Mongryeon smiled broadly.

“Now you’ve reached a realm worth looking at.”

Yise returned the Meridian-Cutting Blade to Mongryeon and confessed that the black iron shield and hand axe she had given him had been destroyed.

“You’ve had a hard time. Weapons come and go. Make new ones. With your own money.”

“…Yes. Oh, and this.”

Yise held out the jade ring he had bought as a souvenir in the Jeong Empire.

It was the first time he had ever given a gift to the Master from whom he had only ever received things throughout his life, and he felt strangely nervous.

“Hmm?”

“I bought it while I was traveling. I thought it would suit you.”

“What a lackluster confession. I’m sorry, but I have no interest in stealing my disciple’s man. If you need someone to satisfy your lust, wait until Gong-ah becomes an adult Dokkaebi and then target her rutting season.”

“What? Master…!”

Yise’s face flushed with embarrassment. Mongryeon laughed uproariously for a long while, then waved her hand.

“It was a joke. A joke. Once you’re around three hundred years old, these shameless jokes become amusing. Try to understand.”

“…You’re awful.”

“I never expected to receive a gift from my disciple. Thank you.”

Mongryeon slipped the jade ring Yise had offered her onto a finger it fit reasonably well.

“I suppose I’ll be teased for being a Dokkaebi doing something so ridiculous.”

Despite her gruff words, Mongryeon looked quite pleased.

“Well. I’ve accepted the bribe. What do you want?”

“I want to hear about the Lord of Daemudo. Do you know anything about his abilities?”

“Hmm. The Lord of Daemudo.”

Mongryeon wore a wistful expression for a moment before answering.

“He was an exceptional genius. Not only was he unmatched among those in the same realm, he won combat across realms as casually as eating a meal. He was a man who knew no defeat. From Foundation Establishment onward, he used primordial energy to smash Core Formation Cultivators left and right.”

“Then can I use primordial energy too?”

“Who knows? You don’t seem lacking in talent, but there’s still such a thing as a difference in experience, isn’t there? Don’t get yourself killed acting rashly.”

Yise closed his mouth, disappointment written across his face.

“He hardly ever spoke about himself. He always acted like someone who was about to leave, and little about him was known.”

It seemed that even his Master did not know much about the Lord of Daemudo. Then again, if she had known, she would have given him at least a hint.

Still, he had gained something.

The Heavenly-Demonic Dual-Meridian Constitution could use primordial energy from Foundation Establishment onward.

If he could do it, then Yise ought to be able to as well.

It would become a new weapon.

* * *

Yise returned to the main mountain and shut himself away in the cultivation room of his residence.

How had the Lord of Daemudo used primordial energy?

What was primordial energy in the first place?

Yise calmly circulated the internal reserves pooled within his body—spiritual energy and Demonic Energy, one at a time.

When he tried operating the two energies simultaneously, they pushed each other away as though disgusted, throwing everything into chaos.

Why was the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in this world divided into spiritual energy and Demonic Energy?

Why were they separate when Demonic Energy was ultimately a power derived from spiritual energy?

Demonic practitioners used Demonic Energy, yet they could use all five-element spells.

That meant that even after corruption, they retained the attributes of the five elements.

Moreover, apart from a few ritual implements, the distinction between spiritual energy and Demonic Energy was meaningless when using ritual implements.

Then what was the fundamental difference between Demonic Energy and spiritual energy?

Had there been no difference between the two forces from the beginning—were they merely two sides of a coin, the natural order and its reverse?

The Tribulation-Crossing Formula leading from Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment to Core Formation was the Five Energies Returning to the Origin.

It gathered the five energies into the origin.

In other words, the attributes held by the spiritual root were woven together and converged upon their source.

The power created that way was primordial energy.

Breaking the Dharma-Transformed Dantian with it and forming a golden core was Core Formation.

But what if the Lord of Daemudo had achieved harmony of yin and yang and learned to control primordial energy before forming his golden core—before even gathering the internal reserves required to break through to Core Formation?

‘Twin Principles Reversion Art.’

Yise turned over in his mind the name of the cultivation method said to have been left behind by the Lord of Daemudo.

Twin Principles meant the two energies of yin and yang.

Reversion meant returning the two to their source.

The process of combining spiritual energy and Demonic Energy into primordial energy.

Was that not the essence of the Twin Principles Reversion Art?

Yise tried combining spiritual energy and Demonic Energy.

The two energies immediately recoiled in disgust and began thrashing violently.

Their resistance was so fierce that the Dharma-Transformed Dantian and Demonic Energy trembled violently and buzzed as though they were about to explode.

His body felt ready to burst and his brain felt as though it might snap from the agony, but he did not stop.

Reducing the amounts of spiritual energy and Demonic Energy he used as much as possible, he mixed the two forces little by little.

Wham!

But in the end, unable to endure any longer, the two energies collided against their master’s will for the first time, and Yise’s skin burst open as a result.

It was an impact that might have torn his entire body apart had he not possessed a Foundation Establishment body.

With his face twisted in pain and cold sweat pouring down him, Yise restored his skin.

Whenever he tried to mix the two energies, parts of his body that had not been reconstructed with spiritual energy—his eyeballs, skin, and tongue—burst one after another.

He clutched his head as though trying to tear out his hair in the midst of the excruciating pain, then took a deep breath and resumed practicing energy circulation.

There seemed to be some orthodox method, but there was no one to teach him.

In the end, he had no choice but to keep headbutting the problem from scratch, forever.

* * *

The pain reached a peak once, then began to strangely subside after a single breath.

A mere drop.

The amount of energy Yise had managed to combine was exactly one drop.

Even that was the result of mixing it with the utmost difficulty while sweating profusely.

There had been no special method.

He had simply mixed the energies through brute force until it worked, turning his body into a ragged mess along the way.

At this rate, was this not a power with absolutely no practical use?

With self-deprecation, Yise drew the single drop of power presumed to be primordial energy outside his body.

A point of light appeared between his hands.

It was neither spiritual energy nor Demonic Energy.

It was a nearly transparent light forged when the two collided.

Once he faced primordial energy, he began to sense a color of light that had never existed in the world before, just as when his spirit sight had first awakened.

Yise gazed quietly at the light.

He had forged it himself, yet even he could not guess at its power.

Yise lightly flicked his wrist and sent the light shooting away.

BOOM! With a deafening explosion, the entire wall of the cultivation room flew away.

“…?”

Yise froze in confusion for a moment.

The cultivation room’s wall was made of the same material as the seclusion cave.

In other words, it was a material made by mixing black iron and darksteel so that it would not budge under ordinary impacts.

Yet a single drop of primordial energy had torn through it like paper.

Beyond the cultivation room, he could see that the wall surrounding the main house had been blown away.

“What the hell! Are we under attack?”

A booming voice rang out from beyond the wall.

Before the dust had even settled, a man’s figure vaulted over the wall.

“Huh?”

It was a familiar-faced Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

“Senior Gwak Chan?”

The Senior who had saved Yise and his companions from the demonic beast tamer who controlled the Deathwind Black Tiger.

Gwak Chan tilted his head.

“Huh? You’re that… novice disciple? I heard you advanced quickly, but you’re already in the Inner Hall district? What was your name again? Woonse?”

“…It’s Yise.”

Gwak Chan clapped repeatedly and laughed cheerfully.

“Ahahaha! Right! You’re the one who moved in next door? What a coincidence. Nice to meet you. Such dazzling talent. The sacrifice of my groin wasn’t in vain!”

“Wait. The sacrifice of what?”

When Yise asked again, wondering if he had heard wrong, Gwak Chan laughed heartily and explained.

“That filthy demonic practitioner cowardly attacked a very unfortunate place, didn’t he? He didn’t even know the unspoken rules of a fight between men.”

“Hahaha… So when they said you were seriously injured…”

What despicable behavior. It truly made one think of a Demonic Path Cultivator.

“Well, it’s fortunate that the Winged Dragon Hall Master restored it. While she was regenerating it, I asked her to make it a little bigger too, and she slapped me across the face for it.”

“……”

Apparently, being a Foundation Establishment Cultivator did not necessarily make someone seem dignified. Though flustered, Yise concealed it and offered his belated thanks.

“I really was grateful back then, Senior.”

“Just call me Cultivator Gwak. All Foundation Establishment Cultivators are more or less on the same level.”

“Yes, Cultivator Gwak.”

“By the way, what was that just now? Something incredibly powerful went flying.”

“Ah, this…”

Sweating profusely once again, Yise struggled to combine a drop of spiritual energy and Demonic Energy.

Gwak Chan stared at the light and opened his eyes wide.

“Isn’t that primordial energy? Only Core Formation Cultivators use it.”

“This is primordial energy?”

“Yeah. It’s pure and transparent, exactly like primordial energy. How did someone who just reached Foundation Establishment create primordial energy?”

Recognizing primordial energy meant that he too had reached at least late-stage Foundation Establishment.

As Yise gave him a newly curious look, Gwak Chan reached toward the primordial energy as though fascinated.

The next moment, the wrist of the hand that touched the primordial energy was blown away in its entirety.

“……”

“……”

Yise stared at the agonized Gwak Chan with a bewildered expression.

After making a tremendous fuss for quite a while, Gwak Chan shed a few tears and asked Yise,

“…Do you happen to have a Regeneration Pill left?”

Yise shook his head, looking utterly dumbfounded.

After taking a Healing Pill, Gwak Chan staunched the flowing blood and sighed as though he felt considerably better.

“What absurd power. Could you show me one more time?”

“…Yes. Don’t touch it this time.”

Yise strained himself once more and created a drop of primordial energy.

This was already the third time he had repeated the process, yet it had not improved at all.

“But do you really have to make that face like you’re taking a dump?”

“…It isn’t easy. It hurts, too.”

Gwak Chan stepped forward and stood before the transparent energy Yise had created.

After staring at the primordial energy for a while, Gwak Chan clicked his tongue.

“That’s an extremely violent and destructive energy.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah. The primordial energy of other Core Formation grandmasters is a tool of will that protects, obstructs, or attacks an opponent according to its owner’s intent… But this one is just a crude energy that destroys literally everything it touches.”

“I suppose that’s because I’m not used to controlling it yet.”

“That’s possible. And it might not be.”

Yise quietly watched Gwak Chan stare fixedly at the primordial energy.

After repeatedly stroking his chin, he continued.

“Ordinarily, primordial energy’s nature differs according to the cultivation method a Cultivator has mastered. Some primordial energy is extremely offensive, while some is defensive. When spiritual energy or spell power collide, complex factors such as the amount of internal reserves, spellcasting ability, the mutual generation and overcoming of the five elements, and overacting and counteracting determine victory or defeat. Primordial energy is different.”

Yise’s eyes shone as he listened attentively to the lesson.

“In battles between Core Formation Cultivators, the moment their primordial energies collide, their compatibility is essentially decided. If you’re at a disadvantage in compatibility, you have to consider yourself half-defeated from the start.”

It was an explanation Yise did not quite understand, but instead of asking questions, he tried to ponder its meaning.

A power in which everything accumulated thus far manifested as primordial energy, and in the instant it collided with another, an immutable relationship of compatibility was decided.

If so, the side at a disadvantage in compatibility would have no choice but to prepare and expend a great deal to overturn it.

“Extremely offensive primordial energy cannot be blocked by ordinary defensive primordial energy. Though, conversely, your primordial energy probably can’t block any attack either. What influences primordial energy includes, most notably, the cultivation method a Cultivator has mastered and their constitution. Some even say its nature is determined by the tendencies formed through the caster’s life.”

Gwak Chan finished his explanation, tilted his head, and asked,

“What kind of personality do you have to produce such an aggressive primordial energy?”