Core Formation Great Circle
Moyong Hye had found the past week spent at Yeonun Pavilion deeply satisfying.
My body isn't cold at all.
Ever since she had begun her cultivation, she had carried a bone-deep chill like a chronic ailment, but since starting treatment her body felt wonderfully light.
On top of that, all the medicinal energy she had absorbed over the years had settled gently into her body, and it felt as though she could attempt Foundation Establishment at any moment.
Of course, while the world believed she was learning a water-attribute technique, she was actually being treated by her martial aunt, who practiced a Ghost Dao method — a fact that left her slightly uneasy.
Moreover, whenever she stepped into the chamber, some spell seemed to be cast on her; her memory would blur and her mind would grow hazy, which unsettled her further.
But against all those worries, her condition improved by the day, so what choice did she have but to accept it?
The treatment was finished anyway, so it no longer mattered. Moyong Hye turned her thoughts to what would come after stepping into Foundation Establishment.
For now she lived under her grandmother's shadow, but once she was acknowledged as a cultivator in her own right, she planned to spend most of her time outside the sect under the pretext of missions.
And then, to become fully independent from her grandmother.
Her grandmother had watched over her talent since childhood and helped her grow, true — but hadn't she also forced on her a technique that didn't suit her body, along with countless things that clashed with her nature?
Her grandmother's stubbornness and greed had burdened Moyong Hye greatly, and she no longer wished to be pushed around by her.
So Moyong Hye resolved to be just as selfish in leaving as her grandmother had been in holding her back.
She'd squeezed all the sweetness out of her and now she would live as she pleased.
By the way, who was that girl…?
Amid such thoughts, Moyong Hye found herself recalling a girl she had encountered in the garden the day before.
After her body had relaxed, her qi had grown hard to contain, and she had gone out for a midnight walk — only to witness a white-haired girl singing in the moonlight.
She was so beautiful.
The girl Moyong Hye had seen was so radiant she might have been a fairy descended from the heavens. And the song she had been humming had a strange melody that seemed not of this world; combined with the girl's voice, it kept echoing in her head.
Could she be a ghost spirit serving my martial aunt?
She wondered if she might have been bewitched by a spirit, and resolved to prepare herself against mental attacks.
Of course, the girl's identity was Seol Jihwa — but every previous encounter had involved a face veil, or had happened while Moyong Hye was unconscious, so there was no way she could have known.
***
"Whew… that was a close call."
I had never imagined Moyong Hye would leave her quarters and wander the pavilion, so the sudden encounter startled me.
On top of that, she had apparently been watching me in silence the whole time, because I hadn't noticed her gaze at all.
I had been out walking, breathing the open air, riding the high of reaching the 9th Star of Qi Refinement the day before and savoring my last chance before being confined indoors starting tomorrow — and of all things, I had to run into her with my veil off, humming a song from Earth.
Well, I was about to go into seclusion anyway, so it hardly mattered.
Seclusion, though….
It had been decided abruptly — Cheongryu had ordered me to enter closed-door cultivation until I was ready to attempt Foundation Establishment.
I could probably reach the Extreme Star of Qi Refinement within a year or two, but my sense of time was still closer to a mortal's than a cultivator's, so it felt impossibly far away.
Still, the fresh air helped me sort out my thoughts.
The next day, I descended into the underground levels of Yeonun Pavilion.
Despite being underground, it wasn't damp or gloomy — it was much like the room I'd been living in. The only real difference was that it was equipped so I could handle all my daily needs without leaving.
"I wish you success in your breakthrough."
After one last greeting to Hongryeon, the door to the seclusion chamber closed.
***
A year and a half had passed.
Sssaaa—
I finished my circulation exercise and rose from my seat.
The room was filled with cold energy, and as I inhaled, all of it was drawn into me and gathered away.
"Qi Refinement, Great Circle…!"
I had originally planned to stop at the 10th Star, but somewhere along the way I hit my limit even there and reached the Extreme Star.
I gathered my preparations and readied myself to break out of seclusion.
My body, now thirteen, had changed a great deal.
Half a year into seclusion, my first period had arrived, and with it my secondary puberty had begun in earnest.
When I first saw my bloodstained underclothes, I panicked — but thankfully my mind was that of an adult, and that let me calm down quickly.
Of course, the sensations left in my body were vivid, so for a while even using the privy was difficult.
The saving grace was that after my first period, I learned to suppress such physiological phenomena with spiritual energy, and it never happened again.
But hormones, period or no period, were truly something else.
Even when I felt psychologically stable, irritation and gloom about being shut away cultivating would ambush me out of nowhere.
In a sense I'd gone through puberty twice, but it felt completely different from the puberty I'd had as a man.
I need to hurry up and reach Foundation Establishment.
From Foundation Establishment onward, the body's influence over the mind would lessen — so growth was the only answer.
Done with my idle thoughts, I stripped off the clothes I'd been wearing.
In the mirror appeared my stark white, naked form.
"Ugh…."
It feels strange to say this, but isn't this development a bit too fast?
Cultivators were said to mature a little quickly, sure, but my current figure was downright violent.
My waist was slim and shapely without a trace of excess flesh, and below it sat wide hips.
And my chest had grown large enough that it looked like it needed to be held up from beneath.
If I weren't a body that handled cold energy, wouldn't sweat have pooled under there?
After checking my changed body for a moment, I dressed.
The clothes fit rather snugly — apparently whoever prepared them hadn't predicted I'd grow this much by the time I came out.
Once dressed and fully accessorized, I broke out of seclusion.
Climbing to the entrance of the underground chamber, I found the door shut tight and sealed, with a single cord hanging beside it.
"Do I pull it…?"
I gave the cord a tug, and a moment later the door opened.
I expected a maid, or at most Hongryeon — but standing before the door was Cheongryu.
"So you did succeed. And it seems I failed to predict your growth rate — those clothes look uncomfortably tight."
"I greet the Pavilion Master."
"Hmm… by the way, discard that 'Pavilion Master' form of address from now on."
"I'm sorry?"
"Once you've rested, you must prepare to ascend to Foundation Establishment at once."
Don't tell me — is she finally taking me on as her disciple?
With those words, Cheongryu turned and disappeared.
After that, I took a bath for the first time in ages, changed into clothes that actually fit, and went to Cheongryu.
The moment I arrived, she spoke.
"Do you know that there are three types of Foundation Establishment breakthrough?"
This wasn't something from the original game, but something I'd learned over my years here.
There were three paths to Foundation Establishment: Heavenly Dao, Earthly Dao, and Human Dao.
Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment involved offering rites to the heavens and receiving a heavenly tribulation to break through; Earthly Dao used the energy of the spirit veins to reach Foundation Establishment.
Human Dao Foundation Establishment used a Foundation Establishment Pill.
What they all had in common was obtaining powerful external energy to compress the dantian and evolve one stage further.
Naturally, Heavenly Dao was the best.
Because it compressed the dantian with the overwhelming quantity of tribulation energy, it expanded the maximum capacity of one's spiritual power, and the tribulation energy burned away the body's impurities. It also granted an advantage in the Core Formation tribulation later on.
In exchange, Heavenly Dao demanded that you withstand the tribulation's immense spiritual power.
Human Dao, on the other hand, was disadvantaged in later cultivation compared to Heavenly Dao, limited by the pill's ceiling on spiritual power and its impurities.
But Human Dao had the advantage of being easy, since the amount of power one had to endure was small.
"Yes, I know of Heavenly Dao, Earthly Dao, and Human Dao Foundation Establishment."
"Good. You will attempt Heavenly Dao. As it happens, today is the full moon, and there is a secret art I can use — I will stoke your yin energy so you can withstand even the heavenly tribulation."
I didn't know what it was, but she was clearly pushing me toward the attempt right away.
And yet it didn't feel hastily arranged — it felt like she had prepared everything in advance, expecting me to break out of seclusion today.
Seeing this, I understood just how great an advantage it was for a cultivator to have someone guiding them from ahead.
As a lone wanderer, I would have struggled to obtain even a single Foundation Establishment Pill.
But with a Core Formation cultivator as my master, even Heavenly Dao could be attempted with the risks reduced like this.
"In two hours it will be midnight — the hour when yin energy is strongest, and when your chances of success are highest."
Cheongryu led me to the heart of Yeonun Pavilion.
On a stone-paved clearing stood a raised altar.
"I cast your fortune, and it said the Dipper constellation among the Twenty-Eight Mansions would be best for your rite. As the head of the Northern Seven Mansions, it will bring down a tribulation that much fiercer — but you can withstand it well enough."
According to her further explanation, which constellation one offered the rite to determined what additional blessings one received.
It was no wonder Heavenly Dao was considered supreme.
The Dipper Mansion granted blessings of extended lifespan and good fortune — and since those blessings applied to all future realm breakthroughs as well, one could gain far more longevity than others.
It was a title well deserved, being called head of the Northern Seven Mansions. Extended life and good fortune — the very things cultivators desire most.
By the time Cheongryu finished setting up the formation to condense the moon's energy with my yin energy, the hours had slipped away, and midnight had arrived.