Half a Year in the Primordial Forest
With his eyes closed and breathing slow and steady, faint crimson energy flickered across Han Yujin’s body before vanishing again. The phenomenon was especially noticeable beneath his closed eyelids, lending him a faintly dangerous air.
Crack…!
From deep inside him came the faint sound of bones twisting and realigning. With each subtle pop, the red glow flared brighter for a brief moment.
Two hours passed like that.
When every strange sign had finally faded, Han Yujin let out a long, deep breath and opened his eyes. In the dim interior of his cave, his pupils caught the light and sparkled like polished gems.
Today marked roughly four months since he had succeeded in refining the fruit into a pill and begun his training in earnest. The Bloodwood Essence Spirit Wine he had been carefully rationing was also running low; it was time to replenish his supply.
He had grown familiar enough with the Five Elements spells—including the Water Concealment Technique—to feel satisfied with his progress. The Clear Mind Technique, meanwhile, he kept active at all times except for the occasional short nap.
Most importantly, his Dharma Soul sublimation rate had reached a staggering fifty-eight percent.
In just four months.
It was undeniably an impressive feat.
Even the heavenly genius known as the Celestial Young Root required a full hundred days to meet the minimum requirements for entering the Dharma Soul stage. The phrase “Hundred-Day Foundation” existed specifically because that was how long it took such a prodigy to lay the groundwork for becoming a cultivator.
Of course, that was only the bare minimum—forty percent sublimation. Actually stepping into the Dharma Soul realm took even longer, since no true genius would settle for anything less than perfect foundation establishment at one hundred percent.
It took me four months to reach twenty-seven percent…
Even in an environment overflowing with spiritual energy and packed with natural treasures, he had only managed to match a little over half the speed of a Celestial Young Root.
Put another way, he was keeping pace at half the growth rate of a publicly acknowledged genius of the cultivation world. And this was despite possessing talent that barely ranked in the lower tier of ordinary practitioners.
Once I enter the Dharma Soul stage, this lack of talent will no longer be an issue. No—in fact, I’ll walk a path no one before me has ever taken.
It was still only in the conceptual stage, but the possibility was more than enough.
Dragon Heart…
Even if that idea turned out to be nothing more than a wild delusion, there would surely be another path. His awakening ability was simply that overpowered.
After taking a moment to steady both body and mind, Han Yujin stepped out of his cave. Mu-yong, who had been sprawled across the entrance dozing, woke with a start and immediately trotted after her master.
“No, stay here. Today’s the day of the expedition.”
He conveyed the full meaning through the Tongmyeong Eosu-gyeol. Mu-yong let out a few belated squeaks of understanding—jjik! jjik!—before reluctantly slipping back inside the cave and disappearing from sight.
Being able to communicate with a pet was incredibly convenient. Without that ability, the current situation might have been rather troublesome.
I haven’t seen any signs of danger in all this time, and I’ve prepared several emergency burrows for her…
There was no chance of any real accident occurring even if he left Mu-yong behind. At worst, she might try to secretly open the lid of the spirit wine jar and accidentally break it.
Recalling that particular memory, Han Yujin gave a small snort of laughter, then activated the Wind-Riding Technique and left the area.
The trip to the lake took only twenty minutes. It was even shorter than before, and since he hadn’t hurried at all, it was clear proof that his skills had improved.
His deeper understanding of the Wind-Riding Technique had come as a bonus from practicing the Water and Earth Concealment Techniques. Once he reached the Dharma Soul stage, he might be able to learn the Wind Concealment Technique—which shared similar principles—without much difficulty.
At the lakeside, Han Yujin located the exact same spot as before and, without the slightest hesitation, dove straight into the water. His attitude was so casual it looked as if he were simply stepping into his own bedroom.
You’re all dead, you bastards.
His confidence was overflowing. No matter what enemy he encountered, he was certain he could at least escape.
As soon as he entered the water, a soft blue glow enveloped his body. Swimming at tremendous speed, he began harvesting aquatic plants first.
The spiritual herb had a rather attractive appearance, dotted here and there with silver-bell-flower-like patterns. Even without those markings, its vivid colors alone helped brighten the overall atmosphere of the lake.
When an unfamiliar creature approached at high speed, various fish hiding among the plants scattered in panic. Naturally, Han Yujin paid them no mind and ruthlessly continued harvesting.
Since the plants were easy to gather, their processing method was not particularly difficult either. In other words, tearing them out so violently caused no loss in efficacy.
Besides his main target, he collected many other spiritual herbs as well. Analyzing each one to discover its potential uses was both part of his training and a small source of entertainment.
Then, at one point—
Han Yujin’s hand, which had been reaching to rip out another plant, suddenly froze. He spun his body in a fluid motion and shot diagonally downward in a strange, darting movement.
Right there, a certain aquatic creature that had been stealthily observing him—the very same lizard monster—flinched in surprise.
I was wondering when you’d show up.
He had deliberately chosen this section of the lake to enter. From past experience, he knew it was clearly the lizards’ territory.
The attack was instantaneous.
Using the Water Concealment Technique, he shot forward like a bullet while simultaneously casting a water-element spell. A wheel-shaped surge of energy, transparent and rippling as it blended with the surrounding water, flew faster than even Han Yujin himself.
The lizard, which had once seemed so terrifyingly fast, twisted its body in a desperate attempt to dodge—but it was too late. The strike was practically an ambush, and the attacker’s speed was in no way slower than the lizard’s.
Kwooong…!!
Mixed with the heavy underwater explosion came the lizard monster’s mournful shriek.
Han Yujin fearlessly plunged into the cloud of spreading blood, his body wrapped in the golden radiance of the Self-Golden Light Aura, which cast brilliant light in every direction.
It was then that the lizard launched its final counterattack. In the blood-tainted water that disrupted one’s senses with embedded spiritual energy, its wide-open maw suddenly lunged forward.
The creature was clearly ferocious by nature. Realizing it was about to die, instead of succumbing to fear it chose to drag its enemy down with it.
Yet that final desperate struggle was completely blocked by the seemingly formless Self-Golden Light Aura. The sight was almost pitiful—the lizard was helplessly pushed back by an overwhelming repulsive force.
Immediately afterward, the second water wheel Han Yujin fired shattered the monster’s torso and turned its internal organs into pulp.
One down.
Retracting the spiritually draining Self-Golden Light Aura, he used the Fish-Dragging Technique to haul the trophy carcass toward the surface.
Then, in a lightning-fast reversal, he shot downward again. As if on cue, a second lizard monster had appeared—just like the previous incident.
It had cunningly tried to hide within the blood left behind by its kin for a surprise attack. Had its opponent been an ordinary creature, the ploy might have worked.
Han Yujin’s descending form was practically a human harpoon. Once again, the water wheel he launched carried such overwhelming spiritual pressure that it seemed to crush everything around it.
Another heavy underwater explosion rang out.
The would-be ambusher had fallen for its own trick and failed to dodge in time; its head was completely smashed into a bloody mess.
Two down.
With a satisfied smile, Han Yujin caught the second corpse with the Fish-Dragging Technique and headed for the surface.
Now that he possessed proper offensive, defensive, and mobility capabilities, the once-terrifying lizard monsters had been reduced to prey he could handle in just a few moves. At this point, even three or four attacking at once would pose little threat.
Once on dry land, he stacked the two carcasses together, tossed out a seed, and activated the Bloodwood Essence Technique. A tree rapidly sprouted, then shattered apart, leaving behind six fruits along with the original seed.
“Nice. Very nice.”
The exclamation slipped out naturally.
The quality of the fruits had clearly improved. It wasn’t a placebo effect—the difference in spiritual energy density was so obvious it was impossible to miss.
The lizard monsters were the first spiritually intelligent creatures he had encountered in the Primordial Forest. Given their high level, it was only natural that fruits nourished by their bodies would also be of superior quality.
After resting briefly on a nearby rock, he dove back into the water.
This lake was truly a treasure trove of training resources.
It could probably be described as an idyllic daily routine without sounding too strange.
In the dense, almost unchanging wilderness, he spent his days training, brewing wine, refining pills, playing with his pet, occasionally creating delicacies from unusual ingredients, and sometimes even packing a lunch to picnic at scenic spots.
If one overlooked the fact that he relied on hunting and gathering rather than farming, it felt remarkably similar to life in a quiet, peaceful rural village.
Feeling himself grow stronger with every passing moment left little room for boredom. The loneliness that inevitably crept in during idle gaps was made bearable thanks to his companion, Mu-yong.
Turning the aquatic plants harvested from the lake into spiritual pills was not particularly difficult. Compared to refining the fruits, it was about as simple as frying an egg or boiling ramen.
At the same time, his understanding of the lake’s ecosystem progressed smoothly.
His recent near-extermination of the lizard population had caused some minor shifts, but the lake was so vast that the changes were truly insignificant. Nothing serious enough to cause major problems had occurred.
Even if some significant issue did arise, it wasn’t something Han Yujin needed to worry about—unless, of course, a powerful creature capable of threatening his safety appeared.
I did spot one, though.
Fortunately, it was an extremely slow creature. It looked like a cross between an octopus and a turtle, and whether due to its relaxed personality or something else, he had never once seen it move quickly. It also seemed completely uninterested in anything happening around it.
Still, just to be safe, he mostly avoided the area where it resided.
Living like this for the rest of my life might actually be pretty nice…?
The thought suddenly occurred to him.
As he basked in the sunlight, gently stroking Mu-yong who was sprawled asleep across his lap, he realized that growing stronger day by day and fulfilling his potential made this lifestyle surprisingly appealing.
Now I understand why those hermits could spend decades locked away in training…
Come to think of it, he had already been living in the Primordial Forest for over two years.
His Dharma Soul sublimation rate had reached a staggering eighty-four percent. The hallucinations he had once feared no longer posed a serious problem thanks to the Clear Mind Technique—which he could now maintain even while sleeping—and the Clear Mind Pills made from the aquatic plants.
And it would stay that way.
He could clearly feel the rate of progress slowing as his sublimation percentage increased, but even at its slowest, three more years of training should be enough to achieve perfect foundation establishment—the realm reserved only for true geniuses.
All in less than ten years.
I’m definitely not a genius.
Yet when one considered that his awakening ability allowed him to train in an environment so rich it bordered on extravagant, it was fair to say he was nearly on par with one.
The Dharma Soul stage was not far off.
Realizing this anew, Han Yujin let out a leisurely yawn.
Back on Earth, the preliminary procedures for his hunter activities were almost complete. In every sense, it felt like all his plans were finally settling onto the right track.