Where Soul and Spirit Align
The boundary between his spiritual essence and his divine soul had dissolved. A destructive yet vibrantly alive flame pierced through the barrier, linking the two. Though they had not fused completely, the boundary between them was no longer as unyielding as before.
"Whew." Jekyeong realized that if he so desired, he could cross the boundary between his spiritual essence and his divine soul at will, freely adding or subtracting his monster power to and from the power of his divine soul. This meant that the principles of the Dao of Fire had permeated his will, signifying that he had dipped his foot into half of the Path of the Fire Dragon. Well, that was assuming dipping a single toe counted as dipping one's foot.
"Hahahahaha!" Jekyeong laughed heartily as he soared out of the Black Cult Palace and high into the sky.
"Heh!" Hyeongu, who had been cooped up in the deep waters in front of the palace studying formation arrays, poked his head above the water's surface upon realizing his lord had emerged from seclusion. He nearly fainted at the sight.
The sky—no, everything within his line of sight—was ablaze. At this horrific spectacle, which looked like the end of the world, Hyeongu trembled and clutched his chest. His past cultivation had not been in vain, preventing him from losing consciousness, but he doubted whether that was even a blessing right now.
"Lord Dragon! Please, calm your wrath!" He squeezed out the last dregs of his faint courage to raise his voice, but the chances of his solitary murmur reaching the Lord Dragon high in the heavens were only slightly higher than the probability of a tiny turtle like him immediately transforming into the Black Tortoise.
"Stupid turtle! Cowardly turtle!" A grating crow's caw reached the ears of the utterly terrified Hyeongu.
"Master Cheongo! Please, go quickly and stop the Lord Dragon! At this rate..."
"Caw! Have you really gone daft?" Cheongo landed lightly on one foot atop Hyeongu's head. "Look closely. It's not hot at all!"
"What do you mean by... huh?" Hyeongu, who had been speaking urgently, suddenly blinked with a dazed expression. It was exactly as Cheongo said. Although everything around them was clearly burning, it was neither hot nor even warm. Recalling how the entire Heukgyo Water Territory used to turn into a boiling hot spring whenever the Lord Dragon focused on his cultivation, this was truly bizarre.
"It's not real fire. Huh? Or is it? I don't know." While the crow and the turtle scratched their heads, the laughter of the massive Black Flood Dragon echoed far and wide from high in the heavens.
*Whoosh!* Jekyeong had found a new amusement in playing with fire. He justified it to himself as testing the results of his cultivation, but to any third party, it was nothing but playing with fire. Especially since the corners of his mouth remained curled upward as he watched the flames flicker in and out of existence, no one would ever mistake this for serious training.
Spiritual essence and divine soul... Indeed, even a stone at someone else's feet can be used as a whetstone. He had never expected that out of the three cultivation methods he had acquired long ago, he would comprehend the Blazing Fire Investigating Heaven Force first—the very one he had set aside, deeming it too absurd. If this wasn't a stroke of karmic luck, nothing was. Having already benefited once from the core secrets of the Blazing Fire Investigating Heaven Force, he could no longer afford not to examine it with the utmost seriousness.
Even the author couldn't explain it clearly, but if one carries this premise to its logical conclusion, the destination is the complete unification of spiritual essence and divine soul. But is such a thing even possible?
Although he had narrowed the gap between his spiritual essence and his divine soul this time, the boundary still existed. He had left it intact because he couldn't tear it down, but now that his head had cooled, he realized that even if he could, he wouldn't dare to. That boundary was a separation meant for self-preservation.
The spiritual essence was the channel and sanctuary for the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, while the divine soul was the cultivator's very spirit and mind. Therefore, merging the two without distinction meant dissolving oneself into heaven and earth. If the cultivator's sense of self was not sufficiently unyielding, they would instantly be swept away and vanish without a trace into the vast cosmos.
Jekyeong did not have the confidence to preserve his identity within the torrent of heaven and earth. At least, not yet.
Yet, the concept of unifying spiritual essence and divine soul had granted Jekyeong no small measure of enlightenment. In the end, the Immortal Path was not a straight, singular road, and certainly not a one-way street. Which path to discover and walk was entirely up to the cultivator. Furthermore, while a cultivator might fear having no path to walk, none would shun having too many. Naturally, Jekyeong did not reject the new path laid out before him.
*Flicker!* A flame bloomed before Jekyeong's eyes and vanished. Throughout this process, Jekyeong did not employ a single shred of monster power. All that had moved was his mind. When the mind stirs, the fire rises. The fire qi of heaven and earth responded to his will, which was practically no different from his will becoming fire itself.
This was the precise benefit of the thinned boundary between his spiritual essence and his divine soul. With the boundary narrowed, the two resonated with each other; when the spiritual essence moved, the divine soul followed, and when the divine soul stirred, the spiritual essence assisted.
The fiery spectacle he had conjured upon bursting out of seclusion—the one that had nearly made Hyeongu faint—was part of this. That grand display was an illusion born of Jekyeong's mind, which in a sense could be viewed as a flame of the divine soul. It did not burn the flesh, but it could leave soot upon another's soul. To exaggerate slightly, every single spark he was currently playing with was essentially a soul-attribute secret art.
If spiritual essence and the divine soul can resonate like this, couldn't I use this to raise my cultivation level as well?
While harboring such questions, Jekyeong also recalled an unfamiliar concept he had heard during the recent exchange meet.
They called it a Dao Pattern.
Jekyeong recalled how his 'fellow beast'—the one who had sold him the essence blood of the Seven-Colored Phoenix—had looked dissatisfied after inspecting the Golden Core offered as a trade item. Specifically, the beast's comment criticizing the core: "It doesn't have a single Dao Pattern."
He had been curious back then, but he hadn't asked anyone, fearing he might advertise his own ignorance. Such matters were best asked of his seniors in Bul-mang-won. To them, he could freely show the side of an inexperienced, curious junior without any shame.
Jekyeong did not hesitate in such matters. In the past, when his cultivation was low and his standing insignificant, he had to weigh and measure every little action, but things were different now. He immediately entered Bul-mang-won to seek out a senior who could resolve his doubts. It was the idle Demon King senior who might as well be considered a permanent resident of Bul-mang-won.
"Dao Patterns? Where did you hear about that?"
"I just happened to come across the term," Jekyeong replied half-heartedly to Yu Gon's indifferent question. He knew the other wasn't asking out of genuine curiosity.
"Dao Patterns... you could consider them the grade of a core."
"A grade? Cores have grades?"
"If they have them, they do; if they don't, they don't."
"What is that supposed to mean? Since you're already telling me, please show a little more generosity." As Jekyeong pressed further, Yu Gon finally let out a heavy sigh of annoyance and continued his half-hearted explanation.
"A core is, ultimately, the foundation that conceives and nurtures the Dharma Seed. This 'Dharma' refers to the laws of the Dao, so you can view it as one's comprehension of the Dao."
"Then does the number of Dao Patterns increase as one's comprehension of the Dao deepens?"
"Of course, that alone isn't enough. The core has already been formed. To engrave new patterns, you must first wash it clean."
"Washing it clean means..."
"It means emptying it."
"Don't tell me you have to disperse your cultivation?" Had his physical body been present, Jekyeong's face would undoubtedly have contorted into an ugly grimace.
"It's similar. You don't need to start entirely from scratch, but you cannot avoid having to partially remold the core."
"Are there actually people who do that?"
"Of course there are."
"Why? Is there some immense benefit to it?" Remolding one's core? Granted, it was only partial, and since they already had the experience of forming a core once, it wouldn't be as agonizing as the first time. Still, the sheer effort involved was not something anyone would willingly undertake without a massive incentive.
"Naturally, there is a benefit. A very significant one, at that."
"What is it?"
"It makes forming the soul much easier."
"..."
To reach the Core Formation realm, one must condense a core. To reach the Nascent Soul realm, one must undergo the process of Shattering the Core to Form the Soul. This was, quite literally, shattering one's core to birth a Nascent Soul. Among the cultivators who attempted to form a Nascent Soul, sixty percent were blocked at the stage of shattering the core, and thirty percent met their demise during the soul-birthing stage, their path to the Dao severed forever. Since sixty percent was larger than thirty percent, did that mean shattering the core was harder than forming the soul? Absolutely not. In truth, it meant that even the geniuses who overcame the difficulty of shattering their cores mostly fell to their knees during the soul-birthing process. Forming the soul was the tallest mountain one had to scale to reach the Nascent Soul realm.
"According to the humans, one can engrave up to nine Dao Patterns, and a Golden Core engraved with nine Dao Patterns is called a Nine-Revolution Golden Core."
"Does that concept... also apply to a Demon Core?"
"Of course. Whether it's a Golden Core or a Demon Core, a core is a core."
"Then, by any chance, did you also, Senior..."
"Every Core Formation cultivator engraves as many Dao Patterns as their ability allows. Only those without talent or luck desperately attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul realm at the very end with nothing on their cores. Frankly, I consider such attempts less of a challenge and more of a desperate bid to clear away lingering regrets."
This meant that he, being talented and capable, had naturally engraved Dao Patterns. As for exactly how many... Jekyeong did not ask. Inquiring so deeply into another's cultivation was a major breach of etiquette, and he knew he wouldn't receive an answer anyway.
Dao Patterns. The obstacles just keep piling up. It was already exhausting enough to raise his cultivation level, and now he had to worry about emptying and refilling his core? Yu Gon had said it wasn't a complete remolding, so the burden might not be overwhelmingly heavy, but one could never be too sure.
It seems I must devote more effort to the Dao of Alchemy. The concepts of Dao Patterns and the Nine-Revolution Golden Core originated from the humans. The fact that a race with such short lifespans devised such methods was proof that the drawbacks were not prohibitively severe. For instance, it likely meant that even if one remolded their core, their cultivation level would not drop, or even if it did, it could be restored through alchemical pills.
Jekyeong decided it was time to bring out his cauldron, which had been cold for quite some time. Or perhaps, taking this opportunity to acquire a more splendid cauldron wouldn't be a bad idea either.
While Jekyeong was rekindling his passion for cultivation, another storm was brewing in Yangseo Lake. It was due to the emergence of the Thousand-Faced Ghost King.
The cultivator known as Ghost Spider, who had previously been famous only among those who knew of and frequented Haeyeon Island, had silently achieved Core Formation and become a Ghost King. It remained unclear whether he was a true Ghost Cultivator, a human, or a member of another race, but his name spread like wildfire.
Rumor had it that he possessed a thousand faces, allowing him to appear anywhere at any time, and that his methods were so sinister that no one survived once he made his move. As for how his sinister nature became known if there were no survivors... one could only say that such was the nature of rumors in the cultivation world.
At any rate, this Thousand-Faced Ghost King began to show his true, devilish colors in earnest after achieving Core Formation. A name that had once been whispered only among those who frequented Haeyeon Island or knew of its existence suddenly began to echo across the entirety of Yangseo Lake. While such fame was natural for a Core Formation cultivator, it wasn't his cultivation level that had made him famous. Rather, his cultivation level was only discovered after his name had already spread.
The Thousand-Faced Ghost King established a Spiritual Vein using the immense wealth he had accumulated from managing Haeyeon Island. If one looked only at this, there was no particular reason for an uproar. Artificially creating a Spiritual Vein was a specialty of the humans, and the Court of Demons had done the same not long ago.
Compared to the Court of Demons establishing a Spiritual Vein while simultaneously drawing in the Heumwon clan to raise the banner of the Beast Race, the Thousand-Faced Ghost King quietly setting up a Spiritual Vein on his own was practically trivial.
But the Thousand-Faced Ghost King did not stop at merely setting up a Spiritual Vein. He ventured beyond the Heukgyo Water Territory and slaughtered every single human in the four neighboring water territories. Yes, it was a massacre. As if swatting flies buzzing around him, he wiped out all the humans in the four water territories closest to the Heukgyo Water Territory. It was done silently, swiftly, and without giving them any time to react.
According to rumors, a thick mist had suddenly rolled in one day, and when it finally cleared a month later, not a single living thing could be found. Later, people speculated that the mist was no ordinary fog, but perhaps the Thousand-Faced Ghost King's very own Divine Ability.
This speculation was not without basis. The proof lay in the fact that after the mist cleared and all life vanished, the spiritual energy of the four water territories had been completely drained. Since it was a well-known fact that the birth of a Spiritual Vein drains the surrounding spiritual energy, the depletion of energy in those four water territories was inevitably linked to the Spiritual Vein in the Heukgyo Water Territory. If one thing was connected, it wouldn't be strange for another to be as well. It was clear that this Thousand-Faced Ghost King was not satisfied with merely draining spiritual energy; he had drained the very life force of the region as well.