"What do you think of this place?"
Jang Bung created a mudfield in a new region.
It was on the outermost edge of the territory inhabited by 6-Star Demons.
"I think it's good."
With no trees nearby, the view was unobstructed.
The grassland's tall grass made the mudfield difficult to notice even after he spread it out.
Planting grass atop the mudfield made it blend in perfectly.
"I'm going to use Disguise Art now. Tell me what you think."
"Okay."
'Disguise Art!'
Jang Bung disguised himself as a boulder.
"Amazing. You look like a real boulder."
Disguise Art did not limit him to transforming into humans or animals.
He could also become an inanimate object such as a stone.
When he disguised himself as a boulder, Jang Bung's demonic aura disappeared.
After receiving Hyeon-o's confirmation, he transformed back into a crow.
"Being unable to speak as a boulder is frustrating... but it seems useful."
Jang Bung intended to become a boulder beside the spirit herbs and spirit fruit.
With no aura to sense, fishing would become even easier.
He could immediately swallow any unsuspecting creature that approached.
"I'll see if there's anything nearby I can lure over."
"Don't push yourself."
Hyeon-o was still only 5-Star.
In a region inhabited by 6-Star creatures, it was nothing more than prey.
"Don't worry. I'll bring back plenty."
It intended to use itself as bait.
Luscious spirit fruit ripened atop the mudfield.
Many creatures were bewitched by its fragrance.
Those nearby found their own way there.
As for the ones farther away.......
Hyeon-o lured them over by acting as bait.
The hunting proceeded smoothly.
"Eat as much as you want."
He let Hyeon-o eat the spirit herbs and spirit fruit used as bait.
Thanks to Hyeon-o, Jang Bung devoured a great deal of spiritual energy.
He distributed a portion of it to the spirit herbs and spirit fruit.
Many spirit herbs and spirit fruit blossomed atop the mudfield once more.
"Are you sure about this?"
"It's fine. Raising your realm comes first."
Jang Bung needed a great deal of experience to advance from 6-Star to 7-Star.
Giving Hyeon-o only a portion would be enough to raise it from 5-Star to 6-Star.
"That will make hunting easier."
It would be a problem if Hyeon-o, who acted as the bait, died.
Jang Bung had acquired a taste for the benefits Hyeon-o provided.
He could no longer live without Hyeon-o.
Thanks to Jang Bung funneling experience to it.......
Hyeon-o also Evolved to 6-Star in short order.
At last, Hyeon-o had become a Demon too.
"Ha ha. I'm finally a Demon too."
"What ability did you obtain?"
"Heart-Speech."
It was an ability for communication.
Hyeon-o could now converse with other creatures as well.
"That ability suits you."
"I'll lure over even more creatures."
It could now provoke or entice more Demons into following it.
The clever Hyeon-o could make good use of it.
It would assist its ability to lure prey.
'Is there really some pattern behind how abilities manifest?'
He could not tell.
Yet the abilities did not seem entirely unrelated either.
Thanks to Hyeon-o, Jang Bung accumulated experience even faster.
He passed 6-Star and began approaching 7-Star.
***
"What are you going to do now?"
"This time, I don't plan to hide."
The secret realm would soon open, beginning the period when humans entered.
"What are you planning?"
"Either fight them."
He was no longer alone.
Together with Hyeon-o, he could hold his own against human cultivators.
The mudfield also gave Jang Bung a favorable battlefield.
If things turned dangerous, he could hide deep within it.
The mudfield now stretched a hundred meters across.
It was also a hundred meters deep.
Digging down through the equivalent of thirty floors would be difficult.
And at the bottom, the slime would be waiting with his mouth open.
"Or I'll trade with them."
He could now communicate with human cultivators.
He could fight them.
Or he could trade with them.
Human cultivators did not enter secret realms to fight the demon race.
They entered to obtain the cultivation resources needed to advance their realms.
Fighting the demon race was merely one part of that process.
If they could easily obtain cultivation resources through trade.......
There would be no need to fight.
"If anyone gets too greedy, the two of us can deal with them together."
"That works too."
Human cultivators were like medicinal pills to the demon race.
Hyeon-o had no reason to shy away from a fight.
Jang Bung and Hyeon-o looked forward to the day the secret realm opened.
***
"What should we do?"
They could sense humans in the distance.
Hyeon-o was asking whether it should lure them over.
"There's no need to go that far."
Spirit herbs and spirit fruit were growing atop the mudfield.
If the humans were interested, they would come on their own.
He would negotiate with any who came if their terms aligned.......
If negotiations broke down, a battle would follow.
Those alone would be more than enough.
If they drew in too many human cultivators, the two of them would not be able to handle the numbers.
"Then I'll prepare too."
Jang Bung used Disguise Art.
"Oh. You look incredibly powerful."
Hyeon-o marveled at the form Jang Bung had assumed.
"What did you disguise yourself as?"
"A creature called a devil."
Jang Bung had assumed the appearance of the strongest devil he knew.
Diablo.
Diablo did not exist in this world.
Disguise Art interfered with people's perceptions.
It made it impossible to discern Jang Bung's realm.
"This should keep the human cultivators from attacking recklessly."
The unknown naturally inspired fear.
They would not easily start a fight.
Not long afterward.
The people Hyeon-o had mentioned flew toward the mudfield.
They were three cultivators at 6-Star of the Qi Refining Realm.
"W-What is that......."
"I-It looks like an incredibly powerful Demon."
"W-What should we do now?"
They had been drawn here by the spirit creatures and demonic aura.
But... a powerful-looking Demon was waiting for them.
They could not even measure its realm.
The human cultivators tried to flee at once.
"Wait! I wish to trade with you."
At those words, the human cultivators trying to flee faltered.
"There is no need to fear. Pay a fair price, and you will receive a fitting reward."
"How can we trust you?"
It could be a trick.
The immortal cultivation world was a brutal place where one either devoured or was devoured.
Anything could happen inside a secret realm.
All manner of schemes ran rampant in the struggle to advance one's realm.
That was true even among human cultivators.
It went without saying for the demon race.
"We will each reveal our hand first, then trade."
Jang Bung placed 7-Star spirit herbs, spirit fruit, and Demon Beast byproducts at one edge of the mudfield.
Greed filled the three cultivators' eyes.
The thought of fleeing vanished entirely.
What Jang Bung had put forward was difficult to obtain in this region.
They would have to venture deeper into the secret realm to acquire such things.
That would be correspondingly more dangerous.
Obtaining them here would be a tremendous gain.
"What do you want?"
They, too, were now willing to trade.
"Place spirit stones, magical artifacts, and medicinal pills on the opposite side, including your storage pouches. If I am satisfied with the trade, I will give the signal."
Each party would place its goods at opposite ends of the mudfield and retrieve the other's items when the signal was given.
The human cultivators had flying magical artifacts.
Jang Bung had Hyeon-o.
Neither side could seize both piles of goods at once.
"Very well. We accept the trade."
The three cultivators placed storage pouches, spirit stones, and medicinal pills on the opposite side.
"Where are the magical artifacts?"
"We do not have any to spare."
Storage pouches were fairly common magical artifacts.
Flying magical artifacts were much the same, but.......
The ones they were currently using were all they had.
Other magical artifacts were quite valuable.
They could not hand them over lightly.
"It is still not enough. Put down more."
They hesitated for a moment.
But their greed won out.
After discussing it among themselves, they added more spirit stones and medicinal pills.
"Good. Then we have a deal. Hyeon-o."
As Hyeon-o approached the other party's goods, the human cultivators moved on their flying magical artifacts.
Both sides were able to collect the goods at roughly the same time.
"That was a good trade."
The other party also looked satisfied.
"It was a good trade for us as well. Do you have anything else to exchange?"
The successful trade had whetted their appetites.
"It doesn't look like you can afford the price? If you insist, I will accept your bodies too."
He meant that if they grew any greedier, he would eat them.
The threat brought them back to their senses.
Fighting a Demon whose power they could not measure was too dangerous.
"If we can pay the price, can we trade again?"
"Of course. But the price must be paid without fail."
"Understood. We will meet again."
"Yes. We will meet again."
***
"So, how did the trade go?"
"Better than I expected."
The human cultivators had paid a high price for the spirit herbs, spirit fruit, and Demon Beast byproducts Jang Bung offered.
"But... how do you know that, Jang Bung?"
Hyeon-o was clever.
It had noticed the hole in Jang Bung's explanation.
It was strange for a Demon to understand the value of a human cultivator's possessions.
'I can't tell him it's because I've played the game.......'
"I have an ability that lets me understand the value of objects."
"Ah! I see."
Even the clever Hyeon-o could not help but fall for that.
It was not entirely false either.
Jang Bung did possess an ability that let him understand the value of objects to some extent.
It was a game-like ability.
He could roughly determine an item's Grade.
That was what gave him the confidence to propose a trade with human cultivators.
'In any case, cultivation resources must be rarer outside than I thought.'
They valued the items from this place even more highly than they had been valued in the game.
Even so, they considered the exchange a satisfactory one.
'Or maybe what I grow is more special.......'
Spirit herbs raised by the slime were larger and overflowed with more spiritual energy than ordinary spirit herbs of the same Grade.
In the game, they were displayed only by Grade, but.......
In this world, each one was slightly different.
'Differences like that are what separate luxury goods.'
Luxury goods were not vastly superior in performance.
They were only slightly better than ordinary products.
That small difference, together with the brand, created an enormous gap in price.
If an item of the same Grade could advance his realm even slightly more, Jang Bung would gladly choose it too.
While he was thinking that.......
"Hyeon-o! Fly far away and hide!"
The auras of human cultivators were approaching at high speed.
There were six in total.
Three of them were the same men who had come earlier.
'Greed brings disaster.'
The moment Hyeon-o fled.......
Jang Bung transformed into a slime and descended to the bottom of the mudfield.
The spirit herbs and spirit fruit planted in the mudfield vanished.
At the same time, the mudfield rapidly turned to earth.
Jang Bung hid himself a hundred meters underground.
"Just as we thought. That creature was a weaker Demon than it looked."
His realm had been revealed when he transformed into a slime.
"We can handle this! Does anyone have a magical artifact for digging?"
"No. Let's just dig down. There are six of us and only one of it."
"Good."
The six cultivators each began digging with their own spells.
The human cultivators' Earth-attribute spells varied from person to person.
As they descended a hundred meters, the distance between them widened.
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(I will collect the price!)
With those words, the slime swallowed the nearest human cultivator.
"Aaargh!"
The slime digested everything except the human cultivator's storage pouch.
This time, two cultivators dug their way down together.
They appeared to be companions.
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(I am still hungry!)
The slime lunged at the two cultivators.
The two cultivators used magical artifacts to unleash fire and water spells.
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(Did you think that would work on me?!)
The earthen tunnel was extremely narrow.
Their spells could not unleash their full power.
Besides, this was the slime's home ground.
Earth was the dominant attribute here.
The spells vanished beneath collapsing soil.
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(I will collect the price!)
The slime swallowed both cultivators at once.
He digested them rapidly.
Devouring was the slime's most fundamental and most powerful ability.
The human cultivators dissolved in an instant.
"It's a trap!"
"Run!"
Three of the six cultivators had disappeared in an instant.
The terrified cultivators hurriedly tried to escape to the surface.
'Collapsing Earth!'
He activated the Water and Earth attributes simultaneously.
Water and soil poured ceaselessly into the tunnels they had dug.
In the end, they could not escape to the surface.
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(I will collect the price!)
"Aaargh!"
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(I will collect the price!)
"Spare me!"
And so they all became food for the slime.
'Not a bad haul.'
He had devoured six cultivators at 6-Star of the Qi Refining Realm.
It was the same as consuming six 6-Star medicinal pills.
Their storage pouches were a bonus.
Inside were not only their own belongings, but also.......
The spirit herbs, spirit fruit, and other items Jang Bung had sold earlier.
It was a profitable deal.
'Foolish creatures blinded by greed.......'
Jang Bung could disguise himself as a boulder rather than a slime.
If he wished, he could easily deceive their senses.
'If they had thought for even a moment, they would have realized something was wrong.......'
A Demon capable of concealing his aura had deliberately revealed his realm.
Anyone intelligent should have sensed that something was amiss.
This was a trap deliberately prepared for them.
Rather than stupidly walking into the trap.
They should have fled immediately.
'They must pay the price for their foolishness and their greed beyond their station.'
And so Jang Bung collected the price from them.