Back to Mount Heng (7)
The Mystic Elixir Classic was a book containing the art of refining elixir pills.
The most highly regarded elixir in the murim of today was Shaolin's Great Return Pill — a legendary pill said to grant one Jia, a full sixty years, of internal energy to any martial artist who consumed it and circulated the Ascension Cultivation Method, and to cure every internal injury besides. Nowadays, so the story went, the recipe had been lost, and only the Lesser Return Pill could be made.
Yet the Mystic Elixir Classic claimed that its own "Mystic Elixir" produced effects remarkably similar to the Great Return Pill.
"This one actually looks doable! And the main ingredient just happens to be Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng."
"Worth a try, wouldn't you say?"
"Yep! If it works, it'll be a huge help in raising up masters!"
If one could not consume elixirs, building internal energy was a pursuit that demanded enormous stretches of time. Mastering the Ascension Cultivation Method did not require the full sixty years to gain a Jia of internal energy, but even the most gifted could not amass a Jia in a single year.
The Mystic Elixir was a method that could dramatically shorten that precious accumulation period — and rather than eating the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng raw, refining it into a pill would surely yield far greater efficiency.
Getting tangled up with that wolf pack had left me thoroughly beaten, but thanks to it, I had found a way to heal my body. Each and every one was a legendary elixir, scattered across every corner of the Central Plains — it would take time, plenty of it.
The next day, Yeon Hwa returned safely.
"A Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng... you found... another one...?"
Her disbelief delighted me.
"You're the one who pointed me to Mount Heng, Yeon Hwa. You're amazing."
"I thought there might be a chance, but I never dreamed there would be two."
"It's all thanks to you, Yeon Hwa."
Since I was the guilty party, I heaped the praise on her with a will — but in the end, the fact that Zhuge Yang had been injured came to light anyway.
"You took the Young Miss alone to a place that dangerous?"
"I'm sorry..."
When we had met the wolf pack, I had been, quite plainly, dead weight, so I had nothing to say in my own defense. I could only apologize and promise it would never happen again.
After receiving a proper scolding, I brought up the Mystic Elixir Classic as well.
"I meant to give you the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng to strengthen you, Yeon Hwa, but then I found this book. It won't take long, so I plan to refine it into an elixir pill for you."
It wasn't that Yeon Hwa would go without — but the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng was one I had to consume myself, so I couldn't hand it over just yet. The Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng would be refined into Mystic Elixir pills for her instead. Reading the Mystic Elixir Classic closely, I had discovered that it tripled the effects — threefold, no less!
"Of course it must be made into the Mystic Elixir."
Yeon Hwa agreed completely. It wasn't as if I was refusing to give her anything — all it took was a few more herbs, so there was no reason not to. Counted across the whole of the Central Plains, Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng might be plentiful, but I had only one body, and no one I could trust to dig up elixirs on my behalf. This was a season for conserving every resource I had.
While Zhuge Yang was engrossed in the medical texts Yeon Hwa had brought back, I sidled up and asked quietly.
"So? Any way to treat a damaged qi core?"
"The medical texts I studied before, back when we were researching cures for the Nine Yin Severed Meridians and the Pure Yin Body, and even the new ones we just obtained — none of them have a dedicated treatment for qi core damage..."
"Hmm... that's strange. Can qi core damage like this really occur congenitally?"
"But if someone did it deliberately, that would be far too wasteful, wouldn't it? Targeting only the qi core for damage, of all things... If anything... ah, no, never mind!"
Zhuge Yang hurriedly tried to gather her words back, but I understood perfectly what she was getting at.
"Right? Simply killing me would have been the easier way. It's baffling. Which means it was congenital, doesn't it?"
"I'm sorry, Won... There has to be a way to cure it! I'll keep looking!"
The newly obtained medical texts brought no good news either. Zhuge Yang still felt dubious about the Physical Rebirth Classic, but my heart was steadily leaning that way. After all, the only thing I could trust in this world was the Treasure Locator.
When a martial artist trained in the martial arts passed through Peak and Super-Peak and reached the Transformative Realm, they could achieve Physical Rebirth. According to the Physical Rebirth Classic, Physical Rebirth could be achieved through the consumption of elixirs — which would mean starting out from the Transformative Realm itself.
Just how exalted a station did the Transformative Realm command? When you don't know something, you ask.
"What kind of level is the Transformative Realm?"
"The Transformative Realm... the current Ten Great Masters Under Heaven are all at that level."
"Whoa... the Transformative Realm... that's an incredible height. At that realm, could you set your sights on being Number One Under Heaven?"
"Hmm... the orthodox faction's Number One Under Heaven is tacitly understood to be the Sword Immortal. People speculate... that he's in the Profound Realm."
So there was a Profound Realm too. Still, the Transformative Realm was extraordinary in its own right — that was the caliber of the ten finest in the world, wasn't it? Yes. It had to be at least this much. Only then could it live up to a value of 95.
"Oh! Of course, I'm only talking about the orthodox side. The unorthodox faction has a few as well, and nobody knows the true strength of the Demonic Cult."
Let me correct that, then. Probably twenty, all told...?
The Mystic Elixir Classic was full of surprises. The efficacy was astonishing, but what caught my eye was the list of ingredients its crafting required: the main ingredient was Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, yet every auxiliary material was a common herb that could be found anywhere. The principle, it said, was that these basic herbs generated a synergistic reaction that maximized the ginseng's effects. In other words, we could procure every herb we needed right here in this village, without ever setting foot in a city — this region was crawling with herb gatherers, after all.
"Just like that, and the Mystic Elixir is complete?"
I had gathered the herbs and was crafting the Mystic Elixir according to the recipe, and Zhuge Yang watched in wonder.
"We'll see once it's finished, but honestly, it's nothing special. Right?"
Some of the herbs I boiled; others I crushed raw and squeezed for their juice. Judged on their properties alone, they looked utterly unrelated — and yet together they became the ingredients of the Mystic Elixir.
If the Mystic Elixir truly worked, wouldn't Zhuge Yang and Yeon Hwa come to trust the Physical Rebirth Classic more as well? After all, both books appeared to have been written by the same hand.
The pill refining took a full week. My actual labor amounted to no more than a few hours, but certain stages required aging for set periods of time.
"And... done!"
Three Mystic Elixir pills were complete. To the eye they were simply black beads, but they carried a fresh, fragrant scent.
"So this is the Mystic Elixir...!"
Yeon Hwa seemed genuinely moved.
"Please take one right away and confirm the effects, Yeon Hwa."
"That's right! Sister Hwa, I'm dying to know!"
Zhuge Yang still had plenty of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng's medicinal power remaining, so she had no need for the Mystic Elixir.
My heart pounded.
Zhuge Yang and I sat side by side, watching Yeon Hwa circulate her qi in meditation.
Ooooh!
I kept my admiration locked behind my teeth, not daring to disturb her concentration — for a haze like heat-shimmer was rising from Yeon Hwa's body.
This is so cool! That's not something ordinary qi circulation produces — could it be...?
Before long, Yeon Hwa finished her circulation and opened her eyes. Maybe it was only the mood of the moment, but even her eyes seemed to shimmer with a mystical light.
"...The Mystic Elixir is the real deal."
"Wow! Congratulations, sis! You're a Peak Realm master now?"
Yeon Hwa smiled warmly — the brightest smile I had seen from her in a long while.
"Yes... I am."
"Congratulations, Yeon Hwa!"
"Thank you. It's all thanks to you."
"Did your internal energy really grow by a whole Jia?"
"Counting the energy I have yet to absorb, I should be very close to it."
I was envious. I wanted, more than anything, to achieve Physical Rebirth myself and become a master.
"Way to go, Sister Hwa! A Peak Realm master at twenty-five — that's incredible!"
"...My internal energy was sorely lacking. It's all thanks to the elixirs."
If a Mystic Elixir made from Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng was this potent, just what would a Ten-Thousand-Year one be capable of? And I was slated to consume five of those elixirs... Of course, they had to be refined by the proper method first, so for now I couldn't eat even a single raw Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng.
With Yeon Hwa's strength grown, it finally felt as though we could truly set out in search of martial manuals. We might have gone sooner, but the encounter with the wolf pack had jolted me wide awake. Treasure Locator, elixirs, martial manuals — what good would any of it be once I had lost my life? So I had waited, as safely as I could, for our strength to grow.
"Yang. There's somewhere I want to go today."
"Where?"
"A mountain to the west called Mount Jigong. I had a wonderful dream last night..."
"What? Again?!"
"This time it was an Azure Dragon..."
"......"
After I had spun the story about dreaming of a phoenix and dug up the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, Zhuge Yang's big eyes flooded with anticipation. She was welcome to hope. It was the very thing she needed most.
Mount Jigong was a small mountain lying west of the village near Mount Heng where I had settled. In most martial arts novels and games, great fortunes turned up on famous mountains — yet the Treasure Locator was showing a secret manual hidden away on obscure Mount Jigong, a place with no tale to its name at all.
Yeon Hwa, now a Peak Realm master, took the point, while Zhuge Yang and I held the rear.
"We must enter the thicket on the left."
"You mean this way?"
"A little further left."
My finger swung a little further left. Yeon Hwa looked at my hand, sighed, and adjusted our course.
"Didn't I say I would take the lead..."
"That's enough. Stay glued to the Young Miss's side."
If some fierce beast were to burst from the undergrowth, I would be the one in danger — which was why Yeon Hwa had volunteered to take the point. Unlike the wolf pack we had met on Mount Heng, Mount Jigong offered no dangerous crises on the way to our destination. That destination was a spot buried in dense, overgrown vegetation, and the place the Treasure Locator indicated lay just beyond the thicket.
"This is the place. The feeling is very good."
"That feeling of yours... I can't sense a single thing?"
If a Peak Realm master said so, then so it was. Then again, how would an inanimate thing like a secret manual give off any presence at all?
With Yeon Hwa having confirmed there was no hostile presence, I began shouldering through the undergrowth myself. It was not merely tall grass — small trees were woven through it, and it was no easy going.
"Step aside."
Yeon Hwa drew her sword. Light gathered along the blade, then flashed — and the thicket fell in a single stroke. It was magnificent. Exactly the murim warrior I had dreamed of becoming.
"Ooooh! Is that Sword Energy?!"
"It is."
"Someday, I'll...!"
"...You will. I'm certain of it."
A Peak Realm master could externalize qi into tangible form, sheathing the blade in Sword Energy that multiplied its cutting power. Nothing that was not Sword Energy in kind could hope to block it. Perhaps my gaze had grown too intense; Yeon Hwa turned away and silently carved a path through the thicket.
"Won. Did you feel this way when you found the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng? I can't sense anything either."
"Hmm... I think it was about the same. Just give it a moment."
Before long, once the dense thicket had been cut away entirely, a cave mouth sealed behind a massive boulder revealed itself.