First-Grade Breakthrough
One talisman. Two.
She kept her spine straight and her arms at a fixed angle. When drawing talismans, one must never lose elegance or grandeur.
Nain lowered her eyes and released spiritual power through the tip of her brush. Energy unfurled from her heart, mingled with the ink, and raced across the paper without restraint.
A moment later, a scatter of green light bloomed, and a low-grade Might Talisman was born. Drawing it had taken four minutes and thirty seconds—thirty seconds faster than before.
"Next."
Another Might Talisman. But Nain's movements were different now. Even the same lines came faster and more precise. She swept through the tangled, complex strokes without a single hesitation. With no friction in the release of her spiritual power, the brush raced across the paper with crystalline clarity.
She was growing in real time. The next one took three minutes. Then two. And when she finished a Might Talisman in under a minute—
Nain instinctively understood that one minute was her limit.
"Last one."
Flash!
A talisman steeped in deep green light rose high into the air. Low-grade—but among low-grade talismans, it was of the absolute highest quality.
Nain's gaze settled on the constitution and technique entries.
"One talisman raises Talisman Dao Sacred Body mastery by one, and the Introductory Formula by ten?"
It was absurdly overpowered. Only then did Nain truly understand—in cultivation, talent was everything.
In the past, even clawing forward a single step at the Severing Longevity Stage had left her breathless and choking. And now? In a mere hour she had drawn ten talismans, her realm advancing without obstruction, the high ground already in sight. Fifteen years of struggle were worth less than this single hour.
There was a saying that permeated the cultivation world:
Heaven's chosen—those born with peerless comprehension and untouchable spiritual talent—grew at a pace no one could measure, even within a single day. Beneath vast resources and the guidance of extraordinary masters, their progress outstripped the entire life of an ordinary person.
But Nain had believed the world would not be so cruel. Naive, perhaps—yet that belief had been the core of who she was. A lifetime filled with nothing but effort: that had been Nain.
Closing her eyes, drawing qi through the Severing Longevity Formula, she cast her mind back over her whole life.
She had ground herself down for cultivation and poured endless effort into every day. At first, she had thought that was enough.
But effort was merely the baseline. Everyone worked hard. Everyone willingly cast themselves into hell for the sake of climbing higher. Nain had simply looped the basics on endless repeat.
It hurt. Her heart ached so badly. It felt as though her entire life had been declared worthless, and her chest burned with the injustice of it. And yet—tears of joy welled up instead.
She had finally left the endless forest of the sea, and at last she could spread her wings toward the sky. How could that not be a joy?
"Even so… it wasn't meaningless."
Nain straightened her posture once more. For a bird without wings, practicing flight is a worthless act. But if someone then grants that bird the greatest wings of all, the time spent is no longer empty.
"Heh… I'm getting needlessly sentimental."
A woman's body was certainly more inconvenient than the man's she had once been. It was a little hard—but she chose to accept herself anyway. Her heart felt light.
Qi that had completed a full circuit of her meridians condensed into spiritual power and settled in her heart. Guiding that power into her brush, Nain began her final Might Talisman.
Shhhk.
And in fifty-two seconds—less than a minute—she shattered the one-minute wall she had believed was her limit.
Flash!
Pou's body began to shake violently. At the same time, Nain's own body started to tremble with it. Change was imminent.
Talisman Dao Sacred Body — 10 / ?
The characters on the pure white status pane were swallowed by shadow. Pitch-black darkness devoured the letters and spat them back out again.
"Hiiik…!"
The brush slipped from her right hand with a soft clatter. Nain toppled to the floor along with it.
"Ik—hiii…!"
This new body had no resistance to pain at all; every sensation arrived raw and searing. Nain writhed.
"Ah—eht!"
The change that began at her fingertips flooded her entire body. Muscle and bone twisted, then settled into their proper places. Meridians that had once been country lanes widened and expanded into two-lane roads.
"Agyagyagyagyak……!"
Every hair on her body stood on end like a cat struck by lightning. Nain clenched her fists and ground her teeth against the agony.
At the same time, her heart transformed. The small, steadily beating organ swelled just a fraction larger, flushed a deeper, clearer red—and at its center, a dense immortal character branded itself like a seal.
"A heart tattoo is not my aesthetic!"
She understood it instinctively. On the day the immortal character etched upon her heart was completed, the Immortal Body would evolve another stage. As the master of this talent, she simply knew.
Thump!
The trembling of her body, having finished every change, finally stilled. The constitution entry that had been swallowed by darkness reappeared.
A constitution that had once carried no rank at all had become Grade 1.
She would have liked nothing more than to poke and prod every inch of her body and catalog the changes—but—
"Ah… I've hit my limit…."
Nain released the consciousness she had been clinging to by sheer force of will. Frankly, enduring this long in a body with zero pain tolerance was already praiseworthy. Not soiling herself was an achievement in its own right.
"Ghk."
Gwooooo…!
The former Republic of South Africa. Present-day Z-Sector.
A gate of every color tore open the sky and flaunted its majesty. Its diameter alone spanned a thousand kilometers. Merely looking at it induced dizziness and nausea; an ordinary person who stared directly would die on the spot.
Africa had, by luck, possessed almost no nations that could be called great powers. That luck, however, had become a poison that hollowed out the continent. The invaders treated "Africa" as a single vast country—and the Republic of South Africa, perceived as the capital of that Africa, received the largest gate on Earth. That was the origin of the gate that swallowed half of Africa's population.
Atop a sheer cliff that opened onto a lonely, absolute height, a breathtaking vista unfolded where the gate of the sea met the gate of the sky.
Eun Seolhwa stood at the cliff's edge and looked down upon the ocean. Silver hair tossed by the sea wind glittered as it streamed; a coat as white as snow flared with it, heightening her austere beauty.
Softly.
With an anxious heart, Eun Seolhwa bit the tip of her finger. She was frowning, glaring at the terminal set into her bracelet.
Nain.
Even with a critical trial before her, she could not stop thinking of her ninth child, and the frustration of it pressed hard.
The only one born with a fifth-grade spiritual root—and the only one who had still not reached the Qi Refinement Stage. All the other children had already passed Early Qi Refinement and were pushing toward Mid. Only one year and one month remained until the Second Selection.
"No contact either. What is she doing?"
Fail the Second Selection, and one was banished from Earth. Once sent to the outer star systems, they might never meet again.
Honestly, Nain had no hope. A child who in fifteen years had not even crossed the threshold of Qi Refinement would not break through in the year remaining.
Sending her ten thousand credits had been the final chance. The resources one could allocate to a child still in the rearing period were limited. If she failed to seize this opportunity, Nain would be expelled from Earth and spend the rest of her life in a mine or a factory.
"Haa…."
A cold breath unfurled into the air. The chill bound with moisture and scattered into ice shards that refracted the light, wrapping Eun Seolhwa in a beautiful radiance.
High above the cliff, Foundation Establishment cultivators conversed through divine sense over Eun Seolhwa's head. Every one of them was a Foundation Establishment demigod—true upper-class beings who had crushed ferocious competition to stand above humanity.
One of the three spoke; another agreed.
Eun Seolhwa paid no attention to whatever the Foundation Establishment cultivators were muttering above her head. Instead, she focused on operating her terminal and contacted one of her children.
Beep… beep…
The signal tone rang briefly, and a young girl's face appeared on the screen.
She did not particularly resemble Eun Seolhwa. Yet their temperaments were similar—a cool composure lingered on her face, and her gaze was always steady. Night-sky black hair and sharp yellow eyes set off her beauty.
"Decia."
"Yeah, Mom. What's up?"
"Nain has been hard to reach lately. You're the only one currently in Future Special City, so I was hoping you could go see her and let me know how she's doing."
One of Decia's eyes twitched slightly.
"Nain…."
She rolled the name around in her mouth once, then nodded with a smile.
"Got it, Mom. I'll check on her."
"Please do."
Beep.
The call cut off.
At the same moment, a Foundation Establishment cultivator's divine sense brushed against Eun Seolhwa.
Eun Seolhwa inclined her head with elegant grace and offered her thanks.
"I am grateful for your consideration."
The middle-aged Foundation Establishment cultivators standing to either side laughed. The young man in the center, however, looked down at Eun Seolhwa with an expressionless face.
At those words, the other two Foundation Establishment cultivators also fell silent and composed themselves with solemn gravity. Eun Seolhwa narrowed her eyes slightly and gazed out over the sea.
The Sixth of the Seven Tribulations of Foundation Establishment:
Beast Contention
Slay one hundred Peak First-Rank demonic beasts alone.
KROAAAAAH!!!
From below the cliff—more than two thousand meters high—a cry rose from a sea deeper than pitch black.
This was the last. The previous ninety-nine beasts had been submitted as evidence in the form of their byproducts. Now, under the examiners' watchful eyes, Eun Seolhwa had to prove her ability.
Boom. Boom. Boom!
The cliff shuddered. The beast entered her field of vision.
Three hundred meters from head to tail, a monster whose weight easily exceeded tens of thousands of tons. The peak First-Rank demonic beast—the Inkscale Radiant Flood Dragon—reared its head and yawned its maw wide toward the cliff. Vast demonic qi flooded outward and crushed the surroundings into submission.
"KRRAAAAAARGH!!!"
Step.
Eun Seolhwa looked down upon the Inkscale Radiant Flood Dragon with eyes as cold as winter.
"You are not my match."
Fwoooosh!
She stepped lightly off the cliff. Her coat whipped violently as it met the wind head-on.
Opposite her, the Inkscale Radiant Flood Dragon scrambled madly up the cliff face. Eyes of pure red, saturated with frenzy and instinct, glared savagely at the falling Eun Seolhwa.
"Haa…."
A breath of azure cold unfurled. Frigid qi wrapped her plummeting body. The Spiritual Stars in her dantian vibrated, pouring forth overwhelming spiritual power.
At Eun Seolhwa's fingertip, a single point of searingly blue light bloomed.
A prodigy born with a pure single-attribute Ice Spiritual Root. The power she had accumulated over seventeen years at Peak Qi Refinement was not something a mere wild demonic beast could withstand.
Sensing the danger, the Inkscale Radiant Flood Dragon wrenched up its demonic force. Instinct layered atop its innate bulk ignited a defensive divine ability that pushed its defense to the extreme. Its scales darkened to pure black and packed tighter still.
None of its preparations mattered.
The ice point flowering at Eun Seolhwa's long, pale fingertip detonated. Spiritual power differentiated according to her art, traced complex trajectories, and completed a spell.
A blue moon settles lightly upon the Inkscale Radiant Flood Dragon.
CRAAAASH!
"Kiiik…."
Azure cold swallowed the Inkscale Radiant Flood Dragon whole. The spell, punching through every defense and preparation, turned the three-hundred-meter monster into a single block of ice in an instant.
Crack.
Eun Seolhwa landed atop the beast's head.
Crrrk-crack.
Compared to the creature's colossal frame, it was the gentlest of impacts.
Yet that alone was enough. The Inkscale Radiant Flood Dragon's body collapsed and fell away into the sea.
Rrrrumble….
Tens of thousands of tons of ice rolled and shattered down the cliff face, and a tidal wave dozens of meters high slammed against the rock. The black deep quietly swallowed the corpse.