A Grandfather's Discipline

Prisoner Mode thrashed and struggled right up to the brink of being crushed beneath Auto-Battle Mode.

Shattering the fundamental premise that a Prisoner could neither become an attack target nor inflict injury was a critical matter that could collapse the entire ruleset holding Prisoner Mode together.

Unable to fall like this, Prisoner Mode wrung out every last scrap of power and summoned something waiting on standby at the base — a single drone that was practically Togo's avatar.

Even through the sudden relocation, the drone assessed the situation in an instant. Rainbow-hued spiritual power burst from its frame; a hologram wrapped around the machine, and Togo's form emerged.

He was only an avatar, but his power still reached the Nascent Soul realm. Togo swept the surroundings, spotted the baby who was busily pretending to have come to her senses the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠moment she saw him, and promptly raised a fist.

It was all because the Humanities, linked to the Mental World, had immediately snitched on him at the top of their lungs — even as Auto-Battle Mode desperately tried to act like it had snapped out of it.

Not that he needed the tip-off. One look at the limp Nascent Soul leg dangling weakly from Yu Hee's mouth was more than enough to grasp the situation.

As a drone built to service and repair a Star Eater hull that could weather even a star's supernova, it was overwhelmingly the toughest unit among them all. That durability, fused with Togo's output through the hologram, came down in a clean, solid SMACK straight onto Yu Hee's head.

"Eekyaa?!"

It was a blow violent enough to yank Yu Hee — whose brain had been yanked out and whose mind had gone blank under Auto-Battle Mode — right back into full consciousness!

Auto-Battle Mode had declared a technical victory over Prisoner Mode and bolted before Togo could hit it, which was how this whole mess had started. Either way, Yu Hee — who had blacked out out of nowhere, then clutched her cracked skull and toppled over with a shriek — sat there expressionless, blood streaming from the broken head like tears, a dense swarm of question marks floating above her.

"Couldn't even wait that long before you tried to eat a Nascent Soul cultivator, baby?!"

"No, th-this is—!"

She hurriedly spat free the Nascent Soul somehow still clenched in her hand and the one that had been inside her mouth — but from Elder Togo, whose eyes had gone wide, what she felt wasn't anger so much as worry, sharp and unmistakable.

Outrage, grievance, and sorrow churned together so violently that Yu Hee couldn't even get the words out properly.

"Baby, don't you know how vicious your Heavenly Tribulation is? When you face the tribulation for reaching Deity Transformation, even my prime self couldn't hold it back — so you ought to be careful even now!"

"But—!"

At a single word of backtalk, cold holographic light scattered into rainbow shards and burst from the eyes of Togo, who had been born at the tail end of the High Antiquity and lived ever since.

He knew perfectly well that a baby who ignored every scrap of adult advice and ran wild however she pleased was developing a rotten habit — so Togo raised a palm filled to the brim with love.

It was, in a sense, nothing more than Yu Hee reaping what she had sown by steamrolling past every one of Togo's worried warnings and doing whatever she liked.

"Ack! Ugh! Kyaa!"

Skull cracked, backtalk punished with a thorough thrashing of her back, and then hauled straight into his arms so he could spank her backside — Yu Hee felt tears welling up for real.

She even found herself regretting, of all things, that she had never bothered to activate the Emotion Expression Mode locked behind a level-500 restriction, because her Slaughter Tribulation was already piled up like garbage and the mode ate too much capacity!

Meanwhile Yeonpa, who had been driven to the brink of death with her Nascent Soul extracted, and Mudu, whose Nascent Soul had actually gone into the Demon Immortal's mouth and come out half-chewed, could only cower in a corner and watch the Demon Immortal get beaten by a giant Transcendent Species without lifting a finger.

Even as prisoners, they had been seized down to their Nascent Souls and nearly killed, so they had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no spiritual power left to do anything with. Yeonpa had no other options — and Mudu, whose laws had been broken and whose Nascent Soul had been half-chewed by Slaughter Tribulation, had already regressed in cultivation all the way back to early Nascent Soul and was hovering between life and death.

If Yeonpa hadn't been feeding him what little spiritual power she had left, his breath would already have stopped.

"They attacked me first!"

"That isn't why I'm scolding you, is it, baby? Trying to chew up a Nascent Soul is what makes this old man feel like his insides are about to burst!"

I didn't do it! I didn't! Auto-Battle just went and did it on its own!!!

Auto-Battle committed the crime, so why am I the one taking the heat? Is this that thing? Responsibility without the pleasure?

"I didn't even get to ta— eek!"

"Tsk."

Elder Togo really was saying all of this because he was worried about her, so it was hard to even get angry.

He was fretting that her Heavenly Tribulation would only grow stronger.

They said that once you reached the Upper Realm, even simply living brought Minor Heavenly Tribulations raining down — so of course hers would get worse too, right? She had just figured she could slap Yu I-seong or Yu Gisa up as a shield and call it done!

"I'm sorry..."

"Good. Then that's enough."

Whew. Survived.

As Elder Togo rose with her still held in his arms, she clung on and only turned her head slightly to glare at the two NPCs dumped in the corner.

Those bastards. Because of them, I really...

She had burned through a mountain of Slaughter Tribulation and gotten nothing in return.

Worse, when that woman ambushed her, dozens of dharma tools had stabbed through her, stripping even the protection of a Mythic-grade helmet in an instant and destroying the gear she had equipped — pure, catastrophic loss.

But stuck in Elder Togo's arms, there was nothing she could do. She whipped her head back around, buried her face in his chest, shut her ears, and fled straight into the Mental World.

Only then did the ominous, roiling killing intent and Slaughter Tribulation vanish completely. Yeonpa and Mudu gasped for air and clawed for spiritual power.

"The newborns said you were green, so I won't kill you. The one beside you, though — they said he was gray."

"Senior..."

"If you find me an Immortal Ascension Stone, I'll let this matter pass. Once the baby and I have gone up, you two won't have anything left to worry about either, will you?"

Togo's eyes, demanding the materials for the Flying Ascension Platform needed to climb to the Upper Realm, crushed the two cultivators without mercy, radiating the dignity of a Transcendent Species.

Confirming that the mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator managed a strained nod, Togo left a light restriction seal and returned to the base with the baby still cradled in his arms.

Then the true body of Togo — the Nascent Soul that had emerged from the Star Eater — took the baby from the drone, wiped away the vital blood that had flowed from the massive expenditure of lifespan, shaped a physical form through the hologram, and settled the baby back into his arms.

How much more lifespan has this cost me...

More than the already scarce remaining years being carved away in chunks, what he felt most keenly was the shrinking time he could still spend with the baby. Togo smiled faintly and stroked the baby, who was breathing soft ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and even — asleep?

"Sir Knight! Sir Knight!"

What is it?

Yu Gisa answered in a listless drawl.

No matter how many fortuitous encounters had stacked on top of fortuitous encounters, Gamran — the friendly NPC of absurd talent who had vaulted in a single leap from Qi Condensation straight past Foundation Establishment and into the Golden Core — had changed far too much.

At first she had only latched on intending to leech Heavenly Tribulation off him.

She had evolved into some strange creature who shouted about chivalry.

"I dedicate the glory of this victory to you, Sir Knight!"

A demonic beast collapsed with a thud, its neck snapped. Watching her stand atop its head, smash open the skull, and pull out the beast core while saying something like that, Yu Gisa heaved a long sigh.

You really don't have to do it one by one, you know.

"But this way is so much more romantic, isn't it?"

Well, that's true, but...

Every time Gamran raised her renown — defeating cultivators, accepting requests to slay demonic beasts, erasing wicked ghost soldiers — karma accumulated for Yu Gisa himself.

Where the main body carved a path with Slaughter Tribulation and experience points, and Yu I-seong advanced through training and enlightenment alone, he was growing on the fame and glory Gamran piled up.

Looked at a certain way, wasn't this just auto-hunting?

Convenient, sure, but still!

"Lately the cultivators have all shut themselves up in their sects, so the demonic beasts and fiendish creatures are having a field day, Sir Knight! For lone wanderers like me who never joined a sect, it just means more work — which is nice, actually!"

That was all because of the main body, the infamous one they called the Demon Immortal — and the word around the cities and villages was that the wanderers were being used as bait — but Yu Gisa had no intention of blabbing about the main body to Gamran.

If he told her, this friendly NPC, who had become uselessly inflamed with justice and stuck her nose into everything, might go charging off on her own to take down the Demon Immortal.

It had already been several months since he started traveling with Gamran.

More than enough time — overflowing, even — for Yu Gisa to sink very deeply into his one and only friendly NPC.

If the main body, with her Reality Denial, had seen this, she would have scoffed about ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠getting so invested in a single NPC. Never mind that she herself fussed over Elder Togo, Cheon Nan-cho, and San Gi-yeon like treasures.