Initiation
The first time I opened my eyes in this world, I sensed that something was off.
“....”
Earthen-yellow energy crawled across the ground. Green energy grew from the trees. The fires burning inside homes were thick with writhing red energy, rivers ran with flowing blue, and even the hoes and tools in every household clung to a faint golden glow.
“Can you see this?”
“See what?”
Apparently, I was the only one who could.
It was fascinating at first, but the more I looked, the more it became routine. Eventually, with time, I even reached the point where it all faded from view as long as I didn't consciously pay attention.
“Jeonghyeon! Time to go!”
The boy I'd died and transmigrated into was a farmer's son. Early teens, three older siblings above him and four younger below. Since his family were poor tenant farmers, I spent every waking hour from dawn to dusk helping in the fields.
Honestly, my first thought was something along the lines of this is child abuse, but it was simply the way of things in this world. So I adapted, and by the time I'd gotten reasonably comfortable with farm work—
“Gather all the children!”
People came from a city I'd never once visited.
“The Selection Ceremony is upon us!”
All I'd ever seen was the same rough, patchwork cloth clothing everyone wore, but these visitors were clearly someone important—robed in gleaming silk, they rounded up every child in the surrounding villages.
And then—
“An— an immortal!”
“It's an immortal!”
I looked up at the sky and realized the world I'd been reborn into was somehow different from what I'd assumed. I'd vaguely figured it was ancient China of some kind. But immortals?
So was this a murim world?
Wait, did murim even have things like that?
The immortal descended riding a giant leaf. Honestly, my first impression was that it looked like a man coming down on some peculiar drone.
“Line up!”
Once he touched down, the immortal began examining the children one by one.
“Next!”
The test was simple. All you had to do was place your hand on a transparent glass orb.
Watching the procedure was so unusual that I found myself looking closely—and the energies I'd trained myself to ignore began slipping back into view, one after another.
“....!”
“What's wrong?”
“Nothing....”
And then I was genuinely stunned.
Starting with the round glass orb, then the immortal standing behind it, the flying vessel itself—the energies that usually just drifted around faintly were condensed here to an astonishing degree. The leaf radiated golden energy, and crimson and black-tinged energy swirled thick around the immortal's body.
“A Five-Element Spiritual Root! Get to the back!”
Somewhere along the way, the first child among us was sent to stand at the rear. Looking closely, five different energies were swirling around the boy.
So getting picked to stand in the back— is that a good thing?
“The child of the Lee family, is it?”
“Well, well. What a fine thing.”
Behind me, all I could hear was praise. Right, so it must be a good thing.
Or something else entirely. Either way, anyone who traveled around riding a giant leaf was not someone a farmer could refuse. From the moment I saw the silk-clad worthies bowing their heads and scraping, I knew these were people from a different world altogether.
“Next!”
And so, aside from the boy labeled a Five-Element Spiritual Root, the examinations wrapped up without incident.
“Place your hand.”
“Yes, sir.”
Before I knew it, my turn had come.
“Gold and Earth! A Dual Spiritual Root!”
The moment I laid my hand down, the glass orb blazed to life.
A Dual Spiritual Root?
Peering into the orb, I saw the faintest shimmer of golden energy and earthy energy. Familiar colors, those—the gold from the farm tools I'd handled helping with the harvest, the earth from the soil all around.
“You will become an Inner Disciple.”
“Yes, sir.”
I didn't bother asking what an Inner Disciple was. His eyes were practically dripping honey, so I figured it had to be good.
“Come, aboard!”
And so I boarded the giant leaf. Gradually, the ground fell away beneath me—leaving behind my dazed brothers and my cheering parents.
**
The Golden Sand Sect. That was the name of the sect I would now belong to.
With Gold and Earth Dual Spiritual Roots, my position as an Inner Disciple was apparently a foregone conclusion. According to the immortal's explanations during the flight, apart from the Heavenly Root—a single-element root chosen by the heavens themselves—a Dual Spiritual Root was the finest talent that existed.
That was why the immortal, who had all but ignored the Five-Element boy who'd come with us, took the trouble to explain a great many things to me, and so I was able to get a grasp on the sect.
In other words, this world was similar to murim, but different all the same. The upper balance of murim, you might say?
It wasn't that martial artists didn't exist—but the immortals were on an entirely different level. How different? Enough that the entire Tamga Nation, where I'd been born, was a state wholly subordinate to the Golden Sand Sect.
Which was frankly hard to believe. A nation under a single organization? But apparently, things like this were common in the Lower Realm.
That raised another question, though.
“The Lower Realm?”
“Indeed. This place is the Lower Realm.”
And then, genuinely astonishingly, this world was the Lower Realm—and there existed an Upper Realm where true immortals resided.
Honestly, it sounded like some cult's babbling, but I figured arguing from the vantage point of a guy flying on a giant leaf was a losing proposition.
“Here we are. The Golden Sand Sect.”
Well, anyway. When we finally arrived, I could see exactly why they called these people immortals.
An enormous mountain range wreathed in drifting clouds—the whole of it, apparently, belonged to the Golden Sand Sect. Buildings stood on every peak, and looking closely, farmland could be spotted tucked into every corner of the range.
How on earth did they build all that?
Gazing out over those structures from the back of a giant leaf, I truly felt that I had followed immortals to their home.
*
“Now, the art you will learn is the Golden Sand Qi Ingestion Art—the foundational breathing technique that every Inner Disciple of our sect practices.”
And so, after landing on one of the peaks and listening to a laundry list of rules, I was handed a single book.
“Feel the Qi of heaven and earth! Imagine it as sand....”
According to what I heard, this foundational absorption method existed only within the Golden Sand Sect. First, you folded your hands in a specific knot and felt for the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth—that was the gateway to becoming an immortal.
“Mm....”
“Not feeling it? You have a Dual Spiritual Root—you'll pick it up in no time.”
But honestly, at first I was lost. What is this? What am I supposed to be feeling?
Then, after mulling it over, the energies floating before my eyes caught my attention.
...Could that be the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth?
Feeling that is the first step?
I glanced around for a moment, then guided that spiritual Qi into my body exactly as the book described. And then—
Sssaaaah....
Watching the energy around me bend toward my side, I realized this was the first step on the road to becoming an immortal.
Huh. Easier than I expected?
According to the book, once I drew this energy inside and circulated it, I would officially enter the Qi Condensation Realm. The circulation didn't look all that difficult either.
“Ho? Grasped it already? Your sensitivity is remarkable.”
I was getting a little excited when the supervisor's words stopped me cold.
...Now that I think about it.
No one in the entire village had ever been able to see energy the way I did. Apparently I had some sort of unusual constitution.
Being special is nice. But being too special is poison. Didn't my past life teach me that well enough?
“...Mmm.”
And so I pretended to struggle, furrowed my brow, and scattered the energy. As long as I had this constitution, I could show off my brilliance anytime.
But first, I needed to read the situation. Lying down is fine and all—but you should always check where you lie down before you do.
**
After becoming an Inner Disciple of the Golden Sand Sect, I happened to catch the eye of one of the elders and became a Zhenshan Disciple—a disciple of the sect's future pillars.
Walking the path of cultivation, I came to a realization: I was a truly absurd genius.
And no wonder.
...Why can't they manage this?
Everything I heard or learned came without the slightest difficulty. If I set my mind to something, I could master it. Even arts that didn't suit me I could handle deftly in no time—because after entering cultivation, I'd learned how to command energy. The spiritual Qi that only my eyes could see obeyed me faithfully. It gathered when I bid it, dispersed at my word, and offered not a flicker of resistance when I absorbed it into my body. It was, truly, an extraordinary constitution that anyone would envy.
Of course, I was still at the Qi Condensation stage, so it was far too early to be bragging. Even the Foundation Establishment seniors—the ones called the sect's core fighting force—didn't look all that impressive to me. Give me enough time, and I'd reach them soon enough. It felt like staring at a modest hill behind the village. I'd sweat for it, sure, but the climb itself wouldn't be hard. That was exactly the feeling.
Though of course, if you looked at a Golden Core master—someone said to have formed a core—it was a different story. But no master of that caliber existed in our sect. The Golden Sand Sect had once produced one, true, but as far as I'd heard, the sect's current greatest master was the Grand Supreme Elder, who had barely reached the great perfection of Foundation Establishment. And even he had little time left to live, they said.
That was why I never let my talent or my constitution show on the surface.
“Have you mastered it all?”
“Not to full mastery yet, Elder.”
“Right. You have talent—take your time.”
Capable of achieving mastery at any moment, I simply didn't. Instead of focusing on the sect's core arts, I let my attention wander elsewhere. Deliberately dragging my feet made me itch with restlessness, so I matched the pace by picking up all manner of miscellaneous skills instead.
And then—thank the heavens for this—there was Dang Sam.
“I've achieved mastery.”
“Already? Good grief!”
Among my fellow Zhenshan Disciples, there was one called Dang Sam—the greatest genius the sect had ever seen.
“You've understood all of this?”
“Yes. Ah, though listening to it, a question occurred to me....”
“Ho— you've had thoughts like that from a mere foundational breathing exercise?”
He wasn't a Heaven-Root, blessed by the heavens. But Dang Sam's talent as a Dual Spiritual Root bearer was extraordinary, magnificent—teach him one thing and he'd know ten. A genuine, dyed-in-the-wool genius.
“I figured that out too.”
“Mm, yes—you caught on quickly.”
And so I acted exactly one step slower than Dang Sam. Always.
“You're already at the middle stage of Qi Condensation? Remarkable!”
When Dang Sam reached the middle stage of Qi Condensation in two years, I took three. When he reached the late stage in four, I waited out six.
“How do you fail to grasp this? Watch closely.”
Nose in the air, Dang Sam would occasionally gather the other disciples to lecture them and puff himself up—but even I had to admit his talent was the finest in the sect, save for me alone. And no wonder: energy was always swirling thick around him. He himself might not realize it, but Dang Sam, too, clearly possessed some kind of extraordinary constitution.
“Jeonghyeon, this older brother's heading up ahead.”
“Go on, then.”
“Honestly. How can you be so unhurried?”
And so Dang Sam challenged Foundation Establishment at the tender age of twenty-five.
“Ho! A prodigy! A true prodigy!”
“The sect's greatest talent in all the world has appeared!”
Despite being a mere Dual Spiritual Root bearer, he had become a Foundation Establishment cultivator at twenty-five—nothing less than the core fighting strength of the sect.
I congratulated him from the bottom of my heart. It had taken Dang Sam thirteen years, from age twelve. So maybe I'll break through in about six years? A Foundation Establishment master at thirty would still count as a genius—just not one who draws eyes like Dang Sam did.
And so I resolved to wait, leisurely and patiently.
About three years later—
“The sect is closing its gates!”
“All hands, focus on the search!”
Dang Sam, who had gone out on a mission, vanished.
**
In the end, Dang Sam was never found. The disappearance investigation faded into nothing as time went by, and the sect's elders took on a hushed, evasive air about the whole affair.
And then, as fate would have it, exactly two years after Dang Sam's disappearance—
“Long live the Grand Supreme Elder!!”
“Hahaha! The sect rises to its feet once more!”
The Grand Supreme Elder, whose lifespan had all but run out, broke through the wall of the Golden Core Realm.