Chapter 195
No sooner had Baek Cheong returned to the Eastern Continent than she could hardly contain her excitement.
Her anticipation was so great that her small chest practically swelled with it.
Her father had said that, after forming an alliance with the clans of the Southern Continent, they would search among mortals for children possessing spiritual roots.
If luck was on their side, she might get her hands on a talent born with an extraordinary destiny.
‘If I just pick up one proper prodigy, I can coast through.’
There ought to be at least one Child of Destiny chosen by Heaven.
The sort who had fortuitous opportunities roll to them even while sitting still, with benefactors appearing whenever they faced a crisis.
If she merely kept such a talent close at hand, she would not need to put in any effort herself.
Coasting through the Great Dao of cultivation was entirely possible.
‘It’s not as though I’ve had a single fortuitous opportunity so far.’
Until now, whether at Yeonha Immortal City, the Biyun Sect, or the marketplace, she had not encountered anything that could even be called a fortuitous opportunity.
Even though she had obtained the Yunryeong Bead in Yunhae Secret Realm, it had been a celestial treasure she had won fair and square through her own vast divine sense.
‘But people are different!’
If it were a person rather than an object, the story might be different.
A living prodigy would not be remotely comparable to some dead object, after all.
‘I haven’t pulled a human fortuitous opportunity yet, have I?’
Once her thoughts reached that point, her anticipation only grew.
The conference was now just fifteen days away.
It would be a gathering where the clan heads of the Southern Continent came together to form an alliance.
Since it was a more weighty occasion than an ordinary banquet, she decided to go along at her father’s urging.
‘Should I browse the forum...’
Until the conference, she intended to cling to the Nameless Forum and roll around to her heart’s content.
But there was one thing she needed to take care of first.
She needed to brew the Danmun Hak-Su Dan she had promised to give her uncle.
‘It’s better to get this over with quickly.’
She would receive half of whatever price they fetched at auction.
The longer she put it off, the more she stood to lose, so there was no reason to be lazy.
Baek Cheong rose from her bed without hesitation and headed for the alchemy room.
Her hands moved without a wasted motion as she settled in before the alchemy furnace.
When she used the Five-Element Banner as a medium to unfold the Hunyuan Formation, the currents of energy surrounding the bronze alchemy furnace revolved in the shape of a taijitu.
Her skill at feeding in the medicinal ingredients one after another and coaxing the flames had become second nature, leaving her free of any difficulty.
Since it was a longevity pill that extended one’s lifespan, its medicinal properties were tricky, but she refined them without much trouble.
Before long, a pill imbued with spiritual energy rose into the air, radiating a soft glow.
Finally, she gathered her divine sense and focused on engraving Danmun across the pill’s surface.
Lustrous silver patterns densely wound around the pill and settled into place.
‘This should do.’
A longevity pill engraved with Danmun was sure to draw cultivators to the auction house with fire in their eyes.
Imagining her uncle’s delighted expression put her in a good mood.
But even after setting aside her uncle’s share, she did not stop refining pills.
Since she was at it, she intended to brew a generous surplus as well.
Danmun Hak-Su Dan would remain useful for years to come.
They were handy for looking after her family’s longevity, and perfect to use as capital in an emergency.
Above all, since she could stamp out as many as she wanted whenever she set her mind to it, there was no reason to hesitate.
‘If I make plenty, they’ll come in handy someday.’
Baek Cheong filled each jade bottle with Danmun Hak-Su Dan, one pill after another.
Once she finished refining the pills, she had an abundance of time before the conference.
As though she had been waiting for it, she sprawled across her bed and opened the Nameless Forum.
While catching up on the plot threads she had missed, she grew bored and posted a lighthearted shitpost on the general discussion board.
『Daoist(913.14): Don’t mortals have at least one Child of Destiny wandering around somewhere?』
[They seem to show up from time to time.]
Replies came pouring in the moment the post went up.
[Daoist(11.23): If that were true, a sect would have taken them away ages ago.]
[Daoist(77.3): Children of Destiny are just something storytellers made up.]
[Daoist(451.0): Since our great senior is seeking a talent, this insignificant one would gladly offer his humble self...]
It was only a lighthearted shitpost, but seeing each Daoist respond differently made scrolling through the replies entertaining.
While she passed the time browsing the forum, the day of the conference drew near.
***
The morning of the conference finally arrived.
But Baek Cheong was as leisurely as ever, without the slightest hint of haste.
That was because Yeonha (淵河), where the conference was to be held, was not far away.
There was a good reason Yeonha had been chosen as the conference site.
The Yeonha Baek Clan’s position at the center of the Southern Continent played a part.
More than anything, it was thanks to the clan’s strength as the most powerful clan in the Southern Continent.
“Let’s depart.”
At last, once they had finished preparing, she boarded Baek Yeon-ju with her father.
The snow-white flying magical treasure rose buoyantly into the air, imbued with spiritual energy.
Baek Yeon-ju cut through the clouds and glided toward Yeonha.
Before long, an enormous waterway came into view below.
True to its name, Yeonha (淵河)’s river wound on beyond sight, while its lake stretched as broad as the sea.
“Wow...”
Yeonha was practically synonymous with the homeland of the Yeonha Baek Clan.
It was a place where all sorts of resources sprang endlessly from along the rivers and lakes.
It was also a dependable source of funds that kept the clan’s coffers full.
She had visited Yeonha once long ago, but she had not even awakened her spiritual roots then and had felt little.
But Yeonha looked anything but ordinary now that she was seeing it again as a cultivator.
In particular, her divine sense, compressed through the Spirit-Congealing Art, clearly detected the flow of the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth.
‘It’s no less impressive than Yunhae Secret Realm.’
Astonishingly, even the spiritual energy curved and flowed along the river.
The spiritual energy that reached the lake pooled there as thickly as water in a pond, rippling in waves.
It was a sight in which the spiritual energy held by the land and water shimmered so thickly that it was almost visible.
In a word, it was a treasure trove of inexhaustible spiritual energy.
‘This place is a complete gold mine.’
In a place where spiritual energy flowed this strongly, it would not be strange for high-grade demon beasts or spirit beasts to exist.
It was even possible that a spiritual treasure was crouching silently somewhere on the lakebed.
The scent of fortuitous opportunities seemed to waft strongly from every direction.
“We’ve arrived.”
Just then, Baek Yeon-ju slowly lowered its altitude and came to rest at the flying platform.
Thanks to that, she had to set aside her swelling daydreams for the moment.
Other clans’ flying magical treasures had arrived at the flying platform early and stood lined up there.
Every one of them was impressive in its own right, even if none could match Baek Yeon-ju.
‘Though that’s only because there aren’t any Nascent Soul clans here.’
Unlike the Central Continent, the Southern Continent had no clan that could be called a Nascent Soul clan.
The Southern Continent’s circumstances were such that clans could, at best, stop at the Golden Core stage.
Even if a Nascent Soul cultivator occasionally emerged from a clan,
they would establish a sect centered around that person who had reached the Nascent Soul stage.
By moving their roots wholesale like that, they left no room for a Nascent Soul clan to take root.
‘What is this, a mom-and-pop business?’
Baek Cheong followed her father off the flying platform.
Before long, they arrived at a place lined with large pavilions and halls.
No matter how thoroughly she rummaged through her old memories, those buildings had not been there.
It seemed they had been newly erected with the intention of making Yeonha the alliance’s headquarters.
With the alliance’s heart placed right in its front yard, its prestige could not help but be extraordinary.
At this point, it would not be strange even if her father also took on the position of alliance leader.
“Cheong-ah, this way.”
She followed her father into the pavilion and went all the way to the top.
In the spacious main hall, her uncle had already made every preparation for the conference.
Taking advantage of the commotion, Baek Cheong stealthily handed her uncle a bundle of jade bottles.
“Oh my, you’ve already brewed them all?”
“Please sell them well.”
Her uncle tucked the jade bottles away eagerly, a grin stretching from ear to ear.
As the conference time drew near, the main hall grew bustling.
The clan heads of the other families began appearing one after another.
She stood demurely at her father’s side and welcomed the guests.
Each clan head brought along one junior hailed as a prodigy by their clan.
The familiar Hosan Seo Clan was among them.
Seo Jua stood demurely beside the head of the Hosan Seo Clan.
The moment she spotted Seo Jua, Baek Cheong’s gaze instinctively dropped.
She had expected it, but in the roughly half a year since she had last seen her, Seo Jua had grown by leaps and bounds.
Even the curves her robe could not fully conceal had become more pronounced.
‘Did she cultivate her qi with her chest?’
Baek Cheong was rendered speechless as she stared blankly at Seo Jua’s figure.
In the past, she might have been eaten up inside and shuddered with inferiority.
But this time, strangely enough, she felt nothing at all.
‘That isn’t a person. It’s just a chest monster.’
Comparing a person to a monster in the first place was the mistake.
Once she gave up on comparing herself, she felt oddly refreshed.
‘There’s no shame in losing to a monster.’
Baek Cheong cheerfully acknowledged her defeat, then turned her head away without regret.
She felt light and free, without even a trace of inferiority remaining.
‘Daoist Baek Cheong...’
Meanwhile, the juniors, including Seo Jua, could not take their eyes off Baek Cheong.
Every one of them looked unable to conceal their astonishment.
They all knew perfectly well that Baek Cheong had only entered the Foundation Establishment stage recently.
But the spiritual energy radiating from her body was anything but ordinary.
Despite having only just reached Foundation Establishment, her aura rivaled that of someone at Foundation Establishment Great Perfection.
It was a level that not only her peers but even most adults would not dare compare themselves to.
‘She was my equal only a short while ago...’
Seo Jua had been about to pretend familiarity and say something, but quietly closed her mouth.
As always, she had been about to challenge Baek Cheong to a contest.
But the words rising to her throat were crushed by that aura and vanished back down.
“Good heavens...”
It was not only the young juniors who reacted this way.
A subtle stir spread among the clan heads as well.
The head of Cheonun Manor was among them.
Cheonun Manor was a Golden Core clan that wielded considerable influence near Yeonha Immortal City.
The head of such a clan had reached Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, placing him on the verge of Golden Core.
Yet even he could not make his presence felt before Baek Cheong.
He was being overwhelmed by a child who had only just reached Foundation Establishment.
His dignity as a clan head was in tatters.
‘I looked down on her as a mere child, yet I’m the one being cowed.’
‘It would be best not to make an enemy of the Yeonha Baek Clan, which has a monster like that.’
‘The Yeonha Baek Clan is going to soar before long.’
Given the circumstances, the mood among those present took a strange turn.
Quite a few of the clan heads had originally been displeased at the Yeonha Baek Clan taking the lead.
They were people who each prided themselves on their standing in a Southern Continent without a single Nascent Soul clan.
But after coming face-to-face with such a monstrous child,
there was no way for them not to meekly acknowledge the Yeonha Baek Clan taking the lead.
‘I decided to look around the villages near Yeonha as soon as the conference ends.’
Baek Cheong herself remained carefree, whether she knew of the mood around her or not.