Dream of Truth Realm
When Jin Somyeong arrived at the teleportation formation marked on the map, he found a two-story building standing in the middle of the snowy mountains.
He released his Divine Sense and peered inside. Two hairy figures—no, two Golden Core cultivators bundled in three layers of thick fur clothing—were shivering uncontrollably.
"Ugh... No matter how many times I endure it, I never get used to the cold of the Absolute Cold Ice Prison. It's too damn vicious."
"Bear with it a little longer. The sect master is looking for a suitable spirit vein, isn't he? Once we establish ourselves in Jungju, we won't have to stand guard here anymore."
"Haa. I wonder when Fairy Jang will return."
"Who knows... Even if she's late, she should be back within a month or two."
"True. Even if heaven's fortune helped her reach the Nascent Soul stage, it won't be easy for her to endure the Absolute Cold Ice Prison for long."
Perhaps they were chattering so earnestly to stave off boredom and cold, but both men suddenly flinched.
Jin Somyeong had appeared like a ghost. Startled out of their wits, the two Golden Core cultivators bowed at the waist as if competing to be first.
"Greetings, Senior!"
Despite the brutal cold, Jin Somyeong wore only a single thin martial robe. He nodded in acknowledgment.
"Are you disciples of the Snowfall Sect?"
"Yes, Senior. Do you require assistance? Give the order, and we will obey."
"I heard this teleportation formation is connected to Changwon City in Jungju. Is that correct?"
"Yes. The usual fee to use the formation is one thousand supreme-grade Spirit Stones, but... if it does not offend you, Senior, we will accept only eight hundred."
"No need. I will pay the proper price. Activate it."
"Understood!"
Perhaps because this was a remote place where no one would ever know if someone died, the Golden Core cultivators were extremely obedient. They did not even check Jin Somyeong's name before silently activating the teleportation formation. In a place like this, strength itself was status.
Flash—!
The moment Jin Somyeong vanished in the light bursting from the formation, the Golden Core cultivators—who had been so tense they could hardly breathe—finally relaxed.
"Haa... A Nascent Soul senior appearing out of nowhere. I thought my heart was going to drop out of my chest."
"You and me both. But how did he get all the way here? There shouldn't be any other teleportation formations nearby."
"Don't tell me he flew here himself without using a formation?"
"Come on, surely not. Even a Nascent Soul senior couldn't last long in the Absolute Cold Ice Prison."
They wondered about Jin Somyeong for a short while, but soon moved on to another topic. If one wished to survive long in the cultivation world, it was best not to talk too much about one's seniors.
Changwon City, northern Jungju.
It was a city built in a basin surrounded by several mountain ranges. Upon arriving there, Jin Somyeong first secured lodging.
Now I can finally live again.
As he immersed himself in hot spring water boiled to a vigorous heat by the Extreme Yang Divine Radiance, the fatigue drained from his body in one long rush. Even while he was in the Absolute Cold Ice Prison, he had occasionally heated water and bathed, but it had never felt like this. The place had been so cold that the water cooled almost immediately, and even when he sat in hot water, the chill seeped in until he could never truly rest.
It felt like it grew colder and colder the longer I stayed.
One of the reasons he had hurried to Jungju was because he felt that if he remained in the Absolute Cold Ice Prison too long, something in his body might go wrong.
After savoring his first proper rest in ages until his entire body went languid, Jin Somyeong crossed his legs in the water.
Crackle...
He stirred his lightning qi and began driving out the cold that had accumulated in his dantian and meridians over the past five years. As the chill leaked from his body, the bath that had been boiling moments earlier froze solid in an instant, but Jin Somyeong did not stop.
Stubborn, isn't it...
The cold lodged between his meridians was relatively easy to deal with, but the chill hiding deep within his dantian was another matter. The Five Elements Divine Lightning he possessed now was powerful enough to reduce most Nascent Soul cultivators to ash in a single breath, yet this cold resisted even that lightning qi. It was almost absurd.
At this point, it's practically poison.
He could understand why the Absolute Cold Ice Prison was counted among the Ten Great Forbidden Areas. Of course, now that he had already left, it was not a serious problem. It was not an energy being controlled by someone's malice, either; as long as he had time, he could resolve it.
A month should be enough.
After checking the state of his body, Jin Somyeong closed his eyes again. While using his lightning qi to melt the cold, he also released his clones.
Go around and buy some medicinal pills. Gather information as well.
The clones, whose number had at some point surpassed twenty, scattered throughout Changwon City. They visited large shops and merchant companies, purchasing medicinal pills in bulk.
In truth, Changwon City was a rather remote place when considering Jungju as a whole, so he had worried there might be a shortage of pills. Fortunately, that was not the case.
Is it because it's connected to other cities by teleportation formations?
Perhaps because its transportation routes were open, the market was fairly large. After having his clones buy enough medicinal pills for twenty years, he spent the remaining Spirit Stones entirely on ingredients for Grand Purity Spirit Milk.
Grand Purity Spirit Milk was the spiritual medicine he had obtained from Mok Ryujin, the young master of the Mok Clan, and it could be made using the fourth-grade spirit treasure, the Eight Trigrams Furnace of Creation. It required far more ingredients than ordinary cultivation pills, but in return, it allowed one to accumulate magical power at remarkable speed.
Grand Purity Spirit Milk, hot spring water, the Jade Marrow Coral he had planted in the Mental Secret Realm, and more—Jin Somyeong was making plans for his future cultivation while recalling the various items that could accelerate his progress when he suddenly paused.
The lotus I obtained is called Red Dust Heart Lotus?
A rumor had already spread throughout Jungju that Jin Somyeong had obtained the Deity Transformation spiritual object known as the Red Dust Heart Lotus.
Red dust.
A phrase referring to the troublesome, vulgar mortal world.
When he thought of the lotus that stirred worldly anxieties merely by being seen, the name Red Dust Heart Lotus fit perfectly. There was a high chance this rumor contained accurate information.
Well, now. To think I'd learn the lotus's name this way.
It was a somewhat ridiculous method, but thanks to the rumors, he had gained information about the fifth-grade spiritual herb.
Now that I know its name, I should be able to find out how to take it.
One month later.
While Jin Somyeong dealt with the cold accumulated in his dantian, his diligent clones investigated the major events that had taken place in Jungju. They brought back many interesting pieces of news.
"There was even a battle inside a city."
"A Nascent Soul cultivator fought inside a city?"
That was a violation of an unspoken rule. When powerhouses on the level of Nascent Soul cultivators fought, the surroundings were devastated. If a city collapsed, it was no different from destroying a foundation that continuously produced cultivation resources. No one wanted such a disaster, and so the rule had naturally formed.
"The battle that took place three years ago completely destroyed Yuhwa Immortal City. Truly countless people died unjust deaths."
"Huh."
Had public order collapsed so badly that battles were breaking out within cities?
"Of course, it did not end well. True Man Baekryang, who seized Yuhwa Immortal City through a surprise attack, was attacked jointly by the cultivators who occupied the surrounding cities, and even his Nascent Soul was annihilated."
After that, cases of battles occurring inside cities had nearly disappeared.
As Jin Somyeong pieced together the various reports, he nodded.
Since things have turned out this way, maybe I should obtain a decent spirit vein of my own.
There was no need to seize one by force. He only had to choose an unoccupied place he liked, occupy it, and declare it his land. Competitors who had been eyeing the spirit vein while gauging the situation would challenge him, but he could simply accept those challenges.
As his realm rose, the number of beings who could threaten him had truly become very small. Even if one considered the cultivation world as a whole, that remained true.
Even if a Deity Transformation cultivator comes, I should at least be able to escape.
The most precious resource to Jin Somyeong now was time. Every time his realm advanced by one stage, his combat power would increase dramatically. Rather than slowing his cultivation out of excessive caution, it was better to grow quickly.
Good.
He made his decision. Until a problem arose, he would run forward as fast as possible. He would claim a suitable spirit vein, then focus on cultivation.
After the Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art, he also had to fill the proficiency of the Heavenly Thunder Dao Body Art, so he needed a considerable amount of time.
How long will it take to reach the Great Circle of Nascent Soul?
A generous estimate would be one hundred years.
Of course, there were many ways to speed up cultivation, so it probably would not actually take a full century. Jin Somyeong took out a map of Jungju and slowly looked it over. He chose the city he wanted with the feeling of someone browsing a shop.
Byeokhwa City? This place isn't bad.
It possessed a micro-sized fourth-grade high-quality spirit vein. It was called micro-sized, but for one person, the land was more than vast enough. Near the city lay a storm-tossed sea where thunderclouds gathered, as well as a volcanic region, and the surrounding mountain ranges were rich in vegetation, making the area home to countless rogue cultivators and herb gatherers.
It has a large transient population, so trade is active too?
That meant that if he settled in Byeokhwa City, he could receive a steady supply of cultivation pills.
If there was a drawback, it was that because the spirit vein was micro-sized, it could not sustain a sect of hundreds of people.
I'm alone anyway, so that doesn't matter.
In many ways, it suited him perfectly. After carefully weighing the options, Jin Somyeong chose Byeokhwa City and planned a route to get there.
If I just fly there blindly, it'll take too long...
It seemed he would need to use teleportation formations about four times along the way.
Let's leave immediately.
He had completely dealt with the cold accumulated in his dantian over the past month, so there was nothing more holding him back. First, to avoid unnecessary trouble, he activated the Cheonbyeonmanhwagong.
Jin Somyeong had transformed into a young man with no particularly distinguishing features and was just about to leave his lodging when he paused.
Ju Gwang?
A guest had arrived.
It was the rogue cultivator from Mansumaeng who had once come to protect him when Jin Somyeong broke through to the Nascent Soul stage. The red-nosed, drunken old man appeared with a gourd bottle in hand.
"...Fellow Daoist Jin, is that you?"
"It has been a long time."
After a brief moment of thought, Jin Somyeong acknowledged him. He was curious how Ju Gwang, whom he had parted from nearly thirty years ago, had found him here.
"I came half in doubt, but fortunately, it really was you, Fellow Daoist Jin."
"How did you know I was here?"
"Mm. Since you might misunderstand, I'll be honest. First, we believed you were alive. So we investigated the movements of every Nascent Soul cultivator in Jungju and checked, without exception, the cultivators we suspected might be you."
"...Mansumaeng did that?"
"Yes. And several of the merchant companies where you bought medicinal pills are connected to our Mansumaeng, so we were able to respond quickly. Fellow Daoists who buy pills in bulk the way you do are not common."
Jin Somyeong fell silent for a moment as he watched Ju Gwang calmly explain.
Tracking the movements of every Nascent Soul rogue cultivator sounded simple when spoken aloud, but carrying it out was extremely difficult. Just how vast was Jungju? Most forces would be incapable of such a thing even if they wanted to do it.
It seemed Mansumaeng was a far larger organization than Jin Somyeong had vaguely imagined.
Of course, looked at another way, this had been possible because Jin Somyeong had not hidden his identity properly. If he had truly intended to conceal himself, he would never have bought enough pills to reveal his movements in the first place. But doing so would have wasted cultivation time, and he simply had not devoted his attention to such minor worries.
"Ahem. If this displeased you, I apologize. But there was something I absolutely had to tell you, so I had no choice."
"What is it?"
Ju Gwang released his magical power to create a simple barrier, then spoke as though whispering a secret.
"Our Mansumaeng discovered this only after great difficulty: you are currently being tracked by Seongdo."
"Seongdo?"
He had recently been the target of divination. Could that have been Seongdo's doing?
Is it because of the Deity Transformation spiritual object I obtained in Paeseongdojang? Or were the people chasing me from long ago connected to Seongdo?
Several possibilities flashed through his mind. Just as his eyes narrowed, Ju Gwang continued.
"So avoid using teleportation formations whenever possible. The first one or two times might be fine, but if you keep riding them, you'll eventually find yourself surrounded by Seongdo."
Jin Somyeong quietly regarded Ju Gwang, who offered the advice as though out of pure goodwill, then nodded.
"Thank you for telling me. But did you truly come looking for me just because of that?"
Mansumaeng was not some idle charity organization. There was no way that was all. When Jin Somyeong stared at him, Ju Gwang coughed awkwardly.
"Ahem. How about going to a secret realm with me? If it's a secret realm, you can avoid Seongdo's eyes and cultivate there."
Paeseongdojang had become impossible to enter for a long time because the poison had completely spread through it, but several other secret realms were still accessible.
"A secret realm... That is not a bad method. I will think it over."
When Jin Somyeong responded lukewarmly, Ju Gwang sighed and spoke as though admitting defeat.
"Haa. The truth is, I came because I need your help."
Jin Somyeong listened quietly, thinking Ju Gwang was finally revealing his true intentions.
"Do you remember the name Hong Seol?"
"...Hong Seol?"
It was an unexpected name.
He did not reveal it carelessly, but of course he remembered. In the past, when he had only just reached Foundation Establishment, he had once been pursued by the Cheonsi Sect, a demonic sect that controlled jiangshi. At that time, a sword cultivator had appeared from the Boundless Divine Sword and helped him. That had been Hong Seol.
She had also once taught him while in the form of a sword and helped him awaken Sword Qi, so he had inwardly regarded her as his master. To hear the name of someone he had not received news of in so long, and here of all places...
"Fellow Daoist Hong belongs to our Mansumaeng. She entered a secret realm to overcome a bottleneck in her cultivation, but she still hasn't come out. The time she promised has long since passed, so it is almost certain that something has gone wrong."
"...What is the name of the secret realm?"
"Hwanmongjingyeong. The Dream of Truth Realm. It is said to be a world born from the dream of a True Immortal."
At the same time, in Seongdo.
Yeomurin, who had been meditating atop a mountain peak flowing with sacred energy, twitched one eyebrow.
"Commander. We have found someone believed to be Jin Somyeong."
At his subordinate's report, Yeomurin remained silent for quite some time before turning his gaze. Looking up at the wide-open sky, he let out a sigh.
"Of all places, he appears in the area under my charge..."