Chapter 36
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 36
The following day, Lee Hyun headed to the Mission Pavilion on Outer Affairs Peak of the Everlasting Spring Sect.
“I have come to take over the sales mission for the Vitality-Raising Pills.”
The steward of the Mission Pavilion checked Na Gyeong-mun’s mission plaque, then Lee Hyun’s identity token.
“Lee Dong-i of Pill Cauldron Peak?”
“That is correct.”
“Are you certain you want to take over this mission from Na Gyeong-mun?”
“Yes.”
When the steward placed the mission plaque onto a small formation plate, the name engraved on its surface shifted from Na Gyeong-mun to Lee Dong-i.
Wuuung—
“The Vitality-Raising Pills are at the Everlasting Spring Pill Pavilion. To complete the mission, you must sell all thirty pills and return at least 6,900 low-grade spirit stones.”
“Could I perhaps take the Vitality-Raising Pills outside the sect to sell them?”
“You may not. Entrusting goods of this value to a Qi Refining disciple for sale outside the sect is too risky. You could flee with them or run into robber cultivators. It would be a disaster. You must sell them strictly within the Everlasting Spring Pill Pavilion in the Outer Affairs Market.”
“Understood.”
The Outer Affairs Market of the Everlasting Spring Sect was a bustling hub.
It sat between the outer and inner layers of the Nine Peaks Rejuvenation Formation. External cultivators and merchant companies could pass the outer formation after a brief inspection at the mountain gate, but they could never breach the inner formation that enveloped the nine peaks.
Most of the shops trading in pills, spirit plants, magical artifacts, and talismans produced by the Everlasting Spring Sect were clustered here. It was a fully established commercial center, with shops and warehouses that purchased external supplies, stalls run by sect-authorized rogue cultivators, and even inns catering to merchant caravans.
Although taxes and stall fees were somewhat higher than in other markets, it was exceptionally safe, as the Everlasting Spring Sect maintained order. Consequently, the Outer Affairs Market thrived, drawing a steady stream of external cultivators.
At the center of the market stood a grand, three-story pavilion.
[Everlasting Spring Pill Pavilion]
Long display counters lined the first floor of the pavilion, where disciples of the Everlasting Spring Sect tended to customers, their assigned wares laid out before them.
Lee Hyun located the manager and presented his mission plaque.
“I have taken on the mission to sell Vitality-Raising Pills.”
“Follow me.”
The manager guided Lee Hyun to the storehouse behind the counters. Countless jade boxes and medicine vials were stored within formations set up throughout the room.
He fetched a jade box from deeper inside and popped it open.
Click.
Inside lay ten small jade vials arranged in neat rows. Each vial contained three Vitality-Raising Pills, for a total of thirty.
Lee Hyun took one pill from each vial to inspect its luster and fragrance. Using both his Qi-Observation Technique and his divine sense to examine their internal medicinal power, he found only minor variances in quality; none were ruined or had their medicinal properties damaged.
All normal low-grade pills.
The manager spoke. “The minimum selling price is 230 low-grade spirit stones per pill. If you sell them for more, the difference is your profit. If you sell for less, you must cover the deficit yourself.”
Lee Hyun calculated rapidly in his head.
Thirty pills at 230 stones each comes to 6,900.
His current assets were 30 mid-grade spirit stones and 320 low-grade spirit stones. Having already toured nearby markets to purchase seven Vitality-Raising Pills and magical artifacts to measure bone age, his low-grade spirit stones were practically gone.
Converting his mid-grade spirit stones into low-grade ones would give him 3,320 stones.
That was enough to purchase fourteen Vitality-Raising Pills, with 100 low-grade spirit stones to spare.
The ledger only required the quantity sold and the spirit stones received; there was no need to record the buyer’s identity.
If I sell just sixteen to external cultivators, I can buy the remaining fourteen myself.
However, claiming he sold thirty Vitality-Raising Pills in a flash when foot traffic was this sparse would attract unwanted attention.
Let’s gauge the actual sales volume first.
Lee Hyun settled down at the mission sales counter set up to one side of the Everlasting Spring Pill Pavilion.
Around midday, a rogue cultivator at layer 6 of Qi Refining approached the counter. Examining the jade vial containing the Vitality-Raising Pills, he asked, “Can you give me a slight discount if I take two?”
“I cannot.”
“I hear the Vitality-Unblocking Pills circulating outside these days cost less than two hundred low-grade spirit stones each.”
“These Vitality-Raising Pills were refined directly by the Everlasting Spring Sect, guaranteeing both their origin and potency. The choice is yours, customer.”
The rogue cultivator regarded Lee Hyun with a peculiar look. “Do you even want to sell these?”
“I don’t have the authority to sell below the minimum price.”
“Sell them to me for 220 each. I’ll take two.”
“The minimum price is 230.”
“Hmph. Let’s see how long the Everlasting Spring Sect can stubbornly cling to that price.”
The rogue cultivator turned on his heel and left.
Lee Hyun watched his receding back.
Vitality-Unblocking Pills, huh? If they have the same effect, I should look into them.
It seemed to be the name of a breakthrough pill released by merchant companies from another continent.
Not a single pill sold on the first day. On the second day, a middle-aged cultivator bought one, and on the tenth day, a man who appeared to be a steward from a cultivator clan purchased two. With one or two more trickling out here and there, the total sales for the first month reached seven pills.
Seven pills in a month. Just right.
The day after completing his first month of sales duty, Lee Hyun visited the Scripture Pavilion on Everlasting Spring Peak.
He was looking for the Tier 1 Flight-Sealing Formation, which he could use as a reference even at the Qi Refining stage. As he was still cultivating the Qi Refining chapter of the Primordial Unity One-Qi Art, materializing Primordial Earth Force would require him to first grasp the cultivation formula for Materialization used in Tier 1 formations.
Lee Hyun pressed the jade slip titled Manual of the Tier 1 Flight-Sealing Formation to his forehead.
A Tier 1 Flight-Sealing Formation was not powerful enough to drag down a Foundation Establishment cultivator. It was only capable of bringing down Qi Refining cultivators using flight talismans or flying magical artifacts. However, the fundamental principle behind generating Primordial Earth Force seemed identical to that of the Tier 2 Great Flight-Sealing Formation.
As expected, the process of Return to Unity is the most complex. But my Primordial Unity True Qi is already an energy that has completed Return to Unity. In that case, what if I apply the cultivation formula for Materialization directly…
The public bookshelves only contained part of the Materialization formula. In the end, Lee Hyun spent 10 contribution points to peruse the Tier 1 Primordial Earth Flight-Sealing Formation Diagram and comprehend its contents.
That night, in the training room of his residence on Pill Cauldron Peak, Lee Hyun extended his hand toward a small stone.
Wuuung—
The pebble trembled faintly.
* * *
A month later, with several merchant companies having arrived at the Outer Affairs Market, more external cultivators came and went than the previous month.
During the second month, Vitality-Raising Pills continued to trickle away from Lee Hyun’s stall. Nine pills sold, bringing the cumulative total with the previous month’s seven to exactly sixteen.
Good.
Having finished his sales shift, Lee Hyun checked the remaining Vitality-Raising Pills on the counter. Exactly fourteen remained inside the jade vials.
He transferred the pills into his storage pouch. In exchange, he deposited 30 mid-grade spirit stones and 220 low-grade spirit stones into the box holding the sales proceeds.
Converted to low-grade spirit stones, it was 3,220—the exact cost of fourteen Vitality-Raising Pills.
Lee Hyun doctored the ledger, plausibly distributing his purchase of fourteen pills across the sales records.
The manager of the Everlasting Spring Pill Pavilion examined the ledger and mission plaque in turn. “You sold all thirty Vitality-Raising Pills.”
“Yes.”
“The payment is exactly 6,900 low-grade spirit stones as well… Good work. You may now head to the Mission Pavilion to claim your contribution points.”
“Thank you.”
In the lounge of the Yang Fire Courtyard, Na Gyeong-mun was full of admiration when he heard that Lee Hyun had completed the mission.
“You actually sold them all in two months!”
“I was fortunate.”
“If it had been me, I’d still be stuck behind that counter. Indeed, everyone has their own strengths.”
Sipping tea beside them, Sim Yeon-ju asked, “I heard Vitality-Raising Pills weren’t selling well lately because of those Vitality-Unblocking Pills. It’s impressive that you managed to sell them all.”
“Indeed. It was a relief.”
* * *
Back in his quarters on Pill Cauldron Peak, Lee Hyun arranged the jade boxes across the floor of the training room.
The seven Vitality-Raising Pills he had gathered previously.
The fourteen he had just purchased from the mission.
Twenty-one in total.
“I should buy more jade boxes and Tier 1 Spirit-Sealing Talismans. But even when sealed, keeping them for too long isn’t good for them…”
Only then did Lee Hyun realize a problem he had overlooked when he first began gathering the pills.
I am still only in the early stage of Qi Refining layer 6. To cross the barrier into layer 7 most efficiently, I must first reach the absolute peak.
Taking the pills now would still raise the upper limit of his spiritual power. However, if he consumed them before reaching the barrier of his current realm, the medicinal effect meant to loosen that barrier would likely go to waste.
In that case, I might swallow fifty Vitality-Raising Pills and still fail to break through to layer 7, ending up merely with an expanded reservoir of spiritual power.
Yet waiting until he reached the peak of layer 6 was equally problematic. Given the traits of his Primordial Unity Body, there was no telling how long that would take. All the while, the medicinal power within the jade boxes would slowly dissipate.
I’ve already bought twenty-one pills…
After pondering for a long while, Lee Hyun’s gaze shifted.
Wait. Do I really have to reach the peak of layer 6 first? If I ingest enough pills, couldn’t the leftover medicinal power batter the barrier even after my spiritual power is capped? I could finish both processes at once.
What if I consume around a hundred similar pills?
Lee Hyun checked the section of his storage pouch holding his spirit stones. Only 100 low-grade spirit stones remained.
“I need to earn some spirit stones.”
* * *
A few days later, in Tunnel No. 2, the stone door of spirit field No. 1-1 ground open, releasing a dense medicinal fragrance and a cloud of poisonous powder.
Walking through the field, Lee Hyun checked the medicinal age of the Bone-Corroding Flowers.
“Three hundred and forty-four years…”
When Lee Hyun cast the Soil-Turning Spell, a stalk of Bone-Corroding Flower rose into the air, its roots and the surrounding earth perfectly intact.
Repeating the process, he soon had twenty rootstocks of Bone-Corroding Flowers lined up on one side of the spirit field.
Only 81 stalks of Bone-Corroding Flower remain in spirit field No. 1-1. But there are still 433 more across spirit fields No. 1-2 through 1-5, so I have plenty to spare.
Now he just had to sell them, but the location was an issue.
To get a good price, I’ll have to go to the southern Namryeo Kingdom.
The Azure Tide Merchant Alliance refined Tier 2 Bone-Tempering Powder and was known to steadily purchase well-aged Bone-Corroding Flower rootstocks.
Even if I run into the alliance elders of the Azure Tide Merchant Alliance, they won’t recognize me.
When he had clashed with the alliance elders on Jeokyo Island, Lee Hyun had used the guise of Lee Muk, a guest alchemist in his fifties. This time, he intended to alter not only his face and physique, but also his manner of speech and perceptible spiritual power.
Lee Hyun placed the twenty Bone-Corroding Flowers into his storage pouch.
* * *
Half a month later, in Namae Market in the southern Namryeo Kingdom, a tall man clad in a black long robe stepped into the Spirit Material Hall of the Azure Tide Merchant Alliance. Gray streaked the hair at his temples, and a long scar sliced across his left cheek.
His apparent cultivation realm was merely an ordinary layer 6 of Qi Refining. Yet as the man silently scanned the interior, the clerks felt an inexplicable sense of intimidation. Whenever their eyes met his, their voices would instinctively lower, and they would shudder.
“I have come to sell Bone-Corroding Flower rootstocks.”
“How many stalks?”
“Three.”
Tapping his storage pouch, three planters materialized one after another.
Fhuuuk—
As dense poisonous powder billowed from the ivory petals, a clerk hastily activated a formation.
Wuuung—
The poisonous powder was trapped within a transparent barrier.
A steward who had been reviewing ledgers in the back approached. He examined the petals, stems, and root patterns of the Bone-Corroding Flowers one by one. Scooping up a trace of the poisonous powder, he singed it with fire and evaluated the medicinal properties emanating from the roots.
The appraisal continued for quite some time.
“All three are around three hundred and forty years in medicinal age.”
“Three hundred and forty-four, to be precise.”
“…You’re spot on. Were they cultivated in the same place?”
“Do I have any reason to tell you that?”
“None at all.”
The steward immediately stepped back, clicked his abacus for a moment, and then spoke. “I will offer 860 low-grade spirit stones per stalk.”
The man offered no reply, simply fixing the steward with a silent gaze.
“Eight hundred and eighty…”
The steward swallowed nervously. Bearing the full brunt of the man’s presence, a dread akin to encountering a bear or tiger in his youth crept up his spine.
Why do I feel so terrified? Could he be a powerhouse concealing his realm?
“Given that… that these are precious rootstocks in immaculate condition, and factoring in their rarity, I’ll offer nine hundred.”
“Very well.”
Only then did the suffocating pressure on the steward’s chest lift.
Clerks brought out 27 mid-grade spirit stones. After verifying the count and quality of the stones, the man swept them into his storage pouch.
“Received in full.”
Turning around, he walked out of the Spirit Material Hall.
Only after the man had vanished completely did the surrounding clerks let out quiet sighs of relief.
One clerk asked, “With a medicinal age of 344 years, wouldn’t it be difficult to use even for Tier 2 Bone-Tempering Powder?”
The steward answered, “I don’t know the pill recipe for Tier 2 Bone-Tempering Powder myself. Regardless, it meets the alliance’s purchasing criteria.”
“Didn’t we pay a bit too much for them?”
“Strictly speaking, 880 would have been the right price. Still, rootstocks aged this long while remaining so pristine are rare.”
* * *
Ten days later, in the Azure Tide Merchant Alliance’s Spirit Material Hall, purchase ledgers sent from branches across the southern region piled up on the desk. At first, the hall’s steward flipped through them without much thought.
“Two Bone-Corroding Flowers… medicinal age, 344 years.”
“One stalk… 344 years?”
His hand froze.
As he hurriedly threw open the other ledgers, recent records of Bone-Corroding Flower purchases from various branches surfaced in rapid succession.
Every single one had a medicinal age of 344 years.
The sellers’ appearances, genders, and cultivation realms varied wildly.
A hunchbacked old man.
A middle-aged man carrying a sword on his back.
A veiled female cultivator.
A sickly young cultivator.
A mute rogue cultivator.
In total, the ledgers recorded nearly ten different sellers.
The steward ordered the purchased Bone-Corroding Flowers brought to him immediately.
The next day, the Bone-Corroding Flowers bought from nearby branches and appraisal records sent from distant branches were gathered at the Spirit Material Hall. Though there were minor variances in appearance, the flow of medicinal properties and the composition of soil clinging to their roots were practically identical.
Without a doubt, they had all grown in the exact same spirit field.
“How many stalks have we purchased so far?”
“Twenty stalks from the submitted reports alone.”
“Twenty stalks?!”
The steward slammed his palm down on the table.
Bang!
“Damn it! Had I known so many Bone-Corroding Flowers of the exact same medicinal age would hit the market, I never would have paid 900 stones a stalk!”
“The rootstocks are completely legitimate, but…”
“I know that!” the steward ground out. “Had we known the supply from the start, we could have driven the price down! In this region, our alliance is the only one producing Tier 2 Bone-Tempering Powder in bulk anyway!”
The steward let out a long sigh.
“We were played.”
* * *
Meanwhile, in a mountain range in the northern Namryeo Kingdom, Lee Hyun sat on a boulder, counting his spirit stones.
Selling twenty Bone-Corroding Flower rootstocks had netted him 180 mid-grade spirit stones. Converted to low-grade spirit stones, that was an astounding 18,000.
“A good sale. The Azure Tide Merchant Alliance is probably having a bit of a headache.”
Putting the spirit stones into his storage pouch, Lee Hyun calculated the cost of the Vitality-Raising Pills.
To purchase eighty more Vitality-Raising Pills, even at the current price, required 18,400 low-grade spirit stones. Even adding his remaining 100 low-grade spirit stones brought the total to 18,100—still 300 short.
Furthermore, there was no guarantee the price of Vitality-Raising Pills would stay at 230. Once the supply of foreign pills dwindled, the price could climb back past 250.
Wait. Foreign pills… He recalled the Vitality-Unblocking Pills he had heard about at the Everlasting Spring Pill Pavilion. Didn’t they say a massive quantity flooded the Ram Kingdom?
A few days later, Lee Hyun bought a single Vitality-Unblocking Pill at a nearby market. Retreating into a secluded cavern in the mountains, he immediately analyzed its medicinal properties.
Similar to the Vitality-Raising Pill. Not bad at all.
Lee Hyun began scouring markets across the Ram Kingdom, buying up Vitality-Unblocking Pills.
* * *
A month later, back in his quarters on Pill Cauldron Peak, Lee Hyun arranged the jade boxes across the floor.
Twenty-one Vitality-Raising Pills.
Sixty Vitality-Unblocking Pills.
Purchasing the Vitality-Unblocking Pills had cost him 120 mid-grade spirit stones. After acquiring new jade boxes and Tier 1 Spirit-Sealing Talismans, 60 mid-grade spirit stones and 90 low-grade spirit stones remained in his storage pouch.
Afterward, Lee Hyun took on the Vitality-Raising Pill sales mission once more. Thanks to his clean record of completing the first mission without issue, Outer Affairs Peak entrusted him with thirty Vitality-Raising Pills without suspicion.
Perhaps due to the dwindling supply of Vitality-Unblocking Pills, this time customers were willing to buy Vitality-Raising Pills even at 250 low-grade spirit stones each. Over the course of a month, he sold six pills to external cultivators, bringing in 1,500 stones.
After observing the foot traffic in the Outer Affairs Market and the overall sales at the Everlasting Spring Pill Pavilion, Lee Hyun slipped the remaining twenty-four Vitality-Raising Pills into his storage pouch.
In their place, he put 5,520 of his own spirit stones into the proceeds box, then falsified the sales ledger to make it appear as though the twenty-four pills had been sold.
The total recorded sales amounted to 7,020 low-grade spirit stones.
In accordance with regulations, he handed over the baseline requirement of 6,900 stones to the Mission Pavilion and received a commission of 690 low-grade spirit stones.
* * *
Three months later.
Pill Cauldron Peak.
Lee Hyun’s quarters.
Jade boxes, both large and small, were lined up across the floor of his training room.
Forty-five Vitality-Raising Pills.
Sixty Vitality-Unblocking Pills.
Dozens of ripe seedpods from a Yin Water Lotus.
During this time, Lee Hyun had repeatedly verified that the medicinal properties of the two pills did not clash, finding no issues.
Now, it was time to attempt the breakthrough.
Lee Hyun notified his fellow disciples on Pill Cauldron Peak that he was entering closed-door cultivation, then sealed the training room door.
From the depths of his storage pouch, he retrieved an old Sound-Isolation Talisman and four Silver Spirit Talismans. They were Tier 1 low-grade talismans he had obtained over five hundred years ago from Wi Mun-do, Paeng Ja-ryang, and Han So-baek.
The spiritual power within the talismans had all but dissipated, but the intricate spiritual patterns and inscriptions remained perfectly intact.
Recalling the contents of the Basic Talisman-Making Technique he had read long ago, Lee Hyun inspected the talismans’ structures. Confirming they were undamaged, he slowly infused his Primordial Unity True Qi into them.
Wuuung—
The faded talisman inscriptions lit up one after another.
The Sound-Isolation Talisman would prevent any sound from entering or leaving the training room, while the Silver Spirit Talismans would stop the spiritual power fluctuations from his breakthrough from leaking outside his residence.
Lee Hyun slotted low-grade spirit stones one by one into the grooves of the Spirit-Gathering Formation installed in the training room.
Click. Click.
Eight in total.
Under ordinary circumstances, he would never have used spirit stones for cultivation. But with the success of his breakthrough uncertain, this was no time to be frugal.
Wuuuung—
As the Spirit-Gathering Formation activated, the spiritual pressure within the room rose noticeably. The dense heaven-and-earth spiritual qi from the Nine Peaks Rejuvenation Formation funneled into the training room through the array.
Lee Hyun placed the jade boxes within arm’s reach and lay comfortably on the floor.
First, he took out a Vitality-Unblocking Pill.
Gulp.
As the pill slid down his throat, its medicinal power surged through his meridians. Operating the Primordial Unity One-Qi Art, Lee Hyun guided the medicinal power to merge with his Primordial Unity True Qi.
A day passed.
Seventeen Vitality-Unblocking Pills were gone.
Lee Hyun’s spiritual power had expanded noticeably, but he was still far from the limit of Qi Refining layer 6. Unrefined medicinal residue and pill poison began to accumulate in his body.
He split open one of the Yin Water Lotus seedpods, took out the seeds within, peeled their husks, and popped them into his mouth.
Crunch.
A refreshing, cool energy swept through his chest and spread throughout his meridians.
Lee Hyun exhaled a long breath.
Huuu—
Faint gray turbid qi drifted out with his breath. The residue that settled on the floor gave off the bitter, fishy scent of medicinal dregs.
The seeds of the Yin Water Lotus could not purge all pill poison, but for Lee Hyun, who had to consume over a hundred pills in succession, they were an immense help.
From then on, whenever the pill poison grew too thick, Lee Hyun ate lotus seeds to gradually expel the turbid qi.
The third day.
All sixty Vitality-Unblocking Pills were gone.
His Primordial Unity True Qi had reached the late stage of Qi Refining layer 6, stretching his meridians taut, yet the barrier to the next realm remained elusive.
“Still not enough, as expected.”
Lee Hyun opened a jade box containing Vitality-Raising Pills. A medicinal aroma, far more stable than that of the Vitality-Unblocking Pills, wafted out.
As he swallowed a Vitality-Raising Pill, an even stronger medicinal force surged throughout his body.
Kwaaa—
The Primordial Unity True Qi circulated tempestuously through his meridians.
The fifth day.
Thirty Vitality-Raising Pills were gone.
Lee Hyun’s Primordial Unity True Qi had swelled to the absolute peak of Qi Refining layer 6. There was no more room in his body to accommodate even a sliver of new spiritual power.
Only then could he sense the invisible barrier.
Lee Hyun continued to consume the Vitality-Raising Pills.
Thirty-one pills.
Thirty-two pills.
Thirty-three pills.
With each pill consumed, the medicinal force hammered against the barrier of his realm.
Thud. Thud.
When the medicinal potency of the fortieth Vitality-Raising Pill spread through him, a hairline crack finally formed across the invisible barrier.
Crack.
Lee Hyun checked the remaining Vitality-Raising Pills.
Five pills left.
“I’m counting on you.”
Swallowing the forty-first pill widened the fissure slightly.
When the medicinal power of the forty-second pill spread, his Primordial Unity True Qi spun like a tempest through his meridians.
The forty-third.
Gulp.
The Vitality-Raising Pill dissolved. A potent medicinal force flooded his entire body, fusing with his Primordial Unity True Qi.
Lee Hyun pushed the Primordial Unity One-Qi Art to its absolute limit.
Kwaaa—
The Primordial Unity True Qi surged en masse toward the barrier of his realm.
Craaaack!
The very next moment.
Boom!
The barrier shattered completely.
The long-repressed Primordial Unity True Qi flooded violently into newly opened territory.
Kwaaaaa—
Dense heaven-and-earth spiritual qi rushed into Lee Hyun’s body. The low-grade spirit stones slotted into the Spirit-Gathering Formation lost their luster at a terrifying speed, and the Silver Spirit Talismans and Sound-Isolation Talisman affixed to the walls charred black under the strain of suppressing the violent waves of spiritual power.
After a long while, the prolonged fluctuations gradually subsided.
At last, Lee Hyun opened his eyes.
“I did it!”
An undisguised joy colored his voice.
For the next full day, Lee Hyun circulated the Primordial Unity One-Qi Art to stabilize his newly reached realm. Inside the jade box, two unused Vitality-Raising Pills remained.
He drew a wooden board from his storage pouch and used the Yang Metal Formula to update the numbers on his handmade status window.
【Age: 1,098】
【Cultivation Realm: Qi Refining, 7th layer】
【Spiritual Power: 517 → 733】
【Physique: Primordial Unity Body, Stage 7】
The breakthrough had changed his spiritual power in not just quantity, but quality as well.
His Primordial Unity True Qi was now condensed to a far higher density. This meant that even when casting the same spell, its power would be significantly greater.
Lee Hyun rose to his feet and lightly stretched.
Crack.
A satisfying pop sounded from his back and shoulders.
“Good.”
Suddenly, he recalled the Primordial Earth Force he had spent the last few months researching.
Lee Hyun condensed his Primordial Unity True Qi in his palm, materializing it into a makeshift anchor to connect with the Primordial Earth Force. Then, he reached out with his will.
The moment he focused his intent—
Whoosh!
A nearby wooden plaque, an iron ball, and a few pebbles shot straight toward his palm.
Lee Hyun deployed his Spirit Light Shield.
Clang-clack-crack!
The iron ball, pebbles, and wooden plaque slammed into the Spirit Light Shield in rapid succession. Unable to withstand the impact, the wooden plaque shattered into pieces.
“It actually works?”