Revenge
Han Yuhyeon returned straight to his quarters and began reciting the mantras of the Taeheo Honwon-gyeong.
"From One Void arises the Origin; the Mysterious Root leaves no trace.
Turbid as mist, primordial as the beginning……"
Soon blue motes of light began to shine around Han Yuhyeon's body—bright enough to illuminate the darkened room.
When he first settled in, he had been driven out to a remote mountainside because of his ugliness, but that had turned out to be a blessing. With no one nearby, there was no one to see.
Absorbing spiritual energy into his body was a marvelous experience. The spiritual energy drifting through the air entered through Han Yuhyeon's nose and settled into the center of his body. The energy that dropped into him gathered near his lower abdomen and soon shaped itself into a sphere. At last the dantian—the vessel that could hold spiritual energy—was complete.
The moment it formed, the dantian greedily devoured the spiritual energy in the atmosphere. He could feel the energy around the house drying up in an instant. If his mastery of the Taeheo Honwon-gyeong had been higher, the range he could devour would have been wider—but that might also have drawn the eyes of Baekun-pa cultivators, so this level was just right.
"Hoo."
Han Yuhyeon exhaled a long breath. When he opened his eyes, a gleam shone from them. It meant he had reached the first star of the Taeheo Honwon-gyeong—and that was the same as saying he had ascended to the first star of Qi Condensation.
He could definitely feel a power circulating through his body that had not been there before. Even if Han Yuhyeon possessed the Taeheo Honwon-gyeong, without spiritual roots he would never have reached the first star of Qi Condensation. But Han Yuhyeon was fundamentally a playable character of Yeonhwa Seonrok. Naturally, he possessed basic spiritual roots.
What were my spiritual roots like again?
As he recalled, Han Yuhyeon's spiritual roots were balanced across the five elements. Of course, that too had been by design. In other words, right now he possessed Fire, Water, Metal, Wood, and Earth Spiritual Roots all at once.
In the cultivation world, those who held all five elemental roots like this were called Mixed Spiritual Roots. The more attributes one's roots had, the slower one's cultivation progressed. Conversely, those who possessed only a single root were called Heavenly Spiritual Roots—their cultivation speed was fast and their chance of breaking through realms was high. It was said that as long as they did not neglect training, Heavenly Spiritual Roots were guaranteed to reach at least Nascent Soul, while Mixed Spiritual Roots with five elements usually could not even leave Qi Condensation no matter how hard they cultivated.
Despite that, the reason Han Yuhyeon had set himself as a Five Spiritual Roots cultivator was simple: from Soul Formation after Nascent Soul onward, all five spiritual roots were required. The end content of the game was reaching the True Immortal Realm and becoming an immortal. There was no way a player would start the game intending to stop at Nascent Soul.
Of course, one could set Heavenly Spiritual Roots from the start, race to Nascent Soul, then use items to generate the remaining roots. But even then, breaking through to Soul Formation required balancing the roots, so one would have to reinforce new ones anyway. In that case it was better to set Five Spiritual Roots from the beginning even if growth was a little slow. This was not Han Yuhyeon being particularly eccentric with his character setup—the majority of Yeonhwa Seonrok players did the same.
The problem was not having five spiritual roots, but that the values of those five were evenly low. That, too, was because he had dumped everything into Luck.
Maybe I should have reduced Luck a bit.
Since both Luck and spiritual roots were stats, trimming Luck a little would have let him invest in the roots. Even so, having Luck at 280 was excessive. But as a veteran player, he absolutely could not tolerate a concept character that was not maxed in one stat. Between Luck and spiritual roots, Luck was obviously harder to raise after the fact, so dumping into Luck at the start had been a rational decision.
Having finished his mental gymnastics, Han Yuhyeon began circulating the Taeheo Honwon-gyeong again. Filling his body with spiritual energy was marvelous and entertaining at the same time. Once more the small hut filled with blue light.
Now that he was a cultivator who could manipulate spiritual energy in his body, no ordinary person could be his match. Once he knew that Mongan Hyeolseo was a shop trait, Han Yuhyeon's course of action was set. Naturally, it was to scrape together spirit stones like a madman.
Where to get spirit stones? The most honest place was the village Bounty Board. The Bounty Board was basically a Xianxia version of a day-labor hiring office. Various missions were posted as notices, and you applied for the ones you thought you could handle. Last time, delivering herbs to Baekun-pa had also been a job from the Bounty Board.
Honest labor and matching compensation. A beautiful thing. But this was a world far removed from beauty.
"Hey, Ugly!"
A lounging voice drifted from afar. They were the beggars who had shaken him down just yesterday. Han Yuhyeon smiled. He had been wandering the market for a full two hours just to meet those guys. After all, before the Bounty Board, the first thing that came to mind was the beggars who had been extorting him all this time.
"When a person smiles, there should be some warmth to it—but smiling makes you even uglier."
"You're right. I close my eyes every time I wash my face in the morning. Don't want to see my reflection in the water."
"Hahaha! Your joke skills have improved a bit!"
The beggars laughed loudly. Han Yuhyeon, for whom it had not been a joke, did not laugh—but the beggars assumed he was frozen in fear.
"Seeing you out at the market, looks like you brought some spirit stones. How about donating a bit to these poor beggars?"
"I don't have a single coin."
"Then why'd you come to this market?"
"I came to get a donation from you. Donate a bit to this pitifully ugly beggar."
At Han Yuhyeon's words the beggars looked at each other, then slapped their knees and roared with laughter, spit flying—an even bigger laugh than before. The beggars' stinking spit stuck to Han Yuhyeon's face.
"Your jokes really have improved! Well, if you're ugly, you've got to be funny at least!"
Han Yuhyeon walked slowly toward the beggars.
"Oh my, were you that bitter about us taking a few spirit stones?"
One of the beggars sneered as Han Yuhyeon drew closer. When Han Yuhyeon continued approaching without a word, the beggar frowned in displeasure.
"You looking to die?!"
The beggar charged right in. The fist that had not been visible last time appeared all too clearly and slowly. There was an insurmountable wall between first-star Qi Condensation and ordinary people, and he understood that setting in an instant.
"Huh?"
When Han Yuhyeon dodged the punch far too easily, bewilderment filled the beggar's eyes. Looking at the smiling Han Yuhyeon, the beggar forced a hollow laugh.
"Ah, I must've gotten rusty from not beating people lately. Here I go again."
"What 'again,' you bastard."
This time Han Yuhyeon charged first and launched the beggar's chin. The man crumpled without being able to move.
"Ugh!"
Han Yuhyeon immediately grabbed the fallen beggar by the collar and started thrashing him.
"Head! Chest! Body!"
Han Yuhyeon shouted as he threw punches. Actually the shouts were meaningless—three consecutive hits simply drove into the body. After all, hitting the same place again hurt more. In an instant after taking three blows, the beggar crumpled. From then on the beggars stopped laughing; their faces filled with rage.
"This ugly bastard's gone mad!"
"Get him!"
The beggars grabbed clubs and charged at Han Yuhyeon. Their fists, feet, and clubs that had not been visible last time appeared clearly and slowly. Han Yuhyeon twisted his body to dodge the clubs and instead thrust forward. The space he occupied by coming in was exquisite—it was the point where all the beggars' attack paths converged. Occupying just that one spot, he could block every attack at once.
"What!"
The beggars were shocked. When he lifted his foot to block the overlapping attack paths, all their movements stopped. After that was Han Yuhyeon's time. He immediately closed in, grabbed the nearest beggar by the collar, slammed him upside down, and began beating him mercilessly at random.
"Aaaaargh!"
"W-what the? This bastard!"
The beggars were utterly shocked at how Han Yuhyeon had changed in just one day. Some who judged they could not handle him after seeing his movements tried to flee, but Han Yuhyeon was not about to let that happen.
"Aack! Help! This ugly madman is assaulting innocent beggars!"
"You've got some real nerve."
Han Yuhyeon smirked. But this was average Xianxia personality. Just yesterday they had shaken him down and beaten him right in front of everyone, yet now that they were getting hit they were "innocent beggars." To survive in a world like this, Han Yuhyeon himself had to change.
Naturally, no one came to help. Some cultivators shoved recording stones forward and started recording again. Now the object of ridicule was not him but these beggars.
"This beggar's pretty fiery!"
"This is the taste of beggar fights!"
The watching cultivators got excited at Han Yuhyeon's fiery strikes. Beating the beggars until the cultivators were satisfied, in the end their faces were pulp. Naturally the beggars knelt politely and awaited their fate.
"W-we're sorry. Elder. We dared not recognize you and…"
A beggar whose face was swollen red beyond any recognition of features mumbled. You could not even tell where the words were coming from, since his mouth was not visible.
"Ah, it's fine. People make mistakes as they live. Then shall we start by taking out everything you've got?"
Han Yuhyeon said it with a smile. The beggars all hesitated as they began taking out spirit stones one by one—lowest-grade spirit stones received from begging.
"Hey, hey. Lighten up your expressions. I'm just recovering what I've been extorted of so far."
What expression is there to lighten on this face!
The beggars wanted to protest, but in this world if the strong said so, that was that. Even if their faces were so swollen that features were hidden, if the expression looked bad then it was bad.
"Mm. Very good."
Cleaning out nearly twenty beggars yielded close to three hundred spirit stones. Since he had been extorted of about two hundred so far, he considered the extra hundred as interest.
"Alright. Everyone disperse. From now on live honestly without shaking down others. You sons of bitches. Damn it."
Han Yuhyeon pocketed the spirit stones he had shaken down and dispersed the beggars. He was not particularly worried about retaliation. After all, they were the type weak to the strong and strong to the weak—rather than revenge on the strong, they were more used to seeking out other weaklings.
Revenge done. Now it was time to visit the Bounty Board.
"Beggar, you're here again?"
The person at the Bounty Board recognized him. Coming nearly two weeks straight, he was bound to stand out.
"This is all physical labor too—you should rest while you do it. Otherwise you'll wreck your body."
The Bounty Board person said it worriedly. Han Yuhyeon looked at him anew. Even if this was a trash world full of haters, maybe there was still some humanity left.
"Right now you're putting out the best results at our Bounty Board. If you collapse, my commission goes down too, doesn't it? You gonna take responsibility for that?"
"……"
In the end it was "don't collapse because of my money." Well, this was the essence of people in the Xianxia world.
"Just let me see the missions."
"Ugly and snippy too."
"Shut up."
Han Yuhyeon immediately repaid him with a curse. He considered just thrashing the man like the beggars earlier, but the Bounty Board was protected by Baekun-pa, so that was out of the question. Even as a cultivator he was still only first-star Qi Condensation. He could beat ordinary people, but against the cultivators piled up in Baekun-pa he would die for sure.
Actually, even repaying with curses—if this were Korea he would not have gone this far. One month in the Xianxia world was enough to change a person.
"Have a look. Preferably pick a safe one."
Ignoring the Bounty Board person's words, he slowly scanned the large board covered with all kinds of missions. Then something caught Han Yuhyeon's eye.
Neungha-gok — Collect Green-Face Grass.
50 spirit stones per plant. No upper limit.
"Oho."
A thick smile formed on Han Yuhyeon's lips. With the sudden possession and big events like Mongan Hyeolseo, he had briefly forgotten—the fact that this game had hidden pieces.