Geumhae Changcheon

Black characters poured down like rain.

Before long, they had filled an entire page of the ground.

"Whoa."

Nain couldn't tear her eyes away from the feast of new information.

Her talent had evolved from Five Spiritual Roots to Four Spiritual Roots. The Talisman Dao Sacred Body, once Rank 1, had been promoted to Rank 2. Her realm had also climbed smoothly to the 2-Star stage.

Her gaze drifted to the proficiency values beside Talent and Constitution. The original ten thousand had swollen to a million.

"A million breaths of qi absorption… a million talismans drawn…?"

The numbers defied imagination. Even drawing talismans from dawn to dusk, it would take a full two years to hit that mark. The same went for qi absorption.

"Hmm. Actually, for talismans, half of that might be enough."

She could draw with both hands, and the Talisman Dao Sacred Body had just ranked up. If she threw herself into production with everything she had, she might force another evolution within a year. Still, it was a staggering figure.

Nain ran a quick ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠calculation.

"When it evolved from Five Spiritual Roots to Four, the proficiency requirement jumped a hundredfold, so…"

If that pattern held, reaching Three Spiritual Roots would take a hundred million; Two Spiritual Roots, ten billion; One Spiritual Root, a trillion…

Imagining the future, Nain's face went dark.

Even if she did nothing but breathe and absorb qi once per second, it would take roughly three years, three hundred years, and thirty thousand years respectively. The Talisman Dao Sacred Body was a constitution on par with Two Spiritual Roots, so promoting it would take three years, then three hundred.

"Fine! I'll just evolve it to Three Spiritual Roots and figure out the rest later."

Shaken by the overwhelming timescales, Nain decided to stay positive. Evolving from Five Spiritual Roots to Four, then to Three, was already a ridiculous enough cheat on its own.

Besides, cultivators lived on a different clock from ordinary people. Someday she would complete the Talisman Dao Sacred Body and achieve One Spiritual Root. The possibility was real enough.

Once my realm climbs higher, other methods will open up.

She didn't know them now, but she would later. Cultivation was the power that made the impossible possible.

Nain nodded firmly and looked at the (+NEW!!) tags floating beside each entry.

"Ugh."

Golden letters that flashed as if begging to be pressed right now.

The brilliantly shining golden [NEW!!] filled Nain with unease. Last time, she'd stared at something just because it looked good and nearly walked into disaster. Who was to say it wouldn't happen again?

Don't let your guard down.

Keeping a measured tension, she stretched out a slender finger. First up was the notification beside the Spiritual Roots entry.

Fwaaat!

A brilliant wash of light bloomed outward. Nain narrowed her eyes, ready to read every word. She would not get caught like an idiot this time!

"……?"

She frowned at the abstruse, twisted wording.

"What is this supposed to mean."

Confusion overflowed. Until now, the status window had always given Nain intuitive numbers — proficiency, percentages, clean objective metrics.

This time, it was like a riddle tossed out by some world-weary old sage.

Grumbling, Nain cupped her hands together. By the common sense of the cultivation world, fewer Spiritual Roots meant better, superior talent. Dropping from the cluttered Five Spiritual Roots down to Four would naturally raise absorption rates. That much was obvious.

Turning the phrase over carefully, she arrived at a single meaning: even after evolving to Four Spiritual Roots, she could still sense the qi of all five elements the way a Five Spiritual Root holder could.

The moment that understanding settled into her mind, she began to feel the five elemental currents within the thread-thin spiritual qi around her.

"I can actually feel it…?"

The spiritual qi she had always perceived as a single mass split into five strands. Scorching Fire qi. Settling Water qi. Vibrant Wood qi. Sharp Metal qi. Heavy Earth qi.

The world that had always felt the same grew richer and more colorful.

"Wow."

The world shone in five beautiful hues.

Nain understood how this had happened. Ordinary holders of Four Spiritual Roots genuinely could not handle one of the five elements. They only directly sensed the four remaining lines.

But Nain had been born with Five Spiritual Roots. From the beginning of her life to its end, she had always felt all five. When that lifelong sensitivity met the perception and control of a Four Spiritual Root holder, the true form revealed itself.

She had claimed a talent superior even to a typical Four Spiritual Root cultivator!

"It's good. It really is good, but…"

The completeness of her talismans would rise. The training speed of her methods would climb. She could feel spiritual qi with far finer precision now.

Nain stared at that unsettling final line.

"Looking at me with satisfaction?"

It was only a sentence, and yet a feeling of warmth flowed from it — something close to genuine fondness, as if a kindly grandfather were watching over her.

My actual grandfather is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a complete lunatic, so he wouldn't know the first thing about that.

It was a little creepy, but not something she needed to reject. Would a lofty Five Elements even bother noticing a speck like her? If anything, the fact that such a thing truly existed was starting to nag at her more.

"I'd only ever heard of them. So they were real."

It was said that high-order Great Dao Laws could house a will of their own. History recorded that they had even exchanged words with humanity a few times.

She bowed politely toward empty air.

"Th-thank you…?"

There was no answer. Embarrassment crashed over her in a wave.

What did I just do?!

Fanning her burning face, she tapped the notification floating beside the Talisman Dao Sacred Body. She wanted this unfamiliar feeling gone as soon as possible.

Once again, bright light surged up and then subsided.

Once again, the wording was grandiose to the point of arrogance. Heaven resting in the palm of her hand? If anyone said that out loud, a lightning tribulation might drop out of the sky on the spot.

Nain slowly interpreted the formula-like passage from the perspective of an omniscient cultivator.

Qi, Heart, Body, Soul — these are describing the stages of the Talisman Dao Sacred Body.

At Rank 1, her heart had changed. The heart was the vital organ that refined spiritual qi into spiritual power, so it fit the description of Qi. At Rank 2, the meridians throughout her body had been refined and her affinity for Talisman Dao spiritual power had surged, so that matched Body.

Then Rank 3 is Heart, and Rank 4 is Soul?

Mind and soul. Topics far too difficult for the current Nain.

I'll think about this later, too…

As always, the world of cultivation was full of things she couldn't understand. How many had she waved past today alone?

Even so, she could parse the final line.

"The Talisman Dao is the path of painting the world. If you place Heaven and the world on the same line, then a talisman is Heaven itself."

A sky of her own that fit inside a small hand. Was that the ultimate principle the Talisman Dao pursued? She couldn't be sure her reading was exact…

"Argh!"

Shoving the swirling thoughts aside, Nain jabbed the notification floating next to Geumhae Changcheon. It was pure frustration, a strike made just to do something — though curiosity burned just as hot.

What was this thing, sitting in the Constitution category? Was it equal to the Talisman Dao Sacred Body, or even higher? What kind of effect did it hold?

Honestly, she had been dying of curiosity for a while now.

Fwaaaat!

Causal Inference? What is that, and why should I be careful of it…

Crack!

Something was wrong. A sound that should never have been heard rang through her skull. From somewhere deep within, a rupture echoed faintly outward.

"Kyaaaah!"

Struck by a sudden headache, Nain bounced off the sofa and rolled across the floor. There was no room left for thought. Of every pain she had ever known, this was the worst.

Worse than sticking chopsticks into a 330-volt outlet and getting deep-fried by electricity!

Shhhhhrrrrrk!!!

Inside her mind, the book of a person named Nain unfurled. That book held her entire life. And an unknown force was flipping through its pages with brutal force, searching for something.

Dragged along against her will, Nain had no choice but to watch her own life pass by.

Talismans…?

What the unknown force sought was every moment Nain had spent drawing talismans. A lifetime of talisman-making. Specks of it dotted the past, but the density clustered overwhelmingly in recent time.

Numbers spun wildly in midair, climbing without end. Past the ten-thousand mark they gradually slowed, then stopped at a single instant.

The headache cut off completely. Clutching her forehead, Nain glared at the scroll with resentful eyes.

"Ugh… uugh…"

But there was no time to process the emotion. Golden letters rose at once across the white scroll. Nain looked up at it.

"Ow…"

Nain squinted her left eye. Heat pressed into it as if a burning brand had been stamped there. She worked her device and opened a mirror app in the air.

When she pulled her hand away from her left eye, the pupil that had been pure white had turned gold. It poured out a brilliant light, as if molten gold had been poured into her iris.

Dazed, she stared at her own alien reflection — then flinched hard and went rigid.

Someone stood behind the mirror. On the sofa, a figure with a face identical to Nain's sat expressionless and still.

Turning around with a face full of shock, Nain muttered,

"A clone…?"

The expressionless double sitting there nodded at her words.

Nain toppled backward in pure panic.

"Kyaaaah!"