After flying for quite a while, what entered my sight was a forest made of truly gigantic trees, like metasequoias.

Trees thicker than buildings soared as if to pierce the sky, and their tops were hidden by clouds to the point I couldn’t see them.

The leaves were similar in shape to maple leaves, but each was as big as a person, and the sound of the fluttering, falling leaves and the wind was creating strange air currents here and there.

A forest like this seemed good for hiding one’s body.

Because huge trees stood in rows, there looked to be many places to conceal ourselves, and the sound made by the falling leaves was masking other sounds.

Without hesitation I pushed deep into the forest.

Then I discovered a single tree with a large hole bored into the middle of its trunk—big enough for three or four people to go in.

I approached that way.

It just seemed like a very suitable hiding place.

“Joo, joojoo!”

Then a bird popped out of the tree hole.

But its appearance was very peculiar to call it a bird.

Should I call it a bird, or a monstrous bird?

Its shape resembled a hawk, its body size was as big as an adult, but its feet split into five like a human hand. At the tips of the fingers sharp hooked talons sprouted, and the way it cried joojoo and took wing was nothing short of bizarre.

The thing checked me and Cho, then fled as if mad, so the tree hole it had lived in naturally became the place for us to hide our bodies.

“I hadn’t planned to take it, but this works out. Though I should have checked whether it was poisonous.”

It had fled too fast, so it was a bit of a regret that I couldn’t check whether it was poisonous, but once we stepped into the hole, perhaps because the tree was so large, the interior space looked about the size of a studio room.

Soft dry grass was laid down thickly, perhaps brought by the fugitive creature.

There were no bugs to be seen.

It seemed fine to just sleep here, or to take out a bed.

Now that we had a place to hide, I decided to enter Poison Fragrance.

I wanted to see how they were dealing with the ones my wives had thrown in.

“Cho, I’ll leave it to you for a bit. If you’re bored, should I send your younger sisters or older sisters?”

—Tzzzz. 『Yes, Dad. Please send Sister Yohwa to block the entrance.』

“Ah, right, that would be best.”

If we blocked the tree hole with Yohwa’s silk, it would be perfect just as Cho said.

I slipped quickly into Poison Fragrance, but what unfolded there was a rather strange scene.

“Ah, is that so? Oh my, it seems you came up along that ridge right at the boundary of my jurisdiction. If this Hwangwoo had known, I would have gone out to greet you.”

“Well, it’s fine. By the way, this Dual Cultivation Art is a proper one, yes?”

“O-of course. It’s an upper-grade Dual Cultivation Art I bought intending to use myself, so you can trust it. I wasn’t able to try it because I couldn’t find a trustworthy woman, but since I bought it through the Blood Market Tower, there should be nothing wrong with it.”

The fellow called City Lord was speaking to my wives with a very fawning expression. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

What I had imagined was the fellow screaming with golden needles stuck in his head.

I thought that with him at the center, the other fellows would also have needles stuck in their heads and all be screaming.

But from the fellow’s appearance—what should I say?

It reminded me of a scene from when we were in the Central Plains.

My flunky I left behind.

It was the look of that Lee Tae from the Long River Waterway Stronghold.

Because we hadn’t hung our clan banner, he demanded a toll, then had to accept the settlement result of 10:0.

The look of that guy who got stripped by Cho and fawned over us overlapped with the current look of the City Lord.

Like that Lee Tae back then, the City Lord was lying there, fawning with utmost obsequiousness.

From the sound of it, he was quick on the uptake and had offered up the Dual Cultivation Art to my wives.

Faced with an unexpected sight, I just stopped and listened to what the fellow was saying, and among my wives, Ji-ryeon was the first to spot me and ran over.

Then, with a happy expression, she said,

“So-ryong, you’re here. We just got a Dual Cultivation Art!”

As expected, that guy seemed to have offered the Dual Cultivation Art to my wives.

“Really?”

“Yes, he said it’s an upper-grade Dual Cultivation Art. He’s called Hwangwoo, and he’s the City Lord of a nearby walled town.”

It wasn’t his name, but it was content that let me vaguely surmise he was a City Lord.

Nodding, I approached that way, and the other wives also crowded over, all cheering with joyful faces.

“Master, we have a Dual Cultivation Art.”

“Master, now we have a Dual Cultivation Art too.”

“It’s only the work of making cubs, but now it even doubles as cultivation.”

Everyone was delighted with the Dual Cultivation Art.

Is it really that good?

It seemed I was about to go through another long, hard period, but well, what could I do?

I had to work hard for my ladies.

When I stopped in front of the fellow, he spoke with a very fawning expression.

“O-oh, you’re here? Elder.”

If someone heard, they’d mistake it for a servant of our house greeting the master returning from an outing.

Looking down at the fellow, Zihwa spoke while looking at him.

“This guy says he wants to serve us.”

“Serve?”

“Yes, it seems it’s because of this body. Even though I’m fallen, there are those who recognize this body—how troublesome.”

Zihwa made quite a troubled face.

Saying that even in decline there were people who recognized her.

But the fellow shook his head and said,

“N-no. I-I meant I want to serve the Elder.”

The fellow was looking at me, and in that instant, two people—no, one spirit beast and one person—both had their moods sour in a flash.

Zihwa made a very displeased face at him saying he would serve not her but me, and I was in a bad mood because I remembered the words and deeds he’d done outside.

It was because he clearly still misunderstood, or else he certainly had some peculiar sexual tastes.

Suddenly I remembered the fellow’s hair-covered chest he had shown.

‘Aaaagh! If there is an art to turn back time, I must learn it! No—do I need to learn a memory-erasing art?’

Because I’d witnessed a rough scene, I felt like, if there were an art to turn back time, I’d want to learn it, but thinking about it, even if time turned back, my memory would remain.

So I thought I might rather need a memory-erasing art, and asked the fellow,

“Why is it you say you want to serve me?”

He could have begged for his life after being beaten.

But jumping straight to serving was a bit of a strange step.

From what I’d heard, this Realm of Cultivators was like a wild ecosystem.

A place where the strong take everything from the weak.

Like the wild ecosystem where carnivores take the lives and meat of the game they hunt.

Down in the Lower World, unless there was a grudge or special reason, cases of taking someone’s life were rare.

That’s because, for an ordinary person, killing itself is something one can’t help but shrink from.

Unless you’re a murder fiend, taking the life of a living person is something anyone is reluctant to do.

Also, even if you kill a person, aside from the possessions they carry, the person himself isn’t of much use.

So even bandits often don’t bother killing, and just take the goods and let them go.

But here is a world that creates endless covetousness.

When the dead leave behind the qi they gathered in life, if there’s a lot of qi, one naturally has no choice but to hunt.

But saying he would become a subordinate was strange.

If anything, it would be more profitable for me not to make this guy a subordinate and just take Spirit Stones and Spirit Pellets.

It seemed he thought serving was a way to save his own life, but it didn’t look very attractive.

“B-because you came from the Central Plains Martial World, Elder.”

“Hm?”

When I looked at my wives, they nodded as if they’d already heard the story and said,

“Ah, right. He asked us if you came from the Central Plains Martial World, So-ryong.”

“That’s right. He said that.”

The fellow looked up at me and explained.

“It seems you don’t know because it hasn’t been long since you began cultivating, so I’ll explain.

Originally, the Ascension Terraces are like gates through which arrivals from many worlds come. They are scattered here and there across the Nine Heavens.

Those gates are connected to various worlds—worlds where spell arts are outstanding, worlds where ghostly arts are outstanding—connected to a great variety of worlds.”

“And then?”

“Yes, among them are several dangerous worlds. Strictly speaking, it’s that the cultivators who came up from those worlds are dangerous. Every time they ascend, they cause upheaval here in the Nine Heavens.”

“You mean the people who come up from there are strong?”

“Yes. The particularly strong places are the deep layers of the Demon Realm, the Central Plains Martial World, the Blood World—places like that.

Those who come up from the Demon Realm’s depths are dangerous because they sweep away everything they can see, and the Blood World is the same, but although those from the Central Plains Martial World are strong, you can talk with them, and if you form ties, when they later climb high, you can receive protection or blessing, so when a cultivator from the Central Plains Martial World comes up, everyone wants to form a tie.”

“Protection or blessing?”

Tilting my head, I asked, and beside me Zihwa, who had been listening with a displeased expression, spoke in my stead.

“When one ascends to the Upper Heaven, one becomes an Earthly Immortal, and from then on, to raise one’s realm requires not only qi but also the service of those lower than oneself.

Therefore, from then on one sends down spirit avatars to the lower skies or the Lower World, bestowing grace, protection, and blessings—that’s what he means.

Just by serving a high person one’s realm can rise quickly, or one can become of his household and reach places one couldn’t reach oneself. For example, a fellow who could never get past the Lower Heaven rising to the Middle Heaven.”

Earthly Immortal referred to an immortal.

The lowest of the immortals.

In the Immortal Ranks, the equivalent of a grade-9 civil servant.

These were things I knew from learning a bit about Daoism, and it seemed that when one ascended to the Upper Heaven, one truly became an immortal, so one needed not only qi but also the service of people.

Indeed, since one becomes a sort of lower-grade god, such things would be necessary.

It felt like this was why the legends about immortals appearing and bestowing grace were passed down.

'Ahem. So it feels like becoming the leader of a pseudo-religion.'

Receiving service—my face felt a bit itchy.

And later, if I were to rise all the way to an immortal and even have to bestow grace on those who worship me, that would feel quite awkward.

I was slightly worried whether I’d be able to do it well.

But come to think of it, I had someone from whom I could get help.

In our house, there was an expert in this field.

Gun Hye-rin.

Since she’s a pseudo-religion leader, wouldn’t she know best how to be served?

I’d ask for her know-how later, and I asked the fellow,

“In what way do you mean to serve?”

Then, still lying down, he spoke as politely as possible.

“O-of course, I will offer tribute regularly. Things like Spirit Stones and Spirit Pellets.”

In other words, this fellow was saying that, since I was a sapling from a world where one can climb to a high realm, he would sponsor me.

When I made my career, he could recoup his investment by receiving protection or blessing.

Since we had many children and needed lots of Spirit Stones, it wasn’t a bad proposal.

“It’s not a bad proposal, but.”

I felt I should first consult with my wives.

I spoke through the group chat.

『“What do you think?”

“For the moment, it’s not bad for us. We did get a Dual Cultivation Art, but we’ll need lots of Spirit Stones to raise the other kids.”

“It’s not bad.”

“Yes, Master, though he doesn’t look particularly reliable.”』

Everyone said it wasn’t bad, and just then—

Hwa-eun asked with a worried expression,

『“But Master, is it okay for us to be in here?”』

It seemed she was wondering whether I had secured safety outside.

I told her with a look not to worry.

I had already secured a very safe hideout.

『“Yes, I’ve found a safe place. It’s a forest where trees as big as mountains grow, and I set up a hideout in a hole in one of those trees.”

“Oh, I’m curious about the trees as big as mountains. I want to go out and see later.”

“Okay, Ji-ryeon.”

“But a hole in a tree—you managed to find a place like that.”

“Ah, it looked like some beast originally lived there, but when I went there it ran away. It was a beast shaped like a hawk, but its feet were like a person’s hands, and it cried joojoo.”』

Just then, while I was telling my wives about the strange bird I’d seen earlier—

Having heard my description, Hwa-eun’s eyes sparkled as she said,

『“Oh, then it sounds like a ‘Ju.’”

“Ju?”

“Yes. I’m reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas because it’s said to be about the Nine Heavens of rivers and streams, and it seems like the beast that appears there. It said it looks like a hawk but its feet look like a person’s hands, and it cries with a sound the same as its own name.”

“Oh, then that sounds right. Is it a venomous spirit beast?”』

More important to me than a beast that appears in the Classic of Mountains and Seas was whether it was poisonous.

Regrettably, Hwa-eun shook her head.

『“No. It’s not a poisonous beast, but it says that if you see that bird, then the person you’ve recently met or are about to meet is a petty, scheming small man...”』

Regrettably, it seemed it wasn’t a venomous creature, but no sooner had Hwa-eun’s words ended than everyone’s gaze turned to the fellow called Hwangwoo.

『“Will it be okay?”

“Why does it have to be a sycophant?”

“Let’s just turn him into Spirit Stones and find someone else. Didn’t he say anyone would want to form a tie?”』

Under our gaze, the fellow began to sweat coldly.

I didn’t know about other things, but he did seem quick on the uptake.