A Beautiful Enlightenment
"What, did you use the Law?"
"Right? Looks like the main body actually managed to think something through for once."
Matching the questions the Humanity Clones were throwing out, the rest of them all turned as one to stare at the clone who had completed the Law, sitting alone in a massage chair (scavenged from a failed senior center), as if demanding an answer.
Unable to withstand those gazes, the Humanity Clone opened her mouth at once and gave them exactly what they wanted.
"Our Law was already fully engraved into the Mental World at the completion stage. As long as we exist inside and hold conscience in our hands, reason will sort right from wrong for us."
"Hmm, so right now we're all thinking that Hee-a asking Yeon-a before she acts is the correct call, yeah?"
"Pretty much. No matter how much it raises her realm, Yeon-a was still just a Mortal quest NPC begging for revenge after her grandchildren got ground into pills."
"She might have changed her mind after becoming a cultivator, but asking first is still the right move."
"Yeah, yeah. Same here."
Most of the other Humanity Clones voiced their agreement, including the ones rolled up in blankets on the sofa and the ones roasting themselves on the electric heating mat spread across the floor.
"Then what about when we used the Law to cut down that field boss?"
"That was drawing out the Law of the Mental World. That thing was clearly a wrong existence, so the Law denied the field boss starting from the Mental World itself."
"If you put it that way I don't get it. We're different from you who actually grasped the enlightenment."
"Someone give me a three-line summary."
"Isn't it just an ult?"
"Hey, don't just dump a one-line summary like that."
Ding-dong, ding-dong!
As if to hush the noisy, chattering Humanity Clones, a doorbell rang through the mansion. Question marks floated over their heads. If the main body had entered the interior, they would all have been bounced straight out into the Mental World—so whoever rang the doorbell was not the main body.
"Ah! I'll get it!"
Only one Humanity Clone floated an exclamation mark over her head and shot out at once.
"Elder! Welcome! To our home ground!"
"Yes, yes. Have you been well?"
Following the pathway linked through Prisoner Mode, a small Nascent Soul had come all the way into the interior of the Golden Core—none other than a fragment of Elder Togo.
Having originally lost his physical body and remaining only as a Nascent Soul inhabiting a mechanical device, he was able to split off like this and slip in without Yu Hee's knowledge. Of course, Yu Hee's complete lack of wariness, born of her ironclad trust in friendly NPCs, played a part as well.
More than the unfamiliar architecture or the strange furniture and ornaments, Togo carefully met the eyes of each of Hee-a's little clones one by one, giving them his full attention—until his pupils suddenly widened.
"...You've crossed the wall."
"It's thanks to you, Elder."
"There are plenty of brats who can't even receive the teachings I give them, yet crossing the wall through enlightenment is entirely your own effort and strength. In any case, well done. Truly well done."
Watching the Humanity Clone twist and squirm in embarrassment under the barrage of praise while still smiling brightly as Togo soothed and hugged and thoroughly petted her, the other gathered clones looked on with envy. Togo smiled just as brightly as he carefully attended to each of them in turn.
Was it because he had little time left to live? Or because he had been defeated by his successor and locked away for so many long years with body and soul bound, only to finally be freed?
More than any desire for ascension as a cultivator or thirst for lifespan, watching the affection he poured out with all his might—so transparent it was vivid—toward this newborn infant had become a kind of joy for him.
Still, the newborn always wore a blank expression, so there was a slight regret that no emotion showed on the surface. That was why he had gone out of his way to enter even the Mental World, to care for these little souls who were no different from other newborns.
"Aren't you curious about my achievement?"
"The fact that the newborn has grown is far more important. Of course, if you want to show off to me, you're welcome anytime."
"Yes...!"
Leading the way with the little souls clinging to her neck, shoulders, and waist, the sturdy little newborn strode ahead. Following her, they stepped out of the Golden Core and into the Mental World, which was filled to the brim with slaughter and utterly dreadful.
Atop a tower, a newborn who had taken the form not of a girl but of a mature woman slowly gripped empty air with both hands and assumed a stance.
That was the newborn's heart.
It was the newborn's existence, carved into the shape of a spear, and it was her soul.
Before Togo could even voice his admiration at recognizing at a glance that she had carved herself down and fixed herself into the form of a spear, the woman danced through the air, swinging the invisible transparent spear.
The more she danced, the more spiritual power began to gather upon the once-transparent spear.
As spiritual power gathered as if enchanted by the spear technique, the originally transparent spear gradually revealed its form through the radiance of spiritual power. Toward the end, the spiritual power progressively concentrated at the spear tip, and polar light bloomed.
As the dance ended, the polar light of spiritual power at the tip instantly became a pole, then an aurora.
"Truly a pretty and beautiful enlightenment."
The newborn's anguish engraved into the Law, her self-reflection as a mere clone, the justice formed from enlightenment, the spiritual introspection the newborn had achieved—all of it felt raw and unfiltered, so Togo tightly embraced the Humanity Clone.
"Well done. Well done. Magnificent, my newborn."
"Teach us something too!"
"Huh? Elder Togo!"
"Even if you look at me with such expectation, all I can teach you is techniques."
At Togo's words, the gazes of about a dozen Humanity Clones turned. They were the ones clinging to Elder Togo's nape and waist who could sense spiritual power.
"Is the invasion event doable?"
"Someone kept emptying the warehouse, so it got a lot more doable. To the point Yeon-a could handle it herself."
What, did I get too carried away grinding them with the millstone? But back then I was desperate for spiritual power, and at least now I'd swallowed an entire secret realm whole and puffed up my Golden Core, so I wouldn't need to feed for a while.
Still, I'd keep grinding them daily with the millstone like a daily quest.
"So what are you doing not training and not going outside?"
"Hm? Well, you asked me to make you a Dharma Treasure before."
"I did, but we don't have materials. The warehouse is empty too."
"No, think about it. Dharma Treasure materials are usually made from monster bodies, right?"
"Wait, I already don't want to hear this."
"But if you think about it, cultivators' bodies are also pill materials, and they grind them up to use as Dharma Treasure materials, right? So if I just cut up my regenerating body and use it as material—"
"Stop! Why would you even think something that horrific?! I asked you to make me a decent Dharma Treasure, so why are you thinking of cutting up your own body for me?!"
"But you sold and used the flesh stones I made from my blood just fine?"
"Flesh stones are one thing—people even sell blood—but how do you go from that to the idea of cutting up a Golden Core-level body, seriously?!"
I couldn't understand Cheon Nan-cho's extreme disgust.
I mean, it regenerates anyway, so why is she like that? If cutting off an arm or leg permanently dropped my stats or slapped a debuff on me, sure, I'd freak out too—but it's not like that.
"Then is a finger okay?"
"Ugh... uurgh..."
Ah, she's deliberating.
I watched Cheon Nan-cho groan and agonize for a moment, then picked up a small dagger and was about to chop off my left hand when Cheon Nan-cho's arm shot up like a shield and stopped me cold.
"You said a finger! Why were you about to take off a whole hand?!"
"Ah, she caught me."
"Kyaaak!"
Maybe I shouldn't have asked for her opinion. Originally I was just going to chop off an arm and a leg each, confirm they itemized, dump them into the crafting window as materials, and make her a piece of gear. But since it was a gift for Cheon Nan-cho, I'd gone out of my way to ask her opinion first.
"Not easy, huh."
"That's my line! Even if it regenerates, who cuts up their own body to give as a gift?!"
"My expression of affection?"
Isn't it an item that raises favorability? I said it with the feeling of those game pets that periodically offer their fur or horns to their owner, and Cheon Nan-cho's face rotted.
"Now think about it, Hee-a."
"Yeah."
"I may not look it, but I'm a plant, okay? So if I received something like that, would I like it or hate it?"
"You wouldn't like it? You used to eat cultivators yourself, Nan-cho."
"No, I'm talking about the Dharma Treasure domain! What do you think my spiritual power attribute is?! If you make a Dharma Treasure from your body, Hee-a, it'll obviously be slaughter-attribute, right? Do you think that matches me?"
"But Yeon-a carries my chopsticks around just fine."
"That's because the dog is weird!"
Hmm, so even Cheon Nan-cho doesn't know why Yeon-a is like that.
"So don't go thinking of chopping off fingers—leave the sect and bring back materials! Preferably flowers or herbs that look obviously spiritual! Not trees or fruits!"
"You're so picky."
"Kyaaaaaaak!!!"
Ah, she's really mad.
Cheon Nan-cho's attack, which even used spiritual power as she charged, was of course blocked by Prisoner Mode, but the lack of damage and the recoil still sent us both flying—there was no helping that.
"Urgh!"
"Kyaak!"
Like trash, Nan-cho and I bounced away and ended up jammed into the corner in matching poses like a decalcomania.
In the end, I got kicked out of the base by Cheon Nan-cho just like that. No, wait—I wasn't kicked out. I came out onto the map to find Dharma Treasure materials. Yeah.