Chapter 188
“By the way, Cheong-ah, various things happened in the clan while you were shut away in your room.”
Baek Mu-jin set down his teacup and began to speak.
Baek Cheong listened obediently.
Apparently, most of the guests who had attended the celebratory banquet had already returned home.
The various exchange gatherings that had been scheduled one after another had also concluded without any major trouble.
“However, Daoist Xuanhe remained behind. I hear he intends to stay at the main clan for the time being. Sang is preparing lodgings for him, so show him proper respect if you happen to run into him.”
“Yes, Father.”
Baek Cheong nodded demurely.
Of course, that was only on the surface.
‘He really settled in after all...!’
Inside, she was so appalled that she swallowed a scream.
He had said he would teach her formations as soon as he finished his business.
If he had even prepared lodgings, it meant the day he got hold of her was fast approaching.
If he caught her idly loafing around, she might be dragged off as early as tomorrow.
“And your third brother left for the Central Continent with his master to cultivate. I hear they intend to rely on the Taehyeon Sect for a while.”
The news that followed also made Baek Cheong prick up her ears.
‘He’s already left.’
She had known that he would be leaving soon.
But she had never expected him to leave without even letting her see him off.
Besides, cultivation was merely the stated reason; the truth was obvious.
He had set out with his master to search for the Bumun Dohae.
The road to the Central Continent was called a journey, but it was closer to an ordeal.
A trace of worry arose, but it did not last long.
Her third older brother had the fourth-realm talisman master Iron-Brush Hermit by his side.
The Taehyeon Sect he intended to rely on was also a grand sect with which their father had deep ties.
‘If things get dangerous, the Heavenly Sword Sect will help too, right?’
The Heavenly Sword Sect’s protection extended not only to her but throughout the clan as well.
Even if it was a dangerous journey, it seemed safe enough for her to set her mind at ease.
As soon as she relaxed, her body began to itch to do something.
‘Should I go brew some pills?’
The pills she needed to make had been piling up one after another.
Starting with the Five-Element Spirit-Sealing Pills she needed to take every month, there were also the second-grade body-tempering elixirs.
She also needed to brew some Five Elements Pills, both to give Daoist(237.309) and to replenish her dwindling supply of premium spirit stones.
Ten pairs of hands would not have been enough.
‘I can leave some of them to the puppets.’
Fortunately, several of the pills were ones that could be brewed through puppet alchemy.
The problem was that she did not currently have the Five-Element Puppets in her possession.
They had been damaged by the Heavenly Tribulation, and her uncle had left them for repairs.
‘I’ll have to go get them from Uncle.’
Baek Cheong rose from her seat and bowed to her father and Yak-seon.
“I’m going to go brew some pills.”
“All right. If you run into trouble while brewing the Spirit-Sealing Pills, come find me anytime.”
Yak-seon saw her off with a smile.
***
After leaving the clan head’s residence, Baek Cheong headed straight for the Commercial Office.
The Commercial Office was an annex where her uncle handled the trading affairs whenever he stayed at the main clan.
Because of his position as head of the Baek Clan Trading Company, it was also where he spent all his waking hours.
Sure enough, a sound of jade slips being set down drifted out from the study.
Baek Cheong pushed open the study door without hesitation.
“Uncle, I’m here.”
“Oh, Cheong-ah.”
Baek Mu-yeong looked up from the pile of jade slips, his face lighting up.
“I heard you’d come out of your quarters. I figured you’d drop by soon, so I’ve been waiting.”
“...You were waiting for me?”
Baek Cheong involuntarily took a step back.
Whenever her uncle said he had been waiting for her, things had never ended well.
The last time, following the same sequence of events, she had been dragged to the Biyun Sect and back.
‘Surely he’s not trying to take me somewhere again...?’
She was eyeing him warily and reaching stealthily toward the doorknob.
Baek Mu-yeong noticed his niece’s reaction and burst out laughing.
“You little rascal, it’s nothing like that, so relax.”
“...Really?”
“Yes. At the gathering we had some time ago, didn’t I say I’d give you a gift to commemorate your Foundation Establishment?”
As he spoke, he lightly patted his chest.
“I prepared it long ago, but then you stayed shut in for half a month straight. So I’ve been carrying it around all this time. The Five-Element Puppets I’d sent out for repairs also just returned, so I was waiting to give you both at once.”
“Really?”
Baek Cheong’s face brightened, and her eyes sparkled.
Her wariness had melted away without a trace.
Seeing the expectation in her eyes, Baek Mu-yeong smiled with satisfaction and pulled something from his robes.
What he placed on the desk was a delicate pendant ornament.
A piece of white jade about the size of her little finger joint had five-colored tassels hanging elegantly from it.
“It’s a spatial magical treasure. As you can see, you can wear it as an ornament too.”
He picked up the pendant and placed it in his niece’s palm.
“Since it’s a magical treasure, once you engrave and refine it, you can summon it to your hand at will from anywhere within ten zhang, even when you aren’t carrying it.”
The pendant in her palm contained a space that was unfathomably vast despite its appearance.
Baek Cheong cautiously extended her divine sense and found a space far more expansive than a storage pouch.
“More importantly, I had it made to the level of a supreme-grade second-grade item. I embedded it with the means to withstand two or three third-grade spells, and it’s highly durable on its own, so it won’t be damaged easily.”
The more she listened, the wider her mouth fell open.
It was practically a protective magical treasure disguised as an ornament.
“I also put various things inside, so go take them out and have a look.”
“Thank you, Uncle!”
Baek Cheong bowed more energetically than ever.
At her booming greeting, Baek Mu-yeong laughed heartily and pointed toward a chest in the corner of the study.
“The Five-Element Puppets are in the chest. Yuk-muk put a great deal of effort into repairing them, so take good care of them.”
“Yes!”
Baek Cheong stored the entire chest in her storage pouch, bowed once more, and left the study.
***
Her steps toward the alchemy room grew light of their own accord.
As she walked, Baek Cheong infused the pendant with her divine sense and spiritual energy, completing only the engraving.
She put off the refinement, since it was something she had to sit down and work on for a while.
When she finally arrived at Yak-seon’s alchemy room, she opened the chest first.
Five second-grade Five-Element Puppets lay arranged neatly inside.
The scorch marks left by the Heavenly Tribulation had been completely erased, leaving them looking as good as new.
‘They’re good as new.’
She could not have been happier to see them again after so long.
Since she was at it, she also spruced up her own appearance.
She put on the new Daoist robe her father had commissioned.
She pinned the poison-warding hairpin her mother had prepared into her hair.
She fastened the spatial magical treasure her uncle had prepared to her chest.
When she turned this way and that to look herself over, she looked quite presentable.
‘Oh, I look like someone in the Foundation Establishment stage now.’
In a good mood, she began transferring her belongings from the storage pouch to the spatial magical treasure one by one.
Jade slips, jade bottles, bundles of talismans, and all sorts of miscellaneous items.
She shoved the piles of jade slips containing the cultivation methods she had been scammed over back into the bottom of the storage pouch because she could not stand the sight of them.
Her hand stopped in the middle of moving her belongings.
Two familiar beads had rolled out from a corner of the storage pouch.
The Yunryeong Bead and the Baekju magical treasure.
‘Oh, right.’
They were things she had completely forgotten amid the flood of events.
The Yunryeong Bead was the sort of thing that had to be regularly fed clouds.
And now that Baekju had reached Foundation Establishment, she could finally refine it into her natal magical treasure.
On top of that, she still had to learn third-grade pill formulas, and formation lessons had been scheduled for sometime soon.
‘Being a cultivator is too exhausting!’
She had a mountain of things to do.
After grumbling inwardly, she found herself thinking that she ought to move to a different residence.
‘I should move into the cave abode.’
Her father had just finished thoroughly repairing a private cave abode for her.
In the cave abode, she could feed clouds to the Yunryeong Bead or get up to any other schemes without anyone noticing.
Even if another noisy phenomenon like the recent harmony of the five elements occurred, its location would conceal it perfectly.
More importantly, there was nothing good about being caught sprawled out and browsing the forum after letting her guard down.
In every respect, the cave abode was ideal.
‘But I’ll finish the alchemy first.’
Precious medicinal ingredients such as Jueuncho were always stocked in Yak-seon’s alchemy room.
It would not be too late to furnish the cave abode after she finished her alchemy.
Baek Cheong roused the Five-Element Puppets, loaded them with spirit stones, and controlled them with her divine sense.
The puppets lined up before the alchemy furnaces and began brewing second-grade body-tempering Danmun elixirs.
The alchemy proceeded smoothly without her having to lift a finger.
‘As expected, puppet alchemy is the best.’
She watched them with satisfaction before taking hold of one remaining furnace.
She planned to brew Five Elements Pills in this one.
One each in succession: mid-grade, high-grade, and supreme-grade.
.
.
.
At the very end, she even brewed a Danmun Five Elements Pill.
She had deliberately set out to provoke the Heavenly Dao.
She wanted to find out whether its tolerance threshold had really risen after enduring the Heavenly Tribulation.
Danmun was an act of stealing the Heavenly Dao’s energy, something that would have made her wary in the past.
Yet until she finished the alchemy, the sky outside the window remained clear, pretending nothing was happening.
There was not even a hint of dark clouds gathering.
‘So its tolerance threshold really has risen.’
There was no reason to worry about pill tribulation anymore.
It meant she could inscribe Danmun without worry, and there was no better news than that.
After breathing a sigh of relief, Baek Cheong opened the Nameless Forum then and there.
First, she registered the newly acquired spatial magical treasure.
[The spatial magical treasure in your possession can be linked to the Nameless Forum.]
[Linking complete. When purchasing items, they will be sent to the spatial magical treasure.]
She no longer had to live with a storage pouch strapped to her body to trade without inconvenience.
Next, she opened the marketplace and listed the Five Elements Pills she had made, one by one.
『Daoist(913.14) Selling: Mid-grade Five Elements Pill. 1 premium spirit stone.』
『Daoist(913.14) Selling: High-grade Five Elements Pill. 5 premium spirit stones.』
『Daoist(913.14) Selling: Supreme-grade Five Elements Pill. 20 premium spirit stones.』
『Daoist(913.14) Selling: Heaven-defying elixir, Danmun Five Elements Pill. 100 premium spirit stones.』
[One of each grade. First come, first served.]
She had deliberately spaced out the prices according to the grades.
Whoever saw it first would be the one to claim it.
‘Did I keep my promise?’
This was her way of repaying the reply in which she had said she would put some up soon, since she had benefited from him.
Baek Cheong closed the Nameless Forum feeling lighthearted and returned to the alchemy furnaces.
And it took less than half a day for the Nameless Forum to be thrown into an uproar.