Chapter 131
Chapter 131
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 131
Chapter Title: Earth Immortals (4)
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A short while later, the Cultivation Club gathered once more.
It happened to be the holiday that came every five days.
That was why Ho Hye-mun and Yi Agum were attending as well.
The two ghost members had run into each other by chance near the mansion.
Yi Agum lowered her flight altitude and greeted her.
"Hye-mun sis, hello."
Ho Hye-mun, who had been riding her mountain goat, turned her head.
"Agumie, hello. It feels like ages since I last saw you."
"You're right, it has been ages. Last time was at the Carp Festival, and this is the first since then."
"Has it been that long already?"
Ho Hye-mun and Yi Agum chatted away as they traveled together.
The two worked in completely different fields: one as a writing school teacher, the other as a pill refiner.
At first glance, it might seem they had little in common to talk about, but in reality, that wasn't the case at all.
The main patrons of both the writing school and the Medicine Hall were children under ten years old.
The writing school was attended by children between six and ten.
Younger ones were handled by the nursery.
Older ones, depending on whether they had spirit roots or not, either began cultivation or built up the refinements needed to enter the secular ruling class.
Ho Hye-mun spoke in a worried tone.
"There are so many students catching colds these days. It's really worrying. Five of them were absent just yesterday."
"That's the flu going around."
"Really? I thought it was just the seasonal change... Have you seen a lot of kids with colds at the Medicine Hall too?"
Yi Agum launched into her complaints as if she'd been waiting for the question.
"A lot? It's nothing but kids. Look anywhere in the Medicine Hall, and all you see are snotty little ones sniffling away."
"That bad?"
"Sometimes other types of patients show up. Like Qi Building cultivators injured from martial arts practice, or adolescents who haven't entered the secular world yet. But the vast majority are infants and toddlers."
As the name implied, the Medicine Hall handled all health matters for the Black Bamboo Sect.
But Qi Building cultivators didn't get sick, and mortals without spirit roots left for the secular world upon reaching adulthood.
In the end, the pill refiners at the Medicine Hall naturally had to double as pharmacists and pediatricians.
The flu didn't take holidays off.
Lately, Yi Agum had been swamped with shift work.
Today was luckily her day off.
Upon arriving at the mansion, Yi Agum knocked on the door and said,
"See, he's super cute."
"Daibung is blocking the door with his body? For real?"
"That's what I said!"
There was a stir from inside.
Yi Agum and Ho Hye-mun brimmed with anticipation.
At last, the firmly shut front gate swung wide open.
A young maid greeted the two.
"Ah, you've arrived. Please come in."
Ho Hye-mun asked Yi Agum,
"He's not here."
"Huh? But last time he definitely..."
"Did you trick me?"
For reference, the real Shiksan Daibung was in the central pond.
He had long since tired of guard duty games.
These days, he seemed obsessed with water play.
With the arrival of Ho Hye-mun and Yi Agum, all six members of the Cultivation Club were gathered.
*****
From Seoran's perspective, the mortal world was a vast yet shallow one.
The planet's scale was unimaginably immense, but the atmosphere itself was relatively thin.
Thus, even a mere Returning Spirit cultivator could ride a flying vessel out into space.
Of course, coming back was an entirely different matter.
The moment you passed the Skyward Barrier, you'd be flung toward the void without a chance to react.
It was jokingly called the "Scattering Cloud Ascension."
Knowing these dangers, cultivators avoided flying at excessively high altitudes.
The perilous seas could serve as barriers between continents partly because of the Skyward Barrier.
If you flew too high blindly to avoid yokai hordes, you might end up experiencing an involuntary planetary escape.
Moreover, the Skyward Barrier was something formless and amorphous.
Like silk fluttering in the wind, its shape shifted irregularly every moment.
Brave explorers who tried crossing the perilous seas by flying just barely below the barrier mostly never returned.
Astronomers had spent ages trying to uncover the secrets held by the Skyward Barrier.
But no one had succeeded yet.
Even today, with the cultivation world's overall advancement bringing cases of sect inheritance failures, the true nature of the Skyward Barrier remained shrouded in mystery.
The Skyward Barrier.
The great unknown that had frustrated countless astronomers.
It was also the third research topic of the Cultivation Club.
Having finished her explanation, Seoran passed something out.
"Here you go, one each."
The club members, who had been attentively listening to the outdoor lecture "What is the Skyward Barrier?", rose from their picnic mat.
They received the items Seoran was handing out.
Black sunglasses—or shades, in foreign terms.
Jang Seonhwa, born and raised at the Black Bamboo Sect headquarters, asked,
"Teacher, what's this?"
Seoran replied in a dramatic tone.
"Ahh, you don't know...? It is..."
"It is?"
Ho Hye-mun, sitting nearby, said casually,
"Oh, sunglasses."
Deprived of her line, Seoran asked glumly,
"You knew?"
"Yes, I've seen them in the capital often. They're not cheap, so only high officials or the wealthy with bad eyesight used them. My father started wearing them at some point too. But colored ones like these are new to me. I've heard judges use them, though."
"Now that you mention it, you're from the capital..."
Damcheong, already wearing his sunglasses, chimed in knowingly.
"I know a thing or two about sunglasses! You wear them on your face like this! Just like me!"
"Lord Damcheong, you have them upside down."
"Hmm, tricky..."
Geum Yeongyeong, Yi Agum, and Jang Seonhwa examined the sunglasses curiously from all angles.
They were quite novel to the three, who had spent most or all of their lives within a cultivation sect.
Cultivators didn't suffer from poor eyesight, after all.
A moment later, Seoran explained the day's activity.
"You all remember the explanation about the Skyward Barrier from earlier, right? Today, we're going to collect various data on it using exploratory projectiles."
Jang Seonhwa shot her hand up and asked,
"Teacher, why are you handing out these sunglasses?"
"If you wear them, you can share the visual feed from the observation devices on the exploratory projectile. It's like indirectly touring space."
"Aha!"
The group headed to where the exploratory projectiles were.
It was a field near Seoran's mansion.
The spot where Shiksan Daibung's main body was lounging.
Seoran entrusted her clone Shiksan Daibung to graze while instructing him.
"Daibungie, you have to play nice with Seonhwa's human-faced bird, okay? We'll be right here, so don't go too far. Oh, and don't cross that fence over there. Lord Damcheong planted cacti. Got it?"
The clone Shiksan Daibung nodded.
Then he wandered off with Jang Seonhwa's human-faced bird.
The bird kept chirping away nonstop.
Seoran put on her shades coolly and said,
"Firing. Everyone, put on your sunglasses."
Ho Hye-mun and Jang Seonhwa donned their black sunglasses.
The tall beauties paired with shades exuded an untouchable aura of intimidation and mystery.
Geum Yeongyeong and Yi Agum put theirs on too.
They suited them perfectly.
They gave off total movie star vibes.
Seoran finally looked at Damcheong.
His lenses were comically large compared to his face, paired with a bright smile.
He looked so light he might float away.
Damcheong asked,
"What's up?"
Seoran smiled faintly and replied,
"The sunglasses really suit you."
"Thanks. They suit you too."
"Good to hear."
Seoran pulled a signal device from her sleeve and pressed it.
The exploratory projectile rocketed upward in a brilliant flash.
*****
The Cultivation Club members were sharing the projectile's visual feed through their sunglasses.
The field they stood in, the Black Bamboo Sect headquarters, and the mountain range encircled by the Great Barrier shrank in an instant.
The projectile rapidly gained altitude.
Suddenly, Seoran's voice came through.
"I forgot to mention: you can turn the small gear on the side of the sunglasses to switch viewpoints."
Yi Agum fumbled a bit before turning the gear.
The view shifted from the downward camera to the side camera.
An endless horizon split heaven and earth, filling Yi Agum's vision.
The numerous observation devices on the exploratory projectile transmitted data to the ground every moment.
The transmitted data was relayed through armies of Eye of Insight formations positioned at various altitudes, gathering at Shiksan Daibung's main body.
The compiled information was then sorted by analytical organs and recorded by the hands of porcelain dolls.
At last, the projectile's nose touched the Skyward Barrier.
The gravitational pull toward the surface vanished completely upon crossing a certain interface.
Then, an immense force yanked the projectile away.
In that brief instant, two opposing forces—one toward the surface, the other away—tugged at the projectile's upper and lower halves respectively.
Unable to withstand the tension, the projectile's midsection snapped.
The upper and lower halves, having lost attitude control, spun wildly.
Soon, the projectile vanished into the void.
Yi Agum witnessed it all clearly.
The straight horizon line curved in an instant into an arc, then a full circle.
The view shook violently, spun dizzily, and went black.
The connection with the projectile had severed.
Yi Agum convulsed and ripped off her sunglasses.
It felt as if she herself had been hurled into space.
As Yi Agum put on the perfect reaction of a horror movie audience member, Seoran was focused elsewhere.
She was checking the observation data sent by the projectile.
"Hmm..."
Damcheong scampered over and asked,
"Did you learn something?"
After deep thought, Seoran replied,
"Nope, no idea at all."
In the end, they decided to consult the astronomers.