Dream-Wandering Primordial Unity Pill: A World Missing One Thing (1)
Among the countless small villages scattered across Sky Island, there was one called Cloud Blossom Village.
It had been a fairly peaceful place—until, one day, calamity descended upon it.
"Awooo!"
A blue wolf came with the blizzard. The 2nd-tier high-grade demon beast attacked the village while scattering its fearsome demonic aura.
"E-elder! The formation is about to collapse!"
"...Stay calm. Go to the warehouse and bring back the spirit stones, now! We have to keep the formation running no matter what!"
Crack!
Every time the wolf’s white snowflakes struck the barrier, a bone-deep chill spread through the air.
Dammit. What rotten luck. Of all things, it had to be a late-Foundation Establishment beast.
For Im Yeonhu, who had only recently broken through to Foundation Establishment, it was an enemy he could never hope to face head-on.
The best he could do was hold out by relying on the formation set up around the village.
Was it really a mistake to found the clan at a time like this?
He regretted it. If he had known things would turn out like this, he would have stayed quietly in a Golden Core-class city instead.
"Elder! We brought the spirit stones!"
"Well done."
The painstakingly gathered pile of spirit stones vanished, and the formation recovered only slightly, but frankly, it was no more than a meaningless stopgap.
Ah. It’s pointless.
He had sent pleas for help to everyone he knew, but it was impossible for them to arrive in time.
And even if they did...
Would it really make any difference?
If not for the family members who trusted and followed him, he would have given up long ago and simply waited for death.
As Im Yeonhu stared blankly up at the sky, hollow with exhaustion, something changed.
The storm that had been raging furiously split apart.
The snowstorm, which had made it impossible to see even a foot ahead, parted to reveal a clear sky.
A single streak of light descended from heaven.
In one stroke, it cut down the beast that had seemed hopelessly overwhelming.
Thud.
So simple it was almost absurd. With its head gone, the demon beast collapsed into nothing more than a slab of meat.
...Golden Core?
How had someone who was supposed to be busy maintaining the Reverse Polar Grand Lock Formation that protected all of Sky Island managed to get here?
Still dazed, Im Yeonhu muttered to himself, then jolted back to his senses.
He didn’t know what was going on, but the first thing he should do was offer his thanks.
He quickly dismissed the useless formation and hurried outside to greet his savior.
***
Jin Somyeong, who had casually slain the 2nd-tier high-grade demon beast with a single swing of his sword, paused.
The Foundation Establishment cultivator who had rushed out after opening the formation looked strangely familiar.
Where had I seen him before?
He was definitely someone Jin had met before.
As he searched through his memories of the past, a scene flashed across his mind.
The talisman dealer! He was the cultivator who sold me the Spirit-Seeking Talisman.
He was the Qi Refining cultivator Jin had met when he first arrived on Sky Island.
The memory of buying a talisman that could point him toward fortuitous opportunities came rushing back with surprising clarity.
Did he break through to Foundation Establishment with the Nourishing Jade Essence Flower I gave him?
If so, then he had truly been a lucky man.
It meant he had turned a single Foundation Establishment spirit herb into a Foundation Establishment Pill.
"Senior! Thank you so much for helping us!"
"Hm? Ah. I only killed the beast because I needed it, so there’s no need to worry about it."
"No, no! You saved my life. How could I possibly let that go without repaying you?"
"More than that... congratulations on breaking through to Foundation Establishment. Did the Nourishing Jade Essence Flower I gave you help?"
"Pardon?"
"With that face, I suppose you wouldn’t recognize me."
Jin Somyeong snapped his fingers, and his appearance shifted into that of an ordinary rustic cultivator. It was one of the looks he had used frequently in the past.
"Y-You’re... Senior!"
"The Spirit-Seeking Talisman you sold me was quite useful."
In a sense, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that this junior had helped him clear the preliminaries of the Ascension Tournament with ease.
Stunned, the man stood frozen for a moment before bowing deeply from the waist.
"Senior, you’ve saved my life twice now. I don’t know how I’m ever supposed to repay this kindness..."
His voice was serious, but Jin only brushed it off with a laugh.
He had heard words like that more times than he could count, and in truth, very few people ever really repaid the favor.
Still, Im Yeonhu was a little different.
After a long silence, he seemed to make a decision and spoke as though he had finally steeled himself.
"If Senior found the talisman useful, then this map should help as well. Please, take it."
"A map?"
"It was left behind by my great-grandfather, who was a Golden Core merchant in his day. He said he obtained the Spirit-Seeking Talisman in the place marked here."
Jin accepted the jade slip he offered with both hands and examined it with his divine sense.
It pointed to a place quite far from Sky Island, somewhere in the middle of the Yomyeong Sea.
"I had planned to go myself once my cultivation improved, but I’d rather give it to Senior."
"...I’ll accept it gratefully."
He had no reason to refuse a gift that was being offered to him. He checked the map again and memorized the exact location.
It’s far too distant to visit now. I’ll have to go when Sky Island enters the Yomyeong Sea in a year.
The talisman had been remarkably useful. If possible, he wanted to get more of them.
Smiling at this unexpected gain, Jin shifted his gaze.
A beast that manipulates ice and snow techniques... creatures with unusual attributes like that usually have a high chance of forming an inner core.
As he looked at the headless blue wolf, Im Yeonhu tactfully stepped back.
"Senior, you seem to be busy, so I’ll take my leave for now. If you ever have the chance, please come visit again. I’ll make sure to treat you to a fine cup of spirit wine."
Once he was alone, Jin Somyeong drew a line through the air with his finger.
Whoosh!
The sword qi that flew from his fingertip sliced through the thick, tough hide as easily as tofu.
With the deft butchering skills he had honed through long experience, he processed the demon beast, and...
At last, he found the inner core he had been hoping for.
Finally, seven!
After gathering the beast’s other usable parts as well, he returned to Hyo-wol City at once.
He went to the steward’s office and applied to exchange them for a Dream-Soul Origin Pill.
"A Dream-Soul Origin Pill? You’ll need to bring me seven 2nd-tier high-grade inner cores."
"Here they are."
Thump.
As Jin placed the seven round cores on the table, the steward’s jaw dropped.
"Good heavens. I didn’t think anyone would actually trade for one of these. Seven inner cores, of all things... How in the world did you gather them? Wait. Thunderbolt Swordsman?"
The shout of shock stirred up quite the commotion, but there was no real problem.
After carefully inspecting the inner cores, the steward nodded and handed over a wooden box sealed with talismans, his expression grave.
"Daoist Jin, the Dream-Soul Origin Pill must be taken in a safe place."
"Yes."
"If you become drunk on the dream, you may never wake again. You’ll need to be absolutely prepared. Still... since you’re the winner of the Ascension Tournament, I suppose I needn’t worry too much."
He listened quietly, though he had already researched the pill and knew most of what was being said.
"And if you’re truly uncertain, I’d recommend splitting the Dream-Soul Origin Pill in half before taking it. You won’t be able to absorb all of its effects, but the danger will be reduced."
The Dream-Soul Origin Pill was an elixir that let one undergo trials in dreams to temper the soul, but it only possessed its special effect the first time it was taken.
So if I’m lucky, it might strengthen a technique I already know, or even let me learn a new one.
But if it were split in two, those effects would vanish. The soul-tempering power would also drop to less than half.
Absolutely not.
Four and a half years.
Nearly five full years had gone into obtaining this pill. He had to absorb it as perfectly as possible.
Back in the East Wing, Jin Somyeong took out the Dream-Soul Origin Pill and examined it closely.
At a glance, it looked like an ordinary gray bead, but if he focused on its surface, faint clusters of stars seemed to drift across it.
A galaxy?
The pill was no bigger than a fingernail, and yet it seemed to contain the universe within it.
He didn’t know how such a pill had been made, but the more he looked at it, the more certain he became that it was no ordinary object.
He wanted to take it immediately, but he held himself back.
Once he swallowed the Dream-Soul Origin Pill, he would fall into an extremely deep sleep. He would be utterly defenseless, and that made him uneasy in his current state.
He activated the eastern formation to its maximum output, then added every formation artifact he had bought at the market.
The spirit veins were drained in an instant, and the formation began to tremble, but Jin poured out more than a thousand mid-grade spirit stones to replenish the power.
This should be enough.
Having prepared as much as possible, Jin sat cross-legged at the center of the training room and took a deep breath.
For a full fifteen days, he calmed his mind through meditation and cultivation.
At the exact moment Boundless Great Ability fully recharged...
He spent a massive 5,000 golden beads to amplify the pill’s effects.
The moment he tossed it into his mouth, the world began to spin.
***
In a shabby shack in Red Sun Market’s outer city, Jin Somyeong sat dazed on a creaking old bed and frowned.
...Why does my body feel so heavy?
He stretched and carefully checked his condition, but everything was exactly the same as usual.
And yet something felt wrong.
For some reason, he had the absurd sense that he had become terribly weak.
He struggled with it for quite a while, but couldn’t figure out why, so he gave up on the thought.
Whatever.
On a day this happy, he couldn’t afford to obsess over something so trivial.
He reached beneath the bedding and pulled out the spirit stone he had hidden there.
One real spirit stone, exchanged for 110 spirit-stone fragments!
If he could absorb the spiritual energy in this stone, he would finally be able to step into Qi Refining.
"All right. Let’s begin."
Steeling himself, Jin absorbed the spiritual energy and successfully entered the 1st layer of Qi Refining.
"Ahahaha! I’m a cultivator now too!"
Joy overflowed from him.
What a wonderful feeling this was. Three years after his rebirth, the reward he had fought for with his life on the line was sweet beyond words.
And yet...
Something felt strangely empty. As though some precious thing that should have been there had vanished.
"...What is this?"
He tilted his head in confusion for a long time before finally shaking it off. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember what it was.
After that, following the advice of a shop owner he had grown close to, he headed toward Red Sun Sect—only to stop short.
As he drew closer to the sect’s gate, an inexplicable headache grew stronger and stronger.
That’s strange...
It felt so unpleasant that he eventually turned back.
For now, I should just train on my own.
Several months passed like that, and Jin Somyeong was still stuck at the 1st layer of Qi Refining.
Just as he was starting to think he couldn’t keep going like this, rumors spread that the three great clans ruling Red Sun Market were recruiting spirit-field workers.
Thinking he couldn’t afford to miss the opportunity, he rushed over before dawn and lined up.
"Name?"
"Jin Somyeong... mixed spiritual root? Tsk. No need to ask any further. Go wait over there. If we’re short on people, we’ll take you."
He waited half a day with a stomach full of nerves.
Fortunately, he was accepted into the Heo Clan, one of the three great clans.
"To become a spirit-field worker, you need to know at least three techniques."
Wood-Nourishing Art.
Clearwater Technique.
Earth-Pulling Art.
Each one was a technique for sensing and manipulating spiritual energy of the wood, water, and earth attributes.
They were basic techniques without any real rank to speak of, but they were the first true powers he had ever learned.
Of course, it wasn’t easy.
"Jin Somyeong. You’re really pushing it, aren’t you? It’s been three months, and you still haven’t mastered it?"
"I’m sorry."
"I really don’t understand. You haven’t been slacking off, have you?"
He was cursed for his miserable talent, but time was the one thing he had in abundance.
By sacrificing even his sleeping hours, he finally became competent enough to do the work of one man after a year had passed.
From that point on, life seemed to improve. It was certainly better than being alone now that he finally belonged somewhere.
His previously stagnant cultivation began to inch forward little by little...
And after two full years, he finally reached the 2nd layer of Qi Refining.
That happiness lasted only a moment.
Heo Yangok, a 5th-layer Qi Refining cultivator who had been the one to bring him into the clan, came to see him and clicked his tongue.
"Why don’t you just give up on cultivation and go live among mortals? At least then you could become a respected immortal."
The feeling of climbing only to be pushed back down again hurt.
...If I really have no talent, then is cultivation meaningless no matter how hard I try?
At times like that, his resolve nearly crumbled under the weight of his anxiety. And yet, he continued to train in silence.
Then one day—quite by chance—he discovered that he had a talent for martial arts.
"Ah."
It felt as though he had found a shaft of light in a world that had been nothing but darkness.
"Martial arts? What’s the point of that? Isn’t that just a crude skill mortals learn because they can’t use spiritual energy?"
Someone mocked him, but he ignored them. He clung to that light called hope.
He spent everything he had on a 1st-tier mid-grade flying sword. It was secondhand, and no one even knew where it had come from, but it was the first artifact he had ever owned.
From that day on, he never let go of the sword for a single day.
"...You really are ruthless, aren’t you."
It was martial arts meant for mortals, but he learned it with everything he had. Instead of ordinary internal force, he began researching how to use spiritual energy to fuel his techniques.
A year passed.
"Hmm. Using spiritual energy to drive martial arts does make it quite a bit stronger. It could even work against our Qi Refining cultivators."
The way people looked at him changed.
In particular, Heo Yangok’s attitude shifted the most.
"I’m sorry for how I treated you before. You really might be able to break through to Foundation Establishment someday. This is a little apology gift."
"This bracelet... could it be an artifact?"
"Yes. It’s only a 1st-tier low-grade one, but it’s a valuable defensive artifact. It should help a great deal in the upcoming Red Cloud Secret Realm."
For the first time in that harsh world, he felt genuine kindness, and for a moment he didn’t know what to say.
He fiddled with the bead-like bracelet for a while before finally speaking.
"How did you know I was planning to challenge the Red Cloud Secret Realm?"
"Hoho. You’ve been swinging that sword like a madman lately. How could I not know? If things go well for you later, you absolutely mustn’t forget me."
"...Thank you."
Perhaps because his heart had grown lighter, his slow and stagnant cultivation began to surge forward at last.
In the end...
Six years after falling into a world devoid of mercy, he rose from a serf whose daily life had been nothing but taking lashes to the 3rd layer of Qi Refining, and finally gained the right to enter the Red Cloud Secret Realm.