Hard and Soft

"Elder, since the misunderstanding was solved, I will take my leave!" Ji-Yoon said as he cupped his fists and prepared to continue his search.

"Wait, little boy," the old man appeared before him again, "Sorry if this stupid disciple of mine scared you, here, take it."

He handed a pill bottle and disappeared as a voice entered Ji-Yoon's mind, "There are some Core Refining Pills inside, don't waste them!"

"Thank you, Elder!" Ji-Yoon thanked with a surprised expression, knowing how valuable this kind of pill was.

Normally, it would take a total of a thousand merit* points to exchange for one of those pills, so each of them is as precious as time.

*(I will be changing the word "contribution" to "merit.")

"You guys, see ta later!" Kun Jiang embarrassingly ran away, afraid of even looking at them.

"Heh!" Ji-Yoon scoffed and looked at the two female disciples, "If you had doubts like him, why did you take such a risk and didn't run away?"

Su Ru was about to say something but was interrupted by Zhu Ning, "Sorry for doubting you, Fellow Disciple. It was our fault for not having enough wisdom."

"It's all right," Ji-Yoon shook his head with a grin, seeing they aren't going to answer his question, "I'm going now, good luck with your mission."

Instantly, he disappeared from their field of vision, leaving behind a shock wave from his burst of speed.

Zhu Ning sighed at the familiar happening but didn't run like the last time, "Let's go!"

She took a jade pendant from her space ring, it shone with a mysterious light like an arrow's head pointed in one direction. They dived into the river as layers of white protective energy covered them.

As Ji-Yoon ran in the same direction as originally, he was trying to figure out a solution for his weak existential signature. It was obviously a huge problem.

That wasn't something he was deliberately doing, but rather an effect of his 'True Being Union Flow Resonance.' His being wasn't only in harmony with nature and the flow, he was basically merged with them.

So, unless the cultivator was at a much higher Realm than him, he/she wouldn't be able to feel any difference between him and nothing.

He figured out only someone at the Dao Enlightenment Realm would be able to feel his existential signature at that moment. Since at that Realm a cultivator can feel something called 'Void Waves,' which are basically a type of existential signature which contained a being's whole basic information.

Although he had high attainment in the Mortal Dao, he would only be able to resonate with the 'Void Layer' of the Flow only after reaching the Dao Enlightenment Realm. It was simply a necessary Life Level/Plane.

Stopping in his tracks, Ji-Yoon frowned slightly and sat on the moist rocky ground with his legs crossed, not caring about dirtying his robe.

'System, awaken me if something goes wrong,' he ordered with an eager but also afraid expression.

[Ding! Dong! Don't blame me if you die, host!]

Closing his eyes, he shut all his normal senses and ethereal mind off. His cultivation base was completely paralyzed, and his True Qi stopped its circulation through his body.

Nothing was received into his mind, and he even emptied his thoughts.

Nothing... Void... That was his mind.

His existential signature, which was already abnormally low, began to drop even more. He began to enter into a mysterious state, where even nature began to ignore him.

His figure began to fade away, as light simply went through him directly without being reflected.

He seemed to have been erased from the world.

[Ding! Dong! Awake, host!]

Instantly, that state was broken and his figure appeared again. His eyes opened slowly, and nothing about him seemed different.

"What a scary place..." Ji-Yoon muttered with cold sweat on his forehead, he even felt the familiar touch of death.

[Ding! Dong! Congratulations on sensing the Void for the first time, host.]

"Huh? No rewards?" Ji-Yoon asked begrudgingly.

[Ding! Dong! Be happy you survived!]

"Well, I guess I got quite a bit of insight from it. So it wasn't without gains," he muttered as he got up, "I think I finally understand one more truth about the 'Life Planes.'"

"The reason I'm not able to survive when sensing the Void is simply that my Life Plane is too low, which reflects directly in the strength of my existential signature, and thus the 'Void Waves' that it causes. Because of this, it's easy for my consciousness to be assimilated by the void...

"But what really caught me by surprise is that the existential signature has a kind of strength beyond my scope of understanding, my sensibility to the flow wasn't enough to grasp any of its principles..."

"But what I could get from this experience is useful regardless..." he muttered as a subtle aura began to be emanated from him, it was the aura of someone at the Golden Core Realm.

Originally, his aura was completely restrained, and in harmony with nature and the flow, and thus couldn't be sensed. But after having a more thorough understanding of what is the existential signature, he managed to catch a few principles through the flow, rising his proficiency in the Mortal Dao and thus enabling him to perfect his state.

His True Being Union Flow Resonance was only about forgetting one's self to reach perfection, but after getting a glimpse of something more high-level, he understood it was still short-sighted.

While it was true that one's self was an egoist element and against the true harmony of all things, it was also true it was the base of understanding all things.

Without it, there's no meaning to anything. But with it, there's no harmony between anything.

When he understood that, he searched within the flow for the answer to this paradox, and he found it, it was actually the most basic thing everyone learns as a martial artist.

"Be hard as a stone when necessary and also soft as a plum blossom when necessary," the untitled Sage shouted as he hit his disciple with a tree's branch, correcting her posture, "Do I need to teach you such basic things yet?"

This memory came to Ji-Yoon, and was where he gained enlightenment. The Sage didn't order his disciple to be both hard and soft at the same time, but to switch between the two as necessary. And it had another meaning, for her to not search for perfection in her stance or moves.

His True Being Union Flow Resonance lacked such a basic intent, which was laughable to him. He was always searching for the perfect method of using his strength, and he even thought it was all about merging with the flow.

But in truth, there's no perfect method for using one's strength. Even the flow, which he so much valued, was just it, the flow of all things. Could he predict everything? Could the flow enable him to do it? No, of course not.

The flow would always follow the most efficient path, but it was different from perfection. Because the most efficient path might be more than one, and between those paths, one might in truth be more suitable for Ji-Yoon's whole situation, past, and future.

When he extricated himself from this mistake and obsession, he suddenly felt he could control his existential signature, and he would stay in harmony with nature and flow regardless of its state.

At a moment, his existential signature was at the Golden Core level, and then it disappeared, and then appeared again. But regardless of its state, his resonance with the flow didn't diminish.

Letting out a sigh, Ji-Yoon was relieved he solved a source of trouble for himself. He wouldn't hide his existential signature unless extremely necessary.

Although his strength didn't increase because of this sudden enlightenment, his future path was clear and he was exempted from walking into the wrong road.

He then started to run again with all his speed.

As he ran, he saw many beasts but didn't engage any of them to conserve energy. When a beast was very close to him, he would simply erase his existential signature and pass by quietly.

He had to conserve energy in case he encountered a Nascent Soul Realm beast. He definitely can't win against such an opponent, but it shouldn't be a problem to avoid it as long as he doesn't provoke the opposite part.

After all, a tiger won't care about an ant passing by, it's too small to be suitable prey.

But in case he ends up confronting such an opponent, he better be in his best shape.

After a while, he saw Kun Jiang running away from a batch of Crystal Lizards, full of wounds.

'Does this guy have a problem in his head?' Ji-Yoon wondered, 'Why is he not focusing on his mission and instead provoking this specific kind of beast?'

He then erased his existential signature and ignored him. 'Since he has such a powerful master, there's no way he is going to die easily.'

He spent a day exploring the underground river but didn't find any Flood Dragon, but he expected this difficulty.

He never went away too much from the path that leads to the surface, fearing any kind of unpredictable danger. But he also explored a bit in the opposite direction of the river's current, discovering beasts seemed stronger that way.

He then spent more than two days searching and encountered lots of disciples during that time, but he always avoided interacting with them.

He also once felt the presence of a Nascent Realm beast, a kind of strange fish. Fortunately, it seemed uninterested in anyone outside the river and just swam happily on the surface for a while.

It was only on the fifth day there that he saw a Flood Dragon, and it was battling two male disciples.

Ji-Yoon didn't care about anything else and simply erased his existential signature as he approached his target, as a predator eyeing his prey.

A black ringer that was in his left index finger began to transform into a brush, and then into a sharp hiltless moon blade and stood floating above his palm, waiting for his command.

The Flood Dragon was at the peak of the Golden Core Realm and had more than thirty meters in length, its horns emitted lightning, and its green scales emitted powerful vitality.

It roared constantly and tried to run into the river with all its might, but the two disciples were both peaks Golden Core Realm cultivators and reacted calmly at all of its tentatives, but they also accumulated lots of wounds in exchange.

At that instant, a flash of light came from the river and slashed at the Flood Dragon's neck, beheading it successfully.

At the same time, two slender figures enveloped in white light emerged from the river and landed beside the Flood Dragon.

"Fellow Disciples, I guess this is not something honorable to be done," one of the disciples who fought the Flood Dragon said with an irritated tone.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Zhu Ning said as she shook her head, "This one was originally found and chased out of the river by me and my Junior Sister, you are the ones who almost stole our prey."

After hearing it, both disciples flew into a rage. "So you were just watching as we fought and get ourselves beaten to this point to defeat it?"

"Hm!" Zhu Ning nodded "We certainly wouldn't refuse such useful help! Look at how tired it got by you two, it couldn't even react to my attack!"

"You damn bitch!!" both male disciples branded their weapons and were prepared to fight for the Flood Dragon's corpse.

"Hmph!" Zhu Ning snorted, "You want to fight me while being in such a pathetic state?" She emitted a powerful aura and made both of them back off.

Although they are in the same Realm, the male disciples had been completely exhausted, and couldn't resist her aggressive imposing manner.

"Just you wait!" one of them said as both ran away.

"Hmph! What a bunch of idiots!" Zhu Ning sneered, not taking the threat seriously, "Sister Su, take the corpse away, let's get out of this moist hole before someone receives the reward first, there's not just one Flood Dragon in this Mountain Range."

"Huh? Where is the corpse?" Zhu Ning said astonishedly as the huge corpse suddenly disappeared.

"Huh?" Su Ru was also surprised, the corpse disappeared without any signal.

"WHO DARES STEAL ME!?"