This Can Actually Work?
Jin Somyeong, who had been nearly giddy over the abundant harvest, forced his excitement back down.
Once his head was cool again, he began calculating the value of the items Wang Shin had been carrying.
"At least one thousand Spirit Stones."
Even by the most conservative estimate, it exceeded a thousand Spirit Stones. Of course, if he excluded the first-tier top-grade magic artifact mask, the total would plummet, but the point still stood.
Wang Shin was only in the middle stage of Qi Refining. Does this make any sense?
It was too much. In Jin Somyeong's judgment, a thousand Spirit Stones was a sum that would burden even a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.
And besides, everything else aside, the white Faceless Mask was the real problem. He had examined it without much expectation, only to discover that it was the greatest treasure of all. Compared to that suspicious mask, even the storage pouch seemed trivial.
A first-tier top-grade magic artifact that even works against Foundation Establishment cultivators.
That was not something a mere middle-stage Qi Refining cultivator should possess. This sort of item was not something one could simply buy with Spirit Stones.
What kind of beings were Foundation Establishment masters? They were rulers who could sway the whole of Jeokyang Market, a place where tens of thousands lived.
And what did those who held power fear most? Their own safety, naturally. There was no way they would allow items that could threaten them to circulate in the market.
It was suspicious.
The Wang Shin he had killed had secrets. Jin Somyeong could no longer regard him as an ordinary cultivator.
How in the world did he get the Faceless Mask?
After brooding over it for some time, Jin Somyeong flinched. Before he realized it, he was murmuring blankly to himself.
"The only ones who can deal with Foundation Establishment masters... are other Foundation Establishment masters."
A chill crawled over him at the conclusion that had suddenly surfaced.
He wanted to believe that Wang Shin had simply obtained the Faceless Mask through absurd luck, but he could not afford to. He had to assume the worst. If that man had a Foundation Establishment expert backing him...
I'm screwed.
A cold weight settled in one corner of his chest. Without even realizing it, he might have made an enemy of an old Foundation Establishment monster.
Foundation Establishment cultivators were monsters in human skin.
The difference in strength was too vast. To them, Qi Refining cultivators were no different from ants. They would only have to point a finger at him, and it would be over. His flesh would burst apart beneath the crushing pressure of their overwhelming spiritual power.
Calm down.
Nothing had been decided yet. He took a deep breath and steadied his mind.
He recalled the situation when he had killed Wang Shin.
He definitely called Cheong Hwa-ran his boss.
That meant Wang Shin's greatest backing was Cheong Hwa-ran. At least on the surface.
Under normal circumstances, there would be no reason to doubt it. Who would weigh their words carefully when making threats on the verge of death?
But Cheong Hwa-ran isn't Foundation Establishment. She's only late-stage Qi Refining.
Could a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator obtain a first-tier top-grade magic artifact?
He was skeptical.
Even if she could obtain one, it would be exceedingly precious. And if she had given such a treasure to a subordinate, then it meant she valued that subordinate greatly.
Either way, there were too many problems.
After considering several possibilities, Jin Somyeong let out a sigh.
"I don't have enough information to judge. I need more clues."
Putting off his conclusion, he left the cave residence. He felt the need to learn more about Cheong Hwa-ran, the late-stage Qi Refining expert Wang Shin had warned him about.
First, he spent one Spirit Stone to buy spirit fruit and spirit tea.
These foods, infused with spiritual energy, were not only delicious but also useful for cultivation. All cultivators liked them, which made them perfect gifts for neighbors.
Carrying the food, he began visiting the nearby cave residences one by one.
"...And you are?"
"A pleasure to meet you. I am the rogue cultivator Yeo Dongbin, newly moved into Cave Residence Seventeen."
He introduced himself to the nearby residents while gifting them spirit fruit. Perhaps because he had brought presents, most welcomed him with smiles, and it was not difficult to keep the conversation going.
"I have not been in Jeokyang Market for long, so I am ignorant of the local rumors. If there are any people I ought to be careful of, might I ask for your guidance?"
"People you should be careful of? That is simple enough. You must be especially wary of the geniuses of the three great families."
The important figures his neighbors named were mostly the same: famous geniuses from the Red Sun Sect, which ruled the market, and the three great families.
"The geniuses of the three great families: Ju Yeon-hwa, Dan Sa-ryang, and Heo Muk. If you ever meet those three, you must never be rude to them."
"...Are their temperaments difficult, perhaps?"
"Aigoo! Fellow Daoist Yeo, what are you saying? All three of them are kind and righteous people. It is only..."
The neighbor glanced around, then continued in a cautious voice.
"The geniuses of the three great families are all seeds of the next generation's Foundation Establishment. Before long, they will become Foundation Establishment masters and lead their families. Naturally, they must be treated with respect."
"I see. Given their noble status, however, I doubt I will ever have the chance to meet them. Are there any people among the rogue cultivators I ought to be careful of?"
"Rogue cultivators? Well, true enough. The ones we really need to be careful around are the experts among the rogue cultivators."
The neighbor nodded and launched into a long explanation. Judging by the way he spoke, he seemed to enjoy talking.
After listening for some time, Jin Somyeong finally heard the name he wanted.
"Cheong Hwa-ran. You should also be careful of her. She is the boss who leads the Blue Flood Dragon Gang, and she is famous for cherishing her subordinates."
"Cherishing her subordinates, is it..."
Jin Somyeong was pleased that the topic had shifted to Cheong Hwa-ran as he had intended, but he did not show it. He asked in a natural tone, "Cheong Hwa-ran sounds like a very feminine name at a glance, so it is rather fascinating that she is called boss."
"Ahem. You mustn't say that elsewhere. I tell you this for your own sake, Fellow Daoist."
After clearing his throat, the neighbor continued his explanation.
"Cheong Hwa-ran was originally an orphan abandoned in the market. What fate do you think awaits a little beggar in this world? A miserable one, of course. And yet, astonishingly..."
After learning what he wanted, Jin Somyeong returned to his cave residence.
He closed his mouth and sank quietly into thought.
It had not been difficult to learn about Cheong Hwa-ran. She was a very famous rogue cultivator in Jeokyang Market. Her reputation had grown even greater after she rejected the marriage proposal of Dan Sa-ryang, a genius of the Dan Family, one of the three great families.
She's similar to me after my reincarnation.
Cheong Hwa-ran's life had some points in common with his. She had been an orphan raised without proper parents, picked up by a gang of beggars and raised as a child who begged for alms.
She had also begun cultivating without a master, but that was where the similarities between her and Jin Somyeong ended.
At the mere age of nine, she had begun cultivating the Five Elements Qi Refining Art on her own, and with her outstanding talent, she had entered Qi Refining without even using Spirit Stones.
The first thing she had done after becoming a Qi Refining cultivator was beat down the leader of the beggar gang who had abused her.
After that, she gathered the brothers and sisters who had begged alongside her and founded the Blue Flood Dragon Gang.
Impressive.
In the harsh environment of Jeokyang Market, where it was difficult enough to survive alone, she had led a group of snot-nosed children and built something independent. Now she had even become a late-stage Qi Refining expert. She was truly a remarkable figure, nothing like an ordinary rogue cultivator.
"Haa."
Thinking about Cheong Hwa-ran made him sigh. She was someone he would rather not become enemies with if he could help it.
What's already happened can't be helped.
He set aside his worries about her.
He had hidden his identity and rented a cave residence in the Inner City, so he had at least taken the minimum precautions for his own safety.
The most important thing now was the existence of the Faceless Mask, which even worked against Foundation Establishment cultivators.
How did a man who followed me for a mere fifty Spirit Stones end up carrying a treasure like this?
His gaze shifted.
He looked through the items that had been inside Wang Shin's storage pouch. Wondering if there were any other clues, he examined them one by one with care.
There are Qi Condensing Pills... and is this an antidote pill?
There were many useful medicinal pills, but he could not recklessly consume them. It would be better to sell them off and convert them into Spirit Stones.
He set them aside and continued rummaging through the storage pouch.
Ten minutes later, after inspecting every item, including the miscellaneous junk, he finally discovered a suspicious token.
It was an octagonal treasured plaque made of elegant old wood. There were no patterns engraved upon it, but it gave off the sense of something important. It radiated the unmistakable air of a finely crafted masterpiece.
However, when he infused it with spiritual energy, it showed no reaction. Even after a closer look, it seemed like an ordinary wooden plaque.
"...Tsk. No matter how I look at it, it's suspicious."
If Wang Shin's identity had not been questionable, Jin Somyeong might have simply passed it over.
But he could not do that now.
Gripping the wooden plaque tightly, Jin Somyeong focused his mind and activated the divine power engraved in his soul.
The moment he amplified his already keen five senses, the hidden secret revealed itself.
Deep inside the seemingly ordinary wooden plaque, he sensed a faint heat.
"...This feels like a formation disk."
He could recognize it because it was similar to the cave residence token he possessed. There was a very high chance that this wooden plaque was a key that opened some kind of barrier.
Moreover, the heat it emitted felt strangely familiar. He had definitely sensed it somewhere before.
The moment he strained to search through his memories, something flashed through his mind like a spark.
"The Red Sun Sect!"
There was no doubt.
He felt a majestic mountain range wreathed in flames. The quality of the aura was exactly the same as the one he had experienced at the Red Sun Sect's gate.
This wooden plaque was undoubtedly a Red Sun Sect formation disk.
"Why does Wang Shin have something that's basically a key?"
No one handed keys over to outsiders.
The fact that Wang Shin had this formation disk meant he belonged to the Red Sun Sect.
But that made no sense either.
Cheong Hwa-ran shouldn't be on good terms with the Red Sun Sect.
At least, that was what he had learned.
Cheong Hwa-ran was a late-stage Qi Refining rogue cultivator. She was also famous for her outstanding talent. There was no way her relationship with the Red Sun Sect and the three great families could be good.
The reason was simple.
If she broke through to Foundation Establishment, she would stand on equal footing with them.
From the rulers' perspective, that was something they could never allow. Who would welcome a competitor? Their interests clashed, so conflict was inevitable.
Cultivation resources were always limited.
Jeokyang Market was already saturated with the three great families and the Red Sun Sect. It could not endure another Foundation Establishment cultivator.
There was only one way for Cheong Hwa-ran to reconcile with the powers of Jeokyang Market: submit to them and place her lifeline in their hands.
There's no way she'd do that.
The moment she bowed her head, further cultivation would become impossible. She would have no choice but to become a high-class slave and work for them.
If Cheong Hwa-ran were going to submit, she wouldn't have rejected the Dan Family's marriage proposal.
And yet, in this situation, Wang Shin, a subordinate of Cheong Hwa-ran, had a Red Sun Sect token.
The two pieces of information contradicted each other.
Jin Somyeong fell into deep thought, trying to combine the clues he had gathered and figure out what had happened.
As he stared at the Faceless Mask, he suddenly froze.
The disguise artifact, the mask, was almost like...
"Spy equipment."
His eyes widened at the words he had muttered without thinking.
It felt as if the blockage in his mind had burst open. The Faceless Mask was exactly the sort of object a spy would carry.
His thoughts, whirling rapidly, arrived at a single conclusion.
"Wang Shin. What if that bastard was a traitor watching Cheong Hwa-ran?"
That explained everything.
To the Red Sun Sect, the most dangerous existence was a talented late-stage Qi Refining cultivator. There was no reason not to keep her under surveillance.
After all, only by suppressing geniuses who might reach Foundation Establishment at any time could the Red Sun Sect maintain its position.
Sending one spy to monitor her was hardly difficult. Whether through threats or temptation, there were plenty of methods.
"...At least that's fortunate."
For Jin Somyeong, it was good news.
If his guess was correct, then it was no different from a ray of light descending into the worst possible situation.
From the Red Sun Sect's perspective, they would suspect Cheong Hwa-ran of Wang Shin's death rather than him. There was also now a possibility that Cheong Hwa-ran might become not an enemy, but a friend.
If Wang Shin, whom he had killed, had been a spy, then Jin Somyeong had effectively helped her. A relationship that might have been irreversible could develop instead into an alliance against a common enemy.
"Whew."
Jin Somyeong let out a breath.
In the end, speculation was still only speculation. He did not know whether his guess was true or not.
What mattered most was still strength.
Before his potential enemies came looking for him, he had to raise his realm. Otherwise, he would be killed without even knowing how it had happened.
"Still... I should do what I can."
With a soft click, Jin Somyeong put on the Faceless Mask and infused it with spiritual energy.
His face changed at once.
Now transformed into a rough-looking man who called to mind a bandit, he headed out into the street. He visited an escort agency that handled various errands and wrote a letter consisting of a single line.
Wang Shin was a traitor. Traitors must die.
After paying Spirit Stones and requesting that it be delivered to the Blue Flood Dragon Gang, he returned to his cave residence while remaining vigilant against pursuit.
This should be enough.
There was no great reason he had sent the letter to the Blue Flood Dragon Gang. He simply wanted them to spend their attention elsewhere instead of tracking him down. More importantly, it was not difficult to do.
Sending a letter took no more than ten minutes.
Now, let's cultivate.
He tightened his mind, which had started to grow lax after the sudden windfall. Sitting cross-legged in the center of the cave residence, he began circulating the Five Elements Qi Refining Art in the place where spiritual energy was densest.
Three days later.
Jin Somyeong, his complexion dark, let out a hollow laugh.
After cultivating with all his might for three days, he had realized it once again: the quality of his spiritual root was the absolute worst.
It had taken him half a year just to go from the first layer of Qi Refining to the second.
"Too slow."
And that had been the result of consuming a Qi Condensing Pill worth twenty Spirit Stones. If he had not had that pill, no one knew how long it would have taken him to break through the wall to the second layer.
"If I want to reach the third layer... I'll need at least two more years of cultivation, won't I?"
To think his progress was this slow even in the early stages of cultivation. The future ahead looked bleak.
Perhaps because of the life-and-death battle he had experienced a few days earlier, impatience had begun to rear its head before he knew it.
He calculated how much time he would need to reach the ninth layer of Qi Refining.
"...Hah. Truly spectacular. Even if I cultivated diligently without missing a single day, it would take a hundred years, wouldn't it?"
Clap, clap, clap.
Anything became impressive once it crossed a certain line. His talent was so trash-like that he could not help applauding it.
A hundred years would already be too late. At that age, becoming a Foundation Establishment master would be impossible.
To achieve Foundation Establishment, one had to pass through three gates, and they were extremely difficult. Jin Somyeong did not know the details, but he at least knew the common sense that one had to attempt it before the age of sixty.
"...What do I do?"
He had sworn to see a wider world, and that goal remained unchanged.
He had no intention of giving up, not in the slightest, so he pondered his options. He could not simply cultivate like a diligent fool.
Of course, there were ways to shorten the cultivation period. He could cultivate in a better spirit vein and swallow medicinal pills as though drinking water.
In this world, if one poured in enough Spirit Stones, even a pig could become a high-level immortal.
"In the end, the problem is money."
He opened his storage pouch and counted his Spirit Stones.
Because he had rented a first-tier low-grade spirit vein, he had a total of twenty-three Spirit Stones left.
If he sold off the items Wang Shin had left behind, excluding the ones he intended to use personally, he thought he could add roughly two hundred more Spirit Stones.
Two hundred twenty-three Spirit Stones.
It was an enormous sum, but it was not enough. It would likely be exhausted around the time he reached the fourth layer of Qi Refining.
"Should I sell the storage pouch too?"
But even that would only delay the problem. It would not be a fundamental solution.
If someone without talent like him wanted to continue cultivating, he needed a steady income.
"Haa... Can't Spirit Stones just fall from the sky or something?"
Jin Somyeong stopped mid-complaint.
Once the word wish came to mind, his thoughts naturally reached the Boundless Great Ability.
"With this divine power... couldn't I create Spirit Stones too?"
Yes.
If it was worthy of being called a great ability, then surely it should at least be able to create Spirit Stones out of thin air.
After a moment of silence, Jin Somyeong slowly murmured, "Spirit Stones. I need a lot of Spirit Stones. Enough to pile up like a mountain!"
He laid bare the greed hidden deep within his heart. It was somehow different from the way he had wished within certain boundaries until now.
"No! Simply creating Spirit Stones isn't enough. I need to use the Boundless Great Ability more efficiently."
He thought of his past life in the modern world. What kind of people became rich?
"Landlords."
Why was real estate valuable? Because it provided unearned income.
It felt as if his clogged thoughts had suddenly cleared.
He needed a money tree.
He had to use the Boundless Great Ability to create something that would steadily earn Spirit Stones for him even if he did nothing.
It was not difficult to imagine such a thing.
In fact, something like that existed in this world: something that endlessly produced Spirit Stones.
"A Spirit Stone mine."
In certain places where spiritual energy was dense, it naturally condensed and formed Spirit Stones. A proper Spirit Stone mine was no different from a permanent source of income.
The problem was that such mines were objects of greed, and therefore difficult to defend. Even if he summoned a mine, it would certainly be taken from him.
Therefore...
"Inside my body. No, it doesn't matter where. I need a special subspace that only I can access. If I create a Spirit Stone mine there, I can monopolize it safely."
Just imagining the perfect wish filled him with rapture, and he slapped his knee.
"Mm, and it would be nice if there were a spirit vein there too, so it could help with my cultivation."
It was such a greedy wish that any low-level cultivator common in the market would have cursed him out if they heard it, but that was precisely why he found it satisfying.
If he had a "money tree" like that, it would greatly help him along the uncertain path of cultivation. Even achieving the Great Dao of Longevity would no longer be a dream.
There was only one problem.
Could he accomplish such an enormous miracle with a mere fifteen beads of Boundless Great Ability?
...I want to know how much Boundless Great Ability this wish would consume.
Crack.
All the remaining golden beads vanished.
Fifteen beads of Boundless Great Ability and half your lifespan.
Jin Somyeong stared in stunned disbelief at the single sentence that appeared in his mind.
"This can actually work?"
It felt as if someone had agreed to grant a wish he had made half as a joke.
If even a wish like this was possible, then perhaps he could also attempt the things he had been forced to postpone, such as improving the quality of his spiritual root.
