Yuk-gyeong headed home first.
Returning to his dilapidated thatched hut, Yuk-gyeong chuckled at the sight of the ramshackle place that looked ready to collapse any moment compared to the governor's mansion.
Once he became a cultivator, a house like this would be history.
Farewell to this flea-infested dump where the roof leaked at every drop of rain and drafts whistled through the cracks!
Farewell to his father who beat him at the slightest provocation and constantly berated him!
Farewell to his mother who was always indifferent and listless about everything!
His pitiful little sister... well, he felt a twinge of regret about her.
She had always followed him around so obediently. The kid, barely past her first birthday, would grin ear to ear whenever she saw her big brother. In the end, the only one who lingered in his mind was his sister Chil-nyeon.
Still, farewell!
Before leaving his beloved home, Yuk-gyeong first stole the money his father had hidden away and tucked it into his bosom.
The very money that his so-called older brother had died for after getting caught trying to take some.
Yuk-gyeong had secretly spied on his father hiding it beneath a loose plank in one corner of the floorboards, where there was a small pit dug out. It was laughably crude, but under the patriarch's violence and authority, no one dared challenge it, so it didn't need to be some ultra-secret spot.
Yuk-gyeong lifted the plank without much fear and pulled out the money pouch. It wasn't like he'd ever see the old man again anyway.
Let's see, how much is there?
Clink!
Yuk-gyeong couldn't hide his disappointment at the sight of his father's money pouch.
There was only one silver coin, and the rest were just copper pieces—not many at that, barely a handful.
This?
His brother, whom he'd never even met, had died for this pittance? How pathetic.
Yuk-gyeong stuffed the disappointing pouch into his bosom anyway.
"Wonder if this'll cover my travel expenses? No need to bribe my way into a cultivation sect, right? Nothing like that was mentioned. Sigh, at least it's something."
Ugh!
While he was at it, having pried up the plank and grabbed the pouch, Yuk-gyeong figured he might as well try out this cultivation thing now that he had a Single Spiritual Root.
First up, the basics: the Breathing Method?
Of course, Yuk-gyeong had no idea what the Breathing Method actually entailed.
He just sat cross-legged, figuring it was something like meditation, and took a deep breath in and out.
It was one of the first things he'd tried after realizing this was a cultivation world, but back then, as expected, he hadn't felt any energy or anything special.
"Alright, cross-legged."
Not giving up, Yuk-gyeong sat cross-legged once more and breathed in and out.
Hoo! Whoosh!
For someone with an ordinary Spiritual Root, sensing spiritual energy through such haphazard breathing would have been absurd.
Any passing cultivator would have scoffed and walked on by, thinking it a fool's errand.
Proper breathing to draw in spiritual energy involved reciting incantations in one's mind, visualizing, and building a foundation.
What Yuk-gyeong was doing barely qualified as breathing technique—it was just taking big gulps of air.
But astonishingly, his Single Spiritual Root picked up on the spiritual energy even with this brute-force approach!
If a proper cultivator had witnessed the scene, they would have fallen over in shock. Accumulating spiritual energy like this? Utter nonsense—they might have even interrogated him.
And yet, Yuk-gyeong pulled off the impossible without a second thought.
Hoo! Whoosh!
As he inhaled, he felt the spiritual energy of heaven and earth rushing into his body, circulating down to the depths of his dantian. It felt just like a breeze.
Without any systematic teachings or training, Yuk-gyeong had stepped into the first stage of cultivation: the Qi Condensation Realm!
It was news that would shake the cultivation world to its core if they knew.
Of course, the person in question, Yuk-gyeong, had little clue. He just thought, Is this Heaven-Earth Spiritual Energy? Must be.
Still, feeling how densely it permeated the world—something he'd never sensed without a Spiritual Root—he couldn't help but marvel at the wonder of it.
"This is a Single Spiritual Root..."
The overwhelming sensitivity to spiritual energy surging through his body was extraordinary, even to an outsider like him.
Whoa, check this out.
Blink, and it's pulling spiritual energy into my body on its own? The Spiritual Root doesn't mess around.
Books said entering the Qi Condensation Realm took years of training after joining a sect.
Impressive, right!
His body, which hadn't even sensed spiritual energy before due to lacking a root, was now completely different.
It was like tossing out a square-wheeled bike that wouldn't roll and hopping into a souped-up sports car.
Cultivation felt like it would come naturally now.
A world away from how it felt without a Spiritual Root.
"Insane. Others don't feel like this, do they? I've got a Single Spiritual Root. Even cultivation novels said they're one-in-a-hundred-years geniuses."
All his knowledge of this world came straight from books.
The books skipped over the lives of rural bumpkins like him and dove right into cultivators' tales, which was why he'd struggled to adapt. But once he entered cultivator society, he was sure he'd fit right in.
"Who knows the cultivation world better than me? I've got the big picture from all those books."
In the grand scheme, no one knew more than Yuk-gyeong.
He had all the realm progressions down pat—from Response Qi and Gathering Qi to Core Formation—and a rough grasp of the world's secrets and hidden lore.
To him, they weren't secrets anymore. Of course, flaunting that knowledge would get him killed quick.
He didn't know how far off the timeline was from the novel's perspective—past or future—but those secrets would give him a huge edge either way.
"The key is how far off I am from the protagonist's timeline. All my info ties back to his era."
The protagonist.
No cultivation novel was complete without one.
His name was Wu Yongheon.
Not a prodigy by talent, but he rose swiftly in the cultivation world thanks to his unique traits.
What was protagonist Yongheon up to right now?
Hopefully still a nobody like me.
So I could follow his growth path.
Or better yet, in a time long before or after, so I'd never cross paths with the guy.
Protagonists dragged chaos and incidents everywhere they went.
Yuk-gyeong's goal was to cultivate fast, become an immortal, and figure out how to return to his original world—so he wanted to steer clear of trouble.
But his talent isn't great, so just surpass him, right?
Not once you know his secret.
Even a Single Spiritual Root like Hye-chun's would lag behind his growth rate.
"No matter how hard a Single Spiritual Root holder tries, they'd be weaker than protagonist Yongheon. That spirit soldier of his... it's terrifying."
It'd probably take a hundred Hye-chuns to match his pace.
Naturally, his thoughts drifted to Hye-chun.
Her body had been amazing. Filled out perfectly where it should be, curved just right where it counted. Seeing it all bare after only glimpsing through clothes had been even more satisfying.
The afterglow of sex still lingered; Yuk-gyeong let out a soft, "Mm."
What would happen to Hye-chun?
The cultivator who'd tested her Spiritual Root would return, discover it gone, and be baffled.
Clearly there before—a Single Spiritual Root at that! And now vanished.
If they chalked it up to a mistake, Hye-chun would just live out her days as an ordinary village girl. The governor's household wouldn't bother with her anymore.
But the problem arose if the cultivator grew suspicious.
They'd surely ask Hye-chun what happened while they were away.
Would she tell them she'd had sex with Yuk-gyeong? Maybe shame would keep her quiet, but eight or nine out of ten would spill it.
Then the cultivator would suspect Yuk-gyeong, the mysterious man who'd made her Spiritual Root vanish after sleeping with her.
If he stuck around the village, the cultivator would spot his own Spiritual Root instantly—a Single Spiritual Root, no less.
Two one-in-a-century Single Spiritual Roots in one backwater village?
Too contrived.
For coincidences to stack up like that in a remote place like this? And the girl who'd tested positive first now mysteriously rootless?
The cultivator might even uncover the truth: that Yuk-gyeong could steal Spiritual Roots.
What happens if word gets out you can steal them?
Pluck Yin to Supplement Yang might brand him a demonic cultivator, turning him into a public enemy.
Makes sense.
In wuxia tales, lustful fiends who drain women's qi via dual cultivation become wanted men. Same in cultivation stories—such demons had to be executed.
Dragged to a sect for experiments and killed, or just straight-up executed.
But it's not a bug—it's a skill.
A real skill.
Damn it.
Time to run.