[Ding! Dong! Congratulations host for reaching the next Major Realm. Your future is unfathomable, cause and effect bow down to you. No one can stand in your path to greatness. Your harem will be of ten thousand women and you won't need to remember their names.]
[Ding! Dong! Congratulations host on receiving the 'Breakthrough Pack, level 2.']
[Ding! Dong! Because you broke through a major realm, the system was upgraded to the next level and your daily rewards will tend to be of a higher grade than before.]
Hot, dense, and energetic, the energy coursing through his being was like gigantic waterfalls crashing down from the highest abyss. Still, everything flowed in a strangely kept and beautiful rhythm.
Ji-Yoon didn't hurry, though, but kept closed his eyes, sensing everything that could be sensed, trying to comprehend everything he could.
Even after being ejected from the tribulation plane, he just stood laying on the old, rocky ground, not caring about his nakedness.
After his realm leveled up, he felt as if some huge, sturdy shackles that restrained his soul shattered. His mind seemed to have broken free from the small well and jumped out to see the whole world.
It wasn't about IQ or anything similar, but something much more intrinsic, it was about his life level/plane.
Ji-Yoon's mind began to wander willy-nilly through his consciousness and body flow. He suddenly felt that his flow was so insignificant by itself when compared to the world's that it could be simply said to be non-significant.
Deep into his heart, a desire to have such a strong flow surged like a volcano's explosive eruption. He wanted to have the capacity to impact the world and be an existence impossible to be ignored, he wanted to be important.
At the same time, reality showed harshness to him. The more he comprehended the flow the more he felt and understood how living beings are unable to do anything about it.
'Changing one's destiny? Being immortal? Aren't those the cultivator's goals?' he asked to himself, 'Those desires only show me how ridiculous our ambitions can be.
'Let the world end, but the world will still be reborn, let all its laws change, it will still have its own flow. We can only see, not change.'
Memories started to flash, his previous life was presented to him as an illusory reality. He began to watch not only his past but the intrinsic 'whys' and 'hows.' The Mortal Dao he comprehended, the flow that he couldn't sense previously, is now presenting itself in his memories, as a transcendental painting.
Grudges, regrets, longings, all spiky ties, and open wounds began to reveal themselves to him as clear as possible. He never imagined there were so many things hidden within his sub-conscience and memories.
As time passed, more cause and effect began to show themselves through the flow.
The forgotten and sealed feelings began to overwhelm his heart, like a flood of liquid acid.
"Father? Do I need to call you my father when you aren't?"
"Ji-Yoon, I'm sorry, I can't be with you the way you want."
"Son, are you okay?"
"Ji-Yoon you bastard! How could you mess things up on such an important meeting?"
"I don't care! Fucking fool, do you think I'm a sucker? I will kill you if you try to mess with me again, or my surname won't be Yun!"
"Ji-Yoon, I'm sorry, but I will leave early. I will wait for you on the other side."
As time passed, his feelings began to calm down, but they left an important thing to him, self-knowledge. The more he began to accept things and let go of long forgotten regrets, and heal long forgotten wounds, the more he felt his flow slowly resonating with the world's flow.
The more he settled his own's desires and accepted, and embraced reality, the more he felt connected to the immense flow around him.
.
.
"Hey, what happened to him? Why is he naked?" asked Feng Ling.
"I don't know, I was told to inspect his cave since he disappeared for two months, and I found him like this," explained Jiang Wu.
"Could it be that he went through Qi Deviation?" Feng Ling muttered.
"No, his qi circulation is normal, and his vital signals are ok too. He seems to have entered some sort of coma though.
"Damn it! What should I say to Elder Yang? He ordered me to bring the kid to him," Jiang Wu cursed spitefully.
In the emptiness of his being, Ji-Yoon was unable to hear or see anything happening outside, with his normal senses that are. He began to learn to sense the world solely through the flow. He wasn't in an accidental coma, he forced himself into this state since he could sense the flow and concentrate more easily.
"Greetings, Elder Yang, he is over there."
"Ok, thank you. Have you done a complete check-up as I requested?"
"Yes, I even fed him medicinal pills but he seems completely the same as before, I wonder what is keeping him into a coma," Jiang Wu said with a frown.
Elder Yang put his hand on Ji-Yoon's chest and sensed his condition. "He actually broke through to the Golden Core Realm, huh? He is indeed talented."
"It's as the elder says. It would be a pity if the kid doesn't wake up."
Elder Yang frowned slightly and smiled, looking deeply at Ji-Yoon before saying, "Send him back to his cave abode, he will wake up in the due time."
"Huh?"
"Just do what I say. I will take care of the rest so the kid doesn't wake up just to be disciplined."
Ji-Yoon felt warm seeing that the stern Elder Yang was caring enough to do it for him, but he choose to stay in his current state regardless.
.
.
Opening his eyes slowly, it was the first time in months that Ji-Yoon saw the "outside world" with his eyes, and also smelled with his nose, heard with his ears, and sensed with his body.
After stretching his body for some time, he took his lucky gourd from the ring and drank a mouthful of Mi Baijiu. Looking into a wall mirror, he cut his hair short again, several strands of black hair fell on the ground, burning with green flames and turning into dust.
"Hah! It's good to be back!" Ji-Yoon shouted happily, "I should hurry and go visit Elder Yang, lest he forgets about me."
However, he wasn't in a hurry to do that. First, he wanted to check the things he got from checking in, he was unable to do it during the time he was in a "coma."
Basically, all of the things are under Legendary-Grade cultivation resources and manuals, but he got two extraordinary prizes after breaking through to the Golden Core Realm and advancing his Mortal Dao comprehension to the Profound Level.
First, he got a very awesome life artifact from the breakthrough pack. It was a Star-Grade item: Myriad Transformations Dao Brush. It was a big black brush the length of a sword, similar to a daoist brush (Fu Chen), it could transform itself into various forms according to its owner's desire.
Because it was a life artifact, it could evolve and get stronger along with him, as long as he was willing to fuse it with his Consciousness Sea.
Second, he got another Star-Grade manual: Evervoid Golden Core cultivation technique. Just the name of it demonstrated how overpowered it was, it was basically perfect for him because of the slightly unorthodox path he took. This cultivation technique would evolve his Golden Core into an "empty" core, turning his cultivation base extremely neutral, and it would help him a lot because of several complicated reasons such as the nature of the "flow."
Ji-Yoon wore a new robe, he was naked for months, and he felt both ashamed and angry with it. "Those bastards!" he muttered hatefully.
On the way to Elder Yang's cave abode, he noticed that the sect's atmosphere was a bit solemn, making him wonder what might have happened while he was in his own "world."
"Elder Yang, I request a meeting!" he shouted outside the cave.
"You can enter, your fellow disciples are already here," Elder Yang said through voice transmission.
Within the cave, Jiang Wu and Feng Ling sat on the ground with their furnaces at their front, both were concocting pills.
'Hoh? Both of them were already inner disciples and Golden Core Realm cultivators, they are quite competent,' Ji-Yoon thought and then said, "Disciple Yun greets Elder."
"Sit down and concoct anything, I want to see if you made any progress since the last time," Elder Yang said while he himself concocted something.
Ji-Yoon just nodded and did as ordered. Closing his eyes, he sat on the ground calmly as he took his furnace out from the storage ring.
He took some herbs too and began to concoct a set of Qi Condensation pills. A light green fire appeared below the furnace, it flickered continuously with vitality.
Emptying his mind, Ji-Yoon entered into a state of complete harmony and causality with the world's flow, something he only then could do. Not only his mind, but his very cultivation base achieved this state too. He seemed to have fused with the flow. However, from outsiders' superficial perspectives, he was just concentrating.
Everything's potential began to be clear to him, he could sense all cause and effect close enough to him and discern it. The herbs' potential and the furnace's best way of utilization with the green flame were detailedly "scanned" by him while his body moved.
Without opening his eyes, he began to do his stuff.
Secretly, Elder Yang observed everything, full of expectations, his face showed a strange excitation as time passed and Ji-Yoon concocted. A strange glint sparked in his eyes from time to time.
Eventually, the other two finalized their own concoction and began to observe Ji-Yoon too, but they could only see a natural performance.
When Ji-Yoon finalized, he opened his eyes and asked, "What does Elder Yang think about my progress?" he then took out the finalized pills and tossed them to him.
"Hehehe, not bad, not bad," Elder Yang laughed as he examined the pills, his eyes glimmered more and more as he did so.
Jiang Wu and Feng Ling looked at each other surprised by the Elder's behavior.
"It seems all those months in that state gave you lots, boy," Elder Yang said as he simply put the pills in his spacial ring without asking.
Ji-Yoon didn't care about that and said, "Elder is right, I indeed benefited a lot. Thank you for your care!" He then cupped his fists and bowed deeply.
"Hehe, it's always good to help talented seedlings, here take this," Elder Yang said and tossed a token to Ji-Yoon, "This is an inner disciple token. I got it for you a while ago, congratulations."
Ji-Yoon received the token surprised. "Many thanks for your care!" He knows very well he didn't do anything worthy of being promoted yet, he even missed many missions, so it could only be a gift from Elder Yang.
"Congratulations, Junior Brother Yun," his fellow disciples congratulated him, not jealous since they got promoted recently too.
"You can get your new specific robes in the Human Dao Pavilion later," Elder Yang said and then looked at the other two, "Do you have any questions?"
After the lecture time with Elder Yang was over, the three walked out of the cave, all of them satisfied.
"Senior Brother Jiang, thank you for taking care of me," Ji-Yoon said with a smile and took something from his ring, but made it seems he took it from within his robe, "This is what I was talking about that day, it's a type of herb suitable for smoking, it's good to calm the mind and make you feel good."
"Hoh? Do you perhaps have an interest in smoking too?" Jiang Wu asked with a strange voice, "With who did you learn it? You are still too young for this kind of thing."
"That's right, Junior Brother. Kids are better when they act as kids," Feng Ling said with a meaningful look, her lips curved into a thief's smile.
"Cough. Although it seems so, I'm not a kid. Some things happened before I came to the sect."
Jiang Wu and Feng Ling looked at each other strangely and asked, at the same time, "Are you perhaps someone who stole this body?"
"Huh?" Ji-Yoon was instantly stupefied.
"Pfftt, look at your face! It's a joke!" Feng Ling laughed and pinched his face, "There's no way you are some 'body thief,' your aura is too stable for it to be the case. Moreover, the sect would never accept you as an outer disciple if this was the case, the Guardian Formation would have been alarmed."
"Is that so?" Ji-Yoon caressed his cheek, which has been pinched, and said, "But what I said is true, the only thing young in me is my body."
"Are you serious?" Jiang Wu asked with narrowed eyes, "But how can it be possible? A mortal martial artist can't rejuvenate to this extent, even cultivators need to take some special medicine with severe after effects."
"I don't need to lie, at least not anymore," Ji-Yoon said as he looked at the moon hanging in the sky, "At most I would hide."