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◈ Xianxia Cultivation with a Dragon Heart ◈

Chapter 14: Exploring the Five Elements Sect Ruins Again

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At the foothills of a mountain range that felt utterly desolate.

All he could see were withered, twisted trees. He could not tell whether they were dead or alive, and naturally, there were no insects or animals in sight either.

The sky was gloomy and ash-gray despite the lack of clouds. The ground was cracked as though it had suffered a long drought and seemed beyond recovery.

‘Ugh...’

This was the Eternal Continent After the End of the Dharma, which he had returned to after becoming an entry-stage cultivator.

The overwhelming emptiness and dryness that he had not noticed while ordinary made him shudder.

Even reality, where he had been moments ago, had felt extremely barren because its spiritual energy density barely exceeded one-tenth that of the primeval forest. Compared to this place, though, reality was paradise.

He could not sense even a trace of spiritual energy.

Even if a soul could generate spiritual energy on its own, there was no way to replenish it afterward in a place like this.

It was like using up one's stamina by moving, while having no water or food at all to recover it.

‘There really is no water or food, either.’

Everything that had once served as food must have been unable to reproduce any longer, slowly dying out.

An extremely scarce amount of spiritual energy and a complete absence of it were matters on entirely different levels. A soul, an essential component of life, might contain only a minute amount of spiritual energy, but it could not lack it altogether.

And spiritual energy filling the world ultimately came from the cosmic flow of the Primordial Chaos Realm.

This phenomenon could occur only when a world had completely fallen out of that flow. That meant it had become one of the most barren environments in the entire universe.

Anything that could survive and thrive there would inevitably be powerful on a cosmic scale.

Before he knew it, he was already climbing the mountain path toward the Five Elements Sect ruins.

He did not use an art like the Wind-Cloud Art. He used only the physical strength he had gained from becoming a cultivator. He did not know when he might need spiritual energy, so he could not waste it for momentary convenience.

A little later.

Because he had not rested even once, he reached the Five Elements Sect ruins more quickly. Feeling only slightly tired, he searched through his memories and began exploring.

That was how he found the Scripture Pavilion he had discovered during his first visit.

He vividly remembered having already examined it and was about to pass by. Then he noticed that its door was closed and stopped.

‘...Did I close the door when I left?’

No matter how much he thought about it, he had no memory of doing that.

Without further thought, he pushed open the rotten, tattered door and entered. As soon as he stepped inside and took a few steps forward, the door, its durability finally exhausted, fell off and tumbled across the floor.

‘I opened it very carefully back then.’

He had been nothing more than an ordinary human then, and he had just suffered terribly in the world of demon followers. Naturally, he had been cautious about everything.

That made it even less likely that he would have deliberately closed a door in such an old, unstable state.

After looking around the interior once, he finally became certain.

‘There isn't a single trace of my visit.’

No one could have cleaned the place up. That meant this was a point in time before he had visited.

“Ha.”

He did not hold back the laugh that rose reflexively.

It seemed absurd, but he had somehow felt that it might be possible. His awakened ability really could select and visit a particular time in the world he wanted!

‘Does that mean I can keep returning to it like this, as many times as I want?’

It became clear that he could reunite with that useless little beast.

More importantly, if something displeased him in the future, he could rewind it and try again as many times as he wanted.

The ability seemed so overpowered that it was almost worrying.

Just what was he that he had awakened such an incredible ability? Did a past life truly exist? Had he saved the world back then? Or was it simply luck?

‘I don't know.’

He had considered similar questions before, but the conclusion was always the same. He knew too little to reach a proper answer. For now, there was no downside, so he only needed to make good use of it.

The option of not using it because of some potential danger was not worth even a second of consideration.

‘Come to think of it, I can restore harvests, too.’

Since he had not known that before, he had not properly examined books that were badly damaged. This time, it seemed he would have to inspect them all.

‘But before that...’

It was good to examine everything, but he had to consider that the spiritual energy he could use was limited, and thus the time he could survive here was limited as well.

He should begin with the more important places where he was certain to gain something.

He immediately left the Scripture Pavilion and headed for the inner sect area. As he went, he looked over the ruined Five Elements Sect from a new perspective.

Thinking of the many cultivators who must have once come and gone through this place when it had been intact and clean, he suddenly felt the urge to revisit this world at that point in time.

How prestigious had the Five Elements Sect been? How remarkable had the cultivators who lived and breathed here been?

‘If I really visited that era...’

As he indulged in the fantasy for a moment, he quickly reached the inner sect area.

Simply moving his body made him realize anew just how much stronger he had become compared to when he was ordinary.

Without needing to think deeply, he headed for the valley where the inner sect members' cave abodes were located. Once there, he casually swept his gaze over the surrounding scenery before heading into a nearby cave abode.

During his previous visit, he had been unable to see through the darkness and could only examine the area around the entrance. This time was different.

Light seemed to flash in Han Yujin's eyes as he ventured deep into the cave. Casting the Spirit Vision Art, he examined the inside without being hindered by the darkness at all.

It was wider than he had expected. If he had forced his way deeper inside back then, he might have gotten lost. And if he had fallen and struck something while wandering around, it would have hurt quite a bit.

‘Is this what they call the passage of time?’

The layout he figured out while entertaining such idle thoughts was roughly as follows.

First, there was a living space that seemed intended for resting or receiving guests. Farther inside was a cultivation space with a meditation cushion so worn that it could not possibly have decayed any further. There were also three separate areas whose purposes were unclear.

The cave abode's owner's skeleton lay atop the central meditation cushion in the cultivation room. It appeared that they had closed their eyes for the last time in the place where they had spent the most time.

Feeling vaguely sorry for no reason, Han Yujin gave a small bow before examining the skeleton and the belongings around it.

Perhaps because the Storage Pouch had already broken, he found nothing useful other than a Five Elements Sword.

‘You can't fill your belly with the first bite.’

He left the cave abode and continued exploring the others.

Along the way, he encountered once more the skeleton of the cultivator who had died near an entrance and gifted him the Five Elements Sword, Spirit-Liquid Flask, and Storage Pouch.

Since this was a point in time before his visit, the three magical artifacts he had selected as harvests were still there.

Han Yujin looked at his own Five Elements Sword and Storage Pouch, confirming a new piece of information.

‘If I can keep visiting a particular point in time in one world, I can choose objects there as harvests more than once.’

He only had to bear the karma cost. That was extremely valuable information.

After paying his respects with another brief moment of silence, he resumed exploring the cave abodes.

His gains after exploring every cave abode were somewhat underwhelming.

One umbrella-shaped magical artifact that seemed intended for defense.

One extremely sharp, awl-shaped offensive magical artifact.

One rope-shaped magical artifact that had snapped and was broken.

Three accessory-type magical artifacts, such as rings and bracelets, whose uses were unknown.

One box containing tools, including brushes that seemed intended for talisman arts.

Several metal fragments whose identities and uses he could not guess.

And finally, many powerless stones that had likely once been spirit stones.

‘A few of these are surely useful, but...’

He could not help feeling dissatisfied.

In truth, he could somewhat guess why there was nothing else.

When the End of the Dharma disaster struck, all objects aside from the bare minimum needed for self-defense would have lost their original value. Most would have been traded for food or used up long ago.

‘Knowledge really is the only harvest I can obtain intact in this world.’

With that thought, he gave the valley that had likely been home to the inner sect members one last look, then left.

It was time to explore the places on difficult terrain that he had been forced to pass by before.

* * *

Perhaps he was lucky, or perhaps it had originally been built close to the residences, but he quickly found the Scripture Pavilion that the inner sect members had likely used. It was a lonely building constructed atop a sheer cliff.

When he landed in front of it using the Wind-Cloud Art, he saw that its exterior was remarkably intact compared to the buildings in the outer sect area. It surely had not been built with ordinary materials.

After opening the door and stepping inside, he found the objects within surprisingly well-preserved, which pleased him greatly.

But shortly afterward, he had no choice but to stop.

‘What is this...?’

More than half the objects on the shelves were not books. They were small, thin, long rectangular plates of jade linked together and rolled up, then completely fused in that rolled state so they could not be opened.

They looked like bamboo slips made of jade rather than bamboo, rolled up and compressed into a small size.

‘So this is a jade slip.’

In other words, it was a cultivator's book. It was small and light enough to hold comfortably between two fingers, yet contained a vast amount of information. He had also heard that the jade used to make it was no ordinary material, making it extremely durable.

But what mattered now was that not just anyone could read a jade slip.

When cultivators reached the Dharma Soul stage, they gained a new and higher spiritual sense called Divine Sense. Only through Divine Sense could they read jade slips.

‘I need to come back later.’

With a sigh, he accepted the unavoidable fact and began examining the remaining objects that took the form of books.

The disappointment he had briefly felt quickly melted away.

The first book he picked up had an extraordinary title: Five Elements Celestial Escape Art. The contents he opened with great anticipation naturally made his eyes widen and his heart pound.

It was the Five Elements Sect's highest-grade movement art, a magnificent and precious spell art that combined the escape arts of the five elements, fire, lightning, wind, water, and earth. Mentioning it in the same breath as something like the Wind-Cloud Art would have been an insult.

‘If I learn this, I'll be able to move freely underwater.’

And that was not all.

If he mastered it perfectly, no cultivator of the same realm would dare hope to keep up with him. It was not merely fast. It would also let him pass freely through every state of matter represented by the five elements.

Naturally, such a spell art could not be learned easily. Memorizing it alone seemed likely to take an enormous amount of time.

With slightly trembling hands, he returned the book made from some unknown leather to its place. Then he picked up the book beside it and examined it.

Its title was extraordinary as well.

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