Chapter 38
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 38
Act 6. Heavenly Demon Dual-Meridian Physique.
After receiving brief first aid at the Great Martial Dao outpost, the four immediately returned to the Training Center, brushing past the outer gate officials who had urged them to rest.
By the time they arrived at the Management Office, the sun was already setting.
U Jeol was just about to close the office doors when he paused, spotting the group approaching.
"How dare you interrupt a senior cultivator's clock-out time?"
"...We apologize. If it's too much trouble, we can return tomorrow morning."
U Jeol surveyed the four of them. Their clothes were torn to rags, and their bodies were caked in dirt as if they had been rolling in mud.
Ise had even left an arm behind somewhere; his left sleeve flapped emptily in the breeze.
What they carried wrapped in a clean cloth was likely part of a deceased Great Martial Dao initiate disciple's corpse.
Had they rested a day at the outpost before returning, they could have come back looking much more presentable. Yet they had deliberately rushed back. Did they want to hold their fellow disciple's funeral that urgently?
What stubbornly rigid fools.
Comradeship was inherently a luxury for cultivators.
Immortal cultivation was a solitary struggle against oneself. Fellow disciples were merely competitors vying for resources.
Yet this batch of initiate disciples displayed a bizarrely strong sense of camaraderie. U Jeol almost suspected they had all swallowed the wrong pill.
It was probably because of him.
His eyes shifted toward Ise.
A man who inexplicably drew people to him.
The top initiate disciple was constantly surrounded by others without even realizing it, possessing a reputation that pierced the heavens.
"Come in. Next time, take your time instead of rushing back like this. For Great Martial Dao Daoists, you lack dignity."
"Yes. Thank you."
Ise spoke for the group, expressing gratitude for the senior cultivator's consideration.
U Jeol slowly read through the mission report Ise handed him.
Gradually, deep creases formed on his face.
An encounter with a Foundation Establishment Demonic Cultivator. Struck twice by lightning. The loss of an initiate disciple's left arm. Joined by Cultivator Kwak Chan during retreat, followed by combat.
"It's a miracle you returned alive."
His commentary was brief, but hearing those words, the four almost collapsed on the spot as their tension finally released.
"I would like to pay out your reward immediately, but given the gravity of the situation, I must report this to the main mountain."
"Understood."
U Jeol immediately wrote on a messenger talisman and sent it off to the main mountain. When a reply arrived a moment later, he nodded.
"Your contribution to a Foundation Establishment cultivator's mission has been recognized, so an additional reward will be added. In total, sixty spirit stones and one hundred contribution points. These are numbers unheard of in the history of initiate disciple missions. I assume you'll be taking Yukdeokwi's carcass?"
"Yes."
He's always the type to haul back demonic beast corpses to make spirit food.
U Jeol tore out the page depicting Yukdeokwi from the Demon Ghost Sealing Scroll.
The body of the demonic beast materialized in a corner of the office.
Ise hauled the corpse outside, then asked as he wiped down the blood-stained floor, "By any chance, do you know what happened to Senior Kwak Chan?"
"I don't. If I hear anything, I'll pass it along."
"Thank you."
"Now, decide how you will split the rewards."
Sixty spirit stones and one hundred contribution points.
If given to a single person, it would be a considerable sum, but there were four of them.
That came out to fifteen spirit stones and twenty-five contribution points per person—an amount that could only be gathered by completing Grade 7 missions three or four times.
"It divides evenly, so let's split it four ways," Ise suggested.
"Wait a minute. I exorcised Yukdeokwi and absorbed its spiritual energy. You should deduct that from my share."
Hong Won-seo immediately protested Ise's suggestion, but Ise shook his head.
"Nonsense. Strictly speaking, if it weren't for your defensive dharma artifact, we'd all be dead. This is fair. I'll cook Yukdeokwi's carcass and distribute a fair share of spirit food to everyone."
Ise looked at the other two, and they both nodded in agreement without objection.
"Then I won't refuse."
Watching Hong Won-seo quickly pocket her share, Ise let out a soft chuckle.
She really has a strange personality.
"Go to the Medicine Hall," U Jeol advised. "It's best to treat bodily loss as quickly as possible."
"Yes. Thank you for everything."
After bowing respectfully, Ise headed to the Medicine Hall alone.
The Medicine Hall was a wooden building located at the western edge of the Training Center.
The bitter aroma of spirit herbs wafted through the entire building, pricking his nose.
A Medicine Hall cultivator, who appeared to be in the late Qi Refining stage, examined Ise's severed arm for a long moment before offering a single medicinal pill from a wooden box.
"That will be one hundred spirit stones."
"Pardon?" Ise asked reflexively, wondering if he had misheard.
"Don't make me repeat myself. The price for the pill is one hundred spirit stones."
"I have to pay for it...?"
"Are you stating the obvious? Do pills just grow out of the ground? You're getting a discount because you're an injured disciple of the sect. You won't find a Regeneration Pellet for this price anywhere else."
No matter how precious pills were, charging money to a sect disciple who had lost an arm during an official mission felt absurd.
One hundred spirit stones was enough to buy a decent dharma artifact usable in actual combat.
"If you don't like it, why don't you go find a Core Formation Great Cultivator and beg them to use a regeneration spell on you? Are you taking it or not? Make up your mind."
It was so painful to part with that much money that Ise almost considered visiting Ghost-Guarding Temple to ask his Master to regenerate his arm instead.
"...Could I buy it on credit?"
The cultivator glared at him as if looking at a complete lunatic, but Ise had no choice.
Most of the spirit stones he had diligently gathered had already been spent on materials for single-use dharma artifacts and spirit food.
"I only have seventy-two spirit stones on me right now."
"I'll put the rest down as debt at the Management Office. Clear it within a month."
"Yes, sir."
What a thoroughly cold-hearted sect.
His respected and generous Master, Mongryeon, had given her disciple medicinal pills without asking for anything in return.
Suddenly, Ise found himself longing for the warmth of Ghost-Guarding Temple.
* * *
Ise headed straight to his training room.
Inside the wooden box was an amber-colored pellet the size of a thumb.
Though it was a pill meant for physical regeneration, it was worth a whopping one hundred spirit stones. It was bound to aid his cultivation as well.
Recalling the proper way to ingest medicinal pills, Ise popped the round pellet into his mouth.
Tasting like manure, the spirit pill slid down his throat, and intense heat immediately trickled down his esophagus, spreading into his spirit veins.
An incredible amount of spiritual energy—hard to believe it came from a fingernail-sized pill—surged through his entire body.
The newly introduced energy circulated through his body before pooling at his left elbow, igniting a pain as intense as being seared by open flames.
Bones grew, tendons intertwined, and flesh filled in.
The pain of regenerating the arm was actually worse than when he had lost it.
His vision went white, and cold sweat poured down his spine.
Only when he saw five fingers wriggling in the air did Ise wipe away the sweat and let out a long breath.
Following the regrowth, the surplus spiritual energy remaining after healing his body began to flow through his spirit veins.
Ise bound those energies so they wouldn't leak out of his body and digested them.
Bit by bit, he carefully blended the two spiritual energies to prevent them from running wild.
Once the entire process was complete, Ise stood up with a satisfied expression, feeling as though he had just eaten a rich meal.
Pills really are amazing...
To absorb this much spiritual energy from just a single pellet.
Maybe the Great Martial Dao is wrong and the Jedan Sect is right?
Such dangerous thoughts welled up within Ise.
* * *
Yeom Bo's funeral was conducted quietly.
Only his retrieved head, wrapped in a white cloth, rested upon the altar.
Seol Ryeong personally performed the soul pacification ritual for him. Attended only by the initiate disciples at the Training Center and a few senior Foundation Establishment cultivators, it was brief and simple.
Pi Ga-ram cremated the remains according to the customs of his homeland, turning them to ashes to be delivered to the family. He said he would send them back to his native land if the opportunity arose.
Ise also paid a brief condolence before turning away.
This was something he would experience countless times in the future. Being able to retrieve the remains, as they had this time, was actually a stroke of luck.
They had lived under the same roof, yet it would be embarrassing to call themselves close friends. Holding the funeral for such a fellow disciple evoked feelings closer to responsibility than sorrow.
Although he was not particularly pleased about being treated as a leader among the initiate disciples, the thought suddenly struck him that he wanted to look out for his peers whenever he had the capacity.
No.
Who am I to look after others when I haven't even overcome the obstacle in front of me?
I should just focus on taking care of myself.
Ise decided to focus on his cultivation.
A few days later.
Ise succeeded in clearing his bad debt.
Compensation had been finalized for the Demonic Path cultivation manual he had previously turned in to the main mountain, as well as the report on the grotto-heaven.
Eighty spirit stones.
Whether they were being generous or ripping him off was impossible to tell, but what mattered was that his empty vault was filled once more.
The sparkle in Ise's eyes was short-lived, however. With the twenty-eight spirit stones he owed automatically deducted, the actual amount he received was fifty-two.
U Jeol showed a truly malicious streak by deliberately handing all eighty spirit stones to Ise, only to immediately snatch twenty-eight of them back.
"What a remarkably diligent debtor."
U Jeol made a joke, but Ise couldn't bring himself to laugh.
As he stepped out of the Management Office, Park Gang-seo was walking toward him.
How the man possessed such an uncanny ability to find him wherever he was remained a mystery.
"Yo! Fellow Daoist Ise! I heard the news—you went through quite an ordeal, didn't you?"
"Hello."
"Well, I'm fine. How is your cultivation realm coming along?"
"Regrettably, progress has been slow. The wall of the minor realm refuses to break."
"Should I say that's a relief? I guess you really are human after all..."
Park Gang-seo looked relieved for a moment, then let out a self-deprecating sigh, as if finding himself pathetic for feeling that way.
"It's not that I'm praying for you to fail to raise your realm. It's just that having to call an initiate disciple 'Senior' would make me feel utterly miserable. I guess I need time to mentally prepare myself..."
"I don't particularly care about titles. Besides, changing a junior into a senior just because their realm increased—or using formal language with a friend—feels a bit strange to me."
Park Gang-seo had briefly explained it before, but it was still something Ise struggled to fully understand.
Respect for one's cultivation realm.
That alone was still a cultural concept hard to digest.
"Mmm. A very long time ago—that is, before the system of the cultivation world was established—it was normal for your realm to rise in proportion to the time you invested."
Park Gang-seo explained as he walked. Ise's eyes sparkled. Learning about things beyond his knowledge was always a joy.
"So a cultivator with a higher realm was essentially someone who had lived a long time. You know how people in the secular world show respect to elders? It started as a general respect for the years, experience, and realm that a person had accumulated. But as cultivation arts diversified and talented cultivators began to defy the laws of time, it gradually and naturally evolved into showing respect purely for one's realm. That's just how culture is."
"I see. I understand now."
"Still, people who have known each other for a long time often speak comfortably. It's an etiquette meant to be strictly observed when dealing with strangers or people you aren't close with."
"Then feel free to keep addressing me casually."
"Aren't you a sweet kid? Does that mean you consider us pretty close?"
"I am always grateful for your help."
"Ghahaha. Right. Now, what news should I share to help Fellow Daoist today? Ah, you'll probably be curious about this. Cultivator Kwak Chan was quite severely injured. And the demonic cultivator got away."
At those words, Ise's expression hardened.