I Possessed a Cultivator Destined to Die at the Hands of the Protagonist - Chapter 2

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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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02.
“Me?”
I turned to look at Baek Un-jin, bewildered by this turn of events.
“While you were asleep, I examined your body. You possess a Spiritual Root.”
A Spiritual Root referred to an inborn constitution that revealed the minimum qualifications and latent potential needed to become a cultivator.
The type, number, and purity of one’s Spiritual Root determined the speed and talent of one’s cultivation.
Those with a single Spiritual Root were called Heaven Spiritual Root holders and possessed genius-level talent, while those with two or more Spiritual Roots were considered ordinary, and those with all five elemental Spiritual Roots had high versatility but low efficiency.
Spiritual Roots that were a mixture of various types were called Mixed Spiritual Roots, and while one could still become a cultivator, growth was slow and limitations were clear.
Finally, those without any Spiritual Root were called Rootless and could never become cultivators, no matter how hard they tried.
“I must lack the qualifications to become a cultivator of Cheong Woo Seon Mun. I am a Mixed Spiritual Root holder.”
Yang Ja-han had been able to enter Moo Geuk Hyeon Mun because he was the only Heaven Spiritual Root holder in Hong Hwa Mun.
I had become a sacrifice precisely because I was a Mixed Spiritual Root holder.
If someone like me became a cultivator of Cheong Woo Seon Mun, it would surely tarnish Baek Un-jin’s reputation.
“I appreciate the offer, but….”
“What are you talking about? You are not a Mixed Spiritual Root holder. Who on earth told you such a thing?”
“Pardon?”
“You are a Heaven Spiritual Root holder.”
I opened my mouth wide in disbelief.
Yoo Yeon-seo, a Heaven Spiritual Root holder?
‘If that were true, I would never have been treated like a burden in Hong Hwa Mun.’
Just as I was thinking something must be wrong, Baek Un-jin continued.
“However, you are not a holder of an ordinary Spiritual Root, but rather a Special Spiritual Root. For now, I cannot determine what attribute it is.”
Special Spiritual Roots were treated as a lower grade compared to ordinary Spiritual Roots.
This was because they had no fixed attribute or constitution—they were thoroughly individualized Spiritual Roots.
“….”
How could this possibly be happening?
“If you think I am lying, I will swear upon my own name.”
“That is not necessary!”
When a cultivator swore upon their name, it was equivalent to wagering their own fate.
In the celestial order, a name was the very destiny bestowed by heaven itself.
“It is just that…. I have believed myself to be a Mixed Spiritual Root holder all this time.”
“The existence of Special Spiritual Roots is difficult for ordinary cultivators to perceive. Given the size of the sect you came from, it is only natural that they would not have noticed.”
Baek Un-jin dismissed it as something that happened often enough.
Now that I thought about it, I recalled seeing similar cases in the original work.
‘Yoo Yeon-seo had a Special Spiritual Root….’
It was truly an unexpected situation.
I clenched my small fists tightly and fell into deep thought for a long while.
Though I remained silent for quite some time, Baek Un-jin waited patiently for me.
‘I wanted to live.’
Before death, and even now.
I did not want to die.
And there was no guarantee that I, barely ten years old in this merciless world, would survive if I ventured outside.
After making my decision, I slowly lifted my head.
“Will you truly accept someone like me as your disciple?”
“I am not one to speak with a forked tongue.”
“Then I humbly ask for your guidance, Master.”
I staggered to my feet and immediately dropped to my knees, performing a formal bow of respect.
‘This is the right way, isn’t it?’
After all, that’s how everyone did it in the Heavenly Fate Immortal Sect.
Fortunately, Baek Un-jin said nothing.
***
Cheong Woo Seon Mun was one of the Eight Great Sects that surrounded Chingwun Mountain.
Baek Un-jin resided in Bikyun Pavilion, and as his disciple, I was granted a room on the lower floor beneath his quarters.
“It’s spacious.”
For someone barely ten years old, the room was far too large.
Perhaps it was even larger than the house I had lived in before the possession.
It seemed they were treating me with respect despite my young age, as Baek Un-jin’s disciple.
After changing into the blue robes of Cheong Woo Seon Mun, I made my way to Seowun Pavilion, where Baek Un-jin had summoned me.
With my small, fern-like hands clasped in a fist salute and my head bowed, he smiled with a benevolent expression.
“Where did you learn such things?”
“Pardon?”
“Will you always be so formal every time we meet?”
“Oh, no, I apologize.”
“A silent bow will suffice. But come here for a moment.”
At Baek Un-jin’s gesture, a chair moved of its own accord and flew toward him.
I climbed onto the chair and sat down.
He retrieved something resembling a comb from a ring-like storage artifact.
Storage artifacts were tools for holding items, typically fashioned as rings or small pouches.
Baek Un-jin deftly combed my tangled hair and tied it up for me.
‘Now that I think about it, didn’t he say he had an older sister?’
The Heavenly Fate Immortal Sect featured so many characters that I couldn’t remember everything.
“Much better now that it’s tied up.”
“Thank you.”
“Well then.”
Thump, thump, thump.
As Baek Un-jin extended his hand, books tumbled out from the ring-shaped storage artifact.
Just by looking at them, the titles seemed impossibly difficult.
“Can you read?”
“No.”
“Do not worry. I will teach you step by step.”
I had momentarily forgotten that becoming a cultivator required an enormous amount of study.
‘Study even here? Are you serious?!’
I’d hoped that becoming Baek Un-jin’s disciple would let me catch a break from life, but the world proved far less forgiving than I’d imagined.
“Ugh, my head.”
***
Books were stacked high in one corner of Seowun Pavilion.
‘What on earth are all those?’
‘The Heavenly Mechanism Compendium.’
A staggering one thousand and two volumes.
Not one, not two—but one thousand and two volumes.
They contained the fundamental knowledge and basic cultivation principles every cultivator needed to master.
After spending a month learning to read and write, I was immediately buried under an avalanche of memorization.
‘Master!’
‘What is it?’
‘I heard that once you become a cultivator, you can fly through the sky and summon the wind. When will I be able to do things like that?’
‘You haven’t even finished the Heavenly Mechanism Compendium, and already you speak of cultivation techniques?’
I’d asked on a whim, only to be scolded for harboring such frivolous thoughts and told to focus on my studies.
“Sigh.”
I rested my head on the desk, lost in thought for a moment.
“I understand there’s an order to things, but still.”
Since possessing Yoo Yeon-seo’s body, I had slowly pieced together what had happened to her.
What occurred in Saryeong Jigok just before Yoo Yeon-seo’s death.
‘I will never forget this choice I have made.’
Yang Ja-han had used the word “choice” when Yoo Yeon-seo became the sacrifice for the seal.
Why was Yoo Yeon-seo becoming a sacrifice Yang Ja-han’s choice?
‘No matter how much I think about it, something feels off.’
In the original story, Yoo Yeon-seo simply died, so there was no way to know. But now, thanks to my possession, she had survived.
‘As long as I remain at Cheong Woo Seon Mun, I cannot avoid meeting Yang Ja-han forever.’
Eventually, we will cross paths.
Yang Ja-han, who became a cultivator at Moo Geuk Hyeon Mun, becomes a remarkably cold-hearted person.
Even in the original story, after Yoo Yeon-seo died in Saryeong Jigok, he never mentioned her even once.
‘There’s no guarantee he’ll treat me kindly if we meet again.’
If that were the case, I needed to acquire at least some level of strength myself.
‘Right, no need to rush.’
Even if I begged Baek Un-jin to teach me cultivation techniques now, judging by his demeanor, there was no chance unless I memorized all of this first.
I gritted my teeth and picked up the brush again.
Time to show the strength of a former graduate student—a slave to academia!
After resolving to study, two years passed.
“What are the Three Refinements of the Immortal Path?”
“They are three stages: Refining the Body, Refining the Qi, and Refining the Spirit. Refining the Body means tempering the physical form to withstand the flow of Qi. Refining the Qi means opening the meridians and blood vessels to channel pure vital energy for spellcraft and martial arts. And….”
What was it again?
“Yeon-sin refers to a state where one perceives the principles of the world, and the soul of the mind merges and moves with qi. If even one of the three essences wavers during cultivation, the balance of the Dao collapses, making it the most crucial concept.”
Somehow, I managed to memorize all the theory.
“Well done. Starting tomorrow, come to Baekryeon Training Ground.”
“Does that mean…!”
“I will teach you the fundamental cultivation methods and swordsmanship.”
“Hurrah!”
I jumped to my feet, practically bouncing with joy.
Even with the memories of my adult self before possession, enduring an entire day of relentless study in young Yoo Yeon-seo’s body was no trivial matter.
‘I’m so sick of books!’
The next day.
I arrived at Baekryeon Training Ground with eager anticipation.
Baek Un-jin was a swordmaster of the highest caliber.
He had prepared a small wooden sword for me in advance.
Being a children’s practice sword, it wasn’t particularly heavy.
“I won’t teach you anything difficult at first. Just try to follow along lightly.”
“Yes, Master!”
Baek Un-jin drew his beloved blade, the Jaha Sword, and swung it with effortless grace.
In an instant, the air around us transformed, and the world’s essence seemed to flow toward him as its center.
‘The celestial qi…’
He stepped forward, twisting his wrist that held the Jaha Sword with subtle precision.
As the pristine blade drank in the moonlight and exhaled its ethereal glow, the air rippled in response to the luminescence.
When he raised the sword, frost crystallized and silver waves undulated like ocean swells.
The heavens’ essence converged upon Baek Un-jin, transforming into a single blade that cleaved through the void.
A sword mark remained etched upon the training ground’s floor.
‘That…’
And he called that light?
“Master, surely you’re not asking me to replicate what you just demonstrated?”
The definition of ‘light’ is completely different! How am I supposed to do that?
When I made a face of disbelief, Baek Un-jin, having sheathed the Jaha Sword, laughed.
“I’m not asking you to do it well. Just try to follow along.”
When Baek Un-jin stepped back and crossed his arms, I understood his sincerity.
At least his words—’you don’t have to do it well’—offered some consolation.
‘Just do as I saw it.’
Baek Un-jin probably wasn’t expecting much anyway.
I steadied my breathing as he had shown, gathered my vital essence, and extended the sword forward.
For the briefest moment, a blue aura flickered before my eyes.
‘What is that?’
For reasons I couldn’t explain, I instinctively felt that if I moved along with it, I could accomplish something.
The moment I moved in accordance with it.
A sharp metallic ring.
“Ugh!”
Of course, having never wielded a sword before, there was no way I could execute it properly.
My body refused to obey, and with my stance crumbling into disarray, I tumbled forward onto the ground.
***
Yoo Yeon-seo’s face flushed crimson, her expression on the verge of tears.
‘Absurd talent, truly.’
Yoo Yeon-seo believed she had fallen because of her own poor technique, but Baek Un-jin saw it differently.
She possessed an instinctive understanding of what needed to be done.
The fall was merely a consequence of insufficient strength for now.
In Baek Un-jin’s eyes, the sword Yoo Yeon-seo wielded had unmistakably drawn in a quantity of heavenly qi comparable to what he himself had accumulated in an instant.
‘I suspected something was amiss when she severed her heavenly qi connection in merely two years—a feat that normally requires a decade.’
Considering she hadn’t even known how to read, this was nothing short of extraordinary progress.
Yoo Yeon-seo was a prodigy.

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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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