Chapter 17
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Yuyeon Hunts the Tiger (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A treasure too great to bear invites calamity.
It was a simple law of heaven, yet she had forgotten it.
In the world of Immortal Cultivation, they called this the Precious Tribulation.
For the first time, Yuyeon witnessed a soul fully departing for the underworld. Ghost Dao was the practice of building resistance against the underworld's summons. Though she hadn't seen the underworld itself, observing its work brought her a profound insight.
Among cultivation methods was one called Impurity Contemplation.
It involved watching a corpse decay and vanish to gain insight. Known in the mundane world as a Buddhist practice, it was actually a difficult method that ordinary people rarely comprehended even if they tried. Enlightenment was always capricious and unpredictable, after all—no one could say a commoner couldn't grasp human flaws, desires, and the origins of death through observing a body.
But for Immortal Cultivators, Impurity Contemplation wasn't just watching a corpse rot. It was observing the world's laws as a being embraced death and crumbled, gaining insight from the dispersing flows of energy.
Demonic Dao practitioners killed peers of equal realm and devoured their corpses to advance. It seemed brutal and savage at first glance, but it was a more direct form of Impurity Contemplation. That's why simply killing and eating wasn't enough to raise one's realm.
Yuyeon had already gained enlightenment this way once before—right after guiding that merchant heir Corpse Ghost to Heavenly Ascension. She'd observed his soul, witnessed the ascension, and seen his husk. Through him, she'd confronted true flaws and gazed inward. This new insight was much the same—a kind of Impurity Contemplation.
Of course, repeating it didn't mean she'd fallen to the Demonic Dao. Impurity Contemplation itself wasn't Demonic Dao. It simply overlapped in principles and harmony.
Though it wasn't a good connection, Yuyeon silently expressed regret to the An Family Young Master from that transport company, who had aided her in various ways. If she ever visited that company, she thought, she should tell them about their young master.
As dawn broke, Yuyeon ate the porridge Jang Jina had prepared. For the record, she hadn't asked for it this time. The perceptive shrine maiden had prepared the offering of her own accord.
It wasn't that she was complaining about side dishes, but after porridge yesterday, Yuyeon wondered why it was porridge again instead of rice. She just figured Jang Jina must like porridge.
Today, too, Yuyeon gathered the villagers and explained yesterday's events through Jang Jina's mouth.
"As you've all seen, the divine spirit disciplined the ghosts yesterday, so we're safe for now. But even if we leave the village, the encirclement hasn't lifted, so we mustn't let our guard down," she said.
Thanks to Yuyeon, no one had been hurt despite the ghost attack, which bred faith. With something to believe in, even the terrified, gloomy villagers regained some long-lost energy.
Watching them, Yuyeon decided to settle things while the sun was up, as she'd said. She packed talismans infused with Incense Fire Merit, considered the bell but opted against it— it might complicate fleeing with Concealing Form Formation. She chose the safety of just the wooden staff.
The Incense Fire Merit was only needed to guide souls after victory anyway, so skipping it wouldn't change the outcome.
She left a note for Jang Jina on the grounds:
'I'll resolve the ghosts while yang energy holds. If I don't return by lunch, abandon the village.'
With resolve, Yuyeon headed for the cave.
Standing near it, she realized the eerie darkness she'd sensed before wasn't an illusion.
During the day, sunlight filtered into the forest, filling it with yang energy. Ghosts' ghost-energy bodies weakened then, so they hated moving.
Yet a thick darkness blanketed the woods as if awaiting her, making her steps toward the cave heavy.
But it didn't affect Yuyeon. Her Pure White Body naturally parted the ghost mist that disoriented the living, keeping it from reaching her.
Even the yin energy—the essence of ghost mist that drained life—was inferior to her true yin; it would scatter on contact.
Before reaching the cave, her Divine Sense caught multiple ghosts. They'd emerged early to greet her.
Fearless now, Yuyeon boldly released Concealing Form Formation and revealed herself. To strike first, she'd need to alter the spirit vein's form anyway. She prepared to attack at any moment.
The Corpse Ghosts, already grim from her Divine Sense, paled further at her presence.
"Did you receive orders not to let me pass?"
Surprisingly, a reply came.
"Our master says fellow cultivators shouldn't clash paths. If we dig like this, no harm comes to either, and no karmic ties form."
"Release all the villagers and free the captured Corpse Ghosts, then tell him I'll do just that. I won't care if he keeps bickering with the tiger."
Before the ghosts could retreat into the cave, a voice echoed from within.
"Immortal, let's not fight. I only seek this opportunity to overcome my crisis. Why trouble yourself over mere mortals?"
Chatting without face-to-face felt slimy to Yuyeon; the foe's temperament seemed insidious. She had no desire for more talk. Instead of replying, she forced her Divine Sense through the curtain sealing the cave entrance.
The barrier, meant to block perception, clashed with her Divine Sense. Pouring in mental power and spiritual energy, she shattered the spell, opening the way.
Her awareness flooded the cave and surroundings. Yuyeon fell silent.
This was no longer a tiger's den.
It was a Corpse Ghost lair.
Her Divine Sense pierced the veil. The blocked view cleared, revealing the interior—but any desire to enter vanished.
The cave brimmed with half-formed Corpse Ghosts, piled like they'd been skinned to make it.
Their state was so wretched—even the externally controlled ones seemed better off—that Yuyeon itched to unleash all her spiritual energy and erase it.
But the true spectacle was the tiger, their master.
In old tales from the miscellany she'd read, on tigers and Corpse Ghosts: 'A tiger eating a dog gets drunk; eating a human calls spirits. Those souls cling to its body.'
The first human sticks under its arm. Second on the forehead, third under the chin, fourth on the rear.
How many had this tiger devoured to end up like that?
Corpse Ghosts clung to its entire body, like botched stripes smeared over.
Its mouth gaped in a frozen scream, head thrown back, spine nearly snapped, waist arched violently.
Its open maw brimmed with something black as ink—the source material for ghost energy forming Corpse Ghosts.
Beside it sat a shaman, half-severed at the waist, tiger tail protruding like an umbilical cord.
Observing freely, the shaman trembled, resisting her Divine Sense. But unlike the old cultivator, she faced no backlash; she infiltrated its body.
Insight flooded her like a diagram: their energies intertwined, twisted into a master-servant bond, ultimately fused.
She couldn't fully probe the tiger's belly—too black, dense, thick for penetration. But she grasped it: a mass of ghost energy birthing vast Corpse Ghosts, amassed from souls that almost became them.
"Th-this presence... Could you be Senior of the Qi Refining Stage? Please, show mercy to this lowly latecomer."
Her Divine Sense caused the misunderstanding, but she didn't correct it. The being disgusted her; she'd rather erase it, but withdrawing without fighting wasn't bad.
Silent, probing only with Divine Sense, the cowed shaman pleaded first.
"If you have grand designs on that mortal village, just say so. I'll wait and take them last. Mercy, please."
Its tone showed no intent to yield. Yuyeon pondered striking first—the advantage was clear; no reason to give it away.
Would fooling this madman by pretending Qi Refining would stop it? Her shallow knowledge made it dubious anyway. Still, resolving curiosity cleanly appealed, so she spoke.
"Half-dead shaman. Why the frenzy to devour this village? That's what intrigues me."
Yuyeon had never condescended to anyone in her life, so it felt awkward—yet sincere contempt from within made it natural.
The shaman hesitated, weighing exposure against facing a Qi Refining cultivator, then opened up.
In Immortal Cultivation common sense, higher realms ignored lower cultivators' resources as worthless. No amount bridged the gap.
Assuming no interference with its Qi Refining cultivation, the shaman groveled.
"Senior, I was a flawed cultivator with poor Spiritual Root, stalled and self-exiled from the path. Then I touched this grotesque law, fought this tiger, and fused. I see it as my chance to cultivate."
Yuyeon used Spiritual Root casually—it was commonplace; later book sections mentioned it.
"So what cultivation is that?"
Puzzled by the basic question, the shaman answered readily.
"Obviously, following the tiger demon's laws as a yao beast. The Ten Meals method."
Ten Meals One Spoon originally meant ten scoops making one bowl—ten aiding one, a humane, beautiful virtue.
But twisted Demonic Cultivators prettied their atrocities with it. They devoured ten bowls plus their own, yet prattled sanctimoniously.
As the term spread despite absurdity, even learned yao overheard and parroted it. Three aligning made a tiger; it became 'great dao' somehow.
Yuyeon didn't know the history, but 'Ten Meals' sparked unpleasant realization.
In short: eat ten, gain one unit of worth. Eat ten of those, gain greater. Make villagers devour until one remains from a hundred, birthing a Qi Refining grade.
Potentially. If cultivation were so precise, all would chase immortality.
And as said, Demonic Dao sought dual insight and resources—like Impurity Contemplation.
Even imprisoned in isolation, killing blindly without understanding yielded nothing—especially sans Spiritual Root or talent. Futile.
Any 'harmony' just birthed malformed strength matching intake—no insight. Truly petty, repulsive.
Ignoramuses stacking merit in dry wells, filling innocents' grudges.
Thus Yuyeon understood the village's tragedies and ordeals.