Crimson Flame Law-Soul Scripture
Yet the words that came from the wooden puppet as it pulled itself upright were nothing like what I had expected.
"I told you to stop the technique for a moment!"
By nature, a puppet was nothing more than a doll that moved only at its master's command, a being born to submit to me from the very beginning.
And yet the cultivator's soul dwelling within the wooden puppet was resisting me with surprising ferocity.
Frowning slightly, I issued another command.
"Stand."
At once, the black-bodied wooden puppet lurched to its feet without the slightest delay. So it was not ignoring me after all.
And yet, while the puppet's body followed my orders without the least sign of trouble, the voice coming from within remained openly defiant.
"You foolish ape! What stupidity is this? Hurry and get me out of here!!"
After briefly examining the puppet's condition, I slowly ran through the chant of the Ghost Wood Human Illusion Method once more in my head.
Create a wooden body, place within it an object containing a human soul, then drip blood to form the mark of subjugation, and finally breathe in spiritual energy to move the puppet....
So that was it.
Nowhere in the Ghost Wood Human Illusion Method was there any chant for suppressing the spirit trapped within the puppet. The mark of subjugation formed by dripping blood applied only to the wooden body's shell; it was not a spell meant to dominate the human soul sealed inside.
In truth, it was a cruel idea that only cultivators—those who looked down on the untrained as mere commoners and did not even treat them as human—could have conceived.
The soul of a commoner trapped inside a wooden puppet would scream in a darkness from which it could do nothing, unable even to make a sound, but of course there would be no cultivator who cared about such a thing in the first place.
Seeing through the essence of puppet arts in a single glance, I clicked my tongue and spoke to it at once.
"If you dislike the face, I can at least give you eyes. After all, it seems you can speak just fine without ears or a mouth."
Immediately, it shot back in outrage.
"How dare you mock me! I shall show you the true terror of a Nascent Soul cultivator!"
Its words suggested it was about to do something alarming, and I could not help but sharpen my own nerves in response. Unlike before, it now had a body, after all.
But the moment I rested my hand on the hilt at my waist, the dreadful thing it had warned about finally happened.
The wooden puppet, which had been standing perfectly still, suddenly began to rock left and right as it shifted its balance. Then, with a dull thud, it toppled forward.
And that was all....
Just as the stone tablet had rattled whenever the fellow sealed within it flew into a rage, he had succeeded in toppling the wooden puppet by his own power.
Of course, it was not the least bit threatening to me.
So I continued in the same calm voice.
"If you do not want eyes, then I cannot force them upon you. I was only offering you a gift in thanks for the enlightenment you gave me."
After a short silence, the voice from the face-down puppet came again.
"More than that, I want out of this suffocating body...."
He too seemed to have grasped his situation now, and his voice had gone flat with exhaustion.
"Eyes. That is the only thing I can give you right now."
And of course, that was all the fellow trapped in the wooden puppet could do as well: accept my offer.
Yet perhaps because of the lofty pride of a Nascent Soul cultivator, he did not yield easily.
"You.... You truly mean to humiliate me like this? Fine! Do as you please."
Rather than tightening the leash further, I merely informed him of the reality.
"Do not worry. A puppet is made to do whatever I command it to do. When the proper time comes, I shall make use of you as I see fit."
The instant my words ended, the puppet's body, which had been quivering in renewed anger, suddenly stilled with a clack. He must have realized that simply raging like this would get him nowhere.
So I gave the puppet another command.
"Stand."
The puppet, which had been sprawled on the ground until now, sprang upright. At the same time, his voice came through as well.
"All you need is for me to hand over the cultivation art you seek? Of course, a mere Qi Refining cultivation art is nothing to me, a Nascent Soul cultivator. But that does not mean I can simply give it to you. You are not one of our sect, nor are you my disciple."
He was still clinging to his pride to the end, but at least now the conversation was becoming possible.
So I gave him a little room as well.
"It is only a Qi Refining cultivation art. As you said, that amount is nothing to a Nascent Soul cultivator. A Qi Refining method can be bought for the price of a handful of spirit stones, can it not? All you need do is strike a proper bargain with me. You tell me a Qi Refining cultivation art, and I will give you eyes. In that way, you and I can continue to meet each other's needs and maintain a mutually beneficial relationship."
The word I had chosen was trade, carefully selected so as not to trample too heavily on the remains of his already broken pride.
Fortunately, since most cultivators were accustomed to the notion of trade, he responded positively as well.
"It is a ludicrously unfavorable deal for me. I can already see with my heavenly eye, and yet I am to hand over a cultivation art merely to obtain eyes that let me see a little more comfortably. Still, I will do as you ask. But promise me one thing: that one day, when the time is right, you will grant me freedom."
A cultivator at the Nascent Soul realm was bound to harbor intense malice toward me. I could not carelessly set such a soul loose. The moment he regained freedom, he would surely come after me for revenge.
But there was no reason I could not make that promise. At the proper time—meaning if I had become a Nascent Soul cultivator like him, or even stronger—it would not matter if I released him then.
"I promise. One day, when the time is right, I shall grant you freedom. And I will also craft eyes worthy of you with great care."
Then the other party quietly added, "If you were to take me out of this puppet right now, I might be able to help you with all my heart. Not only a Qi Refining cultivation art, but also the cultivation arts of Foundation Establishment and Core Formation, as well as whatever you need from the hundred arts of cultivation—alchemy, artifact refining, talisman making, and the rest—I could teach you anything."
Of course, he might well keep that promise, but I shook my head at once.
"What I want right now is only a small trade through which we can build trust. I will make you eyes, and you will teach me a Qi Refining cultivation art. If we build trust with each small exchange, then one day the time we promised will eventually come."
Perhaps he had never truly expected me to grant his freedom this very moment, for despite my refusal, his voice continued in a somewhat softened tone.
"Very well. I only hope you do not break your promise. You surely know, too, that if one speaks falsehood often, the mind of Dao grows clouded. You have performed purification rites, have you not? Now sit facing me and take my hands."
Speak falsehood and the mind of Dao grows clouded.... In truth, I had never heard such a saying before. It was either something he had made up, or a tale known only to cultivators of high rank like himself.
Still, I did not bother to mention it. Instead, pretending not to care, I sat down facing him as he said and extended my hands. He might use my lack of cultivation knowledge against me if I was careless.
But the moment I crossed my legs and held out my hands, the fellow suddenly barked from within the motionless puppet.
"You should at least tell me to sit down as well!"
In the end, unless I told him to sit, he could not even sit on his own.
"My apologies. Sit down and extend your hands."
The instant my words ended, the puppet dropped into a seated position and thrust both hands forward. When I took its hands in mine, the fellow's voice abruptly changed.
"The method I am about to teach you is called the Crimson Flame Law-Soul Scripture. As I have seen with my heavenly eye, your spiritual root is of the fire element, so I am teaching you the finest fire-element method I know. You should be grateful."
His prickly manner had not changed, but the voice that had once sounded merely murky had indeed transformed.
"Were you a woman?"
Once again, his voice came to me.
"Yes! Now that the purification rite is about to begin, stop talking nonsense and concentrate!"
At her sharp urging, I closed my mouth, and a thin strand of spiritual energy began to cross over into my body from the joined hands of the puppet.
Of course, I had not completely abandoned my suspicion of her yet, so I quietly raised my own spiritual energy and brushed it against hers to gauge her reaction.
At that very moment, the world before my eyes brightened all at once, and a woman appeared before me with her eyes closed—her extraordinarily red lips and the small mole beside her right eye drawing the gaze at once.
Then she immediately began to recite the chant in a swift voice.
"Awaken the first flame hidden within the law-soul.
Let law-soul and spiritual energy melt into one.
Absorb the vitality in harmony, as though the spirit of fire were fusing with the body.
Let the soft flame wrap the body like mist....
First Crimson Flame.
Flame-Soul Fusion.
Flame Spirit Integration.
Gentle Fire Burning Mist.
Crimson Fire Binding the Heart...."
As she softly recited those verses, a pale stream of spiritual energy poured from her mouth and flew straight into my head. Only then did I realize that through this purification rite, I had somehow entered the inner world of my own mind without noticing.
But after some time had passed, the figure of the woman who had finished reciting the chant began to grow faint.
I immediately shouted at her, whose eyes were half-opened.
"My name is Neung So!"
The moment she, now fading, opened her eyes wide, her figure vanished completely. It seemed there would be no more conversation with her for now.
Then, in that instant, I heard something astonishing.
"You! You're only a Qi Refining cultivator.... How did you create such a perfect inner mindscape?"
My inner mindscape was perfect?
In truth, an inner mindscape was, quite literally, a world drawn by the mind. That meant even those who were very close would find it difficult to look into another's and compare.
No, this was the first time I had ever learned that the inner mindscape itself could differ from person to person.
"So the inner mindscapes of others are different from mine?"
"The inner mindscape is, after all, a world painted by the human brain. It is a world that seems splendid yet is monotonous, clear yet blurred. But the inner mindscape you possess was as vivid and magnificent as though seen with the naked eye! More than that, you.... Your own form was clearer than anything else!"
Even after hearing her words, I still could not understand how my inner mindscape might differ from others'.
So I spoke only the one thing I knew.
"I trained in martial arts. And I even saw the end of those martial arts. Perhaps that is the reason."
But she immediately responded in the negative.
"There are many who have trained in martial arts and gone on to become cultivators. Yet none of them would have possessed an inner mindscape as perfect as yours. Think carefully. There is surely some other reason."
If she was going to dismiss martial arts just as the others did, then the only answer I could give was this.
"I know no other reason. When I first struggled to learn a cultivation art, I even used a formation like everyone else and entered my inner mindscape that way."
But upon hearing that, the spirit woman asked in a rather serious voice, "A formation? What was the name of that formation?"
At that, I dredged up a faint memory and answered, "Spirit Heart River-turning Formation."
At that moment, she—who had already startled me several times—spoke again in a voice full of shock.
"Impossible.... How could you possibly know the formation of the forgotten Nine Palaces Tower...."
But I knew the Nine Palaces Tower she mentioned in astonishment all too well.
At the very least, to me, it was never a forgotten place.