Chapter 4
“I’ll personally examine your spiritual root.”
“Thank you. I don’t know how to express my gratitude. I am deeply indebted to you!”
“I thought you were a madwoman, but seeing you repent of your own sins is admirable, so I’ll make a special exception for you.”
“Neither I nor the Ryu family will ever forget your noble kindness.”
“Rise.”
The cultivator thought for a moment, then took out a small disc.
It had a strange shape, with five translucent pieces of jade attached to it.
Each piece was engraved with a different character.
Metal (金).
Wood (木).
Water (水).
Fire (火).
Earth (土).
‘What’s this? A compass?’
“Put your hand on it.”
“What is this?”
“It’s a Five Elements Plate. A magical artifact used to test spiritual roots.”
‘I’m curious what a magical artifact is. But first…’
“This young lady would like to ask what a spiritual root is.”
The cultivator looked at me as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“You’ve been chattering away like that without even knowing what a spiritual root is?”
“I was born and raised in a village, so my knowledge of the world is limited. I’m still ignorant of how things work, and there are so many things I’d like to know.”
The cultivator stared at me, dumbfounded.
“Ahem… A spiritual root is the foundation that allows one to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. It determines a cultivator’s aptitude.”
Aptitude to become a cultivator…?
I looked down at the disc.
Metal, wood, water, fire, earth.
Metal, wood, water, fire, earth.
‘Ridiculous. What is this, Aristotle?’
A way of thinking that divided all things into five categories? How primitive.
In my previous life, I would’ve scoffed, saying it was nothing but an imitation of ancient natural philosophy.
I bet he’d be astonished if I told him the world was actually made of atoms, and mostly empty space.
But I couldn’t dismiss the Five Elements.
Why? Seeing is believing.
I’d just witnessed someone die from a single gesture of his hand, while dozens of people were crushed to the ground.
So there was no doubt.
A ‘special power’ different from the one on Earth definitely existed.
It was hard to accept as a physics student, but…
According to the results of my direct observations…
There was clearly a ‘fifth force’ that I didn’t know about.
That was an undeniable fact.
When what I knew and what I observed didn’t match up like this,
which should a physicist believe?
The answer was already clear.
Naturally, I had to abandon what I thought I knew.
The things I’d learned only applied to Earth, apparently.
My heart began to race.
As a physicist who sought the truth, I couldn’t possibly let this go.
I’d been given the chance to become this world’s Newton and Einstein.
‘Could matter here actually be made up of the Five Elements?’
Someday, I would definitely develop an electron microscope.
Just as I was making up my mind…
“What are you waiting for?”
I hurriedly placed my hand on the disc.
At first, it was cold, as if I’d plunged my hand into icy water.
‘Something’s coming.’
An unknown force burrowed into my palm.
A blue light rose from the character for Water (水).
The disc vibrated with a low hum.
“Ah!”
It grew hot, as if I’d been burned, as though it had never been cold at all.
It was nothing like the symptoms of frostbite.
Then a red light came on.
‘Two lights are on now. Isn’t that good?’
But I couldn’t read what the man was thinking from his expression alone.
Then yellow, green, and even white lights appeared.
The Five Elements Plate shone in all five colors.
‘What? Don’t I have some kind of special ability? Right. If I don’t get a status window, then at least my spiritual root should be good.’
No, I was wrong.
This was a disaster.
There was no greater disaster than this.
If I was born with all five elements, that had to mean I had incredible aptitude, right?
Was I destined to be a genius even after reincarnating, since I’d been one in my previous life?
Heh. Yeah. It couldn’t be helped.
‘Behold! Ryu So-ha, genius cultivator!’
Heeheeheehee!
Heehee…
Waaah…
Wasn’t I supposed to turn my sadness into laughter?
This is only making me more depressed.
I’m doomed.
I’m going to be dragged off by that immortal and turned into a cauldron.
In the end, I can’t escape the fate of a slave in this life, either.
Oh, Heavens! Why are you putting me through this?
And a sex slave, at that!
Still, he’ll wait until I’m twenty before eating me, right?
Just as I was drowning in despair…
“Pwahahahaha!”
The cultivator clutched his stomach and burst into laughter.
“What a coincidence!”
“…?”
“You were right. You’re a useless girl after all.”
“But all five of them reacted?”
“Yes, you’re a
Five-Element Root
it is. Tsk, tsk.”
The crowd stirred at the words ‘Five-Element Root.’
‘What? Does everyone know what a spiritual root is? Was I the only one left out?’
“A once-in-a-generation mess of a spiritual root, born with all five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.”
‘A once-in-a-generation mess of a spiritual root?’
“You can’t properly manifest a single one of them. The worst of the worst.”
‘The worst of the worst? Me? I’m not a genius cultivator, Ryu So-ha?’
I couldn’t understand what he meant just from his words.
“Wouldn’t it be a good thing to have all five elements within me?”
“That’s ignorant nonsense.”
For some reason, he seemed to be in a good mood.
He seemed like the sort of pervert who enjoyed other people’s misfortune.
“When it comes to spiritual roots, fewer is better.”
‘Fewer is better? Is that even a saying? Isn’t it “too much of a good thing is bad”?’
Anyway, according to the cultivator’s explanation…
The fewer spiritual roots you had, the purer they were.
A person with a single spiritual root was a Heaven-Gifted Root, a prodigy blessed by the heavens.
A sect of great renown would covet someone with two spiritual roots, too.
Three was ordinary, and four was considered inferior.
Then what about five…?
“Trash. A worthless piece of junk. It means you have no talent.”
“W-what?! Trash…?”
My world fell apart.
How many times was the world going to fall apart today?
It wasn’t a roller coaster. I’d been full of hope, only to plunge straight off a cliff.
“When the spiritual energies of the Five Elements mix together, the other four interfere while you try to absorb just one.”
Apparently, some of the elements were mutually incompatible.
‘What is this, Pokémon? There are separate Fire-types and Water-types?’
Then he revealed something shocking.
“It means you’re such an idiot that even if you spent ten years on it, you couldn’t accumulate as much spiritual energy as others do in one.”
Not a genius, but an idiot?
Me…?
I wasn’t one to praise myself too much in my previous life, either.
I’d always been taught to be humble, and followed the saying, ‘The rice plant bows its head as it ripens.’
Even so, I’d always carried a quiet pride in knowing I was a genius.
Of course, I’d learned after going to America that ‘humility is a virtue’ was an entirely Eastern point of view.
Anyway, wherever I went, I stood out like an awl in a sack.
That was who I was.
And now… I was an idiot?
Maybe because this was the first time I’d ever received such an assessment…
I was more than a little shaken.
Regardless, he seemed to enjoy the sight of me in such a state, and kept spilling out new information.
“If you force spiritual energy into your body, the elements will clash and you’ll suffer qi deviation. Even if you’re lucky enough to reach Qi Refining, you’ll be a useless piece of trash, forever stuck at the lowest level. In other words, you’ll never even reach Foundation Establishment.”
I couldn’t fully understand him, with all those technical terms flying around.
But in short, I had a hopelessly useless constitution.
Was I imagining it, or was he unusually happy?
“Kahaha,
an Extreme Yang Physique
is what I thought you’d be born with! But you’re a Five-Element Root! A Five-Element Root! This is too funny!”
Anyway, it looked like I’d made it through the crisis.
I had a trash spiritual root, so I wasn’t suitable as a cauldron.
Although I’d somehow been judged to be worth less than a stone by the roadside…
For some reason, I felt a wave of relief.
I’d gotten most of the information I needed, so I bowed my head.
“Thanks to you, this lowly girl has learned her place.”
“Hmph.”
“I will never forget the mercy you’ve shown me.”
I put special emphasis on the word ‘mercy.’
The cultivator seemed to understand what I meant and nodded.
“You lowly creatures were lucky today.”
He slowly rose into the air.
‘He’s floating… I’m kind of jealous.’
The cultivator looked down at me.
“You may have a spiritual root, but don’t entertain any foolish dreams. Those without talent who seek the Immortal Dao end up worse off than if they were dead…”
“Yes, I’ll remember that.”
It was over.
I’d gotten off on the wrong foot, but somehow things had worked out.
That was what I thought.
“However…!”
The cultivator pointed a finger at me.
A chill ran down my spine.
“You must pay the price for insulting this lord.”
A red dot appeared at his fingertip.
This is dangerous.
That thing is dangerous.
My animal instincts told me so.
But my feet wouldn’t move.
Had he used some kind of magic?
No.
I was simply…
‘I’m scared. I’m so scared. I don’t want to die like this!’
Maybe I’d been flaunting my arrogance every moment without even realizing it.
Perhaps.
Maybe this was the price I had to pay for my arrogance.
A streak of red light shot toward my heart.
My life flashed before my eyes.
I remembered when I’d shut myself away in my room, consumed by longing for my previous life.
Instead of scolding me, my parents had waited for me to come out on my own.
But how worried must they have been inside?
I couldn’t have been a more unfilial daughter.
I couldn’t forget the beaming smiles on their faces when I first called them Mother and Father.
That day, my rotting heart had healed so much.
After that, I’d tried my best to adjust to life here.
So much so that the memories of my previous life had begun to fade…
Time really does fly.
Maybe it’s because I don’t have a clock.
I can’t believe fourteen years have already passed…
I was about to die, but for some reason, I wasn’t crying.
Was I an emotionless psychopath?
No, right now, all I felt was guilt.
My soul had ended up inside the body of their precious daughter, of all people.
…No!
That’s not what I mean!
‘Mom, Dad! I’m sorry. I was foolish. Please forgive your daughter for going ahead of you.’
At that moment, my world tilted sharply.
Just like when I’d defended my thesis…
No, something was different.
Someone pushed me from the side.
“So-ha!”
As I lay on the ground, right before my eyes,
my mother’s body crumpled.
Thud.
The red light pierced through my mother’s chest.
Mother?
Blood spread across her white clothes.
At first, it was a small spot.
But in an instant, it grew larger than my palm.
“Mother!”
I crawled over to her.
I pressed my hands against the wound.
Hot blood kept flowing between my fingers.
“No. No, Mother.”
“So-ha……”
“Don’t speak. Please, don’t say anything!”
My father shouted for someone to fetch a doctor.
Someone brought cloth, and someone else went to find hot water.
But I couldn’t see anything.
My mother’s face was quickly turning pale.
“Mother, you can’t leave me! Don’t die! Please!”
Tears poured from my eyes.
“I was wrong. It’s all my fault. So…”
My mother touched my cheek with her bloodstained hand.
“So-ha. It wasn’t… your fault.”
“It was. I shouldn’t have said all those things…”
“My pretty girl. You’ll ruin your lovely face. Don’t cry.”
“Waaah! Mom! Mom!”
“You little brat, you’ve even got snot running down your face… I always told you not to let anyone intimidate you. To live with the dignity of a child from a great family…”
“I will! So please, don’t leave me!”
I screamed until my throat felt like it would tear.
I held my mother and sobbed.
The people in the courtyard couldn’t bring themselves to look up.
The sight of a daughter wailing as she held her blood-soaked mother was so heartbreaking that it broke the hearts of everyone who saw it.
“Tsk. Live a life devoted to filial piety. You’re irritating, though.”
The cultivator’s voice came from above me.
I looked up through my tears.
He looked completely unfazed.
And that’s supposed to be an immortal?
No.
He wasn’t an immortal.
He was evil.
No, calling him human would be too generous.
Bastard.
No. Dogs are good. That’s an insult to dogs.
A devil. Trash.
A devil wearing a human face.
“Next time, one book of mathematical treatises won’t save your life.”
I wanted to kill that bastard right then and there.
But all I could do was bow my head.
If I angered him any further, I had no idea what he might do to me.
“Thank you… for sparing my life.”
“Yes. Spend the rest of your life diligently repaying the great kindness I’ve shown you. Kahahaha!”
Fuck.
I could taste blood in my mouth.
I must have bitten down so hard that my gums had burst.
“This lowly girl dares to ask your honored name.”
“Pfft. Are you hoping to get revenge or something?”
“N-no, of course not. I just… I need to make an offering, so I should know who I’m offering it to…”
“I know what you’re thinking, but it seems you’ve learned a little about manners. I’ll play along.”
“……”
“I am Jin Mu-ak of the Hyunyang Sect.”
I repeated the name to myself.
Jin Mu-ak of the Hyunyang Sect.
Jin Mu-ak of the Hyunyang Sect.
‘You bastard. Just you wait. I’ll repay this humiliation and grief tenfold—or no, an infinite number of times over.’
With that, the immortal vanished beyond the clouds as swiftly as he had come.
But for a while, none of us could move.
We couldn’t be sure the villain had really left.
That aside…
I clung to my unconscious mother, calling her name over and over.
“Mother. Open your eyes. Don’t die. Mom. Please…!”
My vision spun.
I could barely keep myself upright through the dizziness.
“Cough!”
A whole handful of blood had already pooled in my palm.
I’d coughed up blood.
My father caught me as I collapsed.
“So-ha! You’re bleeding…!”
“Young miss!”
“Celestial maiden!”
The perverted village chief.
I told you not to call me a celestial maiden…!
And just like that, I lost consciousness.