Chapter 218: Information on the Upper Realm
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Translated by Frog in the Well
Read it only at Nineheavens.org
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[A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens is not a power confined merely to destruction. If there is absolute belief without a single shred of doubt, it is a mighty divine ability that can even overwrite the principles of the world.]
Jin So-myeong, who was reading the interpretation left by the Star-Shattering True Monarch, stroked his chin.
“Overwrite the principles of the world…?”
What on earth did this mean? He interpreted it as it was, without adding personal opinions as much as possible.
For starters, overwriting meant covering something that already existed.
If so,
was A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens a power that freely twisted the laws constituting the world, namely, the principles?
‘Huh… it is a truly absurd divine ability. If it twists the principles, can it even reflect the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration?’
Did it not mean it was a power to manipulate reality?
Of course there would naturally be various constraints, but it was difficult to even imagine how strong he would become once he reached the great success of the Light-Moon Silent-Life Sword and manipulated it at will.
‘I have used A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens only to strengthen the sharp energy until now.’
This meant he had used it like a slightly sharper Sword Gang.
The Star-Shattering True Monarch had frowned upon seeing A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens wrapped around the sword, and now he understood why.
It was like holding a hand grenade yet swinging it like a hand axe because he did not know how to use it.
[However, one must be careful, as A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens can bring about disastrous results when the subconscious and conscious conflict.]
Is it said that powerful strength comes with a price?
A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens was the same. Power connected to the uncontrollable subconscious was dangerous in itself.
For example, if someone unleashed A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens while deeply fascinated by the strength of the Insect-Armor Race, their race itself might be distorted.
It meant a tragedy could occur simply because one’s own mind wished for it for a brief instant.
[Therefore, what is truly important is to firmly establish the Dao. As long as the Dao Heart is upright, you do not need to care about minor disadvantages.]
[The key is obsession. You may call it a mad conviction.]
[If you can throw away even your life for the Dao, you will be able to cleave heaven and earth, pierce through laws, and eventually sever fate itself.]
When one’s entire life stared at a single purpose.
When the conscious and subconscious became one without any small conflict, A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens could finally perform miracles that transcended even the principles.
‘Obsession…’
He felt he knew what the driving force was that enabled the Star-Shattering True Monarch’s A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens to perform absurd miracles.
It was thanks to something accumulated by living for a single purpose for two hundred thousand years; something hard to define but definitely existing.
‘Must one prove one’s Dao over a lifetime for A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens to exert its proper power?’
It was similar to the Sword Qi handled by a sword cultivator.
If he compromised once or twice, before he knew it, A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens would lose its power and become something blurry.
[Of course, I did not reach the great success of the Light-Moon Silent-Life Sword. Since these merely transcribe my humble understanding, you should not put too much blind faith in them.]
Laying down the jade slip he had read repeatedly over ten times, he searched to see if there was also an interpretation of the Burning Moon Crossing the Realm.
‘…There is none.’
Setting aside his regret, he picked up another jade slip, which contained quite interesting content.
[At the time I descended to the Human Realm, the territories occupied by the human race in the Upper Realm were two: the Green Plains Territory and the Stone Heart Territory.]
Information on the Upper Realm.
In a way, it was content as important as the interpretation of A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens, so he focused on it.
‘Only two regions?’
Clicking his tongue in bitterness, he examined the map included in the jade slip…
and his mouth gaped open without him realizing.
‘What. It is incredibly vast.’
Just counting one of the two regions, the Green Plains Territory or the Stone Heart Territory, it was dozens of times larger than the entire Human Realm combined.
For the human race, which occupied such a vast amount of land, to be treated as a weak race. It was not readily comprehensible.
‘Could it be that even such vast lands are a mere speck compared to the entire Upper Realm?’
If so, just how vast was the Upper Realm?
Continuing to read the jade slip amidst his dumbfoundment, he paused.
[At that time, the human race was facing a war against the Insect-Armor Race and the Shura Race. Both races were mighty races possessing histories of over a million years…]
The point when the Star-Shattering True Monarch descended to the Human Realm. It was said that the human race was in a state where its cultivation civilization had just begun to emerge, and its history was only a hundred thousand years at most.
Under such circumstances, for two races, either of which was difficult to handle alone, to invade simultaneously…
Literally, a crisis where it would not be strange for the race to be exterminated at any time had arrived.
However, who would die willingly?
The human race struggled to survive, executing numerous plans by mobilizing the entire capacity of the race.
One of them was precisely the Star-Shattering True Monarch descending to the Human Realm to find the sword of humanity.
[I do not know what the situation of the human race in the Upper Realm is now. They might still be at war, or they might have safely passed the crisis and confidently settled in the Upper Realm.]
[Although I hope not, they might be in a miserable plight or already exterminated…]
He fell silently into thought at the records that continued.
He did not know if it was because the jade slip was too old or because it was erased on purpose to block the connection with the Upper Realm, but several pieces of information were missing.
Still, thanks to it, the vague Upper Realm became slightly clearer.
‘A world much vaster than the Human Realm. And a land where all kinds of races are tangled together in a struggle for survival.’
Thinking it over carefully, he was able to find a saving grace.
If either the Insect-Armor Race or the Shura Race had invaded alone, they would have to fight one-on-one without a single variable, so there was almost no chance of winning.
However, if it was a three-way battle, it was slightly different; they could maintain a balance like walking a tightrope among the mighty races.
‘Of course, that will not be as easy as it sounds.’
At least they would not have been easily exterminated. He decided to believe so.
[Also, there is something that must be done before ascension. Since the Nine Heavens Divine Wood is a spiritual object that brings disaster if possessed by someone unqualified, it must be burned down and destroyed.]
“Hmm…?”
What on earth was this story suddenly about?
[There are many reasons why the human race fell out of favor with several powerful races, but one of them is precisely possessing the Nine Heavens Divine Wood.]
The human race was targeted by powerful races because of the Nine Heavens Divine Wood?
Thinking it over slowly, he understood.
The Nine Heavens Divine Wood absorbed surrounding spiritual Qi to make the region close to the tree fertile.
Looking only up to that point, it was as good as it could be, but the problem was that places far from the roots were devastated in the process.
From the opponent’s perspective, it was equivalent to having their spiritual veins plundered out of nowhere, so who would tolerate that?
The moment they planted the Nine Heavens Divine Wood, they would be targeted as a public enemy by everyone.
‘Looking at it now, I must not even leave a sapling of the Nine Heavens Divine Wood.’
He had intended to copy it and leave the original in the Sacred City, but if he did so, it seemed foreign races coveting the divine wood would visit the Human Realm.
‘It would be better to just take the sapling entirely and store it in the Secret Realm of the Mind.’
Various pieces of information about the Upper Realm continued after that, and he memorized them meticulously word by word, because each piece of information he learned now might decide his life.
However, since this was information written based on two hundred thousand years ago, he should not put too much blind faith in it.
‘Once I ascend, I must focus on grasping the situation first.’
Thinking of proceeding into an unknown territory made him anxious yet got his heart thumping at the same time.
Tap.
Laying down the jade slip he had read repeatedly over ten times, he looked around.
Jade slips he had not yet checked were literally piled up like mountains.
Since checking them one by one would take too much time, he just piled them all up on one side of the Secret Realm of the Mind and summoned his clones.
“Baek Gwang-il, Baek Dan-il. You two take the kids and check the jade slips. If there are decent jade slips, set them aside.”
“Understood.”
The Blood Spirit Clones they had used as bodies were all absorbed into the main body in the process of fighting the Star-Shattering True Monarch, but they were in a normal state now.
This was because he had fashioned new bodies for them in the intervals of recovering over the past year.
Seeing his clones check and neatly organize the hundreds of thousands of jade slips one by one, he nodded.
Perhaps because he additionally invested one billion points of the Supreme Great Ability, their actions felt quick and alert.
‘I will look at the jade slips again later.’
Looking along the treasures that still had a long way to go, he crossed over to the spiritual herb and pill section.
First, he counted the pills for cultivation, and they were truly immense in number.
Just counting the top-grade ones with the most outstanding efficacy, they exceeded a thousand years’ worth.
‘Calculating on the basis of consuming sixteen times as much, sixty-two years? …Hmm. Thinking of it this way, it is a bit small.’
A bitter smile emerged of its own accord.
In the Human Realm where Rank 5 resources were precious, a thousand years’ worth of pills should have been prepared with some care, yet it was insufficient.
Consuming too many pills was the problem.
‘Certainly, the Human Realm is not a good place for a Soul Formation cultivator to cultivate.’
Of course, continuing cultivation was not impossible.
He just had to copy various spiritual herbs to make additional pills. Since he had become the master of the Sacred City, it was not particularly difficult.
However… was staying in the Human Realm for such a long time truly right?
Somehow, he felt his sword would rust if he did so.
‘Balance is important in everything.’
Cultivating in a peaceful and safe environment was good, but he should not be too obsessed; as much as he had whetted his blade in battles where life and death were decided, struggle was also necessary.
Jin So-myeong, who gathered all the pills, examined the spiritual herb field this time, and thanks to the jade slip placed at the entrance, recognizing the names was easy.
Heavenly Path Flower, Cloud-Mist Immortal Herb, Ice-Jade Snow Lotus…
Just as he was looking along the neatly arranged spiritual herb field.
‘Wait, Blue Reishi Under the Moon?’
A familiar name popped out.
Recalling his memory, it was an ingredient for the Mystical Heaven Spirit-Transforming Pill, the pill that improved one’s aptitude to the Heavenly Spiritual Root.
At the news that made his fist clench, he thoroughly searched the entire treasury, including the spiritual herb field.
On the way, he discovered the method to make a Natal Magic Treasure into a Rank 5 Heaven-Spanning Spiritual Treasure, which made his eyes open wide, but he set it aside for now.
He gathered the ingredients for the Mystical Heaven Spirit-Transforming Pill as much as possible, but exactly two were missing.
Heavenly Thunder Wood Core, Mysterious Jade Crystal.
No matter how much he searched, these two were nowhere to be found. Pondering for a moment, he stepped out of the treasury and summoned Myo Seol.
“We greet the Lord of the Divine Wood.”
“How is it going with making the Nine Heavens Divine Wood a sapling?”
“Since the installation of the formations is finished, we will soon be able to perform the Tree-Returning Art. It is estimated to take about three years if we proceed slowly so that the spirituality of the Nine Heavens Divine Wood is not damaged.”
“Three years? I see. Set that aside, I need the Heavenly Thunder Wood Core and the Mysterious Jade Crystal; does the Sacred City happen to possess them?”
“The Heavenly Thunder Wood Core and the Mysterious Jade Crystal? Hmm… from what I know, we do not have them, but I will search for them if you need them.”
To think they are not even in the Sacred City…
He got a sense of how precious they were. Even if the Sacred City searched for them, it would probably be hard to obtain them within a day or two.
What should he do? Pondering for a moment, a decent method came to mind.
If the power of the Sacred City alone was insufficient, he could mobilize the capacities of all cultivators existing in the Human Realm.
The method was simple.
“Announce extensively in my name. If anyone brings either the Heavenly Thunder Wood Core or the Mysterious Jade Crystal, I will lend them a Rank 5 spiritual vein.”
“…I understand.”
What the Nascent Soul cultivators desperately wished for. It was enough to offer the opportunity to challenge the Soul Formation stage as a reward.
Watching Myo Seol, who twitched her lips, withdraw without a word of complaint, he recalled the things to do in the future.
He planned to look into the Rank 5 Heaven-Spanning Spiritual Treasure he saw earlier, and also visit various connections he had met in the past.
‘Good.’
Perhaps because he had become a Soul Formation cultivator, everything proceeded smoothly.
Doing this step-by-step one by one, before he knew it, the preparation for ascension would be finished.
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