The Sweet Circle
He hadn’t expected any further generosity from the villagers and was about to stroll inside without much thought—until the raccoon suddenly kicked off his calf, dropped to the ground, and let out a piercing screech.
“Kyaaaang!”
“Whoa. What is it?”
Half the same species or not, Han Yuhyeon could roughly sense the raccoon’s intent. As the little creature kept screeching, he nodded.
“Something smells delicious, huh?”
“Kyaang, kyaang!”
Jeong Cheon-o and Im Su-weol both jumped at the sound.
“Junior Brother, you can understand that spirit beast?”
“I just get the general vibe. Even I don’t know the details.”
“Hah. I’ve heard that in the Upper Realms there are senior cultivators who can converse with beasts and even plants… but hearing it from you somehow feels stranger.”
Such cultivators did exist. A cultivator was, after all, someone who sought the Dao. Along that path, speaking with plants or animals was nothing particularly unusual in this world.
They followed the village chief. The man was already inside, bent over and rummaging for something.
“Ah, found it.”
From a chest he pulled out an object that clashed wildly with the shabby house and the chief himself: an elegant silk pouch. He loosened the tightly drawn mouth.
The moment the pouch opened, a rich, savory aroma rolled out, thick with spiritual energy. And not ordinary energy—this felt densely concentrated, as if drawn straight from the Upper Realms.
“Huff, huff!”
The raccoon grew even more excited, scrambling up Han Yuhyeon’s body and wrapping its limbs around his neck and head like a child demanding a shoulder ride.
Clearly the pouch’s sealed mouth had been suppressing the spiritual energy, yet the raccoon had somehow sensed it anyway. Marvelous. Then again, dragons were spirit beasts among spirit beasts; possessing special abilities was hardly strange.
“You had a treasure like this?”
“Of course it wasn’t originally mine. To be precise, an immortal from the Upper Realms gave it to me a few months ago.”
“An immortal from the Upper Realms?”
Everyone flinched as one. Something bestowed by an Upper Realm immortal was certainly precious—but a cultivator had to know their place. If something was not theirs, they had to be able to let it go without lingering attachment. That was one of the virtues of those who sought long life.
“Yes. He introduced himself as the Deputy Palace Lord of Heavenly Peak Palace.”
“Heavenly Peak Palace!”
Han Yuhyeon and the other inner disciples cried out together.
A few months ago… that would have been when the Upper Realm cultivators descended in force. Han Yuhyeon himself had met the Deputy Palace Lord of Heavenly Peak Palace back then.
“W-what exactly did he give you?”
“I don’t know the details either. He only told me to give it to whoever defeated the old turtle.”
“Then why wasn’t this included among the Mission Hall’s rewards? If people knew Heavenly Peak Palace’s Deputy Lord had bestowed a treasure, everyone would have rushed over.”
“The Deputy Lord specifically ordered that this not be used as bait to hunt the old turtle. He said the creature would be taken by someone qualified when the time came, and that this should be given only to that person.”
Even hearing it secondhand, there was a faint sense of profound mystery to the words.
Jeong Cheon-o, however, seemed to feel none of that profundity and simply pressed the chief.
“So? What is it?”
“Junior Brother. Maintain a cultivator’s dignity in front of mortals. It’s not yours anyway.”
Im Su-weol’s calm voice cut through Jeong Cheon-o’s fussing. She was right. This was a gift for the one who had slain the old turtle, so of course it would belong to Han Yuhyeon. The actual future owner was standing quietly while Jeong Cheon-o made a scene for no reason.
“Ahem.”
Embarrassed, Jeong Cheon-o cleared his throat and glared at the chief for no good reason. The chief flinched and promptly upended the silk pouch.
“Hm?”
What dropped into the wrinkled palm was a pastry shaped like a donut, a perfect round hole through its center.
It had smelled delicious… and it really was food. Everyone stared blankly at the snack—until smoke suddenly began to whirl inside the hole and something rose from it.
To their astonishment, the figure that coalesced from the smoke was none other than the Deputy Palace Lord of Heavenly Peak Palace they had seen before. She was just as transcendentally beautiful as he remembered.
“This insignificant cultivator greets the most honored senior!”
Recognizing her at once, Han Yuhyeon dropped flat to the ground. Im Su-weol, Jeong Cheon-o, and even the village chief all followed suit without a moment’s hesitation.
“Kyaaaang!”
Of course, a dragon had no need to show courtesy to cultivators; it merely drooled at the pastry.
“There is no need for such excessive formality. I am merely a recording of my past self, left to explain the use of this pastry.”
The Deputy Palace Lord’s voice was soft yet elegant. Since she claimed to be only a recording, Han Yuhyeon cautiously lifted his head for another look—only to freeze when the smoke-formed Deputy Lord moved her eyes and looked straight at him.
“Hup.”
Their gazes met. He gasped and immediately pressed his forehead back to the floor. Jeong Cheon-o, however, seemed to have no fear at all; upon hearing her words he popped right back up.
“Junior Sister, Junior Brother. She says it’s just a recorded image. Like a recording stone, right? We don’t need to keep bowing to something on a recording stone, do we?”
That… was technically true. Jeong Cheon-o strode toward the Deputy Palace Lord of Heavenly Peak Palace, intending to get a closer look at that beautiful face. The figure floating above the pastry simply flicked her sleeve and blasted him away.
“Urgh!”
He slammed into the wall, hit the floor, then scrambled back on all fours to prostrate himself again.
“Heh. I left a little trap just in case someone tried to curse me… but you didn’t. Still, do not approach. Even without my true body present, it is unpleasant.”
“This junior committed a grave discourtesy!”
Jeong Cheon-o bashed his head against the ground. Astonishingly, even without her physical body, the Deputy Lord had left a fragment of her spirit capable of interacting with others. This was no mere recording stone. Her earlier remark about not needing excessive courtesy had been bait. Typical cultivator.
“Had your gaze held any lust beyond mere curiosity, you would already be a splash of blood. Be careful.”
“I will engrave it upon my bones! I will remember!”
The Deputy Lord glanced around, then smiled when her eyes landed on the raccoon perched on Han Yuhyeon’s head.
“So it is you. The rest of you, step outside for a moment.”
Boom!
With a sound like compressed air exploding, the door flew open and the village chief, Jeong Cheon-o, and Im Su-weol were bodily ejected from the house.
Only Han Yuhyeon and the Deputy Lord remained. He still had his forehead pressed to the floor.
“Raise your head.”
He slowly lifted it. Her beauty still shone. Long lashes, porcelain skin, cherry-small lips—every feature radiated refined dignity.
“This junior greets the Deputy Palace Lord.”
“It is you. As expected, no wildflower blooms without reason, and no meeting is without fate. Your face looks much better, by the way.”
“You recognize me? My face has changed quite a lot.”
“A face may change, but the grain of a soul does not. Besides, my spiritual energy still clings to your Dusk. How could I fail to know you?”
That was right—the Deputy Palace Lord had been the one who gave him the Dusk. Han Yuhyeon bowed his head once more. Whatever else, she was a cultivator who had helped him when he had nothing.
“It is thanks to Immortal Fairy’s grace that I am able to walk the path of cultivation.”
“Back then I thought you would die without ever drawing out your potential, stuck with a Mixed Spiritual Root. Yet now you have reached mid-stage Qi Condensation. An unbelievably fast pace.”
“I was lucky.”
“Did I not tell you? This world is like a finely woven net of fate-threads. Your rise to this point was never mere luck alone.”
“I am honored by your words.”
The Deputy Lord smiled. Han Yuhyeon had thought his beauty-induced heart palpitations were well trained by Baekri-wan, yet that smile still made his heart drop.
“Whether you know it or not, dragons are not mere spirit beasts—they are divine beasts. Kill one, and retribution will surely follow later. Only ignorant cultivators hunt them claiming a dragon’s heart aids cultivation, never realizing they are hastening their own doom.”
Is that so? Back when he was a player he had slaughtered dragons and great water serpents alike without discrimination.
No wonder heavenly tribulations had hounded him more than others during his playthroughs—he had thought it was just the game’s spite. Turns out dragons were divine beasts. He had believed himself a veteran who knew every corner of Yeonhwa Seonrok, yet the deeper he dug, the more layered the world became.
“When I divined the dragon’s lifespan, it was not a child fated to die soon. Its Official Star and Seal Star were well developed, suggesting it would walk with someone… and so it has.”
The Deputy Lord nodded. At her level of cultivation, peering a short distance into the future was entirely possible. She was, after all, a true immortal.
“You command a dragon that even True Immortals struggle to handle. You are fully worthy of receiving this.”
It only follows me because I’m a Dragonian… Even this capable Deputy Lord apparently hadn’t noticed he was one of the Yongin-jok. Then again, Dragonians were extraordinarily rare; it was understandable she wouldn’t know.
The donut-shaped pastry floated up and drifted toward Han Yuhyeon, bringing the Deputy Lord with it. Her beauty enlarged before him; he bit his lip to stifle a gasp.
“Here.”
She smiled faintly at his reaction and released the pastry. He caught it carefully in both palms. Only then did she separate from it and return to her previous position.
“This is a snack called the Sweet Circle. Spirit beasts and dragons love it above all else. It already seems quite attached to you, but the moment you feed it this, a deep bond will form and its growth will accelerate as well.”
“I see. Thank you. What happens if I eat it myself?”
“A cultivator is fundamentally human. What flavor or effect could you possibly gain from a beast’s snack?”
She looked at him as though he were an idiot. Fair enough—if someone asked him what would happen if he ate dog food, he’d probably wear the same expression.
“Right. Just curious.”
“A cultivator should naturally prioritize their own path of cultivation first. Nothing special about it.”
The Deputy Lord was fundamentally a generous person. That was why she had given the Dusk even to someone whose Charm had been at rock bottom.
Whether Baekri-wan was right that cultivators of good character had higher odds of ascending, or whether this Deputy Lord was simply special, he still couldn’t say.
“I gratefully accept.”
“Kyaang, kyaang!”
The moment Han Yuhyeon took the Sweet Circle, the raccoon bounced excitedly on his crown. It was heavier than it looked; he felt his neck sink a little.
“Incidentally, we have little time left.”
The smoke wavered like a video call with a bad connection. Even this conversation apparently had a time limit.
But I’ve already gotten everything I came for—can’t she just leave now? The impure thought had barely surfaced when—
“So now it is my turn to ask you something.”
“Please ask anything you wish.”
What could a True Immortal of the Upper Realms possibly want to ask him? Wondering, Han Yuhyeon lowered his head.
“Are you the Beoncheon-ja?”
The instant the words reached him, Han Yuhyeon’s eyes flew open. The voice that had flowed out when the game swallowed him finally returned to his memory.
The world of Yeonhwa Seonrok is being adjusted according to cause and effect.
The Beoncheon-ja has entered the world. Cultivators who have reached the Ascendant Realm faintly sense this.
Fate-Knot Luck-Lock. Fate entangles. Luck seals shut.
Words he somehow had not remembered until this moment. As though someone had deliberately hidden them beyond the edge of awareness…