Even in this place where the sun always blazed, night occasionally came calling.
After waiting briefly, the sun fell rapidly.
“It’s been a while since I could enjoy such a tranquil atmosphere.”
With a slightly fluttering heart, she took out a bottle of bamboo wine and cups from the drawer.
She opened the window wide and set the wine and cups beneath the moonlight.
She gently lifted the bottle and poured a trickle into the cup.
She raised the cup, gazed at the moonlight, and held it out.
“A drink for my Namgung family, who perished screaming.”
Creak.
Just as she was about to drink, she heard the door to the outbuilding open.
“Hah.”
She sighed and kicked the door open with her foot.
Through the gap, she saw Sinhyeok smiling awkwardly.
“M-May I have a cup too?”
“Did you smell it?”
“I’ve always had a nose that catches the scent of alcohol.”
“Tch.”
Amgeom flicked her hand.
“Come and keep me company.”
Sinhyeok smiled and went to her side.
She gestured, and the drawer opened.
“Oh, telekinesis?”
“It’s Void Grasp, you foolish child. To think you’d dismiss such a peerless art as mere telekinesis. Tch.”
Another cup emerged, and she held it out to Sinhyeok.
“Hehe, then pour me one, please.”
At Sinhyeok’s fawning smile, she couldn’t help but laugh.
“Goodness me.”
Trickle.
She lifted the bamboo wine and poured gently.
A clear sound rang out as a faint bamboo fragrance wafted up.
Sinhyeok grew excited at the sight of alcohol after so long.
“Bottoms up~ Then, Master, cheers~?”
Amgeom smiled at Sinhyeok’s clownish gesture of holding out his cup and raised her own.
“Very well.”
Clink.
Sinhyeok politely tilted his head back with a snap and drank.
“Keh, the fragrance is incredible.”
“It’s the only charm of this place. The liquor is practically divine.”
“Haah, no need for side dishes. The moonlight is sublime.”
She nodded.
“Will you have more?”
Sinhyeok smiled as she offered to pour.
“Heh, if Master gives it, I must drink it no matter what.”
“Hahaha. Very well, drink up.”
Amgeom laughed and refilled his cup.
They passed the cup back and forth until the room filled with moonlight.
“Haah, this is wonderful. But Master, you’re not getting drunk.”
She hummed and said,
“I am clearly a soul. I cannot get drunk. I must be content with this.”
“Ah, that’s a pity. Getting drunk and then having a proper hangover cure the next day is the best.”
Amgeom smirked.
“But Master, did you sign a contract too? Or are you just training as you are?”
“Of course I signed one.”
Sinhyeok’s eyes went wide.
“But then you told me to just train?”
“Haha, I knew you wouldn’t do it otherwise. That Lee Gangyeol fellow was the same.”
“Sigh, there you go talking about that guy again.”
She laughed and brushed it off.
“He’s a bad fate to you, but karma to me.”
“Yeah, sure. But what quest are you doing that keeps you cooped up here?”
“I threw away my contract.”
Sinhyeok’s eyes flashed.
“What?”
“Now I train alone. I’m trying to transcend on my own, without anyone’s help.”
“Why? Why?”
She thought of Lee Gangyeol in her few remaining memories.
“Because of that guy you hate so much.”
“Ah, but didn’t he transcend through his contract?”
“He had already finished transcending. He simply sparred with the dragon afterwards.”
Sinhyeok realized what she meant.
With a face of genuine annoyance, Sinhyeok said,
“He accepted the dragon’s contract just to confirm his own level?”
She nodded.
“Ugh, what a pain.”
Amgeom laughed at his words.
“Yes, I thought so too. I found it fascinating that there was someone with the talent to transcend on his own.”
“But why did that change your choice?”
“Seeing him reach that realm on his own made me realize something. True transcendence is not something another can grant you.”
Sinhyeok felt something stir in his heart at her serious contemplation.
“You are a true martial artist. You could have taken the easy path.”
“A martial artist who takes the hard road when an easy one exists. That’s why I’m troubled. What is the end of martial arts? Does such a thing even exist?”
Sinhyeok shook his head.
“They’re all such difficult problems. The origin, the Wuji—questions with no answers.”
He took out the cracked core from his pocket and held it to the moonlight.
“Can’t someone just tell me?”
She laughed and joked,
“Why don’t you run off and ask that Jigoryong again?”
“Come on.”
Sinhyeok thought for a moment, then flinched.
“Should I?”
“Are you serious?”
She stared at him in disbelief.
“Maybe it’ll give a proper answer.”
“Ho ho, as if. Dragons are lunatics obsessed with curiosity and riddles. They’ll mock you, not give you answers.”
Sinhyeok strongly agreed.
“That’s true.”
Thinking back on his meeting with Jigoryong, he had exposed his private life and gained stress just to get a few hints.
“But maybe it’ll still give a good hint.”
She shook her head.
“You really...”
“Let me give it a shot. A hint should be fine, right~”
* * *
The next day.
After the brief night passed, the sun rose again.
“Alright! Let’s go right now!”
Amgeom clicked her tongue as she watched him actually run off.
“Tsk.”
Sinhyeok headed not to Jigoryong’s lair, but to the monolith he had definitely called the “scratchpad.”
When he arrived, the massive black monolith was still there.
He approached it immediately and poked it with his finger.
“Good, it writes well.”
Letters were engraved in a blue light.
He went to a large empty space and wrote clearly in Korean.
“Please give me a hint.”
A passing cultivator stared intently at the sight.
“Mister, have you already become a netherling?”
Sinhyeok smiled awkwardly and waved his hand.
“Ah, no! I’m just trying to talk to someone.”
The man clicked his tongue and passed by.
“If you’re going to go mad, go mad with grace. Tsk tsk. What a mess.”
Sinhyeok’s face went stern.
“Crazy? Who’s crazy?”
He wrote on the monolith again.
“Just one hint, please.”
Korean text appeared on the monolith.
“Lol, a hint?”
“Ugh.”
“KIN. Get lost.”
A perfect refusal.
“Ah! Would it kill you to tell me!”
“Then one question?”
Again, it was doing this.
With an exasperated expression, Sinhyeok wrote.
“You? Are you a voyeur?”
“Then no hint.”
“Ask me anything.”
An annoying question appeared on the monolith.
“Bu Sinhyeok is a virgin. O for true, X for false.”
He trembled.
Sinhyeok shouted at the monolith.
“Hey! I didn’t have time to meet anyone!”
“Doesn’t time after discharge count?”
“That’s too much! Are you including that?!”
“LOLOL”
Sinhyeok was speechless at the childishness of this so-called Jigoryong.
“Wow, forget it.”
Words began to appear large on the monolith.
“The cultivator Bu Sinhyeok is a virgin.”
“Aaaack! You crazy Jigoryong!”
Everyone passing by looked at the rampaging Sinhyeok.
“That could be.”
“Right. But why is he a virgin?”
“Perhaps he’s a eunuch?”
“Or… peculiar tastes?”
Sinhyeok exploded in anger.
“I’m not! Argh, seriously!”
The monolith shook, as if voicing someone’s feelings.
“LOLOLOL”
Sinhyeok trembled.
“If you don’t give me a hint, I’ll come find you and complain.”
“Hint: The Origin is, ultimately, mana.”
“I’ll break this thing right now.”
Immediately another hint appeared.
“What is mana made of?”
Sinhyeok was bewildered by its hints.
“Mana is mana, so why—?”
“Want more hints? In exchange, another question.”
Sinhyeok turned pale at the mention of another question.
“No!”
He immediately bolted away.
As he walked off, there were many rainbow-colored people on the street.
What stood out even more was that they were disgustingly handsome and beautiful.
“They look like Power Rangers with those hair colors.”
They stared silently at the fleeing Sinhyeok.
They left Sinhyeok alone and knelt on one knee before the monolith.
“Father, is the time upon us?”
More letters engraved themselves.
“Not yet, but perhaps soon.”
They nodded silently.
“It depends on him.”
At Jigoryong’s words, they looked at the vanished Sinhyeok.
“Shall we assist him from nearby?”
“No, simply watch. He is already sufficient.”
* * *
“So what is mana? Is this even a hint? Tch.”
Sinhyeok, having returned home, quietly watched her through the window.
She opened her mouth while seated in meditation.
“In Murim, watching another’s training is taboo. If discovered, you are killed on the spot.”
Sinhyeok flinched at her words.
He soon smiled awkwardly and said,
“Can you see me?”
“I sense it. Frivolous footsteps and a breath full of mischievous intent.”
“Haha, actually I have another matter troubling me.”
“Do you have no intention of pondering things yourself?”
“Why should I when there’s another AI that’ll answer anything?”
“What?”
She couldn’t understand what Sinhyeok meant.
“Master! First of all, what is mana—what is ki—made of?!”
He quickly changed the subject.
She answered lightly to Sinhyeok’s question.
“Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, Earth, Light, and Darkness. It contains all things.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Are these not the fundamental elements that compose the world?”
At her answer, Sinhyeok took out the cracked core from his pocket.
“Then...”
His thoughts began to organize themselves.
She looked at Sinhyeok lost in thought with puzzlement.
“What is he up to?”
“Ooh! I roughly get it now! Attributes! I need those, Master! Are there any here?!”
She pointed outside.
“The netherlings—there is much within them. Their power must belong to a specific attribute of a dragon.”
“Oh. Ah.”
Sinhyeok’s expression stiffened.
“Netherlings?”
“Yes, netherlings. Or were you thinking of asking someone else for them? A cultivator? No? A dragon?”
Sinhyeok nodded at her words.
“You’re right.”
At her advice, Sinhyeok thought of the netherlings outside.
“Oh, wow, huff.”
His heart pounded and his breath caught at the thought of rushing out to capture the netherlings himself.
“Those monsters?”
Sinhyeok glanced at his master and said,
“If I want to secretly siphon some power...”
“You must kill them. Tear them limb from limb and dissect them, no?”
She smiled wickedly at Sinhyeok, who was trying to step back.
“Why so scared?”
“Hey! What do you take me for?”
Gulp.
Unlike his words, his body was honest.
Sinhyeok said furtively with moistening eyes,
“Killing them seems a bit pitiful though.”
“They’re called netherlings, but in truth they are beings whose souls have perished. Think of them as remnants left behind by dragon power.”
She personally swept away all of Sinhyeok’s objections.
“So why don’t you hurry up and go? Shouldn’t you go and have a round with those dangerous netherlings already?”
At her strangely cheerful tone, Sinhyeok sighed deeply.
“This is a bit... I’m not going to get sliced up, am I?”
At Sinhyeok’s endless worrying, she looked at him with narrowed eyes.
“So what, are you asking me to go with you?”
Grin.
Sinhyeok nodded and smiled widely.
“Still, if we go together and you observe, wouldn’t it help even a little with your Wuji? They say all streams return to the source, don’t they?”
She laughed shortly at Sinhyeok pasting together things he’d heard here and there.
“Very well, let’s go take a look. You lead.”
At her permission, Sinhyeok clenched his fist.
“Nice!”
Amgeom followed him as he walked ahead, her expression bright.
“Master, no disappearing in the middle.”
“I’m not going anywhere, you rascal.”
She looked at Sinhyeok’s back and fell into a strange memory.
“Sis! Look at this! I got sword qi! Look at this, huh?!”
For a brief moment, the figure of her younger brother in childhood flashed by, from the days when she lived as a daughter of the Namgung family.
“They were beautiful days.”
Lost in memories of the past, a smile settled on her lips.
“Master, are you in a good mood? You’re smiling like a grandmother.”
“You’ve ruined my good mood. Shall we go?”
“Hey! Heeey! You can’t do that. Come on. Always like this for no reason.”
Amgeom followed him with light steps.
The two came out of the village side by side.
“Now then, shall we take a look?”
Sinhyeok fawned over her as she plopped down on a rock.
“Please, just help me once.”
“Now, now. One asks for help only after doing their best. So disciple, you first.”
Sinhyeok made a crying face.
“Shit.”