Minor Accomplishment in the Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art, A New Divine Ability
In a wasteland where not even a small animal could be seen, let alone another human being, Jin Somyeong stood as still as a stone statue and closed his eyes.
Before casting Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust, he entered meditation without so much as a twitch.
Inhale...
Breath in, breath out. He poured every nerve into the simple act of breathing, dragging his concentration to its absolute limit. The trivial thoughts drifting through his mind vanished one by one, and when even the last stubborn remnant of distraction disappeared without a trace, Jin Somyeong's eyes snapped open.
The compressed power within his organs surged toward detonation.
Thump!
His heart moved first. That organ, which had evolved into a spiritual engine and could now be called a dantian without exaggeration, poured out every scrap of accumulated magic power it had stored until now.
Now.
The very first instant. That was what mattered most. Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust grew explosively stronger each time its energy passed through one of his organs: heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys, and liver. In other words, he had to settle this when the energy was at its weakest, just as it had begun its journey from the heart.
Half. I'll use exactly half its power.
The moment he forcibly halted a portion of the magic power racing through his meridians, his breath caught and his head spun. Blood surged up his throat, as if he had suffered internal injuries.
Hurts like hell.
What happened if one suddenly blocked a faucet from which water was gushing at full force? Naturally, tremendous pressure would build inside the pipes. His meridians were in precisely that state. The unnatural interruption in the flow of magic power made them throb as if they might burst.
He clenched his teeth and endured it. No, in truth, the moment was so brief that calling it endurance felt almost embarrassing. The instant he sensed that part of the magic power leaving his heart had reached his spleen—
———!
A blinding white flash painted the world ahead. A strange silence followed, as though the very concept of sound had been forcibly erased.
Kwaaaaang!
Then a violent explosion roared out, and a gale howled across the wasteland. Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust, erupting from his fist, pierced the sky.
"...Cough."
Jin Somyeong grimaced as he spat blood, unable to suppress the agony he had not felt in quite some time.
For a brief moment, disappointment flickered through him as he wondered if he had failed. But when he gauged the magic power remaining in his dantian, his expression brightened at once.
"Ohhh."
Normally, after using Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust, less than ten percent of his magic power remained, leaving him in a state of near-total exhaustion. This time, however, he still had twenty percent left. With that much magic power, he could continue fighting.
Of course, that was if one judged by magic power alone. At the moment, his meridians were on the verge of bursting, so rather than fighting, he needed to focus on recovery immediately. His condition was worse than when he simply used Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust normally.
Still...
He had succeeded, one way or another.
Well begun is half done.
Crude and rough though his method had been, he had managed to control its power. Now that he had succeeded once, he would be able to do it more skillfully next time. Nodding in satisfaction, he took out a recovery pill and swallowed it.
Hm?
By chance, his eyes fell on the sky that Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust had pierced. A fairly broad swath of clouds had vanished as cleanly as if erased.
As he stared at the circular hole in the cloud cover, a thought occurred to him.
Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust spreads in the shape of a cone.
It erupted outward in all directions from his fist. Seen another way, that meant its force was not fully concentrated. Of course, even so, Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust was powerful enough to grind a Golden Core cultivator to dust.
But what if.
What if that destructive power, which spread widely across a surface, could be gathered not into a line, but into a single point?
The thought alone sent a chill down his spine.
It might show absurd piercing power...
Jin Somyeong, who had been muttering blankly, clenched his fist. In any case, what he needed to do now was clear.
Training.
Time flowed on, and one day, a year and a half later—
"Finally!"
Jin Somyeong's eyes shone with anticipation.
The proficiency of his Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art was on the verge of filling completely.
The status window had only displayed it as 3,999,000 because values below the thousands place had been omitted. His actual proficiency was 3,999,999. In other words, if he invested just one more Boundless Great Ability, he would reach the stage beyond Orthodox.
Whew.
For some reason, he felt nervous. Jin Somyeong calmed his excitement and focused his mind. Then, with the sensation of pushing over the first tile in a completed line of dominoes, he invested the final Boundless Great Ability.
Crack!
A storm erupted inside his head. Hundreds of thousands of characters shattered, scattered, fused, and split again, repeating the process over and over. All manner of secrets for tempering the body poured endlessly into him.
"Ah!"
It was an exclamation in the truest sense: awe and astonishment given sound.
This was the miracle wrought by the overwhelming force of four million Boundless Great Abilities. Reconstructed from its very roots, the Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art evolved into a cultivation method of an entirely higher dimension. It had become so exceptional that calling it by the same name as the common Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art circulating in the market felt almost insulting.
The feast of knowledge flooding into him left his mind hazy.
Was this what one called ecstasy?
It felt as though he had become a being of sublime height. The world seemed to rest in the palm of his hand. In this moment, he envied nothing. Would eating the legendary Enlightenment Pill, said to grant the awakening of a Buddha, feel like this?
He forgot everything and sank helplessly into the rapture of infinite ascent.
At the same time a complete dharma formula, containing a fragment of the Three Thousand Great Daos, was branded into his mind—
Boom!
As though expelled from the heavens, he was violently thrown out of his trance.
"...Ah?"
A sigh escaped his parched throat. It was an exclamation similar to the one he had uttered while drunk on enlightenment, but its meaning was entirely different.
He felt bereft. Enough that it would not have been strange if he had gone mad. The sensation of being demoted from a great and lofty existence back into a mere crawling thing was deeply unpleasant.
"Haa."
With his whole face twisted into a scowl, Jin Somyeong raised his arm. It was clearly the same body as always, yet it felt like an unbearably cumbersome burden.
After sitting blankly for a while, he closed his eyes. He tried somehow to artificially reproduce the trance from a moment ago, but it was not easy.
It had happened barely a minute earlier, yet the memory was already blurred. As if it had been deleted, he could not recall it at all.
"Mmm..."
He floundered after a mirage that seemed within reach yet receded the closer he approached.
How many times had the sun risen and set?
For nearly a week, Jin Somyeong did nothing but dwell on that ecstasy, even neglecting his training. Then he flinched.
What am I doing right now...?
Startled by the thought that rose in his mind, he slapped himself hard across the cheek. He did not stop there. Forcing himself to stand, he walked through the cave abode as if taking a stroll.
Once the drunken sensation faded and his mind grew clear, goosebumps rose across his skin.
He had nearly wasted an enormous amount of time chasing an illusion called enlightenment, something he could not even properly perceive at his current level.
"Hoo!"
At the lakeside on the mountainside of his cave abode, he took a deep breath. When he focused only on the flow of air entering his lungs, the bewitched feeling vanished completely.
Now that he had come back to his senses, it was even more chilling. He had nearly fallen into heart demons by clinging to that ecstasy. What would have happened if he had simply sat there doing no training, obsessing only over enlightenment? With the passage of time, both his body and mind would likely have withered.
That could've been disastrous.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Jin Somyeong opened his status window.
An unexpected problem had arisen, but he had overcome it safely enough. What mattered now was how the Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art had changed.
As Jin Somyeong looked over the translucent hologram of his status window, his eyes widened sharply.
"Ohhh."
The stage after Orthodox was Minor Accomplishment.
By the strict standards of the status window, just what level did a "minor accomplishment" represent? His mouth went dry with anticipation.
He hoped the four million Boundless Great Abilities he had invested would prove worthwhile.
Let's see...
He reviewed the reconstructed dharma formula of the Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art from beginning to end, focusing on the changes that had occurred now that its proficiency had reached Minor Accomplishment.
"Not bad."
After concentrating for a long while, Jin Somyeong's expression grew brighter and brighter. He rather liked the newly born Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art.
First of all, every basic effect the Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art possessed had strengthened: poison resistance, regeneration, muscular strength, meridian durability, and more. All those blessing-like effects that quietly helped him in everyday cultivation, often without him even noticing, had been reinforced across the board.
Its energy efficiency had improved as well. The amount of power he could exert with the same blood energy had increased.
Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust has become stronger too.
The five viscera, which performed the role of dantians, could now contain a greater amount of magic power. Jin Somyeong had originally possessed roughly 1.3 times the magic power of cultivators of the same level, but now he had reached approximately 1.5 times.
Controlling Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust had become more difficult, but there was no reason to dislike that. In the end, it meant he had become stronger.
As he nodded in satisfaction, Jin Somyeong's eyes flashed.
I've gained a divine ability too!
Blood Spirit Clone Art.
As the name suggested, it was a clone technique that used blood, a divine ability that divided his body into several forms.
He closed his eyes and focused. The moment he unleashed the divine ability engraved into his flesh, the world split in two. No, to be precise, it would be more accurate to say his field of vision divided into two.
"Mmm..."
Amid the unfamiliar sensation he was experiencing for the first time, he slowly turned his gaze. A young man who looked exactly like him was staring back blankly.
When he raised his right arm, the other did the same. It felt as if he were looking into a mirror.
Jin Somyeong moved this way and that, as though stretching, before frowning.
The clone created through the Blood Spirit Clone Art possessed no self. It was close to a doll that simply moved as the main body commanded.
...It's harder to control than I expected.
What would happen if one's arms and legs suddenly doubled in number? One would probably find even walking properly difficult. The clone was worse than that.
It began with sight, but there was also touch, smell, and every other sense. First, he had to determine which body each sensation was coming from, and that alone was far more complicated than he had imagined.
"Ngh."
He tried keeping the main body still while moving only the clone, but it was difficult. The clone collapsed flat to the ground and flailed helplessly.
Still, time was the answer.
Perhaps because it was a divine ability branded into his body, his proficiency rose quickly. After practicing for about half a day, he became able to move both his main body and the clone freely.
Swish!
Watching the clone swing a sword, Jin Somyeong rubbed his chin. Over the past half day, he had learned a great deal about the Blood Spirit Clone Art.
As befitted a divine ability born from the proficiency system, the Blood Spirit Clone Art was extremely powerful.
To start with its restrictions, the Blood Spirit Clone could only move within the range of his Divine Sense. It was not impossible for it to leave that range, but...
The farther it gets from me, the more rapidly it consumes mental strength and magic power. It can't last long.
Next came the clone's power. The strength of a Blood Spirit Clone varied depending on how much of Jin Somyeong's own power he consumed to create it.
If he consumed ten percent of his power to make a clone, then a clone with ten percent of the main body's abilities would appear.
This part is a little awkward.
The way that power was consumed was somewhat tricky. If Jin Somyeong possessed ten units of power and invested one unit to make a clone, then the main body could only wield nine units of power afterward. In other words, the more clones he created, the weaker his main body became.
If that had been the end of it, the Blood Spirit Clone would not have been particularly useful. The drawback of weakening the main body was truly fatal.
However, this clone had an ability worthy of being called an authority.
It can use every power I possess except the Boundless Great Ability...
That was right.
This clone could use Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust as well.
Damage suffered by the clone did not affect the main body. In other words, he could now cast Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust without worrying about exhaustion.
And there was one more powerful ability. The clone and the main body could switch positions with each other at any time.
Seen one way, it was essentially teleportation.
If he left a clone waiting far away and switched positions with it, he could escape with ease in a dangerous moment.
A divine ability specialized for survival, then.
It had quite a few weaknesses, but he was not overly concerned. Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust had also become more powerful as his realm rose. The Blood Spirit Clone Art would likely be the same.
Once he reached the Nascent Soul realm, there was a high possibility it would display its true power. Perhaps it might even gain additional abilities.
If I use it well, it might help with training too.
As Jin Somyeong considered how to make use of his new divine ability, he paused. Suddenly, he recalled the goal and ideal pursued by the Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art.
It said that upon reaching Great Accomplishment, one attains an undying body and can revive from death so long as even a single drop of blood remains...
The stage the Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art had reached now was Minor Accomplishment. Perhaps the Blood Spirit Clone Art was a partial preview of the divine ability he would obtain once the art reached Great Accomplishment.
If I attain an undying body, will I be able to live forever?
Jin Somyeong pondered deeply, then shook his head.
That was a future far too distant.
For the Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art to reach the next stage, it would consume a staggering four billion Boundless Great Abilities. He would at least have to reach the Nascent Soul realm before he could even consider it, and there was no certainty that the next stage would be Great Accomplishment to begin with.
For now, simply raising his realm was enough.
Next is the second layer of the Golden Core realm.
Reminding himself of the goal he needed to achieve before the secret realm opened, Jin Somyeong once again immersed himself in training.