The Path of Cultivation Is Not So Simple
Judging by the fact that this was another escape art, it seemed the nearby books were all of a similar category. Regardless, its title was Cloud Dragon Heavenly Escape, and it was a superior technique to the Wind Cloud Art he currently practiced.
Compared to the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art, it lacked that sense of absolute versatility. However, its strength lay in enabling fast and efficient long-distance flight.
It also appeared to have the subtle utility of creating or manipulating clouds to conceal one’s aura. This wasn’t limited to flight; it seemed usable in various ways across many different situations.
The book beside it, titled Shadow Concealment Escape Art, focused on hiding one’s presence while moving. The one next to that was Sacred Light Heavenly Escape Art, a combat-oriented technique that combined both offensive and defensive applications.
The Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art isn’t absolutely the best after all.
It seemed that for specific situations and purposes, there could be superior escape techniques. In truth, that was simply the fundamental principle of the world.
Still, no matter what anyone said, what Han Yujin needed most right now was the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art. Before mastering it, he could separately learn and utilize its subordinate techniques: Fire Escape, Lightning Escape, Wind Escape, Water Escape, and Earth Escape.
Having made up his mind, he stored the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art book inside his storage belt. A tiny amount of spiritual energy was consumed in the process, but the book was far too thick and large to carry by hand.
After that, he moved past the escape technique section and examined the books in the next area.
This time, they were cultivation method manuals. All of them were suitable for training from the Dharma Soul Stage to the Nascent Soul Stage. However, most were stored in the form of jade slips rather than books, which slightly dampened his motivation to inspect them.
After all, it was common knowledge that one could only cultivate a single primary method.
I’ll come back later anyway. Even if I pick one now, I might find something I like better when I return.
With that thought, he only skimmed the titles and summaries lightly before moving on. A few techniques strongly piqued his curiosity, but he deliberately held himself back.
In the following section, he searched for combat techniques. There were many impressive ones, but what unexpectedly caught Han Yujin’s attention was a book with a relatively simple title.
Five Elements Magic Arts.
When he opened it, he found that it indeed contained a vast collection of useful spells tied to the five elements.
From the most basic techniques like Fire Avoidance Art, Lightning Avoidance Art, and Thunder Avoidance Art, to offensive spells such as Fire Spirit Manipulation, Falling Lightning Art, Wind Blade Art, Water Wheel Art, and Hard Metal Sword Technique. It even included grandly named defensive arts like Breaking Law Thunder Wall and Purple Gold Radiance Art.
It was practically an exhaustive compilation of all five-element spells. Moreover, the more he read, the clearer the book’s true purpose became.
It wasn’t telling him to learn every single spell recorded here. Rather, it seemed to want him to understand how specific incantations were used within each category of magic, so that he could comprehend the principles of adaptation and creation for himself.
Indeed, toward the back, the author had written a passage expressing exactly that intention.
No wonder this place is called the Ohaeng Sect.
Thinking this, he glanced over the remaining technique books.
Just learning all of these would take an entire lifetime…
And this judgment already took into account his transcendent linguistic comprehension.
Even though he could essentially bypass the most difficult barrier of understanding spell formulas, he still had to grasp all their layered meanings, practical applications, the principles of mutual generation and restraint, and the precise manipulation of spiritual energy and dharma power.
The path of immortal cultivation truly could not be underestimated. Naturally, the same applied to cultivation methods and other aspects as well.
Growing through classic xianxia-style training is nice and all.
Han Yujin thought to himself.
But if I focus solely on this method… will I truly be able to reach the True Immortal Stage?
It was a question that suddenly occurred to him.
The path of immortal cultivation he had just begun walking was genuinely not easy. Thanks to his transcendent linguistic comprehension, he had come this far without much difficulty, but it was obvious that it would only grow harder from here on.
In the long history of the cultivation world, had there never been anyone with comprehension equal to his?
That couldn’t be. There must have been people with even greater comprehension than him, individuals who had reached the Heavenly Spiritual Root, and even those born with spiritual bodies that were inherently advantageous for cultivation.
Yet had all those people reached the True Immortal Stage?
Not only did they fail to reach True Immortal, there aren’t even many who reached the Nascent Soul Stage, which is four full realms below it.
Even the Soul Formation experts one stage above that were treated as half-legendary figures. At least, that was what all the cultivation-related texts he had examined so far suggested.
I need to make better use of my awakening ability.
He was already using it, but he would have to try more proactive and creative approaches.
After staring blankly into space for a moment longer, he shook his head and put an end to his idle thoughts. Then he continued examining the books within the library pavilion.
The reason he hadn’t taken every book was because he was certain he wouldn’t be able to properly study them until he reached the Dharma Soul Stage anyway.
Even focusing solely on the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art and Five Elements Magic Arts he had already taken would leave him short on time. Besides, the karma he had left wasn’t exactly abundant.
In addition to those two, Han Yujin selected only two more technique books.
One was Tongmyeong Eosu-gyeol, which contained the knowledge necessary for raising and teaching spiritual beasts. The other was a book titled Bloodwood Essence and Spirit Wine Brewing Art.
There was no need to elaborate on the beast-taming book. The Bloodwood Essence and Spirit Wine Brewing Art was quite unique. While its core focused on brewing spirit wine that aided cultivation, Han Yujin’s attention was drawn to the earlier section about bloodwood essence.
Bloodwood was originally a very common type of yokai tree. A Nascent Soul cultivator had selectively bred it to be docile, then modified it to absorb blood from the corpses of spiritual beasts that contained spiritual energy, allowing it to bear fruit. All of this was done solely to brew wine from those fruits.
What mattered here was that the resulting fruit could assist in cultivation. Compared to directly cooking and eating the meat of hunted beasts, the energy loss was almost negligible.
Considering that the more meat one had, the longer it took to consume, and that spiritual energy would dissipate from meat left unattended over time, consuming it in the form of bloodwood fruit was unconditionally beneficial.
It also allowed one to ingest far more in a short period of time. Skipping the troublesome processes of butchering and cooking was simply an added bonus.
Naturally, to use this technique one needed seeds of the improved bloodwood variety. Conveniently, three such seeds were neatly placed inside a jade box beside the book, so he gladly took them.
They were seeds that had already died during the Catastrophe of the End of the Dharma, but he would be able to restore them during the harvest selection process.
After thoroughly exploring the entire library pavilion once, he resumed his investigation of the inner sect area.
Most locations yielded little of value. This was even true in the Smoke Pavilion, where various dharma artifacts and treasures were stored.
A dharma treasure could be thought of as a superior version of a dharma artifact. Since they could only be properly used starting from the Core Formation stage, they were currently nothing more than pie in the sky for Han Yujin.
Most of the dharma artifacts that could still be useful at his current level had lost their power, making their functions difficult to discern. As a result, he couldn’t accurately gauge how much he had gained.
Of course, that didn’t mean he took nothing. He racked his brain and stored everything that looked even remotely useful into his storage belt.
However, there was one item that was clearly unusable yet still seized his attention completely. It was an object placed on the central platform on the highest floor of the Smoke Pavilion, where extremely strict sealing formations had once been laid.
So this is that Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure…
It referred to a spirit treasure, an item superior to dharma treasures, and among spirit treasures, one that would be classified as special grade.
According to the common knowledge of the cultivation world that he knew, a Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure possessed spirituality comparable to a human, allowing it to transform into human form or create such an incarnation. Even without an owner, it could display power at least at the Nascent Soul level.
The Ohaeng Sect’s Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure was uniquely a massive, smooth obsidian boulder. It was called the Ohaeng True Spirit Boulder and was the very foundation upon which the Ohaeng Sect had been established.
I wonder how much karma it would take to obtain this through harvest selection.
He would probably need to diligently accumulate karma while operating at the Nascent Soul level before he could bring this object into reality.
Which means I might have to visit this place again once I reach Nascent Soul.
It really seemed like he would be milking this place like an old bone for a long time to come. He let out a small chuckle and left the Smoke Pavilion.
A short while later.
Han Yujin stood before the last unexplored location in the inner sect area. It was the entrance to a massive cave blocked by an enormous boulder of terrifying size.
A brightly burning sphere of flame formed above his raised hand. As he poured full power into the Fire Bullet Art he had cast, Han Yujin was inwardly shocked.
The spiritual energy consumption felt nearly three to four times higher than it had been in the Primordial Forest. This was his first time casting a technique at full power here, so he hadn’t noticed until now.
The Catastrophe of the End of the Dharma really is terrifying!
While he would simply wake up in his bed in reality if he died, he could somewhat imagine how despairing it must have been for the cultivators who couldn’t escape and had to face this great catastrophe head-on.
At the same time as that thought, the Fire Bullet Art, swollen to its limit, left his hand and struck the boulder directly.
BOOOOOOM—!!
An explosive roar erupted that seemed to shake the entire silent ruins of the Ohaeng Sect. Even Han Yujin, the one who had caused it, slightly furrowed his brow.
Yet when the dust cleared, the sight left him utterly dumbfounded.
The boulder had only suffered very slight cracks and surface damage. For something that didn’t contain even a trace of spiritual energy to be this hard—it was enough to make one doubt their eyes.
“Crazy.”
The curse slipped out before he could stop it. He immediately gave up on trying to break through this rock. It looked like he would have to try again after reaching the Dharma Soul Stage.
Or he could learn the Earth Escape Art and simply pass through it without breaking anything. He didn’t know what it had been like before, but since the boulder currently contained no spiritual energy at all, that should be possible.
That meant the only thing left was to explore the outer sect area and gather what he could. He probably wouldn’t obtain as much as he had in the inner sect, but he might be able to acquire more miscellaneous knowledge and information about the cultivation world there.
As he descended the mountain once more toward the outer sect, he suddenly looked up at the sky, which was beginning to darken, and thought that the timing was similar.
The first time he had visited this place, the sun had also set not long after he returned to the outer sect area.
The thirst and hunger from that time suddenly came to mind. He opened the stopper of his spirit liquid wine bottle and took a small, measured sip. Rather than gulping it down as he had in the Primordial Forest, he was carefully rationing it.
I need to last as long as possible.
Since this was a place he would visit several more times, he planned to create a perfect map while he was at it. He didn’t want to miss even the smallest advantage.
There was also one concern: the material of the book containing the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art was far from ordinary.
Compared to selecting ordinary books as harvest items, there was a risk of overconsuming karma. Therefore, he intended to memorize everything necessary.
If he memorized just the Water Escape and Earth Escape techniques, he wouldn’t need to take the entire book for the time being.
This is going to be a bit of a pain.
As he entered the outer sect area, he let out a small sigh.
Once he had completed everything to his satisfaction, he would also need to prepare a way to return without pain or discomfort.
And after leaving this place, he needed to rethink what he would do next.
I’m short on karma.
When he considered the amount of karma consumed by selecting the cultivation progress that had completed twenty-seven percent of his Dharma Soul sublimation, the karma he had left was clearly far too little.
Maybe it’s about time…
It seemed he should start working as a hunter in reality.