The Purpose of Seongdo
Half a month later.
Jin Somyeong stroked his chin as he explored the Dream of Truth Realm.
First of all, it seemed certain that consuming the Boundless Great Ability increased the odds of seeing the memory he wanted. Over the past fifteen days, he had examined five more points of starlight. Three of them had been chosen more or less at random because he lacked enough Boundless Great Ability, and as expected, the memories they revealed were useless.
By contrast, the two he had observed after expending the Boundless Great Ability had been quite interesting.
"How dare you practice forbidden arts!"
One memory showed a cultivator from Seongdo cutting down a madman who had lost all reason and gone berserk.
"Hoh! How truly fascinating. No matter how I look at it, you have an Earth-grade Spiritual Root, yet your cultivation is faster than someone with a Heaven Spiritual Root."
"Is that bad?"
"Hmm... I see no particular problem. It seems, Seol, that you possess an extraordinary aptitude for learning sword arts."
Through another point of starlight, he watched Hong Seol adapt to Seongdo and grow into a proper sword cultivator.
She was born to wield a sword.
A little girl who had known nothing of cultivation entered Qi Refining within a month of coming to Seongdo, and before long she even manifested Sword Qi. In every other regard she was ordinary, or perhaps even below average, but when it came to the sword, her talent was overwhelming.
Even prodigies who strutted about as if they owned the world could not hold their heads high before her blade. Watching her grow at such a tremendous pace left only awe in his heart.
Time passed, until at last no one at the same realm could defeat her. By then, the old man who had brought Hong Seol to Seongdo—Unhogeom, her master—could no longer keep the smile from his lips.
He doted on the treasure he had gained in his twilight years, and every other sentence seemed to begin with "our Seol."
"Haha! Our Seol will one day become a unit commander and a pillar supporting Seongdo."
"Surely you aren't aiming for the next Shinmokjiju as well?"
"Ahem. If it's our Seol, why should that be impossible?"
"...That would be difficult, wouldn't it? I admit Junior Hong Seol's aptitude is exceptional, but she was not born in Seongdo."
"What does her origin matter? The Shinmokjiju is simply the strongest person in Seongdo!"
"No, why are you getting angry? I merely stated a well-known fact."
"You damned fool...! Stop spouting nonsense and get out of my sight!"
"Honestly, the moment your disciple comes up, you lose your senses. Don't grow too attached. Who can know the heart of another? If you are betrayed later..."
"Hmph! Your son lost to Seol in a spar not long ago, didn't he? That's why you're acting like this. How petty!"
"No, I was only offering advice. Why bring that up now?"
Perhaps it was jealousy of her overwhelming talent, but negative talk about Hong Seol did surface from time to time. Unhogeom, however, never wavered. He taught the disciple he had gained in old age with all his heart and poured Seongdo's abundant resources into her.
Was it because of that? Hong Seol grew truly fast. By the time Jin Somyeong had watched roughly ten more memories, she had already reached the Nascent Soul stage.
And there was more. As he repeatedly encountered memories related to Seongdo, he naturally came to understand what kind of organization they were.
They are obsessively fixated on erasing traces of the Upper Realm.
This cultivation world, which Seongdo called the lower realm—or the Human Realm—did not have a fixed size. Like the universe, it expanded endlessly, because objects from outside would occasionally drift in through spatial fissures scattered throughout the world.
Most were useless things, but treasures with special effects appeared as well, and at times even fragments of entire worlds flowed in intact.
Those are usually called secret realms.
And very rarely, items from the Upper Realm, cultivation methods, or even living, breathing beings would drift in. The chief duty of Seongdo's cultivators was to deal with these external objects.
Their method was...
To burn them away until not a single trace remained.
It was a task Seongdo had carried out since its founding, from an age so ancient it was hard to fathom, but not everyone accepted it without question.
One day, after returning from a mission to erase traces of the Upper Realm, Hong Seol asked her master a question.
"Master. Why is Seongdo so wary of any connection to the Upper Realm?"
"Hm?"
"If we actively used the treasures from the Upper Realm, wouldn't they greatly aid our cultivation?"
"..."
"And if we seek realms beyond Deity Transformation, won't we have to ascend to the Upper Realm eventually?"
Hong Seol's purpose in cultivation had remained the same from beginning to end: to reach the omnipotent realm beyond the heavens and revive her family. For that reason, she could not stop in the Human Realm.
After a long silence, Unhogeom sighed.
"Seol, you are no longer a child, so I will speak plainly. Even if you ascend to the Upper Realm, the chances of you becoming a True Immortal are slim. No—calling it impossible would scarcely be an exaggeration."
"..."
"Here in this lower realm—no, in the Human Realm—our human race holds supremacy, so it may be difficult to imagine. But in the Upper Realm, humanity is unquestionably a weak race."
Hong Seol frowned and asked in return, "Do you mean that even if I ascend, it will be difficult to endure the oppression of other races?"
"Yes. If you are content with a moderate end, that may be one thing. But if you wish to advance toward True Immortal, you will face truly countless forms of resistance."
As Hong Seol sank into thought, Unhogeom, who seemed worried that he had upset her, continued.
"Most of the other races occasionally discovered in the Human Realm can be considered drifters. They were merely swept up in spatial fissures and happened to fall here. Yet are they not still so powerful?"
"...Even so, I don't understand. What meaning is there in shutting ourselves inside the Human Realm and merely enduring? If we want to win in the end, don't we have to climb to the Upper Realm and raise our cultivation?"
Unhogeom sighed as though he understood all of that perfectly well.
"The most important point lies elsewhere. The moment even a single person ascends to the Upper Realm, our connection to the Upper Realm can never again be severed."
"Not even one person?"
"We are already incredibly close to the Upper Realm."
He went on to explain that, due to several incidents in the past, they had already reached the limit.
Hong Seol's expression darkened. She could see all too clearly what kind of future would unfold.
"If the Upper Realm learns the Human Realm's precise location, this place will become a battlefield. Countless lives will perish beneath the endless tide of other races."
After a moment's hesitation, Hong Seol said, "I heard the Upper Realm is far richer in cultivation resources than this place. Would they really bother descending all the way here?"
"Even the Upper Realm cannot be abundant everywhere. The losers pushed out of the competition there will covet this place, and even that alone would be more than we could bear."
"...But perhaps we could overcome it. We might develop more quickly by accepting the Upper Realm's cultivation methods and treasures."
"You would have us compete formally with the other races of the Upper Realm? That would be difficult."
"How can you state that so firmly? The human race I know is not so weak."
Unhogeom slowly closed his eyes and gave a weary sigh.
"I know humanity's potential as well. But our starting point is different. The cultivation history of our human race is too short. It has only been three hundred thousand years."
"What?"
"Does three hundred thousand years sound long to you?"
"...Is it not?"
"In the Upper Realm, powerful races with histories of several million years—even ten million years—are everywhere. Regrettably, the difference in overall strength is absolute."
He was not speaking simply of innate strength or weakness. He was speaking of accumulated time.
A civilization that had only just begun to stir against civilizations that had developed since ages long past. It was obvious who would prevail.
After falling silent before that bleak truth, Hong Seol voiced the question that crossed her mind.
"Where did that information come from? To begin with, we have never been to the Upper Realm."
Perhaps, if they actually ascended, the human race might be living there just fine. Her question carried that doubt, but the answer she received was full of certainty.
"It is a synthesis of the records Seongdo has preserved and the words spoken by Cheonzon."
"If he deceived us..."
"Enough! What irreverence. Cheonzon cares for the human race more than anyone. He keeps himself far from every pleasure and devotes himself solely to watching over humanity."
"...I understand."
After that day, Hong Seol silently focused on her missions.
She continued until she reached the late Nascent Soul stage and rose to the position of unit commander, a role regarded as important even within Seongdo.
A lively celebration was held. Most of the Nascent Soul cultivators in Seongdo flocked there and offered gifts.
"Fellow Daoist Hong. Congratulations on becoming commander of the Demon-Extermination Unit. The youngest unit commander in history, aren't you?"
"Thank you."
"To be honest, with your ability, it would not have been strange if you had become a commander long ago. I'm glad it happened now, at least."
For once, Hong Seol also forgot her worries and exchanged greetings with colleagues she had long been close to.
Everyone was laughing joyfully at the rare good news—until that moment.
"...!"
"We greet Cheonzon!"
Everyone was startled by the sudden appearance of a single man, as though he had teleported into the hall.
Though he was well over two thousand years old, Cheonzon still looked like a young man. Everyone bowed at the waist before him.
"All of you, rise. I heard a new unit commander had been chosen for the first time in two hundred years, so I only stopped by for a moment."
With a faint smile on his lips, Cheonzon's gaze turned to Hong Seol.
"Now that you have become a unit commander, I shall grant you a cultivation method suited to—hm?"
Cheonzon stared at Hong Seol, who stood stiffly as if overcome by nerves, then narrowed his eyes.
"You... are not a pure human."
"Pardon?"
"A half-blood of the Giryung Race, are you? The blood is faint, but certain. I had expectations after hearing of your exceptional aptitude. What a pity."
The Giryung Race could be described as dharma artifacts that had come to possess emotions like people. It was a race chiefly born from high-grade artifacts that had developed a self and could move independently.
As everyone reeled in shock, Hong Seol herself was more bewildered than anyone. This was the first time in her life she had learned that she was a half-blood of the Giryung Race.
"The Giryung Race has comparatively good relations with our human race, but another race is still another race."
Before the stunned Hong Seol could say anything in reply, the smile vanished completely from Cheonzon's face, and he spoke in an emotionless tone.
"Seongdo exists solely for the human race. We cannot accept a half-blood. Leave."
Hong Seol stood as if her soul had left her body, staring blankly into empty air.
"I'm a half-blood of the Giryung Race...?"
With a single word from Cheonzon, she had been expelled from Seongdo, the place where she had spent her entire life.
She did not know where she should go. It felt as though she had lost something precious beyond words.
She stood endlessly in the wasteland outside the formation protecting Seongdo. Then—
"Hong Seol. This is nothing personal."
At some point, several Peak Nascent Soul experts had appeared and surrounded her.
"Leave behind what you received from Seongdo."
At that voice, cold and full of killing intent, focus returned to Hong Seol's empty pupils.
What she had received from Seongdo?
How was she supposed to leave that behind...?
There was no time to ask.
Shweeeek!
The instant she narrowly avoided a flaming bird that shot toward her like a bolt of lightning, dozens of spells followed one after another.
Reflexively, she swung her sword and struck them down, but it was too much. The assault came before she could even recover from the shock in her heart, and her opponents were anything but ordinary to begin with.
When the Peak Nascent Soul experts who could be called Seongdo's finest elites attacked in concert, there was no way she could withstand them.
In the blink of an eye, she was covered in blood.
"Stop!"
Unhogeom. The master who had raised her since she was five years old appeared and overturned the earth.
Boom!
He raised a tidal wave of soil and buried everyone except Hong Seol deep beneath the ground.
"Master...?"
Unhogeom's lips trembled at the sight of Hong Seol drenched in blood. Then he hardened his gaze and shouted furiously.
"What are you doing, standing there like an idiot? Don't say anything useless—just get out of here!"
"..."
"I said go!"
Hong Seol bit her lip and transformed into a streak of silver light, vanishing beyond the horizon.
At the same instant—
Kwang!
The Nascent Soul cultivators buried beneath the soil burst free and fixed Unhogeom with icy stares.
"Unhogeom. What do you think you're doing, shielding another race?"
"Damn it all! Cheonzon told her simply to leave. Who are the likes of you to step forward and punish her?"
"...If our actions had displeased him, he would have stopped us long ago. The fact that he did not means he permitted it."
"Nonsense! Cheonzon's words need only be accepted as they are, yet you people always insist on twisting them however you please!"
The two sides glared at one another, then clashed. Before long, someone collapsed in a pool of blood.
"You grew weak after clinging to affection."
"Let us pursue her at once. Her Nascent Soul was injured, so she cannot have gone far."
It unfolded exactly as predicted.
Before long, the pursuit party caught up to Hong Seol, and she was driven to the brink of death after only a few exchanges.
"I will say it again: this is nothing personal. We simply cannot let you go when you are certain to become a seed of calamity."
The cultivator stepped forward with an expression devoid of emotion, about to take her life.
"What happened to my master?"
"...We did not kill him."
Hong Seol, pale from losing too much blood, nodded as if relieved. Then, with a single slash, she split the void.
"...!"
Before their astonished eyes, Hong Seol's figure vanished beyond space.
"A spatial divine ability?"
"The Giryung Race! It is the power of another race!"
There was no doubt that, amid repeated shocks and the extreme circumstance of having her life threatened, the blood of the Giryung Race within her had awakened.
"Chase her!"
The world itself blurred away on the image of Seongdo's grim-faced cultivators issuing a wanted order.
Within the mist of the Dream of Truth Realm, Jin Somyeong stood in silence and slowly closed his eyes.
With a single breath, he let several emotions flow out of him. Then he touched the starlight once more, and at last, he was able to face Hong Seol directly.