You Didn't Know This, Did You?

Bet you didn't know this? After obtaining the Cloud Spiritual Pearl, the Cloud Sea had become no different from her own personal backyard. The pearl absorbed the surrounding clouds, making the environment far more comfortable. By continuously pouring spiritual energy into it, she could see straight through the dense mist and observe objects with her naked eyes. Add her monstrous 27-jang divine sense on top of that, and there was literally nothing that could stop her.

'Gotta sweep this place clean, every last inch.' Baek Cheong was buzzing with excitement as she merrily wandered through the Cloud Sea. No matter how boldly she stirred up the clouds, nothing stood in her way. She roamed for a long time, but the actual haul she scored was pretty disappointing. She never found another genuine jackpot like the Cloud Spiritual Pearl that made her little heart race. The only thing of real value was a decent Dharma Treasure she'd picked up.

After examining it carefully, she confirmed it was a top-grade item at the upper level of Rank 2. Among all the junk she'd salvaged from the secret realm, it was easily the best. 'Oh, this might actually fetch a good price?' It caught her eye for a second, but the interest quickly faded. Value-wise, she could probably get ten superior spirit stones for it without breaking a sweat. The problem was that a Rank 2 Dharma Treasure required at least Foundation Establishment cultivation to use. For a mere Qi Condensation practitioner like herself, it was basically useless.

'Can't even use it myself, so it's hard to call this a real jackpot.' Her standards had shot up dramatically after snagging the Cloud Spiritual Pearl. The deeper she ventured into the Cloud Sea, the rarer decent finds became. Anything useful had already been hoovered up long ago. All that remained was random junk.

'Guess it's about time to head out.' She'd already landed the massive prize that was the Cloud Spiritual Pearl, so there was no point getting greedy. She pulled out the jade token she'd saved for escape and fiddled with it. Breaking it would send her straight out of the secret realm. But as she absentmindedly glanced at it, her eyes narrowed. Tiny characters had appeared on the jade token's surface.

'What the...?' Upon closer inspection, it listed the exact number of items she'd picked up inside the secret realm. Every time she grabbed something, the count increased. When Baek Cheong saw the number engraved there, she froze.

'Over fifty...?' The jade token displayed a number well over fifty. She'd been snatching up anything that caught her eye, and before she knew it, the total had piled up that high. The problem was that only two items could be taken out of the secret realm. One for reaching the main tournament, and one for taking first place. If she left like this, it was obvious the rest would all be confiscated.

'I'm going to lose everything except two out of fifty-plus items?' The realization made Baek Cheong's lips purse into a pout. All that effort trudging through the clouds felt like a waste now. What stung even more were the medicinal herbs like Cloud Root Grass and Cloud Spirit Fruit. They were precious ingredients for pill refinement. She wanted to hoard them for the long term.

'Is there any way to smuggle at least the herbs out...?' As her mind spun for solutions, a brilliant idea suddenly struck her. 'What if I list them on the Mumeongbang marketplace?'

She had already confirmed that she could access Mumeongbang even inside the secret realm. With nothing to lose, she decided to test it immediately. But if someone actually bought the items, that would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be a problem. She couldn't let her hard-earned contraband go for cheap.

'I'll just set the price so ridiculously high that nobody can buy them.' Baek Cheong listed a single Cloud Root Herb for 100 superior spirit stones on the marketplace. It was something that should only cost two or three stones at most. To anyone looking, the price was completely insane.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠moment she registered it, the Cloud Root Herb she'd tucked away in her storage vanished like a ghost. At the same time, the number on the jade token in her hand decreased by one. The count that had been over fifty dropped by a single digit.

'This...!' Her eyes widened like she'd discovered some incredible secret. The Cloud Root Herb had disappeared from her storage the instant it was listed on the Mumeongbang marketplace. The jade token apparently no longer counted it as something she possessed.

'Listing things on Mumeongbang keeps the jade token from detecting them?' Her little heart began to pound wildly. The restriction of only being allowed to take two items out suddenly didn't matter anymore. She could list everything on the marketplace, leave the secret realm, and then simply cancel the listings to get them all back.

"This actually works?"

Baek Cheong let out a helpless chuckle. She'd found a way to snatch all the good stuff without worrying about the item limit.

'As expected, the world really does smile on schemers.' She calmed her racing heart and checked her storage again. Of course, she wasn't planning to list every single thing she'd picked up.

'Only the useful ones.' There was no point smuggling out mediocre spirit tools or Dharma Treasures. She couldn't use them anyway, and selling them would be a hassle. Those could just stay behind in the secret realm. But the medicinal herbs she could use for years to come? She wasn't letting any of those slip away.

She listed the five Cloud Root Herbs she possessed one after another. Each one was priced at the absurd rate of 100 superior spirit stones. Next, she put up the two Cloud Spirit Fruits. Since these were ingredients used for at least Rank 3 pills, she set the price even higher.

'One thousand superior spirit stones per Cloud Spirit Fruit should do it.' The prices were so ridiculous that no one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would even dream of buying them. All five Cloud Root Herbs and both Cloud Spirit Fruits vanished from her storage. The number on the jade token decreased accordingly.

'That takes care of the herbs.' She could retrieve them all later just by canceling the listings.

"Guess I'll just leave with two items, then?"

Baek Cheong snickered to herself, looking rather pleased with her own cunning. Now that she'd found such a satisfying loophole, her view of the secret realm had completely changed.

'If it's going to be this easy, there's no reason to be greedy for the big prizes.' Until now she'd been desperately hunting for true jackpots like the Cloud Spiritual Pearl. But thinking about it calmly, that was actually the worse deal. Real jackpots were incredibly rare, like finding beans in a drought, and they barely ever showed up. On the other hand, herbs like Cloud Root Grass and Cloud Spirit Fruit could be found just by wandering around a bit. And if she smuggled them out, they were items she could actually use herself.

'Better to sweep up all the herbs than chase after one big jackpot.' Baek Cheong immediately changed her goal. True jackpots would just be a bonus if she happened to stumble across them. Instead, she would focus entirely on gathering every medicinal ingredient she could find for pill refinement.

Once her mind was made up, one small annoyance remained. Wandering around the vast Cloud Sea on foot felt incredibly slow.

'This is exactly when Cloud Concealment Technique would be perfect.' Fortunately, she had the jade slip for Cloud Concealment Technique in her storage. Since it was a technique derived from the same principles as Cloud Concealment, she'd already taken a quick look and learned the basics. She couldn't use the technique inside the Cloud Sea normally, but the Cloud Spiritual Pearl changed everything.

'Perfect timing. Let's give it a try.' Baek Cheong formed the hand seals and gathered clouds at her feet. But before the clouds could even properly form, they were abruptly sucked away somewhere.

'Huh?' The culprit was none other than the Cloud Spiritual Pearl in her hand. Every time she tried to call the clouds for the technique, the pearl greedily devoured them.

'Hey, those are my clouds.' Baek Cheong stared down at the pearl in her palm, utterly dumbfounded. If she stopped the pearl from absorbing, she wouldn't be able to use Cloud Concealment Technique because of the Cloud Sea's interference. Trying to control the pearl's absorption was impossible since she hadn't refined it yet. Most importantly, the Cloud Spiritual Pearl had only just been formed. It needed to eat clouds to grow. Stopping the absorption would mean throwing away its chance to mature.

'Ugh, whatever. I'll just walk.' Without hesitation, Baek Cheong gave up on the technique and fed the clouds to the pearl instead. In the end, she had no choice but to diligently trudge through the Cloud Sea on her own two feet.

'Tried to take the easy route and ended up with more work.' Still, watching the Cloud Spiritual Pearl slowly nibble away at the clouds made her feel a little better about it.

She continued diligently sweeping up Cloud Root Herbs and Cloud Spirit Fruits as she moved through the Cloud Sea. By listing everything she found on the Mumeongbang marketplace, the number on her jade token never increased.

'I can just keep hoarding as much as I want?' Baek Cheong held back a giggle that threatened to escape and fully extended her divine sense. At the very edge of her all-encompassing divine sense, something unfamiliar brushed against it. The sensation was completely different from the trash or spiritual herbs she'd been finding so far.

'Hm?' What her divine sense had caught was another cultivator's divine sense. The other party was also extending their senses to examine the surroundings.

'There's someone here?' It wasn't surprising that she wasn't the only cultivator who'd entered the secret realm. What was concerning was how close their divine senses had come to touching. It was fortunate that she, with her 27-jang divine sense, had noticed first.

'Looks like they haven't spotted me yet.' The opponent's divine sense was much smaller compared to hers. Keeping her distance so she wouldn't be detected, she quietly observed them. It didn't take long to identify the owner of the sense.

'Foundation Establishment.' The other person was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, a full realm above her. Since both Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation teams had entered the secret realm, it was only natural that Foundation Establishment experts would be present.

'No reason to bump into a Foundation Establishment cultivator.' She was about to withdraw her divine sense and slip away when she noticed another presence beside the Foundation Establishment expert. Standing next to them was a Qi Condensation cultivator.

'They're traveling together despite the realm difference?' The pairing seemed rather strange. Out of curiosity, she extended her divine sense toward the Qi Condensation cultivator. Beyond the clouds, the person's appearance became crystal clear. He looked like an ordinary man you might bump into anywhere.

'He looks familiar...' The familiar face made Baek Cheong search her memories. She mulled over why this ordinary-looking man kept nagging at her mind.

'Ah.' A memory soon surfaced. He was the opponent she'd faced in the top four of the martial arts competition. The one who hadn't shown fear or looked down on her, simply watching her with calm eyes. The one who'd been defeated without even getting to use a single technique, yet somehow left a strangely unsettling impression.

'That guy... he seemed like he was hiding something back then...' The uneasy feeling she'd dismissed as her imagination raised its head once more. And now this suspicious person was wandering the depths of the Cloud Sea accompanied by a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

'No way...' Baek Cheong stopped trying to withdraw her divine sense. Holding her breath, she quietly watched the two cultivators.