Chapter 28 - Act 4. The Bamboo Tube Beauty (9)

“It should do you no harm, Senior. In fact, I believe it will be a fortuitous encounter that benefits you.”

Yise delivered the decisive words. A fortuitous encounter. The very notion sustained Kim Siwon’s life; he was bound to agree.

“Have you come empty-handed?”

At his question, Yise signaled Seol Ryeong with his eyes, and she swiftly stepped forward.

“It isn’t a spiritual herb, but this tea is renowned for clearing the mind and body. It should help with your practice.”

“A modest gift indeed.”

Kim Siwon smirked. They might belong to Daemudo, but they were mere fledglings who had only just reached the second star. They surely owned little of value.

“Keep both hands together in front of your chests where I can see them, and come in.”

The two slowly entered the secluded abode. Its furnishings were simple: a bed and a table.

Yet the moment Yise stepped inside, the grotto-heaven’s spiritual energy of heaven and earth quietly enveloped him, making it abundantly clear just how great a windfall this untalented independent Cultivator had stumbled upon. Spiritual energy flowed into him merely from being inside. He felt he might break through the barrier holding him back if he could remain here just a little longer.

Kim Siwon sat alone at the table, arms folded and legs crossed.

“So. What brings you juniors from Daemudo all the way into these remote mountains?”

“Senior, did you happen to encounter the Bamboo Tube Beauty on an immortal mountain by the southern coast some fifty years ago?”

Kim Siwon flinched. His body was honest; he could not control his expression at all.

“... How do you know about that?”

“That is why we came looking for you. The Bamboo Tube Beauty asked us to find you.”

“She’s alive? That spiritual being?”

“Yes. Though she is undergoing Corruption and is on the verge of becoming a Demon...”

“Corruption? You mean she’s becoming a Demon?”

Kim Siwon’s expression shifted by the moment. Without letting it show, Yise picked apart and interpreted each change.

“Yes. We would like you to accompany us to her and help her halt her Corruption so that she may find peace.”

“Daemudo... Yes. Daemudo reveres spiritual beings.”

As though he had finished organizing his thoughts, Kim Siwon spoke slowly.

“... I did not abandon her deliberately.”

They had been about to ask him to lie if necessary, but Kim Siwon denied abandoning her of his own accord.

“An independent Cultivator’s life is hardship itself. We have no sturdy roof or warm greenhouse to shelter us, unlike you.”

“I have heard of the hardships you endure.”

“At the time, I fought another independent Cultivator of the same realm who had settled nearby. I discovered him first, so I stored the spiritual being somewhere remote in case my secluded abode was exposed. But... the map marking her location burned during the battle, and while I was recuperating from severe injuries, my memories faded as well.”

“So that was what happened.”

“Yes. That is why I could no longer find her.”

“Then will you come with us?”

“Of course. Lead the way.”

The independent Cultivator Kim Siwon rose readily.

* * *

Yise and Seol Ryeong brought Kim Siwon back to the pass by South Mountain Village. The bamboo grove was shrouded in thicker mist than before. Like the mist, the Demonic Energy was far denser than it had been seven days ago. Despite her confident claim that she could last a month or so, it seemed she had had less time left than that.

As the thickening haze began to obscure their view, Yise took something from inside his clothes and tipped it into his mouth, mindful of Kim Siwon following a short distance behind.

“Did you really have to bring food even at a time like this? Ugh, that smell. What did you eat?”

“It’s rude to tell someone their breath stinks.”

At that scathing rebuke, Seol Ryeong immediately shut her mouth and pouted.

“Try one yourself. It’s savory. Good for you, too.”

Yise tossed her a pill.

“No thanks. It smells like cow dung.”

“Suit yourself.”

The suspicious gaze that had briefly settled on Yise soon withdrew.

As they walked, Yise tried to sharpen his five senses as much as possible. Instinct told him a fight was coming.

“Bamboo Tube. Come out. We’ve brought your master.”

The Bamboo Tube Beauty poked her head out from the Demonic Energy enveloping her. As soon as she met Kim Siwon’s eyes, her own grew enormous.

“My scholar!”

Her piercing, shrill voice rang out.

She looked ready to throw herself at him that very instant, but she hesitated, watching Yise and Seol Ryeong for their reactions. Kim Siwon took the first step.

Cold steel touched the tip of his chin. It was Yise’s axe.

“What are you doing?”

“Please don’t approach too closely. Just look at her from a distance. She is a spiritual being undergoing Corruption. You could get caught up in it yourself, Senior.”

“Do you think Corruption is contagious like a cold? Put that away, you insolent whelp. Point a weapon at me once more, and I will kill you.”

Kim Siwon advanced toward the Bamboo Tube Beauty, one step at a time. Reaching her, he smiled with gleaming eyes at the spiritual being that had become a monstrous thing.

“You, you... Yes, it really is you.”

“Yes, my scholar. It is I.”

“Yes. Yes... You really have succumbed to Corruption. You’re becoming a Demon.”

“Oh, my scholar... I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right.”

“Still, I am happy to see you before I depart this life. Please, speak my name one last time.”

“...”

“My scholar?”

“Your name.”

“Yes. Please.”

“Wasn’t it Bamboo Tube?”

Bamboo Tube’s face began to turn deathly pale. The Demonic Energy inside her surged violently.

“My scholar, what are you saying? Have you forgotten my name? The name you gave me... No, more importantly, what on earth has happened to you...?”

Yise tightened his grip on his axe and shield.

“Get ready to fight.”

“Now?”

“He’s not a Cultivator. He’s a demonic practitioner.”

“... What?”

“He’s undergoing Corruption too.”

Seol Ryeong could see only the spiritual energy that remained, but Yise had seen it from the start: a sinister energy growing little by little. Spiritual energy and Demonic Energy coexisted in the man’s body, just as they did in his own. More precisely, his spiritual energy had lost its momentum and stopped flowing, while his Demonic Energy writhed with greater vigor.

‘He hit a wall and resorted to demonic arts.’

What an absurd turn of events.

Two beings endowed with spirituality had met. One was a Cultivator who dreamed of eternal youth and life. The other was a spiritual being who had wished to protect her kind and their home.

Abandoned by the Cultivator, the spiritual being had resented him, lost her Dao, and succumbed to Corruption. The Cultivator had taken her power, but his meager talent had ultimately led him to lose his Dao and dabble in corrupted power.

A fortuitous encounter that both would have been better off without.

“So you... really did abandon me.”

“Hah. Don’t presume to question me. I’m taking your demonic power. Hand it over quietly.”

“How could you... do this to me...?”

Just as he was about to reach for the Bamboo Tube Beauty, Kim Siwon slowly turned toward the pair. He had sensed the will to fight emanating from behind him. The Demonic Energy he had kept carefully contained now radiated such a menacing force that even Seol Ryeong could sense it.

“Now that I’ve become a demonic practitioner, Daemudo won’t leave me alone anyway.”

Intense killing intent spread around him.

“So you two will have to die here. Hunting before you’re hunted—isn’t that your way?”

Yise merely stepped forward without a word, a hand axe in one hand and his black iron shield in the other. Seeing him brimming with the will to fight, Kim Siwon gave a vicious smile.

“Insolent brats. Barely at the second star of Qi Refining. You’ve only just learned to walk, and you think you can fight me? Does the cultivation world look so easy to you? I may have resorted to demonic arts, but I have crossed a minor threshold!”

Roaring, Kim Siwon began forming hand seals. Fierce winds swirled around him, making his robes flap.

“Tsk, tsk. Such a shame, at your age. You should have stayed quietly in your greenhouse instead of meddling—?”

It happened then. Black blood gushed from Kim Siwon’s mouth.

Yise spoke to Seol Ryeong, as though this were the moment he had been waiting for.

“The antidote I gave you. Take it now.”

“What do you... Urgh?”

Beside him, Seol Ryeong had been preparing a defensive ritual implement. At that same moment, she too made a strange sound and spewed black blood.

“Sorry I couldn’t tell you beforehand.”

Yise promptly apologized and told her to eat the cow dung she was holding. It was the same pill he had chewed like a snack on the way up the mountain—the pill he had made in Green Forest Village, calling it an antidote.

After hearing him, she concentrated and caught a musty smell hidden amid the bamboo grove’s haze. Acrid and sharp. The scent of poison.

“You, you...”

“I was afraid your terrible acting would give us away if I told you first.”

Yise took a gourd bottle from inside his clothes and set it down. Smoke nearly the same color as the mist was pouring from it.

This was the single-use ritual implement he had purchased for five spirit stones at the shop in Azure Mountain Capital. It released a poisonous gas that disrupted the qi and blood of Cultivators within its radius after they inhaled it for a certain length of time.

“It still won’t be an easy fight. Be careful.”

“Since when?!”

“Since we entered the mist.”

“No, when did you start suspecting him?!”

“The moment we met him. There was Demonic Energy inside him.”

Administering poison without alerting a Cultivator’s five senses was no easy task. Just as he had said, her unwitting assistance at his side must have been what allowed him to fool Kim Siwon completely.

Without another complaint, Seol Ryeong tipped the antidote into her mouth. As expected, it tasted like cow dung.

“You’d better give me a proper apology when this is over!”

“All right. Join me once the poison wears off.”

Yise lunged at the retching Kim Siwon.

It was commonly said that Cultivators became immune to all poisons upon reaching Foundation Establishment. Conversely, that meant poison worked on Qi Refining Cultivators who had not yet reached that realm. One book even listed poison among the five things Qi Refining Cultivators had to be most wary of.

Of course, being poisoned would not erase the gap between their realms in an instant. In particular, the difference in the quantity and quality of their protective items would be overwhelming. The man had been collecting them for more than seventy years, after all.