Puppet (1)
"Cheon Dou's standing is rising by leaps and bounds as we speak."
Cheon Woo-jin had come to see Seo Seol-ryeong today to collect his compensation for the subjugation of the Mad World Yin Spirit Sect.
The process had been delayed somewhat, owing to Tae Sa-ryang's untimely death.
"You're the only one who returned from this operation without any major injuries, Cheon Dou. On top of that, word is that you played the decisive role in bringing down Jeok Ya-wol. Your price can only go up."
"You seem to be enjoying yourself."
At Cheon Woo-jin's observation, Seo Seol-ryeong smiled.
As the one handling the brokerage, this situation was nothing but cause for delight.
"Some people are even saying that it was Cheon Dou who killed Jeok Ya-wol."
"A Qi Condensation nobody killing a demonic sect master in Core Formation."
Cheon Woo-jin said it with a perfectly straight face.
"An implausible story."
"But just as sensational as it is implausible."
In truth, that ridiculous rumor was the exact truth of what had happened in this fight.
It had been Cheon Woo-jin, without question, who had cut Tae Sa-ryang's breath short.
"Before long, people intrigued by that sensational story will come looking for you. Let's drive your price up as high as it will go."
"I'll leave it to you."
Cheon Woo-jin and Seo Seol-ryeong coordinated their plans for the days ahead.
Cheon Woo-jin was now standing right at the threshold of Foundation Establishment.
Of the Foundation Establishment spirit materials, he had already secured all five of the Five Elements materials. With just one more—the foundation material—in hand, he could brew the Foundation Establishment Pill and attempt the breakthrough.
With that in mind, he had asked Seo Seol-ryeong for a few favors.
"I've received what I came for, so I'll be off."
His business concluded, Cheon Woo-jin rose from his seat.
For the record, the compensation paid by the Shengjue Yiyuan Sect had been one Operating Spirit Stone and ten thousand ordinary spirit stones.
"Cheon Dou."
Seo Seol-ryeong called out to him as he was about to step out of the tent.
"You should start thinking about relocating your abode."
"……"
"Even I have been hearing specific reports about where in the First Tier you've set up your dwelling. I've even caught wind of the tedious little gossip that you're on close terms with its owner."
Seo Seol-ryeong spoke in a calm voice.
"The cultivators active in the First Tier won't touch you, but someone sent down from above could well scheme against you. Other problems could arise as well. Moving your abode would be for the best."
Indeed, it was no ordinary thing for someone of Cheon Woo-jin's caliber to be living in the First Tier.
Jo Hyu, his landlord, had already suggested that it might be time to move along, too.
"And…… you should also consider covering your face from now on."
"I'll keep it in mind."
Leaving Seo Seol-ryeong's shop, Cheon Woo-jin headed straight for the Third Tier.
But as he walked, far too many people kept staring at him.
By now, the majority of people even in the Third Tier recognized Cheon Woo-jin on sight.
This is definitely not a good situation.
Bearing those stares, Cheon Woo-jin made his way to the central market of the Third Tier.
There he entered a tavern called the Dongcheon Pavilion and took a room.
"What will you have to drink, honored guest?"
"My usual."
Cheon Woo-jin gave the attendant a short reply as the man moved to take his order, and the attendant respectfully pressed his palms together.
"My apologies. Your usual, then—I'll have it prepared at once."
The attendant left the room without delay.
Before long, a faint trace of spirit qi began to emanate from the doorway through which he had gone.
Cheon Woo-jin rose from his seat and approached the door.
With a low rumble, the sliding door opened onto a sight utterly unlike the corridor he had passed through moments before.
It's like outer space.
It was a space with neither ceiling nor floor.
Countless "islands" floated in a black void that stretched on without end.
As he surveyed the islands, Cheon Woo-jin drew a single sheet of paper from his robes.
It was the note he had found inside Tae Sa-ryang's sleeve.
Upon it was a string of characters that seemed to carry no particular meaning.
Cheon Woo-jin read the characters aloud, one by one.
Hummmm.
A translucent platform materialized beneath his feet.
From there, the platform stretched out across empty space toward one of the islands—a stepping-stone path leading to it.
Cheon Woo-jin crossed the path carefully, taking care not to misstep.
The island at the end was protected by a transparent barrier; reading the characters aloud once more caused an entrance to open.
So those characters were nothing more than a password for coming and going here.
Inside the barrier, a broad expanse of farmland spread out before him.
Behind the fields lay a small garden, and within it stood a single, tranquil hermitage.
Stepping inside, he found it piled with a wide variety of books and spirit herbs.
I found the right place.
A secret sanctuary that Tae Sa-ryang had quietly prepared for himself, hidden from all eyes.
A hidden cave-realm accessible from any tier of Ghost Head City, so long as one spoke the password at one of the entrances scattered throughout it.
This place would be Cheon Woo-jin's new abode from now on.
Originally, the Great Emptiness Cave Heaven Mirror wasn't accessible in the game until after reaching Core Formation.
The Great Emptiness Cave Heaven Mirror was no ordinary space.
It was a law treasure that contained dwellings in the form of islands floating in the void.
Like Ghost Head City itself, it was an artificial creation of a sect that once commanded overwhelming power.
In the far-distant past, there had been a sect boasting tremendous strength.
Its members decided to build a kind of dormitory facility for their disciples, and the result was this very Great Emptiness Cave Heaven Mirror.
Each island in this space had once served as a private chamber for a sect disciple.
But that sect, like the Yin Soul Ghost Bone Palace, had ascended wholesale to the Immortal Realm, abandoning the Great Emptiness Cave Heaven Mirror behind in the lower realms.
Certain parties had taken over its management and were quietly running a rental business with it.
Tae Sa-ryang had made contact with them and rented this island.
He must have considered it a safer space than his own quarters inside the Shengjue Yiyuan Sect.
But Tae Sa-ryang had lost his life in Heiyu Valley, and the access password had fallen into Cheon Woo-jin's hands.
Now this place was his to use.
I'll have to pay the rent eventually, of course.
Truthfully, Cheon Woo-jin had been fond of his dwelling in the First Tier.
It felt like the studio apartment he'd lived in back in his old life, and that had given him a sense of stability.
But this place had a fine feel to it as well.
Like having a private villa all to oneself on a silent, uninhabited island.
When he grew weary of training, he could sit on the hermitage's veranda and gaze up at the black void the way one might watch the night sky. That sounded rather pleasant.
Besides, the small fields spread before the hermitage were spirit fields, suitable for cultivating spirit herbs or spirit rice.
In the little garden, he could also plant trees that bore spirit fruit.
Tae Sa-ryang apparently had no interest in farming, for the fields sat empty—but if Cheon Woo-jin obtained seeds and saplings and grew them himself, the returns would be quite worthwhile.
I could attempt my Foundation Establishment breakthrough here, too.
The spirit qi here was abundant.
The vast expanse of space generated its own spirit qi, which was steadily supplied to each of the islands.
Unlike his First Tier abode, where no spirit qi could be felt at all, this place was itself an excellent training ground.
Tae Sa-ryang would have cultivated in the upper tiers of Ghost Head City, so he'd had no particular need to train here.
But for Cheon Woo-jin, who could not yet ascend above the Third Tier, it was as good a place as any he could ask for.
And……
Cheon Woo-jin surveyed the interior of the hermitage once more.
Tae Sa-ryang had accumulated quite a few valuable books.
Most of them, however, were far too esoteric for Cheon Woo-jin, still mired in Qi Condensation, to attempt.
Even so, refusing to be discouraged, Cheon Woo-jin examined the volumes one by one.
And the result…… was the discovery of one very old secret manual.
The Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art!
The Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art was a cultivation method said to have been created by Master Thunder Spirit—a grandmaster who had ascended to the upper realms in ages past—back during his own Foundation Establishment days.
Cultivators who revered Master Thunder Spirit had labored to learn the art, but it was said to be so difficult that almost no one ever truly mastered it.
Tae Sa-ryang favored the Thunder Strike Jade, a lightning-releasing artifact. Did he acquire the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art and study it for that reason?
In the game, the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art had been a powerful lightning-attribute cultivation method.
Among all lightning-attribute methods for Foundation Establishment, it boasted the number one attack power.
If I use this as my guide when I attempt Foundation Establishment…… I'll be able to wield powerful lightning-attribute spells from the very earliest stages of the realm.
Though the Thunder Spirit Great Derivation Art was a method for Foundation Establishment, one could study it in advance at Qi Condensation Great Perfection and use it as a guide during the breakthrough attempt.
Doing it this way allowed for much faster growth, so in Yeongro Suseonjeon it had been all but a mandatory step.
I'd been planning to wander Ghost Head City looking for a usable Foundation Establishment method, but it seems I no longer need to bother.
He wanted nothing more than to open the book and start studying on the spot.
But Cheon Woo-jin set the book down.
Once he began, he'd be buried in it for days on end—and there was still much left to take care of.
First, I need to get my hands on an alchemy furnace.
This place had nearly everything he needed—except for exactly one thing.
There was no furnace for refining pills.
Tae Sa-ryang, with access to the Shengjue Yiyuan Sect's workshops, would never have needed a personal one, but for Cheon Woo-jin, a loose cultivator, a private furnace was essential.
Cheon Woo-jin returned to the First Tier and went to see Jo Hyu.
Jo Hyu had been relieved ever since the Mad World Yin Spirit Sect's annihilation, but at the news that Cheon Woo-jin would be leaving his dwelling, he was visibly reluctant to let him go.
"Our little one was awfully fond of you, you know……"
Jo Hyu's granddaughter was still hiding away somewhere else, so Cheon Woo-jin could not see her face.
Instead, Cheon Woo-jin passed along the confections he had prepared in advance.
"Please tell her we'll meet again sometime."
"Aigoo, bless you."
Jo Hyu's eyes glistened as he accepted the sweets.
"Then I'll return the money you paid at the start. Right away, I'll just——"
"Landlord, hold a moment."
Stopping Jo Hyu as he moved to return the deposit, Cheon Woo-jin spoke up.
"There's something I'd like to ask of you."
"A favor?"
"I'd like to take the alchemy furnace you installed in my dwelling with me."
"……!"
The furnace currently installed in the dwelling was one Jo Hyu had used back in his days with the demonic sect.
Cheon Woo-jin had been borrowing it all this time, and he wished to take it along as it was.
Long use had made him familiar with it, and it was vastly superior in performance to the crude furnaces that could be bought in the lower tiers of Ghost Head City.
"There's no furnace at the new place, you see."
"Ah……"
"Of course, I'm not suggesting I take it for free."
Cheon Woo-jin drew spirit stones from his storage pouch.
At the sight of the mountain of spirit stones piled on the table, Jo Hyu's eyes went wide.
"I'd heard the rumors…… but it seems you really have been making quite a name for yourself lately."
"Will this be enough?"
In answer to Cheon Woo-jin's question, Jo Hyu let out a long sigh.
"Very well. I'll dismantle it and stow it in a storage pouch for you. Take it with you."
"Thank you."
"I'll throw in a few more of the tools I used for refining back in the day, too. They're things I'll never use again anyway……"
Jo Hyu led Cheon Woo-jin to the dwelling and dismantled the furnace for him.
He even gave a detailed explanation of how to set it up again.
"May everything you do from here on turn out well."
Before Jo Hyu, who bid him farewell with reddened eyes, Cheon Woo-jin pressed his hands together in gratitude.
This was the cultivation world, a place without blood or tears—and this was the very bottom of Ghost Head City, where every manner of filth played out.
But sometimes, exchanging this kind of human warmth was a necessary thing.
For one who abandoned his humanity to chase power alone inevitably became a monster.
Cheon Woo-jin wished to keep surviving in this harsh world.
But what meaning was there in achieving immortality as a monster rather than a man?
To climb to ever higher realms while remaining human.
That was Cheon Woo-jin's wish.
"I've secured a new dwelling in the southwest of the Third Tier. I'd like you to spread that rumor around."
When Cheon Woo-jin stepped into the tent and announced it without preamble, Seo Seol-ryeong nodded with a composed expression.
"Understood. I'll see to it that word spreads that you no longer reside in the First Tier."
"I'll leave it to you."
She caught on before he even finished asking.
It was exactly why Cheon Woo-jin worked with Seo Seol-ryeong.
"So—where is your real dwelling?"
"What would you do with that information?"
Cheon Woo-jin replied thus and took his seat.
"How did the matter I asked about turn out?"
"I was just about to bring that up."
On his previous visit, he had made one request of Seo Seol-ryeong.
To help him track down a foundation material for the Foundation Establishment Pill.
"One of the materials you mentioned seems to be located not far from here."
"Is that really true?"
"Yes. It's said to be at the Blood Puppet Sect branch near Ghost Head City."
"……"
At those words, Cheon Woo-jin fell silent for a moment.
"You mean the Blood Puppet Sect of the Moonlit Thirteen League?"
"Yes. The sect led by the Blood Puppet Ancestor, Gu Do-ryun—one of the Thirteen Sovereigns."
The Moonlit Thirteen League counted among its ranks the Thirteen Sovereigns, the supreme masters of the Dark Gate.
The faction led by one of them, the Blood Puppet Ancestor Gu Do-ryun, was the Blood Puppet Sect.
"Some time ago, a flying vessel of the Qingyun Merchant Guild was attacked by the Blood Puppet Sect's puppets. They lost nearly all of their cargo."
"Don't tell me……"
"The very foundation material you desire…… the Yin-Yang Marvelous Pearl was said to be aboard that vessel."
The Yin-Yang Marvelous Pearl was the foundation material Cheon Woo-jin had ranked as his first choice.
A pearl in which the principles of yin and yang wove together in exquisite harmony; used in brewing the Foundation Establishment Pill, it vastly amplified the pill's efficacy.
In the game, it had been a rare item that appeared at auction houses only with very low probability.
That was why he had asked Seo Seol-ryeong to gather information—never imagining it would end up flowing into a Blood Puppet Sect branch.
"The Qingyun Merchant Guild is trying to recover their cargo, but it seems they're making little headway."
"……"
"If you truly want the Yin-Yang Marvelous Pearl, one option is to join the Qingyun Merchant Guild's effort and strike the Blood Puppet Sect branch. Or you could assault the branch on your own."
Seo Seol-ryeong spoke in a level voice.
"But you must consider that doing so carelessly could make you the target of Gu Do-ryun, who has reached the Nascent Soul Realm."
"……"
Nascent Soul Realm.
The stage at which one could create a Nascent Soul—a second life that moved independently of the body.
Gu Do-ryun was a monster who had reached that very realm.
Gu Do-ryun himself would not be present at a mere branch, but every one of the Blood Puppet Sect's puppets was linked to his consciousness.
Even if Cheon Woo-jin succeeded in raiding the branch and seizing the Yin-Yang Marvelous Pearl, his future would grow uncertain the moment Gu Do-ryun became aware of his existence and marked him as prey.
"What will you do, Cheon Dou?"
Seo Seol-ryeong asked him what choice he would make.