Chapter 13
Chapter 13
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Chapter 13: Upper Dantian
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Baek Hyun immediately sat cross-legged to absorb the Cintamani. He slowly brought the brilliantly glowing pearl to his lips.
Fully absorbing the Cintamani wouldn't be difficult.
Though it felt as hard as a wall when touched by hand.
-Swooooo...
The moment it touched his lips, the Cintamani was naturally absorbed into his body.
Originally, the Cintamani was an object that merged with a dragon through the mouth.
Even if its owner was human, the usage method was no different.
The difference arose after use.
Dragons could innately store the Cintamani, so even after swallowing it, it didn't vanish—they could freely wield its divine powers.
But humans couldn't store the Cintamani in its intact form within their bodies. Thus, when swallowed by a human, it lost its form and divine powers, transforming into pure natural spiritual energy.
Even so, that alone caused tremendous changes to the human body.
-Kugugugugugugugu!!!
The Cintamani's immense energy rampaged through his entire body like a storm.
A far more intense and overwhelming energy than when he had opened the Middle Dantian.
Baek Hyun bit his lip and guided the intense energy straight to his heart, where his innate true energy resided.
The innate true energy of the Solar Body was far more special than that of ordinary martial artists.
Because the 'Sun' that had dwelled in his heart since possession—converting internal energy into hot solar energy, flowing it out, and voluntarily creating the Middle Dantian—was precisely the innate true energy of the Solar Body.
Considering that the intense hot solar energy and near-infinite vitality unique to the Solar Body all originated from this 'Sun', he had nearly lost a massive foundation.
'As expected, I should seal the Red Bow White Arrow until I at least reach the Flower Realm.'
Thinking that, Baek Hyun infused the Cintamani's pure natural spiritual energy into the Sun, which had clearly lost its light and vitality compared to before.
The greatly shrunken Sun voraciously devoured the natural spiritual energy surging through his body, rapidly returning to its original size—no, swelling to a far larger scale than before.
The remaining enormous amount of natural spiritual energy then spread throughout his body once more.
An amount of energy impossible for a human body to fully absorb overflowed through Baek Hyun's meridians. In that process, the many wounds scattered across his body actually became a boon.
As the massive natural spiritual energy seeped into the countless wounds in his meridians, muscles, organs, and more—parts that should have been tempered over years—his body began explosive growth.
Baek Hyun's body fundamentally transformed into a form even more suitable for accommodating internal energy, with its functions amplifying to an incomparable degree.
The instant perfect recovery of various fatal wounds was just a bonus.
Yet even after all that, the Cintamani's energy still rampaged like a storm through his entire body.
-Wooong!!
Sensing the crisis, Baek Hyun hurriedly circulated the One Yang Divine Art to expel the overflowing energy through the surrounding natural materials.
Even good things become poison if overdone.
Baek Hyun absorbed as much energy as he could while boldly expelling what he couldn't handle, desperately regulating the energy within his body.
But despite his efforts, the overwhelming Cintamani energy flooded his meridians with unbearable force, like a bomb on the verge of detonation.
-Kugugugugu... Kwaaang!!!
"Keu... Heup!!"
Only after a substantial amount of unabsorbed energy burst out near his head could his body finally stabilize.
Baek Hyun rubbed his head, feeling a tingling yet refreshingly clear sensation on his crown.
He had failed to absorb and had to release quite a lot of energy, but even so, his innate true energy had not only recovered—it had ballooned several times over.
The very output of the engine powering his body had amplified.
Moreover, the internal energy serving as fuel for that engine had increased to an absurd degree.
To the point where haphazard mid- or low-grade spirit medicines would have no effect whatsoever.
'On top of that, my body's performance has risen to an incomparable level.'
The newly reborn skin was so tough and elastic that an ordinary blade couldn't even scratch it.
His muscles, like densely packed springs, unleashed extreme athletic prowess based on tremendous density and contractile power.
His bones were as light as those of a soaring bird yet as hard as steel.
His heart beat slowly like a massive boulder, pumping vast quantities of blood throughout his body with each pulsation.
Furthermore, with his already decent meridians now refined to near-perfection, the flow of internal energy became far smoother and lighter than before.
It resembled yet differed from the pinnacle of body remodeling: Shedding Mortality and Exchanging Bones.
Shedding Mortality occurred when heart, energy, and body all reached their extremes, 'completing' the body into a form perfectly specialized for the martial arts one had accumulated.
But the current change was merely the body's overall performance skyrocketing.
His physical prime hadn't even arrived yet, making Shedding Mortality physically impossible at this stage.
Of course, even without being true Shedding Mortality, these physical changes were excellent enough.
With this body, he could now handle the Middle Dantian's massive output far more comfortably than before.
Though his realm hadn't advanced due to insufficient martial arts enlightenment, once that fell into place, he could immediately attain the peak realm.
'Shall I check the results in more detail.'
Baek Hyun sat cross-legged once more and began introspecting his body to precisely gauge the changes.
Now, just how much had it changed...
"...Huh?"
But the instant Baek Hyun introspected his body, he was left dumbfounded.
The massive increase in internal energy and widened meridians were as expected, but a completely unforeseen change had occurred in his body.
"...Why is the Upper Dantian open."
The third dantian—an essential prerequisite to reaching the Mythic Realm, one even Manifestation Realm martial artists couldn't easily open.
It was asserting its presence near his head.
-Shuwaaaaa...
The moment he recognized it, the overwhelming perceptual ability—previously masked by the rampaging natural spiritual energy throughout his body—began to register vividly.
His senses across his entire body weren't merely amplified; they were berserking.
Tiny grains of sand floating in the air, subtle air currents shifting dozens of meters away.
Even the presence of countless plants stationed outside this vast cave imprinted themselves on his mind.
Is this how the world appears to immortals transcending nature's laws?
In this realm of omniscience beyond his prior comprehension, Baek Hyun momentarily lost himself, utterly captivated by the wondrous sensation.
But just as his mind sank into sensing his surroundings, unable to pull away...
-Plip
A single small water droplet fell onto Baek Hyun's crown.
A minor stimulus he wouldn't have noticed normally.
But to the current Baek Hyun, with senses amplified to berserk levels...
"Kugrrrrrrghaaaalgeodeup..!!"
That tiny droplet felt like the seductive caress of a lascivious woman expertly teasing his body's most sensitive erogenous zone.
His mental fortitude, unshaken even with every bone in his body shattered by the Imoogi's assault, crumbled before a single droplet.
'Th-this insane...!! What is this, a 500x sensitivity potion!?'
Finally realizing his condition was dire, he immediately adjusted the Upper Dantian's output and began reining in the madly berserk senses.
In hindsight, he had suffered side effects from hastily opening even the Middle Dantian. It would have been stranger if opening the far more delicate Upper Dantian so rashly had no repercussions.
"Hah... Hah...! How can a martial artist not even at peak have an open Upper Dantian...!!"
Somehow using his genius senses to drastically restrict the Upper Dantian's output, Baek Hyun belatedly marveled at his body's state.
The Upper Dantian was a hyper-dimensional organ incomparable to the Middle Dantian.
So advanced that merely opening up to the Middle Dantian allowed one to reach the 'Manifestation Realm', attainable only by the Ten Great Masters of the World.
In fact, even among those Ten Great Masters, few had opened the Upper Dantian.
Then, what was the Upper Dantian for?
The answer was simple.
It was the essential condition for reaching Dominating the World's highest realm: the Mythic Realm.
Located in the head, the Upper Dantian served as a conduit to manifest the user's intentions into reality.
Refining a lifetime of martial arts and enlightenment through this conduit, honing it in one's unique way, and materializing it in the real world.
The martial artists of this world called it the 'Mind Sword'.
A technique symbolic of the Mythic Realm, the domain of immortals transcending natural laws.
The Upper Dantian was the first step in cultivating a human body into that of an immortal.
In short...
'It's way too much for the current me.'
He was a total newbie who couldn't even dominate among humans, let alone become an immortal—what business did he have with the Upper Dantian?
It seemed the massive residual natural spiritual energy in the Cintamani had forcibly half-opened it...
But this was like tackling Millennium Prize Problems right after mastering basic arithmetic.
'Still... I might not be utterly unable to use it.'
Though his martial arts enlightenment, physical body, and internal energy quantity were all woefully inadequate for advanced Upper Dantian utilization.
Merely having it open amplified his entire body's senses to extremes.
If he could harness this properly, he might turn even this burdensome Upper Dantian into something useful.
-Swooooo...
Baek Hyun closed his eyes, focused his mind, and began gradually—ever so gradually—releasing the Upper Dantian he had just suppressed.
If he let his senses berserk defenselessly like before, even trivial stimuli would deliver massive shocks.
Had what fallen earlier been a pebble instead of a droplet, he might have died from shock on the spot.
Thus, he slowly unleashed the berserk senses to a bearable level.
Like sealing shut a faucet gushing fierce water, then inching the handle to drip only a few drops.
And those few drops thus received...
-Shwaaaa!!
Scattered outward in fine particle form.
His entire body's senses then sharply expanded for an instant before snapping back to normal.
Repeating this rapidly?
-Woong, woong, woong, woong
It minimized risk of danger exposure while nearly fully exploiting the Upper Dantian's sensory amplification.
Like a radar pulsing short waves periodically to scan surroundings—releasing explosive senses in brief, repeated bursts to curtail excessive sensitivity.
Of course, this demanded extreme concentration and wasn't risk-free, rendering it unsuitable for combat.
To wield this technique in real battle would require countless practices and experiences ahead.
'But as a simple radar function, it's pretty usable.'
Baek Hyun shifted his gaze to the massive luminous jade embedded in the ceiling.
Glowing as brightly as a full moon in the night sky, it shone more alluringly and beautifully than any gem he had ever seen.
If auctioned, billionaires would line up to claim it at any cost.
The imperial family might even requisition it for a fortune. That luminous jade was that invaluable.
Even Starpoint Sect, backed by countless merchant groups with no financial worries, would covet it fiercely.
Probably why.
The ancestor who trained here had left the manual in such a manner.
"Seriously... Senior, even as a Daoist, isn't your extravagance a bit excessive?"
How could he think to embed a 'manual' in something so precious?
Baek Hyun picked up the broken sword hilt from the floor while grumbling at the ancestor with such eccentric tastes.
He could sense it.
A small wooden box concealed within the luminous jade's radiant glow.
Even those free of material greed couldn't easily ignore it: a shabby 'enlightenment' hidden amid splendid treasure.
The luminous jade itself was likely the test set by the manual's leaver.
He must have desired a successor who would smash useless glowstones without hesitation for training...
'What lunatic would smash something that precious.'
Unless they knew like him that a manual lay inside, no one would willingly shatter such a luminous jade.
-Clang!!
Suppressing his regret, he channeled internal energy into the sword hilt and hurled it. The radiant luminous jade shattered into dozens of fragments.
Among them fell an old wooden box, blending unassumingly.
Baek Hyun snatched the wooden box neatly with the Azure Hawk Seven Forms, then promptly opened it to inspect the contents.
Had the manual inside been one he already knew, he would have regretted it enough to beat the ground in anguish.
Fortunately, it was a martial arts manual whose name even Baek Hyun—who knew every technique in Starpoint Sect—had never seen.
Vast Cold Moon Shadow Step
A footwork modeled after the shadows of Guanghan Palace, where the moon goddess Chang'e resides.
Starpoint Sect's new supreme martial art.