Chapter 20 - Act 4. The Bamboo Tube Beauty (1)

Before even the bell that heralded dawn could ring, Yise's eyes snapped open. His body remembered when to wake. It had been a habit since he was very young.

Before the thought of sleeping longer could cross his mind, his fingertips pushed the covers aside and his feet found the floor. Today, he rose with even more energy and eagerness than usual.

At last. Finally, he could train.

This was the moment he had waited so eagerly for.

He sensed a bustle of activity outside his private room. Footsteps in the corridor, water being drawn, someone stifling a yawn—all registered in his keen Dokkaebi Senses. He hastily tidied his bedding, stepped outside, and headed straight up Azure Mountain.

His first day at Daemudo was beginning with a flutter of excitement. He had learned the general routine at yesterday's induction ceremony.

Life was simple for novice disciples in their first year at Daemudo. They independently acquired the knowledge needed for their training at the library, which housed the secret manuals they were permitted to read. Then they continued their training at one of the sites scattered across Azure Mountain or in private training rooms.

If they encountered a difficulty in their training, they could ask their assigned Cultivator questions. They could also check the mission notices from time to time and accept individual missions through the training compound's administrator.

Most were easy assignments near Azure Mountain, intended to give them experience. Even so, the contribution points, spirit stones, and other resources offered as rewards had many novices salivating. Of course, the administrator had cautioned them that even the easiest mission carried risks, urging them to focus on training rather than recklessly taking assignments before their official missions began.

As Yise left the dormitory, he spotted several novice disciples heading the same way. It was their first morning as members of Daemudo. Although the sun had yet to clear the mountainside, a curious excitement filled the air of Azure Mountain. No one spoke, but they all had the same destination. They all felt the same way.

He arrived at the highest point of Azure Mountain. The training compound's administrative office and library stood here, where the most numinous energy was said to gather. A long line of novice disciples stretched out before them.

His brow furrowed in dismay. He had thought he was early, setting out as soon as he woke, but plenty of others had hurried here even earlier. His habit of adhering strictly to his own schedule had worked against him.

"You're late."

At the very front of the waiting line, a disheveled Seol Ryeong poked her head out toward him.

'Cutting in line... wouldn't be right.'

Taking his place at the back, he asked her, "How long have you been waiting?"

"Since last night? I was so excited I couldn't sleep." She answered through a long yawn.

Pi Garam stood somewhere near the middle of the line. Yise exchanged a brief glance of greeting with him. Hae Unchan was nowhere to be seen. Given his enormous appetite, he had surely gone to eat first.

When opening time arrived, the Cultivator in charge emerged and began admitting them one by one with practiced ease. They signed the entry register and received their instructions.

"No secret manual may be removed or copied. You may read only one book at a time."

Simple rules. When Yise's turn came and he entered, his breath caught.

Countless books filled the walls. Basic cultivation methods, secret spell manuals, elemental spells, pill refining, puppetry, mechanical formations...

"These... are all for Qi Refining?"

"Yes. For beginners."

"If this is what beginners get, what could there possibly be above this...?"

As the disciples' murmurs suggested, the library seemed to contain introductory texts for every spell in existence. There were even enough books on cultivation methods—the foundation for advancing a Cultivator's realm—to fill an entire section.

There were, however, only four different cultivation manuals: <Warrior Volume>, <Shaman Volume>, <Healer Volume>, and <Covert Operative Volume>. Rows of identical copies allowed several people to read the same material at once.

Even that wasn't enough for every disciple to read one simultaneously, though it seemed unlikely there would be any shortage after today. The trouble was that Yise wanted to read a cultivation manual right now.

In the end, he stood waiting behind one of the first applicants to enter, who was already reading a cultivation manual. He felt bad about peeking, but his curiosity left him no choice. At least he didn't interrupt, silently following the contents with his eyes.

"...?"

"Don't mind me. Keep reading."

Bu Chun, the disciple who had fallen victim to Yise's bizarre behavior, was aghast.

'Why did it have to be me...!'

Seeing him glance back, clearly conscious of the person behind him, Yise reassured him again.

"Seriously, don't mind me."

How could he not?

"No pressure. Take your time and give it to me when you're done."

There was plenty of pressure.

The boy standing behind him as though staging a protest was none other than this year's top-ranked entrant. The lunatic Cultivator who had beaten even Hae Unchan, whose Heavenly Root Constitution had made him the unquestioned favorite for first place. The one who had beheaded an Eyegleam during the examination and hoisted its head high in the air as if showing it off.

Bu Chun didn't particularly want anything to do with him, but neither did he want to get on his bad side or make an enemy of him. What if he held a grudge over how long Bu Chun took to read...? Should he just hand it over and read it later...? All that time spent waiting would go to waste, but it wasn't worth more than his life...

In the end, Bu Chun decided to bow to reality.

"Would you like to read it first...?"

"What? Really? I'm fine waiting."

His face said nothing of the sort. It was the face of an evil spirit demanding he hand it over and get the hell out.

"I-I'm interested in swordsmanship too, so I can read a swordsmanship manual first..."

"Thanks. I'll remember this."

Please, just forget.

Bu Chun vanished as though fleeing for his life. Touched to have such a kindhearted fellow disciple, Yise opened the book.

<Demon-Exorcizing Spirit Qi Refining Art—Warrior Volume>

The foundation of Daemudo. A basic cultivation method built upon physical conditioning. The opening page set out the core principles of the Demon-Exorcizing Spirit Qi Refining Art.

「-Temper the body.

-Hunt Demons and accumulate the purified spiritual energy of heaven and earth within the tempered body.

-Add enlightenment to the accumulated spiritual energy to advance to the next realm.」

Qi Refining was a preparatory process through which those embarking on Cultivation became accustomed to handling spiritual energy and readied themselves to become truly superhuman.

「First through fourth stars, Early Stage: sensing and manipulating spiritual energy.

Fifth through seventh stars, Middle Stage: imbuing spiritual energy with attributes to cast spells.

Eighth and ninth stars, Late Stage: transforming the flesh and internal organs one by one.

Tenth star, Great Attainment (formally called Great Perfection, but 'Great Perfection of Qi Refining' sounds so outrageously paltry that it is usually called Great Attainment instead).

The final stage before Foundation Establishment, in which all impure energy is purged from the body and the body is reconstructed.」

Upon finally reaching Foundation Establishment through this process, spiritual energy would no longer merely flow through channels. Instead, it would collect in a vessel called the Dharma-Transformed Dantian, allowing the accumulation of greater quantities of purer spiritual energy. A complete bodily transformation would also slow aging and render the body impervious to ordinary blades and poisons.

'Wait a moment.'

Yise's hand stopped as he skimmed down the page, and he frowned as though he had seen something he shouldn't.

「From the Late Stage onward, avoid worldly food so as not to introduce impure energy directly into the body.」

The annotation drew an involuntary groan. Was this how it felt to watch one's country fall? Still, Yise rallied his unbreakable resolve and laboriously turned the page.

The secret manual supplied the formulas for the insights required at each stage, accompanied by extensive annotations to help the reader attain them.

「The first star of Qi Refining is Meridian Awakening: becoming aware of the spiritual meridians, awakening to spiritual energy, and sensing its flow.

The second star is Spirit Movement: using one's own will to control, move, and employ the spiritual energy flowing through the spiritual meridians.

The third star is Spirit Extraction: drawing spiritual energy out. In other words, drawing the spiritual energy flowing through the body outside it, placing it in ritual implements, imbuing weapons with it, or firing it outward.」

In short, the next step for Yise was to draw spiritual energy outside his body.

After memorizing as much of the cultivation manual as he could, he closed it and rose to make way for the next reader. He couldn't memorize everything right now anyway. All he needed was the formula and annotations for the next stage.

It looked as though he would be spending quite some time going in and out of the library. Time permitting, he also intended to learn as much as possible from the technical manuals, not just the cultivation texts.

He was particularly interested in immortal cuisine: the art of preparing food that introduced no impure energy when eaten, or food that aided cultivation. He had already been fretting over whether he would have to give up the fine eating that had become practically his only hobby. This craft was perfect for him.

"What are you reading?"

Hae Unchan, arriving late, took the cultivation manual from Yise and glanced at the secret manual he was pulling out.

"... You really are something else."

"I don't want to hear that from someone who was late because he was eating."

That left Hae Unchan without a word to say.

The immortal cuisine manual was even more engrossing than the cultivation text. It offered various methods of cooking spiritual materials and spirit beast carcasses to maximize the absorption of spiritual energy—though he wasn't sure he was allowed to use those.

Immortal cuisine was also rare and profitable. He wasn't particularly greedy for wealth, but if a delicious meal could aid his cultivation as well, so much the better.

"Is there another volume?" Yise asked the librarian after quickly reading through the book.

"We only have introductory texts here, to give you a taste. You'll have to go to the main mountain to consult the full manuals."

"Ah..."

"Of course, you can't read anything you please there either. Obtaining our sect's secret manuals costs contribution points. If there's a manual you're interested in, start completing missions and saving up now."

"Yes. Thank you."

His answer was obedient enough, but in truth he wasn't happy. Couldn't members of the same sect at least share their secret manuals? It wasn't as though reading wore them out.

Of course, he understood that this was a way to motivate disciples to undertake dangerous missions. But for Yise, who intended to hunt down and kill every Demon he came across without anyone forcing him, it was a needless restriction.

'Let's train first.'

He headed straight to a private training room as soon as he left the library. It was quiet inside. Once the barrier closed, all outside energy was cut off. He sat cross-legged on the floor.

Draw spiritual energy from the body and hold it there. Release the spirit outside, but let it not disperse.

As he closed his eyes and repeated the formula, a familiar sensation arose. Spiritual energy and Demonic Energy. Two currents that pushed against each other, snarling.

Whenever his spiritual energy tried to move, his Demonic Energy pushed it back from the other side. They collided and surged incessantly, as though each were trying to swallow the other. His mouth tasted bitter and nausea churned in his stomach. He gritted his teeth at the sensation of something overturning inside his belly.

'Draw spiritual energy out of the body and keep it there.'

Steadying his breathing, he drove his spiritual energy toward his fingertips. Nothing happened. He tried again, harder this time. Another failure.

How many times had he repeated this? He kept gathering every scrap of energy he had, spiritual or Demonic, and pushing it out.

Then, at one point, his fingertips prickled and the air trembled ever so slightly. The sensation was faint, but something had unmistakably escaped his body.

A faint smile touched his lips. This was easier than he'd expected.

There was just one problem.

'I don't think I have enough energy to begin with.'

The principle of Qi Refining was to accumulate first, then attain enlightenment. In other words, advancing to the next stage required a certain minimum amount of energy within the body. Breaking through to the third star with only the spiritual energy he had obtained from medicinal pills looked difficult.

'To accumulate spiritual energy...'

There were three methods.

He could meditate here, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth at a very slow pace. That was the orthodox approach, but he had no desire to cultivate at such a leisurely rate.

He could obtain spiritual elixirs and absorb them. Impossible. He lacked the resources. Spiritual elixirs were not only difficult to find; their prices were sky-high.

Moreover, the Demon-Exorcizing Spirit Arts had a particular drawback: the more one relied on elixirs to advance easily, the more pill toxins accumulated in the body, intensifying the heavenly tribulations faced at higher realms. He had been told this didn't apply to his constitution, but caution couldn't hurt.

'It'll be difficult within Daemudo. I need to kill more Demons.'

So this was why novice disciples risked venturing into the mortal world even outside their official missions. It was another moment of enlightenment.