Awakening the Boundless Great Ability!
"Kid. If you manage to become a Qi Refining cultivator, come find me!"
"...Yes, sir."
Jin Somyeong hesitated at Bang Il's words, then nodded. A moment later, he hurried out of Spirit Pill Pavilion and headed home.
He walked along the main road with a calm expression, but every few steps his hand drifted to his chest to make sure the Spirit Stone was still there.
Finally.
It was the reward he had earned by risking his life on those mountain paths for three long years. If he could absorb the spiritual energy contained within this Spirit Stone, entering the first layer of Qi Refining would no longer be impossible.
The first step is always the hardest.
Three years just to reach the first layer of Qi Refining. It was an unbearably slow pace, but he was not discouraged.
The moment he arrived home, he locked the door. Only after closing every last window did he take out the Spirit Stone and examine it.
He stared as if entranced at the mysterious crystal suffused with a clear, ethereal blue glow.
"So this is it."
He could not hold back his admiration. Merely holding the Spirit Stone allowed a warm current to seep into his palm.
The pure spiritual energy condensed within the crystal at high density stirred an instinctive craving in him. It was a higher-order power that seemed to stimulate the very essence of life. Some intuition engraved upon his soul whispered that if he could only absorb this spiritual energy, he would take another step forward and become a superior being of a higher grade.
To immortals, it might be nothing more than currency, but to an ordinary mortal, it was no different from a treasure. If someone made it into a necklace and wore it every day, they would naturally grow healthier, live free from illness, and enjoy a long life.
...For now, I should sleep.
He had risen before dawn and gone to the mountain, leaving his entire body exhausted. In this state, he could not attempt to enter Qi Refining.
Precisely because it was the precious Spirit Stone he had struggled three years to obtain, he had to use it while in his best condition. If he failed to enter Qi Refining because his body was worn out, the injustice of it would keep him from dying in peace.
He hid the Spirit Stone in a secret gap at the corner of his shabby bed, beneath the headrest, then lay down to sleep.
His pounding heart made sleep difficult, but he forced his eyes shut.
How much time had passed?
Rustle.
It was deep into the night when he naturally woke.
After a light meal and a careful inspection of his entire body, he finally made up his mind.
"Good. Let's begin."
Thanks to that sleep, he was in peak condition. There was no reason to delay any longer, so he immediately sat cross-legged.
He calmed his mind through meditation, sitting on the worn bed and merging with the darkness as he focused.
Wuuung.
Though the windows were closed, a faint breeze began to stir. That feeble flow gradually grew stronger. Spiritual energy, present everywhere beneath heaven and earth, spiraled inward and was absorbed with his breathing.
How hard had he worked over the past three years?
Circulating his energy according to the Five Elements Qi Condensation Method had already been carved into his instincts.
He concentrated. Centering everything on his dantian, he raised an invisible pillar and guided the absorbed spiritual energy toward it.
Whooooosh!
The tranquil breeze grew rougher and rougher. The vortex forming around that pillar continued to expand in scale.
After some time, a throbbing headache arrived, and with it, the limit of his mental strength.
The spiritual energy vortex inside his dantian began to shake unstably. In that instant, he swiftly seized the Spirit Stone and circulated the Five Elements Qi Condensation Art with all his might.
Wuuung!
Pure spiritual energy surged explosively into the vortex that had been trembling on the brink of collapse.
The flow grew more violent, and in the blink of an eye it reached a point beyond his control.
Even if he wanted to stop now, it was impossible.
Several times more spiritual energy than usual poured into him. His dantian throbbed as if it would shatter, and the meridians throughout his body felt as though they were about to be torn apart.
Wiiiiing!
The pain did not relent. Dense spiritual energy rushed in along with the wind that now howled through the room.
"Kugh!"
His mind blurred, and he wanted to surrender his reason at any moment.
But how could he give up? If he gave up now, three years of effort would return to nothing. The Spirit Stone he had obtained after so much hardship would break apart, crumble into powder, and vanish.
He clenched his teeth and endured with everything he had.
Then—
Boom!
Along with the illusion of a solid wall shattering before him, the vortex's rotation reached its peak and broke through the critical point.
Whooo...
Even the savage wind gradually died down.
The ferocious spiritual energy became obedient as if it had been a lie. No sound could be heard within the quiet room. Only a faint, lingering breeze proved that what had just happened had not been an illusion.
He had succeeded.
At last, after three years of suffering.
The pain that had tormented him so persistently vanished as if washed away. In its place came a refreshing pleasure, and elation welled up inside him.
"Ah..."
Dense, pure spiritual energy caressed the wounds in his dantian and meridians, restoring his battered body to its optimal state.
Power boiled throughout him. He wanted to sprint outside that very instant and run until his heart burst.
"Ahahaha!"
Laughing in sheer joy, he savored the flow of spiritual energy he could feel within his dantian.
There was a vortex rotating majestically there, a structure like a spiral galaxy. Even though he had already stopped circulating the Five Elements Qi Condensation Art, that vortex did not stop.
The attractive force generated by its rotation drew in the surrounding spiritual energy, and the spiritual energy injected into it gradually enlarged the vortex. The continuing virtuous cycle sustained the vortex on its own.
Finally!
Excited, Jin Somyeong clenched his fist and sprang to his feet. Now, he could absorb and accumulate spiritual energy simply by breathing.
This was the proof of a Qi Refining cultivator.
"I'm a cultivator who walks the Dao now too!"
How long had he waited for this day?
He was at the very bottom among cultivators as countless as grains of sand on a beach, but beginning was already half the battle.
How could he not be happy, having achieved this after so much hardship?
"Hm?"
Jin Somyeong, who had been happily savoring the spiritual energy, suddenly froze.
"Boundless Great Ability?"
They said good fortune came all at once. This was a double blessing.
At the same time he entered Qi Refining and set foot on the path of immortals, he awakened the divine power engraved upon his soul: Boundless Great Ability.
An omnipotent power that can accomplish anything?
His pupils widened, and he clapped a hand over his mouth.
Such a miraculous power. Shock and joy struck him at the same time.
He did not know how long he went half-mad, flailing his fists through the air, but at last he calmed down and came to his senses.
He carefully examined the divine power of Boundless Great Ability drifting within his mind.
"Mmm."
When he focused, he sensed a mysterious vision inside his head.
It was a golden bead in which the divine power of Boundless Great Ability had condensed. Tiny characters drifted across its surface, giving it an exceedingly mystical air.
More than tens of thousands of letters circled the bead like an honor guard.
Though they were characters he had never seen before in his life, he somehow felt as if he could understand their meaning. It was as though the great Dao of heaven and earth had taken form and transformed into writing.
"Ah..."
Just looking at them seemed capable of granting enlightenment, but when he actually concentrated and tried to examine them, he could learn nothing at all.
It was unimaginably strange.
The characters moved ceaselessly like living beings. Drifting around the bead, they formed a cloud of Dao resonance.
After staring at the golden bead like a man bewitched for a long while, Jin Somyeong murmured, "There are ten beads in total."
He forcibly settled his excitement and began organizing what he had learned about Boundless Great Ability one point at a time.
First, Boundless Great Ability was "a power that grants wishes."
However, there were restrictions. The harder a wish was to fulfill, the more the amount of power consumed increased exponentially.
Second, the power consumed would naturally recover with the passage of time, and it took one month to fully recharge.
Third, the might of Boundless Great Ability grew in proportion to his cultivation realm.
Jin Somyeong narrowed his eyes. The more he learned about the divine power, the more his excitement cooled.
The condition of as long as there is enough of it, wishes can be granted was a problem in itself.
The Boundless Great Ability he possessed was far too small in quantity to display its true might.
It was like scooping a single drop out of the sea.
It doesn't matter if the total amount of power is lacking. That can be solved once my realm rises. More importantly, the recovery cycle is one month?
One month.
It was long if considered long, and short if considered short.
It would be a shame to spend it thoughtlessly, but it did not take so long to recover that he needed to hoard it like his life depended on it.
Let's experiment.
The most important thing was how much power one bead of Boundless Great Ability actually had.
He needed to confirm the level of wishes it could grant.
Even if he used it all, it would be fully recharged in a month, so there was no need to cherish it as if it were his life.
No—if anything, I shouldn't hoard it.
He had to use it actively wherever it was needed.
He was a low-grade rogue cultivator with no proper master. He had to mobilize every resource he possessed and devote himself to cultivation.
As he wondered what wish to make, a thought suddenly struck him.
"Ah!"
Self-defense.
This world was utterly different from his previous life's Earth, where things like human rights existed.
If there was only one rule here, it was the law of the strong.
It was a land of survival of the fittest, where only the strong endured. Naturally, public order was dreadful.
It was the kind of harsh place where one could be stabbed to death on the roadside as soon as tomorrow. It was not for nothing that a fifteen-year-old like him went around carrying a broad-bladed saber.
Living in such a dangerous place, he could not help but think about protecting himself.
Could I perhaps strengthen my physical power?
Low-level cultivators who had only just entered Qi Refining found it difficult to use proper spells.
Their main means of fighting were fists and blades.
Their combat power far surpassed that of ordinary humans, but they did not deviate much from being humans who were "a bit too strong."
Wait. How strong am I now?
Moved by sudden curiosity, he grabbed a hard wooden staff.
Crack!
The sturdy wood was crushed in an instant by his grip. The vast strength contained in his writhing muscles showed that he had already left the realm of ordinary humans behind.
"Huh."
Even Jin Somyeong himself gaped at what he had done.
This was only the physical strength that had naturally increased when he became a Qi Refining cultivator. As he was now, he felt as if he could fight a gorilla bare-handed and win.
...No. Get a grip. I've only just become a Qi Refining cultivator. I don't know any spells, so among cultivators, I'm the weakest of the weak.
He hurriedly threw away the arrogance that had seeped silently into him.
Shaking his head, he returned to considering a means of self-defense.
In any case, public order here is the worst. I need safety measures urgently.
He was done having thugs extort Spirit Stones from him.
If he had his way, he would learn a powerful spell, but the problem was always money. Learning spells also required Spirit Stones.
Right now, he was a pauper. He did not have a single Spirit Stone, not even a fragment.
On top of that, with the pathetic amount of spiritual energy available at the first layer of Qi Refining, using spells was difficult in the first place.
If he wanted to freely command flames and ride a flying sword through the sky, he needed to raise his realm.
I heard you need to be at least at the fourth layer of Qi Refining before you can use proper spells.
He recalled the common knowledge of the cultivation world he had gathered little by little over the past three years.
To become a true immortal, an absolute being who lived forever, one had to advance beyond the level of a Qi Refining cultivator.
In the cultivation world, realms were divided into Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, and Soul Transformation, and each realm was divided from the first layer to the ninth layer.
In particular, the fourth and seventh layers were difficult enough to break through that they were called minor realm thresholds.
To summarize:
Layers one through three were the early stage.
Layers four through six were the mid stage.
Layers seven through nine were the late stage.
Also, the state immediately before breaking through to a major realm was sometimes called the Great Circle, but that was not important right now.
In simple terms, my realm is the first layer of Qi Refining. In other words, I'm a bottom-tier cultivator at the very bottom of the early stage of Qi Refining.
Having reminded himself of his position, Jin Somyeong shook his head.
In any case, the important point was that spells were hard to handle during the early stage of Qi Refining.
That meant physical combat would remain his main method of fighting, so strong physical power was a major advantage.
Good. Let's use Boundless Great Ability to increase my strength.
There was no need to delay. He focused his mind. The instant he wished for the muscles throughout his body to become stronger, one of the golden beads he could sense even with his eyes closed turned to powder and vanished.
Crack.
A tingling force surged up from his spine. A gentle heat spread through his entire body along with a cool, refreshing sensation.
Just as he was about to sink into that wondrous feeling—
"...That's it?"
The mysterious energy vanished without a trace.
Jin Somyeong blinked, flustered.
He felt as if he had grown stronger, but the change was too subtle. It was difficult to tell whether it was merely his imagination or if he had actually been strengthened.
Frowning, he quietly went outside.
Tap!
He jumped in place with all his might, measuring how high he could leap.
Then he made the same wish again.
...I still can't tell. Once more.
He repeated it again and again. After a total of four golden beads had been consumed—
"Ah!"
Only now was he certain.
His jumping power had increased compared to before he strengthened his physical strength. His springy thighs unleashed tremendous force.
His fingertips now reached a height he had never been able to touch no matter how hard he jumped. It felt as if he had grown roughly ten percent stronger.
...Could I perhaps use Boundless Great Ability to absorb spiritual energy too?
A cultivator's fundamental strength came from their realm. To become truly strong, he had to accumulate spiritual energy and raise his cultivation.
Without hesitation, he immediately made the wish.
Wuuung.
A gentle breeze stirred, and he felt as if the vortex in his dantian had grown ever so slightly larger.
He had succeeded in absorbing spiritual energy and storing it in his dantian.
Good. This works too.
There was definitely an effect, but it left him wanting. He had already consumed half of his Boundless Great Ability through experiments. To recover this much, he would need to wait fifteen days.
After thinking deeply, Jin Somyeong stroked his chin.
It's possible to grow stronger this way, but... it seems a little inefficient.
Suddenly, a good idea came to him.
He hurried back inside, sat cross-legged on his bed, and began circulating the Five Elements Qi Condensation Art. At the same time, he focused his mind.
Crackle.
Another golden bead turned to powder, and the spiritual energy vortex visibly grew larger.
"It worked!"
This time, he could clearly feel the difference.
He could feel the spiritual energy accumulating in his dantian against his skin. The efficiency was several times higher than simply making a wish.
Making a brute-force wish without anything to guide it was like trying to dig through the ground with a smartphone.
If he wanted to accumulate spiritual energy quickly, he had to circulate his cultivation method while increasing the amount of spiritual energy absorbed.
Jin Somyeong nodded with a satisfied smile.
He felt as if he had learned how he was meant to use the divine power called Boundless Great Ability.
A month passed.
Every day, Jin Somyeong circulated the Five Elements Qi Condensation Art to regulate his realm and swung his broad-bladed saber to adapt to his strengthened body.
He also studied the most important thing of all: Boundless Great Ability.
He tried improving his spiritual root aptitude as well, but the effect was minimal compared to the effort required.
At the very least, he would probably have to pour several months' worth of Boundless Great Ability into it before the improvement became noticeable.
Given his current lack of leeway, he had no choice but to postpone that for later.
There was one thing he had realized in the meantime.
Boundless Great Ability was most efficient when accomplishing things that were just barely impossible.
Its effect was greatest when he achieved something subtly impossible, something half a step beyond the range of what he could already do.
For example, he could even create a status window like this.
It had not been as difficult as he had expected.
Finding out my lifespan isn't impossible. Any cultivator can vaguely sense their own lifespan.
If he used a talisman containing a spell, a lifespan register, he could learn it even more accurately.
"Heh."
A silly laugh escaped him.
If there had been one thing he found most disappointing after awakening the memories of his previous life, it was the fact that he did not have a status window.
He could not count how many times he had wished for one while risking his life on the mountain over the past three years.
After using Boundless Great Ability to create a status window, an inexplicable sense of pride washed over him.
As long as he had this status window, he felt as if he could accomplish anything.
It was as if it would illuminate the road ahead like a lighthouse.
Of course, it was not especially effective.
Not yet.