Growth and Rewards
Even within the Okeum Sect, Cheongryu was famous for refusing to take a disciple.
Part of it was that no one ever caught her eye, and part of it was the notoriety she had accumulated within the sect.
A few elders found this displeasing, but with the Supreme Sect Master as her direct master — and with a cultivation of Core Formation Great Circle that ranked second only to him, notoriety aside — no one dared say a word.
To a Cheongryu living like that, Jihwa was a fresh spring of vitality in an otherwise tedious existence.
At first, she had simply taken the girl in because she found it pleasing to watch — some junior servant of the outer courtyard, rushing to her with a child of extraordinary talent he was desperate to protect.
It wasn't an unreasonable plea to accept her as a disciple, and the request to take her in as a maidservant suited her tastes besides.
Though, of course, had the child's beauty fallen short of her standards, she wouldn't have accepted her at all.
In any case, watching the girl she'd taken in absorb a mere cultivation manual she'd tossed her way and grow by leaps and bounds within a single month, Cheongryu began to understand why the other elders bothered raising disciples.
Moreover, the child's kind heart pleased her greatly.
The divine sense of a Core Formation cultivator could peer into every corner of Yeonun Pavilion as easily as one reads one's own palm, and thanks to that, nothing that happened within its walls escaped her knowledge.
Cheongryu had relieved Jihwa of every chore except attendance on herself, so that the girl could focus on her training to a reasonable degree — yet the child still went out of her way to help the other maids of her own accord.
Was this not the cultivation world, where selfishness was the norm, where those who merely refrained from harming others were treated as rare oddities, and those who actually helped people were regarded as eccentrics?
To Cheongryu, who had retreated into seclusion out of distaste for that ugly side of the world and rarely left her own abode, Jihwa couldn't help but look lovely.
Perhaps the day will come when I take a disciple after all.
"Try this one on as well."
"Yes, my lady…."
Cheongryu watched Jihwa, exhausted from being dressed and undressed, and smiled fondly from behind her.
Setting everything else aside, the girl was simply a joy to look at.
After all, nothing suited Cheongryu better than beauty itself.
More than half a year had already passed since I came to live at Yeonun Pavilion.
During that time, with Cheongryu's help, I had opened two additional meridians — the Chongmai and the Yinjiao — and today, at long last, I reached the 4th Layer of Qi Condensation.
Qi Condensation Middle Stage!
Somehow, before I knew it, I had arrived at the middle stage.
Qi Condensation consisted of ten layers in total, divided into three-layer groupings called minor realms: early, middle, and late stage. The late stage, once one had grown as far as possible within it, was called the Great Circle — meaning that in Qi Condensation, the 10th Layer was the Great Circle.
And I had cleared what was, in a sense, the very first wall a cultivator encounters with remarkable ease.
Breaking through the boundary was one thing, but my body was utterly worn out after being put through the wringer by Cheongryu all day, so I dragged myself to bed.
My mind, however, was more awake with anticipation than it had ever been.
Maybe there'll be a minor realm reward?
In the roguelike game Butterfly Dream, every major realm granted an augment, and clearing a minor realm let you roll for extra prizes. Sometimes the roll yielded rewards nearly on par with augments, so it was an opportunity you couldn't afford to ignore.
To name the best of them: an immediate extra augment selection, a promotion of an augment to Heaven tier, or a guaranteed Heaven-tier next augment.
I fell asleep praying the roulette would appear in tonight's dream.
Before long my consciousness sank, and I found myself standing above the same clouds I'd seen before.
"Wooheehee!"
A whoop of joy escaped me of its own accord. If Hongryeon or Cheongryu had seen me, I'd have been scolded for being an empty-headed fool, but there was no one here but me — who cared?
Rubbing my hands together, I waited for the gacha to appear.
Soon, a box pierced with a hole rose up through the clouds.
It was an antique wooden chest of rich, dark brown — but the hole itself was pitch black, its interior invisible.
The shape was familiar; it seemed I only needed to reach in and draw something out.
"Come on, something good!"
I plunged my hand in without hesitation.
As I swirled my hand around, beads snagged against my fingertips.
On the off chance I could grab two, I tried to seize a pair — and the hole tightened around my wrist, clamping down hard.
Left with no choice, I took hold of the bead I'd grabbed first and withdrew my hand.
When I looked, it was a lustrous golden bead. The moment I opened my palm, the bead unfurled like a crumpled sheet of paper smoothing itself out, transforming into a sheet of golden paper.
Augment Storage Box +1
A storage box that allows you to save an augment you have not selected.
"Oh! Nice!"
A feature that let you store one augment when two good ones appeared, then choose the stored augment instead when making your next selection.
In a word: a keep.
The feature's true value revealed itself when you were forced to pick a low-grade augment — you could hold onto a higher-grade one and swap it in later when a dud rolled around.
If it appeared early on, it counted as a top-tier reward.
The golden paper crumpled back up, then transformed into an embroidered silk pouch that fastened itself at my waist.
Presumably, I was meant to store the wooden tablet of whatever augment I kept inside that pouch.
The moment I claimed my reward, the ground gave way beneath my feet and my consciousness faded to black.
Time slipped away once more.
I turned eleven, and before I knew it, the 7th Layer of Qi Condensation was within reach.
My body had grown a great deal in the meantime. I had shot up well over a hand-span in height, and my limbs had lengthened, giving my proportions a longer, leaner line than before.
It wasn't just my height, either. Buds had begun to form on my chest a year ago, and now my breasts were actually coming in. Whether it was early development or something else, they had grown to the point of overflowing from both my hands.
On top of that, my hips had widened, and fat had started gathering in my rear and thighs.
And though I was superhuman, Qi Condensation was still a realm within the bounds of humanity — perhaps that was why I seemed to be at the mercy of my own hormones.
I often helped Cheongryu with her bath and washed alongside her, but as the changes in my body became more pronounced, I found myself strangely embarrassed.
Before, with a child's body — and a reincarnated one at that, one I barely felt was my own — modesty had come easily. But lately, I'd been catching my reflection in mirrors and becoming aware of myself, and somehow, bit by bit, the shyness crept in.
Perhaps because of that, whenever I attended her bath these days, I'd started draping at least a thin layer of clothing over myself, or wrapping a towel around me before entering the bathhouse.
And — I feel pathetic even saying this — recently I'd caught myself feeling jealous looking at Cheongryu's figure.
That feeling, aimed at myself, left me a little depressed.
Whether or not she knew what was going through my mind, Cheongryu was receiving her massage as usual today.
"Mmm, yes — those hands of yours are quite skilled."
Truthfully, at the Core Formation realm there was no reason for her muscles to knot up in the first place, yet somehow she treated her massages not as treatment but as decadent indulgence, like a languid crime lord at rest.
Eating meals, taking baths — she performed every one of these acts, so unnecessary once one reached Qi Condensation, religiously, day in and day out.
"M-Mistress? Might I ask you a question?"
One day, curiosity got the better of me and I asked her directly.
Why did she bother enjoying things she didn't need at all?
"Because otherwise, wouldn't life grow unbearably barren? My lifespan has lengthened, but I have no wish to spend those years devoted to nothing but cultivation, dry and flavorless. Perhaps that very indulgence is what keeps me from ever reaching the Primordial Spirit realm…."
Cheongryu seemed to feel that a cultivator's existence was fundamentally bleak. It was true — those who ran with only eternal life in their sights tended to turn their backs on everything else.
Certainly, cultivation demanded exactly that sacrifice in order to advance — but Cheongryu was talented enough to afford such luxuries.
Perhaps that was why she thought so differently from ordinary cultivators.
"What meaning is there in an eternity of insensibility, blind to the beauty all around you?"
A month later, I finally crossed the wall of Qi Condensation's 7th Layer — the threshold of the late stage.
My energy had grown strong enough now that a chill of jade-white frost seeped from my body even as I circulated my qi. It was the cold aura, one of the hallmarks of the Okeum Ice Cultivation Scripture, manifesting as that pale jade light.
"Whew…."
Reining in the power that had reached the 7th Layer, I rose from my seat.
It was late in the evening by then, so I decided to tell Cheongryu about my breakthrough the next day. Besides, the odds were higher that she already knew of it through her divine sense anyway.
The moment I fell asleep, I found myself in the dream, as expected.
I drew a bead from the gacha box as before — and this time, a white bead emerged.
The white bead shifted into the shape of a paper and displayed its contents.
Augment Reroll
Rerolls your augment options once, at a random tier. Consumed upon use.
The paper crumpled up again, then reshaped itself into a die. On each face of the die was carved one of three characters — Heaven, Earth, or Human — two faces apiece.
Ordinarily, the dice that appeared only rerolled within the same tier, so a die that rerolled the tier itself counted as a considerably better reward.
If a Human-tier augment showed up and I rolled the die, I'd break even at worst — and with luck, I might even land a Heaven-tier augment.
"My luck's been on a roll ever since I reincarnated, hasn't it."
Thinking back on how generous the rewards from this dream had been all this while lifted my spirits. If my past life had gone this well, how much better would things have been?
Sure enough, the moment I received the reward, the floor crumbled away and I plummeted into the void.
Gripping my returning consciousness and steadying myself, I heard a voice beside me.
"Lady Jihwa, the Mistress requests your presence."
I lifted my head toward the voice to find Hongryeon standing demurely at my side.
Knowing Cheongryu, she had likely learned of my late-stage breakthrough and summoned me.
I tidied myself up in front of the mirror, then made my way to Cheongryu's chamber.
"May I come in?"
"Enter."
Stepping inside, I found Cheongryu seated at her vanity, attended by her maids as they applied her makeup.
"Come here and sit."
Cheongryu sent her voice transmission directly into my mind and gestured for me to sit beside her.
I settled in next to her as she put the finishing touches on her appearance.
"Guests will be coming and going from Yeonun Pavilion for the next few days. I don't care for it myself, but they aren't the sort I can simply chase off — and judging by the reason for their visit, it seems you may be of some help."
My help?
"Might I ask what help I could possibly offer?"
"Your constitution is what they need. I promise you it will do you no harm. And we intend to keep it hidden from the guests entirely, so set your mind at ease."
"Then this girl will simply do as the Mistress wishes."
"I knew you'd answer that way. Hongryeon — bring the things we prepared for Jihwa."
"At once, Mistress."
Hongryeon promptly returned carrying a single box.
"Open it."
When I took the box and lifted the lid, I found white cotton silk inside.
"You are far too conspicuous as you are. I wove this cotton silk myself — it has the property of blurring perception. You'll need to wear it for the next few weeks. It's partly to shield you from those guests, but more than that, I simply dislike the idea of them looking at what is mine."
Mine, she says.
"Yes, Mistress. I will do as you command."
Avoiding the wickedly gleaming eyes of Cheongryu, I gathered up the box.