Fortuitous Encounter — The Hunyuan Canon

A Golden Tablet holds one gigabyte in a single cubic centimeter of volume.

It can store text and images, video, and even a user's memories — and yet someone might still think:

Isn't that a little small?

Only one gigabyte in a single cubic centimeter. The cheap terminal Nain used day to day already held a hundred and twenty-eight terabytes — a hundred and twenty-eight thousand times the capacity of a Golden Tablet. Judged by storage alone, there was no reason whatsoever to use one.

And still, humanity stored every piece of critical information on Golden Tablets without exception. Because information sealed inside a Golden Tablet would never degrade, not across eons of ages. Moreover, knowledge of a high enough grade possessed its own spirituality, and could not be stored electronically at all.

Nain lifted her gaze to the massive metal mass towering well above her own height.

Unlike ordinary Golden Tablets, which shimmered with a golden light, this one blazed in a radiant platinum white.

"The Golden Elixir Method: Hunyuan Canon. By government standards, an officially recognized Heavenly Gate-grade cultivation method."

Heavenly Gate-grade.

Among the ranks of Basic, True Path, Earthly Path, Heavenly Gate, and Immortal Family, it sat at the fourth tier — a method whose very grade stood on an entirely different plane from the Earthly Path-grade Five Elements Spirit Ascension Fivefold Path she was currently cultivating.

It isn't just a single rank of difference.

Take a common example: if a hundred cultivators trained in an Earthly Path-grade method fought a life-and-death duel against a single cultivator trained in a Heavenly Gate-grade method, who would win?

Numbers would mean nothing.

A difference in a method's grade was like a medieval knight standing face to face with an aircraft carrier. The technology and enlightenment contained within were fundamentally different. To the eyes of the one who has gone farthest, everything behind looks much the same.

"Nain. I intend to take you to Cheondo Taehak. You're just the right age for university, after all."

Shiori laid a hand on the Golden Tablet that held the Hunyuan Canon, her interest plain and deep.

"My private research lab is there as well, and you'll need to stay at my side if I'm to guide your cultivation."

Nain had been listening in a daze. She shook her head, forcing her mind back into place.

So why is that thing even here?

No — that might not be the real problem right now…

She looked back and forth between her master, who looked strangely, almost unnervingly refreshed, and Seo Seong-rak, who stood in silence.

That's Quintessence's core proprietary asset. Their most critical secret.

The CEO was at Foundation Establishment Great Completion; the board and executive suite alone held dozens who had reached Foundation Establishment.

An ultra-conglomerate that sold cultivation methods and reached into pill refining and magical tool crafting besides. The foundation of all of it had to have come from that Hunyuan Canon.

As Nain sank into that doubt, Seo Seong-rak came stomping over and muttered under ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his breath.

"Said it was your entrance gift, didn't she? That lunatic dragged her own great-aunt into it and straight-up robbed the whole thing. As of today, the company called Quintessence has probably been absorbed into the Kuzunoha clan."

Insane.

Her master's great-aunt — that would be Cheongmyeong Jinin, wouldn't it? Dozens of Foundation Establishment cultivators, ultra-conglomerate or not — if she had stepped in, there would have been no resisting it. But to do something like that for someone who was still only at Qi Condensation…?

"Well, that crazy woman didn't set the whole board on fire just for your gift alone, but you, Nain — you just be happy about it. Not even a True Transmission, and for a True Disciple? Heh heh. Known her a long time, but that girl's always been a real piece of work."

Ah.

Only after hearing that from Seo Seong-rak could Nain set down a little of the weight pressing on her chest. Right — there was no way she would have done all that purely for her sake.

I'm part of the reason, sure, but there's got to be something bigger behind it.

…Right?

Pushing down a flicker of unease, she looked up at her master as Shiori walked toward her. Her master was a full ten centimeters taller, always forcing her to tilt her head back. Shiori gave a light gesture, and a smaller Platinum Tablet the size of a human head separated from the massive metal mass and floated up onto her palm.

"This is the Five Spirits Ascension Guidance Canon, extracted from the Hunyuan Canon. A version with the traps and flaws of the Five Elements Spirit Ascension Fivefold Path you learned stripped out. In terms of grade, it sits somewhere between Earthly Path and Heavenly Gate."

Nain stared at the white Golden Tablet, roughly the size of her own head. A clearly superior method — the Five Spirits Ascension Guidance Canon. Looking at it, her heart pounded; she could barely contain the excitement.

She reached for the captivating tablet. She wanted to learn it right then and there, to see how it differed from the Five Elements Spirit Ascension Fivefold Path.

But her master smoothly drew her hand back.

Whoosh!

Nain's arm cut empty air. Shiori rapped the forlornly outstretched hand with her fan.

"You listen to the explanation all the way through, Nain."

Shiori snapped the fan shut with a sharp tap and put on a deliberately stern face. Nain rubbed her reddened hand and made a pitiful expression. Even Geumhae's blank face couldn't hide the hunger for cultivation.

"Skimming the Hunyuan Canon, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠uncovered one secret. Namely — the True Transmission of the Hunyuan Canon can only be entered by someone with Five Spiritual Roots, someone who can directly handle the five elemental energies."

Shiori thought of Quintessence's chairman, who by now was probably sealed away in the clan prison.

"The CEO who learned this was likely an unusually gifted Five Spiritual Root cultivator as well. Someone like you, Nain."

Hummm~

Finished speaking, Shiori gently floated the Five Spirits Ascension Guidance Canon toward her on a thread of magical power. Nain received the Platinum Tablet as it drifted smoothly into her hands. By now she no longer cared what Quintessence's CEO was, or whether he was anything like her.

It felt like a method the heavens themselves had sent down for her alone. She could handle the Five Elements — and her talent didn't end there. For now she was only Four Spiritual Roots, but—

Three Spiritual Roots. Dual Spiritual Roots. Single Spiritual Root. If I can climb that high…

Cultivation speed and the quality of her methods alike would become a perfect talent that yielded to no one. Her body trembled. A dazzling future rose before her eyes.

The image of herself breaking through to Foundation Establishment at the heart of the Ascension Grounds, under the eyes of all humanity. The fantasy of a hundred billion cultivators and a trillion ordinary people speaking her name. She felt as if she had taken one step closer to her goal.

"Just skim it once. You won't be able to learn it all at once, so treat it as looking at the surface…"

Shhhk!

The moment her hand touched the Golden Tablet, the sounds around her began to fade. The vibration of the lab equipment, her master's voice, and at last even the beat of her own heart fell into silence… and then every scrap of her consciousness was sucked toward the tablet.

It was a familiar sensation — she had experienced it two or three times before. She set her heart at ease and let herself move with the current of information the Golden Tablet guided her along. Glittering nebulae and stars that flared and vanished swept past in the flow.

Carried to the end of that current, she arrived at a throne where the primordial beginning of the universe resided. Its scale was vastly greater than the cosmos itself, and yet, strangely, Nain could take in the entire throne at a glance. Upon it sat a giant, his body a spiral torrent of interstellar matter whirling like a cosmic maelstrom.

Nain knew his identity as if by instinct. The giant was Chaos itself — the Hunyuan of all things. Pangu, the creator god who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had opened the world at its first beginning.

The giant spoke a single utterance from the throne.

With every word the giant spoke, the universe expanded without end and the world differentiated. And at the farthest tip of that vast branching of all things, life bloomed, began the path of cultivation, and closed the universe once more into a single origin.

Expansion and contraction. Descent and ascent. It was the ring of cycles that ran through the beginning and the end of the world.

The principle of the Five Spirits Ascension Guidance Canon was carved into Nain's mind. The first chapter of the Hunyuan Canon — the Chapter of Qi Condensation.

Wield the five spirits, guide them back to the source, and at last ascend.

The principle of the Five Spirits Ascension Guidance Canon was etched into Geumhae's empty body. At the same time, Nain's true body began to change as well. Pow fluttered its pure white form, recording the transformation.

The mastery that had somehow already reached eight stars began to plummet.

The characters for the Five Elements Spirit Ascension Fivefold Path recorded on Pow's surface twisted until they were barely legible. They contorted further, past even a child's scrawl, and then shattered with a rending crack. The Five Elements Spirit Ascension Fivefold Path wept tears of grief and let out its death cry.

Crack!

Trampled beyond recognition, the ruined method could no longer hold its own form. Into that place, absorbing the fragments of its predecessor, a new method stepped forward with unshakable confidence.

"Ugh!?"

Nain let out a groan and opened her eyes. She was lying on the sofa in a darkened, comfortable living room, a blanket pulled over her. Beside her, Pow glowed with a bright light, celebrating her entry into the Five Spirits Ascension Guidance Canon.

But that wasn't the problem.

"My spiritual power…!?"

Her spiritual power was pouring out of her like water from a bottomless jar. The spiritual energy that normally sat heavy and solid in her lower abdomen was scattering helplessly away. Frantically hunting for the cause, Nain chased the trailing echo of the vanishing power.

No matter how she groped and tracked it, the spiritual power simply evaporated into empty air — she could not feel its destination at all.

Where is it going? Not anywhere nearby… Wait. Could it be—!?

Nain's left pupil blazed gold. She had been so panicked she had briefly forgotten, but this was a thoroughly familiar sensation. Something she had always done by her own will alone — only this time the other side had yanked first, unilaterally, and she hadn't noticed.

In an instant her vision linked with Geumhae's right eye. Raising the clarity of the shared senses, she found the reason. In Geumhae's lower dantian, a mass of spiritual essence roughly the size of her own sat there, spinning round and round.

She was so stunned she couldn't even speak.

You little… You're sucking up my spiritual power to raise your own realm!?

She wept tears of blood inwardly. It might have been a free-ride cultivation, but it was still the foundation of her being. And because that other body was her own avatar, she couldn't even get properly angry — which only made it more frustrating.

Then Shiori's voice reached her from Geumhae's side.

"Nain. If you've roughly skimmed it, set it down now and we can discuss the schedule going forw— …Hm?"

"Oh?"

Mid-sentence, Shiori's brow furrowed. Beside her, Seo Seong-rak's expression turned abruptly strange.

"Just now — I thought I felt a residual trace of spiritual power leak out. Was that only me?"

"No. I felt it too."

Both their gazes and spiritual senses locked straight onto Nain. She tried to move Geumhae's body, to say something — but strangely, it wouldn't budge.

Huh? What's going on…

"Ah. Ah."

A thin voice, similar to Nain's and yet subtly different, slipped from Geumhae's lips.

"I gained a faint insight, and briefly lost control of my energy. My apologies, Master."

It was a cool voice, yet one that held a strange warmth. The words carried an odd persuasiveness; the gazes and spiritual senses that had been pinning Geumhae in place from Shiori and Seo Seong-rak melted away. Of course, underneath that lay the trust that Nain would never lie.

…

Regardless of that, Nain broke out in a cold sweat inside.

What… is this…

She had always known a day like this would come. She just hadn't imagined it would arrive this soon.

Geumhae had awakened with a clear sense of self. And she was already ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠speaking fluently. Lying on the sofa, Nain kicked off the blanket and sat bolt upright in shock.