The Golden Leash
Some elixirs had their medicinal efficacy altered if they were exposed to a cultivator's divine sense during the refining process. The Chugeundan was not one of those pills, but one could never be too sure.
Pop!
A moment later, the cauldron lid flew open with a crisp sound. Jekyeong peered inside and smiled with satisfaction.
'Fifty-five percent.'
On only his second attempt, the success rate had surpassed fifty percent. Not only that, but the quality of the pills was also superior.
Greatly encouraged, Jekyeong immediately began his third refinement. This time, he did not use his Divine Sense even once during the process.
Pop!
'Fifty percent.'
Because he had relied entirely on raw intuition without using his divine sense, the success rate had dropped slightly. However, the quality of the completed pills had ticked up once again.
'Tricky.'
After a brief moment of deliberation, Jekyeong decided to use his divine sense for now. For a pill like the Chugeundan, quality was not of paramount importance. As long as it performed its intended function, that was enough. Therefore, maximizing the success rate took priority over refining the pills to perfection.
Pop!
'Sixty percent.'
Pop!
'Sixty-three percent.'
Jekyeong refined eight batches in a row. This was a feat that human alchemists, with their limited physical stamina, could never hope to match.
'That's enough for now.'
After finishing the eighth batch, Jekyeong clutched his throbbing head and caught his breath. His physical stamina was still plenty, but his mental exhaustion was the real issue. Pushing himself any further would likely cut his success rate in half.
"Whew."
From those eight refinements, he had obtained a total of fifty-three Chugeundan pills.
'Every cultivator's latent potential varies wildly, so they say one must consume at least two pills at once to guarantee the effect.'
If resources were scarce, it would be a different story, but Jekyeong could manufacture as many Chugeundan as he wanted, provided he had the ingredients. What he lacked was not pills, but people.
'Let's have them take three pills each. That should be more than enough.'
Three pills would be plenty to squeeze out every drop of latent potential from a Qi Condensation cultivator.
"Lord Dragon. Did you summon me?"
Jekyeong did not know exactly how many spirit blacksmiths were currently under his command. After delegating their management to Hyeongu, he had not checked on them once.
"How many human spirit blacksmiths do we have? Exclude those who have already retired to teach the apprentices."
"Uh..."
Hyeongu scratched his face with a webbed claw, racking his brain to recall.
"It should be slightly under a hundred. We had more originally, but a few of them were caught and executed while trying to escape, so the number has dwindled a bit."
"They tried to escape?"
Jekyeong frowned at this piece of news, which he was hearing for the first time. Seeing his expression, Hyeongu hurriedly explained.
"Lord Dragon, the human race is inherently troublesome. They try to slack off at every opportunity and harbor excessive greed. If they are hungry, they beg for food, and once fed, they demand their freedom. I do my best to keep them in line, but it is impossible to completely prevent a few fools from acting out."
"I understand what you mean," Jekyeong said, cutting off Hyeongu's seemingly endless excuses. "Pay closer attention to managing the spirit blacksmiths. If you need more labor, bring in as many as you require."
"Yes, my lord."
"And if you can increase the number of spirit blacksmiths, do so."
"Ah... Understood."
Hyeongu recalled the human spirit blacksmiths who had whined that taking on any more disciples would ruin the efficiency of their training.
'Well... it should be fine.'
He did not give it much thought. After all, wasn't capability something that shone brightest the harder it was squeezed?
"They told us to take on more disciples."
"Didn't you tell them that was impossible?"
"It wasn't a proposal; it was an order. It is the command of Lord Dragon himself. What choice do I have?"
As the white-haired old man sighed, the man who had been questioning him slumped his shoulders in defeat.
"Elder, this is a sin. We are actively abetting this evil karma."
"I know. But what other choice do we have?"
The people gathered here were all those who had learned the spirit blacksmithing techniques of Mujuja. Long ago, they had traveled to Heukgyodo to forge the scales of the Horned Dragon using the Nameless Forging Method. In exchange, they had lost their lifespans and their cultivation. Though they had managed to replenish their cultivation with elixirs, there was no way to reclaim their lost years.
The old man who was treated as their leader here was not actually an old man. Before going to Heukgyodo, he had been a middle-aged man without a single strand of white hair. Yet, by the time he left the island, he had been transformed into the withered elder he was today.
Everyone present shared the same fate. Though the severity varied, they had all lost their lifespans. The consequences of this loss became more pronounced with each passing day. They grew weaker, and they could feel death marching steadily toward them.
At first, the sheer relief of survival and the joy of reuniting with their families had blinded them to everything else. But as time wore on, grief and resentment began to fester in their hearts.
"What can we possibly do? If we want to live, we have no choice but to obey."
They could not resist the Beast Race. Especially that Black Dragon... Just recalling the memory of it was enough to make their knees buckle.
"That may be true for us. But the children are different."
"Have you still not given up? Do you truly not know what happened to the children who tried to run?"
The already somber atmosphere plunged into a deeper, suffocating darkness.
"What about this? We pretend to teach them to a certain extent, and then, at the right moment, we scold them for having no talent. Once we create that pretense, we can cast the children out..."
"It is not a bad idea, but you are overlooking that cunning turtle. Do you think he would show such leniency? He will never let the children go. He will only harass us to make sure they pull their own weight, one way or another."
The spirit blacksmiths' meeting dragged on until dusk. Yet, no matter how much they put their heads together, no viable solution emerged. In the end, they disbanded with nothing to show for it.
"Ugh."
A gaunt, middle-aged man massaged his aching lower back as he walked home.
"You're back, Master."
Though it was called a home, he had no family. The only one there to greet him was a single disciple he had taken in two years ago.
"Yes."
He swallowed a sigh as he looked at his disciple, whose face was smudged with soot as if he had just stepped out of the kitchen.
'This is truly a sin.'
His disciple was talented. Not only did he possess a gift for spirit blacksmithing, but his talent as a cultivator was also outstanding. Despite being only sixteen, he was already at the peak of the early Qi Condensation stage. At this rate, he would knock on the door of the mid-Qi Condensation stage before turning twenty, and with a bit of luck, he might even break through.
Mid-Qi Condensation at twenty? If that were possible, he could aim for late Qi Condensation before forty. Perhaps, just perhaps, he could even reach Foundation Establishment...
'But these are all futile assumptions.'
Swallowing another sigh, he told his disciple to rest and went into his room. His mind was so cluttered with the news he had heard today that he failed to notice the complicated gaze of the young disciple watching his retreating back.
Jekyeong devoted himself to refining the Chugeundan for two months. The reason the refinement process, which he had expected to finish quickly, dragged on for so long was the sheer drain on his mental energy. Mental energy was different from physical stamina; once depleted, it took a long time to recover. This kind of mental exhaustion could not be cured by elixirs; it required pure, uninterrupted rest.
"Have them take three pills each. Go and supervise them personally."
"Understood."
Receiving the storage bag, Hyeongu left the Black Cult Palace with a solemn expression.
'The Lord Dragon values the human spirit blacksmiths far more than I thought.'
When he had been reprimanded for the decrease in the blacksmiths' numbers last time, he had felt as if the sky were falling. Because of that, Hyeongu had personally forced the reluctant human spirit blacksmiths to take on more disciples.
'The Chugeundan. To think such a miraculous item exists. Humans really have brilliant minds.'
In his opinion, this elixir was truly magnificent. While its ability to boost one's cultivation realm was impressive, Hyeongu found its secondary effect—severing the consumer's path to immortality—to be even more exquisite.
To him, this pill was an incredibly secure leash.
'Once they consume this pill, they will never be able to reach the Foundation Establishment stage for the rest of their lives. Naturally, we won't have to worry about rebellions.'
Hyeongu wondered if this item would also work on the Beast Race. If it did, it would be wonderful to feed ten or twenty of them to any subordinates who showed too much promise.
'I should ask the Lord Dragon about it later.'
The great Lord Dragon might not care if the water beasts under his command became Great Yo-beasts, but a mediocre water beast like Hyeongu could not afford to be so nonchalant. What if one of the underlings he ordered around suddenly broke through to the Great Yao stage? Just imagining it was horrifying.
'Such a thing must never happen.'
Yet, he knew all too well that the mysteries of cultivation were unpredictable, and unimaginable things often occurred. A pathetic wretch he looked down on today could very well stand on top of his head tomorrow.
To avoid exactly that kind of scenario, Hyeongu dedicated every spare moment outside of his duties to cultivation. He went to extreme lengths to consume anything rumored to be good for the body and did whatever was said to aid cultivation. Meditation, afternoon naps... there was practically nothing he hadn't tried.
Yet, despite all his desperate, frantic efforts, he felt no significant progress. His cruel bloodline merely teased him, acting as if it would open the door to breakthrough only to slam it shut.
"Sigh."
"Father, what's troubling you?"
A head so massive and plump that it made one question if it truly belonged to a turtle suddenly popped up in front of him. In the past, his heart would have leaped into his throat at such a sight, but now he was so used to it that he didn't even blink.
Hyeongu glared at his son with half-closed eyes. Bigu blinked in confusion before nonchalantly stuffing the remaining seaweed into his mouth.
"Let's go. The Lord Dragon has issued an order."
"Okay. But where are we going?"
"We are going to see the human spirit blacksmiths."
"Okay."
Hyeongu clung tightly to his son's shell. Though it looked rather unsightly, traveling this way was at least twice as fast as swimming there himself.
"Let's set off."
"Just let me finish eating this."
Hyeongu casually turned his head, only to spot a massive, towering pile of seaweed clutched in Bigu's webbed claws.