Breakthrough
The instant Jin Somyeong thrust out his fist—
The overwhelming force that had once reduced even a mountain to powder came pouring forth.
Hyeok Cheon-ung, who had been swallowed in light for a split second, soon reappeared.
“...”
Without saying a word, Hyeok Cheon-ung glanced down at his own body. At first glance, he looked unharmed.
Not so much as the hem of his robe had been damaged. After a long silence, he finally spoke.
“Once every hundred years... no, perhaps once every thousand, there is a Golden Core cultivator killed by someone at Foundation Establishment. Have you heard of such a thing?”
“No.”
At Jin Somyeong’s curt answer, Hyeok Cheon-ung looked up at the sky and sighed.
“When I first heard of it, I laughed and called it absurd... To think I would become the very example. Wahahaha!”
Fwoosh!
Before his wild laughter could even finish, Hyeok Cheon-ung’s upper body turned to ash and scattered on the wind.
Swept away by the tyrannical power of Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust, he could not even leave behind a proper corpse.
“Hoo...”
Jin Somyeong tossed several recovery pills into his mouth and steadied his breathing—then froze.
His Divine Sense, now at the level of a Golden Core cultivator’s, had detected a subtle disturbance.
He narrowed his eyes and focused. Again and again, he swept the surroundings without missing a single inch.
That was when he found something writhing in the corpse that remained only from the waist down.
Clang!
He was about to slice it apart in a single stroke when—whoosh!—something like a small bead shot out and fled.
An inner core?
It looked like an enlarged pearl. A third-tier demon beast king’s inner core flew through the air so quickly it was almost invisible, retreating into the distance.
The moment Jin Somyeong saw it, he understood.
He’s not dead yet.
At the instant before death, Hyeok Cheon-ung had poured all his power into the demon core that had replaced his dantian and waited for a chance to escape.
Its speed was enough that the slightest carelessness would let it slip away. Jin Somyeong responded at once.
Rumble!
He unleashed Lightning Escape with everything he had.
If he allowed a Golden Core cultivator who had become his mortal enemy to escape, it would haunt him for years. He absolutely could not let Hyeok Cheon-ung get away.
Five seconds.
That brief span was all it took to decide which of them was faster.
The distance between him and the fleeing demon core vanished. Just as Jin Somyeong closed in and prepared to cut it down—
“W-Wait! Fellow Daoist! Calm yourself and listen to me!”
A desperate voice rang out from within the demon core, but Jin Somyeong ignored it. He had no intention of hesitating at a moment like this and regretting it later.
He brought down his lightning-wreathed sword as though cleaving the thing clean in two.
And yet—
Kaaang!
He had struck it dead-on, yet the blade bounced back. Sparks scattered where the demon core and Sword Qi collided.
...Hard.
Was a False Golden Core still a Golden Core after all? Even the demon core, one of its most vulnerable points, was unbelievably sturdy.
Even a full-power strike from his sword could not cut through it easily.
If Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust had missed, this would have been a hard fight to win.
His eyes narrowed, and he swung again.
If once was not enough, then twice. If twice was not enough, he would keep going until it worked.
Kaaang! Klang!
He hammered at the demon core again and again, almost as if beating it with a mallet.
“S-Stop! Please, stop! If you kill me, you’ll regret it. You won’t come out of this unscath—n-no!!”
Craaaack!
The moment a fissure appeared on the smooth surface of the demon core, the crack spread like a spiderweb along with a scream full of despair.
It was working.
Jin Somyeong’s eyes flashed, and he swung his sword one final time.
Shatter!
With a thunderous sound like breaking glass, the demon core split into three pieces. A faint scream lingered within it, then vanished.
“...Now you’re finally dead.”
Just in case, he checked twice, then a third time. Hyeok Cheon-ung was certainly dead.
Jin Somyeong placed the shattered pieces of the demon core into his subspace and returned to the corpse, which was now nothing but a lower body.
With a tense heart, he checked the waist—and fortunately, a storage pouch still hung there.
Good.
He had worried it might have been reduced to dust by Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust, but it seemed to have narrowly avoided the technique’s path.
He picked up the third-tier storage pouch, embroidered with a golden dragon in gold thread, and sent Divine Sense into it.
As expected, no luck.
Not only his Divine Sense but even his spiritual power was repelled before it could enter.
It was the same as when he had acquired a Foundation Establishment-level storage pouch back during his Qi Refining days.
A restrictive seal acted as a lock, making it impossible to open right away.
He was not disappointed. He had expected this. In any case, the solution was simple.
Consuming 1,000 Boundless Great Ability beads will allow the contents to be preserved.
All he had to do was absorb the entire storage pouch into the Mental Pocket Realm.
At his current level, recovering a thousand beads would take roughly two days. It was no difficulty at all.
I’ll open it after returning to Sky Island.
Since it was a storage pouch acquired at the location guided by the Spirit-Seeking Talisman, he trusted that it contained something he needed.
It would be nice if there were some Golden Core spiritual object inside...
He smacked his lips in anticipation, then employed his Golden Core-level Divine Sense.
He examined the storage pouch as carefully as he could.
Even if he could not open it right away, he could at least check whether there were any dangerous restrictive seals on it.
None.
With a nod, he tied it to his waist.
After burning away the remains of Hyeok Cheon-ung’s lower body with fire-attribute lightning, he turned his attention to the ownerless third-tier millstone treasure still floating in the sky.
It looked like two rough stone discs stacked atop one another, but strangely, it had no handle.
As a test, he tried injecting spiritual power into it, but as expected of a third-tier magic treasure, it did not respond. With Jin Somyeong’s current spiritual power, it was impossible.
I’ll take it for now.
He placed it into his subspace and slowly surveyed the area, unsure whether to call it a spirit herb field or a cave abode.
The contrast between the devastated ground and the blue sky was stark.
The hill where splendid spirit herbs had once been planted had been reduced to ruins, yet the sky above remained clear and peaceful.
As he watched cranes gliding leisurely between pure white clouds, realization suddenly came to him.
...It was fake.
When he examined the ceiling carefully, he could tell it was an illusion created by a formation.
Of course. After a commotion like this, no bird would be flying about so calmly.
It seemed this place was a cave abode built deep beneath the sea.
He made a full circuit of the area.
He picked up the nameless spirit herbs that had survived the chaos and put them into his subspace. Later, he intended to transplant them into the Mental Pocket Realm.
As for the Tong-eo grass... I’ll store it for now.
One never knew what the future might bring.
He had no such plans at the moment, but if he ever ended up raising spirit beasts, the grass would be useful, so he collected it all.
As he carefully checked to make sure he had missed nothing, two structures touched the edge of his Divine Sense. At the outer edge of the cave abode below the hill, he saw a log cabin.
A hut?
It had furniture such as a bed and desk, so it seemed to have been where Hyeok Cheon-ung lived.
Jin Somyeong searched it carefully for anything useful.
A cushion?
At a glance, it looked like an ordinary straw cushion, but judging from the aura it gave off, it was a top-grade second-tier artifact.
When he infused it with energy, instructions for its use surfaced in his mind.
A treasure that increases the speed of accumulating spiritual power.
Using it was simple, too. All he had to do was sit on it and cultivate as usual.
Smiling at the satisfying harvest, he entered the building beside it. This one was a warehouse.
His eyes widened at the pitch-black soil filling half of a space about three hundred square meters wide.
Third-tier spirit soil!
It was the highest-quality soil known as breathing soil.
If spirit herbs were grown in it, their quality improved and their growth accelerated.
It was so rare that even Spirit Stones could not buy it on Sky Island, yet he had found it here.
This is huge. I was disappointed that the soil I planted the Sword Seed in was only second-tier.
He could not help but laugh at the appearance of a treasure he had truly needed.
As expected of an opportunity found through the Spirit-Seeking Talisman, every single thing he gained was genuinely useful.
I’ll take it first.
There was too much to fit into his subspace all at once. He made repeated trips to the Mental Pocket Realm and moved all the breathing soil.
Just as he was thinking that taking the risk of using the Spirit-Seeking Talisman had been well worth it—
“Hyeok Cheon-ung! Why did you suddenly call me? The Tong-eo grass should still be far from fully grown!”
A booming roar shook the entire cave abode. Jin Somyeong flinched at the beastly growl in the voice.
A third-tier demon beast king?
His brow furrowed on its own.
He remembered Hyeok Cheon-ung shouting that Jin Somyeong would regret it while fleeing as a demon core.
As a final act of spite, he must have called a nearby demon beast king.
Tch. He really couldn’t just die quietly.
He had pretended to be mad, but in truth he had been chillingly calm; he had pretended to die with heroic laughter, only to try to flee. He was a truly insidious bastard.
Reflexively, Jin Somyeong checked the state of his body, only to sigh.
What was there to say? It was awful, of course.
His meridians had been shredded by Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust and were on the verge of snapping, while his spiritual power had bottomed out.
Fighting a third-tier demon beast king in this condition would be suicide.
This is impossible.
There was nothing to think over. He immediately pulled out the third-tier teleportation talisman he had kept for emergencies.
“Wait... Something is strange. Hyeok Cheon-ung! Answer me at once!”
Ignoring the demon beast king that sounded ready to charge in at any moment, Jin Somyeong activated the teleportation talisman.
His vision—no, space itself—turned inside out.
Ugh.
His stomach churned. Forcing down the urge to vomit, he checked his surroundings.
Crash!
He heard the refreshing sound of waves.
One moment he had been in the cave abode with the spirit herb field; now he stood on a beach covered in white sand.
He could not help but marvel at the miracle wrought by a single talisman.
A hundred li—an enormous distance of forty kilometers—had been crossed in an instant.
Everything about it was excellent, truly. Except...
The thick, gamey stench of beasts that wafted over ruined it all.
At a distance so close it might as well have been right beside him, Jin Somyeong locked eyes with three upper second-tier demon beasts sniffing the air.
“Grrr. Human?”
The wolves, whose claws were webbed between the toes, glared at the man who had appeared out of nowhere.
Whoosh!
As they attacked as if it were only natural, Jin Somyeong sighed.
Of all things, it had to be these bastards.
They were wolves known as the Sea Wolf Clan, famous for their tenacious nature and keen sense of smell, which made them excellent trackers.
Could his luck possibly be any worse?
Normally, he would have cut them down with a single stroke, but right now, his physical condition was at its absolute worst.
Hoo.
There was no use complaining. With one short breath, he cast aside his negative emotions.
What mattered was facing reality and doing the best he could.
He gathered every bit of spiritual power that had barely recovered and guided it into his sword.
Whoosh!
Toward the beast charging first, he thrust lightly, as though placing a dot with the tip of his sword.
A single red spot appeared between its brows.
From that one tiny wound, the life vanished from the eyes of the demon beast that had been charging so ferociously.
Thud!
At the same time the corpse collapsed, killed in a single move, Jin Somyeong took one step back and avoided its falling mass as it carried forward on inertia.
He had handled one beast using the absolute minimum amount of strength.
“How dare you!”
A bloody light seeped into the eyes of the remaining two. They were enraged by the absurd death of their companion.
Boom!
As if responding to their emotions, demonic energy surged. Wind whirled in from every direction and began to sharpen.
The cyclone and sand mixed together, becoming thousands upon thousands of hidden weapons.
Against the violent gale that came tearing toward him—
Boom!
Jin Somyeong simply ran.
Trusting in the body that had hardened to the level of an artifact, he charged straight ahead.
He had no time to waste trading blows with these things when he had no idea when the third-tier demon beast king would catch up.
Ting-ting-ting!
Sand transformed into blade-like fragments poured over him, but they could not even pierce his skin.
Having broken through the storm of hidden weapons with a crude and simple method, Jin Somyeong flashed with sword light.
A head flew into the sky.
“Kuheng!”
The last Sea Wolf Clan beast started in shock and tried to flee, but Jin Somyeong did not let it go.
If he spared it, it would only bring other companions back and make things troublesome.
Slice!
He squeezed out the last of his spiritual power and launched a slash.
The wolf, just as it was leaping into the sea, was split in two and sprayed blood.
“Hooo...”
Jin Somyeong took pills from his subspace, tossed them into his mouth, and gripped Spirit Stones in his hand.
He had to recover his spiritual power and leave this place as quickly as possible.
As Jin Somyeong flew over the vast open sea, he bit his lip.
After dealing with the upper second-tier demon beasts, he had been able to compare the island’s shape against his map and determine his current location. But...
I still have to fly for half a month to reach Sky Island.
That was bad. Very bad.
Even after using the third-tier teleportation talisman, the uneasy feeling would not fade.
It was unpleasant, like having a viper perched on his shoulder, licking the nape of his neck.
Long ago, back when he had still been a mortal, he had felt something similar whenever he climbed Jeokyang Mountain, where beasts swarmed thickly. A sense of crisis was creeping up over him.
This won’t do.
He was moving as quickly as possible, but he did not feel as though he could shake off the pursuit of a third-tier demon beast king.
At this point, where a single decision would determine life or death, he had to choose.
“...”
After agonizing over it as he flew, Jin Somyeong suddenly changed direction. He picked a nearby deserted island and descended.
At the same time as he scattered and installed the formation artifacts he had bought from the market, he took out a pill he had carefully stored in his subspace.
Steel Body Pill.
It was something he had originally been saving to consume when he challenged the Golden Core realm.
A pill that amplified physical ability.
Without hesitation, he swallowed it.
And then—
He circulated the art with all his might. At this very moment, he intended to break through to third-tier body refinement.