Congratulations
The superior spirit talisman’s incantation rolled from his lips.
The moment the words left him, spiritual energy surged through Han Yuhyeon’s entire body until it felt ready to burst. If he did not release it at once, he truly risked exploding.
“W-what the hell?”
“Attack!”
The cultivators sensed the extraordinary force whipping around Han Yuhyeon and immediately prepared for battle.
Truthfully, at his current level, defeating every one of them was impossible. No matter how sharp his combat instincts or how refined his techniques, there were limits.
Scales erupted across Han Yuhyeon’s skin, hard and lethal at once—living blades that radiated pure threat.
“Just watch out for that soft-body technique of his!”
The cultivators had clearly gathered some intelligence on him beforehand. That was only natural. For an assault this large, failing to collect information would have been unthinkable.
But there was one piece of information they could never have obtained.
“Huh?”
Han Yuhyeon bent his knees slightly, took a short run-up, and shot forward like a bolt. With scales covering every inch of him, his body itself had become a weapon.
“Aaaagh!”
“Ghk!”
The crucial point was that both his speed and power now far exceeded anything they had been told to expect.
Boom! Crash! Rumble!
Those struck by Han Yuhyeon’s rampaging charge bounced across the ground several times before flying far away. The ones who managed to wrap themselves in spiritual energy in time got away with broken bones; those who failed coughed blood, their organs clearly damaged.
“Nobody said he was this fast!”
“You idiot! He used a spirit talisman!”
“Even so…!”
The cultivators were not completely blind; they immediately recognized his method. This level of destructive power was not Han Yuhyeon’s own.
He had drawn every scrap of energy from a superior spirit talisman and charged. In truth, a superior spirit talisman was not something a fourth-star Qi Condensation cultivator was meant to use. It contained far too much spiritual energy for that stage to handle.
If that much energy flooded into a early Qi Condensation cultivator all at once, it could easily trigger cultivation deviation.
The reason Han Yuhyeon could still use it was simple: unlike other early-stage cultivators, every one of his techniques was a monstrous energy hog that devoured spiritual power without mercy.
So instead of letting the energy settle into his dantian, he simply poured it all out at once. That way, even as an early Qi Condensation cultivator, he could exhaust the superior talisman’s power completely, leaving nothing behind.
“Haa…!”
Still, this was no leisurely fight for him. He was borrowing the talisman’s strength rather than using his own, and the consumption was brutal. His foundation would be exposed soon enough. He had to finish them all before that happened.
“Wait—just listen for a moment. We came from—”
Startled by Han Yuhyeon’s unexpected prowess, one cultivator tried to talk his way out of it. From the beginning, these people had approached without any intention of killing him. Under different circumstances, Han Yuhyeon might even have found their words worth hearing.
But not while he was burning a superior spirit talisman. Spiritual energy that was not sealed inside the dantian simply scattered into the air. He had to swing it while the talisman’s power still held it together.
“Y-you crazy bastard!”
The cultivator who had tried to negotiate cried out in shock and yanked free the double-edged sword that had been driven into his back.
Sword and fist collided. Thanks to Ascending Scales, Mountain Shatter, Han Yuhyeon’s fist had become something closer to a bladed lump of metal. Sparks flew from the clash of fist against blade.
“Just listen to me!”
“Shut up!”
Han Yuhyeon instantly crushed the second attempt at negotiation. They only wanted to talk while he was still empowered by the talisman; once its strength ran dry and he was weakened again, they would have no interest in bargaining. From his perspective there was only one option left. He was no stranger to double-crosses. This was the most basic problem imaginable.
He pressed the cultivator who kept stubbornly trying to compromise. The mere fact that the man had offered terms meant he was acting as their commander.
Capture the king to take the bandits, as the saying went. When facing enemies, the wise first cut off the head.
“What are you doing?! Help me!”
The negotiating cultivator looked around and shouted. The others who had come with him showed no intention of helping. They could see that Han Yuhyeon was relentlessly hunting that one man alone.
This was an organization thrown together in half a day. There was no cohesion, and every person would prioritize their own life above all else.
They simply did not want to poke the enraged bull that was Han Yuhyeon and turn his blade toward themselves.
“You bastards! I’ll report every one of you when I get back!”
“Report to who?”
Han Yuhyeon asked the question like a sudden ambush. The cultivator’s breath hitched for a split second. That was the mark of insufficient combat experience—failure to manage his breathing. And in close-quarters combat, a single opening could decide victory or defeat.
“You son of a—! Just wait a—!”
If you were going to say “wait,” why add the insults? That was how you ended up leaving a vulgar last will for the only time in your life.
Crack!
Han Yuhyeon’s knife-hand struck the cultivator’s crown with perfect accuracy. Using that precise point of impact as the fulcrum, the man’s head simply came apart.
Plip. Plip. Plip-plip-plip…
He had shattered it so finely that scraps of scalp, bone fragments, and bits of brain fell like a fine drizzle.
“I wasn’t planning to wash because I hadn’t broken a sweat…”
Han Yuhyeon gathered the blood that had gotten into his mouth and spat it out. But after being misted by someone else’s head used as a spray bottle, the sticky feeling was too much to ignore.
When he looked around, the cultivators who had been surrounding him had already fled with their tails between their legs. He briefly considered chasing them, but the talisman’s power had completely dissipated. Pursuit was impossible.
“Ah. Right.”
Just as he was about to head home, he remembered something he had forgotten. The recording spirit stone he had tossed far away so it could capture the battle.
“Did it get everything?”
Han Yuhyeon retrieved the stone, slipped his hand into the recessed area beneath it, and stopped the recording. He would watch it later. For now he just wanted to go home and rest.
After walking for a while, the abandoned house he lived in came into view in the distance. All he wanted was to collapse and sleep, yet the moment he drew near, he had no choice but to stop.
Just in case, he had spread his spiritual sense—and it caught quite a few people. Inside the very abandoned house he lived in.
“Haa…”
With the money he currently had on hand, finding a new place to live would be no trouble. The problem was that the formations and artifacts needed for security were expensive.
That’s one more reason to become an inner disciple.
From the inner disciple rank onward, Baekun-pa provided living quarters. If he became one, he could save money instead of buying expensive artifacts and formations.
That was a matter for later. The important thing right now was the uninvited guests currently inside the abandoned house. Visitors had come once before—those mountain-water thieves. Judging by that, these people had probably not come with good intentions either. In this world, the saying “visitors are never kind” was practically a universal truth.
There was one difference from the thieves’ visit, though. They were far too easy to catch with spiritual sense, as if they had no intention of hiding at all. Looking closer, they had even left a light on in the room. It was practically announcing that people were inside.
“What now…”
As he approached the house, flower petals were scattered from the front gate all the way into the inner courtyard. He had only ever heard of walking a path of flowers; he never expected to do it himself.
Of course, this could also be a trap, so he stayed outside and used a spirit stone to replenish a little spiritual energy first.
“Ahem. Ahem.”
Han Yuhyeon stepped into the courtyard and cleared his throat. Since they were not hiding their presence, making his arrival known should draw a reaction.
Just as expected, the door to the room flew open. But the people who emerged were nothing like what he had anticipated.
“You’re home, Big Brother!”
“……What?”
What poured out of the doorway was a group of beautiful women. The moment they appeared, the gloomy abandoned house seemed to brighten all at once.
While Han Yuhyeon stood there dumbfounded, one of the beauties took his wrist and began leading him inside.
“You’ve come all the way home—what are you doing outside, Big Brother? You should come in right away.”
“No, wait, hang on—”
His mouth protested, but his body was honest; it followed the beauty’s guidance without resistance. In both his previous life and this one he had never had any luck with women, so this kind of physical assault was irresistible.
Moreover, each beauty had her own unique appeal. One had the face of a cat, another of a puppy; some were petite, others tall and willowy… Whoever had gathered them had clearly put real effort into the selection.
“What would you like to do first? Shall we get you washed?”
“I… suppose I should.”
“Then this humble girl will assist you.”
Having a beauty attend him in the bath—just imagining it was intoxicating, yet Han Yuhyeon barely managed to keep his wits.
There was no way these women had been waiting inside a ruined house with pure hearts simply because they had been moved by his handsomeness.
Still, when their soft skin brushed against him and their thick fragrance filled his nose, clear judgment became difficult.
It was a trap—or at the very least, they had some ulterior motive. For a fleeting moment he even wondered if he should just pretend to go along with it. If they were this friendly, he might even be able to practice dual cultivation with them.
But that thought lasted only a second. He could not let a little lust ruin the greater plan. Han Yuhyeon was a cultivator who might one day reach the True Immortal Realm. He had no intention of ending his path stuck at fourth-star Qi Condensation.
“Stop! Stop it!”
When the beauties rushed in and tried to strip his clothes, Han Yuhyeon shook his body hard and flung them off.
“W-why are you doing this, Big Brother?”
“What’s your goal?”
“Pardon? Our goal?”
The woman he had shoved to the floor covered her mouth with a delicate hand and put on an innocent act. Once he had steeled his heart, even that pitiful appearance looked detestable. Moments like this made him glad for his ugly face. What kind of woman would make that expression after being shoved by Han Yuhyeon? His conviction only deepened. That woman was one vicious piece of work.
“You’re not seriously claiming you came here with no purpose, are you?”
“W-we don’t know anything. We only came to serve the young master.”
The shoved woman spoke in a trembling voice and even squeezed out fat tears. But Han Yuhyeon had already raised iron walls around his heart.
“Shut up! Who put you up to this?!”
“Me.”
A voice came from behind the women. There were so many of them that he had not yet seen every face.
Before he could even search for her, the speaker pushed her way through the crowd and presented herself.
“……Elder?”
The person who emerged was none other than Baekri-wan. The moment she appeared, the women who had been wearing pitiful expressions instantly turned cold and blank. Watching every face lose its emotion at the same time was enough to send a chill down the spine.
“You wavered for a moment, but you did fine.”
“……What?”
He had never expected to meet Baekri-wan here, so his mind refused to work properly.
“A test, of sorts. To see if you were someone worth taking in.”
“A test?”
Han Yuhyeon repeated the word, incredulous. Baekri-wan simply nodded.
“Congratulations. You passed. Everyone, congratulate him.”
“Congratulations.”
“Congratulations, junior.”
At Baekri-wan’s command, the beauties surrounding Han Yuhyeon all offered their congratulations in completely emotionless voices. Caught in the sudden wave of celebration, Han Yuhyeon’s mind went blank for a moment.