Chapter 24
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: The Sea and the Teacher (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Yuyeon resumed her journey after that, heading north toward the sea. The difference was that she now had companions, and she had acquired a parasol to shield her from the sun during the day and the dew at night.
As they walked along just like before, Yuyeon suddenly asked,
"Teacher, don't you have anything special you want to say to Shrine Maiden Jina?"
She realized she'd been the only one talking.
「No. Her shrine maiden isn't me. I'm merely a corpse that was entrusted to her shrine maiden in exchange for a bit of knowledge and advice.」
Yuyeon thought that otherwise, the teacher would just grumble again. Come to think of it, it felt odd to simply call the teacher "Teacher."
The next day, as she walked all day and grew bored, the thought popped into her mind, and she blurted it out.
"Teacher, have you ever thought about giving yourself a name?"
「I'm just a living corpse. Any identity beyond that would be poison to me. And a name? That might invite yet another tribulation.」
The teacher refused so firmly that Yuyeon inwardly considered giving it a nickname but dropped the idea. It didn't seem like the teacher would appreciate it.
So, had all the previous shrine maidens called the teacher just "Teacher" as well? That led her to wonder if they had all been shrine maidens.
Did the teacher only possess women's bodies? That made her curious about the teacher's gender, too.
So, the next day, as they walked and she grew bored again, the thought resurfaced, and she asked.
"Teacher, this might be rude, but... are you a woman?"
Yuyeon felt awkward after asking. It was like suddenly diving into a gender identity talk—what was she, some pubescent girl?
「For now, I think so. But as I said, I have no memories or information about my true self, so who knows.」
The teacher's calm response finally eased Yuyeon's embarrassment. She vowed never to have a gender identity talk with anyone again.
Thus, Yuyeon and the teacher traveled with just a word or two exchanged each day. To remind you once more, Yuyeon had no friends for eight years. Her hobby was reading. Her special skill was reading. Don't underestimate Yuyeon.
Even back then, her only conversational partner had been her wet nurse, but over time, she spoke less and less with her. It wasn't that their relationship soured; rather, as they grew to understand each other better, Yuyeon just needed to call for her wet nurse or gesture with her hands and feet, and the wet nurse would move like a tongue in her mouth to fulfill her wishes.
As time passed, the two could sense each other's gaze, feelings, and thoughts without words, even understanding their desires and intentions.
Yuyeon and the teacher gradually became the same way. Yuyeon no longer felt lonely or bored without chit-chat, and since the teacher was the same, they simply talked whenever something came up—once or twice a day.
Four days after leaving the village—about half a month since running away—they crossed the last mountain and finally stepped onto flat land after descending endless slopes, having passed some mountain range.
"Finally, flat ground. Teacher, do you know the name of that mountain range? It was so massive; it must have a name."
「Well, I've never left that tiny village in the mountains for over a century, so no idea. To the villagers, it was just 'that mountain range,' and the village was 'that village.' Same for me.」
After that brief exchange, the two walked on in silence. They'd already said all there was to say on the first day they met.
Another day of walking, and Yuyeon's Divine Sense picked up a massive river—so wide she couldn't sense the opposite bank. She mentioned it.
"It's a river. Over sixteen zhang wide..."
「Hm, looks about forty zhang, roughly.」
Yuyeon felt puzzled. Then it hit her. The teacher always saw and heard things, yet had no body and spoke through the mind. But how did it see and hear without eyes or ears?
Being blind herself yet able to "see" ahead made her overlook it too naturally. Another reason was... they didn't talk much, so she hadn't noticed. Yesterday, they hadn't exchanged a single word—just walked, napped during the day, and the wet nurse woke her. That was it.
"Teacher, come to think of it, how do you see and hear?"
「What a silly question. Through consciousness, of course. You do the same, don't you? More precisely, Divine Sense.」
This shocked Yuyeon.
She'd used Divine Sense her whole life since birth, but hers was always spread around her—yet she couldn't detect the teacher's, and the teacher could perceive things. Even at that distance—forty zhang. Divine Sense could extend that far.
Yuyeon pondered how to ask without sounding foolish. But no sudden enlightenment came, so she cursed her own head.
「From your expression, you're wondering how I avoid detection by your Divine Sense while perceiving things—and even farther? Right?」
The teacher was starting to act like her tongue—or rather, her Divine Sense—and Yuyeon felt joy blooming in her heart.
"Yes! Will you tell me?"
「No.」
A wicked ghost sprouted in Yuyeon's heart. It was a breath technique demon that burned and trampled all the flowers.
"Why? Why not? Are you stingy with sharing knowledge with me?"
It was rare for Yuyeon to whine like a child and even stamp her foot—well, maybe once before, but still uncommon. The teacher calmed her.
「Calm down, Yuyeon. I told you not to seek my advice on cultivation or practice. It's for your own good.」
Yuyeon had already guessed this, as if the teacher could see right through her. But hearing it directly made it all the more tempting and urgent.
She'd finally perfected the First-Order Concealing Form Formation to avoid detection by Qi Refining cultivators, but Divine Sense would give her away—even to the culprit. This was downright discriminatory against the visually impaired.
Still, being wise and precocious, she grasped the teacher's intent. He couldn't teach the method, but it already existed in the world—so she just needed to figure it out herself.
Yuyeon composed herself from her outburst and said,
"Anyway, we probably need to cross this river to reach the sea, so we'll have to borrow a boat."
The current was fierce, but could Yuyeon, who knew spells, not swim? No.
She just didn't want to ruin her slightly dirtied windbreaker robes by soaking them, dry off a wet body, or dunk into water carrying upstream filth and sewage. Even with Pure White Body, no thanks.
With her spiritual energy down to nearly half, she felt urgency about wasting it. Incidentally, that's why she'd dropped the Concealing Form Formation and used the parasol—to recover spiritual energy faster, even a little.
With all those reasons, she needed to find a boat and cross comfortably without getting wet.
"Teacher, searching for a dock won't ruin my cultivation, right?"
「Fine, I'll help that much. No strings attached.」
The teacher obligingly expended some mental effort to scan, but unfortunately, even its senses found no dock. This seemed like an undeveloped area with few crossings.
「Sorry to deliver bad news twice in a row. There's nothing resembling a dock within about one li.」
A li was the most common long-distance unit, varying by era and region, but in the Immortal Cultivation world, it was roughly 132 zhang. The number's messiness aside, don't nitpick precise measurements in this era.
Anyway, Yuyeon was too thrilled pondering, "Divine Sense range of one li?" and if she'd reach that or more someday, to care about the dock news. A li was something she could cover by leaping a few times.
So she switched gears. Rivers flow to the sea, right? Following the current might get her there faster than heading due north. At least it'd follow the coastline, achieving her goal similarly.
"Looks like instead of crossing north, we should just follow the river downstream."
「Sure, you're deciding the destination. Come to think of it, I don't even know where we're going. Where are you headed?」
"To the sea, of course. We're in the Northern Sea Province, so north is the sea."
Yuyeon gave the teacher—a spirit who'd lived as a village deity in the boonies—a geography lesson. Northern Sea Province: north is sea.
「Then why go to the sea?」
As Yuyeon clamped her mouth shut again, the teacher let it go. Kids that age thought having their own secrets was cool and thrilling.
With her companion's permission, Yuyeon approached the riverbank and walked in the direction of the current. Soon, a man-made road appeared—a proper public highway.
Well-packed dirt with gravel on both sides to block dust, and drainage ditches along it—clear signs of maintenance. Such roads usually meant a major city nearby.
Raised in a remote county seat, Yuyeon had only read about capitals in novels, so she felt some longing. Excited, she said—with an unusually girlish eight-year-old vibe today,
"A public highway means a big city nearby."
「Weren't you going to the sea?」
"Big cities have goods and info. And a big city on such a river probably has ships heading to the coast."
「So not the sea, but to catch a bigger ship.」
Yuyeon realized she'd fallen for the leading questions. Running away wasn't a huge secret, but she felt embarrassed admitting it.
The bigger the issue, the easier it was to confess upfront—later it felt trivial—but clamming up made it harder later.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner? Is it a big deal if I know? No, that's not it. I... Wait, am I making excuses to myself? Sorry. Sorry for what? Argh."
In that sense, the teacher—who'd spilled all secrets upfront—was a wise, skilled adult. Meanwhile, age-appropriate Yuyeon debated whether to confess now.
Was running away from home such a grave sin to hide? It just felt embarrassing as a young lady fleeing, and she didn't want snide remarks or changed looks.
For now, she'd play sulky from the interrogation to dodge it.
The more she thought, the better it seemed. She was the wronged party, so why apologize? For leading questions? Yeah, she'd confess when the time and place were right.
"......"
The best tactic now was to shut up again. She didn't want lies exposed or the perceptive teacher piecing it together from chatter—silence was effective.
The teacher saw her "lifesaving silence" tactic and let it go. How many times today already? This journey was great for mental discipline.