Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Joining the Daoist Sect (2)
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Daoist sects operate in extreme secrecy.
Typically, they claim an entire mountain range brimming with spiritual energy and settle there.
Then, they draw spiritual energy from the ley lines to create a semi-permanent barrier that cuts off the entire range from the outside world.
They sever ties with the mundane world, live self-sufficiently, and dedicate their lives to cultivation.
But there was one thing they could never produce on their own through self-sufficiency.
People.
Cultivators do marry.
Under certain conditions, it's even encouraged.
When men and women with compatible spirit root attributes practice dual cultivation arts together, the harmony of yin, yang, and the five elements aids their cultivation.
It's the best of both worlds—pleasure and progress.
Even without dual cultivation, cultivators with bodies far healthier than mortals naturally develop feelings while sweating together in daily training.
Thus, the number of children born each year within Daoist sects is never small.
However, being born to cultivators doesn't guarantee a spirit root.
After pouring love into raising a child through painful labors until age ten, what a shock to find out they have no spirit root?
Sadly, this was all too common.
Children without spirit roots, unable to become cultivators, are sent into the mundane world upon reaching adulthood.
They are usually adopted into royal families or noble houses in the kingdom governed by their sect.
After all, tracing noble lineages back leads to cultivator descendants anyway, so blood or adopted makes no difference.
Once adopted, they live out their decades in the secular world, basking in wealth and glory.
Pitiful creatures, clinging to a lifespan under a century, contenting themselves with gold, jewels, and delicacies as mere mortals.
This is why most Daoist sects rule at least one kingdom.
The livelihoods of their mortal-born descendants are secondary.
The main reason is to secure as many spirit root holders as possible to become disciples.
The Black Bamboo Sect rules Yang Kingdom.
Thus, Yang Kingdom is essentially a private breeding ground for the Black Bamboo Sect alone.
To fulfill their roles faithfully, the Yang king and officials mobilize the nation's full resources.
They focus on flood control and agricultural research to ensure good harvests.
They stockpile relief grain to prevent population drops even in famines.
If man-eating beasts or bandit groups appear anywhere, they dispatch armies to eradicate them.
All this incidentally promotes high birth rates.
Daoist sects need only slay yokai beyond mortal capabilities.
Man-eating yokai are natural disasters to mortals, but trivial threats to sects.
No kingdom backed by a strong sect wavers before mere yokai rabble.
Thus, the population grows naturally.
A rising population means more spirit root holders, which strengthens the sect.
A strong sect brings peace to the kingdom.
A peaceful kingdom strengthens the sect.
This virtuous cycle proves that the righteous path is the royal way.
Meanwhile, the Three Rings Sect, which ruled neighboring Yu Kingdom, failed at this and collapsed.
Two Five Spirit Root cultivators vied for resources, each claiming to be the genius destined for the Incarnation Realm, sparking a civil war.
The two-decade conflict burned the sect's future to ashes.
One Five Spirit Root cultivator died, the other survived as a crippled shell with fatal wounds.
Many Core Formation and Foundation Establishment cultivators perished too, and the survivors, seething with mutual hatred, couldn't keep the sect running.
With half the members gone, operations ground to a halt.
The fact that a Single Spirit Root holder born in their own kingdom went undiscovered until age fifteen epitomizes the Three Rings Sect's downfall.
And one's misfortune is another's fortune.
Yang's king didn't just do the assigned tasks—he invented new ones.
When the power balance between Three Rings Sect and Black Bamboo Sect shattered, he immediately led his army to invade.
He crushed Yu Kingdom's forces in battle.
Yu Kingdom's eastern granary regions and massive tribute were sweet spoils of victory.
The hundreds of palace maidens sent annually as tribute? The king barely noticed them.
He never expected one to be a Single Spirit Root holder who cured all his illnesses.
*****
Seoran's day begins at dawn.
Upon waking, she first meditates to focus her mind.
She endlessly recites the incantation to awaken her soul and elevate it to higher realms.
It's a new method learned at Black Bamboo Sect—128 characters to be repeated ceaselessly for effect.
Then she heads to the dining hall for breakfast.
Usually multigrain rice, vegetables, meat, and fish.
After resting until her stomach is empty, she goes to the training grounds for group practice.
She lines up with the others and repeats martial forms under the instructor's calls alongside fellow Qi Refining cultivators.
They shout amid dust and blazing sun until time's up, then scatter.
Now it's time for individual duties.
Of course, Seoran is the exception.
She returns to her private quarters, bathes, and eats a few fruits for lunch.
Then cultivates again.
As a Single Spirit Root cultivator's privilege, she hugs a head-sized lump of high-grade earth spirit stone and focuses her mind.
Such large spirit stones are rare, and one pure earth spirit stone is especially precious.
Vast earth spiritual energy pours from the stone in her embrace.
Seoran, possessing a pure earth spirit root, reacts keenly to its flow.
This is why Single Spirit Root cultivators progress so swiftly.
Multi-attribute spirit root cultivators can never match their sensitivity to spiritual energy.
The mixed attributes interfere with each other.
Qi Refining cultivation aims to elevate body and soul beyond mortal limits.
Side benefits include strengthened muscles and bones, heightened senses, and immunity to ailments.
The body ripens into unmatched power.
The mind sheds impurities, achieving clarity like a mirror-polished lake.
Emptying bodily impurities washes away a hundred ills.
Repeated cultivation blurs the boundary between self and heaven-earth spiritual flow, dissolving distinctions between microcosm and macrocosm. At last, one perfects Qi Refining and qualifies for Foundation Establishment.
*****
Heading to the dining hall for dinner, Seoran spots Yi Agum running toward her from afar.
"Why are you so late! I thought I was gonna starve to death!"
The two never explicitly agreed to eat together.
Yet Yi Agum always arrived first and waited for Seoran.
Probably hates being lonely?
Yu Kingdom folk are rare in Black Bamboo Sect, and among peers, only Seoran and Yi Agum.
Feeling sorry for the twelve-year-old suffering in a foreign land, Seoran always indulged her.
"Sorry."
Seoran replied half-heartedly.
They took their trays and sat facing each other at the long table's end. Yi Agum immediately whined.
"I cleaned all day, and my arms hurt so much."
Failing to empathize here would make her even more annoying.
"Oh dear, where did you clean?"
Yi Agum scooped beans from her bowl into Seoran's while answering.
"At the Medicine Hall. Talk about bad luck—why is it always me stuck there? Dust everywhere; clean one spot, turn around, and it's dirty again. And the herbal stench is brutal."
Then she snatched and ate Seoran's braised quail egg.
Seoran smiled indulgently.
She's a child.
I'm an adult.
She's a child.
I'm an adult.
Repeating this mentally calmed her anger.
Her mental training was paying off.
Yi Agum kept chattering.
"And that Elder Wu again. Did I break the duster on purpose? She screams over a little stick snapping by accident. Like she was perfect from the start? I worked hard too."
Recalling the moment, her eyebrows shot up.
She simmered down and continued.
"I think it's all jealousy. When she picks on me, it's always about my face. Says it's pretty enough but looks too flirty for men, or they'd get bored quick. And she looks like a lumpy toad herself!"
Yi Agum chewed her dinner half on side dishes, half on Elder Wu.
After dinner came free time.
Hang out with friends or sleep early.
But most chose self-cultivation.
Seoran returned to her quarters to cultivate.
Yi Agum followed as if it were natural.
Seoran was stunned watching her flop down, munching snacks.
Anyone would think it was her house.
"Sis, doesn't living alone here get boring? Seems super lonely."
"Don't you cultivate in the evening?"
Seoran hinted she should leave, to no avail.
"I was just gonna eat this and go. I'm making time to chat so you're not bored. People need conversations and fun with others. Cultivating alone is no fun."
Seoran's ears rang.
"Ah, gotta work tomorrow too. If only I had a Single Spirit Root like you—lounging all day, snacking freely. Sis, can you massage my calves?"
"Massage your legs, and you'll go?"
"Who said I wouldn't? I'll finish this and leave. Ah, rushing me hurt my feelings. I was gonna share secret info only I knew, but now I've changed my mind."
Yi Agum pouted, closed her eyes, and rolled over.
Seoran reluctantly massaged her legs, soothing her.
"Feel good?"
"Yeah, when you do it, sis."
Once appeased, she grew chatty again.
"I'm telling you this special, just between us: we're having a friendly tournament with another Daoist sect soon."
"A friendly tournament? With who?"
"You don't know? Didn't catch the name, but Qi Refining cultivators compete to pick a winner. Senior Brother Jang secretly told only me to prepare, but sweet me is sharing with you. Don't tell anyone else?"
Seoran's massaging hands softened at the unexpected news.
"Got it, lips sealed from others. Thanks so much for telling me."
Yi Agum puffed up her shoulders at the gratitude.
Thereafter, she received top treatment.
"I'll head out now. Too late, and I'll get scolded. Dorm life's fine otherwise, but curfew sucks. Oh, and the stinky feet girl in my room. Sis, I don't smell, right?"
Having shared the secret and scarfed snacks, Yi Agum hurried off.