An Enormous Harvest

"You damn brat!"

Yeok Chang-hae's finger, still leveled at Yeop Pung, began to tremble.

"If I don't roast you alive today, I swear I'll—"

Yeop Pung cut him off without a shred of mercy.

"Azure Spirit Leaf, Barley Root, Spirit Cloud Fruit, Earth Origin Still-Ganoderma…"

The names of medicinal herbs poured out of him like a volley of arrows, and Yeok Chang-hae found himself stripped of speech. Yeop Pung did not stop. He rattled off more than twenty ingredients without so much as drawing breath.

"Take a Hwasaeng Vine of at least fifty years, blend it with the spiritual spring unique to Mount Tianyun to harmonize the medicinal properties, then refine it for fourteen days over alternating gentle and fierce flames — and you'll have a Spirit Soul Pill. Grandmaster Yeok. Am I wrong?"

Yeok Chang-hae was completely overwhelmed.

"You… how could you possibly know the formula for the Spirit Soul Pill…? That's impossible. Unless you belonged to the Cheonun Sect's Herb Division, it would be absolutely impossible…"

See? See that? He's going to drop to his knees. Any moment now.

Beside them, Song Gyeol smacked his lips. He wore the look of a man who found nothing surprising whatsoever about Yeok Chang-hae in this state.

"Don't be ridiculous."

Yeop Pung gave a grand sweep of his hand.

"Pills like this? I can identify every last ingredient with a single sniff. And yet you've been parading it around like some priceless treasure. Grandmaster Yeok — surely you don't need Song Gyeol to teach you the simple truth that humility is the path to progress?"

A quick shuffle of feet, and Song Gyeol stepped back, ducking neatly out of the path of Yeok Chang-hae's furious glare.

"Hmph! You little brat. Even if you did sneak a look at my Spirit Soul Pill formula, that doesn't give you the right to stand there preening in front of me. What qualifies you to call my pills garbage?"

"The fact that you're even asking… means you still have Spirit Soul Pills on you, doesn't it."

"Of course I do."

"Then bring them out."

"And why should I?"

"Aigoo. Humility — do you even know what the word means? Bring them out. Then I'll teach you."

"You damn bastard! If you can't prove this instant that you're wrong, I'll—"

"You'll roast me alive, will you? You talk too much. Get on with it. I don't have time to waste on pointless arguments with you."

Yeok Chang-hae was genuinely at a loss. A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠man of advanced years, he was accustomed to ruling the Cheonun Sect like a king. And of all days, he had to run into this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠little devil — his curiosity about the alchemical arts had him well and truly trapped. In the end he clenched his teeth and drew out the bottle that held the Spirit Soul Pills.

"Hand it over!"

Yeop Pung reached out, took the bottle and all, popped the lid, and plucked a single pill from inside. He held it to his nose and sniffed.

"Now then, Brother Yeok — come here."

What? Brother Yeok?

Yeok Chang-hae's eyebrows shot up, fury gathering for a fresh explosion — and then Yeop Pung went on.

"The Spirit Cloud Fruit used in this Spirit Soul Pill does provide a rich supply of Profound Qi, but its medicinal effect overlaps somewhat with the Hwasaeng Vine. Wouldn't it have been better to use Azure Leaf Fragrant Lotus of at least thirty years instead?"

Yeok Chang-hae listened in a daze. Had he not been steeped in the Dao of Alchemy, Yeop Pung's words would have meant nothing to him. But he was a man who had devoted his entire life to the study of pills — and so those words struck his heart like a bolt from a clear sky.

See? See that face? He's going to drop to his knees. Any second now.

Song Gyeol watched from the side, his expression as blank as ever.

"You…"

Yeok Chang-hae was breathing hard without realizing it. Inwardly he had already accepted every word; outwardly he still tried to keep his face composed.

"How did a brat like you even come up with…"

"You call that thinking? One taste and anyone would know."

Yeop Pung said it as if it were nothing at all.

"You wouldn't still have those ingredients on hand, would you? Even a batch made on a different day — let me take a look and see if there's anything else worth improving."

"Why do you need to look at more of them?"

Song Gyeol asked from the side, genuinely puzzled.

"You only say that because you don't understand!"

This time Yeok Chang-hae turned his glare on Song Gyeol.

"Even when the overall efficacy of a spiritual pill is the same, there are always minute differences from batch to batch. You have to taste pills refined across multiple sessions before you can properly grasp both their strengths and their flaws. Wait… no. Why am I taking that brat's side?!"

"Humility is the path to progress, I'm telling you. Look at yourself, Brother Yeok — you're already walking a very productive road."

"Shut up! I'll see for myself just how much you're bluffing. Here — taste this one!"

"Aigoo. How did I end up having to teach such a rude junior when I'm not even a member of the Cheonun Sect… Fine. I'll raise you with an uncle's heart."

Yeop Pung shook his head and accepted another bottle of Spirit Soul Pills. The previous bottle, of course, had already slipped quite naturally into his robes.

"You little—!"

Yeok Chang-hae's eyes bulged all over again.

"Look here. The real problem is that the spiritual spring water of Mount Tianyun itself carries too strong a cold nature. Use even a little too much and the pill's properties turn frigid, and the success rate drops sharply."

"That's right! I've thought for a long time that something was wrong with the water, but I could never find a better spiritual spring…"

"No need to replace it. Brother Yeok — you know that an earth-attribute spiritual material called Returning Origin Sand is produced on our Mount Tianyun, don't you?"

"Of course I know that."

Yeok Chang-hae had, at some point, grown entirely used to being called Brother Yeok. Yeop Pung's words were simply too intoxicating for a pill refiner to resist.

"Don't tell me…"

"If you simply preheat the pill furnace with Returning Origin Sand before you begin, the earth's essence inside it will effectively suppress the cold of the Cheonun Spring water. The success rate should rise by at least thirty percent."

"Brilliant!"

Yeok Chang-hae slapped his knee in admiration.

"I think I saw this method in some old text years ago, but I could never find a suitable material…"

"What else do you see?"

"Do you have more Spirit Soul Pills?"

"I do! As many as you want!"

Yeok Chang-hae suddenly whipped his head around and bellowed at Song Gyeol.

"Song Gyeol! Are you still standing there? Get to my pill chamber this instant and bring the medicine!"

"I beg your pardon?"

You folded a lot faster than I expected, Song Gyeol thought.

"Grandmaster Yeok, we still haven't confirmed this person's identity…"

"Identity, my ass! Are you blind? Without decades of internal energy behind him, how could anyone possess such keen eyes and such profound insight? There's no way someone who isn't one of us would know Mount Tianyun's specialty products this thoroughly. You're as stupid as a pig."

Good grief. Grandmaster Yeok, if you put it like that, you've boxed us both in… Song Gyeol was at a loss for words.

"What are you standing there gawking for? Go and bring every last Spirit Soul Pill I've stockpiled! Tonight I'm going to drink and talk with Brother Yeop until dawn, hahaha! Come, Brother Yeop — come inside!"

Brother Yeop…

Song Gyeol was completely speechless. And yet, with this, even the last shred of doubt he had harbored toward Yeop Pung vanished. To bring that cantankerous Yeok Chang-hae to his knees like that — if this wasn't a century-old monster, then Song Gyeol had surely just seen a ghost.

"Ah… why, why does everyone keep backing me into a corner like this… Even if I explained, no one would believe me…"

Yeop Pung sighed, shook his head, and followed Yeok Chang-hae into the great house. At the same time, another bottle of Spirit Soul Pills found its way into his hand.

The harvest was enormous.

For the next two days, Yeop Pung did little else. All he had to do was drip-feed the formula for the Star Divine Pill from a hundred years in the future, and Yeok Chang-hae would listen in rapt, speechless absorption, as if he had swallowed honey and lost the power of speech.

On the afternoon of Yeop Pung's third day in this era, having received nine-tenths of the formula, Yeok Chang-hae burst out of Nagun Peak like a bull in rut. He went straight back to his pill chamber and threw himself into refining.

Why only nine-tenths? That had been a decision Yeop Pung reached after long and careful thought. If he handed over the complete formula all at once, there was a chance Yeok Chang-hae would produce a finished Star Divine Pill ahead of schedule. Whether that would alter the man's fate, Yeop Pung could not know — and to guard against any unforeseen consequence, he had held the last tenth back.

In the end, everything proceeded smoothly. On the pretext that "further research was still required," Yeop Pung walked away with more than twenty bottles of Spirit Soul Pills that Yeok Chang-hae had refined with his own hands.

Now all that remained was to cash in the windfall.

Yeop Pung ran a rough count in his head. At no fewer than twenty pills to a bottle, the lot came to more than four hundred 4th-grade spiritual elixirs. How many days would it even take to swallow them all? A cache of 4th-grade pills this size surpassed the Cheonun Sect's entire stock a hundred years from now. Training with this, he would be living more lavishly than the Sect Master himself. The thought alone made him laugh.

What came next was obvious. For the remaining half-day, Yeop Pung wandered every corner of Nagun Peak. Whenever he found a stretch of ground with no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one in sight, he lifted floor bricks or dug into the earth and buried the Spirit Soul Pills one bottle at a time.

By now, even in Song Gyeol's eyes, he was already a Cheonun Sect heavyweight concealing profound internal energy. Song Gyeol would not have dreamed of stopping him from roaming Nagun Peak as he pleased — he would not have stopped him from walking into the Sect Master's chambers and pissing on the floor.

It was nearly midnight before Yeop Pung finished carefully hiding the resources for his future cultivation. Beneath a night sky pouring with starlight, he turned back to look at the magnificent sweep of Nagun Peak, and raised a hand.

This time, as he passed through the Golden Disc once more, he made a point of watching it change. Sure enough, the moment he completed the full three days, a tremendous surge of golden radiance flooded into the third mark of the Golden Disc's second ring and filled it halfway. If he finished the next time journey safely, the second ring would be fully restored.

Until now, filling even a single mark had been enough to extend the duration of his stays. If the entire second ring were filled — what kind of growth would the Golden Disc undergo? What new abilities would it unlock?

Yeop Pung's chest swelled with anticipation.

Yeop Pung returned to the present. Time here had not moved at all.

Outside, Bone lay sprawled in front of Maeng Chang-haeng's house, happily blowing snot bubbles.

Yeop Pung's door burst open from within. Eyes glittering with excitement, he shot out into the courtyard.

"My pills… my pills!"

Muttering, he vanished into the darkness like a gust of wind.

Bone's eyes rolled upward in sheer disbelief. The look on his face said it all: Has he lost his mind…

"Heh heh. Lively little brat. I'll have to work him even harder starting tomorrow."

From inside the house, Maeng Chang-haeng wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth, rolled over, and went back to sleep with a chuckle.

But neither he nor Bone could have imagined, even in their wildest dreams, what an astonishing and enormous harvest Yeop Pung had reaped this night.

And from this very night, Yeop Pung's cultivation speed reached the highest peak he could currently attain. At a pace like light itself, he began to close the distance on the Cheonun Sect geniuses who had once left him so far behind.

The Brother Yeop that so many had already forgotten was about to return.