Chapter 53 - Act 8. Daemudo’s Main Mountain (4)

‘I show my seniors every respect, so it really does piss me off when I don’t get any myself.’

Yise realized he had already grown accustomed to the Cultivators’ hierarchy of seniors and juniors. One more word, and he felt he might snap, “You miserable fifth-star Qi Refining worm,” and forcibly hammer some manners into the man.

Of course, there was a reason for their shameless behavior—a reason they nominally treated him as a senior without actually respecting him.

They had backing. Their parents, relatives, and siblings were all Cultivators who had put down roots here. They were confident that no one would dare lay a hand on them.

If he was going to deal with people like that, he had to crush them thoroughly enough that they would never get uppity again.

Punishing bullies had once been part of Yise’s everyday life. Anyone who attacked him, he drove to the brink of mortal terror. Anyone who tried to kill him, he tore their throat out. That was not merely his resolve; he had actually done it.

There had been only one exception: the mercy he had shown the young Dokkaebi boys at Gwisu Temple. Their bullying had been almost endearing, but it was his debt to Mongryeon that had allowed him to be lenient.

Something about Yise subtly changed. The pureblood Cultivators seemed to sense it instinctively.

“... Well, we’ll be going, then.”

Ju Guyeon made a show of casual composure as he said goodbye and edged around to turn his back. The other pureblood Cultivators hurried away after him.

“Ugh... They even took all the spirit stones I worked so hard to save... I was going to buy books on immortal cuisine with those.”

“Wait. They took your spirit stones?”

“Yes. They called it compensation...”

What a pack of thieving bastards, worse than Demons.

Stealing someone else’s spirit stones was a heinous crime that literally deserved death. Besides, some of Bu Chun’s spirit stones had come from Yise. It was no exaggeration to say they had stolen his stones.

Yise immediately slipped a hand into his storage pouch, withdrew it, and called after the departing Cultivators.

“Wait. Come here.”

His voice stopped them in their tracks. Ju Guyeon froze. After a moment’s hesitation, he awkwardly turned his head.

“... What is it, Senior?”

“I said come here.”

“...”

“Should I come to you?”

At that, Ju Guyeon reluctantly approached without calling the others over. Once he was close enough, Yise raised a hand, lightly brushed his shoulder and upper arm a couple of times, and straightened his clothes.

“...?”

“Keep yourself presentable. You’re a Cultivator.”

“... Oh, please. Stop finding fault.”

Ju Guyeon pulled away with a scowl and led his companions off at a brisk pace.

Bu Chun, who had watched the exchange in a daze, spoke cautiously.

“Senior, what was that powder you just put on him?”

“Nothing much. A little etiquette, you could say.”

Without further explanation, Yise tucked his hand inside his robe, then gave Bu Chun a mild scolding.

“Anyway, you need to be more careful. This is the cultivation world. Is there any need to get worked up and lunge at people?”

“I didn’t really lunge at them. I just... made a perfectly reasonable objection to how harshly they were speaking. Does that justify stealing my resources?”

“Were you always like this?”

“... Not really. I’m sorry, Senior. I got carried away.”

Yise chuckled. For a moment, he could almost see the flustered boy who had yielded the cultivation manual to him in the library on their first day in the sect. Bu Chun certainly had changed quite a bit.

“Where are your quarters?”

“Third floor of Dust-Averting Hall Nine.”

“I’m in Clear Repose Hall One. Just up ahead.”

“Wow! They really gave you a nice place. I suppose that’s only natural for one of the sect’s rising stars.”

“Even in here, some places are better than others?”

“Hehe, you’ll see when you go inside. The Dust-Averting Halls are hardly any different from the training compound lodgings.”

Bu Chun hesitated for a moment, then continued as if he had made up his mind.

“... I’ve decided to become a staff member instead of going on mission duty.”

“Hmm. That sounds like a good choice.”

“Yes. I’m going to learn the business properly. I’ve picked things up watching you, after all. I want to learn how to run a shop, manage ingredients for immortal cuisine, and cook it.”

Surprise entered Yise’s eyes. Those words could mean only one thing.

“Of course, now that my spirit stones have been stolen, I’ll have to take missions for a while...”

Bu Chun swallowed once more, then added with a decidedly earnest expression,

“Senior... if you’ll allow it, I want to serve as your hands and feet. Officially. I want to help you focus on cultivation and the Demon-Exorcizing Arts, and use the proceeds to pursue my own Cultivation.”

It was a frank, straightforward admission.

On reflection, surviving on mission duty would be difficult for someone of Bu Chun’s poor talent. The problem was not the quality of his spiritual root; his nature simply did not suit an exorcist’s work. He knew that himself, so he had set out to find another way to make himself useful.

Besides, Bu Chun was well connected and quick with his hands. Remembering how swiftly he had sold out the meal tickets at Dine Before You Depart, Yise knew he was at least a step ahead of him when it came to handling people and figures.

No one could do everything alone. Yise was gradually coming to appreciate that himself.

Seeing those delicate hothouse flowers reach fifth-star Qi Refining solely through the support of others, without ever going out to exorcise a single Demon, had made him all the more certain.

“All right.”

He, too, needed a power base and people to draw upon.

“Really? You mean it?!”

“But keep up your cultivation. A Cultivator never knows when a fortuitous encounter might come along.”

“Yes, Senior! I promise I’ll prove my worth!”

Bu Chun clenched both fists in excitement. He looked so determined that Yise watched him with satisfaction.

“Then come with me for a moment. Something important has come up today.”

Though Yise had naturally slipped into giving orders, Bu Chun followed without complaint.

At his quarters in the west wing of Clear Repose Hall One, Yise pushed open the heavy iron door.

“... All of this is my room?”

“Wow! That’s Clear Repose Hall for you... It’s much, much better than the rumors said. If even these quarters are this good, just how amazing must the Foundation Establishment Cultivators’ residences be...?”

The Clear Repose Halls were a cluster of buildings that looked like tiled-roof houses cut into neat squares and packed tightly together, their structure almost reminiscent of a beehive.

A small gasp of admiration escaped Yise as he stepped inside. There was more than one room: a separate bedchamber, an auxiliary space, and another small room beside it.

‘With this much space, I could just set up an immortal-cuisine kitchen in my quarters.’

Happy calculations raced through his head. Back at the training compound, he had barely had room to lie down, but here he could easily set aside a room as a workshop.

Beyond the window lay Clear Repose Park. Bare branches swayed in the wind, with a pavilion and a pond filmed with thin ice visible beyond them.

In addition to the three rooms, there was a separate washing area, complete with a rather peculiar notice.

「Fill the water tank directly through its opening using Gushing Torrent. Place a flame in the warming firebox on the right using Flame Release to obtain hot water. Semi-automatic.」

Yise found the wording unfamiliar and amusing. Semi-automatic? Was it something like a spinning wheel?

He filled the tank and added a flame as instructed, and a strange humming sound began. When he brought his hand to the hemispherical piece of jade, lo and behold, warm water came out.

‘Daemudo is... incredible.’

An extraordinarily wondrous waste, one might say. They could have simply given everyone a cleansing spell for free, instead of selling it for spirit stones like misers.

The largest room also had a safe built into the wall, but with a storage pouch, he had little use for it. Instead of valuables, he decided to neatly store the cold stones and immortal-cuisine ingredients he had intended to keep at the butcher shop inside it.

Once he finished unpacking, Yise lightly dusted off his hands.

‘Shall I go do a little corrective guidance for Daemudo?’

He drank the Scent-Tracing Water and beckoned for Bu Chun to follow. He had originally intended to go alone... but it would be best for Bu Chun to get some advance understanding of the true nature beneath his kindness.

* * *

The Scent-Tracing Water led him to the training district. For all their swaggering, the pureblood disciples apparently had their heads on straight enough to have come directly here to train.

At the northeastern edge of the main mountain, dozens of sparring platforms of various sizes stood scattered about. Tall trees planted densely between them blocked the view from one platform to another, ensuring privacy during training.

“I heard only Cultivators with reservations can use this place?”

“Yes. I know.”

Yise had already reached the vicinity of the platform where Ju Guyeon and his companions had begun training. A commotion came from within.

Walking up to the entrance, he infused the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard with spiritual energy and planted it in the ground. The barrier spread instantly, its range remarkably greater than when he had first used the supernatural treasure. It swallowed every Cultivator on the platform.

“Guard this. Don’t let anyone pull it out.”

With those words, Yise walked inside.

Meanwhile, Ju Guyeon and his pureblood sworn brothers were training with live blades in the middle of the sparring platform.

‘Actual combat is the only thing I lack.’

With bitter anguish in his heart, Ju Guyeon exchanged merciless blows with his brothers. The fact that he had felt intimidated and afraid before that training compound graduate, however briefly, had wounded his pride.

Their cultivation differed by a single step at most. He had certainly never felt so cowed by other sixth-star Qi Refining disciples. They were on the same side of the minor threshold, after all; he had thought he could close the gap with just a little effort.

In the end, what he lacked was actual combat experience. That must have been what allowed the bastard to exude such a murderous air.

Ju Guyeon, on the other hand, had never experienced raw, genuine combat. He earnestly believed that was his only weakness.

“Harder! Swing like you mean it!”

“Senior Brother, you’ll get hurt!”

“I don’t care! Come at me!”

The pureblood Cultivators’ live-blade sparring was fairly intense. Their spiritual-energy-infused weapons clashed through the air with a ferocity of their own.

Then, suddenly, the spiritual energy in their weapons dispersed. Before they could do more than register their surprise at the strange change, a familiar voice reached them.

“... Look at you playing around. Practicing a dance?”

At the unfamiliar voice, more than a dozen people stopped moving at once. At the platform’s entrance, Yise was slowly emerging from the shade of the trees, loosening his shoulders.

Ju Guyeon’s brow furrowed.

“What do you think you’re doing, Senior? We rented this platform through the proper procedures. Even a senior cannot enter without permission. Do you think Daemudo’s rules are a joke?”

“Of course not. I didn’t know.”

“Now that you do, get out at on—”

“But it’s fine.”

Yise casually rolled his wrist, then turned his neck a couple of times to loosen it.

“I’ll have your permission soon enough.”

The instant he finished speaking, Yise vanished.

A moment later, a yellow shield came hurtling straight toward Ju Guyeon’s face. Instinctively, he tried to summon his spiritual energy. But it had stopped where it should have been flowing, as motionless as a stagnant pool.

‘... What in the world?’

The moment he realized it, the shield smashed mercilessly into his face. Ju Guyeon flew to the far end of the platform like an arrow loosed from a bow.

“Eldest Brother!”

“You outrageous brute!”

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

The Cultivators stared blankly, stunned by the ruthless, lawless violence that had erupted without warning.

“I was actually going to let it slide.”

Yise spoke as he walked toward the nearest of the other pureblood Cultivators.

“But then I thought you’d end up dying out there before long if I did. As your senior, I have no choice but to teach you an important lesson.”

Mind your behavior when facing a senior of a higher realm.

‘Please spare my life, Senior.’

Just how important those nine syllables were.

“We’re fighting without cultivation ranks. Fair and square. Physical combat only.”

The pureblood Cultivators struggled to summon their spiritual energy, but not one person’s energy responded.

They did not know how he had done it, but from what he said, he meant to seal their spiritual energy and fight with physical ability alone. In that case, what did the difference in cultivation matter? There were more than ten of them. Didn’t that actually give them the advantage?

The pureblood Cultivators exchanged brief glances.

“You can all come at once. Give it everything you’ve got. I swear on my birth parents’ names and honor that I won’t make an issue of it even if I lose.”

Yise gave his brief permission. As if those were the very words they had been waiting for, the Cultivators rushed him.