Chapter 72
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 72
Act 12. Dark Heaven Secret Realm.
Preparations for his closed-door cultivation proceeded step by step.
After hunting demonic beasts to stock his small meat storage with spirit food ingredients, he submitted his seclusion application in advance, pushing back his official missions as far as possible.
Fortunately, the regulations of the Great Martial Dao were quite flexible in such matters.
Once he adjusted his demonic energy to the exact amount needed to reach 10-Star, he taught Pi Ga-ram the art of making spirit food. This was to keep their Meal Exchange business running while he was in seclusion.
Since sourcing ingredients would be difficult for a while, he reduced the number of customers they accepted and raised the prices. Although the initial hype had waned, enough regular customers remained for the meal tickets to sell decently.
If he lowered the prices again later, they would sell like hotcakes anyway. For the time being, earning just enough to cover labor and maintenance costs was sufficient.
After setting the Meal Exchange to run semi-automatically, Ise shifted his full focus to cultivation.
Word from Hong Won-seo arrived precisely ten months and fifteen days later.
Ise pushed open the heavy stone door of his closed-door cultivation cave. A ray of light slanted through the widening crack, falling across his face. The air of the main mountain remained thick with spiritual energy, though the trace amounts of turbid qi mixed within it stung his skin.
His demonic energy was already at the threshold of Great Completion. Now, all he needed was to replenish his spiritual energy.
Ise directed his steps toward the alchemy room of the Flame Flower Hong Clan. Thin wisps of red smoke drifted from the building's chimney.
Stepping inside, Ise found Hong Won-seo slumped over in exhaustion. Her apron hung half-untied, and a faint smattering of soot stained her face.
"You're here?"
"Yeah. Good work."
"I don't even have the strength to lift a finger. See for yourself."
With trembling fingertips, Hong Won-seo pointed to a wooden box beside the pill furnace. On a low table sat one large wooden box and two smaller ones.
Ise opened the lid of the large box. Thirty Spirit Gathering Pills and thirty Qi Condensation Pills were neatly arranged inside.
"Those are low-grade. Check the one next to it as well."
Inside the slightly more ornate wooden box sat three mid-grade Spirit Gathering Pills and three mid-grade Qi Condensation Pills, all emanating a subtle glow. Their surfaces were noticeably smoother than the low-grade batch, and their aroma was far richer.
The spiritual energy wafting from a single pill was potent enough to drift beyond the confines of the alchemy room.
"Smells great, doesn't it?" Hong Won-seo offered a faint smile. "Thanks to this batch, I achieved a major breakthrough myself."
"With this amount, you should have no problem reaching your goal of 10-Star in one go."
Ise silently traced the edge of the wooden box. "Thank you."
"I should be thanking you. Ah, the one next to it is for you as well, Senior."
Ise turned his attention to the third wooden box. Inside lay three black pills carrying a scent he had never encountered before.
"What are these?"
"Detoxification Pills. They purge pill toxins. If you gulp down pills all at once, the toxins will accumulate in your spirit veins and disrupt the flow of your spiritual energy. Take one every now and then to cleanse yourself. I heard that if you don't clear out pill toxins beforehand, it'll cause serious headaches when you try to achieve Foundation Establishment."
He had heard this before. In particular, he knew the Ghost-Banishing Spirit-Purging Cultivation Art was highly vulnerable to pill toxins. Raising one's realm by relying solely on pills almost certainly led to severe side effects.
"It’s a gift from me," she added.
"In the mortal world, there's a saying that people who love freebies go bald. How much?"
"Where would you ever find a balding cultivator? Everyone loves free stuff, yet their hair is full and luscious." Hong Won-seo frowned at his ridiculous mortal joke. "There is a condition, though."
"What is it?"
"Promise me that any spirit herbs you acquire in the future will be supplied exclusively to me. Never pass them to other alchemists. The quality of your last batch was exquisite."
"We already agreed on that."
"And grant me one favor later on. Even if it’s a somewhat difficult request."
The look in Hong Won-seo’s eyes differed from her usual expressionless demeanor when focused on alchemy. Her gaze was like a tightly shut floodgate, concealing whatever lay behind it.
Ise met her gaze for a moment. Her pride as an alchemist reached the heavens. She was someone who always demanded full price, even when selling a single Fasting Pill. Yet, for the first time, she was intentionally trying to create a debt.
"...So it was a bribe." Ise gave a faint smile to lighten the mood. "Fine. If possible."
"You’re leaving yourself room to back out with that 'if possible.'"
"You caught me."
"See you after you achieve your goal."
Leaving behind his thanks for her encouragement, Ise gathered the items prepared at Cheongyu Pavilion and headed straight back to the closed-door cultivation cave.
When he arrived, four people were already gathered in front of the secret cave.
"Why bother seeing me off? It’s not like I’m going far."
"Here’s the item you asked for last time." Pi Ga-ram handed Ise a Spirit Gathering Plate. Ise briefly voiced his thanks and stowed it in his storage pouch.
"What brings you here?" he asked Seol Ryeong.
"Why do you treat only me so coldly?"
"...When did I ever?"
Seol Ryeong grumbled at his response. She muttered under her breath while handing him two dharma artifacts.
"One is a Transmission Bead. It’s a dharma artifact that notifies others if an emergency occurs during your seclusion. The other is a Mind-Calming Mirror. Looking into it when an inner demon strikes has a stabilizing effect. Return them after you're done. A review would be nice, too."
"Using me as a living test subject..."
"If you don’t want them, fine."
Ise shoved the dharma artifacts into his storage pouch faster than Seol Ryeong could snatch them back. "Thanks for looking out for me."
Park Gang-seo and Bu Chun approached last.
"Don’t worry about the Meal Exchange. It’s settled into a steady business with regulars now."
"Don’t overexert yourselves needlessly; just maintain it," Ise replied.
With those words, the four of them stepped back in unison. Ise flashed a light smile and stepped inside the secret cave.
The heavy stone door crashed shut.
Inside, the secret cave was dark and perfectly silent.
He set down the Spirit Gathering Formation board in the center of the floor and activated it. The flowing spiritual energy of heaven and earth gathered inside the secret cave, settling like a tranquil pool.
Sitting cross-legged, he drew a long, deep breath. Ise opened the lid containing the low-grade spirit pills.
The moment the first pill slid down his gullet and dissolved, spiritual energy burst forth all at once, flooding through his spirit veins.
Don’t rush.
Ise calmly circulated his internal qi. He guided the newly introduced spiritual energy to every corner of his spirit veins without losing a single drop, carefully preventing it from escaping through stray pathways.
When he finished absorbing one pill, he took a second. A third. A fourth. The steady consumption continued.
Around the time he felt pill toxins beginning to subtly accumulate inside his spirit veins, Ise popped a Detoxification Pill into his mouth and swallowed it. Immediately, he swept the energy of the Detoxification Pill through his spirit veins, burning away the tightly clumped pill toxins.
Heat radiated from his body as if he were sitting beneath a scorching midsummer sun. Sweat broke out on his forehead and trickled down his spine. Ise furrowed his brows and steadied his breathing.
Ise could not gauge how much time had passed.
All sixty low-grade Qi Condensation Pills and Spirit Gathering Pills sequentially passed through his stomach, dissolving into his spirit veins. His spiritual energy soared from the early 8-Star realm to the entry stage of 9-Star.
The gap between it and his demonic energy remained, but it had narrowed significantly.
Ise ate more spirit food as its effects waned, then opened the wooden box containing the mid-grade spirit pills.
He picked up a single mid-grade Qi Condensation Pill radiating a soft luminescence. The moment he placed it in his mouth, the quality of the released spiritual energy was entirely different.
It was far more abundant, far purer. With just one pill, his spiritual energy increased noticeably.
However, even after consuming all three mid-grade pills, it was still insufficient to reach 10-Star.
Still, I can definitely do this.
Using the Spirit Gathering Pills, the Spirit Gathering Plate, and the spirit food all together, he began to earnestly absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Even Foundation Establishment cultivators likely couldn't cultivate in such a luxurious environment.
After all, this was the culmination of converting all his past time and effort into raw resources.
The cycle of internal and external qi crossing and weaving together continued seamlessly.
How much more time had passed?
Feeling the effects of the spirit food fading again, Ise ingested another batch. He repeated the process over and over. Ise’s spiritual energy slowly caught up to his demonic energy.
He swallowed another helping of spirit food. Before he realized it, his small meat storage was running empty.
The process of balancing his internal qi was nearing its conclusion. The counterweights of the two energies drew closer and closer to perfect equilibrium.
From here on out was the critical moment. He had to align the amount of spiritual energy and demonic energy with absolute precision.
Originally, Foundation Establishment entailed two processes: shattering the spirit veins to forge the Dharma Flower Dantian, and unlocking Divine Sense.
However, the Foundation Establishment process of the Great Martial Dao added a crucial step prior to that: restructuring the physical body itself.
Dual Cultivation of Dharma and Body. A method of training both dharma power and the physical vessel simultaneously.
As a result, the cultivation process was arduous and incredibly dangerous, but its advantages were distinct. A cultivator of this path would never lose against opponents at the same realm and equipment level. They possessed an additional, lethal weapon: their own physical body.
An opponent of the Great Martial Dao had to contend with dharma spells while simultaneously fending off a hardened martial artist charging at them like a hungry ghost.
Ise slowed his rate of absorption, letting the spiritual energy trickle into his body drop by drop.
He had only one chance. If he failed, he would suffer the misfortune of having to leave seclusion and gather demonic energy all over again.
The amount of spiritual energy he admitted shrank beyond drops, becoming as minute as grains of sand. Bit by bit, as if balancing a beam scale, he placed grains of sand one by one onto the opposite pan.
The final grain of sand dropped.
Spiritual energy and demonic energy achieved flawless equilibrium.
Now.
He held his breath and immediately activated the talisman he had prepared. It was an Isolation Talisman, designed to prevent the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from flowing into his body.
A sealed barrier blocking the movement of all ambient energy instantly wrapped around Ise’s body.
Ise commanded the spiritual energy and demonic energy within his body to entangle into a single mass. As he slowly recited the mantra for Rebirthing Bones and Casting Spirit from the Ghost-Banishing Spirit-Purging Qi Refining Art, the two energies began to swirl, pushing against each other in a violent vortex.
At that moment, Ise became certain. Though known as a cultivation art meant for ordinary cultivators, at its core, it was undoubtedly crafted for the Heavenly Demon Dual-Meridian Physique.
Starting from the toes.
9-Star. Rebirthing Bones and Casting Spirit. Crushing and reassembling every bone in the body to convert them into spirit bones.
Snap. Crack.
A phalanx at the tip of his toe shattered. Internal qi swirled in a vortex, grinding the toe bone into fine dust.
The entire sole of his foot shattered into fragments. Internal qi seeped into the empty spaces, sprouting the seeds of new spirit bones.
A throbbing, agonizing pain flared up, but it was still bearable.
The vortex of internal qi gradually ascended.
Ankles. Shinbones. Kneecaps. Femurs.
Dull, cracking ruptures resonated from deep within his body.
Pubis. Ilium. Ribs. Clavicles. Scapulae. Vertebrae.
Losing all structural support, Ise’s body crumpled to the floor.
Ise took a deep breath and shattered even his cervical vertebrae. Spiritual energy supported his physical body in place of his missing skeleton—a state that would have instantly killed a mortal.
Finally, the skull.
Ise paused for a moment and composed his breath.