Chapter 36
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Heart-Peering Technique (3)
As the flying magic tool accelerated once more, slicing through the clouds, a subtle silence settled inside the vessel.
Heo Damun silently stared ahead, though part of his attention was directed toward Yuyeon right in front of him. Heo Serin, meanwhile, openly observed her.
Is she really blind? It was a question they both shared.
It was only natural to wonder, since Yuyeon had kept her eyes closed from the very first moment they met.
Yet if she truly were blind, one would expect her to show anxiety about the great height or sensitivity to the shaking. But there was none of that.
On the contrary, she seemed even more relaxed than Heo Damun.
And they had heard that even in daily life, she showed no inconvenience despite always keeping her eyes shut. In truth, this doubt was shared by the entire Heo family investigation team.
At first, the two had been tentatively suspicious, but as time passed, the buried question resurfaced.
When they first encountered Yuyeon, they had felt a strange sensation brush past them, sparking their curiosity. Upon reflection now, it felt similar to being scanned by Divine Sense.
Neither had initially thought it was Divine Sense.
By the common knowledge of the cultivation world, Divine Sense manifested during the Qi Condensation stage, and even those who practiced certain special techniques in the Qi Refining stage could use it—but only over very short distances.
So they hadn't imagined that someone at the Entrance Stage, without even a Dharma Soul yet, could possess such a ability over any real distance.
But nothing else fit the bill. Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, Heo Serin spoke first.
"Yuyeon, is there a reason you keep your eyes closed? You don't seem inconvenienced at all, even though you can't see ahead."
The moment she heard those words, a chill ran down Yuyeon's spine.
Should I make an excuse? Or tell the truth?
But masking her surprise, Yuyeon instinctively realized this was a golden opportunity.
It was a chance to test the progress she had made in her Heart-Peering Technique.
To do that, she first needed to scan the two with Divine Sense once more—a gamble, to be sure.
But if she couldn't fool even these people, who wouldn't cause major issues even if they found out, then she'd have to wander around Fang City with her eyes closed, keeping her Divine Sense tightly contained.
Yuyeon immediately scanned the two with Divine Sense and activated her Heart-Peering Technique.
In her mindscape, Heo Serin and Heo Damun appeared, each with a pond beneath them.
When she lit a lantern to illuminate them, the two were reflected in their respective ponds. And around each watery reflection, different things floated.
It was the exact effect of the progress she had achieved yesterday.
Heo Serin's pond rippled with countless waves.
Above it drifted a thick profusion of leaves named "curiosity," interspersed with occasional puffs of dirt called "caution."
She was curious about Yuyeon's true nature while harboring a touch of wariness toward this stranger.
In contrast, Heo Damun's pond was still.
A single smooth pebble lay heavily sunk at the bottom of its depths. His feelings weren't outwardly visible, and Yuyeon couldn't grasp them recklessly.
She simply sensed he harbored no hostility or caution.
Yuyeon now had a feel for how to handle them.
The method to shift their emotions toward what she desired was right at her fingertips.
More than the raw truth, they wanted a plausible explanation.
Because as fellow mission companions and a new member of the Heo family investigation team, they inwardly wished to grow closer to her.
So a convincing explanation would dispel their wariness and suspicion, leading them to acceptance. Deep down, that's what they yearned for.
Once she grasped that, plausible lies to ease their caution flowed effortlessly into Yuyeon's mind.
This is my chance to craft a believable excuse.
Pretending to choose her words carefully, Yuyeon cleared her throat and slowly turned her head toward them, offering a faint smile.
"From birth, my eyes have been unable to behold the world, so I've painted it with my other senses instead.
By chance, my grandfather passed down a meditation technique to me, awakening a special spiritual insight.
It's just a faint sense, nothing more. I've taken to calling it 'Mind's Eye' on my own."
Yuyeon quickly borrowed the name from a trashy cultivation novel she had read, slapping it on in the heat of the moment. It sounded grandiose, but all technique abilities were like that.
It was hard to accept an Entrance Stage cultivator having Qi Condensation-level Divine Sense, but gaining a special sensory insight was plausible enough.
And since it wove in the truth—that she had been blind since birth and perceived the world through other senses—it rang even truer.
As Yuyeon answered, she kept watch on their ponds.
The muddy water of caution in Heo Serin's pond began to settle. In its place rose clear water named awe, acceptance, and pity.
As expected of a once-in-a-generation prodigy—they've already awakened a sensory insight at such a young age. But blind from birth... Even if it's a heavenly affliction that can be cured by forming a Dharma Body in Qi Condensation, it must be so inconvenient.
She accepted it readily.
Even the still pond of Heo Damun stirred with change. A faint moss seemed to grow on the sunken pebble, and soft aquatic plants began sprouting beside it.
Unlike Heo Serin, no clear thoughts formed. Likely a difference in their realms.
Still, she could see the shift, so Yuyeon inwardly sighed in relief.
Her first attempt at Heart-Peering on actual cultivators had succeeded. And at least up to Qi Refining, they wouldn't doubt this excuse.
But soon, a sharp pang raced through her mind—like a long-locked padlock finally clicked open by the perfect key.
A bizarre sensation where the world's principles seemed to contradict yet align.
She had experienced it several times before, so Yuyeon knew exactly what it was.
Yes, a moment of sudden enlightenment.
She had merely picked "Mind's Eye" from a novel to spin her lie.
Yet the name lingered, and even if it faded, it would reemerge, passed from mouth to mouth among countless people—because it held profound implications.
Like a verse from scripture.
Yuyeon uttered it for the first time in her life and unwittingly pondered it in her mind.
With ample related experience accumulated, how could it not bear fruit in realization?
Yuyeon awakened to the Mind's Eye.
And with heart, mind, and Divine Sense, she opened her eyes.
The world brightened, and Yuyeon's perception expanded in an instant.
"Yuyeon! Are you okay? Your nose is bleeding."
Yuyeon unwittingly wiped her nose, then her head spun as she collapsed.
The Teacher watched the whole scene and let out a soft hum.
For a moment, he considered blocking it with a silent transmission as before.
But how could one walking the labyrinthine Orthodox Dao avoid every dead end and press straight ahead?
The Teacher believed that letting Yuyeon directly experience the dangers of rashly elevating her cultivation through such opportunistic enlightenments would be true progress for her greater future.
Yuyeon came to.
Something soft cradled her head, and she instinctively reached out, realizing it was something pillowy wrapped in cloth.
Her Divine Sense instinctively swept outward, mapping her surroundings, and she jolted upright in surprise.
The softness was Heo Serin's thigh.
When Yuyeon had collapsed bleeding from the nose, Heo Serin had caught her head, fearing she might tumble off the flying vessel, and tended to her ever since.
"Thank you, Senior Serin."
"No need. You suddenly collapsed—are you alright? Do you have any other ailments?"
"No, it's just..."
Feeling an odd sense of déjà vu, Yuyeon realized she had lost consciousness. The events just before flooded back, clarifying what had happened.
She had awakened the Mind's Eye.
"I overexerted the insight all at once and unknowingly depleted my mental energy. I'm ashamed to show such an immature side."
Though they had known each other less than an hour, seeing Yuyeon's mature demeanor overlaid with this childlike vulnerability made Heo Serin find her all the more pitiable and endearing.
Heo Damun, too, had sensed something extraordinary about her from the moment the garden caretaker brought her in. Witnessing this human side only drew him closer.
They simply assumed Yuyeon had gotten overexcited viewing the scenery during flight and overused her insight.
And that wasn't entirely wrong—she had been thrilled, and she had depleted her mental energy while taking in the views.
"I gained some insights from using the insight earlier, so I'd like to meditate briefly. Is that alright?"
"Insights at your young age—impressive. We'll make room for you, so hurry and consolidate them."
Yuyeon sat across from Heo Serin, received permission, and quietly began meditating.
In truth, the Mind's Eye she had gained wasn't anything extraordinary.
It was merely unlocking a simple principle of Divine Sense that she hadn't grasped or used until now, for some reason.
To perceive beyond her Divine Sense, Yuyeon mainly relied on sound. She combined vibrations gathered at the edge of her Divine Sense to achieve a form of echolocation.
Why not do the same with eyes?
If sound could do it, why couldn't she capture light with Divine Sense and reconstruct images from it?
Cameras already existed in this world, so imagining and implementing it wasn't impossible for Yuyeon.
But what she overlooked was that it wasn't simply her own inadequacy preventing this idea before.
If something so simple had remained closed to her until now, there had to be a reason.
The reason she had depleted her mental energy and bled from the nose in that instant was the same as when, before even reaching Entrance Stage, she had overused Divine Sense and exhausted herself.
Capturing light with Divine Sense to reconstruct scenes demanded tremendous mental power.
Even though Yuyeon's awakening of the Mind's Eye lasted only a blink.
Yet lost in the enlightenment, she couldn't control herself, burning through all her mental strength until she collapsed.
But after nearly eight years, beholding the vast mindscape stretching to the horizon filled Yuyeon with a sense of her Dao Heart expanding grandly. Her mental energy had even increased as a result.
And with her brilliant aptitude, she immediately consolidated the insight, realizing ways to use it without strain.
At the same time, she understood remarks the Teacher had let slip after her past nagging on this topic.
Your ascension to Qi Refining isn't unrelated to this, so stop asking futilely and raise your realm.
When she ascended to Qi Refining, just as with Entrance Stage, her mind would expand once more, strengthening her mental energy.
Then, she would naturally turn to the various possibilities of Divine Sense she had ignored, awakening to those methods.
The way to fool Divine Sense with Divine Sense, which she had glimpsed before, was surely among them.
Yuyeon ended her meditation and refreshed her mind. Then she awakened the Mind's Eye once more.
More precisely, she half-opened it.
Even more precisely, she just blinked it halfway.
Her mindscape flashed bright—pop—and the world beyond her Divine Sense range unfolded like a hazy afterimage.
Compared to the vivid world before, it felt meager, but viewing the world from roughly five li up was vast and refreshing.
The expansive mountains and rivers stretching to the horizon, the massive peaks piercing auspicious clouds far in the distance, and the faint outlines of buildings.
The resolution was low, like when she conserved mental energy in the past, and continuous use was taxing, but this was a massive breakthrough.
"Congratulations. Your Heart-Peering Technique has reached what could now be called 2-star without shame. Peering into new possibilities of Divine Sense goes without saying. You'll bother me less with questions and burn less mental energy from now on."
Having pried several of the Teacher's secrets, Yuyeon felt pleased and replied pleasantly without her usual snark.
"Even so, my mental energy is still lacking, so you'll have to help me often, Teacher."
Yet Yuyeon sensed a faint, unresolved remnant in her heart. Something from when she had fully opened the Mind's Eye.
No.
She had forgotten it. It was still too distant for now, so just...
She was already satisfied with today's gains. She had half-escaped her blindness. Even before arriving at Fang City, she felt stuffed with her haul.