Jade Ornament
Tap!
It was only the lightest stamp of my foot, yet in the next instant my body had already reached right in front of Jeong Sasuk. It was the terrible speed born of the Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, the kind of movement forged by martial arts that had already reached the pinnacle.
So fast was I, in fact, that only after I arrived did a storm of wind rise up around me.
Hwaaah—
Jeong Sasuk had never imagined I could raise my cultivation to such a level. Startled by my sudden appearance and the fierce wind that swept in with me, she stumbled backward and collapsed to the ground.
“What on earth is this……?”
I used Controlling Objects Technique to lift her from the dirt floor where she had fallen.
“I experienced a rise in cultivation. As for you, Sasuk, what in the world happened to you?”
Only then, still staring at me in a daze, did Jeong Sasuk finally answer.
“No matter how many yoksa beast cores you gathered, this…… I’ve never even heard of a cultivator reaching the Foundation Establishment stage this quickly.”
Strictly speaking, I was not merely at the level of an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator. I had become a Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment cultivator—one who possessed the power of the Golden Core realm. There was no need to say that aloud.
“It was due to Sasuk’s consideration and the chance encounter I was fortunate enough to receive. But what on earth happened to you that you ended up in such a sorry state?”
Fortunately, once she heard my words, she did not dwell on my cultivation and instead began explaining her own condition.
“A rather cunning spider great beast trapped me. I barely managed to defeat it, but this is the result.”
If I had not already heard Seop Myeong-gyeol’s account, I would have accepted Jeong Sasuk’s words without question.
But I had heard Seop Myeong-gyeol. She had clearly said that Jeong Sasuk had run off with a male cultivator……
At the very least, one of them was lying to me.
So I asked her again.
“Might that spider great beast not have been a yao immortal? Even if you were ambushed, it is hard to imagine it leaving a Foundation Establishment Sasuk in such a state.”
Yet she merely shook her head with a calm expression and replied.
“Of course, even if they possess similar power, a great beast is weaker than a Foundation Establishment cultivator. The way they wield power is simpler than that of cultivators. Just as, even among cultivators of the same realm, a cultivator from a great orthodox sect is stronger than wandering recluses.”
While her face remained composed as she continued speaking, her spiritual energy trembled uneasily. Now it was clear who was lying.
And yet, despite her lie, I smiled at her all the same.
“Even so, if it was enough to leave Sasuk in such a difficult position, then you must have met a very crafty one indeed. Still, it is a relief that you do not appear badly injured.”
Once I decided to trust someone, I had to trust them to the end. Surely she, too, must have her reasons for telling me a lie……
As if relieved by my response—so much like I believed her—Jeong Sasuk soon continued.
“It certainly doesn’t feel bad to know there is someone worried about me. It’s been a long time. I haven’t felt this way in ages…….”
“I’m sure your family still worries about you as well, Sasuk.”
“Yes. Perhaps. My parents sold off a ten-year-old girl to a wandering hermit for only a few silver coins, and yet I still miss them. I know all too well that the reason they sold me was not to fill their own hungry bellies, but to ease my own hunger.”
In truth, during all the time I had lived in the Neung family, I had never once worried about where my next meal would come from.
But for her, and for many others in this world, that had not been the case. That was precisely what made even her sorrowful story feel painfully ordinary in this world…….
“After becoming a cultivator, did you ever go back to look for them?”
“I thought I should, someday. But I haven’t yet.”
“Then how about going with me?”
Hearing that, she gave me a small smile and went on.
“Would you do that for me? If I could meet your family first and then see mine with you afterward, I think that would be quite lovely.”
In truth, after visiting the Neung family with her, I had intended to go to the Nine Palaces Tower. I wanted to peer into its secrets together with the insight she had gained while living as a wandering hermit.
But once I learned that her experience of the world was not so broad after all, it seemed better to visit her family together rather than insist on going to the Nine Palaces Tower with her.
If I drew a little closer to her heart, I would naturally come to understand why she had lied to me……
And so, each of us carrying different thoughts, we took one another’s hands. At least in this moment, the warmth she passed into mine was genuine…….
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
With a lively flute melody and a village completely soaked in festival atmosphere, Jeong Sasuk asked me, “Is there some special celebration in this village?”
I slowly shook my head. As far as I knew, this small village where the Neung family estate stood had no festival this boisterous.
“I’ll look into it for a moment.”
After saying that to her, I approached a merchant who happened to be nearby.
Assuming I meant to buy something, he brightened and said, “You’re getting a gift for that young lady, aren’t you? Then how about this jade ornament? This butterfly made of jade has both a graceful and understated charm. If you pin it in her hair, people will think a butterfly mistook her for a flower and settled there.”
The merchant was rather amusing in the way he spoke, and I let out a quiet laugh before nodding.
“Very well. I’ll take one of those. But what good thing is happening in this village?”
“Why, there’s plenty. Since yesterday, the eldest son of this village’s largest noble family has been holding his wedding ceremony. And soon, the two taels of silver you’ve spent, young master, will return to you as good news.”
Two taels of silver for a small jade ornament did seem rather expensive.
Still, I gladly paid the man who had given me such pleasant news—that my eldest brother was being married.
It was a shame I could not come with my second brother, who was currently in secluded cultivation, but even the chance to witness my eldest brother’s wedding unexpectedly was enough to make this a joyous occasion.
So I returned to Jeong Sasuk with a broad smile.
“It seems we came at just the right time. It turns out my eldest brother’s wedding is being held right now.”
Then, casually handing her the jade ornament I had been holding, I watched a slightly startled Jeong Sasuk accept the butterfly-shaped piece and ask, “What is this?”
“I thought it would suit you, so I bought it. If you pin it in your hair, wouldn’t people mistake you for a flower with a butterfly perched on it?”
Perhaps because I added the merchant’s playful remark, Jeong Sasuk’s face grew wonderfully bright.
At that moment, Seop Myeong-gyeol, standing beside her, raised her voice.
“Neung So, your efforts for dual cultivation are truly admirable! I am learning so much from you.”
Seop Myeong-gyeol, who had once begged me never to place her back in the night jar again. I had honored that request. I had dressed the wooden puppet body she inhabited in loose martial robes that covered it from head to toe, and a bamboo hat of death bamboo, then ordered her to guard the area around us like a bodyguard.
Yet even while her wooden puppet obediently followed my commands, she would still toss out such nonsense from time to time. Since it was difficult for me to reply to her, I simply pretended not to hear most of what she said and ignored it.
Of course, Jeong Sasuk, who could not hear her, continued speaking as if Seop Myeong-gyeol had never spoken at all.
“I didn’t expect to hear something like that from you. Still, it isn’t an unpleasant thing to say. I’ll cherish this ornament you gave me.”
As soon as she finished speaking and pinned the jade ornament in her hair, the small jade butterfly caught in the sunlight and released the jade’s own sorrowful, translucent glow.
I watched it for a moment, then spoke again.
“At my home, there is a snack called Lotus Milk Ball, which we make when a valued guest visits. It is a glutinous rice cake made by soaking lotus seeds in sweet honey, then shaping them with milk and glutinous rice flour. It is delicious even the first time you eat it, but strangely enough, it becomes even more memorable after some time has passed. Today, I would like you to taste that Lotus Milk Ball, and I hope that someday you will come here with me again just so you can eat it once more.”
With those words, I held out my hand, as though inviting her to come again and again. Jeong Sasuk took it without the slightest hesitation.
“That sounds like a good idea. I want to try that Lotus Milk Ball as soon as possible.”
Then, like a chorus falling in behind the melody, Seop Myeong-gyeol chimed in.
“I want to try it too!”
I smiled and went on.
“I’ll make a special request to my family and have them serve you as much as you like.”
I could promise both Seop Myeong-gyeol and Jeong Sasuk that much without hesitation. Fortunately, both seemed quite satisfied with my answer……
But soon afterward, the smile that had bloomed at the corners of my mouth vanished completely.
Normally, this place—well named Heavenly Flag World because its people loved flags so much—was already full of banners bearing the Neung family’s crest.
But the flags hanging over the estate before me now were absolutely not the ones I knew from the Neung family. Even the scene inside the open gates, arranged to welcome festival guests, felt terribly unfamiliar……
“Kwahahaha! Thanks to the Kim family head today, my eyes have been opened in a big way! Where on earth did you find such beautiful dancing girls?”
A boisterous voice carried all the way out beyond the gate. Just as he said, inside the estate were several scantily clad dancers wearing nothing but fluttering thin garments, performing obscene dances. If this were my father—the man who valued family dignity and strict rules above all else—such a thing would have been absolutely unthinkable.
What on earth had happened?
Where had the members of this body’s family and household gone?
My face stiffened like cold stone, and in the end I stepped through the wide-open gate to answer the question that had been piling up one after another.
Inside, amid a scene both familiar and strange, a servant approached me.
“If you would kindly tell me who you are and where you’re from, I’ll have a seat arranged for you at once.”
Instead of Wang Wi, whom I had expected to greet me, a stranger now stood before me. I looked at him and said, “You dare to tell me you’ll arrange a seat for me?”
I understood perfectly well that, as nothing more than a servant, he had likely meant no ill will.
But the words that came out of my mouth, already soured by my mood, were anything but kind.
After all, I was no hypocritical man of the righteous sects who merely spoke prettily; I was a man of the demonic path, honest about my emotions and desires. It was only natural.
The servant, crushed beneath the oppressive force that burst out of me in that instant, went pale as paper and promptly wet himself.
“Huh—!”
My gaze, which had been fixed on the servant who could not even breathe properly, finally shifted to the man seated in the place of honor at the banquet table.
At that moment, perhaps sensing something, he looked back at me too.
A long mustache and sharp eyes.
That was the most striking feature of the man at a glance. The bright spiritual light in his eyes and the aura he gave off marked him as at least a martial artist at the pinnacle.
But it did not matter whether the fellow was a peak expert I could trample like an insect, or a martial artist of the same level as my current self. None of that was important.
What mattered now was only that that mustached man sat in the place where my father should have been sitting.
“Where is the master of this estate?”
I had not used any special spiritual arts or sound techniques.
And yet the moment my words ended, silence fell over the noisy banquet hall, where countless voices had been tangled together in uproar. The frightened dancers trembled violently and fled to the side.
Only then did the mustached man finally open his mouth.