Doubting the Ascendant and the Stubborn Bottleneck
Could he really be an Ascendant...? Baek Cheong rolled around on her bed, endlessly stroking her bulging belly. The final reply left by Dou(718.44) kept swirling chaotically in her mind.
A claim that mocked the common sense of the cultivation world: that spiritual roots could grow. She'd tried to dismiss it as the ravings of some aggro-pulling delusional liar, but the sudden wave of unease that gripped her wouldn't fade easily.
What if it's true...?
Ascension. The ultimate path—reaching the pinnacle of the lower realms, surviving the Heavenly Tribulation, and ascending to the upper realms. If everything Dou(718.44) said was true, it meant they were a legendary figure who had achieved Ascension despite possessing the worst possible talent: O-yeong-geun.
Baek Cheong shot up from her seat.
"I need to check."
Unable to bear the nagging doubt any longer, she focused her divine sense and summoned the Moomyeongbang.
She carefully typed [Spiritual Root Growth] into the search bar at the top of the Chatterboard.
The moment she hit search, a massive chunk of her spiritual energy gathered in her dantian vanished along with one unit of divine sense.
"Ugh."
Enduring the throbbing pain that made her head ring, she scanned the results. But digging up anything useful on the Chatterboard was harder than finding a needle in a sand dune. Endless nonsense posts, meaningless mockery, and the search's inability to keep up with the update speed made it clear. The pressure of her divine sense dwindling with every page turn was another nagging issue she couldn't ignore.
With no other choice, Baek Cheong made a decision. Clutching at straws, she exited the Chatterboard and switched to the Infoboard tab.
It was a space where lower-realm cultivators shared their personal insights and fortuitous encounters. Unlike the Chatterboard, the Infoboard updated very slowly. New posts per day could be counted on one hand, making it far easier to browse back through the archives page by page.
"Let's see."
Baek Cheong slowly checked each info post one by one. The problem was that even the posts on the Infoboard rarely contained solid content.
Even when there seemed to be nutritious info that might help with cultivation, it was mostly secrets usable only by the blessed—like those with Heavenly or Earth roots. To Baek Cheong, with her O-yeong-geun, they were nothing but pies in the sky.
Some were profound and esoteric, only comprehensible from realms as lofty as Core Formation, Gold Core, or even Origin Infant and beyond. At mere Qi Refining 1-star, Baek Cheong couldn't make heads or tails of them no matter how hard she tried.
Fortunately, the divine sense drain lessened as she turned pages compared to searching the Chatterboard—fewer posts meant less consumption.
Exercising patience, she kept scrolling back through the archives.
"Huh?"
After dozens of pages, a familiar account number caught her eye.
A trace left by Dou(718.44), whom she was half-convinced was an Ascendant. Though not related to spiritual root growth, confirming their activity on the Infoboard was a win. She felt certain that tracing their past posts further would uncover key info on root growth.
"Just a bit more!"
The moment she brimmed with anticipation and tried to turn to the next page, her mind flashed white and her vision spun. Her divine sense had hit rock bottom, triggering a fierce backlash.
"No!"
Like a ghost, she couldn't access the next page without more divine sense. Peering into the deep abyss of the Moomyeongbang's history required far more vast and robust divine sense than she had now.
Techniques or elixirs to forcibly expand divine sense were legendary rarities even in the cultivation world. Even in the ocean of knowledge and fortune that was the Moomyeongbang, methods to enhance it were rarely mentioned. The occasional rumors were either life-risking gambles or blatant fabrications.
Baek Cheong quietly logged out of the Moomyeongbang and panted heavily. Waiting for her headache to subside, she calmly faced reality.
The most practical way to unearth the info she wanted: raise her own realm.
"Hitting Qi Refining 2-star will boost my divine sense too."
With resolute eyes, she gazed at the ornate jade box on the table. It held the top-grade Chwi-ryeong-dan her grandfather had given her. The pinnacle elixir, packed with pure, condensed spiritual energy. She judged that fully absorbing one into her dantian would be enough to break through.
"Cultivation is the only answer."
Without delay, she sat cross-legged on the bed and opened the box. She took out one glistening top-grade Chwi-ryeong-dan and popped it into her mouth.
The moment it touched her tongue, a cool, potent energy spread through her body. She closed her eyes and focused on the Five Elements Mutual Generation cycle.
Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal. The five energies intertwined, voraciously devouring the massive spiritual energy pouring from the top-grade Chwi-ryeong-dan.
From that day, Baek Cheong's grueling cultivation began. She cut off her daily routine of logging into the Moomyeongbang for gallery trolling entirely. She even holed up in her room during mealtimes, subsisting on Byeok-gok-dan to save time.
One top-grade Chwi-ryeong-dan per day, relentlessly filling her dantian. Nearly ten days passed in the blink of an eye.
Inside her, massive changes were brewing. Her Qi Refining 1-star dantian—vast as the sea, seemingly bottomless—had finally reached its limit, bloated full with spiritual energy thanks to the elixirs and Five Elements cycle.
The sloshing spiritual energy churned precariously, on the verge of bursting through the dantian walls into the next realm.
"Hup!"
Baek Cheong furrowed her brow and gathered her energy, slamming it against the dantian wall. An attempt to shatter the barrier to Qi Refining 2-star.
But the wall was thicker and tougher than imagined. The compressed energy bounced back, sending a dull shock twisting through her organs.
"Urk..."
A trickle of red blood dripped from her mouth.
This wasn't a minor realm barrier like 3-star to 4-star, or a major one like 10-star to Core Formation. She never dreamed the entry-level wall from 1-star to 2-star would be this solid.
"Heavens!!!"
Frustrated, she bellowed at the top of her lungs. It achieved nothing, but it vented some steam.
Was it the curse of her O-yeong-geun dragging her down, or a side effect of her abnormally expanded dantian from the Five Elements cycle? She couldn't pinpoint the cause. No matter how hard she rammed it, no breakthrough in sight.
Should I ask Father for a Pa-gyeong-dan?
The special elixir that forcibly shattered realm walls came to mind desperately. But she quickly shook her head.
Asking for such a precious Pa-gyeong-dan just to reach Qi Refining 2-star? It wouldn't look good. No justification, and it'd be like using a cattle knife to kill a chicken—inviting unnecessary suspicion and worry from the family.
"I've got to break through on my own."
She wiped the blood from her mouth with her sleeve and pondered solutions. The Moomyeongbang, untouched for so long, flickered in her mind. A place alive with all cultivation knowledge and fortunes.
"Moomyeongmong!"
With an earnest cry, she logged back into the long-neglected Moomyeongbang. Ten days away, but the boards were still noisy and buzzing.
She headed straight to the Marketplace first, hoping some Dou was selling Pa-gyeong-dan cheap.
Scrolling quickly, she spotted what she wanted.
A reasonable price, affordable with the spirit stones in her Jeomuldae. But as she moved to buy, she hesitated. Memories of that horrifically bad black goat jerky she'd bought with spirit stones days ago lingered on her tongue.
You can't trust the Moomyeongbang marketplace.
Unable to shake the bad feeling, she left the Marketplace without regret. Instead, she pivoted to her most reliable, familiar method: head to the Chatterboard and troll for answers with aggro bait.
With practiced skill, she crafted a provocative post.
The moment she posted, notifications flooded in. Replies piled up with curses and condemnations.
Amid dozens of insults, Baek Cheong's eyes locked onto one reply. A serious Dou correcting her ignorant question while subtly dropping high-level info.
Baek Cheong's eyes sparkled. A perfect, spot-on diagnosis of her Qi Refining 1-star wall. Which meant they likely knew the solution too.