That Which Belongs to the Undying (3)
As the saying went, misfortune and good fortune alike arrived without warning.
It had been the same when Baek Sang-ah had suddenly stumbled upon the Spirit Stone Cave one day.
To understand how such an extraordinary encounter came about, one had to go back to the day before.
“Senior Baek!”
“Hm?”
On that day, it was Hyeongeuk who came looking for Baek Sang-ah.
Perhaps because he was nervous, sweat beaded on his forehead, yet he called her in an unusually loud voice.
Baek Sang-ah blinked, her long, dense lashes lifting and lowering in mild confusion, and Hyeongeuk quickly went on.
“I heard that Senior often goes out with Junior Sister So-dam to train.”
“Mm.”
He hesitated, looking around before carefully continuing.
“Might I perhaps join you for that training as well?”
“Training? Together?”
“Yes! I know it’s terribly rude to ask, but I’m desperate to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm as soon as possible.”
Hyeongeuk bowed halfway, speaking before Baek Sang-ah, who looked younger than him yet possessed a strength he couldn’t begin to measure.
Then Baek Sang-ah asked a strange question.
“What’s good about reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm?”
Hyeongeuk lost his words for a moment.
For cultivators, it was only natural to seek higher realms by piling up their practice.
That was why no cultivator ever asked “why” when it came to improving their realm.
Except Baek Sang-ah.
“Well, anyone walking the path of cultivation would surely want to achieve great things, wouldn’t they?”
“So there isn’t one? A purpose?”
“Ah… I’m sorry.”
Baek Sang-ah narrowed her eyes, looking intrigued.
Her gaze read Hyeongeuk’s expression deeply and quietly, like a predator listening for the pulse of prey.
So this really was too much to ask.
Just as Hyeongeuk was about to take his leave, Baek Sang-ah pushed herself up from the porch.
“The waters near shore are narrow. We have to go. To the sea.”
“Th-thank you! I’ll never forget this kindness, even after I become a Golden Core cultivator!”
“Mm. You mustn’t forget.”
Hyeongeuk caught the meaning in her words at once and bowed so deeply it looked as though he might kneel.
At the corner of his lowered gaze, her plump tail swayed in the breeze.
And so, an additional mid-Qi Refinement Realm cultivator named Hyeongeuk was added to Baek Sang-ah and Dam So-dam’s training.
Of course, that didn’t mean there were no complaints.
“What’s this, Junior Brother Hyeongeuk? Why are you following us?”
“I also received Senior Baek’s permission to train alongside you.”
“Hmph. You’ll never keep up with someone as patient as me.”
“Shouldn’t one at least try everything?”
Dam So-dam pouted, but before long she was walking in step with Baek Sang-ah’s footsteps.
“Junior Brother Hyeongeuk, walk a little farther back. Don’t make it look like we’re traveling together.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re too gloomy. It ruins the atmosphere.”
As Dam So-dam shot him a look that said he was spoiling their time alone, Hyeongeuk had no choice but to fall back.
That was when a massive shadow rose behind him.
“Eek—?”
“Grrr….”
It was Rangi.
“Wh-why is Lady Rangi here?”
“She’s going to stand guard. While we train.”
“Then I can rest easy.”
“Mm. A tiger should stand guard. Since it’s a guard, you see.”
“Hah, ha-ha. That’s really, truly hilarious.”
Hyeongeuk made a sour face for a moment, then forced out a laugh.
If one were to put it in the words of the world Baek Sang-ah had come from, that was social survival.
Before long, the two people and the two beasts arrived at the shore.
Baek Sang-ah watched the tide roll up over the sand and retreat again, and thought,
The sea is better. Waters near shore feel too cramped.
Then she glanced at Hyeongeuk.
Come to think of it, he said he didn’t have a purpose for training yet. If I can see him discover one, maybe I’ll figure out how to have one too.
A fine mindset.
Just as she finished that thought and was about to lift the hem of her robe to step into the sea, Dam So-dam grabbed her in alarm.
“No, Sister!”
“Hm?”
“You can’t take your clothes off.”
“Then they’ll get wet.”
“Do you know how much that lecher keeps staring at you every time we do our mental training? He’ll definitely do something weird!”
Hyeongeuk’s eyes flew wide, and he waved his hands frantically.
“No, what are you saying, Junior Sister So-dam? I have never once harbored impure thoughts!”
“Th-then why were you always staring?”
“What I was looking at wasn’t Senior Baek. It was Lady Rangi.”
“Hm?”
“Those beautiful tiger stripes along her back….”
“Grrr.”
“No, nothing at all.”
At that, Dam So-dam’s gaze on Hyeongeuk changed in a subtle way.
Wait. Could he actually have that sort of preference?
She grimaced in utter disgust and tugged at Baek Sang-ah’s robe, putting distance between her and Hyeongeuk.
“S-sorry, Junior Brother Hyeongeuk. I had no idea you were into that kind of thing. Mm. I respect it, but could you please stay a little farther away?”
“Pardon?”
While the two most talented young disciples of Ungyu Sect were trapped in a misunderstanding-fueled squabble, Baek Sang-ah licked her lips at the sight of the sea.
Lots of tasty things out there. Sea is good.
Then, unable to resist the instinct to return to the water, she left the two of them behind and sprinted straight into the sea.
“S-Sister?”
“Senior Baek!”
The water was cold and salty.
Baek Sang-ah closed her eyes and headed into the depths.
Only then did it finally feel as though she could breathe properly.
The air of Ungyu Sect was clean enough, since it was a place where cultivators lived, but it still couldn’t hide the stink.
Couldn’t we make the land into the sea somehow?
Not yet. If you cultivate the principle of Water among the Five Elements after reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm, it may be possible one day.
Foundation Establishment Realm, huh.
The current was soft, and the saltiness familiar. She slowly swished her tail and swam deeper.
If Baek Sang-ah truly wished to conceal her traces, the two of them would never have found her.
After all, she had already completed the first foundation of the Great Void Divine Method.
The essence of that first foundation was to keep one’s consciousness from being perceived by others.
Baek Sang-ah had accomplished it by weaving strands of her consciousness into the gaps between another person’s own awareness, making it impossible for them to notice her.
In other words, a cultivator’s awareness was not limitless, and the lower their realm, the wider the gaps between one thought and the next.
Baek Sang-ah recognized those blind spots and extended threads of consciousness into them.
Of course, this would not work on a cultivator of higher realm, whose awareness had grown dense and seamless, but that could be improved through training.
“Sniff…?”
Suddenly, the tip of her tail twitched.
What is it?
The flow of the water is strange.
The flow?
Baek Sang-ah’s brows twitched, and she instantly twisted her body with her tail, changing direction.
Deep below the sunlit surface, she could feel an unfamiliar current.
It was like seawater being drawn toward a single point.
I want to go look. I’m curious.
Baek Sang-ah swam swiftly, slicing through the waves.
Maybe it was different on land, but in the sea there were few beings faster than Baek Sang-ah.
Through the surging current, she soon found the source of the strange flow in the deep seabed.
It was a dead stone wall beneath the black ocean, a place where even seaweed did not grow.
And right in the center was an odd crack.
It’s flowing. Water is being pulled into this crack.
The gap, formed where two slabs of rock had slipped ever so slightly out of alignment, looked at first glance like nothing more than a simple fissure.
But she could feel spiritual energy moving through it.
Baek Sang-ah stirred the water with her tail and slipped her body nimbly into the crack.
At first it was only wide enough to fit her shoulders with difficulty, but when she put in a little more force—
CRACK—
With a heavy rush of water, the opening forced itself wider.
Slowly, like the first opening of an ancient ruin’s sealed gate.
Inside was a completely different world.
A cave full of spiritual energy.
The moment Baek Sang-ah discovered it, she went back up to the surface to inform Dam So-dam and Hyeongeuk.
And now, in the present—
they had come running to the shore in a frenzy, even the water cultivator forgetting to put on his shoes.
“You discovered a Spirit Stone Cave? Is that true?”
“Mm. I found it. Down there.”
“How could a Spirit Stone Cave remain in the lower realm…?”
Baek Sang-ah, who knew little of the rarity of spirit stones, answered calmly without a trace of surprise.
“I’ll lead the way. Hang onto my tail.”
But the water cultivator shook his head.
“No. There’s no need for Senior Baek to exert herself. I’ll open the path.”
“Open the path?”
Baek Sang-ah tilted her head, and then the water cultivator standing on the shore drew a fan from his robes.
He was a cultivator with four spiritual roots.
Having more spiritual roots meant having more of the Five Elements’ principles to master, which in turn slowed one’s cultivation.
But the flip side was that the more spiritual roots one had, the more attributes one could handle.
First came the principle of Wood among the Five Elements.
And then the principle of Water.
The moment the water cultivator murmured something under his breath, the sea trembled and a whirlpool formed.
That whirlpool expanded little by little, creating a path made entirely of water.
That was the power of a mid-Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator.
The ability to control the Five Elements and bend nature to one’s will.
Baek Sang-ah grew quietly curious and narrowed her eyes.
“Please, this way.”
The water stretched downward like steps.
While Dam So-dam and Hyeongeuk behind her let out cries of admiration, Baek Sang-ah, unable to contain her curiosity, descended first.
Though it was made entirely of water, it did not give way beneath her feet.
How interesting.
If you reach the Foundation Establishment Realm and comprehend the Five Elements, you can do it too.
Mm. I want to do it too.
Baek Sang-ah led the way, and behind her followed the water cultivator, Dam So-dam, Hyeongeuk, and Rangi in order.
After walking for quite some time, they reached a point deep below the water where sunlight could barely penetrate, and there it was: the gaping crack in the massive rock that Baek Sang-ah had opened.
“You can go in this way.”
Baek Sang-ah spread the rock apart with both hands as if tearing it open so the others could enter.
The crack in the stone transformed into an entrance.
At last, the moment they forced their bodies through that opening, an endless cave unfolded before them.
This body didn’t know such a place existed either. My senses are naturally dulled underwater. That’s why there aren’t any beast-race cultivators among sea creatures.
And what drew their eyes was an endless number of stones glowing with blue spiritual energy.
The water cultivator gasped before he could stop himself.
“Hah…… Is this truly real?”
After staring blankly at the spirit stones suffused with mystical energy, the water cultivator glanced at Baek Sang-ah.
I thought she was a sign of my ill omen, but perhaps Senior Baek is the fortune bestowed by the heavens themselves.
In the water cultivator’s mind, the image of Baek Sang-ah began to shine brighter and brighter.