Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Like a Flame
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Seoran had been spending her days in a whirlwind of busyness lately.
The Black Bamboo Sect's finances, which had been backed into a corner at the cliff's edge, were finally showing signs of recovery.
It was thanks to the massive canal, the increased trade between allied sects, and the tribute from the Merfolk Church.
To the Finance Department handling the sect's coffers, Ryu Seoran was a savior.
Freed from the burden of worrying that the sect might collapse because of her, Seoran threw herself even harder into her cultivation.
Seoran's mornings started early.
She rose at dawn and entered the steam room.
It wasn't for leisure—it was part of her training regimen.
Not just any steam room, but one powered by a dharma treasure.
A cramped, sealed space containing only a chair and the treasure.
Close the door, light the incense burner, and the steam room was complete.
Through repeated experiments, she had discovered that the smoke from the burner could be absorbed through the skin.
The revelation had come purely by accident.
While lighting the burner and inhaling the white smoke, Seoran had once gotten lost in thought and forgotten to breathe.
Resolve Realm cultivators didn't die from suffocation, so she sometimes overlooked such things if not paying attention.
Damcheong, lying beside her and inhaling the smoke as well, was horrified.
She hadn't noticed before since she breathed through her nose, but the burner's smoke was being drawn into Seoran's skin.
Skin respiration, and she wasn't even an amphibian.
Of course, it wasn't because Seoran was a tree frog; it was one of the innate effects of the dharma treasure itself.
Seoran and Damcheong immediately had a brilliant idea.
If the smoke could be absorbed through the whole body, it would be far more efficient to use the burner in a confined space.
And so, the dharma treasure steam room was born.
Every morning, Seoran meditated in the steam room.
The temperature inside rose steadily from the flames burning in the incense burner, but Resolve Realm cultivators didn't suffer from heatstroke anyway.
Not a stitch of clothing on her fully exposed skin, it flushed red and began to sweat.
It was a bit embarrassing, but there was no helping it if she wanted to maximize absorption.
After finishing her soul tempering and sweating session, she took a bath.
She dressed properly and ate a late breakfast.
By the time the meal ended, Yi Agum came by and said,
"Sis, time for your medicine."
A wide variety of elixirs diligently prepared by the Medicine Hall.
The pill-like ones that came to mind when thinking of dan medicines, powders to dissolve in water, thick decoctions whose ingredients made one uneasy, and even ointments to apply.
She diligently consumed, drank, and applied the morning's doses.
Seoran, reeking of herbal scents, muttered,
"This is way too bitter... Can't they make it sweet?"
"Dan medicines aren't something you tweak ingredients in and out of on a whim. Just suck on some candy and tough it out."
In the end, she left the house today too, sucking on candy like always.
Now it was time to play the role of the Merfolk Church's Earth Mother Goddess.
She sat quietly in the shrine, and merfolk pilgrims came for their audience one after another, like a conveyor belt of sushi.
Seoran sat upright, received their offerings, and exchanged a few words of blessing—that was her routine.
It had a bit of the vibe of an idol's fan signing event.
The First-Class Believer kept giving reminders nonstop.
"Offerings must not exceed one-fifth of your income. Violators will be barred from making offerings for three months."
The believer exclaimed in admiration.
"You've got to work hard and get rich!"
When quitting time finally came, Seoran flew home.
Fatigue couldn't conquer a Resolve Realm cultivator's body.
Now, until bedtime, it was time to study puppet arts.
With the Black Bamboo Sect emerging from the brink of bankruptcy, Seoran's development funding had been restored.
In truth, it was just getting back the money she'd earned herself.
But what's yours is mine, and what's mine is yours.
Seoran didn't fuss over such trivialities.
With abundant materials in hand, Seoran kept banging her head against the wall in trial and error.
It was the fate of the fool who chose an obscure art with no one to offer tips.
Naturally, her progress had stalled.
The calendar pages flipped by swiftly.
Winter arrived, blanketing the entire mountain range in white snow.
Finally, change came to Seoran's routine.
The trigger was simple.
Unyielding diligence without a single day off.
People had a tendency to disregard what they couldn't see.
But just because I can't see it myself doesn't mean a certain concept vanishes from the world.
The human spirit was no different.
The Resolve Realm was transcendence of the flesh.
The Primordial Spirit Realm was transcendence of the soul.
And Seoran was a Resolve Realm cultivator.
In short, while her body had already transcended, her soul remained shackled by human limits.
It was like a child and an adult running a three-legged race together.
Her body, charging ahead alone convinced it wasn't tiring, suddenly felt something off and glanced to the side.
Seoran's mind was in tatters.
The personified heart in her dream spoke to her.
"You know, I don't think I can keep going anymore."
And then it turned to ash and vanished.
To save the crumbling sect, Seoran had worked nonstop for a year on massive civil engineering projects, without a single holiday.
Her plan to barely survive the grueling schedule and enjoy a fun beach vacation that summer fell through.
She'd abruptly become the Merfolk Church's Earth Mother Goddess and spent Damcheong's strike period just stamping seals.
During that time, Seoran's mind had repeatedly suffered compound fractures and hyper-speed recoveries.
But like a baseball pitcher's elbow, the more you used it, the more it broke down—and the human spirit was the same.
Even her superhuman resilience had finally reached its limit.
The fiercely burning inner flame sputtered out with a fizzle.
Seoran, opening her eyes in the morning, muttered to herself.
"I'm done too."
Seoran's eyebrows furrowed in an inverted eight.
Mental cultivation? Sick of it, no more!
Elixir intake? Why bother with stuff that tastes like crap!
Goddess duties? Quitting that too!
Puppet arts? Hate obscure arts!
She declared an absolute strike.
It was what people commonly called burnout syndrome.
In the cultivation world, it was genteelly termed a heart demon outbreak.
But off the record, everyone just called it "Resolve Realm sickness" more often.
Ryu Seoran had gone dark.
The entire Black Bamboo Sect went into red alert.
*****
The fall of a promising genius.
It was a critical matter tied to the sect's succession.
The sect leadership convened immediately.
In the heavy atmosphere, someone spoke up.
"For now, it sure looks like she's fallen to a heart demon, right?"
"Seems that way."
"But what kind exactly? Heart demons come in various types."
"You know, the one they commonly call Resolve Realm sickness."
A knowledgeable expert on heart demons explained.
"It's a condition that zealous cultivators who train harder than others sometimes suffer. It's most common in the Resolve Realm, mainly due to the disparity between mind and body. More precisely, the mind can't keep up with the body, leading to problems."
A cultivator sitting nearby asked,
"Disparity between mind and body?"
"Yes. Upon reaching Resolve Realm, the body transcends its limits. No matter how much you train, it doesn't tire, so you just can't stop. And if you focus even more on mental cultivation to reach Primordial Spirit Realm, things get worse."
"Ah, got it. So it's a problem from a Resolve Realm cultivator, already sturdy only in body, pushing through training that's easy on flesh but hard on soul."
"Exactly. Without physical fatigue, most don't notice the issue beforehand. By the time you check, the body's fine but the mind's wrecked. Like dumping all your firewood into a huge furnace at once and burning it out."
Someone seated far away asked,
"I've never heard of it. Is it common?"
The knowledgeable cultivator replied,
"Among heart demons, it's extremely rare. Normal people stop on their own before reaching that point."
The leadership recalled an old report.
It was the observation report on Ryu Seoran submitted by Ma Susa, the sect's secret body-tempering expert.
If memory served, it contained the phrase "unusual drive for improvement" about a dozen times.
The leadership, now even more grave, buzzed.
"Is there a good treatment?"
At the question, the heart demon expert answered.
"Not really. Just natural recovery. Best to leave it alone without meddling."
The questions continued.
"How long for recovery?"
"Stop cultivating for a few years, and she'll return to normal. On average."
A mere few years was no issue at all.
The meeting room's tension eased at the good news.
Then, a cultivator lost in thought asked,
" 'On average' means some take longer or don't recover at all, right?"
"Correct."
"What happens if she doesn't recover?"
The expert fell silent.
The longer the silence stretched, the more tension built.
In the deathly quiet room, where even dry swallows were audible, the heart demon expert finally spoke.
"It's not widely known, but the Black Bamboo Sect once had a cultivator who failed to overcome Resolve Realm sickness. Someone you all know well."
"Who?"
"Elder Yeop, who passed away decades ago."
The leadership didn't immediately recall the name.
They rarely referred to him that way.
Then, someone began to tremble.
A terrified cultivator asked,
"You don't mean the one obsessed with puppet arts...?"
"Yes, that's the one."
Spirit root talent: Single Spirit Root.
Final cultivation realm: Resolve Realm.
Age at death: Five hundred.
Cause: Lifespan limit reached.
True name: Yeop Gwanbo.
Self-proclaimed greatest puppet master of the Western Continent.
Hobby: Puppet arts.
The author of the "Puppet Research for Learners" that Seoran possessed—the identity of that puppet arts enthusiast was Yeop Gwanbo.
Terror spread through the entire leadership.
Yeop Gwanbo had failed to overcome Resolve Realm sickness and became a freak obsessed with puppet arts.
In the end, neglecting cultivation entirely, he never reached Primordial Spirit Realm despite being a Single Spirit Root Holder, dying at his lifespan's end.
There was no guarantee Seoran wouldn't dark-evolve the same way.
The leadership imagined Ryu Seoran fiddling with clay dolls for centuries, stuck in Resolve Realm.
This terrified them more than any great war.