The Gift

If the cultivation efficiency of a Five Elements Spiritual Root was set at one, a Four Elements Spiritual Root would rate at three.

Individual talent created some variance, of course, but the average held true. A typical Four Elements cultivator walked the path of immortal cultivation three times faster than someone with Five Elements roots.

And beyond that?

A Three Elements Spiritual Root generally showed an efficiency of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fifteen. Dual Elements Spiritual Roots averaged around one hundred. And a Single Element Spiritual Root boasted an efficiency of at least one hundred fifty or higher.

Why such a staggering gap? What, exactly, separated a Five Elements root from a Single Element one?

"Nain. What does the world look like through your eyes? What do you see, and how does it move?"

"…I…"

Nain took a moment to steady her breathing and sweep her gaze around the room. A broad, cold-feeling laboratory of pure white. Machines of unknowable purpose stood in complex rows, yet they shared one thing in common with the comfort of home.

The five-colored spiritual energy of the Five Elements, glowing in every hue. That alone was visible and tangible everywhere — laboratory or home, it made no difference. Nain's world was always filled with the shimmering rainbow light of the Five Elements.

After listening to Nain's somewhat vague description, Shiori nodded.

"…Hmm. Hearing that settles it. Nain, you are a Five Elements Spiritual Root holder who possesses the sensitivity and control of a Four Elements cultivator. An extremely rare case."

Snap.

Shiori lightly closed her folding fan and fixed Nain with a look of genuine interest.

"An ordinary Five Elements cultivator perceives spiritual energy as a single, lumped-together flow. Distinguishing it with the kind of precision you just described belongs to the domain of Four Elements cultivators."

She was exactly right. Nain herself had never known such a world existed before she advanced from Five Elements to Four. She could only marvel at her master's vast knowledge.

"Then we return to the problem from here. Nain, you can manipulate the spiritual energy of the Five Elements directly."

"Isn't that only natural…?"

"No. It is not. Have you ever considered how Three Elements and Dual Elements cultivators — who can directly handle only two or three attributes at most — still manage to learn cultivation methods and cast arts?"

Well. Her thoughts grew complicated. She had simply assumed they only practiced methods matching the attributes they could personally control.

Judging by Master's tone, that assumption is wrong.

In other words, even Dual Elements cultivators could learn Five Elements–based methods without difficulty and use the corresponding arts just fine.

The Five Elements Ascending Spirit Fivefold Dao Method was the same. It was a Five Elements technique, yet its description stated that fewer Spiritual Roots made cultivation more advantageous. A long-buried memory flickered past and deepened her confusion.

She did not stay lost in thought for long.

Fwoosh!

Between Nain and Shiori, a hologram rose that looked as vivid as reality itself. It took the form of an elephant and a group of blind men.

"Do you know the story of the blind men and the elephant?"

"…Yes, roughly……"

Nain let the end of her sentence trail off. Tap — Shiori pointed the tip of her fan at one of the elephants.

"Then this will be easy to grasp. Let me offer a very simple analogy. Here are two blind men who have never seen an elephant in their lives. Assume one is a Single Element cultivator, and the other a Five Elements cultivator."

Her master's words continued. Nain found herself completely absorbed in the fascinating comparison, her sparkling eyes fixed on the Single Element blind man.

"The elephant is the world. The Single Element blind man saw a leg before he went blind, and that alone remains vivid in his memory. Using that fragmentary yet crystal-clear recollection as his standard, he deduces the elephant's entire form. And he has ten thousand hands to help him feel out that shape."

By contrast—

"The Five Elements blind man knows the elephant's overall appearance. But it is a warped, chipped, and crushed version — thoroughly inaccurate. To learn the true shape he must feel it out carefully, yet he has only two hands."

What on earth.

This was a completely different development from the original story of the blind men and the elephant that Nain knew.

The premise that the blind men already knew what an elephant looked like was absurd enough — and ten thousand hands? They might as well have been monsters. It felt like a story someone had cobbled together haphazardly for the sake of a metaphor.

But I can tell what she's trying to say.

It felt as though her eyes had suddenly opened wide. There was clearly a reason her master held a professorship at Cheondo Taehak.

In short, that was the vision of a Single Element cultivator. Take a Fire-attribute Single Element cultivator: their world was filled with nothing but the Fire Element. A deep crimson, pure scarlet monochrome world. That was the elephant's leg — a tiny fragment of the world, yet more certain and vivid than anything else.

Conversely, a Five Elements cultivator knew the world's definite outline. But their eyes were only half open, forced to look upon the world through a hazy, distorted gaze. A gray world where even the colors could not be separated. That was the crushed full form of the elephant — knowing the overall shape of the world, yet more inaccurate and blurred than anything.

And the 'hands' of the blind men in this analogy…

Nain had experienced it once herself. When she evolved from a Five Elements Spiritual Root to a Four Elements one, she had felt it with absolute clarity. The fewer the Spiritual Roots — the purer they became — the higher one's sensitivity and control rose.

She had grown sensitive enough to feel lumped-together spiritual energy in fine detail. Her grip had become powerful enough to draw in three times the spiritual energy she normally could. Then just how finely did the higher Spiritual Root holders above her sense energy, and how formidable was their control?

The "hands" were a symbol of how finely one could sense spiritual energy. Even if one's eyes were blind and saw nothing, if one stretched out ten thousand hands based on old memory and felt out the world…

Would one not finally be able to grasp the world's overall form?

"Ah!"

She cried out in wonder. Only then did she fully understand her master's analogy.

A Fire-attribute Single Element cultivator can only feel and manipulate Fire-attribute spiritual energy 'directly.'

But they possessed enormous hands capable of covering the entire world. Just because something was invisible did not mean it did not exist. The true world that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one simply could not sense was still real, right there.

Nain opened her mouth as if entranced.

"…So they handle it indirectly, not directly."

A Five Elements cultivator felt and handled all five elemental energies directly. From Three Elements cultivators onward, however, they used their superior talent to deduce the existence of every other attribute's spiritual energy and employed it indirectly.

Having lived her entire life as a Five Elements cultivator, she had never known. To handle spiritual energy of attributes one could neither feel nor see directly, purely through talent… It was a realm that Nain, a mere Four Elements cultivator, could never hope to reach.

Wait. Does that mean Four Elements Spiritual Roots are actually the most awkward talent…?

She shook her head vigorously at the brief, blasphemous thought. Of course Four Elements was better than Five. Don't lose heart, my soul's Four Elements root! You are a far more splendid existence than some ordinary Five Elements trash.

Watching Nain flushed with the joy of realization, Shiori suddenly smiled. It was a smile Nain had never seen before, and she flinched.

"Precisely correct. Fortunately, your head seems rather useful."

Sliiiide. A cool hand stroked across Nain's hair. The natural gesture that accompanied the praise left Nain wrapped in a strange emotion.

A sensation similar to Mother's…

Did all Foundation Establishment cultivators possess this kind of hand technique? She nearly closed her eyes and surrendered her body to it. Nain forced her drooping eyelids open and barely managed to collect herself.

"Nain. You must be wondering why I am telling you all this. What any of it has to do with the Five Elements Ascending Spirit Fivefold Dao Method you learned, or with Foundation Establishment."

Shiori fluttered her open fan near her lips and continued with a smiling gaze.

A Qi Condensation cultivator's lifespan was two hundred years. Even so, Five and Four Elements cultivators never even set foot on the threshold of Foundation Establishment. No matter how desperately they struggled, their lifespan ran out first, and they died still in Qi Condensation.

Only at Three Elements could one finally "challenge" Foundation Establishment, and only Dual Elements cultivators succeeded with any stability. Single Element cultivators were geniuses among geniuses who could even aim for Golden Core. The immortal path of the present age was a road countless seniors had pioneered at the cost of their lives.

Of course, that was a story of the distant past. Modern Earth, with its advanced cultivation technology, was different.

"Improvements to cultivation methods, advances in cultivation technology, efficient growth techniques…… This is an age of abundance where even Four Elements cultivators can succeed at Foundation Establishment if enough support stands behind them."

But reality isn't like that.

The Seven Tribulations of Foundation Establishment her little sister had told her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠about rose in her mind. Most Four Elements cultivators would barely fulfill the conditions before the age of sixty. True geniuses, however, finished preparing to challenge Foundation Establishment before they turned thirty.

And yet Nain could not help but be startled by what Master Shiori said next. Her mouth fell slightly open, as if she could not possibly hear anything more shocking — even with her synchronization rate with Geumhae still low.

"Nain. I do not wish to watch my first true-name disciple have her immortal path cut short at mere Qi Condensation. Now I will tell you why."

Her eyes shone with pity.

"Every cultivation method that comes out of the Hundred Streams Sacred Market has a 'trap' hidden inside it so that the practitioner can never reach Foundation Establishment. Nain, the Five Elements Ascending Spirit Fivefold Dao Method of Quintessence that you learned is no exception."

Shiori closed her fan and stroked the hair of the stunned Nain once more.

"Which is why you are lucky. Meeting a kind master like me is one thing…. And everyone in your family is kind to their own, after all."

No.

What was she saying. The shocking truth left her unable even to let out a groan.

There was a trap in the method I learned? They're using it to control Foundation Establishment?

A chill ran through her entire body. Both Geumhae and Nain at home went deathly pale. It felt as though she had peered into the abyss of the cultivation world.

Then if I had just kept training at home without knowing anything…

No. She immediately rejected the thought. Seo Seong-rak, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, her mother, and her little sister — they would have known this truth she had been ignorant of. The reason they had not warned her…

Nain's gaze turned to Shiori standing right in front of her.

That's why they introduced me to Master.

Unable to resist her master's hand, her hair was ruffled several more times. Then Shiori rose from her seat and lightly tapped her terminal. The device she carried took the form of a pair of curved jade beads shaped like yin and yang.

Light flowed from the terminal hanging at her ear.

"Nain. Wait just a moment. I will return shortly."

Kuzunoha Shiori gave her a bright smile and walked out of the laboratory. The instant she turned her head away from Nain, every expression vanished from her face as she connected her spiritual sense to the terminal. A cold will leaked out.

Quintessence. I will not let that second-rate company hold my disciple back.

For a cultivator, background was also an extremely powerful weapon. The Kuzunoha clan, backed by a Golden Core True Immortal, ranked among the top three great powers within Sector J. Even lined up across the entire Earth, they easily placed within the top one hundred giants.

And Quintessence? The Primordial Chaos Scripture they possessed was an outstanding inheritance, but their representative's realm was merely Foundation Establishment Great Completion — the same as her own. She had heard he was preparing to advance to Golden Core, but…

In power, background, and reputation alike, Quintessence was a weakling that could not even be compared to the Kuzunoha.

And I happen to have developed an interest in Primordial Chaos and the Five Elements as a research topic…. As a gift for my first disciple — and something I should claim for myself.

Hiss.

The laboratory door opened and she stepped outside. Seo Seong-rak, who had been leaning against the wall, yawned and started to speak — then froze at the cold look on Shiori's face.

"Seong-rak. You would do well to cover your ears."

She issued the warning to a family friend whose bond stretched back through generations, then condensed her spiritual sense into the brightly glowing terminal. She was contacting the clan's Old Ancestor, who resided in a place very, very far away.

It was only a call to a person.

The moment Shiori pressed the contact and sent the signal, space shuddered and time stretched out like spaghetti.

"What the hell is this crazy woman doing?!"

Shock and panic flooded the face of Seo Seong-rak, who had been standing there with a bored expression. Guessing what Shiori was about to do, he immediately withdrew all of his spiritual sense, jammed his fingers into his ears, and destroyed his own eardrums. His hearing went numb; every surrounding sound was cut off.

What the hell did you talk about in there, Eun Nain?!

Seo Seong-rak curled his massive body and screamed. There was only one situation that produced this kind of omen — when a signal connected to a True Immortal residing in the Second Upper Realm!

Unable to withstand the condensed spiritual sense, the terminal slowly crumbled into fine pieces.

Beeeeep——.

But Shiori had no leisure to care about that. The signal that had traveled through a distant otherworld was about to descend and connect.

Feeling a slight tension, Shiori prepared to open her mouth.

Thud.

The shuddering space and the stretching time stopped as if it had all been a lie. Into the corridor, where only silence now hung as though nothing had happened, a single strange voice dropped like a stone.

"…It's been a while, Great-Aunt. I find myself greeting you without any sense of shame. This time, a toy I wanted simply appeared, so I…"

"I wish to research an inheritance called the Primordial Chaos Scripture. It is far too precious a thing for a shallow company like Quintessence to keep. If it came to me, it would be put to far greater use…… I was hoping Great-Aunt might indulge this small whim of mine."

Thud.

The transmission cut off. The terminal that had barely maintained its form crumbled into dust and vanished. Kuzunoha Shiori suppressed her surging spiritual sense and magical power.

"…Nain. Once I decide to take something into my hands, I never let it go — no matter what."

Seo Seong-rak, who had regenerated his destroyed eardrums in an instant, rose to his feet with a satisfied grin.

Good. She'll grow strong all the way to Foundation Establishment without a hitch. I don't know what happened, but that woman actually called the clan's Old Ancestor…. Whatever comes of it, it's good news for us.

Hiss.

The laboratory door behind them opened. Inside stood a massive golden tablet roughly the size of a person, and Nain — expressionless, yet radiating flustered energy from her entire body.

Shiori walked over with composed steps, placed a hand upon the golden tablet, and spoke.

"A commemorative gift for becoming my first disciple. Well? Do you like it?"

Nain looked up at the enormous golden tablet. It was so massive that its shadow fell across her face. She had never in her life faced anything so huge.

"Master. What on earth is this…?"

How startled she had been when it suddenly appeared in midair. She had transferred the initiative of her consciousness and been waiting for Shiori at home, playing with Pow — when a heavy thud sounded near Geumhae.

She turned to look beside ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her, and there the golden tablet had fallen. It had landed close enough that a slight miscalculation would have crushed her flat like a pancake.

"It is the true original of the Five Elements Ascending Spirit Fivefold Dao Method you are practicing — the authentic Primordial Chaos Scripture."

"Wh— what?"

Nain's mouth fell wide open.