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◈ Xianxia Cultivation with a Dragon Heart ◈

Chapter 35: The Five Elements Sect Ruins, Behind the Rock

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Han Yujin was able to explain just how serious this incident was without revealing his awakened ability.

Thanks to the spectacular blunder they had made.

Had they not proven for him that they handled the unsettling beings known as ghosts, that those ghosts were far from weak and extremely dangerous, and that they were more insidious than ordinary drug crime organizations, enough to identify and retaliate against an informant whose identity had never been revealed?

'They seem to have deliberately sent a Koryoin fluent in Korean, but they probably never expected them to shout Beijing as they died.'

They had likely believed that if the mission succeeded, no information would leak, while if it failed, the hitman would die on their own, likewise preventing any leak.

With ghosts having never been exposed in the first place, they could not possibly have expected the hitman to be subdued in so little time and interrogated with incisive questions probing the crucial points.

Normally, it certainly would have been an impossible situation. But once it became known that the target of the attack was an S-Rank Hunter, everything began to make sense.

Of course, the current situation might not be fatal to the Church of the Goddess of Eternity.

They had been exposed as a special ability-related crime organization that handled ghosts rather than an ordinary drug crime organization, and their connection to Beijing had been revealed, however uncertainly. But since they were already wanted as an international drug crime organization, it might not make much difference.

Still, Han Yujin once again focused on the fact that they had specifically sent an assassin after him.

Was their purpose truly simple revenge? Or did they want to learn why they had been discovered, putting certain concerns to rest or preparing for them?

If it was the latter, simply launching a full-scale investigation on this side might provoke them greatly. If they panicked, there was a good chance this side would obtain additional clues.

'And that is something the South Korean government should handle well, not me.'

He was now an S-Rank Hunter.

Even setting every other reason aside, a key national asset had been attacked in the middle of the city. That was no minor matter. It should be more than enough reason for the government's intelligence agencies to move.

In any case.

Once all the important matters had been covered, including a few additional statements, the case officer suggested moving him to one of their safe houses. Having already been attacked once, they apparently believed it could happen a second or third time.

After a brief explanation of the safe house, Han Yujin accepted right away without much thought.

Contrary to the image people usually associated with safe houses, it was a premium apartment right in the heart of Seoul, incredibly expensive, difficult for outsiders to access, and extremely secure when it came to privacy.

He was only a little uneasy about his identity having been discovered. When he expressed that concern, the case officer told him to trust them, promising there would be no information leak this time.

So he decided to trust them once.

Information on an informant in a case where the need for secrecy was unclear would not be handled the same way as information on a safe house that had to remain absolutely secret. They were not the CIA, after all. Surely even this information would not be stolen.

Since it was late, the S-Rank verification was postponed until tomorrow.

Unfortunately, that meant he had to cancel the planned Rift training. That was unfortunate because it had been a chance to use Divine Sense to observe Awakened using their abilities up close on multiple occasions.

What could be so unusual about the Spiritual Roots of people on Earth that awakened abilities existed?

He was very curious, but this would not be his only opportunity, so he could let it go with only a little regret. Life was full of unexpected variables, and plans always changed.

It was deep into the night when he returned to his studio apartment.

After giving Muyong, who had been bored alone, a thorough petting, he held her in his arms, gathered only his valuable belongings, and headed outside. Naturally, he was bound for the safe house they had provided.

'To think I'd end up staying in a safe house.'

Despite going there because he had been attacked, he did not feel particularly burdened. That was because he had confidence in his own strength.

Using Concealment Art to its fullest while carefully sweeping his surroundings with Divine Sense, he moved swiftly like a ghost.

Even if there was a second assassin, they would not be able to track him.

* * *

The entrance to a completely desolate mountain range.

Withered, dead trees filled the land, while cracked earth and a gloomy sky combined to create an overwhelming sense of utter apocalypse.

This was his third visit to the Eternal Continent After the End of the Dharma. As Han Yujin climbed the mountain path toward the Five Elements Sect, he briefly reflected.

'I came a little earlier than I meant to...'

Under normal circumstances, he would have come later. Probably after finishing the preliminary Hunter training and successfully receiving his S-Rank evaluation. He had wanted to avoid feeling as though the momentum of his life in reality were being interrupted.

But now that an attack had occurred, this was no time to delay what needed doing for such a trivial reason.

He needed to choose the cultivation method he would train in from now on, and he needed a magical artifact that could immediately increase his combat strength. The mid-to-high-grade Five Elements Sword alone was no longer quite enough.

He had not brought Muyong on this visit.

After checking on her sleeping deeply and completely unconscious in that empty Waiting Area, he decided it would be better to leave her asleep there.

'Even if I brought her here, the desolation would only make her suffer.'

There was no spiritual energy here, so despite being a Dharma Soul Stage cultivator, he had to eat. If he brought her along, he would have to share his spirit liquid wine with her, shortening the time he could stay here.

So leaving her there was the right choice. He only had to endure a little loneliness himself.

In truth, he wondered whether he would even have time to feel lonely. Just reading the Jade Slips in the Scripture Pavilion of the Inner Sect Area would surely keep him incredibly busy.

'Should I check out the area blocked by that rock first?'

As he passed through the Outer Sect Area and headed straight for the Inner Sect Area, he considered it briefly.

Now that he had grown proficient in Earth Escape Art, passing through that ridiculously hard rock would be easy. Depending on what he found inside, the priorities for this visit might change.

'Rather than pointlessly holding back my curiosity, it would be better to satisfy it and concentrate.'

It was the only part of the Five Elements Sect ruins he had yet to explore.

Unable to overcome his curiosity, he headed for the rock as soon as he reached the Inner Sect Area. Upon arriving, he placed a hand on it and activated Earth Escape Art.

His body turned into a pale light and seeped into the rock. After moving roughly five or six meters, he emerged into the space on the other side.

'That was easy.'

The rock was absurdly sturdy, but after enduring the End of Dharma Calamity, it contained no spiritual energy at all. Thanks to that, he passed through it with ease.

'If it held spiritual energy proportional to its durability, I would not have even been able to try.'

As he thought this, he surveyed the scene inside. It was utterly dark without a trace of light, but that posed no problem for someone who had awakened not only Spirit Vision Art but Divine Sense as well.

It was quite a peculiar place.

He could not tell what sort of atmosphere it had possessed in the past, but it seemed as though a small residential area had been built for particularly important people even within the Inner Sect Area. At the same time, there was a building with an extremely bleak appearance on one side, making the place somewhat confusing.

He only had to inspect it all one by one.

Without any particular hurry, Han Yujin intended to search the buildings around the edges first. Just before entering one of them, however, he spotted a strange scene spread across what appeared to be a central plaza and headed that way.

When he arrived, he found exactly twelve cultivator skeletons lying about in dharma robes. The robes had only a faintly worn look despite all the time that had passed, while their shape remained intact, telling him much.

This truly seemed to be a place where people of high status had stayed. The entrance might have been sealed, but it made no sense from any angle for prisoners to be wearing such clothes.

At the center of the plaza, surrounded by the cultivator skeletons, sat a watermelon-sized spherical metal object resting on a translucent jade stand.

Aside from the dust that had accumulated on it, the sphere blended gold and silver in a gorgeous, beautiful display. It was not merely colored beautifully, either. It was an embossed work of art that elegantly depicted a secret realm containing mountains and seas.

Han Yujin's Divine Sense examined every clue, including the sphere and the cultivator skeletons surrounding it. His improved intellect produced several plausible hypotheses without him even needing to concentrate.

It even drew forth a trivial bit of information buried in the corner of his memory and successfully combined it with the rest.

'...A Mountain and Sea Pearl?'

He felt both disbelief and excitement.

Mountain and Sea Pearl was likely not its official name, but it referred to a Grotto-Heaven treasure that high-ranking cultivators might use. In fantasy terms, it was a spacious and highly useful pocket-dimension artifact that people could enter and live in.

'Could it be a Grotto-Heaven treasure? Really?'

There was not a single clear clue, but he had a feeling. The way the nearby cultivator skeletons were scattered about made it look as though they had all been thrown out of this treasure at once.

As far as he knew, the usefulness of a Grotto-Heaven treasure was extraordinary. Since the basic requirement was the existence of a spiritual vein carrying spiritual energy within it, it was not used merely as a residence or warehouse.

One could cultivate every kind of spirit plant inside, or release and raise several types of spirit beasts there. One could also freely install all manner of useful equipment that would otherwise be difficult to move.

For example, an alchemy furnace that used complex, intricate formation arrays to kindle special flames, or an artifact-refining platform that was similarly bulky and incorporated delicate formation arrays.

If the Grotto-Heaven treasure was of high grade, its dense internal spiritual energy would be a great help in cultivation. One could benefit from that density of spiritual energy simply by owning it, without even having to enter it.

'I want it...!'

An unavoidable desire for possession quietly but intensely bloomed within him. It was much like how ordinary people felt the desire to own a home when they saw a fine house.

It would certainly require an enormous amount of Karma to restore it and select it as his harvest. Even so, Han Yujin first brushed the dust from the metal sphere and put it into his Storage Pouch.

Though it had no weight inside the Storage Pouch, he somehow felt as if it had become immensely heavy.

Slightly excited, he inspected his surroundings once more. Then, following a faint trace he probably would never have found without Divine Sense, he began to move.

The trace led to the bleakest rectangular building in this cave.

Hoping it would contain something as special as its incongruous appearance, he stepped inside, then froze at the sight of the completely wrecked interior.

The first thing that caught his attention was a black, ancient flag planted atop a platform at the center, seemingly the cause of the devastation. All kinds of metal and jade pillars stood around it in a regular pattern, suggesting that an extremely formidable art-formula restriction had once been deployed there.

'What is this?'

It should have completely lost its power during the End of Dharma Calamity, yet it still seemed to exude an extraordinary air.

He wondered where he had felt something similar before, then realized it resembled the feeling he had received from the Five Elements True Spirit Boulder, the Heaven-Connecting Spirit Treasure on the top floor of the Artifact Refining Pavilion in the Inner Sect Area.

'I want it...!'

He clearly lacked the Karma. Yet Han Yujin still approached, his hand trembling slightly as he grasped the pole of the jet-black flag.

He had thought his material desires had vanished after entering the path of immortality, but before objects like these, he simply could not restrain himself. Its exceptionally cool appearance made it even worse than it had been with the Five Elements True Spirit Boulder.

'Karma...! I don't have enough Karma...!'

Holding the flagpole, he lamented inwardly again and again.

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