Belonging to Those Who Cannot Live (1)
It had already been a month since Baek Sang-ah had taken up residence in Ungyu Sect.
On the surface, nothing seemed to have changed. In truth, though, the sect’s insides had changed quite a bit.
A peculiar beast-race cultivator named Baek Sang-ah, along with the formidable power of a tiger fiend who had once ruled the mountains on the frontier, had been added to the roster of this small, low-ranking sect.
Of course, Ungyu Sect was not the only thing that had changed.
For the past month, Baek Sang-ah had spent her nights performing cultivation and her mornings heading out to train with Cultivator Un.
She had not been allowed to learn the Lotus Body Technique she had used before, but she had at least picked up Ungyu Sect’s practical footwork.
Since the foundation of all movement was footwork, it proved immensely helpful for Baek Sang-ah, whose body moved only by instinct.
And at last, her efforts—endured even through the hours when everyone else was asleep—bore fruit.
She had reached the point where she could keep her consciousness fully extended at all times.
Middle Qi Condensation Realm.
Hmph. This fiend. Seeing that it can handle consciousness and even use sorcery, it would be at least at the late stage of Qi Condensation by human standards.
“I’m only in the middle stage of Qi Condensation.”
You already contain far too many things to be considered ordinary.
“Is that so?”
With nothing more than the Malrangjiche that bears the mysteries of emptiness, and the spiritual power of a Great Immortal, you already rival a cultivator at the Core Formation stage, if not one even beyond that.
“Then why am I still only in Qi Condensation?”
Because you have failed to learn proper techniques, and because your comprehension is lacking. In short, you are lazy.
“Keenk….”
As Baek Sang-ah sat on the narrow wooden porch that extended a short distance from her door and stared out at the pond, Rangi padded over and rubbed her cheek against Sang-ah’s leg.
“Mrrr, nngh.”
“Good girl. Good girl.”
As Baek Sang-ah combed through the giant tiger’s fur, Dam So-dam came trotting toward her from afar.
“Unnie!”
“Yeah.”
Before long, she and Dam So-dam had grown much closer too.
These days, the younger girl came over first thing every morning to greet her, and even when there was no conversation to be had, she would come sit quietly beside her.
A lot of that was thanks to the fact that they cultivated together.
Dam So-dam had wanted to join the cultivation Baek Sang-ah had shown her that day, and Baek Sang-ah had agreed without much fuss.
So every day, when it was time for private cultivation, the two of them would go to the water and dive in together.
Of course, Dam So-dam had been born human, so she could not hold out for long underwater.
At first, by Baek Sang-ah’s sense of time, she had lasted thirty seconds.
Then one minute.
And before long, the time kept increasing until, in the space of a single month, she could already endure ten full minutes.
Dam So-dam had noticed it herself too, and once she had said as much.
“Underwater, all my senses grow dull. Maybe that’s why my consciousness feels so much clearer. So this was the mystery of the cultivation you were doing, unnie.”
“Huh? I, I think so.”
Back to the present.
Baek Sang-ah suddenly looked at the consciousness sitting beside her and examined Dam So-dam’s aura.
By nature, the consciousness of every cultivator was colorless.
There was no fixed form to consciousness, after all.
But sometimes, fierce emotion or will that surpassed the ordinary would give it color.
Even now, between the faint, short strands that stretched outward from Dam So-dam’s consciousness, it almost looked as if a gray thread had appeared….
“Hm?”
Baek Sang-ah rubbed at the corner of her eye with the back of her hand. Then she looked again at Dam So-dam’s consciousness.
But this time, the gray thread was nowhere to be seen, and only colorless strands of consciousness remained.
“Unnie, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
“Oh, right.”
“Hm?”
“These days, the sect leader has been giving me private instruction. Since you came here, my progress in cultivation has improved faster than ever before, so I’m already just short of the late stage of Qi Condensation.”
“Is that good?”
“Of course it’s good!”
Dam So-dam answered with sparkling eyes.
“Anyway, I should go now. If I’m late for private instruction, I’ll get scolded by Sect Leader Un.”
“Go on.”
Before leaving Baek Sang-ah’s side for the last time, Dam So-dam gave Rangi’s fur one more quick stroke, then trotted off toward the main hall.
The next one to come looking for Baek Sang-ah was Hyeongeuk.
Unlike Dam So-dam, he kept glancing carefully at her expression before approaching with cautious steps.
Then Hyeongeuk said, “G-good morning, Senior.”
“Mm. Morning.”
“If it’s not too much trouble, may I also, like Junior So-dam, touch Rangi—no, Lady Rangi?”
Baek Sang-ah blinked a few times, then answered.
“You almost got bitten last time.”
“But Lady Rangi has already been living in Ungyu Sect for nearly a full month, hasn’t she? By now, she must have relaxed a little.”
“Mm. Do whatever you want.”
“Thank you! This country bumpkin doesn’t often get the chance to see such a marvelous beast, let alone one so obedient, so I shall risk the impropriety of trying once.”
Without question, there was something about a tiger that stirred a man’s heart.
More than that, Rangi was no ordinary tiger. She was the size of a house, and her eyes burned with a blue light.
So how could Hyeongeuk’s heart not blaze in response?
He thought to himself that if he ever built up his cultivation to the same level as Senior Baek, then he would definitely keep a tiger of his own.
Of course, Baek Sang-ah and Hyeongeuk were both in the middle stage of Qi Condensation, but he had no way of knowing that.
At last, Hyeongeuk stretched out his hand toward Rangi.
Junior So-dam was accepted, so surely my hand will be accepted as well….
Then.
“Grrr… rrrr.”
The tiger suddenly lifted its hindquarters and leaned its upper body forward.
With its claws bared and its teeth exposed, it was the very picture of a threat.
“Rangi. Don’t do that.”
The blood drained from Hyeongeuk’s face.
He darted backward with a speed as smooth and slippery as if he were stepping through Ungyu Sect’s footwork, the Cloud Body Step.
At the same time, he let out a cry of, “I-I’m sorry!” and disappeared into the distance.
…….
…….
…….
At last, dawn came.
It was only when night arrived that one could truly say Baek Sang-ah’s cultivation had begun.
After all, what she could learn in Ungyu Sect was only the most minor and trifling of things. The true learning meant for cultivation happened at night.
She’s already at the middle stage of Qi Condensation.
“Mm. I can feel it now too.”
For a creature so insignificant, that is a remarkable pace. Still, you should understand that such fortune was granted to you.
“I’m lucky, me.”
Muyeonja also waited for night to come.
It had taken Baek Sang-ah a long time to awaken her consciousness in the first place, but once she had, she had mastered it faster than anyone else.
As proof, even a gifted cultivator would usually need years to move from the first step of Qi Condensation to the middle stage.
Yet Baek Sang-ah had climbed to the middle stage in a mere month.
Clearly, the vast talent that the Great Immortal had taken notice of was flowing through her.
I never imagined that this body, which has never once taught another person in my life, would find fulfillment in teaching.
Baek Sang-ah nodded calmly.
“Good thing.”
Indeed. Then this is finally the time to tell you about the constitution you possess.
“The constitution I possess?”
For serious cultivation, is it not important to know the state of one’s own body?
“Is that so?”
How can one attain achievement without knowing what one can do, and what one cannot?
Within Baek Sang-ah’s consciousness, a round light of vermilion shimmered into being.
It was Muyeonja, manifested in conscious form.
Originally, this had been wholly unnecessary. It had only been done to make it easier for Baek Sang-ah to recognize him as part of herself.
That way, she could devote herself to cultivation more fully.
The most unusual constitution you possess is the Malrangjiche.
“Mm, I know that. Malrangjiche. But what was it again?”
The Great Immortal explained it this way.
Muyeonja reached into the farthest reaches of the Great Immortal’s memories granted to him and recalled the words left behind there.
“One who reaches the brink of death does not carry the trace of nothingness, but rather the trace of emptiness.
This is a principle that cultivators who seek immortality and reject death can never obtain.
Therefore, I shall name this constitution—which even I did not attain—
End Wave Physique, for it has reached the end of a world that flows ceaselessly onward.
Thus, I shall call it the Malrangjiche.”
Baek Sang-ah’s head tilted naturally to one side.
“What’s so good about that?”
As I have told you before, emptiness does not mean nonexistence; it means a state of being empty.
“Mm. Empty.”
And what is empty is inevitably filled. Such is the law of the world. That means you, who possess the constitution of emptiness, can contain anything.
Baek Sang-ah rubbed a hand over the slightly rounded curve of her lower belly.
“So that’s why I suddenly ended up with a uterus….”
No, that has nothing to do with it.
“T-then what is it?”
Think about it. How else could someone like you—who had never once possessed a spiritual root, nor ever held spiritual energy—have absorbed the spiritual power of a Great Immortal?
“Because I digested it well?”
If not for the emptiness inherent in your constitution, your spiritual energy would have run wild long ago and blown your body apart.
Baek Sang-ah pursed her lips and rubbed them together for a moment.
She furrowed and smoothed her brow repeatedly, and even dragged the tip of her tail back and forth across the floor.
“Then Malrangjiche is like a giant white shark that can eat anything?”
In a sense, yes.
“Is that good?”
Good? It is more than good. I am fortunate that only I can perceive the form of emptiness by entering your inner world directly; otherwise, you would long ago have been offered up to high-ranking cultivators.
“So it’s good.”
To Baek Sang-ah, being “offered up to cultivators” or “the form of emptiness” did not really mean much.
So in the end, all she needed to remember was that it was “good.”
And that is not all. It is also the reason you, without a spiritual root, can still pretend to be a cultivator.
“Why?”
Ordinarily, a cultivator’s spiritual root is what allows them to accept one of the Five Phases. But what is the nature of your emptiness?
“That I can eat anything?”
Exactly. So even without a spiritual root, you can still take in the natural true qi like other cultivators.
“Ahem.”
Do not get carried away. The emptiness within you is not limited to that alone. But what you need to know now is only this.
“Then what should I do now?”
Muyeonja’s voice flowed in again like a quiet tide.
The conscious form floating in the air hesitated for a moment, then slowly spoke.
There is nothing for you to do yet. You must build your cultivation step by step. Do not expect too much of yourself when you are only at Qi Condensation.
“Mm. I just want to live.”
Baek Sang-ah moved her thick tail and quietly draped it over her lap.
Outside the door, everything was silent, and pale moonlight leaked faintly through the papered window.
Then from this day forward, you will learn the Great Immortal’s consciousness technique.
“What’s that?”
Only a hush settled over the room.
And within that stillness, something very small and very soft was beginning, little by little, to grow.
“The Great Immortal named it Great Void Divine Method. It is a technique mastered by the Great Immortal alone.”