Chapter 2: Future Plans
As someone with unparalleled affection for immortal heroes, as someone who longed for freedom and leisure, and as someone who feared death, if there was now an opportunity to cultivate immortality and seek longevity, Seheon would chase after it without hesitation.
To cultivate the Dao, one cannot do without wealth, companions, methods, and land.
As for wealth, although he had inherited over a thousand taels of silver from Nodo's legacy, his accumulation of cultivation resources was extremely meager. According to Seonodosa, the land of Zhongtu lacked items for cultivating immortality.
According to Seonodosa's sermons, the highest cultivation realm in the Yangjing Thirteen Prefectures was merely the awakening of the soul. Then, as his cultivation grew higher in the future and he encountered bottlenecks, it would be difficult to find someone of the same realm to discuss and debate with when he needed insight from others. Let alone when he ran into difficult problems; if he encountered a passage about Dao arts that he did not understand, he would need to request instruction from someone of a higher realm.
As for methods, he already possessed a fundamental great law that pointed toward the Grand Dao, so there was no need to seek one externally. However, looking at the contents recorded in the Treasure Record just now, it leaned even more toward the Dao. As for methods, there were only about a dozen or so Dao arts naturally derived from its core sword principle.
The contents of the Refinement Chapter contained nothing more than the methods for refining several artifacts recorded at the very back of the upper volume by Qingyunzi. Furthermore, of the materials for these artifacts, he could recognize only a few from memory. The rest were materials found in mythological texts, botanical books, and herbal classics. A few more were things he had never even heard of. And most importantly, there was absolutely no foundational content in the Refinement Chapter, so Seheon had nearly burst into tears. When he had previously seen things like the Heaven and Earth Cosmic Ring, the Life and Death Plate, or the Five Flower Heaven-Splitting Armor, he had been incredibly excited, but the result was truly torturous!
The alchemy contents were the same. Apparently, these were not part of the Treasure Record's main contents but merely some pill formulas and techniques that Qingyunzi had personally appended at the end. Moreover, because he was a figure from a very, very long time ago, this situation had occurred.
As for land, from Seonodosa's perspective, the environment of the famous mountains and great rivers was excellent.
Seheon sighed and said that going forward, he would likely have to wander the world like Seonodosa, seeking out immortals and searching for the path. And aside from the places Seonodosa had already been, it seemed he should explore only three locations in Zhongtu: Hyunsan, Mangsan, and the path through Jedo. The last part was something Seheon added himself. If an immortal cultivation world truly existed and needed to interact with the mortal world, then apart from famous mountains and great rivers, one would likely be unable to meet the necessary conditions for even a single day. Whether these conditions involved gathering spiritual herbs and other resources or recruiting disciples with outstanding innate aptitude, it mattered not. All of this was inferred from the various novels he had read before, combined with a bit of experience; if he was wrong, he would just consider it a wasted trip.
If his tours of Zhongtu came to an end and he found no ties to immortality, he would set sail himself and head out to sea, preparing to go to the East Sea Immortal Island spoken of in myths and legends. The next step after that would be the southern part of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, followed by the western wastelands.
Seheon took a sip of cold water and roughly planned out his long-term goals and procedures going forward. In the near future, after treating his wounds, he would proceed to the next step after recovering his previous physical condition by relying on the strength of his self-cultivation. Having spent ten years with Nodo, he still possessed skill in medical principles, pharmacology, treating injuries, and prescribing medicine, so his physical body could recover to its original state within a fortnight.
However, the main problem was that the dimensions of his body and soul were different. The body was Dubaek's, having crossed the boundary of Tempering and reached the realm of internally nurturing the foundation of the soul. The soul was Seheon's. He had been fine when attending school in his previous life, but after entering the workforce, he had neglected exercise. The soul's realm could be considered merely the early stage of the Body Tempering Soul Nourishment Phase. This was also why Seheon had not immediately begun visualization training. During visualization, the internal momentum guides the soul. Given the soul's current dimension, it was highly likely to end up in a state of emptiness without nourishment. Carefully considered, he needed to train every day. The soul would slowly be nourished within the physical body, and only when the soul's strength reached the early Robust Soul stage could he begin visualization again.
In the past, Dubaek had taken seven years, starting from Tempering from the very beginning until entering the Yang Qi Soul Nourishing Stage. However, the current body had already reached the Yang Qi Stage. The nourishment of the soul could not be compared to before. Seheon predicted that when his soul entered the Robust Soul Stage, it would have to be several times stronger than before. Exactly how much he could reach would have to be determined by the nourishment effects as time passed.
Furthermore, the prescriptions for the medicinal baths Dubaek had used when tempering his body at that time, as well as the medicinal decoctions he had consumed, had all been decent formulas obtained by Seonodosa. Currently, Seheon could make better choices. The Treasure Record provided three prescriptions, divided into one medicinal bath and two for oral consumption.
However, like the pill formulas and techniques, they were enough to drive one to despair; many of the medicinal ingredients within were things he had never heard of or only appeared in legends. Especially for the first prescription, the Dragon Emperor Blood-Refining Pill, seventy to eighty percent of it consisted of things he had never heard of in myth or legend. The second prescription, the Human Immortal Forging Decoction, was forty to fifty percent.
The fortunate thing was the third prescription, the Primordial Returning Water-Cycle Decoction. Even the finest doctor outside would admit they had never heard of roughly twenty percent of the ingredients, which appeared only in myths and legends. Yet this prescription existed in Seonodosa's collection of formulas. And it indicated their old names—as time had changed, their current names as well!
Of course, not everything in the world was so perfect, and he recalled that the medicinal ingredient "Seoksangsam" had not been indicated. However, Seheon had seen it in ancient texts. He could basically confirm that it was one of Seokbo, Jeoksam, or Daeheun. He had no choice but to go out and buy them individually to determine the specific variety. He would find a few test subjects and experiment to find out.
In fact, even if all the drug names were correct, Seheon intended to conduct animal experiments first. This was because drug names changed so much over time that other drugs were likely to have changed to the same names as they were now known. For example, what had originally been A and B changed through transformation: A's name changed to C, and B's name changed to A.
Of course, if such a situation occurred, the medicinal properties of A and B would likely differ greatly. Seheon was fairly well-versed in modern pharmacology, so he would be able to distinguish them. However, if A and B coincided in medicinal properties and differed only in minute details, then the drug B could falsely assume A's identity and interact perfectly with the other drugs in Seonodosa's prescriptions, whereas in the medicine Seheon prepared, those same minute details could result in poison. The probability of this was extremely low, but if it were so, it was better to be cautious when it came to matters concerning his own life. If a real problem arose, who would he go cry to?
Having settled on his future path and a few matters he needed to handle in the near future, Seheon suddenly felt at ease. Only then did he realize he was starving. He changed into a Daoist robe, took out over a hundred taels of silver, and went out to fill his stomach first before going to buy medicine. As for the few relics Seonodosa had left behind, he would examine them late at night when there were no signs of people.
The moment he stepped into the courtyard, the sunlight nearly made his eyes waiver; it turned out noon had already passed, no wonder he was so hungry. He locked the courtyard gate, exchanged greetings with his neighbors on either side, and walked toward the alley entrance.
The neighbors on either side were quite puzzled. The lady of the house on the left, Madam Jang, said to the lady on the right, Madam Yi:
"Hey, this boy is usually so shy that he looks away when we pass by. Is the sun rising in the west today? He's actually greeting us on his own initiative."
"He seems to have tasted all sorts of hardships since his grandfather passed away. He seems like a decent lad, too. Your daughter is young and fresh; she'd suit him well. That family is wealthy, too. They could easily take out a hundred taels of silver." Madam Yi had a passionate hobby for matchmaking.
Madam Jang sighed and said,
"My girl followed her second uncle and read books for a few days, so she's become haughty and always tries to find a jinshi gentleman, but they don't even look at her. A jinshi gentleman is like a star descended from heaven—how could she be a match for him!"
Seheon left the alley mouth and arrived at a bustling, noisy street. Without choosing a tavern with fancy decorations, he entered a small roadside restaurant by memory.
"Uncle Ryu, please give me three coins of Yangchun noodles. Slice half a catty of boiled pork and boil some pig intestines." This shop's sujebi was the best in the city. This city was Haanbu Busung, the most prosperous place in the Yangzhou region after the Yangzhou capital itself. It was no small city but a famous transportation hub of the Thirteen Prefectures of the world, controlling the canal along the Yangtze River.
"Hey there, lad, you usually come very early, but today it's almost past noon." Shopkeeper Ryu walked over with his belly protruding, cutting up sundae. He had always been quite interested in this neighbor.
"Ah, don't even mention it. I couldn't sleep last night thinking about what to do from now on, so I'm exhausted." Seheon had tried to recall the way Dubaek spoke in front of Shopkeeper Ryu, but before he knew it, he had used his own tone.
Fortunately, Shopkeeper Ryu was interested in the topic and paid no heed to his tone.
"From what I see, you seem to have trained your body well. If you go work at the government office, the salary isn't much, but combined with other aspects, it's not small. Even though your family has some assets, you can't become a beggar, can you? In this regard, I still have some connections." Seheon thought for a moment and said,
"Uncle Ryu, I have relatives in Ankyeongseong. I plan to leave in half a year and entrust myself to them. If I'm near the Son of Heaven, there will be more opportunities." This was laying down groundwork for his departure later. The surrounding neighbors only knew that Seheon was suffering physically and were unaware that he was training in Daoist arts. Indeed, they had likely almost never seen Daoist arts in the real world.
The issue with the Daoist robe was that because several emperors all believed in Daoism, the custom of the world had become such. Many wealthy merchants and even scholar-officials enjoyed wearing Daoist robes at home. In other words, the Daoist robe was the modern luxury casual wear. Therefore, even though Seheon wore a Daoist robe and had neither utensils nor anything else on him, he was mostly regarded as the son of a wealthy merchant or a scholar.
"There are many opportunities near the Son of Heaven, but also many dangers. I know you are young and harbor grand ambitions. You must also gauge your strength." Shopkeeper Ryu patted Seheon's shoulder a couple of times and went off to call for new customers. At that moment, the Yangchun noodles also came out.
Seheon was already so hungry he felt like dying. However, having spent ten years cultivating the Dao and training his body, he knew he must not eat hastily at such times, so he began to eat slowly. The Yangchun noodles were boiled with brine. They were light and refreshing, rich and smooth without being greasy—with one mouthful, it was truly the taste of the mortal world.
Finally, drinking the broth clean was truly comforting. After eating his fill of rice and soup as he had in his previous life, he finally felt that being alive was truly wonderful. Then he stood up, paid the meal money to Shopkeeper Ryu, bowed, and headed out toward Seongnam. There were several large medicinal herb shops there.