Chapter 289: Foundation (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 289: Foundation (1)
The Altar’s Enlightenment was a legacy left behind by a god who had ascended to the Mythical Realm.
It was designed specifically for a newly born god—someone who had just reached the Profound Realm. It conveyed the exact path a past god had walked, from the Half-God Realm to the very brink of Ascension, all distilled into compressed memories.
There is an old saying: All flows return to the source.
It means that all streams eventually converge into a single river.
Though used in various contexts, its essence is simple: if the ultimate destination is the same, no matter how vastly different the paths taken may be, they will all eventually intersect at the pinnacle.
Since the ultimate goal of every martial artist in the Mortal Realm is Ascension, even those who have walked entirely opposite paths will find common ground once they reach the Profound Realm.
Naturally, this doesn't mean that reaching the Profound Realm through an Orthodox Art suddenly makes it easy to learn a Demonic Art. (Though it is true that if one were to cripple their cultivation and start anew, they could master it far faster than an ordinary person.)
Ultimately, since every master in the Profound Realm aims for Ascension, there are bound to be overlapping sections in their journey toward that final step.
In that context, the Altar’s Enlightenment provided immense help to those in the Profound Realm.
Having a clear view of the path a past god had already walked served as a tremendous boon when navigating the unknown stages of cultivation.
To put it another way, for Seo-jun—who hadn't even reached the Profound Realm yet—there shouldn't have been much for him to gain from it.
"Ah, so that's how it was?"
However, this was the Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord, Lee Seo-jun! The man whom the masters of the Righteous and Evil Factions obsessed over, who had left the Emperor aghast, turned the Hebei Peng Clan upside down, and stunned the Hwangbo Clan—the (candidate for) Number One Under Heaven!
Relying on the "Mind is Void" state he had already somewhat grasped, his direct combat experience against the Black Lotus Union Leader, and the clash between two Profound Realm masters he had witnessed firsthand, Seo-jun skimmed through the enlightenment of the Mythical Realm. In doing so, he rapidly deepened his understanding of the Profound Realm.
The process was akin to reverse engineering.
Since he already knew what they could and couldn't do, understood their field of vision, and recognized the exact texture of the power they wielded, he traced the Mythical Realm's enlightenment backward. Through this, he gained a faint realization of the elements required to reach the Profound Realm.
‘The Profound Realm is a complete Spirit. It is a stage that can only be reached when the Spirit is fully ripe and no longer requires a physical body.’
And what was absolutely necessary for the Spirit to ripen was time.
It was exactly as Chun-bong’s grandfather, the Sword God, had once said.
Even if all other requirements were met, if the Spirit hadn't ripened, one could not shed their physical body.
If an unripe Spirit were to leap out of its mortal shell, only destruction would await it.
In other words, the Profound Realm was not a stage that Seo-jun—who had lived for less than thirty years—could realistically achieve.
Of course, Seo-jun thought a bit differently.
‘If the Spirit isn't ripe, I’ll just force it to ripen.’
His abilities had already reached the point where he could heal a wounded soul.
Surely he could find a way to forcefully ripen an unripe one? That was his entire thought process.
The "status" he had plundered from the Black Lotus Union Leader provided massive support for this shameless theory.
Ssssss...
Wrapped in Primordial Unity and slowly being digested, that essence rapidly nourished Seo-jun’s Spirit.
In the process, Seo-jun felt his own status rising by the moment.
As his status rose, the Altar’s Enlightenment resonated more deeply within him. And as he absorbed that enlightenment, the digestion of the stolen status accelerated even further.
A few days passed in this virtuous cycle, and Seo-jun gained another realization.
The Profound Realm was the act of becoming a god oneself.
The lighter the Spirit—which must become entirely self-sufficient—the easier the process of shedding the physical body becomes.
The first step to achieving this was to cast off the Five Desires and Seven Emotions.
By discarding the emotions that stemmed from the worldly connection between body and soul, the soul's independence became much easier to achieve. The void left behind by those unnecessary emotions could then be filled with the power of a god.
It was just like those phrases the typical Taoist priests always emphasized.
Things like "one can only fill after emptying" or "filling through emptying."
By discarding the Five Desires and Seven Emotions, the Spirit became lighter, the soul's independence became easier, and one could even fill the resulting void with divine power. Logically, there was no reason not to discard them.
‘So that’s why those Profound Realm bastards were such arrogant pricks.’
Even if one discarded the Five Desires and Seven Emotions, it didn't mean their emotions vanished entirely.
There were still things that could pique their interest or curiosity.
However, while those emotions hadn't disappeared, they had certainly faded to a dull murmur. Thus, they failed to empathize with the feelings of others and simply did whatever they wanted.
They were, quite literally, the ultimate version of stubborn Murim geezers.
Seo-jun clicked his tongue and shoved that hard-earned realization far away.
It wasn't that he feared losing his manners in exchange for power.
Seo-jun was already rude enough as it was.
It was simply because that particular realization was of absolutely no use to him.
‘What I possess is Primordial Unity.’
Primordial Unity was the cradle of all things. Its very essence was far removed from the concept of "emptiness."
Seo-jun had no need to empty himself. He would simply consume.
Why on earth would he discard the Five Desires and Seven Emotions? They were great.
If he had to become such a hollow god that he severed the precious ties he held dear, then the realm wasn't even worth achieving.
What was the point of the Profound Realm if he couldn't feel anything while squishing Chun-bong’s cheeks?
Speaking of which, Seo-jun suddenly stood up, leaped through space, and grabbed Geum Chun-bong’s cheeks with both hands.
"Mububub...!"
Geum Chun-bong, who had been peacefully eating tanghulu in the corner of the room, widened her eyes in shock.
Her tiny lips twitched as if she had much to say, but she couldn't open her mouth for fear that the sweet fruit juice inside would leak out.
Chew, chew—gulp!
After finally swallowing the tanghulu, Geum Chun-bong barked at him.
"What is it now, you brat!"
It was a sharp, shrill roar.
*
A major incident had occurred: Lee Seo-jun, who had been skimming through the Altar’s Enlightenment like he was watching Netflix in bed, launched a surprise attack on the cheeks of Geum Chun-bong, who had been mindlessly focused on her tanghulu.
Such "major incidents" usually occurred every two hours. Namgung Su-ah, watching Chun-bong with a hint of envy, touched her own cheeks and spoke.
"Should I try to put on some cheek fat too?"
A horrified Chun-bong shouted her absolute opposition.
"No! My cheeks are my identity!"
"Oh, look at you, Geum Chun-bong. Using big words?"
Seo-jun patted Chun-bong’s head with a proud expression, prompting her to give a smug grin.
"I told you, I’ve been studying Western languages lately. I bet I’m better than you now."
Chun-bong shrugged triumphantly and pointed at Namgung Su-ah.
"Anyway. More importantly, Unnie, you have something else."
There was no need to say it out loud. Upon Namgung Su-ah’s chest sat a mountain range that rivaled the sheer majesty of the Namgung Clan.
Namgung Su-ah knew that most men were crazy about breasts, but even so, she was inwardly envious of Chun-bong.
What did it matter what other men liked?
The only man she actually cared about was far more interested in something else.
"It seems Seo-jun likes Geum Mae’s cheeks more than my chest."
"I mean, if he grabbed your chest the way he grabs my cheeks, he’d just be a crazy person."
But Chun-bong’s thoughts on the matter were a bit different.
It was actually perfectly logical that Lee Seo-jun didn't fiddle with Su-ah’s chest as constantly as he did with her cheeks.
Squeezing cheeks in the middle of the street? Well, that could happen. It wasn't that strange to play with someone's cheeks.
But squeezing breasts in the middle of the street? That was the behavior of a lunatic.
Of course, Lee Seo-jun was a lunatic, but he surprisingly acted like a very sensible person in these specific matters.
Other situations could be explained by the exact same logic.
If you touched someone's cheeks all the time, you might be treated as a bit of an oddball, but it wouldn't go as far as being called a madman.
However, if you touched someone's breasts all the time, wouldn't you just be a crazy, lecherous bastard?
"Ah...!"
Having gained some sort of twisted realization, Namgung Su-ah pondered seriously.
"Then would it be okay if the world became a place where touching breasts in the street wasn't considered strange? If I use the power of the Namgung Clan, surely..."
"Whoa, whoa! That’s not it, Unnie!"
"The whole Central Plains might be difficult, but maybe I could manage it in Anhui?"
"No, the problem isn't whether you can do it or not!"
A terrified Chun-bong desperately tried to talk Namgung Su-ah out of it.
This woman might look perfectly normal on the outside, but sometimes she was the weirdest of them all.
It wasn't a joke; she might actually try to make it happen.
"Fufu, of course I’m joking."
"It is a joke, right...?"
"Half of it?"
"What..."
‘They surprisingly get along well.’
Watching the two sworn sisters bicker and play as usual, Seo-jun fell into quiet thought.
Now that the Black Lotus Union Leader was gone, the power structure of the Central Plains was bound to undergo a massive shift.
The biggest variable at this time was the Demonic Cult...
‘Why are they being so quiet?’
Fortunately, the Righteous Faction hadn't suffered major losses, but if the Demonic Cult were to strike just as the war with the Black Lotus Union was ending, things would become quite troublesome.
Conversely, if the Demonic Cult rose up now, they stood to gain quite a bit.
‘Wait. Is it really that bad?’
Seo-jun’s eyebrows furrowed.
Come to think of it, not many of the Righteous Faction’s Transcendent Realm masters had directly participated in the war.
Two from the Namgung Clan, one from the Imperial Court, one from the Hebei Peng Clan, and one from the Hwangbo Clan—basically, the Emperor Without Disease’s entire set and...
"Wait a minute."
Looking back on it now, no one besides the Emperor Without Disease’s group had actually done anything significant in the war.
At most, they sat comfortably in their sects to keep the Black Lotus Union’s Transcendent Realm masters in check, or occasionally flew out to swing their swords a few times whenever a gap appeared in the enemy's forces.
"Hmm."
When Seo-jun’s expression turned strange, Namgung Su-ah—who had just pinned Chun-bong down with Mount Tai Pressure Peak—asked a question.
"What’s wrong? Did something happen?"
"Why do I feel like I’ve seen more Evil Faction masters than Righteous Faction masters?"
"Huh? Really?"
Excluding the Namgung Clan since it was basically home...
The Imperial Court, the Hebei Peng Clan, and the Hwangbo Clan. In other words, the masters belonging to the Emperor Without Disease.
And the Shaolin Abbot.
Aside from them, he had no memory of seeing any other Transcendent Realm masters from the Righteous Faction.
Even the Abbot had barely participated in the war.
It was a bit strange for a monk to be overly active in a war anyway, but still.
"You’re right. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen the face of anyone from the Nine Great Sects except for Shaolin."
It was truly remarkable.
Among the Six Great Clans, he had met everyone except the heads of the Sichuan Tang Clan and the Jegal Clan. But as for the Nine Great Sects and One Clan, he still had nine more to see.
Those bastards had basically gotten a free ride through the entire war...!
Feeling quite disgruntled, Seo-jun pouted.
"These guys won't do."
Since it had come to this, he had no choice but to personally extract a toll from the Transcendent Realm masters who hadn't even bothered to show their faces during the war.
Coincidentally, wasn't he right in the middle of digesting the Black Lotus Union Leader’s status?
He was absorbing it at a fairly fast pace, but it was clear that full digestion would still take a considerable amount of time.
However, Seo-jun knew a way to significantly reduce that time.
‘Growing my own vessel.’
As his own capacity increased, the digestion speed would naturally skyrocket.
"On that note, we’re going to start a grand tour of the Sixteen Major Sects and Clans."
It wasn't yet public knowledge that Seo-jun could copy martial arts just by seeing them.
Only a very select few, including the Emperor Without Disease, knew that fact.
As soon as Seo-jun realized this, he came up with a scheme of the century that would make even Zhuge Liang weep.
"We’ll do a lap around the Sixteen Major Sects and Clans and shake them down for their martial arts."
It wouldn't even be a difficult task.
By now, his skill at "lifting" martial arts had reached the absolute pinnacle. Just having one spar with each sect leader would be more than enough!
He could broaden his horizons by experiencing various martial arts, copy some top-tier techniques while he was at it, grow stronger in the process, digest the Black Lotus Union Leader’s status as a bonus, and even treat it as a preliminary honeymoon trip.
Just thinking about it, he was aiming for five birds with one stone. How could this not be a perfect plan?
However, Chun-bong raised an objection.
"Well, I won't stop you. But how are you going to get them to spar? They won't just agree to it just because you show up at their door."
"Hmph... Geum Chun-bong, my foolish little sister."
"What did you just call me?"
After being thoroughly pummeled by Chun-bong for a moment, Seo-jun continued speaking from his crumpled position in the corner.
"...What are they going to do if they refuse?"
"Huh?"
"If I attack first, they’ll have to block it, won't they?"
"What?"
"If they don't want to get beaten up in front of all their disciples, they’ll have to pull out their martial arts or whatever."
"Is this guy actually insane...?"
Chun-bong’s jaw dropped.
"...That actually sounds kind of fun. Let’s do it right now!"