Chapter 57

Translator: penny

Chapter: 57

Chapter Title: The Advent of the Heavenly Church (5)

The moment I stepped into the Primordial Secret Realm, an endless scenic vista unfolded before me.

Rainbow-hued energies fluttered across the sky like the trailing hem of a fairy's winged robe.

Clouds brimmed with golden auspicious qi.

And the spiritual energy gathered so densely throughout the entire space that it formed a mist shrouding the mountains, lending an air of profound mystery.

I took in the Primordial Secret Realm for a moment before noticing something astonishing.

'I'm not even cultivating, but spiritual energy is absorbing into me on its own, pushing my cultivation higher.'

This wasn't the immortal realm itself—just a mortal realm with strong ties to it—yet it was this potent? The ancient legend that anyone could effortlessly reach the Great Vehicle stage and ascend back then might hold some truth after all.

'No time to waste.'

I could only stay in this environment for a single year.

Before diving into cultivation, I set off to verify the fortuitous encounter Geum So-ryeo had told me about.

'...Can't use escape arts.'

I'd suspected as much from the immortal realm's environment, but the spiritual energy was so dense that the resistance was immense. Cultivators as weak as me simply couldn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fly.

In the end, that meant traversing this vast Primordial Secret Realm on foot.

To avoid wasting time, I dashed through the realm while probing my surroundings with divine sense, but even that was disrupted by the immortal spiritual energy.

'No wonder she gave me the jade slip with the layout. If I hadn't memorized it beforehand, I'd be in real trouble.'

I could tell that even a single blade of grass growing here was stronger than me.

So I couldn't just brush past the foliage—instead, I had to lift my feet high and step carefully to avoid stabs or cuts from the plants.

My robe's sleeves and hem were already shredded to rags, and blood trickled from wounds all over my body.

"Hoo... Just running like this is turning into solid training."

How long had it been since my rebirth as Yong Yoo that I'd done any real physical exercise?

For the past twenty-five years, I'd relied on escape arts or flying vessels for travel. Excluding fights with other cultivators, the most intense "workout" I'd had was spending nights with Hyang Mae or Ahan.

'I have no plans to pursue dual cultivation toward a law body... but if I ever get dropped into an environment like this, I'll need a strong physique to survive. Maybe I should look for a decent body refinement method.'

Before I knew it, thick beads of sweat were streaming down my body.

I drew up every ounce of spiritual power in me to bolster my physical abilities. At the same time, I aggressively pulled in the surrounding spiritual energy, thinning its density just enough to make movement a bit easier.

How much time passed as I pressed on, endlessly expending and absorbing spiritual power?

It felt like an hour had gone by... or maybe ten years... or perhaps not even a second.

With the clouds frozen in place and the sun hanging motionless, gauging time was impossible. Normally, in any ordinary space, my body would serve as a more precise clock than any timepiece, but this unique environment made that impossible.

'It's almost like... the immortal realm is declaring that ordinary cultivators absolutely aren't welcome.'

I steadied my wavering dao heart.

I knew what the immortal realm entailed.

Ascension was far from the end—in fact, on the long path of cultivation, it was merely the "beginning" of the story's rise, fall, turn, and conclusion.

The true path of cultivation only began upon reaching the immortal realm, where the genuinely vast and distant road would finally come into view.

So there was no reason for me, still at the Foundation Establishment stage, to despair or falter just because the immortal environment was overwhelming.

With every step, I fortified my dao heart. With every second step, I set my resolve more firmly.

Before long, I was no longer walking the Primordial Secret Realm—I was treading my own path of cultivation.

My cultivation path was an incredibly narrow and treacherous road. It was so thin that it felt less like a path and more like a thread, giving me the sensation of tightrope-walking high above the clouds.

Once I attained realization of the Great Dao, this road would widen into a broad expanse, but for now—with no such insight into the Dao—it was the only narrow, unsteady trail permitted to me.

I trusted the path I walked.

This wasn't some guiding rope or lifeline handed down by a great power dwelling in the immortal realm.

It was the hard-earned trail of the twenty-five years I'd walked since Kang Young-jun possessed Yong Yoo's body.

My cultivation as a cultivator, the insights I'd grasped, my choices, decisions, and actions—all converged into "my Great Dao."

Knowing that, I strode boldly along the thread-like path before my eyes.

With unshakeable faith that it would never crumble, my footsteps—which had felt as heavy as carrying a mountain—gradually lightened.

All I had to do was believe in the Great Dao I walked... and would continue to walk.

Then there would be nothing to fear.

"Haa... haa..."

My breathing slowly grew more comfortable.

I, who had been hunched over staring only at my Great Dao, straightened my back and, for the first time in ages, took in the Primordial Secret Realm once more.

By then, I'd arrived at the entrance to a towering mountain peak.

"Haa. Still a long way to go."

Seeing it, I let out a wry chuckle and resumed walking.

There was no time to stop.

A week had passed since Yong Yoo entered the Primordial Secret Realm.

Unlike her old days cultivating alone, Do Mun-hyang now had Ahan to her right and Sohu to her left, training alongside them both.

For Ahan to assist Yong Yoo, she'd need to raise her cultivation accordingly—so Do Mun-hyang had gifted her all the old Foundation Establishment fortunes and cultivation resources she no longer needed.

Thanks to Do Mun-hyang's support, Ahan was making smooth progress and resolved to show a noticeably transformed self by the time her master emerged from the Primordial Secret Realm in a year.

Sohu, too, was thoroughly enjoying her current life under the care of Do Mun-hyang, who possessed true prodigious talent—unlike Yong Yoo.

Sohu had once deeply resented having her life held hostage by Yong Yoo, but after observing him up close all this time, she'd changed her mind.

'With a master possessing such dao combat talent, he'll surely be a great help to me.'

She'd deliberately only made beastly cries, pretending she couldn't speak human tongue because she hadn't wanted to converse—but once her master returned from the Primordial Secret Realm, it was time for a serious talk.

'If a master with such dao combat gifts lends his aid... I might even complete the Dragon Gate Ascension to the end.'

She wondered if Yong Yoo would help, but given his obsession with cultivation and growth, he surely would.

'It'll benefit both me and my master, so he won't refuse.'

As Ahan and Sohu mulled over such thoughts, Do Mun-hyang examined the Black Tortoise egg Geum So-ryeo had given her and nodded.

'Not my imagination after all. The Black Tortoise harbors pure water qi alongside auspicious qi.'

The Black Tortoise was a divine beast also revered as a god, embodying the sturdy nature of a guardian martial deity of protection and direction. It was only natural for such inherent auspicious qi to infuse its very existence.

'Thanks to Yoo Lang, I'm quite familiar with auspicious qi now... Taming the Black Tortoise as my spirit beast might not be impossible.'

Had Do Mun-hyang known nothing of auspicious qi, it would be different—but she'd directly absorbed it into her body multiple times through dual cultivation with Yong Yoo, granting her profound understanding.

'In a way, it's all thanks to Yoo Lang that I can tame it. Hehe. I'll have to brag when he gets back.'

And so the three women, each lost in their own thoughts, alike awaited the reunion with Yong Yoo one year hence.

The fortuitous encounter Geum So-ryeo had prepared lay in a vast flower field midway up the mountain.

She'd said it was inside a cave just wide enough for one person to barely squeeze through, beneath an especially large boulder there.

"...Crawl through this?"

I eyed the cave entrance and pictured Geum So-ryeo's build.

Even comparing it to Hyang Mae's generous curves, I couldn't imagine Geum squeezing past.

'Maybe her soft chest made it possible?'

Harboring such idle thoughts, I extended one arm straight into the cave.

Leading with one shoulder and my head, I wriggled my whole body through—and somehow managed to enter.

"Mm."

The inside was utterly pitch-black, without a single gleam of light. In that impenetrable darkness where I couldn't even see my own hand, I crawled forward cautiously.

My robe didn't just tear—it was utterly reduced to shreds, and even my undergarments were in tatters. Before long, my bare skin began scraping raw against the walls.

"Urk..."

Enduring the agony of skin peeling away layer by layer, I pressed on until the cave abruptly widened.

I crawled on all fours through the broadening tunnel, then—once it opened further—shuffled along in a deep crouch.

Finally, when it was spacious enough to stand, I pulled a fresh set of robes from my storage pouch, changed, and caught my breath.

'...How deep does this go?'

I couldn't see a thing, but my body's senses told me I was heading downward.

'Don't tell me it goes all the way to the mountain's roots?'

In Black and White Immortal Chronicle, immortals had casually lifted sky-piercing mountains by grabbing their roots, relocating or hurling them at foes on several occasions.

Mun Yoo had never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠done anything with a mountain root, so the novel lacked details—but since it was called a "root," it had to be at the mountain's deepest point, right?

How far did I crawl along that tunnel?

Suddenly, the ground gave way beneath my feet, and I tumbled downward.

"Gyaah!"

No sooner had I fallen than I hit a steeply sloping chute, sliding down uncontrollably like a playground slide.

"Uk! Euk! Aaaagh!"

Then something snagged my body, sending me rolling head over heels until I finally reached the end and came to a stop in a wide, flat space.

"Augh... that hurts."

Forcing myself upright, I scanned my surroundings.

It was still pitch-black in every direction, save for one thing... A solitary golden glow emanating from a platform amid the darkness caught my eye.

The platform's light didn't pierce the surrounding gloom, but after being trapped so long in that stifling blackness, I felt irresistibly drawn to its vivid radiance.

Then I sensed the auspicious qi drifting in the air—and jolted in surprise.

"Auspicious qi!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

At the same moment, I recalled how Yeom Suk—despite ascending later than Mun Yoo—had used a buddhist technique and auspicious qi to hold her own fiercely, even at a lower realm.

I also remembered Geum So-ryeo calling this fortune a perfect fit for me as she revealed its location.

'No way—did Yeom Suk acquire that buddhist technique here?!'

Forgetting my pain, I scrambled toward the platform.

With every step closer, the auspicious qi grew denser and more potent, resonating with the auspicious spiritual power within me until it began emanating a golden glow.

Reaching the platform, I hesitated briefly before steeling myself and sitting in meditation.

In that instant, a resounding voice boomed in my ears.

I widened my eyes in shock, and before me materialized a colossal figure formed of auspicious qi, gazing down upon me.

Its beast-like muscular frame was draped in kasaya robes blazing like flames, a brilliant halo shining behind its back. It quietly pressed its palms together and introduced itself.

Remnant soul? A buddha's remnant soul?

I knew immortals could split their souls for reincarnation... but buddha remnants too? The buddhist temple didn't even properly appear until after ascension.

As I sat there baffled, the remnant soul of Dou Hu Pi Fo enveloped me in its massive hand and spoke. Astonishingly, all my wounds vanished in an instant—and moreover, my body felt several times stronger than before.

I'd half-suspected it since hearing this was a fortune left in the Primordial Secret Realm... but there was no doubt now.

This was an immortal realm fortune!