Chapter 44 - Act 7. Designated Mission (1)

It was autumn.

The mountain wind had changed. The heat it had carried all summer had thinned by a layer as it brushed past his ears. When he had left Daemudo, the sun had beaten down fiercely and the green vegetation had gleamed. Now brown leaves crunched beneath his feet.

Travel always carried danger. With no companion to stand watch, he honed his already keen senses even further.

Despite his tense vigilance, the journey back was uneventful.

He was nearing the edge of the Hangsan Peninsula when, just as he rounded a mountain spur, the undergrowth shook and he sensed a faint trace of Demonic Energy.

A Demon. Yise immediately stopped, tensing as he gripped his hand axe. A creature with a snail's head atop a human body emerged from the scrub with a growl.

'... A Wadu-Scholar!'

Yise identified it at once.

A Level Nine demonic beast. A Wadu-Scholar.

A name he could never forget, even in his dreams. The enemy that had slaughtered his family. Though he had taken his initial revenge, his failure to exorcise it had left a lingering unease.

This was merely another of its kind, not the actual culprit. Even so, he was pleased to see it.

The creature twitched its feelers and drooled, apparently just as delighted to have found prey. It seemed too lowly a Demon even to gauge the realm of the opponent before it.

Yise immediately drew up his spiritual energy. Raw killing intent spilled out; he felt that nothing would satisfy him short of tearing the Demon to pieces right then and there.

Only then did the Wadu-Scholar sense that the human before it was no prey.

GRRRR...!

It stopped advancing and began backing away.

"You."

Yise took a step toward it, his voice almost a growl. Even the corners of his lips lifted slightly. He could not have asked for better prey on which to test his newfound strength.

"Just the thing I wanted."

Unlike usual, his emotions had gotten ahead of him. Recognizing his excitement, he calmed himself.

No matter how weak the Demon, give the hunt your all.

The terrified Wadu-Scholar raised its feelers and opened its mouth to spew poisonous mist.

THUD!

The Earthen Spear Yise launched pierced its mouth.

A shrill scream erupted. With the spear stuck in its maw, it tried to flee. Desperate though its escape was, it waddled comically as the long spear struck everything in its path.

Dokkaebi Shadow-Gathering Demonic Art.

Ground-Shadow Snare.

A snare of shadow formed beneath the Wadu-Scholar, catching its feet. Yise rushed straight up to it and severed its left arm with his hand axe.

Without stopping, the axe swept through a graceful curve and took its left leg off at the trunk. The Demon's body tipped sideways. The convenient angle made it easier still for Yise to sweep his axe upward through its right foot and, finally, its right arm.

It was a single continuous strike, almost tracing a circle.

That strike left the Wadu-Scholar sprawled on the ground, nothing but a torso. Yise brought his axe down, severing the snail's head.

Blood sprayed like a fountain. Even with its limbs and head separated from its trunk, the creature writhed without dying.

What grotesque tenacity. Even allowing for having exploited its weakness, he wondered how he had ever managed to hunt one of these as a child.

THUD! THUD!

Yise hacked the Wadu-Scholar's torso apart until its breathing stopped entirely.

He grasped the Earthen Spear lodged in its maw and hoisted the head high. By now, it was a ritual he would miss if he skipped it.

Taking out his Purification Staff and Demon-Sealing Album, he stared at the Wadu-Scholar's head as the last of its breath faded.

'Can I eat it?'

The snail's head gave off a distinctive, pungent odor. He remembered eating sea snails and freshwater snails at Gwisu Temple, but land snails were an unfamiliar ingredient.

After studying it for a long while without reaching a conclusion, he finished the exorcism and stored its corpse in the Demon-Sealing Album. He could look for some way to remove the smell.

As the album sucked in the corpse, Yise straightened his clothes and set off again.

* * *

Bathed in afternoon sunlight, the training compound's administrative office was fairly crowded with Cultivators coming and going. U Jeol acknowledged Yise with a glance as he entered to report his return.

"That took quite some time."

"There were circumstances."

"Understood."

U Jeol asked no further questions.

"Um... do I not need to give a detailed report?"

Picking up his writing implements and organizing his reports, U Jeol answered casually.

"You're not the sort to wander off without leave. No explanation is necessary. Besides, I have no authority to question Hall Master Hae Il's actions."

Something felt faintly unfamiliar to Yise. It was not what U Jeol said, but his tone. Though his eyes never left the report, there was a curious courtesy to his speech, something different from his usual manner toward Yise.

A small, peculiar shift that carried a little more respect and acknowledgment.

He had not imagined it. U Jeol immediately mentioned his achievement.

"I'd like to congratulate you on advancing. Unfortunately, this hardly seems the time."

"Has something happened?"

"Four more novice disciples died while you were away."

Yise fell silent for a moment, then quickly regained his composure and asked, "Were their bodies recovered?"

"Yes."

"That's a relief."

U Jeol stopped his brush and looked at him, apparently surprised.

"You seem calmer than I expected."

"I'll have to get used to it. It's not as though I can protect everyone."

It was true. He would be lying if he said their deaths did not trouble him, but this, too, was the heaven-ordained lot of a Daemudo Daoist. He could not let every turn of events toss him between joy and sorrow forever.

"Still, the death rate is markedly lower than in other cohorts. You probably deserve much of the credit."

"Thank you for thinking so highly of me."

Yise bowed and left the office. He headed straight for the butcher shop, exchanging greetings with novice disciples who approached along the way. By now, the sight of him hauling a blood-red straw mat on his head and back would be familiar to everyone at the training compound.

Passing the sign that read Dine Before You Depart, he stepped into the butcher shop and encountered the dilemma of a lifetime.

'The head is one thing. What do I do with the body?'

Though the Wadu-Scholar was classified as a demonic beast, its body was perfectly human in appearance. He knew it was only an imitation of a human form, not a real person... but knowing that did not make it feel any better.

In the end, he put only the head in the refrigerated wooden chest and set the torso and limbs aside.

Excitement stirred in him at the prospect of eating proper immortal cuisine for the first time in ages. First, he set some spirit rice to cook and considered what supplementary ingredients would remove the snail's unpleasant odor.

'Camphor leaves are ideal for that. They aren't spiritual herbs, but a leaf or two should be fine.'

He poured water over which he had performed a devotional rite into a darksteel pot. Into it he sprinkled powdered dried fish demonic beast to make a broth.

Before long, the savory fragrance of cooking rice filled the butcher shop. Yise lifted the lid to check it and reduced the heat. The broth had developed its flavor. Now it was time to cook the snail.

"Yise!"

Just then, the door opened. His business partner Bu Chun was the only person he had allowed to come and go here.

"What took you so long? Everyone's been waiting—"

Bu Chun entered with a delighted expression. Or rather, he was about to enter when he stopped in his tracks.

"It's been a while."

"... What on earth? You—no, Senior. Your realm?"

Yise grinned and added, "It just happened."

"You've really gone and reached a realm where I have to call you Senior now..."

"You'd better. You're advancing so slowly I can't let you off the hook."

"I did reach the second star myself..."

Strictly speaking, that was slow even among the novice disciples, but Yise did not rub it in. Unlike Bu Chun, who had swiftly adjusted his manner, Yise found his fellow novice's deferential speech quite uncomfortable.

Still, he did his best to get used to it. It might well become a common occurrence from now on.

"It's all thanks to you, Senior. Eating immortal cuisine and focusing on cultivation really does make a difference. Oh, and I finally completed my first solo hunting mission!"

Bu Chun fumbled behind his back and brought out a bundle. Inside was a demonic beast about the size of a mountain hare. Its downy fur had a rather appetizing color.

It was only a Level Nine demonic beast, but Bu Chun puffed himself up with pride.

"I'd like you to have this for an ingredient, too, Senior."

"Sorry, but I can't use that."

"Huh? Is it too small?"

"Completely removing the Demonic Energy from a demonic beast is my secret cultivation art. It only works on beasts I hunt myself. It's already too late to remove the Demonic Energy from yours."

"Oh, I see..."

Bu Chun looked disappointed, then spotted the Wadu-Scholar's body piled to one side and asked in alarm, "... S-s-s-s-senior, have you started butchering demonic practitioners to eat, too?"

"What do you take me for, a man-eating ghoul...? That's a Wadu-Scholar's body. I'm only going to eat the head."

Yise took the snail's head out of the refrigerated wooden chest. It did not look particularly appetizing either.

"That really doesn't look edible..."

"If you don't want any, I'll eat alone."

"When did I say I didn't want any? Ahaha."

Yise chuckled and pounded the partially cooked rice into a dough. Once it had come together like rice cake, he rolled it out, sliced it into thin noodles, separated them, and put them back on to cook.

Then he dismantled the Wadu-Scholar's head, picked out only the flesh, and boiled it in the prepared broth. As Bu Chun watched from a safe distance, the noodles cooked and the seasonings went in.

Yise lifted a bowl of the finished immortal cuisine and sniffed it. Not bad. All that remained was to find a compatible spiritual herb to maximize its effects.

He tested small pieces of snail meat for compatibility with various spiritual herbs, estimating the cultivation-speed multiplier from the response of his spiritual energy. As soon as an effect wore off, he checked the next ingredient.

At last, he found a suitable one and completed the dish, adjusting the seasoning with a mixture of spirit stone powder and salt.

The result was a multiplier of one and eight tenths. Less than double—a rather lackluster dish of immortal cuisine, but there was little he could do with a Level Nine demonic beast.

"Looks like there'll be about ten servings left after ours. Let's eat."

"..."

Bu Chun hesitated, unable to bring himself to pick up his chopsticks. The limbs were still lying nearby, and the memory of the Wadu-Scholar's repulsive head was far too vivid.

"If you're going to spoil my appetite, don't eat."

"I'm eating!"

Bu Chun immediately picked up a piece of snail meat and put it in his mouth with some noodles.

"... Oh. ... Ooh?"

"Better than you expected, isn't it?"

The bold taste of seasoning, the chewy texture—things a Grain-Abstinence Pill could never provide.

Bu Chun felt as though seawater were cascading down the back of his head. He put his utensils to work with gusto. Satisfied with the reaction, Yise slowly savored his own immortal cuisine.

"I'll go round up some customers."

After polishing off his bowl of noodles, Bu Chun rushed out excitedly and returned around sunset with ten people. At two spirit stones per person, that was twenty spirit stones' worth of customers.

'Considering the ingredients, I'm barely breaking even.'

At this rate, he could not even cover labor costs. Apparently, Level Nine demonic beasts were no longer enough to make the business pay.

The customers took bowls and sat at the tables of Dine Before You Depart. Yise was about to serve the immortal cuisine when he spotted a familiar face and stopped his chopsticks.

It was the Medicine Hall's most junior Cultivator. Having only just reached the seventh star of Qi Refining, he was notorious for treating novice disciples rudely. Yise in particular had a grudge against him for gouging him out of a hundred spirit stones for a Regeneration Pill.

Yise filled a bowl with noodles and set it in front of him. The Cultivator held out two spirit stones.

"Here."

"It's been a while, 'fellow Daoist.'"

At the title Yise tacked on, the Cultivator frowned and looked up. None of the novice disciples had the right to call him a fellow Daoist. Top of his class or not, there was a difference in their realms. This insolent brat—

"That Regeneration Pill you gave me came in handy, 'fellow Daoist.'"

The Medicine Hall Cultivator's hand froze. He had realized that Yise's realm had risen almost to his own. The sixth and seventh stars were both Middle Stage Qi Refining; they could effectively be considered the same realm.

"... Thank you for the food. ... Fellow Daoist."

"By the way."

Instead of getting lost and serving the other disciples, Yise remained standing in front of him and continued speaking.

"It turns out a Regeneration Pill that size usually costs seventy spirit stones."

"... Market prices fluctuate with demand. The Medicine Hall has the authority to set its own prices."

"That's true, but..."

Yise shrugged.

"I've heard rumors that you only give female disciples discounts on healing pills. Well, you'd know whether that's true, fellow Daoist. What's bought is bought, but I thought I'd mention it for the sake of your reputation."

"Right... Thank you."

The Medicine Hall Cultivator was far from pleased, but he did not dare complain. For the moment, his own realm was still higher.

But he could only throw his weight around if the other's advancement speed was remotely comprehensible. Wasn't this boy an outright monster? He decided nothing good would come of getting on his bad side.

"Still, this is a debt I think I'll remember for a very long time. I can't stand leaving debts unpaid, you see. Whether it's a kindness or a grudge."

... Apparently, it was already too late.

Yise's lips were smiling, but his eyes were not.

"Mind how you behave."

The Cultivator took his bowl and silently wolfed down his noodles, his face white. Before long, he had vanished.

For some reason, Bu Chun felt a chill. He vowed never to make an enemy of that man.