Chapter 33
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Heo Yuyeon of Heo Manor (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Left alone with her, the Teacher was swept up in a strange sense of unease. He pondered deeply what it might be and soon realized the reason.
The cause was that Yuyeon's nostrils were about ten percent wider than usual, her breaths coming in heavy, quick gasps as she inhaled and exhaled, her heartbeat roughly twenty percent faster.
These were the classic symptoms of excitement.
Having learned that whenever the usually composed and elegant Yuyeon got this worked up, trouble was bound to follow, the Teacher had instinctively felt anxious.
He judged that he needed to take the lead and seize control of the reins first.
"You seem more excited than usual. What exactly are you planning to do from now on?"
"Oh, Teacher... I guess you just wouldn't understand this feeling since you're not a man."
"Look, now I have my own little nest all to myself. A man's cave brimming with potential for lavish decoration—my man cave is waiting for me."
Yuyeon had aptly translated "man cave" into this world's terms to explain it to the Teacher. But as the saying goes, if it looks good, it's acting good—the Teacher saw right through it upon hearing her out.
Yes, this was something any child would kill for: a secret hideout.
Yuyeon had lived with her parents her entire life. In this life, that was a given, and even in her previous one, during her university days when others lived independently, she'd stayed home to help out. Even after getting a job, misfortune mixed with luck had placed her workplace close enough to home that she'd never moved out.
Now, at last, she had her own private space. How could she not be thrilled? That was why her heartbeat was twenty percent higher than normal. Grasping the situation roughly, the Teacher felt relieved.
'Hm, this isn't my responsibility.'
Unfortunately, Yuyeon's wallet was no longer backed by the Namgung Manor Lord but by Heo Jeongwon instead, so the Teacher simply prayed once more for his peace in the afterlife over his complacency.
"What should we do first? Actually, I've always wanted a pond in the house."
"You're going big right from the start."
The Namgung estate surely had ponds aplenty, but those were the Namgung family's ponds, not Yuyeon's. She rationalized it that way. Rationalization was a cultivator's virtue in their own affairs, making Yuyeon a proper cultivator now.
"No, wait—actually, I should furnish the house with some basics first. And buy bedding too."
The Teacher agreed on this point. The place felt so empty it hardly seemed livable; it definitely needed filling out.
With that decided, Yuyeon headed down to the mortal village for now. Roughly calculating direction and distance in her head, it seemed like an hour's walk.
She wasn't worried about money.
She didn't plan to blow through Heo Jeongwon's contribution points from day one, and since she was buying from mortals anyway, she could just use the silver notes she had on hand. Thanks to her time with the Namgung Clan, her pouch was nicely stocked.
And so, on her first day venturing down to the mortal village and spending generously, the villagers didn't know she was the granddaughter of Heo Jeongwon, newly promoted to garden warden, but they quickly realized from her spending that she was no ordinary person.
Yuyeon first asked directions to the street where carpenters lived clustered together and bought some ready-made beds.
After the beds, she naturally needed new bedding to go with them. She asked for directions to the fabric district, then to a shop specializing in bedding.
She bought several sets of fresh bedding and thick mattresses for under the beds. The filling, of course, was the priciest silk floss stuffed to bursting.
It was Yuyeon's firm belief that mattresses had to be top quality. Don't even start with "but now that you're a cultivator, you barely sleep once a week"—that one time matters.
With bedding acquired, she naturally needed bed curtains to hang around them. Think a cultivator at her level would have no issue sleeping in sunlight? Hah! It's about living luxuriously, not functionality.
Yuyeon returned to the carpentry street. She wanted fine silk drapes if possible, but sadly those required custom orders, so she settled for decent fabric to make hangings. "Decent," of course, by her aesthetic standards.
Since she was back in the fabric district anyway, she bought extra fine cloth and some spare clothes to change into. How could a young master from a prestigious house be seen wearing the same outfit every day?
At minimum, ten outfits prepared in advance, changed daily—that was proper. What about her Pure White Body? Hah! It's about dressing sharp, not just cleanliness.
Incidentally, with clothes came the need for storage. Yuyeon headed back to the furniture workshops.
And so, the innocent girl fell right into the merchants' meticulously laid trap of consumerist temptation. Those wicked mortals.
Heo Jeongwon hadn't left her a storage pouch artifact—called a dimensional pouch or dimensional artifact—but her parasol served that function anyway, so transporting goods was no issue.
Even massive items like beds or cabinets cast shadows, so the parasol handled them automatically. Buying an extra dresser was a given, then.
By Yuyeon's estimate, she could shade an entire house without issue.
"Shall we call it a day with this much?"
Yuyeon said with a hint of regret.
She hadn't even browsed tea sets, bought garden trees, hired gardeners to landscape, or built fences now that she had a garden.
Thanks to her obliviousness, those envious of the merchants' luck inwardly lamented as the sun set early, denying them a chance to bask in Yuyeon's generosity.
And in truth, around this point, Yuyeon's pouch held only coins, her silver notes nearly depleted. Midway through, she'd felt a crisis as her money bag ran dry, but then remembered the elder's contribution points—what was there to fear? She pressed on.
In any case, the sun had stepped in to guard Heo Jeongwon's contribution account in his stead.
From the next day, Yuyeon busied herself arranging her purchases and decorating, so she didn't go out spending.
Incidentally, the house had no kitchen. Yuyeon saw this as fortunate—a true man of valor like her didn't meddle in kitchens anyway.
But the house lacking a kitchen wasn't consideration for her mindset; cultivators simply had no need for one.
Cultivators who did eat substituted meals with grain pellets called Wall-Contemplation Pills, made by grinding grains into doughy elixirs.
While Wall-Contemplation Pills circulated even among mortals, mostly martial artists, the common version was just emergency rations from fermented grains. Cultivators' pills differed greatly.
They used spirit grains grown via Spirit Planting Arts as the base.
Thus, these pills didn't spoil, were the most basic Transformation Pill, and weren't overly expensive. They digested completely, solving any mess issues.
One downside: the taste was iffy. But cultivators just swallowed them without chewing a few times.
Heo Jeongwon's house had a jar of enough Wall-Contemplation Pills for Yuyeon to eat a year's worth, so starvation wasn't a worry.
Still, Yuyeon didn't fancy them as meal replacements, so every other day or so, she'd go down and eat with her remaining coins.
While out, she'd browse goods, which sparked desires, and fulfilling them was a cultivator's way—elevating her cultivation to boot. (Reminder: only coins left, no silver notes.)
After about three more days, as Yuyeon settled into the house and her routine, Heo Jeongwon visited. He was surprised by the transformed place but said nothing since it was now Yuyeon's home.
"This is a consciousness technique I cultivated during my Qi Refining Stage. It seems quite useful for your current situation, so before learning a Qi Refining method, master this first."
He handed her the consciousness technique manual he'd mentioned before, along with a clan identity token for entry, then left.
Yuyeon couldn't hide her disappointment.
Bored with clan life? Far from it.
Out of living expenses? She still had pocket change for meals. If needed, borrow more contribution points.
Lonely in a strange land? She had the Teacher, and Yuyeon was the type who built walls against loneliness anyway.
Her recent worries all stemmed from the manual Heo Jeongwon left behind. It wasn't that she couldn't understand it—quite the opposite.
'Illumination Peering Heart Technique Manual'
Yuyeon dove into reading the book the day she received it. She was the type to drop everything for text.
What kind of books did cultivators read? Bursting with anticipation, Yuyeon was betrayed almost immediately.
The book was downright boring.
"Consciousness is the mind's function for perceiving one's surroundings."
"To wield consciousness at will, first behold your own mind. This is called Illumination."
"Mastering Illumination allows peeking into others' minds—this is Peering."
"The wondrous harmony binding these two is the core of the Illumination Peering Heart Technique."
This was the preface. Seemed intriguing, right? Yuyeon thought so too. But sadly, that was it. Yes, really just that far.
To grasp what a technique manual truly was, one must revisit cultivators' mental states, insights, and cultivation.
Cultivators' path was expending spirit energy to transcend body, soul, and mind—shedding humanity itself.
This made receiving insights easier. They sloughed off mortal coils to draw nearer to enlightenment.
Thus, Immortal Cultivation was the process of enlightenment. Cultivators fundamentally advanced realms through insights.
Insight differed from study. It wasn't step-by-step progress via understanding.
It was that miraculous instant when myriad phenomena aligned by chance, sparking like sudden fireworks.
Cultivators meditated daily to seize that fleeting spark. This was cultivation's foundation.
Alone, it was no different from mortal ascetics. Martial artists too gained insights, used qi arts, and gathered essence to cultivate.
In this, a cultivator's mind must remain spacious and empty, ever ready for insight.
Positively, a clear mind; negatively, empty-headed fools.
They housed the arisen insight in that emptiness, stacking new Daos inwardly. In other words, deepening or fortifying the Dao Heart.
Thus, insights were intensely personal, not to be shared lightly.
As mentioned, the Dao Heart was a cultivator's lifeblood, and personalized insights its pillars.
With this understood, the manual's nature becomes clear. Manuals hold no profound truths or direct Dao sounds.
Embedding such would endanger the writer first. Would cultivators risk their lives for others' gain?
Readers might even suffer Insight Heart Tribulations. Dao Hearts vary; one's true insight could be another's false path.
Insights were utterly personal.
Thus, manuals contained two things:
First, the barest common understanding, pared down from myriad profound Daos. This filled the preface—Yuyeon's first chapter.
What followed expanded that preface more esoterically: the verses, as they were called. And after verses? Typically this:
"In serene sitting, kindle the lantern of consciousness; in the murky pond of heart-images, the bright moon rises."
"Do not suppress the myriad rising thoughts—merely observe; as silt settles, delusions fade, and true nature alone shines still."
"All phenomena mirrored in the pond lie in your palm—to grasp as willed, release as willed."
⟨ Verses ⟩
Guess the meaning? Of course not—that's expected.
These verses held no profound essence. Infusing them with substance via personal insight was the essence of manual-based cultivation.
Ruminating esoterica to birth true insight—that was meditation, the manual's role.
Manuals guided those seeking specific insights, providing direction from one who'd grasped it, framing the mind's foundation.
So why bind into books? Preface and verses alone would fit on one sheet. Naturally, more followed.
"The way to scald a tongue burned by hot porridge."
"One with a starving belly hastily shoveled hot porridge, scalding his tongue. For days, he tasted nothing."
"Another observed steam rising from the bowl, stirred with a spoon to gauge the heat. Only when cooled to perfection did he sate his hunger leisurely."
"So too with boiling emotions in the heart. Hasty handling wounds the mind alone—first pause, let the fervor wane."
These were anecdotes starting from the manual's author, added by countless successors.
More precisely, testimonies and guidelines: attempts in pursuing insight, what proved meaningful, what to avoid.
Cultivators weren't scholars stacking knowledge but meditators racing to the goal—they left only bare, honest experiences.
Reading this, Yuyeon wondered if she'd encountered manuals before.
'True Goodness Great Dao—learned with eyes closed.'
Its structure oddly mirrored this. If so, that book truly deserved its title as the world's finest technique scripture.
Its latter half had some fun, after all.
Or perhaps this manual's back half had satirical humor in its absurdity.
"The needle's eye welcomes not a trembling hand."
"One cultivator, mending ragged clothes, tried threading a needle but grew impatient, hand shaking—he wasted the day without success."
"Another took long breaths to still his mind first. Wetting the thread's end, holding utterly steady, the needle seemed to embrace it itself."
"If even threading demands such, how dare haste pierce the heart's complexities? All mind arts begin in one's own stillness."
Yuyeon imagined it thus:
Some cultivator tore his robe doing something, tried patching it himself.
But that day, fortunes soured, mind unsettled—even threading a needle eluded him.
Frustrated and heated, he quit. Another day, calm, it threaded smoothly.
Initially unremarkable, but that cultivator seized a spark of insight, meditated forthwith, and appended it to the manual's end.
Yuyeon felt she saw right through him. Perhaps this was a manual's true power. She'd certainly absorbed the experience.
So Yuyeon closed the book and meditated for the first time in ages.
Heart demons had lately disordered her mind, no koans to pursue. But now a new path lay open—she reignited her dormant spark of insight.
Exactly three days.
On the fourth day of meditation, Yuyeon's walking habit resurfaced.