Baek Sang-ah of the Ungyu Sect (1)
Ordinary lower-realm cultivation sects fell into three broad categories.
First, the small and weak sects born from cultivators who had gathered together after being born in the lower realm.
Second, the branch sects that inherited the lineage of cultivation sects that had ascended to the upper realms.
And lastly, the cultivation sects that carried on the will left behind by immortals and served them.
Most cultivation sects belonged to the second category, which was also why that kind held the true power in the lower realm.
And the Qingcheng Clan was exactly that sort of force.
Long ago, a sect had been formed by the children of Qingcheng Sect cultivators who had failed to ascend, those who had ruled over the lower realm in their time.
Since every cultivator affiliated with the clan had Qingcheng Sect blood in them, and most of their children were born to Qingcheng Sect cultivators as well, they were given the name clan.
In particular, the techniques and resources Qingcheng Sect had left to its branch were overwhelming in quantity and quality, and Qingcheng Clan, having inherited them whole, had established itself as one of the true ruling powers of the lower realm.
“Say something. I came all this way after hearing news of you, and you’re still this insolent?”
Dam So-dam’s face went pale blue.
She had clearly changed a great deal since those younger days.
Though her mid-Foundation Establishment cultivation was not enough to dominate the cultivation world, it was certainly not something people could simply dismiss wherever she went.
And yet the girl was trembling, because the image of Qingcheng Clan that remained in her memory had not vanished.
“W-why….”
“I told you to speak, and all I hear is the low whimpering of some beast.”
What had to be remembered here was Qingcheng Clan’s nature.
The cultivators of Qingcheng Clan were either mixed with Qingcheng Sect blood or came from Qingcheng Sect themselves.
So how were outside cultivators treated?
They were treated no differently from commoners.
To them, any cultivator who was not a Qingcheng Sect cultivator was no different from a counterfeit.
That was why Qingcheng Clan never said they taught cultivators who came from outside.
They said they raised them instead.
They selected children with natural aptitude at an early age and raised them in tightly controlled spaces through special methods.
The reason was simple.
If Qingcheng Clan wanted to grow stronger without accepting outside cultivators, then it needed far more nourishment.
“This is no place for someone from another sect to set foot so casually.”
“H-Hyeongeuk, Senior Brother. P-please, don’t….”
“So you can still read the mood.”
That was where Dam So-dam’s fear came from.
When she was only five years old, her mortal parents had sold her to Qingcheng Clan, where she had been educated to become nourishment for the true members of Qingcheng Clan.
Even a single-spirit-root child who would have been treasured and coddled in another sect was, in Qingcheng Clan, nothing more than a candidate for a medicinal pill.
Once her spiritual power had grown and her inner core had become stable enough to be extracted and refined, that would have been the end of her role.
Had it not been for the cloud cultivator, the girl would already be dead.
The fear from those days had never fully left her.
“And who exactly are you, to create such a hostile atmosphere and pressure us like this? No matter who it is, no one can treat someone from our Ungyu Sect lightly!”
When Dam So-dam lowered her eyes and looked away, Hyeongeuk clenched his fists and stepped in front of her.
At that, the eyes of the Golden Core cultivator twitched.
“You brat. You’re barely at the early Foundation Establishment stage, and you still dare call yourself a cultivator?”
Mockery and contempt were mixed in the man’s voice.
To him, as a cultivator of Qingcheng Clan, Hyeongeuk was no more than a pebble kicked underfoot.
There really was that much difference between a Golden Core cultivator and a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
It was not merely a gap in spiritual power.
It was the weight of existence itself.
Foundation Establishment was the stage where one laid the foundation for true cultivation, but once one reached Golden Core, one became something like a natural disaster.
They were nature itself, and they were calamity itself.
Hyeongeuk understood that instinctively, and though he swallowed hard, he did not retreat an inch, not even on his trembling legs.
“Even if Senior is not a Golden Core cultivator, but a Nascent Soul cultivator, you still have no right to treat Junior Sister So-dam however you please.”
“How admirable.”
The Qingcheng Clan cultivator gave a low laugh.
“But who decides that right, then? You, a Foundation Establishment cultivator? Or me, a Golden Core cultivator?”
“Neither of us. It’s heaven.”
“Then ask heaven to help you.”
He drew out a magical implement shaped like a fan and, with a bored gesture, swept it through the air.
At once, the air around Hyeongeuk’s knees twisted violently, and his legs bent the wrong way.
“G-GAHAK!”
“Why don’t you beg heaven now?”
His scream rang out.
Dam So-dam shrank down even further. The Golden Core cultivator stepped over Hyeongeuk, who had collapsed onto the ground, and approached the girl.
“What are you doing? You’re a valuable resource that will be useful to our Qingcheng Clan. Come back with me.”
“Hah, huff….”
Dam So-dam could not even answer. She simply let out a ragged breath.
Like when she had been five years old, she could do nothing. She could not even cry. Her hands simply shook.
Just as the Golden Core cultivator reached out for her, his ankle briefly snagged on something.
He looked down at the ground, and there was Hyeongeuk, whose knees had been twisted, dragging himself forward through the pain and clutching at the cultivator’s ankle.
“Huh?”
“J-Junior Sister So-dam is not going anywhere. She is the proud first-generation disciple of our Ungyu Sect, and….”
Hyeongeuk’s words trailed off.
Because the Golden Core cultivator had stepped on his hand.
“Do you know whose ankle you’re grabbing? Since you’re rushing to meet your death, I suppose I have no choice but to grant your wish.”
Just as the Golden Core cultivator was about to sweep the fan-shaped magical tool once more, hurried footsteps came from inside the sect.
Then, as the main gate of Ungyu Sect opened, an old cloud cultivator with graying whiskers appeared.
Behind him, the disciples of Ungyu Sect gathered in confusion, not understanding what was happening.
“Senior!”
“Well, well. If it isn’t a cloud cultivator who has forgotten even the kindness Qingcheng Clan showed you?”
The cloud cultivator’s eyes darted rapidly.
Dam So-dam, frozen in fear, and Hyeongeuk, sprawled in a miserable heap on the ground.
He also knew why this man had come.
It was to settle the grudge over the old matter, when the cloud cultivator had taken Dam So-dam and run away.
“S-Senior….”
“Speak. I am in high spirits today, having found the two resources who fled Qingcheng Clan long ago, so I will hear you out.”
Though the cloud cultivator was the sect leader of Ungyu Sect, he had long since forgotten all about saving face.
Unlike himself, whose talent was meager and whose future was uncertain, he was a sect leader who would do anything for the disciple whose path ahead still shone bright.
“I am sorry.”
So the cloud cultivator immediately dropped to his knees and bowed low.
He, too, knew how terrifying Qingcheng Clan was, and his back began to tremble in small, uncontrollable spasms.
“I know your choice is absolutely right, a hundred times over. But what happened back then was entirely my own doing.”
“Your own doing?”
“Those two children did nothing wrong, so if you’re going to punish anyone, please punish this worthless fool instead.”
The corner of the Golden Core cultivator’s mouth twitched as he looked at him.
“And why should I do that? I have the power to take both you and that child away, and I have the power to slaughter every last piece of trash here.”
“This old man is still in the late Foundation Establishment stage. Wouldn’t I make a suitable refinement ingredient?”
“Take you instead of this girl?”
“Yes, please….”
Then the Golden Core cultivator pressed the tip of his foot against the back of Hyeongeuk’s head.
His forehead was forced into the ground.
“S-stop! Sect Leader!”
This time it was Dam So-dam who shouted. Her face was as pale as paper, but she forced herself to speak despite the trembling of her body.
To the Golden Core cultivator, that seemed rather interesting, and he said, “So you can raise your voice after all. Time is a mysterious thing, isn’t it?”
It was truly a miserable sight, but there was nothing to be done.
No matter what the Golden Core cultivator did, there was no one in Ungyu Sect capable of stopping him.
That was the fate of weak sects.
Even when they lived quietly, if they so much as caught the eye of some stronger cultivation sect, they usually met a pitiful end.
The Golden Core cultivator spoke as though offering mercy.
“Then, so I don’t have to go to the trouble myself, hand over your inner core in front of these disciples of yours. If you do that, I’ll consider it.”
“N-no. Sect Leader, please….”
“I’ll do it, Senior.”
An inner core was the heart of a cultivator.
It was the one organ that allowed spiritual energy to circulate through the body, and it was no different from the organ that preserved life itself.
To offer it up was the same as offering one’s own life, and yet the cloud cultivator immediately raised his upper body and sat on his knees.
“I will offer it.”
Kneeling there, the cloud cultivator felt for his pulse and began to reverse the flow of his meridians.
To extract one’s inner core was not a simple matter of cutting it out. It meant breaking the dan veins and severing the spiritual blood vessels, tearing out the center of one’s being.
“Come now. Show some sincerity.”
“Please, please… sister, anyone…!”
The Golden Core cultivator watched him with a satisfied smile, urging the cloud cultivator on.
It was a split-second moment.
“If you give up your inner core, you die.”
For a moment, all sound in the world seemed to stop moving.
The Golden Core cultivator, who had been watching the cloud cultivator’s actions with interest, jerked his head around.
His eyes widened more than they ever had before.
That reaction was not his alone.
Dam So-dam, Hyeongeuk sprawled on the ground, the cloud cultivator preparing to end his own life, and the other disciples of Ungyu Sect behind him.
One by one, they stopped what they were doing and turned their gaze toward the cloud cultivator’s back.
There definitely hadn’t been anything there a moment ago. And yet, why? Why had that suddenly appeared right before my eyes?
The Qingcheng Clan cultivator had definitely kept his senses open.
He had been watching for any threat inside Ungyu Sect and had not slackened his guard even once.
His mind had not wavered at all.
And yet, without him even noticing, something had suddenly appeared before his eyes.
How was that possible?
While the Golden Core cultivator was thrown into confusion, the thing that had suddenly appeared forcibly pulled the cloud cultivator up to his feet.
“Dying means everything disappears. Disappearing is bad. So you can’t die.”
That flat tone, that voice with no rise or fall, and that soft, plump tail that swayed lightly in the air, announcing its presence.
Dam So-dam cried out instinctively.
“Senior Sister!”
“Mm, yep. It’s me.”
Baek Sang-ah.
She blinked in bewilderment and pointed at the Golden Core cultivator with one finger.
“Who’s he? He doesn’t look like a good person.”
“This one is a Golden Core cultivator of Qingcheng Clan, a being not some lowly beast-race like you can casually challenge…!”
“Your voice is too loud. It hurts my head.”
Just as Baek Sang-ah had appeared unnoticed before, this time she stood in front of the Golden Core cultivator before even he could register her presence.
Then she flicked her tail and struck him in the torso.
The Golden Core cultivator’s body flew backward at once, rolling across the ground in a miserable heap.
In a hurry to preserve his dignity, he sprang back to his feet and shouted again at Baek Sang-ah.
“You wretch, you monster! What have you done? How dare you, to me, a Golden Core cultivator of Qingcheng Clan! Tell me what sorcery you used!”
Baek Sang-ah’s eyes went round, and she snapped her tail straight up.
“Oh. How did you know?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The sorcery I used. You felt it, huh? I thought you wouldn’t know it was sorcery. I lied.”
At Baek Sang-ah’s absurd words, the Golden Core cultivator’s expression completely collapsed.