Returning Immortal

Chapter 8 : Fortuitous Encounter

Waking from his faint, Gwi Seongjin realized his residence had changed.

It was the stone chamber on the first basement floor where he had previously stayed.

'What happened?'

Lying down, Gwi Seongjin retraced his memories.

His last memory was of talking back to the ill-tempered red-robed man and getting severely beaten, and then taking a pill from the old physician that was so painful he wanted to die.

'The pill!'

Sitting up abruptly, Gwi Seongjin took a cross-legged position and carefully controlled his breathing.

Then, he trembled slightly.

It was because he had sensed that the internal energy accumulated in his dantian had increased.

The cause, needless to say, was the pill.

Calming his mind, Gwi Seongjin used his consciousness to guide the internal energy from his dantian into his meridians.

As expected, all the blocked acupoints were released.

Moreover, it flowed freely and smoothly.

There was no obstruction in the flow at all.

Phew!

Gwi Seongjin, who had successfully completed one heavenly cycle, let out a long breath.

At that, the lumps blocking his chest were expelled, and his chest felt refreshed.

To savor this feeling, Gwi Seongjin performed twelve heavenly cycles in a row.

Then, he discovered that his meridians had become stronger and wider than before.

Grumble...

Suddenly feeling hungry, Gwi Seongjin called for Adjutant Cheok and requested something to eat.

And he learned a surprising fact.

The fact that he had been unconscious for three days.

Why?

He was curious about the reason, but nothing came to mind.

He could only vaguely infer that something had happened in the process of unblocking his sealed acupoints.

About half a shichen after eating.

Gwi Seongjin, who happened to look at his toes, once again's eyes shot open.

The toenails that Adjutant Cheok had pulled out from the roots had recovered to their normal state.

'Huh! Even the toenails...?'

It was an unbelievable change from just taking one pill.

Gwi Seongjin, who had taken off his shirt and discovered that even the whip marks had faded, got dressed, came down from the bed, and took a strange posture.

It was the basic stance of the martial art called the Stance of the Black Tortoise, one of the ultimate techniques of the Ghost Valley Sect.

The Black Tortoise was one of the four divine beasts, a form in which a tortoise and a snake were intertwined.

Nine Palaces.

Swish! Swish!

As Gwi Seongjin performed the forms, the characteristics of the two divine beasts were clearly revealed in his movements.

His steps were heavy and stable like a tortoise, and his hand movements were fast and agile like a snake.

And it was strange.

When he twisted his inverted body, his arms shot out, bending like threads, and it was difficult to guess their direction.

Nine Palaces. Nine Palaces.

The tortoise was slow yet seemed endlessly profound...

Swoosh!

The snake rode over the tortoise and continued its marvelous offense.

It was a movement so strange it didn't seem like a martial art of the mortal world, and yet it was somehow difficult to approach.

Half a shichen later.

Gwi Seongjin, who had worked up a pleasant sweat, sat on the edge of the bed with a light-hearted gesture.

Perhaps because his meridians had widened, his body movements were much lighter than before.

It wasn't just a little better.

It felt as if his body had become several times lighter than the miraculous increase in his internal energy.

At this rate, it seemed he could even perform the Stance of the White Tiger, which he couldn't learn before because his internal energy was low.

The White Tiger was a spiritual beast that controlled the wind.

He had heard that if you completely mastered the Stance of the White Tiger, you could perform shapeshifting.

But it seemed he had to postpone practicing the Stance of the White Tiger for a while.

The strange sensation he had felt in his body just now while performing the Stance of the Black Tortoise...

He wasn't sure, but it seemed to be spirit energy.

Taking a cross-legged position, Gwi Seongjin calmed his mind and then looked at his upper dantian with his spiritual sense.

Spiritual sense was a special ability that could only be obtained after forming spirit energy, a kind of sensing ability.

A cultivator could use this to sense objects from afar or check the cultivation level of others.

However, they couldn't see through the inside of a living being, but their own body was an exception.

Gwi Seongjin, who looked at his own upper dantian with his spiritual sense, was startled.

Since Gwi Seongjin had only recently formed spirit energy, it was normal for his upper dantian to have very little spirit energy.

But now, his upper dantian contained quite a lot of spirit energy.

Gwi Seongjin, who had stopped his spiritual sense for a moment in surprise, came to his senses and focused on his spiritual sense again.

Then, he discovered that he had reached the mid-stage of the second stage of Qi Refinement, where Spirit and Body Unity was possible.

Gwi Seongjin made a blank expression.

Only a few days had passed since he had fainted, but in that time, his spirit energy had increased significantly, and his realm had also risen by more than one stage.

What had happened during that time?

He hurriedly looked at his middle dantian, but there was no big change there.

The earth-attribute true qi was still insufficient, and not a single point of fire-attribute true qi could be found.

Gwi Seongjin, who had tilted his head and moved his spiritual sense to the side, discovered a strand of spirit energy hidden near his heart.

It was the area where he had felt a strange sensation while performing the Stance of the Black Tortoise.

With his eyes half-open, Gwi Seongjin thought for a long time, then a strange smile formed on his lips, and he drew the spirit energy from his heart to his upper dantian according to the incantation recorded in the Primordial Chaos Art.

Whoosh.

The spirit energy scattered like mist and instantly flowed into his upper dantian.

Gwi Seongjin sat and calmly organized his thoughts.

Spirit energy was the energy used by immortals to perform their martial prowess, and its profundity and superiority were such that there were few things in the mortal world that could compare.

But cultivating spirit energy and raising one's realm was no ordinary task.

In the case of the Qi Refinement stage, which consisted of twelve stages, it was known that it took 3 to 10 years to raise one stage up to the ninth stage, and 20 to 50 years from the tenth stage onwards.

However, there could be no set limits in the world of cultivation.

There was a cultivator who had raised his realm by three stages right after eating an unknown fruit, and there was even a legend that a certain cultivator had obtained a once-in-a-thousand-years fortuitous encounter and formed a golden core directly from the seventh stage of Qi Refinement.

So the achievement he had obtained was not an inexplicable event, and Gwi Seongjin decided to accept the current reality for now.

Of course, he would find out the cause.

In the case of the first stage of Qi Refinement, where one creates the upper dantian and accumulates spirit energy there, there was no other way to utilize the spirit energy other than spiritual sense, but in the second stage, where one could draw the spirit energy out of the upper dantian, the applications of spirit energy were endless.

By removing waste products from the body with spirit energy and activating the five viscera and six bowels, not only is one's lifespan extended, but the blood is purified and the muscles and bones are strengthened, increasing strength and agility.

Moreover, if you infuse spirit energy into your fists or blades and wield them, you can even compete with a peak master.

On top of that, the five senses are enhanced and even the spiritual sense is greatly increased, so it is incomparable to the first stage of Qi Refinement.

The first thing Gwi Seongjin, who had increased his cultivation and become able to freely use spirit energy, did was to heal his poisoned body.

Looking with his spiritual sense, the Gu was, as expected, located deep within his brain.

It was known that Gu had a very strong life force and did not die easily, but Gwi Seongjin was confident he could kill the Gu with spirit energy.

However, the place where the Gu was located was such a dangerous area that he couldn't attack it rashly.

Besides, if the Gu in his head died, the ones who had poisoned him would also know this fact...

He had no choice but to postpone dealing with the Gu for a little while.

However, he could not leave the deadly poison unattended.

Although he was preventing sudden death by periodically taking an antidote, if detoxification was possible, there was no reason not to heal his body.

Immediately circulating the Primordial Chaos Art, Gwi Seongjin spread the spirit energy widely throughout his body according to the cultivation method.

And he guided the spirit energy to the poisoned area and first drew out the poison energy from his body.

As time passed, a foul smell began to flow out of the room where Gwi Seongjin was staying.

The smell grew stronger as time went on, and by the next morning, the room was filled with a rotten stench.

Gwi Seongjin, who had washed his body and changed into new clothes in the morning, checked his abilities once more after finishing his meal.

As a result of circulating his qi all night yesterday, he could see that more than half of the poison energy had disappeared.

Moreover, his ability to operate spirit energy had improved surprisingly.

Now he could easily and quickly move the spirit energy from his upper dantian to the desired part of his body.

The other ability to note was his spiritual sense.

After reaching the second stage of Qi Refinement, Gwi Seongjin's spiritual sense had improved by leaps and bounds.

His spiritual sense, which could only see about half a zhang before, could now sense a whopping seven zhang.

The one most surprised by the rapid progress of his spiritual sense was Gwi Seongjin himself.

It was because he knew that the spiritual power used to deploy spiritual sense increased at a very slow rate.

Spiritual power was the energy that the soul residing in the spiritual altar had transformed from the divine qi drawn from the spirit energy in the upper dantian into the Dao.

A soul with spiritual power was promoted to a primordial spirit, and through this, spiritual sense and magical arts were possible, so the true divine ability of a cultivator could be said to be spiritual power.

However, it was by no means easy for a cultivator to accumulate spiritual power in the lower realm.

It was because the divine qi, which is the basis of spiritual power, was contained in too small an amount in the primordial qi of heaven and earth.

The ability of the soul to transform divine qi into spiritual power was also the same.

Unless one's Dao root was deep?

A cultivator who was not like that could not properly transform the divine qi into spiritual power even if it flowed into their upper dantian.

This was the reason why immortal sects emphasized the Dao root along with the spirit root attribute when selecting disciples.

In any case, the fact that his spiritual sense had become stronger meant that his soul had already transformed into a primordial spirit and his spiritual power had also increased.

However, right now, there was not a single magical art Gwi Seongjin could use other than spiritual sense.

It was because he didn't have any of the tools needed to perform magical arts, such as talismans or magical artifacts.

* * *

"Has Gwi Seongjin woken up?"

Ne Jinja asked Academician Yu from the head of the table.

"He woke up last night, and I heard he has been circulating his qi and regulating his breathing ever since."

"Is that so? Academician Yu, what do you think is the reason he was unconscious for three days?"

"The exact reason has not been determined yet. However, it seems to be related to the Raging Fire Divine Lord."

"You said the Raging Fire Divine Lord couldn't control his anger while unblocking Gwi Seongjin's acupoints and went berserk?"

"That's right. He was restless and rampaged as if his true qi had been stolen. He even tried to kill Gwi Seongjin."

"A strange event. Considering his martial arts realm, the possibility of his internal energy being stolen by Gwi Seongjin should be nonexistent... What did Physician Zhang say?"

"Physician Zhang took Gwi Seongjin's pulse and said he did not find any traces of Scorching Yang Qi in his dantian."

"Then that can't be the reason... Then why was he so agitated?"

Tap, tap, tap.

While Ne Jinja was tapping the table with his fingernails and pondering, the man sitting to his left carefully opened his mouth.

He was a man with a disproportionately large face for his build.

"Vice Director! Could it be that the Raging Fire Divine Lord was playing a trick?"

"A trick?"

"That's right. I understand that when the Cult Leader ordered the Raging Fire Divine Lord to unblock Gwi Seongjin's acupoints, he explained the general situation. In that case, he would also know that we will be visiting the absolute forbidden zone soon. Recalling the legend that ancient divine weapons and world-shaking martial arts are hidden in the forbidden zone, there is also the possibility that he played this shallow trick to imprint on people the image that he had sacrificed something in the process of unblocking Gwi Seongjin's acupoints."

"Hmm. In short, you're saying he put on a false act to create an excuse to participate in this operation. Then how would you explain the reason Gwi Seongjin woke up late?"

"The later Gwi Seongjin wakes up, the higher the possibility that the Raging Fire Divine Lord will join this operation. Not only will he have more time to persuade the Cult Leader, but if it is judged that there is a problem with Gwi Seongjin's body, our Dark Spirit Council will try to have the Raging Fire Divine Lord, the party involved in the incident, participate in the operation. If he was aiming for this and the Divine Lord tampered with Gwi Seongjin so that he would wake up late... considering his martial arts realm, it would not be easy to notice."

"Hearing that, it could be possible. What do you think, Academician Yu?"

"My thoughts are a little different."

"How so?"

At the Vice Director's question, Academician Yu looked at the small man opposite him.

An ugly man with a large head on a small body.

Although his appearance was shabby, he was none other than Academician Qiu, who was said to be second to none in the Dark Spirit Council when it came to conspiracies and schemes, except for the Director and Vice Director.

"From what I witnessed, the Raging Fire Divine Lord's behavior while unblocking Gwi Seongjin's acupoints was by no means a fabricated or exaggerated act. Besides, the Raging Fire Divine Lord is not the type of person to plot conspiracies or schemes. I heard that he has never once accomplished anything through conspiracies or schemes."

At Academician Yu's words, Academician Qiu immediately retorted.

"They say you can know the depth of ten fathoms of water, but not the heart of a single man. And you shouldn't judge a person based only on their past actions. You should also keep in mind the possibility that although he was explosive in the past, his personality may have changed now..."

"Aren't there also consistent people like you?"

Academician Yu said sarcastically to the pessimist and conspiracy theorist, Academician Qiu.

It meant that one shouldn't drive everything into a conspiracy.

"Is that a compliment?"

"Think as you please."

"Hmph!"

Academician Qiu's eyes narrowed.

At that, the ugly Academician Qiu's face became even uglier.

(End of Chapter)