Heavenly Spiritual Root
"You mean a Heavenly Spiritual Root..."
Dang Sa-hui asked. Well, these were mortals—of course they wouldn't know the difference between a Heavenly Spiritual Root and a Mixed Spiritual Root even if he explained it.
"Just think of it as an exceptionally fine spiritual root. Talent enough for any cultivator to covet. Hmm, in your terms... it'd be something like a Heavenly Martial Physique."
"Ah, is that so!"
For the first time, color bloomed across Dang Sa-hui's previously impassive face. He had thought her emotions dulled with age, the way elders often were, but she could smile this brightly after all.
"Ga-hye. I'm so relieved. Truly relieved."
Dang Sa-hui clapped her hands, delighted as if it were her own good fortune. The actual subject, Dang Ga-hye, looked rather awkward about it, though.
"If I may be so bold... then, would the cultivator be willing to take our Ga-hye under your wing?"
"What?"
The one who let out a shrill cry was Dang Ga-hye.
"What are you saying all of a sudden, Great-Aunt?"
"You stay quiet. What do you say, cultivator?"
Han Yuhyeon considered it. A Heavenly Spiritual Root holder was absolutely worth taking along. In theory, such a cultivator could grow five times faster than a Mixed Spiritual Root holder with all five elements. A Heavenly Spiritual Root also meant a stable path all the way to the Nascent Soul Realm. In a cultivation world where you couldn't trust a soul, taking in a child with talent like this was an enormous stroke of luck.
"I'm fine with it, but the girl's own will is what matters."
Han Yuhyeon said it that way for now. It wasn't out of special consideration for Dang Ga-hye—if she had no interest in cultivation, dragging her along would be pointless. Force the issue and he'd only earn her lasting resentment.
"Even if you put it to me so suddenly..."
Dang Ga-hye spoke, flustered.
"The Dang Clan is my home. I've never once thought about leaving it."
"You don't understand the weight of this. For a mortal to become a cultivator is to ascend to the immortal realm. An opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime."
"...Just a moment. Please give me a moment to think."
Han Yuhyeon and Dang Sa-hui fell silent, giving Dang Ga-hye time. They understood well enough. After twenty years of life, she would have to leave behind every relationship, every memory, every friendship she had built here. She needed time to prepare her heart.
Enough time passed for the tea to go cold before Dang Ga-hye opened her mouth, her voice heavy.
"There's just one thing I'd like to ask, cultivator."
"What is it?"
"If I go to the cultivation world... can I meet my father?"
Han Yuhyeon flinched. Arranging a meeting wouldn't be hard. But was it right to put Dang Ga-hye face-to-face with Old Man Dang? Han Yuhyeon knew exactly how wretched and pitiful the old man's life had become. Seeing her father like that with her own eyes—wouldn't it tear a daughter's heart apart?
"Of course."
But Han Yuhyeon answered that way anyway. Even so, he thought it far better than never meeting at all.
"I'll get ready."
The moment she heard that answer, Dang Ga-hye rose and left. It was a moment that made clear exactly what Old Man Dang meant to her.
Once Dang Ga-hye's presence had faded, Dang Sa-hui spoke carefully to Han Yuhyeon.
"I worry that our Ga-hye might become a burden to you, cultivator."
"With a Heavenly Spiritual Root, she won't be a burden. Even in the cultivation world, that kind of talent is beyond measure. Honestly, entrusting her to me is almost a waste. Higher-realm cultivators hunt for Heavenly Spiritual Root holders with fire in their eyes."
Han Yuhyeon spoke while finishing the tea Dang Ga-hye had left. Taking a disciple at the eighth star of Qi Condensation felt a touch early, but with the Mongan Hyeolseo he could supply cultivation resources and techniques, so there was nothing to worry about.
"That doesn't matter to us. How could we presume to weigh the ranks of cultivators? And even if another cultivator stood higher in realm than you, I would not entrust Ga-hye to anyone else."
"Why not?"
"Forgive my boldness, but I have heard that among cultivators, there are many who are cruel. Ga-hye lost her parents young, and I raised her as my own daughter. I could never send her to a cultivator like that."
Han Yuhyeon tilted his head at Dang Sa-hui's words.
"You know that, and you're still sending her to the cultivation world?"
"I know this much: this world turns because of cultivators. I know that behind every divided nation of the Central Plains, and behind every imperial house, there are cultivators."
"You've got a broad view. So what does that have to do with sending a girl you raised like a daughter into the cultivation world?"
"If cultivators so much as wished it, they could wipe out our murim and the Central Plains in a single day. And as I understand it, cultivators don't even regard us mortals as the same kind of people. To you, we are like rats living in a cellar. You could exterminate us if you wanted, but it would take needless effort, and there's no real reason to bother—so you leave us alone."
It was a tragic, deeply pessimistic view of humanity, but Han Yuhyeon could only agree. Every word Dang Sa-hui said was true.
As long as the cultivation world existed, humans without spiritual roots were beings who could die at any moment on a cultivator's whim.
"I learned of cultivators' existence at twenty, and from that day to this I have lived in constant fear—the fear that one day cultivators might, on a whim, turn our murim into a wasteland. What does it matter if we hold martial tournaments among ourselves to decide who is the greatest under heaven? Is it not the height of folly to rejoice in crowning someone who could be crushed to death by a single cultivator's finger?"
"..."
"I don't want Ga-hye to live inside that fear. I want her to swim freely in a wider world—not in a fishbowl, but in the sea. She's young now, so it's fine. But when she grows older she will realize the place she lives is a fishbowl, and that is when hell begins. So please. Cultivator. Free our Ga-hye from hell."
Dang Sa-hui rose and performed a deep formal bow before Han Yuhyeon. Watching a mortal struggle this hard left a strange feeling in the chest of a cultivator.
"Won't you regret it? Sending away a child like a daughter?"
"I will. The thought of her leaving already makes me ache with longing, as if my heart is being torn. But I am someone who will leave soon enough myself. I cannot let my own greed hold Ga-hye back."
"Alright. We'll do it that way, then."
"Thank you, cultivator. Ga-hye is a child I raised with my whole heart. Please take good care of her."
"Don't worry."
Hearing Dang Sa-hui's true feelings left a bitter ache. Spiritual roots were, truly, talent handed down from heaven. Mortals weren't born mortal because they wanted to be. And yet for the single reason of lacking a spiritual root, they had to live treated like insects by cultivators. Thinking of it that way, he could understand why Dang Sa-hui wanted to send Dang Ga-hye to the cultivation world.
"But know this much. That doesn't mean the cultivation world is paradise."
It might even be a deeper hell. If a cultivator died midway, they fell straight to the underworld without fail. A life spent under that pressure for hundreds of years was a long way from heaven.
Still, there was hope. Ascend to the True Immortal Realm and you shed that eternal yoke—and with a Heavenly Spiritual Root, Dang Ga-hye's odds were high enough.
"It's the same anywhere, isn't it. That will be Ga-hye's work to do."
"Good. But is it really fine to just throw out the clan head like that? If she's the previous clan head's only daughter, she's the last of the direct line."
"Our Elder Council also knows of cultivators' existence. If we say it is a cultivator's decision, they will have no choice but to obey without a word."
"Understood."
That was the end of the conversation. From there, things moved at a breakneck pace.
An Elder Council meeting was held on the motion to remove Dang Ga-hye as clan head, but just as Dang Sa-hui had said, no one could oppose it. They all knew a cultivator was involved.
While the meeting was underway, Dang Ga-hye wrote farewell letters to distant acquaintances and went in person to bid goodbye to those nearby.
Then, as she left the Dang Clan, she turned and offered a bold, formal bow to Dang Sa-hui, who had come out to see her off.
"Great-Aunt. I'm going now."
"Yes. Listen well to the cultivator."
"Of course."
But that boldness did not last long. Once they entered a forest far from any people, Dang Ga-hye finally broke down and let the tears she had been holding back pour free.
What must it feel like to walk away from the home you had lived in your whole life, leaving every bond behind? Han Yuhyeon could not begin to understand that feeling, so he simply stayed quiet.
But only for a while. Dang Ga-hye dragged out her crying for a full half day. She hiccuped alone, held her breath and bent at the waist to try to stop, and bawled with tears and snot streaming down her face.
"Hic... uuugh..."
At first Han Yuhyeon had tried to be understanding, but past a certain point he had no choice but to snap.
"Quit crying already! It's noisy!"
"Hic."
At Han Yuhyeon's scolding, Dang Ga-hye hiccuped again. Whether she was actually afraid of him or not, she bit her lip and trembled.
"You chose this yourself. Why are you bawling like this?"
"Because I won't be able to see Grandmother anymore."
"That's true enough. Once you throw yourself into cultivation, years fly by. You won't have time to care about the lower world."
Dang Ga-hye started welling up again at that. Han Yuhyeon went on.
"And your grandmother won't see you either. But until the day she dies, she'll think of you with pride and joy. In her imagination, you'll have become a fairy who transcended the shackles of mortal life. You're carrying your grandmother's dream now."
"Ah."
"So you can stop crying now, right?"
"...Yes."
Dang Ga-hye hung her head low. The blood of a great clan didn't go anywhere—she was quick to take a point.
"Then when can I see my father?"
"There's someone I need to find before we go see Old Man Dang."
"Someone to find?"
"Who?"
"Would you know if I told you?"
"...No."
Dang Ga-hye's voice shrank into herself. As far as Han Yuhyeon was concerned, she needed her spirit broken down a little like this. She had lived her whole life as a young lady of a great clan—she wasn't used to bowing her head to anyone. In this cultivation world, a stiff neck got you a severed one.
Han Yuhyeon deliberately clicked his tongue loud enough to hear and took out the Hyeongi Yugyeong. A small, shabby hand mirror.
He had no idea what form Yong Yu-tak was walking around in these days. The bastard changed his appearance constantly. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that Han Yuhyeon knew Yong Yu-tak's true form.
An image began to form on the mirror that had shown nothing. Then the image faded to a blur and vanished, leaving the glass empty again. Meaning he wasn't anywhere nearby.
So they would have to look around a bit—and if they were going to track someone across the vast expanse of So-ui-ju, there was something they obviously needed.
"The time has come."
"Huh? Time for what?"
"Time to buy a personal vehicle."
"What's a personal vehicle?"
"You'll see. It's one of those moments that gets a man's heart racing."
Jeong Cheon-o had said it, hadn't he? Ride a cool mount and people treated you better. Looking different depending on how sharp your ride was—that was the same whether it was his past life on Earth or the cultivation world.
"Close your eyes for a second."
"Okay."
Dang Ga-hye listened well. The line about carrying her grandmother's dream seemed to have stuck with her more than a little.
The Mongan Hyeolseo wouldn't be visible to Dang Ga-hye anyway, but gesturing at empty air or muttering to himself would look strange, so he took the precaution.
"Alright. Let's take a look."
Han Yuhyeon clapped his hands and summoned the Mongan Hyeolseo.
A car owner—something he'd never managed to become on Earth. The thought that it might finally happen here in the cultivation world made his chest swell with excitement.