Dark Dust Market
And that new sensation soon told me exactly what attributes my second brother possessed.
Fire, wind, and wood.
Just as elixirs placed inside a danlu would each bloom with a color unique to the attributes they held, my second brother’s head, too, was radiating the colors of three different attributes.
Of course, there were other currents of qi around us that carried color. Right before us, the fragment of elixir lay exuding a faint green wood-aspect qi.
It was like a blind man suddenly opening his eyes; I could now see with my own eyes the qi that had previously been nothing more than a presence I sensed, and naturally my understanding of qi had deepened as well.
So I immediately tried to gather the qi around me. Perhaps the reason I had never been able to make use of the surrounding qi until now was simply because my understanding of qi had been too shallow.
But the clump of qi that had been naturally gathering together slowly stopped moving the instant I tried to draw it into my body. No matter how hard I strained, it would not budge again. My understanding of qi had clearly improved, and yet the qi around me now felt even farther away than before. It was so distant that I could no longer even feel the fierce rejection I had sensed previously.
It was as though not only qi, but the world itself, was refusing me.
And yet I had once again experienced a rise in cultivation through the use of an elixir, so this time I was not especially disappointed. As long as I kept finding and consuming all manner of elixirs, my cultivation would naturally rise sooner or later.
Just as I hardened my resolve and clenched my fist, my second brother finally opened his eyes, which had been closed all this time.
Then, all at once, he brought his hands together in a prayer seal and began moving them swiftly, forming one hand seal after another.
The qi in front of him began to churn, and before long a fireball the size of a fist blossomed in the air before us. At first glance it looked somewhat like the Three-Mystery True Fire produced by a martial expert at the peak of mastery, but it was an even larger mass of flame.
As soon as my interest turned to it, my second brother finally broke into a bright smile and spoke.
“I did it at last! I succeeded in the Fire Bullet Art! I’ve finally broken past the entry level of Qi Refining!”
Not only I, but my second brother as well, had succeeded in raising his cultivation after taking the fragment of elixir. Unlike me, he could absorb the qi around him too, so perhaps his cultivation had risen far more than mine.
“So you’ve reached the third stage of Qi Refining, then.”
At my words, my second brother shook his head without the slightest hesitation. Could it be that he had reached the fourth stage instead of the third in a single leap?
“You mean by saying I’ve broken past the entry level, I’ve reached the fourth stage, the middle phase of Qi Refining?”
But again, my second brother shook his head.
Then he said something astonishing.
“If a tiny little fragment of elixir could send one’s cultivation soaring that much, then there wouldn’t be a single cultivator in the world who wasn’t some high-level master, would there? I’ve only just reached the great completion of the first stage of Qi Refining. No, at times like this, I suppose I should say I’ve reached the state of full refinement rather than great completion. Anyway, I’ve perfectly conquered the first stage of Qi Refining, that’s what I’m saying. You saw the Fire Bullet Art I just used, didn’t you? Once you can use this, you can be treated as a proper cultivator wherever you go.”
Perfecting the first stage of Qi Refining. It was certainly no small accomplishment, but considering that he had absorbed not only the qi within the elixir but also the qi around him, it was a rather disappointing result.
After all, even I, who had been unable to move the surrounding qi at all, had instantly completed the second stage.
Could this be a difference in aptitude?
A cultivator with single spiritual roots surpassed one with dual spiritual roots, and a cultivator with dual spiritual roots surpassed one with three spiritual roots, because the fewer attributes one had to handle, the faster one’s cultivation rose. It was easier to fill one than to fill two, and easier to fill two than three.
Of course, for someone with three spiritual roots like my second brother, my own cultivation should have risen faster by all rights, since I had single spiritual roots.
But that was only true if I were a normal single-spiritual-root cultivator who could absorb even the qi around him.
Unfortunately, I was only a half-formed single-spiritual-root cultivator who could not move the surrounding qi, so I had thought my second brother might rise in cultivation faster than I would. And yet the actual result was that my own cultivation had advanced vastly more quickly than his.
Before eating the elixir fragment, I had been no more than someone who had formed a law soul, whereas my second brother had already stepped into the first stage of Qi Refining. So if one considered only the degree of growth in cultivation, the efficiency difference between us was more than double.
While I let out a low hum at this unexpected result, my second brother looked at me and continued.
“You’ve stepped into the first stage of Qi Refining too, right? No, you’re more gifted than I am, so maybe you’re already just about to complete it.”
At that, I considered it for a moment. Should I tell him the truth—that the gap between us was much larger than he imagined—or should I simply nod? Fortunately, the answer came quickly.
“My aptitude really is much better than yours.”
I decided not to tell him the full truth, but to give him a subtle hint instead.
And immediately, my second brother reacted.
“Wow. You little bastard really are infuriating. You’re better than me at martial arts, and even your cultivation talent is better than mine. So what exactly are you lacking compared to me—besides your face?”
At his complaint—if one could even call it a complaint—I laughed despite myself and answered with a smile.
“Your face is definitely bigger, at least.”
My second brother made a bewildered expression at my words, but soon enough a smile spread across his own face too.
Watching that bright smile, I became certain once again that sharing the elixir with him had not been a mistake that would only slow my own progress. He was surely someone who filled in what was lacking in the man called Neung So. Someone who showed me warmth I had never had, and helped me reclaim the smile I had lost.
He was my family.
We laughed at the nonsense my brother often blurted out, sparred now and then, and in that way the first six months of my life in Hyeondo Sect passed swiftly. Naturally, I had grown a great deal in that time as well.
Huuup—fuuuu…
With a thin breath that I drew in and slowly exhaled, I opened my eyes, which had been closed all this time.
Light seemed to flood my vision, and the flow of qi surrounding me now felt so distinct I could almost grasp it in my hands.
I had finally completed the third stage of Chaos Heaven Secret Law, Qi Refining Soul-Injection.
Just as a martial artist circulating internal energy through the body would, the third stage of Chaos Heaven Secret Law, which circulated qi within the law soul, was teaching me what flow truly meant.
In fact, according to Five Elements Guiding Art, the basic cultivation art I had learned here in Hyeondo Sect, a similar principle called Meridian Qi Flow did not appear until the fourth step.
In other words, even if the stage of Chaos Heaven Secret Law was one level lower than that of Five Elements Guiding Art, the results the two arts produced were actually similar when one looked beneath the surface. That was just how exceptional Chaos Heaven Secret Law was.
And so I continued practicing Chaos Heaven Secret Law rather than the Five Elements Guiding Art I had learned in Hyeondo Sect.
However, no matter how much I used Chaos Heaven Secret Law, which made me stronger more quickly, and no matter how many elixirs I swallowed along with it, my cultivation still would not rise as much as I wanted.
The effects of the green pill that had once raised my cultivation by two stages at a stroke had been greatly diminished as my cultivation improved.
Unlike before, when a single elixir fragment had carried me up two whole levels, this time I had spent two elixir fragments and six full months just to reach the third stage of Qi Refining.
It was safe to say that with the one remaining fragment of elixir in my satchel, I could no longer expect any significant rise in cultivation. In the end, it was time to seek out a new elixir.
Of course, there were still the red elixir and spirit stones left in my satchel, so rather than doing assignments in the mission hall and raising my merit points, it would be more efficient to visit the local black market.
So I slowly turned my gaze and looked at my second brother, who was bustling about inside the dwelling.
Perhaps he felt my stare, because he stopped in the middle of his busy movements and turned to look at me.
“What? You’re done cultivating? How long have you been awake?”
Our second brother had plastered his face with some kind of grain powder that smelled faintly nutty, and I let out a quiet sigh at the ridiculous sight before speaking.
“Not long. What were you making—food?”
He let out an awkward laugh at my words and replied.
“Ah, this? I’m not making food. I put this on my face on purpose. If you mix up coix seed powder and apply it like this, your skin gets nice and soft.”
Was there some reason a cultivator needed soft skin?
I couldn’t make sense of the answer, so I simply looked at him silently, as if waiting for him to explain further.
My brother, now somewhat embarrassed, eventually continued.
“The second entrance trial is coming up soon, isn’t it? And of course Dong-a will be there too. Heh heh.”
“Sounds to me like that’s not what you should be worrying about right now. Have you already forgotten the heat from my Fire Bullet Art in our last spar?”
“How could I forget? I had to go through so much trouble just to get a Green Wood Talisman because of it—ugh, seriously! But wounds on the body can be erased with talismans, while wounds on the heart can’t be erased. If I slack off now and fail to catch Dong-a’s eye, I’ll probably have to live with that wound for the rest of my life.”
What an astounding reason. So astounding, in fact, that it was almost absurd enough to make me laugh in defeat…
And yet seeing the seriousness on his face, I couldn’t bring myself to criticize him openly. I, too, had once experienced the burning heat of something called love.
“You’re right that you shouldn’t regret something like that. Still, it’s time we went looking for a black market and found another elixir.”
At that, my second brother, who was quietly counting on his fingers, brought up a rather interesting suggestion.
“Today happens to be the day the Dark Dust Market opens. Want to start there?”
I had heard of the Dark Dust Market before. The Shadow Talisman Department, where my brother and I belonged, was a place visited by Hyeondo Sect disciples almost as often as the mission hall, so I had heard a number of rumors about it.
“Isn’t the Dark Dust Market just a place where sect members gather to trade things among themselves? Can you really find anything worthwhile there?”
My brother shook his head at once and replied.
“That’s only seeing one side of it and missing the other. You’re right that because not many people gather there, it’s hard to get full price for anything, but that also means we can get things cheaply too. Besides, the Dark Dust Market is where resourceful disciples trade the things they’ve gathered by using their skills to the fullest. The Clear Harmony Pill of our Hyeondo Sect is one of the main items traded there. It’s known to be useful even up to the middle stage of Qi Refining, so for us right now it would be the most efficient elixir possible.”
Things gathered by resourceful disciples using their abilities to the fullest…
My brother really had a talent for dressing up stolen goods and bribes. It was as if he didn’t know why the Dark Dust Market was called the market where things scattered like dust in the dark.
Because of that, I let out a dry laugh, and when my brother saw me, he quickly continued.
“Anyway, the Dark Dust Market is a place where lower-ranked disciples attend while wearing masks, so no one’s going to bother you. Just look around at the goods there, and if the terms don’t suit you, you can simply walk away without making a deal.”
Then I asked him straight away.
“So you know how to attend it? Everyone knows the Dark Dust Market exists, but not many know when it opens or how to get in.”
At my words, my brother grinned, plucked off some of the grain powder clinging to his face, rubbed it between his fingers, and blew it away with a soft puff before answering.
“The finest black market in all of Hyeondo Sect, where it opens in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep and scatters like dust the moment dawn breaks! Even the Dark Dust Market can’t escape the reach of this body!”
Thanks to that, I learned one thing for certain: my brother had already attended it before.
And most likely, the goods he traded there were certainly connected to the Shadow Talisman Department we belonged to…
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