Cultivation Is Knowing Not to Cling to Cultivation (2)
There was a saying that life was the same no matter who lived it.
By that measure, a day in Ungyu Sect was nothing special.
In the morning, at the sect leader’s summons, the disciples of Ungyu Sect gathered before the main hall. Under his guidance, they trained their minds with a modern cultivation method, and when that was done, they were given time for independent practice.
Usually, other cultivation sects would offer personal instruction or a variety of more efficient training methods, but Ungyu Sect was different.
There was little to learn beyond the basic cultivation methods, and they had no spirit stones imbued with spiritual power, no magical artifacts, nothing much of anything at all. There simply wasn’t much to do.
Perhaps because of that, most of Ungyu Sect’s disciples either clustered together in little groups to discuss cultivation methods or went outside the sect to kill time.
“Is every sect like this? Ordinary.”
[If it were a somewhat larger orthodox sect, perhaps not. But a lower-ranking sect would be much the same, would it not?]
“Snort….”
[The sect leader is at the Foundation Establishment Realm, and most of the members are only at the early Qi Refining stage. There isn’t all that much to teach them. At least that child Dam So-dam may be worth hoping for.]
Baek Sang-ah pursed her lips.
She had thought she might get to learn something interesting, but a cultivation method that only trained the body enough to smash rocks was far too simple.
Even Muyeonja had almost fled back to the sect.
She was starting to feel bored.
[At this rate, Ungyu Sect will never amount to much. What could you possibly do in such a lazy, stagnant place? I had some measure of expectation for this sect leader, and yet…]
And so, without any meaning at all, night fell.
At a time when everyone within Ungyu Sect was asleep, Baek Sang-ah, true to the nature of a great white shark, had put part of her body to sleep while keeping her bright, alert eyes open, sniffing softly as she endured her boredom.
[The time has come.]
“Hm?”
At that moment, Muyeonja’s voice sounded in her mind. Baek Sang-ah’s brows twitched.
[Did I not say I would think over a cultivation method suited to you? This body is the avatar of a Great Immortal; half a day is enough to come up with something.]
“I want to cultivate!”
[First, let us move elsewhere. It would not do to show the Great Immortal’s method to others so carelessly.]
Baek Sang-ah’s eyes lit up, and she sprang to her feet.
Her tail swept softly across the ground.
Following Muyeonja’s guidance, she headed for the waterside that the sailor from earlier that morning had shown her.
The moment Baek Sang-ah saw the water, she wagged her tail and drew a deep breath of the night air, sniffing eagerly.
At once, a fine shiver ran down her spine.
Scent, humidity, dust, the vibration of grass blades. Each and every one of them rang within her body like ripples on water.
[The secret of this modern cultivation method lies in perception. It is to sense the world through a sixth sense that goes beyond hearing, smell, touch, sight, and taste.]
“Like when I saw the lines that day?”
[Indeed, but that was only a tiny fragment of it. Because the Great Immortal’s qi was so pure, you only briefly glimpsed its flow; it could hardly be called true sight.]
Baek Sang-ah still didn’t understand, so she tilted her head and instinctively moved toward the water.
[It will probably feel familiar to you. You are not a race that depends on sight, are you?]
“Mm. The sea is dark.”
[Then you are in a far better position than human cultivators when it comes to training your awareness.]
“How do I do it?”
[First, you will awaken your senses. Go into the water, where you are most at ease.]
“I like water.”
Baek Sang-ah let out a delighted little huff, grabbed the hem of her robe, and with a splash plunged straight into the water.
The resistance of the water was almost nonexistent, and every sensation that brushed her skin came to her all the more clearly.
Like she had in her days as a shark, she stretched her body long and swam along the current, letting her tail sway lazily behind her.
Even with a human body, she did not need to breathe beneath the surface.
[Let all of your body except your consciousness fall asleep.]
“Glub glub glub….”
That meant yes.
[This is only the process of awakening your senses. It is still far from true cultivation, but you must feel the flow yourself.]
When Baek Sang-ah let her body sink into stillness, her muscles slowly loosened and softened.
Her heart seemed to stop beating, though it still thudded faintly; her blood slowed until it barely moved at all.
Her lungs rose and fell in tiny motions, not with breathing, but with the pressure of the water.
The sensation in her skin remained, but she could not move even one finger, and her tail lay submerged without the slightest tremor, buried beneath the current.
[Feel the world as it is, and perceive it. Discover what lies at its root.]
She could hear nothing. See nothing. Even the smell of fishy water was gone. There was no sense of touch, no sensation of contact.
Void.
In that stillness, similar to death and yet not death, only her consciousness floated on.
But she could not shed the instincts of a shark.
Even in sleep, a shark would react to any interference from the outside world.
Though she could feel nothing at all, whenever the current was driven by the wind, her soft skin shivered faintly.
Muyeonja said nothing further.
To speak now would be to interfere with her consciousness, and that would only hinder her training.
So Muyeonja held her breath, waiting for her to feel the flow of the world.
Before long, the moon began to tilt.
The shining things in the sky slowly started to close their eyes.
Baek Sang-ah’s body was still being carried along by the current.
A small leaf fell onto the surface, and the ripples it made touched her body, bending her arms and legs.
The tip of her tail bobbed above the water, and water seeped between her lips.
And there was order in all of it.
That order was not a rule.
It was the principle of wu wei, unspoken, unmade, and unforced.
It was called being so naturally, on its own.
Naturalness.
Within the silence of not hearing, a resonance was felt.
Within the state of not seeing, a wave spread outward.
Beneath skin that could not be touched, a current rang.
At that moment, beyond her consciousness, something like an invisible net slowly spread….
“Glub, glub?”
Then it happened.
Baek Sang-ah suddenly thrust her head up above the surface.
[You were right at the brink. What in the world are you doing?]
“Phaaah!”
Ignoring Muyeonja’s rebuke, Baek Sang-ah shook her head and began looking around.
Then her gaze came to rest on one spot.
It was behind a pile of broken rock fragments—rock fragments she herself had bitten apart that morning.
“There’s someone. Hiding.”
Her eyes seemed to catch the light as she stared into the darkness behind the rocks.
“Ah, I’ve been found.”
And from that place, a girl appeared in a hesitant, awkward posture.
A small girl.
Dam So-dam.
Apparently thinking she had been completely caught by Baek Sang-ah, the girl stepped fully into view and walked closer.
“What is it?”
“Sorry, unni. I was about to go to sleep, but I heard a sound near the fence, so I went out to check, and then I saw you, unni, and followed without thinking….”
The girl lowered her head but lifted her eyes to look at Baek Sang-ah, and Baek Sang-ah blinked at her.
For some reason, she looked pitiful.
Baek Sang-ah worked her lips a little, then shook her head.
“I don’t mind.”
“R-really?”
“Mm. You might’ve gotten bored.”
Baek Sang-ah slowly climbed out of the water and stood on the ground. Then she looked at Dam So-dam.
The girl took Baek Sang-ah’s hand.
“But, unni, what you were doing just now… was that cultivation?”
“Hm? Yeah. Right. Cultivation.”
“Wow. So this is what cultivation looks like for a cultivator at a high level. Having to endure in the water for that long.”
Baek Sang-ah blinked.
For her, being in water was only natural, not at all hard.
“Unni, then….”
“Mm?”
Dam So-dam hesitated for a moment, then spoke carefully.
“Could I maybe do it with you someday too?”
“Cultivation? Together?”
“Yes. What I’m learning from Master right now is very basic. I want to get stronger as quickly as possible….”
Baek Sang-ah blinked once, then tilted her head.
“You want to get stronger?”
“Yes. I want to build up my cultivation much faster than I am now.”
Dam So-dam’s eyes shone as she spoke.
Within them was a resolve that didn’t suit her childlike appearance at all.
“Honestly, Ungyu Sect’s situation is bad, isn’t it? You might not know, unni, but the interference from outside cultivation sects is severe too. So I need to become strong quickly, since I’m the single-Spirit-Root wielder.”
“Single-Spirit-Root wielder….”
Baek Sang-ah muttered the words as if tasting them.
She had heard Muyeonja mention it before.
The spiritual roots a cultivator possessed were aligned with the five elements.
Wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.
Each spiritual root was assigned to one of those attributes, and the more roots one had, the more attributes they were assigned.
Now, one might think that being able to handle more attributes was better—but that wasn’t the case.
The more attributes one had, the more the efficiency of cultivation changed.
For example, a single-spirit-root cultivator could advance if they mastered only one attribute, whereas a five-spirit-root cultivator had to master all five before advancing in realm.
Because cultivation time varied so greatly, the less spiritual roots one had in cultivation society, the better one was treated.
Of course, whether she had a single spiritual root or a miscellaneous mess of roots made little difference to Baek Sang-ah.
She didn’t have spiritual roots to begin with.
“Why do you have to get strong?”
Baek Sang-ah asked calmly.
“So I can protect what matters.”
“Protect who?”
“I want to protect Master, the sect, and myself.”
That answer had not been given lightly.
Dam So-dam’s voice was small, but clear, and somehow lonely.
Baek Sang-ah looked into those eyes.
Protect? Why?
She didn’t understand.
A shark simply ate, fled, bit, and swallowed, all in order to survive.
Still, she did not voice that question aloud.
That was because she suddenly pulled Dam So-dam to her side.
“Eek…?”
“There.”
It was not because she had felt some human sympathy for the little girl.
“W-what is?”
“Something huge.”
Baek Sang-ah turned her head and looked into the thicket.
The brush rustled violently, and the tremor rising from the ground slowly grew stronger.
The moment Baek Sang-ah bared her pointed teeth, Dam So-dam understood what she meant.
Something had touched the girl’s own awareness as well.
As Dam So-dam trembled from the sensation, a massive shadow burst through the brush.
“Grrrr….”
Baek Sang-ah’s gaze followed Dam So-dam’s shaking eyes toward one point.
The grass parted.
It was a tiger.
A tiger, and yet somehow not quite a tiger.
Instead of the deep black-brown stripes along its back, rough black fur like charred charcoal twisted and knotted into a lumpy, crooked pattern.
Its entire body was cracked like old bark, and from within those cracks, a red aura seeped out.
It was not blood, and not spiritual energy either.
It was a strange, feverish heat, as though something had rotted for too long and fermented.
Its eyes were not the eyes of a beast.
They were eyes that burned blue.
“A-a demon….”
Dam So-dam murmured in a trembling voice.
Baek Sang-ah hid her behind her back and stepped forward to block the great tiger.
She drew in a deep breath like a tiger, swelling her body, lifting her plump tail high and baring her teeth as she twisted her face into a fierce snarl.
“Kraaaah.”
Compared to before, Baek Sang-ah’s cry was nothing to brag about, but it was the most threatening sound she could make.
The uncanny tiger also seemed to feel the dangerous aura coming from her, for it slowly backed away while staring at her.
“Grrrrr….”
“Kraaaah.”
The king of the sea and the king of the mountain had finally come face-to-face.