Traceless

Seeing the rare bitter expression on the geezer’s face, Ji-Yoon showed a rare speck of consideration towards him and was silent.

After a while, Old Li recovered his plain “shameless” expression and said, “In any case, you should know it’s difficult to preach a Dao, even more when it’s such an unpredictable and traceless Dao. Some say that it’s better to try the Time Dao.”

Ji-Yoon rolled his eyes and said nothing, showing a light mocking expression.

Old Li frowned and sighed, “Alright, I’m going to bet. But I’m still a bit doubtful”

Ji-Yoon rolled his eyes again and again as he thought, ‘This guy is really shameless, does he wants more advantage? In his dreams!’

“Okay, but those are two different things,” Ji-Yoon said with a smile, but his eyes weren’t smiling.

Old Li clenched his teeth and asked, “What do you fucking mean?”

Ji-Yoon sneered and just extended his palm towards him with an expression that said everything.

With bloodshot eyes, Old Li took a pouch from his storage ring and said, “Do you want to ‘temporarily keep’ my crystals? Alright, but it’s not so easy to trick me. This storage pouch has a restriction that blocks anyone except me. You will never be able to take the crystals outside.”

Ji-Yoon took the pouch and frowned, he couldn’t sense what was inside the pouch with his ethereal mind. He wondered if Old Li was trying to trick him, confirming almost instantly that this was the case after thinking about how the guy liked to act.

“Old geezer, do I look stupid? Remove the restriction for a while for me to check the content.”

Old Li narrowed his eyes slightly and took another pouch as he said, “It was just a test of your intelligence. Here, this one has the good stuff.”

Ji-Yoon sneered and took the two pouches without saying anything, but he thought that Old Li was somewhat stupid to try such a trick on him.

“Hey, give the other pouch back!” Old Li shouted angrily almost spitting saliva.

Ji-Yoon looked at him strangely, as if looking at a fool. ‘Is he somewhat broken on his head?’ he thought and then said, “This is the price for trying to trick me. The next time I would take even your rotten beard as compensation.”

“Senior, can’t you act a bit more mature?” Old Li sighed as he massaged his beard melancholically.

“Cut the crap. Now, about my personal teaching, you will need more unselfishness if you want to learn anything from me,” Ji-Yoon said without batting an eye.

Old Li asked with clenched teeth, “What do you want? I won’t give you any more crystals!”

“Don’t worry geezer, a thousand is enough for me… for now,” Ji-Yoon said smilingly, “What I want is some Contributions Points, you must have a lot of those after working your whole life, right?”

Old Li shuddered as if understanding something fearful. “Damn! Do you want to suck my pockets empty? Are you a leecher?”

“What are you talking about?” Ji-Yoon shouted angrily and explained, “I just want some points for each class.”

“Ha! Do you think I don’t know what you are planning!? I’m much older in this zone than you!” Old Li said while smiling but not smiling at the same time.

“Hah! Are you older than your senior?”Ji-Yoon narrowed his eyes.

“Heh! You can cut the act now, I already know you are just a kid! I came to understand it after going through rejuvenation myself!”

“Since I’m a kid, you should give way to the younger and more promising generation! Why don’t you help me? You selfish old fart!”

“Hehehe!” Old Li just laughed without answering. His eyes mocked Ji-Yoon, who was a bit speechless by the situation.

“Don’t you want to go further in martial arts?” he tempted.

“Not if it means getting my pockets empty! Let’s just go with the first deal. You help me break through and I help you as a sparring partner. Speaking of this, we didn’t decide how long I need to… to…” Old Li started to stagger, “Damn! I knew it! So this is where the trick is!”

“What trick?” Ji-Yoon asked with a doubtful expression, “Aren’t you being paranoid?”

“Your whole family is paranoid!” Old Li cursed with bloodshot eyes, “Give my crystals back now!”

“Calm down old man, the deal has been set, you can’t go back,” Ji-Yoon shook his head with a smile, “As long as you obediently be my punching bag, I will give the crystals back to you… one day.”

“Do you want me to be your punching bag forever? Dream on! I’m almost without life span and don’t want to waste it!”

“That’s your problem. Moreover, I won’t help you break through if you keep speaking to me like this… I will be forced to wait for some time until you calm down…”

“You mean until I die and you no longer need to give the crystals back, right?” Old Li retorted, “Such bullshit!”

Ji-Yoon rolled his eyes and waved his hand as he said, “Come on geezer, let’s just cut the crap if you don’t want to, okay? Close your eyes and let me do my stuff, it sure will feel good.”

“Don’t say it so strangely!” Old Li grumbled but did as asked.

Ji-Yoon narrowed his eyes and focused all his mind on the task. He could feel the flow flowing through the Old Li body’s meridians and Dantian, seemingly trying to reach something.

Because he already had the experience of breaking through this Realm, Ji-Yoon understood very well the process and the “meaning” of the flow. It was trying to guide not only Old Li in advancing but also he that could feel it.

It seemed formless, but sometimes like a flowing stream. The flow was difficult to define, and only someone that could read it could understand its meaning.

Ji-Yoon used his ethereal mind to focus on Old Li’s body and put one hand on his belly and another on his head. “Don’t resist my True Qi, it will guide your cultivation base to break through.”

“Won’t it be risky? What if I’m led into Qi Deviation?” Old Li asked with a frown.

“Don’t chicken out now, didn’t I do something like this a while ago?”

“It’s different, I know it is.”

Ji-Yoon just clicked his tongue and started to channel his True Qi.

“Wait, now that I pay more attention, your True Qi actually has a color. Did you cultivate a special technique or something?”

“Why are you so chatty? Shut up and focus!”

Ji-Yoon closed his eyes and sensed the flow carefully with his ethereal mind, he emptied his own thoughts and just followed it, using his True Qi when necessary.

After a while, beads of sweat began to appear on both mans’ foreheads. Especially, Ji-Yoon felt it was exhausting to follow the flow since it sometimes became very complicated and elusive. He had to be careful to not guide Old Li’s own cultivation on the wrong path.

At the same time, perhaps because of his increased Dao-IQ, he began to understand many mysteries of both the Mortal and the Life Dao. The flow seemed to be telling him secrets unknown to a human’s ear while it guided him through Old Li’s whole body.

Old Li began to feel drastic changes within his dantian. His mystical root began to merge with both his dantian and True Qi Sea, becoming something core-like. He felt it was scary enough for him to panic, the unknown is always something scary and he had never heard of something like this. His True Qi seemed to have gained a life of its own, and it began to follow Ji-Yoon’s True Qi by itself. His mystical root began to rotate differently from before, increasing his True Qi quantity and density exponentially.

A vortex of mystical energy began to form around Old Li, he began to absorb it with Ji-Yoon’s help. What should have taken a long time to build up was completed in instants.

Ji-Yoon took his hands back and observed the breakthrough calmly, he didn’t need to intervene as he could see that Old Li’s cultivation was in accord with the flow.

After a while, the vortex disappeared and Old Li began to consolidate his cultivation base, not even bothering to open his eyes. Ji-Yoon was willing to bet the old man’s eyes were bloodshot after experiencing that.

Ji-Yoon felt a bit tired and took his white gourd to drink a mouthful of rice wine*. He felt it was more delicious when he was tired, like spring water to a badly dehydrated man.

*[For those who are still a bit confused: Mi Baijiu = A type of rice wine. From now on, I will preferably write ‘Mi Baijiu.’ The gourd produces it by using his True Qi and vitality.]

Just as he finished swallowing, he had another epiphany as he thought about the process of breaking through a Realm. He looked blankly at Old Li and started to feel the flow again.

This time, he began to feel the Life Dao hidden within the cultivation process, he could sense an ethereal life force unknown to him, different than the common vitality.

After some time, Old Li opened his eyes just to see Ji-Yoon looking at him creepily, with fixed and wide bloodshot eyes. “What are you!? Gay!?”

Ji-Yoon suddenly coughed blood and shouted, “Your father is gay! Damn! I almost went into qi deviation!”

“What a pity!” Old Li snorted.

Ji-Yoon took deep breaths and got up to leave.

“What about the sparring stuff!?” Old Li asked with a finger within his ear.

“Just stay here bidding your time and trying to not die. I will come back when I finish something,” Ji-Yoon said and walked out of the cave abode quickly.

‘Damn! That old man almost killed me just now! If not because I was only focused on grasping principles and not cultivation itself, I would have suffered a much bigger blow,’ Ji-Yoon thought with ressentiment. But he knew that Old Li didn’t do it on purpose.

As he cursed, however, he was also pleased. With the sudden epiphany and the experience of guiding another person, not only did he increase his comprehension of the Mortal Dao but also broke through to the Greater Success Level of his Life Dao’s comprehension.

He felt, however, that he was far from breaking through to the Profound Level of the Mortal Dao. It seemed to be a completely new realm, different from anything he came across before, he could feel it instinctively.

Already at his cave abode, he began another round of seclusion. He focused on healing the damage he suffered and consolidating his gains. He began to feel a strong resonance between the Life Dao and the Mortal Dao, which made sense to him.

‘The Mortal is what could die; Not always what could die is alive.’ Ji-Yoon wondered if he would end up comprehending the Death Dao too since it was the opposite of the Life Dao.

It was known in the cultivation world that by achieving the extreme, one could also reach the opposite. The extreme of Yin leads to Yang, and the extreme of life leads to death.

After a day in seclusion, Ji-Yoon’s wounds basically healed and he was at his peak again, and extremely angry.

“Old Fart, just you wait,” Ji-Yoon muttered with clenched teeth, “System, check-in.”

[Ding! Dong! Congratulations host on receiving the Gold-grade item: No-faces mystical conical straw hat.]

“Good long name…” he scrutinized and looked at the item.

It was just as the name implied, a conical straw hat, but it had the feature of camouflage and disguise. He could change his face at will without any flaws and his presence could be completely hidden. Only someone at a higher Major Realm than him could see through the item’s effects.

After wondering for a while, he also took another piece of clothing, this time a Silver-grade item called ‘Wanderer shadow.’ It was a dark grey cloak that could cover his whole body and be adjusted according to his size, it could hide his presence, but differently, making people unconsciously avoid him even if they see or sense him.