Chapter 27 - Act 4. The Bamboo Tube Beauty (8)

* * *

When word came that the requested supplies had arrived at the herbal medicine shop, Yise immediately set to work refining pills. It was only a minor skill he had just learned, but he intended to use everything at his disposal.

Five spirit stones remained after the five he had spent in Azure Mountain Capital. He poured all five into the mixture.

The one he kept on a necklace was something of a keepsake, so he could not use it... Which meant he had sunk all ten spirit stones from his stipend into this mission. Though, of course, he had yet to actually use what he had bought.

Seol Ryeong's eyes sparkled as she watched him refine the pills.

"That looks pretty convincing. When did you learn pill refining?"

"I haven't learned pill refining. I just memorized how to make a few kinds of pills. They don't even qualify as elixir pills."

"So what are you making?"

"An antidote."

Seol Ryeong considered pressing him for details, then thought better of it. Heating the spirit-stone mixture in a water bath looked more taxing than she had expected. She simply assumed Yise was preparing for the possibility of being poisoned during their encounter with the Cultivator.

'An antidote needs to match the poison... But there's no need to dampen his enthusiasm...'

Having even a general-purpose antidote would be useful, after all.

"Seol Ryeong."

"Yes?"

"Don't just sit there killing time. If you have nothing to do, go out and buy a gift."

"A gift? What for?"

"You never know. A senior Cultivator might invite us in. It would be good to have some token of goodwill."

Whether they would be treated as guests or robbers was another matter.

* * *

"Please buy a new cauldron."

After working his arms for half a watch to finish the antidote he wanted, Yise urged the physician to throw out the cauldron, then headed toward the likely location of the independent Cultivator's secluded abode.

Finding the secluded abode proved easier than expected. Deep in the mountain the tavern keeper had pointed out, they discovered a shabby hut that might have belonged to a mountain keeper.

It was precisely the seventh day Seol Ryeong had mentioned.

"Do you have some ability to read heaven's secrets? I didn't expect us to find it in exactly seven days."

"Hehe. I've often been told I have the makings of a gifted shaman. Why? Want me to tell your fortune?"

"Just tell me if I'll still be alive after today."

"Let me see... You'll be alive with all your limbs intact! You have nothing to worry about."

"I'll pay for the reading if I survive."

"Oh my, don't you know putting off payment brings bad luck?"

Yise muttered something about a money-grubbing shaman, then tossed her a coin.

Rather than make a rash move, the two watched the independent Cultivator's secluded abode from as far away as possible. Not even a rat passed by, let alone a person. Unless one was searching with the certainty that a Cultivator's abode lay here, it was the sort of scene anyone would pass without a second glance.

An independent Cultivator would have had difficulty acquiring a high-grade barrier that could create a complete facade in the first place. His best option would have been to disguise it as an ordinary mountain keeper's hut and set up a low-grade barrier to conceal as much of the accumulated spiritual energy as possible.

As a result, the spiritual energy appeared to flow naturally from the outside, with nothing particularly suspicious about it. But assuming there was a secluded abode on this mountain, this was the only possible site.

There was just one thing.

'... Something's strange.'

A certain presence mingled with the concealed spiritual energy was nagging at Yise's senses. He was not sure enough to mention it to Seol Ryeong. Instead, he added another hypothesis to his mental list.

Having arrived around dawn, the two waited until dusk began to fall. They had hoped to meet the independent Cultivator outside his abode, but his cultivation seemed likely to continue for some time.

Once Cultivators immersed themselves in cultivation, they could remain shut away for days or even months... There was no telling when they would meet him by waiting like this.

"What should we do?"

The answer was already more or less decided, but Yise checked Seol Ryeong's resolve one last time. A little farther, and the Cultivator Kim Siwon would notice their approach.

There would be no taking it back.

"Guess what this is?"

Seol Ryeong held up a talisman between her index and middle fingers. Its design was one he had seen at the Daemudo outpost a few days earlier.

"A message talisman?"

"That's right. I got Hong Sadeuk to offer me one as tribute."

"You're rather ungrateful."

"What's that supposed to mean...? I only took it because we might need it. Let's send Hong Sadeuk our location and tell him to report to the main mountain if we don't return."

"So you're suggesting the direct approach."

"You catch on fast."

Seol Ryeong meant they should approach the abode, announce their affiliation, knock on the door, and come straight out with the fact that his spiritual being was waiting for him.

Their realms might be low, but an independent Cultivator stood to lose more than he gained by laying hands on two Daemudo disciples. If he showed hostility, they would warn him that they had also informed Daemudo of his abode's location.

They would force him to choose: kill the two Cultivators to silence them, abandon his abode, and flee—or agree to talk, however distasteful he found it.

"If he agrees to talk, what exactly do you want to find out?"

"First, I'll ask him for the truth. Then, if he really did abandon her... I think I'll ask him to lie."

To tell the Bamboo Tube Beauty he had not abandoned her. That circumstances had merely kept him from coming to see her. And to call her by her name.

They would ask him to tell a kind lie.

Of course, even that might not halt the Bamboo Tube Beauty's Corruption. It was only a hope, after all. But they would offer her a little consolation, true to the meaning of a Consolation Ceremony. At least she could die as a spiritual being, leaving no lingering resentment behind.

"Let's do that."

Yise met Seol Ryeong's eyes, then slowly approached the secluded abode.

"Have a defensive ritual implement ready, just in case."

Seol Ryeong nodded. Yise, too, prepared to draw up his spiritual energy at a moment's notice to protect himself.

People often said that, at the same realm, a Cultivator was more frightening than a Demon. Against another Cultivator, one should never let one's guard down even with an advantage of two or three levels.

Conversely, that meant it was possible to hunt a Cultivator two or three levels above oneself.

Yise advanced one step at a time, with Seol Ryeong following behind. He kept his Dokkaebi Senses stretched as taut as possible.

As they drew close to the hut, he suddenly felt unmistakably that he had entered a formation. As expected, it was a simple formation meant to deceive the eye.

Yise took a deep breath and knocked.

KNOCK, KNOCK.

"Is anyone there?"

There was no reply. But he could feel it.

Seol Ryeong and Yise waited tensely outside the door. Inside, the independent Cultivator Kim Siwon stood upright, looking at them. All three were aware of one another, watching through spirit sight.

Unmistakably.

'Judging by his spiritual energy, he's at the fourth star of Qi Refining. Or the fifth.'

Either he was stuck at a minor threshold or had only just broken through it. The amount corresponded exactly to the realm they had anticipated.

"We are Daoists of Daemudo. We haven't come to harm you, fellow Cultivator. Could we speak with you for a moment?"

Still no answer.

"Cultivator Kim Siwon?"

Yise thought that hearing his own name would surely force the man to respond. At that very moment, the door clicked open, something dropped to the ground, and the door immediately shut again.

An explosive ritual implement.

Yise immediately shielded Seol Ryeong behind him, raised his round shield, and extended his arm toward the object. He wrapped as much spiritual energy as he could around the areas the shield did not cover.

An explosion followed.

BOOM!

As the smoke cleared, Yise's eyes blazed as he stared through the shattered doorway at the Cultivator's silhouette.

So he was attacking first, without bothering to exchange a word.

"Are you all right?"

Seol Ryeong's worried voice came from behind him. Fortunately, he had suffered no serious injury.

"Your hand..."

"It's fine. Just a small cut."

Blood ran from his torn palm, which he had not managed to coat in spiritual power in time. The black iron shield had held, but the impact had split his skin.

The blast was not meant to kill, but it was plainly powerful enough to pose a threat.

"It's only a warning. Hide your hostility, unless you want a real fight."

At Yise's murmur, Seol Ryeong slowly took a deep breath. Beyond the ruined door, Cultivator Kim Siwon stared at them.

"If you dared set foot in another man's secluded abode uninvited, you must have been prepared to forfeit your lives."

Cultivator Kim Siwon was an ordinary-looking man who appeared to be in his fifties. His appearance was utterly unremarkable, the sort one might pass on the street anywhere.

He stared intently at them with a tense expression, then relief spread across his face. He had probably finished gauging their realms.

If it had taken him this long to determine their realms, even his spirit sight seemed poorly developed. The two of them, despite their lower realms, had assessed his precisely from outside the barrier.

"Cultivator Kim Siwon."

"Address me as Senior. How dare brats barely around the second star of Qi Refining presume to treat me as an equal?"

"Yes, Senior."

"How did you learn my name? And the location of my abode?"

"We are novice disciples dispatched by Daemudo. We happened to learn of them during our mission. If you would cooperate just a little, we will keep your abode a secret."

"..."

His cold gaze swept over every inch of them.

Kill them, or let them live?

His eyes seemed to weigh life and death for the people standing before him.