Chapter 39
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 39
"Is he badly injured?"
"I heard he won't be able to move around for a while. But don't worry too much. It's normal to suffer some lingering side effects after being hit by demonic arts."
Ise bit his lip.
Though Cultivator Kwak Chan had only fought the demonic cultivator to fulfill his own duty, it was also true that he had saved the lives of Ise and his companions. If not for that, Kwak Chan would have simply continued hunting in his own way on the hunting grounds.
He owed him a debt.
Engraving that fact upon his heart, Ise recalled the face of the demonic cultivator who had escaped. The expressionless face of the bastard who had unleashed lightning from atop the cliff.
That bastard was alive.
If we ever cross paths again... I'll pay back this debt with interest.
"Relax your face. Why do you look so terrifying?" Park Gang-seo tapped him on the shoulder.
Ise immediately smoothed his expression back to polite composure, as if apologizing for his momentary breach of decorum.
"I have some good news, too," Park Gang-seo said.
"Good news?"
"Hall Master Hae Il of the Azure Dragon Hall has returned to the main mountain."
Ise, who had been matching Park Gang-seo's pace, abruptly stopped in his tracks. He stepped right up to Park Gang-seo.
"Is that true?"
"I'm telling you, it is. Since it's his first return in a long while, the main mountain is buzzing."
Finally...
One-on-one instruction from a Hall Master—the special privilege he had earned by placing first in the entrance exam. Ise's eyes sparkled with anticipation. He hoped he might finally unlock the secret of his constitution. An opportunity that had been put on hold indefinitely was finally opening up.
"Though, the atmosphere at the main mountain is a bit restless. It seems the Hall Masters are being summoned frequently. Word is that even though Hall Master Hae Il returned, his complexion looked grim."
"I wonder what happened."
"Who knows? Maybe it's because of the Cheolyang Lightning Sect? Anyway, if you want to get your instruction, now is your chance... but don't get your hopes up too high. He's famously busy. There's a well-known story about a few disciples who requested lessons from him in the past. He just snapped, 'Are you asking me to wipe a toddler's ass?' and vanished."
"..."
"St-Still, you're an extraordinarily promising talent, so who knows? Even if Hall Master Hae Il refuses, Hall Master Kang I-tae will personally come oversee you, so don't be discouraged. To ignorant folk like us, whether it's the Nascent Soul Stage or the Core Formation Stage, they're both impossibly high realms, right?"
Ise was torn between hope and anxiety. Yet, his heart was already pounding with excitement.
There was something Park Gang-seo didn't know: Ise possessed the exact same constitution as the Great Martial Dao Master. And from what he had heard, Hall Master Hae Il was someone who walked in the footsteps of the Great Martial Dao Master.
Even out of sheer curiosity, Hae Il would surely agree to meet him.
I need to cultivate.
Ise had no intention of idling away his time while waiting for Hae Il's summons. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He wanted to meet him at as high a realm as possible.
* * *
Holed up in his private training room, Ise drew out a single-use talisman. It was an elemental talisman he had looted from Kim Si-won's cave abode.
As he injected spiritual energy, the talisman burned bright red, igniting flames at his fingertips.
The moment the dharma spell sealed within the talisman activated, he closely observed the pathway through which the injected spiritual energy converted into the Fire Attribute. Feeling through his senses, he attempted to manifest the spiritual energy within his own body in the exact same manner.
The result was failure.
Despite failing repeatedly, Ise pulled out another talisman without a hint of frustration. He clearly understood the process of manifesting the attribute. He could follow it intuitively, but reproducing it within his own body proved impossible.
Only after burning through all three Fire Attribute talismans did Ise sit down and begin accumulating spiritual energy within his body.
After continuing his slow, arduous cultivation, he headed to the butcher shop.
Along with probing the barrier to the 5-Star realm, he was steadily refining his skills in crafting Spirit Food. This was time spent absorbing theory, discovering compatibility between ingredients through small trial batches, and establishing his own rules and system through practice.
He researched so diligently that he felt confident he wouldn't fall behind any ordinary expert when it came to Spirit Food.
He pulled out the whole smoked carcass of a Six Virtues Guard from the cold storage box, which was kept chilled with an Ice Attribute talisman. He deboned it and carefully butchered the meat: neck, ribs, tenderloin, wings, and thighs.
After dividing it into five cuts, he brushed them with fat rendered from scrap meat. He studded the meat with freshly harvested Decade Herbs and sprinkled it with spices ground from Spirit Herbs to neutralize any gaminess.
Flames roared beneath the iron skewers impaling the Six Virtues Guard meat, sizzling as the fat dripped down. Slowly rotating and cooking evenly, it was finished. The meat of the avian beast roasted to perfection, wafting a mouthwatering, savory aroma.
The end result was a whole-roasted Six Virtues Guard—stuffed and served with Decade Herbs. It was a world apart from his last Spirit Food, where he had merely thrown together matching ingredients to stir-fry and boil. This was a respectable dish that captured both flavor and efficacy.
"It's ready."
Outside the butcher shop, Seol Ryeong, Pi Ga-ram, and Hong Won-seo were already waiting.
Ise dished out half a jin of the tenderest thigh meat onto each plate. With expectant faces, the three carefully tore off pieces of meat and placed them in their mouths.
Soon, expressions of astonishment spread across their faces. Only after observing their reactions did Ise tear off a piece for himself to taste.
"Whoa..." Seol Ryeong was the first to let out an exclamation of awe. "I can feel the effect with just one bite... How much of a boost does this meal give?"
"If you eat the full half-jin, your cultivation speed will increase by roughly 3.3 times for a week. Eating more than that won't stack the effect."
Seol Ryeong marveled once more with a soft, "Whoa."
Spirit Food was different from medicinal pills. While medicinal pills granted months or even years' worth of cultivation progress in a single burst, Spirit Food enhanced a cultivator's cultivation speed for a set period after consumption. It could range from a small fraction to a several-fold increase. Though its immediate impact couldn't match a medicinal pill, it was proportionately easier to make and far more accessible.
"I've eaten Spirit Food a few times back at my clan, but I've never experienced an effect like this. At most, it just purged a little Turbid Qi."
"That's because most Spirit Food on the market is eaten raw out of fear that cooking reduces its potency. Or people just cook rice with Spirit Rice. Unless someone has a bizarre habit, who would cook dishes out of Spirit Beasts? Alchemy materials are scarce enough as it is."
As Seol Ryeong marveled continuously, Hong Won-seo analyzed the situation calmly.
"If word of this gets out, I wonder what kind of storm it'll stir up... It's both intriguing and terrifying."
"Turning Demonic Beast meat into something with the same effects as Spirit Beast meat is a feat only Ise can accomplish."
"If I were a high-ranking cultivator, I'd come abduct and imprison him right away."
Seol Ryeong, Pi Ga-ram, and Hong Won-seo chimed in one after another. Yet amidst their chatter, Ise merely chewed on his meat with a grim expression.
"What's wrong? Are you getting anxious hearing all this?" Seol Ryeong asked.
Ise shook his head. "No." Then he added firmly, "It lacks flavor."
"...?"
They doubted their ears, wondering if they had heard wrong. Standing right in front of such a revolutionary, monumental breakthrough, what on earth was he talking about—
"Spirit Food is still food. While efficacy is obviously important, a dish can only be considered complete when the natural flavor and aroma of the main ingredients harmonize brilliantly."
"Is he fucking insane?" Seol Ryeong blurted out instinctively at Ise's deadpan preachiness.
"No matter how good the effect is..."
Seol Ryeong flinched.
"...if it lacks flavor, it cannot be called a finished dish."
Seol Ryeong tilted her head at Ise's stubbornness. "Is it really that bad...? Isn't it delicious enough already?"
"Honestly, it's hard for whole-roasted poultry to taste bad."
"It's not a chicken, though. You should call it Six Virtues Guard meat."
As Pi Ga-ram and Hong Won-seo threatened to sidetrack the conversation again, Seol Ryeong waved her hands frantically.
"That's not what's important right now! The point is that the Spirit Food he cooks is tantalizing enough to make any cultivator drool. Spirit Beasts are rare, but Demonic Beasts are everywhere. Who knows... maybe Great Martial Dao itself will mobilize just for you."
"You mean I don't even have enough for myself, but all sorts of cultivators will try to stick their spoons into my bowl and drool over it?"
"...To put it vulgarly, yes."
"It's not something to worry about just yet. There's no guarantee it'll have the same effect on high-ranking cultivators anyway. Still, it's best not to flaunt it too much. Thanks for the advice."
Ise was roughly aware of the risks. The cultivation world was, quite literally, a world of lunatics obsessed with cultivation. However, even if Great Martial Dao desired it, mass production was impossible.
The limitations were clear.
First, as the possessor of the Heavenly Demon Dual-Meridian Physique, he had to personally hunt and purify the Demonic Beasts. He had already confirmed that beasts hunted by others yielded no effect.
Second, the ingredients had to be fresh. The effect diminished noticeably as time passed, no matter how cold he kept them stored. Storing them in bulk was pointless.
Third, while the main ingredient—Demonic Beast meat—could be acquired during missions, auxiliary ingredients like Spirit Herbs, Spirit Grains, and Spirit Vegetables remained scarce and expensive.
In the end, it was a resource problem. The amount Ise could produce alone was limited, and ingredient costs were steep. Since he had to go on missions and couldn't neglect his own cultivation, only a handful of people—including himself—could ultimately benefit from it.
First, I'll sell the extras.
If he secured his own portion first and sold the surplus to initiate disciples to earn Spirit Stones for ingredients, he could maintain the Spirit Food's buff while continuing his cultivation.
"Ise!"
As they were finishing up the distributed Spirit Food, Bu Chun came running from a distance. He was the peer who had yielded his turn to read the cultivation manuals on their very first day, and the same guy who had been the first to bring news of Yeom Bo's death.
"I got the Jahung Herb powder you asked for!"
His natural talent bordered on abysmal, keeping him firmly stuck at 1-Star Qi Refining, but strangely enough, he was incredibly sociable and got along well with everyone.
"You should call me Senior, 1-Star."
"...S-Senior."
"I'm just kidding."
Perhaps because of his wide network, he often managed to procure auxiliary spirit items that Ise couldn't get his hands on. Just like now.
"How much was it?"
"Five Spirit Stones. I got a cheap price."
"Indeed. You're competent. Thanks. Have a plate before you go."
Ise dished out a portion of the roasted bird from the butcher shop and handed it over along with the ingredient payment.
"Whoa. Really?"
Bu Chun had been devastated when he missed out on Ise's special Spirit Food back during the Three-Tailed Fox invigorating soup incident. Watching several initiate disciples leap to the 2-Star realm after that day made him green with envy every time he thought about it.
Watching Bu Chun devour the Spirit Food ravenously, Ise added, "Your cultivation speed will increase about three times over for a week. I think I can get about fifteen servings out of this batch. How much do you think I should sell them for?"
"You're going to sell this?"
"If anyone's willing to pay. I need to at least earn back the ingredient costs."
Bu Chun fell into thought for a moment before asking, "Want me to help you out?"
"Oh, I'd appreciate that."
"Alright. Leave it to me."
Leaving those words behind, Bu Chun licked the plate clean to the bottom and hurried off somewhere.
He returned in less than half a day. Behind him stood a line of initiate disciples clutching pouches of Spirit Stones.
"I made meal vouchers and put them up for a group auction. If I had a bit more time, I could've pushed the price up to seven Spirit Stones, but since it's fresh food..."
The final price Bu Chun settled on was six Spirit Stones per person. He had gathered fifteen people in no time.
Soon, ninety Spirit Stones piled up in front of Ise like a waterfall. Subtracting the ingredient costs meant his net profit was cut in half, but... still, this was an incredible haul.
Bu Chun dexterously assisted with delivering the food as well.
"The kids were waiting to see if another chance would come up anyway. Getting your hands on medicinal pills is like reaching for the stars, after all."
Six Spirit Stones for a week's worth of tripled cultivation speed. It was a price cultivators were more than willing to pay.
What if I can boost it to four times or even higher?
Ise's mind filled with piles of Spirit Stones. It was a blissful imagination.
With a moved expression, he looked at his line of customers. Then, calculating a one-stone commission per person, he handed fifteen Spirit Stones to Bu Chun.
"You. Come work with me."
"I'd love to."
A few days later, a proper makeshift tent was erected in front of the butcher shop. It had four tables and sixteen chairs. It even had a partition separating the cooking area from the seating space.
They also put up a standing signboard made from timber that Bu Chun had put in the footwork to procure.
Ise crossed his arms and stared at the completed sign.
[Meal Exchange (飯去來).]
Roughly translated: Eat up and get lost.
Ise and Bu Chun stood side by side, gazing in the same direction.
"Looks legit, doesn't it?"
"It's awesome."
Clap! Their high-five echoed through the air.