Morning Assembly
Even in the world of Yeonhwa Seonrok, attribute-boosting elixirs were an extremely scarce resource. Stats were meant to rise naturally as one advanced in cultivation, after all.
So ordinary cultivators rarely had cause to swallow them. At most, one might drop at an absurdly low rate during a cave-ruin raid—and that was about it. The drop rate was abysmal, and the shelf life was so short you practically had to gulp them the instant they appeared, which meant they never entered circulation at all.
Perhaps it was the game's built-in causality, designed to stop cultivators from stockpiling elixirs and jacking their stats into something unnatural. By that measure, Han Yuhyeon was currently a walking violation of causality. He had piled up dozens of the things and wolfed them all down in one go.
Just as he was finishing the last of his elixirs, someone knocked on the door from outside. When he opened it, he found a fellow disciple who had been promoted to inner disciple alongside him.
"Y-Yuhyeon. Good morning."
"Oh, hey. Morning. Who were you again?"
He had definitely heard the name during yesterday's appointment ceremony, but it wasn't sticking.
His fellow disciple didn't look particularly offended and simply introduced himself again.
"I'm Seon Woo-gang."
"Ah. Woo-gang. Nice to meet you."
Seon Woo-gang seemed oddly intimidated by Han Yuhyeon, unable even to meet his eyes properly. Between the curly hair and a slight frame that barely cleared a hundred and sixty centimeters, his frightened look was almost pitiful.
Yuhyeon understood. The man had watched Elder Mun Il-pyeong die right in front of him because of Han Yuhyeon. Of course he was scared.
"So what's up?"
"Uh, well. I thought we could go to the inner disciples' morning assembly together. Since we're peers."
"Ahh. Morning assembly."
Only then did Han Yuhyeon remember it existed. Unlike the free-roaming outer disciples, inner disciples were required to attend the sect's morning assembly. He'd been so absorbed in the elixirs that he'd forgotten even the basics.
"I'd completely forgotten. Thanks."
"Don't mention it. We're peers."
"Let's head out now."
"Yeah."
Even standing beside him, Seon Woo-gang kept reading the room. Why insist on going together if he was this uncomfortable? Was he hoping to get close because he figured Han Yuhyeon would become a real power among the inner disciples? Yuhyeon was curious, but not petty enough to say it out loud.
When they arrived at the open ground before the Great Scripture Hall where morning assembly was held, a number of inner disciples were already gathered. There was still about a quarter-hour before assembly started, yet they were already out—surely the model of diligent disciples.
"Huh. So you didn't even bring a gift for your seniors?"
"Seriously. It wasn't like this in my day."
"Hold it in, hold it in. Kids these days just have no sense."
Cancel that. Expecting basic common sense here was a mistake. They'd come early to bully the juniors.
Not that this was unique to the cultivation world. Workplace harassment, military hazing, the whole toxic culture of burning out juniors—it had been rampant in his previous life too.
Through the circle of cultivators, Yuhyeon could see who was getting chewed out: his fellow new inner disciples from yesterday.
He glanced at Seon Woo-gang. The man flinched and looked away.
"Hey, peer."
"Y-yeah?"
"Did those seniors call you guys early?"
Seon Woo-gang froze. That was enough for Yuhyeon to piece it together. The higher-realm inner disciple seniors had summoned everyone except him, and Seon Woo-gang had used his head and dragged Han Yuhyeon along as insurance.
"W-well…"
"You'd better be honest."
Seon Woo-gang was overwhelmed by the eyes fixed on him. Right now Han Yuhyeon was a bizarre figure covered head to toe in scales. Having a monster like that stare straight at you was terrifying.
"…It's true. The seniors called us without you, and I got scared, so…"
"So I wasted a quarter-hour because of you? I could've come late, but I showed up early."
"…"
Seon Woo-gang fell silent under Yuhyeon's icy tone. Honestly, if this were a game, Yuhyeon would have started a fight on the spot. Seon Woo-gang had cost him something, after all.
But this was his life now. There was no need to be that cold-blooded.
"Fine. We'll talk about that later."
"Y-yeah."
Han Yuhyeon strode toward the seniors. Up close, he could see blood at the corners of mouths and swollen eyes—so there had been beatings too. Under ordinary circumstances it would have been an outrage, but in a place where murder was just another day, this almost felt cute.
"Good morning, seniors."
"Huh?"
Han Yuhyeon had been concealing his presence; when he revealed it and greeted them, the seniors jumped.
They immediately glared at Seon Woo-gang behind him. Just as Yuhyeon had noticed, they too realized Seon Woo-gang had pulled a stunt. Reading the room around Han Yuhyeon, they forced smiles.
"Haha. Junior Brother Han. Already here at this hour?"
"My peer came to fetch me."
The pressure on Seon Woo-gang intensified. The harder the seniors stared, the paler he went and the more his shoulders hunched.
Yuhyeon thought for a moment. Baekri-wan's advice hadn't been about friendship and solidarity. It had been about keeping to the proper path only as far as it served his interests.
Protecting peers whose names and faces he barely knew, earning their goodwill while making enemies of the seniors—that was not a profitable move.
"This junior has a question. Have my peers committed some offense?"
The seniors looked at each other, as if stalling for an answer.
He understood. Word that Elder Mun Il-pyeong had died because of Han Yuhyeon had already spread through the Baekun Sect, and now that it was clear the Sect Master favored him, the seniors couldn't afford to mess with him lightly.
Even without the politics, the strength he'd shown in the inner disciple selection was reason enough for them to tread carefully.
"H-haha. We were simply educating them on the proper conduct of a Baekun Sect cultivator."
"Ah, I see."
Yuhyeon answered in the most ingratiating voice he could manage. Of course, with scales covering his entire body, "ingratiating" still looked grotesque.
"Ahem. But scolding them in front of a fellow junior is a bit much, so we'll leave it here for today."
"Yes, yes. Let's get ready for morning assembly."
The seniors clearly found dealing with him awkward and wanted to slip away. Yuhyeon had no intention of letting them go that easily.
"You deserve to be scolded…"
"…?"
"Gal!"
Yuhyeon's sudden roar startled the birds from the trees around the Great Scripture Hall into flight.
The seniors froze, thinking the shout had been aimed at them—but Yuhyeon walked straight up to his peers.
"You only became inner disciples yesterday, and already you've troubled your seniors like this!"
His sudden reprimand of his own peers left juniors and seniors alike stunned. He continued.
"That your seniors would set aside their own time to educate you—how noble is that? In this cultivation world, this is a senior-junior relationship worth emulating! As juniors, when your seniors have gone this far for you, how can you simply stand there doing nothing!"
When the scale-covered face was shoved in front of them, the peers trembled and pulled out their storage pouches. One after another they produced spirit stones, magical tools—whatever they had. Freshly minted inner disciples, so nothing special.
"Th-thank you for your guidance, senior."
"Thank you!"
The juniors who had been getting lynched straightened their backs and promptly offered tribute. The seniors looked dazed and kept glancing at Yuhyeon. He laughed heartily.
"When the juniors express their gratitude like this, isn't it only proper that the seniors accept?"
"R-right."
They were going to shake them down anyway. Still, pocketing the loot in front of Han Yuhyeon seemed to embarrass them; they awkwardly accepted the offerings into their storage pouches.
"If you ever need to discipline my peers again, please do call me as well. I myself have only recently entered the cultivation world and am in desperate need of education."
"W-we will."
The seniors answered and immediately put distance between themselves and Yuhyeon. They'd gotten the message: they'd already collected their cut, so leave the juniors alone from now on. He'd still preserved their face, so they wouldn't have reason to hate him for it.
"Th-thank you."
"You saved us."
The peers had enough sense to recognize he'd bailed them out. They'd been shaken down once, but at least he'd cut the harassment short.
"Yeah, yeah. As long as you get it."
His indifferent response seemed to move them a little. They had fully expected him to send the seniors packing and then fleece them himself.
It wasn't that they thought poorly of him—it was simply the natural order of the cultivation world. If you benefited from someone, you paid a matching price.
But Han Yuhyeon asked nothing of them. If this were a game he would have sucked them dry down to the marrow, but one look at what came out of their pouches told him there was nothing worth taking. Better to buy goodwill than pick fleas' livers.
"Ah, but Woo-gang."
"Y-yeah?"
Seon Woo-gang flinched. Yuhyeon had dropped his voice into something sinister.
"If you try to use me like this one more time, I can't promise what I'll do."
"I-I'm sorry. I was just scared without meaning to…"
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. This once."
He didn't forget to issue the warning. Building goodwill was one thing; being used was another.
Seon Woo-gang nodded so hard his head nearly came off.
Before long the rest of the inner disciples began to gather. Jeong Cheon-o and Ye Hyeon-gwan, the ones Yuhyeon already knew, greeted him, and he returned it casually. They were chatting when the elders and the Sect Master arrived. The noisy open ground before the Great Scripture Hall fell naturally quiet.
Sect Master Un Song-byeok mounted the platform, surveyed the crowd, then spotted Han Yuhyeon and gave a small smile. Blatant favoritism. Yuhyeon found it uncomfortable but couldn't show it.
"This is the first morning assembly since the inner disciple examination. New junior brothers have joined us—look after them well."
Un Song-byeok chuckled. Every gaze briefly focused on Yuhyeon and his peers.
"Good. Moving on. At the next Mid-Autumn Festival there will be a gathering of cultivation sects in So-ui-ju. Our sect has received an invitation, so this Sect Master and several elders will attend, and we plan to bring four or five inner disciples as well. We'll be taking applications for those who wish to go to So-ui-ju…"
The inner disciples' ears perked up. Compared to Yeongil-ju, So-ui-ju was far richer land. The density of spiritual energy was different; the yield of spirit stones was different. Simply going and broadening one's horizons was opportunity enough.
But of course, nothing in this cultivation world came purely good.
"As you know, So-ui-ju is not our Baekun Sect's territory. The prestige we enjoy as the foremost sect of Yeongil-ju means nothing there. It is a dangerous place. You could die a dog's death, so decide carefully."
When Un Song-byeok finished, the inner disciples glanced at each other. They couldn't quite decide if going was good or bad. Simply entering So-ui-ju was enormous risk for them, and the gains were unclear—hesitation made sense.
"I would like to go."
Han Yuhyeon, however, had no reason to hesitate, and raised his hand.
Once he'd learned that the prices in the Mongan Hyeolseo shifted with his cultivation realm, he could no longer afford to sit idle. The lower his realm when he earned and spent, the more efficient the Dream-Eye Blood Scripture became.
"Oh-ho. Excellent. I was hoping you would go personally, Yuhyeon. Perfect."
Un Song-byeok's eyes curved into pleased crescents.
"Ah. And I neglected to mention—inner disciples who go as representatives of the Baekun Sect will receive ten lower-grade spirit stones as a kind of activity stipend. They're risking themselves to represent the sect; this Sect Master can hardly sit still and do nothing, can he?"
With Un Song-byeok's smile, inner disciples began scrambling to raise their hands. With ten lower-grade spirit stones on the table, the math had changed.
Watching the forest of hands shoot up, Han Yuhyeon smiled. Getting an early look at So-ui-ju was already good—and now he was basically going with ten lower-grade spirit stones already in his pocket.