A Dragon's Quiet Days and Looming Shadows
The days passed with purpose and fulfillment.
As always, there was an overwhelming amount to do.
Consistent training, the pursuit of yin-yang harmony, mastery of pill refinement and artifact crafting, the tuning of divine abilities and mystical arts, processing the spoils from demonic investigations, exploring modifications for the Blood Spirit Red Flower Wine Bottle, managing the Mountain Sea Pearl grotto-heaven, and more.
Even beyond the essential tasks for growth, the list of things to handle was extensive. Spending time with Brenar, in particular, held deep emotional importance.
Once she began constructing a home within the Mountain Sea Pearl, the spirit field naturally drew her interest as well.
“So this is what Muyong manages?”
Brenar gazed with fascination at the spirit field, cultivated to a suitable size near the pill refinement chamber. Han Yujin demonstrated firsthand the mystical arts that Mu-yong could perform.
They were the White Cloud Nurturing Form Art and Black Cloud Deep Soil Art, techniques he had acquired alongside the Dream Illusion Mind Snatching Art from the Ohaeng Sect ruins long ago.
The White Cloud Nurturing Form Art generated a white, cloud-like energy that helped spiritual plants thrive, while the Black Cloud Deep Soil Art infused the ground with a dark, near-black brown cloud-like energy to create fertile spiritual soil.
A single use produced no noticeable effect; the arts needed consistent application every few days. It was the perfect duty to assign to Mu-yong, who was rarely busy.
She inspected the various Galactic Empire spiritual plants growing in the field and nodded.
“You chose and planted them quite balanced. Still, it’ll take at least a hundred years to see any harvest, won’t it?”
“It’s a long-term project, so that’s fine. Even if I don’t use them myself, I’ll find a way to make them useful.”
After agreeing, she told him to wait a moment and brought something from outside. It was a type of spiritual plant Han Yujin had never seen before.
“Plant this over there too.”
“What is it?”
“Just plant it for now.”
She refused to answer no matter how much he asked and instead planted several small trees in one corner of the spirit field.
Only later did he learn they were Kambrosiad, a core spiritual plant of the Ebenrak Family that was rarely leaked to outsiders.
The fruit of the Kambrosiad was an almost essential ingredient for crafting high-grade nectar that provided significant benefits even to spiritualists above level 10.
“It’s easy to grow. It just takes a long time to mature, and handling it during nectar refinement is tricky.”
When Han Yujin asked if it was really all right for him to accept something like this, she simply smiled and replied.
In the end, he could only accept it with gratitude.
The construction of the new residence that Brenar had declared she would build proceeded smoothly and at a rapid pace.
She selected only the finest materials and even drew up the architectural blueprints herself, fully absorbed in the project. Her goal, she said, was to perfectly recreate the feeling of living aboard a Galactic Empire vessel while staying in the building.
Watching her, it was clear she approached the construction with the natural assumption that they would live here together in the future, as if building a newlywed home.
Her love was endearing, yet the knowledge that the time of parting drew ever closer weighed heavily on his heart.
Meanwhile.
While Brenar was occupied with the construction and other tasks, Han Yujin focused solely on his training. He devoted himself to raising his comprehension of the Taiyi Five Elements Dao Scripture and completing the formation of his Dharma platform.
Today, as usual, he was immersed in cultivation within the ether training chamber, surrounded by mysterious glowing lights, when he suddenly opened his eyes.
What appeared were the familiar vertical pupils imbued with cosmic hues.
Maintaining this half-awakened divine ability, he struggled to comprehend the world as it now appeared to him.
He could see how reality overlapped with the Primordial Realm, how gravity manifested in its forms, and how space was influenced by that gravity to unfold time itself.
According to modern Earth’s scientific theories, time did not flow but existed as a kind of already-unfolded coordinate. To a hypothetical four-dimensional being, it would feel similar to spatial coordinates—one could move forward or backward through it.
But I am not such a four-dimensional being…
Thus, the appearance of time that he “saw with his eyes” resembled countless overlapping flows.
A mysterious sight where slight traces of the past and future branched out infinitely from the beginning and end, making only an extremely limited portion comprehensible.
What mattered here was that he, who had only just completed the Morning Dharma Platform, could already perceive space-time by borrowing the power of his half-awakened divine ability.
“Hmm…”
He maintained the divine ability a little longer before feeling the strain on his mind and blinked. With that brief motion, the vertical pupils that had radiated mystery and pressure returned to normal.
It’s difficult to maintain for long… but I’ve gained one more means to oppose Nascent Soul stage beings.
If it already showed this much efficacy, it would be even more remarkable once he truly reached the Nascent Soul stage.
Space-time perception is important, but being able to see the connection between reality and the Primordial Realm is incredible too.
It seemed he would easily be able to see through countless kinds of distortions and concealments.
After taking a short rest, he raised one hand and drew forth the yin-yang five elements force that had recently borne some fruit.
A clear white and profound darkness swirled together before splitting into five brilliant lights in an instant, then returning to their original state. Upon closer inspection, one realized that all phenomena were occurring simultaneously rather than in sequence.
It was a truly superbly harmonized yin-yang five elements force.
The problem is that in its current state, it isn’t particularly useful.
Perhaps because he had focused too much on theoretical harmony, its effectiveness was low compared to the effort invested. Moreover, lacking any specific purpose, it felt awkward to even call it a mystical art.
Of course, that did not mean the achievement was worthless.
On the contrary, its potential was so rich that he found himself pondering how best to apply it.
His top priority was naturally the upgrade of the Five Elements Divine Light mystical art he had first envisioned. The next consideration was fundamentally merging it with the Origin Power Great Hand.
If done well, the latter might allow him to evolve the Origin Power Great Hand divine ability itself into something new.
After playing with and researching the yin-yang five elements force for some time, he withdrew the power.
Then, closing his eyes and concentrating, he activated the Hyeongjo Hyeoneung-sul using pure Dharma power channeled through the Five Elements Circulation Formula.
— Huu…
A sigh-like breath leaked out and rapidly tangled in the air, forming a shape from countless colors. Unlike other arts, it carried a murky, dark sensation that was far from pleasant.
The form created from those dark and turbid colors was not beautiful.
It resembled a snake’s body fitted with a chicken’s legs and an eagle’s wings. Its entire body seemed to melt endlessly like candle wax, and worst of all, its face was disturbingly human.
Oddly, it bore a resemblance to an aged version of Han Yujin himself, making it even more unpleasant.
Formed at the size of a small child, it produced a strange phenomenon that slightly darkened its surroundings while tinting its murky body with a reddish hue.
At the same time, the old human face twisted in terror and agony, its mouth gaping wide as red energy flowed out like blood.
It poured countless faint shapes and sounds—impossible to interpret—into Han Yujin’s mind before exhausting its power and melting away.
“……”
He remained silent with his eyes closed for quite a while before suddenly shaking his head.
I can’t interpret it.
He could tell that something not very good might happen in the future, but he could not grasp the exact timing or details.
It’s not that my awakening ability failed to react… it did show a response.
It was not because he was unskilled in fate-sensing arts, nor because the Hyeongjo Hyeoneung-sul was merely an incomplete fragment.
He had heard that all techniques for predicting the future carried this kind of ambiguity. Even those proficient in fate-sensing arts did not fully trust the results of their own techniques.
Furthermore, according to the knowledge he possessed, the way to use fate-sensing arts more usefully and reliably was to target objects rather than living beings.
Seizing on the idea, he decided to clear his doubts and began pulling out various items to check for danger using the Hyeongjo Hyeoneung-sul. Most were objects obtained from demonic investigations.
Fortunately, after thoroughly examining every item, no dangers were found. The ominous birds that appeared merely shook their heads blankly or wandered briefly before vanishing.
Well… since I belong to an exploration team, there are bound to be many dangerous situations.
That explanation made the reaction when he cast the art on himself understandable. It was not a convenient interpretation; the probability was genuinely high.
Still, he kept the possibility of the unknown tucked away in a corner of his mind.
It was the attitude of maintaining a small sense of vigilance during peaceful times—better safe than sorry.
Time truly flew by.
Over a decade ago, Brenar had finally recovered completely from all aftereffects, thanks to the healing power of the Taiqing Profound Tree. Had she not taken on a couple of long-term missions in between, the recovery would have been even faster.
Once healed, she was overjoyed and repaid him in all sorts of fascinating ways.
He had not expected that simply changing the location and attire could breathe such fresh vitality into their dual cultivation training. Brenar herself probably had not anticipated it exactly either.
Thanks to that, his growth gained momentum, allowing him to complete the Eight Extremes Dharma Platform faster than expected.
Looking back, it was an achievement reached in merely thirty years since he had begun serious training.
No matter how much support he had received, the speed was truly shocking. At this rate, he would reach the Nascent Soul stage in an even shorter period than it had taken to advance from Dharma Soul to Core Formation.
Me… becoming a Nascent Soul investigator…?
Just thinking about it made his heart race.
Having spent many years with Brenar, an 11-level spiritualist, and carried out numerous missions together, he knew that reaching that level would allow him to handle most dangers on his own.
However.
He could also feel his growth rate slowing little by little. Whenever he became aware that the time of parting was approaching, that excitement would suddenly cool.
Brenar seemed to notice the signs as well and would occasionally reveal tender emotions that shook his already-made resolve.
I’ve grown this quickly… wouldn’t a hundred years or so be fine?
Such thoughts naturally arose, but he did not withdraw his decision. He repeatedly visited the information archive to confirm knowledge about the True Immortal stage and the Ipsissimus rank, steeling his heart instead.
The more he learned, the deeper his belief grew that by reaching that supreme realm, he could grasp everything he desired.
Time continued to flow like that.
One day, as if following a regular event, they once again boarded the Aureum vessel for a mission.
The destination was Planet X-31. As the name suggested, it was a place that had not yet been fully explored.
Of course, they were not required to explore everything from scratch like a military survey team. Civilian exploration teams were never granted such authority in the first place.
It was a planet that had been seventy percent pioneered by the military survey corps and their follow-up units. That was why the opportunity had been opened to civilians. Far from being given for free, it had been obtained through an auction, making it a rather significant mission.
The objective was none other than Honwon Stones. Unusually, they could be obtained by processing byproducts of living creatures, so a rather thrilling hunt was expected.
Upon arrival, they underwent various inspections and authentications from the military forces managing the planet and borrowed various pieces of equipment. Since Brenar had once been a lieutenant colonel in the military, the process felt smoother than it would have been for other civilian exploration teams.
Afterward, full-scale exploration using the borrowed equipment began.
The creature containing byproducts that could be processed into Astral Stones was temporarily named “Astrex.” It resembled a feathered raptor-type dinosaur, possessed exceptional stealth abilities, and boasted high intelligence, requiring great caution.
Most importantly, even the weakest individuals could exert 6-level spiritual power close to level 7, so the team had to operate as a small elite group to minimize casualties.
Thus, the number of personnel who set out for the exploration was exactly five.
The core members were Brenar, Han Yujin, and Winsfell, accompanied by two level 6 spiritualist combatants in auxiliary roles operating the equipment.
The party of five was currently pushing through a dense jungle.
Chirrrrrrk…!
The cries of nameless insects created an exotic atmosphere.
Though an entire day had passed without any significant gains, the mood was neither heavy nor tense. It had only been a single day, and now that they were properly entering the creatures’ habitat, a hunt would soon begin.
It was precisely ten more minutes of cautious advance later.
“Hm…?”
Brenar suddenly let out a questioning sound and raised one hand, signaling the party to stop.
Even with his divine sense fully extended, Han Yujin sensed nothing, yet he felt an inexplicable, subtle discomfort and prepared for battle.
“What is it?”
Winsfell, who had been watching the rear, approached and asked.
The moment Brenar was about to answer—
Ping—!
A sharp metallic sound rang out.
At the same time, a pitch-black spherical metal object that Winsfell had apparently been holding flew into the middle of the party.
A surge of crisis instinct accelerated his thoughts dramatically. In the slowed world, he identified the thrown object and immediately withdrew his divine sense, cutting off all his senses.
But his response was a fraction too late.
Winsfell, who had advanced to an 8-level spiritualist several years ago, had deliberately waited for the right moment to stab a knife in their backs. From the position of the betrayed, reacting perfectly was difficult.
Nova Sting.
A flash grenade developed to counter the Xenos, proven effective in countless real battles, and therefore immensely powerful, detonated in the center of the party.