Chapter 3
Chapter 3
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Entry into the Cultivation Sect
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The carriage carried ten girls, including Seoran.
Half of them were crying, while the others wore dazed expressions.
Seoran, who had been staring blankly, recited a sutra to clear her mind.
As she continued, her head felt a bit clearer.
Just then, a girl sitting in the distance shouted.
“Stop muttering! You're creeping everyone out!”
Unjustly scolded and feeling irritated, Seoran muttered to herself.
“No, it's nothing.”
“What did you say!”
The girl jumped to her feet and charged at her.
Before Seoran could react, her hair was grabbed.
As a cultivator, Seoran didn't feel much pain from having her hair pulled.
But flustered by the completely unfamiliar situation, she instinctively balled her fist and struck the girl's forearm.
“Ow!”
The girl clutched her arm and collapsed, bursting into the loudest wails yet.
Now there were six people crying.
Looking closely, the girl seemed awfully young.
Thirteen at most?
Feeling a pang of conscience, Seoran hesitated and asked.
“Hey, does it hurt a lot?”
“Sniff! Y-yes, it h-hurts!”
Her words were hard to make out through the sobs, but it was clear she was in pain.
Asking had only made Seoran feel worse.
Out of guilt, Seoran patted and stroked the girl's back.
A little while later, everyone grew tired, and the crying stopped.
In the heavy silence, Seoran thought to herself.
Yeah, let's think positively.
I never wanted to marry a man anyway, right?
I'll pretend to obey and then run away.
Then someone spoke up.
“But what are they going to make us do after dragging us there?”
After a brief silence, another girl replied.
“Isn't it obvious? Use us as palace maids and kick us out when we're no longer needed.”
“Then they'll send us home if we can't work?”
The girl who had been hit and cried earlier asked.
The woman scowled and snapped back.
“You'll just get whipped for slacking off! You'll be stuck as a palace maid until you're too old and get thrown out!”
“Too old? How old?”
“Who knows, fifty?”
“Then I won't be able to get married!”
The girl burst into tears again.
Palace maids were considered the king's women, so they had to remain celibate for life.
They slaved away like slaves and, upon growing old, were given a bit of grain and cloth before being expelled from the palace.
With no family, it was no different from death.
A gloomy mood filled the carriage.
Still, the carriage wheels kept rolling.
*****
By the time they crossed the border, it was spring.
The envoy group, which had pressed on without rest, finally halted near a mountain range.
Four days later, the tribute girls were ordered to line up.
Bewildered, they climbed down from the carriages hesitantly.
In the distance, officials from the envoy group could be seen welcoming guests.
Even high-ranking nobles were bowing respectfully, as if performing a formal salute.
The man who had made these arrogant nobles—arrogant even before the king of Yue—bow low was an elderly figure.
Eavesdropping with her exceptional hearing, Seoran caught everyone addressing the elder as “Elder Wang.”
Elder Wang ignored the fawning nobles and headed straight toward where the girls were lined up.
Scowling as he scanned the girls repeatedly, Elder Wang's gaze settled on Seoran's group. Suddenly, a bright smile lit up his face.
“You two, come here.”
Elder Wang pointed at Seoran and the girl who had been hit and cried earlier.
Unsure what was happening, the two stepped forward before him.
Elder Wang first took the girl's pulse and asked.
“What's your name?”
The girl fidgeted before answering.
“They call me Yi Agum.”
“Triple Spirit Root—fine talent indeed.”
Elder Wang nodded in satisfaction.
Only then did Seoran realize Elder Wang was a cultivator with spirit sight.
Before he could even ask, she eagerly extended her wrist.
She wanted to know her own spirit root quickly.
Elder Wang checked Seoran's pulse, then tilted his head.
With a puzzled expression, he closed his eyes and examined her meridians more intently.
Then he shouted.
“Single Spirit Root!”
Startled by Elder Wang's intense reaction, a high official approached.
“Elder Wang, is something wrong?”
The elder fell silent for a long moment before announcing.
“No, nothing at all. I'll be off now. I'm taking these two children with me. That won't be a problem, will it?”
“Of course not, of course. Take as many as you wish.”
“Good. The main sect will greatly commend you for this.”
With that one-sided declaration, Elder Wang pulled a talisman from his robe and waved it.
The surroundings blurred and shifted in an instant, leaving only Elder Wang, Seoran, and Yi Agum behind.
As Seoran and Yi Agum looked around in confusion, Elder Wang said.
“No need to be alarmed. We passed through the barrier with a spell.”
Yi Agum asked.
“Are you perhaps one of those legendary immortals, sir?”
“No, I'm merely a cultivator training to become an immortal. And soon you two will be the same. Now, hop on.”
The small boat lying on the bare ground lifted into the air as soon as they boarded.
Terrified at first by the sensation of flying through the sky, Yi Agum clung tightly to Seoran.
But realizing it was safe, she peeked out and gazed down at the ground.
“Hmm, where should I start explaining?”
After pondering, Elder Wang began calmly describing the cultivation practices of cultivators: cultivation, immortality, cultivators, spirit roots, and more from this otherworldly realm poured from his lips.
Some of it Seoran already knew, while other parts were entirely new to her.
Excited at the prospect of becoming a cultivator herself, Yi Agum bombarded him with questions.
Can cultivators ride clouds?
Does that mean I can live over a thousand years too?
What was that talisman from earlier?
What do I need to do first to become a cultivator?
Elder Wang patiently answered Yi Agum's barrage of questions without a hint of annoyance.
Seoran, gauging the mood, gradually began asking her own questions.
She quickly pieced together the full situation.
Elder Wang was a disciple of the Black Bamboo Sect, a cultivation sect, at the Foundation Establishment stage.
The Black Bamboo Sect, which dominated Yang from the shadows, always sought out children with spirit roots to recruit as disciples whenever opportunities arose.
Having won the war, they had sent him in hopes of finding spirit root holders among the tribute princesses.
“To think two spirit root holders among hundreds of princesses—what a miraculous stroke of luck.”
Elder Wang muttered in disbelief.
The boat cleaved through the clouds, gradually picking up speed.
Soon it burst completely free of them.
Before them loomed a mountain range that seemed to pierce the heavens.
Majestic halls, too grand to believe they were man-made, crowned every peak.
Clouds flowed like rivers through the gaps in the range, evoking profound awe.
Seoran and Yi Agum were overwhelmed by the sheer scale of nature.
The boat approached one of the grand halls and came to a stop.
“Follow me.”
*****
In the end, Yi Agum and Seoran were initiated into the Black Bamboo Sect.
On the first day, they received basic guidelines and were sent to their lodgings.
On the second day, they were given a book of sect rules and daily necessities, then underwent the formal initiation ceremony.
And on the third day, their training to become cultivators began.
Yi Agum was assigned to the beginner class for foundational training.
Seoran had been placed there at first too.
But having studied books and cultivated since age ten, Seoran was already a proper Qi Refining cultivator.
When the instructor asked where she had learned, she claimed it was from an old man in her village.
Thus, Seoran advanced directly to Qi Refining training.
Most cultivators possessed Quintuple or Quadruple Spirit Roots.
Triple and Dual Spirit Roots were exceedingly rare.
A Single Spirit Root was so precious that finding one per century was considered fortunate for a sect.
For that reason, the Black Bamboo Sect's decision-makers had high hopes for Seoran.
Like most cultivation sects, the Black Bamboo Sect assigned duties based on cultivation realm.
Decisions were left to Incarnation cultivators.
Foundation Establishment cultivators handled administrative tasks, external missions, or pill refining.
Qi Refining cultivators managed miscellaneous chores.
Cultivation sects, keeping distance from the mundane world, inevitably had to be self-sufficient with their members.
Thus, every disciple had to complete their assigned duties and cultivate in their remaining time.
But Single Spirit Root holders, who represented the sect's future, were exceptions.
The top priority for all cultivation sects was producing Incarnation cultivators.
As a result, resource allocation in every sect converged on extreme focused investment.
They poured everything into the most promising talents first.
And Single Spirit Root holders had always been prime targets for such investment throughout history.
Single Spirit Root cultivators always received special treatment.
Completely exempt from daily duties, they had the optimal environment for cultivating from dawn till dusk.
Resources like spirit stones and pills that aided cultivation were lavished upon them.
For example, while Yi Agum cooked and washed clothes, Seoran ate meals prepared for her and wore fresh, clean robes while cultivating.
While Yi Agum climbed mountains and crossed rivers to gather pill ingredients, Seoran popped the latest fresh pills like candy and cultivated.
If that's unfair, be born as a Single Spirit Root cultivator.