Fortune-Telling and the Ungyu Sect II
That was generally how things went for most small cultivation sects.
They were steadily pushed to the margins by the strength of the great sects that ruled entire provinces, sometimes even whole kingdoms.
And when a sect fell out of favor, there were only two choices left to it: submit to a larger cultivation sect, or keep to itself and cultivate in silence, without meddling in the affairs of the mortal world.
Ungyu Sect had chosen the latter path.
Because of that, Sect Master Yun could fairly be said to possess the finest survival instincts in all of cultivation society.
He had no choice but to be that way if he wanted to keep a tiny sect of fewer than ten people alive.
“Why are you doing this?”
“It is all this worthless one’s fault for failing to keep his disciples in check. Please, punish me, senior!”
The cultivators of Ungyu Sect gaped at their sect master’s disgraceful display, too stunned to know whether they should laugh or cry.
But Yun Sang-ah paid them no mind.
Were cultivators not people who practiced the Dao precisely so they could shed the constraints of humanity?
As cultivators progressed, they generally lost more and more of their human nature and became increasingly selfish.
The moment they saw even the slightest weakness in someone else, they would seize everything they could—flesh, spirit stones, all of it.
Yun had survived among those sorts of people with nothing more than a laughably unremarkable mid-Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation.
Such a thing as his own dignity could be discarded at any time, if it meant preserving his sect’s lineage and saving his life.
“Th-that’s strange.”
Meanwhile, Baek Sang-ah blinked for a long while at the sight of Yun kneeling before her.
She had only come because she had something she wanted to ask. She could not understand why he was apologizing so intensely.
“I just. Had something I wanted to ask you, so I came to ask.”
“A lowly scoundrel such as myself, who has lived only two hundred years, dares not guess what might interest you, Senior, but please, ask anything you like!”
Sensing no anger in Baek Sang-ah’s voice, Yun cautiously lifted his head to look at her.
But the next instant, he slammed his forehead back against the ground.
“Do you want to live? You.”
Want to live? That sounded suspiciously like I’ll kill you.
While Yun’s forehead and the dirt maintained a deeply intimate relationship, sweat bead after bead gathered along his back.
Splash—when Baek Sang-ah’s flapping tail slapped the floor, even more sweat broke free.
“Sect Master! Please rise, this is a misunderstanding!”
At that moment, the first disciple stepped between the two of them.
“You wretch! How dare you interrupt while an elder is speaking!”
“Sect Master! I, I will explain everything.”
It did not take long for the misunderstanding to be cleared up.
There was the matter of how, under Hyeongeuk’s direction, they had borrowed—stolen—a merchant ship in order to catch a shark that carried a strange aura.
There was the matter of almost being eaten by a shark larger than the ship itself.
There was the matter of the shark having spared their lives.
And finally, there was the matter of why Baek Sang-ah had come all the way to Ungyu Sect.
Only then did Yun finally understand.
It was true that most cultivators had little human warmth left in them, but that did not mean there were none who were good.
Of course, in his mind, it was much the same as a human feeling pity for an insect and deciding not to crush it—but for the moment, that hardly mattered.
Yun kept sneaking glances at Baek Sang-ah’s face before straightening fully and saying, “You brats! What are you all standing around for? Sweep the courtyard at once and lay out bedding in the finest room in the sect!”
At that command, the cultivators of Ungyu Sect sprang into motion.
While Baek Sang-ah watched their flurry of movement in a daze, Yun said, “While they prepare a room and some clothes, would you care to talk for a bit?”
Baek Sang-ah’s plump tail swayed.
At last, the pressure that had been choking her eased, because she could finally ask the things she had wanted to ask all along.
“I’ll lead the way.”
Baek Sang-ah followed behind Yun, taking long steps with her legs.
Normally, all she had to do was swim, but moving her legs brought a strange, unfamiliar feeling.
This is better after all. I don’t expect to get much out of a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Realm, but I’ll need a place to stay for a little while.
Even so, Baek Sang-ah slowly looked around her.
Small stones pressed against her toes, and the soaked ground barely managed to hold up a roof that looked ready to collapse at any moment.
“It’s shabby.”
“Yes, indeed. For a worthless scoundrel, it is a perfectly suitable place to live.”
“Won’t it fall down?”
“It may fall down, or it may not. Still, I inspect it every day, so there is no need for concern.”
“You’re diligent.”
“What else could someone like me boast of? At the very least, I ought to be diligent.”
Thanks to the tiny size of Ungyu Sect, they reached the sect master’s quarters after only a few exchanges.
Yun held the door wide open and waited until Baek Sang-ah stepped inside.
She climbed the stone steps with an awkward gait and entered the room.
The master’s quarters were remarkably small.
They were so cramped they hardly seemed fit for the residence of a sect leader.
Yun fetched a cushion, set it where Baek Sang-ah would sit, and began pouring tea.
“Right, I had something I wanted to ask.”
Sitting on the cushion, Baek Sang-ah leaned back slightly; with her tail supporting her, it was easy enough to sit.
“Yes, I have lived an exceedingly short life compared to yours, Senior, so I may not know much, but ask me anything you wish.”
“Mm.”
Baek Sang-ah nodded.
“Do you want to live?”
“Yes, of course. I would like to live as long as possible.”
“Why?”
At her question, Yun stopped pouring tea and looked at her.
“If it is not discourteous, may I ask why you ask such a thing?”
“Mm.”
When Yun’s voice grew a shade lower, Baek Sang-ah tilted her head a little.
“I want to live too. For a long time. But I don’t know why I want to live. So I came to ask.”
“The reason, you say...”
At last, Yun filled the teacup and sat down across from Baek Sang-ah, offering it to her.
Baek Sang-ah blinked and stared into the cup.
Her pale face was reflected in the orange-tinted tea.
“Have you ever climbed a mountain, Senior?”
Baek Sang-ah’s brow twitched.
As a shark, she had never climbed a mountain, but when she had been human, she had gone hiking.
Every weekend, at the urging of her department head—the kind that was not really an urge at all—who had spent every day sniping at her and saying who knew what, she had gone hiking.
Back then, too busy placating that man, she could hardly remember how she had gotten up the mountain in the first place.
“I have.”
“Then have you ever looked down from a mountain and felt that the world was beautiful?”
“No.”
“Have you ever seen a hillside thick with pampas grass, a waterfall frozen into ice, or the horizon stretched across the sea and thought them beautiful?”
“I’ve never really thought about it.”
Yun lifted his teacup and wet his throat.
“Then what did you think when you heard my question?”
“Why are you asking?”
“You did not think mountains, hillsides, waterfalls, and seas were beautiful.”
“No, I’ve never felt that way.”
Yun set the cup down lightly.
His fingertips trembled ever so slightly, but his voice remained steady.
“That is exactly it.”
“That is?”
“Enlightenment can be gained by hearing of another’s experiences and knowledge, but sometimes must one not experience things directly before one can truly understand them?”
Baek Sang-ah narrowed her eyes at him.
“No matter how I explain why I want to live, unless you truly feel it for yourself, Senior, it will be difficult for you to understand.”
“You can’t know everything just by hearing it?”
Yun quietly nodded.
“To put it bluntly, yes.”
“Hmm...”
“However, you asked, so I shall answer.”
“I’ll hear it first.”
“Just as I said, I have felt the beauty of the world. And I want to live, so that I may keep the beauty of that world—and the person I love—for as long as possible.”
Baek Sang-ah’s tail drooped and slapped against the floor. Her round tail was squashed flat, puffing out to one side.
“I still don’t get it.”
“That is only this worthless one’s reason, not yours. It is only natural that it should not make sense to you.”
Baek Sang-ah silently picked up the cup.
She did not drink from it, only stared at the tea trembling within.
“Then how do I find my reason?”
“That, too, may become your reason.”
“You’re talking in circles.”
Yun drained his cup and carefully set it down.
“Living in order to find the reason for living—might that not itself become your reason for living, Senior?”
Oh...? For a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator...
While Baek Sang-ah blinked, Yun hurriedly lowered his head.
“I apologize for presuming to speak as if I knew better. I only truly wanted to be of help to you, Senior.”
“It’s fine.”
Baek Sang-ah closed her eyes for a moment.
She wanted to live, but she did not know why.
And yet this old man said that living in order to discover that reason could itself be a reason to live.
In truth, it was little more than wordplay, but for some reason Baek Sang-ah liked it.
“I like it.”
“If it helps you, then I am honored.”
She raised her tail again and let it sway.
She was in a good mood.
“You’re a cultivator, right?”
“If you would deign to call this humble one a cultivator, then yes, I am.”
“Cultivators can live longer if they cultivate.”
“That is true to some extent.”
“And a sect is a place where you learn things.”
“One could indeed say that a sect is a place where learning exists.”
“Then you teach cultivation here?”
“How would someone like me dare to hold forth on cultivation before you, Senior? I only provide assistance.”
Baek Sang-ah worried her lips for a moment.
If I cultivate, I can live longer. If I live longer, that’s good. Even if I don’t know why I want to live, maybe I’ll figure it out if I live long enough.
Then Muyeonja’s voice rang inside her head.
This sort of low-ranking cultivation sect should at least have basic methods and spells. Learning those would be of some help. You are still far too lacking to practice a Great Immortal’s methods right now.
After his voice faded again, Baek Sang-ah opened her eyes and said, “Then I want to learn too. Here. Teach me.”
“Yes...?”
Yun’s eyes went wide as he repeated the question.
He had no choice but to be startled.
High-level cultivators were usually prideful. They had no reason to ask for instruction from those beneath them.
And yet this beast-race cultivator before him, who looked as though she might well be at least in the Golden Core Realm, was asking him for guidance.
For a moment Yun was so stunned he could not speak, and Baek Sang-ah pressed him impatiently for an answer.
“You won’t?”
At that instant, Yun’s options disappeared.
“W-what reason could there be to refuse? Of course, of course you can. If there is anything to be gained from this humble one, please, take whatever you like!”
A tiny sect of fewer than ten people, Ungyu Sect had, in a single day, taken in the shark who carried the avatar of a Great Immortal.
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