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Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Episode 23: Core Formation Realm Great Cultivator (3)
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Soul Tribulation.
A heavenly tribulation, a symbol of unfairness that brings despair to some and never comes to others at all.
Ise tucked the New Mind-Settling Mirror into his robe, poured external qi into it, and waited for the Soul Tribulation to begin.
He calmed his mind.
He had prepared thoroughly. He would surely overcome the Soul Tribulation safely.
Soon, his vision went dark.
Then the fifty-five years of his life flashed past through his divine sense.
The warm days spent in his adoptive family’s embrace.
The moment he lost them all at once and was abused by the villagers.
The years when the dokkaebi clan took him in and he served Mongryeon as his master.
The Great Exorcist Order’s entrance examination.
The time when he had rampaged about without knowing any better as an entry disciple at the Training Compound.
His path to the Foundation Establishment Realm, moving between Screaming Mountain, the Silver Dragon Mine, and the Dark Heaven Secret Realm.
The vile Bi Hyeongrang’s raid on Gwisu Temple, and the desperate bloody battle against Cheoryang Thunder Gate.
Even the countless days he had skirted death after crossing to the Northern Continent in search of the Two Principles Return-to-Origin Art.
Watching his own life through a third party’s eyes was a rather strange experience.
When the process, like watching a puppet play, came to an end, various emotions began to grow one by one.
At one moment, uncontrollable joy welled up within him.
Then sorrow so deep it felt as though his chest would tear apart rose after it.
Yet what tormented Ise most of all was unfairness.
Stones hurled at a boy already grieving the loss of his home. Blame. Abuse. Plunder.
“You are a demon, so those who took you in were driven to their deaths.”
“Things like you should die and disappear.”
Thinking back, it was unfair.
Other than hunting the Snail-Headed Scholar that had devoured his family’s heads and displaying its severed head, he had done nothing that warranted being pointed at and called a demon.
Yet the villagers’ rejection had never stopped, even before then.
You cannot trust an orphan brat.
His eyes make me uncomfortable.
He hit my child.
In a way, he could understand the heart of the man who had come to his adoptive family’s home, smashed their belongings, and flew into a rage.
The man’s son had been left lame after a stone crushed his foot.
Of course, it had merely been fitting retaliation for insulting him.
Feeling it grow harder and harder to control his emotions, Ise opened his eyes and took the New Mind-Settling Mirror from his robe.
In its distinctive bouncy handwriting, a message had been written at the mirror’s lower corner.
“You aren’t going to lose to something as trivial as a heavenly tribulation, are you?”
Ise burst out laughing.
He had told them to make a spirit artifact, and they had left him such a cute little prank.
The Five Desires and Seven Emotions reached their height in turn, then suddenly quieted.
So far, he could not feel much difference from the heart demon tribulation.
The Soul Tribulation was not over yet.
It felt as if it were silently searching every inch of him, as though choosing a target to attack.
After the stillness before the storm, the Soul Tribulation’s target was not the wounds of his abused childhood, nor his compassion for others.
His true weak point was betrayal.
The intense sense of betrayal he felt toward Wiseong, the teacher he had trusted and respected as a benefactor, who had deceived and used him, then killed his family and acquaintances.
“...”
Ise was startled.
He had never imagined the void within his soul would be connected to Ten Thousand Demons in Turmoil, Bi Hyeongrang.
No, it was closer to saying he had known, but chosen to dismiss it.
Of course, his anger toward the man was strong, but his sorrow for those he had lost had clearly been greater.
Had betrayal wounded his soul deeply enough to become the target, rather than loss?
Ise had no time to reflect.
Betrayal and rage swelled to monstrous proportions and swallowed his consciousness.
When he regained awareness, Ten Thousand Demons in Turmoil, Bi Hyeongrang, no, Wiseong, the shabby scholar from Aegul County, stood before him.
In an instant, rage surged through him as though his head would burst.
His senses dimmed, leaving only killing intent.
Wiseong.
An unforgivable enemy who had to be beaten to death.
He had to rise at once, kill the man, and tear out his throat.
He would kill him.
Without fail.
Ise rose.
Forgetting why he was standing there, he hurled primordial qi at his mortal enemy.
The primordial qi that flew out cut through Wiseong’s body.
The man’s form blurred, then reappeared a little farther away.
It was a motion that seemed to lure him onward, but Ise moved as if possessed.
He would never let him escape.
Ise’s primordial qi shot toward Bi Hyeongrang once more.
* * *
Watching this, Haeil let out a strangled cry.
“What?”
Ise had risen to his feet, his eyes unfocused as he stood there blankly.
Haeil immediately sensed that something had gone terribly wrong.
Ise turned and began walking north.
Haeil shouted on instinct.
“Get away!”
Whoosh!
Ise swung his hand, and primordial qi curved through the air at an angle.
Haeil immediately rushed forward and deployed a defensive spell art to block it.
Yet the bizarre primordial qi tore through even a Nascent Soul Realm great cultivator’s defensive spell art, splitting Haeil’s body in half.
Haeil restored their divided body at once and looked behind them.
Fortunately, the Mountain-Guarding Disciples who had thrown themselves aside the moment Haeil shouted were all unharmed.
“Everyone, stay back!”
Haeil ground their teeth and shouted again.
Primordial qi that could cut even primordial qi.
The Heaven-Demon Dual-Meridian Physique’s true power, so overwhelmingly aggressive that even those a major realm above Ise hesitated to face it.
If anyone touched that grotesque primordial qi, there would certainly be casualties.
‘Damn it, do I have to subdue him?’
The problem was that the Core Formation breakthrough rite was not over yet.
Haeil had come this far. Haeil only needed to take one more step.
The Soul Tribulation had only gone berserk near its end, and the spirit artifact in his robe had greatly weakened its intensity.
He should have been able to overcome this easily, yet he had been swallowed whole by the Soul Tribulation.
Apparently, the Soul Tribulation had come in a form he had never expected.
- Watch the situation a little longer. If he tries to leave the altar, subdue him then.
- All right, Senior.
After instructing the breakthrough guardians by voice transmission, Haeil evaded the successive waves of primordial qi Ise sent their way.
“Don’t waste your primordial qi, you little mudskipper! Aren’t you going to form your Golden Core?”
The moment Haeil roared, Ise’s fit stopped.
An unknown light burst from his body, and then he collapsed.
‘What the hell is that brat doing?’
* * *
Meanwhile, Ise was no less bewildered.
His consciousness had cut out for a moment. When he came to, he was some distance from the center of the altar where he had originally been.
He clearly remembered being caught in the Soul Tribulation, but it had somehow ended.
More accurately, it felt as though the Soul Tribulation had been suppressed by something, unable to move as it struggled.
Ise realized the cause.
That thing that had emerged whenever his soul was in danger.
The energy from the Dark Heaven Secret Realm had made its presence known again, wrapping around his soul.
It seemed this had protected his soul once more.
This was already the third time.
The unknown energy had saved his life three times.
He had gone beyond gratitude and begun to suspect it.
What exactly was this?
What kind of power could cause phenomena like these?
Could it be something planted by a power from a higher plane with some hidden intent?
It was like demanding someone hand over their bundle after they had pulled you from the water, but at this point, it was a reasonable suspicion.
Still, what mattered now was the breakthrough before him.
Ise activated the New Mind-Settling Mirror again and steadied his mindscape.
Only then did the suppressed Soul Tribulation gradually fade, as if it had given up.
Ise let out a long breath.
It had been a close call.
Hall Master Ahsan had said that one could only properly respond to the Soul Tribulation after experiencing it once. She had been right.
It had dug relentlessly into even the weak point he had not recognized himself, perhaps one he had deliberately ignored and shoved aside.
He felt that overcoming the Soul Tribulation had been entirely luck.
He could console himself by saying that the fortuitous encounter in the Dark Heaven Secret Realm was also his resource and ability, but the problem was that he had never accounted for it helping him form his Golden Core.
For someone who sought to prepare thoroughly, then overcome hardships through his own power, it was a reality that filled him with self-reproach.
‘So I’ve fallen into arrogance again.’
Ise readily admitted it.
He had been arrogant and impatient.
He had been swept up in his desire to advance quickly, take revenge on his enemies, and save his master, and had rushed ahead without realizing it.
He had thrown Senior Gong Wol-a’s advice, “Do not rush and do not grow impatient,” onto the ground and nearly ruined everything.
Remember this.
A cultivator must beware of bad karma, laziness, arrogance, and trouble with women.
“When the Soul Tribulation ends, combine essence, qi, and spirit into one, then refine the Golden Core.”
Recalling the annotation in the Two Principles Return-to-Origin Art, Ise moved his mist-like soul.
Once the Soul Tribulation had ended, he could move his soul according to his will.
From then on, everything proceeded smoothly.
He condensed his soul, primordial qi, and divine sense to their smallest extent, gathering them into one as he began to forge his Golden Core.
Then the unknown energy joined the Golden Core being formed.
It even felt as though the cultivation methods he had learned were merging into one to form the Golden Core.
Cultivation methods were not material things but insights, so that should have been impossible, yet that was how it felt.
‘So this is what it feels like when everything I’ve lived through comes together as one.’
At its center was primordial qi.
As primordial qi accepted everything he had accumulated, it began to display unique properties.
A vortex formed in the process.
The backlash from those energies swirling together in a complex tangle brought pain that felt as though his entire body were being torn apart.
He tensed for an instant, but the pain itself was bearable.
Compared to the many pains brought by the heavenly tribulation, this was nothing.
The vortex gradually began flowing in a fixed direction, slowly condensing and refining.
Soon, it gathered into a sphere and began to take on color.
A brilliant gold.
The energy, shining brightly enough to hurt his eyes, was still unstable.
Its surface rippled and constantly changed shape, scattering fine particles of light each time.
Still, he was certain that the process was progressing properly.
How much time passed?
He clearly sensed a fist-sized Golden Core, far smaller than the Dharma-Flower Dantian but containing an immense amount of condensed primordial qi.
It was a crystallized form in which spiritual energy and demonic qi no longer moved separately, having melted completely into a single primordial qi.
Ise slowly opened his eyes.
His vision cleared, and the world came into view.
Like a child taking their first steps, the movement of his body felt unfamiliar.
The internal qi transformed into primordial qi also felt unfamiliar.
Even moving a single finger felt as if he were learning anew.
Divine sense that had expanded another level.
Internal qi that had grown incomparably stronger.
And spirit sight that could see through the very essence of souls, beyond heaven-and-earth spiritual energy.
A world entirely different from what he had known unfolded before him.
The flow of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy drifting through the air was as clear as rivers, and he could see even the souls rippling within his companions’ bodies in the distance.
Contrary to his expectations, he had achieved this through a haphazard and forceful process, so he could not simply rejoice and say, ‘I did it anyway.’
He had succeeded, but in truth, it was a failure.
He had to temper himself with the thought that he had failed.
Only then could he prevent another failure next time.
Still, there was no question that he was moving forward.
No matter what twists and turns lay ahead.
It had been so until now, and it would remain so in the future.
As Ise rose, he suddenly staggered.
The spiritual essence pouring from his Golden Core was too powerful.
Energy he had failed to contain flowed out and split the ground with a crack.
Embarrassed by the sight of himself awkwardly bracing against the ground, he looked toward Haeil and the others.
They looked as though they wanted to rush over at once, but Haeil was stopping them.
- Stop leaking energy like a sick beast and contain it.
Ise had no strength to answer. He only nodded, then sat back down.
After spending an entire day containing his energy, Ise was finally able to stand properly.
It was still difficult to adapt to his Golden Core, but he had grown accustomed to it enough that he would not be consumed by the energy he emitted.
‘I’ll need to be careful for a while.’
It had taken time to adjust to divine sense at the Foundation Establishment Realm, but adapting to his Golden Core would likely require even more time.
It felt so unfamiliar that it would not have been wrong to call it rebirth.
When Ise began walking, those who had patiently waited for him finally rushed over with broad grins.
The 352nd year since the founding of the Great Exorcist Order.
At the tender age of fifty-five.
Ise had broken through to the Core Formation Realm.
Another Core Formation Realm great cultivator had been born in the Great Exorcist Order.
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