Chapter 25 :

Chapter 25

Act 4: The Bamboo-Tube Beauty (6)

After repeatedly warning the Bamboo-Container Maiden never to waste her strength, the two returned to the Grand Martial Path outpost.

Chong Sadeuk initially brightened, believing that they had completed the mission safely, but after hearing what had happened, he scratched his cheek awkwardly.

“Kim Siwon... So that was the story behind it. What do you intend to do now?”

“First, we intend to report the situation to the main sect and ask whether we have permission to track down the cultivator.”

“They probably won’t concern themselves with such a minor matter... Still, reporting it is the right decision. When I send a Message-Transmission Talisman, I’ll enclose the portrait sketch you showed me and ask whether any cultivator belonging to the main sect is named Kim Siwon. Soran, make copies of this portrait.”

“Yes. How many should I draw?”

“Plenty. We will likely need at least one hundred. For now, quickly prepare a few.”

“Yes.”

The maidservant bowed and promptly began copying the portrait with a brush and ink.

Meanwhile, Yise asked Chong Sadeuk a question.

“Do you think Kim Siwon is his real name?”

Seol Ryeong answered Yise’s question.

“It probably is. A cultivator’s destiny is embedded in their name, so it’s best to avoid using an alias whenever possible—especially while cultivating.”

“Haha. That is correct.”

“Then we’ll leave it to you.”

Chong Sadeuk suggested that they eat something and rest, saying that it would not take long.

Yise decided that he was a very good man, ate until he was comfortably full, then assumed the lotus position and cultivated lightly.

The Third Star cultivation realm seemed almost within reach, yet remained elusive.

Still, perhaps because exchanging moves with Bamboo had sharpened his senses, the movement of spiritual energy within him now carried a keener edge than before.

He felt that he might reach the Third Star even if he failed to complete the demon-hunting mission.

Chong Sadeuk returned with news half a day after Yise began meditating.

“The reply has arrived already?”

“Half a day is actually quite a delay. A Message-Transmission Talisman requires only about the time it takes to eat a meal to make a round trip. Since this is a mission undertaken by introductory disciples, our request was probably pushed back in priority.”

Yise stared with fascination at the talisman in Chong Sadeuk’s hand.

It seemed extraordinarily convenient.

Chong Sadeuk handed Yise the letter without unfolding it.

Only two words were written inside.

Permission. None.

It likely meant that they had permission to track down the cultivator and that no one by that name belonged to the Grand Martial Path.

Yise showed the words to the other two.

“If he is neither a disciple of the Grand Martial Path nor one of its affiliated clans, then he must be an independent cultivator. Finding an Energy Refinement Realm independent cultivator based on information from fifty years ago would be virtually impossible...”

“Could you gather information from the nearby villages? We intend to search for only one week.”

“Yes, of course I will cooperate. I would merely be grateful if you gave me a generous score when evaluating my assistance with the mission.”

“Of course.”

Seol Ryeong playfully chimed in from beside them.

“He’s the top disciple of this year’s intake. If you make a good impression on him now, some benefits might trickle down to you later.”

“Haha. It seems I have been given the opportunity to assist some remarkable people. It would be an honor if you merely remembered me. How could I ask for anything more from future inner-sect disciples? I will cooperate fully.”

“Thank you. However, our target is a cultivator, so don’t overextend yourself. Be careful not to let him realize that you’re following his trail.”

“Yes.”

Chong Sadeuk briefly stepped away and made a gesture. People immediately began gathering from every direction.

None of them were outer-sect representatives of the Grand Martial Path. They were likely people employed directly under Chong Sadeuk.

The scene gave Yise a renewed appreciation for the Grand Martial Path’s influence.

Leaving behind the people who dispersed in perfect order, Yise and Seol Ryeong decided to make a circuit around Namsangol as well.

However, searching for a cultivator from fifty years ago was every bit as daunting as it sounded.

They searched all of Namsangol for anything unusual, but the sun set without their finding anything useful.

The two sat near the village entrance, lit a fire, and roasted sweet potatoes.

Seol Ryeong asked Yise, who was absently poking at the embers, a question.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I just think something is strange.”

“Strange?”

“That cultivator was probably stealing Bamboo’s spirituality to further his cultivation, right?”

“Probably. Unless he was a Daoist from the Grand Martial Path, he would have regarded encountering a spiritual object as a type of fortuitous encounter.”

“The bamboo forest where Bamboo originally lived must have provided ideal conditions for her growth. If he had cultivated there, he could have exploited her spirituality for much longer. Why did that cultivator deliberately travel all this way north?”

Faced with the question Yise had posed, Seol Ryeong imagined herself in the cultivator’s position.

I am a poor independent cultivator with neither connections nor support.

My talent is so mediocre that I cannot even enter a cultivation sect.

While wandering throughout the Three Kingdoms of Bando under those circumstances, I unexpectedly encounter a fortuitous opportunity.

What would I have done...?

The answer was relatively simple.

“I would become afraid.”

Excessive good fortune inspired fear.

“He must have been frightened. That place was probably rich in the energy of heaven and earth. If so, he would have judged that other cultivators might discover it at any time.”

“He encountered a precious fortuitous opportunity that could raise his cultivation realm. But he feared that someone might rob him of it at any moment. In that case, the cultivator’s next action would be...”

“He would search for a safe place.”

“Here is the next strange point. Once he had finished using the spiritual object, why did he move her elsewhere and abandon her instead of destroying her?”

“Hmmm.”

Seol Ryeong furrowed her chin like the shell of a walnut as she continued thinking.

There were several possible theories, but the most likely was this.

“If a spiritual object is mishandled, it could become corrupted and transform into a demon, such as an earthbound spirit...”

“That means the place he took her must have been extremely important to the independent cultivator.”

A place that was both safe and important to a cultivator, particularly an independent cultivator with no organization behind him.

“There was a cultivation cave here.”

“A cultivation cave.”

The two reached the conclusion almost simultaneously.

A cultivation cave was a cultivator’s private, secret domain.

Cultivators belonging to cultivation sects were guaranteed a safe cultivation environment because their entire sects were established in places rich in the energy of heaven and earth. The world of independent cultivators, however, was a battlefield in itself.

Their first priority was securing a safe place to cultivate.

However, locations suitable for cultivation caves were rare.

Because of how the energy of heaven and earth flowed, it was difficult to continue cultivating in a single location for long.

Occasionally, however, there were places where the energy of heaven and earth that would ordinarily flow away through the earth’s spiritual meridians instead collected and remained stagnant.

Such places were rich in the energy of heaven and earth.

They were known as grotto-heavens. A cultivator who discovered one would claim it by erecting numerous barriers, constructing a cultivation cave, and residing there for an extended period.

“If his cultivation cave is here and he is still alive, there is a strong possibility that he never left.”

The discovery of a grotto-heaven and the acquisition of a spiritual object.

For an independent cultivator, he had been remarkably fortunate.

“If we search for places suitable for a cultivation cave, we’ll have a clearer direction for our investigation.”

They needed a place untouched by the turbid energy emitted by ordinary mortals.

The cultivator’s cave was probably concealed somewhere deep within the mountains.

Searching for a “cultivation cave” instead of a “person” at least gave their objective a slightly more tangible form.

“The problem is his cultivation realm...”

Finding him seemed distant enough, but actually encountering him would present another problem.

They would need to be at roughly comparable cultivation realms if they wished to hold a conversation with him.

Forget someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm—even a cultivator beyond the middle stage of the Energy Refinement Realm might take offense at them merely attempting to speak casually to him.

Visiting his cultivation cave would practically amount to a declaration of war.

“I’m beginning to wonder whether we’re doing the right thing. The first rule of demon extermination is never to advance toward an unknown enemy.”

“How is he an unknown enemy? We have enough information to make deductions.”

“What do you think? Could that cultivator have reached the Foundation Establishment Realm?”

“Surely not. If his talent was ordinary enough that he couldn’t find a sect willing to accept him, most cultivators like him would fail to break through the wall of the Fifth Star of the Energy Refinement Realm even by the age of seventy.”

“Is it really that difficult?”

“Do you think immortal cultivation is child’s play? Forget seventy years—most independent cultivators die without ever crossing the first minor bottleneck, the wall of the Fifth Star of the Energy Refinement Realm. The average lifespan of an Energy Refinement Realm cultivator is one hundred and fifty years... The path of immortal cultivation is so difficult that even after cultivating for one hundred and fifty years, they may still fail to surpass the Fifth Star. Of course, that doesn’t apply to exceptional geniuses like us.”

A minor bottleneck.

Advancement through cultivation realms occurred in steps, but a boundary felt like a wall suddenly appearing before the cultivator.

Whenever a cultivator’s advancement became blocked, it was usually one of those boundaries standing in their way.

The transitions from the Fourth Star to the Fifth Star and from the Seventh Star to the Eighth Star were examples of minor bottlenecks.

The transition from the Energy Refinement Realm to the Foundation Establishment Realm, or from the Foundation Establishment Realm to the Core Formation Realm, was a major bottleneck.

“On rare occasions, talented individuals manage to distinguish themselves without assistance... But if he possessed enough talent to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm as an independent cultivator, a cultivation sect or cultivation clan would have accepted him in the first place. He wouldn’t have wandered throughout Bando while still in the early Energy Refinement Realm, searching for a fortuitous encounter.”

Seol Ryeong added that their opponent was probably untalented—or, at best, possessed ordinary talent.

Concerned by her attitude, Yise pointed something out.

“So if we make even one mistake, exceptional geniuses like us might be killed by someone with mediocre or ordinary talent. That would be an extraordinarily pointless death.”

“...We’ll just have to be careful not to let that happen.”