The Starlit Encounter
The first things Lin discovered inside the tree ghost’s storage were a few low-grade spirit stones and some strange herbs whose purpose she couldn’t guess. There was also an old, sinister-looking manual.
“Spirit stones and herbs are whatever… but what’s this?” Lin muttered as she picked up the manual.
Wood-Dwelling Wandering Soul Technique
The eerie manual’s title was exactly that. Fitting for a wood-attribute cultivator, the name itself reeked of wood-element techniques.
So what did it actually do? Curious, Lin skimmed through the pages. A moment later, she couldn’t help but gasp in surprise.
“Borrowing the power of ghosts and wood to… hide one’s appearance? This is basically a transformation art!”
The text was long-winded and complicated, but in the end it was a concealment technique meant to disguise the caster’s true form. No wonder that ghost cultivator had been able to pose so convincingly as an ordinary old man—the secret had been right here in this manual.
Then a thought struck her.
“This is perfect. If I use it right… I might be able to patch up the holes in my transformation technique.”
Once the idea took root, Lin realized just how lucky she had been to find this manual. After her fight with Old Man Jeong, she had already been thinking about ways to improve her transformation art before fully entering Ju Nation. Of course, with help from her master and the other Daoyeongbang users she could probably refine it further, but that would only be a temporary fix. She needed a real backup method for situations where her transformation art wouldn’t work.
And now, out of nowhere, this incredible item had appeared. She was genuinely grateful. Mastering it would drastically lower the chances of anyone discovering she was a beast cultivator while she trained in Ju Nation.
Of course, learning it wasn’t without problems. Since the technique was based on ghost and wood attributes, someone like Lin who had no foundation in either would normally struggle. But that issue was solved almost immediately.
Ten Thousand Spirits Devouring Cultivation Method operating — Ghost Gate Transformation acquired
Ten Thousand Spirits Devouring Cultivation Method operating — Profound Wood Armor Art acquired
By absorbing the old man’s energy, the Ten Thousand Spirits Devouring Cultivation Method had naturally stolen the ghost and wood qi from him. Thanks to that, Lin was able to learn the Wood-Dwelling Wandering Soul Technique far more easily than expected. Now she could deceive people’s eyes even without relying on her transformation art.
“Great! Then the only thing left is…”
She needed to ask her master and the others on Daoyeongbang for ways to improve her transformation technique. Lin immediately contacted the first person who came to mind.
Lin decided to simply trust her master and not ask any further questions about the matter.
Lin gave her a brief summary of everything that had happened: performing the merit-offering ritual, continuing toward Ju Nation, meeting the collapsed old man, and discovering that he had been a ghost cultivator in disguise trying to eat her. She explained that while she had won thanks to a favorable matchup, the incident had made her realize she needed to improve her transformation art.
Ju A-ran was furious on her behalf.
Yet Lin was so desperate to reach human lands precisely because, unlike other beast cultivators, she felt no aversion whatsoever to learning human techniques.
‘…Is it because I was human in my past life?’
Unlike most beasts who couldn’t even attempt human cultivation methods, Lin had never felt any resistance. She had already proven it multiple times through Daoyeongbang—this wasn’t just her imagination.
After a moment of thought, Ju A-ran seemed to come to a decision and sent something through Daoyeongbang. It was a small mirror that faintly shimmered with rainbow colors.
Lin immediately accepted the item and, out of curiosity, tried using her transformation art right away. Sure enough, she could now blend into her surroundings far more perfectly and stealthily than before.
With that, her worries about the transformation art were finally resolved. Now she truly had everything prepared to head to Ju Nation.
“Hehe, then let’s get going!”
According to the information she had extracted from Old Man Jeong, this area was already inside Ju Nation’s borders, and the nearest village wasn’t far. She had really arrived.
Hehe! A human sect! How exciting!
Full of anticipation, Lin took confident steps toward the village.
*
Outskirts of Ju Nation. Yu Yeon was a poor girl living in an ordinary village. She had lost her parents at a young age, so she had been forced to leave home and rely on relatives. Unfortunately, those relatives were not kind people. Instead of welcoming her warmly as a new family member, they treated her like an annoying growth that had suddenly attached itself to them. Because of that, Yu Yeon had endured cold stares and neglect ever since childhood.
“Haa… There’s still a mountain of work today.”
Yu Yeon stared at the enormous pile of laundry in front of her. Even at a glance, it was clearly far too much for one person—especially a girl who wasn’t even an adult yet—to handle alone. Yet Yu Yeon silently got to work. Even though her hands were already swollen and red from the wash water, she only let out a single sigh before continuing. This had long since become her daily routine.
. . .
“Haa… I’m done! It took longer than usual today…”
There must have been a festival in the village last night. There had been far more laundry than usual. It was her cousin Hwa-yeon’s seventeenth birthday, so the family had decided to throw a big celebration.
“.....”
Of course, Yu Yeon hadn’t been invited. She didn’t feel anything in particular about it. Ever since she had first come to her cousin’s house after losing her family, ever since she had seen her aunt’s cold gaze, she had already prepared herself. Yu Yeon had long since accepted her fate. It was just… just a little… a little heartbreaking.
“Haa! Get it together! There’s another mountain of work tomorrow—I can’t stay up this late!”
At this rate she really would be pulling an all-nighter. Yu Yeon hurriedly gathered the finished laundry and headed back home.
On the way back, she looked up at the sky and realized night had already fallen. The night sky here was always bright and beautiful, like an unreachable paradise. When she was little, before her parents passed away, her mother would sometimes tell her fairy-tale stories. Far beyond the distant stars and clouds, there was a paradise where immortals and celestial maidens lived.
Of course she knew it was unreachable, but whenever Yu Yeon looked up at the night sky, she would sometimes imagine it. She would dream of becoming one of those celestial maidens, of standing above the clouds and looking down at the world below.
That was when it happened.
Suddenly—!
“Kyaa, kyaaaah—!!”
“U-uuu… H-hungry…”
“Wh-what…?”
Startled by the sudden appearance of a strange figure from the bushes, Yu Yeon barely managed to steady herself before she could fall. In the dark night, an odd person had appeared from the grass! And it was an incredibly young and beautiful girl!
Her identity was none other than…
“Uuu… Hungry… Food pleeease…”
Needless to say, it was Lin—starving after several days without food and completely out of her mind.