Chapter 27
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 27
The moment word arrived that his requested materials had been delivered to the medicine hall, Ise immediately set to work refining pills.
Though it was a crude trick he had only recently learned, he intended to use every resource at his disposal.
Excluding the five spirit stones he had already spent in Cheongsangyeong, he tossed in his remaining five. He dumped every last one into the process.
The single stone he wore as a necklace was a keepsake and couldn't be used. That meant he had effectively poured all ten spirit stones he’d received as compensation into this single mission.
Of course, he hadn't actually used the finished product yet.
Watching the pill-refining process, Seol Ryeong’s eyes sparkled.
"That looks surprisingly proper. When did you learn alchemy?"
"I didn't. I just memorized the recipes for a few pills. They're hardly worth calling true elixirs."
"So, what are you making?"
"An antidote."
Seol Ryeong was about to pry further but quickly changed her mind. The double-boiling process, which actively consumed spirit stones, looked far more arduous than she had expected.
She simply assumed Ise was preparing for the off chance they might be poisoned during their encounter with the rogue cultivator.
Antidotes need to be tailored to the specific type of poison, though... Well, no need to rain on his parade.
After all, having a general-purpose antidote was better than nothing.
"Seol Ryeong."
"Yeah?"
"Instead of just killing time, if you've got nothing to do, go out and buy a gift."
"A gift? What kind?"
"You never know. We might actually get invited inside by a senior cultivator. It'd be good to bring a token of sincerity."
Whether they would be treated as guests or intruders, however, remained to be seen.
*
"Buy a new cauldron for next time."
After spending an hour busily working his hands to finish the antidote, Ise advised the physician to throw away the tainted cauldron. Then, the two of them headed toward the rogue cultivator's cave abode.
Finding the cave abode was easier than expected. Deep in the mountains, at the exact spot pointed out by the innkeeper, they discovered a shabby hut that looked like a mortal mountain keeper's dwelling.
It was precisely the seventh day, just as Seol Ryeong had predicted.
"Do you have some ability to read the Heavenly Secrets or something? I didn't expect us to find it in exactly seven days."
"Hehe. I've been told plenty of times that I have the makings of a gifted shaman. Why, want me to divine your fortune?"
"Just check if I'll still be alive after today."
"Let's see... Alive and whole, with all four limbs intact! You have nothing to worry about."
"I'll pay the divination fee if we survive."
"My, postponing a shaman's fee brings awful luck, you know."
"What a miserly shaman," Ise muttered, tossing a single coin to her.
Instead of making a rash move, the two kept their distance and observed the rogue cultivator's cave abode.
Not a single person—not even a rat—passed by.
Unless someone searched the area with the firm conviction that a cultivator's cave abode was hidden here, it was an ordinary landscape easily passed by without a second thought.
A rogue cultivator would have struggled to obtain a high-grade barrier capable of complete concealment in the first place. His best option was to disguise the place as a mortal mountain keeper's hut and cast a low-grade barrier to prevent his stagnant spiritual energy from leaking out.
Thanks to that, when viewed from the outside, the ambient spiritual energy flowed naturally without anything seeming suspicious. However, assuming a cave abode truly existed on this mountain, this was the only viable candidate.
And yet...
Something's strange.
What bothered Ise was a peculiar aura mixed within the veiled spiritual energy. Since he wasn't entirely certain, he didn't bother explaining it to Seol Ryeong. Instead, he simply filed away another hypothesis in his mind.
Having arrived around dawn, the two waited until dusk began to fall.
They had hoped to catch the rogue cultivator outside his cave abode, but it seemed his cultivation session was running long.
Once cultivators immersed themselves in closed-door cultivation, they could shut themselves away for days or even months. Sitting here and waiting offered no guarantee of when they would finally run into him.
"What should we do?"
Though the answer was practically decided, Ise checked Seol Ryeong's stance one last time.
If they took even one more step forward, Cultivator Kim Si-won would notice their approach.
There would be no turning back.
"Guess what this is?"
Seol Ryeong held up a talisman pinched between her index and middle fingers. It bore a pattern he had seen a few days ago at the Great Martial Dao outpost.
"A Messenger Talisman?"
"Bingo. I squeezed one out of Hong Sa-deuk."
"You're pretty ruthless, aren't you?"
"What do you mean? I just took it in case we needed it. Let's send this location to Hong Sa-deuk, along with instructions to report to the main mountain if we don't return."
"So you mean to kick down the front door."
"Quick on the uptake, aren't you?"
Seol Ryeong’s plan was simple: approach the cave abode, state their affiliation, knock on the door, and bluntly inform him that his spirit creature was waiting for him.
Though their realms were low, from the rogue cultivator's perspective, harming two disciples affiliated with the Great Martial Dao would bring far more loss than gain.
If the bastard showed hostility, they would warn him that the location of this cave abode had already been sent to the Great Martial Dao.
They would force a choice on him.
Murder the two of them to silence them and abandon his cave abode to flee, or swallow his pride and engage in dialogue.
"If he agrees to talk, what exactly are you going to verify?"
"First, I'll ask him for the truth. And if he really did abandon her... I'm thinking of asking him to lie."
To tell the Bamboo Tube Beauty that he hadn't abandoned her. That he simply couldn't come to meet her due to unavoidable circumstances. And to call her name.
Forcing him to tell a white lie.
Of course, even that might not stop the Bamboo Tube Beauty's corruption. It was merely wishful thinking, after all.
But in accordance with the true meaning of soul pacification, it was about offering a small comfort.
So that she could at least die as a spirit creature, without leaving any lingering resentment behind.
"Let's do that."
Meeting Seol Ryeong's eyes in agreement, Ise slowly approached the cave abode.
"Prepare your defensive Dharma Artifact, just in case."
Seol Ryeong nodded. Ise also readied himself, prepared to instantly rouse his spiritual energy and protect his body at a moment's notice.
It was common knowledge that at the same realm, a cultivator was far more terrifying than a demon ghost.
And if the opponent was a cultivator, one should never lower their guard—even if their realm was two or three stages higher.
Flipping that logic, it also meant that a cultivator two or three stages above could still be hunted.
Ise stepped forward one pace at a time, Seol Ryeong following closely behind him.
He kept his Dokkaebi Sense pulled taut to its absolute limit.
As they drew close to the immediate vicinity of the hut, a sharp sensation washed over him. They had stepped inside a formation.
As expected, it was merely a simple formation meant for deception.
Ise took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
"Is anyone home?"
There was no response.
Yet he felt it.
Seol Ryeong and Ise were waiting tensely outside the door. And inside, standing upright and staring right back at them, was the rogue cultivator, Kim Si-won.
All three were acutely aware of each other's presence, gazing at one another through their Spirit Eyes.
Unmistakably.
Judging by the sheer amount of spiritual energy, he's at the 4-Star Qi Refining Stage. Maybe 5-Star.
He was either blocked at the minor realm wall, or had just broken through it.
It matched their anticipated realm with exact precision.
"We are Daoists belonging to the Great Martial Dao. We didn't come to harm you, Cultivator. Could we speak for a moment?"
Still, there was no answer.
"Cultivator Kim Si-won?"
Just as Ise thought that hearing his own name would force the man to react—
Click.
The door cracked open, an object dropped to the floor, and the door slammed shut immediately.
A bomb-type Dharma Artifact.
Ise immediately shoved Seol Ryeong behind him, raised his round shield, and reached toward the object.
For the parts of his body the shield couldn't cover, he wrapped himself in as much spiritual energy as possible.
A violent explosion followed.
BOOM!
As the smoke cleared, Ise's fiercely gleaming eyes pierced through the shattered remains of the door, locking onto the cultivator's silhouette.
So he launches a preemptive strike without even bothering to talk.
"Are you okay?" Seol Ryeong's anxious voice came from behind his back.
Fortunately, there were no major injuries.
"Your... your hand..."
"It's fine. Just a slight cut."
His palm, which he hadn't managed to coat with spiritual energy in time, was torn and dripping blood. Although the Black Iron shield hadn't been pierced, the sheer kinetic force of the impact had ruptured his skin.
It wasn't lethal, but its power was unmistakably threatening.
"It was just a warning. Suppress your hostility—unless you want to turn this into a full-blown fight."
At Ise's murmur, Seol Ryeong took a slow, deep breath to calm herself. Beyond the shattered door, Cultivator Kim Si-won was staring intently at the two of them.
"If you dare trespass into another man's cave abode, you must be prepared to forfeit your lives."
Cultivator Kim Si-won was a man in his fifties with an entirely ordinary appearance.
He was the epitome of unremarkable—the kind of face you could pass on the street without a second glance.
He stared at the two of them with a tense expression before a shade of relief washed over his face.
He had likely just gauged their realms with certainty.
Given that he was only confirming their realms now, it seemed his Spirit Eye hadn't even opened properly.
Meanwhile, the two standing before him—despite being lower in cultivation—had accurately deduced his realm from completely outside the barrier.
"Cultivator Kim Si-won."
"Address me as Senior! How dare mere brats hovering around the 2-Star Qi Refining Stage try to speak to me on equal terms?"
"Yes, Senior."
"How do you know my name? And the location of my cave abode?"
"We are initiate disciples dispatched from the Great Martial Dao. We discovered this place by chance while carrying out a mission, but if you cooperate just a little, we will keep quiet about your cave abode."
"..."
A chilly gaze thoroughly swept over the two youths.
Should I kill them? Or let them live?
It was the look of a man weighing the life and death of the people standing right before his eyes.