The Golden Core Banquet and the Puppet Master
A full fifteen days had passed since Baek Mujin of the Yeonha Baek Clan had finally settled his exhausted mind and body, recovering his full strength. The horrific scars left by the three strikes of heavenly lightning—the wrath of the Heavenly Dao—had been cleanly healed by the extraordinary regenerative power of the Golden Core stage, a realm that touched the threshold of the Ban-seon, or half-immortal. When Baek Mujin emerged from his long, secluded training, his presence was vast and profound, incomparable to his days in the Core Formation stage. The mere brush of his breath was enough to make the ambient spiritual energy resonate and ripple. With that, the Yeonha Baek Clan began preparations for a grand banquet to announce the birth of a new Golden Core cultivator to the world.
As news spread far and wide that the clan had produced its second Golden Core cultivator, following the Supreme Elder, congratulatory letters poured in from every corner of the Southern Continent. Not a few factions even sent word of their intent to visit in person with precious gifts. The clan was caught in a whirlwind of activity, and with the banquet now imminent, the atmosphere was electric.
'Ah, another banquet... this is such a hassle.'
Baek Cheong swallowed a groan as she was forced into layers of ornate, heavy ceremonial robes. It wasn't that she disliked the banquets themselves—the exquisite delicacies and the treatment as an honored guest were quite pleasant. The problem was that at such important clan events, it was difficult to focus on browsing the Mumyungbang. If she connected secretly using only her divine sense, she could appear to be in deep meditation, but if she got too absorbed in the debates or interesting bait threads of the other Daoist Friends and lost herself, her uncle would inevitably notice and interfere.
'Sigh, it’ll be an hour or two at most. I can endure this.'
The vast plaza in front of the Clan Head Hall was dazzlingly decorated with red silk and rare spirit lamps. The New Year's banquet held earlier had been grand, but it looked shabby compared to this celebration of the Clan Head’s breakthrough. The number of wooden tables for guests had nearly doubled, and the quality of the top-tier spirit tea, refreshments, and the return gifts for the guests had been raised to a significantly higher tier. Above all, the caliber of the guests who had come to the Baek clan was different from before.
Not only were there the nearby clans and sects, but influential powers from far beyond the Southern Capital had rushed to send congratulatory envoys bearing precious gifts. The expansive plaza was packed so tightly with guests from all over the continent that there wasn't even room to plant a foot.
'That is...'
Baek Cheong sat demurely beside her father, observing the endless procession of guests. Among the throngs of people, a peculiar group caught her eye. They didn't proudly display the banners of their sects or clans; instead, they sat in the corners of the banquet hall in shabby robes, alone.
'Are they mountain hermits?'
They were cultivators who wandered without belonging to any sect. Baek Cheong had once read a pathetic post on the Mumyungbang claiming that [Mountain hermits miserably survive a week on half a grain-avoidance pill]. Because of that, she had assumed most hermits were extremely destitute and wretched. But the hermits who had appeared at the Yeonha Baek clan's banquet today were far from wretched.
'Their presence is also quite extraordinary.'
Every one of these hermits was at the mid-to-late Golden Core stage. They were figures who had made names for themselves across the Southern Continent with their own unique arts, yet they usually lived in seclusion, rarely showing their faces to the world.
"...Do you understand?"
Her uncle approached her at some point, quietly whispering information to her. It seemed he wanted to prevent her from causing any trouble, just in case she mistook them for mere beggars.
'What? So many reclusive Golden Core hermits are coming?'
Baek Cheong nodded demurely on the outside, but she couldn't hide her astonishment on the inside. The status and weight of the Yeonha Baek clan had changed so drastically that even these arrogant, reclusive Golden Core hermits had come of their own volition to bow their heads.
'I suppose our standing really has changed.'
In truth, with the protection of a great sect, the production of the heaven-defying Five-Element Pill through Yakseon, the possibility of the Supreme Elder reaching the Nascent Soul stage, a Clan Head who was young and certain to reach the same, the achievement of a three-tribulation Golden Core, and even the eldest son being called a Nascent Soul talent at the Biun Sect and becoming the direct disciple of the Sect Leader—the clan's rise was inevitable.
'Being born with a silver spoon really is the best.'
Baek Cheong sipped her bitter spirit tea and leisurely surveyed the bustling banquet hall. As the banquet reached its peak and the atmosphere grew heated, one of the hermits sitting near the head table raised a jade cup and walked toward Baek Mujin. He was a middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed beard and a dignified, imposing air.
"I am Han Gyeongdo. I sincerely congratulate the Clan Head of Baek on his successful breakthrough to the Golden Core."
He was a mid-stage Golden Core hermit famous in the Southern Continent for a rare art called Gye-sul (Boundary Technique). He possessed the strange ability to twist the boundaries of space at will, carving out independent areas cut off from the outside world. After offering the toast, Han Gyeongdo stepped closer to Baek Mujin and lowered his voice, though in the focused silence of the banquet, few could fail to hear him.
"Though I am but a lowly hermit... if it is for the Yeonha Baek clan, I would gladly offer my body to create a secret realm for you."
It was a blatant, transparent attempt at flattery. A secret realm referred to independent heritage sites or sub-spaces left behind by great powers of the ancient era for future generations; it was certainly not a space a single Golden Core cultivator could just conjure up. Still, with Han Gyeongdo’s boundary technique, he could easily create a specialized, reduced-scale training space that perfectly blocked outside interference. For a clan that needed to foster massive resources and talent, it was a tempting offer.
"Haha, I am truly grateful. Since you spoke with such good intentions, let us arrange a separate time later to discuss the details."
Baek Mujin saw right through him, but he lifted his wine cup with a gentle smile. He didn't accept the offer immediately, skillfully delaying the decision. It was a move to secure better conditions in a more private setting while remaining mindful of the eyes upon him as Clan Head.
'This is already boring.'
Watching the adults engage in their tedious, predictable power struggles and flattery, Baek Cheong’s concentration began to drift. The urge to browse the forum, which she had been suppressing, began to bubble up.
'Sigh, my uncle is watching, so just a little... let me check the Mumyungbang just once and then I'll leave.'
She was just about to extend her divine sense to open the forum and check the latest threads when—
"Pardon me, might I offer a small gift to the young lady?"
A very low, calm voice sounded from right beside her. Startled, she retracted her divine sense and whipped her head around to find a gaunt, gloomy-looking middle-aged man standing there, bowing his waist without a sound.
"Senior, you are..."
Baek Cheong intended to take the gift and send him away quickly so she could get back to her forum browsing.
"Ah, I am Yuk Muk."
He was a reclusive hermit of the mid-Golden Core stage, known in the Southern Continent for the heretical art of Goeroe-sul (Puppet Arts). It was a common tactic: to win the favor of the Clan Head, one would bribe his most cherished youngest daughter with a rare toy.
'Wait? Did he say Puppet Master Yuk Muk?'
Baek Cheong’s ears perked up as she recalled the information her uncle had given her. She had once read a post on the Mumyungbang discussing the various arts of the cultivation world, and it had mentioned the puppet arts. It was an art with an extremely high barrier to entry, requiring the simultaneous division and use of vast amounts of divine sense. At the same time, it was treated as heresy in the cultivation world due to rumors that the process of connecting spirit threads to artifacts twisted the mind. As a result, it was a situation where even if one wanted to learn, it was difficult to find a proper master or an introductory manual.
'What a windfall.'
Finding an unexpectedly interesting toy (a puppet master) while she was bored brought a sense of delight to Baek Cheong’s heart.
"You have a gift for me?"
"Ha, ha. Indeed."
"If you are truly giving it to me, I will gratefully accept!"
Baek Cheong’s eyes sparkled as she answered in a bright voice and held out both hands. Yuk Muk carefully took something out of the spatial artifact tucked into his robes and placed it on her small palm. It was a puppet in the shape of a small girl, carved delicately from hard, tough spirit wood and dressed in ornate, light silk clothes. Each joint of the puppet was threaded with nearly invisible blue spirit threads, and a small jewel was embedded in the center of its smooth forehead to receive divine sense.
"It is a play-puppet crafted for the amusement of children. If you flow just a tiny bit of divine sense into the jewel on its forehead, it will move as you wish."
Yuk Muk added the instructions in a calm tone while maintaining his low posture. Baek Cheong didn't hesitate for a second; she pulled out a thin strand of divine sense and tapped it into the jewel on the puppet's forehead. The jewel reacted instantly, emitting a faint blue light. The loose spirit threads threaded through the joints pulled taut like a marionette's strings, and the puppet slowly stood up. There, on Baek Cheong’s palm, the small girl-shaped puppet stretched its arms wide and yawned vividly.
"Wow!"
Baek Cheong exclaimed in wonder as she manipulated the puppet herself. For a moment, she completely forgot about the Mumyungbang.