The Banquet
As expected, every gathering ended with a banquet. Han Yuhyeon had attended a few inside the Baekun Sect already, but the Yuanhou Gate's banquet was on an entirely different scale.
A single sect celebrating among its own members was one thing. A grand feast with more than twenty sects in attendance was something else altogether.
"Whoa."
"This is truly extravagant. That lion statue looks as if it were cast from black iron."
"Heat is pouring from the lion's mouth, isn't it? The exterior is black iron, but the inside of the maw seems lined with self-heating Yang Flame Steel."
"Even that sculpture alone must be worth a fortune."
With so many outside sects present, the Yuanhou Gate had packed the banquet hall with every scrap of ostentation they could muster. Even the cultivators from So-ui-ju were impressed—so the country bumpkins of the Baekun Sect from Yeongil-ju hardly stood a chance.
"Haah."
"Kyaaang."
Of course, Baekri-wan stood well outside this parade of gawking. She and Biyong yawned at the exact same moment. Biyong threw its head back and gaped wide; Baekri-wan, ever refined, merely covered her mouth with one hand.
"Are you tired?"
"Mm. I've seen far too much nonsense already. My eyes are tired and my body is worn out."
Apparently the technique exhibition that had just concluded had been pure tedium to Baekri-wan's eyes. Curiosity got the better of Han Yuhyeon.
"How was my stage?"
"Decent enough."
"That's a relief."
He asked carefully,
"How much did you put down?"
"Fifty."
"Hah. Lower-grade spirit stones, right?"
"You think I would wager fifty bottom-grade stones?"
Baekri-wan looked at him as if he were an idiot. Han Yuhyeon felt a small swell of emotion. Fifty lower-grade spirit stones was the absolute maximum any single person could wager on the exhibition. She had called it "decent enough" in that flat tone of hers, but inside she must have been rather impressed.
"Thank you. Isn't that a little excessive? How many people burn fifty lower-grade stones on a technique contest?"
"It was simply worth that much."
She turned her head away as she said it. She would have been cute—if she still had her real face.
"I can barely remember Elder’s original face anymore. That mask is starting to feel like the real one."
"Please don't say things that make me sick."
Baekri-wan shuddered with genuine horror. Goosebumps, by the look of it.
Han Yuhyeon had assumed the Baekun Sect cultivators would simply chat among themselves until the banquet wound down. Normally people would catch up with old acquaintances from other sects, but the Baekun Sect was the only group that had come from Yeongil-ju; they had no acquaintances here at all.
That assumption proved wrong. Far across the hall, a cultivator spotted Han Yuhyeon, smiled, and started walking over.
"Hahaha. If it isn't the junior with the remarkable beast-taming arts. I truly enjoyed your performance."
Even as the man approached and offered greetings, Han Yuhyeon still failed to realize he was the intended target.
An inner disciple of the Baekun Sect from Yeongil-ju—by any measure of status, the absolute bottom of this banquet hall. On top of that he had refused to bow his head, picked fights, and extorted spirit stones from half the room. The idea that anyone would seek him out had simply never crossed his mind.
"I enjoyed it as well. Junior Han, yes?"
"Might I ask how you learned those beast-taming arts?"
Contrary to every expectation, the cultivators of So-ui-ju were intensely interested in him.
"Hah, haha. For seniors of such stature to show interest in a lowly junior like myself—I hardly know where to put myself."
Surrounded in an instant by senior cultivators, Han Yuhyeon had no idea what to do. Baekri-wan, who had been standing right beside him a moment ago, had somehow melted away, leaving him nothing to lean on.
"Beast-taming arts capable of raising a spirit beast to the point where it can mock a senior like that are rare even in So-ui-ju. You are truly wasted in Yeongil-ju."
Only then did the realization hit. They were interested in his beast-taming arts.
Blinded by the spirit stones he had raked in, he had completely overlooked the fact that beast-taming arts themselves were an uncommon skill—and that the performance Biyong had put on looked like high-level beast-taming even to the cultivators of So-ui-ju.
The problem, of course, was that Biyong was not a spirit beast raised by beast-taming arts at all. It was simply a dragon, and therefore started at a completely different weight class.
"I was fortunate enough to learn a technique related to beast-taming. I've always liked animals, so I think enjoying the practice itself was the key factor."
"Ohh!"
Han Yuhyeon launched into the lie without so much as wetting his lips. There was no way he could turn around now and claim it wasn't beast-taming after all.
"Naturally that raccoon friend of yours was a spirit beast living in Yeongil-ju as well, was it not? How a spirit beast from Yeongil-ju could grow to that level is astonishing. If a creature raised in Yeongil-ju is already this capable, what would happen if one raised a spirit beast captured in So-ui-ju?"
"The senior speaks quite rightly."
The cultivators calling him "junior" in such familiar tones acted as if they had known him for decades.
At first they had not even glanced his way. Later he had picked fights with nearly every sect present and ruined whatever relationships might have existed. Yet the moment he looked competent, they flipped their stance overnight. Classic cultivation world behavior.
"Junior Han's realm appears to be around late Qi Condensation, is that correct?"
"Ah. I've just reached eight stars."
His answer made the surrounding cultivators start in delayed shock. The majority of them belonged to sects he had clashed with—because he had, after all, gone around picking fights with almost everyone.
"What? Eight stars?"
"Impossible. The disciple of ours you crushed so thoroughly is ten stars in Qi Condensation."
"That makes no sense!"
For some reason the cultivators surrounding him were mostly elders of their respective sects who had already reached Foundation Establishment.
They had assumed that anyone who could thrash their own inner disciples must be at least ten stars in Qi Condensation or higher. Learning he was still only eight stars—not even late-stage yet—was a genuine surprise.
"Truly eight stars of Qi Condensation?"
"Come to think of it, the spiritual energy he actually released was about that level."
"Could he possess a Heavenly Spiritual Root?"
Interest poured down on him at once. A four-star Qi Condensation cultivator had a total spiritual root stat of eighty; a five-star had one hundred. From those numbers one could deduce a simple fact: the fewer roots a person possessed, the higher the average quality of each root. A five-star with four roots would likely have twenty-five in each. A single root—a Heavenly Spiritual Root—would mean one root at one hundred, producing destructive power on a completely different plane from peers of the same realm.
"Unfortunately, I do not have a Heavenly Spiritual Root."
Rather the opposite—I've got the full set of five junk roots. Han Yuhyeon's fighting style had never been about raw destructive power. It came from combat sense and knowledge honed over years of gaming, plus high-grade techniques that simply did not exist in Yeongil-ju.
"True. It wasn't the kind of force a Heavenly Spiritual Root would produce. Still, your instincts and adaptability were extraordinary. If we had been the same realm, I had the distinct feeling I would never have been able to win."
"Senior's praise is far too generous for this junior to accept."
Han Yuhyeon bowed his head, but the cultivators' interest had already swollen beyond control.
He had assumed that if he simply flattered them a little and answered carefully they would eventually leave. They showed no intention of withdrawing their attention.
"If you can fight at that level already at eight stars of Qi Condensation, I am truly curious what you will become once your realm rises."
"That combat power plus beast-taming arts—your path ahead shines bright, junior!"
"Spirit beasts obey far better when their master is well above them in realm, so Junior Han will need to raise his own cultivation. There simply aren't spirit beasts in So-ui-ju that a late-stage Qi Condensation beast-tamer can handle."
"Quite right. Junior, it would be best if you sought a better foundation for yourself."
An awkward suggestion. The sect master was standing right nearby—what were they saying? Han Yuhyeon glanced toward Un Song-byeok, but the So-ui-ju cultivators paid not the slightest attention to the master of a Yeongil-ju sect. This was not a mere lack of delicacy. It was open contempt.
Un Song-byeok kept his back turned as if he could not hear, yet Han Yuhyeon noticed every flinch that ran through the man whenever those words were spoken.
"With beast-taming arts of that caliber you would be welcomed anywhere in So-ui-ju. What do you say? Come to our sect. We raise several spirit beasts ourselves and could use a disciple who has mastered the arts."
"Now see here, this fellow is jumping the queue in the most underhanded way. I came to make the same offer myself."
Han Yuhyeon was flustered. He felt like an employee receiving job offers right in front of his current boss. In the cultivation world, transferring between sects was far more common than in the murim, yet this still struck him as appallingly tactless.
The men surrounding him, however, were the elder-class figures of So-ui-ju. Even Un Song-byeok could say nothing; Han Yuhyeon was in no position to object.
"...Haha. Our sect master has treated me so well..."
He spoke carefully, watching everyone's faces. In truth he had never learned beast-taming arts at all, so he could not accept their offers even if he wanted to. At this point, at least pretending to keep faith was the wiser course.
"What nonsense. No matter how well they treat you in a place like Yeongil-ju, the cultivation resources and spirit stones you received must have been pitiful. For the sake of your own future, moving your body to So-ui-ju is the only proper course. Consider this simple advice from a senior cultivator."
"Every word is so correct I cannot help but agree."
So this was why the elders of old always told idle youth to learn a trade. At eight stars of Qi Condensation he was not the sort of talent these people should be competing over, yet a single (fake) beast-taming skill had brought him offers from the sects of So-ui-ju. He was almost dizzy.
They clearly felt not the slightest need to show Un Song-byeok respect. Put bluntly, they saw no reason to. They knew full well that no matter how bluntly they spoke, Un Song-byeok would not dare open his mouth.
Over one shoulder Han Yuhyeon watched Un Song-byeok drift farther away. No matter how hard the man pretended nothing was wrong, hearing all of this must have been unbearable.
In the end Han Yuhyeon spent the entire remainder of the banquet gently declining the offers of every So-ui-ju sect. Those he refused looked disappointed, yet each still seemed determined to leave a good impression—as if knowing him personally might prove useful later.
"Quite popular, aren't you."
Once he had finally shaken off the cultivators who clung like leeches, Baekri-wan reappeared as if she had never left.
Han Yuhyeon looked at the woman who had abandoned him with open resentment.
"Where did you go?"
"For a walk. Would anything have changed if I had stayed?"
"Well, no."
He said it, yet he could not help thinking that even those men might not have been able to cow Baekri-wan. Imagining her intimidated was simply impossible. By now he was certain she was no ordinary elder of the Baekun Sect.
"Be careful."
"Pardon? Of what? I don't think they'll cause trouble just because I refused."
"Not them. The sect master."
The remark came out of nowhere. Han Yuhyeon asked again,
"You mean the sect master of our Baekun Sect?"
"Since when did it become 'our' Baekun Sect?"
"No, that isn't what I meant. It's simply true that I belong here at the moment."
"I almost misunderstood."
"Anyway, what do you mean by 'be careful'?"
In truth Han Yuhyeon had already sensed that Un Song-byeok was unlikely to stay quiet. There had been the fearful look in the man's eyes when Geom Jung-gun was captured, and now today's events on top of that.
"Stop playing the innocent. It's nauseating."
Baekri-wan had already seen through it—the fact that Han Yuhyeon was already wary of Un Song-byeok.
"Was it that obvious?"
"To me. I don't know about anyone else."
If Baekri-wan had noticed, then other cultivators might have noticed as well. One more reason to leave as soon as possible.
In the murim one was supposed to revere a sect master like a father. Han Yuhyeon still could not understand why the character for "chivalry" had ever been attached to the xianxia genre in the first place.
"I understand. Thank you, Elder."
"You already knew. You knew you couldn't stay with the Baekun Sect."
"Well, yes."
In less than a year he had climbed to eight stars of Qi Condensation. On top of that he had defeated someone at the peak of the realm. In a world of pure survival of the fittest, a tiger never stayed under a dog for long.
"Then what about you, Elder? You never liked being stuck in Yeongil-ju either."
"Who knows?"
"Shall we leave together?"
He asked. The suggestion clearly caught her off guard; Baekri-wan flinched.
"You don't have some other ulterior motive, do you?"
"I already told you. Your real face is starting to feel like that mask."
"Even as a joke that is unpleasant."
If anything, the one who should feel unpleasant was him—yet that, too, was the fault of the ugly face he had been born with.
"Anyway, I'll think about it."
Leaving that ambiguous answer, Baekri-wan returned to her own room.
The moment she vanished from sight, Han Yuhyeon quietly headed for an empty stretch of forest.
Whether Un Song-byeok made some decision, whether Han Yuhyeon himself crossed into So-ui-ju—none of it changed what he needed to do right now.
Fortunately, every spirit stone wagered during the technique exhibition belonged to the performer. As a result, his current funds stood as follows.
Growing stronger. In the cultivation world, nothing else mattered more.
First of all, he needed a sword art that suited the Blood Shadow Nine Nights Sword.