Chapter 3
“Mmm….”
Nine curled up beneath the blanket, hugging her knees as she wallowed in gloom.
Now that she'd become a woman, even the slightest emotion sent her mood swinging, and for some reason she was craving sweets.
Suddenly, Nine remembered something a cultivator had said when they came to give a lecture at her school.
[Women weren't born to cultivate. The hormones their brains pump out make them unsuited for cultivation. A cultivator needs to be calm, but a woman's heart sways like a reed with every emotion.]
That cultivator had been an endowed professor at a second-rate university, a fossilized old geezer who'd lived alone for several centuries.
Even back then, Nine had thought they were a lunatic.
Thinking about it now, they still seemed like a lunatic.
[H-hic, aah! S-Senior! Spare me! I never meant to disparage you, Senior…!!]
The cultivator who'd been bragging and spouting off was promptly dragged away by a high-ranking cultivator and given an “education.”
Their words hadn't been particularly credible.
“Mm!”
The corners of Nine's mouth slowly curled upward.
Her gloom vanished as if washed away.
‘Come to think of it, this might actually be a good thing!’
It wasn't as if Nine, who was going to become a cultivator anyway, would ever need to go outside.
In this day and age, everything from cultivation materials to pills could be delivered via spatial transfer.
With enough credits, nothing was impossible.
When cultivators entered seclusion, it was normal for days or weeks to pass.
In fact, for cultivators at Foundation Establishment and above, a few months—or even years—could easily slip by.
A bolt of enlightenment struck Nine's little head.
“Y-yeah! All cultivators were shut-in NEETs!”
Cutting off ties with the secular world ultimately meant severing one's relationships with people!
And closed-door cultivation, where one holed up in a cultivation cave, was basically just staying shut up in one's room.
They'd only dressed it up to sound grand; at its core, it was no different from what Nine did.
“I-I'm just practicing in advance to become a high-ranking cultivator.”
Nine praised herself and nodded.
The scroll floating nearby flapped as if it thought Nine was pathetic, but Nine, brimming with conviction, didn't notice.
‘I should buy the materials I need to cultivate first.’
Whoosh!
Nine kicked off the blanket and boldly swung her legs out of bed.
But the moment the dazzling midday sunlight streaming through a gap in the curtains struck her skin—
“Kyaaaah!”
Nine shrieked like a lesser vampire and crawled back under the blanket.
“Blackout curtains… I should buy blackout curtains first.”
Right.
Cultivation could wait until after that.
Nodding, Nine used the credits her mother had sent to order blackout curtains and cultivation supplies.
“There's still time until night….”
It was noon.
There were about ten hours until nightfall.
For this body, which suffered a mortal wound from so much as a brush of sunlight, stepping outside the blanket was impossible.
“Heeheehee.”
Nine turned on her terminal and phone at the same time.
Then she lost herself in the gallery.
A perfect shut-in NEET.
***
Night had fallen.
“Phew.”
Nine climbed down from the chair with a sigh.
She'd taken down all the old curtains and put up blackout curtains.
In the bedroom, living room, kitchen, and study.
She'd put them up everywhere except the cultivation room, which had no windows.
Now she was in the living room.
Looking at the curtains covering the entire enormous picture window, a faint, satisfied smile appeared on Nine's lips.
The darkness was cozy.
Only then did her taut nerves settle down.
Nine plopped down on the spot and tore open the packages that had arrived via spatial transfer.
She'd spent every last one of the 10,000 credits her mother had sent, along with her own hundred credits.
Various cultivation pills, each giving off a different fragrance, and dozens of the lowest-grade spirit stones.
Paper and ink, consumables for drawing talismans.
Nine hugged the whole lot to her chest and headed for the cultivation room.
The pitch-dark cultivation room.
It covered ten square meters, roughly three pyeong.
The circular cultivation room was vacuumed thoroughly every day, leaving the floor perfectly clean, not a speck of dust in sight.
Flutter~
The scroll floating beside her bobbed around, blocking her view and getting in the way.
“Sigh.”
It had been like this ever since Nine named it Status Window.
The scroll kept hovering in front of her eyes, as if something bothered it.
Nine had tried nudging the annoying thing aside with the back of her hand several times, but only ended up hurting her own arm.
“Do you not like your name?”
Nine tilted her head, ignored the scroll, and walked over to the measuring device.
The square device tested physical ability and spiritual power.
Before beginning cultivation, it was always important to know one's exact measurements.
Poke.
“Ow!”
The automated needle sharply pricked the tip of Nine's index finger.
A drop of blood welled on her pale fingertip and plopped onto the machine's sensor.
Nine licked her finger and waited for the results.
Whirr—flash!
Spiritual Power: 8.0
Physical Ability: 4.2
A hologram displayed figures so concise they were downright pitiful.
But Nine wasn't discouraged.
If anything, she had trouble holding back her grin.
“Heehee, pffhya!”
One needed a Spiritual Power score above 10 to qualify for Qi Refining.
A Physical Ability score of 1 was equivalent to the strength of a healthy adult man by mortal standards.
A Physical Ability score of at least 7 was also needed for body refinement to qualify one for Qi Refining.
Nine fell short in both stats.
Fifteen years of effort had barely brought her this far.
But not anymore.
With the fortuitous opportunity she'd obtained, reaching Qi Refining would be a cinch, and even Foundation Establishment was possible.
‘Maybe even beyond that…!’
Even the title of heaven-sent genius wouldn't be enough to describe it.
A realm only the chosen could reach—those blessed with talent, fortune, and endless hard work.
The true leaders of humanity, a realm no different from that of living, breathing gods.
Nine, too, could become a quasi-deity of the Golden Core Stage.
Imagining that splendid future, Nine suddenly pulled the scroll floating in the air into a tight embrace.
Flutter?
Pat, pat; squish, squish; hug, hug, hug.
Nine finished showering it with every show of affection she could manage.
Flutter….
The scroll resisted fiercely, but a mere scrap of paper couldn't win against a person.
If anything, Nine squeezed and smooshed it even harder.
The dejected scroll drooped limply.
‘As I thought, it's no ordinary magic artifact.’
It possessed a sense of self and emotions, and could even make its own judgments and think things through.
Clear proof that it had a spirit inhabiting it.
‘A golden finger….’
A term for an extraordinary treasure or cultivation art whose capabilities went beyond a mere fortuitous opportunity.
It meant a treasure of an unprecedented caliber, surpassing the level of its owner.
The Status Window was a prime example, and there were countless other kinds if one looked around.
A miraculous spring that granted thousands of years of life with a single sip.
A personal blessed grotto-heaven (洞天福地).
Or even an extremely rare, naturally awakened constitution.
‘You're a golden finger too, aren't you?’
It raised one's realm and improved one's mastery of cultivation arts through nothing but simple repetition.
On top of that, it could even evolve Nine's cursed Five Spiritual Roots.
Nine had never heard of a magic artifact with such ridiculously powerful functions, let alone imagined one could exist.
But Nine wasn't worried that the scroll might be taken away.
The scroll had already acknowledged her as its master.
A golden finger like this was tied to fate; Nine had simply been the obvious choice!
With such a distinct spirit inhabiting it, it must surely have had an original name, too.
“What was your original name?”
Nine held the scroll in both hands and asked.
At that, the limp, drooping scroll heard the question and unfurled on its own.
It snapped open with a loud shrrrack, as if scolding Nine for only asking now; startled, Nine let go of it.
“Ngh.”
On the auspicious white surface, characters as dark as pitch-black ink began to spread.
Above the words displaying Nine's status, characters appeared without hesitation, as if an invisible giant brush were sweeping them down in one fluid stroke.
[Taesi Honso Pou Guiyeon Bu (太始渾素抱宇歸緣符)]
The scroll's
true name
flickered across Nine's retinas for an instant.
Thwack!
Nine swiftly smacked the scroll down onto the floor like swatting a mosquito.
“Eek, eee….”
The instant its true name was revealed, Nine felt the nearby spiritual energy twist and the air shudder.
Cold sweat streamed down her face.
“Y-you…!”
Thwack, thwack!
Nine stomped the scroll lying on the floor, grinding it under her soft soles.
Nine quickly erased the remnants of its true name from her mind.
An overwhelming level of power, one Nine couldn't handle, clung to that name.
“I-I might've died if I weren't its master….”
It had been 100% deliberate—it knew Nine wouldn't die.
It had definitely done it to show off how incredible it was.
Nine continued kicking the infuriating scroll.
Then, suddenly, a name came to mind.
“Pou?”
Twitch.
At Nine's voice, the scroll pinned beneath her foot trembled.
It seemed to react to that name, so Nine tried saying it once more.
“Pou.”
Twitch!
This time, there was no doubt.
Seeing the scroll react to the word Pou, Nine covered her mouth and giggled.
“Pou, it's kind of cute and round. You like it too, right? It's a name derived from your true name.”
Flutter~
The scroll—or rather, Pou—reluctantly conveyed its assent.