Chapter 27
From that day on, Baek-Cheong’s daily routine became a bleak and exhausting grind.
The moment she opened her eyes in the morning, she was summoned to the Pill Room and forced to sit captive before the pill furnace.
Yak-seon’s teachings were incomparably stricter and fiercer than before.
“Your pill heart is wavering! If you do not pour your utmost sincerity into making a pill, even one engraved with pill patterns will inflict adverse effects upon the one who consumes it!”
If she so much as extended her Divine Sense a fraction to peek at the Nameless Forum, Yak-seon’s thunderous scolding would fall without fail.
He used the excuse that he would not tolerate a drop in Pill Quality, but in reality, his firm resolve was to completely block her from any distracting thoughts.
‘Is this really a cultivator’s life?’
Biting the bullet, Baek-Cheong had to spend all day chained to the arduous work of separating the essence of medicinal herbs and fusing their energies.
And when the Pill Refining Class ended, she would return to her Abode for the tedious hours of Expelling Turbid Qi and solidifying her qi meridians.
Managing the vast Dantian of 4th-Stage Qi Condensation required twice as much patience as before.
The only refuge allowed to Baek-Cheong was around midnight.
It was only the fleeting moment right before falling asleep after dragging her exhausted body to lie on the bed.
“The day is seriously too short…”
She would barely manage to connect to the Nameless Forum and skim the Chat Board, but it was overwhelming just to catch up on the backlog of posts.
The stimulating life of leaving aggro-inducing nonsense posts and watching the cultivators' reactions by herself felt like a distant past.
The bleak days of settling for a bit of light lurking before succumbing to a wave of sleepiness continued for nearly a month.
* * *
Then, one day.
A welcome guest visited the Yeonha Baek Clan.
The Third Son Baek U, who had left the Clan to wander and walk the path of Talisman Crafting, stopped by his hometown for a brief visit.
It was a visit to catch up with his Family before embarking on a long journey beyond the rugged North Sea alongside his Master, a renowned Talisman Master.
“Father, mother! Your Humble Son U has arrived.”
As Baek U entered the Inner Hall and offered a dignified greeting, smiles bloomed across his parents' faces.
“Ah, our U has returned. You must have suffered much out there, yet your face looks so bright.”
“I have been receiving my Master’s teachings and Refining the skills I lack.”
The atmosphere in the Inner Hall, where the whole Family had gathered for the first time in a long while, was warm and harmonious.
Baek U asked after his siblings' well-being and listened to the Clan’s recent affairs, happily catching up.
However, due to the busy nature of the Clan’s affairs, he had not yet heard the details of Baek-Cheong’s miraculous achievements or the fact that she was receiving teachings from Yak-seon.
Baek U’s gaze turned to Baek-Cheong, who was sitting quietly beside their parents.
His eyes were deeply imbued with profound compassion and pity.
“Our cute Cheong-A. Have you been well? You’ve grown so much while your Older Brother was away.”
Baek U approached affectionately and stroked Baek-Cheong’s head.
Baek-Cheong smiled brightly and nodded.
“Yes, Third Older Brother! Orabeoni has become so handsome too.”
“Haha, you little rascal. You certainly know how to talk.”
Baek U couldn’t help but feel a deep ache of pity for his young sister, who had been born with the despairing Talent of a Five Spirit Root.
Wandering the outside world, he had witnessed firsthand just how agonizing the limits of a mixed spirit root were in the Cultivation World.
“Cheong-A, don’t push yourself too hard in your Training. There is no need to despair over a lack of Talent. Beyond merely raising one’s realm, there are countless profound principles in this world known as the Hundred Arts of Cultivation. You just need to find the path that suits you.”
At Baek U’s warmhearted attempt to comfort his sister, father and mother exchanged meaningful glances and shared a secret smile.
Then, Baek U rummaged through his robes, pulled out a small box, and placed it down in front of Baek-Cheong.
“These are low-grade talismans that your Older Brother drew himself. They are useful for daily life, like the Cleansing Talisman or the Fierce Fire Talisman. The materials needed for Talisman Crafting are quite simple, so try copying them whenever you’re bored. Who knows? You might have an unexpected Talent hidden in holding a brush and drawing lines.”
It was a lighthearted gift, offered as a sort of toy or Plaything.
It was also an action that revealed his pride as a Talisman Master.
“A talisman?”
Baek-Cheong examined the talismans inside the box with eyes full of curiosity.
Geometric lines and patterns drawn in red cinnabar were mysteriously inscribed upon the yellow paper.
“Pill Refining is sickening, but talismans look kind of fun.”
To Baek-Cheong, who wrestled with fire and medicinal herbs every single day, the brush and paper seemed like a rather interesting amusement.
She suddenly remembered that even on the Nameless Forum, posts regarding the Talisman Crafting Art were so complex and esoteric that she had always just skimmed past them.
“Orabeoni, how do you draw this? I want to try it too!”
When Baek-Cheong pleaded with sparkling eyes, Baek U laughed heartily and slapped his knee.
“Oho, has this piqued your interest? Well, the foundation of Talisman Crafting lies in emptying the mind and gathering energy at the tip of the brush. It is the work of connecting the providence of heaven and Earth into a single line upon the paper. Your Older Brother will personally give you a demonstration.”
Baek U rolled up his sleeves and retrieved a brush made of high-quality Jade Rabbit Fur and a small inkwell containing red cinnabar from his Storage Platform.
He spread a Yellow Talisman Paper neatly on the table and took a deep breath.
“I will show you the easiest one to draw, the Cleansing Talisman. The secret is to let your energy flow without any blockages.”
Baek U’s eyes grew serious as spiritual energy gathered at the tip of his brush.
The brush soaked up the cinnabar and began to glide across the paper.
It was an elegant and unhesitating movement of the hand.
Without a single break in the energy, the geometric pattern was completed in one fluid stroke.
A red light softly shimmered over the paper, and a pure, cleansing energy faintly rippled out into the surroundings.
“There, it’s finished. How is it? Isn’t it amazing?”
Baek U proudly lifted the talisman and showed it off.
father and mother also could not hide their joy at their son’s excellent skill.
However, Baek-Cheong’s reaction was quite different.
Baek-Cheong’s Divine Sense had been operating fiercely from the very moment Baek U moved his brush.
Fueled by her interest in the Talisman Crafting Art, her Divine Sense three-dimensionally dissected every single detail - from Baek U’s fingertips and the brush’s trajectory to the flow of spiritual energy seeping into the paper - and stored it all in her mind.
The sense of Qi Control she had mastered while handling the five elements in the Pill Refining Room, and the vast amount of information she had accumulated through her time on the Nameless Forum, intertwined and spun together in Baek-Cheong’s mind.
‘It’s just drawing out energy at a consistent thickness and arranging it along the trajectory of the line. This is way simpler than handling energy during Pill Refining, isn’t it?’
Baek-Cheong snorted inwardly and picked up a spare brush resting on the table.
She dipped the brush deeply into the inkwell, loaded it with plenty of cinnabar, and pulled a blank sheet of paper in front of her.
“I want to try it too.”
Baek U couldn’t hold back his laughter at his sister’s bold attitude.
It was absurd to think that a young child, who barely even knew how to hold a brush properly, could copy a talisman after seeing it just once.
Even the most prominent genius talisman masters of the Cultivation World would suffer hundreds of failures before barely managing to draw a single proper line.
“Alright, draw to your heart’s content. It’s fine if the lines are crooked, just try to mimic the feeling of pouring energy into it…”
Before Baek U could even finish his words of encouragement,
Baek-Cheong’s brush descended upon the paper without a hint of hesitation.
Swish!
The unhesitating brushstrokes dashed across the paper.
It was a perfect, fluid stroke without a single moment of hesitation or interruption.
The complex pattern of the Cleansing Talisman that Baek U had demonstrated was perfectly replicated on Baek-Cheong’s paper without a single margin of error.
The moment she dotted the final mark and lifted the brush.
A blindingly intense light burst forth explosively from the talisman Baek-Cheong had drawn.
It was a deep, highly pure radiance on a completely different level from the faint light Baek U had produced.
A bizarre phenomenon occurred where even the air inside the Inner Hall was instantly and cleanly purified.
“…Huh?”
A dumbfounded sound leaked from Baek U’s mouth.
He rubbed his eyes, looking back and forth between the talisman he had drawn and the one Baek-Cheong had just created.
The difference in quality was obvious even to the naked eye.
The cohesion of spiritual energy and the perfection of the pattern contained in Baek-Cheong’s talisman had surpassed the low-grade level and reached the mid-grade level.
“W-what is this… You didn’t just imitate the shape, but perfectly captured the energy too? And in a single stroke?”
Baek U lost the strength in his legs and slumped down into his chair.
His Talisman Crafting Art - which he had built up over years of wandering rugged paths, shedding tears of blood under his Master’s strict discipline - was miserably shattered by a single playful attempt from his ten-year-old sister who had just held a brush for the first time.
Amidst the heavy silence hanging over the Inner Hall, only Baek-Cheong smiled brightly as she fluttered the talisman.
“Wow! This is way easier than I thought! Orabeoni, show me how to draw other talismans too. The Fierce Fire Talisman? I want to try copying that one too!”
Baek-Cheong felt like she had finally found a fun game to play after a long time.
It was easier than Pill Refining, and since it yielded immediate results without taking up much time, it suited her aptitude quite well.
“T-that’s…”
However, Baek-Cheong’s innocent shout acted as a decisive blow that completely shattered Baek U’s mental fortitude.
father and mother were similarly left completely dumbfounded by their daughter’s overwhelming Talent.
“Would it work if I did it like this?”
In the end, she reached the point where she could perfectly replicate the Fierce Fire Talisman just by looking at a completed one, without needing any instruction at all.