Foundation Establishment Realm (1)
It was a cloudless night over the clear sky.
Even though the heavens above had been tinted with the faintest hint of violet, they could not have been more pure.
Qi threaded through the sky like a strand of silk, running from heaven to heaven, while the waning moon shone pale and slender, like frost laid upon stone.
Beneath it all sat an altar built to gather Foundation Establishment and seek the heavens’ approval.
The altar was a square dais of earth and stone. Yellow soil had been used as its foundation to draw the earth’s energy together, and at each of its four corners a spirit stone had been set according to the directions of east, west, south, and north.
And at the very center of the altar, Dam So-dam sat as though holding the balance of the five elements within herself.
She wore the Ungyu Sect’s white cultivation robe and knelt upright upon a slab of stone known as a soil-bound foundation stone.
That foundation stone was said to have been taken from a cave where ancient cultivators once trained five thousand years ago, a rock within which the veins of the earth had condensed over time.
It had been obtained in exchange for more than fifty spirit stones.
“Hoo, huuugh…”
Dam So-dam’s breathing stretched long and steady.
The quiet sediment of earth qi within her body slowly loosened and tightened again in rhythm with her breath.
I’m really going to Foundation Establishment. It feels like a dream.
With her eyes closed, the girl remembered the things that had happened before.
Being born with a single earth spiritual root into a poor family and sold off to a cultivation sect. Enduring training so harsh it was little different from torture. Nearly becoming a human pill for those greedy Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Golden Elixir stage.
And then there was the Yun cultivator who had saved her.
If Master hadn’t risked his life to rescue me, I’d already be dead.
At the time, Yun cultivator had been one of the cultivators in that sect, but because he secretly took Dam So-dam away, they had become the target of pursuit.
So Dam So-dam and Yun cultivator had wandered from place to place, fleeing that gluttonous sect.
Along the way, they had taken in children abandoned by their parents, children discarded by sects for lacking talent, and so on.
Kind-hearted Yun cultivator had gathered them up, brought them home, and from that the present-day Ungyu Sect had been born.
In other words, every cultivator of Ungyu Sect owed Yun cultivator a debt of gratitude.
Perhaps because of that, the cultivators of Ungyu Sect truly treated this place like their own home, and one another like family.
That’s why I’m even more grateful to Sister.
Baek Sang-ah had helped Ungyu Sect without asking for anything in return.
She had found spirit stones that could never be obtained in the lower realm, and though she was a Golden Elixir cultivator, she had taught the Foundation Establishment disciples as well.
So Baek Sang-ah was the sect’s benefactor, and at the same time Dam So-dam’s benefactor too.
“It’s moving.”
Dam So-dam, who had been thinking about the past for a moment, slowly opened her eyes at Baek Sang-ah’s voice.
Above the clear sky, qi began to churn.
In response, the spirit stones embedded at the four corners of the altar drew forth the earth’s spiritual energy, and earth qi began to gather from below the ground and drift slowly toward Dam So-dam.
At first it was no more than a faint stirring, like wind brushing past; then it gradually gained weight, swelling into a flow that covered her entire body.
Beneath her feet, the soil-bound foundation stone gave a low tremor.
Patterns engraved into the stone’s surface rose one by one, and those lines slowly climbed from beneath Dam So-dam’s knees to her hips, then up her spine, and finally into her spiritual root.
“Heavenly spirits and earth, please… heavens above, I beg you, grant this worthless disciple your permission.”
Yun cultivator’s earnest voice seeped into the wind and vanished.
At last, the earth qi that had soaked into Dam So-dam’s body from the foundation stone surged upward toward the heavens.
At the same time, the qi that had been flowing calmly through the sky came pouring straight down toward the foundation stone.
Finally, at the center between heaven and earth, Dam So-dam’s earth qi and the heavenly qi met and intertwined.
The crossing was not noisy.
It simply gathered in silence, as if being drawn toward Dam So-dam’s lower abdomen.
“Earth is the center of the five elements. It connects all directions, yet is bound to none. It rests in stillness and embraces all things. Its nature is indifferent—but that very indifference is the Dao.”
Dam So-dam quietly recited the principle of earth.
Then her breathing grew thinner and thinner until it seemed to stop altogether.
At the very center of her lower abdomen, the point known as the body’s core, heavenly qi and earth qi crossed in fine threads and formed a small knot.
At first that knot was no larger than dust. Then it condensed into a tiny point.
Once the point was complete, the spiritual energy within Dam So-dam’s body began circling around it.
To Baek Sang-ah’s eyes, the thing that had just formed inside Dam So-dam looked exactly like a bead.
Inner Elixir
“Inner elixir?”
Inner Elixir
Spiritual roots were nothing more than formless constitutions, but an inner elixir was different.
An inner elixir was, in essence, the heart of a cultivator—an entity that held within it the principles of the five elements corresponding to one’s spiritual-root constitution.
The energy of the five elements was essential for a cultivator to advance realms, and the inner elixir was indispensable for receiving that elemental qi.
That was precisely why cultivators of the Foundation Establishment Realm had to learn the principles of the five elements.
Without an inner elixir, one could never accept the five-element principles.
If I compare it to martial arts, it’s like a dantian?
[I have asked you several times what this martial art is you keep mentioning. Stop making odd analogies. They only make things harder to understand.]
The reason Foundation Establishment was called Foundation Establishment was the same.
To build, as in to establish.
To lay a foundation.
Because only after the inner elixir formed could one truly begin to build the base of cultivation.
That was why it was called Foundation Establishment.
When Dam So-dam opened her eyes again, she realized she had finally reached the Foundation Establishment Realm.
“Sister?”
And yet, what was this feeling?
Dam So-dam hurriedly looked toward Baek Sang-ah.
The reason was simple.
As Dam So-dam had broken through to Foundation Establishment, the stars in the sky had abruptly opened their eyes.
The girl felt as though those eyes were fixed on Baek Sang-ah.
But why would the stars be looking at Baek Sang-ah?
No matter how hard she thought about it, Dam So-dam could not find a reason, so she did not dwell on it any further.
She decided it was just her imagination.
“You’ve reached Foundation Establishment. You.”
Baek Sang-ah tapped Dam So-dam on the head once, as if praising her.
Dam So-dam understood.
That was the best praise Baek Sang-ah was capable of giving.
Perhaps because of that, Dam So-dam was smiling brightly one moment, and the next tears had already begun welling in the corners of her eyes.
Baek Sang-ah’s hand paused for a moment.
“Ah, did it hurt?”
“No, no. Sister.”
It was just that the reality of finally reaching Foundation Establishment overwhelmed her so much that her chest felt ready to burst.
She hurriedly stood up from the soil-bound foundation stone.
Then she stumbled once, and as if she could not even feel the pain, she got back up and ran toward Yun cultivator.
Yun cultivator could not dodge in time, and in the end Dam So-dam threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.
The Ungyu Sect cultivators caught between them stared helplessly at the scene.
No matter how they looked at it, it was not their place to interfere.
“Sob… thank you. Thank you so much, Master.”
“What is there to thank? I am merely proud that, under this foolish master, you have cultivated so quickly.”
Baek Sang-ah put some distance between herself and them.
She tipped her head back and looked up at the sky that had just moments ago been in tumult.
The stars were still open.
Even though the ceremony had ended.
[Indeed, it is a tempting talent. She reached Foundation Establishment in less than a few years. A genius who does not suit a small sect like this.]
Dam So-dam lives for one reason. To repay Ungyu Sect and Yun cultivator for their kindness.
[Hm?]
When the bead formed inside Dam So-dam, I saw it through the heavenly qi. Her past.
[W-what in the world are you talking about? Peeking at another cultivator’s memories through heavenly qi?]
Strictly speaking, she had not peeked at it with her eyes.
Rather, when the heavenly qi, earth qi, and Dam So-dam’s spiritual energy became one and transformed, part of that flow had naturally been drawn into Baek Sang-ah.
That was the principle of emptiness.
Because it was empty, it could receive anything; merely by standing nearby, she let the spiritual energy of nature seep into her.
Muyeonja was inwardly impressed.
[Without any instruction at all, she unconsciously used the principle of emptiness and made it part of her own cultivation? Hah…]
She has a reason to live. But I still don’t know what it is.
[So what will you do?]
I’m curious. I want to know. If I want to know, I have to go up. Higher.
[That is the essence of cultivation. Cultivation is, in the end, the process of knowing what you do not know. It means you are walking the right path.]
Mm. So I realized something.
[And what would that be?]
Baek Sang-ah’s gaze slowly settled upon the sky.
She murmured softly.
Principle is the same as question.
Only when one feels doubt can one understand principle, and only when principle exists can one feel doubt.
The two are essentially the same.
The stars reflected in her eyes.
Muyeonja said in a trembling voice,
[You… understood a principle in that tiny moment?]
Then Yun cultivator and Dam So-dam, who had been speaking together as though reopening old memories, fell silent.
Clouds suddenly began to gather in the clear sky.
“M-Master. What is going on?”
“I do not know. I was certain the sky would remain clear all through the dawn, and yet why are clouds gathering now?”
It was a deeply unnatural sight.
The clouds that had gathered so suddenly had undeniably come from the heavens.
And yet their movement felt less like the will of the sky and more like a response to something else.
As though balance itself had been disturbed.
[This was not even within my expectations…]
Clouds gathered over Baek Sang-ah’s head in a broad horizontal sweep, and between them leaked a fierce light.
In an instant, the night sky flashed as brightly as day.
The stars that had been awake began to churn as though enraged.
That was when it happened.
“Sister!”
Dam So-dam cried out.
Even faster than her, Yun cultivator reached out a hand.
But it was already too late.
Clouds gathered above Baek Sang-ah’s head, heavy with searing light.
And from those clouds—
BOOM, KUGUGUGUNG!
A bolt of lightning struck down toward Baek Sang-ah.
The roar of thunder split the mountain range as it echoed out, and the pure-white lightning descended in a path that seemed ready to tear heaven and earth apart.
The force of that lightning was sharper and fiercer than anything else.
This was no mere natural phenomenon.
“No, Sister!”
It meant that the heavens were rejecting Baek Sang-ah.
They were violently opposing the existence of something that defied principle yet still sought to contain principle.
That lightning was a heavenly tribulation.
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