Chapter 64 - Act 10. Silver Dragon Mine (5)

* * *

“Oh my, it’s our administrator, newly promoted to Seok Gongju. What’s your name?”

As Yise patrolled Silver Dragon Mine with Goe Tong, a female laborer approached and addressed him sweetly. The laborers were not even given proper meals, yet this woman looked curiously well kept. Her composure, quite unbelievable for a laborer, only added to the incongruity. It was as though someone was looking out for her.

It hardly mattered. Whoever her patron was, no one in Silver Dragon Mine held more authority than he did.

“Stay back. Come any closer and I’ll take off your hand.”

Her Demonic Energy might be bound, but Yise still found a demonic practitioner’s approach distasteful.

“My, how fierce. I only meant that, since fate has brought us together, we might at least exchange greetings.”

“Fate, my ass, you bitch. Get back!”

Despite Goe Tong’s bark, the demonic practitioner kept smiling and inching closer. Deciding that words would not get through to her, Yise released his killing intent. The laborer flinched, backed away several steps, then left muttering to herself.

Becoming Seok Gongju had changed his lodgings and the information available to him. Bamboo slips recording the personal details of the mission personnel and laborers were kept in the Seok Gongju’s office. Yise was examining them one by one as he familiarized himself with his duties when the record of the woman he had just encountered caught his eye.

- Han Chunhwa: Eighth-star Qi Refining demonic practitioner. Practices cultivation through harvesting others’ energy. Captured after being discovered holding several Daemudo Daoists captive and harvesting their yang to replenish her yin.

Her original realm was higher than his own, and she was plainly dangerous. Yise turned to Goe Tong, who had found himself back in the supervisor’s role.

“About the demonic practitioners. Is there a reason we only bind them instead of using the Art of Severing Roots and Meridians?”

“That? If we use the Art of Severing Roots and Meridians, we can’t put them to work mining spirit stones. Spirit stone deposits are as hard as diamonds. An ordinary person’s body could never mine them. So we pick out the captives whose spiritual roots are still intact, bind them, and use them as laborers.”

At Goe Tong’s answer, Yise tapped a jade slip labeled “Binding Arts,” which had been kept in the Seok Gongju’s archives.

“Is something troubling you?”

“Not troubling me, exactly.”

He was only a temporary Seok Gongju. Was he allowed to learn the binding arts taught to those holding the office? Yise soon made up his mind. These were free spells. How many spirit stones would they cost him at the library? There was no reason to refuse.

* * *

Despite the Law Enforcement Hall Cultivator’s promise to send a replacement within days, nearly two months passed without a stonecrafter arriving. Fortunately, there were no further incidents. According to a newly arrived Cultivator on mission duty, the scattered remnants of the demonic-path sect were apparently putting up more stubborn resistance than expected.

“They seem to be busy rooting them out everywhere. Usually they don’t assign war-related missions to Qi Refining Cultivators, but this time they’ve made an exception and called up even the Great Attainment seniors.”

If things had reached that point, complaining would be embarrassing. Yise decided to accept the situation quietly.

‘I ought to earn that pill.’

The power of elixir pills was magnificent.

Advancing through pills was exhilarating, the Pill Refining Sect was right, Daemudo was wrong, and Hall Master Hong Mihui was a god.

Three days earlier, Yise had crossed the minor threshold and reached the eighth star. It had taken ten months since reaching the seventh. He had narrowly managed to get ahead of his target, even if only slightly, when he might otherwise have fallen behind it.

Naturally, the mid-grade Qi-Condensing Pill refined by Hall Master Hong Mihui had played the decisive role. The moment he swallowed it, it supplied most of the spiritual energy he had been lacking—and with clear, pure energy that required no Purging Impurity, Purifying Spirit.

‘It didn’t feel like crossing a wall.’

That last handful of energy had hovered just beyond his grasp. But there were his memories of battlefields where he had skirted death. The back of an old man who had staked everything to save his parents. The weight of parting inherent in the pursuit of longevity. His recurring questions about what Cultivation truly was.

He had delved deeply into the path of Cultivation and longevity, repeatedly reflecting on life and death, until he reached a conclusion.

‘Now that I have begun Cultivation, I will keep going to the very end.’

That conclusion, that resolve, melted the final layer of the barrier. Rather than being blocked by something, it felt as though the process itself simply took a long time. That was only natural. The eighth star required twice as much spiritual energy as the seventh.

‘The ninth star is next.’

Like a rampaging boar, Yise hungered for advancement.

* * *

Late that night, a secret rendezvous was taking place in a shabby hut near the female laborers’ section. Goe Tong lifted the straw mat covering its entrance and stepped inside. The woman already waiting there turned her eyes toward him.

He lay down beside her with practiced ease and slipped a hand toward her. Han Chunhwa coyly slapped it away.

“You hardly come to see me anymore. You must be tired of me.”

“It’s not that. The new Seok Gongju is so strict. I can’t find a moment unless he’s cultivating.”

“I even let it go when you insulted me before. What was it you said? ‘Get lost, you bitch’?”

“Oh, that was just wordplay. ‘Fate,’ ‘bitch’—a little joke. Why are you still holding on to that?”

“Well, it still hurts. Senior, I think I’ll go back tonight. I’m not in the mood.”

“What? You can’t do that. I’m leaving soon, you know. This might be our last time. Are you really going to be like this?”

His mention of leaving soon softened Han Chunhwa’s heart. As though reluctantly giving in, she released the hand she had caught. It immediately went busily to work. Summer was long past, yet inside that hut alone, a wild midsummer night raged.

“Seniooor.”

“Yes?”

Goe Tong answered her languid call with a catch in his breath.

“When your mission ends and you go back... how am I supposed to live?”

“...”

“If I underwent the Art of Severing Roots and Meridians and became an ordinary person again, could we marry?”

“That’s...”

Goe Tong could not answer. This was merely a night’s dalliance. Inwardly, he thought, ‘Why would I marry a mere ordinary person?’ But there were more important things at hand than such idle thoughts.

“It wouldn’t be possible, would it?”

“Why does that matter?”

“Tonight is our last night, isn’t it, Senior?”

“Probably. The acting Seok Gongju is on patrol tomorrow. His senses are so sharp, there’s no getting past him.”

“Then couldn’t you release my binding for a little while? Just for tonight.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“I learned the bedchamber arts. That’s why I was branded a demonic practitioner, but... since it’s our last night, why not? A hotter night... sweeter than anything in this world... wouldn’t you like to experience that? I’ll give you a night you’ll never forget... even after you leave me.”

Her languid, whispering voice tickled his ear.

“But I don’t know how to undo the binding.”

“I do. With the life I led, I never knew when I might be abducted.”

“But... I don’t think I can do that.”

Han Chunhwa pushed him away gently. A burning thirst welled up in his throat.

“I’m only at the fourth star of Qi Refining. Are you afraid of me?”

“It’s not that. But this is...”

“Or were all those whispered words of love lies from the start? Was I just a plaything for the night?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Then don’t be afraid.”

Han Chunhwa drew Goe Tong toward her. Their joined hands moved to the starting point for undoing the binding—a rather intimate part of her body, perhaps.

“You start releasing the binding here. Feed your spiritual energy into my body. Slowly. As though playing an instrument.”

Goe Tong’s hand began moving as though bewitched.

A short while later, Han Chunhwa rose, driving her nails into Goe Tong’s throat. She licked the blood dripping from her fingertips and smiled bewitchingly.

* * *

That night, a crescent moon hung at a slant, as though spun from strands of silk. An alarm blared. Someone had activated the Alarm Spell ritual implement installed at the summit.

Yise immediately rushed out of the private cultivation cave Senior Shin Hyeon had used. As soon as he emerged, he saw Demonic Energy raging everywhere. The demonic practitioners had been freed from their bindings.

Before the question of how could even leave his mind, he shouted with spiritual energy in his voice.

“All mission personnel! Assemble outside the Seok Gongju’s office!”

He did not know how they had managed it, but as long as he held the Seok Gongju’s office, the demonic practitioners could not escape. Daemudo’s defensive formation would not permit it.

Seventeen people gathered shortly afterward. Five were missing. Goe Tong was absent, as was the night watchman. The three assigned to the dawn patrol were nowhere to be seen either.

“What’s happening?”

A wounded Cultivator, who seemed to have already fought the demonic practitioners, spoke up.

“Someone released all their bindings. They attacked the patrol, and it looks like they’re gathering all the demonic practitioners to attempt an escape... They’ll probably be here any...”

Before he could finish, a mob of demonic practitioners came pouring toward them from the western mine tunnel, torches in hand. There were no fewer than a hundred. Han Chunhwa led them. Those following her carried the severed heads of Daemudo disciples. The face dangling from Han Chunhwa’s hand was familiar. Goe Tong.

“...”

Yise stared at that face for a moment, then raised his eyes to Han Chunhwa.

“There’s never a moment’s peace at this damned Silver Dragon Mine. Once this mission’s over, I won’t even piss in this direction.”

Han Chunhwa beamed.

“Oh my, Seok Gongju. Shouldn’t you offer a friendly greeting when you see someone?”

Clammy Demonic Energy rippled around her. The Demonic Energy he had felt before had been eerie, but hers felt wet and sticky. Yise frowned at the demonic practitioners.

“You can’t get out anyway. What the hell are you doing?”

“Why wouldn’t we be able to get out?”

Han Chunhwa pointed at the Seok Gongju’s office behind him.

“We just have to kill you all, find the formation implement sustaining the barrier formation, and smash it.”

It was true that physically destroying the formation implement would bring down the barrier. If they could destroy it.

Yise glanced at the tense faces of the Cultivators. Every one of them was filled with despair and fear. The enemy outnumbered them five to one, and the strongest was at the eighth star. Most of the formal disciples facing them were at Middle Stage Qi Refining or below. They would still believe Yise to be at the seventh star. Starved and abused laborers they might be, but demonic practitioners were still demonic practitioners.

“Relax, everyone. It’s all right.”

It was Han Chunhwa who responded to his calm words. She examined his realm again, then cocked her head at an odd angle.

“You...? I was told you were at the seventh star, but you’ve reached the eighth. Are my eyes deceiving me? Why does it feel like Demonic Energy?”

“Enough pointless chatter.”

Han Chunhwa narrowed her eyes and ran the tip of her tongue over her upper lip.

“Yes. Whatever the case, that talent is truly... tantalizing.”

Instead of answering, Yise drew the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard from his storage pouch. He was not keen on having his supernatural treasure’s effect become widely known. But he could not allow any more of his comrades to be sacrificed. Nor did he relish losing precious cultivation time.

He immediately swallowed a Spirit-Burst Pill. His internal reserves began surging wildly. Gathering all the raging Demonic Energy at once, he drove the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard hard into the ground, like a victorious conqueror proclaiming the battlefield his domain.

A barrier spread from the supernatural treasure. The translucent membrane expanded without stopping until it met the barrier at the summit that enclosed the entire mine. The flow of Demonic Energy stopped within every demonic practitioner at once.

“...?”

For the first time, Han Chunhwa’s smiling face froze. The Demonic Energy she had unquestionably regained would not stir, as though bound again.

“Wh-what is this?”

The freed demonic practitioners struggled to summon their Demonic Energy, but not one of them received a response.

“Say that again. Who were you going to kill, and what were you going to do afterward?”

The formal disciples’ faces brightened. They did not know why, but the demonic practitioners were shaken.

“They’re no different from ordinary people now. Don’t worry.”

All their earlier menace had vanished. It must have something to do with that ritual implement and the translucent membrane that had spread from it.

Yise spoke quietly.

“Subdue them all.”

At those words, the formal disciples moved as one. As golden spiritual energy surged, the demonic practitioners scrambled to flee. But there was nowhere to run. Yise had removed the very option of escaping the barrier as that formation-wielding demonic practitioner had done.

“I really have been too lenient. I’ll reflect on that.”