Chapter 2
Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Don't Let My Arm Get Cut Off (2)
This body has two spiritual roots.
What the hell is going on? Does Yong Yoo have some hidden backstory? No way. This guy's just a random mob who shows up briefly at the start and never gets mentioned again.
After pondering for a moment, I figured out the identities of the two spiritual roots inside me.
One was Yong Yoo's spiritual root.
The other belonged to my previous life—Kang Young-jun's spiritual root.
'Did I have a spiritual root?'
I was shocked to learn that Kang Young-jun's body had possessed a spiritual root, and even more stunned that it had followed my soul all the way into this possessed body.
In my surprise, I examined the spiritual root and sensed five distinct streams of qi within it. Fire, water, wood, metal, earth—the five elements.
'A Five Elements Spiritual Root.'
A little disappointing.
No, hold on. I hadn't lived in a xianxia world myself, so just having a spiritual root at all was pretty damn impressive, right?
For now, I decided to call them the Yong Spiritual Root and the Kang Spiritual Root—Yong Yoo's and Kang Young-jun's, respectively.
Compared to the messy Five Elements Kang Spiritual Root, the Yong Spiritual Root—which held only fire, water, and wood qi—felt remarkably pure and promising.
'Honestly, I was worried about ditching the basic art I've been cultivating so steadily to pick up this attribute-heavy Five Skandhas Enlightenment Art... but with this setup, maybe I keep the Yong Spiritual Root on Deep Roots Luxuriant Branches Art and run the Five Skandhas on the Kang Spiritual Root?'
Deep Roots Luxuriant Branches Art was High Heaven Sect's foundational cultivation method.
The name evoked imagery of deep roots yielding luxuriant branches; it worked by stripping the five elements' qi from spiritual energy to gather pure, attribute-less spiritual qi.
You built up that pure foundation first, then switched to a method suited to you later. At that point, all the stored pure qi converted in one go to your new method's qi, skyrocketing your cultivation speed.
It laid down deep roots of pure spiritual qi, letting you sprout whatever branches you desired.
'Even the protagonist makes good use of it well into the late game.'
You couldn't convert Deep Roots spiritual qi into Meritorious Force or Karmic Force, but it was perfect for masking those forces from others.
'Perfect.'
I experimented by shifting some spiritual qi from the Yong Spiritual Root to the Kang Spiritual Root, then nodded in satisfaction.
I could probably convert every bit of my current Refining Qi Realm 3rd layer spiritual qi into Five Skandhas qi.
Normally, once you converted like that, the new method took root fully, rendering Deep Roots unusable... but with dual roots, I could cultivate Five Skandhas and still hang onto Deep Roots.
Down the line, maybe even run a different method on each root and blend them?
'Eh... better build some strength anyway, just to avoid picking fights with other cultivators in the outer sect.'
With those thoughts, I began cultivating via Five Skandhas methods while simultaneously transferring spiritual qi from the Yong Spiritual Root to the Kang Spiritual Root.
The attribute-less qi shifted over and rapidly transformed into Five Skandhas spiritual qi.
Buddhist methods like this normally built qi slowly, since it had to infuse auspicious power to repel defilements—long process, poor efficiency.
'Over half this qi is getting discarded in the transfer. Way more waste than I thought. Is the Kang Spiritual Root's aptitude just that lacking?'
Still, if I kept gathering with Deep Roots and funneling it over, I'd accumulate Five Skandhas qi way faster than solo cultivation.
Over the course of a week, I transferred every last drop of spiritual qi from the Yong Spiritual Root to the Kang Spiritual Root.
"...Hoo."
Lost in focus, the week had flown by in an instant.
'A whole week gone... but it felt like just an hour. Is this what a cultivator's sense of time is like?'
Freshly aware of how I'd transcended mortal limits, I checked myself over and realized I needed to eat.
"...Not a scrap of food?"
The spirit crops and herbs in the field were for brewing liquor... did this place seriously have nothing but booze?
With a sigh, I headed out to the eastern district to buy provisions for my training stint.
On the way, I mulled over ways to accelerate my cultivation.
'Yong Yoo must've brainstormed some alternatives too.'
Cultivators didn't rely solely on talent for progress. They chased fortuitous encounters or leaned on external aids.
Prime examples: pills that shot your cultivation skyward with one swallow, or formations that concentrated ambient spiritual qi into ideal training spots.
The skills for crafting pills and formations fell under "arts," and with a hundred such arts available to cultivators, they were collectively dubbed the Hundred Arts of Cultivation.
Most iconic were the Four Great Arts: alchemy, artifact forging, talisman making, and array setting.
Pity they all demanded fitting aptitude.
And Yong Yoo had zilch for the Four Great Arts. He'd scraped alchemy basics, but couldn't brew a single proper pill—total half-assed amateur.
His talents lay in Spirit Farming and Spirit Liquor Brewing instead.
Spirit Farming involved carving fields atop spirit veins brimming with spiritual qi. Those special plots grew qi-rich spirit crops and herbs with unique powers—spirit crops and spirit herbs, respectively.
Yong Yoo farmed those up with Spirit Farming Technique, brewed them into Spirit Liquor, and offered it to the sect in lieu of missions. Freed him up to focus purely on cultivation.
'Spirit Liquor... does deliver pill-like effects, sort of.'
Down it, absorb the qi, deepen your cultivation. Just nowhere near as potent as pills.
Pills packed effects equivalent to years—even decades—of training in one dose. Spirit Liquor? Hours at best, days on the high end.
Trade-off: pills burdened the body with pill poison, locking you out of more till it cleared. Spirit Liquor had no such drawbacks—you could chug endlessly.
But the stomach had limits. Substitute liquor for pills and you'd burst your gut eventually.
Such minor perks meant nothing against true pill power.
Yong Yoo couldn't let go, though. He'd pounded the stuff till his body reeked of booze, grinding away at cultivation.
'Guess I gotta do the same.'
I'm no real cultivator, crap at fighting. Against the protagonist, my best shot at keeping my arm was stacking spiritual qi like mad.
'Back when he fought Yong Yoo, the protagonist had Karmic Force built to Refining Qi 4th layer levels. Factor in Karmic Force's superior potency over normal qi, and I need at least 5th layer.'
Yong Yoo had clawed to 2nd layer over twenty years on that inefficient Buddhist method. Expect 2 layers in ten months? Get real.
'Damn it. Still gotta try.'
I found the sect-run market, stocked a month's food, then hunted brewing manuals.
All I knew was mixing pre-made liquors into cocktails. To brew superior Spirit Liquor and amp my gains, time to study.
Back in the east, I scarfed down a meal and cracked open the books.
Lifetime of nothing but textbooks, and now here I was, hunting down reads on my own.
People adapt to their surroundings, I guess.
'Looks like Yong Yoo only learned fast, high-volume brewing. Premium Spirit Liquor demands ages of aging—must've figured quantity over quality.'
Some brewing techniques called for a century minimum, scaling up to a millennium or ten.
For a Refining Qi cultivator lucky to hit 150 years, way too extravagant.
'Oh, cocktail-style mixing works too. Blend long-aged with fresh brew, and it boosts the fresh one's potency a smidge?'
I checked Yong Yoo's stock right away. Oldest batch: ten years. He'd planned to age it a century, but I'd put it to good use.
'Mix it with the best I can brew, scale up the volume, max out cultivation boosts.'
From then on, half my day went to Deep Roots and Five Skandhas cultivation. The rest: brewing studies, field tending, liquor production.
Sleep handled via power naps in spare moments between chores.
I slugged more booze than rice, squeezing every drop of effect.
Sourced decent spirit wood for oak barrels, aged batches inside. Infused soju with assorted spirit fruits and herbs for medicinal brews.
Drank 'em straight; recreated cocktails with random ingredients; devoured the fruits and herbs used in infusions, just in case.
Turned out I had a knack for Spirit Liquor Brewing. My brews tasted smooth, absorbed cleanly, hit hard. Let me produce and pound more than expected.
Whether my grind paid off or Yong Yoo's prior efforts bore fruit, by my ninth month in this world, the Refining Qi 4th layer barrier loomed clear.
'One month to go.'
One month left.
5th layer was a pipe dream... but damn it, push for 4th!
Mun Yoo sealed off the other rabbit burrow entrances, then hurled a pile of ignited poison herbs into the sole remaining exit.
He swiftly collapsed that last hole too, trapping everything inside, and waited for the toxic fumes to spread and slay the rabbits.
Thrashing sounds and agonized shrieks echoed from within, but he squeezed his eyes shut and tuned them out.
With each rabbit's death, sin piled onto Mun Yoo's soul. His Dual Fate Scripture converted it into Karmic Force, which seeped into his spiritual root.
Originally saddled with a Five Elements Spiritual Root, Mun Yoo had spent the past nine months refining it via Dual Fate Scripture into a Mutated Spiritual Root rivaling Single Element quality.
A brand-new root capable of storing Meritorious Force and Karmic Force, unbound by heaven and earth's five elements.
He dubbed this his Split Spiritual Root.
Having wiped out every rabbit in the massive warren, Mun Yoo dropped into position and began cultivating.
The rush of his accumulated sin swirling into his spiritual root and morphing into power drew a satisfied smile.
'Too much Karmic Force brings side effects... but I don't have time. One more month. Stack Karmic Force one more month... smash Yong Yoo... then build Meritorious Force.'
Mun Yoo steeled his resolve and kept piling it on.
Before long, his realm had surged past the 3rd layer where Yong Yoo languished, brushing the very edge of the 4th.