I Possessed a Cultivator Destined to Die at the Hands of the Protagonist - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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10.
More than just acceptable—to be honest, I couldn’t find a single flaw in his technique.
‘Master didn’t bring him along for nothing.’
But as a senior disciple, I couldn’t afford to lose to a junior.
Channeling strength into my lower body, I pushed off the ground and surged forward.
Tap, tap, tap.
Our wooden swords clashed repeatedly in the air.
Had Eun Hui-gyeom been a full-grown adult, the advantage might have tilted against me, but I was older than him and possessed greater strength.
As I pressed my assault, I could see Eun Hui-gyeom struggling to defend, his composure visibly shaken.
‘An opening!’
Unwilling to prolong the exchange, the moment I spotted the gap in his defense, I pivoted my body and thrust my wooden sword forward.
In that instant, the light in Eun Hui-gyeom’s eyes transformed.
Crack.
Eun Hui-gyeom deflected my sword to the side and immediately drove forward.
‘Damn!’
My legs tangled, and I couldn’t mount a proper counterattack.
Had he been aiming for this from the start?
‘I won’t lose!’
I reflexively formed a hand seal and unleashed the Cheongyeon Technique.
Tap, tap, tap.
Azure light poured from around me, then surged toward Eun Hui-gyeom.
“Ah…!”
I could see the shock on Eun Hui-gyeom’s face at this attack he’d never witnessed before.
Simultaneously, I realized my own mistake.
Boom.
As Baek Un-jin extended his hand, the streams of light hurtling toward Eun Hui-gyeom detonated in mid-air and vanished.
I couldn’t even comprehend how he’d done it, but that hardly mattered now.
As the startled Eun Hui-gyeom’s legs gave way beneath him, Baek Un-jin caught him, supporting his weight.
“….”
“….”
With a soft thud, the wooden sword I’d been holding fell to the Training Ground floor.
Baek Un-jin’s gaze, still cradling Eun Hui-gyeom, turned razor-sharp.
“I apologize.”
“Do you understand what you did wrong?”
“…Yes.”
“Then speak.”
Even though Eun Hui-gyeom had become Baek Un-jin’s disciple, he remained an ordinary mortal who had yet to master the cultivation arts.
“I thoughtlessly unleashed a cultivation technique against an ordinary mortal.”
The strength and lifespan of a cultivator differ vastly from those of an ordinary person.
A cultivator must never carelessly harm or strike an ordinary mortal.
That was the greatest teaching of the Sudō Sect, which belonged to the Jeongmun Paldae.
“Since I made a mistake, I suppose I must accept punishment.”
I was scolded.
***
‘As punishment, you will copy every volume of the Cheongi Jipgyeong housed in the Young Seo Pavilion.’
The Cheongi Jipgyeong referred to foundational texts that allowed one to read the celestial patterns of heaven.
‘Foundational texts, they call it.’
There were a staggering 1,002 volumes!
In any case, my mistake was a mistake, and there was no room for excuses.
Thanks to Eun Hui-gyeom, the moment Baek Un-jin returned, instead of catching up on lost time, I found myself confined to the Young Seo Pavilion copying the Cheongi Jipgyeong.
‘Perhaps cultivators have a different sense of time, because their punishments are equally extraordinary.’
I had been locked away in the Young Seo Pavilion for a full three months.
I was now on the eightieth volume, if I had to count.
‘That much isn’t the problem, though….’
Eager to finish quickly, I barely returned to my quarters once a week.
Sometimes I would collapse there and sleep, only to wake and find steamed buns placed nearby.
Hungry as I was, I devoured them gratefully.
At first, I thought Baek Un-jin had brought them, but I learned from another cultivator that he was currently away on a mission for the sect.
“Mmm, I’ll stop here for today.”
I stretched languidly, set down my brush, and collapsed onto the desk as if losing consciousness.
How much time had passed?
Creak.
The closed door opened slightly, and a small silhouette slipped quietly through the gap.
“Sigh.”
In the darkness, the figure exhaled softly, then carefully set something down on the floor.
That was the moment.
“Yelp!”
I jolted upright from the desk.
Startled, he stumbled backward and fell on his rear.
As I shot to my feet, moonlight poured through the window behind me, illuminating both of us brightly despite the absence of any lamp.
I stood with my hands on my hips, looking down at Eun Hui-gyeom.
“Y-you… weren’t sleeping, were you?”
“I was pretending to sleep.”
“….”
“I’ve been curious about who’s been bringing steamed buns every day. So it was you all along.”
I used my cultivation method to ignite the candles scattered throughout the room.
As light flooded the previously dark chamber, Eun Hui-gyeom’s form became fully visible.
His face flushed crimson, he covered it with his sleeve and turned away.
“I-it’s not like I feel sorry for you having to copy over a hundred volumes of books because of me or anything!”
That was basically an apology.
Eun Hui-gyeom staggered to his feet, glaring at me.
“Master said you’d be punished because you won by accidentally using some technique called the Sudō Method. But you did win, so….”
Now that Eun Hui-gyeom had awakened, he seemed to have concluded that it was unreasonable for me to be the one receiving punishment when he was the one who lost.
“You! You’re really adorable!”
I rushed over to Eun Hui-gyeom and pinched his cheeks playfully.
Eun Hui-gyeom thrashed about, begging me to let go.
“That’s why I’m not doing this for your sake!”
“I get it, I get it! You’ll bring some tomorrow too, right?”
“Who, who said that!”
“I have to stay up all night here tomorrow too…. Ah, if I wake up in the morning without steamed buns, I’ll have to starve all day, and if I can’t eat for just two days like that, I’ll starve to death….”
As I feigned weakness to test Eun Hui-gyeom, his face, which had begun to calm, flushed crimson once more.
“Go to the dining hall! Anyway, today is the last time I’m bringing you steamed buns.”
Eun Hui-gyeom pulled away from me and slammed the door shut behind him as he left.
The next day.
“Hello?”
“At least pretend to be asleep.”
“You’re going to come anyway, so why?”
Eun Hui-gyeom arrived as if to prove me right.
The day after that, and the day after that as well.
And at some point, Eun Hui-gyeom stopped simply handing over the steamed buns and leaving—instead, he lingered at my side.
“If you have something to say, say it.”
“There’s nothing like that.”
“Then stop bothering me.”
Eun Hui-gyeom quietly watched as I copied the Heavenly Mechanism Scripture.
As I copied the Heavenly Mechanism Scripture, I could feel my ability to read the heavenly mechanism improving steadily.
Though I wasn’t yet as flawless as Baek Un-jin.
When I lifted my head, a cloudless azure sky stretched beyond the window.
“It will rain tomorrow.”
“In weather this clear?”
“The heavenly mechanism says so.”
Eun Hui-gyeom, still unable to read the heavenly mechanism properly, didn’t understand my words.
But just as I’d said, rain began pouring down for several days starting the next morning.
“When will Master return?”
“I don’t know either.”
Baek Un-jin’s absences varied in length each time.
Sometimes he returned within a day, and sometimes there was no contact for months.
Still, the extermination of the Three-Life Ghosts, which brought Eun Hui-gyeom here, was the longest he’d ever been away.
I figured it wouldn’t take that long this time, so I was content to let him return on his own.
“What exactly is the Sudō Method?”
“Weren’t you just supposed to watch?”
“You’re curious, aren’t you?”
“Call me Master, and I’ll tell you.”
“How stingy—after all the steamed buns I made for you!”
We’d grown considerably closer since the steamed bun incident, yet Eun Hui-gyeom still held a grudge.
There was no need for him to be like that.
“Wait, you made those steamed buns yourself?!”
“What, did you think they sprouted from the ground at this hour?”
“…I thought you’d stolen them from the Kitchen.”
“I’m not a thief. I did ask for ingredients, though.”
“How did you even make steamed buns?”
I couldn’t cook.
I couldn’t before the possession either, and it seemed that inability carried over intact—I had absolutely no talent for cooking.
I knew this because I’d once tried to prepare something for Baek Un-jin’s birthday and nearly destroyed the Kitchen in the process.
If you ask how one could possibly destroy a Kitchen… honestly, I don’t know either, but somehow it happens.
Remarkably enough.
Eun Hui-gyeom scratched his cheek and nodded slightly.
“My family ran a street stall. We sold street food and things like that.”
Since the household wasn’t particularly wealthy, Eun Hui-gyeom, being the eldest son, looked after his younger siblings and handled household chores while his parents were away.
“When my parents came home, I’d help them prepare the food to sell the next day.”
Through it all, his cooking skills naturally improved.
“You were only ten years old.”
“What does that matter?”
In a place where the concept of child labor didn’t exist, Eun Hui-gyeom showed no awareness of the issue whatline>
“Let’s just leave it at that.”
Let’s just say it’s like that.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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