Chapter 153
A couple of months passed, and the year turned.
In that time, she had somehow become thirteen years old.
They said she was a year older, but the only thing that had changed was her age.
At least this was where going into closed-door seclusion paid off.
She did not have to show her face at any of the banquets the clan held for the new year.
Ordinarily, when the new year came, guests from within and without lined up at the Yeonha Baek Clan.
It was a clan under the protection of a great sect, and she herself was known as Pacheon Sword Saint’s inheritor disciple.
If she were dragged out to such an occasion, she would have to pretend to be demure, straighten her attire, and receive every elder’s blessing one by one.
Just imagining spending the entire day acting prim and proper before unfamiliar guests already made her feel drained.
“Closed-door seclusion really is the best.”
Since she could use seclusion as an excuse, no one could drag her to a banquet.
Thanks to that, she was able to welcome the new year at leisure while holed up in the cave abode.
Even after another year had passed, however, one sour point remained.
Sitting up from the bed, she stared down at her own hands and feet.
'I still don’t feel like I’ve grown at all.’
Baek Cheong sighed at the result, even though she had expected it.
She had not grown taller, and her body had not matured.
From around the age of eleven, her body had stopped growing.
The reason was that the unification latent spirit root crouched deep within her Dantian.
She did not know the exact principle, but in terms of timing, the cause was clear.
'Tch. I’m still the same even after getting another year older.’
She pouted at the unsatisfying state of affairs.
Then a thought suddenly occurred to her.
The reason the latent spirit root was stealing her nutrients was, in the end, that the unification was still incomplete.
If she ever achieved true Five Elements Unification, the story might change.
“Will I get back all the growth I missed in one go?”
If the share that had been taken from her had not gone anywhere, perhaps the growth that had been put off would all burst out at once.
Once her thoughts reached that point, a quiet bit of greed stirred in her.
Since she had been born a pretty little girl anyway, it would not be bad to have a nice figure too.
'If I’m going to grow, I might as well grow in all the right places, right?’
But when she actually tried to picture herself like that, no image came to mind at all.
No matter how hard she tried, only her current tiny self kept circling in her head.
'Hmm, I can’t imagine it.’
Baek Cheong tilted her head, unable to make it feel real.
Soon, however, she shrugged as if it were no great matter.
It was not something that would happen right away, and fretting would not make her body grow.
'Well, if I grow, I grow. If I don’t, I don’t.’
Baek Cheong shook off her lingering attachment and turned her attention to something else.
It happened to be time to swallow her Physical Cultivator pills.
When she took two jade bottles out of her Storage Platform, a pale-green bone Tempering pill and a crimson Blood-Vigor pill rolled into her palm.
One was a medicinal pill that tempered bone and sinew, while the other bolstered qi and blood.
They were pills she had refined herself and engraved with pill markings, using the top-grade medicinal pills she had received from Pacheon Sword Saint as the basis.
Thanks to the pill markings they contained, their medicinal effect was twice that of the top grade.
She tossed both medicinal pills into her mouth at once.
'It doesn’t feel like much anymore.’
When she had first swallowed those physical cultivator pills, it had been pure torment.
Her bones had ached as if they were being ground down and put back together, and blood had boiled in every vessel.
Impurities had poured out all over her body, forcing her to wash herself with cleansing talismans again and again.
But after they had been taken steadily for so long, that hardship had somehow faded.
This time, all she felt was a dull ache that was quite bearable.
The impurities that used to gush out had decreased considerably as well.
Only the sensation of her body being tempered from within remained clear.
It seemed her body had grown used to accepting the medicinal pills through repeated tempering.
“What if my forearms or calves get thick because of this?”
Of course, since her bones, sinews, qi, and blood were being strengthened, the strengthening had no effect on outward changes.
She had not even devoted herself to physical cultivation training separately.
Even so, merely swallowing medicinal pills had strengthened her body.
By her estimate, her bones, sinews, qi, and blood were probably superior to those of most artifact-forging physical cultivators.
There was something rather funny about a body that had not grown in the slightest being better tempered than other physical cultivators.
“In a way, I really am freeloading on the physical cultivator route…”
That did not mean she had the slightest desire to set foot on the path of a physical cultivator.
A physical cultivator was, by nature, someone who cultivated by putting the body to work.
There was no reason to walk such a hard, sweaty path.
Not when perfectly convenient spell arts existed.
With a twitch of her finger, a flame projectile flew and an Ice Dragon danced.
“I hate using my body.”
As far as being a physical cultivator went, she was content for it to be a free side benefit she picked up through medicinal pills.
However, the body she had obtained for free was not useless.
Thinking it over carefully, one could see that a tempered body could help even when facing a heavenly tribulation.
Even if she scattered the force with fake tribulation clouds, in the end, it was her own flesh that would have to endure it.
With a body tempered by medicinal pills, surviving the heavenly tribulation should be much easier.
“Come to think of it…”
As Baek Cheong reasoned that far, another thought suddenly came to her.
The person who had given her the physical cultivator pills was the Pacheon Sword Saint.
“Did the Sword Saint foresee all this and give me those pills?”
If he had foreseen in advance that she was a heaven-defying existence who would face a heavenly tribulation at an early stage,
then it meant he had arranged for her to first temper her body with physical cultivator pills.
Once her thoughts reached that point, she slowly shook her head.
'Nah, even the Sword Saint isn’t a fortune-teller.’
No matter how deep the insight of a nascent soul great Cultivator might be, saying he had foreseen that much was a stretch.
He was not a fortune-teller, so assuming he had seen through her circumstances was already too much of a leap.
She was simply adding flesh to the fact that he had given her highly effective medicinal pills.
Dropping the pointless speculation, she put the jade pill bottles away again.
“Before that…”
After putting away the medicinal pills, Baek Cheong lay back down on the Profound Jade Bed.
She had not spent all her time lazing around until the new year.
Since she had entered seclusion, the time she had devoted here and there to Qi Absorption had paid off.
Her Dantian, which had doubled in size when she reached the eighth level, was already nearly seventy percent full.
Before long, once she filled her Dantian completely, the ninth level would be right before her.
After passing the ninth level and reaching qi condensation grand perfection, the foundation establishment she had been longing for would no longer be far away.
So she needed to stop getting distracted and focus on training.
'Maybe I’ll just check for a moment. Just a tiny moment.’
But before entering Qi Absorption, she first quietly connected to the Nameless Forum.
Her plan was to take a quick look and then go.
As she scrolled down the forum board, an unfamiliar title seized her attention at once.
“Dao friend(312.7): Does taking a lightning tribulation gently actually work?”
[My spirit beast was due to break through to the third tier, so I put it in the heavenly Tribulation clouds as an experiment, and it worked.]
Baek Cheong blinked, doubting her own eyes.
The phrase “taking a lightning tribulation gently” had once become a topic of discussion in the Nameless Forum.
But it was difficult to carelessly experiment with, so it seemed as if the topic would be buried without any results.
And yet someone had truly tested it.
No sooner had the news gone up than dao Friends swarmed in.
[Dao friend(11.23): Does that really work? Give us the details.]
[Dao friend(729.3): You put a spirit beast in the heavenly Tribulation clouds? Are you sane? lol.]
[Dao friend(48.21): Any more follow-up? I’m curious what happened.]
[Dao friend(247.3): You people outrage heaven and humanity!]
The dao Friends showed their curiosity and pestered the poster for a detailed follow-up.
Before long, the dao friend who had made the post left a reply.
[Dao friend(312.7): My spirit beast was originally so weak that it was destined to drop dead because it couldn’t endure the heavenly Tribulation. But not only did it endure just fine, but there aren’t any aftereffects. If anything, maybe because it took the whole heavenly Tribulation head-on, it’s stronger than before.]
└Dao friend(11.23): Why does this actually work?
└Dao friend(422.14): Might you have made a fake tribulation cloud for that dao friend - no, spirit beast?
When the detailed follow-up continued, one dao friend showed excessive interest.
At that, dao friend(312.7) honestly told the truth.
[Dao friend(312.7): Honestly, I don’t have the skill to make a fake tribulation cloud or whatever, so I just did what dao friend(7.7) said and threw the spirit beast into the heavenly Tribulation clouds during its breakthrough. I didn’t think it would actually work.]
└Dao friend(247.3): When I ascend one day, I shall find you in the Upper Realm and chew even your soul up.
└Dao friend(422.14): That dao friend - no, spirit beast - was blessed indeed.
Baek Cheong’s small heart pounded as she read the replies.
A spirit beast too weak to survive the heavenly Tribulation had not only endured it perfectly well, but had grown stronger instead.
“Is this real?”
Of course, there were still suspicious points that made it hard to take at face value.
There was only one follow-up, and a picture post had not even been attached.
A follow-up made of words alone was easy to exaggerate and easy to tear down.
Even so, it was too tempting a story to dismiss as nonsense.
“I hope the part about surviving the heavenly Tribulation is at least true.”
Once she thought that far, her heart eased considerably.
A single follow-up had lightened the pressure on her, if only a little.
'Maybe it’s not impossible after all.’
Encouraged, Baek Cheong left the Nameless Forum.
Now it was time to focus on filling her Dantian without even letting her attention wander.
Fill the rest of her Dantian, reach the ninth level, pass through grand perfection, and then move on to foundation establishment.
Even if the heavenly Tribulation blocked her path, her preparations to overcome it were coming together one by one.
It made her earlier shrinking back in fear of the heavenly tribulation feel almost silly.
“Qi Condensation cultivators never had human rights anyway.”
She went straight into the Training Room and spurred on her Qi Absorption.
All the while thinking that once she reached foundation establishment someday, she would be able to browse the forum freely even outside closed-door seclusion.