An Unwelcome Return
There was no question about it—the Taeheo Honwon-gyeong was an absurdly powerful cultivation method. Han Yuhyeon's innate spiritual root was pitifully weak. Had he trained with any of the techniques available in Yeongil-ju, it would have taken him years just to reach Qi Condensation 2-star.
But the Taeheo Honwon-gyeong itself was so exceptional that even someone with roots as poor as his could advance at a startling pace. If he ever managed to improve his spiritual root on top of that, the speed of his progress would be beyond imagining.
"I've never seen a cultivator advance as fast as you. I suppose when Heaven closes one door, it opens another."
"Which door did it close, exactly?"
"What do you think? The face door. And it didn't just close it—it locked the thing with about seven deadbolts."
"You son of a bitch."
"I'm a tiger."
Cheongho and Han Yuhyeon both snorted. By now, exchanges like this were nothing more than banter.
A month stuck together had made friendship inevitable. Cheongho, who had been wary at first, had even brought out the cub she'd been hiding. It was exactly the kind of trust Han Yuhyeon had been blathering about from the beginning. He fed the cub a small tree fruit.
For the record, Cheongho's cub was obscenely cute. Tiny body, big round eyes, pink toe beans, that warm baby-animal smell. The mere memory of having considered tossing it into a pot of boiling water the moment he heard about the Spirit Spirit Herb filled him with crushing guilt. How could anyone look at something that small and adorable and think about cooking it? That would have made him no better than the misanthropic cultivators who littered this world.
"Anyway, I leave tomorrow."
"So you do."
Cheongho yawned, jaws stretching wide.
"You'll head back to the village too, right?"
"Yeah."
"A month gone. Someone must be worried about you."
Han Yuhyeon ran through the possibilities. The Bounty Office guy came to mind, but he wouldn't be worried—he'd be cursing Han Yuhyeon for dying because he didn't listen.
"Nope."
"Not a single person? That can't be right."
"There really isn't."
Cheongho closed her mouth. Apparently she hadn't expected him to have zero friends.
"I seem to have poked a sore spot without meaning to."
"It doesn't hurt."
"No need to be embarrassed. That only makes it sadder."
"…"
This bastard's going full gaslight. Admit it and he was the friendless guy. Deny it and he was the pitiful friendless guy who couldn't even admit he had no friends.
Still, Han Yuhyeon had a legitimate grievance. He'd only been possessing this body for a little over two months, and he'd spent a full month of that out here. There simply hadn't been time to make friends. Explaining all that in detail wasn't an option, though, so he had no choice but to sit there and endure Cheongho's pitying stare.
"Anyway. This month was fun."
"Yeah. It was a strange experience for me too. First time I've learned that some cultivators can actually be trusted."
"That's not true. I'm special."
"Heh. I'll take your word for it."
Cheongho laughed. Han Yuhyeon laughed with her.
He'd gained a great deal from Neungha-gok. The Jin Deungryong Gyeongcheon-gong. The chance to pour himself into technique and method training until he hit Qi Condensation 2-star. And his first friend in this godforsaken world. The fact that said friend was a spiritual beast didn't matter in the slightest.
Stretched out on a broad rock, Han Yuhyeon stared up at a sky packed with stars—the kind of dense starfield Korea's fine dust usually hid from view.
"Oh. Shooting star."
"Where?"
It streaked past. Cheongho lifted her head too late; she'd been busy licking the cub nestled against her chest.
"Already gone. I made a wish."
"What did you wish for?"
"Nothing special. Just to live a long, long time."
"The hardest wish of all to grant."
"Tell me about it."
A soft purring rose from Cheongho's arms. The cub had fallen asleep.
Han Yuhyeon and Cheongho locked eyes. Silent agreement: the cub was out, so conversation was over.
Eyes closed, sleep crept over him. And right on the edge of drifting off, Han Yuhyeon thought he heard something.
"Sleep well, friend."
A yellowed book appeared before Han Yuhyeon's eyes. Letters of blood began to write themselves across the pages.
It had been a while since he'd activated the Mongan Hyeolseo. Now that he was aware of the trait, he could summon it whenever he liked. But he didn't have nearly enough spiritual stones for any grand purchases. He was broke as it was, and he still hadn't exchanged the Green-Eyed Herbs at the Bounty Office.
Funds on Hand: 300 Spiritual Stones(Lowest Grade)
Can you sell things to the shop, maybe?
The thought crossed his mind and he tried listing the Green-Eyed Herbs. Nothing. The shop only sold—it never bought.
Tch.
If every one of those herbs had converted to spiritual stones, he would have had around 1,800 combined with what he already held. A shame.
Still, since he was already here, he browsed the listings. Pure window shopping. The catalogs stretched on forever; just looking was entertainment enough.
Huh?
Something caught his eye. He blinked, certain he'd misread, but the blood-red letters stayed the same.
Price: 0 Spiritual Stones
Amazingly, free items existed. Of course, being free, not a single one of them was worth a damn.
Common deer antler. Wild ginseng. Straw overshoes. A lump of meat. Things with exactly zero value to him right now.
Kind of like a café telling you to take the used coffee grounds if you want.
He didn't overthink it. He picked an item and bought it. There was nothing else worth taking. If resale had been allowed, he would have cleaned out the free section and dumped it all for scrap change—but the shop had already made it clear that flipping goods wasn't an option.
The moment his business in the shop was done, he felt his consciousness yanked outward. The familiar sensation of leaving the Mongan Hyeolseo.
Han Yuhyeon opened his eyes and sat bolt upright. A chill lingered beside him. He turned—Cheongho and the cub were already gone. They must have left at dawn.
"Ha. Little shit. Didn't even say goodbye. No manners at all."
He ran a hand over the rock where they'd slept. It was cold. They'd been gone a while.
"Bought it for nothing."
He clicked his tongue and pulled a clump of grass from his storage pouch—the free catnip he'd bought from the Mongan Hyeolseo. The stuff feline beasts went crazy for. He'd meant it as a parting gift for Cheongho's cub. No longer needed. A cool morning wind swept through, and the ownerless catnip swayed aimlessly in the breeze.
"Huh? He's not dead?"
"Shit!"
The second Han Yuhyeon pushed open the Bounty Office door, several people recognized him and groaned. While he stood there blankly trying to figure out what was going on, a few of them pocketed wads of spiritual stones.
"Hahahaha! I knew you'd make it out alive!"
"Thank you! Thanks for living!"
The winners slapped his shoulders with gusto, and only then did he understand. They'd been betting on whether he'd come back alive.
The Bounty Office owner in particular looked like someone had kicked his dog. He'd clearly put a hefty sum on Han Yuhyeon's death.
"Ah, you useless little bastard. You actually survived."
"That's what you say to someone who's been gone a month?"
"Shut up! You cost me two months' income."
"Who told you to bet?"
"You should've come back two months later. Three months missing and they count you dead."
"Idiot."
Han Yuhyeon gave the owner a look of pure pity and handed over the pouch of Green-Eyed Herbs—he'd already transferred them from his storage pouch on the way in.
The owner grumbled but took it. Even after losing money, work was work.
"One, two, three… how the hell did you dig up this many?"
His eyes went wide as he counted. The people nearby gawked at the haul too.
"I've never seen that many Green-Eyed Herbs in one place in my life."
"Whoa, how much is that worth? Fifty spiritual stones each, right?"
The owner scribbled out a bill of exchange and handed it over. Take the note and the herbs to Baekun-pa, and the sect would pay out the spiritual stones. Other missions paid directly from the Bounty Office, but anything involving Baekun-pa required collecting in person. The office just brokered the job and verified completion—sect rules. Cultivators and their bullshit.
"Pleasure doing business."
Han Yuhyeon grinned and walked out. Envious, jealous stares stabbed into his back. He felt every one of them.
The old him would have been shaking in his boots, terrified someone would jump him for the herbs or the note. Not anymore. They were ordinary people. A truckload of them couldn't take him now.
He headed straight for Baekun-pa. Two disciples stood guard at the gate.
"Huh? Ugly Flower! You're alive!"
One of them recognized him—a familiar face from the times he'd hung around the Medicine King Hall.
"Somehow managed not to die, yeah."
"Whoa. I was sure you were a goner."
"Got lucky. Haha."
As Han Yuhyeon laughed, the silent disciple beside them pulled spiritual stones from his pouch and passed them to the one who'd been talking.
"…"
So they'd been betting on his life too. Human lives really were cheaper than flies around here. No wonder the welcome had been so bright.
"Thanks to you I made some spiritual stones. Appreciate it."
"You. Don't let me see your face again."
The two disciples offered completely opposite reactions. Han Yuhyeon was speechless. Who the hell bet on something like this?
But he knew they were both at least Qi Condensation 6-star. Mouth off to people like that and you'd be a corpse before you finished the sentence. He kept his eyes down and went inside.
The Medicine King Hall sat right past the main gate—deliberately placed outside so ordinary people on missions could come and go without entering the sect proper.
As always, dealing with the riffraff fell to Daoist Ak.
"Hm? Well, well. Look who it is."
Daoist Ak recognized him. Hard not to, with a face that distinctive.
Han Yuhyeon handed over the pouch of Green-Eyed Herbs and the bill of exchange from the Bounty Office.
"The Neungha-gok mission? So you were the one who took it."
"Yes."
"Wait—what? Fifteen hundred spiritual stones? You harvested thirty of them?"
Daoist Ak finally registered the amount and nearly choked. He stared at the note as if he could burn a hole through it, clearly hoping Han Yuhyeon had forged the thing. If anything, he seemed to be wishing that were the case.
Finding nothing wrong with the note, he turned to the herbs themselves. He examined them with painstaking care, then the corner of his mouth twitched upward as if he'd found what he was looking for.
"Sorry to say this, but these Green-Eyed Herbs weren't freshly picked. The quality looks a bit off. I can't pay you full price."
"Excuse me?"
Han Yuhyeon blinked. Daoist Ak snapped right back at him.
"Quality like this doesn't get full pay! How many times do I have to say it?!"
"The mission never said anything about quality."
He was right. The posting hadn't mentioned herb quality at all. Even if the herbs had lost some potency from sitting around after harvest, that wasn't Han Yuhyeon's fault.
"Are you talking back to me right now?"
Daoist Ak flared his aura. Han Yuhyeon, who had been staring blankly, slowly smiled.
He'd almost forgotten. Despite looking like a doddering old man, Daoist Ak was only Qi Condensation 1-star.