Jaekyung stared at the Fire Crystal before him, lost in thought. Woo Do-baek's advice had given him a great enlightenment. It was as if it had shown him a clear direction for the Immortal Path he must walk.
'Even Senior Woo himself didn't seem certain, but to me, his advice was like a lamp in the darkness.' To plant a spiritual seed that would take the place of a spiritual root and a bloodline. That was what he had to do from now on.
If those with spiritual roots and bloodlines already possessed large and small vegetable plots, needing only to water them, Jaekyung had to dig the barren ground and sow a seed. It was an unfair situation, but he could not afford to complain. He was fortunate to even have land, and fortunate again to have a seed to sow.
'When I think of it that way, it's lucky that what I obtained was a Fire Crystal.' As Woo Do-baek had said, among the Five Elemental spiritual energies, fire energy was exceptionally intense.
Jaekyung thought that while this intensity was a burden for one who had to accept and digest it, in his current situation, it could actually work as an advantage. 'Neutralizing the fire energy of the Fire Crystal with a spiritual object for cultivation means suppressing its energy to some extent.'
Speaking of spiritual objects for cultivation, he did have the elixir water, which was similar. But just as a watermelon could not be called water, the elixir water was not a complete spiritual object for cultivation. Besides, there was not much of it, so he couldn't be sure if it could sufficiently neutralize the Fire Crystal's fire energy.
In truth, even if the elixir water could neutralize the fire energy, Jaekyung was hesitant to use it. 'Senior Woo spoke as if planting the source spiritual energy wasn't very difficult... but I can't know if that's truly the case.'
To use an analogy, it was like worrying that a medicine's effect would be too strong, so one reduces the dose and dilutes it with water. Would the neutralized fire energy from the Fire Crystal be sufficient to become source spiritual energy, to become a spiritual seed? It might be, but what if, by some chance, it wasn't?
Jaekyung preferred to be certain, even if it meant risking harm to his body. As long as he succeeded in planting the spiritual seed, it wouldn't matter if his body was mangled. No matter how severely he was injured, he had the elixir water, so he would be able to recover.
Therefore, unless he faced a truly unavoidable situation, Jaekyung did not want to use the elixir water together with the Fire Crystal. 'After swallowing the Fire Crystal, I must prevent its fire energy from scattering.' Jaekyung mobilized all the knowledge he had and ran simulations in his head over and over again.
To all the stories he had heard from the senior cultivators of the Twilight Gathering, he added various imagined situations like branches on a tree, and from there, he thought about what he must do. At some point, his imagination turned into delusion, but Jaekyung did not stop.
He pictured in his mind all the worst-case and best-case scenarios he could think of, and in the process, the seeds he sowed in his imagination numbered in the hundreds. 'Could this also be considered a form of mental training?' He didn't know how much time had passed.
It was definitely more than ten days, but had a month gone by? He had told Cheong-o and Mook-soo beforehand that he would be in the water for a while, but still, a fair amount of time had passed, so it would probably be better to go up and show his face once.
Jaekyung, shaking his head a few times to clear his foggy mind, moved his body to leave the nest. But just then, a strange feeling captivated him.
'Hm?'
Like sensing rain from a single drop of water falling on his head, Jaekyung coiled up again at a single streak of spiritual sense that flashed by like a mirage.
Like a composer who, struck by sudden inspiration, stops what he is doing to pull out a sheet of music, Jaekyung brought the Fire Crystal, which he always kept lovingly coiled in his tail, to his mouth.
'Ugh!'
When coiled in his tail, it had felt merely warm, but the moment it touched his tongue, a scorching heat rushed in. Jaekyung tried to feel that heat as deeply as possible, and when he felt somewhat accustomed to it, he swallowed the Fire Crystal completely. At first, it was quiet.
As if the heat he had felt upon touching it with his tongue was an illusion, the Fire Crystal that entered his stomach showed no reaction for a while, like an ordinary pebble.
But Jaekyung did not let his guard down, and thanks to that, when the Fire Crystal unleashed an explosive fire energy without any warning, he was able to face the intense energy without panicking. 'As expected, it's impossible to contain it all.'
He would take the fire energy of the Fire Crystal as a spiritual seed and sow it in the land that was him. But the fire energy right now was so intense that even his sturdy body and vigorous vital energy could not possibly handle it all.
So, Jaekyung guided the fire energy, which was spreading with enough force to burst his body, to the outside. Although he had sensed spiritual energy before, this was his first time handling it directly, so it felt unfamiliar, but thanks to the images he had drawn in his mind countless times, he somehow managed to do it.
'So this is what it feels like.' He felt like a human cultivator who had taken the first step in Cultivation. The feeling of controlling the power of Heaven and Earth according to his will was dazzlingly ecstatic.
Although he would soon realize it was an illusion, the feeling of that moment remains an indelible dream for all cultivators. It was the same for Jaekyung, but he quickly came to his senses and returned to reality.
It was not because his will was particularly firm, but because of the fire energy that was still trying to burn him from within. No matter how sweet a dream, it is bound to be broken if a red-hot branding iron is brought to it. 'Release, release, release.'
It was a waste to see the fire energy escaping under his guidance, but this was a wave he could not contain. To greedily covet what one cannot have is greed and foolishness. Jaekyung let go of his greed and imagined himself as an outlet through which the fire energy could escape.
He let the fire energy out naturally, and then out again, and at the moment he judged he could handle this much, he abruptly transformed and turned himself into a great prison. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth has a spiritual nature. It was not intelligence, but a kind of instinct.
Just as water has the property of flowing from high places to low places, spiritual energy also has the property of heading toward where it originally belongs. Originally, the fire energy of the Fire Crystal was in the process of breaking its shell, the crystal, and returning to heaven and earth.
But now that Jaekyung had forcibly erected a wall and confined it, the already rough fire energy explosively grew in force and charged toward the wall.
Boom!
It wasn't a sound that was actually made, but Jaekyung could clearly hear it. His body and spirit trembled precariously as if they would collapse at any moment. To still have such ferocity even after he had let out more than half of it.
Woo Do-baek's warning was indeed correct. They said that among the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, fire energy was supreme in strength and ferocity, and it was true. 'But that's why it's the most suitable to be made into a spiritual seed.'
A sprout must be raised on land that is barren, dry, and cracked. Without this level of intensity, wouldn't it be swallowed by the desolation of the land and disappear in vain, let alone sprout? Jaekyung was rather pleased by the unbearable pain, by the vigor of the fire energy that sought to burn him.
He endured and endured. At some point, he even forgot that he was enduring pain, and just dazedly waited for this moment, which felt like an eternity, to pass. If he hadn't known that this pain had an end, he would not have been able to bear it, but because he knew, he could.
How much of that indescribable time of hardship had passed? At some point, the fierceness of the fire energy subsided, and Jaekyung regained hold of himself.
'Now.'
Jaekyung squeezed out all his remaining will and guided the fire energy. Although its strength had waned, its nature remained, and the fire energy resisted fiercely, but Jaekyung suppressed that resistance with a desperate will. And he led the fire energy, which constantly tried to escape his control, to his desolate spiritual nature.
The expression 'desolate' was no exaggeration. It was his fate and his shackles, existing blankly without any foundation or reason. Now, he had to break that fate and those shackles.
Only then could his severed Immortal Path extend further.
'Go in.'
The fire energy resisted violently. Compared to its previous resistance, this could be called a desperate struggle. It seemed it really did not want to enter that dead land.
"Go in!"
Jaekyung's will was already beginning to hit rock bottom. What moved him now was obsession and madness. He knew well what this spiritual sowing meant.
This was defying the heavens, breaking what was fixed, and transcendence, escaping the shackles. The ultimate goal of all cultivators. Even if it was just a single step, the size of a speck of dust, he had achieved it.
'Ah.'
The moment he realized that, his spirit, which had become as desolate as his spiritual nature, swelled up to its fullest. His spirit, which had become as vast as a mountain and as clear as a mirror, pushed away the fiercely resisting fire energy at once.
That power did not seem very strong, but strangely, the fire energy could not resist.
Plop!
A single small seed. That one seed, tinged with a reddish light, fell onto the silent wasteland. It rolled slowly over the ash-like piles of dirt, then slipped into a small, groove-like hole.
And a change occurred. A subtle warmth began to spread across the land of his spiritual nature. It was a faint change, like a single pebble dropped into a vast sea, but for Jaekyung's spiritual nature, which had been as good as dead, it held the meaning of heaven and earth being overturned.
What was dead came to life, a meaning that originally did not exist was born, and a path that was broken was connected.
"Haa."
Jaekyung opened his eyes with a long sigh. His wide-open eyes took in the bubbling waters around him, but his gaze was directed inward, toward his own self that had undergone a world-changing event. 'So this is spiritual energy.'
The speck of spiritual energy contained in his spiritual nature was similar to, yet different from, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth that filled his surroundings. Jaekyung could feel a sense of intimacy and powerful strength from that small ember.
"Hahahaha!"
A great laugh, aimed at the heavens, burst out. Jaekyung was not even aware that he was laughing. He was simply steeped in an unbearable joy.
He had finally entered the Immortal Path. Not an incomplete Immortal Path with a broken road midway, but a complete Immortal Path from which he could see into the distance. Of course, a moment would come when he would be blocked by a wall again and let out a sigh, but even then, he would not despair.
Because at this moment, he had overcome the impossible. Perhaps the greatest harvest he had gained this time was not the single ember that lit up his spiritual nature, but this experience itself. He realized that the limits imposed by the heavens, the absurd reality, were not walls that could never be overcome.
This great enlightenment would become a lamp that would forever illuminate the Immortal Path he would walk in the future. * After successfully planting the spiritual seed, Jaekyung found a new hobby. Technically it was Cultivation, but since he derived a pleasure beyond a sense of accomplishment from it, Jaekyung considered it a hobby.
His new hobby was contemplation. He had diligently practiced contemplation whenever he had the chance before, but now it was incomparable to the past. To what extent?
To the extent that the time he spent with his eyes closed was longer than the time he spent with them open. He focused on the small ember that warmly lit his spiritual nature. At first, he worried that this ember might suddenly go out, even though he knew it was impossible.
But now, he pondered how he could make this little fellow grow bigger. 'It's absorbing spiritual energy bit by bit, but this isn't enough. It's like waiting for occasional raindrops to fill a basin.'
Moreover, an unexpected problem arose. The environment of the spiritual spring, which he had previously felt was just distant and comfortable, was suppressing the growth of the ember. This was because the spiritual seed Jaekyung had planted was an ember derived from the Fire Crystal.
It was natural for a small ember to be affected in water overflowing with water energy. Fortunately, this ember was not ordinary spiritual energy but a spiritual seed that had been refined by him once, so it was not endangered by the influence of the water energy, but a certain brake on the ember's growth was inevitable.
'Should I leave the spiritual spring?' Jaekyung was conflicted, unable to do one thing or the other. What a hard-won home this was, how could he give it up and leave after such a short time?
Giving up this place meant giving up the prey he could catch with relative ease, and it also meant giving up the elixir water he could use in a pinch. Did he have to give up all this just to raise the currently useless spiritual seed a little faster? 'Even if I leave someday... it's not yet time.'
The spiritual seed, in the form of an ember, was still growing. Although it was as slow as a tortoise crawling in a daze, it was steadily increasing in size. For now, that was enough.
'It's hot.'
And another reason, perhaps a decisive one, why he did not yet want to leave the spiritual spring. It was because of a heat that felt as if he had been dried under the scorching midsummer sun.
It was only this bearable because he was on the cool riverbed; if he went out of the water, he would have to stick his tongue out before long.
Therefore, even if he found a way to move the elixir water and no longer had to worry about finding prey outside the water, as long as he couldn't solve this heat problem, he had no intention of leaving the spiritual spring. 'I just can't get used to it.'
The reason Jaekyung was suffering from the heat was that his own body had become hot. To exaggerate a little, it felt as if his entire body had become a single ball of fire.
Even if he just sat still and breathed, his surroundings would turn into a hot bath before long, and the clueless fish that loitered around him would be cooked on the spot, their eyes rolling back. If it ended at that, it would be annoying, but he could probably manage.
But the problem was that this change also had some effect on his hunting. Because of the heat his body radiated, it was not easy to approach prey.
He had to use the Aura Concealment Art at full power every time to suppress his presence, and thanks to that, the proficiency of his already high Aura Concealment Art became even higher. 'Learning the Aura Concealment Art was truly an excellent choice.'
This skill, which senior cultivators dismissed as a trivial art, was serving as a reliable source of food as much as, no, more than his sturdy body, which was Jaekyung's greatest asset.
Crunch!
The spirit fish, bitten on its torso, struggled in terror. But its desperate struggle was meaningless to Jaekyung. This aquatic spirit beast was an ordinary spirit fish with no bloodline or other special features, and its size was like a minnow compared to him.
Thwack!
A strike to the head with his tail, and a couple of shakes with his tightly clamped mouth, and that was the end of it. Jaekyung repositioned the limp creature in his mouth and headed for the surface. Wooo- Mook-soo, who was in its usual spot with its roots stretched out long, acknowledged him.
However, unlike before, its attitude toward him was a bit more cautious, and this was because of his spiritual seed which held fire energy.
"Here."
Jaekyung threw the spirit fish he had just hunted to Mook-soo. Mook-soo then extended a branch to catch it and plucked two ripe spiritual fruits to hand over to Jaekyung. This was a trade that had started a short while ago.
Jaekyung, who had accidentally discovered that Mook-soo's spiritual fruits helped in raising his spiritual seed, had proposed it first, and Mook-soo had readily accepted the proposal. The spiritual fruits were used to lure spirit beasts and animals anyway.
From Mook-soo's perspective, there was no reason to refuse when someone offered to trade them for a spirit beast without it having to hunt itself. Wooo- Mook-soo, making a pleasant sound, coiled two of its roots around the spirit fish. The blood that had been flowing down from the wound changed direction and began to seep into Mook-soo's roots.
Then the roots that absorbed the blood swelled and shrank repeatedly, looking as if a heart was beating. Jaekyung, who had been watching the ever-bizarre sight with some interest, swallowed the two spiritual fruits he had received in one gulp.
Gulp!
The effect of the spiritual fruits was immediate. A single ember seemed to flicker perilously as if about to go out, but it soon recovered its original state. An uninformed person might think that it was just in danger, but Jaekyung, the owner of the spiritual seed, could feel that the seemingly precarious ember had actually become purer.
Jaekyung did not know what it meant for the spiritual seed to become purer, but he knew instinctively that it was a good change. 'It's a strange one.' Jaekyung looked back and forth between the now shrunken spirit fish and the seemingly satisfied Mook-soo, marveling inwardly.
He had eaten Mook-soo's spiritual fruits before, but he had not felt the same effect as now. Was it because of the spiritual seed? Of course, that was part of it, but the influence of Mook-soo's growth was not small either.
Cheong-o, who would munch on spiritual fruits from Mook-soo whenever bored, also said that the fruits tasted better than before. 'Someday, if this fellow grows more and its realm becomes higher, then it might really be able to bear spiritual objects.'
Whether such a day would come, and if it did, when, were all unknown, but Jaekyung was sure that if such a day really did come, that leisurely tree would cause quite a stir.