Chapter 14 - Act 3. Daemudo Entrance Examination (7)

Of course, none of that applied to Yise.

"That would be a problem. We can do it when you feel you're ready."

He wanted to test himself against Unchan, but he wasn't foolish enough to take unnecessary risks with something important ahead.

"Um, you two?"

An unfamiliar, clear voice came from behind them. Its owner was a girl who looked two or three heads shorter than they were. She was pale as white jade, with snow-white hair and golden eyes.

"Wow, you're really white. Was she here before?"

"She was standing with you. When they called up the shoo-ins."

Yise corrected Hae Unchan's wondering remark.

"Ahaha... Calling someone a shoo-in right to her face. I'm Ryeong of the Seol family."

"You're really tiny, too. How did you pass the third test?"

A vein bulged on Seol Ryeong's forehead, but she forced herself to hold her temper. This dark-skinned fellow was awfully rude.

It was Yise who answered.

"She mostly relied on borrowed supernatural strength. She kicked someone charging at her in the balls as hard as she could and drew blood. That would be enough to pass."

"What, are you interested in her? Why were you watching so closely?"

"After she did that, everyone kept trying to get a foot between someone else's legs or fighting while covering their crotch. It was funny enough to stick in my head. Though I did memorize how everyone who passed fought."

"All one hundred and twenty?"

"You never know who you'll have to fight, or when."

Seol Ryeong, who had been standing there blankly, interrupted with a smile that reached only her eyes.

"Excuse me, could you stop treating me like a wooden doll? I can hear you, you know."

"Sorry. What did you want?"

"Well, there's a group assessment in two days. It's a test where you hunt a Demon in teams of four. Could I join your team?"

Hae Unchan tilted his head at her words.

"You want to be on our team?"

"Yes, yes. You're both good fighters. I'm an aspiring shaman, so I'll be useful if we have to face an evil spirit. Eventually, I want to join Vermilion Bird Hall and follow in Senior Hong Mihui's footsteps as a talisman artisan or ritual-implement artisan! It couldn't hurt to be friends with me, right?"

This time, Yise turned to Hae Unchan with a question.

"Talisman artisan? Ritual-implement artisan?"

"A scribbler who draws talismans and a blacksmith who makes ritual implements."

"You could never be a talisman artisan, then."

"Where did that come from? I wasn't planning to become one anyway."

Unchan frowned at Yise's flat declaration.

Unable to take any more, Seol Ryeong shouted,

"Did you just insult the crafts?"

"... Me? When?"

"For daring to insult the Four Great Crafts, you have to accept me into your team. Otherwise, when I join Vermilion Bird Hall, I'll tell Hall Master Hong Mihui you called her a scribbler. She'll probably divide you into head, thorax, and abdomen!"

Her threatening gesture across her throat, accompanied by a thoroughly unfrightening expression, made Hae Unchan burst out laughing. What was such an adorable little thing doing taking this examination?

"What a terrifying threat. There's one problem, though. We haven't actually formed a team. I didn't even know there was a test like that. Are you going to team up with me?"

"Either way is fine."

"Then let's do that. Seol Reong, you can join too, if you like."

"It's Seol Ryeong! So I'll be eating with you from now on, okay?"

Without waiting for an answer, Seol Ryeong settled comfortably into a seat. She immediately scolded them for eating too fast, only to look appalled when they said they were going to have several more helpings.

"Somehow, I've ended up with another chatterbox."

Yise sighed softly. Fortunately, he didn't mind.

* * *

Few areas of the training compound were open to Daemudo's entrance applicants. But a short walk toward the slope near the main gate brought one to a deserted cliff studded with strangely shaped rocks. The view was nothing short of spectacular.

Azure Mountain's scenery was admirable, but something else mattered more to Yise.

A vast mass of spiritual energy.

If he had to sum up Azure Mountain in a single phrase, that was exactly right. Like steam from a boiling pot, endless spiritual energy rose from all over the mountain and blanketed the surrounding area.

Sitting quietly cross-legged in meditation, he could distinctly feel the spiritual energy and Demonic Energy flowing inside him.

'How do I use this power?'

He could sense it, but he had no idea how to use it. He had tried various things, but just as he couldn't move his internal organs at will, no amount of effort accomplished anything beyond making his abdominal muscles ripple unflatteringly.

Still, something had changed.

Yise lifted a fallen old tree with one hand, then set it down. Simply awakening to spiritual energy had transformed his body. He felt as though he stood on the boundary between human and superhuman.

His vision had grown clearer, his five senses keener, and the muscles throughout his body firmer and more elastic.

'Once I can actually use spiritual energy, I'll be even stronger.'

Yise was eager to finish the examination and put this power to use.

Then his senses picked up someone's approach.

Light footsteps. A short stride. A gentle presence.

Someone small. Female.

"So here you are."

It was Seol Ryeong, who had joined their team yesterday.

"Can't you two stay together? I've been looking for ages."

Yise acknowledged her with a glance.

"They put up a notice this morning. It says to form teams of four for tomorrow's group test."

"What does the test involve?"

"It didn't say. But I told you yesterday, didn't I? We're hunting a Demon."

"Could they change it?"

"Daemudo's examination is a famous tradition in its own right. Though plenty of people fail even knowing what to expect."

Seol Ryeong pressed him.

"Anyway, isn't there anyone you'd like on the team? You keep disappearing, and Hae Unchan says he's left everything to you, so people keep pestering me. How did they even find out? Honestly."

Several applicants had already sought him out at the crack of dawn, swaggering about as they boasted of how many times they had taken the examination. It didn't really matter who joined, but without knowing the test's details, he couldn't settle on anyone.

"I don't particularly care who joins. But when they come up acting all self-important, it makes me want to pick them even less."

"You'll never become a true Daoist either, will you? And are you going to keep talking to me so casually? I'm seventeen."

"Seventeen? Is this your second attempt?"

"No! It isn't! I couldn't take it last year. For personal reasons. I couldn't take it!"

If it wasn't, it wasn't. What was all the shouting for?

Yise rubbed at his ringing ear before answering her.

"I really don't care who it is. If there's an applicant you want to bring in, you can choose."

"Really? No taking it back!"

She hurried away with excited little steps. Yise worried that the girl really ought to eat more, then resumed his training.

* * *

The fourth test was optional. That meant exactly what it sounded like: applicants were free to take it or skip it.

No one would be eliminated. Instead, it awarded extra points to help select applicants whose fighting abilities were somewhat lacking but who possessed other talents.

This was why Daemudo's Cultivators had a concept known as an "aspired specialty"—something found only in Daemudo.

The "warrior," who subdued Demons through skill with weapons.

The "healer," who practiced medicine and made elixir pills and poisons.

The "shaman," adept at sorcery and crafting ritual implements and talismans.

The "covert operative," specializing in breaching and defending strongholds through tracking, concealment, mechanisms, formations, civil engineering, and mystical evasion arts.

Hae Unchan didn't even show up, saying he would focus on what he did well.

Yise had no intention of pursuing any specialty other than warrior, but he wanted to acquire a variety of skills if possible, so he decided to take every test. There was always more to learn, no matter how diligently one pursued knowledge.

'The deadline is the end of today, and they said there's no limit to how many tests we can take....'

He intended to divide his time carefully and try all three.

His first stop was the healer examination site. The pungent smell of herbal medicine assailed his nose the moment he entered.

Two kinds of pills were displayed at the front, with an array of medicinal ingredients, herbs, and toxic substances laid out before them.

The instructions were simple.

Produce one medicinal pill and one poison pill that resemble the samples as closely as possible.

Ingredients may be used freely, but each applicant is allotted a limited quantity of spiritual herbs and spiritual-material byproducts.

Only one submission is permitted.

Yise picked up the medicinal pill and asked the examiner,

"May I taste it?"

"No."

Hiding his disappointment, he brought it to his nose and sniffed. A great variety of scents mingled together. He could also sense a faint trace of spiritual energy.

A question occurred to him.

"I thought Daemudo didn't use elixir pills made from spiritual materials?"

"We merely refrain from deliberately defying the natural order. We don't go out of our way to forbid gathering spiritual materials that have reached the natural end of their lives, or obtaining them through trade to make elixir pills, or consuming finished pills when necessary. However, Daemudo's secret cultivation arts are not particularly compatible with elixir pills."

"I see."

The rule struck Yise as somewhat self-serving, but he soon reconsidered. There was no need to deliberately take a negative view of the organization he would be joining.

"What, does it sound like a sham religion?"

"My thoughts weren't quite that irreverent."

"Shall I tell you something even more irreverent? We plunder, too. We take things from other Cultivation sects, noble clans, and demonic-path sects and use them as resources."

As Yise scratched his head, the examiner added glibly,

"Plunder ordinarily corrupts the spirit, but it's fine if the victims are Cultivators."

"May I ask why?"

"Do you think robbing thieves will cause their resentment to accumulate as karma? Treat ordinary people with care, then, and kill Cultivators wherever you find them. That's what benefits the world."

Perhaps Daemudo had become the common enemy of the cultivation world because it deserved to be?

He put an end to his irreverent thoughts and returned to his station. After making several different concoctions, he submitted the elixir pill that seemed most spiritually potent and a poison that positively reeked of toxicity.

"Six points and seven points. Thirteen in total."

"Oh," Yise said, impressed by the unexpectedly high score. Was it thanks to his newly sharpened sense of smell and his extensive exposure to mountain herbs since childhood?

"May I eat what I made?"

"Keep shoving random things into your mouth, and you'll drop dead sooner or later."

Accepting that, Yise headed to the next examination site.

Next was the shaman examination. This specialty seemed more popular than healing; quite a few applicants had gathered there.

He spotted a familiar face, too. The little snow-white Cultivator, Seol Ryeong.

"You're still taking the test."

"I thought I'd get some practice in while I'm at it. It's been a while, so it's not going very well..."

Seol Ryeong was drawing on talisman paper, beads of sweat trickling down her face.