Initiation
In those few short seconds, Han Yuhyeon finished every calculation. At this old man's age, stuck at Qi Condensation 1-star, further advancement was essentially a fantasy. That was why he was stuck in a dead-end post like this.
"I'm talking back, old man. You got a problem?"
"What?"
This geezer was no one of importance even within Baekun-pa. Once that much was certain, Han Yuhyeon no longer had any reason to hesitate.
He grabbed his own waist and threw his body backward.
"Khhhaaagh."
"You little— what do you think you're—?"
"Ptooey!"
He snapped his body forward again and spat a thick gob of phlegm.
The yellow wad slapped onto Daoist Ak's nose and spread. Han Yuhyeon knew exactly how humiliating and filthy that felt — he'd taken a faceful of the same stuff on his first day after transmigrating.
For a beat, Daoist Ak didn't even register what had just been done to him. Then the stench of rotting garbage rose from the bridge of his nose, and his face turned a furious, blotchy red.
"You insane little bastard…!"
His features twisted into something demonic as he unleashed a palm technique — Baekun-pa's basic Cloud Mist Palm Technique.
A blast of palm wind wrapped in white cloud shot toward Han Yuhyeon. He snorted and twisted his body just enough to slip past it.
Boom!
The boulder behind him took the full force of the strike and shattered into rubble.
"What—!"
Daoist Ak's eyes nearly split open. A mortal could not dodge a cultivator's attack.
If a mortal had dodged it, then that "mortal" was a cultivator.
"You're a cultivator?"
"What, is that a problem?"
Han Yuhyeon sneered. Daoist Ak ground his teeth.
"You must have stumbled onto some fortune and awakened your spiritual roots. Even so, you've only just reached Qi Condensation 1-star — and already you have no respect for a senior cultivator."
Daoist Ak correctly deduced that Han Yuhyeon was newly initiated. It was the only logical conclusion: if he'd been a cultivator all along, there would have been no reason to play at being a mortal.
Extending that same logic to assume he was still only 1-star was also reasonable enough. Han Yuhyeon had been absent from Myeong-wang-bong for a month at most. If he had become a cultivator in that window, he could only be Qi Condensation 1-star right now.
"Qi Condensation 1-star and you want senior treatment? At your age, still stuck at 1-star, you ought to be ashamed of yourself."
"Silence! Even if we share the same realm, do not for a moment think you and I are equals!"
Enraged, Daoist Ak stamped a true step. The ground split from his toes and raced toward Han Yuhyeon. Han Yuhyeon leapt straight up. The fissure detonated where he had been standing. Watching it from midair, Han Yuhyeon was freshly reminded how terrifying cultivators truly were. Even a mere Qi Condensation 1-star could split the earth and pulverize stone.
"Old man. You're making one big mistake."
Han Yuhyeon dropped with the Thousand-Jin Fall technique, slamming into the dirt with a heavy thud. The ground cratered into a half-circle around the point of impact.
"What makes you think I'm Qi Condensation 1-star?"
"What?"
Daoist Ak faltered. Han Yuhyeon kicked off the earth and shot forward. White energy from the True Dragon Ascending Heaven-Shocking Art unfurled from his body like smoke and wrapped around him.
"A body-tempering art? You've already learned a cultivation method?!"
Daoist Ak hadn't wasted all his years, at least — he recognized the body-tempering technique the instant it appeared.
He drew a taiji with both hands and raised a shield of cloud.
"You think a technique you've practiced for a single month can defeat me?!"
Daoist Ak shouted with confidence. Spiritual roots had left him stranded at Qi Condensation 1-star, but he was no fool.
Knowing full well he sat at the bottom of the cultivator food chain, he had poured far more effort into defense than offense. Of all his techniques, he was most proud of Cloud Wall, the staple defensive art.
Even to Han Yuhyeon's eye, the cloud shield looked thick. But in this world, realm was absolute.
There was a reason an elderly Qi Condensation 1-star cultivator would bow his head and address a child at 2-star as "senior."
To leap a realm, you needed at least a treasure or talisman capable of overturning the situation, or a technique that held a hard counter. Daoist Ak had neither.
Spiritual energy flooded into a fist already reinforced by the True Dragon Ascending Heaven-Shocking Art. Han Yuhyeon cut short his approach, planted, and fired the loaded punch like a cannon shell.
KRAKOOM!
The air itself compressed and burst. The dense cloud shield Daoist Ak had woven tore apart before their eyes.
"Th-this is—!"
Daoist Ak stared in horror as his Cloud Wall shattered under a single fist. Panicking, he tried to redraw the taiji and gather more cloud — but Han Yuhyeon's punch had already punched clean through every layer of the shield.
"Oh shit— Senior!"
Too late, Daoist Ak realized the other man outranked him and cried out. Momentum, however, was not something a punch could simply stop. And Han Yuhyeon had no intention of stopping it.
CRACK!
The True Dragon–reinforced fist slammed into Daoist Ak's jaw.
His face spun like a famous figure skater's body mid-routine. The difference was that only the face was spinning — the rest of him stayed put.
Pop!
It rotated so hard that his head detached from his shoulders with a cute little sound. Even after it hit the ground, the head kept spinning in neat, cheerful circles.
"That's more like it!"
Watching the head of the man who had always looked at him like a worm come clean off felt fantastic.
In the village he had already seen mortals torn apart for no better reason than a cultivator's foul mood, so his sense for killing had long since gone numb.
And it wasn't as if Daoist Ak had ever been kind. Han Yuhyeon had eaten constant abuse for nothing but an ugly face and been paid insulting wages for his labor. He felt not a shred of guilt for launching the old man's head. If anything, watching it spin like one of those popular tops from 2000s Korea was almost funny.
"Whoa, look at it go."
"Is a human head even supposed to spin like that?"
"Kind of hilarious, though?"
And that reaction was average for a xianxia world. The Baekun-pa cultivators who had sensed the fight and come to watch were enjoying the sight of Daoist Ak's head just as much.
"If that useless old man can make this many people laugh as he dies, that's a good death."
"Damn right."
A few cultivators even recorded the scene with image-capturing spirit stones. Han Yuhyeon, who had been enjoying himself a moment earlier, found that a bit much. He at least had a personal grudge against Daoist Ak. These people were fellow disciples of the same sect — and they were still acting like this.
Xianxia average is brutal as hell.
He had thought he was already steeped in this world's ways. Apparently that had been wishful thinking.
"Ugly one. When did you set foot on the path of cultivation?"
"Come now, calling a fellow cultivator 'ugly one'? The man has a name, you know."
Once Daoist Ak's head-spin show had concluded to great success, the Baekun-pa daoists finally turned their attention to Han Yuhyeon.
He recognized at once that they were cultivators of higher realm than himself and bowed his head.
"Ah. I encountered a fortune in Neungha-gok."
"Judging by your spiritual energy, you look about Qi Condensation 2-star. Is that correct?"
"It is."
"If memory serves, you've only been gone a month. Reaching 2-star in that time — it must have been quite the fortune."
"I wouldn't really know."
Han Yuhyeon played dumb. Admitting he had cultivated the Great Void Primordial Chaos Scripture to reach Qi Condensation 2-star would have been pure suicide. It would be the same as announcing that he possessed a Foundation Establishment–level method they could never even dream of.
"In any case, an impressive achievement. Well done."
Even after he had just killed a fellow sect cultivator, the Baekun-pa cultivators clapped him on the shoulder without the slightest hesitation.
That was the difference between a xianxia sect and a murim sect. Where murim sects bound themselves with righteousness and chivalry, xianxia sects were filled with competitors constantly looking for a chance to stab each other in the back.
The resources the sect distributed for advancement were finite. Fewer mouths meant more for you. As a result, some of them not only didn't care that a fellow member had died — they were actively pleased about it.
"So you're still a rogue cultivator, then."
"That's right."
"To reach Qi Condensation 2-star in a single month, you must possess excellent comprehension. How about it? Care to join our Baekun-pa?"
Han Yuhyeon was startled. Ordinary disciples resented new arrivals because more people meant a thinner split of resources.
The only person who would actively recruit like this was someone of real standing. At minimum, this man who looked like a man in his forties had to be an elder of Baekun-pa.
"This junior greets the Elder."
"Haha. Sharp as well. Yes. I am Elder Mun Il-pyeong of Baekun-pa. I currently reside at Qi Condensation 10-star."
Han Yuhyeon wet his lips with his tongue. As a rule, stars one through four were early stage, five through nine mid stage, and ten through thirteen late stage. The fourteenth and final star was called Completion. This man had entered the late stage of Qi Condensation.
The gap between 2-star and 10-star was something no amount of desperate ass-kissing would let Han Yuhyeon close. He flattened himself at once.
"So it was the renowned Elder Mun. This junior has been terribly discourteous."
"Haha! Discourteous? Well, your face is a bit of a discourtesy, but! Hahaha!"
"Hahaha!"
It was a deeply unpleasant joke, but Han Yuhyeon forced a hearty laugh along with him.
"Well then. What do you say to my proposal?"
Mun Il-pyeong asked. Han Yuhyeon immediately started running the numbers.
He had played Yeonhwa Seonrok dozens of times, but he had almost never lingered long in the Yeongil-ju region. Naturally he had never joined Baekun-pa, and had never planned to.
The simple reason was that the next region, So-ui-ju, already hosted plenty of sects and clans that could carry a cultivator all the way through Foundation Establishment. Just like in murim, this world had its prestigious sects and great clans.
The standard play was therefore to skip most of the side quests in Yeongil-ju and push into So-ui-ju as fast as possible.
"You refuse?"
"Ah. Not so much a refusal as… I was wondering whether I was truly fit to become a member of the great Baekun-pa."
The moment he stalled, Mun Il-pyeong's voice sharpened. Han Yuhyeon immediately put his silver tongue to work.
"As Elder can see for himself, my face is… rather hard on the eyes. Of course, for a cultivator the inner self matters more — but one can hardly ignore the exterior others must look upon. I fear I would only cause trouble for my senior brothers."
"I will personally guarantee against that. Should any inconvenience arise on account of your face, I will take responsibility. Spiritual roots and comprehension capable of reaching Qi Condensation 2-star in a month make you a talent more than worthy of the great Baekun-pa."
Oh-ho. That was unexpected. Even allowing for everything, for a sect elder to go this far out of his way for a mere 2-star rogue cultivator…
Mun Il-pyeong clearly regarded him as an extraordinary talent.
In that case, this was not a bad offer. It meant he could make a solid start inside Baekun-pa. Belonging to a sect meant regular spirit stones and access to better missions.
And the most important point of all: if Han Yuhyeon charged into So-ui-ju right now, he would die at least five times. So-ui-ju was a brutal place for anyone still in early Qi Condensation.
In a game he could simply reload a save. This world would not forgive him a single death. If he wanted to move to the next region, he needed to be thoroughly prepared.
Han Yuhyeon nodded, calculations complete.
"That this junior might be permitted to enter the great Baekun-pa… is truly an honor."
"Hahaha! We are the ones delighted to gain a talent like you!"
Mun Il-pyeong and Han Yuhyeon smiled at each other. Mun Il-pyeong, however, seemed to find Han Yuhyeon's smiling face a bit much and quickly looked away.
"Now that you are an outer disciple, we must complete the formal induction. Come with me to the Great Main Hall."
"The Great Main Hall?"
"Yes. That is where the Sect Master of the great Baekun-pa resides."
Han Yuhyeon tilted his head. Unlike the family-like murim sects, xianxia sects were not tightly bound. Just look at Mun Il-pyeong, casually scouting the man who had just killed a fellow disciple — useless old man or not.
This was a twisted world where the sect treated its disciples as expendable resources and the disciples treated the sect as something to be milked dry. Unlike murim, merely joining rarely meant you got to meet the Sect Master.
Even in the game, you needed at least the status of a direct disciple before you could see the Sect Master in person. Being taken to him the moment he joined felt off. Or perhaps this world simply diverged a little from the game.
"Follow me."
"Yes, understood."
He could hardly demand an explanation on the spot. Han Yuhyeon quietly fell in behind Mun Il-pyeong.
Come to think of it… what happens to those fifteen hundred spirit stones?
The thought crossed his mind, but the deeper they went the more heavily guarded everything became, and the atmosphere no longer invited questions.