“I-I'll remember that.”

“Come with me.”

Yise exchanged a spirit stone for gold coins at a nearby shop and bought the boy an armful of food. The child stared up at him, wide-eyed, then ducked his head and all but fled.

As he watched the boy disappear into the crowd, Yise's expression slowly hardened. His spirit sight had caught a glimpse of something sinister. He leaped up and pursued the boy across the rooftops.

'I wasn't imagining it.'

A Level Nine evil spirit, a Starved Child Ghost, clung to the boy's shoulder.

It was the vengeful ghost of a dead child, and as evil spirits went, it was not particularly dangerous. But it was not a kind that ordinarily arose naturally.

A Starved Child Ghost was... the vengeful ghost of a child who had starved to death.

In a market town this size, children would not simply starve to death. Even an orphan could find at least one kind soul willing to help a child, wherever they were.

That left only one answer.

There was a demonic practitioner here. One vicious enough to create Starved Child Ghosts.

Yise let out a short sigh.

'I've become more of a meddler.'

He had no reason to interfere in the back-alley affairs of a border town in the Jeong Empire. They were none of his business. His original goal, breaking through to Foundation Establishment, was within reach. This was hardly the time to get distracted.

And yet...

Everyone had a sore spot that could drive them into a frenzy when touched.

Children and starvation.

Those struck Yise's sore spot dead-on. The demonic art that created Starved Child Ghosts was something no one worthy of the name Daoist could tolerate. He knew how the ritual was performed, too. He could not bring himself to walk away.

* * *

He headed toward the alley where the boy had disappeared. The trace of Demonic Energy his spirit sight had caught was faint, but following it was easy. At Great Attainment, his spirit sight worked almost like seeing through solid objects. Tracking a mere petty ghost's energy was as natural as breathing.

The boy was slipping into a narrow, little-used alley at the eastern end of the market street.

All light cast a shadow. The more splendid the city, the deeper and darker its back alleys tended to be.

This was a place the glittering market town's light could not reach.

A narrow, mossy path wound inward. Ramshackle huts stood shoulder to shoulder on either side, and a sour odor mingled with the stench of human waste drifted from somewhere nearby. It was a slum, where beggars and orphans driven from the light gathered in the darkness.

Yise approached a shabby hut in the most secluded corner. It reeked so strongly of sinister energy that he could not possibly have missed it. Before entering, he checked inside with his spirit sight.

A demonic practitioner around the fifth star had clumsily concealed his Demonic Energy with a low-grade Demon-Concealing Talisman.

'Idiot.'

The Demonic Energy from the Starved Child Ghosts already saturated the entire area. What difference would concealing his own make?

With such a gap in their realms, even a direct confrontation should pose no real problem. Yise lifted the straw mat covering the entrance and took in the interior at a glance.

An unlit brazier stood in the middle, with a small wooden enclosure beside it. Seven or eight children huddled inside. All were thin and filthy, staring silently at Yise with hollow eyes. The boy who had run off earlier was among them, looking even more deathly pale.

Yise forced a reassuring smile and stroked the boy's head, as if to say he had not come to punish him.

Pickpocketing could not be the real purpose behind the demonic practitioner's gathering these children. It was merely a way to obtain food so that his intended sacrifices would not starve before he could use them for his demonic art.

There was another room farther inside. Yise strode straight in. Only then did the demonic practitioner turn to look at him.

“...? What the hell!”

A small chest, and inside it, an even smaller severed hand.

“...”

Yise's anger was silent.

Starved Child Ghosts were the products of evil in its most extreme form.

A child was locked away and starved until on the verge of losing consciousness. When death drew near, food was placed before them.

The moment the child reached for it, their hand was cut off.

The hand, with the child's soul sealed inside, was placed in a small chest and infused with Demonic Energy, transforming the soul into a vengeful evil spirit. The practitioner then tormented that spirit, replenishing his own Demonic Energy with the lingering resentment it gave off.

That was the way of those who practiced the Ghost Path Demonic Art.

Such a practitioner was so depraved that even those who practiced the Essence-Plundering Demonic Art, making elixir pills from the blood essence of mortal virgins, seemed decent by comparison.

Spiritual energy poured from Yise's body and began crushing the demonic practitioner. Under that immense spiritual pressure, the man could not even think of resisting. He could only tremble with his face pressed down.

“Guh...!”

The man's knees buckled. The spiritual pressure kept mounting.

“P-please, spare...!”

He tried to struggle, but another wave of pressure drove his palms into the ground. When black Demonic Energy began to rise from his fingertips, Yise piled still more pressure on top of him.

The man's body was crushed against the floor.

CRACK. CRUNCH.

The dirt floor caved in, and the man's body began to twist out of shape.

Rage at its most extreme could leave no outward sign. Yise's face was almost utterly expressionless.

SPLAT.

At last, the demonic practitioner's body gave way and burst into chunks of flesh. Even afterward, Yise kept furiously pressing the remains down for a long time, burying every last scrap in the earth.

Then he used an earth-element cultivation method to turn the floor over and clean it, as though nothing had ever been there.

He looked around. The room was filled with vengeful evil spirits. He felt as though anguished screams were battering his ears, though in truth there was no sound at all.

He steadied his breathing and recited the Consolation Prayer.

May you be born into an ordinary, loving family in your next life.

May you grow up cherished, and enjoy all the happiness denied you in this one.

Yise recited the Consolation Prayer again and again.

* * *

He slowly turned back toward the wooden enclosure. The demonic practitioner was gone, but the children remained a problem.

His gaze settled on one child inside: the boy who had stolen his storage pouch earlier.

He looked to be the oldest. He had probably volunteered to go pickpocketing to feed the others.

As Yise stepped forward, all the children except the boy he had given food to instinctively backed away. He spoke gently.

“My name is Yise. What's yours?”

“... G-Giwon, sir.”

“A new beginning. That's a good name.”

Yise's eyes softened. His hardened hand came to rest gently on the boy's head. The small shoulders flinched once, then stilled, accepting his touch. The warmth of his palm seeped through the boy's greasy hair.

Yise's fingertips gave a tiny twitch.

'He has a spiritual root.'

The boy was still too young for an accurate assessment, but Yise's unusually developed spirit sight could make it out faintly: a triple spiritual root of fire, water, and metal. That was above-average talent.

He slowly bent his knees until he was at eye level with the boy.

“How old are you?”

“Ten... sir.”

Yise handed him the entire pouch of gold coins.

“Take this. Don't let the other adults find out, and use it to feed yourself and the younger children. If anyone tries to take it, tell them Daoist Hui Dan of the West Lake Guild gave it to you, and that you're under her protection.”

“...”

“When you turn fourteen, go to the West Lake Guild. Tell them you have a spiritual root and enter the cultivation world. Grow strong, and become someone the younger children can rely on to protect them.”

The boy stared up at Yise for a long time before slowly nodding.

“... Yes, sir. Thank... you.”

Though he must have been frightened, his answer was clear.

Yise took two talismans from inside his clothes. One was a protective talisman that activated automatically when its bearer faced danger, even if they were an ordinary person unable to use spiritual energy. He had intended to give it to Master Wisaeng when they met.

The other was a good-luck talisman, one he had extorted from Seol Ryeong to use for accumulating good karma.

“Keep these with you. They'll protect you. Don't show them to anyone.”

“... Yes, sir.”

Just as his master had done for him.

He was not yet a person of his master's caliber and could not see this responsibility through to the end. Even so, for the sake of the boy's tomorrow, he gladly passed on a portion of the kindness he had received.

“If fate allows, we'll meet again.”

Yise gave Giwon's shoulder a final pat, rose, and walked away. The boy gazed up at him for a long while, then finally brought his hands together and bowed deeply. The other children followed, prostrating themselves on the floor.

* * *

After passing through the External Affairs Pavilion's main entrance, Yise went straight to collect a queue ticket. Sunset was the pavilion's busiest time, when independent Cultivators and Cultivators from nearby families returned from their day's missions all at once to settle their accounts.

He asked the staff member handing out tickets a question.

“Can I request a particular staff member for my consultation?”

“Yes. For an additional five spirit stones.”

“Cultivator Hui Dan, please.”

“Of course. Please wait a moment.”

The staff member accepted the spirit stones and handed him a ticket of a different color from the one he had received before.

Hui Dan's eyes widened at the sight of him, then she broke into the same bright sales smile as yesterday.

“Oh, Senior! You're back. I'm honored that you requested me!”

She looked positively delighted behind her professional smile.

“I'd like to make a deal.”

“A deal?”

“Yesterday, you asked me to join the West Lake Guild. Do you benefit from bringing in talented Cultivators?”

Hui Dan blinked.

“Yes. Expanding my connections is a side benefit of recommending a new member, but the recommender also receives spirit stones and contribution points based on an assessment of the recruit's current abilities and future potential.”

“I see.”

Yise paused, weighing one last time whether this was the right choice.

“There's an orphan named Giwon in the slums at the eastern end of the permanent shopping street. A few other children are with him.”

“Oh?”

Hui Dan tilted her head and waited for him to continue. Cultivators rarely took an interest in ordinary people. For an independent Cultivator of his standing to have bothered remembering a slum orphan's name was rarer still.

“I'll pay you a hundred spirit stones to protect those children. Just until they reach adulthood.”

Hui Dan began hiccuping, apparently from the shock.

At the first star of Qi Refining, she was scarcely different from an ordinary person. But slum orphans almost never encountered Cultivators. With her position as a West Lake Guild staff member, protecting a few orphans should not be difficult.

“One of them, Giwon, has a spiritual root. A triple spiritual root is quite good, isn't it?”

“Y-yes, it is... That puts him in the top twenty out of a hundred...”

“When he turns fourteen, bring him here and help him through the formal admission process for the West Lake Guild. As his recommender.”

“Well, yes... I mean... It wouldn't be difficult, but...”

Hui Dan could not make sense of it at all.

All she could think was what a truly peculiar Senior he was.