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Chapter 09
Clothes and blankets flew wildly through the air.
The moment I stretched out my hand, the laundry shot forward like ghosts and attacked the maids.
“Aaaah!”
“W-What is this?!”
Since they were only blankets and clothes, they didn’t actually hurt, but the sudden situation threw the maids into complete panic.
I crossed my arms while lightly floating in the air using spiritual power.
One of the maids being smacked around by blankets looked up in shock.
“A-A cultivator?!”
“That little brat is a cultivator?”
“No way!”
Cultivators rarely showed mortals their training.
The maids knew cultivators existed because they worked at the Cheongwoo Immortal Sect, but this was their first time actually seeing abilities like this in person.
I raised my hand high, and the blankets spun upward in circles before crashing back down.
As I slowly descended to the ground, one of the terrified maids collapsed to her knees.
“Don’t ever bully Seolhwa unnie again!”
One maid nodded absentmindedly in terror, while another screamed and ran away.
Using my spiritual power, I stopped the blankets just before they hit the ground.
‘Huh?’
Compared to before, controlling my spiritual power suddenly felt much smoother.
Previously, it had felt awkward and foreign, but now it moved freely like an actual part of my body.
“Even after this, if they keep bullying you, you have to tell me.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“And I suddenly have something I need to do, so I’ll head back early today!”
Leaving Myung Seolhwa behind, I immediately ran toward the White Lotus Training Grounds.
The marks of all my previous cultivation practice still remained scattered throughout the area.
At the moment I moved the blankets in anger using spiritual power, it felt as though I had suddenly grasped the core of magical power itself.
‘I have enough magical power.’
But my biggest weakness had always been my inability to control it delicately.
Taking a slow deep breath, I gathered my magical power and activated the Azure Flame Technique.
Blue flower-like lights slowly bloomed and flickered around me.
Flash.
As I concentrated, the lights gradually became clearer and formed into a stable shape.
“It… it worked!!”
For the first time, I had successfully performed the Azure Flame Technique properly.
Once the Azure Flame Technique reached the Seventh Stage, my mastery of Lotus Flame Flash naturally improved as well.
Maybe because I had already experienced hitting a wall once before, I felt this was my opportunity and threw myself completely into training.
Especially swinging the sword. That part was incredibly fun.
Even without Baek Unjin around, every morning I still greeted the front of his room before studying cultivation arts at Seoun Pavilion, and in the afternoons I trained at the White Lotus Training Grounds.
One year passed like that.
As usual, I woke up, greeted the front of Baek Unjin’s room, and headed toward Seoun Pavilion.
‘The door is open?’
In truth, I was practically the only person who used Seoun Pavilion.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside.
“Uh…”
A young boy wearing the same Cheongwoo Immortal Sect robes as me stood inside.
He looked one or two years younger than me, and his features were so delicate and pretty that anyone could tell he would grow up handsome.
‘Could that be… Eun Hwigyeom?’
No matter how I looked at it, there was no one else who should be here except Eun Hwigyeom.
Since I couldn’t exactly say I already knew his name, I approached him first.
“Hi! My name is Yoo Yeonseo! What’s your name?”
“……”
“Hm?”
Maybe my sudden approach overwhelmed him, because Eun Hwigyeom flinched and took a step back.
Just as I wondered if I had been too pushy, he hesitantly answered in a tiny voice.
“Eun Hwigyeom.”
“So your name is Eun Hwigyeom! I’m fourteen years old! How old are you?”
“T-Ten.”
He seemed confused about his age for a moment, counting on his fingers before finally answering.
It was unbelievably adorable.
‘What is this?! Why is he so cute?!’
There was no way someone this cute should die.
“I see! So how did you get here? Ah, did you come with Master? I haven’t seen him yet. Do you know where he is?”
“U-Um…”
Creeeak.
The door opened, and Baek Unjin entered Seoun Pavilion.
Eun Hwigyeom, who had been struggling to answer my questions, immediately ran over and hid behind Baek Unjin’s back while trembling.
He looked somewhere between a squirrel and a rabbit.
“Master! Have you returned safely?”
I quickly clasped my hands respectfully and bowed to Baek Unjin, whom I was seeing again after so long.
His large hand gently stroked my hair.
“……”
“What’s wrong?”
“You’ve mastered the Azure Flame Technique.”
“Ah! Yes.”
I struggled at the Seventh Stage, but once I broke through the blockage, reaching the peak afterward happened quickly.
Though Lotus Flame Flash was still only at the Tenth Stage.
‘If I fully master Lotus Flame Flash too, I’ll be able to challenge Second Star Qi Refinement, right?’
Advancing in cultivation required a certain level of magical power.
And to challenge Second Star Qi Refinement, those two techniques needed to reach their peak stages first.
The cultivation system in Chronicles of Heavenly Fate Cultivation was far more complicated than expected.
The very first beginner stage was Qi Refinement.
It ranged from First Star to Thirteenth Star.
After that came Foundation Establishment with twelve stages, then Core Formation with ten stages. Beyond that were the Nascent Soul Realm and Spirit Transformation Realm, each divided into early, middle, late, and Great Perfection stages.
There were even more complicated realms beyond Spirit Transformation, but that was far too distant for me to worry about now.
‘Honestly, I don’t even know if I’ll ever reach Spirit Transformation.’
Once cultivators reached Spirit Transformation, they could ascend and move from the Lower Realm to the Middle Realm.
In the Middle Realm, it became possible to encounter different races and dimensions.
“Is something wrong, Master?”
“No. You did well.”
“Hehe.”
Feeling Baek Unjin’s touch again after so long made me happy, and I grinned brightly.
At that moment, Eun Hwigyeom, who had been watching us, suddenly tugged hard on Baek Unjin’s sleeve.
“Who is that girl?”
“That girl? I already told you my name is Yoo Yeonseo.”
“She’s going to be your senior sister.”
Just as expected, Baek Unjin had definitely accepted Eun Hwigyeom as a disciple after returning from Taehur Kingdom.
I placed my hands on my hips and puffed out my shoulders proudly.
“Ahem.”
“……”
“……”
“That?”
“What do you mean ‘that’? I’m your senior sister!”
“He looks weak.”
Eun Hwigyeom’s single sentence dealt massive emotional damage.
Why does someone with such a cute face talk like that?
As the senior disciple, I clearly needed to establish discipline.
I forced a smile while glaring at Eun Hwigyeom, who still clung tightly to Baek Unjin’s robes.
“Hmph. I’m a hundred times stronger than a crybaby clinging to Master, little brat.”
“I’m not a brat.”
“You’re shorter than me.”
“I-I’ll grow soon!”
“Yeees. Work hard and grow taller, little brat. Bleeh.”
Hmph. Before transmigrating into Yoo Yeonseo, I had lived all the way to thirty.
There was no way I could lose to some ten-year-old kid.
Maybe it was childish, but whatever.
Provoked by my taunts, Eun Hwigyeom let go of Baek Unjin’s sleeve and clenched his tiny fists.
“If you’re so confident, then fight me!”
“Hmph, you’ll lose though.”
I crossed my arms and snorted.
I had trained under Baek Unjin for over three years already.
No matter who Eun Hwigyeom was in the original novel, right now he was still just a ten-year-old kid.
“Haa… I was hoping you two would get along…”
As Eun Hwigyeom and I started growling at each other from the very beginning, Baek Unjin pressed a hand to his forehead like he already had a headache.
“You won’t know until we try. What, are you scared?”
“S-C-A-R-E-D? As if.”
I answered slowly, one syllable at a time, while forcing an even bigger smile.
Forget what I said before about feeling sorry for him because he might die!
This brat was only cute on the outside!
“Yeonseo, how can you act like that toward a junior disciple who just arrived?”
“He started it first.”
I puffed out my lips and made the most unfair-looking expression possible.
Caught between us, Baek Unjin let out another deep sigh.
“Fine. Do whatever you want. But you may only fight to the point where no one gets hurt while I’m watching.”
“There’s no way I can’t beat one little brat.”
I added one final insult while smirking at Eun Hwigyeom.
Cultivators weren’t called amazing for nothing.
Together, Eun Hwigyeom and I headed toward the White Lotus Training Grounds.
In Eun Hwigyeom’s hands was the light wooden practice sword I often used.
“As I said before, neither of you is allowed to get hurt.”
“Okaaay.”
At Baek Unjin’s signal, I tightened my grip on the wooden sword and adjusted my stance.
At first, I couldn’t even swing properly without losing my balance and falling over, but now my posture looked fairly decent.
‘Huh?’
The moment I looked up at Eun Hwigyeom, I couldn’t help feeling surprised.
His stance was far better than I expected.
