A New Divine Ability

"I will give you the Golden Core insights I received from my master. In exchange..."

Jin Somyeong listened closely as Baek Yu-geon spoke.

"Five years from now, when Sky Island enters the Demon-Cry Sea, please assist me with my mission."

"The Demon-Cry Sea?"

A sea where demon beasts cried. From the name alone, it sounded like the sort of place swarming with them.

"Ah, Fellow Daoist Jin is a wandering cultivator, so you may not know. Unlike the Radiant Origin Sea, the Demon-Cry Sea is a region where demon beasts hold the upper hand over us humans."

"...Why would Sky Island deliberately go to a place like that?"

"For the spirit vein, of course. While we were inside the Spirit Cleansing Grounds, an enormous third-rank supreme-grade spirit vein was discovered in the Demon-Cry Sea."

As Baek Yu-geon continued explaining, Jin Somyeong began to understand the situation.

Sky Island was made of buoyant materials and could float in the air on its own, but with countless cultivators living upon it, its consumption of spiritual energy was immense. Jin Somyeong did not know exactly how vast an enormous third-rank supreme-grade spirit vein was, but it was clearly a resource they could not afford to let slip away.

From the demon beasts' perspective, it might feel like an invasion, but humanity could not simply back down either.

"If we miss this opportunity, Sky Island will wither and die."

This was not a matter of right or wrong, but survival.

Whenever a spirit vein appeared in the Radiant Origin Sea, demon beasts attacked in turn. One way or another, conflict was inevitable.

"Hm... I understand the situation. Then were the demon beasts who attacked recently here to deliver some kind of warning?"

"That's right. They were telling us not to covet the enormous third-rank supreme-grade spirit vein and to get lost. Haha. Absurd, isn't it?"

After a brief silence, Jin Somyeong nodded.

"So what exactly is this mission?"

"It was assigned to me by my master. I am to investigate and resolve the recent, sharp increase in second-rank demon beasts capable of speech."

"Ah."

That was certainly strange.

Jin Somyeong had encountered so many talking demon beasts lately that he had begun to wonder whether the old information claiming they could only speak after ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reaching the third rank had been wrong.

"It seems a colony of Speech-Passing Grass has appeared somewhere in the Demon-Cry Sea. I have marked several suspicious regions. We only need to go there and destroy it."

Speech-Passing Grass was a spiritual herb ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of little use to humans, but when a second-rank demon beast consumed it, the beast gained the ability to speak.

"Destroying a colony..."

The mission was less complicated than expected, but dangerous nonetheless.

Yet the reward was just as tempting.

Instead of spending years struggling to gather demon beast inner cores, he could obtain Golden Core insights right now.

"But why come to me, of all people? Fellow Daoist Baek, you must have many cultivators around you."

"Haha. You are far too modest. I experienced your strength firsthand, Fellow Daoist Jin, so I know it best. Where else would I find someone like you?"

"...Hm."

"Since the mission requires us to enter the depths of the Demon-Cry Sea, we cannot go in a large group. We need true experts. Stealth is crucial."

"If a third-rank demon king is guarding the Speech-Passing Grass colony, I doubt the two of us will be enough."

"The odds of that are slim. Speech-Passing Grass is meaningless to a demon king who can already speak. And even if we do encounter a third-rank beast, it will be all right. I have a trump card of sorts."

Baek Yu-geon smiled with ease and took out three talismans.

Jin Somyeong flinched.

From mere sheets of paper came a crushing, oppressive aura that seemed to weigh down his shoulders.

Baek Yu-geon fluttered the talismans as though showing them off, and Jin Somyeong muttered,

"Third-rank talismans?"

"Correct. If we use these transfer talismans, they will send us to a random location five miles away. Even if we run into a third-rank demon beast, we should be able to survive."

Jin Somyeong's mind tilted further and further in favor of accepting.

There was some danger, but for Golden Core insights, it was a level of risk he could bear.

"...Very well. Five years from now, I will help you with your mission."

"Haha! An excellent decision. Here are the Golden Core insights I promised!"

Baek Yu-geon was refreshingly straightforward, without a single word of complaint. After seeing him off with the jade slip in hand, Jin Somyeong immediately hurried to his cultivation chamber. In truth, he had been struggling to contain his curiosity about the Golden Core since earlier.

The moment he infused his Divine Sense into the blue-green jade slip engraved with bamboo, information flowed into his mind.

For a long while, Jin Somyeong digested the flood of information, then let out a low exclamation.

The External Core Method refined an external treasure of heaven and earth and used it as one's dantian.

For example, if one succeeded in replacing the dantian with the inner core of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a third-rank demon beast, one could become a Golden Core cultivator.

At first glance, it seemed appealing, but the flaws were obvious.

You gain the ability to use the demon beast's innate divine ability, but your other powers weaken by the same degree...

Applied to Jin Somyeong's case, it meant his Sword Qi and lightning arts would weaken.

Moreover, using this method carried a high chance of being tainted by the demon beast's ferocity, destabilizing one's mind.

Looking at it this way, it seemed like a method one should never choose, but one advantage overwhelmed all those flaws.

It has an overwhelmingly higher chance of Golden Core success than any other method.

And this method even had insurance.

Even if one failed, there was a possibility of surviving as a False Core cultivator instead of dying.

False.

It did not seem like a word that belonged before the esteemed title of Golden Core, but the more one examined it, the more fitting it became.

Once someone became a False Core cultivator, they could no longer raise their cultivation beyond the early Golden Core stage. Even so, their lifespan increased to five hundred years, and they possessed strength far surpassing that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Since failure by other methods killed the cultivator nine times out of ten anyway, having such a sliver of hope was not a bad thing.

So this is why the Lord of Sky Island told me not to be seduced by shortcuts.

The more he studied it, the more its merits stood out.

Someone with weak resolve toward the Great Dao of Longevity would surely have wavered.

But for Jin Somyeong, the Golden Core was not the final destination.

He had not the slightest intention of replacing his dantian with a third-rank inner core.

If his Sword Qi and lightning arts weakened, his combat power would fall accordingly. With insufficient strength, it was obvious he would lose countless fortuitous encounters right before his eyes.

Hm... Not every External Core Method is weak.

Next, he examined the other methods and found something called a Sword Core.

It was a method primarily chosen by sword cultivators who had devoted their lives to the sword, replacing their dantian with the sword that would become their bonded magical treasure.

Its advantage was overwhelming combat strength.

Since one literally became one with the sword, one's affinity for Sword Qi and innate talent with the blade rose dramatically.

The downside was...

If the sword breaks, you die.

It was truly extreme. If that had been the only drawback, he might have considered it seriously, but there was another.

The sharper my Sword Qi becomes, the weaker my lightning arts will be. This won't do.

There were many External Core Methods besides those two.

There was even a secret art that formed a Golden Core by gathering a thousand souls.

The jade slip did not describe the details, merely mentioning its name, the Thousand-Soul Core Formation Art, before moving on, but Jin Somyeong could roughly guess what kind of secret art it was.

The External Core Methods generally have high success rates... but they don't suit me.

External Core Methods, which replaced the dantian with an external treasure of heaven and earth, were too heavily influenced by outside objects.

He skipped past the long list of methods and examined the Core Condensation Method.

In a sense, the Core Condensation Method shared a certain continuity with the method of achieving Foundation Establishment.

The True Core Condensation Method? I like this one. Other than requiring a large amount of resources and having a low success rate, it has no drawbacks...

It was a method of forming a spiritual seed, the Golden Core, by using the soul as its center and compressing and refining essence, energy, and spirit to the utmost limit.

If one achieved the Golden Core through this method, one's energy would be harmonious and stable, precisely because it did not depend on external factors.

One could continue using all existing divine abilities, and they would become even stronger. For Jin Somyeong, who cultivated both lightning arts and the sword, it suited him perfectly.

It was also the most advantageous path for advancing to the next realms beyond it: Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, and further still.

The only issue was that the pain and difficulty one endured during the process were beyond imagination, requiring many auxiliary pills.

Hundred-Spirit Grass, Dream-Roaming Primordial Soul Pills, Body-Fortifying Pills, and more.

It was a method that used all manner of treasures to raise an otherwise low success rate.

I can gather spiritual herbs and pills. This is the one.

He was cultivating the sword, lightning arts, and even body refinement all at once. The True Core Condensation Method was the most appropriate choice.

Two months later, inside his cultivation chamber.

Jin Somyeong sat cross-legged, unmoving, until he quietly opened his eyes.

Thump... thump...!

The sound of a heartbeat began to echo through the still cave dwelling.

At first, the pulse was faint, but it grew louder and louder. The force within him steadily intensified, and the instant it reached its peak...

THOOM!

An aura that should have belonged to an ancient, savage beast shimmered from the body of a mere human.

If someone weak-willed had been present, they would have fainted from sensing only a fragment of that power.

"Hoo!"

With a single breath, the strange commotion that seemed ready to explode at any moment vanished.

He had fully adapted to the power he gained after his body refinement realm rose to the level of late Foundation Establishment.

Since the Ascension Conference ended, he had spent the last five months focusing on body refinement, and the results were far from insignificant.

Naturally, the Ojangbaekryeongyeol had reached the orthodox stage.

It was the result of pouring the Boundless Great Ability into it without reservation and absorbing the blood vitality of third-rank inner cores.

What had changed?

His physical toughness, regenerative power, meridian resilience, poison resistance, agelessness, and more.

All the blessing-like effects the Ojangbaekryeongyeol had originally possessed had grown stronger.

That alone would have been joyous enough, but an unexpected harvest had come with it.

I gained a physical divine ability.

Was it thanks to the proficiency system, or had this been one of the hidden secrets of the Ojangbaekryeongyeol all along?

He could not say for certain, but an intriguing power had become engraved into his flesh.

Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust.

This divine ability used the five viscera, now transformed into spiritual organs, like dantians, storing and detonating spiritual power within them.

When he closed his eyes, he could sense his five organs absorbing spiritual power on their own while communicating with his dantian.

Heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, and spleen.

In other words, Jin Somyeong had gained the equivalent of five additional small dantians.

To put it more directly, he could now store 1.3 times as much spiritual power as cultivators of the same level.

Spiritual power was the source of all strength. There was no need to explain the advantage of having more of it than others.

And that's only the basic effect that applies in ordinary circumstances.

The true power of Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust was not merely storing more spiritual power.

Its real might lay in the detonation.

Clench.

An unimaginable force gathered in his lightly clenched fist.

According to the information he had gained upon awakening the divine ability, if he threw this punch, it could deal fatal damage even to a late Foundation Establishment cultivator.

I need to try it myself.

He rose from his seat and left Dawn Moon City. After flying for nearly half a day, he arrived at a deserted mountain deep in the wilds.

It was a mountain of stacked stone, barren and desolate, without so much as a single animal. Standing before it, he assumed a horse stance.

He bent his knees, lowered his center of gravity, and extended his left hand to aim forward.

Then, gathering the full strength of his late Foundation Establishment body, he clenched his right fist and drew it to his waist.

Sssss...

He focused on his breathing, and the moment he awakened the Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust engraved into his body, the spiritual power stored in his heart surged through his meridians.

The energy had been rather faint at first, but as it passed through his spleen, lungs, kidneys, and liver, it amplified without end.

Ugh?

It felt as though his entire body would burst apart. In an instant, the now uncontrollable power tried to tear him open from within.

If his flesh had not been strengthened by his body refinement art, every meridian in his body would have snapped strand by strand, killing him on the spot.

Crack!

The overflowing energy became a strange pressure that shattered the ground.

Before he could react, even ninety percent of the spiritual power in his true dantian had been drained away.

The moment that power, now mixed with blood vitality and strengthened to an incomprehensible degree, reached his fist, he thrust out his punch on instinct.

And there was light.

"..."

After the flash that had dyed the world faded, Jin Somyeong stared blankly at the stone mountain that had vanished as if evaporated.

Then he flinched.

Psssh!

Fountains of blood burst from all over his body. Cracks that had begun at his fist had spread through him from head to toe.

"Kuh-huk."

Was this the backlash from a divine ability he could not yet endure?

The sudden, intense pain made his vision cut in and out.

It hurt so badly he could hardly breathe. He could not even scream. All he could do was open and close his mouth soundlessly.

He felt as though curses were about to spill from him.

And at the same time, he was delighted.

How could this be considered the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠power of late Foundation Establishment? No matter how he looked at it, that had been a Golden Core-level strike.

For a long while, he rolled across the ground, enduring the agony.

"Haaah... haaah..."

Lying spread-eagled on his back and staring up at the sky, Jin Somyeong found himself laughing before he realized it.

Someday, if he succeeded in controlling Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust and combined it with Sword Qi...

He could not help but look forward to how powerful it would become.