Enlightenment Brought by Nonsense
Baek Cheong took a full two days to properly recover her spiritual energy and divine sense. Despite her limited capacity, posting illustrations on the Moomyeongbang had been an unimaginable burden, gnawing relentlessly at her meridians and spirit.
During her seclusion in her residence under the pretext of recovery, Baek Cheong's mind remained fixed on the Moomyeongbang.
In that short span of two days, the casual chat board was as chaotic as if a storm had ripped through it. It was all because of the illustration she'd casually thrown up and her mocking words, which had ignited the spark of a massive debate.
Ascenders pushing to overcome the terror of Jinseon Kas and fully utilize the Moomyeongbang clashed fiercely with those insisting they couldn't gamble their lives on such risks. They waged a muddy war of words. Tens of thousands of posts updated daily, turning the board into a veritable battlefield.
A satisfied smile lingered on Baek Cheong's lips as she watched the brutal debate unfold.
Everyone's gotten used to the term 'Jinseon Kas.'
The word she'd carelessly dropped was now flowing naturally from the mouths of lower-realm ascenders, used like a proper noun that had always existed. A peculiar sense of accomplishment from making a neologism trend among them filled her young chest.
"I've left my mark on the Moomyeongbang!"
Brimming with pride, Baek Cheong spectated the ascenders' blood-boiling arguments.
But her peaceful, room-bound gallery lurking came to an end with a servant girl's tentative call.
"Miss, are you feeling better? The Supreme Family Head wishes to see you. He said to come to his chambers as soon as your recovery is complete."
She couldn't keep ignoring her grandfather's summons just to cling to the Moomyeongbang.
"I'll be right there."
Regretfully withdrawing her divine sense from the Moomyeongbang, Baek Cheong straightened her clothes and stepped out toward the Supreme Family Head's chambers.
The Supreme Family Head's chambers lay in the deepest, most spiritually dense part of the family estate. Baek Cheong cautiously opened the door and entered.
Baek Mu-ae greeted his granddaughter with a kindly smile.
"Ah, our Cheong has arrived. I heard your meridians were damaged from cultivation—how are you feeling now?"
"Thanks to Grandfather's concern, I'm fully recovered."
Baek Cheong bowed politely at the waist in greeting.
Baek Mu-ae nodded and gestured to the seat opposite him. As Baek Cheong sat, his expression grew slightly more serious.
"The reason I called you here is simple. This old man is about to enter a long seclusion for cultivation soon. Before that, I wanted to pass on even a small teaching to you, the treasure of our Baek family."
Baek Cheong forced a smile, sensing a lengthy lecture ahead. But her grandfather's next words nearly made her choke and cough.
"I heard from your father. You tried to grasp Five Elements Unity on your own, but your energy scattered, causing internal injuries."
Her father had inevitably reported his daughter's tremendous talent(?) to the higher-ups. She never imagined the excuse she'd blurted out to dodge a crisis would snowball like this and come back to haunt her.
Mistaking her flustered look for shame over a failed cultivation attempt, Baek Mu-ae gently admonished her.
"No need to be so embarrassed. Peering at the threshold of Five Elements Unity at the Refining Qi stage is achievement enough. Even this old man, pursuing the Origin Infant stage, has some insights into the profound principles of handling the five elements. I called you to spare you some trial and error on that lofty enlightenment—listen closely."
Baek Cheong bit her lip hard.
I actually just exhausted my energy posting an illustration and bluffed about it.
She couldn't exactly confess that. With no choice, she nodded and silently endured her grandfather's lecture on his insights.
"Cheong, the five elements are fundamentally the five pillars forming heaven and earth. Water soaks downward, birthing all things; fire blazes upward, burning away impurities. Wood extends outward, taking form; metal gathers inward, forging unyielding strength. And earth embraces them all, achieving balance."
Baek Mu-ae closed his eyes and spoke slowly. His voice, deep and resonant, echoed through the chambers.
"What you've achieved is the Five Elements Mutual Generation cycle—linking these five pillars in a ceaseless, circular flow. But Five Elements Unity transcends that cycle. It's the process of compressing that rotating circle to the extreme, regressing it to a single point."
Her grandfather's resounding voice struck Baek Cheong's eardrums. It was the same tedious, esoteric enlightenment spiel she'd seen countless times in her past life's wuxia and xianxia novels.
"Within the cycle of mutual generation, deliberately clash the energies of mutual suppression—but instead of scattering the explosive force outward, embrace it inward. Wrap fire's eruption in water's flexibility, blunt metal's sharpness with wood's vitality, and crush all backlash under earth's weight. Realize that the energies, once split into five branches, all originate from one source. Only then can you tread the path beyond the five elements toward true unity."
But reading such insights as a third-party reader in her past life was worlds apart from hearing a Gold Core grand elder's wisdom firsthand in a xianxia world.
Ah...
Her grandfather's insights brimmed with centuries of cultivation and the truths of heaven and earth. Unbeknownst to herself, Baek Cheong became deeply immersed, listening intently. Clarity returned to her dazed eyes, furrows deepening on her brow.
Suddenly, a massive realization dawned in Baek Cheong's mind.
Knowledge scavenged from rifling through xianxia novels in her past life. Sensations of mutual generation and suppression embodied in her current body. The miscellaneous theories bandied about by Moomyeongbang Dous.
All these fragmented pieces began meshing like intricate gears, with her grandfather's insights as the catalyst.
Embrace the five-branched spiritual roots inward, regressing them to a single point...
Baek Cheong lost all awareness of her surroundings, forgetting she was even in the Supreme Family Head's chambers. Unconsciously closing her eyes, she delved deep into introspection.
At the bottom of the spiritual energy lake rippling in her dantian, her five-colored five elements spiritual roots appeared vividly. Extending her divine sense, she gently enveloped them—not forcing them together, but tracing backward along their mutual generation flows to seek the origin point.
Water's root enveloped fire's, wood's vitality absorbed the heat, metal's root refined the residue, and earth piled it layer by layer. The once-scattered five roots twisted together in her dantian, merging into a bizarre unity.
The murky hues of her trash O-yeong-geun shifted to an achromatic blend of all lights, solidifying into a form like the primordial singular root.
"This is... unity."
A faint moan escaped Baek Cheong's lips.
But at the threshold of unity, a fatal limit seized her ankle.
Crack!
A fine fissure spiderwebbed across the coalescing achromatic root. Her mere 3-star Refining Qi dantian couldn't bear the weight of Five Elements Unity, screaming in protest.
Forcing it would shatter the freshly merged roots entirely, dooming her path as an ascender forever.
Baek Cheong urgently withdrew her divine sense, carefully unraveling the tangled roots back into five branches. Snapping from her trance, she snapped her eyes open.
"Haaah..."
A sigh thick with regret escaped her lips. Her body was drenched in cold sweat, heart pounding like it might burst.
As her vision cleared, the chambers and her grandfather opposite came into focus.
Baek Mu-ae had witnessed his granddaughter's bizarre meditation from start to finish. His eyes held not just shock, but awe.
Grasping enlightenment on the spot from a few insights, even attempting to fuse her five elements roots into one—though her realm's vessel failed at the final step, this feat alone could rewrite ascender history.
"You're fine, Cheong."
Baek Mu-ae chuckled heartily, gently stroking her sweat-matted hair.
"To reach the threshold of unity from a single teaching—truly a genius that heaven itself would fear. This time, your low realm lacked the vessel, but your grasp of the principles was flawless. Enlightenment won't flee, so don't rush. Build your realm steadily and bide your time."
Under her grandfather's pleased smile and encouragement, Baek Cheong nodded dazedly.
A lie had spiraled into genuine serendipitous enlightenment.
Once I raise my realm, I can reach Five Elements Unity anytime.
The moment of unity etched deep into her mind. A desire to swiftly advance her realm writhed as fiercely as her addiction to gallery lurking.