Powo
“Uuuu….”
Nine sat huddled under her blankets, knees pulled to her chest, sinking into a foul mood. Maybe it was because she had become a woman, but even the smallest feelings sent her emotions swinging wildly—and for some reason, she was suddenly craving something sweet.
Out of nowhere, a memory surfaced: a Peak Qi Refinement cultivator who had once come to her school as a guest lecturer.
The man had been a chaired professor at a second-rate university—an ancient fossil of a fossil who had lived alone for centuries. Even back then, she had thought he was a complete lunatic.
Thinking about it again now… yeah. Still a lunatic.
The same man who had been spouting off so smugly had been hauled off by a high-ranking cultivator moments later for a thorough “education.” So his words hadn’t exactly carried much weight.
“Hmm!”
The corners of Nine’s mouth slowly curled upward. Her gloom vanished as if it had never existed.
If you think about it… this might actually be a good thing!
A cultivator like her never needed to go outside anyway. In this day and age, every material and every training pill could be delivered by spatial transfer. With enough credits, nothing was impossible.
Once you dove into cultivation, days—even weeks—would slip by as a matter of course. For Foundation Establishment cultivators and above, it was common for months, sometimes years, to vanish in the blink of an eye.
A bolt of pure enlightenment struck Nine’s little head.
“Th-that’s it! Every cultivator in history has just been a shut-in NEET!”
Severing worldly ties was just cutting off human relationships! Closed-door cultivation—sealing yourself away in a cave to train—was nothing more than holing up in your room! They dressed it up with fancy language, but at its core, it was no different from what she was already doing.
“I-I’m just practicing early for becoming a high-level cultivator.”
Nine nodded to herself, thoroughly pleased with her own brilliance. The scroll floating beside her fluttered as if deeply unimpressed, but it never entered the field of vision of someone so firmly convinced.
First things first—I need to buy training materials.
Whoosh!
Nine kicked off the covers and planted her feet boldly on the floor outside the bed. And then the brilliant midday sunlight pouring through a gap in the curtains hit her skin dead-on.
“Kyaaaaah!”
Screaming like a low-grade vampire, she scrambled right back under the blankets.
“Blackout curtains…. I need blackout curtains first.”
Right. Cultivation could wait. Nine nodded and used the credits her mother had sent to order blackout curtains along with an assortment of training supplies.
“I’ve got time until night, so….”
It was noon. That left about ten empty hours until dark. For a body that took fatal damage from a mere brush of sunlight, the world beyond the blanket was out of the question.
“Heeheehee.”
Nine powered on her terminal and phone at the same time—and promptly disappeared into the galleries. The perfect portrait of a corner-dwelling shut-in.
Night settled over the world.
“Haaah.”
Nine climbed down from her chair with a sigh. She had torn down every original curtain and installed blackout ones in their place—bedroom, living room, kitchen, study. Everything except the windowless cultivation chamber.
She stood in the living room now, gazing at the curtains that fully covered the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, a faint, contented smile on her lips.
Comforting darkness. Only then did her bristling nerves finally settle. She plopped down right where she was and tore into the packages that had arrived by spatial delivery.
She had blown every last credit of the ten thousand her mother had sent, plus her own hundred. Pills radiating all kinds of fragrances, dozens of the lowest-grade spirit stones, paper and ink for drawing talismans.
Nine hugged the whole pile to her chest and headed for the cultivation chamber.
The pitch-black chamber measured ten square meters—roughly three pyeong. The circular room was cleaned with a vacuum every single day, so the floor was spotless, without a single speck of dust.
Flutter~
The scroll bobbing along at her side drifted into her line of sight and generally made a nuisance of itself.
“Ugh.”
It had been like this ever since she’d given it the name Status Window. Whatever the scroll was unhappy about, it kept hovering right in front of her face. She shoved it away with the back of her hand several times, but all that earned her was a sore arm.
“Don’t like the name?”
Nine tilted her head, ignored the scroll, and walked over to the measuring device.
The square machine tested physical ability and spiritual power. Before starting any training, you always needed exact numbers.
Poke.
“Ow!”
An automated needle stabbed the tip of her index finger. A bead of blood welled on her pale fingertip and dropped onto the machine’s sensor. Nine licked her finger and waited for the results.
Vmmm—, flash!
The hologram displayed numbers so concise they were just plain pathetic. But Nine didn’t despair. If anything, she was struggling to hold back a giggle that kept trying to escape.
“Heehee, pffhah!”
Spiritual power had to break ten before you even qualified to enter the Qi Refinement Stage. A physical index of one was roughly equal to the strength of a healthy adult man by ordinary standards. You needed a physical index of seven before your body itself was considered ready for Qi Refinement.
Nine fell short on both counts. Fifteen years of effort had stalled out at those meager figures.
But not anymore. With the fortuitous encounter she now held in her hands, Qi Refinement would be nothing—Foundation Establishment was within reach.
Maybe… even beyond that…!
Calling someone a heaven-sent genius wouldn’t be enough. That realm was reserved for the chosen few who possessed talent, fortune, and endless effort all at once—the true leaders of humanity, living gods in all but name.
Nine, too, would one day become a Golden Core Stage Semi-God.
Imagining that dazzling future, she snatched the floating scroll out of the air and crushed it in a hug.
Flutter?
Pat-pat, squeeze-squeeze, ruffle-ruffle-ruffle. She poured every ounce of affection she could muster into it.
Flutter….
The scroll resisted fiercely, but a mere scrap of paper could never overpower a person. She only squeezed harder. The deflated scroll went limp.
As expected—this is no ordinary magical tool.
It had a self and emotions, and it could even form judgments and think on its own. Clear proof that a spirit had taken residence in it.
A golden finger….
A term for treasures or techniques so outstanding they transcended mere fortuitous encounters—artifacts of a grade that exceeded their owner’s station. Status windows were the classic example, but countless other kinds existed if you looked.
A sacred spring that granted thousands of years of life with a single sip. A personal grotto-heaven bound solely to one individual. Or rare, one-in-a-million special constitutions.
This little guy has to be a golden finger too, right?
Simple repetition alone raised her realm and advanced her mastery of techniques. On top of that, it could even evolve her cursed Five Spirit Roots. She had never heard of a magical tool with abilities this broken—had never even imagined one could exist.
But Nine wasn’t worried about anyone taking the scroll from her. It had already acknowledged her as its master. Golden fingers of this caliber were bound by destiny; she had simply been the natural choice!
And with a distinct spirit dwelling inside it, the scroll surely had an original name of its own.
“You—what’s your real name?”
Nine held the scroll in both hands and asked. At those words, the limp, drooping scrap suddenly unfurled itself. As if to say, You’re only asking that now?, it snapped open with such force that Nine startled and lost her grip.
“Ah—”
Across the auspicious white surface, characters black as pitch began to spread. Over the text that displayed Nine’s status, an invisible giant brush swept in a single bold stroke, characters revealing themselves without the slightest hesitation.
The scroll’s true name brushed across Nine’s retinas for a single instant—
Whack!
—and she slapped it flat to the floor as fast as if she were swatting a mosquito.
“Hic, hii….”
In the brief moment that true name had been revealed, she had felt every scrap of spiritual energy in the vicinity warp and the very air shudder. Cold sweat poured down her face.
“Y-you…!”
Whack, whack!
She ground the scroll under her soft bare foot where it lay sprawled on the floor. Nine hastily scrubbed the remnants of that true name from her mind. A grade she could not possibly withstand had been bound up in those words.
“I-if I hadn’t been its master, I might have died….”
It had deliberately revealed its true name, fully aware she wouldn’t die. A hundred percent. It had been showing off—making a display of just how magnificent a being it was.
Nine kept kicking the offending scroll. Then, all of a sudden, a name popped into her head.
“Powo?”
Twitch.
The scroll pinned under her foot trembled at the sound of her voice. It looked like a reaction to the name, so she tried it again.
“Powo.”
Twitch!
That settled it. Watching the scroll respond to the word, Nine covered her mouth and snickered.
“Powo. Round and cute—it suits you. You’re happy with it too, right? It’s a name split off from your true name, after all.”
Flutter~
The scroll—no, Powo—reluctantly projected a wisp of agreement.