The Impossibly Vast Yin-Yang Sect Ruins
The ruins of the Yin-Yang Sect were truly, impossibly vast. This was true not only by any objective measure but by subjective ones as well.
Does a place this size even make sense…?
He was a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator capable of reaching from Korea to the United States on the opposite side of the Earth in a comfortable ten minutes. Yet he had already been flying here for over an hour, and new landscapes continued to unfold with no end in sight.
Without the map, simply grasping the scale of this place would have demanded an enormous amount of time. Even that would only have been possible because he was at the Nascent Soul Stage and therefore unlikely to lose his way.
No, actually, even that might be difficult to guarantee.
They said that if an ordinary person was dropped defenseless into a desert, they would believe they were walking in a straight line yet unknowingly trace a wide circle and become lost.
Though this was no featureless desert and a cultivator would not confuse directions, if some restrictive formation within the secret realm activated, the situation could change entirely.
Anyone below the Nascent Soul Stage might very well be trapped here forever, provided they had entered without special information.
In that sense, acquiring the map had been an incredible stroke of luck. At the same time, it sparked boundless curiosity.
The secret realm is this enormous, yet why are all the buildings drawn so large on the map?
It was precisely for that reason that he had failed to realize at first just how expansive the place truly was.
If the sizes of the buildings depicted on the map were not merely symbolic but reflected even a fraction of their actual scale, it was difficult to imagine how absurdly massive and majestic the real structures must be.
That, in turn, proved just how formidable the Yin-Yang Sect had once been. The same could be said of the value of the treasures waiting to be harvested here.
The only regret was that his Karma was not infinite, meaning he could not bring everything he obtained into reality.
He continued flying toward the spot marked Myriad Spirits Candle Dao Fruit on the map.
The sheer vastness of the secret realm was not without its advantages in other respects.
The wider the area, the more time even supremely powerful cultivators would need to travel. That meant the chaotic scenario of countless competitors swarming a single treasure at once would rarely occur.
Since the fruit was separately marked on the map, and judging from the various pieces of knowledge he possessed, he could make an educated guess.
The Myriad Spirits Candle Dao Fruit was undoubtedly a priceless treasure, yet it did not seem valuable enough to abandon all other opportunities and race toward it first.
Since it was merely a spiritual entity, its worth would naturally be lower than that of already completed artifacts. It could not even be compared to a Dao Scripture that could benefit not only an individual but an entire organization.
Even without knowing every possible use of the Myriad Spirits Candle Dao Fruit, he could infer at least this much.
He was flying while lost in such thoughts when, without warning—
“Hm…!”
A completely unfamiliar sensation swept through him. Several images and impressions flashed across his mind. It felt similar to suddenly recalling a long-forgotten memory, yet it was nothing of the sort.
In some dark, chaotic space, an ominous creature appeared: a snake’s body, a chicken’s legs, an eagle’s wings, and a human face that continuously melted like dripping candle wax.
The ominous being twisted its expression hideously and began wildly clawing and striking at something rushing in from the outer darkness, driving it away.
The opponent’s size was considerable, but the creature’s bizarreness and malevolence fortunately proved one step superior.
The Human-Faced Ominous Bird Manifestation Technique…?
Just before it was driven off, he thought he caught an ominous mutter.
The words sent a genuine chill down his spine.
Someone had just attempted to divine his fate.
Using the complete version of the Ominous Bird Manifestation Technique obtained from the Luminous Emperor of the Galactic Empire, he had blocked the attempt. Yet it had stopped at mere defense; reversing the flow to track the caster or trigger a backlash was still beyond him.
Who would dare such a thing was painfully obvious. If not the Grand Elder of the Ungok Sect—that Soul Formation Stage cultivator—who else could it be?
In that instant, a sudden intuition struck Han Yujin. He met the eyes of Mu-yong, who had been resting quietly in his arms, and immediately sent her into the Mountain Sea Pearl.
Then he burrowed into the earth to a moderate depth, unleashed Dream Illusion Only Mind and the Dream Illusion Escape Art at full power, and remained perfectly still.
Ten minutes passed in utter silence.
Because it had been nothing more than a hunch, he was still feeling uncertain when a divine sense that chilled him to the bone swept across the entire area.
Right after, a streak of light from an earth-burrowing technique tore across the strange sky of the secret realm at terrifying speed and vanished beyond the mountain range ahead.
“……”
A light film of cold sweat seemed to have formed on his skin. And this was despite his experience fighting an elemental spirit that had reached at least the mid Soul Formation Stage.
Late Soul Formation Stage, perhaps.
There were almost no clues, yet the thought arose naturally. This too was a form of intuition.
If his hunch was correct, and assuming the opponent had not reached the specially rare Void Refinement realm, then they stood at the threshold of Body Integration.
He had assumed the Ungok Sect was merely an ordinary subordinate sect under Taeqing Palace, but it appeared the truth was more complicated.
Whether it had only recently begun to stand tall or had always been a power just one or two steps behind Taeqing Palace yet still too dangerous to ignore, the sect was clearly no ordinary faction.
Separately from that, with two of its Nascent Soul elders now dead, the Grand Elder would have every reason to be consumed by rage regardless of how close they had been.
Still, they can’t keep searching exclusively for me forever.
This secret realm was overflowing with treasures of every kind. Revenge was important, but not important enough to discard an opportunity of this magnitude.
After all, the living had to keep living.
The real problem would come when it was time to leave the secret realm, but by then he himself would be in a state where death no longer mattered.
With that thought, he checked the direction in which the Grand Elder had disappeared. Fortunately, it differed slightly from his own intended path.
How did they manage to follow me this far in the first place?
Since the elder had passed by without noticing him just now, he clearly did not carry any object that could be directly tracked. The opponent had to possess some special method.
Perhaps they had deployed the fate-type technique in an alternative manner to infer his general direction.
In any case, since he had not been discovered, all was well. It seemed the strengthening Dream Illusion Only Mind had received after obtaining the Dragon Heart had proven its worth.
Deciding it should be safe to move again, he was about to resume flight when—
For no discernible reason, an uneasy feeling gripped him, as though his heart were being squeezed. He froze instantly.
Not even a few minutes later, the Grand Elder’s divine sense—whom he had believed had already gone far beyond the mountains—came surging back and swept across the area once more.
Had they noticed something? Han Yujin tensed, but he soon realized that was not the case.
If the elder had truly detected him, there would be no reason to hide and then deploy their divine sense again so pointlessly.
In other words, the opponent had noticed nothing. Their actions were based purely on intuition and calculated guesswork.
They had assumed the enemy who killed two Nascent Soul elders must be a late-stage Nascent Soul existence. Having determined the general direction, they were estimating how far someone of that caliber could have fled in the given time.
…Is this sinister, or simply meticulous?
He had nearly been caught and forced into a desperate chase. The situation carried a considerable thrill.
Some time after the Grand Elder’s presence disappeared beyond the mountain range again, Han Yujin finally confirmed the opponent had truly left. Only then did he emerge, retrieve Mu-yong from the Mountain Sea Pearl, and briefly explain what had happened.
“This counts as experience too, doesn’t it? When else would I get to play hide-and-seek with a cultivator who might be at the late Soul Formation Stage?”
He spoke to her in a half-joking tone as he resumed the journey he had interrupted.
The Grand Elder’s pursuit proved relentlessly tenacious. Even after flying for an entire day, the presence never fully vanished.
He had been forced to hide and conceal his aura three or four times, and on one occasion he had come dangerously close to being discovered. Intuition, after all, was not an ability that activated with perfect accuracy.
What a crazy bastard…
By this point, Han Yujin could only marvel at the opponent’s persistence.
It seemed at least one of the Nascent Soul elders he had killed had been particularly close to the Grand Elder. Otherwise, the elder would not have pursued him so doggedly in a secret realm overflowing with treasures.
Given how things had developed, the opponent had likely realized his objective was the Myriad Spirits Candle Dao Fruit.
In that case, they’ll continue chasing me while moving toward the same goal.
Playing hide-and-seek with a late Soul Formation cultivator was certainly a valuable experience, but at this rate his progress would be constantly delayed and obtaining the desired treasure would grow increasingly difficult.
It might honestly be better to fight them outright, die, and simply restart from the beginning.
The temptation flickered through his mind, but Han Yujin soon shook his head.
According to the principles of Yin and Yang, every matter in the world carried both advantages and disadvantages.
If I can make them clear the dangers surrounding the Myriad Spirits Candle Dao Fruit in my place…
He did not yet know whether such dangers even existed, but if the opponent had decided to claim the spiritual entity now that they had come this far, they could be put to good use.
Having resolved to turn crisis into opportunity, he continued forward while taking every precaution to remain undetected. He was now truly close to his destination.
That bastard can’t be completely certain of my movements.
From the perspective of the one being pursued, the tracking method might feel uncannily precise, but according to Han Yujin’s knowledge, the caster themselves would feel a far stronger sense of vagueness, as if groping blindly through darkness.
Yet the pursuit had never ceased. That was precisely why Han Yujin kept clicking his tongue and calling the elder a madman.
This level of tenacity was no ordinary obsession. It would have been impossible without a singular determination to exact revenge even if the effort proved entirely futile.
Such idle thoughts began to surface.
Was the Grand Elder of the Ungok Sect unusually obsessive, or was this simply the average mindset among cultivators?
For some reason, the latter explanation felt more plausible.
…No wonder everyone looked horrified whenever the word “cultivator” came up.
His experiences in Cheonwonseong had been too unique and localized to provide a proper sense of the cultivation world as a whole. In that regard, this exploration of the secret realm was his first genuine venture into that realm.
Only after another half-day of travel did he finally draw near the location of the Myriad Spirits Candle Dao Fruit.
The aura of the Grand Elder, whom he had expected to find waiting, was nowhere to be sensed.
However, even before fully arriving, he could detect unusual energy waves emanating from the site—two Soul Formation Stage beings openly engaged in a tense battle of nerves.
…More people are after it than I expected.
It almost seemed natural. A spiritual entity valuable enough to serve as material for the legendary Seonwon Dojong Pill would naturally draw the covetous eyes of even Soul Formation Stage powerhouses.
Unfortunately, you’ll have to stay inside for a while.
After comforting Mu-yong and sending her into the Mountain Sea Pearl, he confirmed that Wonhui could hide herself just as effectively as he could, then advanced with even greater caution.
At the center of the terrain beneath a massive cliff, he finally laid eyes on a peculiar giant tree whose trunk blended sky-blue and pink hues.
Its height reached roughly four or five stories, and its trunk was thick enough that five or six people would be needed to encircle it. Between its large, sharply jagged leaves hung only three slightly cloudy, rainbow-colored fruits.
Near the giant tree, two figures who could not easily approach each other were emitting threatening auras and growling—one youkai and one human cultivator.
Before he could examine their appearances properly, both gazes snapped toward a direction slightly offset from Han Yujin’s position.
It was the direction from which the aura of the Ungok Sect’s Grand Elder—arriving one step behind him—was rapidly closing in.