Kneel Together
The courtyard was a familiar sight, opening onto a spacious chamber.
Yeop Pung sat with one leg crossed over the other, reclining in a chair. Before him, a disciple of the Cheonun Sect poured fragrant Wuyingchun tea with the utmost deference.
"Martial Uncle, please enjoy the tea."
The Nagun Peak disciple gazed at Yeop Pung with eyes full of reverence, glittering like tiny stars.
A Martial Uncle this young!
He's already treating Elder Song like a servant, and me...? Why is there such a gap between us?
Huh? But this Martial Uncle looks familiar somehow....
Twice already shocked by Yeop Pung, the young disciple didn't dare voice his suspicion. He merely blinked and withdrew from the room, leaving only Song Gyeol and Yeop Pung inside.
"Fine tea!" Yeop Pung said, savoring the fragrant Wuying brew.
"Song Gyeol, come have a cup..."
No!
Song Gyeol was still watching Yeop Pung with a wary, unsettled gaze. With all seven Peak Masters away from the sect, he dared not attend to anything else. Watching Yeop Pung was his sole remaining duty.
"This disciple wouldn't dare. Please enjoy it at your leisure, Martial Uncle."
"Boring...."
Yeop Pung shrugged, rose, and paced the room.
"When did they say Senior Brother Yeo would be back?"
"We received a letter yesterday. The Sect Master and the Peak Masters are already on their way back. They should arrive tomorrow or the day after."
Song Gyeol studied Yeop Pung's eyes carefully as he spoke, hunting for even the faintest flicker of unease. He found none.
Damn it! Is this brat trying to trap me?
Yeop Pung scoffed inwardly. He knew the Cheonun Annals far too well. The martial debate at the Dragon Tomb had lasted a full twenty days. There was no chance it would wrap up as easily as Song Gyeol claimed.
"Excellent!"
Yeop Pung put on a flawless performance of barely contained joy.
"I was dying to see my senior brothers again.... Hm? What's this?"
Changing the subject, Yeop Pung's gaze settled on a small porcelain bottle on the shelf. He picked it up as if it were the most natural thing in the world, popped the lid, and sniffed.
"Is this the spirit pill Senior Brother Yeo takes?"
"That's correct."
Song Gyeol couldn't fathom what Yeop Pung was after.
"The Peak Master occasionally takes these Spirit Soul Pills to aid his cultivation.... Ah— Martial Grand-Uncle, what are you doing?!"
Song Gyeol's eyes flew wide. Yeop Pung had plucked out a Spirit Soul Pill and swallowed it as if it were a piece of candy.
Good heavens!
That Spirit Soul Pill was a fourth-grade elixir — and he'd just popped it like nothing!
What happened next was even more astonishing. Yeop Pung had swallowed the Spirit Soul Pill, yet not a whisper of Profound Qi stirred around his body. A martial artist of merely the Profound Realm should never have been able to withstand the violent potency of a fourth-grade elixir. Even Song Gyeol himself had to sit down at once and circulate the medicinal energy whenever he took one.
Yet Yeop Pung looked entirely unbothered. If anything, he seemed to be savoring the pill with a look of profound contemplation. Song Gyeol could not begin to gauge the depths of this man's power.
"This medicine is flawed!" Yeop Pung's eyes snapped open, his voice suddenly grave.
"W-what's wrong with it?"
"Do you know anything about alchemy?"
"I... this disciple is ignorant of such matters."
"If you don't know, then keep quiet and stop wasting breath..."
Damn it!
Song Gyeol no longer wanted to be in this room. Anyone else could wait on this man — he wanted nothing more to do with it.
"Who made this pill?"
"Well... all of the Peak Master's elixirs are refined by our sect's greatest alchemy elder."
"Yeok Chang-hae, is it?" Yeop Pung dropped the name as if it were common knowledge.
"That's right."
"Go fetch that fellow at once! Who told him to concoct this garbage and serve it to Senior Brother Yeo?!"
Garbage... he's calling the Spirit Soul Pill garbage...
Song Gyeol was speechless, but he didn't dare move.
"It's fine, Song Gyeol. Don't worry. Whatever happens today, I'll take responsibility. Once I've given that alchemy-illiterate Yeok Chang-hae a proper thrashing, Senior Brother Jang Gong will commend you handsomely for your service. Now go fetch him!"
Yeok Chang-hae, who doesn't even know alchemy...
Song Gyeol couldn't even imagine the look on Yeok Chang-hae's face when he heard those words. The whole of Nagun Peak was about to be turned upside down. An alchemy debate was all but guaranteed.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, Song Gyeol finally chose the path that wouldn't provoke Yeop Pung. Truth be told, he was glad of the excuse to step outside and get some air. He'd leave Yeop Pung to the hot-tempered Yeok Chang-hae.
"Understood. This disciple will bring Grandmaster Yeok at once."
Song Gyeol bowed respectfully and left the room. He didn't go far — he still had to keep watch on Yeop Pung — but he sent another disciple to deliver the message to Yeok Chang-hae.
Inside the room, Yeop Pung casually slipped the bottle of Spirit Soul Pills into his robes and took another sip of Wuying tea. The fragrant aroma filled his mouth, and he smiled to himself.
Who would've thought I'd get to meet Yeok Chang-hae this easily...
No matter how hard Song Gyeol wracked his brains, he couldn't guess what Yeop Pung had come for besides the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture. But Yeop Pung had a second objective every bit as important: a meeting with Yeok Chang-hae, the Cheonun Sect's master alchemist.
All of it had sprung from a single line in the Cheonun Annals.
The Eighth Day of the Ninth Month, Thirty-Fifth Year of the Shinmu Era.
Elder Yeok Chang-hae, building upon the spirit elixir known as the Spirit Soul Pill, pioneered a new height of refinement and completed the fourth-grade elixir Star Divine Pill. Its medicinal efficacy being exceptional, it is hereby specially recorded.
The moment Yeop Pung had read that entry, a daring plan had taken shape in his mind.
For the past five years, Yeop Pung had toiled at menial work in the Herb Garden, tending spirit herbs. That humble post had given him more access to the herbalism archives than anyone else, and there he had taught himself a vast body of pharmacological knowledge.
What's more, while cleaning and organizing the Cheonun Sect's most precious chambers, he had naturally absorbed related knowledge. Among those chambers, of course, was the hall of the Star Deity Altar.
Who said a regression ability was only good for going back to enrich the present? Information from the present could be exploited just as freely in the past. The Cheonun Annals were the perfect example. Thanks to them, Yeop Pung had fooled Song Gyeol completely.
And that chamber of the Star Deity Altar would prove the key to Yeop Pung making a fortune over the next two days.
Yeop Pung had already laid every piece of the plan. All that remained was for Yeok Chang-hae — once the undisputed first man of the Cheonun Sect's alchemy world — to show his face.
Yeop Pung had just finished his second cup of tea when a booming voice shook the whole of Nagun Peak.
The whole room seemed to tremble at that voice. It wasn't an overwhelming pressure of Profound Qi — but a scorching fury, like fire raining from the heavens, blanketed the entirety of Nagun Peak.
A heavy thud crashed into the courtyard. Through a cloud of dust, a short, stocky old man in crimson robes straightened his back. His voice was thick with rage.
"Song Gyeol, get out here this instant! Where's that wet-behind-the-ears brat you told me about?! If you don't explain yourself right now, I'll grind this entire Nagun Peak to bone dust!"
"Grandmaster Yeok, please calm yourself!" Song Gyeol rushed out, cold sweat pouring down his face.
"Martial Uncle is—"
Song Gyeol hadn't even finished. The short old man bulged his eyes and jabbed a finger at him.
"Martial Uncle? Hey, is something wrong with your head? Where exactly is this Martial Uncle of yours supposed to be?! Who treated you like a fool and then sent you running over here with this garbage? You're worse than a pig!"
Song Gyeol bowed his head bitterly. What could he even say? He didn't want to believe the man inside was his Martial Uncle either. But after everything that had just happened, what else could he do? All he could do was remain on his knees.
Easy for you to say. The Peak Master has no junior brother, is that it? Fine — then you go in there and throw out that impostor yourself. I'll toss him out this second!
Song Gyeol swallowed those words and forced a smile, nodding along.
This time, however, the man inside didn't leave Song Gyeol hanging. The instant Yeok Chang-hae's shouting stopped, the great chamber door creaked open. Yeop Pung strolled out with his hands clasped behind his back, his cold voice dripping with mockery.
Yeok Chang-hae's gleaming forehead snapped toward Yeop Pung. The whites of his eyes were showing.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
He advanced on Yeop Pung one step at a time. The scorching fire-qi he had accumulated over a lifetime of pill-refining poured into the air as a terrifying heat.
"Brat, do you even know what you're saying...? You dare insult my alchemy? I could turn you into dried squid right here and now, you know that?"
"Oh my, how terrifying.... So this is the Cheonun Sect's greatest master of the alchemical path? He uses his flames to scare people instead of refining pills. How pathetic!"
"You—!"
Yeok Chang-hae was a genius at making pills, but in a war of words, ten of him couldn't match a single Yeop Pung. He was struck speechless on the spot.
Song Gyeol quietly watched Yeok Chang-hae from the side, steam practically rising from the old man's enraged head.
That's right. You'll be on your knees in front of Martial Uncle soon enough too...