The Soul-Absorbing Five Lotus Wine Bottle
Han Yujin suddenly came back to himself in the waiting area.
He shook his head, still faintly dazed, and began sorting through the flood of memories one by one with deliberate care.
So… that’s how it works.
The principle behind the pendant’s effect had become far clearer. From some unknown point onward, an endless stream of new knowledge poured in. His scope of thought expanded explosively, as if he had drunk Odor Tea, and then fresh waves of insight surged onto that foundation like a deluge. Infinite realizations detonated madly in an unending chain reaction.
It had been so overwhelming that even he—a Nascent Soul true person—felt he could not endure it. The price was equally heavy: it was tied directly to his lifespan and vital essence.
Thanks to the Dragon Heart he had absorbed, his lifespan already stretched thousands of years, more than double that of ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators. Yet even for him the drain had been terrifyingly rapid, a consumption he could not withstand.
Of course, as he had already experienced once before, this was not natural depletion. It therefore left no mark on his real lifespan in the waking world.
Still, the pendant operated on such a vicious principle that an increase in realm gave no reason for its effect to weaken. Most of his memories had blurred like a dream in order to restore his altered ego, yet a few distinct scenes still rose clearly.
The various spiritual materials from the Ikapa Church palace warehouse—including the adamant—items purchased with credits in the Galactic Empire, trophies taken from the demonic Nascent Soul cultivator, Honwon Stones gathered in the Primordial Forest, and more. He remembered melting, reshaping, and fusing those priceless ingredients without hesitation, all ten fingers moving as though conducting countless threads, refining and modifying the objects with absolute control.
It felt as if he had torn the original structure down to its foundation and rebuilt it from scratch. The extreme precision and complexity with which he had carved every dharma inscription and formula without the slightest error grew more astonishing each time he recalled it.
And the “genius idea” he had conceived before beginning that work now filled him with an entirely different kind of shock—one that settled heavily in his stomach.
When he turned around, Won-hee stood behind him as she always did in the waiting area, quiet and polite. Simply being near him brought a faint smile to her lips and an expression of boundless contentment.
“Won-hee, it looks like I tried to do something terrible to you…”
Before he could finish, she shook her head vigorously.
“No?”
He fell silent for a moment, then unconsciously lifted a hand to stroke her hair in gratitude. Only then did he remember she was not Mu-yong. Awkwardly, he patted her shoulder instead, the way one might encourage a subordinate.
“Thank you.”
Won-hee’s expression flickered with faint disappointment. She stepped forward and hugged him herself. He returned the embrace, still carrying the same guilt, and thought:
It’s a relief she was strong enough that the altered me didn’t decide fighting her would be a loss.
Had that version of himself judged there was nothing to gain by fighting her, the guilt would have crushed him even if the outcome could be reversed.
There were other realizations as well. If he had not already accumulated sufficient inspiration and desire regarding the modification of the Blood Spirit Red Flower Wine Bottle, the ego-altered version of himself would almost certainly have tried to create something entirely unrelated.
If he intended to use the pendant again later, he would need to keep that risk firmly in mind.
Once he finished organizing his thoughts and gently separated from Won-hee, he began selecting his rewards.
He chose the materials without much hesitation. Then, standing before the Blood Spirit Red Flower Wine Bottle—which could only be described as completely reborn—he realized several important facts.
The archbishop’s hourglass he had deliberately set aside was not among the available choices. It seemed he had consumed it as material during the artifact’s modification.
“Hmm.”
After a brief pause, he decided the loss was not a bad thing. The hourglass had been a powerful artifact, but its cost was never light, and its utility was hardly irreplaceable. Every effect—spatial illusion, clone creation, resurrection—could be reproduced at will through Monghwan Yusim and the Monghyeon-gyeong. Since he had already dismantled those same abilities without difficulty using the Yin-Yang True Dragon Eye, the hourglass no longer held much appeal.
What else disappeared?
Because large portions of his memory had turned hazy as a dream, he had to check each item one by one.
A short while later he discovered that the two spiritual treasures taken as trophies from the demonic Nascent Soul cultivator were also gone. They had been the sort that tracked souls to deliver curses and impose mysterious prohibitions; their loss stung slightly.
Still, if the newly modified artifact proved valuable enough to offset that regret, everything would be acceptable.
At last he turned his full attention to the Blood Spirit Red Flower Wine Bottle. He examined it using every method at his disposal, including divine sense.
Its outward appearance had barely changed, yet the crimson luster now felt deeper, more brilliant and seductive. When he looked closely, faint lights of many colors drifted across its surface, tracing beautiful patterns before fading.
Soul-Absorbing Five Lotus Wine Bottle.
That was the name that had come to him in the final moment before he collapsed from total exhaustion of vitality.
Clearly a Legalia-class artifact.
In other words, it stood above the level of a Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure.
A Nascent Soul true person had created it by consuming precious materials gathered from every sanctuary and burning through thousands of years of lifespan for the necessary enlightenment. How could the result possibly be mediocre?
Because it incorporated extreme materials—including adamant—handling it might prove somewhat troublesome. Yet even the functions he had roughly discerned made any side effects more than worth enduring.
Besides, this is not an item I can be certain of obtaining again.
With that thought, Han Yujin selected the Soul-Absorbing Five Lotus Wine Bottle as his reward.
Because the modification amounted to a complete rebirth, the refining process had to begin again from the beginning. Fortunately it did not take long. Although the vessel had reached the level of a Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure or higher, it possessed no special spirit, and it had been created on the premise that it would one day be refined.
During that period he conducted four more lessons at three-day intervals.
There was more than enough to teach, so the work was neither difficult nor particularly taxing. On the contrary, the students could not keep up as well as he had hoped, forcing him to slow the pace and granting him unexpected free time.
Those without transcendent comprehension inevitably required time to master dharma techniques. In that respect, the students’ talents diverged along a different axis from spiritual-root aptitude. Fortunately, this quality—something that might be called enlightenment—could be overcome to a degree through effort.
Won-hee really is a clever child.
Even though she was still only an elementary-school student, her learning ability already surpassed that of the students here. On top of that, she possessed a Heavenly Spiritual Root.
It was about time to accept her as a disciple. Naturally she would become his third true disciple.
He did not know when he would see her again. Perhaps they would never meet again. Even so, he had no desire to replace Dok Junseong or Seogwang Gahu—the disciples he had taken in the Gangho martial world—with anyone else.
The fourth seat can go to Park Seryong…
He had not yet decided on the fifth. He had noticed Ethan Cross’s talent and drive, but it was not yet enough to make the man a true disciple.
The thought made him want to seek out Lee Won-hee immediately and accept her. Since the matter was not urgent, however, there was no need to rush.
What mattered now was testing the newly acquired Soul-Absorbing Five Lotus Wine Bottle. It would be efficient to conduct the test inside the Alaska regional Great Rift while searching for the remaining fragment of the Yin-Yang Dao Body Stone Tablet.
The moment the decision was made, he deployed the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art and set out.
To the present Han Yujin, who had become a Nascent Soul true person, Earth was little more than a backyard he could cross in ten minutes at most.
A short while later he arrived at the Alaska Great Rift without incident. He studied the heavily fortified defense base that completely enclosed the massive rift entrance, then stepped inside.
A mystical shock like passing through a violent current lasted more than ten seconds.
The scenery that unfolded afterward felt markedly different from the former North Korean Great Rift. The concentration of spiritual energy was slightly denser, yet the ashen, barren earth and mountain ranges looked utterly desolate.
They say insect-type monsters appear here most often.
Many of them burrowed through the ground, making them exceptionally difficult opponents. Given the different environment, the cause of the intermittent wave events would naturally differ as well. Most of the waves in the former North Korean rift had been triggered by the Aheti race, but…
Could similar beings exist here too?
He would not know until he explored for himself.
Recalling the memories of the deceased The Chair, he headed toward the location where the stone tablet had been excavated. The distance was neither particularly far nor close; by his current standards it was a gap he could cover in the space of a few breaths.
When he stopped a moment later, a rugged landscape reminiscent of the Grand Canyon stretched beneath his feet.
It should be around here.
He descended, spreading his divine sense across a wide area, and immediately sensed that the canyon was filled with vitality despite its desolate appearance. The ashen surface was covered in moss and mushrooms of the same color; countless small insects fed on them, and larger insects hunted those smaller ones in turn.
“Jjik!”
Mu-yong, nestled against his chest, seemed quite interested in the bugs. When she had been an ordinary beast, she had probably eaten such creatures without hesitation.
“But you can’t anymore. Not until dirt covers my eyes.”
“Jjik…?”
“They’re disgusting to look at. You still want to eat them?”
At that moment—
Bzzzzz…!!
A grating noise sounded from afar. Soon afterward a swarm of palm-sized insects that looked like some unholy cross between bees and mosquitoes appeared. More than a hundred of them sliced through the sky without hesitation before pouring down like a waterfall into a corner of the canyon.
“I suddenly want insecticide…”
“Jjik!”
“I told you not to eat them, so I won’t either.”
He felt zero desire to test the Soul-Absorbing Five Lotus Wine Bottle here. Logically he knew there would be no problem, but emotionally he had no wish to create wine from those insects.
It seemed he had chosen the wrong testing ground.
While entertaining such idle thoughts and continuing his exploration, he soon discovered a section of terrain that looked unnaturally twisted and showed signs of having been dug up long ago.
When he focused his divine sense, he immediately detected a hidden space within.
He activated the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art and appeared inside a slanting cave descending into the canyon in the blink of an eye.
Damp air, thick moss, unsightly mushrooms, and a considerable number of repulsive insects filled the space. Artificial structures were visible in several places.
There were no other stone tablet fragments or similar objects. The Chair’s exploration team had already swept through here long ago, so it was only natural nothing remained. Without disappointment, he moved deeper into the cave.
Wrapped in light at every step, his figure blurring, he advanced more than a hundred meters in an instant and stopped before a flat wall.
Whoooong…!
Together with the presence of a Nascent Soul true person, waves of purification and subjugation arts spread outward. The surrounding insects scattered in panic. Dust and moss were swept away, leaving the area clean.
No wonder the hunters never found it.
He placed his hand against the wall and poured in dharma power. Within seconds, the intricate pattern of a formation prohibition rose slowly from deep within the stone.
Rumble…!
A heavy vibration followed, and the wall melted away like an illusion. He extended his divine sense without hesitation and stepped into the passage that had appeared.
The secret area was not large.
As he had already guessed from the Yin-Yang Dao Body Stone Tablet, this had clearly been the residence and cultivation chamber of some long-departed cultivator.
Too many years had passed, however. Most of the formation prohibitions had lost their power and decayed. Only a few items remained intact.
After lightly scanning the interior with his divine sense, he headed straight for the training room at the deepest point.
There, atop a completely rotted meditation cushion that left only traces behind, sat a skeleton in lotus position. Black-and-white light still flickered around it, as though it had not yet lost all its power.