Chapter 120
Chapter 120
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: Two Birds with One Stone (5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The original plan of the South Continent Guardians was as follows.
First, Seoran generates a fire spirit root at the source.
Second, Seoran accumulates purified spiritual power through the technique.
Third, trigger a volcanic eruption to vent the remaining fire spirit qi.
Through the secret ritual once and the spiritual power conversion process again, a massive amount of fire spirit qi would be consumed in two stages total.
Then, they intended to completely exhaust the sharply reduced fire spirit qi through large-scale volcanic activity.
It was a perfect plan to resolve the anomaly by cleanly removing the excessively concentrated fire spirit qi.
But they had no choice except to modify part of the plan.
It was because of the lava resort built in the volcanic zone.
They couldn't turn the peaceful daily lives of the desert giants into a disaster movie in an instant.
In the end, the third stage was slightly altered.
They decided to use a different method instead of a volcanic eruption.
As long as the anomaly was resolved, that was all that mattered.
*****
Seoran, who had been enjoying sword flight dangling from the obsidian dagger, arrived at the source before she knew it.
Even though it was 500 li underground, considering the flight speed of the flying sword artifact, it wasn't a long trip at all.
She wasn't sure if pushing through the magma could be called flight, though.
Seoran groped her surroundings with her sixth sense.
In the middle of the magma, there was nothing her pathetic spirit eyes—lacking even x-ray vision—could do.
She could only rely on the sixth sense she had steadily trained.
The invisible sensory sphere centered on Seoran's head rapidly expanded.
In an instant, it covered a radius of several li within perception range.
An enormous amount of sensory information flooded in, but her brain's processing speed had no trouble keeping up.
Seoran's primal infant, huddled inside her narrow skull, opened its eyes.
The translucent baby that emerged from her skull through the Baihui acupoint on the crown of her head immediately stretched.
It was a body size that made "super premium preterm baby" feel like an understatement.
In her spirit body form with astral projection, Seoran began sorting the vast information pouring in like a flood.
Information necessary for this situation and information that wasn't.
It didn't take long.
In her spirit body state, Seoran remotely controlled her fleshly body.
Her body, with a dazed expression, moved to a place with even denser fire spirit qi at the soul's command.
She was heading toward the central area suitable for setting up the formation.
Middle Seoran and small Seoran arrived at the center.
Overwhelmingly dense fire spirit qi—this was the spot.
Seoran unwrapped the bundle made from fire rat fur clothing.
Inside were formation flags and pillars galore.
Seoran quickly infused spiritual power into the formation artifacts before the intense heat could damage them.
The artifacts activated in an instant and scattered in all directions.
Seoran loosely draped the fire rat fur clothing over herself and waited for the formation setup to complete.
The items in the bundle were one-touch formation installation kits made overnight by the formation research institute.
Even a layman could easily set up a formation after memorizing the simple instructions.
A moment later, the formation setup was finally complete.
The formation, resonating with Seoran's golden core, sucked in all the surrounding fire spirit qi using immense attractive force.
The secret ritual had begun.
Seoran's primal infant returned to her skull.
From now on, razor-sharp focus was required.
Even renowned single spirit root holders sometimes took seven days and nights to complete a single spirit root.
Seoran began meditating with a calm mind.
*****
Exactly one quarter-hour (15 minutes) later, Seoran stopped meditating.
It wasn't that she suddenly got hungry in the middle of the secret ritual, of course.
It was simply that the fire spirit root had formed early.
Seoran examined her solar plexus area, the middle dantian, with her sixth sense.
Red, blue, yellow, white—four colors.
No matter how she counted again, it was unmistakably a four spirit root.
Seoran had clearly succeeded in generating a fire spirit root.
Her first thought was, 'Already?'
Honestly, Seoran was aware that she was a genius.
So she hadn't thought it would take seven days and nights to generate a single spirit root.
But this seemed too fast.
Her second thought was, 'Ah, maybe?'
Human perception of time wasn't accurate.
That's why sometimes, when too focused on one task, time seemed to fly by.
A classic example was thinking "just watch one episode and sleep," only to snap out of it and realize it's almost time to go to work.
Of course, the "perceived time error hypothesis" was quickly discarded.
There was a limit to how much one could mistake time—she wouldn't confuse seven days and nights with one quarter-hour.
Just to be sure, she checked the formation's operation time, but less than one double-hour (2 hours) had passed.
Seoran decided to think positively.
Special environment, innate talent, or simple luck.
She didn't know the exact cause, but it ended early, so good was good.
Seoran moved to the second stage of the plan.
It was time to convert the dense fire spirit qi into purified spiritual power.
That's why she had memorized the technique manual in advance.
The primal infant technique she would learn this time was the Embracing Flames Body Protection Art.
In plain terms, it meant embracing fire to protect the body.
It was the Black Bamboo Sect's fire attribute secret technique.
The technique's effect was extremely simple.
It generated a unique barrier—precisely, an amorphous dharma flame barrier—to protect the user. That was it.
If classified, it was a defense-specialized technique.
Before departing for the South Continent expedition, Seoran had heard an explanation of the Embracing Flames Body Protection Art from Yeom Moo-jin.
And that's when she finally understood how the Black Bamboo Sect became one of the West Continent's Five Great Sects.
The pills refined with superb alchemy were just one of the three pillars supporting the Black Bamboo Sect.
As long as purified spiritual power continued to supply the dharma flame barrier, it protected the user from almost all harm.
Stronger attacks could consume spiritual power quickly, but that was all.
No being had ever destroyed a dharma flame barrier.
In the end, there were only two practical ways to kill an Embracing Flames Body Protection Art user.
The first was to ambush and eliminate them before they could activate the barrier, and the second was to overwhelm them with numbers in a war of attrition until they suffocated.
She didn't know about after ascending to the immortal realm, but in the human realm, it was practically invincible.
As Seoran meditated while reciting the incantation, fierce flames enveloped her naked body.
It was the dharma flame barrier ignited by purified spiritual power.
Proof that Seoran had already mastered the Embracing Flames Body Protection Art.
The fire spirit qi drawn by the formation entered Seoran's body directly and converted into purified spiritual power.
The already reduced fire spirit qi concentration from the secret ritual continued to thin out.
At this rate, the anomaly seemed on track to resolve without even needing the third stage.
A moment later, Seoran stopped practicing the technique.
It was because no more spiritual power would enter her body.
She had saved quite a bit on spirit stone costs.
Seoran carefully scanned her surroundings with her sixth sense.
The fire spirit qi concentration had fallen below the threshold.
At this level, she probably wouldn't even need to bombard her own barrier with spells as originally planned.
Still, just in case, she probed more meticulously.
In the midst of doing so for a while, something caught her sixth sense.
It was a large cylindrical object.
Seoran maneuvered the flying sword toward the cylinder.
The surface of the cylinder, about twice Seoran's height, was covered in complex patterns.
She wondered why she hadn't detected such a huge object earlier.
Perhaps the fire spirit qi had been too dense.
Her sensory range rapidly narrowed, and Seoran's sixth sense fully focused on the cylinder.
The cylinder was drawing in massive amounts of fire spirit qi with an attractive force whose principle she couldn't even comprehend.
Only then did Seoran realize the true cause of the anomaly that had devastated the South Continent.
Seoran was utterly dumbfounded.
Familiar patterns and an object with an incomprehensible principle.
The culprit was all too obvious.
It was an ancient civilization relic again.
*****
As Seoran emerged from the changing room, the man at the counter asked,
"Hey, why'd you finish bathing so quickly? A proper bath takes a leisurely two double-hours, you know."
Seoran, fully immersed in her minor acting, replied,
"I'm done with bathing!"
Seoran ran at full speed from the public bathhouse to the meeting spot where the group waited.
The food mountain great peng was loitering nearby.
Seoran released the growth technique, put on the fire rat fur clothing, and swiftly entered through the food mountain great peng's beak.
The institute director greeted her.
"Investigator Ryu, how did you return so quickly? Did something go wrong during the formation setup?"
From the South Continent Guardians' perspective, it was impossible to expect the anomaly resolved already.
They had conservatively estimated the operation at a minimum of seven days and nights.
Even the person involved, Seoran, hadn't known the entire process would end in one double-hour.
Seoran promptly delivered the good news.
"The anomaly has been safely resolved!"
It was obvious what reaction the South Continent folks would have.