Chapter 220: Returning to My Hometown After a Long Time

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Translated by Frog in the Well

Read it only at Nineheavens.org
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Going to his hometown, Red Yang Market, was not that difficult.

This was because his flight speed had become incredibly fast upon ascending to the Soul Formation stage, and he actively utilized teleportation arrays.

Arriving at Red Yang Market in just a few days, Jin So-myeong looked all along the outskirts of the city, and the feel was slightly different from the hometown in his memory.

‘Was Mount Red Yang this low?’

The mountain he had climbed risking his life during his Qi Condensation days now felt like a small hill.

All the scenery from the entrance of the mountain to the peak could be looked down upon at a single glance, and he could know exactly what was where just by lightly scattering his Divine Sense.

Dawn, when the sun had not even risen yet.

About a hundred Qi Condensation cultivators scattered all over the mountain were harvesting herbs or dew while clearing the dense thickets, and in the past, Jin So-myeong was exactly like that.

Watching them diligently climb the mountain while sweating profusely, new emotions welled up.

‘Should I go to the place where I used to live?’

The moment he took a step while estimating the direction, a shantytown appeared before his eyes.

It felt like it took several hours to come here from Mount Red Yang during his Qi Condensation days in the past, but now a single step was sufficient.

‘I think there were many people doing business on this street… but now there is no one.’

Recalling memories that resurfaced one by one, he headed to the house where he used to live.

How long did he walk the quiet street?

He arrived at a dilapidated shanty that looked like it would collapse even if only a strong wind blew.

‘It is here. The house where I lived.’

A worn-out house filled with traces of being repaired by patching thin plywood here and there; it still remained even after a hundred years had passed.

Although it was not completely identical to the shanty in his memory, its old appearance remained almost intact, leaving him dazed for a moment.

Just as he was standing blankly, steeped in a strange inspiration.

“Who is there?”

A woman who appeared from the alleyway frowned and glared. Holding a talisman inside her long drooping sleeve, she seemed to be wary of Jin So-myeong.

“I was just passing by and took a look briefly, so do not be so wary.”

He spoke as calmly as possible to show he had no ill intent, but the woman’s expression was still bad.

“Sigh. You are truly too much. I rented this house by spending quite a large fortune, yet you come to look around so easily.”

“…Hmm?”

For a moment, he did not understand what she meant.

Did she mean to say that she rented such a shabby shanty by paying expensive money?

Examining the woman again, her face was pretty, and her clothes and skin were clean.

Her realm was also the Great Circle of the Qi Condensation stage, and although they were only Rank 1, she possessed three Dharma treasures, looking well-off.

Should he say she showed signs of being raised gently in a good environment?

By any standard, she was not a person who would live in a shanty.

Perhaps sensing his questioning gaze, she pouted her lips and said as if it were absurd:

“Acting as if you do not know when you know everything. You also came to receive good energy from the house where Senior Jin used to stay in the past, didn’t you?”

“…What?”

“Stop it and leave quickly. I must receive as much good energy as possible before challenging Foundation Establishment.”

“Haha.”

A chuckle burst out of him from the absurdity.

To think they were selling the shanty he used to live in like a tourist attraction. What on earth was this nonsense?

“If you keep refusing to leave, I will call people. I belong to the Blue Lotus Gang, so do not think of playing tricks…”

“Ah, I am sorry. I will leave.”

“Hmph.”

As Jin So-myeong withdrew quietly, the woman who snorted walked with long strides and stood before the door of the shanty.

Where did the momentum that felt like she would throw open the door without hesitation go? Swallowing hard like a very tense person, she pulled the doorknob with a very careful motion.

Creak…

Was she being careful lest the house break because it was too old?

“So this is the place where Senior Jin stayed.”

Inside the house, which did not even have a proper bed, a faint smell of incense wafted. They seemed to have lit a fairly expensive incense candle, but when Jin So-myeong lived there, such a thing naturally did not exist.

“Mmm! Indeed, it feels like my head is clearing. It is definitely an auspicious site.”

Watching the woman mumble as if deeply moved while bringing both hands to her chest, he was simply dumbstruck.

Shaking his head, Jin So-myeong left the shantytown.

Entering Red Yang Market past the lined-up shanties, the population density increased sharply.

“No, why is the Qi Condensing Pill sold on the street this expensive? Seventeen spirit stones should be enough.”

“The pill I sell is in a different dimension from ordinary low-grade ones. Even twenty-five is cheap, I tell you. If you do not believe it, do not buy. Go look up the elixir refiner Mun Yeon-ho first.”

Along the roadside, stalls set up by Qi Condensation cultivators lined up, and it was noisy with those bargaining to cut even a single penny.

‘Hosimbang? This is the spot where the Library Pavilion used to be, but it has changed.’

Was it because a hundred years had passed?

The lively and bustling street remained the same, yet familiar and unfamiliar sceneries were mixed.

Jin So-myeong, who was walking around Red Yang Market as if taking a stroll, came to a dead halt before a certain shop.

Spirit Elixir Pavilion.

It was a shop he had frequented as a mortal kid before he even entered the Qi Condensation stage, yet it still remained now after a hundred years had passed.

‘I gathered 110 pieces of spirit stones and exchanged them for a spirit stone here.’

Since he entered the Qi Condensation stage through that spirit stone, in a way, this shop could be called the place where his cultivation began.

Entering the shop as if bewitched, he saw a wrinkled grandmother sitting at the counter.

“Welcome.”

She, who had hair dyed pure white, stared at Jin So-myeong and smiled gently.

“You are a young man I haven’t seen before. The Qi Condensing Pills came out very well this time, are you interested? I will give them to you cheaply.”

Instead of answering, he slowly looked around the interior of the Spirit Elixir Pavilion, and because its old appearance remained intact, he could not help but be lost in memories.

Was it interesting to see him stand blankly and inspect the shop?

The grandmother, wearing a benevolent smile as if looking at a grandchild, held out a Qi Condensing Pill that bore an exquisite color.

“Here. As you can see, it is a mid-grade Qi Condensing Pill, not low-grade. It was originally something to be delivered to a large sect, but circumstances arose. Only this time am I selling it here specially. The price is…”

Glancing around subtly, she whispered quietly as if it were a secret.

“It is forty spirit stones per pill, but I will give it to you for thirty-five, meaning for you to come often.”

He glanced over at her subtle tone.

Examining the pill held out by the grandmother, it was free of flaws and emitted a delicate medicinal fragrance, seeming like a quite well-made pill.

However…

in the eyes of him who had ascended to the Soul Formation stage, it was a fake that only looked plausible on the outside, a low-grade pill.

As he met her gaze in dumbfoundment, she smiled brightly with a peerlessly benevolent expression.

Seeing her rip him off so casually, a chuckle emerged of its own accord.

‘Right. My hometown was like this.’

Because it was so absurd, rather than getting angry, he found it amusing instead.

“I am fine on the Qi Condensing Pills. Rather, what happened to the person who was the owner of this place about a hundred years ago?”

The grandmother, who flinched her shoulders at the word ‘a hundred years’, adjusted her posture and straightaway bowed her head.

“I greet the Senior. This old woman’s eyes were dark so I failed to recognize Mount Tai and committed a discourtesy, so please forgive me.”

“I do not care about such minor matters, so do not mind it too much.”

“Thank you for your mercy. My master, Cultivator Bang Il, reached the end of his lifespan twenty years ago and entered reincarnation.”

“…Hmm. It is a pity.”

Come to think of it, he felt there had also been a girl clerk of a similar age at the Spirit Elixir Pavilion.

Although he did not remember her name, perhaps this grandmother in front of him was that girl.

Motioning to her as she awkwardly stood up to see him off that it was fine, he left the shop alone.

He walked along Red Yang Market along the main road, but the place he was most curious about had disappeared before he knew it.

‘The Red Yang Sect has vanished.’

On the main gate of the Red Yang Sect where Beom Chang used to stand as a gatekeeper, a nameplate of the Heo Clan was hung instead, seeming to have collapsed unable to endure the hardships of time.

Just as he was about to leave with a sigh.

“Elder. Are you going out for a stroll?”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged man who just came out of the main gate and received a greeting from the gatekeeper was somehow familiar.

“Do not overexert yourself. Aren’t you getting on in years?”

“Heh. You brat. You will also know when you reach my age. Staying cooped up inside is rather frustrating.”

Jin So-myeong, who watched the man walking leisurely with his hands clasped behind his back, narrowed his eyes.

Perhaps because he mastered a cultivation method to maintain a young appearance, he looked like he was in his forties, but that was just his outer look; judging by the felt vitality, his actual age was well over 140.

As a Qi Condensation cultivator, he could be called an old man who would die before long as his lifespan reached its end, yet he was strangely familiar.

‘Where did I see him?’

Just as he was tracing his memory amidst a tickling sensation of almost remembering,

a single scene flashed past, and his eyes widened. Without a second thought, he blocked the man.

“Heo Yang-ok?”

“Hm? Do you know me?”

Looking at Heo Yang-ok who stopped as if puzzled, several memories resurfaced.

In his past Foundation Establishment days.

He had once consumed the Dream-Roaming Primal Pill, the pill that trained Divine Sense. He had seen an illusion due to the efficacy of the medicine, and lived a life without the Supreme Great Ability there.

At the time, living as a poor rogue cultivator, he became a Spiritual Crop Master thinking he could not go on like this, and his direct superior then was precisely Heo Yang-ok in front of his eyes.

To think he was a person who actually existed. Was it not a mere illusion?

Toward Heo Yang-ok who shrank his shoulders as if frightened as silence continued, he asked:

“Did you recruit Spiritual Crop Masters targeting rogue cultivators in Red Yang Market a hundred years ago?”

“Uh, the duty I held in the past was to raise Spiritual Crop Masters… did I happen to cause any inconvenience to the Senior? If so, I am truly sorry.”

“…No. It is nothing major, so you may go.”

Leaving behind Heo Yang-ok who rolled his eyes anxiously and hurriedly left, he guessed how this had come about.

Since he lived in Red Yang Market, there was a possibility he had run into Heo Yang-ok while walking the streets. If the Dream-Roaming Primal Pill constructed the illusion based on that memory, it was not particularly strange.

‘Is it a simple coincidence? Or…’

Jin So-myeong, who was lost in deep thought while tapping his scabbard, let out a sigh.

When he consumed the Dream-Roaming Primal Pill at that time, he amplified the effect with his Supreme Great Ability.

Since it seemed to be a phenomenon caused by that, he decided to ponder it later, and first resolve the real purpose of his coming to Red Yang Market.

‘Let’s slowly head to the Red Cloud Secret Realm now.’

The secret realm he had gone to for the first time in his life back during his Qi Condensation days when he had just begun cultivation. There was something he wanted to check there.

The moment he released his Divine Sense to estimate the direction and took a step.

A wasteland open in all directions appeared.

A desolate flat ground with nothing particularly special about it. This place where only dust rolled around was precisely the entrance to the Red Cloud Secret Realm.

His gaze, which had been scanning the surroundings, soon focused on one spot.

A faint rift felt in the empty air. Looking at the secret realm beyond the empty air with the Lightning Insight Spell-Breaking Eye, he got a sense.

‘Are there about seven years left for the formation to open?’

Although it was not yet the time to enter since the Red Cloud Secret Realm opened on a thirty-year cycle…

it was an irrelevant story to Jin So-myeong who had ascended to the Soul Formation stage.

Rumble!

The pebbles rolling on the ground defied gravity and floated up. Just by whetting his will, the surrounding spiritual Qi began to surge.

With a light gesture.

The colossal energy that gathered in a spiral converged into a single point and then stretched out long. Like a sword.

The moment he grasped the lump of spiritual Qi that had been compressed into a massive sword in an instant and struck down in the empty air.

Clang…!

Simultaneously with a rupture sound as if something were splitting, the secret realm was opened.

He had forcibly torn open the formation using his Soul Formation-class energy.

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