Lee Hyun approached cautiously.
Ancient pines and green bamboo grew together along the mountainside. Between them, a faint trail barely wide enough for one person wound onward.
At the end of the path, white cloud-mist hung like a wall.
To ordinary eyes, it looked like nothing more than a narrow valley shrouded in fog. But when Lee Hyun examined it with the Aura-Reading Art, he saw countless threads of spiritual power woven together in orderly patterns within the mist.
The fog remained unmoved even by the wind, and some sort of formation seemed to have been laid out inside it.
Lee Hyun kept his distance and observed the interior for a while.
Beyond the formation, he could faintly make out tiled roofs and wooden pavilions. A small stream flowed along the valley, with shops and stalls stretching along both sides.
At one stall, wooden boxes filled with medicinal herbs were stacked in piles, while another had talismans and worn magic tools spread across a cloth. Cultivators leisurely came and went, drinking tea or haggling over prices.
The cultivator who had entered carrying a load on his back had already disappeared among the stalls.
The place was hardly extravagant, but it had the quiet charm of a mountain marketplace from the mundane world with a few mysterious cultivation shops mixed in.
The peaceful atmosphere put Lee Hyun somewhat at ease, and he cautiously approached the entrance.
Near the entrance to the formation stood a small stone stele, and three early Qi Refining cultivators who had come out from inside were gathered in front of it.
A middle-aged man in a worn blue robe, a young woman with a basket of herbs strapped to her back, and a fat man carrying a bundle of pelts were speaking quietly among themselves, apparently acquainted.
Had Lee Hyun not noticed the storage pouches at their waists, he might have mistaken them for ordinary mortals.
Lee Hyun hesitated for a moment.
For more than a hundred years, the only people he had properly spoken with were merchants selling nuts and workers at inns.
Cultivators could be dangerous.
But if he wanted to make use of a cultivator market, he would eventually have to ask someone about the entrance and its rules.
As far as the cultivation world went, the cultivators before him at least looked like the less dangerous sort.
'I can't keep avoiding everyone forever.'
Lee Hyun checked once more that the Aura-Concealing Art was functioning properly, then walked onto the trail.
Rustle–
At the sound of his footsteps, all three cultivators turned their heads at once.
The middle-aged man's hand moved toward the storage pouch at his waist. The young woman took a step back, while the fat man instinctively pulled his bundle against his chest.
Clear tension appeared on their faces.
In particular, the moment the middle-aged man narrowed his eyes as though trying to inspect Lee Hyun's aura, all the color drained from his face.
'So they really are cultivators.'
Lee Hyun had heard that rogue cultivators were highly wary. It was only natural for them to tense up after encountering a strange cultivator on a deserted mountain.
Lee Hyun put on the friendliest expression he could manage and cupped his hands together.
"Greetings."
All three flinched at once. Paying no mind to their reaction, Lee Hyun asked politely,
"I'm a wandering rogue cultivator. Is this a cultivator market?"
Silence followed for a moment.
The oldest of the three, the middle-aged man, hurriedly bowed.
"Y-yes! That's right, Senior. This is Songyun Market. It's a small cultivator market mainly used by rogue cultivators in northwestern Yunze Kingdom."
"Songyun Market...."
It seemed he had found the right place after all.
Lee Hyun smiled and asked again.
"Senior? I'm also a Qi Refining cultivator. I lack experience and was hoping to seek some guidance. Is there any special procedure required to enter the cultivator market, fellow Daoist?"
"F-fellow Daoist?!"
The middle-aged man's face turned deathly pale. The other two hurriedly bowed as well.
"Senior, how could you possibly address early Qi Refining rogue cultivators like us as fellow Daoists? Such an address is far beyond what we deserve."
"If we have offended you in some way, please tell us. We beg you, please do not test us like this!"
The three of them looked utterly flustered, as though Lee Hyun had laid some kind of trap for them.
'Huh?'
Lee Hyun was bewildered.
"Wait. Why are you calling me Senior? Am I not also an early Qi Refining cultivator?"
Even deeper fear appeared on their faces.
Apparently thinking Lee Hyun intended to test them to the bitter end, the middle-aged man broke out in a cold sweat. Yet he seemed even more afraid that refusing to answer would bring greater disaster, so he cautiously spoke.
"Senior, although we are merely insignificant early Qi Refining rogue cultivators... we have at least learned the Aura-Reading Art."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"How could a cultivator whose entire body is glowing like Senior's possibly be a Qi Refining cultivator?"
This time, the young woman carrying the herb basket hurriedly chimed in.
"That's right. Senior's entire body is glowing evenly. Surely your realm is so high that even the residual spiritual power overflowing through your body shines as brightly as our dantians?"
The fat man nodded desperately.
"Exactly! We have never even heard of a cultivator whose entire body is uniformly filled with spiritual power. How profound must Senior's abilities be to display such an absurd phenomenon? For us to dare call Senior a fellow Daoist would be an unforgivable act of disrespect!"
'Ah....'
Only then did Lee Hyun realize the problem.
The Aura-Concealing Art he had obtained from Qinghe Valley worked by enveloping the entire surface of the body in a veil, reducing the fluctuations of spiritual power leaking out from within.
It reduced the intensity of the light visible through the Aura-Reading Art, but it did not change where that light appeared.
'So that's what it was!'
Lee Hyun forced out a hearty laugh.
"I-I see! Haha. I wasn't trying to put you fellows in an awkward position."
The three did not dare respond.
"I won't enter the cultivator market. Don't worry about me and go about your business."
Lee Hyun used the Lightness Art and Distance-Shrinking Step to descend the mountain path.
...
Only after Lee Hyun had completely vanished from sight did all three let out sighs of relief at once.
"Th-thank goodness. At first, I thought that Senior was...."
The middle-aged man hurriedly raised a finger to his lips.
[Shh! Use voice transmission. The range of a great cultivator's divine sense is beyond anything we can imagine.]
The young woman startled and immediately shut her mouth.
[My apologies.]
The fat man cautiously asked,
[Still, he doesn't seem as frightening as I expected. He didn't get angry even after we saw through his realm.]
The middle-aged man looked at him with displeasure.
[What foolishness are you spouting? Have you still not realized how deep that Senior's schemes run?]
[What do you mean?]
[Did you not see how, even after being exposed, he perfectly imitated the crude Lightness Art and Distance-Shrinking Step of an early Qi Refining cultivator? Look at that terrifying patience, hiding his true identity to the very end. If I had not used the Aura-Reading Art, even I would have believed he was truly an early Qi Refining cultivator.]
The young woman's face went pale again.
[Could he be... a bandit cultivator who wanders around pretending to be weak, then kills anyone who provokes him and steals their possessions?]
[There is a good chance. He intends to rob others without even tarnishing his own reputation.]
[How could that be... Now people even want a righteous justification for committing robbery....]
The middle-aged man nodded gravely.
[There are so many schemes in the cultivation world these days that it has become impossible to tell who is a bandit cultivator. I've heard that some great cultivators wander around concealing their realms like that, then if someone behaves even slightly rudely toward them, they reveal their hidden realm, rebuke the person, and seize their possessions.]
The middle-aged man looked fearfully in the direction Lee Hyun had disappeared.
[Fortunately, that Senior was poor at concealing his realm, so we weren't deceived.]
...
Lee Hyun, who had somehow been mistaken for a bandit cultivator, did not return directly to Tunnel No. 1 even after leaving the mountain path.
He traveled another hundred-odd li (about 40 km) using the Distance-Shrinking Step, changing direction three separate times. At times, he followed the flowing water of a mountain stream, and at others, he used the Earth Escape Art to pass through the foot of a mountain.
Considering the possibility that someone might be tracking him, he first traveled far in the opposite direction from Tunnel No. 1, then circled back in a wide loop.
...
A few days later.
Inside the cultivation chamber of Tunnel No. 1, Lee Hyun continuously maintained the Aura-Concealing Art while examining his own body with the Aura-Reading Art.
"This won't do."
The three cultivators had been right.
When he used the Aura-Concealing Art, his apparent realm did decrease, but the dimmed light spread evenly across his entire body from head to toe.
Compared to an ordinary cultivator, the sight was bizarre beyond belief. There was no way he could pass for a normal Qi Refining cultivator.
"If I enter a cultivator market like this, everyone will think I'm strange. Being mistaken for a high-realm cultivator isn't necessarily bad, but...."
If others mistook him for a powerful cultivator, they would be less likely to provoke him first. But that would also make him more likely to attract the attention of truly powerful cultivators.
If even a single Foundation Establishment cultivator or higher came to investigate what realm this mysterious cultivator had reached, Lee Hyun would have no way to deal with it.
"Wait, what about the Spirit-Concealing Art instead of the Aura-Concealing Art? I think it said the principles were different...."
Lee Hyun postponed his visit to the cultivator market and took down a wooden tablet from the shelf on which he had recorded the mnemonic formula of the Spirit-Concealing Art.
...
One year later.
Lee Hyun had reached Novice proficiency in a new technique!
【Technique (Novice): Spirit-Concealing Art, ...】
After using the Spirit-Concealing Art, Lee Hyun examined himself with the Aura-Reading Art.
'Still not enough... Hm?'
His entire body still glowed, but Lee Hyun noticed a difference between the Spirit-Concealing Art and the Aura-Concealing Art. The surface of his body looked mottled.
His palms and forearms had grown noticeably darker, while his thighs were somewhat brighter. His hands and arms were precisely the areas he had spent the most time practicing on over the past year.
'Could it be...?'
After studying it for a while, Lee Hyun discovered a new possibility in the difference between the Spirit-Concealing Art and the Aura-Concealing Art.
If the Aura-Concealing Art was an active disguise technique that masked spiritual power fluctuations generated within the body, then the Spirit-Concealing Art was more like a passive disguise technique that controlled the body so those fluctuations were never generated in the first place.
In other words, if the Aura-Concealing Art was like covering a lamp with cloth, the Spirit-Concealing Art was like lowering the lamp's wicks one by one.
The Spirit-Concealing Art had two advantages over the Aura-Concealing Art: it consumed even less spiritual power, and it could selectively conceal specific parts of the body.
Its disadvantage, however, was that it took a long time to cultivate. Because of this, most cultivators preferred to learn the much quicker Aura-Concealing Art, and almost no one bothered spending precious time mastering the Spirit-Concealing Art.
'I see! Once I reach Major Attainment in the Spirit-Concealing Art, I can conceal every part of my body except for an area the size of a dantian.'
***
Fifty years passed.
Lee Hyun had reached Major Attainment in the Spirit-Concealing Art!
And that was not all. He had newly reached Novice proficiency in the Farsight Art, Keen Hearing Art, and Scent-Tracking Art recorded in The Six Arts of Perception, while raising the seven techniques that had previously remained at Novice proficiency to Minor Attainment.
【Spiritual Power: 83 → 101】
【Technique (Novice): Farsight Art, Keen Hearing Art, Scent-Tracking Art, ...】
【Technique (Minor Attainment): Aura-Concealing Art, Lightness Art, Distance-Shrinking Step, Azure Steel Sword Art, Spirit Light Shield, Fireball Art, Aura-Reading Art, ...】
【Technique (Major Attainment): Spirit-Concealing Art】
Since he had spent those fifty years focusing on the Spirit-Concealing Art, he had not invested much time in cultivating his spiritual power.
Even so, he had made noticeable progress in eleven techniques, so his actual combat strength had risen considerably.
With the Spirit-Concealing Art active, Lee Hyun looked down at his body through the Aura-Reading Art. Not a trace of spiritual power light leaked from anywhere on his body. Through the Aura-Reading Art alone, he looked less like a cultivator and more like a vigorous young mortal with abundant qi and blood.
When Lee Hyun focused his consciousness, light bloomed from a fist-sized area below his navel. The light gathered into a round mass like the dantian of an ordinary early Qi Refining cultivator.
A smile appeared on Lee Hyun's face.
"It worked! Now I can look like a mortal if I want, or disguise myself as an ordinary early Qi Refining cultivator."
At a thought, he could freely adjust the brightness of the light from the level of someone who had only just entered Qi Refining Stage 1 all the way up to Qi Refining Stage 2.
...
Even while cultivating the Spirit-Concealing Art, Lee Hyun made his rounds of the five spirit fields once every ten days.
Spirit Field No. 1-1 currently contained 119 Bone-Rot Flowers, 298 Yin Soul Grass plants, 79 Purple Poison Orchids, and 58 Earth Vein Flower plants with more than fifty-three years of medicinal potency.
Because Earth Vein Flowers grew multiple stems from a single root system, Lee Hyun counted each connected cluster of roots as one plant.
The other four spirit fields contained 478 Bone-Rot Flowers, 1,195 Yin Soul Grass plants, 319 Purple Poison Orchids, and 238 Earth Vein Flower plants with just over twenty years of medicinal potency.
Not every specimen he planted had survived. On rare occasions, roots rotted, or changes in the flow of groundwater caused one side of a spirit field to become excessively damp and create problems.
Even so, the overall survival rate remained extremely high.
The medicinal potency of the spirit plants kept increasing, but Lee Hyun still had no sense whatsoever of how valuable they were.
"Just how much would a fifty-three-year-old Bone-Rot Flower be worth? Hehe...."
Watching the spirit herbs in all five spirit fields grow more precious with every passing year filled him with satisfaction.
"I've reached Major Attainment in the Spirit-Concealing Art, and I can hide my realm now. It's finally time to get some fresh air outside. I should find some different spirit plant seeds to grow as well."
Lee Hyun decided to search for another cultivator market rather than return to Songyun Market. The three Qi Refining cultivators he had encountered outside Songyun Market fifty years ago might be shocked if they saw his face again.
"I'll go to Yunjing, my original destination. A cultivator market near the capital should have more goods than Songyun Market, and there should be some force maintaining order there too. Of course, I could still run into those three from fifty years ago at another cultivator market in Yunze Kingdom... I suppose I should at least put on a simple disguise."
Lee Hyun prepared to head out. This time, he carefully altered his appearance before departing.
He rubbed dirt onto his face to roughen his skin, changed the shape of his eyebrows and beard from fifty years ago, and styled his hair somewhat differently. He also dusted it lightly with gray powder to make it look faintly streaked with white.
"I should look for a technique or skill that can alter my appearance too. If I keep wandering around with the same face for decades on end, it'll cause trouble eventually...."
Finally, Lee Hyun activated the Spirit-Concealing Art to conceal the spiritual power fluctuations throughout his body, leaving only a glow at the level of Qi Refining Stage 2 beneath his navel.
After checking himself several times with the Aura-Reading Art, Lee Hyun nodded.
"Now I really do look ordinary."
***
Five days later.
Yunjing, the capital of Yunze Kingdom.
Lee Hyun stood atop a hill and looked down below.
A vast city stretched out before him.
Three layers of city walls of differing heights stretched across the land. The outermost wall extended endlessly to either side, both ends disappearing into the haze along the horizon. Even from atop the hill, Lee Hyun could not take in the entirety of Yunjing at a glance.
Countless villages, estates, and markets sprawled outside the walls. The outskirts alone looked as large as dozens of ordinary county seats combined.
The massive Yunshui River, flowing in from the northwest, split into several branches before reaching the capital. Dozens of waterways passed beneath the city walls and continued into the city, while hundreds of bridges large and small spanned the river and canals.
Grain barges piled high with grain, ornate multi-decked ships, and flat ferries crowded the waterways.
Most of the roofs in the outer city were gray or black, but within the inner city where the royal palace stood, red walls and golden tiles gleamed brilliantly beneath the sunlight.
At the very center of the city towered a nine-story pavilion several times taller than the surrounding buildings. A massive banner bearing the image of clouds fluttered from its roof.
"It's huge...."
The sheer scale of Yunjing's outskirts alone made his chest swell with awe.
'Even the great capitals of China throughout history might have been smaller than this... And this is only the capital of a single kingdom, not even an empire. I shouldn't underestimate a nation of mortals.'
Perhaps because the world itself was so vast, its technological level might have been low, but the sheer scale of the city was astonishing.
The highway leading toward the city gates was packed with carts and people. Officials and scholars arriving from the provinces, merchant caravans transporting goods, and farmers leading cattle and horses moved in long lines, kicking up clouds of dust.
Scholars and nobles in silk robes, along with bustling merchants, flowed endlessly along the main roads, while music poured ceaselessly from teahouses and winehouses.
It did not seem as though finding cultivators would be difficult.
Lee Hyun used the Aura-Reading Art from atop the hill, but the light of qi and blood radiating from countless living beings blended together like a vast fog. There were also lights that he suspected belonged to cultivators, but at such a great distance they blurred into one another, making it nearly impossible to tell who each one belonged to.
'I don't know whether it's because my proficiency is lacking... but it's difficult to distinguish distant auras with the Aura-Reading Art.'
This time, he used the Farsight Art to look around and take in the sights. As the name suggested, the Farsight Art was a technique for seeing far into the distance.
'Hm? That's!'
Inside the outer city, Lee Hyun spotted someone in luxurious clothing with a storage pouch hanging from their waist. After that, he lost track of time and spent roughly one shichen (two hours) sightseeing around the capital, during which he spotted two more people wearing storage pouches.
'Just as I thought, there are quite a few cultivators here.'
...
Outside the western gate sprawled a vast market formed by traveling merchants and farmers who had been unable to enter the city.
Between stalls selling grain and vegetables stood shops piled high with medicinal herbs, hides, and timber. Fish from the Yunshui River continually leapt from wooden tubs filled to the brim.
Dressed like an ordinary scholar in a simple pale jade-colored robe, Lee Hyun strolled leisurely through the market. He had bought it nearby as a memento of his arrival in Yunjing.
'Hm?'
At the edge of the market, Lee Hyun spotted an early Qi Refining cultivator!
He was a thin man who looked to be around fifty years old. Deep wrinkles lined his sun-darkened face, and he wore faded gray clothes.
Mud-covered roots and dark green aquatic plants were spread across a bamboo mat in front of him. At first glance, he looked like nothing more than an ordinary herb gatherer selling plants he had dug up by the river.
But through the Aura-Reading Art, Lee Hyun could clearly see a faint light flowing from below the man's navel. The light was gathered into a round mass within his dantian, almost identical to the appearance Lee Hyun was imitating.
The man's realm appeared to be around Qi Refining Stage 3.
After briefly checking his surroundings, Lee Hyun approached the man's stall.
"What medicinal herbs are these?"
"Water Root Grass and Green Fern Leaf. They both grow in water. Water Root Grass is used to reduce fever, while Green Fern Leaf can be crushed and applied to wounds to prevent festering."
"Are they spirit herbs that cultivators use as well?"
The man's eyes instantly sharpened.
Instead of answering, he narrowed his eyes as though examining the area below Lee Hyun's navel. After a moment, some of the wariness faded from his expression.
"Water Root Grass that contains spiritual qi can be classified as a spirit herb, but everything here is a mundane herb. It seems, fellow Daoist, that you didn't come here to buy herbs."
'He finally called me fellow Daoist!'
Lee Hyun was moved. The fifty years he had spent cultivating the Spirit-Concealing Art had not been wasted!
"I am... Li Dongyi. I'm a rogue cultivator who cultivated elsewhere and has only just arrived in Yunjing. I was looking for a nearby cultivator market, but I don't know anyone here, so I took the liberty of approaching you."
Thinking of Tunnel No. 1, Lee Hyun gave the alias Li Dongyi.
"I'm Zhang Ping. I'm a rogue cultivator who lives around the Yunshui River. You said you were looking for a cultivator market? The most dependable choice would be... Cuiyun Market to the south. It's more than five hundred li from here, though, so getting there on foot can be a bit of a bother."
"Is it always open?"
"It is. It's not particularly large, but since it's near the capital, there is a decent variety of goods. It's managed by the Cuiyun Society, a small rogue-cultivator organization."
"What kind of organization is the Cuiyun Society?"
"Nothing special. Some rogue cultivators at mid Qi Refining or above who have lived in Yunze Kingdom for a long time formed it to protect the cultivator market and help one another."
"Is there an entrance fee to enter Cuiyun Market?"
"Buying goods and coming and going are free. However, if you sell anything in the cultivator market, you must pay one-tenth of the sale price to the Cuiyun Society. It isn't a small sum, but if a dispute arises inside the cultivator market, the Cuiyun Society will step in to settle it."
When Lee Hyun nodded, Zhang Ping asked,
"Leaving the cultivator market aside... since you've come all the way to the capital of Yunze Kingdom, are you also planning to join the Fengtian Bureau?"
"What is the Fengtian Bureau?"