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“There he is, back from Dark Heaven Village!”

Mangnyang handed the White Lotus to Baek Woong, saying, “I probably can’t practice sorcery or do anything else for a while.”

“I get it. You’ll be busier now. In the meantime, I’ll analyze our situation with this,” he replied.

“Thank you.”

In fact, Mangnyang needed to organize the Bancheon Alliance and gather strength to fight against the Imperial Palace, as well as solidify connections with the righteous sects. Plus, he’d be swamped with tasks from trying to navigate the power struggles between the three major forces. Just thinking about Mangnyang’s struggles made my heart heavy.

‘He probably wants to train in sorcery…’

Mangnyang was smart enough to become a master of Qimen Dunjia at a young age, but he was born with limited spirit energy and could barely use sorcery. He had a chance to truly succeed in sorcery but couldn’t because he was working for me. In a way, Mangnyang was sacrificing his own opportunity for me.

Baek Woong held up the White Lotus and said, “For now, I want to… predict the future, but first, try using this.”

“Try using it?”

“I mean, see if the White Lotus helps with the training of your Spirit Power.”

“Oh!”

Come to think of it, the White Lotus had the ability to charge a sorcerer’s energy permanently. Using its auto-recovery effect, the training speed of the Spirit Power could be greatly enhanced. I immediately accepted the White Lotus and started my training that day.

However, the next day, Cheon Woo-jin shook his head after examining my energy.

“It’s meaningless.”

“Does it have no effect?”

“The White Lotus only restores a set amount of energy. It’s not useful for training to increase the max energy. And if it could do that, Zhuge Bu’s sorcery would have already reached the level of the Dragon King!”

Cheon Woo-jin continued, “There are a few ways to see progress in Spirit Power or Moonlight Power in a short period, but for now, just focus on sorcery training.”

“Why?”

“You’re far too accustomed to relying on fortuitous encounters. Sorcery is even more complicated than martial arts; you can’t use it properly without a solid foundation. Even if there’s a method right now to vastly improve your strength, it would be poison for you at this stage.”

“Hmm… I understand.”

I spent the whole day relearning basic sorcery theory from Cheon Woo-jin. Unlike what I learned from Mangnyang and the others, this lesson focused more on practical experience rather than theory. I inwardly complained about the genius’s training method, but surprisingly, it was easy to understand what Cheon Woo-jin was teaching.

After that day’s training, I reported my results to Baek Woong, who wore a troubled expression.

“So that’s how it is.”

“Baek Woong, what should I do now? Do I have to train in sorcery for two years?”

“… It seems that way.”

After hesitating for a moment, Baek Woong picked up the White Lotus and shouted, “Oh, White Lotus! Show us the results of this worthless Baek Woong after two years of dedicated sorcery training under Cheon Woo-jin!”

“Wha…?!”

Is he really going to show all of this to multiple people?!

Before I could even process my shock, the scenery before me suddenly changed.

Swish—

I found myself sitting on the cliff in Jangryeong Valley two years later.

‘This is from my perspective.’

I seemed to have been meditating there all night long. After a moment, I opened my eyes, momentarily pausing to refine the moon’s energy when I heard an irritated voice behind me.

“Damn it! This idiot only learned this much in two years?!”

It seems I had pretended not to hear Cheon Woo-jin’s anger.

“Stop complaining. Today is the day I leave, isn’t it?”

“If only you had farmed for two years… Argh, my time…”

Cheon Woo-jin was throwing a tantrum like a child.

Baek Woong, standing next to him, looked slightly annoyed and said, “Still, thanks to your hard work teaching him, he has definitely advanced from beginner to intermediate sorcerer, right? He’s at a level where he could properly exorcise demons out there.”

“If it were my brother, he would have already challenged the Eastern Gate by now! I can’t believe I trained this guy diligently, and this is the level he’s at!”

Cheon Woo-jin fixed his annoyed gaze on me, grabbed my collar, and shook me while saying, “You idiot! You’re hopeless! Hopeless, I tell you!!”

I, still being shaken, grabbed Cheon Woo-jin’s collar in return and shouted, “What are you gonna do about it? I have no talent, what help have you given me?”

“You little bastard! It’s annoying, let me just hit you once and go!”

“What kind of nonsense is that?!”

Thus, I ended up arguing with Cheon Woo-jin while we grabbed each other by the collars, escalating to a full-blown fight using martial arts and sorcery. I unleashed the Three Treasure Technique to counter Cheon Woo-jin’s sorcery, but before long, he seemed to have become stronger due to his Divine Fever and sent me flying off the cliff with a single incantation.

“Rapid Fire Equivalent Spell!”

Crack!

“Aaaargh!”

As I fell from the cliff, I tried to use a technique to float, but Cheon Woo-jin reinforced gravity, speeding up my descent.

Boom!

As I smashed into the ground, Baek Woong approached with a somewhat annoyed expression and said one line.

“Hmm… Cheon Woo-jin is gone. But since he taught you for two years, he didn’t kill you. This must be the effect of the Great Immortal’s blessing.”

“Ugh… my arm is broken. My leg too…”

As I groaned, Baek Woong sighed.

“Hopeless…”

The future shown by the White Lotus came to an end, and I fell into silence with Baek Woong.

“…”

“…”

Unlike the distant futures I had seen before, this was a near-future with almost no variables, making it feel strikingly real. If things continued like this, it was bound to happen. Baek Woong rubbed his temples, looking pained, and said, “With that hopeless talent, two years just won’t be enough. I wish Mangnyang would let Cheon Woo-jin lend him a bit longer.”

“Damn it… What’s the point of training hard if the outcome is like this?”

I lamented, feeling hopeless. The troubling part was that this prediction came under the premise of ‘if I trained diligently’. In other words, if I ignored this prediction and just trained sincerely, the outcome wouldn’t change much either. Then Baek Woong broke into a wry smile.

“You’ve also fallen for the trap of the White Lotus.”

“What? A trap? Are you saying the future I just saw is a lie?”

“No. What the White Lotus showed you has a very high chance of becoming the truth. However, the reason why its future-predicting ability is ultimately useless is because of the property: ‘It changes the moment you observe it.’”

Baek Woong continued at a leisure pace. “Now that you’ve seen this prediction, you’ll surely act differently. The moment you set your mind to it, the prediction changes. Even if you act the same way, the results will differ.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah. That’s why Zhuge Bu or the Vermillion Bird, who originally owned this White Lotus, couldn’t predict our actions. Even if they threw in variables, once observed, that future changes… makes it just a fun little toy.”

“……”

“The reason this treasure is so useless is that it lacks the power to change the law of cause and effect. Reading the branches of the future with no ability to change cause and effect is meaningless.”

I found it puzzling and asked, “Why did Zhuge Mu-hu make a treasure with such a pointless function?”

“Everyone has the desire to predict and read the future. Plus, Zhuge Mu-hu knew that his death would soon lead to the fall of Shu Han, so he likely hoped that whoever succeeded him could refine their strategies using the White Lotus. In reality, the true function of this White Lotus is more of a warning and a summary of predictions.”

“Hmm…”

“In any case, this has been helpful. Now you can change your course of action.”

After saying that, Baek Woong grinned.

“Now, unlike predictions, let’s move forward. Since it’s come to this, let’s first find an opportunity to enhance your Moonlight Power.”

“Huh?! That would interfere with my growth, Cheon Woo-jin said…”

“Is that wrong? Didn’t the White Lotus just show you the right answers? Don’t you get it? You should avoid the wrong answers.”

“Ah…”

Baek Woong’s eyes sparkled. “We don’t know how long Zhongli Quan’s blessing will last. You felt it just now, right? The gathering of the three major forces couldn’t even be blocked by that blessing. Once the immense flow of the world sweeps in, that blessing will become meaningless, so let’s grasp all the fortuitous encounters we can.”

“Got it.”

I conveyed Baek Woong’s words to Cheon Woo-jin. He nodded in understanding.

“Phew, what a relief. I’ve avoided the pain of teaching that idiot for two years…”

Though a torrent of curse words boiled inside me, I barely managed to hold back and said, “Don’t stoke the flames in a burning house. Just teach me how to improve my Spirit Power.”

“Of course.”

Cheon Woo-jin pointed a finger towards the horizon and said, “First, catch a demon with Spirit Power somewhere. Absorb its power to get stronger.”

“Oh!”

“You know where such a demon is, right?”

“Huh? Where would I find such a demon?”

“There are all kinds of demons in the world, but Spirit Power belongs to Jeon Wook, the Sovereign of the Three Sovereigns. Only his direct underlings or bloodline would possess it.”

“……”

My face turned pale white.

“M-Mangnyang Palace…”

“Exactly. We can catch the spirits of the Mangnyang Palace. Or perhaps one of their divine beings…”

“Are you insane?! How would we catch that?!”

I screamed in horror.

Of course, I knew where the Mangnyang Palace was and how to get there. But the spirits there were on a different level, with each one being a Great Immortal-level existence. Furthermore, the one managing those spirits, the guy somewhat like a ‘heat,’ was of the same caliber as Peng Zuo. Catching such beings was impossible, and even if I did, Jeon Wook would surely find out and eliminate me.

Cheon Woo-jin shrugged. “Did you think I suggested training for no reason? It’s obviously an unrealistic method, so I didn’t mention it. Anyway, I’m just throwing out ideas regardless of their feasibility.”

“Ugh… What’s the second method?”

“The second method is to obtain a treasure or item that possesses Spirit Power.”

I pondered Cheon Woo-jin’s words and replied, “That must relate to Jeon Wook, right?”

“Well, it has to be, right? It’d have to be at least a relic from the Mythological Age or something that someone obtained after summoning Jeon Wook to directly receive treasures.”

“Hmm… So that’s a demand?”

Cheon Woo-jin shook his head. “It’s still in a bound state, you know. When you showed me the demand last time, we confirmed that you couldn’t extract the Spirit Power from it. Being in a bound state is like having a padlock on the door; even if the demand is a creation of Jeon Wook, you can’t just pull out that essence to use.”

“I see… um…”

Wait? I can’t use the demand, but… I feel like I’m missing something?

I tilted my head, but Cheon Woo-jin continued.

“The third method is to change your training location for Moonlight energy.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Where are we right now?”

“In Jangryeong Valley.”

“And where does Jangryeong Valley belong concerning dimensions?”

“The Mortal Realm.”

Cheon Woo-jin nodded. “The Mortal Realm is a place with very low energy density. In contrast, the Celestial Realm has a very high spiritual energy concentration.”

“So you’re suggesting I train in the Celestial Realm?”

“Of course. Once, my brother rode the ranks of the Earth Immortals, and during that time, he built up his energy by receiving the blessings of the Heavenly Mysterious Woman. The effectiveness of that would be at least dozens to hundreds of times greater than training on earth.”

I frowned. “That means you want me to pass the Eastern Gate.”

“That’s how it would be.”

Cheon Woo-jin chuckled at something amusing. “Hehe… but aren’t you supposed to be at least one of the top sorcerers on the continent to pass the Eastern Gate? It would be iffy at best for you, who’s still floundering around as a beginner.”

“……”

That was spot on. The Eastern Gate was the biggest challenge in the world of sorcery that sorcerers risk their reputation to challenge and transcend. I’d met the Great Immortal so often that I hadn’t fully grasped it, but even to just become an Earth Immortal by passing through the Eastern Gate, it meant becoming a spiritual being that humans find hard to look up to.

With my current skill level, it was definitely impossible. As I wracked my brain exhaustively, I said, “I just need to get into the Celestial Realm without necessarily passing the Eastern Gate, right?”

Cheon Woo-jin looked at me as if I were an idiot. “I see you’re trying to be clever. If you want to die, go for it. If you attract attention in the Celestial Realm, even the Master of the White Lotus Sect won’t survive the intrusion.”

“Damn.”

“So what are you going to do? After hearing the future from the White Lotus, I’m stripped of any desire to train you.”

“Wait.”

There must be an option here. I feel like there’s a way out… I panicked as I racked my brain. Each suggested workaround seemed absurdly difficult, and at this rate, it felt like I’d have to fill 250 years with just training. No matter how much I live in an almost infinite past life, I couldn’t do that.

Then suddenly, something struck me.

“Aha! Wait a minute!”

I frantically searched my wooden armor and pulled out an item to present to Cheon Woo-jin. “What about this!!”

“……!!”

Cheon Woo-jin took the item, examining it closely, almost as if surprised. “This… this hadn’t even crossed my mind.”

“If I use this, I might be able to gain Spirit Power, right?”

Cheon Woo-jin opened his spirit eye to sense the item and replied, “Yeah, that should be enough. I don’t know how much power is left in it, but…”

I flashed a grin. “Hah!”

Cheon Woo-jin held up the item in his hand. It was indeed Jeon Wook’s statue.

‘Originally, its value was enough to be exchanged for treasures among the Great Immortals!’

It was the treasure of the demand, the Jeon Wook’s statue at its core! Since it was made in the ancient times, I was right in predicting that Jeon Wook’s statue would definitely possess Spirit Power!

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