'She couldn't send a message directly because she's left Daemudo.'

Yise asked the staff member, "I'd like to send a reply. Can you deliver a letter and some things to Halla?"

"You can commission a mission. It's far away, but it's a simple delivery, so fifty spirit stones should suffice."

"Wait a moment."

Yise went inside his residence, prepared brush and ink, and wrote a reply in neat handwriting.

-I am leaving for the Northern Continent. You need not send me spiritual herbs for a while. Please give my regards to my friends.

He sealed the letter and handed it to the staff member along with a pouch of spirit stones. He regretted disappointing Gong-ah, but he had already sent her a considerable sum. It was more than enough to start something with.

His preparations were complete. Still, he thought he should at least say goodbye to the people he knew. First, he called out to Gwak Chan, who was cultivating next door.

"Senior Gwak! I'll be off, then."

"Yeah, yeah. Take care."

Gwak Chan answered without even coming outside. His casual farewell made it sound as though Yise were just stepping out somewhere nearby. Thinking how very like him that was, Yise moved on.

Next, he sent a message talisman to ask where Hall Master U Yuhee was, then headed to Winged Dragon Hall. She greeted him wearing her usual white mask, with Irang at her side.

"I'm leaving for the Northern Continent now. I'll see you when I return, Hall Master."

"Mm. Don't neglect your cultivation while you're there."

"Of course."

At that characteristically blunt farewell, Yise bowed silently, then dipped his head to Irang as well.

"Stay safe," Irang added.

His last stop was Dine Before You Depart. Rather than go to the trouble of visiting everyone individually, he had sent word ahead asking his fellow disciples to gather there.

Park Gangseo. Bu Chun. Seol Ryeong. Hong Wonseo. Pi Garam. Hae Unchan.

Only six people he felt close enough to look in on, but they mattered a great deal to him. Though Hae Unchan was awfully hard to get hold of. Sure enough, he had failed to respond this time too.

Yise joined the others seated around a table at the back of the shop. He took the bundle of spiritual herbs from his storage pouch and set it on the broad tabletop.

"Spiritual herbs."

"All of this?"

All five turned to the bundle. Even at a glance, there was clearly a substantial amount.

"Hong Wonseo. Make elixir pills out of these and split them equally among the five of you."

"... Pardon?"

"They're not free. Put it on your tab and pay me back later. However you like."

Hong Wonseo hesitated. They were quite close, but almost no one gave precious spiritual herbs to another person. Calling it a debt still left repayment entirely up to them. This was practically a gift. In the cultivation world, it was common sense to settle accounts strictly even between parent and child.

As far as Yise was concerned, though, he still couldn't properly absorb even the supreme-grade Qi-Condensing Pill he already had. Most of these herbs were ingredients for mid- and low-grade Qi-Condensing Pills. Taking them would barely make a dent in his needs.

Nor did he want to sell them to strangers. He could multiply his spirit stones simply by robbing Cultivators, so why waste these on benefiting someone else? Having received such lavish support from one of Daemudo's foremost seniors, he felt it was only right to share with those close to him.

"This is far too much, Senior."

Hong Wonseo immediately looked uncomfortable, but Yise shook his head.

"The New Year is almost here. Think of it as New Year's money from your senior. Want some good wishes to go with it?"

He pointed at his companions—Bu Chun and Park Gangseo in particular.

"Work hard on your cultivation. It'd be a problem if you were dead of old age by the time I got back."

Seol Ryeong recoiled at his well-wishes.

"How is that wishing us well...?"

"I'm afraid that might actually happen," Hong Wonseo replied calmly, while Pi Garam merely chuckled.

"Oh, Wonseo. You said you had a favor to ask before. Want to tell me now? It might be too late once I'm back."

"No. It doesn't matter anymore."

"What was it?"

"Nothing much. My family told me that if I wanted proper support, I should bear plenty of pureblood Cultivators. I thought children of someone with an unusual constitution would be better, if I had the choice."

"..."

Yise and all the others stared in horror.

"Was it Seol Baek, by any chance?"

"Yes. More or less."

"That man really does go around doing that to everyone."

The unbelievable bastard had tried telling him to have children too. Did he think people were nothing more than egg-laying hens?

"Anyway, Seol Baek and most of the pureblood Cultivators are gone now, so you needn't worry about it."

"I really wonder what goes on in her head. Maybe if we opened her up, we'd find a combat puppet inside...?"

"That's not funny."

Hong Wonseo dismissed Seol Ryeong's remark. Shaking his head, Yise changed the subject.

"I suppose Dine Before You Depart will have to close now. It's a shame. I've grown pretty attached to it."

"We're not closing. We've decided to turn it into a general store."

"A general store?"

"Yes. Senior Seol will be our exclusive supplier of ritual implements, Senior Hong of elixir pills, and Senior Pi of formation implements. Once you're back, Senior, we'll add immortal cuisine and make this the best shop on the main mountain."

An admirable ambition for a handful of mere Qi Refining Cultivators, though Yise kept that observation to himself.

"But Gangseo."

"Yes?"

"How did you end up calling every one of them Senior? You really ought to work harder."

"..."

Park Gangseo fell silent. Yise's gaze shifted to Bu Chun beside him.

"So your time isn't up yet, Bu Chun?"

"I'm not even forty yet..."

"It's honestly a little awkward seeing only you two grow old."

Unlike the other three, whose steadily rising realms had slowed their aging, Bu Chun and Park Gangseo were distinctly showing the years. It looked as though both would die of old age in Qi Refining. Yise looked at the pair and added,

"I'll say my goodbyes now. Make sure you're born with good spiritual roots in your next lives."

"Oh, come on, Seniooor..."

Avoiding the gazes of those soon to part with him in death, Yise took the Life-Signaling Pearl Seol Ryeong had lent him from his robes and returned it.

"It served me well. Thanks."

She accepted it and stared at him.

"But Yise."

"Yes?"

"Why aren't you returning the Mind-Calming Mirror?"

"Oh, right. Where's Hae Unchan?"

"Don't change the subject."

"Hong Wonseo, don't give her any pills."

"No! I meant, thank you so much for putting it to good use! Every ritual implement has its rightful owner, doesn't it?"

"That lacked sincerity. Give her half as much as everyone else."

"I'm sorry, Senior!"

How dare she try to pinch pennies with her lofty senior.

"Let's do better, shall we?"

Seol Ryeong laughed sheepishly and answered his question.

"Hae Unchan is an absolute cultivation maniac. He does nothing but practice the Demon-Exorcizing Arts and cultivate in seclusion."

"You should all take a leaf out of his book. Give him my regards. It's really hard to get a look at that bastard's face."

Right up to the end, Yise kept nagging under the guise of offering good wishes.

"Seol Ryeong, will you read my fortune one last time?"

"Forget divination... I'll perform a rite to ward off misfortune. You're going a long way. You'll need good luck."

She stood, rolling up her sleeves. Yise watched her for a moment, then answered with a bright smile.

"Thank you."

* * *

Leaving the main mountain behind, Yise stopped by Hae Il's to report his departure on the mission and receive the information he needed.

He rode the Dream-Saving Cloud straight north across the wasteland, unfolding Hae Il's annotated map once more. It said that if he continued north through the wasteland, he would reach a region called Other Heaven before arriving at the Jeong Empire's Ten-Thousand-Mile Great Wall.

Other Heaven, the Fallen Heavenly Realm.

It had supposedly once been an island that drifted through the sky. In the distant past, people had mistaken it for the heavenly realm and named it Other Heaven. But an incident had brought the island crashing down, and Demons from the Demon Realm had poured through the resulting rift.

Now it was a demonic land teeming with Demonic Energy. Both the wind spirit ground and the teleportation formation Hae Il had mentioned lay there. Yise intended to raise the Wind-Breaking Qi-Shattering Art to at least the fifth level at the wind spirit ground before crossing to the Northern Continent.

After roughly two and a half days traveling along the wasteland's ridges, he glimpsed a deeply cleft gorge between towering ridgelines in the distance.

Wind Prison Gorge.

As its name suggested, it was a gorge where the wind was trapped as though in a prison. Its natural conditions were bizarre: the updraft from within was so powerful that even someone leaping into its unfathomable depths would be buoyed back up by the wind.

Yise settled atop the gorge's ridge, steadied his breathing, and spread his divine sense. Its range had grown considerably, allowing him to sweep deep inside the gorge in a single pass.

At that moment, a strand of his divine sense collided head-on with another.

A demonic beast. One that had reached Foundation Establishment Perfection, at that.

"... So this wind spirit ground already has an owner," he murmured.

Having detected him in turn, the creature began to approach slowly. Yise gripped the Black Phosphor Axe's haft and readied his divine sense.

The demonic beast that slowly floated into view from within the wind spirit ground was half human, half bird. It had an elongated head and face, red eyes, white hair, a birdlike beak, and feathers like blades covering its body.

Most striking was its leg. Rather than a pair extending to either side, a single long leg grew from the center. Judging by its appearance, it seemed to be a rank-one demonic beast, a One-Legged Human-Faced Bird, that had advanced to Foundation Establishment.

"This place. My territory. I am Feathered Man."

The demonic beast, which had named itself Feathered Man, spoke the human tongue with halting pronunciation.

"Intruder. Kill."

Rather than bother exchanging words with it, Yise mounted the Dream-Saving Cloud and flew swiftly closer.

Once demonic beasts advanced to Foundation Establishment, their traits varied by individual rather than by species. In other words, virtually every Foundation Establishment Demon he encountered was an unknown enemy.

'I'll start with the One-Legged Human-Faced Bird's traits.'

Its most basic method of attack was to launch feathers that could pierce even steel. Like all demonic beasts shaped like birds of prey, it was weak in close combat and lost its strength the moment it was dragged to the ground.

He charged through the air, imbuing the Black Phosphor Axe with primordial energy. But Feathered Man vanished even faster, leaving an afterimage behind.

Yise's brow tightened slightly.

Fast.

The Dream-Saving Cloud was among the fastest flying ritual implements he knew of, and his precise control of divine sense allowed him to push its speed to the limit. Yet he still couldn't catch up.

As though mocking him, Feathered Man widened the gap and glided smoothly along the winds of Wind Prison Gorge.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Realizing that Yise couldn't match its flight, Feathered Man beat its wings twice with broad strokes. The Foundation Establishment demonic beast's fierce Demonic Energy hurtled toward him, infused with the wind attribute—translucent blades of wind.

Yise enlarged the Yellow Grand Parasol with the Weapon Enlargement Art and reinforced it with Adamantine Lock to block them, but the impact drove him far backward. At the same time, a whirlwind rose beneath his feet and coiled around his body.