Chapter 10
Decia's first memory was unusual.
While everyone awakened their first memories at age three, she alone retained every memory from the moment she was born.
Her birth in green cultivation fluid.
The flow of heaven and earth entered Decia, who had been nothing more than a single cell, and gave her life.
The Metal and Thunder roots took firm hold in that tiny life.
Glug, glug.
Among the incubators lined up in a row, Decia's place was the tenth.
To her right was a cold wall, but in the ninth incubator to her left, a baby slightly larger than her had its eyes closed.
Nine.
From the moment she first saw Nine, Decia couldn't look away.
Those plump hands and tiny head, the sight of Nine curled up with knees hugged close and eyes peacefully shut.
In the cold, white-covered incubation room, only Nine pulsed with warmth.
“…….”
Decia pressed herself against the glass and watched Nine.
What was this feeling she had now?
Decia's still-young, tiny brain couldn't interpret that emotion.
Four years passed like that.
All the siblings emerged from their incubators and stood on the ground for the first time.
Decia followed close behind Nine as Nine walked ahead.
Nine always liked to be in front. Decia was always right behind, like a shadow.
“Big Brother!”
“Oh, Decia. Wait a second. There's something I want to try….”
Nine said that and stuck a metal chopstick into a 330-volt outlet.
Bzzzzzt!
With the sound of flesh burning, Nine's body convulsed violently.
“Nggghhh!!”
The result was only to be expected.
Nine had no talent for Body Refinement, nor had Nine been born with any talent related to the Thunder Path.
As if used to it, Decia pried Nine's hand off the chopstick.
“You can't feel thunder spiritual energy by doing this. Why not sit down and meditate instead?”
It was advice born of pity for her older sibling, who kept repeating futile attempts.
But Nine only smiled.
“No. I definitely felt thunder spiritual energy just now! Can I try one more time? Please?”
At the innocent gaze Nine turned on her, Decia was at a loss for words.
Nine possessed a yearning and purity that reason and logic couldn't explain.
Decia grew curious about just how far that yearning would take Nine.
Thunk!
Nggghhh!!
Just one more time….
“…….”
Nine was a cultivation maniac.
Even burdened with the curse of Five Spiritual Roots, Nine's desire to keep moving forward was greater than anyone else's.
“Glu, glu…! Sia! Save me!”
Nine tied herself up in chains and threw herself into the sea.
"Mmgh, mmgh!"
Saying she wanted to feel earth spiritual energy, Nine climbed into a pit she had dug herself.
Instead of stopping her, Decia picked up a shovel with an impassive expression and poured dirt over Nine.
The dirt reached Nine's chin, then covered her nose and mouth.
Whooosh!!!
“Kyaaaaaa!!!”
Nine even did crazy things like sticking her arm into flames burning at several hundred degrees.
Her flesh charred black and the heat seared down to her bones, but amid Nine's screams, Decia felt a brilliant hunger for achievement.
Decia didn't stop Nine's bizarre antics; she even helped her.
Because that sight was truly beautiful.
“Are you two out of your minds? Decia, why are you not only letting her do that, but even egging her on….”
Eun Seolhwa spoke as she looked at Nine's left arm, which had been reduced to ashes and disappeared.
Her eyes shimmered with cold anger, but soon that emotion gave way to pity.
“…You can do whatever else you want, but take better care of your body. Regenerating it is an expensive procedure.”
Nine and Decia nodded.
But inwardly, they were thinking different things.
‘Maybe this time I should try skydiving with no gear?’
‘Mom worries too much. If I'm by Nine's side, she won't die.’
Over the next five years, Nine underwent thirteen body-regeneration surgeries.
Even so, Nine's longing for cultivation did not fade; it only burned more fiercely.
At the time, ten-year-old Nine was still at the Lifespan-Severing Stage, while nine-year-old Decia had already reached Great Perfection of Qi Refining.
“You're leaving?”
“Yeah. Older Sis. You'll be okay without me, right?”
“Hee, I'm more worried about you. I don't know if my clueless little sibling can manage without cultivation.”
Nine wrapped Decia in a tight hug.
Decia enjoyed the soft warmth and squeezed her eyes shut.
‘Older sister…?’
Her memories changed.
Every memory from her past life was turned upside down.
A little girl with snow-white hair trembled as electricity coursed through her.
A girl bound in chains, wet hair hanging down, cried for help.
Her older sister, who had stuck her arm into the flames herself, screamed.
And yet her older sister, whose bright eyes refused to dim… looked down at Decia.
That's right.
We had been sisters from the very beginning.
Nine stroked Decia's head.
Her cool hand rested on Decia's crown, warming it.
“You'll be okay when you go?”
“…Yeah.”
***
“Ugh.”
Decia staggered as a sudden wave of dizziness washed over her.
She clutched her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut.
Nine, curled up and trembling inside the capsule, didn't miss the chance.
Stretching out like a cat, she leaped out of the capsule in one bound and darted into the bedroom.
Her white hair flew wildly.
Panicking, Nine slammed the bedroom door shut.
She slid down against the bedroom door.
Her heart pounded, and cold sweat streamed down her.
‘C-crazy. I'm going this berserk just from meeting someone in person?’
It felt like her heart was about to physically burst.
Just the fact that she was in the same room as a real, living person filled her with an overwhelming revulsion.
Only then did Nine realize this wasn't something she could laugh off.
She had become unable to physically stand in front of people, let alone function socially or maintain relationships.
Had she frozen there for a while after realizing that?
From the other side of the door she was leaning against came a knock, knock.
“Eek…!”
“…Older sister?”
Nine let out a shrill scream and scrambled away from the door.
Unable even to stand, she crawled backward across the floor.
“Older sister. It's me, Decia.”
‘Decia?’
Nine froze at the familiar name.
It was a name from her childhood, from her memories.
‘Why now, after years without any contact? And why is she calling me her older sister?’
Nine was filled with questions.
But the situation didn't let her sink into deep thought.
“Older sister?”
Once again, Decia called out to Nine.
Nine stayed silent.
Even though she wanted to speak, her mouth wouldn't open.
“Hii, hiiik….”
Instead, only breathless whimpers escaped her.
Beyond the firmly shut door, Decia could sense everything.
Decia's spiritual sense already filled the entire house.
The small hand that had stroked her head, the arms that had held her warmly, the snow-white hair like Eun Seolhwa's—all of it was unchanged.
Nine looked no different at all from the older sister she'd parted with as a child.
But.
She could clearly see the frail body trembling in terror, and the chest rising and falling with ragged breaths.
It was so different from her older sister, who had always been bright and confident.
The sparkling eyes had been swallowed by a torrent of emotion, leaving them so murky.
Decia felt a complicated, ineffable emotion.
A bitter taste lingered in her mouth.
Ten years was a long time.
The girl who'd once possessed such pure eyes and feelings had changed.
She had studied at the sect, where she met an incredible master.
She had met senior brothers and sisters with maturity and intellect, and experienced the vastness of the world.
Competing with peers of outstanding talent, she had felt the cruelty of cultivation.
The sect's harsh teachings cut her off from the outside world.
For the first five years, she would sometimes cry, wanting to see her older sister.
But that was only for a while; the hectic sect life quickly made her longing evaporate.
Nine wasn't the type to reach out first, and neither was Decia.
The other siblings weren't particularly sociable either, so they never contacted one another.
Only Eun Seolhwa occasionally checked in with Decia.
‘She broke.’
Decia had seen many people like Nine in the sect.
People who lost their way on the long and winding path of cultivation.
People who couldn't bear the vastness, stared too far into the distance, and went blind.
“I won't say much. Mom asked me to check up on your situation, Older Sister.”
“…?”
Beyond the door, Nine held her breath.
She calmed her heart as it slowly beat more regularly and focused on Decia's words.
“She said she hasn't been able to get in touch with you. There's only a year and a month left until the Second Selection.”
Nine recalled what had happened not long ago.
The time she'd called first but couldn't even say a word.
‘…Did she send Decia, in the middle of her busiest period, because she was worried about that?’
This was all her own doing.
No, Nine felt wronged.
It wasn't her who made it impossible to talk to people; it was this stupid scroll….
“Also, Mom's Foundation Establishment tribulation has been scheduled. January first. You know that, right?”
“……!!”
Nine jumped up in shock.
Her heart, which had finally calmed down, began pounding fiercely again.
Only this time, it was excitement, not nerves, making it race.
“…That's all I had to say. Take care, Older Sister.”
Decia's spiritual sense had scanned Nine's realm: the Lifespan-Severing Stage.
A talent so abysmal that after fifteen years, she hadn't even reached the first star of Qi Refining.
She stood before the firmly shut door, moving her lips as though to say something, then turned away.
Memories welled up, stirred by the familiar home she hadn't visited in a long time and her older sister, unchanged from before.
But Decia shook her head, casting the memories aside.
‘…It's all just fragments of a childhood dream.’
Having erased her lingering attachment, Decia headed for the entrance.
With one last hesitation, she glanced at the closed bedroom door, then opened the front door to leave—when.
Creak….
“W-wait…!”
Along with the sound of the bedroom door opening.
A very faint, very familiar voice came from behind Decia.