* * *

Yise went straight to the Mission Pavilion and picked up a mission sheet without much deliberation.

- Hunt a Grade 2 demonic beast, the Thunder Boar. (80 spirit stones, 70 contribution points. Eligibility: warriors at ninth-star Qi Refining or above)

The staff member checked the mission sheet Yise handed over, then looked at him with some discomfort.

“Cultivator Yise, this mission is only authorized for those at the ninth star or above.”

“I know, but what about an eighth star who’s as good as a ninth? I really want to hunt this one.”

“What is that even supposed to mean...?”

The staff member scratched his head awkwardly. By the rules, he should have refused outright, but the Cultivator before him had a perfect mission success rate—a veritable king of missions. Since the success rate of those he assigned reflected directly on his own performance, he was inclined to give Yise what he wanted. In the end, he cast a pleading look at the Foundation Establishment senior in charge.

“Let him.”

The answer was brief. Yise respectfully thanked the senior and promptly received the location of the outer affiliates’ outpost.

Without pausing to rest, he stopped at the outpost for detailed information, then located the Thunder Boar’s habitat with a Soul-Tracking Talisman (a talisman that tracks its target).

GRRRR!

A boar the size of a house growled at Yise for intruding on its territory.

“Now that’s a fine, hefty beast.”

Its tusks were as large as a saber-toothed tiger’s, and iron armor encased its torso. Its legs were sturdy enough to rival a Giant Elephant (an elephant demonic beast). Lightning flowed from the horn in the middle of its head, flashing and crackling menacingly over its entire hide.

It was a truly mouthwatering demonic beast.

‘Who doesn’t like pork?’

After all, the most popular immortal cuisine at the training compound’s Dine Before You Depart had been White Earth Boar (a Grade 8 demonic beast). It was nature’s perfect ingredient, with nothing to waste from head to hoof.

When their eyes met, the Thunder Boar snorted in apparent bewilderment. It seemed to be saying that it knew he was a formidable opponent, but could not understand why he was looking at it like that.

Lightning shot from the Thunder Boar’s horn. Yise coated his hand axe with Adamantine Lock to catch it, then redirected its flow back at the beast. Next, it was time to try out his two newly acquired spells.

He hurled the hand axe high into the air and enlarged it with Weapon Enlargement Art. Once the axe was big enough to split even the house-sized boar in two, he brought it crashing down with Telekinesis Art.

SQUEEEEAL!

The squeal of a pig being slaughtered rang out, clear and refreshing. Yise retrieved the hand axe, which had sunk about a third of the way into its torso, then moved so swiftly he seemed to vanish. The Thunder Boar immediately began thrashing, scattering lightning bolts across the mountainside.

The erratically arcing bolts were powerful enough to burn his body with even a glancing hit. Its formidable demonic power certainly lived up to its Grade 2 classification. Yise drove away the lightning that still flashed after searing his shoulder, then raised an earthen wall around himself to block the wild bolts.

BOOM!

The Thunder Boar rammed through the wall he had just made. Yise raised the Yellow Grand Parasol in time to absorb the impact, but was still flung far away, spinning before he landed.

‘This would have been quite a struggle if I didn’t know how to hunt it.’

Surprisingly, the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard was of little use against enormous demonic beasts like this. The sheer physical strength of their huge bodies exceeded the power of their Demonic Energy. If he planted it carelessly and it was trampled to pieces, he would sooner kill himself.

But the Demon-Exorcizing Arts were not about combat. They were about hunting. Even slaughtering a pig had its proper sequence and procedure.

Yise’s earthen walls rose in a square around the Thunder Boar. Before it could ram through them, he reinforced them with Hardening Art, a metal-element spell.

BOOM! BOOM!

The massive beast twisted its body, trying to demolish the hardened walls. Three or four impacts would break them, but before that could happen, Yise concentrated on reinforcing whichever wall it struck with two, then three layers.

Using Dokkaebi Steps, he ran straight up a wall and looked down at the Thunder Boar from the top. Then an ignition spell poured from his palm. Immense flames engulfed the giant demonic beast, and it howled in agony.

Whenever it rammed a wall to break free, he reinforced it. The instant it faltered, he seared it with flames again.

CRACK! CRACK!

The armor covering the boar’s torso peeled away piece by piece.

When facing a Thunder Boar, the first step was to melt its tough outer hide with fire-element spells and expose the tender flesh beneath. Then one had to pierce its torso in a single stroke and shatter the Demon core lodged deep in its bowels. Its regenerative ability was monstrous. The gash his hand axe had left in its waist had long since healed.

Yise estimated the core’s likely location and formed a long Earthen Spear—one that must have measured ten jang (*approximately 30 meters). He had never made an Earthen Spear this long before, and it visibly drained his internal reserves.

At his gesture, the Earthen Spear rose into the air and plunged down at an angle. The scream of a demonic beast facing slaughter followed.

After a struggle that tore up an entire mountain ridge, the Thunder Boar collapsed with its limbs splayed. Earthen Spears protruded from various places in its enormous body, while its severed head hung impaled high in the air.

It had not been a brief engagement. The Thunder Boar’s lightning had burned several patches of his robes and left marks on his shoulder and flank where the strikes had nearly caused serious injury. Its hide and meat were somewhat damaged, but overall, it had been a clean hunt. After exorcising the meat, Yise sealed it in the Demon-Sealing Album and headed straight back to the main mountain.

That day, a strange tale began circulating on Daemudo’s main mountain: a house-sized pig had been seen flying through the air.

* * *

“You’re back early, Senior!”

“Yes. Thanks for your hard work.”

Beads of sweat dotted Bu Chun’s brow as he put the interior of Dine Before You Depart in order. The worn, dusty shop, unused for so long, was gradually taking on the appearance of a clean restaurant. Yise took off his robes and hung them up, changed into a cook’s outfit, then sharpened and washed his immortal-cuisine knife.

“Where’s the meat?”

“Outside.”

Wondering why Yise had not brought it in, Bu Chun stuck his head outside and screamed in surprise.

“... That startled me. I thought a mountain had sprung up at our door.”

Yise chuckled and went outside. After bleeding it (draining the blood) and scalding it (removing the hair), he trimmed the meat into cuts and handed them to Bu Chun piece by piece.

“This could easily feed three hundred people.”

“That might be difficult. A lot of the cuts lose their spirituality quickly. We’ll have to throw out all the innards.”

“Oh, about that.”

As if remembering something, Bu Chun fetched an iron storage chest from the kitchen. A faint film of ice covered its surface.

“This is a ritual implement called a Meat Preservation Chest.”

When Yise merely glanced at it without answering, Bu Chun continued with evident pride.

“It preserves the spirituality in meat from slaughtered spirit beasts. The Spirit Beast Forest staff use them, but they rarely have any carcasses, so most of these just sit idle. I rented it for five spirit stones a month.”

Yise immediately stopped what he was doing, all but ran over, and opened the lid. Cold spiritual energy brushed his face.

“I didn’t know you’d bring back such a large demonic beast... If you need more, I can get a few.”

Yise put a piece of Thunder Boar meat inside, left it for a while, then took it out. It had lost almost none of its spirituality.

“... To think something like this existed.”

With the expression of a child who had discovered rice crackers, he stroked the chest. Was this not precisely the ritual implement Dine Before You Depart needed? Its capacity might be small, but the ability to store demonic-beast meat for long periods was nothing short of revolutionary.

“Bu Chun.”

“Yes?”

“Well done.”

Bu Chun scratched the back of his head.

“You really are capable. Dine Before You Depart couldn’t do without you.”

“Ahaha. You’re embarrassing me with all that praise...”

Yise’s mind raced. Originally, he had intended to give away the entire beast on opening day as a promotion. It could not be stored for long anyway, and word of mouth would take time to spread.

With Meat Preservation Chests, however, he could prepare immortal cuisine two or three more times from a single beast. In particular, he could even sell cuts such as the innards, which were highly effective in small quantities but quickly lost their spirituality.

‘This will free up a lot of time for cultivation.’

A quiet smile settled on his lips.

“Oh, you lovely fellow. Go and rent every spare one they have. Right now.”

“Yes, Senior!”

By the time the initial butchering was done, one side of the kitchen was filled with Meat Preservation Chests. Their old cooling implement was headed back to his quarters. Yise set aside some boiled meat for testing ingredient compatibility and spoke to Bu Chun.

“Now let’s try some combinations of supplementary ingredients.”

“Yes, Senior. I’ll bring them.”

Bu Chun brought over a little of each ingredient he had prepared. He knew exactly what was needed without being told. Just as Yise was about to mix them to test their compatibility, Bu Chun stopped him.

“Senior, why not try these first?”

He handed over honey—spirit honey, to be precise—and an apple-shaped spirit fruit.

“Spiritual herbs are difficult to source here, aren’t they? The pill refiners take almost everything that’s produced. Going to outside market towns for them every time is a hassle, too... I think we should focus on ingredients that are easy to obtain here.”

“True enough. Are these produced in sufficient quantities?”

“Yes. Spirit fruit is used a lot in pill refining, but there’s so much of it that it’s easy to get. Spirit honey is hardly used for anything besides brewing wine, so it’s cheap, too.”

“Since it’s honey, it should be good for getting the sweetness right.”

Their compatibility should be fairly good as well. Spirit honey and spirit fruit were known as versatile ingredients and appeared quite often in books on immortal cuisine. He simply had not known that Daemudo produced them in abundance.

Yise picked up a piece of demonic-beast meat and put it in his mouth along with the spirit honey and spirit fruit.

“This is good.”

The result exceeded his expectations. Being Grade 2, the beast’s meat was already rich in spirituality, but its savory flavor also paired quite well with the sweetness of the supplementary ingredients. It was excellent both as immortal cuisine and as a dish.

He quickly whipped up the dish he had in mind and tried it. The result was a boost of up to six times normal cultivation efficiency. The two exchanged a look.

Time passed, and opening day arrived for Dine Before You Depart. The commercial district’s permanent shopping street bustled with visitors to the fortnightly market.

After the Thunder Boar’s head was used in a ceremony praying for the new business’s success, it was hung in front of the shop. A long line stretched from the entrance to Dine Before You Depart. Drawn by the enticing promise of free tastings, Cultivators had been waiting since the market opened to secure a place among the first customers.