Worship the Four Fiend Stars

The instant Yu Hee burst out of the Training Ground, her hair thrashed and writhed as if it were alive, thrashing about in restless agitation.

Even after hauling a ridiculous hundred and forty-one leftover stat points out of the Training Ground, my mood was still foul. It wasn't because I'd botched a transformation skill mastery run, or because I'd put off raising my realm. No — the second I stepped out of the Training Ground, the misfortune radar in my skull started screaming its head off.

Ahh, that cold, heavy sensation. The gut-churning premonition of an eok-kka event about to drop — the kind you never want to get used to, and yet somehow already are. The moment I left the Training Ground I dumped every remaining stat point into Mental, slamming it up to twelve hundred. A jolt locked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into place as I hit the hard cap. Whatever points were left went straight into Resistance, and without a second's hesitation I activated my transformation skill and inflated my physical stats into the stratosphere.

I was slathering myself in every consumable buff I had, scrambling for any edge I could get, when every hair on my head stood on end at once. I yanked out the Wheel of Slaughter Tribulation, floated it behind my head, wrapped my body in killing intent, and pulled up the Piercing Slaughter Art — the technique that had evolved one more time through mastery work inside the Training Ground.

"Ah, fuck — of all the times."

I spat the curse even as I spun the Wheel faster. It was the precursor message for one of the Twelve Eok-kka — the classic set.

It was that absolute garbage eok-kka event where four fixed boss monsters, always scaled exactly to the player's level, drop in all at once and dogpile you. The community called it the Four Heavenly Kings event. And even if you killed all four, the experience and loot treated them as a single set — so you got roughly one boss's worth of XP. Because they were a set, if you didn't kill all four at the same time, they revived after a short wait. And when they came back, they came back stronger. Absolute bullshit eok-kka.

They called them the Four Fiend Stars, but that was just the rebrand. Before the xianxia mod, this had been the Four Heavenly Kings event, and the bosses were fixed: a snake, a turtle, a lizard, and a frog, if I remembered right. A fire-snake that belched flame from its entire body. A fortress-turtle clad in metal. A forest-lizard that carried a whole woods on its back. A mist-frog made of fog.

They all carried the shared prefix Community, which meant killing one just made it revive unless you finished the other three first — already garbage — and because they were bosses, their pride was sky-high. They never surrendered as captives, and if you dropped one first, the rest would bolt without a second thought. Which left you trapped on the map, unable to leave. A nightmare outcome.

So the orthodox approach was to crush the frog first — the best runner — then beat down the fire-snake, carve up the lizard, and smash the turtle last. In theory.

"You're boss mobs! Stop running without even fighting, you bastards!!!!! And you still call yourselves the Four Heavenly Kings— no, the Four Fiend Stars!!!"

I'd full-doped myself because I hadn't known which eok-kka was coming — and the second these assholes laid eyes on me, they split four ways and started a full-blown escape sequence!!!

Was this the true power of a Twelve Eok-kka event?

If the player was only moderately strong, four bosses tore them apart. If the player was too strong, you got stuck herding all four into a corner of the map for a simultaneous kill — a tedious, soul-crushing game of tag. Yeah. It earned the name Twelve Eok-kka.

But why the hell was it dropping now!!!

"…Fine. I needed to stabilize my realm after all that mastery work in the Training Ground anyway!"

Let's see whose patience runs out first.

I carved a cave into the ground with slaughter tribulation and sat down right there. They couldn't leave the map either.

The Wheel of Slaughter Tribulation began to turn.

I'd only gone in and out of the Training Ground three times, and the slaughter tribulation I'd stockpiled there was, quality-wise, thin and light compared to everything I'd accumulated before — but the sheer volume of it was so vast that even refining and tempering it through the Wheel felt endless.

And as the Wheel spun, that slaughter tribulation seeped outward, spreading from the little cave like fog until it blanketed the entire map.

"I'm killing all of you."

If I blow up the whole map, what are you going to do about it?

What can you even do?!

With Yu Hee's half-mad resolve, slaughter tribulation flooded the map.

Failing slaughter-tribulation Tetris inside my body enough times had taught me one thing: you could artificially agitate the slaughter tribulation and use that force to detonate it. Of course, the result of figuring that out had been me vomiting blood from every pore or sprouting holes from the inside out — but regeneration covered it. Hurt like absolute hell, though!

If I didn't drop all four Heavenly Kings at once, I couldn't leave this map. Using a load would reset the Training Ground entry and force me to hunt for it all over again, and base return was obviously locked.

So ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I was going to smash this entire map to pieces.

I'd been roaming maps looking for Training Grounds anyway. I'd planned to head back to base and raise my realm. So.

"Die."

I'd been spreading slaughter tribulation for what might have been years, and the bug-farmed stockpile from three Training Ground runs was so absurdly vast that plenty still remained.

The Wheel that had been spinning without rest suddenly lurched to a stop.

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk—!

It convulsed — left, right, left again — then went still.

And every scrap of slaughter tribulation I'd poured across the map stretched, stirred, and woke all at once.

The presence of countless living things flooded into my skull through the slaughter tribulation blanketing the map. Information poured in until my head felt ready to burst; heat surged behind my eyes and blood ran from my nose.

Yu Hee collapsed the Tetris.

Crimson slaughter tribulation tore free of control and heaved as one.

Ignoring every inorganic thing, every lifeless object, hungering only for the death of living beings — the slaughter tribulation slipped its leash, bared its teeth at every life form on the map, and detonated its full force at once.

I lifted my head and watched the storm of grand slaughter tribulation that had erupted across the entire map like a hurricane. The cave ceiling had been blasted clean away; through the open sky, the slaughter storm raged — and yet it already looked ready to fade.

Then the message I'd been waiting for rang out.

"It can upgrade? Wait — no, this isn't the time!"

The Four Fiend Stars — that absolute garbage eok-kka event that had wasted years of my time — were down. Every living thing on the map had been swept up in the slaughter detonation, and a colossal storm of slaughter tribulation still raged. I immediately launched the Wheel straight into it.

Inside ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the typhoon of slaughter tribulation, the Wheel began to spin.

The more it turned, the more the slaughter typhoon itself began to revolve with it. The slaughter tribulation that had blanketed the map didn't simply fade — it was drawn into the storm.

Most of what I'd poured out was slaughter tribulation that had failed refinement during mastery work in the Training Ground — stuff that could no longer be tempered inside my body. But now, with an environment this massive…!

"Transform!"

At the eye of the slaughter typhoon that had annihilated every living thing on the map, a giant in the shape of a child took form. The Wheel at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the heart of the storm swelled with her, growing enormous, turning in slow, ponderous rotations.

The giant opened her small mouth wide.

And following the Wheel, the entire typhoon of slaughter tribulation was swallowed whole — a single mouthful of snack for a giant.

"Not a total waste of time after all!"

Even if that eok-kka event did feel like it cost me a solid decade!