept just enough distance between one another as they encircled her with practiced ease. This was not something they had done only once or twice.
Wi Munseok narrowed his eyes, watching Ryeo Jeong's reaction, then said, "Madam. It seems you are unfamiliar with the Yongsang Demonic Palace. Am I correct?"
"My apologies. My experience is shallow, and I have never heard of it."
"There is no need to apologize. If we are from different continents, you might not know."
It was a terribly arrogant thing to say, because it carried the certainty that if they had moved in the same region, she could not possibly have been ignorant of the Yongsang Demonic Palace.
"By the way, madam, judging by how full of life you are, you seem still quite young. Have you already found a Dao companion?"
The way his gaze roamed over her, as though licking her from head to toe, sent a shudder through her.
In truth, she introduced herself as Madam Ryeo precisely to avoid situations like this. Unless a man was especially wicked, he usually would not target a woman who had already married.
"There was a bond of fate."
She could not even show her displeasure and tried to let the matter pass vaguely, but Wi Munseok was persistent.
"A bond of fate. How fine. But where is your husband? If you were separated by accident, I will help you find him."
"That is..."
"Introduce me. Since we have met like this, it too is fate. I would like to build a friendship with your husband as well."
How could she produce a husband who did not exist?
As Ryeo Jeong fell silent, having no words left, Wi Munseok's gaze gradually turned cold. He had deliberately changed his tone and acted rudely, and when she did not get angry, he judged her to be someone of no consequence.
"Before I become discourteous, let me ask. Do you have any skill worth boasting of? If it is useful in the Secret Realm, I will treat you well."
Speaking as if making a threat, Wi Munseok reached out. The iron staff that had stood like a fortress wall rapidly shrank. It compressed to roughly the size of a building pillar, but in the hand of a nine-foot giant, it looked like an ordinary long staff.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The staff swung as lightly as a wooden stick, yet each movement sent heavy waves of force rolling out.
Faced with such an obvious threat, Madam Ryeo broke into a cold sweat and only barely managed to answer.
"...I have studied formations."
"Oh? Then you must be good at breaking restrictions. Excellent. I will take you as a subordinate, so follow me."
He did not seem to consider the possibility that she might refuse. With no choice, she followed Wi Munseok as he flew ahead.
The two Core Formation cultivators who had surrounded her from behind glared at her. They too were Law-Body Dual Cultivators, just like Wi Munseok. Their cultivation was the same as hers, the third layer of Core Formation, but cultivators who trained in body refinement possessed terrifying combat strength. She could not handle even one of them.
It seemed the Yongsang Demonic Palace was a sect that trained in a Law-Body Dual Cultivation art.
Haa...
With the situation growing worse by the moment, she sighed inwardly and followed Wi Munseok. Before long, a restriction appeared.
Two men sitting listlessly before the restriction sprang to their feet and greeted him.
"You have arrived."
Though they were Core Formation cultivators in name, both wore expressions as if they had swallowed something foul. No matter how one looked at them, they seemed like people who had been captured and forced into labor.
After smashing through restrictions and devoting himself to cultivation, Jin Somyeong had reached the third layer of Core Formation. He clenched his fist.
Only one month had passed since he entered the Seven-Colored Treasure Pagoda, yet his cultivation had already risen. Just looking at his Boundless Great Ability, which had increased to 200,000, made him feel full even without eating.
As expected, dangerous or not, a Secret Realm is still a Secret Realm. The speed of cultivation advancement is ridiculously fast.
If a full year passed like this? Reaching Mid Core Formation was a given, and with enough luck, he might even aim for the late stage.
It was a cultivation speed incomparable to the outside world. There was a reason people risked their lives to come here.
While savoring the feeling of his increased strength, Jin Somyeong closed his eyes.
Crackle...
After fully reining in the unstable lightning qi stirred up by his breakthrough, he carefully inspected the interior of the restriction that had just benefited him.
The spiritual energy he encountered after breaking restrictions on the second floor of the Secret Realm exceeded his imagination. Compared to the first floor, it was nearly twice as dense.
If he advanced to the next level, the concentration of spiritual energy would become even higher. He was already looking forward to it.
By the way, what was this spiritual herb called again... White Jade Immortal Heart Grass?
Precious spiritual herbs were scattered carelessly inside the restriction, and this one was a high-grade third realm spiritual herb especially effective against heart demons.
What was a heart demon?
Put simply, it was a problem that arose in the mind.
In other words...
Eating the White Jade Immortal Heart Grass he had just discovered might be able to restore a distorted mind.
It feels like being given the disease and the cure at the same time.
If such spiritual herbs existed inside the Secret Realm, then other cultivators also had a chance of breaking free from the influence of the mental restrictions.
The Seven-Colored Treasure Pagoda stirred people's desires with mental restrictions while also providing spiritual herbs that could heal them. It was almost as if the pagoda wanted people to die only in moderation. Like it was carefully adjusting the difficulty.
Is it afraid no one will come if too many die?
Tap, tap.
Instead of tapping his sword out of habit, he checked the Clear Heart Fiery Scripture Beads. As he toyed with the reddish-brown prayer beads, his mind grew calm.
They're cold.
After confirming that his mind was sound, he swept up all the spiritual herbs scattered around him. Then he immediately flew into the sky.
He was heading for the third floor of the Secret Realm, flying straight toward the distant stone pagoda. Along the way, he encountered restrictions several times, but he ignored them all.
This is bearable.
It was different from the time when, for a whole month, he had been exposed defenselessly to the mental restrictions without knowing anything. Each time the prayer beads emitted heat, he raised his guard sharply. He steadied his will as if cutting away the desire blooming in his heart.
It was not easy. At first, there were times when he found himself unconsciously drawing closer to a restriction.
But as time passed, such moments became rarer. Should he say his will had grown firmer? Each successful resistance against a restriction seemed to grant him a degree of tolerance.
Striving to maintain a calm state of mind, he proceeded toward the stone pagoda as if training. Then—
Booooom!
A thunderous explosion struck his ears. Someone up ahead was breaking a restriction.
So there were cultivators who got ahead of me.
After a moment's thought, he realized there was nothing strange about it. Jin Somyeong had broken ten restrictions so far and had even spent time cultivating. If someone had ignored the restrictions and flown straight ahead, it was only natural they would be faster.
What should I do...
Jin Somyeong toyed with the prayer beads, which had begun giving off a faint warmth, and cut away the desire rising in his heart.
It would have been ideal to hide, wait until the restriction was nearly broken, and then ambush them. But he had no intention of doing so. Regardless of profit or loss, this was a matter of pride. He had no desire whatsoever to be manipulated by the mental restrictions and move like a puppet.
I'll just circle around from a distance.
He did not know who was breaking the restriction, but he had no intention of interfering. While estimating the direction of the stone pagoda and making a wide detour, he casually glanced at the restriction out of simple curiosity—then was startled.
Madam Ryeo?
For someone of her ability to have already reached the second floor was strange enough, but she also had six companions with her.
The more carefully he observed them, the more bizarre the scene became. The three large men merely watched from behind with their arms crossed, while the other three—including Madam Ryeo—were breaking the restriction with dark expressions.
The sight was oddly similar to Jin Somyeong controlling clones.
What kind of situation is this now?
He was slowly flying closer while maintaining his concealment technique when one of the three standing in the back with crossed arms—the muscular giant who looked strongest at a glance—met his eyes.
...He's rather sharp.
The distance between Jin Somyeong and the giant was currently around two kilometers.
That was quite far to notice someone in concealment. Especially in a Secret Realm where Divine Sense was restricted.
"Everyone, stop. An honored guest has arrived."
The moment the giant spoke in a voice infused with spiritual power, the three people breaking the restriction froze. Six gazes snapped toward Jin Somyeong.
As he observed them one by one, his eyes naturally met Madam Ryeo's. Her face was expressionless, but her pupils moved faintly from side to side.
It was almost like a warning, as though she were shaking her head.
Hmm...
Jin Somyeong was stroking his chin and thinking when the three-meter-tall giant smiled broadly and beckoned.
"Fellow Daoist. Why not come over and have a chat? We are in a Secret Realm, yes, but that does not mean we must fight, does it?"
Contrary to his rugged appearance, his tone was kind.
If there had been no familiar face among them, Jin Somyeong would have simply ignored him and left. But curiosity caught him by the ankle.
After a brief moment of consideration, he made his decision.
"A chat... Very well."
"Oh, how magnanimous. I am Wi Munseok, Grand Elder of the Yongsang Demonic Palace."
The moment the distance narrowed enough for their Divine Sense to reach one another, Madam Ryeo's sound transmission shot toward him.
Run at once! That man, Wi Munseok, is a Late Core Formation cultivator who has also mastered body refinement. He is a Law-Body Dual Cultivator!
Jin Somyeong paused and examined the giant with his Divine Sense.
At the words Law-Body Dual Cultivator, interest and competitive spirit rose within him. If this was a Late Core Formation cultivator who trained both body and energy, then aside from Nascent Soul cultivators, he would be the strongest cultivator Jin Somyeong had encountered so far.