Caught Again
Caught again.
Waddle, waddle.
Geumhae toddled along with determined little steps, her bare legs fidgeting with every stride. She tottered like a newborn taking her first steps, and it was almost unbearably cute.
Thud!
Then she stepped on Pou, who had been sprawled across the middle of the living room floor, and went sprawling herself. Her expression never changed, but fat, chicken-dropping tears began plopping down one after another. Pou, as if feeling guilty for being the rug that tripped her, fluttered anxiously at her side and did its best to console her.
Of course, watching the whole scene, Nain felt her insides twist like they were being scorched raw.
"M-my blood-and-sweat talismans…."
Nain clutched at her chest with trembling hands. Cute as it was, she couldn't even begin to laugh.
Seven mid-grade talismans. And not even basic Five Elements ones, either. She had deliberately picked out the hard ones—upper-tier pieces even among the mid-grade. Each one was a little gold brick worth a solid three thousand credits at the least….
And her clone had just gulped them all down like snacks.
The real problem was that this wasn't the end of it.
Even a river that winds a thousand ways, ten thousand ways, finds its end at last in the vast sea.
Gather the azure currents (Changcheon) and set them flowing.
At last, forge a radiant golden sea (Geumhae).
When the rivers you have embraced number ten thousand, and their depth touches the abyss—
only then shall the sea you hold begin to reflect all things under heaven….
When she tried once more to parse it through that omniscient-cultivator, deliberately abstruse lens, Nain finally understood what the Geumhae Changcheon text was saying.
…Geumhae, the Golden Sea, obviously means the clone Geumhae.
That much she'd figured out from the talisman disaster just now.
"And Changcheon, the Azure River… is talismans. So that's why it unlocked after Talisman Dao Sacred Body ranked up to Grade Two…?"
Cultivators with Five Elements Talisman Dao spiritual power weren't common, but you could find them if you looked. Ranking up to Grade Two had optimized that spiritual power even further to fit Nain specifically. In other words—Nain's own Five Elements Talisman Dao spiritual power.
Spiritual power with her unique attribute. Talismans made with a generous helping of that power. That was the condition for using Geumhae Changcheon.
As a test, Nain drew a single Salt Protection Talisman and held it out in front of Geumhae.
"…?"
The girl, sprawled on the sofa growling contentedly with Pou, tilted her head. Nain ignored the look and pressed the talisman to her forehead. The Salt Protection Talisman flared bright and was absorbed.
Proficiency:0 / 100
Total Absorbed:1 / 1,000,000
The corners of her mouth trembled. Transparent tears beaded up against her will.
The worst-case scenario was right….
Simply making talismans did nothing for Geumhae Changcheon's proficiency. Only when a talisman was absorbed did the proficiency go up. For Nain—who had no fancy background and no powerful backers—a black hole had just opened up that would suck credits without end.
It'll be good eventually… I'm sure of it. Pou has never once handed me something that wasn't a net gain.
The only problem was that this was the ultimate late-bloomer constitution.
Thump.
Nain trudged over to where Geumhae lay on the sofa and dropped down heavily beside her. Tears of pure emptiness slid from the corners of her eyes.
Rustle.
Then Geumhae sat up, crawled over, and plopped herself squarely onto Nain's lap.
Lick.
She lapped up the tears running down Nain's cheek. The warm tip of her tongue left a vivid heat against skin. The oddly ticklish sensation drew a helpless little laugh out of Nain.
"Ha—ahaha. What are you, a cat? Get off!"
She cupped the girl's face lightly and gave her a gentle shove.
Stare.
Geumhae rested her chin in Nain's hands and gazed up at her fixedly. She opened and closed her mouth over and over, looking thoroughly frustrated at wanting to speak and being unable to. But clear intelligence shone unmistakably in those bright eyes.
"You're pretty."
Nain stared blankly into those jewel-like pupils. She lifted the hand that had been holding Geumhae's chin and stroked the soft, fluffy hair.
"Is it because you're still Rank One that you can't talk? Or will it come naturally once enough proficiency piles up over time? Will I get to hear your voice someday?"
Nain muttered half to herself as her thoughts spun into high gear.
Was knowledge shared with her true body in real time, or would Geumhae form an independent self? What about her realm? Her cultivation method? Her spirit sense? And why, if this was a constitution, had a clone simply popped out of thin air?
Once she set the downsides aside and thought calmly, countless ideas frothed up like bubbles. Time was plentiful. There would be more than enough chances to test her hypotheses.
The gloom and hollow despair drained away, replaced by curiosity and drive. The way her emotions swung so sharply—hormones, maybe—still felt strange.
"Ah, well. As long as I can cultivate, what does it matter if I'm a man or a woman?"
There was no pure advantage and no pure disadvantage. Everything had its strengths and weaknesses; you just walked the path that suited them.
"…Is that why there are so many women among talisman masters?"
Her curiosity veered, rather uselessly, in a ridiculous direction. Drawing talismans, where delicacy mattered so much, might genuinely favor women. Come to think of it, every talisman artisan and Dao companion she'd met so far had been female without exception.
She was nodding along to this pointless private epiphany when—
—Beep-beep-beep, click!
The silence shattered as the door lock chirped from the entryway. Her twitching shoulders locked rigid. There was only one person who knew the house password and would stroll in as if it were natural.
But that wasn't the problem. Well—it was a problem, but also not the problem…!
Nain's gaze slowly dropped. Sitting on her own lap was a silver-haired girl who looked exactly like her, wearing nothing but an oversized boxy T-shirt, staring blankly up at her.
"…I'm screwed."
Nain plunged into full panic.
Why? Why now? Without even a call??
The sweet little sister she knew, Decia, would never…!
Ah. Right. She hasn't called ahead in over ten years.
The cold fact surfaced in her mind. Last time they'd met, Decia had shown up unannounced too. That visit had also been a nonstop parade of shock and terror. At least it had gifted her a faint understanding of this pitiful body of hers, but still….
Anyway—not now. Absolutely not!
How was she supposed to explain this? A girl who looked exactly like her—a walking, breathing announcement of "I am a clone" from head to toe.
Pou~?
And then there was the flying scroll. Pou, an artifact that radiated uncommon power no matter how you looked at it, was drifting lazily through the air as if nothing urgent were happening. It was absolutely not the kind of spirit tool a dirt-poor talisman master should own.
In the cultivation world, a handful of ironclad sayings had been passed down for generations. One of them: even if the heavens split in two, never let anyone else discover your opportunity. You may trust family—but you cannot trust people.
The most important secrets were safest known only to yourself. You never knew where, how, or by what route information might leak.
And my opportunity is the kind of treasure even a Golden Core cultivator would kill to claim….
If she was found out, it was over. And yet there was no way not to be found out.
Beep, click!
In her accelerated mindscape she heard the third digit of the password being pressed. One more number and the door would open and her little sister Decia would walk in. Cold sweat ran down Nain's forehead.
What do I do, what do I do!?
Driven to the extreme, her brain spun at blinding speed. Fragments of the past flickered past like a revolving lantern—and there, Nain found her answer.
Right. I'll have to tell some portion of the truth no matter what.
Barely two months after they'd last parted, she had already reached the second Spiritual Star of the Qi Refinement Stage. Decia, who sat at Peak Qi Refinement, would read her realm with spirit sense in an instant. At minimum, her cultivation rank could not be hidden.
Suddenly an old piece of advice from her grandfather flashed through her mind. He had been a cunning, half-mad old monster, intimately familiar with the physiology and survival laws of the cultivation world.
The best way to hide the truth is to bury the important truth under an unimportant one. Those suspicious, scheming cultivators—once they peel back a single layer and find something that looks plausibly true, they stop right there and call it good.
Right. The fact that she had obtained an opportunity at all could not be concealed. That left only one option: shrink the opportunity down and talk about a lesser version of it.
First she rolled Pou up tight and flung the scroll into the cultivation room's bed. Pou sailed through the air without resistance.
Slam!
The cultivation room door shut hard.
The physical ability of Qi Refinement, second Spiritual Star, cut through the air as she tore around the house.
"Hic—heh!"
Nain yanked Geumhae into her arms on the sofa, yanked the blanket up over both of them, and lay down as if she were dead. Even then her mind kept sorting—what had to stay secret, what could be shown.
Poke, poke.
Beside her, Geumhae kept jabbing a finger into her cheek. It was annoying, but she endured it.
Beep, beep!
The endless instant finally ended. The forced acceleration of her thoughts cut out, and a wave of exhaustion rolled in.
Tap, tap.
Light footsteps. Nain held her breath. The presence of Peak Qi Refinement—something she had never been able to sense before—drew very, very close.
"Unnie?"
The footsteps crossed the entryway pillar and entered the living room.
A sword of living thunder. That was the sensation Decia gave her. Even a slight shift of attention felt like it could shear her throat clean off—thrilling and terrifying in equal measure.
Tap.
The footsteps stopped. Decia folded her arms and looked down at the blanket heaped on the sofa. A puzzled question rang out.
"…Unnie, what are you doing in there?"
The moment Decia carefully took the edge of the blanket and started to peel it back, the covers flew open of their own accord. Geumhae, prodding various parts of Nain's body and smiling faintly, and Nain herself, both hands clamped over her own mouth—both of their eyes met Decia's.
Decia's pupils did a full circuit. She blinked several times in pure disbelief, and one corner of her mouth twitched.
"Unnie… there are two of you…?"
"Ah—haha. Surprised, huh?"
Nain's awkward, hollow laugh echoed through the silent living room.