Ties of the Past, Present, and Future

After parting ways with Hye-yeon, Cho-young made her way back home.

Glancing over at her plot, she spotted tiny, vibrant sprouts pushing up from the center of the three Black Moon Ginseng roots she had spaced out in the soil. They were not growing unnaturally fast; this was simply how the plant grew. Over the next fifteen days, the roots would steadily mature until the upcoming full moon bathed the land in silver, birthing Black Moon Ginseng brimming with the purest spiritual qi of heaven and earth.

Yet, looking at the open patch of earth, a troubling thought crossed her mind.

Is this too exposed?

It was a rare spiritual herb, after all. Back in the world of Biseungdo, Black Moon Ginseng had never been particularly scarce. The cultivation process was finicky, but anyone with enough patience could gather it from the wild, where colonies dotted the mountain valleys. In Neo South Korea, however, it was practically priceless.

To make matters worse, Cho-young’s cultivation sat at merely the first layer of the Qi Condensation realm. She had been fortunate ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so far, encountering only reasonable cultivators. But as her name spread, deranged, power-hungry madmen would inevitably come sniffing around. Against such threats, her current strength would never be enough.

Maybe I should set up a defensive barrier.

Though her meager first-layer cultivation limited her to basic spells like Fireball, casting a ward was not out of the question. Cultivators could always rely on talismans. Provided she knew the diagram and the incantation, it was entirely feasible. The barrier’s strength might be pathetic, but even the flimsiest ward made a world of difference compared to leaving the field completely unprotected.

"Now, where am I going to find paper suitable for talismans...?"

Wondering if there was any aged, fibrous paper left in the house, she turned toward the entrance—only to freeze in her tracks.

A suspicious figure was loitering right near the edge of her field.

It was an elderly person with a severely hunched back, their shock of snow-white hair stark against the dimming afternoon light.

"Excuse me! Who's there?!"

In a world touched by cultivation, appearances were deceitful. An elder with skin like crumpled parchment could easily be an ancient master capable of leveling a city block with a flick of their finger. Cho-young kept her guard up, shouting while remaining firmly rooted in place.

Startled by the yell, the figure flinched, their shoulders quivering as they slowly spun around.

"Lord above! My heart near leapt clean out of my chest, you crazy girl!"

The fiery, sharp-tongued scolding caught Cho-young completely off guard.

"Wh-who are you, and what are you doing in my field?" Cho-young stammered.

If this was indeed a high-ranking cultivator, she needed to tread carefully. No matter how offended she felt, provoking or talking back to an elder was suicidal. Humility was the key to survival in this insane new world. Without the ability to properly perceive spiritual qi signatures yet, she had no way to gauge the stranger's realm. Politeness was her only shield.

The white-haired grandmother gave her own aching lower back a couple of brisk thumps before hobbling toward Cho-young with surprisingly aggressive strides.

"Listen here, you! I thought I told you folks plainly enough, yet here you are pokin' your nose around again! I told you I ain't sellin'! Get lost already!"

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

"I'm the one guardin' this place! Good grief... what's a slip of a girl doing with milk jugs the size of watermelons?!"

Guarding this place? But this is my house. My field.

"Wh-why would you be guarding this land, ma'am?"

"Why else?! Because it belongs to someone I know, that's why!"

Someone she knows?

Cho-young furrowed her brows, tilting her head in confusion. The old woman stared openly at Cho-young’s immense chest with an expression that bordered on genuine envy before finally dragging her gaze back up to her face.

"Someone you know?" Cho-young pressed gently.

"So buzz off! I might look like an old fossil, but I'm the one who blocked those corporate bastards from building an apartment complex over this dirt! Even those fancy government suits couldn't lay a finger on me!"

The words struck a chord. Cho-young suddenly remembered her conversation with Hye-yeon in front of the grocery store. Hye-yeon had mentioned an eccentric elderly woman who had stubbornly held out against the redevelopment of the entire area.

Cho-young narrowed her eyes, scanning every line of the woman’s weathered features.

"What're you squintin' at me like that for, eh? Young folks these days haven't got an ounce of manners... tsk, tsk."

The face was familiar. In fact, the longer Cho-young looked, the more it reminded her of the grandmother who used to live next door decades ago. But that was impossible. Unless the kind old woman from next door had somehow stumbled upon immortality, there was no way she could still be breathing after sixty-two years.

"Excuse me... are you, by any chance, Grandma Lee Young-gyo?"

At the mention of that name, the old woman’s eyes blew wide. Her pupils trembled violently.

"H-how in heaven's name do you know my gran's name?!"

Her grandmother? Cho-young’s breath hitched. Then the person standing in front of me right now is...

"Wait. Don't tell me... Jang Ha-yul?"

The name hit the old woman like a thunderclap. Her hands flew up to cover her mouth, trembling uncontrollably.

"M-my... how do you know my name...?!"

"Ha-yul? It's really you? You're actually Ha-yul?!"

Before Cho-young could take another breath, Ha-yul’s hand lashed out like a whip, delivering a stinging smack right upside Cho-young’s head.

The blow did not hurt in the slightest, but Cho-young stumbled back in sheer bewilderment. Getting struck upside the head was the last thing she had anticipated.

"Aigoo, my poor wrist! What've you got inside that noggin of yours, river stones?!" Ha-yul wailed, shaking out her hand. "A little brat like you tossing around an elder's name without a drop of respect! Who are you?! Who on earth are you to know my name and my gran's, eh?!"

"Ha-yul! It's me! It's your Uncle Seon-ju!!"

Ha-yul froze, staring down and up at Cho-young as if she were looking at the most deranged lunatic on the planet.

"So... what you're tellin' me is... this voluptuous young lady with giant udders is my Uncle... Seon-ju?"

"I'm telling you, it's true!"

"Shoo! Don't you dare mock an old woman!"

Ha-yul flared up in irritation, but her gaze betrayed deep, wavering uncertainty.

"The last time we saw each other, it was that stormy summer, wasn't it?" Cho-young said softly. "Typhoon Anteater. Your greenhouse tore off in the wind, and it ruined my chili pepper patch. Grandma brought you over to apologize, holding your little hand while you cried your eyes out."

"Dear Lord..." Ha-yul gasped, her voice cracking. "Th-that's something only my gran, me, and Uncle Seon-ju knew about."

To Cho-young, that memory was barely a month old. But for Ha-yul, a staggering sixty-two years had carved their path through time.

"Is it... is it really you, Uncle Seon-ju...?"

A flicker of belief finally shone in her cloudy eyes. There was no other explanation. A girl who looked barely twenty could not possibly know intimate details from more than six decades in the past.

"It's really me."

"U-Uncle? What in the world happened to you? Why'd you turn into such a pretty young miss...?"

Watching Ha-yul sigh in utter bewilderment, Cho-young gently took the old woman's trembling, calloused hands into her own.

"I'm just glad to see you healthy. You must be around seventy now, right?"

"Tell me what happened! Please, you've got to explain!"

Cho-young sat her down and gently unraveled the extraordinary tale of what she had endured. If it were anyone else, they would have deemed it the ravings of a madman, but the bond they shared had always run deep. True to form, Ha-yul listened with wide, disbelieving eyes.

"D-does that even make any lick of sense?!"

"I know it sounds crazy. But what can I do? It's the absolute truth."

"Guess you live long enough, you see everything... I knew those cultivator folks were out there runnin' around, but becoming one turns you young and swaps your parts around like that?"

While that was certainly not standard practice for every cultivator, Cho-young simply nodded with an awkward smile.

"Uncle Seon-ju!!"

Tears welled in Ha-yul’s eyes as she threw her arms around Cho-young in a fierce embrace. Her wrinkled face buried straight into Cho-young’s soft, immense bosom.

"Ah—that tickles..."

"You're alive... I'm so glad you're alive..."

"What happened back then, Ha-yul? After I disappeared?"

"...Gran and I came over to check on you after the storm, but the house was empty. We ran out to the fields, but nobody was there either. We searched high and low, everywhere, but..."

They had found nothing. Naturally, considering her soul and body had been pulled across the void into Biseungdo.

"So I was classified as missing, not dead?"

"That's why I guarded this house with my life! Because I knew... I just knew deep down you'd come back one day, Uncle. Even when the district office goons kept tellin' me you were dead and demanded I hand over the deed to the land, I stood right in their way and never budged an inch!"

Cho-young’s chest tightened with profound warmth. She raised a hand and gently patted Ha-yul’s head. The coarse, snowy hair beneath her palm carried the harsh weight of the decades the girl had endured all alone.

"Thank you, Ha-yul. Thanks to you, I had a home to come back to."

"Now... now I can close my eyes and die with no regrets."

"Hey. Don't you dare talk like that."

Cho-young studied the deep furrows etched into Ha-yul’s face.

"You've really grown old."

"I'm seventy, for heaven's sake."

A quiet resolve settled in Cho-young’s heart. What can I do for her? What can I give the child who protected my home and field for sixty-two agonizing years?

An idea struck her. Cho-young reached down, slipped her hand into her interspatial storage pouch, and began rummaging through its mystical interior.

"What are you lookin' for, Uncle?"

"Just wait a second."

Not this one. Not that one either. Ah... here it is!

Her fingers closed around a firm, perfectly rounded object, and she pulled it out into the open air. It looked like a plump, glistening red apple, but in reality, it was a top-grade spirit fruit harvested from the mystical groves of Biseungdo.

"Why're you pullin' out an apple?"

"Eat this."

"Why eat an apple all of a sudden?"

"Just take a bite. Trust me, it'll make your body feel much better."

Though her expression remained skeptical, Ha-yul opened her mouth and took a crisp bite of the fruit. The sweet, fragrant juice burst across her tongue, and she eagerly nibbled away until nothing was left but the tiny core. A heartbeat later, her eyes went ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠round with astonishment as a soothing, revitalizing warmth rushed through her veins.

"Huh?!"

"How do you feel?"

"My back... my aching back doesn't hurt at all!"

"You need to eat them regularly. Here, I'll give you ten more."

"Th-this many?!"

"Eat one every single day. Your health will recover, and you'll have more energy than you've had in years."

The fruit overflowed with benign, life-affirming spiritual energy. For now, this was the greatest gift Cho-young could offer to ease the toll time had taken on her beloved niece.

"Oh, right! Didn't you say earlier you needed some paper?"

"I did, yeah."

Ha-yul scurried back into her own house and emerged moments later clutching a thick stack of traditional, coarse-grained paper.

"Will this do the trick?"

"It's perfect. Thanks, Ha-yul."

Recalling the intricate talisman formations she had studied back in the game, Cho-young neatly tore a sheet in half and began tracing spiritual brushstrokes across the surface.

"Gwi-hi, everyone!"

"Alright, settle down, guys. We're not doing an abandoned house exploration today. Today is an unboxing and review stream."

"Do you guys know what this is?"

"Oh! Looks like a few of you actually recognize it. I figured some of you might."

"That's right. This right here... is an authentic Spirit Pill."

"Thanks for the Chrome Stones! But nope, not selling. I'm swallowing it myself. I turned on the stream specifically to do a live review of this elixir... Down the hatch!"

"For those who don't know, a spirit pill is an elixir that directly elevates a cultivator's spiritual qi and aids in breaking through cultivation bottlenecks. As for where I got it...?"

"Thank you all for the generous stones! And yeah, spot on. Streamer Cheon Cho-young. I bought it directly from her. Everyone go drop by her stream! She grows spiritual herbs and refines her own pills."

"Oh, and let me make one thing crystal clear," Hye-yeon's tone abruptly chilled, her eyes sharpening like poised blades toward the camera. "If any of you bastards are thinking of raiding her place to murder her and steal her stock, you'd better think twice. The moment you touch a hair on her head, I will personally hunt you down and slaughter you. Anyone stupid enough to butcher the goose that lays the golden eggs deserves to die like a dog."

That evening, the entire internet went up in flames.

Following Hye-yeon’s broadcast, the Internet Broadcasting Gallery suffered an unprecedented tidal wave of traffic, sending its servers crashing into blackouts.

And deep in the shadows, hidden eyes stirred.

"Cheon Cho-young, you say?"

"Spiritual herbs?"

"An alchemist... in this day and age?"

"...Pinpoint her exact coordinates immediately."

Beneath the gleaming skyscrapers and hyper-advanced cybernetics of Neo South Korea, ancient cultivation sects had long hidden behind the masquerade of mega-corporations, pulling ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the strings of society from the dark.

"Whether the rumor is authentic or forged, we must recruit her before the Pajeok Sect sinks their claws in."

The colossal gears of power began to turn.