Chapter 6
It was a quiet dawn, heavily blanketed in darkness.
Around the small body sitting in the Lotus Position, Five Elements Qi swirled restlessly.
Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal.
The spiritual energies of the five attributes chased each other’s tails, circling the Dantian and absorbing spiritual energy.
“Hehe.”
Baek-Cheong freely used her overflowing spiritual energy to write nonsense posts.
Any reason to hesitate had vanished.
The skills of a Community Lurker, honed over many years in her past life, were unleashed in the Nameless Forum.
『Dao Friend (913.14): Why do you guys even cultivate?』
[You’re just going to get struck by lightning and die anyway if the heavens decide to screw you over.]
『Dao Friend (913.14): Do Sword Sect guys really take swords as their Dao Companions?』
[Doesn’t it hurt when you get stabbed?]
Provocative and rude nonsense posts spammed the Chat Board endlessly.
Cultivators, drawn by the sensational titles, flocked in like clouds.
Reply notifications frantically popped up, hammering the corner of her vision.
[Dao Friend (88.12): 913.14, is it you again? If you’re at the Qi Condensation Stage, just shut up and cultivate.]
[Dao Friend (211.5): How dare you insult the Sword Sect. One day, I will scour the Lower Realm and sever your head.]
[Dao Friend (34.99): You said you were a Five Elements Spirit Root Holder, so is your brain split into five pieces too?]
[Dao Friend (415.7): A mere Five Elements Spirit Root Holder at the Qi Condensation Stage is writing posts back-to-back like this?]
As Baek-Cheong read through dozens of replies mixed with anger and mockery, her lips curled up so high they nearly reached her ears.
Cultivators tended to be rather inflexible, making them highly susceptible to a troublemaker.
“Pfft, hehe.”
The drawback of being stuck at the Qi Condensation Stage, 1st Level due to her expanded Dantian was completely erased from her mind.
The grandiose goal of reaching the apex of the Cultivation World and ascending to become an Immortal was far from Baek-Cheong’s interests to begin with.
The joy of writing endlessly in the Nameless Forum, communicating with other Dao Friends, and trolling them was equal in value to eternal life for Baek-Cheong.
The dim light of dawn began to seep in through the window.
Even though she had stayed up all night, her body, which was circulating the Five Elements, felt no fatigue whatsoever.
Rather, she was overflowing with vitality, and a faint radiance even lingered on her skin.
“It’s already morning.”
Smacking her lips in regret, Baek-Cheong withdrew her Divine Sense from the Nameless Forum.
To enjoy her life as a beautiful girl, she had to keep up the act of being a demure and pitiful Youngest daughter.
She stood up, lightly stretched her body, and neatly adjusted her Attire.
Not long after, cautious footsteps could be heard from beyond the door.
“Young Lady, have you awakened?”
At the maidservant’s call, Baek-Cheong opened the door.
The maidservants entered the room carrying warm wash water and a steaming breakfast tray.
Clear tea brewed from spirit herbs and soft spirit porridge were neatly placed on the table.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Baek-Cheong sat down and picked up her spoon.
Having stayed up all night forum-surfing, she felt quite intense hunger.
She shoveled the porridge into her mouth more ravenously than usual, scraping the bottom of the bowl.
Just as she was finishing her meal, heavy and urgent footsteps echoed in the hallway.
“Cheong-A!”
The person who threw open the door and entered was her father, Baek Mu-Jin.
His face was heavily laden with deep fatigue and worry.
Even though he had stayed up all night handling the Clan’s affairs, he rushed straight to her Abode out of concern for his Youngest daughter.
“Father, have you been well?”
“Yes. How is your body? I heard from Un Jang-Ro that you stopped by the Archives to read yesterday. I told you to get plenty of rest, so why did you overexert yourself?”
Baek Mu-Jin used a scolding tone, but his voice was full of affection.
He plopped down opposite Baek-Cheong and firmly grasped his daughter’s slender wrist.
It was to check the condition of the Dantian of his daughter, who had just entered the Qi Condensation Stage, 1st Level.
Due to the limitations of a mixed spirit root, there was a high probability that her spiritual energy had scattered or her meridians had become blocked.
Baek Mu-Jin carefully pushed his true essence through the acupoints on Baek-Cheong’s wrist.
He swept down his daughter’s meridians with the softest and gentlest energy possible.
“…!”
The moment his true essence reached the vicinity of Baek-Cheong’s Dantian, Baek Mu-Jin’s eyes widened as large as lanterns.
Gasping for air, he stared piercingly at the wrist of the daughter he was holding.
Baek-Cheong’s insides, transmitted through Baek Mu-Jin’s senses, were a marvel in themselves.
Her Dantian, which should have been a shallow puddle at the Qi Condensation Stage, 1st Level, was vastly expanded like a giant lake.
Furthermore, inside the lake, the five energies of Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal were not devouring each other, but were smoothly circulating in a bizarre harmony.
He sensed the magnificent sight of massive amounts of spiritual energy rushing in from the outside, endlessly filling her Dantian.
“Wh-what on Earth is this energy?! The Five Elements have made a nest inside your body!”
At Baek Mu-Jin’s astonished shout, Baek-Cheong flinched inwardly.
If she were caught having arbitrarily learned five Cultivation Methods, her father, who knew the dangers of Qi Deviation, would surely scold her.
Quickly rolling her eyes, she spat out the most plausible excuse.
“I went to the Hundred Scriptures Pavilion yesterday and read a few dusty old books. They were basic texts like the Green Leaf Art and the White Metal Art. Since their contents were different from the Yeonha Art, I got curious and tried mixing the energies a little bit, and suddenly my stomach felt wide open, and the energy started spinning around and around.”
It was the very bright and innocent voice of a child.
Hearing the excuse, Baek Mu-Jin’s lips trembled.
Baek-Cheong’s words were a miraculous anecdote that completely shattered the common sense of the Cultivation World.
Mixing energies of disparate attributes was an extremely perilous act that even Core Formation stage Great Cultivators avoided.
A mere ten-year-old child had skimmed a few basic texts in the Archives and realized the Cycle of Five Elements Mutual Generation on her own.
A massive realization flashed through Baek Mu-Jin’s mind like lightning.
“Truly a genius. Our Cheong-Yi is a peerless genius who appears not once in a hundred years, but once in ten thousand years!”
The heavens bestowing a Five Elements Spirit Root upon a genius with such great comprehension was clearly them bestowing a vessel capable of handling all the Five Elements Qi.
To have awakened to the Five Elements Mutual Generation without being taught was an Unprecedented event.
“Hahahaha! The heavens have not abandoned our Baek Clan!”
Baek Mu-Jin leaped up from his Seat and burst into hearty laughter.
It was a heavy presence that made the room ring loudly.
Gripping Baek-Cheong’s shoulders tightly, he shouted in a voice filled with emotion.
“Cheong-A, you are the pride of our Clan. To shatter the limits of the Five Elements Spirit Root on your own! The path you walk will soon become the new history of the Cultivation World!”
“Ah… I will work hard so as not to bring shame to the Clan.”
Baek-Cheong nodded with a bewildered expression.
It seemed her father had thoroughly misunderstood, but it was a hundred times better than listening to annoying nagging.
Baek Mu-Jin, having let his imagination run wild all on his own, untied a luxurious pouch Tinged with Blue Light from his waist and pressed it into Baek-Cheong’s arms.
“This is a High-Grade Storage Platform. Inside are about a hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones and a Clear Heart Jade to stabilize your mind and body. You will need massive resources to fill a Dantian as vast as the sea, so I will instruct the servants to bring you high-grade Spirit Gathering Pills as well. Do not spare them in the slightest and use them freely. If you lack anything, tell your father at any time!”
Baek Mu-Jin left the Abode with a face that looked as if he owned the world.
Once the door closed and the footsteps faded completely, Baek-Cheong blankly looked down at the Storage Platform in her arms.
It looked like a light cloth pouch, but it was a magical bag with a massive expanded space inside.
“Jackpot.”
Baek-Cheong lightly pushed her Divine Sense into the entrance of the Storage Platform.
Inside the wide space, sparkling spirit stones were piled up like a mountain.
Compared to her past life, it felt like a king’s ransom had appeared in her coffers overnight.
With immense wealth in her hands, she had a brilliant idea flash in her mind.
In the Nameless Forum, there was another interesting space besides the Chat Board.
It was the Marketplace Board, where Dao Friends traded goods with one another.
“I can’t resist shopping.”
Baek-Cheong settled back onto the bed and deployed her Divine Sense.
She brought up the Nameless Forum in the air and selected the Marketplace from the top categories.
A myriad of item listings updated in real-time and unfolded before her eyes.
『Dao Friend (51.22) Selling: Black Iron Sword. 10 spirit stones.』
『Dao Friend (881.9) Selling: a Thousand-Year-Old Fleeceflower Root. Offer price.』
『Dao Friend (11.23) is selling: 10 Green Bamboo Pills. 5 spirit stones for the batch.』
The Nameless Forum was a Community that connected the entire Lower Realm.
She wondered how they exchanged goods while ignoring physical distance.
She checked the small notice written at the top of the Forum Board.
[You can link your possessed Storage Platform with the Nameless Forum.]
[Upon the purchase of an item, it will be transmitted to the Storage Platform.]
“Is this how you do it?”
Holding the Storage Platform, Baek-Cheong tried to touch it to the Nameless Forum.
The Storage Platform passed through the Translucent Window, and an intangible wave rippled out.
However, the wave was incredibly stealthy, so much so that even Baek-Cheong, who was holding the Storage Platform, failed to notice it.
“I guess it worked?”
Wanting to test it out, she browsed the Marketplace Board.
She looked around for an item she could waste money on with a light heart.
『Dao Friend (44.21) Selling: Black Goat Spirit Beast Jerky.』
[Got pissed off while cultivating, so I caught a spirit beast from the Back Mountain and dried it. It’s salty and delicious. 1 spirit stone.]
For an item traded by Cultivators, it was an endlessly meager and trivial thing.
Without hesitation, Baek-Cheong moved her Divine Sense and pressed purchase.
Then, a small notification window popped up before her eyes.
[Would you like to proceed with the payment? (Cost: 1 Low-Grade Spirit Stone)]
Likewise, she moved her Divine Sense to agree.
The notification window disappeared, but nothing particularly changed.
Only a [Sold Out] tag appeared on the sales post.
“This is totally awesome.”
Baek-Cheong withdrew her Divine Sense from the Nameless Forum and examined the Storage Platform.
Inside the Storage Platform, a pile of jerky glowing with a dark red luster revealed itself.
A spicy and salty smell stimulated the tip of her nose, whetting her appetite.
She carefully picked up a piece of jerky, popped it into her mouth, and chewed on it.
“Ugh, it tastes awful…”
Having grown accustomed to lavish feasts, she found the cheap jerky to be at an inedible level.
However, she felt a sense of satisfaction from the fact that she had purchased an item through the Nameless Forum.
“Ptoo.”
Baek-Cheong spat out the cheap jerky and logged into the Nameless Forum.
With both cheeks puffed out in dissatisfaction, she began writing a post without hesitation.
『Dao Friend (913.14): So this is what poor Cultivators eat.』
[I tried buying the Black Goat Spirit Beast Jerky from the Marketplace Board, but it just ruined my appetite.]
As soon as the new post was registered, an avalanche of angry replies poured in without fail.
[Dao Friend (298.41): Rogue Cultivators like us split a low-grade fasting pill in half to survive for a week just to save spirit stones…! Is your Dantian filled with spiritual energy or grease?]
[Dao Friend (444.44): Oho… The flesh and blood of a Dao Friend who grew up eating only lavish feasts… I wonder what it would taste like if we made jerky out of your flesh and blood…]
[Dao Friend (105.33): Since you keep accumulating bad karma in the Nameless Forum, just know that the heavenly tribulation lightning that will fall on you one day will be twice as fierce.]
Baek-Cheong rolled around on the bed, enjoying the pouring attention.
The existence of countless Dao Friends who constantly reacted to her was a reality.
Her boring life in the Cultivation World couldn’t possibly be more enjoyable than this.