Flow (2)

“Brother Ji, what brings you to my cave?” Latrine Li was surprised by the unexpected meeting.

“It has, indeed, been a while. Are you doing well in the Outer Sect?” Ji-Yoon asked while taking a sip of his lucky wine. His drool was slightly dripping from the corner of his mouth.

Seeing this, Li was slightly stunned. It was quite a sight to see a kid drinking from a calabash. Moreover, he himself never drank before since he was still a kid.

A wave of curiosity slowly took over Li’s mind. “Ahem, Brother Ji, can I take a sip too?”

Ji-Yoon smiled after hearing this, he was of course well aware of how curious kids could be toward the unknown. “You can, but you need to drink everything in one go, otherwise I will beat you up! Are you sure?”

“Hah? B-But won’t I get drunk then? Why do I need to drink everything?” Li muttered.

“Probably. But it’s your choice,” Ji-Yoon said with narrowed eyes and a wicked smile.

Li clenched his teeth and agreed.

Ji-Yoon laughed and gave him the bottle gourd. “Just don’t put your mouth on it, I don’t want any man’s saliva on my gourd. Drink it while holding the gourd high.”

“Don’t be such a pussy, can’t you just wash it afterward?” Li clicked his tongue.

“Do you want to drink or not?”

“Alright, alright!” Li gulped and took his first sip, slowly tasting it with closed eyes.

“How is it?” Ji-Yoon asked with a smug smile.

“How can I say it, I don’t think it’s bad but at the same time… I don’t like it.”

Black lines appeared on Ji-Yoon’s forehead, he snorted and said, “You little sly shitter, just drink it all in one go, I bet you will like it so much you will want more afterward.”

“I don’t think I will,” Li muttered but still drank the rest quite quickly.

After closing his eyes for a few moments, his expression slowly grew rosy and his breathing became irregular. He put his hand on his head and said, “Brother Ji, my head is feeling a bit strange, my thoughts are a bit messy.”

“Just open your eyes, this is the feeling of being drunk!” Ji-Yoon explained while holding his laugh, “How is it? do you like the feeling? Is it fun?”

Li opened his eyes and noticed his vision and reflexes were somewhat altered. “How can it be fun?” he asked, confused.

Ji-Yoon sighed after hearing it and thought, ‘It seems this kid has no talent in this field, what a pity, he could have been a good drinking partner!’

After getting the gourd back from Li’s hands, he thought for a moment and secretly replenished the Mi Baijiu inside it.

“Here, take this other bottle and drink some more,” Ji-Yoon said but didn’t wait for an answer as he forcefully made Li drink more and more.

“W-Wait! What are you do-do-doing? Don’t! Let me go! Help!” Li tried to resist, but he was much weaker than Ji-Yoon, who quickly subdued him.

“Shut up and let me do this, it won’t hurt you and will be quick if you collaborate!” Ji-Yoon said while shoving the whole content inside Li’s mouth. He repeated it several times while continuously replenishing the Mi Baijiu.

When Ji-Yoon saw that the kid stopped resisting, he grinned and said, “See? You are feeling good now, right?”

“Hic! It feels strange… Hic!” Li muttered with hazy eyes and a slightly trembling body.

“Don’t worry, even if you don’t like it, you will probably forget about it tomorrow…” Ji-Yoon stopped giving the kid more of the rice wine.

“Hey, hey! Look at me! Stop looking at the ceiling. Tell me, how is your relationship with your granduncle? The one who recently became an inner disciple,” Ji-Yoon asked while giving light slaps on Li’s face.

“Huh? Hic! Granduncle Li? Oh! Are you… talking about… Granduncle Li, right? Hic! Hic!”

“Yes, you dumbass, tell me how your relationship with him is…”

“Oh… Hic! We almost don’t know each other… Hic! Hic!” Li said with a bitter face and drool dripping from his mouth.

“So, do you know if he has any powerful background in the sect?”

“Huh? Back…ground? Hic! What is it?”

“Any powerful person is supporting him?” Ji-Yoon changed his words.

“Oh? There is a powerful person behind him? Hic! Hic! I didn’t know! He never told me!”

“Sigh… to think a dignified Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator is unable to even reason properly. It seems I underestimated this Mi Baijiu…” Ji-Yoon stopped questioning and simply made Li lose his consciousness with a light slap.

He bet that the kid would awaken the next day with a very bad hangover. Thinking about this, Ji-Yoon laughed to himself and thought, ‘Ais, the older one gets the more wicked… I need to stop my bad habit of bullying kids. However, I’m also curious about the effects of the lucky drink on other people.’

He went back to his cave thinking about ways to contact the old Li. Although he was an inner disciple, his cultivation wasn’t enough for him to be accepted in the inner sect just yet.

‘He must be in his cave abode trying to increase his cultivation. Hehe, he must be almost shitting his pants because of his depleting life span. If he doesn’t reach the Golden Core Realm quickly, he will die of old age.’

He originally went to see Li because he wanted the kid to be his ‘punching bag,’ but he changed his mind after finding out a better candidate. Li was still too weak to be his opponent, but the old Li is a Life and Death Realm martial artist, enough for him to move his limbs.

‘However, that old geezer might not want to spar, what should I offer him in exchange?’ Instantly, he thought about giving the old man some pointers in a martial way. ‘Since that geezer is a martial arts fanatic, he should go crazy if I offer him a way to go further.’

‘Wait… further… further… wha-!’

Suddenly, the world stopped for Ji-Yoon. The birds flying in the sky, the ants crawling on the ground, the other disciples near him… all slowed down so much they seemed to stop.

‘Further… go further… so that’s how it is! So that’s the flow inside!’ Ji-Yoon’s eyes brightened from the sudden enlightenment.

The faint flow that was barely visible to him suddenly became clear, and he could even see and sense his and others’ connection with it. Even the tiny ants seemed to unconsciously follow the flow. The flow was in all living beings, independent of their strength.

His comprehension of the Mortal Dao soared up to the Great Success level. His body transformation was furthered along with the strengthening of his cultivation base, even without it growing.

If before he had understood his previous steps, he now could understand the steps he was going to take. Numerous ideas surged in his mind.

As if nothing had happened, he walked towards his destination, the only change being the strange expression on his face.

‘WTF! Did I get enlightenment just like that? This is crazy! Is this the combined effect of my increased luck and IQ?’

[Ding! Dong! Congratulations host…

‘Oh no… I mean, oh yeah!’ Ji-Yoon’s expression changed several times in an instant. His heart almost jumped out of his throat.

[…on achieving Greater Success in your comprehension of a Dao for the first time, you received the Mortal-Grade item: Self Fullness Manual.]

Just from the name of the item he knew it was extraordinary, however, it was just a Mortal-Grade item.

‘Why a Mortal-Grade? I know the grade doesn’t represent an item’s value for me, but…’

[Ding! Dong! Host, don’t be so picky and just be grateful.]

‘Are you angry? Because you told me about it?’

The system didn’t respond.

Ji-Yoon sighed and decided to just go back to his cave abode. ‘I can find that old geezer later,’ he thought.

At that moment, he just wanted to study the manual he won. Since it was a prize that could substitute a Star-Grade item, he thought it would certainly be good stuff.

Already sat on his comfy cushion, Ji-Yoon said, “System, scan the manual for me.”

[Ding! Dong!]

“Hmm? What? Are you not doing it?” Ji-Yoon asked after a few seconds.

[Ding! Dong! Host, I already ‘scanned’ the manual and transferred all of its contents to your mind.]

Ji-Yoon frowned and took the manual out of the system’s storage. It was actually a single blank paper.

He normally would have questioned the system, but he was now a prodigy high-IQ child. So he put the pieces together and understood what it was about.

‘Void fullness, void emptiness… No, rather than void, it’s more suitable to call them illusory… One is born full? But why do we seek other things?’ after thinking about it for an entire day, he saw his reflection slowly appear on the paper, and then, the realization came upon him.

He opened his mouth but no words came out of it. His eyes were a bit reluctant, along with his expression.

‘Truly, I’m still stupid…’

“Sigh… Even after dying once…” he muttered, while his eyes closed. This time, nothing seemed to change within him.

However, his state of mind changed tremendously in instants. His comprehension of the Mortal Dao sublimated, and stopped being something he just know about, it was now a part of him.

His raw comprehension of it didn’t change much, but his relationship with it did.

What could hardly be understood became natural, the ethereal flow almost gained life in his eyes, he could feel it even inside his bones and blood marrow.

After some time, he opened his eyes and shook his head slightly, he lost most of the need to spar. After coming to realize his own ‘fullness,’ he completely understood his impact on the flow. After comparing his ‘self’ with the one he had a day before, he knew he could beat the shit out of that him easily.

Lifting his hand, a green flame appeared in his palm. It was glowing faintly as if it would immediately disappear. However, he could feel the immense potential to impact the flow in it. If used correctly, it could kill a cultivator.

That’s to say, Ji-Yoon gained the ability to see and sense the best way to achieve his goals in a fight by following and impacting the flow.

Of course, the so-called ‘flow’ wasn’t something exact others could easily see and counter, but something only someone who comprehended the Mortal Dao to a sufficient level could sense.

‘This Dao is so OP, isn’t it the strongest? Or are all Daos like this when comprehended to a high level?’

After thinking for a while, he still decided to go see the old Li. He still wanted to see how was his ability to use his strength. After all, knowing oneself and increasing his battle experience were two different things.

But before he could get up, he noticed something strange. His blood-colored Dantian was faintly glowing golden. He could even sense the flow seemingly trying to guide him to his breakthrough.

‘This… The flow can even help me to break through a Major Realm? Why is no one comprehending it those days!? Does it even make sense?’

[Ding! Dong! Host, the cultivators of this world consider the Mortal Dao as just a branch of Mortal Martial Arts, so they despise it.]

“BULLSHIT! Are they so stupid? Has no one ever tried to comprehend it before to see if it had some potential?”

[Ding! Dong! Some people of the past had indeed. But host, the Mortal Dao might be the most difficult Dao a cultivator can try to comprehend, even more than the Time Dao or the Causality Dao. The only reason you managed to advance your comprehension so quickly was because of your… guess what? Luck.

[You had repeatedly been rewarded with items that synchronize and amplify each other, you even have the IQ booster… Do I need to say more? Moreover, which peak cultivator will lose their time comprehending a ‘lowly Dao’?]