Heart-Questioning Blossom
The moment I heard the three syllables of a name that left my heart in such disarray, and I met her with serious eyes for the first time in a long while, the face I had so carelessly passed over until now began to come into focus.
A straight brow and dark, arched eyebrows.
Skin as pale as tofu, with the bright, clear eyes of a cultivator who had reached Foundation Establishment.
And then... those unusually red lips...
In truth, she was not at all like the woman I had once loved. Not in appearance, and not even in temperament.
And yet, just because she shared the same name as the woman I had loved, I could no longer dislike her. The memories left behind by the one I had loved were that precious to me.
“I won’t forget.”
After I gave that answer, my chest oddly heavy, I turned away and began placing the yokai beast’s corpse into my storage pouch. Then I heard Jeong So-sang’s voice once more.
“Aren’t you curious why you mustn’t catch the elders’ attention?”
“If Jeong So-sang wants to tell me, she’ll tell me even if I don’t ask. And if she doesn’t want to tell me, she won’t tell me even if I do, so there’s no reason for me to ask, is there?”
As I spoke, trying my best to sound calm, I heard a faint snort of laughter, and Jeong So-sang continued.
“That’s right. All you need to know is that there’s a factional struggle among the elders.”
Her tone had become so much easier than before that it was hard to believe this was the same woman who had threatened to kill me, rip out my soul, and bury the truth beneath it if I lied.
But after that, while we searched for a suitable cave to spend the night and lit a campfire, no further conversation came. She may have become more relaxed around me, but apparently she had little she actually wanted to say.
So I, too, did not force the matter. Instead, in the silence that settled inside the cave, while I prodded the fire with a wooden stick, I found myself naturally humming a song.
“I ask my heart in the flames.
Even a heart scattered to ash.
Can it still breathe in the wind?
The stars are far, yet they still give light.
Petals fall, yet leave behind their fragrance.
Burning Heart Asks the Mind
Heart and Will Scattered to Ash
Still Breathing in the Wind
The Stars Are Far, Yet They Give Their Light
Flowers Fall, Yet Still Leave Fragrance”
When one often came across complicated martial arts formulas that carried several meanings at once, writing a simple song with a lighthearted meaning like this was hardly difficult.
Thanks to that, when my mood was low, or when I was feeling good, I would sometimes find myself singing songs that expressed my heart without thinking.
But to my surprise, Jeong So-sang reacted to the little verse I sang so casually.
“That’s a lovely song. Would you sing it again?”
Given her usual personality, I had expected her to complain that it was noisy, so it was an unexpected request.
But the surprise didn’t end there. When I gave a small nod and slowly began to sing again, she started swaying her head from side to side in time with my song.
It was the kind of movement that made it seem as though she was truly enjoying it.
And when my song reached its end, she even let out a tiny, wistful sound of regret—“Ah...”
Because this side of her was far more pleasant to look at than the sharp, prickly attitude she usually showed me, I found myself speaking to her in turn.
“Then would you sing a verse for me too, Senior Sister?”
At once, she blushed and snapped back, almost angrily, “How am I supposed to sing if you suddenly tell me to?”
As my song ended, it seemed she had returned to her usual self.
Just when I was about to harden my expression at her sharp reply, she added in a small voice, “I’ll sing for you next time. If I’m going to sing, I need time to prepare myself.”
Had we grown a little closer?
I could no longer dislike her simply because she shared the same name as the woman I had loved, but even so, it was a little surprising to see her attitude toward me change like this.
Still, since this change was better than the awkward relationship we had had before, I answered her with a small smile.
Seeing that smile, she suddenly closed her eyes and said, “I have something to think about, so you can sleep first if you’re tired.”
As expected, no matter how somewhat closer we had become, her fundamentally stubborn nature did not seem likely to change.
So I gave a small shake of my head and stirred the campfire again, and then Jeong So-sang, who had said she had things to think about, suddenly spoke with her eyes still closed, saying something entirely unexpected.
“If you ever meet anyone from Gwi-eum-sa in the future, tell them you are acquainted with this Jeong So-sang. Then you should be able to get through it without much of a fight.”
Had she once wandered the world as a traveling hermit and made acquaintances among the people of Gwi-eum-sa? Or was she, like the white-masked figure I had met at the Dark Dust Market, closely tied to Gwi-eum-sa as well?
I still couldn’t tell what kind of relationship she had with Gwi-eum-sa, but at the very least, it was easy to see that the reason she had said this to me was for my sake.
So I decided to gladly accept her inexplicable kindness.
“I will do so.”
Then she closed her mouth again and fell silent, and our night passed like that, wrapped in quiet, broken only by the occasional sound of me poking at the fire.
“We’ve arrived, Senior Sister. Please go in first.”
When I spoke in front of the formation surrounding the Hyeondo Sect, still seated on the wooden horse flying artifact, Jeong So-sang, who had been riding behind me, slowly dismounted and looked at me while I remained atop it.
“You’re not coming in with me?”
“I have somewhere to go briefly.”
In truth, where I intended to go was the Nine Palaces Tower. I needed to find out exactly what the newly acquired spirit pearl was, in a place free from others’ interference, and I had also promised to bring Seop Myeong-gyeol there.
Besides, on this hunt she had helped save my life, so it was only right that I, a man who understood the way of the jianghu, should keep my promise to her.
Yet after hearing my answer, Jeong So-sang, surprisingly enough, let the words escape her mouth with unmistakable regret.
“We spent so little time together that it would have been nice to at least travel back together...”
Even as she said it, she seemed startled by her own words and quickly turned her head away. Even after becoming an honored guest of the Hyeondo Sect, it would have been difficult for her, given her personality, to form deep friendships with the other sect members, so perhaps our acquaintance had come to mean more to her than I had realized.
Seeing her turn her head aside without taking a single step, I spoke again.
“Senior Sister, take this with you.”
Then I took out another of my flying artifacts, the Silver Swallow Disc, from my storage pouch and handed it to her. She accepted it, looked at it in her hands, and then turned to me with a questioning expression.
“It’s a flying artifact called the Silver Swallow Disc. How can someone like you not have a flying artifact of your own? Of course, I’m not giving it to you for free. If I ever ask you for help later, then help me then.”
In truth, a flying artifact was not some worthless trinket that one gave away to just anyone.
But if I thought of it as something used to win over a single Foundation Establishment cultivator who had shown me a favorable attitude, then it wasn’t such a great price after all.
The wooden horse I was riding right now had also been a gift from someone who held me in good regard, after all.
Fortunately, perhaps because it was something she had desperately needed, she smiled more brightly than I had ever seen and answered, “Good! I don’t know what favor you’ll ask of me, but I’ll help you gladly!”
Before the great yokai beast hunt, she had been nothing more than an annoyance to me, a troublesome Senior Sister with an inconveniently wilful personality.
But judging from her reaction now, I could safely say she was becoming a reliable ally who could lend me strength when I needed it most.
It seemed the great yokai beast hunt I had shared with her had left behind more than just the spoils of war—the spirit pearl and the yokai beast corpse.
Feeling lighter by the moment, I mounted the wooden horse and raced through the sky toward the Nine Palaces Tower.
Jeong So-sang, who had remained where she was, watched me for a long while before slowly disappearing into the formation. Seeing that, I immediately took out the wooden puppet imbued with Seop Myeong-gyeol’s soul from my storage pouch.
As soon as it emerged, Seop Myeong-gyeol, now placed atop the wooden horse flying through the sky, immediately spoke up.
“Hmm~ I don’t know who made this, but what a waste of materials. If it were me, I could have made something far better with these ingredients. No, even if I had asked anyone from the Musang Alliance, they would have made something better than this.”
She was as proud of her sect, the Musang Alliance, as ever.
With a smile on my face, I slowly shook my head and said, “We’re heading to the Nine Palaces Tower. If that really is the Nine Palaces Tower you spoke of, then instead of being good at making artifacts, you ought to be skilled at finding hidden secrets.”
Seop Myeong-gyeol answered in a voice full of confidence.
“Making artifacts and creating gimunjinsik aren’t all that different, after all. If you asked me to make the exact same thing, it would take quite a while, but simply finding hidden spaces isn’t especially difficult if I borrow the power of Heaven’s Eye.”
I had already experienced firsthand how incredible that Heaven’s Eye power was, so I nodded naturally.
My trust in her had grown accordingly, so this time I asked something very important.
“Now that there’s no one around, tell me more about this spirit pearl of yours. Why did that fox yokai beast take it even though it knew it wasn’t meant for it?”
“Because when a great yokai beast with Foundation Establishment-level strength possesses a spirit pearl that matches its own attribute and refines it, it can immediately become a Core Formation-level demonic immortal. That’s also why demonic immortals are stronger than human cultivators of the same Core Formation level.”
Something that bypassed the two bottlenecks present in every realm and directly elevated one’s cultivation level itself. In that sense, it was clearly a wondrous treasure worth coveting, even if the fox yokai beast knew it was beyond its rightful station.
Now that I knew the true nature of that remarkable object, another question naturally arose in my mind.
“Then what happens if a human cultivator, rather than a yokai beast, acquires a spirit pearl?”
“They walk a path of cultivation different from other cultivators. When the Foundation Establishment realm of ordinary cultivators is called Human Dao Foundation Establishment, those who obtain a spirit pearl of the same attribute are called Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment. And those who obtain two spirit pearls of the same attribute are called Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment. It is said that those who reach Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment possess strength on the level of Core Formation, and those who reach Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment possess strength on the level of Golden Core. But in truth, simply obtaining a spirit pearl worthy of being called a heavenly treasure is no easy matter, and even if one does obtain it, one must take one that matches one’s own attribute exactly, so not many walk that path. Even someone like me, with Two Spiritual Roots, would need to acquire two spirit pearls matching my attributes to reach Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment, so the difficulty only grows. That’s why most of those known to have reached Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment were revealed to be either single-root cultivators or those with Heavenly Spiritual Roots.”
Seop Myeong-gyeol’s explanation that one could walk a different path of cultivation by obtaining spirit pearls was interesting enough, but what really caught my attention was the final term she mentioned.
She spoke as though a single-root cultivator and someone with a Heavenly Spiritual Root were different beings entirely.
Sanxiu Jin Myeong had called me a Heavenly Spiritual Root bearer, while my master Cheong-ui Seonin and Seop Myeong-gyeol, whom I met at the Hyeondo Sect, had called me a single-root cultivator. So which was right?
“Are Heavenly Spiritual Roots and single roots different?”
“Of course. All Heavenly Spiritual Roots are single-root cultivators, but not all single-root cultivators are Heavenly Spiritual Root bearers. A Heavenly Spiritual Root is, as the name says, a spiritual root granted by heaven—a vessel of the heavens that can contain whatever one desires. A single root, on the other hand, simply means having one spiritual root; the attribute is fixed from the very beginning. It’s like how a fire-attribute single-root cultivator like you can’t gather wood-attribute spiritual energy.”
At her somewhat thought-provoking explanation, I gathered my thoughts for a moment and then asked again.
“If someone called me a Heavenly Spiritual Root, could I truly be one?”
“It would be possible if the person who called you that was at least a Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment cultivator who had obtained a spirit pearl. Distinguishing a single root from a Heavenly Spiritual Root is difficult even for Nascent Soul cultivators like me who can use Heaven’s Eye, but for Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment cultivators and demonic immortals who have grown by the same method, it isn’t so hard. That is why most figures of the past who were identified as Heavenly Spiritual Root bearers were said to have had ties to demonic immortals.”
Sanxiu Jin Myeong, whom I had slain before even properly entering the Qi Refining realm.
Had he really been a Core Formation-level cultivator walking the path of Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment?
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