The Five Trash Prefixes of the Blood Cauldron

"Whoa, realm breakthrough!"

Level 262. Mid-stage Core Formation.

I'd already felt the difference when I crossed from early to mid-stage. Forming a core at Core Formation had let my slaughter energy recover on its own, but it was still less efficient than generating it myself by killing. Now, though, the self-recovery had improved to something actually decent.

Maybe once I hit late-stage Core Formation the passive slaughter energy recovery would get even better?

The slaughter energy surging back into me right now was so eager to kill something that it wrapped my body in flickering flames. From a distance I probably looked like I was on fire.

"Ugh..."

After scarfing down Strange Candy—no, soul fragments—and leveling up, the sudden surge of power left me unable to rein in the thrashing slaughter energy. It took an entire day just to wrestle it back under control and settle my strength.

Still, without even using Double Speed Mod, I'd gained nearly fifty levels in half a year. Even when I speedran on vanilla mode I never leveled this fast. Truly the power of Xianxia Mode.

"Alright, time to move."

Next map.

Having the choices locked because of the Early Crisis was annoying, but I still needed to figure out what I could from the map name that served as the backdrop for this Early Crisis.

So, Blood Cauldron... blood... small... cauldron? What kind of cauldron was that supposed to be?

"Cheon Nan-cho, you know what a Blood Cauldron is?"

"A little cauldron that refines blood? Why?"

Ah, so "jeong" meant cauldron.

I nodded. A little cauldron that refines blood! And whatever got refined inside it was probably that "reviving great evil" the warning window had mentioned!

Feeling a tiny bit proud of myself for piecing it together without skipping the story, I entered the Early Crisis map: Blood Cauldron.

"Status Window."

I immediately opened the Status Window to check the regional penalty.

So this map was running the Blood Ritual simultaneously at five different sites, each one stacking a 7% regional penalty.

Alright then—time to see just how brutal the Early Crisis of Xianxia Mode really was!

I walked in a straight line toward the nearest red dot on the minimap. In a massive village, an ominous crimson aura was already shooting into the sky.

NPCs were clustered and bound together in the village center. No matter how I looked at them, they were gray dots—neutral NPCs.

Sacrifices, maybe?

Blood flowed from deliberately inflicted wounds on the neutral NPCs, crawling like something alive into the little cauldron at the village center, transforming into crimson energy that rose toward the heavens. I nodded to myself.

With so few red dots visible, this had to be one of the lowest-difficulty zones!

"Hello there!"

I announced my entrance with a greeting and simultaneously launched Chopsticks. A few of them were so carelessly thrown that they killed neutral NPCs, but every single one of the hostile red-dot mobs still took a surprise first ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠strike.

I snickered inwardly and shouted,

"Auto-Battle."

Against humanoid mobs, landing the first hit to tank their morale and then flipping Auto-Battle was just overwhelmingly efficient. I'd thrown a dozen ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠same-level mobs into Auto-Battle all at once and still got an "Overwhelming" result.

But even after I'd slaughtered every cultivator who seemed to be running the ritual, the neutral NPCs were still having their blood drained into the little cauldron.

Maybe I needed to smash it? I flung Chopsticks at it, only for them to bounce off with a metallic ting. Fair enough—it clearly wasn't a living creature with a soul.

That left only one option.

I had to deal with the neutral NPCs who were being forced to cooperate with the ritual by bleeding out!

With that thought, I started launching Chopsticks one by one at the neutral NPCs who, even while I was ripping the ritual cultivators apart, had only been able to moan in pain as their blood kept flowing.

I would have loved to take them prisoner and turn them into Strange Candy, but there was a reason I still only had Cheon Nan-cho as a captive. My slaughter energy's attack power was so high that against normal mobs I killed them before I could even drop their morale enough to break them.

I killed the old man whose arm had been severed and who was still bleeding.

I killed the man whose legs had been cut off and who was still twitching.

I killed the woman whose abdomen had been split open, her guts spilling out as she moaned.

I killed the child whose jaw had been ripped off, who could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only wheeze something that might have been a scream or a groan.

In the end it was just killing neutral NPCs. I'd already slaughtered people like they were potions just to stabilize a shaky realm. Something this minor couldn't even register as a feeling.

The little cauldron whose ritual had been interrupted, however, seemed to feel differently.

Whether it thought its prey had been stolen or not, it suddenly floated into the air, shot toward a still-living neutral NPC, and slammed straight into them.

At the same moment a gray dot on the minimap turned red. I stopped half-assing it, yanked out every scrap of slaughter energy at once, and swept the remaining neutral NPCs in a single wave.

It was only a crude burst of slaughter energy, but low-level neutral NPCs couldn't tank that kind of damage. And since slaughter energy itself had the instinct to seek out and kill living things, even a simple release like this left no survivors.

Ah, fuck.

Before the system message even finished printing I saw only the prefix, yanked a unique low-level weapon out of my inventory without hesitation, and smashed it with Spoon.

The "Terrifying" prefix sat among the Five Great Trash Prefixes for a reason—it came with reduced defense. An elite mob that had merely swallowed one neutral NPC and gained a living-creature tag couldn't tank that hit.

The unique low-level weapon shattered into nothing after a single strike, durability gone, vanishing into thin air like an illusion. At the same time the now-powerless little cauldron clanged to the ground and rolled away with a hollow rattle.

"Status Window."

So I still had to find and destroy four more of these suspicious cauldrons across this huge map. An ominous feeling prickled at me, but I ignored it and started walking.

By the time I'd finished off a larger pack of mobs and the few remaining neutral NPCs who hadn't already died, another mid-boss popped out. The moment I saw its prefix my face crumpled.

"What's wrong? You look seriously pissed."

"I can feel unavoidable Eok-kka coming."

"Is this some kind of destiny talk?"

I wasn't spouting that bittersweet bullshit.

I stomped the cauldron I'd already wrecked with Auto-Battle like I was taking out my frustration, completely pulverizing it, then ground the fragments underfoot until they were powder before letting out a long sigh.

Not yet. I still didn't know for sure.

Only two conditions had been met so far.

And then—

In the end, I had no choice but to admit it.

"You fucking dogshit game. How the hell does this kind of Eok-kka event even trigger during the Early Crisis?"

It was the infamous Five Great Trash Eok-kka Event—so thoroughly roasted by ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠users in the community as the "Five Great Trash" that the modders had literally coded it in based on the memes.

The spawn conditions were something like: exactly five fixed elite mobs regenerating on one map, and no field boss present.

If there were more than five it wouldn't appear, and if there were fewer it also wouldn't appear, so the event was rare enough that the community would literally throw a party if someone managed to trigger it.

Terrifying. Mysterious. Sharp. Gigantic. Immovable.

If you killed every elite that spawned with one of those five trash prefixes, the game would force-register an artifact—no, a Dharma Treasure—that combined all five trash prefixes at once. A completely insane Eok-kka event!

You got a single package of debuffs that lowered defense, made you take extra damage from debuffs, reduced max HP, permanently lowered max accuracy, and even slowed your movement speed.

And unless you hit a Massive Misfortune event that forced you to discard one Dharma Treasure or randomly throw one away, you couldn't remove or replace the debuff!

Sure, in exchange you got attack power up, debuff resistance, crit rate up, increased attack range, and fixed damage reduction—but I hadn't built around this event on purpose, so of course the downsides outweighed the upsides!

Was the gain at least proportional to the loss? No. You could just equip a good Dharma Treasure that only gave benefits!

"And of course it had to pop during the Early Crisis..."

That meant I couldn't even use the extreme escape of just leaving the map. Even after finishing terrain scouting, you were locked in until the crisis was resolved or failed and a conclusion was reached.

"...This was part of the Galsan Archaeology Mode, right? Deactivate Galsan Archaeology Mode."

So just die, is that it, you piece of shit.