"It's clobbering time!"
An animation continued on the television, eliciting a chuckle from Seol Hwa.
She had been listlessly shuffling through channels, trying to get a firm grasp of whatever was happening around the world.
That particular cartoon was merely incidental.
It was around 8:30 PM. Min-Seo had already resumed her sleep after stuffing herself, leaving Seol Hwa alone.
There was one thing she had noticed when going through the channels.
The world was going through turbulence of its own.
It was truly chaotic, especially when she saw a man with a helmet controlling metal, resulting in a lot of casualties.
'It wasn't as peaceful as I thought. These crime incidents may be trifling, but they're diversified throughout the region,' Seol Hwa smirked. 'The Dao of metal, huh?'
But had she ever been one averse to chaos and mayhem?
The murim had been one chaotic realm containing nutjobs.
In fact, a peaceful front would have been too suspicious. She wanted peace, but it would be too childish to think it came without a cost.
And the enforcers of the so-called peace were called heroes.
She disliked that word: heroes.
Hell knows how many righteous 'heroes' had tried hunting her in the early stages of her martial arts journey. All because she had been labeled as a demonic path practitioner.
Switching off the TV, Seol Hwa felt it was time to keep herself busy. Her leisure time was over.
Strength was mandatory. Her own cultivation system needed to be reorganized, adapted, and improved according to her new reality.
She comfortably sat cross-legged on her bed.
The curtains were drawn, allowing beautiful silvery moonlight to bathe the room.
Distant traffic noises filled the night. It was still as busy as the day.
When Seol Hwa closed her eyes, she muted all these distractions through meditation, her breathing perfectly modulated.
She inspected her new internal environment. It was like a structured tiny universe of its own. It was not wrong to view the human body like a universe. The potential within it was infinite.
The Primordial Origin Demonic Meridians had no substantial qi, only the small dregs they could passively absorb from the ambient surroundings.
She was going to rectify that.
She had already perceived the heaven and earth energy of this world. It was sparse and rubbish.
This place would have been virtually a deadland to a normal cultivator, but she was different.
Her 800 years of roaming the murim hadn't been perfect. They had all been to prepare her for any eventuality. Like right now.
The demonic dao was a singular path. Seol Hwa hadn't been merely rooted to one road. She had laid branches to other paths in her quest for the fundamental truth of the universe.
She'd studied various martial arts techniques, even the third-rate ones, since inspiration wasn't discriminatory.
Some of those techniques hadn't been acquired through lawful means.
Robbing was just one of the ways of getting what you wanted.
As long as it was justifiable. Or not.
If you want something, take it. But never get caught.
Seol Hwa had been the fastest when they tried to catch her.
Undoubtedly, this ruined the egos of many.
When she had grown stronger, the Shaolin Monastery had been the first to lose their core techniques under the pretense of martial arts exchange. Sichuan Tang's Poison Sutras followed next.
The others needn't be mentioned.
A faint smirk curled her lips.
Her hobby of acquiring the techniques in the world had been for one purpose: to unify her understanding and deduce her own cultivation scripture.
Something that was adaptable to any and every environment regardless of differences in energy systems.
My predecessors didn't dare. My rivals called it wishful thinking. Future generations despaired.
They couldn't see what she had discovered when she reached the ceiling of the world.
All energies had a common point of origin.
They existed in different states and expressed themselves in special ways.
They all stemmed from the fabric of reality, merely expounding the same concept. Existence.
[Primordial Unity Demonic Scripture] was the culmination of that enlightenment.
With it, Seol Hwa could absorb and refine any type of energy for her own use.
Different energies had different natures, right? Her supreme demonic will and mental strength existed to keep the process running smoothly.
She activated [Primordial Unity Demonic Scripture] and sensed the energies that could be absorbed in her surroundings.
Since it was at night, the most notable was the lunar energy. Yin was the strongest at night, while Yang was minimal.
Seol Hwa gently guided the cool yin energy into her body and refined it into pure spiritual essence.
Simultaneously, she also drew the sparse spiritual qi in the atmosphere, devouring it aggressively like a starved Taotie, before purifying it.
She was pleased when she saw the gaseous, thick spiritual essence swirling in her dantian.
The amount was insignificant, but her efforts were not.
The only downside of her anomalous technique was the time it consumed and the immense concentration needed.
Those were not serious trade-offs to her, however, she wanted more.
It was then Seol Hwa sensed green specks of energy hidden within the chaotic mess of the ambient energies.
They were silent and if it were not for her focused senses, she would have totally missed them.
She had never seen that type of energy but within it, she detected something familiar.
She tried to casually absorb it, but it resisted her.
'Interesting.' Seol Hwa was struck with curiosity.
Again.
She increased the suctioning power, and the green energy was slowly absorbed, helpless against her tenacity.
The moment the green energy entered her meridian, a drastic change happened.
Seol Hwa had been mistaken.
The silence of the green energy had been quite deceiving.
It had a volatile reaction to her life signature. It furiously tried to escape her control, aiming to invade her cells.
'Fascinating. An energy that wants to mess with my biology.'
'I won't allow you to act arrogantly in my own body.'
'Untamable?
'Who decided that?'
Under her internal domain, everything had to be obedient, subservient to her will.
Slowly, Seol Hwa began removing the undisguised volatility. All energies were inherently the same to her.
This one was just a little bit…special. It took more focus and mental strength due to its incessant resistance.
When she finally stripped away the outer layers of the energy, the results astounded her.
At the base, a pure primordial substrate swirled inside her meridians. Within it she could sense the all-too-familiar law of regeneration, abundant lifeforce.
'It seems like heaven– No, ptui! Never speak of the heavens being on your side, Seol Hwa.' She scolded herself for almost misthinking.
That vendetta was not going to be erased anytime soon.
Setting that 'heaven-less' issue aside, she was extremely excited.
The fragments of regeneration coded in that green energy would help boost the [Nirvanic Demon Undying Canon].
That was her first self-created technique when the utmost priority had been absolute survivability. She had grown with it, made several revisions while upgrading it to a fearsome level.
'This is exactly what I needed.' She mused lightly while refining the primordial energy. It had a much higher yield of spiritual essence.
'This world is getting stranger and stranger. I like it.'
From that point on, she spent the entire night cultivating.
When she opened her eyes again, the golden yang from the morning sun greeted her.
Her mesmerizing amber eyes glowed beautifully from the sun's brilliance.
---<>---
It was 7:10 a.m.
Seol Hwa pulled the bag over her shoulder as she exited her room.
Her clothes were neat and modest. Or so she thought.
She wasn't one to nitpick her wardrobe.
"Mom has already gone to work," she murmured to herself, the silence of the apartment answering back.
She found her breakfast covered with an aluminum foil.
A sticky note was on top of it.
***
Make sure to eat your breakfast, Seol Hwa.
Hope you enjoy your time at school. I know it's a rough time to transfer.
But you're strong. I could tell from your steak last night.
Fight on!
***
"How amusing. You're right on one thing, mum," Seol Hwa subtly grinned, mirth in her eyes.
"I am strong in ways you could never fathom."
'And I won't ditch your breakfast.' She looked at the plate before peeling off the foil.
It took her two minutes to finish her food.
---<>---
A young woman in black leg trousers, thin turtleneck and a light beige wool coat stood in front of the elevator.
Ding!
The elevator doors slid open.
She stepped inside while curiously looking at every inch of the interior.
Another one of the humans' creations, she thought.
She would have taken the stairs but there was no novelty in them.
They reminded her of the steep mountains she used to climb as a mere child under one of the demon sect's heavenly king's tutelage.
Of course, those stairs couldn't hold a candle against nature.
She was once again reminded of how much the humans of this world liked convenience over a little discomfort.
She pressed the button leading to the ground floor.
A gentle exhale left her lips as she played around with the Student MetroCard in her hand.
She wondered if there would be cultivation seedlings in that high school.
'Not hopeful about it. With this world's unfavorable conditions…'
Just as the doors were closing, a desperate voice cut through Seol Hwa's thoughts.
"Wait! Please don't close…" A delicate hand shot at the last second to open the elevator.
A girl, almost out of breath, stumbled in, her body leaning forward. Her blonde hair was loosely tied in a ponytail and a seemingly heavy backpack hung on her shoulders.
"Hah, hah, phew," she tried to catch her breath.
Finally, she looked up at the person inside.
A breath left her again. Involuntarily.
She forgot how to breathe.
She forgot she could speak.
She forgot herself. She was spellbound.
Amused amber eyes met frozen blue eyes.
Ding!
Her time didn't resume even as the doors closed.
---<>---
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