Chapter 41 - Act 6. Heavenly-Demonic Dual-Meridian Constitution (4)

Yise slowly collected himself. It took a long time for strength to return to his limbs. He finally managed to kneel and offered the formal greeting of a disciple to a teacher.

"This novice disciple requests instruction from the Azure Dragon Hall Master."

Even someone who taught him for a single day was as good as a master.

Still seated in midair, Hae Il looked down at Yise. His gaze slowly swept over Yise's entire body. Was he assessing his spiritual energy, or examining his constitution? The depths of those eyes were beyond Yise's ability to fathom.

"It really is the Heavenly-Demonic Dual-Meridian Constitution."

It was a quiet murmur. Something like longing flickered across his face, then vanished.

"Then making time for a lowly fellow like you may prove worthwhile."

"I would be honored to receive your instruction."

"It hardly qualifies as instruction. I'll simply tell you what I know. But before that... let me take a look inside your head."

Hae Il descended to the floor and took a step toward Yise. He reached out and pressed his palm against Yise's forehead. For a moment, he tilted his head, his eyes gradually narrowing.

"What have you been carrying around in your head?"

"What do you mean...?"

When Yise asked what those baffling words meant, Hae Il gave him a warning instead of an answer.

"So that's why the Heavenly Dao kept urging me to return when I was already busy enough to die. Meeting me must have been part of your destiny. This will hurt a little."

Hae Il lifted his palm and crooked his index finger. In that instant, pain erupted from inside Yise's skull.

"Ngh...!"

It felt as though his brain were being torn apart. Pressure surged inside his head as if it were swelling to bursting. His eyes felt ready to pop out, and something hot ran from his nose and ears. The agony made his entire body writhe involuntarily.

"Don't struggle. One wrong move and you'll die."

Yise clenched his teeth at Hae Il's warning.

What in the world was he doing...?

Soon, the pain inside his head vanished, and his vision went white. As his consciousness blurred, the skin around his forehead bulged. Something seemed to be pushing its way out from within.

The next moment, a tiny, writhing thing burst out of his ear canal with a pain that tore through his eardrum.

"You endured that well."

Hae Il moved his hand, restoring Yise's injured brain and eardrum. Only then did his fading consciousness return.

"...?"

An insect no bigger than a fingernail. It resembled some sort of larva, its pitch-black segments and legs wriggling—a grotesque creature he had never seen before.

The instant the insect emerged, Hae Il gestured. He took a glass vial from his storage pouch and put the insect inside, still squirming in its midair restraints. When he touched a finger to the mouth of the vial, chains of spiritual energy wrapped around it.

Wiping the blood from his chin, Yise stared at the vial. That thing had been inside his head?

"This is a type of Demon commonly called a gu parasite."

A gu parasite. A type of venomous insect implanted in a person's head or body. As Yise understood it, they were generally used to control or restrain someone...

"We'll have to study it at the main mountain to learn the details."

Hae Il raised the vial to eye level.

"It's a wonder you managed to advance your realm with this inside you. Judging by how deeply it had burrowed in, it was implanted quite some time ago."

The insect's shell writhed inside the vial as though in a desperate struggle.

"Have you encountered a demonic practitioner?"

"I did recently fight a Foundation Establishment demonic practitioner..."

"This wasn't implanted by some mere Foundation Establishment practitioner."

Hae Il's voice lowered.

"Whoever planted this was at least at late-stage Core Formation. They did it quite a while ago, and took great care to conceal it. That's why neither Mongryeon nor Kang Itae found it."

Late-stage Core Formation. Someone had planted a gu parasite inside Yise's head that even a Hall Master-level great Core Formation Cultivator could not detect.

When? Who?

Hae Il closed his eyes as if searching his memory. After some thought, he continued.

"You could count the possible culprits on the Eastern Continent on one hand. I have someone in mind. But what matters isn't 'who' so much as 'why.' Tell me everything about your life, starting with your earliest memories. Leave nothing out."

Yise slowly retraced his life, recounting everything he could remember—from the stories his adoptive parents had told him about his infancy and his earliest memories, through entering Daemudo, all the way to the present. Hae Il listened with his arms folded, without a question or even a word of encouragement.

When Yise finished, Hae Il nodded once in understanding.

"Keep this to yourself. And put it out of your mind. Forget it. This is far beyond anything you should involve yourself in."

"Yes. I will focus on my cultivation."

Satisfied with Yise's answer, Hae Il changed the subject.

"Adopted, though... Did the Lord have a child, by any chance?"

"Pardon?"

"I was told that constitution is hereditary, passed down through blood. Those old mountain-spirit monsters nagged the Lord endlessly to take a Dao companion—a Daoist's partner—but the Lord kept pretending to be impotent. I thought the bloodline had died out. Who on earth could it have been with?"

Yise fell silent. The Lord of Daemudo's bloodline. His mind understood what that meant, but his heart could not keep up. And if it was hereditary, perhaps someone other than the Lord of Daemudo possessed the same constitution somewhere.

"Might I ask you to tell me more about my constitution?"

"That's what I came for. No need to be so cautious."

He could say that, but the gulf between their realms was staggering. Faced with a difference in Rank that made even breathing freely difficult, Yise finally understood, deep in his bones, why one's realm commanded respect.

"I don't know everything myself. Still, I'll tell you everything I do know. Your constitution begins with spiritual energy and Demonic Energy flowing together through your spiritual meridians. That gives it six characteristics."

Hae Il extended his fingers one by one as he spoke.

First, the constitution allows both cultivation methods, the means by which Cultivators cultivate, and devouring, the means by which Demons cultivate.

Second, the evil karma accumulated along the way does not affect heavenly tribulations when crossing major thresholds.

Third, all types of spells can be learned, regardless of the spiritual root's attributes.

Fourth, cultivation must proceed while maintaining harmony between yin and yang.

Fifth, cultivation speed rivals that of a single-attribute spiritual root bearer.

Sixth, the constitution is inherited through blood. The likelihood of its manifestation is unknown.

Yise scrambled to take in the rapid flood of information and fix it in his mind. It felt as though a long-standing thirst was finally being quenched. After carefully reviewing all six points, he asked a question.

"May I ask a few questions?"

"You may."

"What exactly does it mean that evil karma doesn't affect heavenly tribulations?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. Whether you murder people, hunt spirit beasts, or swallow elixir pills like liquor, no matter how much you violate Principle, the heavenly tribulations you must face remain unchanged."

"If the tribulations remain unchanged, that means I still face them. Do you mean they're weak?"

"Quite the opposite."

For some reason, Hae Il seemed to be smiling as he looked Yise straight in the eye.

"The heavenly tribulations you face are close to the worst possible difficulty from the outset. It isn't that you accumulate evil karma but face tribulations as though you hadn't. You face them as though you've accumulated evil karma even when you haven't."

Yise's expression froze.

"But Hall Master Hong Mihui said this constitution faces no heavenly tribulations..."

"That's a misconception."

A misconception? Hall Master Hong Mihui had been wrong?

"Every time the Lord crossed a major threshold, it was a brush with death. The Lord endured the tribulations in secret and pretended nothing had happened so no one would worry. I stood guard during every one of them. No one knows better than I do."

Yise was speechless. His constitution did not spare him heavenly tribulations; it subjected him to the harshest of them. What good was exceptional talent if he died trying to cross a major threshold?

Hae Il chuckled at his despair.

"That's why the Lord went around beating everyone who rubbed them the wrong way to death. If the tribulations were coming anyway, the Lord wanted to at least feel they were deserved."

"..."

"That was the age I lived in—savagery and romance. Good times."

Somehow, Yise felt he could understand.

"What does it mean to maintain harmony between yin and yang?"

"Take an ordinary constitution as an example. From Middle Stage Qi Refining onward, cultivation requires harmony between attributes. Someone with a two-attribute spiritual root of water and wood must achieve equal mastery of water and wood cultivation methods. Only by precisely balancing the attributes within their spiritual root can they advance their realm."

Yise listened in silence. He had read this in <Demon-Exorcizing Spirit Qi Refining Art>.

"You don't need to balance attributes, but you must balance the spiritual energy and Demonic Energy within your body."

"Do you mean I need to keep their quantities exactly equal?"

"Not just their quantities, but your mastery of their cultivation methods as well. At every realm, you must learn at least one cultivation method for yang and one demonic cultivation method for yin."

Yise looked as though he understood, yet was puzzled at the same time.

"Am I allowed to learn demonic cultivation methods as a member of Daemudo?"

"If anyone asks, just tell them you're a Dokkaebi."

"... Pardon?"

"Since you're the boy Mongryeon took in, I happen to have just the thing. Wait a moment."

With that, Hae Il sent a message talisman into the air. It vanished as though cutting through space, and a reply returned shortly afterward. He read it and let out a laugh of disbelief.

"Her temper hasn't changed."

Yise looked curious at what seemed to be a reference to Mongryeon. The boy couldn't bring himself to ask first; he seemed awfully fond of her. Smiling, Hae Il explained the message.

"I told her you had the same constitution as the Lord and asked whether you were her child. She sent back a whole torrent of abuse. How does a Dokkaebi know so many human curses?"

The corners of Yise's mouth rose before he knew it. He could vividly picture Mongryeon spewing curses.

"She may not be my birth mother, but she is like a mother to me."

Chuckling, Hae Il took two cultivation manuals from his storage pouch and set them before Yise.

「Dokkaebi Shadow-Gathering Demonic Art」

The secret manual on the right bore a name Yise knew well.

"The Dokkaebi Shadow-Gathering Demonic Art is the demonic art the Dokkaebi practice from Qi Refining through Foundation Establishment. I've received Mongryeon's permission, so you're free to learn it."

"Master gave permission..."

Hae Il pointed to the second cultivation manual.

"The other is the Lord of Daemudo's secret cultivation art, called the Twin Principles Reversion Art."

Yise went still at those words. The Lord of Daemudo's secret art. That meant a cultivation method specifically for the Heavenly-Demonic Dual-Meridian Constitution. Wasn't this exactly what he needed most? Was he truly allowed to receive something so precious?

A great Nascent Soul Cultivator's generosity really was on another scale. Filled with admiration, he carefully opened the manual.

The first page bore the name "Twin Principles Reversion Art" and a brief preface. It described a cultivation method by which someone able to wield both spiritual energy and Demonic Energy could form "primordial energy," maximizing its power and ultimately achieving ascension.

With trembling hands, Yise tried to turn the page, but it would not budge. It was sealed, like the secret manuals in the bookshop.

"I never said I'd let you read it."

"..."

Hae Il roared with laughter at Yise's expression, like a puppy that had just had its bone snatched away. Unable even to voice his resentment, Yise could only look at his venerable senior as though on the verge of tears.

"I'm joking. I can't undo it either. There are three volumes, and the seal only opens when all three are brought together. This is the first. I don't know where the second and third are. Finding those two volumes is why I travel the continent."

Hae Il returned the Twin Principles Reversion Art manual to his storage pouch.

"If I find them all, I'll let you read it too."

"Thank you for your kindness."

Yise bowed his head deeply. He had only been promised a day's instruction as the privilege of placing first in the entrance examination, yet the great Cultivator before him was offering far more.

"On one condition: promise to complete three assignments I give you."

Yise raised his head, determination showing on his face. Whatever they were, he would accomplish them.

"First, advance your realm quickly."

Hae Il raised one finger.

"As for a benchmark... U Yuhee should do. Break every speed record she holds. That much should be expected of the Lord's bloodline."

"Am I really of the Lord's bloodline?"

"How would I know? Second."

Rather than give a proper answer, Hae Il raised a second finger.

"You must become my blade."

"Your blade?"

"Once you reach Core Formation, kill every Core Formation Cultivator in the Jeong Empire."

Those were rather harsh words to come from a man of the Dao. Instead of answering, Yise waited for him to continue.

"Thirty Core Formation Cultivators recently joined forces against me. They think they can get rid of Daemudo if they eliminate me. Killing them all would be easy enough, but with Spirit Transformation ahead of me, I'd rather not accumulate needless karma from killing. So I'm keeping my head down."

Spirit Transformation. The highest stage attainable in the human realm. That impossibly distant realm inspired something beyond respect—reverence.

"So you kill them."

Yise fell silent. Becoming his blade meant eliminating Daemudo's enemies in his stead.

He had always prided himself on being cold enough to kill if necessary. Yet an assignment to kill people against whom he held no grudge was hardly pleasant. Still, the Jeong Empire's Cultivators sought Daemudo's downfall. They were a threat that could destroy his world.

"If I can, I will."

Satisfied with that answer, Hae Il announced the final assignment.

"And lastly—"

He raised a third finger.

"Have children. As many as possible."

"... Pardon?"

Serious though Hae Il was, Yise could only stare blankly and ask him to repeat himself.