The Rat and the Dragon
As expected of "as expected," I suppose.
Seo Geum could not see Yoseonbang.
"But I believe I understand what you mean, Immortal."
"You know about Yoseonbang?"
"Yes. Among those who devote themselves to cultivation, I have heard, there are some who awaken sudden enlightenment and come to harbor what is called the Dao Eye. And those who have awakened that eye, it is said, can perceive the flow of the Dao itself — and speak with one another through it."
"Ah. So that's how it works."
So that was roughly how the rumor had taken shape out there. Well, with as many demon immortals as there were on Yoseonbang, it would have been stranger if word of it hadn't spread. And judging by her saying Dao Eye, human cultivators had to have communities much like it as well — not just demon immortals.
I'll have to be even more careful.
The finest thing about the cultivation world was that nobody knew who I was. That was what kept me clear of every scheme and snare it had to offer.
Either way, this much information alone was enough to make me glad I'd spared Seo Geum.
Though she was trembling rather too much. Cold sweat pouring, shaking like a leaf — she looked for all the world like a drowned rat.
"I was born here. The world outside, I hardly know at all."
So tell me about it. The moment that wish showed on my face, Seo Geum went blank for a beat, then bowed her head.
"That is... all you wished to know...?"
"Your runaway sibling might find their way here someday, you know. Perhaps in league with human cultivators, or demon immortals. You're a kind of insurance policy against that day."
Seo Geum eyed me as though something about that didn't quite add up, but she soon collected herself and dropped her gaze.
"I have a mountain of things I want to ask. Humor me with conversation while you recover."
"As you command."
And so Seo Geum became my temporary housemate.
She was the eldest daughter of the Seo clan, and by her own account her family's fortunes had soured — which was how she had come to the Golden Ring Immortal Realm in the first place.
"What is the Golden Ring Immortal Realm like, from the outside?"
"It is known as a secret realm that opens perhaps once every hundred years. Famous since the primordial era — some say a True Immortal built it, while others claim it is a space that has existed since the very beginning."
Whatever the truth, the Golden Ring Immortal Realm spawned a spatial rift on the fixed cycle when the Golden Ring Eclipse began.
That rift was the entrance. And the exit.
"The entrance to the Golden Ring Immortal Realm endures for about a month. Once the door closes, no one leaves for another hundred years."
"I see. Then it opened a hundred years ago — and before that as well."
Seo Geum nodded.
"But the Eastern Forbidden Zone, I am told, has opened for the first time this cycle."
"Oh?"
Now that was interesting.
"From a cultivator who visited this realm a hundred-odd years ago, I heard that the east lay under a prohibition no being of any realm could breach."
"A law of the secret realm?"
"So he felt certain, yes. And so this time, too, a divination was cast — and it showed the law binding the Eastern Forbidden Zone had gone loose."
Only now did the rough shape of it come into focus.
A law keyed to my realm, perhaps.
A hundred-odd years ago, I had been nothing more than a jiaolong. A few breaths into my new life I was a demon creature; soon after, a demon transformation; and when a hundred years had passed, I stood at the realm of Demon Paragon.
The loosening of the law was surely tied deep to that.
Which means the higher my realm climbs here, the more the law shifts to match it... and the cultivators who come seeking this place will climb just as high.
Once the secret realm's door closed this time, the next time I'd face anyone would be a hundred years off.
No problem there. I hardly intended to spend the interval idling, and with the Silver-Thread Veil prohibition in place, I feared however many came.
"And the rest of the Golden Ring Immortal Realm?"
"I never saw it myself, so I cannot say in detail. The east's prohibition had loosened, and high-realm cultivators could not come — I judged it the safest ground there was."
"And yet you were captured."
"... It was my failure."
That was the gist of it. Keeping Seo Geum alive had been the right call, just as I'd thought. Had I not learned all this, I might have spent my nights wide awake over phantom worries.
My cave abode is safe.
Nascent Soul cultivators could not so much as set foot in the Eastern Forbidden Zone, and anyone beneath them would never punch through the prohibition even if they came.
And even if someone found a way through — no matter. I would simply deal with them myself.
In short, for the next hundred years or so, nothing troublesome lay ahead.
Medetashi, medetashi — happily ever after, in other words. I was now quite certain a peaceful, gallery-posting slow life was mine for the taking.
No need to train myself ragged anymore!
From here on, I could stand to raise the gallery-posting share of my day a notch or two.
Jackpot!
That month Seo Geum lay without waking, I had trained with my heart in my throat, half-convinced more thieves would break in. Harder, in that single month, than in the whole year before it.
Knowing I no longer had to push that far settled my mind at last.
"Have you no further questions?"
"This is plenty for today."
With survival sorted out, nothing else came to mind.
"Then... might I ask something of my own?"
"Sure. What is it?"
"You, Immortal — you seem never to have visited, nor even heard of, any place in the lower realms, secret realms included. Is that so?"
"... It is. I was born here."
"Then — is it true you were born a hundred-odd years ago?"
"...... It is."
Seo Geum masked her astonishment, though she seemed to have caught on to something.
"Why do you ask?"
"Forgive my rudeness. It is only that I cannot help but marvel — the speed with which you reached Demon Paragon a mere hundred-odd years from birth, and the formidable strength you displayed before..."
So she hadn't caught on to anything after all. Well, of course not. A law that shifted to match my realm? I wasn't even certain of it myself — how would Seo Geum know?
"So I'm fast, am I?"
"Exceedingly. For the demon races and demon beasts of the lower realms, five hundred further years to reach Demon Paragon would be the average."
"I see."
That much I already knew. Granted, part of it was that I was simply exceptional — but not all of it.
"Anyone who came to train in my cave abode could manage at least that much."
My cave abode truly was a place where heaven-and-earth origin qi of the fifth tier and above gathered. Train here and stay slow? That would be the real anomaly. Rising to Demon Paragon within a century and taking human form was simply what the venue demanded — hardly anything to brag about.
Anyone else, in this place, would have climbed just the same.
"You are my benefactor, Immortal. You extended grace to a criminal, and I cannot fathom how such a debt could ever be repaid."
There was sincerity in it, but she plainly had something else she wanted to say. She was awfully long-winded.
"... Just say what you're trying to say."
Seo Geum froze, caught out, but soon bared her heart.
"P-please take me as your servant."
"My servant?"
A servant — the word for a low-rank cultivator or menial worked like a slave. The great sects typically filled the role with criminals and captives. And Seo Geum had just asked to be enslaved of her own free will.
Sharp one, isn't she.
Absurd as it was, coming out of nowhere, it was a clever play — words she could never have uttered without a clear grasp of her own position. She understood that her life hung on my every whim. So rather than wait to die, she would bind herself as a loyal servant — and in exchange, please, don't kill her. See how useful I can be. It was an appeal dressed up as devotion.
I had been mulling it over, true.
I'd spared her because I needed information, and yes, pity had played its part. But once her usefulness ran dry? Even I was a little unsure. Sending her out risked reprisals down the road; keeping her in felt, honestly, a touch awkward. I'd planted a prohibition in her, so a knife in my back was unlikely — but awkward was awkward all the same.
It was true I'd weighed simply disposing of her. A clean kill was easier on the mind and left no loose ends.
The Seo clan is small and fragile. She left a sibling behind as a loose end, but that's nothing for me to lose sleep over.
There were the secret realm's laws, and there was my prohibition. A hundred years would pass before the realm opened again, and I hardly planned to spend them lazing about.
Truthfully, even if I never advanced another step, I had nothing to fear — the Golden Ring Immortal Realm's laws and prohibitions would shield me. And now she was begging to serve. There was no reason to refuse.
A cave abode was, at bottom, a mountain hollowed out and made home. There was always more to dig, and every spell and craft I took up would only widen it further. Tending all of that fell to me and me alone.
Which was a chore, admittedly.
The more there was to tinker with, the wider the halls grew, the more labor it all demanded — naturally. But with a servant?
I could reclaim my time and my effort both.
Not bad, actually.
Seo Geum gained her assurance she wouldn't die — good for her — and I got my chores handled — better for me. Besides, the master of a cave abode in a forbidden zone this grand ought to keep at least one attendant for the sake of appearances.
My deliberation didn't last long.
"I'll decide once I've seen how useful you are."
"The chance alone is more grace than I deserve."
Short as my deliberation was, I gave no firm answer on the spot. Couldn't go looking easy to push around.
"Now get some rest."
She was still a patient. Servant duties and cave-abode management could wait until her body had healed.
About time I built a proper room in this place, though. Maybe I should ask the demon immortals.
I wrote up a post on the spot.
As though the entire board had been lying in wait, replies came scrambling in.
This was the demon immortal who habitually swarmed every rawr-rawr post with over-the-top replies. Getting that worked up all by themselves was fairly absurd.
I hadn't thought of that. DemonImmortal(333.3) handed out the warning like someone speaking from experience. Well, they only say that because they don't know this place opens once a century. Come to think of it, this one's secretly a suspicious sort, isn't she.
"Proof," huh...
Whether because I'd told her to rest or because her heart had finally eased, Seo Geum lay back in her chamber and slipped into sleep once more. She had spilled far too much essence blood and her body was in poor shape — natural enough, in its way.
As long as her face stays out of view, no harm done. Besides, I no longer believed for a moment that the demon immortals could ever track me down.
"Might as well do them a little favor, then."
I snapped Seo Geum from a cunning angle — just a sliver of her on display — and uploaded it.
Hehehe, this is going to blow up on Yoseonbang, I snickered to myself — but the response swung wide of anything I'd imagined.
No, wait — this one had reacted exactly on script. It was everyone else who had gone strange.
Nothing like what I'd expected — and the one whose curiosity went nuclear was me.
At that, a demon immortal on an ancient account dropped a terse reply.
The Treasure-Eyed Golden Rat. A golden-furred rat born with eyes that could see treasure for what it was.
In a word—
This servant of mine, Seo Geum — she was, more than I had ever imagined...
"Talk about a windfall rolling right into my lap."
...a far more precious child than I'd realized.
