Chapter 193
The collateral-branch family members’ greetings gradually came to an end.
The line before the seat of honor grew shorter, leaving a brief opening.
‘This is the perfect chance.’
Baek Cheong watched the seat of honor from the corner of her eye, gauging the timing.
It was the perfect opportunity to quietly hand over the Hak-Su Dan she was carrying and slip away.
But before she could even rise,
collateral-branch elders began approaching from all directions and slowly surrounding her.
“Cheong-ah, so who have you been studying under these days?”
“Goodness, I can hardly remember when I last saw our Cheong.”
Baek Cheong gave them awkward replies.
With each elder asking after her, it was awkward to leave.
Besides, their inquiries soon veered into embarrassing flattery.
“I’ve heard all about how you achieved Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment. There couldn’t be better news for our Baek Clan.”
“Indeed, you’re different, being the Grand Clan Head’s bloodline. This old man can hold his head high.”
The elders competed to shower her with words of blessing, trying to make an impression on her.
Each time, Baek Cheong demurely lowered her head.
Inwardly, she let out a sigh.
‘Can’t you just let me go nicely?’
After being subjected to that for quite a while, even the collateral branch’s younger generation began joining in one by one.
Some of them were children who had only just entered Qi Refining.
Even standing beside them in a row, she did not look out of place.
That was because her frame had not grown at all since she was around ten.
Standing among the little ones who looked her age left her feeling strange.
‘I’m supposedly at Foundation Establishment...’
The one consolation was that the older juniors could not act carelessly toward her.
Whatever she looked like, she was unmistakably a senior who had reached Foundation Establishment.
If they casually dropped formalities just because she was young or looked young, they could suffer for it.
Thanks to that, the juniors were careful with every word.
“Sister Cheong, the Daoist robe you had made this time is very pretty.”
“Senior Baek Cheong, how many hours a day do you spend absorbing qi?”
The children and juniors kept talking to her nonstop, each trying to get in her good graces.
She never imagined a gathering where she was showered with flattery and attention could be so exhausting.
Baek Cheong forced herself to maintain a smile and groaned inwardly.
‘Ugh, this is killing me.’
Fortunately, most of the children around her age or older were absent.
Most of them had joined other sects or were busy consolidating their realms and did not show their faces.
But there was one face among the children that particularly caught her eye.
‘That kid...’
It was a boy whose face was far too familiar.
He was a collateral-branch junior who had loudly boasted at the New Year’s banquet several years ago that he would join the Biyun Sect.
That day, he had bragged about the glamorous life of a major sect disciple and acted incredibly conceited.
But after hearing the truth of the cultivation world from her in full, he had collapsed to the floor and burst into tears.
‘He’s grown so much in the meantime.’
But the boy was wearing a Daoist robe finely embroidered with cloud patterns.
It seemed he had really set foot in the Biyun Sect he had only talked about.
Moreover, quite a large number of clouds were embroidered on the robe.
‘With that many clouds, he’s an inner disciple.’
She had thought he would end up as a menial or outer disciple, but he had done quite well.
On top of that, his shoulders were thrown back and he looked full of himself.
Come to think of it, he had even set aside the Biyun Sect’s New Year’s festivities to come here.
His reason for making the trip all the way to the clan banquet was obvious.
‘He came all this way to show off.’
Sure enough, the boy gathered the children around him and raised his voice.
“The moment I entered the sect, I stood head and shoulders above my fellow disciples. Thanks to that, I’m telling you, I proudly made it onto the Biyun Sect’s Artifact Refining Peak.”
At the words “Artifact Refining Peak,” the children’s eyes grew round.
“Wow, Big Brother, you’re really amazing!”
“The Artifact Refining Peak of a major sect? I want to become like you too, Big Brother!”
Even the juniors gathered around him let out envious exclamations.
At a major sect, merely being accepted after having one’s talent in the Four Arts recognized was an incredible status—more than enough to make one’s clan proud.
The boy grew smug under the shower of attention and stuck his nose high in the air.
‘Oh dear.’
But Baek Cheong was merely indifferent.
That was because she had toured the Artifact Refining Peak at the previous New Year’s exchange gathering.
The appearance of the artifact refiners stationed atop it was still vivid in her mind.
Their Daoist robes were blackened and caked with ash, and not a single patch of skin on the backs of their hands was unscathed.
They had set up stalls and laid out things they had made themselves.
They were forever grabbing passing cultivators by the sleeves and hawking their wares until their voices went hoarse.
They had looked no different from impoverished rogue cultivators in the middle of a marketplace.
‘I’d rather be a spiritual farmer.’
Feeling sorry for him, she stared at the boy.
But the boy did not miss her pitying gaze.
“W-What’s with that look!”
The boy flared up and raised his voice.
He had been feeling so proud, and having a pitying look directed at him could only make his anger flare.
“Hmph, even the Artifact Refining Peak Lord personally took notice of my skills! Just you wait. I’ll become like the Peak Lord before long.”
His bulging veins and posture showed that he was quite determined.
But Baek Cheong remained just as uninterested.
She had not been the least bit interested in the art of artifact refinement from the beginning.
It was an art that involved using one’s body directly to carry on grueling work.
At least alchemy was closer to mental labor than physical labor.
‘I hate using my body for work.’
So she merely nodded without a trace of spirit.
The boy took that to mean she had been intimidated.
“Ahem, now you finally understand.”
The boy, thoroughly puffed up, squared his shoulders.
Once again, the children’s attention rushed toward the boy.
Baek Cheong decided this was her chance.
With everyone’s attention focused on someone else, now was her opportunity to slip away.
She quietly rose from her seat and left the cluster of children.
Then she headed straight for her grandfather seated in the place of honor.
Sensing her presence, Baek Mu-ae immediately brightened.
But he soon pretended not to know and played dumb.
“Cheong-ah, what brings you here?”
His eyes, staring straight at her, were brimming with anticipation.
He looked exactly like a child waiting for a present.
‘As if you don’t know.’
Swallowing the laughter that threatened to escape, Baek Cheong humored him.
“Grandfather, you must enjoy good health and longevity in the new year.”
As she spoke, she reached for the spatial magical treasure at her chest.
Soon, a small jade bottle floated up onto her palm.
“It’s nothing special, but I brewed it for you, Grandfather.”
Baek Cheong carefully extended the jade bottle, supporting it with both hands.
Unable to hide his joy, Baek Mu-ae eagerly took the jade bottle.
A broad smile spread across his wrinkled face.
“Heh heh, to think you would care so much about your old grandfather.”
His eyes as he looked at his granddaughter were full of pride.
He opened the stopper and gently rolled the pill across his palm.
Lustrous silver patterns were densely wound across the pill’s surface.
It was a longevity pill with Danmun engraved on it.
“What a good, good girl. Our Cheong brewed this for me so I could enjoy good health and longevity, and to extend my life.”
His voice, full of exuberant praise, rang clearly through the entire hall.
Naturally, the banquet hall’s attention turned toward the seat of honor.
The elders nearby gradually realized what the jade bottle contained.
“Could that be a Hak-Su Dan?”
“A pill that extends one’s lifespan? It must be a Hak-Su Dan.”
Surprise soon spread into admiration, and admiration into a commotion.
Hak-Su Dan were rare enough to begin with.
And if it was a Hak-Su Dan made from a newly devised formula, there was even less to say.
Yet even the pill was densely covered with silver Danmun.
A pill engraved with Danmun was in an entirely different class from ordinary pills.
In efficacy, in rarity—
It was nothing short of a treasure with no shortcomings whatsoever.
The Guardian Elder grandfathers seated beside the place of honor could not hide their envy.
Among them was her little grandfather, Baek Un-ho.
His eyes, usually narrowed to slits, had somehow opened wide.
Baek Cheong did not miss their envious looks.
“I brought some for all of you grandfathers, too.”
As she spoke, she took jade bottles out of her spatial magical treasure one after another.
A Danmun Hak-Su Dan was placed before each of the Guardian Elder grandfathers.
Each grandfather accepted his jade bottle with a grin stretching from ear to ear.
“Heh heh, you even brought some for us. Thanks to Cheong, we’ll be hale and hearty for years to come.”
“To think you brewed such precious things with those tiny hands and remembered all us old men. Our Baek Clan has been blessed with a treasure.”
She had originally intended to give some first to close family, such as her father, mother, and uncles.
But since everyone was still relatively hale, she had merely put them off for a while.
More importantly, she could brew as many as she wanted whenever she set her mind to it.
She had nothing to regret over putting out a few bottles.
‘I might as well show some proper filial piety while I’m at it.’
Meanwhile, the collateral-branch members who had watched the whole scene belatedly realized something.
Until now, whenever it came to Baek Cheong’s pills, they had naturally assumed Yak-seon had brewed them.
But this time, the circumstances were different.
It was a Hak-Su Dan that Baek Cheong had announced she brewed herself.
Moreover, it was a pill with even Danmun densely engraved across it.
To think that someone so young, merely at Foundation Establishment, could brew a pill with Danmun.
It was something no one could even attempt without extraordinary mastery of alchemy.
At this point, it would be no exaggeration to call her a third-grade alchemist.
Murmurs mingled with astonishment and admiration leaked out from every corner.
“Good heavens, that little girl brewed it herself?”
“A Danmun Hak-Su Dan... At her age...”
Yet the most dumbfounded of all was the boy from earlier.
His smug expression from when he had boasted about the Artifact Refining Peak had vanished without a trace.
He merely stared blankly toward the seat of honor, his face drained of color.
It had only been moments ago that he had held his nose high, boasting that he had made it onto the Artifact Refining Peak.
Yet she stood so far above him that his pride seemed pathetic by comparison.
She was distributing rare treasures to the grandfathers from a position he could not even hope to approach.
The boy could not close his gaping mouth.
He merely opened and closed it, as though trying to force out some words.
In the end, not a sound escaped him.
‘Sometimes, this isn’t so bad.’
Baek Cheong herself did not even spare the boy a glance.
She was too busy receiving the praise pouring from her grandfathers.