The Nameless Board's Hidden Legend
“Wait, there were users with fixed handles on the Mumyungbang?”
Baek Cheong struggled, waving the old, tattered Five Elements Banner back and forth. No matter how many times she tried, all she got was the swishing sound of a wooden stick cutting through the air and dust falling from the faded, five-colored fabric. It was a piece of junk, not even worth the cheap talismans sold at street stalls, let alone the ten premium spirit stones she’d paid for it.
“Ugh, did I really get scammed?”
Her patience soon hit rock bottom, and she threw the banner onto her bed in a fit of pique. However, she quickly pulled herself together and began to rationalize.
‘No, wait. Flag-type artifacts are often used as Formation Eyes or conduits when deploying formations. If I look up some information on formations and study it a bit more, I should be able to use it.’
She was certain that the ascended Daoist Friend who sold it must have had a reason. But perhaps because a part of her still felt like she’d been swindled, it didn’t spark the same interest as when she’d first delved into her White Pearl Artifact. Trying to soothe her stinging pride, she shoved the banner into the deepest corner of her Storage Pouch and sealed it away.
‘Let’s put out the immediate fire first.’
Baek Cheong rose from her seat and headed to her private alchemy room. As Daoist Friend (237.309) had warned, to suppress the phenomenon of her Hidden Integrative Spiritual Root ruthlessly gnawing away at the nutrients of her Five Elements Spiritual Roots, she needed a constant supply of Talisman-inscribed Pills free of pill toxins. It would be nice to live off an endless supply of top-grade pills, but after hearing about the dangers of pill toxin buildup, she couldn't take that risk. In the end, she had no choice but to brew her own 1st-tier attribute-specific Talisman-inscribed Pills and become self-sufficient.
Entering the alchemy room, Baek Cheong familiarly heated the furnace and laid out the herbs needed for the 1st-tier attribute pills. After enduring a succession of Cross-grade Alchemy sessions that required complex and demanding principles—like the Five Elements Pill or the Foundation Establishment Pill—the process of brewing mere 1st-tier attribute pills felt as easy and simple as eating a meal.
‘Maybe it’s thanks to the cultivation artifact, too.’
With the cultivation artifact on her wrist steadily stabilizing her meridians, Baek Cheong moved the formation inscribed inside the furnace, controlling the Taiji with ease while diverting her excess Divine Sense elsewhere. She used that spare sense to log into the Mumyungbang.
‘It’s easier than I thought.’
Perhaps because several factors were working in her favor, she had enough leeway to brew 1st-tier attribute pills while multitasking.
‘Oh, wow, there are over a hundred replies to my Five Elements Pill promotional post.’
At the critical moment when a clear medicinal scent wafted from the furnace and the principle of Water Overcoming Fire was applied to harden the surface, she thought, ‘You’re just mad at me because you’re too poor to buy the Five Elements Pill yourself.’
Even while browsing the forum, Baek Cheong timed her Divine Sense withdrawal perfectly to the moment the pills were finished and popped the furnace lid. A 1st-tier water-attribute Talisman-inscribed Pill, clearly marked with a silver Cloud Pattern, rolled out.
“Nice, one down. Next is wood-attribute.”
Baek Cheong placed the freshly brewed pill into a jade bottle, immediately logged back into the Mumyungbang to catch up on replies or toss out new bait posts. She repeated this eccentric cycle of alchemy and forum-trolling. However, Baek Cheong failed to realize that the Talisman-inscribed Pills she was churning out like a factory were, in fact, products of Heaven-defying nature that went against the providence of the Heavenly Dao.
“Again! The Heavenly Tribulation is coming again!”
“What on earth is happening in our family!”
At the sudden appearance of the Heavenly Tribulation Clouds, the clan’s warriors and servants were terrified, prostrating themselves on the ground. Baek Muyeong looked around with a pale face, pacing back and forth in anxiety. But the clouds only let out a few loud rumbles and flashed with threatening lightning. It seemed there was a severe lack of justification for bringing down a bolt of lightning. Compared to the Talisman-inscribed Five Elements Pill brewed by Yakseon, the Heaven-defying threshold of the 1st-tier attribute pills Baek Cheong was churning out was just vaguely ambiguous enough to avoid triggering a full tribulation.
‘The Five Elements Pill is the best; the bait just never stops coming.’
Baek Cheong, the very source of the commotion, was so busy brewing pills and enjoying her forum-trolling inside her private alchemy room that she was completely unaware of the fact that the Heavenly Tribulation Clouds were gathering outside to threaten her.
Ten days passed in a peaceful blur of churning out pills like a factory and stirring up chaos on the Mumyungbang. Having stockpiled a sufficient quantity of pills, Baek Cheong returned to her residence with a satisfied heart.
‘Is it because they’re Talisman-inscribed Pills?’
Unlike top-grade pills, the medicinal effects of the Talisman-inscribed Pills she consumed immediately after brewing were still lingering. At this rate, one pill would easily last her a full month.
‘Well, the Hidden Integrative Spiritual Root isn’t such a big deal after all.’
With a light heart, Baek Cheong lay on her bed and logged into the Mumyungbang. As soon as she entered, she found a follow-up post about the Five Elements Pill.
The Heaven-defying pill I got from the market, whatever it was called, looked crude, but the principles contained within clearly held the logic of the five elements. I fed it to my prized Five-Elements-root test subject.
But perhaps because the quality wasn't great, it didn't show as dramatic an effect as I'd thought. Fortunately, thanks to the subject's good aptitude, it managed to accept only the five-element energy from within the impurities and successfully evolved into a Four-Elements-root aptitude. If the purity had been higher, I could see the potential for it to raise aptitude all the way to Earth or Heavenly root levels. Of course, I assume the seller, Daoist Friend (913.14), already ate all the high-quality ones and wrote that post about the 5000-root genius.
The post confirmed the effects of the Five Elements Pill. With this, her standing on the Mumyungbang would surely change. However, she flinched while looking at the replies below.
“Crazy old monster...”
Baek Cheong felt goosebumps all over her body and hurriedly exited the post. She felt a sudden sense of relief and gratitude for the fact that a Realm Boundary Membrane existed in the lower realm. It was highly unlikely that a high-level cultivator would give up on ascension just to track down her specific lower realm.
Regardless, thanks to the review by Daoist Friend (237.309), the Five Elements Pill she’d sold became the talk of the Mumyungbang. The general discussion board was plastered with debates about the Heaven-defying pill.
The attention showered upon her was always thrilling and enjoyable. Just as she was preparing to dive headfirst into the dopamine feast, she paused. The heat of the Mumyungbang, which had been burning bright with the Five Elements Pill bait just moments ago, had vanished as if it were a lie. And that was because posts of an entirely different, bizarre nature were swallowing the forum at a frantic pace.
It was a runaway frenzy on a scale incomparable to the usual activity of the Mumyungbang. Thousands of posts were pouring out every second, flooding the forum, and even users who were rarely seen, along with strangers with unfamiliar Realm Numbers, were all out in full force, going wild.
“Wuming Pavilion? What is that, why is everyone going crazy?”
Baek Cheong scanned the pouring posts with a bewildered expression until she found a post pinned to the very top of the Mumyungbang in bold, like an official announcement.
Wuming Pavilion: Announcement of the 32,047th Grand Auction of the Lower Realm Mumyungbang.
Surprisingly, the author’s name wasn't some common Daoist Friend handle or a Realm Number, but a proper Fixed Name.
“A Fixed Name...? Could it be the forum master?”
Baek Cheong felt a mix of interest and doubt at the appearance of an unfamiliar Fixed Name. In a Mumyungbang usually filled only with Daoist Friend handles—which were as good as anonymous—it was fascinating to see a mysterious entity who held a Fixed Name all by themselves and was welcomed by so many users.
‘That doesn’t seem right, though.’
But judging by the atmosphere in the Mumyungbang, they didn't look like the forum master. They just seemed like a famous user who, for some reason, possessed a Fixed Name. She wondered if they were an existence from the upper realm, and though she felt a pang of envy wanting a Fixed Name of her own, her mind was soon completely hijacked by the new topic of conversation.
“I’m getting in on this bait too!”
Baek Cheong dove into the post, her eyes—no, her Divine Sense—completely flipped upside down.