Chapter 719: Yin and Yang (1)

"This is a building I recognize. Don't tell me they built it exactly the same... Huh!? This mark is definitely one I..."

The moment we stood before the main building of Blood Market Tower, Chilhyang checked the building and jolted in shock.

It seemed to be a building from Chilhyang's memories.

Probably a place Chilhyang and my master had built together.

"Father, don't tell me this building, in the Nine Heavens..."

"That's right. That..."

Right as I was about to answer Chilhyang's question, my junior sister's voice rang out.

"A-Aunt-Master!"

My junior sister came flying down from the upstairs stairs like the wind and ran over to throw her arms around Chilhyang.

Looking up from Chilhyang's arms, she asked,

"Your appearance is definitely different, but you are Seventh Aunt-Master, aren't you?"

The reason my junior sister was asking that was because Chilhyang currently looked like Gun Hye-rin.

After eating my yang energy, Chilhyang was in the form of Gun Hye-rin.

Even though the appearance was different, it seemed my junior sister was recognizing Chilhyang by remembered energy.

"Yes, Cheongcheong. To think you've become this healthy."

Chilhyang smiled in Gun Hye-rin's form.

The interesting thing was, maybe because I had several wives, once I fed Chilhyang yang energy, Chilhyang kept changing back and forth into the forms of Hwa-eun, Hye-rin, Ji-ryeon, and Zihwa.

Then, as if a roulette wheel had stopped spinning, the one it finally landed on was Gun Hye-rin's appearance. At first that startled me a little, but when I thought about it, this was something that put a bit of swagger in So-ryong's shoulders.

Because really, how fairly would I have to love my wives for it to change like this, like a roulette wheel spinning?

If it weren't truly fair down to the knife-cut level, there was no way the appearances would have kept changing back and forth like that.

"See? I'm this fair a person. How evenly must I love them for the appearances to rotate like a roulette wheel?"

While I was puffing up a little at that thought, my junior sister quickly asked about my master's news.

"Aunt-Master, Father!? Do you know anything about Father?"

My junior sister had already been dispirited after hearing people call her father the greatest kidnapper of the age.

So when Chilhyang appeared, she couldn't hold it in and asked.

"Let's go upstairs first. It would be better to talk above."

At my junior sister's urgent question, Chilhyang spoke while patting her on the back.

My junior sister nodded and quickly led Chilhyang upward.

"Please, come up. I'll prepare some good tea."

"All right, let's go."

We moved and settled into seats in my junior sister's office.

And then what was it called, water steeped with precious spirit herbs?

I'd had it a few times myself, but my junior sister pulled out the finest tea and served it.

-Drip.

As the fragrant scent of spirit herbs filled the inside of my junior sister's office, she asked again in a calmer voice,

"Aunt-Master, I don't know whether my junior brother told you, but the energy in Father's true-spirit magic treasure is scattering.

Like a fool, I didn't know what that meant, but it turns out it means Father has either died or fallen into mortal danger.

So I came up here into the Nine Heavens despite the requests of Father, Mother, and my aunts. If there is anything you know, please tell me."

My junior sister took Master's true-spirit magic treasure, which she now kept on her person, out from her robes and placed it on the table.

That was because she kept it with her at all times and was constantly feeding energy into it.

The escaping energy had grown so severe by now that if she didn't do that, it would no longer function as a magic treasure.

At my junior sister's words, Chilhyang glanced lightly at me once, then nodded and explained.

"Yes, I parted ways with your father a long time ago. And after separating from me, your father went up into the Middle Heaven."

"You parted ways?"

Chilhyang said my master had already ascended into the Middle Heaven, but maybe because the earlier part of that sentence had shocked her, my junior sister asked why they had separated.

"Yes."

"How did you part ways!? Weren't you the one who followed Father more than anyone?"

At my junior sister's question, I spoke to everyone in the room.

"I already heard this part, but from here on it's important, so everyone listen carefully."

"All right, So-ryong."

"Yes, husband."

While everyone focused, Chilhyang began explaining.

"So, what happened was because of an immortal."

"An immortal?"

"Immortal Haichan, that slick bastard who keeps a toad..."

Chilhyang explained again to my junior sister and my wives the story already told to me.

In more detail than before, too.

"Th-that can't be..."

When the slightly long explanation ended, my junior sister looked rather shocked.

No matter the reason, her father had been kidnapping other spirit-creatures because he'd fallen for someone's persuasion.

My junior sister had already suffered a great shock when she first heard this news last time.

Still, because I had already said my master must have had a reason that would make him do something like that, it seemed she had been thinking along those lines, but this wasn't enough to cover for the disaster my master had caused.

Even if it was to save suffering spirit-creatures, wouldn't it be absurd if, for that, other spirit-creatures had to be sacrificed?

And if you thought about it quietly, this wasn't even saving all spirit-creatures.

I didn't know much about world creation.

But if he was making another world, that could also be interpreted to mean that aside from that, spirit-creatures in other worlds would simply be abandoned, and only the spirit-creatures moved into the created world, or born there, would get to live safely without being captured for materials or spirit pills.

In other words, it wasn't really for some great cause, but a choice for the self-preservation of only a portion.

Maybe my junior sister realized that too, because she muttered in a low voice with an expression that said she couldn't understand it.

"It's not even that he intended to free all spirit-creatures from a wretched fate, and yet he took the sacrifices of others for granted for the sake of some. How could Father..."

"I said the same thing too, Cheongcheong. It's probably because of that bastard Immortal Haichan.

Just seeing clever Hwa-seong make that kind of decision makes no sense."

Was Chilhyang saying that because it seemed like my junior sister might be shocked?

Or did Chilhyang really think so?

Much like what had been said to me, Chilhyang spoke with the nuance that maybe my master had been brainwashed because of Immortal Haichan.

I asked Ji-ryeon,

"Ji-ryeon, could you ask Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo about Immortal Haichan, by any chance?"

Zihwa now seemed to have gone into a state like closed-door cultivation.

It looked like it would take a long time to melt down the energy my mother-in-law had left behind.

So the only place left to get information from above was Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo.

At my question, Ji-ryeon explained with an awkward expression,

"Since I accepted Hyeonnyeo into my body twice recently, she said she won't be able to descend directly into my body for the time being. She said my body wouldn't be able to endure it, so I should refrain from conversation too."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Certainly, with a divine being having descended into her body twice in a short span, there was no way that could be nothing but good.

A being with enormous power had come down into her body.

Even if it was the body of a cultivator, since such a great existence had descended into it, it wouldn't be strange for her body to have been overloaded.

The heat rising in her body seemed like proof of that.

I'd thought I had cured everything by cooling her down, but apparently all I had done was symptomatic treatment that only reduced the heat in her body.

"Well, an immortal descended into her body. Fixing that with dual cultivation was nonsense to begin with."

I was wondering if we'd have to wait for the time being, when Ji-ryeon said with an expression that said it couldn't be helped,

"So what do we do? Do we have to wait?"

"The way to contact her from my side is through rites. I suppose we'll have to offer rites."

"Rites?"

"Yes. She said that if something urgent happened, I should offer rites. You offer them with tribute so my body won't bear the burden."

"Then let's do it right away. But these rites... how exactly do we offer them? Ji-ryeon, do you know?"

It sounded like there was another means of communication besides her descending directly.

When I asked whether Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo had taught her how to offer the rites, Ji-ryeon said she didn't know, but there was someone who would.

"Huiyang, the mistress of Nine-Heaven Demon Tower, should know how. Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo told me that if anything urgent happened, I should ask her."

"Ah, that makes sense."

Since she would have offered tribute and such to the one she served, she probably knew the process clearly.

So we summoned Huiyang, the mistress of Nine-Heaven Demon Tower, who was apparently too busy looking after our White Night City to spare a moment, and asked how one offered rites.

Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo had said to ask her, but making her perform the rites themselves felt a bit much, so we'd intended to do them ourselves.

After all, rites offered to an immortal would likely require tribute, and it felt like a burden to impose.

"Rites? It would be enough just to invite her into Lady Ji-ryeon's body, so why?"

"Ji-ryeon accepted Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo twice recently, so she needs to rest for a while."

"Ah... so that happened. Understood. We will prepare the rites."

I had only asked her to tell us the method, but Huiyang said they would prepare the rites themselves.

The next day, at the place where Master's true-spirit magic treasure had vanished, rites for Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo were offered.

By the time the night had deepened and passed midnight, the altar was filled with nothing but starlight and incense smoke.

The altar was a nine-tiered structure built of black stone, and at its summit was enshrined a hanging scroll of Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo.

Set upon five-colored silk, the face in the hanging scroll was stern and still, as though some star in the heavens had taken form and descended.

A bird with spread wings was engraved above her shoulders, and in her hand she held something like a magic treasure.

Huiyang, offering the tribute, knelt and knocked her forehead against the ground three times.

"This lowly one petitions Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo."

Then she began presenting the offerings.

First she placed jade neatly arranged on a golden tray.

White jade, blue jade, and violet jade tablets gave off a sacred aura as they glimmered softly beneath the candlelight.

Next, she lit three bundles of sandalwood.

As the incense burned, the rising smoke formed a vortex of its own accord above the altar, then slowly rose into the sky and vanished amid the starlight.

Huiyang said that only once it reached the heavens of the Nine Heavens would the divine lady finally partake of it.

Beside that, she placed a jeweled casket adorned with the Seven Treasures. Inside it were a bundle of thousand-year spirit fungus, a celadon bottle filled with snow water, and a talisman written by hand.

Last of all, she offered spirit stones piled atop crimson silk.

So that worldly wealth would not dare defile the divine lady's realm, each spirit stone had been engraved with a purification incantation.

"O Lady Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo, you who watch over the nine tiers of the lower heavens. This lowly body dares to bow before your jade countenance and offer tribute, so please partake of it and hear this plea."

The moment Huiyang's entreaty ended, the candle flames atop the windless altar all began to dance at once.

The incense smoke scattered, and for a moment the shape of a giant bird formed within it before vanishing.

The lid of the casket opened of its own accord, silver light leaking out from the spirit fungus, and the entire nine-tiered altar was wrapped in a faint violet radiance.

Then the eyes in the hanging scroll seemed to come alive, and a voice rang out.

[I've already heard enough to know the story. To begin with, Immortal Haichan is a benevolent heavenly immortal.

One of the Eight Immortals, Zhongli Quan, had Lü Dongbin as a disciple, and he is a disciple of that Lü Dongbin. In the Central Plains, he is one of the immortals enshrined by the Quanzhen Sect.]

Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo already knew what we were curious about.

It felt as though she more or less knew the story because she'd been peeking down from above, and she continued,

[You must have been curious why he is trying to create a world, whether it really is world creation, and whether what he told Tang Hwa-seong was true, but what you are curious about, So-ryong, even I do not know.

To learn such things, it seems I would need to examine Immortal Haichan directly, but even if his rank is below mine, it is forbidden for me to interfere in his work or observe it.]

"I see."

Through Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo, I could at least roughly learn what kind of immortal he was.

But I couldn't learn things like why he was trying to create a world or why he had chosen my master.

From the sound of it, Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo would probably find it difficult to look into the detailed inner workings as well, but that didn't mean there was no information at all.

[Still, I can guess why he chose Tang Hwa-seong. World creation requires a special authority, and he seems to be suitable for it.]

"A special authority?"

[That is something you cannot yet accept.]

Listening to Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo, it seemed that special authority was a higher concept, something beyond what we could understand.

Just like how my wives hadn't understood what Zihwa was talking about at first.

Right when my junior sister's face was starting to darken because it seemed there was no path left, Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo spoke again.

[There is one way to gain access to information from a bit farther over there...]

At Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo's words, my junior sister couldn't hold back and asked directly,

"What is it?"

[Though the Nine Heavens are my domain, there are not no followers of other immortals here.

So naturally, in the Nine Heavens there are also those who serve Immortal Haichan. Since Immortal Haichan is usually enshrined together with Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin, find out what orders have recently come down to sects or societies that serve all three.

In the Nine Heavens, Zhongli Quan or Lü Dongbin themselves will not oversee things directly. Of the three, Immortal Haichan has the lowest rank, so he will be the one managing it. So if some order has come down, there is a high chance it was issued by Immortal Haichan.

If you learn what tribute is being offered and what is being demanded, you should be able to tell how far the world creation has progressed, whether world creation is really underway at all, and if by chance they are seeking someone with that special authority, then you may also be able to confirm whether Tang Hwa-seong is dead or alive.]

In other words, we were to look into what the ones serving Immortal Haichan were doing right now.

She was telling us to indirectly track their movements through what they were doing.

It looked like we'd have to stop by Ink Shadow Altar again.