Forum Flames Yield the Fivefold Secret
All for the sake of gallery trolling, Baek Cheong forced her heavy eyelids open. She sat up from the bed and immediately rubbed her hands together briskly, washing her dry face.
"Ugh..."
Her entire body screamed in stiff agony from the aftermath of overdosing on pills and squeezing out every last drop of spiritual energy. Unlike her bedridden state, her mind was sharpening into crystal clarity.
"Heh heh heh..."
Breathing ragged with anticipation, she focused her divine sense right away. A translucent window popped open, connecting her to the Moomyeongbang.
Plenty of Yeong-geun isn't good?
Yeong-geun...
Even before her vision fully cleared, notifications were already flooding the corner of the screen noisily. As expected, a deluge of alerts was pouring in.
[New Replies +99]
Her own post had over a hundred replies attached. Baek Cheong let out a cheer of triumph and flung the post open.
The first intriguing detail jumped out at her. Compared to the flood of replies, the likes and dislikes sat quietly at zero.
Baek Cheong tilted her head in puzzlement.
"No dislikes either?"
It wasn't the most pressing matter, so she brushed it off lightly for now. Hurrying on, she scrolled down to the replies below the main post.
The bottom of the thread was packed with crude curses and vicious insults from low-realm cultivators drawn in by the bait. Relentless mockery poured down on the ignorant newbie without mercy.
Replies tearing down her O-yeong-geun were everywhere, but a bright smile spread across Baek Cheong's lips instead. The massive wave of attention sent a thrilling rush of dopamine surging through her. The familiar sensation from her past life took over her body, and she found herself humming a little tune without realizing it.
"They're all so cute."
Ignoring the curses, Baek Cheong slowly scanned through the replies. Amid the endless barrage of abuse, she miraculously spotted one short comment buried deep.
In a sea of rage, this was the only positive note. "Found it!" Baek Cheong clenched her fist on the bed, overjoyed. Short as it was, the implications felt profound. This had to be an old-timer with unique insights on O-yeong-geun—or knowledge of some hidden opportunity tied to it.
"718.44, 718.44."
Baek Cheong firmly memorized the interface number. After meticulously checking every last reply, only one offered the curiosity she craved.
"Ah... At least I got one. That's something, right?"
Consoling her lingering disappointment, she counted it as a win. Next up: track the Dou's interface number and hunt down their other posts.
She moved her divine sense to advance to the next page. Right then, a bizarre sensation hit—like a chunk of her divine sense had been lopped off.
"Eek!"
During her Yeong-geun awakening, she'd cultivated nearly 1 jang (3m) of divine sense. Mastering the family technique and safely entering Yeon-gi-gi 1-star had grown it to a whopping 3 jang. Compared to peers just starting out, it was overwhelmingly superior—she could boast about that much.
But flipping to the next page cost her 1 cheok (30cm) of divine sense in an instant.
"N-No way?"
Panicking, she flipped again to test. Sure enough, another 2 cheok total vanished. Each page turn drained 1 cheok steadily.
She'd been so caught up in the rapid refresh rate of new posts that constant refreshing had hidden this from her until now. Thankfully, returning to the first page restored her divine sense fully.
"What now?"
A deep shadow fell over Baek Cheong's face. The Moomyeongbang spanned the entire lower realms, with trash posts flooding in endlessly. Searching manually with her limited divine sense was borderline impossible drudgery amid this insane update speed.
"I won't lose!"
Unable to contain her boiling defiance, she rapidly flipped through dozens of pages, pushing to her limit. No sign of another post from that interface number—not even a glimpse.
With her divine sense depleted, severe side effects kicked in. She felt ignorant, like an ordinary mortal.
"Ugh..."
Shivering at the unpleasant sensation, she hastily returned to the first page. As her divine sense recovered, her blurred vision cleared and her muddled senses sharpened.
"Hmm."
Sitting cross-legged on the bed with her chin in hand, Baek Cheong racked her brain for solutions to her thwarted grand plan. The biggest issue: no handy search by interface number. She had to dredge up past records by title or content alone.
Grasping at straws, she focused her remaining divine sense into the search bar. Carefully typing [O-yeong-geun], she hit enter.
[913.14 was an O-yeong-geun too, already spouting nonsense...]
...
The results hit like a truck—far worse than page-turning. A full 1 jang of divine sense vanished in a gulp, occupied by the Moomyeongbang.
"Urk!"
Baek Cheong clutched her forehead, groaning. Searching combed through the accumulated archives at once, demanding massive divine sense. Lucky she had 3 jang; a normal Yeon-gi-gi cultivator would've foamed at the mouth and collapsed.
[Good material for pill-making.]
The search results blurred into view across her hazy sight. Posts containing "O-yeong-geun" filled the list densely. Brimming with hope, she clicked through them one by one.
But the results were dismal. Mockery, laments over talent, worthless drivel—nothing but junk. Even scouring the entire first page yielded zero useful cultivation info.
"I can do this!"
Steeling herself, she advanced to the second page. Disappointingly, same story. A headache was already brewing, but quitting wasn't an option. Deep breath to steady her mind, then to the third—her limit.
Divine sense hit rock bottom; vision edges flickered, breath came in harsh gasps. In her shaking, blurry view, Baek Cheong's eyes flashed.
At the tail end of the third page: a post from the same interface number. Provocative title, heavy views, plenty of replies.
"Please..."
Heart pounding, she scraped together her last scraps of divine sense to enter the post.
Unlike expectations, the body was fluff. O-yeong-geun encompassed all five elements, closest to heaven and earth's truth, noblest roots, etc. More a long list of "advantages" than actual cultivation methods.
"Haa..."
Sighing in letdown, Baek Cheong checked the replies below.
In the replies, the OP sparred with doubters and— in a fit of anger—spilled the core theory. This was exactly the info Baek Cheong had desperately sought.
Staring holes into the Moomyeongbang, she etched every word into her mind with precision: Find attribute-matching techniques, run all five simultaneously to make the Yeong-geun resonate.
Normal cultivators devoted lifetimes to mastering one technique suited to their roots. Risking qi deviation by juggling five alien methods was a mad act primed for self-destruction.
But Baek Cheong was a modern soul forged in her past life's grind—extreme multitasking and info-processing drilled to the limit. Worth a shot, even if grueling.
"This could work."
Muttering resolutely, she swiftly logged out and withdrew her divine sense. The brain-fogging fatigue vanished; her clouded mind cleared.
Springing up, she dashed to the desk in the corner. Ink, brush, paper out—she ground the ink and recorded the O-yeong-geun theory flawlessly from memory.
"Techniques beyond Yeonha-gyeol..."
She only knew the water-attribute Yeonha-gyeol her father taught. For perfect resonance, she needed basic techniques for wood, fire, earth, and metal too.
"The library should have others."
Finishing the record, she set the brush down neatly. Throwing on her outer robe from beside the bed, she roughly unlatched the firmly shut door.
"All for the gallery."
Chest burning with hot ambition, Baek Cheong stepped out, heading for the family library. Her mind raced solely with plans to cultivate the five techniques.