Exploring the Five Elements Sect Ruins
***
The characters written in the book were clearly logograms, not phonograms.
They also had a slightly similar feel to Chinese characters, but the more he looked, the more that feeling disappeared, and he could tell they were the characters of a completely different world.
In any case, what was important was the content.
It was a book that contained a collection of 'rumors and tales' rather than actual history, and though it was damaged by time in various places, preventing him from grasping the full content, it was still very informative.
It was interesting, of course, because it allowed him to understand the general structure and culture of this world.
How much time had passed?
When Han Yu-jin carefully put the book back, his expression was thoroughly flushed.
'To think a world so similar to Xianxia could exist.'
Of course, not everything was the same, and there were many differences, but overall, it wouldn't be a stretch to call it a Xianxia world.
This was especially true in that one could cultivate to become an Immortal, becoming limitlessly strong and long-lived.
'If only I can obtain and learn a cultivation method…!'
Forcibly calming his soaring excitement, he continued to explore the interior of the Library Pavilion.
As he did, he organized the information he had just learned in his head.
But there was also an unavoidable, distracting thought.
Considering the vastness of the near-infinite universe, it was very natural for numerous other worlds to exist.
But even so, it was still amazing that a world so similar to Earth's genre novels could exist.
It was as if the existence of those worlds had influenced the subconscious of humanity on Earth through some cosmic, incomprehensible action.
'No, wait…'
Han Yu-jin suddenly thought of a more plausible hypothesis.
Surprisingly, the concept of an Immortal had not appeared on Earth that long ago.
But according to the contents of the 'Secret History of the Path of Immortality' he had just read, the cultivation civilization of this world had lasted for at least tens of thousands of years, and perhaps even hundreds of thousands of years.
This meant that if one were to determine the origin, the probability that this world was the origin was overwhelmingly high.
'What if the rift phenomenon from dimensional collisions had existed, even if only faintly, from much further back in the past?'
The first officially recorded occurrence of a rift was after World War II, but perhaps there were rift phenomena that had gone unrecorded or undiscovered even before that.
It was possible that a fragment of this world's culture had flowed into ancient China through the phenomenon of a rift, and that it had influenced Taoism, leading to the emergence of the concept of an Immortal on Earth as well.
He couldn't prove anything, but the more he thought about it, the more exciting it was, as if he had discovered one of the universe's secrets.
A moment later.
To his immense joy, Han Yu-jin found a book containing a cultivation method.
Of course, it was heavily weathered by the force of time, but perhaps due to high demand for borrowing, there were over twenty copies on the shelf, and the books themselves seemed to have been sturdily made from the start and were in relatively good condition.
By cross-referencing and reading through the more than twenty books, he would be able to grasp the complete content.
The title of the book was 'Origin Reversion Art', which roughly meant returning to the source.
It sounded profound, but it didn't seem to hold that much of a tremendous meaning.
Han Yu-jin immediately sat down on the floor nearby and began to grasp the contents of the book.
He had braced himself for it to be quite complex and abstruse, but surprisingly, it wasn't like that at all.
It wasn't because he was a genius.
'Thanks to my ability to understand languages…'
He could understand every sentence perfectly without a single misinterpretation, and it was the same even when figuring out the 'Dharma Seals' that formed the backbone of the Origin Reversion Art.
Dharma Seals were similar in role to the Runes that frequently appear in fantasy novels.
They themselves held a mysterious efficacy, leading anyone to guess that they had an extraordinary origin.
Basically, not only were their forms very complex, but they also held ambiguous meanings; some looked as if they had been written over several times, requiring an interpretation guide to grasp their original form, and there were even mutual compatibilities and conflicts among them.
Perhaps the most difficult part for those first encountering cultivation would be figuring out these Dharma Seals.
But Han Yu-jin was able to completely breeze through it thanks to his language comprehension ability.
'I'm not a genius, but is it no different from being one?'
He was already in an excited state, but he felt himself getting even more fired up.
He never knew that a clear hope for the future could make a person so ecstatic.
While he was engrossed in grasping the book's contents like that.
He came to his senses as if waking from a dream at the sudden feeling of hunger.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but his surroundings still hadn't grown dark.
'I think at least a few hours have passed…'
With that thought, Han Yu-jin went outside for a moment and looked up at the gloomy, ashen sky.
And then he realized a very important fact.
There was nothing to eat or drink here. And there would be no way to get any.
'I wished for a world where all the people were annihilated so there would be no danger, and now it looks like I'll dry up and die in a few days myself!'
As expected, when you gain one thing, you lose another.
The saying that there is nothing in the world that is only ever good also came to mind.
After thinking for a moment, he returned to the Library Pavilion and picked up two copies of the Origin Reversion Art that were in good condition.
Then he went back outside and resumed his exploration.
It was because no matter how small the possibility seemed, he didn't want to just wither away and die.
It wasn't just that he didn't want to; it was also a loss of time. If he could find something like a mushroom to eat, the time he could stay here would become much longer.
He proceeded with his exploration in large strokes, as if drawing a rough map in his head.
Even though there were many places he just glanced at and passed by, the ruins of this Five Elements Sect were so vast that they showed no signs of ending.
Just as he was getting tired and wanted to sit down, a large building with the name 'Alchemy Hall' caught Han Yu-jin's eye.
A corner of it had collapsed, but since it was mostly built of stone, it was largely intact.
'Perhaps…'
There might be something like the 'Bigu Pills' that frequently appear in Wuxia novels.
The kind that allows you to not feel hungry for a whole day after eating just one.
As he entered with a bit of hope, surprisingly, there was no particular smell. It was probably because the door wasn't closed, unlike at the Library Pavilion.
The internal structure was not very complex, and it wasn't difficult to guess its purpose.
He quickly found the place where medicinal ingredients were stored and opened the jade storage boxes one by one, checking their contents.
One section seemed to be for storing unprocessed medicinal ingredients, while another seemed to be for storing processed, round pills.
The problem was that almost none of the contents were in good condition.
At best, some of the processed pills had their forms preserved, but it was impossible to know if their medicinal effects were also intact, and he couldn't just take one as a test.
Moving to a different location, he found a place where books, not medicinal ingredients, were stored.
He managed to get his hands on a few books that were in decent condition and quickly looked through them.
'Spirit Pills…'
There was a book that explained the nature of the pills, and another that was like a ledger, explaining what kinds of pills were made and stored here and for what purpose.
Thanks to this, Han Yu-jin learned one fact he hadn't known.
The Five Elements Sect ruins he had explored so far were merely the 'Outer Sect' area, and the 'Inner Sect' area, where the key figures resided, existed separately further up the mountain.
'I haven't even looked around half of it, but is the Outer Sect area larger than the Inner Sect area…?'
He wouldn't know until he went there himself.
After finishing his exploration of the Alchemy Hall, he came out having only confirmed that there was nothing to eat or drink, and with one additional book in hand.
It was time to make a choice.
Would he finish looking around this Outer Sect area, or would he head directly to the Inner Sect area to save even a little bit of time?
There might be a spring with flowing water somewhere here.
But if there was something like that here, it was likely to be in the more important Inner Sect area as well.
Even if he were to gain something through exploration, the results from the Inner Sect area would naturally be much greater.
'Let's go.'
Having made up his mind, he headed in one direction based on his rough guess. He had discovered a path leading up the mountain earlier during his exploration, but he had just passed it by since he didn't know where it led.
He moved at a pace that was neither hurried nor leisurely. Perhaps because he was aware of the situation where he couldn't eat or drink anything, he was starting to feel thirsty, but he wasn't exactly terrified.
'It's fine even if I die.'
It felt like the great failure in that world, the Demon Followers' Ikapa Pangea, had accumulated as a kind of inner strength.
'It's not easy to die in such a horrific way.'
And even if it were similarly horrific, the experience of being mindlessly swept around without knowing anything and the experience of facing it with prior knowledge and resolve were bound to be different.
Han Yu-jin actually thought that survival would be almost impossible even if he went to the Inner Sect area.
So he was already mentally prepared to wither away and die.
'I'll just wake up in reality again.'
As he was thinking.
He found the path leading upwards and began to follow it, climbing the mountain.
This mountain climb was also not easy. It was especially so, perhaps because he was hungry and thirsty, but whenever he was forced to rest, he read the Origin Reversion Art he had brought with him.
By the time he had read the Origin Reversion Art from beginning to end once.
Han Yu-jin was able to smile at the sight of the ruins that appeared before him, which he presumed to be the Inner Sect area of the Five Elements Sect.
The effort of climbing all the way here had indeed not been in vain.
It certainly seemed to be a more important area.
Traces that allowed him to roughly guess how splendid and magnificent this place must have been in the past were visible everywhere.
'I wonder where the Library Pavilion is…'
Since he had obtained the Origin Reversion Art in the Outer Sect area, he would surely be able to obtain a higher-level art here.
Even if it wasn't an art, he might be able to obtain a useful Dharma spell or a secret technique.
At the very least, even a book containing various stories of this world would be good.
The more common sense he had about cultivation, the better.
This time too, he intended to first get a rough grasp of the structure by taking a broad look around.
But, not long after he started to do so, he discovered a peculiar terrain.
It was a terrain like a canyon.
On the faces of both cliffs, caves were bored open at regular intervals, and stairs leading to each of those caves were neatly laid out.
'Cave abodes?'
It referred to the cave-type training grounds of cultivators that frequently appear in Xianxia novels.
The 'Secret History of the Path of Immortality' he had read earlier also mentioned cave abodes.
If these were the cave abodes of the Inner Sect area, they must have been the residences of important figures.
It seemed he could get something here.
Han Yu-jin, filled with interest and anticipation, began to explore from the nearest cave.
He carefully climbed the stairs and explored the first cave, but he obtained nothing.
To be precise, the inside was pitch-black, so it was almost impossible to explore in the first place, except for the area around the entrance.
"..."
After thinking for a moment, he decided to abandon his greed and explore only the vicinity of each cave's entrance.
He didn't want to get hurt by willingly putting himself in a blind state.
How many caves had he explored like that?
Finally, he discovered something unusual at the entrance of one cave.
'A skeleton…'
It was clearly human, and at the same time, it was a special skeleton that was as white and lustrous as white jade, even after so many long years had passed.
Even though a thick layer of dust had settled on it, its color was not obscured.
He didn't know if this was an art sculpture or a real human's.
Of course, considering the context of the setting and the various belongings dropped nearby, it couldn't have been an art sculpture.
'Do even the bones of a cultivator become special?'
Han Yu-jin carefully examined the skeleton and also the belongings left beside it.
There was one pouch made of grayish-black leather, one Eastern-style longsword that wasn't rusted but had a very dull color, and finally, one jade-colored gourd that seemed to have once held a brilliant light.
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