He was the one who had said before the fight, ["Once we break through the entrance, let's go our separate ways immediately, without attacking each other."]

Thinking back, not a word of that had been a lie. He had indeed gone his "separate way," "without attacking anyone," "the moment they broke through the entrance."

Someone cried out in outrage, but it was already too late. The Cultivator had disappeared into the inner depths.

"Don't get distracted!"

Yise's shout came too late. A demonic practitioner's blood thorn pierced another Cultivator's skull. Distracted by the deserter's actions, that Cultivator had paid dearly for looking away.

What should have been five against three had become an even fight in an instant. Pressing the demonic practitioner before him, Yise surveyed the battlefield out of the corner of his eye.

Hae Unchan was holding his own remarkably well for someone at the eighth star. His body, tempered through body-refining methods, and his family's secret swordsmanship were proving their worth. Blue streams of water shot from his sword tip, intermittently disrupting his opponent's blood arts, while sharp sword strikes cut away at the demonic practitioner's skin even when he wasn't casting spells. His fluid movements pressured an opponent of a higher realm, as though refuting his own joke that he was a fake swordsman.

The problem was their last remaining ally, the ninth-star Cultivator. He was being driven back, helpless against his opponent's lightning arts.

In the end, it was up to Yise. Once their numerical balance collapsed, Hae Unchan wouldn't be able to hold out, even if Yise could.

Yise moved faster still. Combining all manner of ritual implements and techniques, he relentlessly battered his opponent, who could do little but cloak himself in Demonic Energy and cast defensive spells.

Sweat drenched the demonic practitioner's contorted face. He hurriedly formed hand seals to conjure blood thorns, but his spellcasting was far, far too slow.

'Wood-element spells were more effective against the Blood Cultivation Method.'

Drawing on the elemental matchups he had learned through experience, Yise used Wood Armor Art to absorb every blood thorn the man created. The moment he blocked the attack, he launched an Earthen Spear—a switch from defense to offense at an absurd speed.

Deciding it was too late to cast a spell, the demonic practitioner pulled out a defensive talisman, only for Yise to snatch it away with his Telekinesis Art.

Stealing an opponent's ritual item in the middle of battle was an enormous insult. It demonstrated utter contempt for one's opponent. Enraged by the blatant humiliation, the demonic practitioner spat out a curse.

"You son of a bitch!"

Yise drove an Earthen Spear into the man who had dared call his adoptive parents dogs. For all his shortcomings, the man had reached Great Attainment and didn't die on the spot. Still, so much blood spouted from him that he could have cast the Blood Cultivation Method using his own.

Yise charged, throwing the Meridian-Cutting Blade. The demonic practitioner swayed aside to evade the small blade hurtling toward him. Closing in during that opening, Yise swung his hand axe at the man's body.

CLANG! CLANG!

The hand axe's edge grew duller with every blow against the demonic practitioner's stone-hard body. Just as the man regained his breath and applied another layer of Demonic Energy to stop the axe, the Meridian-Cutting Blade returned from behind under Yise's telekinetic control and buried itself in the back of his thigh.

Ravenous devouring began at once. An eerie light shone from the Meridian-Cutting Blade as it disrupted and sucked in its prey's Demonic Energy. Bewildered, the demonic practitioner reached to pull it free, but Yise's hand axe cleaved his neck first.

SHICK!

His head flew into the air.

Yise immediately kicked off the ground and cast Ground-Shadow Snare at the demonic practitioner fighting Hae Unchan.

"What the hell!"

The evenly matched fight tilted in an instant.

The man poured out spiritual energy to tear away the shadows, but the Earthen Spear flying toward him forced him to hastily activate a defensive talisman. That tiny opening was enough. Hae Unchan's sword slipped precisely through the gap and pierced his heart.

The last man could hold out no longer. Only after both his companions fell did he choose to flee. But with the balance tipped this far, even escape was impossible. Under their combined assault, he fell before the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

"..."

The sole recruited Cultivator who had stayed to fight, the ninth-star, sank to the ground, his strength gone. He felt as though he had been halfway across the River of the Dead before turning back.

Yise approached the demonic practitioner he had finished off, mounted the man's head for display, and collected his storage pouches.

"Oh, he's got three storage pouches."

"What? This one only has two."

Hae Unchan collected the belongings of the demonic practitioner he had fought, then handed Yise the pouch belonging to the Cultivator whose skull had been pierced. Yise readily accepted it.

"I'll give you half later."

"Oh, really? No taking that back!"

"Have you ever seen me skim off the spoils?"

"No, I haven't," Hae Unchan replied, laughing.

The Cultivator could only look daunted by how relaxed they were after such a fierce battle. He kept glancing at the demonic practitioner's corpse before him, trying to gauge Yise and Hae Unchan's reactions.

"Take that one. You were the only one of the recruits who did his share, after all."

"Th-thank you."

The Cultivator hurriedly collected the storage pouch before they could change their minds.

"In exchange, you don't mind if we don't split these with you, right?"

Yise pointed at the cannon-shaped ritual implement and the dead Cultivator's storage pouch.

Rather than nod, the Cultivator stared at the cannon-shaped ritual implement. For a moment, greed flickered in his eyes. A chance for a Qi Refining Cultivator to obtain a ritual implement with Foundation Establishment power—anyone would be tempted.

Yise made no effort to pretend he hadn't noticed. He merely lifted his gaze to meet the ninth-star Cultivator's eyes.

"I've got plenty already, but if you insist on adding another storage pouch to my collection, I won't refuse."

It was a perfectly calm remark. The Cultivator scrambled to his feet and all but fled into the inner depths.

"I'll send this to the main mountain."

"Yeah. That would be best."

Quickly reaching an agreement, Yise and Hae Unchan collected the Foundation Establishment ritual implement.

After finishing the exorcism and devouring as well, Yise turned toward the rainbow arch.

"Let's go too. Getting a look at the inner depths sure hasn't been easy."

* * *

The moment he stepped through the rainbow arch, Yise had to pause to steady his breathing. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth was exceptionally dense in the inner depths. Objects wavered indistinctly in his spirit sight, everything awash in pale indigo. He could scarcely distinguish Hae Unchan's internal reserves right beside him from the ambient energy flowing through their surroundings.

"How are we supposed to tell which way the center is?"

Hae Unchan raised a hand and waved it before his eyes as he muttered. Yise quietly agreed.

"At this rate, we could just spend the rest of our time cultivating before we leave."

The spiritual energy here was purer and denser even than in the main mountain's cultivation district. It felt as though his spiritual meridians would fill on their own without a single elixir pill.

But as he gradually grew accustomed to the dense spiritual energy and the scenery came into view, such leisurely thoughts evaporated.

Ruins lay before him. A vast city that looked as though it had once boasted a glorious civilization, now buried, weathered, and sunken.

Few of the gray-white buildings, seemingly made of some kind of limestone, remained intact. Green moss and vines climbed over them. Fresh plants grew in abundance throughout, and immense ancient trees that looked thousands of years old rose as though to hold up the sky.

"Yise. Let's split up here."

Yise tilted his head at Hae Unchan's words.

"Why?"

"I don't want us playing petty games over who gets what resources. Besides, I want to find a fortuitous encounter without anyone's help."

At that frank admission, Yise agreed.

"Just don't push yourself too hard."

"I won't."

Hae Unchan loosened up his body, then turned right. As he walked away without a farewell, Yise called after him.

"Oh, and you fought well."

Hae Unchan simply raised a hand in reply.

* * *

Yise proceeded cautiously. In this thick haze of ambient energy, an ambush would leave him helpless. Fortunately, unlike other Cultivators who had only their five senses to rely on, his Dokkaebi Senses could detect even the faint movements of plants stirring in the wind amid the dense spiritual energy. That alone gave him an advantage here.

Before long, he discovered a single orange flower blooming elegantly in a gap between collapsed stone walls. Though making immortal cuisine had taught him spiritual herbs by heart, even he had never seen this flower before. Yet the spirituality it radiated stood out even in this environment. It was unquestionably an exceedingly precious spiritual material.

'My first harvest.'

Yise carefully dug it up with its soil and tucked it into his spiritual-herb pouch. The satisfaction was deeper than what he felt when taking a storage pouch after killing someone. Apparently, he had the instincts of a wild-ginseng hunter.

True to its abundance of ambient energy, the inner depths were a land of opportunities and resources. Yise gathered several more varieties of spiritual herbs after his first find. Then he suddenly stopped.

THUD. THUD.

Heavy footsteps reached his ears. There was no need to rely on his Dokkaebi Senses. His ears alone told him enough.

Enormous stones. Dozens of them had joined together into something resembling a human figure and were taking ponderous steps. It stood over two jang tall, and its weight was impossible to guess.

'Is that... a combat puppet?'

It stood over two jang tall, and its weight was impossible to guess. For now, Yise dubbed it a stone puppet and readied himself for battle while gauging its strength.

'It has no spiritual meridians, and I don't think I see a Dharma-Transformed Dantian either....'

Neither a Cultivator nor a spiritual being—what made it move? Spirituality was clearly flowing from its massive body, but he couldn't discern the source. No ready conclusion presented itself. Only one thing was certain: his Dokkaebi Senses were screaming danger more urgently than ever before.

["If you come across a mechanism or formation you can't identify at your level, never touch it."]

He recalled Irang's advice. The difference in Rank was unmistakable, and he concluded that fighting was out of the question. This was not something a mere Qi Refining Cultivator could face. Even if he gathered every Cultivator who had entered this place, they might not be able to bring it down.

Having made his decision, Yise was slowly backing away when a blue light rippled once, lingering where the stone puppet's head should be. Immediately afterward, a beam of light some three cheok thick shot straight out. Yise reflexively rolled to the side.

CRACK!

The stone pillar struck by the light split cleanly in two. It was roughly five jang long. The severed surface was as smooth as a knife cut, its edges glowing red-hot and taking a long time to cool.

It was neither fire nor lightning. It was light, but a single beam that sliced through everything it touched. A ray of light, or a radiant beam—that was the only way to describe the attack. Yise had never encountered anything like it. A bead of cold sweat trickled slowly down his spine.

Once again, blue light rippled at length where the stone puppet's head should be. Yise immediately sprinted at full speed. The stone puppet's second beam slashed diagonally through the spot where he had just stood, splitting a boulder in two.

It was the same kind of stone as the barrier separating the outer region from the inner depths. Had he been a moment slower, his entire body would have been sliced in half.

'... What in the world is this?'

The strike made him want to beg for his life. Yise ran until not even the tips of the thing's feet were visible.

Fortunately, its bulk seemed to keep it from moving quickly, and the thudding gradually faded into the distance. Never in his life had he felt such terror of the incomprehensible. Yise stood still for a long time, steadying his breathing.