Preparations for secluded cultivation proceeded steadily. Yise hunted demonic beasts and stocked the Meat Preservation Chests with ingredients for immortal cuisine, then applied for seclusion in advance to postpone his mandatory missions as long as possible. Thankfully, Daemudo's rules were flexible in that regard.

After gathering precisely enough Demonic Energy for the tenth star, he taught Pi Garam how to prepare immortal cuisine. That would keep Dine Before You Depart running during his seclusion.

Ingredients would be harder to procure for a while, so he reduced the number of customers per opening and raised the prices. Interest waned from its initial heights, but enough regulars remained to keep meal tickets selling at a reasonable rate. Lower the prices, and they would sell like wildfire again anyway. For now, covering labor and upkeep would suffice. With Dine Before You Depart running largely on its own, Yise focused on cultivation.

Word from Hong Wonseo arrived exactly ten months and fifteen days later. Yise pushed open the door of his seclusion cave. A shaft of light slanted through the gap in the stone door and fell across his face.

The air of the main mountain was still filled with spiritual energy, and the trace of impure energy mingled with it pricked his skin. His Demonic Energy had already reached the threshold of Great Attainment. All that remained was to replenish his spiritual energy.

Yise headed for the Flame Blossom Hong family's pill-refining chamber. Thin wisps of red smoke escaped its chimney. Inside, he found Hong Wonseo sprawled out in apparent exhaustion, her apron half undone and her face faintly smudged with soot.

"You're here?"

"Yes. Thanks for all your work."

"I haven't the strength to lift a finger. Take a look yourself."

With trembling fingertips, Hong Wonseo pointed to the wooden boxes beside the refining furnace. One large box and two smaller ones sat on a low table. Yise opened the large box. Inside lay thirty Spirit-Gathering Pills and thirty Qi-Condensing Pills.

"Those are low-grade. Check the one beside it, too."

The slightly more ornate box contained three mid-grade Spirit-Gathering Pills and three mid-grade Qi-Condensing Pills, all glowing softly. Their surfaces were smoother than the low-grade pills', their fragrance richer. The spiritual energy swirling around even a single pill spread faintly beyond the refining chamber.

"They smell good."

"I made considerable progress myself, thanks to you." Hong Wonseo gave a faint smile. "With this many, you should have no trouble reaching your goal of the tenth star in one stretch."

Yise silently looked over the contents once more.

"Thank you."

"I'm the one who should thank you. Oh, the one beside it is for you too, Senior."

Yise's eyes shifted to the third box. Inside lay three black elixir pills with a scent he had never encountered before.

"What are these?"

"Toxin-Purging Pills. They remove pill toxins. If you take a lot of pills all at once, the toxins build up in your spiritual meridians and disrupt the flow of spiritual energy. Take one of these every so often to clear them out. I've heard they become a real headache during Foundation Establishment if you don't purge them beforehand."

He had heard that before. The Demon-Exorcizing Spirit Arts were especially vulnerable to pill toxins; advancing one's realm on pills alone almost invariably caused side effects.

"They're my gift to you."

"In the mortal world, they say you'll go bald if you're too fond of freebies. How much?"

"What Cultivator goes bald? They all love freebies, and they've all got full heads of hair."

Hong Wonseo frowned at the absurd mortal-world joke.

"But I do have a condition."

"What is it?"

"Promise to supply all the spiritual herbs you obtain to me alone. Never give them to another pill refiner. Their quality was excellent."

"We already agreed on that."

"And do me one favor someday. Even if it's a little difficult."

The look in Hong Wonseo's eyes was unlike her usual impassive expression when absorbed in pill refining. They were like tightly shut sluice gates, giving no hint of what lay behind them. Yise held her gaze for a moment.

Her pride as a pill refiner reached the heavens. She always charged full price, even for a single Grain-Abstinence Pill. Yet for the first time, she was trying to put him in her debt.

"... So it was a bribe."

Yise smiled faintly to ease the atmosphere.

"All right. If I can."

"Leaving yourself an escape with that 'if I can,' I see."

"You caught me."

"I'll see you after you've reached your goal."

Thanking her for the encouragement, Yise went straight to the Clear Repose Halls, collected his prepared supplies, and headed for the seclusion cave. Four people were already waiting outside his private cultivation cave when he arrived.

"A send-off? It's not as though I'm going far."

"Here's what you asked for last time."

Pi Garam handed him a Spirit-Gathering Disc. Yise thanked him briefly and tucked it into his storage pouch.

"What brings you here?"

"Why am I the only one you treat so poorly?"

"... When have I ever?"

Yise countered Seol Ryeong's sulking question. Grumbling, she handed him two ritual implements.

"One is a Life-Signaling Pearl. It sends word if an emergency occurs during seclusion. The other is a Mind-Calming Mirror. If an inner demon comes to you, looking into it will help you calm down. Try them and return them afterward. Feedback would be nice, too."

"Using me as a living test subject..."

"Don't take them, then."

Yise stowed the ritual implements in his storage pouch before Seol Ryeong could snatch them back.

"Thanks for looking out for me."

Park Gangseo and Bu Chun approached last.

"Don't worry about Dine Before You Depart. We've got an established base of regulars now."

"Don't push yourselves. Just keep things running."

At that, all four stepped back together. Yise gave them a small smile and entered the cave.

The stone door descended. The cave was dark and still. He set the Spirit-Gathering Formation disc in the center of the floor and activated it. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth flowed into the cave and pooled there quietly. Sitting cross-legged, he drew a long breath.

Yise opened the box of low-grade spiritual elixirs. The moment a pill slid down his throat and dissolved within him, spiritual energy spilled out in a rush and flowed into his spiritual meridians.

'Don't rush.'

He circulated his internal reserves calmly, carrying the new spiritual energy to every corner of his meridians without losing a drop, carefully preventing any from straying down the wrong paths.

When he finished one pill, he took a second. Then a third. A fourth. He continued absorbing them. Once he sensed a faint buildup of pill toxins along the insides of his spiritual meridians, he swallowed a Toxin-Purging Pill along with them. Immediately, he swept its energy through his meridians, burning away the tightly clumped toxins.

Heat coursed through his body as though he were sitting beneath the blazing midsummer sun. Sweat beaded on his forehead and ran down his back. Frowning, Yise steadied his breathing.

Yise could not tell how much time had passed. All sixty low-grade Qi-Condensing Pills and Spirit-Gathering Pills had passed through his stomach in turn, dissolving into his spiritual meridians. His quantity of spiritual energy had risen from the early eighth star to the threshold of the ninth. A gap still remained between it and his Demonic Energy, but it had narrowed considerably.

He ate another helping of immortal cuisine to renew its waning effects, then opened the box of mid-grade spiritual elixirs. A single mid-grade Qi-Condensing Pill shone softly. The moment he put it into his mouth, he could tell the spiritual energy it released was different in quality. There was more of it, and it was purer. A single pill visibly increased his spiritual energy.

Yet even after consuming all three mid-grade pills, he still lacked enough to reach the tenth star.

'I can still do this.'

Now he would draw in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in earnest, using the Spirit-Gathering Pills, the Spirit-Gathering Disc, and immortal cuisine together. Even Foundation Establishment Cultivators were unlikely to enjoy such lavish cultivation conditions. These resources represented all the time and effort he had invested. The cycle continued, his internal reserves and ambient energy intersecting.

How much more time had passed? Sensing the immortal cuisine's effects fading, Yise ate a fresh helping. He repeated the process again and again. Little by little, his spiritual energy caught up with his Demonic Energy.

He tipped another helping of immortal cuisine into his mouth. Before he knew it, the bottom of the small Meat Preservation Chest lay exposed. The process of balancing his internal reserves was nearing its end. The scales of the two energies were almost level.

The critical moment began now. He had to match his spiritual energy and Demonic Energy precisely.

Ordinarily, Foundation Establishment involved two processes: breaking down the spiritual meridians to create a Dharma-Transformed Dantian, and opening one's divine sense. But Daemudo's process added a prior step: reconstructing the body itself. Dual cultivation of spell and body—a method that tempered spell power and flesh simultaneously.

That made cultivation all the more grueling and dangerous, but its advantage was clear. Against an opponent of equal realm and equipment, one would not lose. The body itself served as an additional weapon. Anyone facing a Daemudo Cultivator had to contend with spells while also watching for a tempered body charging at them like a Hungry Ghost.

Yise slowed his absorption, taking spiritual energy into his body drop by drop. He had only one chance. Failure could force him straight back out to gather more Demonic Energy.

The portions of spiritual energy he absorbed shrank beyond droplets to grains of sand. Slowly, slowly, he placed each grain on the other pan of the balance, leveling the scales. The last grain fell. Spiritual energy and Demonic Energy reached perfect equilibrium.

'Now.'

He held his breath and immediately activated the talisman he had prepared. It was a blocking talisman that prevented the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from entering his body. A sealed membrane instantly enveloped him, barring the passage of energy.

Yise made the spiritual energy and Demonic Energy within him coalesce into a single mass. As he slowly recited the Replacing Bones, Spirit Forging formula of the Demon-Exorcizing Spirit Qi Refining Art, the two energies began to rotate like a whirlpool, pushing against each other. In that moment, he became certain: though this cultivation method was known as one for ordinary Cultivators, at its origin, it had unquestionably been intended for the Heavenly-Demonic Dual-Meridian Constitution.

'Start at the toes.'

The ninth star. Replacing Bones, Spirit Forging. Breaking and reassembling every bone in the body to transform them into spirit bones.

CRACK. CRACKLE.

A bone at the tip of his toe broke. His internal reserves swirled, grinding the bones of his toes to fragments. The bones throughout his foot shattered piece by piece, and his internal energy seeped into their place, sprouting the seeds of spirit bones. An aching pain throbbed through him, but it was still bearable.

The vortex of internal energy rose steadily. Ankles. Shins. Kneecaps. Thighbones. Dull cracks of shattering bone echoed inside his body. Pubic bones. Hip bones. Ribs. Collarbones. Shoulder blades. Vertebrae.

At some point, Yise's body lost its support and slid limply to the floor. He took one long breath, then shattered even the bones in his neck. An ordinary person would already have died, but spiritual energy supported his body in place of bones.

Finally, the skull. Yise paused to steady his breathing.