Tears Flood the Family Banquet
Time flew by as Baek Cheong repeated her training and pill refinement into her eleventh year. In the blink of an eye, several months passed, the new year arrived, and she turned eleven. Midway through, unable to endure the boredom, she posted a picture on Moomyeongbang pretending to be a true genius by taking a Chwi-ryeong-dan with a single circulation—which flipped the entire forum upside down—but it was just a minor incident.
Thanks to devouring top-grade pills like they were nothing and her steady qi absorption, her seemingly bottomless dantian was now nearly half full. To welcome the new year, a grand banquet was held in the vast assembly hall of the Yeonha Baek family mansion, gathering all the relatives.
Aside from those with circumstances or in secluded cultivation, the former family head Baek Mu-ae led the direct lineage, joined by numerous collateral relatives rarely seen on ordinary days, all taking their seats.
"Hahaha! Have you been well?"
"Brother, have you been in good health?"
The atmosphere in the banquet hall was more lively than ever. Collateral relatives clustered in groups of twos and threes, clinking glasses and exchanging blessings, with conversations nine times out of ten revolving around the Yeonha Baek family's newest pride: Baek Cheong.
"Have you heard? The family head's youngest daughter reached Refining Qi 5-star in just one year. Everyone was worried back during her spiritual root test because of that O-yeong-geun, but to overcome the limits of a mixed five-element root with innate five-star talent from infancy... incredible."
"And that's not all. Splitting a first-tier superior spell into ten strands at once? It's not just five stars—she must be a prodigy, a miracle bestowed by the heavens upon our Baek family."
"If the family head ascends to Gold Core and the former head reaches late-stage, our Yeonha Baek family will surely dominate the southern region."
Various rumors and eyewitness accounts spread unchecked, becoming the talk of the collateral relatives' mouths. Their attitude, which had once subtly dismissed and whispered about Baek Cheong for her trash O-yeong-geun roots, had flipped like the palm of a hand.
"Cheong-ah, do you recognize your cousin?"
"Brother, come on. She's never properly seen his face—how would she? If he'd attended the banquet for Cheong last time, maybe... Ah, I'm her distant uncle—think she'd know me?"
The collateral relatives competed to shower Baek Cheong with expensive gifts like silk and spirit herbs, eager to leave a good impression. They even shamelessly pushed their own children or grandchildren toward her, trying to secure a spot by her side for any scraps of benefit.
"Cheong-nee! Look, I caught this spirit beast chick from the wild mountains outside the Baek family—super cute, right?"
"Cheong-ah, back when I was little at the outer hall..."
"Nee-nee! Check this out!"
Suddenly, Baek Cheong found herself surrounded by kids around her age. Like they'd been possessed, the children chattered, played pranks, and clung to her like leeches to grab her attention.
"Ah, yeah. Impressive."
Baek Cheong forced a smile, enduring the onslaught. It felt like her energy was being sucked away in real time. She'd rather be buried in pill ash in the refining room—this was exhausting.
Why this trial for me...?
She tried slipping her divine sense toward Moomyeongbang to escape the kids' watch, but they had a sixth sense for it—one would yank her sleeve and start talking, foiling her every time. It was an inescapable children's hell.
"Ahem."
Suddenly, a boy who looked a year or two older barged in, awkwardly playing the adult. From his fine clothes, he seemed from a prominent collateral branch. His face brimmed with jealousy and arrogance.
"Hmph. The adults are making way too big a fuss over barely reaching Refining Qi 5-star and handling a few spells."
The other chattering kids fell silent like they'd swallowed honey at the boy's provocative opener.
"I was born with superior three-element roots. Next month, I'm entering the great sect, Biun Sect."
For a collateral branch kid to enter a great sect was no small feat—it was a path to glory beyond personal success, a pride for the entire family.
"Whoa! Brother, you're really going to Biun Sect?"
"A great sect disciple... I wanna go too!"
The innocent kids quickly fell for the boy's smug bragging, letting out envious cheers. As their attention naturally shifted to him, Baek Cheong felt her suffocated breath ease.
I'm saved!
She inwardly cheered and seized the moment while they were engrossed, stealthily extending her divine sense toward Moomyeongbang.
But the boy, seeing Baek Cheong ignore him completely to fiddle with something else, ignited with jealousy-fueled rage.
"Hey! Didn't you hear me?"
The boy snapped at Baek Cheong in a shrill voice.
"I'm not some lazy bum like you, born lucky into the direct line with trash O-yeong-geun roots, squandering the family's precious resources to leisurely raise your cultivation!"
It was childish provocation at its finest. Baek Cheong didn't even deem it worth responding, planning to let it flow in one ear and out the other.
But staring at the boy's smug, annoying mug stirred the trolling itch she hadn't fully scratched on Moomyeongbang lately.
Bored, and you just volunteered perfectly.
Baek Cheong schooled her expression, curving her lips into a gentle smile. Then she spoke softly and sweetly.
"Right, you're spot on. It's amazing how you barely scraped into outer disciple at Biun Sect thanks to the family backing."
The boy's face flushed beet red.
"W-what?! Why would I be an outer disciple? With three-element roots, I could totally get into inner..."
"Still haven't grasped reality, huh? Great sects overflow with prodigies aiming to enter, and you think three-element roots get you straight to inner disciple? You're lucky not to end up a labor disciple—and without the Baek collateral name, even entry might've been impossible."
Baek Cheong lightly cut him off, laying out the facts.
"Even as an outer disciple, you'll be stuck with chores, cultivation on the back burner, never advancing. The sect will whisper 'opportunities' and shove you into dangerous unknown secret realms or perilous lands. Even if luck smiles and you snag a treasure, survival's the win. Claw through cutthroat competition to inner disciple? If you're lucky. Otherwise, groveling to much younger, talented inner seniors, watching their moods—that's your life."
The boy's eyes began to shake wildly. It was so far from the glamorous sect disciple fantasy he'd imagined, yet it rang brutally true with the cold reality of the cultivation world—like peering into his future.
"Ah, without special talent among the Four Beauties of Baek Cheong, even inner disciple's a pipe dream. But with Baek blood, maybe you'll hit superior three-element roots and manage the common feat of Spirit Messenger."
Baek Cheong relentlessly poured out sect ecosystem knowledge she'd picked up on Moomyeongbang.
The boy's eyes lost focus, on the verge of tears.
"But you know? Even Spirit Messenger needs real talent. Without even minor aptitude, you'll toil eternally in the fields, chasing prodigies' heels till you die old... but hey, crawling up from the bottom like that? Admirable sight."
Her long tirade ended, silence blanketed the kids. The boy's once-red face had drained to paper white, trembling lips issuing no retort.
"Waaah!"
Finally, the boy collapsed, wailing in despair. Shattered illusions of sect glory mixed with humiliated shame from the harsh reality, a pitiful sob.
His cries triggered the others like a signal—the kids who'd overheard contagiously succumbed to fear of sect brutality, bursting into collective wails.
Dozens of children unleashed a thunderous, heartbreaking chorus that instantly drew every eye in the bustling grand hall.
The adults froze mid-conversation, turning toward the corner where the kids clustered.
"Aigoo, what's going on! Why are they all crying?!"
"Cheong-ah, did my kid do something rude?"
Panicked collateral adults rushed over, soothing their children while gauging the situation.
Under the onslaught of stares, Baek Cheong shrugged with the world's most innocent, baffled expression.
"I don't know either. I just cheered them on to work hard in the sect, and they suddenly started crying. Probably moved to tears."
Playing dumb with utmost naturalness, she grabbed a sweet pastry from nearby and munched while observing the chaos.