The Cultivation Clan
“Heavenly Demon’s Descent!”
Thud. Thud.
“All demons bow in awe!”
Thud. Thud.
“Long live! Long live! Long, long live!”
Countless martial artists lay prostrate before me as I walked toward the grand hall.
Just as I looked down on them with contempt, a strange sound suddenly drifted into my ears—not the beat of drums, but something else entirely.
Ommm—
Then my vision began to whirl, and the voice I hated more than anything followed soon after.
“There is no place for you in the Immortal Realm, so go back and purify that filthy soul of yours!”
Then, together with a nightmarish pain, my body began to fall without end.
That accursed dream was the same one that had awakened my past memories again and again—of the failure that had come upon me while I stood at the brink of life and death, seeking to ascend beyond the mortal world.
Even after being reborn in an entirely different world, the humiliation of that day remained impossible to forget.
And the instant I clenched my teeth at the memory, my mind turned clear.
Flash.
The dreadful emptiness I had felt inside the dream.
Even after I opened my eyes, it refused to fade easily.
I had lost everything I had built over a lifetime as a master who had reached the realm of life and death; no wonder that abyss of emptiness would not disappear so soon.
And yet, at that moment, as I lay there with my eyes open and trembled in that wretched void, a grinning face appeared above me. The fellow looked down at me with insolent eyes and spoke.
“Ah, Young Master, you’re finally awake? It’s already high noon. You haven’t forgotten how much you have to do today, have you?”
I frowned and said, “Get that ugly face out of my sight first. Only then will I bother to get up.”
Servant Wang Wi immediately muttered under his breath and stepped back.
“If you keep treating me like this without even knowing what I prepared for you, you’re definitely going to regret it later.”
In truth, Wang Wi was not all that ugly.
His thick eyebrows and straight forehead were striking, and his broad, intense eyes made him look quite manly.
But that expression of his—looking at me as though I were some adorable little child—was what I truly found unbearable.
So I ignored whatever else he had to say and brought up what I wanted to know.
“You said the Baekri family’s people were due to arrive today, didn’t you?”
He puffed out his lips like a sulky girl and answered, “Ah~ that’s why I went and got this Lotus Milk Ball for you, Young Master. This marvelous thing, made by candying lotus seeds in sweet honey and kneading them with milk and glutinous rice flour, is the sort of delicacy you only get to enjoy when important guests come by on a day like today.”
As he spoke, he held out a rice cake sitting on a wooden tray, swallowing his saliva over and over as though he wanted to eat it just as badly himself. Then he met my eyes with an expectant look.
He was probably hoping I might share half of it with him.
But I snatched the Lotus Milk Ball from his hand and stuffed it into my mouth at once.
At once, a rich nutty sweetness filled my mouth. Though it was my first time trying it, the taste was surprisingly good.
The instant his hopes were crushed, Wang Wi clicked his tongue in disappointment.
I looked at his crestfallen face and said, “It’s quite good. Go to the cook and tell her I sent you, then bring back a whole plate of them.”
His face brightened in an instant.
“Yes, Young Master! I’ll bring back plenty so you can eat to your heart’s content!”
Of course, I knew exactly why he was so pleased.
He was already thinking about eating whatever I left behind.
Still, I merely nodded as though I knew nothing.
As if he had been waiting for that, Wang Wi hurried out of my chamber.
Through the briefly opened door, I caught a glimpse of the familiar yet foreign scenery beyond.
The eaves curved in a soft arc.
That much was familiar, but the brightly painted patterns on the beams and the flags fluttering from the courtyard walls as though this were some military encampment still felt strange, no matter how many years I looked at them.
Rice cakes were a familiar food.
Yet even to me, a man who believed he had tasted all the finest delicacies under heaven, the Lotus Milk Ball had still seemed unfamiliar.
And to be honest, I had never even heard of the Baekri family, the guests arriving today.
Nor did I remember this body’s own clan, the Neung family, at all.
It was not simply that those two families were too insignificant for a man who had once ruled the martial world to know; the world itself was simply very different from the one I had lived in.
Similar, and yet not the same.
Different, and yet similar.
This was that kind of world.
Neither my former cult nor the Shaolin that I had sealed with my own hands, nor even the Martial Alliance that had obstructed my unification of the world to the very end—there was no trace of any of them here.
The one consolation was that, thanks to my steady training in martial arts since childhood, I had recovered the lost heights of my cultivation far more quickly than expected.
Of course, without some extraordinary stroke of fortune such as a divine elixir, inner power still had to be built little by little through time and effort, so my overall level had not yet climbed beyond the rough mold of a third-rate fighter.
But even if all I possessed was a single mouthful of inner power, the one using it was me—the man who had once stood in the realm of life and death—so the result could be very different indeed.
Still, the fact remained that I was unsatisfied with my inner power.
So I used the little time I had to settle into meditation and began circulating my qi.
Keep the heart as calm as the moon.
Let force move like the rising tide.
Inhale qi as though swallowing mist.
Exhale breath as though casting out a rainbow.
That was the essence of the Yin Moon Vibration Classic, a method I had cultivated for many years.
Because the Yin Moon Vibration Classic was specialized for rapid qi accumulation, a thread of soft inner force soon gathered in my dantian.
Then, from far away, Wang Wi’s powerful voice rang out.
“Young Master! Please come out at once! The Baekri family’s guests have already arrived! Ah, and would you believe it—the young lady of the Baekri family is so beautiful that everyone’s been staring at her like they’re bewitched, and no one’s even looking at the rare elixirs or glittering gold they brought as gifts!”
At that, my eyes flew open.
Not because I was curious about the beauty of the Baekri daughter, whom people said could leave others spellbound at a glance.
No, it was because I had heard that the gifts included a spiritual medicine that could aid the exact improvement of inner power I needed right now.
Originally, wedding gifts were exchanged between families rather than individuals.
That meant the elixirs brought as gifts might very well be allotted to me, a son of this house.
Even a Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng—no, just an ordinary Hundred-Year Ginseng or some old rehmannia root—would be a tremendous help to me right now, so I ended my cultivation without lingering a moment longer and rose to my feet.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“This child here is our third son. From a young age, he showed more interest in learning martial arts than in reading books, and lately it seems he’s reached a fairly presentable level.”
That was a harsher judgment than I expected.
No matter how lacking my inner power might be, my swordsmanship itself had not regressed.
“My name is Neung So. As my father says, I do know how to handle a sword.”
In truth, even that was a restrained answer, given my father’s face and reputation.
Yet my father, failing to understand that, immediately frowned and said, “A person must always be humble. When someone praises you, you should bow your head even more.”
Then, from the guest seat, after taking a small sip of tea, the visitor spoke.
“Please don’t rebuke him too harshly. If he’s young, shouldn’t he have this much spirit? If that passion is guided in the right direction, he’ll surely become a remarkable man someday.”
Those were words that saved my father’s face.
Thanks to that, his expression softened a little. He shook his head once and continued speaking with the guest.
Then the young woman beside the guest quietly turned her gaze toward me.
As befit the daughter of a martial family, her breathing was quite steady, suggesting she had never neglected her training; her frame and bones also looked to be in good order.
Unfortunately, the weapon she used was terribly ill-suited to her.
She carried a massive greatsword on her back, far too large for her slender body.
No matter how much inner power supported her.
A weapon that did not suit one’s body simply wasted qi, and it was never a good choice.
Just as I was about to turn away from that pitying thought, she quietly addressed me.
“Young Master, could you perhaps show me more of the estate? If this is to be my future home, I’d like to look around a little more.”
It sounded less like she truly wanted a tour and more like she had some other motive hidden beneath the words.
Still, I also wanted to ask about the elixir the Baekri family had brought, so this was a good opportunity for me as well.
Just as I was about to answer her positively, my father’s voice rang out again.
“Good. You two needn’t stay here. Go on and speak with each other. In any case, Dong-a will be marrying one of you brothers, so you may as well use the time to see which of you suits her better.”
As though he had been waiting for exactly that, my eldest brother shot to his feet.
He always acted so proper in front of others, but it seemed even he had taken a liking to the Baekri daughter.
Of course, my second brother refused to be outdone and rose as well.
“It would be my pleasure to speak with an honored guest. Lady Dong-a, we’ll show you around the estate, so please this way.”
With that, my second brother naturally took the lead, and for the time being I followed behind him as well.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“That tree over there was especially beloved by our mother. I still remember what she said when she planted it as a child. She said that our family, too, should always put down deep roots and grow like that tree. I have kept those words carved deep in my heart ever since.”
My second brother’s words flowed on without pause.
The Baekri daughter simply nodded silently, making no reply. She had asked to be shown around the estate, but that clearly had not been her real purpose, so she had little interest in the tour itself.
So I decided to speak instead.
“Miss, I heard there was an elixir among the gifts brought by the Baekri family this time. Could you tell me what it is?”
At my question, the Baekri daughter replied with a faint smile.
“It’s the Great Ultimate Yang Brightness Pill, something our Baekri family takes great pride in. It was made from a recipe bestowed upon one of our ancestors long ago by an Immortal.”
An Immortal, huh…
This world seemed to have an unusual number of stories about immortals and celestial beings.
They said those Immortals cultivated for a thousand years.
They even said they lived not on the earth, but in the sky above.
At first I had dismissed them as nothing but wild tales.
But now even I found myself wondering what sort of beings they truly were.
Yet her words did not end there.
“Truthfully, I’ve dreamed of becoming an Immortal myself. I hear that Immortals, unlike us, spend their lives with the bond they find for themselves, rather than the match arranged by their families.”
It seemed our brothers were not to her taste at all.
In a world where even ordinary commoners accepted the marriage arrangements chosen for them by their families, she was openly saying she had no desire to marry someone selected for her by her clan.
In the end, even my eldest brother, who had been putting on a grave expression, spoke again.
“Miss Dong-a, are you saying you do not wish to marry into our family?”
The Baekri daughter slowly swept her gaze over our brothers before answering.
“Soon, the cultivation sect Hyeondo Sect will be taking in disciples. I’m sorry, but I intend to go there.”
A cultivation sect, where the Immortals trained.
As she spoke of that place, which instantly drew my curiosity, my interest naturally deepened as well.
Then, at that moment, my second brother spoke up.
“Then I shall go there as well! I, too, will become an Immortal there and remain by your side, Miss Dong-a!”
That was a rather bold declaration.
Thanks to him, even what I said next lost some of its meaning.
“Then I should probably go there too.”
In truth, what I meant was that I wanted to see those so-called Immortals with my own eyes.
But because of my second brother’s overly fervent words, my remark could easily have been taken in a rather different way.
In the end, the moment I finished speaking, the Baekri daughter shifted the meaningful glance she had been giving my second brother toward me instead.
And beneath the fluttering petals drifting through the air, I had somehow become my second brother’s love rival.