Dual Cultivation
However, it seemed that the Nine Palaces Tower she was talking about was a little different from the Nine Palaces Tower I knew. The one I knew had clearly been a place, but from the way she spoke, it sounded more like a cultivation sect, much like Hyeondo Sect itself.
So I asked at once, “What exactly is the Nine Palaces Tower?”
“It was a sect from the ancient era, famous for its formations. Even though it ascended to the Upper Realm long ago, records of its arrays are still scattered everywhere, which shows just how extraordinary it was. Among them, the Lingxin Panhe Formation was especially renowned. It was said to possess the impossible power to increase a cultivator’s comprehension—something no spiritual elixir could ever do. But are you saying you truly used the Nine Palaces Tower’s Lingxin Panhe Formation?”
“Yes. I don’t know whether it was the real Lingxin Panhe Formation you’re talking about, but…”
Comprehension… Of course, comprehension was also necessary for cultivating martial manuals. Since martial arts manuals often contained multiple intentions and layers of meaning, if one’s comprehension was poor, it became nearly impossible to learn the more complicated advanced techniques.
But as far as I knew, cultivators could easily learn their techniques through methods like jade slips and qingjiao, so comprehension didn’t seem nearly as important.
I, too, had never had any particular trouble learning cultivation methods, so I had never thought comprehension was all that important to cultivators.
Yet the moment I heard her words, a question rose in my mind.
Why is it that my second brother’s cultivation realm is so far below mine, even though he takes the same spiritual elixirs and even draws in the qi around him?
Until now, I had always thought the widening gap between our realms was simply due to the difference between my one spiritual root and my second brother’s three spiritual roots.
But hearing that comprehension might be far more important than I had expected made me think that could be part of the reason as well.
Just then, her voice continued once more.
“After the Nine Palaces Tower ascended from Heavenly Flag World to the Upper Realm, the Lingxin Panhe Formation vanished completely. However, if you truly came into contact with it, then perhaps there may be a way for me to recover my body there. No—there definitely will be. The formations of the Nine Palaces Tower surely include techniques for exchanging souls!”
As her excited voice rose and rose, I quietly recalled the Nine Palaces Tower as I knew it. Was it really the resting place of the mysteries of an ancient sect?
In truth, the Nine Palaces Tower I knew was nothing more than a tiny three-story wooden pavilion that a powerless mountain rogue cultivator might use. It didn’t look anything like some great and terrifying sect at all.
Besides, it was strange enough that a place supposedly so extraordinary had been monopolized by a lone Foundation Establishment rogue cultivator.
“Then it’s possible the Lingxin Panhe Formation I know is merely a formation with the same name. The place where I saw it wasn’t anything special.”
At that, she, already overflowing with excitement, fell silent for a moment. She had evidently realized that I might be right.
So I spoke again.
“As promised, I’ll make the puppet’s eyes for you right now. I can’t give you a real body, but I can at least do that much.”
“Fortunately, it seems you do keep your promises. Then make me one more promise! If you truly went to the place where you saw the Lingxin Panhe Formation, you’ll take me there too. If you promise me that, I’ll promise to help you as much as I can from now on.”
Of course, all that remained in the Nine Palaces Tower in my memory was the corpse of the mountain rogue cultivator Jin Myeong and a ruined wooden pavilion here and there.
There was no particular reason I couldn’t take her along. She had none of the dignity or strength of a Nascent Soul cultivator, after all.
But even the cultivation methods and knowledge she possessed were treasures impossible to price, so doing a little extra work in order to gain her sincere help was nothing at all.
“I promise.”
But the instant I said that, she spoke up as if she had been waiting for it.
“You! You’re having trouble drawing in the qi around you, aren’t you?”
She had instantly identified the greatest obstacle to my advancement, the very problem I had been unable to solve until now. It seemed she really did intend to keep her promise to help me as much as possible.
So I asked her back with anticipation, “Do you know why that is?”
“It’s because of your inborn fate. One of your innate destinies is Baechunjiyeom—the Calamity of Tyrannizing Heaven. For someone like you, a being like a disaster meant to overrun the heavens, it would be stranger if Heaven actually lent you its power.”
The way she spoke of Heaven as though it were a living being felt a little odd.
But that wasn’t important right now.
“Then how do I fix it?”
The reason she had brought this up had to be because there was a way to solve it.
So I listened carefully to her answer, only for her to offer something I had never expected.
“You have to hide your own fate with another person’s and deceive Heaven’s eyes.”
Fate was, by definition, something one was born with. So how was I supposed to cover mine with someone else’s? Her words made little sense to me, and I opened my mouth again.
“So there’s a way to take someone else’s innate destiny?”
“There is. And it’s a very simple way, too.”
If I could move the external qi, then the speed of my advancement would rise dramatically as well. Naturally, I couldn’t help being interested.
“Tell me.”
“You just have to do dual cultivation. Dual cultivation is, in its original sense, the practice of two cultivators joining and exchanging fate and energy as they train. Once you’re connected to another cultivator in that way, you’ll be able to borrow another fate.”
If one only listened to the way she rattled on so casually, dual cultivation sounded like a simple practice of pressing palms together and exchanging energy.
But the dual cultivation I knew was not that. It was the act of a male and female cultivator increasing their inner power through the union of yin and yang.
Thinking there might be a difference between what I knew and what she was describing, I asked again, “How does one actually do dual cultivation?”
“W-What kind of person doesn’t even know that? First, a male cultivator and a female cultivator have to bring their bodies together, and then… um, according to the harmony of yin and yang… so… um…”
I didn’t know why a spirit with no body was stammering so badly trying to explain it, but as I suspected, the dual cultivation she was talking about was no different from the one I knew.
So I let out a quiet sigh and asked again, “What other methods are there? Something I can do alone, other than dual cultivation.”
Thinking of the immense lust created by the Heaven-Defying Lust Madness Classic I had cultivated, dual cultivation was far too dangerous a solution.
If the lust I had barely managed to suppress ever burst free, there was no guarantee I wouldn’t become just like the other people who had learned that demonic art—an lust demon who burned for nothing but desire.
At the very least, until I learned the supreme demonic technique Breaking Heaven Heart Method, which could control the lust produced by the Heaven-Defying Lust Madness Classic, I had to keep away from dual cultivation.
Fortunately, it seemed there was more than one way.
“If you choose another method instead of the easiest one—dual cultivation—then you’ll need at least the Heaven-Change Formation that’s supposedly in the Nine Palaces Tower. You’d unfold a great array that distorts the flow of heavenly secrets and erase the very place where you exist. It was originally designed to avoid heavenly tribulation below a certain level, so you should be able to use it once you reach that realm.”
Once again, the solution lay in the Nine Palaces Tower. It seemed that after I went hunting that great demonic beast with Elder Aunt Jeon tomorrow, I would need to head straight there.
Then, in response to my silent sigh, her voice came again.
“Why are you so determined to avoid the easiest and best method, dual cultivation? Dual cultivation is a practice that dramatically raises one’s realm through the exchange of qi and fate. Do you even know how many cultivators train in dual cultivation with their dao companions?”
So I answered her in return, “You must have done it quite often, then?”
But the instant my words ended, she, who had been chattering so diligently, fell silent as if struck dumb. I had suspected it since she couldn’t even explain what dual cultivation really was, and sure enough, my guess had been right.
So I spoke to her again.
“If you’re going to recommend something to others, you should at least have some experience yourself first.”
At once, she shot back, “I have done it!”
To that, I replied in an even tone, “A lie unsettles the heart of the Dao.”
I had simply returned to her the exact words she had once thrown at me.
Then she awkwardly changed the subject.
“Ahem… I know. You’re quite serious about your Dao heart, unlike those from Noeumsa.”
Noeumsa? I had no idea why she mistook me for a cultivator from such a place, but there was no harm in correcting her.
“It’s not Noeumsa. It’s Hyeondo Sect. That’s where I belong.”
But when she heard my words, she blurted out in confusion, “What? This place is some unheard-of sect? I was definitely trapped by a trick in a fight with Noeumsa… Don’t tell me the Hyeondo Sect you mentioned is a branch sect of Noeumsa?”
I had no idea what relationship Noeumsa might have with Hyeondo Sect, but I had never even heard of a place called Noeumsa before.
“That can’t be. I know nothing about Noeumsa at all. If anything, I know about Gwi-eum-sa.”
As I frowned, thinking of the spy from Gwi-eum-sa who had attacked us in Dark Dust Market, her voice continued.
“Gwi-eum-sa? What kind of place is that? Since the names are so similar, that actually sounds even more connected to Noeumsa.”
Well…
“They’re the ones who sent infiltrators into Hyeondo Sect and use a sorcery called Ghost Spirit Incantation.”
That was all I knew about Gwi-eum-sa.
But perhaps it was enough, because she suddenly raised her voice.
“Ghost Spirit Incantation!! So that place really is the successor to Noeumsa. Surely, when the higher-ranking cultivators of the sect all ascended to the Upper Realm at once, the worthless leftovers were left behind and had their own home stolen from them. Now everything makes sense.”
Thanks to her words, I also learned that Gwi-eum-sa was the successor of Noeumsa, but it wasn’t especially useful to me. After all, I had no immediate reason to be entangled with Gwi-eum-sa or its cultivators.
Rather than listening further, I decided to examine the verses of the Crimson Flame Body-Soul Scripture she had taught me.
Thanks to her, I had awakened to my true nature and severed the acquired fate that had bound me, but since I had already agreed to join tomorrow’s hunt for the great demonic beast, I needed to become stronger even if only by a little.
Besides, I wanted to erase the traces of the Chaos Heaven Secret Law I had previously cultivated as quickly as possible with the Crimson Flame Body-Soul Scripture. To me, those traces felt no different from a brand of slavery.
Of course, the more I erased the traces of the Chaos Heaven Secret Law I had so painstakingly accumulated, the more my cultivation would fall in the short term.
After I cultivated the Crimson Flame Body-Soul Scripture through the night and reached the first star of Qi Refining, the Qi Refining fourth-star realm created by the Chaos Heaven Secret Law fell to third star. Thanks to that, I had crossed the bottleneck and reached the middle stages of Qi Refining, only to become a cultivator in the early stages of Qi Refining once more.
But I could feel instinctively that this method was right. The fact that I, unable to draw in the surrounding qi, had still managed to raise the newly cultivated art to first star in just one night meant that the power I had previously accumulated through the Chaos Heaven Secret Law was not disappearing entirely, but being replaced by the power of the Crimson Flame Body-Soul Scripture.