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Chapter 01
I opened my eyes.
Every part of my body throbbed with pain.
It was easier to find places that didn’t hurt than places that did.
The thick smell of blood filled the air, and a red mist swallowed my vision so completely that I could barely see what was right in front of me.
“I… I…”
My body lay collapsed on the ground, unable to move at all.
A sharp headache struck me, and along with the pain, unfamiliar memories rushed into my mind like waves.
The memories of Lee Seohee, a modern-day graduate student.
And the memories of the owner of this body.
‘The barrier can’t hold any longer!’
‘We have to decide quickly! We don’t have much time left!’
Beyond the red mist came a presence that sounded like the roar of a beast.
The ground shook, and the sealing patterns carved into the earth began cracking one by one.
‘At this rate, the Blood Soul Asura’s seal will break!’
‘This barrier… can never be closed unless someone stays behind.’
‘We have to choose who will remain.’
People’s gazes darted between the red patterns and the terrifying presence of the Blood Soul Asura that was about to awaken.
Then their eyes landed on Yoo Yeonseo and Yang Jahan.
‘I’ll stay behind.’
‘…Yeonseo.’
‘Jahan. Please live on for both of us.’
The moment Yoo Yeonseo’s hand touched the core of the seal, a burst of light exploded outward, and a vibration that felt like it could tear apart souls swept through the entire space.
‘I will never forget this choice for the rest of my life. I’ll survive no matter what, even for your share too.’
Through Yoo Yeonseo’s sacrifice, the Soul-Sealing Heavenly Formation was activated, and the Blood Soul Asura was successfully sealed.
But this story…
…was only the beginning of the xianxia novel Chronicles of Heavenly Fate Cultivation.
Chronicles of Heavenly Fate Cultivation was about the protagonist, Yang Jahan, becoming a cultivator and growing stronger.
Cultivators were beings who trained endlessly in pursuit of immortality and the Dao, seeking to become immortals.
Before Yang Jahan became a cultivator, Yoo Yeonseo was sacrificed as the offering used to seal the disaster known as the Blood Soul Asura and lost her life.
After Yoo Yeonseo’s sacrifice, Yang Jahan barely escaped alive and was saved by a cultivator from the prestigious sect, Mugeuk Hyeonmun. That was how he became a cultivator himself.
‘Why?! Why did it have to be this person of all people?!’
Even if I transmigrated, why did it have to be into someone who was already dying?
No.
I wanted to live.
I didn’t want to die like this.
Why me?
Out of all the people in the world, why Yoo Yeonseo?
“I don’t… want to die!”
I could clearly feel my body dying.
I crawled across the dirt ground soaked in blood.
Flash.
‘That is…’
Something red was glowing between the dark cliffs.
Covered in blood, I staggered toward it as if possessed.
Red moss.
Instinctively, I shoved it into my mouth and chewed.
“Aaaah! AAAAAAH!”
A pain like my soul was being torn apart crashed over me, and I collapsed while crying tears of blood.
That was my first memory as Yoo Yeonseo after transmigrating.
Spirit Death Valley.
It was a forbidden land located at the edge of the Hyeon Empire.
Long ago, during the war between immortals and demons, it was said that a Divine Demon had breathed upon the land, turning it into a place of death where no human could survive.
Baek Unjin, the youngest elder of the Cheongwoo Immortal Sect, heard that the valley’s death energy had gone out of control and rushed there with his fellow disciples.
Because the land’s yin energy was so dense, ghost spirits were occasionally born there.
“The Blood Soul Asura awakened?!”
After reading the spiritual energy of the area, Baek Unjin understood what had happened there.
He saw countless cultivators brutally slaughtered near the place where the ghost spirit, the Blood Soul Asura, had been sealed.
Just as he concluded that no one had survived—
“That…”
Far away, he spotted a child collapsed on the ground. The child looked too young to even be fifteen.
“Senior Brother Baek, what is it?”
“She’s alive.”
“What?”
“That child is still alive!”
Baek Unjin hurried over and checked the child’s condition.
But her state was terrible.
The flow of qi throughout her body was in complete ruin, and yin energy had shredded her meridians apart.
It wouldn’t have been strange if she died at any moment.
Baek Unjin looked down at the child with sorrowful eyes.
If only he had arrived a little earlier, perhaps she wouldn’t have been sacrificed so meaninglessly.
Just as he was about to pour spiritual power into her to ease her passing—
Grab.
The small child, covered in blood, tightly grabbed the edge of Baek Unjin’s robe.
It was hard to believe such strength could come from someone dying.
“I… want… to live…”
After saying those words, the child’s body went limp.
Her breathing became fainter and fainter.
Another cultivator who had returned after inspecting the seal clicked his tongue.
“Judging by the fact that they used the child’s soul as a sacrifice to seal the ghost spirit, they must have been low-level cultivators.”
Not only that cultivator, but the others from the same sect also told him to give up.
Yet even then, the child still refused to let go of Baek Unjin’s robe.
Baek Unjin took out a Hwanwon Jinyeong Pill from inside his robe.
“B-Baek Cultivator! Have you lost your mind?!”
“How can you use something that precious on someone who’s practically dead?!”
“If you’re going to waste it on her, sell it to me instead!”
The cultivators were horrified at the sight of the Hwanwon Jinyeong Pill, one of the twelve great spiritual medicines that most people would never see in their lifetime.
“Silence. It belongs to me, and I’ll decide how to use it.”
Pushing the cultivators aside, Baek Unjin crushed the pill, known for restoring damaged souls, and poured it into the child’s mouth.
“If you want to live, then eat.”
At those words, the child, who had shown no sign of moving, desperately swallowed the pill with all her remaining strength.
As her shattered soul recovered, her internal injuries slowly began to heal.
Chirp, chirp.
When I opened my eyes, I was lying in an unfamiliar room.
“Where am I this time?”
I had definitely been dying, but when I regained consciousness, I was under a warm blanket.
I vaguely remembered hearing someone’s voice right before losing consciousness after transmigrating.
‘Did you want to live?’
‘I want to live.’
Something had definitely been put into my mouth after that, and then…
No, before that, who even was that person?
No matter how hard I tried to remember, everything remained blurry like grasping at clouds.
I buried myself under the blanket and thought for a long time, but nothing came to mind.
“I can’t remember!”
I irritably kicked off the blanket and shot upright.
Huh?
Right, long hair, blue-green robes, tall, and elegant-looking.
“That’s him!”
“……”
“Huh?”
I froze in shock after pointing at the handsome man standing at the doorway and quickly lowered my hand.
Blink. Blink.
The man and I stared at each other.
When he smiled gently at me, the tension in my body loosened without me realizing it, and I collapsed onto the floor.
‘He’s handsome.’
No, that’s not the point!
Who are you, seriously?!
“How is your body feeling?”
“……”
“Has the shock left you unable to speak?”
“No. Um… who are you?”
My mind felt completely blank, and I didn’t even know where to begin.
If this wasn’t a dream, then I really had entered Chronicles of Heavenly Fate Cultivation…
Still smiling calmly, the man walked over to me.
Pat.
His hand gently rested on my head.
“When asking someone who they are, it is polite to introduce yourself first.”
“I… My name is Yoo Yeonseo.”
“Do you remember anything else?”
When his hand left my head, I quickly shook my head.
It wasn’t that I remembered nothing.
‘The memories from modern times are useless.’
And even Yoo Yeonseo’s memories were limited. She had entered a third-rate cultivation sect and later passed through Spirit Death Valley, where the Blood Soul Asura awakened, and she nearly died after being used as a sacrifice.
After tightly grabbing the man’s sleeve, I shook my head harder.
“No.”
“……”
“Other than my name, I don’t remember anything.”
Chronicles of Heavenly Fate Cultivation was, true to its name, a ruthless novel where cultivators would use any means necessary to become stronger.
Even the protagonist, Yang Jahan, became a cold and merciless person after Yoo Yeonseo’s death awakened him.
I was truly grateful to this man for saving me, but I still couldn’t trust him completely.
Sure, it was fun reading about the protagonist overpowering everyone in satisfying fashion, but things were different now that I was inside the story myself.
“I see.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why would you apologize? You went through something terrible. It’s natural.”
“I think you saved me… but who are you?”
“My name is Baek Unjin.”
Baek Unjin.
That name sounded strangely familiar—wait, Baek Unjin?!
In Chronicles of Heavenly Fate Cultivation, there existed eight great orthodox sects.
Baek Unjin was a cultivation officer of one of those sects, the Cheongwoo Immortal Sect, and a genius who reached the Nascent Soul stage at the youngest age.
Compared to the Cheongwoo Immortal Sect, the Honghwa Sect that Yoo Yeonseo belonged to was no different from a collapsing neighborhood shop. Even within Cheongwoo itself, meeting Baek Unjin alone was extremely difficult.
In other words, I had been saved by someone incredibly important.
As I sat there blankly with my mouth open, unsure of what to say, Baek Unjin smiled kindly and lowered himself to meet my eyes.
‘In the novel, I think he was supposed to be really cold-blooded.’
But seeing him in person, he didn’t seem quite that way.
While I stared absentmindedly at his face—
“You still seem confused, so I’ll be direct. Would you like to become my disciple and join the Cheongwoo Immortal Sect as a cultivator?”
