Zihwa had told me to bring them back alive, and I also had no intention of killing them from the start.

They had interrupted a married couple’s pleasant time, but that alone was hardly a crime deserving death, was it?

It was something that would earn dirty looks, though.

However, when the bastard lay smashed into the ground and begged for his life, I immediately asked whether he knew a Dual Cultivation Art.

Of course, I had no intention of letting him go immediately just because he offered a Dual Cultivation Art.

I only intended to confirm whether he knew of the existence of a Dual Cultivation Art, or whether he possessed one.

Spirit Stones were important, but Spirit Stones were one-time resources that disappeared once someone consumed them.

But if there were a Dual Cultivation Art, not only Zihwa but also my other wives could steadily and rapidly raise their realms.

On the premise that I would have to put in some effort, of course.

So above all else, the Dual Cultivation Art was important.

And if he possessed such an art, there would be no need to go through the trouble of traveling all the way to White Night Castle.

After all, the reason I had planned to go to White Night Castle in the first place was to obtain a Dual Cultivation Art.

That was the calculation behind my question.

Yet the man who received the question pulled his clothes together, which had fallen open when he was slammed into the ground, and made a horrified expression.

“Hiiik!”

That incomprehensible behavior instantly soured my mood even further.

If the bastard had been a woman, it would have looked as though I were doing something that made him think I was about to pounce on him.

Clutching his clothes shut, he trembled violently.

‘Why does this bastard’s expression feel so unpleasantly wrong? I should just hit him one more time—. Huh!? Th-this!?’

Just as I raised my fist again, driven by an inexplicable sense of humiliation, intending to smash his head once more, I suddenly realized that my waistband was casting a dark shadow over one side of his face.

The sword at my waistband, filled with rage, was still standing proudly, its momentum soaring toward the heavens.

It seemed this level of exercise had not been enough to subdue its momentum.

‘What the hell...’

I quickly adjusted my posture.

I brushed the sword below aside with the back of my hand.

Only then did I understand why the bastard had reacted the way he did.

With the sword raised so vigorously and me asking whether he had a Dual Cultivation Art, he must have thought I was some kind of lunatic.

But that wasn’t my fault.

If these bastards hadn’t suddenly charged in, none of this would have happened.

By now, I would have been burning a blissful morning together with Zihwa, and the sword, too, would surely have calmed its rage and returned to its proper place amid that sweet release.

I wouldn’t have been spewing this furious, homeless anger like a lost soul.

‘Well, whatever.’

As I nodded to myself, I suddenly sensed a faint movement elsewhere.

The remaining bastards who had fallen to the ground before their leader were wriggling and regaining consciousness.

“Guuuh.”

“Kkhk.”

I had clearly adjusted my strength to avoid killing them, yet perhaps they were all weaklings, because the state of those trying to come to their senses was a mess.

Some had rocks embedded in their abdomens, others had lost an arm or a leg.

From the start, throwing head-sized rocks had merely been a form of suppression.

My intention had been to exploit the blind spots created when they dodged the rocks and seize their vital points.

But contrary to my expectations, most of the cultivators had collapsed helplessly from that suppressive rock attack alone.

Letting them regain consciousness would be troublesome, so I quickly moved, starting with the leader, and precisely seized the vital points of everyone who had fallen.

For those bleeding, I even carefully stopped the bleeding.

I could not let them die.

I had heard that if they died, they would leave behind Spirit Stones and disappear, but if captured alive, Spirit Stones could be extracted multiple times.

Extract Spirit Stones with the Five-Poison Spirit-Stone Draining Great Method, let their energy refill and regenerate Spirit Stones, then extract them again.

It was, quite literally, infinite Spirit Stone refills.

They said it still required further research, but it was certainly worth trying.

Returning to my spot, I spoke again to the man who seemed to be the leader, in a cold voice.

“Hey. Looks like you’re having some unpleasant thoughts, but that’s not it.”

“Yes?”

I was trying to clear up the misunderstanding, yet he wore a blank, stupid expression.

“That’s not it.”

“W-what?”

“That thing you’re thinking. That’s not it.”

“?”

No matter how many times I said it, the bastard didn’t understand.

As my fist rose again without me realizing it, he shouted urgently.

“I-it exists! I have it!”

“What?”

“The d-Dual Cultivation Art. Khhk.”

Saying that he had a Dual Cultivation Art, the bastard timidly loosened the clothes he had been clutching.

As his clothes parted, his chest was faintly revealed.

A chest covered in thick, shaggy hair.

‘Aaaagh! My eyes!’

My fist lashed out instinctively and smashed into his head.

“Kkwaeek!”

The bastard twitched like a frog, his legs trembling violently.

Watching him for a moment, I then stamped on his Gushing Spring Point with the tip of my foot.

It was to make him regain consciousness by stimulating his vital point.

I almost put him back away like this, but there was something important I still had to ask.

“Guuugh.”

As I woke him by pressing the painful Gushing Spring Point, he opened his eyes with a tortured expression.

And once again, a shout burst out.

“The Dual Cultivation Art! I-I will give it to you!”

When the bastard, now conscious, tried to show his chest hair again, I scowled deeply and shouted.

“If you show me that hideous thing one more time, I’ll turn you straight into Spirit Stones, got it?”

“Hiiik!”

“What do you take people for?”

After firmly warning him and dispelling the misunderstanding, I asked the question I had intended to ask.

“Hey. But how did you guys track us down? Did you put some kind of tracking art on Soyeon—no, on the spirit creature?”

Since the city lord had been captured by me, I wondered whether subordinates or family might chase us to rescue him, so I asked how they had found me.

Even though I had moved through the air, they had found me relatively quickly, so I thought the pursuit might continue.

At my words, the bastard pointed at two among those lying on the ground.

“Th-those two are Blood Market Tower cultivators who learned tracking techniques. When we went to protest after you sold a spirit creature that could assume a fire form and let it escape, they were assigned to us. One of them had something called a Fate-Tracking Talisman.

They said it was a talisman that tracks the one who last formed a connection with the target.

Since you consumed the spirit creature and the Soul-Tracking Talisman didn’t respond, they used that.”

Indeed, there were many diverse and peculiar spells.

A talisman that could find the person who last met the target—this was bound to be a continuing nuisance.

However, listening to him to the end, it seemed they had come looking not for Soyeon, but for me.

The bastard believed that Soyeon had been eaten by me, and the Fate-Tracking Talisman was tracking not Soyeon, but me, the last person Soyeon had met.

‘Looks like they can’t find Soyeon inside the Poison Fragrance.’

It seemed that placing someone in the Poison Fragrance made tracking difficult.

In that case, I decided to put the city lord and all the trackers into the Poison Fragrance and leave.

As I placed the subdued bastards into my inner space, I shouted into the group chat.

『“Zihwa, I’ve subdued them all. I’ll send them inside.”

“Good work. We’re waiting.”

“So-ryong, you’re not hurt anywhere, right?”

“Of course not. Can you let Elder Sister Jeokwol out for a bit?”

“Alright.”』

I placed the bastards lying there with their vital points sealed into the Poison Fragrance one by one.

After putting in the city lord last, I moved as far away as possible.

***

The place where Hwangwoo fell after his vision suddenly went dark was somewhere he had never seen before.

Though thrown into an unfamiliar space, Hwangwoo quickly realized that this place was inside a Peach Garden Domain.

The density and flow of qi here were clearly different from the external Nine Heavens.

The spiritual energy in the air differed from outside, and even the position of the sun and the flow of the wind were completely unlike anything he had known.

Anyone could tell that this was a space created by the power of an extraordinary cultivator.

‘A Peach Garden Domain!’

The cultivator outside must either be at an incredible realm, or extraordinarily wealthy.

Possessing such a domain meant either an extremely high realm, or wealth enough to purchase such a place.

He was just about to look around in shock.

Then he noticed women standing nearby.

They seemed to be companions or subordinates of the outside cultivator, and the moment Hwangwoo recognized them, he widened his eyes in astonishment.

“Eh? C-could it be? Cr-criminal clothing!?”

There was no trace of qi at all, and their attire was something never seen in the cultivation world.

Anyone could tell it was criminal clothing.

“So this is the one who attacked His Excellency?”

“That’s right. The morning ended in vain, so we’ll have to compensate later. He clearly said it was my time until breakfast.”

“I see. Still, after ascending to the cultivation world, there sure have been a lot of attacks.”

“But we need to interrogate these guys and stick needles in their heads too, yet so many are injured? We should treat them first. If we interrogate them like this, they’ll all die.”

As the women approached while talking, Hwangwoo realized that his assumption had been correct.

The outside cultivator was clearly someone who had only recently ascended.

Hwangwoo was shocked by that realization.

Even estimating low, the outside cultivator’s realm was late Decisive Stage or Golden Core.

And yet it seemed he had ascended together with many people.

It was the legendary group ascension.

Forming a faction the moment one ascends.

To have antagonized someone like that—what a damned situation.

If things went wrong, everyone alive in his city today would be turned into Spirit Stones.

‘Wait. A brute-force type?’

Suddenly, something Hwangwoo had once heard came to mind.

Ascension platforms are originally connected to many lower worlds.

Their role is to bring cultivators who have reached the path of cultivation from various lower worlds up to the Nine Heavens.

Some lower worlds have exceptionally strong spellcraft, others have exceptionally rich spiritual energy—there are many kinds of lower worlds, and cultivators from all of them arrive.

Among them, the most dangerous lower world to deal with was the one containing the Central Plains Martial World.

Only once every few hundred years would someone ascend from there, but every time a cultivator from the Central Plains Martial World arrived, they caused massive incidents in the heavens.

Because it was a world with extremely low natural spiritual energy, cultivators there often became brute-force types who gathered qi into their dantian to strengthen their physical bodies, and their power was tremendous, always causing upheaval.

Hwangwoo cautiously asked the approaching women.

If they truly came from the Central Plains Martial World, this relationship had to be corrected immediately.

“C-could it be that you came from the Central Plains Martial World?”

The women stopped at Hwangwoo’s question.

One of them tilted her head and asked him.

“So what if we did?”

Hwangwoo hurriedly spoke in the most respectful tone he could muster.

“I-I am Hwangwoo, a late-stage Qi Accumulation cultivator and the lord of the nearby city. It seems there has been a misunderstanding between us, so please calm your anger. I will invite the esteemed seniors to my city and treat you with the utmost hospitality!”

It was an attempt to form a connection after properly hosting those from the Central Plains Martial World.

Those who came from the Central Plains Martial World would inevitably rise to at least the Middle Heavens, so forging ties now could bring protection or patronage later.

As for the spirit creature—if it had been eaten, he could simply consider it a gift.

But then—

A sharp voice rang out from the side.

“Th-that bad guy! Ladies! Please punish him! He’s the one who was going to turn me into a Spirit Pill and eat me!”

Turning toward the sound, he saw a woman trembling with rage.

She was pointing at Hwangwoo, and one of the approaching women spoke.

“Ah! So this is the bastard who tried to turn our Soyeon into a Spirit Pill? How dare you try to turn my husband’s disciple into a pill—you’ll need to be taught a lesson.”

“Same as last time, grind bones and scatter ashes?”

“Should we use poison?”

Oh no.

To think the spirit creature Hwangwoo had tried to eat was the disciple of a high-realm cultivator.

No—had he made her his disciple in the meantime?

The situation was utterly hopeless.

At that moment.

A flash of inspiration struck Hwangwoo.

The fire-form snail calling four women ‘madam,’ and the image of the cultivator who had earlier asked him whether he knew a Dual Cultivation Art.

Looking at the women, whose states seemed to overflow with yin energy, he finally understood why that cultivator had asked about a Dual Cultivation Art.

Hwangwoo shouted urgently.

“I-I did it unknowingly, but I have committed a grave sin, so I-I offer a Dual Cultivation Art!”

The women who had been approaching with killing intent stopped dead.

“Hm...”

“A Dual Cultivation Art?”

“Soyeon, shall we talk for a moment?”

“Yes, Soyeon, listen calmly and don’t misunderstand.”

Judging by what followed, this was probably the best thing Hwangwoo had said in his three hundred years of life.