Chapter 171
For now, she had put the Nameless Forum off until later.
At the door of her quarters, familiar footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
Then a cautious voice came from beyond the door.
“Cheong-ah, it’s your older brother. May I come in?”
“Yes, older brother. Come in.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the door opened and her third brother came inside.
Baek Woo approached the bedside and slowly examined his younger sister.
“How is your body? You didn’t wake up for ten whole days, so you have no idea how much everyone worried.”
His voice was full of concern.
Baek Cheong sprang to her feet and spread both arms wide.
“I’m really fine now. See? I’m perfectly okay, right?”
As she said, spiritual energy overflowed from her dantian, filling her entire body with vitality.
Even the spots that had ached after being battered by the thunder tribulation were now completely healed.
There was no trace of the sight of her sitting in the yard a few days ago, blackened and scorched.
“You haven’t changed at all.”
Only then did Baek Woo relax and smile in satisfaction.
Even after getting through such a major hurdle, his youngest sibling was still as lively as ever, which made him proud.
Baek Cheong gave a bright smile, then looked up at her third brother.
Come to think of it, the fact that Baek Woo was staying at the main house itself was surprising.
“By the way, older brother, when did you return from the Northern Sea?”
“It’s been about two years since I finished my business in the secret realm of the Northern Sea.”
Baek Woo narrowed his eyes as if recalling something fondly.
After briefly sifting through old memories, Baek Woo went on.
“It just took time to sort through what I obtained in the secret realm with my master. I only returned to the clan last year.”
At the mention of something obtained in the secret realm, Baek Cheong’s eyes sparkled.
She remembered why her third brother had followed his master and left for the far-off lands beyond the Northern Sea.
He had set out aiming for a talisman diagram said to have been left behind by an ancient great expert.
‘No way, did he really get it?’
Her curiosity was subtly piqued.
“Then there really was a talisman diagram from the ancient era?”
“Who knows.”
When Baek Cheong eagerly pressed him, Baek Woo only answered with a meaningful smile.
“Since my master is also staying at the clan right now, you’ll naturally find out later.”
‘Tch, now I’m curious.’
At the blatantly teasing reply, Baek Cheong pouted.
Then, as if he had just remembered something, her third brother added,
“Oh, right. Father is preparing a celebration banquet for you.”
Baek Woo gently patted his younger sister’s head.
“You’ve attained Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, so isn’t that a great occasion for the clan? It seems they’re planning to make this one quite a big affair.”
At the words “celebration banquet,” Baek Cheong shuddered inwardly.
‘Ugh, I preferred it when I was in closed-door seclusion.’
A banquet crowded with people was nothing but torture to her.
It was the kind of event where she had to dress up nicely and sit quietly among the elders, pretending to be proper.
Just thinking about sitting still for a long time already made her skin crawl.
But she didn’t show even the slightest sign of dislike on her face.
Instead, she widened her eyes and put on a face full of anticipation.
“Wow, really? I’m already looking forward to it!”
At her perfectly natural reply, her third brother smiled in satisfaction.
“Everyone was worried about you. If you’re feeling all right, get up and let’s go to the inner hall.”
Her third brother stood up and held out a hand.
In any case, with her third brother at her side, the Nameless Forum was just out of reach.
‘Forum browsing was already a lost cause, so there was nothing to be done.’
Baek Cheong stood up without another word.
Since it had come to this, it was easier on her to just go along obediently.
After tidying herself up quickly, she left her quarters following her third brother.
The moment she stepped into the inner hall, her mother rushed out to greet her.
“Oh my, our Cheong has woken up!”
Her mother spread her arms and pulled her into a tight embrace.
“You have no idea how anxious I was that you didn’t wake up for ten days.”
Still in her mother’s arms, Baek Cheong shyly buried her face in the hem of her clothes.
“Hehe, I’m all better now. I slept well and feel refreshed.”
The modest demeanor she had kept before the elders loosened naturally in front of her mother.
Only then did her mother finally seem to relax, letting out a long breath of relief.
Then she called for a servant and told them to bring the other family members.
She ordered them to gather in the inner hall now that Baek Cheong had awakened.
.
.
.
Soon, the inner hall was bustling with activity.
The servants busied themselves back and forth, setting out so much food the table legs seemed ready to snap.
Steam rose from mountains-and-seas delicacies, filling the large table without a single gap.
Then the family members began gathering in the inner hall one by one.
Grandfather, Father, Uncle, and even Grandfather Yak-seon took their seats in turn.
‘Come to think of it, everyone’s here?’
Baek Cheong found the family gathered in one place more remarkable than the food laid out before her.
It was a rare sight indeed.
Grandfather often went into closed-door seclusion and rarely showed himself.
Ever since Father advanced to the Gold Core stage, he had been too busy with administration and cultivation to catch his breath.
As for Uncle, he was always away managing the Baek Family Trading Company.
Grandfather Yak-seon was famous for shutting himself away, buried in a backlog of alchemy work.
Yet for some reason, all those busy adults were here without a single omission today.
When she tilted her head, Uncle spoke as if reading her thoughts.
“About half a year ago, I saw an unusual heavenly tribulation cloud appear above your cave dwelling and then vanish.”
Uncle tilted his wine cup and smiled in satisfaction.
“Seeing that commotion, your father figured it out. He thought Cheong would be entering Foundation Establishment soon, so he made time for this gathering in advance.”
‘Ah, right—the time Heavenly Dao threw a fit because I refined that single-pattern Cloud Tribulation Pill.’
Even as she listened to Uncle, Baek Cheong quietly took in each family member one by one.
Fortunately, they all seemed to have been doing fine, and she quietly relaxed.
She had mountains of things she wanted to ask about how everyone had been while she was in seclusion.
But when she actually tried to speak, she hesitated, not knowing where to start.
Then her mother piled food onto the small plate in front of her.
“You can talk slowly later; eat before it gets cold.”
Baek Cheong nodded as if she had no choice and picked up her chopsticks.
It was proper food, the first she had seen in nearly a year.
For the entire time she had been in seclusion, she had gotten by on fasting pills and medicinal pills alone.
Once the warm food hit her mouth, she couldn’t help shoving in so much that her cheeks puffed out.
The first home-cooked meal she’d had in ages made her eyes slowly close.
‘As expected, home-cooked food is the best.’
That was about when she had filled her stomach to some degree.
Baek Mu-jin, who had been watching his daughter with satisfaction, slowly spoke.
“At one point, I worried that your foundation might be unstable because you had gone against the natural order and hurriedly raised your cultivation in Oh Yeong-geun’s body. But those worries were unfounded—you even reached Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, so you’ve truly endured a great deal.”
At his comforting words, Baek Cheong’s nose prickled.
At the same time, she realized why it had been so hard to condense her energy at the end, just before Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.
‘So that’s how it works.’
Uncle, who had been watching from the side, chimed in as well.
“Come to think of it, I almost forgot.”
Uncle slapped his knee and turned to look at her.
“You mean the second-grade Five-Elements puppet scorched by the heavenly tribulation. I sent it to Daoist Yuk-mok to have it repaired, so you should be getting it back fully restored before long.”
‘Oh, he even took care of the puppet for me. Uncle really does handle things thoroughly.’
At that, Baek Cheong brightened at something she had even forgotten about herself.
Without the second-grade Five-Elements puppet, forum browsing—no, puppet refinement—would be hard, so that was a relief.
“Really? I’d been worried about that, too, so thanks to you, Uncle, I can finally relax.”
She set down her chopsticks and slowly looked around at the family seated in a circle.
A warm feeling rose in a corner of her small heart.
“Thanks to everyone worrying about me and looking out for me like this, I was able to safely reach Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.”
In truth, she’d mostly been able to reach Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment thanks to gobbling up the single-pattern Foundation Establishment Pill Grandfather Yak-seon had refined.
‘Well, there’s no need to spell that out.’
Still, there was no need to ruin the good mood.
At her dutiful behavior, Grandfather let out a pleased laugh.
“Ho ho, our Cheong has grown quite mature already.”
Grandfather gently stroked her head with a large hand.
Grandfather Yak-seon also stroked his chin beard with a satisfied expression.
“I heard through the Pill Master that you’ve been refining with puppets? I’m truly looking forward to it, so once the puppet is repaired, show it to me.”
He looked utterly different from his usual stern self, when he would bark orders over alchemy.
As the round of well-wishes went back and forth, warm laughter filled the inner hall.
Each family member unfolded the stories they had been holding onto.
Mother chatted softly about the flowering tree newly planted in the spirit medicine garden while she had been asleep.
Grandfather leisurely exchanged words with Grandfather Yak-seon about the subtleties of cultivation.
Father and Uncle traded various discussions about the clan’s major and minor affairs.
Baek Cheong happily picked at her food, savoring the long-missed sense of family togetherness.
She couldn’t help smiling, thinking that this was what family was.
Just as the warm atmosphere was reaching its peak...
Suddenly, Uncle spoke to Father as if something had just come to mind.
“Oh, right, Brother. I heard something interesting from Biyun Sect a little while ago. They say they recently picked up a lead on a demonic faction called the Nine Nether Demon Palace.”
Uncle refilled his wine cup as if it were nothing special.
Baek Cheong, who had been eating absentmindedly, froze with her hand in midair.
‘N-Nine Nether Demon Palace?’
She couldn’t believe her ears, wondering if she had really heard that just now.
While she was still in disbelief, Uncle went on calmly.
“It turns out it was a demonic organization secretly active on the Western Continent. The ones who sneaked into the Cloud Sea secret realm last time were apparently remnants of that group as well.”
In an instant, the food in her mouth got stuck in her throat.
“Cough.”
Baek Cheong hurriedly thumped her small chest and gulped down some tea.
‘No, why is that coming out of there?!’
The Nine Nether Demon Palace and demonic organization were all nonsense she had made up.
It had only been a name she had casually tossed out after hearing it on the Nameless Forum, just to shake off the other cultivators in the secret realm.
Before long it had turned Biyun Sect upside down, and now it had even morphed into an actual demonic organization existing on the Western Continent.
She shivered at how far this made-up nonsense was going to roll.
The family looked at her with puzzled eyes.
She finally swallowed the food, then forced herself to sound calm as she cleared her throat.
“Whew, it’s a relief they found that vile demonic organization.”
Even so, her voice came out trembling.
Baek Cheong swallowed hard without realizing it.