The Fruits of Diligent Practice
Finally...! With the banquet over, daily life returned to normal. From the next morning, Baek Cheong continued her sword training as usual. As always, the Pacheon Sword Sovereign was waiting at the training ground. As she stepped inside, Baek Cheong carefully observed his expression. She was still bothered by the fact that she had dared to peek at the lightning tribulation.
The single warning he had left behind while lifting the barrier that day was not light. It had been reckless, the more she thought about it—a mere Qi Refining cultivator preparing a formation just to catch a glimpse of the Heavenly Dao’s judgment. On top of that, she had revealed too many talents at once: lightning qi, formation arts, puppet arts, and talisman arts. Since knowing something vaguely and seeing it directly were two different things, it was only natural for him to be concerned.
'He isn't thinking of making me his transmission disciple just because I showed him so much, is he?'
There was a world of difference between being a nominal disciple to fill a quota and being a true transmission disciple. If she became a transmission disciple, she wouldn't be able to avoid body-cultivation training. That would mean her time for forum-browsing would evaporate, and there was even a chance she could be dragged off to the Heavenly Sword Sect. Baek Cheong scanned the Pacheon Sword Sovereign’s demeanor with a nervous heart, but all she received was his usual, dry, and emotionless expression. There was no sign that he intended to bring up the subject at all.
'Is he really not going to ask?'
Baek Cheong felt relieved inwardly and subtly relaxed the tension in her shoulders. Her flying-sword training was already on a stable trajectory. Thanks to completing the mental imagery for the third sword form, the sword intent infused into Meteor Strike had deepened, and the Pacheon Sword Sovereign examined her progress by correcting the sword paths one by one. Occasionally, however, he would try something different.
"Today, try holding it as a hand-held sword."
Baek Cheong gripped the wooden sword. She had the method of holding it etched into her mind, but the problem was always what came next. In the basic motion of swinging down from above, her elbows flared out, her wrists buckled, and the tip of the sword went astray. Her mind clearly knew the correct path, but her body refused to follow.
'No, why won't my arms listen to me?'
When the Pacheon Sword Sovereign grabbed her arms to correct her, she moved correctly, but the moment he let go, she reverted to her original form.
"At least you are consistent."
She wanted to cry inwardly at the assessment that she was consistent in the worst way possible, but she couldn't change her expression in the slightest before his dry, emotionless face.
"Return to the flying sword."
'I don't know if I should be happy about this or not.'
Caught in a complex, subtle mix of emotions, Baek Cheong simply returned to her flying-sword training.
From the moment she returned to her residence after finishing her flying-sword training, the time was entirely her own. She headed to the alchemy room and set up the puppet alchemy. While the five Five Elements puppets handled the herbs, lit the fire, and refined the pills, she used the remaining divine sense to leisurely log into Mumyungbang.
'It's peaceful today, too.'
Baek Cheong was satisfied with the changes she had brought to Mumyungbang. The Daoists, who were falling into the abyss without her even needing to tell them, were shedding their stuffy old ways and revealing their hidden true natures. 'Well, are there any other bait threads?' As always, she browsed through various boards. She found a few posts related to the Formation Atlas on the information board and read them thoroughly.
'I haven't decoded this character-pattern yet, but this interpretation is possible too.'
After storing the useful information in her head, a sudden curiosity crossed her mind, and she wrote a post.
A Great Cultivator who could enter the Transformation stage at any time is desperate to teach me instead of doing that. They cover up my mistakes and don't even pry into the suspicious parts. What is this situation?
Because she hadn't explained the situation properly, it looked like a troll post written by someone lost in delusion.
The reactions of most Daoists were as she had expected. Most dismissed it as an attention-seeking troll post. However, among them were Daoists who analyzed the situation seriously.
'As expected, the perspectives of some Daoists are different.'
DaoistFriend55.19’s analysis was something she had been vaguely feeling herself. It was hard to believe the Pacheon Sword Sovereign’s goodwill was unconditional, as there were suspicious aspects to it. And DaoistFriend727.44’s words also made sense. If there were constraints on reaching the Transformation stage, it wouldn't be strange for them not to rush. However, while scrolling through the replies, one she hadn't noticed caught her eye.
It was a realm number she hadn't seen before in her own posts. Single-digit realm numbers were extremely rare even in Mumyungbang. And the Daoists with single-digit realm numbers were all extraordinary. She couldn't help but be bothered by the sudden remark.
So Baek Cheong replied immediately.
'Ascension?'
Baek Cheong blinked at the sudden talk. It meant that if there were many Transformation-stage cultivators in a given lower realm, there was a problem related to ascension, but she couldn't grasp what connection there could be between the Transformation stage and ascension. She knew that ascension was the ultimate means of piercing the realm boundary at the peak of the lower realm to ascend to the upper realm, but the circumstances related to the Transformation stage were beyond her capacity.
'Well, it's certainly better to ascend to the upper realm than to stay in the lower realm.'
If one were at a level to look beyond the Transformation stage, staying in the lower realm would be a huge constraint in itself. Above all, according to common knowledge in the cultivation world, one could only aim for the next step in the upper realm. Even if a Great Cultivator stronger than the Transformation stage appeared in the lower realm, it was highly likely that the lower realm wouldn't be able to withstand it.
'Then are the Transformation-stage Great Cultivators of our lower realm unable to ascend, or are they choosing not to?'
Either way, it was a distant story for her, a 7th-star Qi Refining cultivator. She knew that every major sect had a Transformation-stage elder, so there were definitely more than three. However, it was difficult to gauge exactly how many there were, as that wasn't information easily accessible.
'For now, it's a story far removed from me.'
Studying the character-patterns in the Formation Atlas was more urgent than ascension. Baek Cheong set aside her thoughts and exited Mumyungbang. While refining pills through the Five Elements puppets, she recalled the interpretation she had seen in the information post earlier, opened the Formation Atlas to study, and continued the work of injecting elemental energy into each character-pattern to check for activation. Thus, the days of sunset and sunrise repeated. After flying-sword training, she would combine puppet alchemy and forum-browsing in her residence, and in her spare time, she would study the Formation Atlas or train to increase her proficiency in spells. In the evenings, she devoted herself to absorbing energy, filling her dantian, strengthening her meridians, and expelling impurities to solidify her realm. It was training to build a solid foundation. As the days went by, she could feel the purity of the spiritual energy in her dantian becoming clearer and the elasticity of her meridians increasing.
The Pacheon Sword Sovereign never missed a day of guiding her flying-sword training, and although there were days when he made her hold a hand-held sword, the results were always the same. She was a klutz, and she remained a klutz even as time passed.
'When will I ever get better?'
Knowing full well that there was no sign of improvement, it was closer to resignation than expectation. Instead, as her flying-sword training continued steadily, the level of her Meteor Strike was rising, and she was satisfied with just that for now.
A month passed like that. The efforts she had consistently put into her training finally bore fruit.
"Huhu..."
Unlike usual, Baek Cheong headed to her private training ground with her small chest puffed up with anticipation. She took out the White Pearl artifact from her storage pouch and raised her Five Elements energy. Five streams of energy flowed through her meridians, passed through the White Pearl, and the replicated Five Elements Shroud spell was deployed. The colorful hues were deep because of the Five Elements Shroud layered over her entire body. However, after repeating it several times, it was as if she were unblocking a clogged meridian.
"Finally...!"
She couldn't hold back her joy as she gazed at the translucent Five Elements Shroud enveloping her entire body.
"Five Elements Shroud Great Success achieved!"