Preparing for the Tournament
Jin Somyeong tapped the demon beast core with his fingertips, lost in thought.
He had assumed the opportunity the Spirit-Seeking Talisman had led him to ended with the Blood-Vigor Wood, but now a doubt occurred to him. Then how far does this opportunity indicated by the Spirit-Seeking Talisman go...?
The Boarding Tournament? Or the Spirit-Cleansing Ground he could enter as a reward?
If that was the case, this tournament would be a great help.
First, I should find out exactly what the rewards are.
He had heard it was not dangerous, but entering would still take no small amount of effort. He could not afford to waste his time, so he needed to know properly.
They said anyone who places in the top ten can enter the Spirit-Cleansing Ground.
Then what exactly was the Spirit-Cleansing Ground?
He went around digging for information, and fortunately, it was not difficult to find out.
So it improves aptitude and drastically shortens the cultivation period.
The Spirit-Cleansing Ground was a blessed land the cultivators of Sky Island had created over long years. It was a kind of sacred training ground, managed by strict formations, and because it had been built up over dozens of generations, there were no few treasures accumulated within it.
Lotuses that breathed cold energy, sap that healed hidden wounds, and more. It was filled with heavenly and earthly spiritual objects that would be useful at the Foundation Establishment level.
There is even a lightning-aspected spirit spring?
If one immersed oneself in the spring called the Blue Radiance Spring, lightning could wash through the body down to the marrow. That alone was an excellent effect, but there was a high chance it would also be of tremendous help in training the Heavenly Thunder Dao Body Art.
Perhaps it might even make his proficiency soar.
That is a relief. I was starting to worry because training the Heavenly Thunder Dao Body Art has been getting harder and harder.
There were plenty of rewards aside from the Spirit-Cleansing Ground. Cultivation elixirs of various kinds were a given, and the higher one's ranking, the more exponentially the rewards increased.
If I win, Golden Core seniors will give me a suitable gift...
For reference, the previous champion had received a third-tier magical treasure. A defensive one, no less, which was known to be rare.
A third-tier item was powerful enough to be called a magical treasure rather than a mere magical tool. A Foundation Establishment cultivator with insufficient spiritual power would have difficulty using it perfectly, but it was undoubtedly a treasure that could save one's life at a critical moment.
...Winning is honestly impossible.
The Boarding Tournament allowed only Foundation Establishment cultivators under eighty to enter, but there were many geniuses in the world. Hadn't Jin Somyeong himself reached Foundation Establishment in his early twenties? There would certainly be late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators in the tournament.
Without using the Boundless Great Ability, defeating a late-stage cultivator would be difficult.
Should I aim for tenth place and target the Spirit-Cleansing Ground?
Even that would not be easy. Unlike him, who had not been a Foundation Establishment cultivator for long, the others must have prepared for the tournament for decades.
If I want to raise my combat strength in a short time, I should focus on spells and equipment.
Flash.
He scanned down the list of proficiencies and chose his top priority.
I should raise Lightning Escape Art first.
Aside from the Strong Cloud Sword Art, which he had decided to train by his own effort, this one appealed to him the most.
Speed was the foundation of combat. Simply being fast could turn even a simple attack into a deadly killing move. If Lightning Escape Art reached the proficient stage, he would become far faster than he was now, and he would be able to seize the initiative in battle.
There was, however, one concern.
Can I use Lightning Escape Art? It seems far too conspicuous...
A sword cultivator who wielded lightning. Even Jin Somyeong thought that was not common. Merely being a Foundation Establishment sword cultivator had been enough to bring the Young Master of the Cheonsi Sect after him.
It had been bad luck born in the middle of war, but if his lightning arts were revealed as well, he could not know what might happen.
Can I reach the top ten using only my sword?
He thought it over carefully, and it seemed possible. A sword cultivator was that powerful an existence.
Stroking his chin, Jin Somyeong took a step forward.
There were six months left before the tournament began. He had a great deal to prepare.
Four months later, in a certain eastern cave residence.
Jin Somyeong had been concentrating with his eyes closed. The moment he stretched out his hand, lightning flashed.
Split bolts of lightning poured in every direction. Each time the glare swallowed sight, his form vanished and reappeared again and again.
From one end of the cave residence to the other. Every blink found him in a different place.
If anyone had seen it, their mouth would have fallen open. It looked as though one person existed in several places at once.
Hissss.
Jin Somyeong shook off the heat left by the lightning and grinned.
Raising Lightning Escape Art to the proficient stage had been worth it. Compared to four months ago, he was at least twice as fast.
His gaze, which had been scanning the status window, shifted to Wind-Riding Art.
He had tried raising Wind-Riding Art, a lower first-tier spell art, beyond proficient to the next stage, orthodox, and the results were far better than expected.
It had broken through the spell art's original limits and reached the level of a second-tier technique.
Now, when he operated Wind-Riding Art at full power, his body became as light as a feather. Everything became faster, from swinging his sword to running. If he trained Wind-Riding Art to the great completion stage, he might truly be able to fly ten thousand li as a single stream of wind.
Two months left until the tournament.
He thought carefully about what still had to be done, and it seemed he only needed to accomplish two things: train the Strong Cloud Sword Art to orthodox, and obtain a second-tier magical tool.
How many spirit stones do I have left?
He searched his spatial storage and saw around seven hundred mid-grade spirit stones.
It was fewer than he had expected. He had spent a great deal securing what he needed for cultivation: rent for a second-tier cave residence, cultivation pills, demon beast meat, spiritual rice, and so on.
Still, I should have some room going forward.
The daily output of the Mental Secret Realm, which he had steadily grown, had already reached ten mid-grade spirit stones. That was enough for cultivation in the early Foundation Establishment stage.
However, seven hundred stones would not be enough to acquire a usable magical tool at the grand auction opening a month from now. What he needed in particular was a defensive magical tool, and defensive magical tools were rare and expensive because they were the first to break in battle.
I think I need at least fifteen hundred.
Tapping his scabbard, Jin Somyeong left the cave residence. It seemed he would have to earn spirit stones again for the first time in a while.
Fifteen days later, in the sea near Sky Island.
A bat with a fish's head glared at a young man with furious eyes.
Screeech!
The moment it let out a headache-inducing shriek and beat its wings, a savage wave surged forward.
Was it an innate divine ability? The spray transformed into awl-like spikes and descended on the young man.
Yet the young man simply stood in place and narrowed his eyes.
As though he did not fear the spell art pouring down like a rainstorm, he stared silently at the demon beast. No, the moment Jin Somyeong gripped his sword...
Slash!
The wave split apart, and blood burst into the air.
A pale slash extending from the tip of his blade had cut down the distant demon beast.
Screeeech?!
The demon beast thrashed with one wing severed. Just as it was about to run wild, whipping up waves in every direction...
Boom!
Jin Somyeong vanished with a peal of thunder and swept past the demon beast. He swung his sword himself and lopped off its head.
He had killed a second-tier demon beast with only two sword strikes, but his expression was not bright.
I missed again.
Recently, he had been practicing launching Sword Qi, but it was not easy. If his concentration scattered even slightly, the Sword Qi failed to condense and became violently unstable.
He had aimed for the neck just now, too, yet severed a wing instead. That meant not only had the power dispersed, but the direction had also gone awry. If the demon beast's hide had been tough, it might not have been cut at all.
The remaining proficiency was only one point.
And yet no matter how many times he swung his sword, that single point would not rise. It felt as if he had been stopped by a thick wall.
It was unbearably frustrating to make no progress because of a wall he could cross by investing just one bead of the Boundless Great Ability.
"Hoo. Should I raise it or not?"
Jin Somyeong frowned, conflicted.
Was it because the Boundless Great Ability felt wasteful?
Of course not. At his current level, one or two beads truly meant nothing.
Was he uneasy because it was a power whose origin he did not know?
That was not it either.
He did not know why, but he had a certainty: the Boundless Great Ability originated from himself.
That was why he could use it without hesitation. It was a useful power that had given him tremendous help, and he would continue making full use of it in the future.
He had merely imagined it.
At the very end, when he wanted to go one step beyond the Boundless Great Ability. No, when the moment came that he had to do so.
Wouldn't this moment, when he had broken through by his own strength, become a great power for his sword?
A thought close to fantasy circled in his mind.
But the tournament is soon. If I raise this, I feel like I will become much stronger all at once...
Jin Somyeong glared at the number with only one proficiency remaining, then finally squeezed his eyes shut.
He waved his hand and scattered the hologram.
Even if it was nothing more than a foolish thought, he had decided not to raise the proficiency.
It is not a tournament where my life is at risk anyway, so it should be fine.
Was it because he had done as his heart wished?
For some reason, he felt light. It was as if the tip of his sword had grown even a little less burdened.
Having finished his inner debate, he checked the demon beast's corpse. Training his swordsmanship was good, but he could not forget his purpose.
Let's see... Oh!
He butchered the demon beast that was a mixture of bat and fish, and sure enough, perhaps because luck was with him, it had an inner core. Even if he sold only the core and left out the other parts, it would fetch several hundred mid-grade spirit stones.
Good. Including this, I have collected three inner cores over the past fifteen days.
Of course, that number excluded the mid-grade cores he had to submit for the preliminaries.
It is about time to head back.
If he followed his feelings, he would hunt a few more, but finding demon beasts itself was difficult. Perhaps because of the Boarding Tournament preliminaries, demon beasts had been nearly wiped out in the area. Even the one just now had been a lucky find.
Whoosh.
He placed the entire demon beast, including the inner core, into his spatial storage and returned to Sky Island.
He considered which shop he should sell the byproducts to, then simply decided to sell them himself on the street. That seemed likely to earn him even a little more.
I never thought I would open a street stall. This is another first for me.
He had thought there would be no need to worry about spirit stones in his lifetime, but as expected, one never knew how the world would turn.
Various lower second-tier demon beast byproducts. Wings of the Scale-Finned Sea Bat, horn of the Unicorn Beast...
Just as he took out a suitable piece of wood to use as a signboard and wrote the words with spiritual power, a loose cultivator with his face hidden beneath a thick hood peered over.
"Friend. Do you happen to have inner cores as well?"
"Of course I do."
"Oh! I will give you two hundred mid-grade spirit stones. Sell it to me."
"An inner core? Stop! I'll buy it for two hundred seventy!"
What in the world was happening?
In an instant, people swarmed around him. None of them cared about the other byproducts; they wanted only the inner cores.
"Three hundred! Everyone, please yield this one to me. If I get just one more, I have hope!"
"Same here! Three hundred twenty!"
An auction began out of nowhere.
Cultivators hiding their faces under hoods, masks, and the like endlessly shouted prices.
In the end, the bat demon beast core he had just obtained sold for the enormous sum of four hundred ten mid-grade spirit stones.
"Ugh. Damn it, if I could just get one more, I'd have six..."
"Damn it all."
The cultivators who had been outbid were leaving with their shoulders drooping when Jin Somyeong, staring at the heavy pouch of spirit stones in his hand, shouted after them.
"Wait. Who said I only had one?"
Everyone stopped dead in their tracks.
"Then...?"
The cultivators swallowed hard and looked at him with hopeful disbelief, and Jin Somyeong nodded.
Ten minutes later.
Jin Somyeong let out a hollow laugh after earning eight hundred mid-grade spirit stones in a single stroke.
He had not expected lower second-tier demon beast cores to sell for this much. There was no need to ask why. It was all because of the Boarding Tournament.
I should keep one instead of selling it. Eleven total should be enough.
Normally, ten inner cores were more than sufficient to pass the preliminaries, but he kept one extra just in case.
All that remained now was to buy a magical tool at the auction, then achieve good results in the tournament.
If he did that...
He would be able to enter the sacred training ground that the cultivators of Sky Island had spent long years creating: the Spirit-Cleansing Ground.