Should've Learned This Stuff On My Own
Lee Yeok was tormented by agony of both body and mind. But as violent as the surging blood-qi twisting through his meridians was, the pain in his heart burned hotter still — the knowledge that something of great value, something that belonged to him, had just been smashed to pieces.
The fact that he had more or less shaken that jade pendant out of An Eun-chae by force did nothing whatsoever to ease his suffering. It had been worth at least a thousand silver nyang.
I can't forgive this... I will never forgive this!!
The moment his heart wavered, the blood-qi boiling up inside him could no longer be contained. Lee Yeok's flushed red face faded to a sickly blue, then began turning black outright. His blood-qi was on the verge of running wild. Soon his body would burst and he would die.
"Powon Suil — hold the whole within the one."
"Gunnyong Hoiso — let the gathered dragons return to their nest, and press the qi down upon the heart."
An Eun-chae spoke the words in a low murmur.
What is this girl going on about? Bewildered, Lee Yeok nevertheless guided his qi and blood exactly as she instructed. The rampaging blood-qi seemed to settle a little — though so faintly he wondered if he was only imagining it.
"Open your mouth."
An Eun-chae said again. In her hand she held a shard of the shattered jade pendant. She pressed the fragment to his lips and let the liquid pooled inside it flow into his mouth.
The liquid seeped into his body at once. Its coolness was like snow falling without warning on a sweltering summer day.
Lee Yeok gradually felt his body easing. The blood-qi steadied, and his true qi grew calm as a windless sea — and then the two flowed together, fusing into one within his body and his heart.
The black creeping across Lee Yeok's face receded, and his color returned to normal. He drove the Silver Soul Divine White Vein into full operation. An indescribably strange sensation washed over him. The flow of his blood turned placid, the circulation of his true qi ran smooth as silk, and his extraordinary meridians and twelve regular channels lit up with light.
Then, from within his blood, the shape of a dragon rose and lifted its head. It was a Blood Spirit.
Powerful blood-qi could conceive a Blood Spirit, and a Blood Spirit could leave the body, take physical form, and become the cultivator's Life-Bound Blood Weapon. Such a spirit grew alongside the cultivator's own training. To possess a Blood Spirit meant, in the end, that one could enter the gates of the immortal sects.
Those born with mighty bloodlines sometimes carried a strong Blood Spirit from birth, and such peerless geniuses walked the path of immortal cultivation from the very start. Compared to them, Lee Yeok — who had conceived his Blood Spirit later in life — had only now stepped onto the same starting line.
"Hoo."
Lee Yeok opened his eyes and let out a long breath. He could tell at once that he had leapt straight past the Five Bones realm to reach the middle stage of the Five Spirits realm. The Five Spirits realm was where one began training true qi in earnest, refined and strengthened from the blood-qi.
At the next stage, the Qi-Harmony Blood realm, one would finally be able to compress true qi into spirit qi — the true threshold of an immortal cultivator.
"That medicine is something else."
Lee Yeok muttered. He had very nearly died, but medicine from an immortal was indeed a treasure of the world. A powerful medicinal force still lingered in his body; purifying it completely would take some time yet.
Only then did Lee Yeok turn his head to look at the jade pendant, split cleanly in two. A wave of grief crashed over him, and he let out a stricken cry.
"My money!"
An Eun-chae could only stare, dumbfounded. The man had just come back from death's very doorstep, and the first thing out of his mouth was a wail about money.
"You're going to pay for this. You have to compensate me!"
Lee Yeok pressed his case, looking for all the world like he was about to burst into tears of injustice.
Her sheer shamelessness left An Eun-chae speechless. She had saved a dying man, and he demanded damages in return. Besides, the jade pendant had been her gift to him in the first place.
After wailing for a good long while, Lee Yeok finally calmed himself and gathered up the fragments of the broken pendant. He could probably still recover some money for them, at least.
"Well, I suppose you meant to help in your own way, so I'll let it slide this once. Not that I'd have had any real trouble without your help."
It was outrageous. If An Eun-chae hadn't stepped in, Lee Yeok would have died right where he sat, leaving nothing behind but a smear of blood and flesh.
"Oh, and by the way — I just broke through from the Five Bones realm to the Five Spirits realm."
An Eun-chae was surprised he had advanced so far in so little time, but she couldn't grasp what he was driving at.
"...So? Are you bragging?"
Lee Yeok said with a grave expression,
"Pay me more."
"What?"
"My abilities changed, so obviously the price should change too. Out of consideration for the help you just gave me, I'll offer a special discount. It was twenty thousand silver nyang originally, right? So that brings it to thirty thousand. Fair deal, don't you think?"
An Eun-chae opened her mouth to argue back several times, and each time she simply closed it again. There was no reasoning with this man. It was too late for regrets; she had no choice now.
What mattered was reaching Jinseong as quickly as possible. Without a word, she climbed into the carriage.
"Let's depart. Please take me to Jinseong as fast as you can. The moment we arrive, I'll pay you the silver we agreed on, without delay."
The chill and contempt in her tone didn't faze Lee Yeok in the slightest. He swiftly harnessed the resting horse back to the carriage and set off.
"No problem at all, my lady! With my newfound strength, your safety is more guaranteed than ever!"
The carriage rolled slowly forward. Humming a tune as he drove, Lee Yeok suddenly asked An Eun-chae a question.
"My lady, you really weren’t an ordinary person after all. I bet you’re some kind of genius cultivated by a great clan, aren’t you? That, uh, what’s it called—Innate Nurturing of the Way?"
An Eun-chae didn't answer, but inwardly she was a little startled. This shameless thug, of all people, knew surprisingly much.
She tried hard not to let it show, but Lee Yeok needed only that tiny shift in her expression to know his guess had been right.
Innate Nurturing of the Way was one method by which noble houses raised the children of their line. Youngsters with natural talent were selected early, and from childhood onward they cultivated their qi and blood and steeped themselves in the Laws of the Dao.
Before the age of sixteen, they never practiced a single mortal martial art — not even the most basic weapon techniques. It was all for one purpose alone: to produce the finest possible 'immortal seedlings.'
Immortal seedlings were disciples of the immortal sects.
A life chosen as a seedling was like rising to the heavens on a blue cloud. No ordinary person, no matter how tirelessly they trained, could ever catch up. When the time ripened, they would vault past the final realm most people ever reached in a single bound.
An Eun-chae said nothing, as if her identity being exposed had put her in a foul mood.
Lee Yeok just grinned and didn't press the matter. Once he'd delivered her to Jinseong and collected the promised silver, their paths would never cross again. Innate Nurturing, immortal seedlings — none of it was his concern.
A few hours later, the carriage arrived at a small village. An Eun-chae, who hadn't spoken a word the entire way, finally opened her mouth.
"Um... I'm hungry."
Lee Yeok chuckled.
"Whatever you want, just say the word! You're paying anyway. I'll do the math carefully, so eat as much as you like."
You money-grubbing leech! An Eun-chae barely swallowed the words.
"I... I'd like to look around first."
In her eyes, Lee Yeok glimpsed curiosity and a kind of yearning. It was nothing more than an unremarkable little village, yet to her everything seemed fresh and new.
"Being an immortal seedling isn't so easy after all, huh? You've never actually gotten to see the outside world, have you?"
An Eun-chae lowered her head. This might, after all, be the last chance she ever had to see the world beyond.
Lee Yeok fished a pouch out of his coat and tossed it over. An Eun-chae barely caught it and stared at him in surprise.
"That's ten silver nyang. I'll park the carriage and be back, so buy yourself something to eat and have a look around in the meantime. Of course, don't forget you'll be paying every bit of it back in Jinseong."
An Eun-chae couldn't hide her delight. Having dropped her off, Lee Yeok gave her a smile that didn't quite reach sincerity, then drove the carriage away.
An Eun-chae opened the pouch Lee Yeok had given her. Inside were five silver nyang.
"You... you rotten bastard! That money-grubbing son of a—!"
An Eun-chae stamped her feet in fury. The tragedy of a life spent as an immortal seedling was that she simply didn't know enough curses suited to the occasion.