A Rat in the Samjong Sect

"Fucking hell."

The boss was already dead, so Auto-Battle had wiped out all six of the trash mobs — but I was in a foul mood for a whole host of reasons when a yellow glow rose before me, and I nearly laughed out loud.

The unique item I'd gotten from killing the boss just so happened to be a helmet-slot piece.

I wasn't thrilled about the "Cleverness" prefix that boosted Mind, but wearing a hat still beat the hell out of that garbage magic tin can, so I swapped it on immediately.

"Alright — time to get the fuck out of this goddamn dungeon!"

I was thoroughly sick of it. Never again!

"...Huh?"

The system message window that blocked me from leaving before the automatic ejection nine hundred ninety-nine seconds after defeating the dungeon boss turned my mind blank white.

"What the actual fuck?!"

Since when did dungeons have different entrances and exits?!

Before I could finish swearing, a forced-transfer sensation hit me and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

I found myself moved to a map that wasn't Seogangseong.

"...Holy shit, that scared the hell out of me."

The thought of getting hit in reality with that absolute bullshit penalty from the patch — the one that triggers when you move maps without filling Area Scouting to 100%, whether by bug or mod — had genuinely turned my vision pure white for a second.

Tension draining out of me, I collapsed onto the ground without realizing it and checked the newly transferred map. Confirming the map name Samjong Sect on the minimap and seeing that the surroundings were nothing but mountains, I swallowed hard.

"Motherfucker."

A map name meaning a sect mountain where cultivators gathered to train — I was pretty sure I was screwed. I pulled up my Status Window.

I'd gained two levels at once from killing the dungeon boss.

I dumped the remaining stat points from a level-up that had taken nearly three weeks into Body, then sprawled out flat on the ground.

I was exhausted.

Having left the dungeon, I lay there soaking in the warm sunlight and the gentle breeze, staring blankly up at the sky. Drifting clouds, birds flying through the air, cultivators — and through the broken shafts of sunlight, a red star looking down at me—

"?"

What? Did I see that wrong?

There's no way a star would be visible with the sun this bright.

Anyway, after using even Double Speed Mod to literally do nothing but lie still for days on end, the first thing I did once I came to my senses was dig a burrow.

In the dungeon, mobs kept respawning, so even if training wasn't an option, there hadn't been any chance to sit still and stabilize my realm.

Unlike during Qi Condensation, I'd also come to realize that you couldn't just mindlessly hunt to train anymore.

More importantly—

"Found it."

Using the minimap to locate a small spiritual land underground, I collapsed the tunnel I'd dug with spiritual energy. I entered the lower-grade spiritual land in a small cavity surrounded by rock and sat down.

Training with spiritual energy? Absorption? As someone who handled slaughter energy rather than spiritual energy in the first place, I didn't need it — but I could use it as a catalyst for handling my slaughter energy.

Being lower-grade rather than the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lowest, I felt a considerable amount of spiritual energy as I slowly began to awaken the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠slaughter energy within my body.

A spiritual land is a place where spiritual energy pools.

Awakening slaughter energy right in the middle of one, the pressure from the spiritual energy naturally kept the slaughter energy from stretching properly, and it thrashed about inside my body. With the slaughter energy that should have been circulating to solidify my foundation running wild, my insides were naturally reduced to a wreck — but instead of stopping the slaughter energy, I drew in the spiritual energy filling the spiritual land.

The slaughter energy inside me reacted violently, thrashing as it rejected the spiritual energy that was practically pure heavenly primordial energy — but while slaughter energy could kill things, it couldn't block them.

I coughed up blood. The slaughter energy rampaging inside me was trying to kill even me, its master.

"Lis-ten to me!"

You piece of shit slaughter energy — your master is me! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Every scrap of karma that makes you up is the trail of death I've carved, its final destination! You're nothing more than a power I can kill too!

Only then did the slaughter energy finally move according to my command.

The slaughter energy that moved like that slowly swept through every corner of my entire body in a full circuit, completing the first foundation circulation, and every bit of spiritual energy that had invaded my body was completely bounced out by the slaughter energy.

Feeling my insides, torn apart by the earlier rampage, regenerate once more and my foundation grow a bit more solid through the slaughter energy, I drew spiritual energy into my body again, established foundation through slaughter energy, and expelled the spiritual energy.

This was both to handle slaughter energy smoothly at will, to further solidify my foundation through repeated establishment, and a method of refining the slaughter energy itself under the artificial pressure of spiritual energy.

I don't know how much time passed training with Double Speed Mod, but despite every Eok-kka event, interruption, and bullshit that popped up in between, I persevered through the cultivation. As a result—

I fully accepted the mid-stage Foundation Establishment realm as my own, and at the same time, the slaughter energy obtainable at that realm had entered full maturity.

It was something you couldn't see on the Status Window — you could think of it as a kind of proficiency — but either way, it was clearly important. At the very least, right now I felt like I could take a bite out of not just Foundation Establishment but even Core Formation, as long as it wasn't late-stage.

"Looks like lower-grade is the limit here."

I looked at the spiritual ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠land, contaminated by slaughter energy — far more powerful than an ordinary lower-grade spiritual land, but with killing intent seeping into it. To train further, I'd need to find another lower-grade spiritual land.

The spiritual energy in this land no longer rejected my slaughter energy.

"....?"

Wait — how much time has passed?

Even with Double Speed Mod, there was a chance more time had passed than I thought. I'd been so absorbed in training that I hadn't noticed time passing in between.

That it wasn't just a matter of a few years was obvious from the simple tunnel I'd collapsed — it had turned into a rock stratum!

I raised my slaughter energy and pulverized the entire rock layer, escaping the spiritual land.

Whether this was a branch or the main compound of the Samjong Sect, it was certain this map was Samjong Sect territory. Whatever kind of sect Samjong Sect was, they wouldn't casually tolerate an outside cultivator wandering around.

In that case, the solution was simple.

Instead of using slaughter energy like spiritual energy, I established a small foundation of it inside my body and let it flow slowly. Since ordinary cultivators couldn't see or understand slaughter energy with their eyes, I'd look like a Mortal.

If I just hide well like this—

"So a little rat has scurried out. I have no idea what my disciples have been doing to let a rat crawl all the way in here."

A cultivator who looked to be early Core Formation appeared.

It definitely hadn't been visible on the minimap?!

The cultivator who stretched a hand toward me flicked a finger, and an invisible thread of spiritual energy shot out to seize me and snap my neck — only to bounce off the killing intent flowing inside my body.

Only then realizing I wasn't an ordinary Mortal, the cultivator roared — but before he could attack, I'd already confirmed the gray dot on the minimap turn red the moment he reached out, so without hesitation I pulled chopsticks from my hand and flung them.

Two chopsticks of blood-red slaughter energy pierced through the barrier formed by his automatically activated Dharma Treasure and aimed for his heart, but in that brief gap the cultivator twisted his body and they buried themselves in his right shoulder.

And an NPC who'd been ambushed from the start, injured, with his automatic defense shattered, was nothing more than Auto-Battle fodder.

Naturally I succeeded in wiping him out, and perhaps because it was slaughter energy for the first time in a while, the experience and slaughter energy came in extremely generous amounts, and I got a few rare items too — but maybe because I'd killed a cultivator inside a sect, red dots started popping up on the minimap, so I immediately lowered my presence to Mortal level and attempted stealth.

"Such lawlessness! To commit such a horrific act within Samjong Sect territory!"

"This terrible killing intent — have the Slaughter Ghosts crawled all the way here?!"

"Do you know where you are, to dare—!"

Feeling the cultivators exploding with rage sweep the surroundings with their divine sense, and looking at the minimap where cultivators were marked as fully hostile red dots — explaining my now-irreversible relationship with them — I let out a sigh.

Looks like I'll have to kill them all after all.