Ungyu Sect Disciple, Baek Sang-ah (2)
The Nascent Soul cultivator from the Foundation Establishment stage frowned deeply and retraced the scene in his mind as he studied Baek Sang-ah.
And yet, all he could tell was that he truly felt nothing from her. Nothing at all.
What on earth is that thing? There’s not a single trace of anything black in her at all—can that really be a cultivator?
It was only natural that his suspicion kept growing.
For a consciousness refined through years of cultivation had reached a level where it could pierce to the essence of all things.
Right now, he could see everything: Dam So-dam’s yellow-earth inner core, Yun cultivator’s inner core divided by boundaries of many colors, and so on. He could even tell roughly what stage each of the Ungyu Sect cultivators stood at, and how much lifespan remained to them.
Heck, I could even make out the Elder’s Nascent Soul, if only faintly.
And yet, for some reason, even his consciousness could not sense the true nature of Baek Sang-ah.
All he could see was black.
The Nascent Soul cultivator bit his lip before he realized it.
Is she deliberately hiding it? Or is what I’m seeing really the essence of that thing?
The more he thought about it, the more tangled his mind became.
Perhaps it’s because she’s a beast race cultivator. There aren’t any beast race cultivators in the lower realm, so maybe I’m simply failing to recognize something I’ve never seen before.
Baek Sang-ah, who stood quietly and watched him, thought,
Why is he glaring at me like that? Is he mad?
She tilted her head slightly. Behind her, her soft, plump tail swayed lazily from side to side.
[If I sense the pressure of the Nascent Soul stage, then he must be a Nascent Soul cultivator. It is only natural that a cultivator who has reached some measure of attainment would feel something strange when they first meet you.]
Am I weird?
[Then do you think you are ordinary?]
Baek Sang-ah knit her brows for a moment, looked solemnly serious, and then reached her conclusion.
It’s because a shark is on land.
Then she said in a low voice, “I can be on land, too. I’m the greatest shark.”
“A land… shark?”
The Nascent Soul cultivator muttered the words back as if tasting them, then clenched his teeth.
“Are you making a fool of me?”
“Huh?”
Baek Sang-ah blinked and tilted her head. She seemed not even to understand what he meant.
“You little monster! Tell me your identity!”
The Nascent Soul cultivator’s voice rose higher still.
It held none of the grand authority he usually used while tyrannizing the Ungyu Sect’s cultivators—only a strange mix of unrest and agitation that he could not explain.
“Identity?”
At those words, Baek Sang-ah lifted both hands high above her head and spread her arms wide.
“I’m the greatest cultivator, Baek Sang-ah. I was this big. I’m smaller now.”
The Nascent Soul cultivator lost his words for a moment. His mouth twisted.
“So you really mean to mock me!”
He readjusted the fan-like magical tool in his hand once more. The tips of the fan trembled slowly.
“Fine. If you won’t tell me, then I’ll seize you and find out myself! You beast-born monster!”
For a beast-born monster to dare humiliate him was intolerable.
By nature, cultivators born as humans tended to pride themselves on being far superior to animals, and that only made his temper burn hotter.
At that frantic moment, Baek Sang-ah’s eyes began to swirl.
It was not because of anything in the outside world.
[Child, no matter what, your opponent is still a Nascent Soul cultivator. He may be no more than an ant before the Great Venerable, but you cannot afford to let your guard down.]
[[Hmph. Adversary, there is no need to listen to that human’s nonsense. So long as you do not forget this one’s teachings, that insect can be toyed with using a single finger.]]
The two cultivators in her mind had become excited by Baek Sang-ah’s first real battle since her training, and they were chattering away inside her head, having forgotten even the rules.
In that instant, the green spiritual energy gathered upon the fan roiled violently, and a fierce wind burst forth from it.
“Beast! Know the terror of Qingcheng Clan!”
The gale charged like a blade. Leaves caught in the wind were pierced, and pebbles touched by it crumbled into fragments.
If she had wanted to dodge, she could have.
Her cultivation, together with the memories of a Celestial Combat Immortal, was far beyond a wind like that.
There are people behind me.
Baek Sang-ah glanced back at the Yun cultivator, Dam So-dam, and Hyeongeuk behind her.
Farther beyond them stood the main gate of the Ungyu Sect.
She clenched her fist and slammed it into the ground. The earth surged upward, becoming a massive boulder.
The great stone cut across the wind like a shield. Though it was carved away bit by bit, the gale soon died down as well.
[Why, this child is actually thinking of protecting someone?]
[[Yes, that is the way of battle for beast race cultivators. Human cultivators work with things outside themselves, but we beast race cultivators work with what is within.]]
As the wind faded quickly, Baek Sang-ah slipped out from beside the boulder she had made.
Through the subtleties of the Great Void Divine Method, she hid her consciousness between earth and wind, and through the subtleties of Eight Extremes Limitless, she concealed her presence.
[[Yes, that’s it. The mystery of Eight Extremes Limitless lies in reaching the center that leans to no direction at all, does it not?]]
Because it did not lean in any direction, it could blend into any place.
That was also why, when Baek Sang-ah fought Gominyeong, he had felt as though she had appeared out of nowhere.
The Nascent Soul cultivator once again readjusted his fan-like magical tool.
“Do not grow arrogant just because you blocked a single petty spell!”
What the Nascent Soul cultivator did not know was this:
“Using spells on a shark is dangerous.”
“What did you say?”
Baek Sang-ah was already standing beside him.
The Nascent Soul cultivator realized it only belatedly, but by then it was too late.
“How dare you use beast magic…!”
“So I have to take it from you.”
She looked at the Nascent Soul cultivator for a brief moment, then hooked her tail around the fan in his hand and snatched it away.
It happened in the blink of an eye, and the startled cultivator’s stance crumpled awkwardly.
Baek Sang-ah clenched her fist and drew in a breath.
“You get one, too.”
In that gap, amid the scattering remnants of the wind, the air beside the Nascent Soul cultivator distorted.
From within the warped air, Baek Sang-ah’s fist shot out and crashed into his ribs.
CRACK!
Eight Extremes Limitless.
There was no need for a second blow.
The side of his body where her fist had landed looked unchanged from the outside, but within, a quiet ripple spread.
Just as he widened his eyes, sensing the strangeness inside himself, the vibrations engulfed his entire body.
“Ugh….”
A violent explosion burst from within his body.
Of course, he was already at the stage where the body began shedding its mortal shell, so he did not die outright.
Centered on the golden core within him, his body rapidly began to recover.
But the mental shock was a separate matter.
The Nascent Soul cultivator collapsed where he stood.
“What… happened?”
“It, it broke. I hit too hard.”
Only once.
It had not even been a spell. A beast race cultivator had simply appeared at his side and struck his ribs.
From the outside, he had looked perfectly fine.
And yet, a wave had risen from within him and burst through his body in an instant.
And now he was in this state.
No matter how he tried to organize the situation in his mind, it was full only of things he could not understand.
All he knew was this: this beast race cultivator stood above him, above even himself, a proper Nascent Soul cultivator of Qingcheng Clan.
“You’re still alive. Hmm, but you shouldn’t die.”
Baek Sang-ah grabbed the hem of the cultivator’s robe and lifted him with one hand.
“I’ll help you run away. You can’t die.”
“What in the world….”
“You should be grateful I helped you run away.”
The Nascent Soul cultivator’s lips moved, but he could not find the words that followed.
“Don’t come looking again next time.”
Baek Sang-ah bent her knees for a moment, then straightened and hurled the cultivator far into the sky.
His body, robbed of force, bent in the air as he flew farther and farther away.
Before long, he flashed once in the sky and vanished from sight.
Baek Sang-ah watched the heavens for a long while, then finally turned her head.
Her eyes found the Yun cultivator, staring at her in stupefied horror, and Dam So-dam, who was running toward her.
“Big sister! I knew you’d come back.”
Dam So-dam rushed into Baek Sang-ah’s arms. Baek Sang-ah caught her almost by reflex and blinked.
“Junior Hyeongeuk said you wouldn’t come back, but I waited every day. So, um….”
Baek Sang-ah lowered her head slightly and looked at the girl.
Her shoulders were still trembling. Her face was wet with tears. Her cheek was pressed flat against Baek Sang-ah’s belly.
Baek Sang-ah thought for a moment, then said, baring her neat white teeth like rows of noodles, sharp and bright.
“I told you I’d come for sure.”
Waaah!
That voice only made Dam So-dam’s tear ducts give way further. Tears spread rapidly over Baek Sang-ah’s white robe.
Because of that, the gray-stained inner cloth briefly revealed the huge, soft flesh beneath it, pressed flat by the garment.
When the Yun cultivator saw that, he made a strained “Ahem!” and turned his head away, while Hyeongeuk groaned in agony.
……
……
……
Inside the Ungyu Sect, in Sect Leader Yun’s room.
The moment the door was pushed open, a faint scent of pine resin reached the nose before the stale smell of dust could.
The floor was laid with old wooden boards, and on top of them sat a plain tea set, a wooden box, and two or three cushions.
The beam running across the ceiling was dark with age, and books and magical tools were lined neatly along the wall.
In that quiet room, Baek Sang-ah entered sniffing curiously, and Sect Leader Yun watched her without a word.
“So, Senior Baek.”
The Yun cultivator continued with a somewhat stiff expression.
“At first, you fought five Foundation Establishment cultivators, then fifteen, then fifty, and finally five Nascent Soul cultivators in the course of your training?”
“Yep. I had to get past that thing called a beast’s survival instinct.”
Baek Sang-ah nodded quietly.
“At first I fought because I wanted to live, but later I fought because I was angry. That’s when I realized it.”
“I-I see? P-please, have a seat first. Shouldn’t you recover from the journey?”
At those words, the air in the room fell briefly silent.
Only after Baek Sang-ah plopped down on the floor did Sect Leader Yun slowly nod and narrow his eyes.
Within his gaze was a deep sense of reverence.
“First, I would like to offer my thanks. Senior Baek, you have saved the Ungyu Sect once again.”
“S-saved it? When did I do that?”
Baek Sang-ah tilted her head. She looked genuinely puzzled.
Sect Leader Yun moved his lips for a moment, then gave a wry smile.
At that, Sect Leader Yun said in a low voice,
“This worthless junior is still only at the Foundation Establishment stage. I am at a level where I could not even protect my disciples from a single Nascent Soul cultivator.”
“Hmmph.”
“But didn’t Senior Baek drive away that Nascent Soul cultivator for us? Then the Ungyu Sect has once again received an immeasurable grace from Senior Baek.”
Baek Sang-ah still looked at Sect Leader Yun with hazy, unfocused eyes, as if she did not understand at all.
“Mm. I, I get it.”
“So there is something I would like to say to Senior Baek. Would that be all right?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
Sect Leader Yun quietly studied Baek Sang-ah’s expression.
This time, just because a Nascent Soul cultivator from Qingcheng Clan had found them, the Ungyu Sect had nearly vanished overnight.
That was entirely due to his own incompetence.
Normally, the sect leader of another faction was at least a Nascent Soul cultivator, and usually a Nascent Soul cultivator. That was why outside forces could not meddle as they pleased.
But what about the Ungyu Sect? It was being led by a cultivator who had merely reached the late stage of Foundation Establishment.
No wonder outsiders looked down on them and tried to interfere so easily.
“Senior Baek will remain in the Ungyu Sect, won’t you?”
“Yep. I will. I don’t have a place to sleep.”
Even this time, the same thing had happened.
Because Sect Leader Yun was only Foundation Establishment, he had nearly lost Dam So-dam and Hyeongeuk, his precious disciples.
The Ungyu Sect had only just, through Baek Sang-ah’s grace, gained a proper cultivation sect’s appearance, and yet they were still terribly short on people.
What’s more, now that they had harmed a Nascent Soul cultivator, it was possible that Qingcheng Clan would come in person before long.
What, then, could Sect Leader Yun do at that time? He would surely be able to do nothing.
“Senior, I realized something this time. I have no right to hold the position of sect leader.”
“Why?”
“Sodam is already trying to reach the same level as me, and there is very little I know. Not to mention, I lack the power to protect the sect and my disciples. So what right could I possibly have?”
“So?”
“Senior.”
“Yeah, say it. You’re making me itch.”
Sect Leader Yun soon lowered his head. So low that his forehead seemed almost to touch the cushion he held.
“Would it be all right if I asked you to take over as sect leader of the Ungyu Sect?”