Foundation Establishment (2)

Incantations like these — the Purification of Heaven and Earth and the God Who Dispels Filth — were prayers meant to cleanse the space and drive away all that was impure.

Reciting them while extending spiritual power to activate the formation created a space so perfectly pure that no contaminant could intrude upon it.

Without such a space, the ritual simply could not proceed.

It was, in essence, like building a sterile operating room before surgery.

And within that purified space, Cheon Woo-jin's body was slowly disassembled.

His form still retained the shape of a human being, but the bonds connecting its material elements had grown extremely loose.

Were someone to poke a finger at him, it would slip right through the skin.

That he nevertheless maintained the appearance of a person at all was due to none other than the Foundation Establishment Pill.

The spirit-essence energy contained within the pill was holding every element of Cheon Woo-jin's body in place.

The Five Elements spirit essences gripped his liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys; his sinews, vessels, flesh, skin, and bones; his eyes, tongue, mouth, nose, and ears.

The foundational spirit essence held his essence, qi, and spirit; his three dantians; and his triple burner.

He was loosely disassembled yet firmly held together — a state of dissolution without dispersion.

It was by exploiting this state that he had to break through the old barrier and reach a new realm.

I will transform my body so that I can reach the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Chukgi — "foundation building" — meant exactly that: laying a foundation.

The body itself was remade into a base from which the true path to immortality could be walked.

Of course, the body could not simply be changed at random.

One had to plan in advance what state it would be reshaped into, and the guideline for that was one's cultivation method.

A cultivator could either continue refining the method they had practiced in the Qi Condensation stage, or enter a new method designed for Foundation Establishment and carry out the transformation under its guidance.

Cheon Woo-jin had mastered the Five Elements Dao-Entering Art and the Taiyin Mysterious Sword Art during his Qi Condensation days.

This time, however, he intended to begin a new method as he underwent the foundation building.

I will take the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art as my guideline.

The Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art.

A cultivation method he had unearthed from Tae Sa-ryang's collection.

A method said to have been created ages ago by Master Thunder Spirit during his own Foundation Establishment years, it possessed the strongest offensive power of any lightning-attribute method for the Foundation Establishment Realm.

And yet it was so difficult that almost no one had ever truly mastered it.

Even Tae Sa-ryang seemed to have used it merely as reference material to operate his artifact, the Thunder Strike Jade.

But Cheon Woo-jin could understand it.

He knew the hint that had appeared in the game.

When entering the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art, one must be mindful of Water Ascending and Fire Descending.

In Daoist lightning arts, lightning was understood to arise when the yin and yang energies of heaven and earth collided with one another.

The lightning-attribute methods of the Yeongro Suseonjeon world were likewise built upon that principle.

But when entering the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art, mindfulness of the yin and yang of heaven and earth alone was not enough.

One had to make the yin and yang within oneself collide as well.

The heart-fire of the upper body and the kidney-water of the lower body must be made to crash together.

In the theory of the Five Elements, the heart corresponds to fire and the kidneys to water.

Fire is yang within yang; water is yin within yin.

The fire qi of the heart in the upper body was forced downward.

The water qi of the kidneys in the lower body was forced upward.

By artificially colliding the heart-fire with the kidney-water in this way, one could recreate the phenomenon of heaven's yang energy clashing with earth's yin energy.

And what would happen then?

Just as lightning falls from the sky—

Lightning would strike inside the human body.

Through the correspondence of heaven and man, the laws of nature could be embodied through the entire body.

That was the key to entering the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art.

Other cultivators never learned this, and that's why they never mastered it.

It was a prerequisite that absolutely had to come first when entering the method.

Yet the manual itself never spelled it out.

To Master Thunder Spirit it must have seemed too elementary to bother mentioning.

In the game, one could only enter the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art after learning a separate method dealing with the principle of Water Ascending and Fire Descending and obtaining the hint from it.

Because of this deviation from the orthodox training path, ordinary cultivators had never been able to grasp the method.

Cheon Woo-jin, however, already knew this part, so he could enter the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art directly.

Mind the Taiyang and Taiyin at the central palace, and strike the fire qi of the heart in the upper burner against the water qi of the kidneys in the lower burner……

With his eyes closed, Cheon Woo-jin wielded his spiritual qi.

By nature, fire blazes upward and water sinks downward.

Here he did the opposite: raise the water, lower the fire. That was Water Ascending and Fire Descending.

In truth, it was a natural physiological function of the human body.

If yang qi stayed above and yin ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠qi below forever, no circulation would ever occur.

But the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art took this physiological function and made it the driving force of a mighty power.

Spiritual qi was used to force the heart's fire qi and the kidneys' water qi into a violent, artificial collision.

Doing so provoked a reaction of extreme yang and extreme yin, reproducing the clash of heaven's yang and earth's yin.

It was the act of reenacting the great universe of heaven and nature within the small universe of the human body.

"……!"

A crackling sensation raced through his whole body.

Thunder qi was being ceaselessly generated within him by the collision of yin and yang.

And with each repetition, he could feel the principles of heaven and nature being understood more deeply.

It was not understanding through the mind. The comprehension was happening at the level of the fundamental units that composed his body.

At some moment—

Cheon Woo-jin felt his consciousness sinking into a deep darkness.

He had plunged deep into the spiritual domain of the Body of the Dark True Abyss.

Even within that black void where nothing existed, lightning was striking down.

Suddenly, an instinctive fear seized Cheon Woo-jin.

He thought that if that lightning swept over him, it might annihilate not just his body but his very soul.

No. That's not it.

Cheon Woo-jin shook his head within his heart.

I must not fear that thing.

To fear a natural phenomenon like lightning is animal instinct.

But one who walks the path of cultivation must dominate that nature and transcend it.

Cheon Woo-jin steeled his resolve and stretched out his will.

As if spreading both arms wide and receiving with his entire body the bolts falling from the heavens.

That instant—

A searing sensation, as if his very soul had been electrocuted, crashed over Cheon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Woo-jin.

But his consciousness did not shrink back in the slightest.

Instead, he poured out his whole soul and traced a new outline.

A new self — one that had received the thunder qi and become one with it.

"……!"

And then.

The transformation of Cheon Woo-jin's body began.

Every component of the loosely disassembled human form was rearranged.

The Five Elements essences and the foundational essence fitted the elements each of them held, piece by piece, back into place.

In the process, some things expanded and some contracted.

Some things melted away entirely and were expelled.

His body was changing in response to the enlightenment Cheon Woo-jin had attained.

"Ah……!"

Creak, creak.

A sound like countless parts being fitted together rang out through him.

At that searing sensation, Cheon Woo-jin's eyes flew open.

At the same moment, a roar of thunder erupted.

Violent thunder qi was raging around him as well.

The correspondence of heaven and man. In response to the thunder qi born within Cheon Woo-jin, lightning was falling from outside.

But Cheon Woo-jin felt no fear.

He spread his arms and accepted all of it.

You — the essence of the yin-yang true qi that pierces heaven and earth, the light of subduing evil and revealing truth——

He reached out fiercely, speaking to the very law of nature that was the principle of thunder qi itself.

I will make you the sword with which I pierce through this world.Khugung!

A colossal bolt of lightning split the air above the mountaintop.

It carried the momentum of a strike that could annihilate the entire mountain — yet when the lightning faded, the mountain was utterly unchanged.

Only around Cheon Woo-jin's body did remnants of thunder qi keep spitting and crackling.

It worked.

Beneath a sky cleared once more.

Cheon Woo-jin felt a deep sense of accomplishment.

I am of the Foundation Establishment Realm now!

He rose to his feet.

Even without circulating his spiritual qi, he could feel that an enormous change had taken place in his body.

For one thing, his body itself was different.

He had grown taller, his shoulders broader.

I've undergone bone replacement and rebirth.

Huangoltaltae — "changing the bones and stealing the womb" — was commonly known as a state reached when martial artists of the murim attained a high level of mastery.

But originally, it was a Daoist concept.

It held that when a practitioner pursuing immortality attained the Dao, his very skeletal structure would change and he would be born anew.

In the world of Yeongro Suseonjeon, one underwent this rebirth upon reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm.

It laid the foundation that would allow the Dao to be cultivated ever onward.

My face has even changed.

Using spiritual qi to form a mirror of water and examining himself, he found that his facial contour had grown sleeker and his features more refined.

Even the brightness and elasticity of his skin had improved beyond what they had been.

His skeletal structure itself had been remade, and his skin and facial muscles reborn.

Of course, what had changed most was not his appearance but his interior.

Every component of his body, meridians included, had been optimized for the spiritual qi circulation of the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art.

Wielding spiritual qi in this body, he would be able to exert power incomparable to anything before.

And my spiritual domain has grown, too.

When he closed his eyes and sank into the space within his heart, he could feel that the spiritual domain of the Body of the Dark True Abyss had grown clearer.

Not only that — the domain itself felt expanded beyond what it had been.

It was a strange feeling, that a space which had stretched on endlessly could expand further still, but that was precisely how it felt.

He would need to keep pondering what such growth signified going forward.

But most important of all…… the wall I've been feeling all this time is gone.

Until now, no matter how much spiritual qi he absorbed, he could only recover what was spent — there had been no growth at all.

He had felt that wall the entire time, and now it was gone.

From this point on, he could accumulate spiritual qi again and grow.

The road of hardship has opened.

Cheon Woo-jin was at early Foundation Establishment now.

Climbing to mid stage, late stage, and Great Perfection would demand far more toil than the Qi Condensation Realm ever had.

But anticipation outweighed fear.

Because by enduring that toil, he would gain the strength to keep surviving, now and always.

Cheon Woo-jin stepped outside the Great Emptiness Cave Heaven Mirror.

As it turned out, more than a full month had passed since he had shut himself away in there.

A month without eating a thing — I'm starving.

Ordinarily, a Great Perfection Qi Condensation cultivator could go without food for roughly a month.

Cheon Woo-jin was at early Foundation Establishment now, yet his stomach still growled.

I'll grab something on the second floor…… and then go see Seo Seol-ryeong.

Cheon Woo-jin headed for the market on the second floor.

But an ominous voice drifted from somewhere nearby.

"You sure a bastard called Cheon Woo-jin has been hanging around this area?"

"That's right, senior brother."

Mastering the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art sharpened one's sensitivity to the vibrations of the air, and with it his hearing had been maximized as well.

Thanks to that, he was able to catch a conversation being exchanged furtively by a group of men down a back alley.

"We have to leave Ghost Head City soon and return to the Blood World Mara Sect. But if we go back empty-handed, we'll certainly be called to account."

"With Pavilion Master Jeok Ya-wol dead, the responsibility falls on us, doesn't it."

"Which is why we must bring back that bastard Cheon Woo-jin's head. Then at least our own necks will be spared."

Peering into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the back alley, he found a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Mad World Yin Spirit Sect gathered there.

Now that he thought about it, they were men whose eyes he had crossed a few times before.

It seemed they were withdrawing from Ghost Head City entirely — and intended to take their revenge on Cheon Woo-jin before they went.

Cheon Woo-jin gave a contemptuous snort and walked into the alley.

"Who's there?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Not one of them recognized him.

The rebirth of his body had transformed Cheon Woo-jin's face and build too drastically.

"A face I've never seen…… don't tell me you're one of those demonic cultivator hunters?"

A cultivator of mid Foundation Establishment glared at Cheon Woo-jin with a vicious expression.

Lately, in the lower levels of Ghost Head City, rogue cultivators had been banding together to ambush demonic cultivators with increasing frequency.

The man seemed to suspect that Cheon Woo-jin was one of them.

"If you want to live, get lost. I don't have time to deal with the likes of——"

Peopeong!

Thunder qi that erupted without warning pierced straight through his chest.

At the first spell art Cheon Woo-jin unleashed upon reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm, the demonic cultivators fell silent, every one of them.