Infinite Gallery Trolling Achieved
Baek Cheong hurried out of her residence with quick steps. Her destination was Janggyeonggak, where the clan's vast knowledge lay dormant.
The family garden basked in the warm morning sunlight. The busy servants, tending to their morning duties, spotted her and stopped in unison, bowing deeply.
"Miss, did you rest well?"
"Are you feeling better now?"
Pity filled their eyes—sympathy for the clan's youngest daughter, who had received the verdict of O-yeong-geun, the worst trash talent in the world of cultivators.
"Thanks to you all."
Baek Cheong nodded lightly in acknowledgment. In the past, she might have chatted with them to kill time, but now she was in a rush. The burning desire to fuse the five techniques and unleash her fury on Moomyeongbang consumed her entire body.
She passed through the garden and arrived at the massive pavilion behind the inner quarters. An ancient, weathered plaque boldly proclaimed Baekgyeonggak in three powerful characters. This was the core hall storing the martial arts and cultivation methods collected by the Yeonha Baek family over centuries.
At the entrance sat an elderly man dozing off in a large rattan chair—Baek Un-ho, the guardian elder of the family library.
"Little Grandfather, are you well?"
Baek Cheong clasped her hands politely and bowed.
Baek Un-ho cracked open his sleepy eyes and peered ahead. A flicker of surprise lit up his gaze as he recognized the small, frail girl.
"It's you, Cheong. Your father told you to rest for a few days. Why have you come all the way here?"
"Lying in bed made my body feel heavy and stuffy, so I came out for some air. I also wanted to read some books from the library to soothe my mind and body."
Baek Un-ho let out a long sigh at her calm response. To him, she looked utterly forlorn—like a desperate struggle to deny her hopeless O-yeong-geun fate by seeking some miraculous secret technique in the library.
"I understand how you feel. You may browse the first-floor library freely. Don't overdo it—just look around a bit and go back."
"Thank you."
Baek Un-ho pulled a jade plaque from his sleeve and lightly dispelled the barrier. The heavy wooden door creaked open slowly.
Baek Cheong slipped inside Janggyeonggak without hesitation.
The first floor was filled with the musty scent of old paper and thick ink. Hundreds of massive bookshelves stood densely packed, with tens of thousands of books neatly organized by section. Valuable jade slips containing critical knowledge were kept on the second floor and above.
Baek Cheong moved without pause. The Yeonha Baek family had specialized in water-attribute techniques for generations. Their foundational Yeonha-gyeol dealt with water energy, so techniques of other attributes were likely discarded in the corner junk section on the first floor.
"Wood, fire, earth, metal."
She wove through the dusty shelves in the corner, eyes darting busily. She needed the most basic introductory techniques for handling the five elements' energies.
Most cultivators delved deeply into a single attribute matching their yeong-geun. Other attributes were scorned or used only as references, lacking popularity.
In the bottom shelf of a dust-covered bookcase, she found what she sought: Cheong-yeop-gyeol (wood attribute), Jeok-yeom-gyeol (fire attribute), Hu-to-gyeol (earth attribute), Baek-geum-gyeol (metal attribute). Common third-rate basic techniques anyone could easily obtain.
"Let's get this over with."
Baek Cheong hugged the four thin books to her chest and settled at a corner desk.
A typical Yeon-gi-gi cultivator would take days to memorize and comprehend a single book. The meridian flows and energy operations were incredibly complex and arcane.
But Baek Cheong was different. Born with near-perfect divine sense upon awakening her yeong-geun, it had expanded massively to three inches upon reaching Yeon-gi-gi 1-star. Her mental prowess rejected comparison to peers.
She spread Cheong-yeop-gyeol on the desk and focused her divine sense. It and her eyes rapidly scanned the text. The characters leaped off the page, flooding her mind as if alive—a brute-force memorization using divine sense.
In just half a shichen, she crammed every meridian operation from the four books into her head.
"All memorized!"
She stood, returned the books to their places, and headed to the entrance. Baek Un-ho, still in his chair, looked shocked.
"Already leaving? Did you find what you wanted?"
"Yes. It greatly helped clear my stray thoughts."
Baek Cheong bowed politely and exited Baekgyeonggak. Ignoring the elder's peculiar stare boring into her back, she quickened her pace.
Now, back to her room for the real test.
She shut the thick door, latched it securely, blocking all disturbances. Climbing onto the bed, she sat cross-legged, straight-backed. She exhaled deeply, calming her excitement.
"Get it together."
Circulating the five elements simultaneously was a deadly gamble. Clashing heterogeneous energies could lead to qi deviation, rupturing her meridians.
Baek Cheong recalled her past life's computer games—controlling multiple characters or juggling browser tabs. She needed to split her mind into five precise threads of control.
She took out the jade bottle her father had given her, slipped a Chwi-ryeong-dan under her tongue. She'd melt it during circulation to forcibly replenish spiritual energy.
"Hoo..."
Eyes closed, she began with the familiar Yeonha-gyeol. Water-attribute yeong-gi from the air seeped slowly through her nose and skin into her dantian, pooling like cool water.
As the water energy circulated stably, she split her mind and recited Cheong-yeop-gyeol. She forcibly drew wood-attribute energy. Warm, vital green energy flowed toward her liver.
Su-saeng-mok (water begets wood). The kidney's water energy embraced the liver-bound wood, nurturing it smoothly. No clash—the two flowed naturally.
A faint vibration stirred her dantian.
'Good, next.'
Third, Jeok-yeom-gyeol. Fierce fire energy surged toward her heart. The liver's wood fueled it like kindling, amplifying the blaze.
Mok-saeng-hwa (wood begets fire). Scorching heat rose, but she gritted her teeth, maintaining control. Sweat beaded on her forehead, dripping.
Three meridians drained her mind rapidly. She bit the Chwi-ryeong-dan, flooding her dantian with hot medicinal power.
Reinvigorated, she activated Hu-to-gyeol. Heavy earth energy sank toward her spleen. The heart's fire solidified it like firm ground.
Hwa-saeng-to (fire begets earth). Twisting pain wracked her guts. Four energies swirled wildly, threatening to tear her vessels.
"Hng!"
She bit her lip, tasting blood. Stopping now meant rampage and ruin. One final piece.
Squeezing every ounce of mind, she began Baek-geum-gyeol. Sharp metal energy flew to her lungs. The spleen's earth tempered its edge.
To-saeng-geum (earth begets metal). The lungs' metal flowed back to kidneys, birthing water.
Geum-saeng-su (metal begets water).
Water, wood, fire, earth, metal. The five elements formed a seamless ring, cycling endlessly.
A miraculous resonance hummed. Vibration built, birthing a massive yeong-gi vortex around her. Her trash O-yeong-geun, repelling heaven and earth's energy, transformed into a voracious absorber via five-elements circulation.
The air churned; room items trembled faintly.
"It's done!"
It felt like a clogged sewer blasting open. Pure energy poured into her dantian at speeds incomparable to before, mocking her O-yeong-geun limits. Dou(718.44)'s claim of heavenly talent equivalence proved true.
Pain melted away, replaced by ecstatic cellular joy.
She repeated the cycle many times in meditation.
"...?"
But no true essence built in her dantian. Like filling a dam with a tiny hose—endless futility. Still, she focused on gathering until completing the grand circulation.
A long time passed.
Baek Cheong slowly opened her eyes. Faint five-colored light flickered deep in her black pupils before vanishing.
Her body felt feather-light, mind clear as a deep lake. Clenching and unclenching her fist, she sensed overflowing power.
"I got tricked!"
Yet the true essence in her dantian was meager. Fusing five techniques had upgraded her O-yeong-geun to five-elements yeong-geun, expanding her dantian too.
"The intake is definitely higher..."
Five times more than solo Yeonha-gyeol. The issue: no faster realm progress from 1-star to 2-star.
"Not wrong, technically..."
As Dou(718.44) said, perhaps equal to heavenly roots. Faster accumulation, but not faster breakthroughs—no lies.
"Still, perfect for gallery trolling..."
A grin crept across her face. Abundant yeong-gi meant endless Moomyeongbang posts.
"Time for Moomyeongbang."
She accessed it instantly. A translucent window materialized, displaying the Nameless Board's casual chatter section. Posts refreshed endlessly with new nonsense.
Her dantian now an inexhaustible spring via five-elements circulation—no more energy worries.
She hit "Write Post," unleashing past-life trolling prowess with provocative lines.
Seeing these Yeon-gi-gi scrubs wasting time on Moomyeongbang instead of cultivating? The future looks bleak lol.
Massive yeong-gi drain for the long post—but cycling five-elements refilled it in a blink.
"Infinite gallery trolling achieved."
She refreshed. Furious replies from enraged Dous poured in real-time.
"Puhuhu."
Baek Cheong cackled at the flood of replies. In the harsh cultivator world, the grueling path of training had become, for her, the perfect tool for endless trolling. In this brutal realm, even the road to survival devolved into prime gallery bait.