Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Foundation Establishment (3)
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I really loved getting attention, huh.
Superhuman Seo-ran was filled with complex emotions.
What should she say if someone asked?
That her enlightenment was accepting herself as the incarnation of a desire for recognition?
Was it really okay to reach Foundation Establishment with such a pathetic bit of self-reflection?
Wouldn't it have been better if it had been the incarnation of competitive spirit instead?
Of course, she knew now that it wasn't the case anymore.
Seo-ran was a person starved for love.
But it was also true that it felt a bit embarrassing to reveal to others.
Maybe that's why others always glossed over their enlightenments too?
Baring one's inner self was something everyone would find shameful.
They just vaguely brushed it off with pretentious words.
With that thought, the female cultivator she had met last time suddenly seemed respectable.
To show others the deep scars buried within herself just to help them.
It was like the courage to recite a self-composed poem written in the sentimental mood of dawn in front of all one's relatives.
Seo-ran could never imagine herself doing it.
Next time they met, she definitely had to thank her.
With that resolve, Seo-ran opened her eyes.
And she looked around.
The house was a complete mess.
The windows and doors were all smashed, and not a single piece of furniture was intact.
Moreover, unlike her last memory, Seo-ran had awakened in the first-floor training hall.
Looking up, there was a huge hole punched through the second-floor floorboards.
When am I going to clean all this up?
Seeing the disastrous state of the house made her truly distressed.
Seo-ran decided to handle the most urgent matter first.
So she dug out the least damaged clothes from under the wreckage of the broken wardrobe, put them on, and left the house.
Upon arriving at the Life Registry Hall, Seo-ran said,
“I've come to report that I advanced to Foundation Establishment last night.”
“Foundation Establishment at sixteen!”
The Black Bamboo Sect was turned upside down.
Immediately, the leadership—Core Formation cultivators—were summoned.
“Sixteen? Has there ever been a precedent like this?”
“Well, at least according to Black Bamboo Sect records, she's the youngest.”
“How old was the previous cultivator who reached Foundation Establishment the fastest?”
“Nineteen, I believe. That was over a thousand years ago.”
“But didn't Ryu Susa hit a bottleneck with her enlightenment? It was definitely in the report that came up a few days ago.”
“Exactly. Unless she had some fateful encounter...”
“Inside the sect's competition barrier? A fateful encounter?”
The Core Formation cultivators were all bewildered.
No one had expected Seo-ran to break through her bottleneck so suddenly.
They had thought it would take at least a few years.
At that moment, one Core Formation cultivator changed the subject.
“But does the reason matter right now? Anyway, she gained enlightenment and advanced her realm—it's something to celebrate.”
“True enough. Advancing quickly is never a bad thing.”
“Then shall we have her start accumulating spiritual power right away and teach her spells?”
“This is really exciting.”
A warm, harmonious atmosphere filled the meeting hall.
Then someone voiced a regret.
“Still, it's a bit of a shame. It would have been nice if she'd advanced a few years later.”
“A shame? What's bad about reaching Foundation Establishment at a younger age?”
“Ryu Susa lived as a tenant farmer until she was fourteen. She couldn't get balanced nutrition, so her build is smaller than other cultivators her age.”
“So?”
“If she'd had just a little more time, wouldn't she have grown taller and more robust? She seemed really interested in fist techniques too. Well, it's a moot point now that she's already at Foundation Establishment.”
She wondered what they were talking about, and it turned out to be about height.
Once one reached Foundation Establishment, they achieved an ageless body, and their appearance no longer changed.
Naturally, they stopped growing taller too.
Hearing this, the other cultivators exchanged glances and laughed.
“Now she'll learn spells too—what does physique matter? She can enjoy fist techniques as a hobby anyway.”
“Exactly. And I've never heard of a woman caring that her height is short. If anything, they might complain if they're too tall.”
“Ryu Susa must have her own thoughts on it. Now that she's a Foundation Establishment cultivator, it's not right to keep worrying about her like a child.”
“You have a point when you put it that way. It was needless concern.”
The cultivator who had brought it up first felt relieved.
Yeah, they probably didn't realize.
It seems her short height doesn't matter.
She's not a man anyway.
The cultivators continued the meeting in a cheerful mood.
*****
Foundation Establishment cultivator Ryu Seo-ran received a few scripture books and returned home.
Entering her dwelling, which had turned into a ruin overnight, she looked around.
All the furniture was smashed, turned into mere firewood.
Even the second-floor floor—which was also the first-floor ceiling—had collapsed, turning the house into a bizarre double-height structure.
She had no idea where to start fixing it.
The old Seo-ran would probably have burned with competitive spirit and thrashed about trying to repair the house.
Someone who could fight a claw machine for real could fight a building too.
But Seo-ran had awakened now.
All those obsessions and tenacity were futile.
Seo-ran's competitive spirit and drive for improvement had all been twisted manifestations of her desire for recognition.
The Seo-ran who was always sincere even to inanimate objects was dead.
Having let go of her attachments, Seo-ran became a sage.
So she simply sat on the floor amid the wood scraps and dust and opened a book.
A delightful study session began.
The first book she opened was the earth-attribute technique, Pure Earth Consolidation Art.
Roughly speaking, it meant “the secret to accumulating pure earth spiritual power.”
Turning to the first page, it listed the method to accumulate spiritual power step by step.
First, find a place abundant in spiritual energy.
Second, stimulate your spirit root to draw in the surrounding spiritual energy.
Third, condense the spiritual energy to form spiritual power.
Seo-ran immediately hugged a head-sized large earth spirit stone and stimulated her spirit root.
It wasn't like Kegel exercises, straining a specific part of the body.
It was a mental activity requiring intense concentration.
The daily meditation she had never skipped until now had all been preparation for this moment.
The large spirit stone melted away and vanished in an instant.
Having sucked in a massive amount of pure earth spiritual energy, Seo-ran held her breath right away.
Reciting the incantation from the scripture, the spiritual energy slowly coalesced into spiritual power.
A moment later, Seo-ran exhaled the breath she had been holding.
She had already converted all the spiritual energy inside her into spiritual power.
It wasn't that difficult.
Turning the page, the next section appeared.
The spiritual energy drifting between heaven and earth is mixed with the energies of fire, water, wood, metal, and earth—the five elements.
The proportions vary by location, but unless it's an extreme case like near an active volcano, it's more or less the same.
In short, natural spiritual energy is impure.
And this becomes a problem when a cultivator stimulates their spirit root to absorb spiritual energy.
A spirit root draws in spiritual energy of its own attribute.
Naturally, multi-attribute spirit root holders inevitably mix various attributes of spiritual energy in their bodies.
For quintuple spirit root holders, all five attributes.
For triple spirit root holders like fire-wood-metal, fire, wood, and metal spiritual energy.
Even using single-attribute spirit stones for cultivation can't completely exclude impurities from the air.
Converting mixed-attribute spiritual energy into spiritual power results in impure spiritual power.
But impure spiritual power cannot overcome pure spiritual power.
Thus, an additional process is needed to remove impurities and create pure spiritual power.
Take Yi Agum as an example.
Yi Agum, with her fire-wood-metal triple spirit root, must choose one attribute upon reaching Foundation Establishment.
If she selects a fire-attribute technique, after forming spiritual power, she must remove the wood and metal spiritual power impurities.
After this refinement process, she finally obtains pure fire spiritual power.
But single spirit root holders don't need to worry about this.
Seo-ran only had one earth spirit root anyway.
Absorbing spiritual energy and converting it to spiritual power directly yields Pure Earth Spiritual Power.
Seo-ran skipped the entire refinement process.
Thirty-third, endlessly repeat the process described above to reach Core Formation.
That was it.
I just need to keep accumulating spiritual power.
It's really that simple?
As expected of a single spirit root—I believed in it.
Nodding, Seo-ran turned the page.
What followed was just an appendix.
Good cultivation spots for earth spirit root holders.
Useful tips to know.
It even included a few simple spells that beginners could learn.
What caught Seo-ran's interest were the spells called Earth God Force and Spirit Eye Technique.
Earth God Force was a spell that used Pure Earth Spiritual Power to manipulate soil or rocks.
It was actually so easy that it barely qualified as a spell.
Thus, earth spirit root Foundation Establishment cultivators usually learned Earth God Force first.
Reciting the incantation while forming hand seals with both hands, the spell activated immediately.
The drifting dust in the air clumped together like a ball.
A small dirt ball formed in her palm.
Satisfied, Seo-ran now activated Spirit Eye Technique.
It was more advanced than Earth God Force but not overly difficult.
Seo-ran's eyes emitted a yellow glow.
Looking around, she could now see flows of spiritual energy that were previously invisible.
So that's why having Spirit Eyes lets you identify spirit root holders.
In her wonder, as she scanned the surroundings, Seo-ran spotted a strong burst of spiritual energy from the corner of the first-floor training hall.
Curious, she approached and found it coming from a wooden training dummy.
The dummy, which had been fine just a few days ago, now had its torso split vertically.
Slipping her hand into the crack leaking spiritual energy, she felt paper.
Seo-ran immediately split the wooden dummy open with both hands.
Inside was a thick scripture book.