The Cold Yin Physique
Cold Yin Physique (寒陰之體).
Skin like white jade, hair as white as the first snowfall of winter, and vivid, striking features.
The old woman gazed down at her young great-granddaughter, whose appearance had transformed overnight.
The child was observant and quick-witted, watching her every move with care — but a legendary Cold Yin Physique? It was the very constitution of the founding Sect Master of the Jade Yin Sect, the sect to which the old woman herself belonged.
And when she examined the girl's aptitude for spiritual roots, she found a single ice-attribute root.
Not even a mutated root — a pure single root, blessed on top of that with a spirit body in the form of the Cold Yin Physique. It was a talent heaven itself had favored.
And yet the old woman, whose blood ran in the child's veins, found it hard to simply rejoice.
A treasure one cannot protect only invites calamity. What am I to do about this…?
She was already one hundred and ninety years old, her lifespan running dry, and there was no other cultivator in the family besides herself. Her worry ran deep.
Even in her prime, she had been nothing more than a mere Qi Gathering cultivator.
Fortunately, she had kept her kinsmen's mouths firmly shut, and word of it had not spread — but if the truth ever leaked out, there was no telling who might come to take her great-granddaughter away.
And there was no guarantee they would come by peaceful means.
If it must be that person….
The old woman looked down at the child, still sleeping soundly, and steeled her heart.
If the inevitable could not be avoided, then one must choose the lesser evil.
She resolved to seek out Elder Gyeoldan, who could stand behind the child as her shield.
"Waaah! Waaah!"
My second life.
When I came to my senses and opened my eyes, unfamiliar faces were crowded all around me.
"$%#^$%#$#@"
"@#$#@!!@#"
They wore garments much like hanbok and spoke some unknown language, but they were beaming as they scooped me up into their arms.
I had become a baby.
As time passed and I lived as an infant, I naturally came to realize I was a baby girl. The name I was given was Seol Jihwa.
I despaired for a while over the loss of my precious little guy, but as I grew I got used to the change — and once I learned to speak and realized this was a world of immortal heroes and cultivation, despair turned swiftly to elation.
What you gain, you lose in equal measure. Fair trade.
I had been born into a manor in the State of Jeong.
Thankfully, it was no ordinary mortal household — it was a family descended from a Qi Gathering cultivator.
My great-grandmother supposedly served the Jade Yin Sect as a steward — in short, a position managing miscellaneous affairs.
Thanks to that, my grandparents and parents, though mortals, had been able to live by handling the sect's odd jobs. It was also the reason our family had settled at the foot of Mount Gyu-o, where the Jade Yin Sect stood.
"Heheh, what a remarkably clever child… If only she could grow up quickly and have her aptitude tested."
By the age of four I had learned my letters, and people began calling me a prodigy.
My mind was that of an adult, and the local script resembled hanja, so it was easily done.
Because of this, I became the sole object of my great-grandmother's attention.
It was generally believed that intelligence and spiritual roots went hand in hand.
Aside from my great-grandmother, every descendant of our family was mortal, so with her lifespan running short, she was searching for an heir who could carry on the family in her place.
But since spiritual roots only formed around the age of seven or eight, my great-grandmother contented herself for the time being with simply checking on me more often than my cousins.
So the years passed, and after my seventh birthday a quiet unease began to creep over me.
You're telling me I'm a mortal? After I even got reincarnated?
Starting from my birthday, Great-Grandmother tested my spiritual roots every week — yet six months went by without her finding any aptitude.
"Hoo…. Don't take it too hard, child. There is still time yet."
So half a year more slipped by with nothing to show for it, and I turned eight.
That day, too, there was a celebration for my birthday, and my great-grandmother placed her hand on my head to check my spiritual roots.
But she only shook her head slowly, and I went to sleep with a heavy heart.
When I opened my eyes, I was standing atop the clouds.
A dream? A lucid dream?
Dream or not, my mind was perfectly clear. So this was what a lucid dream felt like — I'd only ever heard about them.
As I glanced around, something suddenly surged up out of the clouds beneath my feet.
"Ugh!"
It was a wooden tablet. Three wooden tablets rose through the clouds and came to a stop right before my eyes.
"This is…."
Steadying my shock, I examined the tablets.
Hangul was written on them. I'd had dreams of my past life now and then, but it had been a long, long while since I'd seen crisp, legible Hangul like this.
At the top of each tablet, the character 人 — Human — was engraved.
Increases the recovery rate of your spiritual energy by 15% while in a meditative stance.
I checked the other tablets as well.
Grants you one random Earth (地) tier augment.
You find it easier to win the goodwill of others.
The moment I finished reading all three, a memory from my past life — one I'd long forgotten — surfaced in my mind.
Hojopjimong!
The name of the roguelike game I'd been obsessed with back when I was deep in my xianxia phase.
The game's defining feature was a system of realms serving as levels, and at every major realm breakthrough, you chose an augment.
Augments were divided into Heaven, Earth, and Human tiers, and they appeared on the selection screen in the form of wooden tablets.
There were other systems too — Immortal (仙) tier augments, minor realm rewards — but the scene before my eyes was unmistakably an augment selection screen.
In that instant, an inexplicable surge of anticipation began to well up inside me.
A bizarre dream arriving at the precise moment spiritual roots were supposed to bloom? Anyone could see this was no coincidence.
Gripping my trembling heart, I looked over the tablets once more.
Of course they had to be the lowest Human-tier augments. The first and third are questionable even on their own merits….
The random Earth-tier augment in the middle was tempting, but that word — random — made me nervous.
With bad luck, I could end up with an augment that came bundled with a penalty.
But in the game, your starting augment was the single most important pick.
If this was no ordinary dream, then my first augment would be a pivotal fork in the road — the choice that determined the entire direction of my cultivation.
And I did not want to gamble that pivotal choice on the lowest tier of augment available.
Let's goooo!
Mind made up, I snatched up the second tablet.
At once the tablet trembled, the wooden surface peeling away, and I felt the cool touch of metal beneath.
Looking down, I saw it had transformed into a bronze tablet engraved with the character 地 — Earth.
"Come on, come on!"
Grants you one random Heaven (天) tier augment.
"Huh? Wha—!"
It rolled!
Every so often while playing, random upgrade augments would trigger back to back.
This was one of those times!
The instant I finished reading the characters, the tablet trembled again, the bronze shell peeling away to reveal a rainbow-hued tablet of crystal beneath.
Carved into its upper edge, deep and gleaming, was the character 天 — Heaven.
"Please, please!"
Praying with everything I had for something good, I slowly began to read the letters on the crystal tablet.
"Kyaaaaah!"
I let out a whoop of pure joy.
A Heaven-tier spirit body as my very first augment — it could not possibly have been better.
As I jumped up and down in celebration, the crystal tablet lost its form like smoke dissolving, turning into wisps of pure white mist that seeped into my body.
"Huh? Eh?"
The instant the mist sank into my skin, my flesh blanched as if drained of all pigment.
At the same moment the color began leaching from my hair, fading until it was as close to pure white as white could be.
Something more was happening too — my skin was rippling, shifting, transforming further — but I had no chance to check it for myself.
Because the clouds beneath my feet had scattered, and I had begun to fall.
"Mmm…."
"You're awake?"
When I came to, the household staff was gathered around me as if standing guard, and at the very center of them sat my great-grandmother.
"Now, look at this."
Grandmother held a mirror out to me.
"Whoa…."
Staring back at me from the glass was a child of indescribable beauty.
Traces of my old face remained, but the transformation had been so dramatic that it all felt strangely unfamiliar.
My skin had turned fair and lustrous, just as I'd seen in the dream, and my hair had become fine and soft, like fresh-fallen snow.
My eyes shone a blue as clear as a still lake, and against that snow-white skin and hair they seemed almost to glow.
My features had grown finely sculpted, and their vivid intensity lent me a certain mature air that was at odds with my years.
"You have been asleep for five whole days. It seems that during that time, your spiritual roots and spirit body both awakened. Your constitution is called the Cold Yin Physique — the same constitution as the founding Sect Master of the Jade Yin Sect, the very sect to which this old woman belongs."
Only then did it truly sink in. It hadn't been a dream.
Still — the same spirit body as the founding Sect Master of the Jade Yin Sect, practically next door? Had the game system's probability correction come along with me too?
"I don't know if you can feel it yourself, but from what this old woman can tell, you are now at the first star of the Qi Condensation realm. You have become a cultivator."
"I'm… a cultivator?"
I couldn't help it — my voice cracked and jumped an octave, my cheeks flushing.
"Indeed. Now and then, children of exceptional talent reach Qi Condensation straight away. And when this old woman examined your root aptitude, I found a single ice-attribute root. According to the records, even the founding Sect Master had only a single water-attribute root — so with your mutated root, one could say your talent surpasses even hers."
Grandmother took my hand in hers as she spoke.
"Once you've freshened up, you will come with this old woman to the Jade Yin Sect. There is someone I wish to introduce you to."
"Yes, Grandmother."
When our talk was over, the household staff began to withdraw.
"Hmm…. It may be that once you ascend today, you won't return home for quite a long while. Be sure to bid your family farewell."
A few hours later, freshly bathed and dressed in my finest clothes, I said my goodbyes to my parents and the rest of my family.
Perhaps because I had calmed down since earlier, my senses — sharpened now that I was a cultivator — caught the emotions flickering across their faces. Some were jealous. Some were envious. Some were simply relieved.
After the farewells, I climbed aboard my great-grandmother's flying magic treasure, a sedan chair.
"The person we are going to meet is an elder of the Jade Yin Sect at the Core Formation realm — the younger sister of the current Sect Master and disciple of the Grandmaster. She has something of an eccentric streak, but even so, I believe someone like you can win her favor."
Perhaps it was thanks to the constitution my augment had given me — it seemed Grandmother meant to take me to the elder.
Could she be planning to ask the woman to take me as her disciple?
This is it! This is the one!
If I became the elder's direct disciple, there was no doubt I could raise my realm in no time.
The sedan chair climbed higher and higher, pushing through the mist that wreathed the mountain.
As we rose further, the fog parted, and the scene that unfolded before me left me momentarily breathless.
"Wow…."
The scale of the buildings was staggering. Halls and pavilions towered atop the peaks, and overhead, flying magic treasures and cultivators drifted through the open air.
Even a person from the modern world, laid before a sight so mystical and magnificent, could hardly have reacted any differently.
"Here, put this on."
Grandmother handed me a large cloth, which she draped over my head to hide me from view.
"It interferes slightly with divine sense. Your appearance is far too striking — you'll simply have to wear this for now."
And so the sedan chair flew on, drawing nearer and nearer to the Jade Yin Sect, until at last we arrived at our destination.