“Oh, Young Lady. How could you do such menial work yourself…….”
“There is no such thing as menial or noble work when it comes to the Clan’s affairs! It is all equally precious. Besides, this chicken lays the eggs that Grandfather eats. I want to take care of it, too.”
The nanny fell silent as the small girl mentioned the Family Head. Mr. Jeon also felt a bit intimidated for some reason.
Furthermore, the remark that all work was equally precious tugged at his heartstrings a little.
“Ah! Y-You only need to put in a small amount of that perilla meal.”
“Less than this?”
“Yes, yes. If they eat too much of that, their egg production decreases.”
“Then just this much?”
“Yes, exactly that much…….”
While Mr. Jeon stood there flustered, the small girl firmly gripped the wooden spatula and diligently mixed various ingredients in the large basin.
All while having perilla meal smudged on her cheek…….
“Will this be enough?”
People used to click their tongues in pity whenever they passed by, talking about the Clan’s Eldest Grandchild who had been bedridden since birth. Even when she finally shook off her illness and rose after receiving a massive grand spell, it had caused quite a commotion.
They said it was a successful move that scraped together the very last of the collapsing Clan’s resources.
Until the person in question appeared in the kitchen, she had been nothing more than a subject of gossip.
As Mr. Jeon carried the basin of feed made with the girl towards the chicken coop, he tried to figure out how things had turned out this way, but he couldn’t understand it at all. Only the girl looked back at him with an innocent face.
“That chicken is pitch black.”
“Ah! You mean that Silkie chicken. It’s black from its beak to its bones. It is very tast— no, I mean, it is a very healthy fellow.”
Mr. Jeon hurriedly changed his words.
“Really? Then I’ll call it Blackie.”
Blackie…….
The nanny quickly chipped in.
“T-Then how about Heukwol? Since it is a black chicken of Wolyeongjae.”
“Heukwol? Is that better?”
At the girl’s question, Mr. Jeon from the kitchen quickly nodded.
He thought it might be too grand of a name for a chicken, but it also seemed better than ‘Blackie’.
“Y-You can just put the feed into the trough.”
The long wooden trough was clean and empty. Mr. Jeon spoke cautiously as he scooped a ladle of the feed the girl had made and placed it into the trough.
“Since they were fed properly this morning, there probably won’t be much of a reaction. It’s not because the feed tastes bad, so…….”
He was about to say she shouldn’t be disappointed because that wasn’t the case.
No sooner had he placed a large scoop of feed into the trough than the sight of a dozen chickens in the coop flying up simultaneously entered his eyes in slow motion.
Were chickens also predators?
At that moment, Mr. Jeon had that very thought.
The chickens rushed fiercely toward the trough and fought viciously. Feathers flew and the sound of flapping wings echoed loudly as they struggled violently to eat even one more bite of the feed.
“The kids must have been…… very hungry.”
“It…… It seems…… so…….”
The chickens, having devoured the handful of feed with the ferocity to split the trough in two, returned to pecking at the sand leisurely as if nothing had happened once the bowl was empty.
The small girl, who had been watching the scene for a moment, looked up at him.
“You said I just need to feed them around the Hour of the Rabbit, right? I’ll do a good job from now on!”
Mr. Jeon nodded, struggling to mask his expression of disbelief.
But not even the gods of heaven and earth gave him an answer.
*
Ryeon became interested in the chickens when she heard a rooster crowing in the distance on her way back from greeting Danmok Cheongi.
Knowing that the crowing came from the coop managed by the kitchen attached to Wolyeongjae, Ryeon thought this was exactly it.
What she had been doing day and night while lying in bed was trying to find a way to use as much Spiritual Energy as possible.
The most certain and helpful method among them was to share this Spiritual Energy with her surroundings.
However, recklessly pushing Spiritual Energy into an ordinary person was like pouring seawater into a freshwater fish. Wasn’t that the very reason her own vessel was in danger?
She could only safely transmit it to people after refining it through as many stages as possible, and Ryeon had realized that refinement method not long ago.
It wasn’t difficult; she simply had to go through ‘multiple stages’!
It was like purifying water once, infusing it with Spiritual Energy, and then boiling it to make something. Although she couldn’t feed them a large amount at once, it was safe, and she could consume her own Spiritual Energy.
So, how radiant must the chicken feed have looked in Ryeon’s eyes?
It was good because she could use Spiritual Energy in the process of making the feed. It was good for Danmok Cheongi’s health since he would consistently eat the eggs laid by the chickens raised on this Spiritual Energy-infused feed. And it was also good because she would be called a remarkably filial granddaughter by others.
However…….
Early dawn, when a drizzle was cooling the heat.
Ryeon thought to herself as she scattered the chicken feed with a ladle, standing under the umbrella the nanny held over her with a blank look on her face.
The chickens, which had rushed to eat the feed with madness on the first day, had calmed down considerably after a few days.
And a few days after that, the eyes of one pitch-black Silkie chicken among them seemed to become more intelligent day by day.
“Mmm, Heukwol, is it tasty?”
The Silkie chicken nodded. Ryeon tried to think that her words and the chicken’s movement just coincidentally matched, but no matter how she looked at it, it seemed like it had answered her.
“The chickens also seem to especially like the feed you give them, Young Lady.”
The nanny standing beside Ryeon spoke with a pleased expression.
“Well, that’s because I’m the one feeding them.”
“No, it isn’t. The reaction is completely different from when Mr. Jeon feeds them.”
Ryeon smiled broadly and looked at the chickens. Hearing Nanny Jang say that, it did seem to be the case.
“Are you stopping by Wolyeongjae after you finish feeding the chickens?”
“Yeah!”
Despite reacting sharply when she went to express her gratitude a while ago, Danmok Cheongi did not reject Ryeon barging in every morning.
Her own body, the health of those around her, and the Clan’s situation. Now, she would have to keep an eye on the neighborhood situation and even the state of the Murim.
Even if she solved everything else, if she couldn’t catch Hyulla Valley, by the time she turned twenty, she would just be a person scattering chicken feed while watching the Murim burn.
Just as Ryeon was worrying about that and turning her steps toward Wolyeongjae.
At the very moment she tilted her head toward the small door in the wall connected to the end of the chicken coop, sensing someone small entering.
Because of the morning sun rising from the east, she couldn’t even see the face of the child entering. However…….
You are now able to see flaws. This ability consumes additional Spiritual Energy.
Mind’s Eye 4-Star combines with Harmony 4-Star.
Light spread across her vision and letters flashed up. Ryeon composed herself as she looked at the now familiar text.
There had been times when the achievement of the Mind’s Eye rose like this. It was right when she saw her grandfather.
Back then, Ryeon had speculated that since the ability called ‘Mind’s Eye’ was the power to see something, experience might accumulate faster the more she looked at things that were strong, colossal, or great.
But now, she had merely looked at a boy smaller than herself, yet it instantly became 4-Star.
But she didn’t have time to dwell on such thoughts.
She had to verify what it meant that she could now see flaws thanks to Mind’s Eye rising to 4-Star, and what it meant for it to combine with Harmony 4-Star.
Ryeon hurriedly opened the Immortal Mirror from her sleeve and checked her ‘Harmony’ ability.
1-Star: You can blend in well without standing out.
2-Star: You can maintain good balance.
3-Star: You can embody what you have seen.
4-Star: You can break misalignment.
5-Star: You can correct misalignment.
6-Star: You can be conspicuous.
7-Star: You can be inconspicuous.
Mind’s Eye 4-Star was the ability to see flaws, and Harmony 4-Star was the ability to break misalignment.
Ryeon pondered for a moment what it meant for these two to combine, but she suddenly gained a different realization from the last line.
Harmony 7-Star. The ability to be inconspicuous.
It was something she had been wondering about in a corner of her mind.
If it were a wild ginseng about a hundred years old, anyone who had practiced cultivation methods would notice its extraordinary nature just by looking at it. So why did no one properly recognize the Spiritual Energy she possessed?
She could understand it to some extent in the past. Who would have the mind to detect Spiritual Energy when a person was collapsing, fainting, and vomiting blood?
However, even now, although she was in a state of living on borrowed time day by day, she was regaining her health at least outwardly. Yet, it seemed that no one in the Clan noticed her Spiritual Energy.
She had found it strange that she had achieved up to 7-Star in Harmony alone, but Ryeon guessed it might have been her body’s desperate struggle to survive.
What if people who had practiced some martial arts realized her constitution just by glancing at her?
Wouldn’t a new bloodbath blow through the Gangho to obtain this living, walking Elixir?
