The Gravekeeper's Rites and a Newborn Pet

Even if Yeondansa had gained a physical body and become a cultivator, all she ever did was alchemy, so she had no choice but to grind under Cheon Nan-cho. But Mudeomjigi had obtained a body after taking a Heavenly Tribulation head-on — so maybe she'd turn out a little different?

With that thought, I started hounding Mudeomjigi into a skill demonstration.

Alright — player entrance!

Mudeomjigi's belly split open in a grotesque vertical gape. Arms stretched out from the wound, seized corpse objects, crumpled them down small, and dragged them straight into her stomach before the opening sealed shut again as if nothing had happened, leaving only a smooth, unblemished midriff. Looking at that was… a bit much!

I ignored Mudeomjigi, who had frozen solid at her own shocking display and was clutching her torn upper armor with a teary face, and poked her to hurry up and try something else.

Only then did she seem to snap out of it. Her pentagon-segmented pupils rolled as if checking a skill window, and she cast ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the next skill.

A small spherical domain unfolded with Mudeomjigi at its center.

Some kind of AoE skill?

And then the domain vanished.

What the hell was that?

"I made my body into a grave and performed a memorial rite," she said. "Looks like the structure is that, based on the number of corpses used as graves and their cultivation realm in life, I gain special abilities or stats. With what I just did, I went up three levels and got additional body stats."

"What? Isn't that broken as hell?"

"But I don't have a single combat skill."

"You're a cultivator now too, so just make some, right?"

"Is that how it works?"

"And originally, early on you pack yourself full of growth-type skills and then dominate late game — that's the standard, isn't it?"

A class where you could just feed it corpse objects ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and easily trigger Minor Fortune-level events? Totally broken! Funeral Procession skill level increased grave capacity, and as Memorial Rite skill level rose, so did the odds of gaining stats or special abilities. Not bad at all!

"Wanna try an Abyss run? I can't go into the Abyss anymore, but you should be able to enter. If you go there and carefully level up without getting kicked out while farming corpse objects as much as possible — isn't that pure profit?"

"I could hit at least level two hundred. Nice!"

Granted, triggering the capybara event in the Abyss would let her level up very safely and easily — but it was better to delay leveling as much as possible and pick up corpse objects to solidify her foundation instead.

Since Mudeomjigi had made her own body into a graveyard, the more graves she built, the faster her skill levels and abilities would shoot up.

Just like how Yeondansa ground under Cheon Nan-cho and rapidly skill-crafted and leveled!

And so Mudeomjigi left the base.

Hmm. Then maybe I should start preparing for Ascension too.

For Ascension, you needed a cultivator at the Nascent Soul realm, or a supreme-grade spirit stone capable of injecting Nascent Soul-level spiritual power.

You also needed an Ascension Platform crafted from Ascension Stones — one-time entry tickets that could pass through the wall dividing the upper and lower realms — as materials.

And finally, you needed a dharma treasure that could withstand the pressure, or some other means of protecting the body.

The Ascension Platform was scheduled to be finished soon by Cheon Nan-cho, Elder Togo, and Yeondansa grinding time into it. I was a Nascent Soul cultivator myself, and I still had supreme-grade spirit stones left from mining the Abyss…

Hmm. One Mythic-grade helmet might not be enough.

Listening to Cheon Nan-cho and Elder Togo's repeated warnings, if your defense fell below a certain threshold you'd die to DoT damage during Ascension — and Slaughter Tribulation was pretty much useless for defense.

After reincarnating and inevitably ending up on an extreme regen build, now that I was stuck believing "the best defense is a good offense," the whole situation was pretty awkward.

Where else do entry conditions demand a certain level of defense, seriously.

Armor with the same prefix only applied the higher-grade effect, so I couldn't just wrap myself in Immortal-prefix gear either.

"Guess I have no choice but to burn consumables."

Making a mountain of defense-boosting potions and items and praying the duration held out seemed like the easiest method.

I ordered Yeondansa and Yorisa to start crafting items and potions, then headed for the Ascension Platform construction site.

Cheon Nan-cho was hard at work on something — this was a far larger construction project than I'd expected.

"You're not Ascending alone. You have to take the whole sect with you. There won't be any help from Heavenly Tribulation either, so you'll have to fully withstand the Ascension pressure with your own power — but Hee-a, you don't have much spiritual power."

She explained that she was building spirit lands and even spirit veins to assist with that and help supplement the force.

Come to think of it, if I just position-moved to the upper channel as-is, the sect would still ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be stuck in the lower channel. I might have to move once, get base return blocked or fall back to the lower channel, and climb up again — suffering twice!

"Anyway, if nothing goes wrong, the adjustments will all be done within a month. You've finished preparing for Ascension, right?"

"Of course!"

Yeondansa and Yorisa were working hard making stuff!

"Go die, main body. Seriously."

"I'm a chef, not a potion-brewing witch."

One machine and one spirit body were cursing me out with everything they had, but I lightly ignored them.

"Status Window!"

Setting aside the stats I'd inflated running the Abyss, my level still hadn't risen at all. Levels that barely climbed to begin with — and the ones I'd lost taking that Heavenly Tribulation before were truly a waste.

No, wait. Instead of losing those levels, Yeondansa and Mudeomjigi had been able to awaken as cultivators. Looked at that way, wasn't it a blessing in disguise?

Anyway, with a month now set in stone, I used the remaining time to go act spoiled with Elder Togo, stop by to greet San Gi-yeon who was training with the ornaments, and — when I finally remembered her and stepped into the eastern sector where Yeonlim was —

"Yeonlim? What are you doing?"

"I was preparing for childbirth."

"…?"

"Since you said you were Ascending, I deliberately didn't bring it up so you wouldn't worry unnecessarily."

"And the reason you're telling me now?"

"Because the pregnancy is starting to show."

What? Did I activate Adult Mode? Respond! Adult Mode! Nude Mode!

"Why though."

If my memories weren't completely broken, I should have been at least two hundred years old — but discriminating based on appearance alone? I opposed! I opposed! You think I stay short because I want to?! Kyaaaak!

I went berserk on the inside, grabbing the modes with Slaughter Tribulation and shaking them hard, but they didn't budge an inch, as if telling me to cut the crap — which only pissed me off more.

A little flustered by Yu Hee's reaction, Yeonlim continued a touch anxiously.

"Even if it was forced, it's normal to give birth and check how much of the divine beast blood was inherited. For our kind, continuing the bloodline is extremely difficult."

"It's not like I was going to kill it or anything. You can just give birth and raise it, you know?"

"If the divine beast blood is thin, that means it inherited little of my blood — so just remembering the man who violated me, I'll kill it."

Ah. I see! The grudge ran deeper than I'd thought!

"Here — a gift! And if you need anything else, tell Cheon Nan-cho or San Gi-yeon, check the list, and take it from the public warehouse! Use it however you want!"

The important stuff was mostly in my inventory, after all.

The others also used personal prisoner inventories or storage platforms, so the public warehouse was literally a mixed bag of everything — but still. Even though more than half the materials I'd piled up running hidden dungeons and Abyss runs had been consumed making the Mystery and the Ascension Platform, there was still a ton left!

Anyway, when I handed Yeonlim a supreme-grade spirit stone, I could feel her affinity skyrocket.

Hmm. As expected of an affinity item — the effect was insane.

After receiving the supreme-grade spirit stone, Yeonlim said she'd put up a barrier in the eastern sector briefly for childbirth, took a few items from the warehouse, and four days later brought back a single baby fawn.

Oh, right. Yeonlim was a divine beast.

Her original form was a six-legged deer with multiple horns — but if it had horns, wasn't that a male deer? Well, she was a divine beast, so females could grow horns too, I guess!

"Unfortunately, it inherited my blood thickly, so I couldn't kill it."

"Shouldn't you be saying that's a relief?"

"Is there any need? Originally, descendants of divine beasts are dropped into the lower realm the moment they're born and left to fend for themselves. I was dropped here the same way."

What? Isn't that weird?

"Is there any need to— ugk?!"

The baby deer that couldn't even open its eyes yet bit down on my finger and started chewing it with its teeth.

True to a divine beast descendant, it was trying to pierce my flesh through type advantage and shear the finger clean off.

Not that it managed more than a scratch on the skin!

Huh? A wound?

The baby deer that got my blood in its mouth trembled all over.

Following the instinct of its blood, it had attacked on pure reflex to destroy evil — and because of that, it had essentially drunk extreme poison: blood mixed with Slaughter Tribulation. Of course it was an overwhelming trial for a newborn baby divine beast. But naturally, Yu Hee yanked the Slaughter Tribulation right back out, and it went from dying to surviving.

"What the hell is this little thing."

"Oh my."

And perhaps because it had drunk Yu Hee's blood mixed with Slaughter Tribulation the moment it was born, the baby divine beast Yeonlim had given birth to had its yellowish-brown fur tinted a little red.

Along with a sudden sensation of Slaughter Tribulation being sucked out in a long, continuous pull, system messages cascaded up one after another.

"…?"