Returning Immortal

Chapter 40

Gwi Seongjin, who had woken from his sleep, looked down at his fingers.

It didn't seem like he had slept much, but his fatigue was almost gone.

The symptom of his fingers trembling had also disappeared...

Gwi Seongjin, who had gathered his strength again, grabbed the broken dagger and blew his spirit energy into it.

And the efficiency of digging the stone wall was very low.

After a long time.

Gwi Seongjin, who had thrown the broken dagger piece to the floor, fiddled with the Qiankun Pouch for no reason.

But no matter how much he searched with his spiritual sense, he couldn't find a useful tool.

Although he had the Thunder Cloud Sword, this sword refused to be injected with spirit energy, so he couldn't use it...

Still, thinking it would be better than nothing, Gwi Seongjin took out the Thunder Cloud Sword for now.

He had heard that the Thunder Cloud Sword was a divine object with a formed ego and was incomparably hard in the world.

That meant that it wouldn't break even if he didn't inject spirit energy.

Clang!

Thud!

But the limit of a sword without spirit energy was too clear.

Even if he struck with all his might, there were only small stone fragments.

The disappointed Gwi Seongjin picked up the dagger piece that had fallen on the floor and decided to use it again.

Gwi Seongjin, who had opened the Qiankun Pouch with his spirit energy, put the Thunder Cloud Sword into the sheath without hesitation.

But.

'Wh-what is this?'

Gwi Seongjin's body stopped as if frozen.

He had opened the Qiankun Pouch and had thrown the Thunder Cloud Sword in...

A single streak of fine spirit energy had come out from the sword and had been absorbed into his body.

'The spirit energy that flowed from the sword was clearly the spirit energy manifested from my body. Then does that mean that a part of the spirit energy I had injected to open the Qiankun Pouch had entered the Thunder Cloud Sword and had come out... It's absurd. I heard you can't even communicate with it unless you're at the third stage of Qi Refinement...'

The startled Gwi Seongjin hastily took out the Thunder Cloud Sword.

And when he attempted to inject his spirit energy, he was so surprised he almost fainted.

The spirit energy...

The Thunder Cloud Sword was accepting his spirit energy.

Gwi Seongjin, who had confirmed that it was possible to inject spirit energy into the sword, immediately attempted the communication ritual.

Communication was a ritual where a divine object chose its own master.

The fact that the Thunder Cloud Sword had accepted his spirit energy was the same as having already half-consented.

Gwi Seongjin, who had tried hard to calm his trembling heart, first placed the Thunder Cloud Sword on the floor.

And after picking up the dagger piece, he sat down and composed his qi and blood.

After a long time.

When Gwi Seongjin cut his finger with the dagger, a red drop of blood formed on the tip of his finger like a lotus flower.

It was his essence blood, generated from deep in his spine.

Drip.

When Gwi Seongjin dropped the drop of blood, the Thunder Cloud Sword greedily drank the essence blood. It had sucked it up in an instant, like cotton absorbing a drop of water.

When the Thunder Cloud Sword accepted his essence blood without hesitation, Gwi Seongjin's face lit up.

Essence blood was not just ordinary blood.

Now, even if they were far apart, he would be able to sense the sword's location, and it would respond to his commands much more familiarly.

Gwi Seongjin, who had injected his essence blood into the Thunder Cloud Sword, closed his eyes and blew his spiritual sense into the blade.

At that, a surprising thing happened.

Woooooong.

The Thunder Cloud Sword let out a clear sword cry, and a single streak of red lightning floated up on the blade.

Flash.

A red radiance flashed from the lightning and then disappeared in an instant.

Woooooong.

The ringing did not stop there.

The Thunder Cloud Sword vibrated, and a golden shadow was superimposed on the red lightning.

Then it disappeared as if by a lie, and as the sword shadow disappeared, a faint purple radiance seemed to appear.

Now, the last remaining communication ritual was the oath of pledge.

Gwi Seongjin, who had tried hard to calm his beating heart, asked the Thunder Cloud Sword.

[I am Gwi Seongjin. Will you accept me as your master?]

[Yes.]

[If you help me, I will also do my best to help your cultivation. I will be with you not only in the spirit realm, but also in the celestial realm.]

Woooooong!

Perhaps because it was pleased with Gwi Seongjin's answer, the Thunder Cloud Sword cried out clearly.

With this, the communication ritual was over, but Gwi Seongjin still had something to say.

[The name of the sword you are dwelling in is the Thunder Cloud Sword. But since you are a spirit born from the sword, I will call you 'Noea'. Is that okay?]

[Good.]

Noea answered with a happy voice.

Noea, whose ego had formed and whose spirit energy had even opened, was able to converse with Gwi Seongjin. But perhaps because its intelligence was still lacking, it only answered in short, simple sentences.

* * *

Swoosh!

When Gwi Seongjin injected his spirit energy into the Thunder Cloud Sword and swung it, a large piece of stone was cut like paper.

It was a power several times stronger than when he had injected his spirit energy into the black dagger.

It wasn't for nothing that cultivators regarded divine objects as the best.

Snip. Snip.

He had only swung the Thunder Cloud Sword a few times, but the rock wall in front was swept away in an instant.

Was there even half a chi left?

Gwi Seongjin, who was about to deliver the final blow, suddenly stopped his hand.

Then he suddenly sat down and looked at his own spirit platform with his spiritual sense.

It was because he had a somehow uneasy feeling.

When he looked into his spirit platform with his spiritual sense, there was one thing that had changed from before.

It was the ghost qi floating in the air.

The energy he had spat out after eating the evil ghost's primordial spirit and refining it in his body.

Gwi Seongjin, who was staring at it blankly, exerted a hand seal and pulled the ghost qi in the air down.

Even though he had refined it once in his body, the ghost qi did not listen to him readily.

Whoosh!

The ghost qi, which had been sluggishly sucked into his mouth, was refined once again in Gwi Seongjin's primordial spirit.

At that, the evil ghost's consciousness that had been buried in the ghost qi was cleanly purified.

One more time.

Gwi Seongjin sucked in the ghost qi that had gone up into the air and refined it again.

Only then did the ghost qi readily follow Gwi Seongjin's will.

He had a somehow uncomfortable feeling, and he had resolved it.

* * *

Gwi Seongjin, who had succeeded in purifying the ghost qi in his spirit platform, slowly stood up from his seat.

And he dug a hole in the stone wall with his Thunder Cloud Sword.

It was a width that he could barely get out of by twisting his body.

Gwi Seongjin, who had come out like that, cut a large rock and blocked the hole.

And after examining all directions with his spiritual sense, he went up the slope without delay.

Not a single ray of sunlight entered the crack in the rock wall.

Even so, Gwi Seongjin was sure that this place was connected to the ground.

It was because he could feel a fine but blowing wind brushing against his skin.

After climbing up the crack for a long time, a space that looked like a stone chamber appeared.

It was a natural cave that had not been touched by human hands.

When he went up a little further from there, the crack became so narrow that a person could not pass through.

In response, Gwi Seongjin widened the crack with his Thunder Cloud Sword.

After repeating the process of going up and down like that a few times, at some point, he began to see soil on the floor.

It was proof that the ground was getting closer.

Rumble.

As he was walking absentmindedly, the floor he had stepped on caved in and he was swept down into the ground.

Gwi Seongjin, who had barely escaped the danger by flying up, exerted his spiritual sense around the hole.

And he made a surprised expression.

It was because although there was clearly a space under the hole, it was not visible with his spiritual sense.

'Strange.'

The same went for when he exerted his spiritual sense again.

It wasn't that the space was absorbing or repelling his spiritual sense, but that the space was deceiving him.

'Shall I try going in?'

Although it could be dangerous, Gwi Seongjin decided to take a risk.

It was because he was curious about what was deceiving his spiritual sense.

Gwi Seongjin, who had pushed his body into the caved-in hole, revealed his body in a large cavity after a while.

Surprisingly, there were traces of humans left here.

In the center of the cave, a large, square stone table was placed with dignity, having endured the winds and waves of time.

Although something was placed on it, Gwi Seongjin did not rashly move his body.

Instead, he examined the entire cave with his spiritual sense.

Fortunately, his spiritual sense was exerted normally inside the cave.

There was no danger around the table.

But a pond made of stone on one side of the cave kept getting on his nerves.

A somehow unpleasant energy was flowing from there and was interfering with his spiritual sense.

The skull in front of it also felt somehow unpleasant...

Thud, thud!

Gwi Seongjin, who had sensed that there was no danger around the table, slowly walked to the center of the cave.

On the table were a stone plate and a blue jade plaque.

The surface of the stone plate was shining like glass, and in the middle, characters were written.

A strange phenomenon occurred as Gwi Seongjin turned his eyes to check the characters.

Moonlight flowed from the sky and shone on the stone plate.

Moonlight?

When Gwi Seongjin raised his head and looked at the sky, a small hole was drilled in the side of the cave.

As fate would have it, that place was also shining like glass.

Gwi Seongjin, who had lowered his gaze and had confirmed the characters on the stone plate, trembled as if in a seizure.

Northern Nether Divine Art.

It was the title of the book written on the stone plate.

Although the moonlight had disappeared after a while, the excitement Gwi Seongjin had felt did not easily disappear.

Although he had heard that the characters of the Northern Nether Divine Art would occasionally be seen on the cliff of the Black Dragon Cliff, he had not believed it.

He had just thought it was a legend.

But if the characters reflected in the moonlight like now were to fly to the cliff of the Black Dragon Cliff and be projected...

It was not a matter of believing or not believing, but the legend was becoming a fact.

There was no way the characters would be projected on the cliff every time the moon rose.

Even if the moonlight was reflected and entered the cave, the probability of it shining on the booklet was not very high.

Moreover, to satisfy the condition of a shadow being cast on the Black Dragon Cliff, the miracle would probably only appear once every few hundred years.

Phew!

Gwi Seongjin, who had let out a long breath and had calmed his excitement for a moment, placed his hand on the stone plate with the Northern Nether Divine Art written on it.

And as he was about to turn the page, he made a dumbfounded expression.

The stone plate was attached to the table.

There was only a cover and no back page.

Looking closely, it wasn't even attached.

It was just one body with the table.

Gwi Seongjin, who had tilted his head, exerted his spiritual sense with his hand on the stone plate.

After that, a smile formed on Gwi Seongjin's lips.

The stone plate was not a booklet.

But that didn't mean the characters of the Northern Nether Divine Art written on the outside were a lie.

Although it was not visible to the eye, the contents of the divine art were contained in the stone plate.

Gwi Seongjin, who was examining the pictures and characters inside the stone plate by projecting them with his spiritual sense, showed a look of difficulty.

It was because the content was so profound that he could not memorize it in one go.

Gwi Seongjin, who had been contemplating for a moment, flapped his sleeve, and the Thunder Cloud Sword was caught in his hand.

Swoosh!

Gwi Seongjin, who had injected his spirit energy into the Thunder Cloud Sword and had cut out the stone plate, put it into the Qiankun Pouch entirely.

Of course, he had reduced the size of the stone plate with his legal power before putting it into the Qiankun Pouch.

Gwi Seongjin's gaze, which had resolved the stone plate, this time turned to the jade plaque.

On the jade plaque was engraved the image of the highest god of Daoism, the Primordial Heaven Sovereign.

Gwi Seongjin, who had blown his spiritual sense into it, made a strange expression.

Like the ring-shaped legal tool that had been in the Qiankun Pouch, this too was repelling his spiritual sense.

Now, since his cultivation realm was too low, he couldn't even grasp its identity.

To put it another way, it meant that the jade plaque was not a low-level legal tool.

Believing that, Gwi Seongjin put the jade plaque into the Qiankun Pouch as well.

Gwi Seongjin, who had put all the treasures on the table into the Qiankun Pouch, looked around the cavity and then stopped his steps for a moment in front of the skull.

A single golden skull was placed empty on the crumbled bone powder.

The clothes he had worn in his lifetime had all rotted away, and there was not a single thing worth paying attention to around.

Although the fact that the skull was shining gold bothered him, Gwi Seongjin moved his steps towards the pond.

It was because he didn't want to waste his energy unnecessarily, as he was thinking of leaving right after examining the pond.

But Gwi Seongjin's brow, who was approaching the pond, furrowed without him realizing it.

It was because as he got closer to the pond, an unknown energy was pushing him away.

It was a barrier.

(End of Chapter)