Heavenly Net, Earthly Web

Honestly, once I realized I could farm training experience off slaughter energy, the first plan I cooked up was to round up a massive haul of neutral NPCs and milk them dry. A few reasons later, that plan was dead in the water.

And that was even setting aside the Confucian Taliban of my past-life humanity clones, who were already picketing my inner world with the weapon of conscience raised high.

First: no matter how badly I wanted to extract slaughter energy, capturing them was the hard part. Killing was easy. Fine control? Not so much. Not with me, anyway!

Second: even if I somehow managed to catch them and start siphoning, the ceiling was painfully clear. I'd already gorged on Elder Togo's slaughter energy — a cultivator who'd reached the Nascent Soul realm, no less — and I could already feel the hard limit on leveling from it.

Third: the absolute quantity just wasn't enough.

I'd need at least a hundred times Elder Togo's worth of slaughter energy to establish a meaningful circulation with the Seas of Slaughter and turn the whole thing into a perpetual engine.

So for all those reasons, I decided to stop trying to farm leveling experience out of slaughter energy.

"Well then, I'm heading out!"

"The newborn does so love to wander about, doesn't she?"

"Something like that."

Obviously. You have to roam the map if you want event-based stat boosts! Hole up because you're scared of Eok-kka events and you never grow! Hmm? Didn't I hole up before? That was a strategic retreat. Or a reverse charge. Whatever — moving on!

I said my goodbyes to Elder Togo, tossed Cheon Nan-cho out on a prisoner expedition, slammed today's [Greeting] recommendation into Yeona, and left the base.

Heh. After slurping up Elder Togo's slaughter energy, I was sitting pretty at level 361! Still a padded level, since I hadn't finished refining all the slaughter energy yet — but still!

Apparently, absorbing slaughter energy inside the Training Ground had gotten it classified as training experience, because no matter how hard I trained after that, the exp just wouldn't come. Hence the map run.

"Transform!"

There was also the matter of testing the overhauled Transformation skill — the product of Elder Togo's major renovation work and a pile of his advice.

Originally, raising the skill level only extended the duration; size and stat bonuses never budged. After the remodel, it crashed from a Master skill all the way down to Level 1 — but now, every level-up bulked up the transformation size and the physical stat multipliers even further!

Elder Togo said the foundation was still too weak, and that I'd need to shore it up properly and run another round of repairs later. Still, the sheer physical stats and the even more enormous size from the remodeled Transformation skill made pulling aggro from map monsters trivial — and killing them just as easy!

The neutral NPCs who hid or bolted were another story, though.

Borrowing Elder Togo's pursuit-and-annihilation drones would've been nice, but those were in maintenance. They'd gotten thoroughly wrecked after getting caught in my Seas of Slaughter last time.

Maybe it came with the territory of being a cultivator — people who lived long past their allotted lifespan — but setting everything else aside, these guys were disgustingly good at running away.

"Ah. Got one."

I cracked a grin after successfully swatting a neutral NPC out of the air like a housefly with Spoon. These monsters were dropping some pretty generous experience!

Thinking that, I cheerfully surveyed the surroundings — and then:

"Huh?"

A familiar, unnaturally dilapidated wooden plank caught my eye. I hastily dropped Transformation, shot over on my cartwheel, and scooped it up.

"…Fuck?"

The wreckage of a broken wooden fence. In other words: the Training Ground. No matter how I looked at it, the debris was smashed to pieces as if it'd been caught in the slaughter sea I'd raised, and the traces of my spiritual energy caked all over it were too thick to deny.

My Training Ground — the one I was going to use to build my fourth Sea of Slaughter — was gone!!!

Just looking at this wooden plank, with its absurd durability that shattered from the mere act of generating slaughter energy — not even a full slaughter sea — I finally understood why the Training Ground had been so ridiculously hard to find, even accounting for the mod making it rare.

What kind of Training Ground loses durability and shatters just from catching the aftershock of a skill while you're clearing a map?! The culprit was obvious without looking: you, Reality Patch! Gyaaaaah!

Knowing the cause didn't bring the shattered Training Ground back, though. Before I could do anything with the broken plank, it scattered into the air and vanished.

No wonder I couldn't find it…

"…Come to think of it, quest NPCs can die to neutral NPCs, right?"

So the Training Ground could've been smashed by a neutral NPC or a monster before I ever observed it? Maybe? Once I landed on that reasonable speculation, I felt a little better.

Ignoring the sighs of my inner humanity clones, I took out my frustration by stomping every remaining instant dungeon on the map flat with Transformation, then slurped up nothing but the slaughter energy and experience.

Absolute honey.

I could only get away with that because they were instant dungeons — no items dropped anyway. Killing monsters with Transformation shattered the loot, too.

A sad fact I'd only learned after eating an epic item that was one hit from falling apart due to zero durability.

Somehow items just… didn't drop when I used Transformation. I'd thought the drop rate had simply tanked…

That was why, even when I used Transformation out in the field, I still methodically beat monsters to death with Spoon. A desperate scramble to salvage even material drops!

"Seriously, does it make any sense that experience and drop rates fall the higher you level?"

What a garbage game.

Anyway, I pushed through a few more maps like that.

Having leveled for so long on training experience alone, I managed to gain three levels from pure hunting in a month. Of course, that was two levels in the first month and a measly one level over the next month — but still!

"Why… we were just good cultivators, performing the great work of remodeling pill-refinement methods using mere Mortals…"

Crack!

"Mm. Nothing beats the hand feel of this."

I frowned as a single Spoon hit skipped the dialogue ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and converted a neutral NPC into experience and slaughter energy — with not a single item popping out.

"Maybe good cultivators just don't drop loot."

My inner humanity clones all lost their minds, brandishing their consciences and screaming about what kind of bullshit that was, so I hastily tacked on a follow-up.

"No, I mean — they're dead, so now they're good."

The dead become good, or kind. Don't like it? Don't accept it? Then go ahead and resurrect! Of course, if they resurrected, I'd just split them in two again — wow, double experience and slaughter energy!

With the additional explanation, the humanity clones all nodded in agreement. So even the Mortal ones were still, fundamentally, me.

Though being Mortal humanity clones, they still couldn't understand me without the extra commentary from me, the cultivator.

I glanced around at the extras trembling and staring at me like I was a lunatic talking to herself. Hmm. No quest NPCs on the minimap. Or ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they were already dead.

Ignoring the extras, I launched skyward on my cartwheel, opened the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠minimap, and finished a regional transfer to the next map in search of fresh prey — and that was the exact moment.

"Activate the seal!"

"…What."

Neutral NPCs packed every direction. What was this, some ultra-fun event? What kind of event involved neutral NPCs?

"For the past hundred-odd years, this evil Demon Immortal has hunted cultivators without regard for Orthodox, Unorthodox, or Demonic affiliation! Do not be deceived by appearances — kill her!"

Looking at the handful of red-dot Golden Core cultivators pointing fingers at me, and the rest of the neutral NPCs, I finally understood what kind ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of event this was.

"Ah. An Eok-kka event!"

And one that hadn't even bothered to put up a single system message for the Xianxia Mode event spawn!

Mentally inquiring after the Xianxia Mode developer's parents one more time for good measure, I took about half of the attacks raining in from every direction on the chin.

With the unholy combo of tanked defense, no evasion, and no defensive skills, my only real answer to a group beatdown was to hit back just as hard.

I immediately drew my Natal Dharma Treasure — the cartwheel — and Chopsticks.

The cartwheel, spinning proudly above my head like a halo by now, pulled slaughter energy from the Mental World and regenerated my attack-riddled body in an instant. Behind me, countless Chopsticks whirled like a nimbus and poured down in a rain of indiscriminate fire on the surrounding neutral NPCs.

"Kh!"

"Hold the seal! We end this Demon Immortal's life here!"

"Block her!"

"Okay, this is ridiculous."

My auto-tracking Chopsticks were getting blocked? This was a Master skill that cleanly one-shot same-level monsters with just two hits embedded in the body!

I realized they were tanking one or two Chopsticks with some weird barrier, and that the sheer number of neutral NPCs was the real problem. I tried to attack again — but it was already their turn.

Another wave of attacks poured in. My cartwheel rolled, hauling slaughter energy to regenerate me, but getting unilaterally pounded like this had apparently pissed someone off. I held back the humanity clones trying to mash the rage emotion expression, and opened my mouth.

"Transform."