“It’s just as Seol Ryeong said.” Park Gangseo shrugged. “He’s under pressure to advance. A tremendous amount of it.”

“Who’s pressuring him?”

“No one.”

“... Is he advancing slowly?”

“No, quite the opposite.” Park Gangseo tipped his cup back, then added, “Apart from you, Senior, no Cultivator in Daemudo advances as fast as Hae Unchan. Among Qi Refining Cultivators, he’s far ahead of the rest.”

Yise could not readily understand that answer. Being under pressure despite advancing quickly made no sense.

“If he’s already fast enough, why does he feel pressured?”

“Because someone who’s never fallen behind anyone can’t stand the feeling of trailing after someone else.”

“...”

“Hae Unchan isn’t just a single-attribute spiritual root bearer. He has the Heavenly Root Constitution. Think how much his family must have expected of him, from the moment his spiritual root manifested after his birth until now. How much they must have doted on him. And then he failed to take first place in the Daemudo Entrance Examination.”

It was a problem Yise had never considered. He did not believe his own rapid advancement came purely from his abilities, either.

He had been blessed with the good fortune of an unusual constitution, and had supported that good fortune with painstaking effort.

That was why, even now that he had grown accustomed to the culture of the cultivation world, arrogance was what he guarded against most. Even if Hae Unchan caught up to his realm, he would only have blamed his own insufficient cultivation.

“And he hasn’t surpassed you once since then. For the first time in his life, he knows what it’s like to keep chasing someone’s back.”

“...”

“I’m sure his senior relatives here on the main mountain say the same thing when they see him: ‘Are you perhaps neglecting your cultivation?’”

Of all his fellow entrants, Hae Unchan was the friend Yise felt most at ease with. They both had unusual constitutions, advanced at similar speeds, and shared the same desire to rise through the realms.

It was far from pleasant to learn that, without his knowing it, his friend had come to see him as a rival and was suffering under that pressure and burden.

“So it’s because of me.”

“It’s not because of you.” Park Gangseo’s reply was firm. “It’s simply Hae Unchan’s own sense of inferiority. There’s nothing wrong with the way you’ve done things so far. Slowing down or changing what you do won’t make him any faster. That’s an inner demon he has to overcome himself.”

When impatience consumed the heart, an inner-demon tribulation would come. A Cultivator who failed to overcome it could fall into corruption and become a demonic practitioner.

Hae Unchan himself surely knew that, yet an ominous premonition swept over Yise.

He silently set down his wine cup, ending the conversation. He had a feeling that the next time he met Hae Unchan, things would be strangely uncomfortable.

Not that he had the slightest intention of slowing his cultivation. He would simply walk his own path, quietly and alone.

Yise fell silent for a long while, seemingly lost in thought. The other two waited quietly for him to sort out his feelings.

Then, his expression returning to normal as though he had cast off his worries, he slowly spoke.

“Let’s open it first.”

“Open what?”

“The immortal-cuisine restaurant.”

Park Gangseo and Bu Chun brightened at once.

“If we can’t find another cook, I’ll do it myself. There’s only one of me, and nowhere near enough time, but we’ll just have to make it work.”

Hunting demonic beasts, nourishment, missions, cultivation—he had to manage all of it. In the end, he simply had to find a way, even if it meant dividing his time into the smallest slivers.

“I have a good idea, Senior.”

“Yes?”

“We use a scarcity strategy.”

A scarcity strategy. Yise rolled the words around in his mouth, then gave him a look asking for details.

“Instead of staying open all the time, we open once every seven days. Or perhaps once every fortnight, and do all our business then. But we select only the immortal dishes that give the strongest cultivation boosts and charge high prices.”

Yise countered as though that posed a problem.

“We still have to pay rent on the days we’re closed. Isn’t that a terrible waste?”

“As long as we work less, charge more, and earn plenty, what does it matter? Scarcity is what people crave most. An immortal-cuisine restaurant on that expensive shopping street, open only a few days a month? Even Cultivators will be too curious to stay away.”

Beside him, Park Gangseo let out an impressed “Oh.” At least to hear it described, the strategy sounded plausible.

“If you hunt demonic beasts between opening days, you’ll definitely be able to run the place without a hitch.”

It certainly made sense. Not small profits on large sales, but enormous profits on small sales. It was exactly the strategy he needed right now.

“You really are capable. Good. Let’s do that.”

He deliberated briefly and decided quickly. Bu Chun might not have been gifted at advancing through realms, but when it came to navigating people and doing sums, he was undeniably brilliant.

Yise had judged him correctly.

Yise braced his hands on his knees and stood.

“They say to strike while the iron’s hot. Let’s go now. Time to announce that Dine Before You Depart is open for business.”

* * *

The General Administration Pavilion in the administrative district was the central building that handled all of Daemudo’s administrative affairs under the Chief Administrator.

They went to the department responsible for licensing shops in the commercial district and submitted an application to open one.

“Cultivator Yise. Your identity checks out. The shop name is Dine Before You Depart. And the type of business is... a tavern?”

“Am I reading this wrong?” the staff member muttered. He rubbed his eyes and checked again, but it really did say tavern.

“That’s right. We’ll mainly sell immortal cuisine and spirit wine.”

“...”

The staff member gave a few bemused chuckles before addressing Yise.

“It’s certainly novel and welcome to see a type of business we’ve never had in the commercial district, Senior. But will it actually sell?”

“Have you ever tried immortal cuisine?”

“No. Grain-Abstinence Pills take care of food. Occasionally having some spirit rice for a change of pace counts as a lucky day.”

“Come by sometime. I’ll give you a discount.”

“Haha... All right. The minimum shop lease is one year. You won’t get your deposit back if you close before then, understood?”

“Understood.”

The staff member was jinxing the venture before it even began, but Yise answered without showing his displeasure. Nothing good came of picking a needless fight with administrative staff.

“Do you have a location in mind?”

“Somewhere good and cheap, please.”

“Senior. There’s no such thing as good and cheap. It’s either cheap or good.”

The General Administration Pavilion staff member unfolded a map of the commercial district’s shops.

“What’s your budget?”

“I haven’t decided yet. How much are the cheapest and most expensive places?”

“Senior Yise, you look like the sort who’ll ruin himself in business. Should I really approve this...? Someone as talented as you should just cultivate. It would be a loss to all of Daemudo.”

“Cultivation takes resources, too.”

“... Oh dear. Even a monstrously gifted genius like you has such relatable worries.”

The staff member gave him a look of sympathy, as though he understood that feeling all too well. Daemudo really was miserly with its support, even for a genius who might appear only once in a century.

“The cheapest place rents for thirty spirit stones a month, and the most expensive for a thousand. Location matters, but so does the size of the building. You’ll also need to pay three months’ rent upfront as a deposit.”

Listening beside him, Park Gangseo’s jaw dropped.

“That’s insane. Who runs a business at those prices?”

“The Flame Blossom Hong family, the Clear Water Hae family, the Eternal Snow Seol family. There’s also the Jinju Kang family. Shall I go on?”

“... Such distinguished noble families certainly do think big.”

As the names of families that dominated Daemudo rolled out one after another, Park Gangseo immediately changed his tune.

“We’ll take a look around the commercial district first.”

At least 360 spirit stones a year. No matter how he looked at it, this was not a decision to make lightly.

“Go ahead.”

The staff member immediately turned his attention away from the three fools and resumed his work.

The three toured the street of permanent shops, following the list of locations the staff member had shown them.

The thirty-stone spot was certainly too remote and cramped. It was also an outdoor stall, with essentially no room even for chairs for customers.

The fifty-stone location was reasonably decent, but had no roof, making it unsuitable for preparing and selling food.

They would have to pay at least a hundred spirit stones a month to get a respectable shop.

He had finally scraped together a thousand spirit stones and had been excited about adding something new to his arsenal. The thought of his spirit-stone pouch growing light again made it feel as if the world were collapsing.

Should he just... give it all up, track down independent Cultivators, and rob them of their spirit stones? His constitution was immune to heavenly tribulations anyway.

The fact that thoughts fit for a demonic-path sect came so naturally suggested he needed to rein in his mind.

He was struggling with the danger of succumbing to an inner demon, albeit for a different reason from Hae Unchan, when it happened.

A message talisman flew toward him. Pi Garam had sent it to ask where he was.

Yise wrote his location and sent a reply. Before long, a low, dry voice came from behind his shoulder.

“Yise. It’s been a while.”

A welcome face he had not seen in some time was approaching them.

“Yes, it has. Is formation research harder than you expected?”

Pi Garam was thinner than before, with much darker shadows beneath his eyes. He gave one of his characteristic cynical laughs, then came to the point.

“I heard from Seol Ryeong. You’re planning to reopen Dine Before You Depart.”

“Yes, but I couldn’t find a cook, so I’m going to do it myself.”

“I see. Well, I’d like to invest.”

“Invest?”

“I’ll invest the spirit stones I’ve saved. In return, give me my share of immortal cuisine for five years. If that’s not enough, well... you can put me to work as your assistant cook for about a watch a day.”

Yise broke into a delighted smile.

“I’d welcome that. But are you sure? I hear artisans with talent for the Four Great Crafts won’t even look at other crafts.”

“That’s the complacent talk of people like them, born with gold in their veins and plenty of family backing.”

Pi Garam shook out both sleeves.

“People like me, struggling to cultivate all alone from nothing, have to do whatever it takes to earn spirit stones. Practicing formations leaves me nowhere near enough time for missions or cultivation. Better to invest here than spend all my spirit stones on a few elixir pills.”

He handed over five hundred spirit stones. It was a jaw-dropping sum.

“Finally, someone who speaks my language... You earned these stones with blood and sweat. I promise you won’t regret it.”

Park Gangseo and Bu Chun both turned to Pi Garam. It was an extraordinary sum for an early-stage Qi Refining Cultivator to produce all at once.

After a moment of conflicted expressions, the two pooled their own spirit stones and handed Yise three hundred as an investment.

“Now that I think about it, only contributing our labor feels a little shameless.”

“I don’t have the talent to serve as the cook, either... This is all I have right now, but I’ll set aside a little of my staff salary each month to help with the rent.”

Yise closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again.

These resources were practically their entire fortunes, yet they had freely offered them to ease his burden. In effect, they had staked everything on this venture and linked arms with him.

“All right. We’ve got no patrons, no families, no relatives backing us. Let’s show them what it means to make something of ourselves.”

They signed the lease for the hundred-spirit-stone-a-month shop that very day.

It was a three-bay shop in a middling location on the street of permanent shops. Still, it was a proper space, in an entirely different league from the makeshift awning at the training compound’s butcher shop.

On a piece of wood Park Gangseo had picked up somewhere, Yise wrote the name with spiritual energy. His calligraphy was graceful and masterful.

Then he lifted the sign with the Telekinesis Art and hung it on the nails prepared for it.

“We open on the day of the next fortnightly market.”

“So we have six days.”

“Park Gangseo, spread the word until then. On the first day, we’ll offer free tastings on a first-come, first-served basis. One bowl per person.”

“... Free? You want them to really get people talking, then?”

Park Gangseo grinned.

“Bu Chun, handle the furnishings and tableware. Have everything ready for opening. Get only good materials with as little impure energy as possible. Tell me ahead of time if you need more money.”

“Yes, Senior.”

“Go see Jangsaeng, too. Get a jar of spirit wine. Tell him if he overcharges us, I’ll dunk him in it.”

“Yes!”

“I’ll go catch a demonic beast. A big, meaty one.”

He would make this an immortal-cuisine restaurant people lined up for, a restaurant whose food they could never get enough of.

He would sweep up every last spirit stone on the main mountain.