Hyeondo Sect
Even when I held still, my hands trembled uncontrollably, shriveled dry like branches parched by drought, and the meridians inside my body, once surging with vigorous inner energy after reaching the first-rate level, had split and cracked like the bottom of a riverbed left to bake in the sun.
It was fortunate, in the end, that I had not fallen into maddening qi deviation for very long. Had I stayed in that madness any longer than I had, I would surely have been lying beside that old man with his head severed from his body.
The memory of A-cheong remained with me, even now, as pain sharp enough to shatter the soul itself—pain so intense it had, in a twisted way, saved my life.
Grrrk.
At last, with a hand that would not stop shaking, I clenched my fist and turned my gaze to Jin Myeong’s corpse. A cultivator who had, by his own admission, never reached true Foundation Establishment.
That man had driven me to the brink of death, and for an entire year he had kept my body and mind under his control.
He had turned me, a man who wanted nothing to do with anyone’s orders and sought instead to stand at the very top as the greatest of all under heaven, into something miserable—no better than livestock raised in someone else’s home.
He had shown me exactly how terrifying the power of these damned cultivators could be, and what path I would have to walk from here on out.
Of course, however brutal that year had been, in the end I had been the one to win. I survived, while he died without ever achieving his goal. Now it was time for me to enjoy the rights of the victor.
So I looked at the face he had twisted in death, swallowed by the emptiness of not being able to fight with everything he had, and slowly made my way toward his body.
Then, like a wild beast feeding on the rotten carcass of a dead animal, I began rifling through his belongings with my withered hands.
What I needed most right now was the Green Wood Talisman he was bound to have. My body was staggered by severe internal injuries so deep that I could have collapsed and died at any moment, and that talisman, which aided the healing of the body, would surely be of immense help in restoring me.
Fortunately, I had spent the last year learning the basics of a cultivator from Jin Myeong, so using his storage pouch was not difficult.
But after searching through the contents of Jin Myeong’s pouch, I quickly found that there was not a single Green Wood Talisman left inside.
It seemed that Jin Myeong, as a cultivator, had not been especially interested in crafting talismans or magical tools to begin with, so he had never possessed many Green Wood Talismans in the first place.
Instead, the pouch was stuffed full of dozens of spirit stones rich with spiritual energy and all sorts of unidentified medicinal ingredients, but right now, more than any treasure, what mattered most was recovering my body, so it was a disappointment.
Then, in that moment, I suddenly remembered what Jin Myeong had once told me.
“I was in a splendid mood after teaching a rude Qi Refining cultivator a lesson on my way here and gaining many valuable things, but you are making that mood most unpleasant, disciple.”
Jin Myeong had never dreamed that he would die, so there was no reason for him to have lied to me unnecessarily. He must have had the storage pouch of that Qi Refining cultivator with him.
If the Qi Refining cultivator had not possessed a storage pouch, he would not have bothered to say he had gained “many” valuable things.
Once I was certain of that, I was able to find the Qi Refining cultivator’s storage pouch, apparently taken from him by Jin Myeong, without much trouble at all.
It turned out to be a silk pouch embroidered with gold thread, found behind Jin Myeong’s belt.
As I removed the silk pouch, which looked even more valuable than Jin Myeong’s own, I soon learned what was inside it. There was not only the Green Wood Talismans I needed, but also several hundred spirit stones, making it an unmistakably extraordinary item.
There was even a wooden box inside that Qi Refining cultivator’s pouch, apparently containing some kind of rare treasure. Once I treated my injuries with the talismans, I would need to inspect it carefully.
Of course, healing my body came before everything else, so just as I was about to take out a Green Wood Talisman, my vision abruptly spun and my strength vanished from my legs.
Thud!
To be honest, I had only endured this long because of my iron will; my body itself had long since become so wrecked that I could not have stood on my own.
Of course, considering that I had drawn upon enough congenital true energy today to amount to half my remaining lifespan, this kind of backlash was only natural.
Swallowing the bitterness filling my mouth, I sat where I had fallen, crossed my legs into a proper meditative posture, and activated the Green Wood Talisman in my hand.
Instead of fluttering like a butterfly as it had when Jin Myeong used it, the talisman trembled weakly, drifted upward, and then burst apart.
Fwoosh!
To my astonishment, the moment I used the Green Wood Talisman, I could immediately feel that my body was different.
In less than half a breath, my unstable breathing settled, and the pain of my meridians being torn to pieces faded as though it had never existed at all. For something made from a single talisman, its effectiveness was truly astonishing.
With that, I let out an incredulous laugh, opened my eyes, and quietly raised my hand. Even my hand, which had been trembling like a branch battered by a rough wind, had stopped shaking as if nothing had happened.
However, the congenital true energy I had spent recklessly could not be restored even by the talisman, and my arm remained as shriveled as before.
But there was still hope. Jin Myeong had once told me that when a cultivator advanced, their lifespan increased, and it was precisely that lifespan-related power that congenital true energy represented.
Perhaps by increasing my own cultivation level, I could refill the congenital true energy I had lost.
Even if that had not been the reason, I had already decided that I would raise my cultivation as high as I possibly could. I never wanted to suffer at the hands of cultivators like this again.
On top of that, I was deeply interested in the magical tools cultivators used. If you looked only at raw force, martial training alone guaranteed growth in power, but among those wondrous tools were some with abilities that my martial arts could never replace—things like the Green Wood Talisman, whose healing power was truly miraculous.
A storage pouch from a Qi Refining cultivator who had possessed many things, and another from a Foundation Establishment cultivator—if not a true Foundation Establishment cultivator, then at least one strong enough to kill such a wealthy Qi Refining cultivator.
With these spoils from my victory, raising my own cultivation level would not be so difficult.
That did not mean, however, that I intended to hole myself up in the Nine Palaces Tower like Jin Myeong and become some wandering hermit cultivator.
For one thing, I still had no idea how much of the instruction I had received from Jin Myeong was true and how much of it had been a lie.
I needed a place that could open a proper path for me as a cultivator.
And right now, there was only one such sect that came to mind.
Hyeondo Sect.
I would go there.
Fortunately, finding Gwiheo Mountain, where Hyeondo Sect was located, was not difficult.
Once I climbed the mountain, I could also easily discover the formation that seemed to enshroud Hyeondo Sect.
But the formation surrounding Hyeondo Sect would not even allow me to step inside.
If the array surrounding Nine Palaces Tower had merely been the sort that made anyone inside lose their way, then the formation here was more like a solid wall, much like the protective barrier Jin Myeong had used.
I briefly considered using martial arts to force a path through, but in the end I changed my mind. Thanks to my memories of Jin Myeong, who had treated me like livestock for a full year, I had been able to shed much of the arrogance that had once clung to me like a false skin.
Tat!
In the end, I lightly kicked off a nearby tree and landed on a suitable branch.
Rather than forcing my way through the formation surrounding Hyeondo Sect with strength, I decided to wait for someone to come out from within. For me, this was the greatest courtesy I could show as one seeking instruction from others.
Fortunately, after I quietly closed my eyes and circulated the Heaven-Defying Lust Madness Classic for some time, I sensed someone approaching from within the formation. At that moment I opened my eyes at once and leaped down from the tree.
Then the other party, as though she had already noticed my presence, spoke with a mocking expression.
“A cultivator at the early stage of Qi Refining, who’s barely shed the skin of a mortal.”
Her sharp gaze swept slowly over me, starting from my head, and when it reached my lower body, her expression twisted severely.
In truth, I had been suppressing the lust stirred up by the Heaven-Defying Lust Madness Classic with superhuman willpower, but that did not mean the side effects of the Heaven-Defying Lust Madness Classic had disappeared entirely.
It was not exactly easy to hide the masculine pride that bulged as though it might burst under the heavy accumulation of desire with nothing more than a thin layer of cloth.
So, to divert her attention from the troublesome sight, I quickly continued speaking.
“I’ve come to receive Hyeondo Sect’s teachings.”
At that, she snorted softly, then finally lifted her eyes from my lower body and looked at me.
“You don’t seem to be hoping to become a guest elder of our Hyeondo Sect with a cultivation level that low. Are you asking to be taken in as an ordinary entry disciple? If that’s what you wanted, you should have come last year. Unless you know someone in our Hyeondo Sect, there are no exceptions. Go back and wait for the next disciple recruitment.”
Fortunately, unlike the way she had twisted her face after looking at my lower half a moment ago, she did not seem to think of me as especially unpleasant.
The problem was that, as she had said, I had arrived far too late. But there was no way I knew anyone in Hyeondo Sect...
Then, suddenly, I remembered one person who had once told me to meet them here.
“Baekri Dong-a! Was there perhaps a woman by that name among the disciples who entered Hyeondo Sect last year?”
But the moment she heard my words, the woman before me shook her head without the slightest hesitation.
“I’ve never heard that name.”
So there was no one in Hyeondo Sect I could even claim to know.
Just as I was wondering if I truly had no choice but to wait for the next round of disciple recruitment, another person came to mind.
There had been someone who told me that if Baekri Dong-a came to Hyeondo Sect to enter as a disciple, he would follow her here as well.
“Then what about the name Neung Jeon? He also said last year that he would be taking Hyeondo Sect’s entrance exam.”
To my surprise, the woman reacted.
“That name does ring a bell. A greedy little bastard in the Shadow Talisman Department definitely said something like that.”
That probably came with an unpleasant description attached, but he was the only person I could mention.
“He’s my older brother! If it’s him, he’ll definitely be able to vouch for me!”
But when she heard that, the woman simply stared at me for a moment before saying something I had never expected.
“If you truly are brothers, then you should be able to take the entrance exam through his master. You also seem to be past the mortal stage, so perhaps they might even pick you as a disciple for menial work. But for that to happen, I’d have to set aside my own business, return to the main sect, and inform them of your existence. Why should I go to that trouble?”
She had only just emerged from the formation, so going back inside should not have been difficult at all, and yet she was demanding payment from me.
I had already come to understand something of the greed in cultivators, but there was no helping the disgust I felt toward them—every bit as much as toward the shameless “righteousness” the hypocrites of the orthodox schools kept shouting about.
Still, I forced myself to remain calm and replied, “If Senior would go to such trouble for me, then I would also offer my spirit stones as a token of my gratitude.”
If what I had learned from Jin Myeong was true, spirit stones were regarded as something cultivators could use in many ways, just as commoners used money.
If she wanted some kind of compensation, there was nothing better to offer than spirit stones.
Of course, I had no idea what a single spirit stone was worth, so I could not yet decide how many to give her.
But after hearing what she said next, I decided I did not need to worry about that number at all.
“A mere one or two low-grade spirit stones won’t move this body. How about this? If you’re accepted into Hyeondo Sect, then in the future, when you reach the middle stage of Qi Refining, you’ll help me with my duties for fifteen days at no cost.”
I could not possibly like the idea of being worked for fifteen whole days in exchange for a moment’s inconvenience.
But if I refused her offer, there was no guarantee that I would meet my second brother even if I waited for another Hyeondo Sect disciple to come out.
If cultivators were all as greedy as she was, then there was no telling what kind of compensation another one might demand either.
In the end, after a brief moment of thought, I made my decision.
“Very well.”
Then, with another soft snort of laughter, she continued.
“You’d better remember that promise.”
After that, she stomped the ground hard with her foot, and her body was suddenly pulled back into the formation, vanishing in an instant.
The cultivator who had just been speaking with me was, by all appearances, an even greater expert than the wandering hermit Jin Myeong I had brought down.
It seemed there were as many experts in this world stronger than Jin Myeong—whom I had barely managed to overcome after countless brushes with death—as grains of sand on a beach.