The Loose Cultivator (1)
"I shall teach you a special internal energy cultivation method."
Gwiyeongja, having accepted Cheon Woo-jin as his disciple, held out a single book.
"By training this method, you will accumulate a pure and refined energy that ordinary internal arts cannot begin to compare with. For a while, think of nothing else and devote yourself solely to the method."
"Understood, Master."
The cover of the book read Five Elements Dao-Entering Art.
But contrary to Gwiyeongja's explanation, this was no internal energy method at all.
It was a cultivation art — one designed to accumulate spirit qi and reach the Qi Condensation Realm.
Of course, an ordinary mortal without a Spiritual Root could train until he dropped dead and still never become a cultivator.
Yet Gwiyeongja had only ever taken in children who showed signs of possessing a Spiritual Root.
"Tell me — do you often see things like ghosts?"
"I do, Master. The physician says it is due to a deficiency syndrome......"
"Tsk, tsk. You must have suffered greatly."
Seeing what others cannot see.
Children like that had a high probability of possessing a Spiritual Root.
And so Gwiyeongja had asked a favor of his nephew, the man whose life he held in his hands: find any child who claimed to see things that weren't there, and send him along.
"Take one of these pills every day. They will mend your deficiency and aid your progress in the method as well."
Gwiyeongja handed Cheon Woo-jin a black pellet.
Cheon Woo-jin deliberately bowed his head in exaggerated gratitude.
"Master, how can I accept such a precious medicine......"
"It is hardly so precious as all that. It is made from herbs gathered without difficulty near Mount Goeyu."
"But does a fearsome dragon not dwell on Mount Goeyu?"
"Hmm. You mean Heukha-ryong."
Heukha-ryong was a being of the Nascent Soul Realm.
Not something Gwiyeongja, a mere Mid Qi Condensation cultivator, could ever hope to stand against.
For a moment, Cheon Woo-jin found himself curious what expression Gwiyeongja would make if he told him that he was the one who had killed Heukha-ryong.
"Do not worry. So long as you do not trespass into its domain, nothing will trouble you."
"I see......"
"Better safe than sorry — do not wander about outside. If you stray into its territory by accident, it would be a disaster. I could not save you even if I wished to."
On the surface, it sounded like a master's concern for his disciple.
But Gwiyeongja thought of nothing except raising Cheon Woo-jin well and turning him into a pill.
The plan was to have him train the Five Elements Dao-Entering Art until he possessed spiritual power, then render him alive into an elixir and absorb him whole.
To lift his own stagnated realm beyond Mid Qi Condensation and climb ever higher — that, and nothing else, was all Gwiyeongja pursued.
"From now on, follow only my words. Do so, and you will surely achieve great things."
Hiding the black depths of his heart, Gwiyeongja offered these words in a gentle voice.
"Thank you, Master."
Cheon Woo-jin pressed his palms together and bowed.
All while concealing, thoroughly and completely, the fact that he knew exactly what lay in his master's heart.
Cheon Woo-jin began his training under Gwiyeongja.
Gwiyeongja taught him the fundamentals of the Five Elements Dao-Entering Art in meticulous detail — but after that, he left the boy to train on his own, never hovering over him day to day.
His own cultivation mattered far more to him.
And so, in ordinary times, Gwiyeongja went out and left Cheon Woo-jin alone in the hermitage, wandering the surroundings of Mount Goeyu and drawing in the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. That was his daily routine.
From Cheon Woo-jin's perspective, this was welcome news.
It meant he could train in comfort, without watching his master's every mood.
He even provides the pills I'm to take daily — this is the perfect arrangement.
Cheon Woo-jin had fallen into this world with nothing but the body he arrived in.
Broke, and with no one to turn to.
But posing as Gwiyeongja's disciple here meant he could devote himself to training with an easy mind.
I've learned the fundamentals properly. Even without Gwiyeongja hovering at my side teaching me every step, I can enter the Qi Condensation Realm on my own.
To become a Qi Condensation cultivator, one had to practice drawing in the spirit qi of the natural world and channeling it through the meridians.
The existing meridians had to be restructured and sublimated into Spirit Meridians.
The human body held twelve great meridians — the Twelve Regular Meridians. Only when all twelve had been converted into Spirit Meridians could spirit qi complete a full circuit through the body.
Only then, with spirit qi under his command, would he truly be a Qi Condensation cultivator.
Ordinary people need a year or more just to enter Qi Condensation...... but I have the Body of the Dark True Abyss.
Cheon Woo-jin placed one of the pills Gwiyeongja had left behind into his mouth.
The pellet was dense with condensed spirit qi from heaven and earth.
Training while consuming them would steadily accumulate spirit qi within his body.
Granted, it was nowhere near the quality of the true pills proper cultivators consumed.
It was such a shoddy elixir that it did Gwiyeongja himself no good — which was precisely why he fed it to his disciple.
Still, for someone only just setting out on the path of cultivation, it was an adequate level.
With the Body of the Dark True Abyss, I can maximize the efficiency of my absorption.
Swallowing the pill, Cheon Woo-jin folded into the lotus position.
At once, he could feel the pill's spirit qi spreading through his body.
Left alone, it would all simply leak back out.
So, just as martial artists practiced breath circulation, it had to be governed from within.
The Golden Core of Heukha-ryong, absorbed into Cheon Woo-jin, performed the function of dispersal and descent.
It sorted the energy entering the body and spread it properly — up and down, inward and outward. That was dispersal and descent.
From the pill's chaotic, tangled energy, he refined out the water-attribute qi suited to his Water Spiritual Root, then sent it into the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian, the first of the Twelve Regular Meridians.
Today I complete the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian.
The Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian was the channel that began at the torso, emerged through the armpit, and flowed down the inner arm.
Cheon Woo-jin pushed the refined water qi into the meridian.
At once, a strange thrill rippled along the inside of his arm.
The meridian had been startled by the influx of spirit qi.
But Cheon Woo-jin paid it no mind, continuing to feed the qi through according to the formulas of the Five Elements Dao-Entering Art.
Each time, he could feel the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian adapting to the spirit qi, little by little.
After relentlessly, patiently channeling the qi through, a cool, refreshing sensation bloomed at Shaoshang — the point at the very tip of the meridian, at the base of the thumbnail.
The Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian had at last been sublimated into a Spirit Meridian.
"Whew."
Cheon Woo-jin opened his eyes and exhaled slowly.
Sweat beaded across his forehead.
Even with a Water Spiritual Root and the Body of the Dark True Abyss, this is no easy feat.
Unlike a Mixed Spiritual Root, which had to attune itself equally to many different qi attributes, a single-attribute root needed to adapt to only one — making the process far faster.
Moreover, the Body of the Dark True Abyss exploited the pill's spirit qi at peak efficiency, making the forging of Spirit Meridians that much smoother.
And yet, even with all those advantages, converting a single meridian had taken more than ten days.
Once I'm used to it, it'll go faster.
Cheon Woo-jin rose from his seat and stepped outside to gaze at Mount Goeyu.
And I've only turned one of twelve meridians into a Spirit Meridian so far.
A faint, hazy energy drifted around the mountain like clouds.
It was the earth's spiritual qi — the very force that had nurtured Heukha-ryong into a being of the Nascent Soul Realm.
Only that morning, he had seen nothing at all. Now he could sense the flow of spirit qi across the whole of Mount Goeyu.
With Spirit Meridians in place, his senses as a cultivator had sharpened as well.
Once all twelve meridians become Spirit Meridians and I enter Qi Condensation, the entire world will look different.
Back in the hermitage, Cheon Woo-jin picked up the Five Elements Dao-Entering Art again.
Leafing through the book, gaps and omissions were scattered throughout.
Gwiyeongja had done this deliberately — so the boy would never realize it was a cultivation art rather than an internal method.
But Cheon Woo-jin had reached the point where he could infer even the missing passages.
No need to drag this out at this level.
He had to enter the Qi Condensation Realm as quickly as possible.
Putting the knowledge he'd carried in from the outside world to use, Cheon Woo-jin drove his understanding of the Five Elements Dao-Entering Art ever deeper.
A month passed.
Cheon Woo-jin had already converted half of the Twelve Regular Meridians into Spirit Meridians.
As a result, not only his perception of spirit qi but his physical abilities had improved as well.
Despite never having trained in a single martial art, Cheon Woo-jin's body was now the equal of a first-rate martial master.
The spirit qi had vitalized his meridians, and the vitalized meridians drew forth the strength of the sinew channels that ran along them.
So this is what a true cultivation art can do. To gain a body like this from nothing but side effects......
Cheon Woo-jin was lightly loosening his body, taking stock of his physical condition, when Gwiyeongja returned from his outdoor training and called for him.
"Let us see how far you have progressed."
"Yes, Master."
Gwiyeongja took Cheon Woo-jin's wrist and read his pulse.
Then his eyes flew wide open.
"You — what in the world have you done?"
He examined the cun, guan, and chi pulse positions on both wrists — all six points in total.
Reading these six pulses revealed the state of all Twelve Regular Meridians at once.
"How is it that you have converted half of the Twelve Regular Meridians in a single month?"
The Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian, running from torso to fingertip.
The Hand Yangming Large Intestine Meridian, from fingertip to head.
The Foot Yangming Stomach Meridian, from head to toe.
The Foot Taiyin Spleen Meridian, from toe to torso.
The Hand Shaoyin Heart Meridian, from torso to fingertip.
The Hand Taiyang Small Intestine Meridian, from fingertip to head.
Six meridians in total — all already fully converted into Spirit Meridians.
Gwiyeongja himself had needed over a year to enter the Qi Condensation Realm, and this boy had finished half the work in one month.
"Master, is something the matter?"
"Do not play innocent with me, you cunning little wretch."
Progress this swift could only mean one thing: a Single Spiritual Root, possessing exactly one attribute among the Five Elements.
Gwiyeongja, for his part, was a Mixed Spiritual Root cultivator of four attributes — Wood, Earth, Metal, and Water.
Looking at the single-rooted disciple before him, Gwiyeongja felt his stomach turn inside out.
That his disciple possessed talent surpassing his own was something no cultivator could possibly tolerate.
"No doubt you have already realized that the Five Elements Dao-Entering Art I taught you is no internal energy method. What an utterly absurd disciple I have taken in."
A murderous gleam flashed in Gwiyeongja's eyes.