The Five Elements True Spirit Stone
Crack! Squeak—!
“Yeah, now you get how much this big brother suffers every single day, huh? I don’t drag you along for no reason.”
Han Yujin stroked Mu-yong’s head as the little one cried out in surprise from inside his robe, then continued climbing the mountain path.
A gloomy sky, withered and twisted trees, parched earth split open in jagged cracks, and an atmosphere completely devoid of any trace of life.
Heading toward the ruins of the Ohaeng Sect in a world ravaged by the apocalyptic disaster of the Age of Dharma Decline, he tried to estimate how long he could last here.
‘If I really commit to it… maybe a few years?’
It was thanks to the endurance granted by his Dream Dragon Dao Body. He had even based the estimate on a state where he ate and drank nothing at all.
Of course, he had absolutely no intention of staying that long. Especially not when he had brought Mu-yong along.
Since he wasn’t planning to linger anyway, there was no reason to conserve his Dharma Power. He activated the Earth Concealment Technique at intervals, shooting up the mountain in the blink of an eye. After giving Mu-yong a quick tour of the outer sect area, he headed straight for the inner sect grounds.
Upon reaching the targeted Smoke Pavilion, he went directly to the top floor. There it was again—the massive, smooth, pitch-black boulder. The Five Elements True Spirit Great Stone still emanated that strangely captivating aura.
‘With the karma I have now, I could probably claim this, the Ghost Soul Banner’s Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure, and the Mountain Sea Pearl grotto-heaven treasure all at once.’
When he first discovered them, he had wanted them so badly that he felt the urge to snatch them up immediately.
But he quickly dismissed the Ghost Soul Banner’s Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure from his mind.
Even if he obtained it now, he couldn’t immediately command Wonhui from the post-apocalyptic Earth as a ghost servant.
It wasn’t just because of her strength. If she was bound by some restriction from receiving the grace of the Eternal Goddess Cult, and if he couldn’t resolve that, bringing her to this reality might trigger some massive side effect.
In the worst case, the Eternal Goddess Cult might even learn Earth’s coordinates through Wonhui. Though, according to the arcane knowledge he knew, the odds of that were slim.
In any case, there was only one item he needed to seriously debate whether to take or not.
‘A grotto-heaven treasure, huh…’
While pondering, he first claimed the Five Elements True Spirit Great Stone. It was a huge rock, but not so large that it wouldn’t fit into his storage belt. Still, storing it required consuming three to four times more Dharma Power than usual.
Watching the massive boulder shrink near the mouth of the storage belt before slipping inside, Han Yujin couldn’t help but marvel once again.
‘Seeing it again, this storage belt really is an incredible artifact.’
In the early days of the cultivation world, a storage belt was said to be an extremely rare treasure that only Nascent Soul stage cultivators could barely acquire one of.
Over an unimaginably long period of time, the manufacturing methods were refined again and again by various sects. At the same time, the supply of talented artisans needed to produce them grew and flourished, gradually making the belts more common.
Now, even Qi Condensation cultivators could obtain a low-grade one if they weren’t too poor.
Above all, once completed, a storage belt was incredibly durable thanks to its spatial properties and almost never broke. As time passed, the sheer number of them naturally accumulated. That was another reason they had become commonplace.
‘The history of the cultivation world really is long.’
The storage belt Han Yujin was using had been picked up from the Ohaeng Sect ruins, and who knew how many owners it had passed through over the countless years before that.
Anyway.
Having safely obtained the Five Elements True Spirit Great Stone, he moved toward the area blocked off by the familiar boulder.
When he arrived at the central plaza and stood there, the same scene greeted him.
Twelve skeletal cultivators wearing Dharma robes lay scattered around a translucent jade pedestal in the center, encircling a spherical metal object the size of a watermelon.
The metal sphere’s surface was a beautiful fusion of gold and silver, embossed with mountains and seas like a work of art. It was the grotto-heaven treasure he had inwardly named the Mountain Sea Pearl.
Squeak! Crack!
“Yeah, yeah. Everyone here is dead. I told you, it’s the disaster of the Age of Dharma Decline.”
He gave Mu-yong, who was visiting this place for the first time, a brief explanation while continuing his final deliberation.
Whether it was truly the right choice to claim this grotto-heaven treasure now, and whether it would be overconsumption.
‘It won’t be overconsumption.’
His future plan was to visit a world that blended immortal cultivation elements with a sci-fi flavor in order to craft a proper Dharma treasure. If he failed to find such a world, he would simply go to a more traditional cultivation world and somehow create a good one anyway.
No matter which world he ended up in, the odds were high that he would stay there for quite a long time and obtain a great many things.
‘If I have a grotto-heaven treasure like this at that time, I’ll be able to aim for far more types of harvests.’
A grotto-heaven treasure wasn’t simply vast like a storage belt.
Because spiritual veins flowed inside it, he could freely install and use all sorts of tools and equipment that were difficult to move. He could also raise all kinds of spiritual beasts, and as long as the spiritual energy density was sufficient, it was entirely possible to train and live within it.
In other words, if he was going to obtain one eventually anyway, claiming it now was a perfectly justified investment.
Having reached a conclusion, he stored the metal sphere in his storage belt and roughly decided how he would restore it.
When he had brought it to the waiting area before, he had identified two possible restoration methods.
One was to restore it to its peak condition. The other was to restore it to its complete initial state while keeping its performance intact. For now, he was leaning toward the latter.
If the karma cost difference wasn’t too great, the former would naturally be better. But the latter likely wouldn’t create any significant difference in actual usefulness.
The Five Elements True Spirit Great Stone might end up being restored in a similar way. After all, the Ghost Soul Banner’s Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure had been the same.
‘I’ve secured everything essential.’
While stroking Mu-yong, who seemed completely unaccustomed to the harsh dryness of this world of Dharma Decline and was sticking her tongue out, panting, he looked around.
‘I should take one more look around in case I missed anything.’
It was his first visit since making his resolution, so it wasn’t a bad idea. Even if something was useless to him, it might be important to Lee Won-hee.
He took out the Jade Dew Wine Bottle, shared it with Mu-yong, and moved about at a leisurely pace.
After thoroughly exploring everything, he returned to the waiting area using the escape technique.
Both the Five Elements True Spirit Great Stone and the Mountain Sea Pearl were available for selection, and he confirmed that each could be restored using the two methods he had identified before.
Restoring them to their peak condition required far more karma than expected.
The Five Elements True Spirit Great Stone in particular demanded an astonishing forty percent of his current karma reserves to restore to peak condition. Restoring it to initial state required less than a tenth of that.
‘…That’s way too expensive.’
It was surely because of the spiritual nature contained within the Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure.
If it was the spiritual being from the Five Elements True Spirit Great Stone at its peak, it would be able to manifest a human form and exert power at least at the Nascent Soul stage on its own.
And that was only the baseline. It might even be capable of exerting power at the Soul Formation stage or higher. So the massive karma cost was somewhat understandable.
The real problem was whether a spiritual being with that much power would recognize Han Yujin as its master.
In the worst case, after spending a huge amount of karma, he might have to treat the Five Elements True Spirit Great Stone like a superior and cater to its every whim. Or he might not even get the chance and end up stabbed in the back.
So it was better not to be greedy. After all, what he truly wanted wasn’t the stone itself, but the Taiyi Five Elements Dao Scripture it contained.
In the end.
He chose to restore both items only to their initial states and selected them as his harvest. Then, filled with anticipation, he awakened from reality.
The moment he opened his eyes, he felt a heavy presence beside him. A pitch-black boulder so enormous it nearly touched the ceiling—impossible to miss—sat there.
‘This weight…’
Worried the floor of the safe house apartment might give way, he hurriedly lifted the great stone using the Object Manipulation Technique. At that exact moment, Mu-yong woke up beside him and began watching the situation.
And then.
Crack…!
A clear cracking sound rang out.
Before the startled Han Yujin could do anything.
Crack…! Craaack—!
CRACKLE—!
Countless fractures spread across the massive boulder, and it collapsed with a thunderous rumble. Even in his panic, he caught every single fragment midair with the Object Manipulation Technique and examined the center.
Only a glossy, pitch-black stone the size of a soccer ball remained intact. From it emanated a faint white glow that flickered with shifting colors, as if five different hues were blending and separating.
After watching a little longer and confirming there would be no further collapse, he stored the fragments in his storage belt.
Then he pulled the soccer-ball-sized Five Elements True Spirit Great Stone—now more accurately called the Five Elements True Spirit Stone—toward him and picked it up with his hand.
It felt warm yet cold, slightly tingling, and smooth. Its weight shifted unpredictably, giving the sensation that something inside was writhing.
‘The Taiyi Five Elements Dao Scripture…’
He tried to examine the interior with his divine sense, but strangely, he couldn’t penetrate it at all. Moreover, he felt a kind of repulsive force. It seemed that forcing his way in would cause something bad to happen—both to himself and to the object.
It looked like he would need to use the Three Realms Harmony Art to refine it.
Having made that judgment, he examined it a little longer, then cautiously attempted refinement.
Immediately, he sensed the spiritual being inside. It seemed to have properly recognized Han Yujin’s presence as well, reacting quite violently.
Pop pop pop…!
With faint bursts of air, another cluster of light formed above the Five Elements True Spirit Stone. Han Yujin watched with slight tension, then made an ambiguous expression once the form was complete.
It looked like a sparrow. In both size and shape.
Cheep— Cheep—!
And its cry resembled that of a baby chick. As if proving it had only just been born.
Even so, the power he felt from it seemed to be at the early Qi Condensation stage.
It would probably grow quickly up to a certain level and soon surpass Foundation Establishment to reach Core Formation. After all, it was the spiritual being of a Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure.
“Hello.”
Sensing the jumbled mix of emotions from the spiritual being, and feeling the pure innocence that lay beneath them all, Han Yujin replaced his ambiguous expression with a smile.
Cheep—! Cheep cheep! Cheep—!
“Yeah, I don’t know what you’re saying, but once I refine you, we should be able to communicate.”
As he spoke, he operated the Three Realms Harmony Art with a bit more care. The spiritual being inside the Five Elements True Spirit Stone seemed flustered, as if it didn’t know what to do.
It flapped its wings, hopped around, landed on Han Yujin’s arm and stared at him intently, then turned to look at Mu-yong, who was watching with shining black eyes and a twitching nose from the side.
‘It can’t be that it has such a strong ego right after being born that it refuses refinement, right?’
Just as he began to worry.
Fortunately, whether because it was innocent or because it had its own reasons to judge, the spiritual being meekly accepted the refinement of Han Yujin’s mind realm stage.
Contrary to the lofty name of Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure, the process was incredibly fast and smooth. If things continued like this, it seemed he could complete even the body realm stage refinement in less than a month.
Moreover.
Perhaps because the refinement was beginning to establish a connection, he could now sense the countless dharma patterns and formations inside the Five Elements True Spirit Stone.
For a moment, strength unconsciously tried to flood into both his hands. He barely held it back. Since he was still holding the stone, he didn’t want to startle the spiritual being.
It was unmistakably the Taiyi Five Elements Dao Scripture.
A scripture so precious that it had to be stored inside a Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure. Among all techniques related to the five elements, it was likely one of the very best in the entire cultivation world.
It was also a treasure among treasures that he would never have obtained without his cheat-like awakening ability.
‘You’d probably need to be at the Body Integration stage before you’d even qualify to fight over something like this.’
And now that very object was right before his eyes. Together with the Five Elements True Spirit Stone, a Tongcheon Spiritual Treasure.
It took him quite a long time to calm his pounding heart.
The excitement was so great that he even forgot for a moment about the Mountain Sea Pearl, the grotto-heaven treasure he had selected as part of the same harvest.