Hyeon-o returned after briefly fleeing from the human cultivators.
"How was the haul?"
"Not bad."
"Those humans were fools."
Hyeon-o knew how powerful Jang Bung was.
The slime could devour even Demons at higher realms.
He was a monster whose strength could not be judged by the realm he displayed.
Profit was not the only reason Hyeon-o followed Jang Bung.
Jang Bung was so powerful that Hyeon-o would never dare challenge him.
The wise bowed their heads to the strong when resistance was impossible.
Hyeon-o was a clever crow.
"This is your share."
Jang Bung took several medicinal pills from a human cultivator's storage pouch and tossed them to Hyeon-o.
"Oh. These taste good. I can feel spiritual energy filling my body."
"Medicinal pills made by humans are excellent for advancing your realm."
"Better than spirit herbs or spirit fruit?"
"You could say that."
"Why?"
"Hmm... that's difficult to explain."
Even if Hyeon-o was clever, it was not as intelligent as a human.
'No. Maybe it simply lacks knowledge.'
Jang Bung thought of the humans who had fallen into his trap.
They had not been more intelligent than Hyeon-o.
They had merely inherited a wider body of knowledge.
'Should I use this opportunity to teach Hyeon-o?'
Once its realm rose.
And it became a Great Demon, it could learn human cultivation methods and arts.
What he taught it now might prove useful.
'It wouldn't be bad to raise it as an alchemist or a mystic arts practitioner.'
An alchemist would be extremely useful when establishing a sect.
Medicinal pills could raise the realms of both himself and the sect's cultivators.
'A mystic arts practitioner is essential to a sect too.'
Mystic arts practitioners researched mystic tools—talismans, magical artifacts, and arcane treasures—and mystic arts such as Qimen Dunjia.
Both helped cultivators advance their realms.
'Good. I'll teach Hyeon-o the basic concepts first.'
He decided to begin by teaching it the basic principles of alchemy.
***
"Making medicinal pills is similar to how I raise spirit herbs and spirit fruit."
"It's similar to what you do?"
Alchemy was like what the slime did with the mudfield.
"It makes the effects of spirit herbs and spirit fruit even better."
An alchemist uses a pill furnace to refine spiritual energy into medicinal pills.
The ingredients placed in such a pill furnace included.......
Spirit herbs, spirit fruit, spirit stones, Demon Beast byproducts, and other things containing spiritual energy.
"In a way, an alchemist is someone who turns low-grade items into higher-grade ones."
The slime raised the Grade of spirit herbs and spirit fruit with the mudfield.
An alchemist did the same thing with a pill furnace.
Medicinal pills were, in a sense, like the spirit herbs and spirit fruit raised by the slime.
"You mean I'll be able to raise spirit herbs and spirit fruit too?"
Every time Hyeon-o wanted to advance its realm, it had to obtain spirit herbs and spirit fruit from Jang Bung.
That was quite inconvenient.
It had no choice but to rely on Jang Bung.
If Hyeon-o became an alchemist, it could solve that problem for itself.
"That's right. Are you interested?"
"Yes. I want to learn."
"First, we need to advance your realm."
"What realm?"
Hyeon-o looked bewildered, wondering what he meant.
"First of all, don't you need hands that can operate a pill furnace?"
"Ah. That's true."
Hyeon-o needed to learn either Disguise Art or the Shapeshifting Art so it could change its wings into hands.
"Once you can do that, I'll supply the ingredients."
"Okay."
***
Jang Bung could raise the Grade of spirit herbs and spirit fruit.
The Grade of the raw ingredient itself rose from one level to the next.
Hyeon-o would refine those ingredients into medicinal pills one level higher still.
'That would improve their effects by two whole levels.'
If he used that well.......
It would be a tremendous help in advancing Jang Bung's realm.
'I'll make Hyeon-o do the hard work of producing medicinal pills. Hehe.'
Alchemists consumed vast quantities of resources during their training.
The higher their realm rose, the amount of resources needed to advance increased exponentially.
'The spirit herbs and spirit fruit I grow will be treasures to them.'
Good ingredients increased the success rate of producing medicinal pills.
An alchemist's realm rose with every successful batch.
The medicinal ingredients raised by the slime were bound to be treasures to an alchemist.
And Jang Bung would be the one supplying those raw ingredients.
'No matter how I look at it, this is a great plan.'
If Hyeon-o became an alchemist, it would have no choice but to rely on Jang Bung even more.
***
"Should I try one too?"
Jang Bung ate the best medicinal pill in the human cultivators' possession.
"Oh. I really can feel spiritual energy filling me."
The spiritual energy refined by an alchemist differed in quality from the energy obtained by devouring the demon race.
The quantity of pure spiritual energy contained within it was smaller, but.......
It felt easier to absorb and retain.
It was like eating a high-protein restorative meal after subsisting on nutritionally empty food every day.
'That changes things.'
"Hyeon-o, lure some humans here."
"Are you going to eat them like before?"
"Why would I eat them? I'm going to cultivate them."
"You're going to raise humans as food?"
"It's just a figure of speech. I'm going to trade with them."
Hyeon-o's expression suggested that it had realized something.
"Ah! You mean we'll pretend to trade with them, then eat them like before."
"Why would we eat every one of them? We'll eat only the ones who refuse to listen. The ones who understand us should be cultivated."
Jang Bung explained his plan to Hyeon-o.
Hyeon-o would serve as both a billboard and a traveling salesperson.
"You want me to go around telling them you have goods to trade."
After becoming a Demon, Hyeon-o had gained the ability to communicate through telepathy.
It could communicate regardless of species.
That meant Hyeon-o could speak with humans too.
"That's right. Sell goods to the ones who come to trade, and eat the ones who get greedy."
"Why not just eat all of them?"
"Humans are different from us. They share information. If we do that, no one will come to trade."
Humans fought among themselves, but.......
They also joined forces when necessary.
They would work together to subjugate Jang Bung and Hyeon-o.
"Ah! I see."
"Some of them need to profit, or the trade won't continue."
He also taught Hyeon-o the basics of commerce.
A transaction in which one side alone suffered a loss would not last.
Both parties needed to gain something from it.
"More importantly, we need to spread the word that we don't eat just anyone."
The perception that Jang Bung ate only those blinded by greed had to spread.
No one would trade with a Demon that ate people indiscriminately.
"Humans need a justification even before they eat someone."
For the demon race, the law of the jungle was everything.
For humans, it was not everything.
Every action needed a proper reason.
Justification mattered.
"Even if we're the ones who lure them into it?"
Many of the human cultivators who followed Hyeon-o would attack Jang Bung out of greed.
The immortal cultivation world and its cultivators were avaricious.
"That's right. As long as we have justification, no one can complain if we eat them."
Even if Jang Bung ate such people.......
It would become the fault of those who succumbed to greed.
"Caw. Caw. Jang Bung really is a cunning and wicked Demon."
For a Demon, wickedness was the highest compliment.
"Flattery won't earn you more medicinal pills. You'll get them only if you work hard."
"Hmph. Jang Bung is a stingy miser of a Demon."
"Haven't you heard that those who don't work don't eat?"
"Hmph. Fine."
At Jang Bung's words, Hyeon-o left to work.
The fifteen days during which human cultivators entered were brief.
They had to earn as much as possible in that time.
***
"Well, well. This income is pretty sweet. Ha ha."
"You look incredibly wicked right now."
Jang Bung let out a truly wicked laugh.
He could not help being pleased.
Over the fifteen days, he traded with more than ten human cultivators.
At the same time, he devoured dozens.
His realm leaped straight from 6-Star to 7-Star.
"You profited too, so why are you acting like that?"
"That's true. I made a decent profit too."
Hyeon-o also advanced from the beginning of 6-Star to 6-Star Great Perfection.
It was on the verge of 7-Star.
"I didn't expect the human cultivators to fall for it so easily."
"I worked hard."
As a reward, he gave Hyeon-o some of the medicinal pills they had obtained.
Hyeon-o had grown by consuming them.
It had done its job well.
It sought out human cultivators and spread word of a good trade.
Many human cultivators followed it back.
"Their greed was excessive."
Some had traded fairly, but.......
Most tried to kill Jang Bung and Hyeon-o and seize the spirit herbs, spirit fruit, and wealth.
Jang Bung devoured those people.
"Will this cause trouble?"
"I told you. The justification is ours."
More than ten cultivators had purchased the goods they wanted at fair prices.
They would serve as Jang Bung and Hyeon-o's justification.
"I warned them in advance that I would eat anyone who grew greedy without paying a fair price."
He had merely eaten the cultivators who ignored Jang Bung's warning and attacked.
It was their own fault.
"The ones who returned alive will serve as witnesses too."
Jang Bung and Hyeon-o had deliberately released several cultivators who tried to kill them.
They had done so both as a warning and to create witnesses.
Perhaps because of that.......
The number of visitors decreased as the days passed.
But more came to trade and fewer came to rob them.
Thanks to that, they could also demand quite a good price in their trades.
The time the humans could spend in the secret realm was steadily running out.
Word had also spread among them that Jang Bung and Hyeon-o were not easy prey.
In the end, more people were willing to pay a fair price for cultivation resources.
"Won't stronger people come after us in a group next time?"
The secret realm would open again in a year.
Rumors about Jang Bung and Hyeon-o might spread outside the secret realm.
The next visitors would come thoroughly prepared.
They might even arrive in groups of dozens.
"That won't happen. This is an unknown secret realm."
Even Jang Bung did not know whether there were dozens of secret realms like this one or only a handful.
The people who had come here scattered throughout every corner of the immortal cultivation world.
The same was true when they entered.
"Anyone who tries to enter a secret realm in a large group will be scattered."
It was a matter of difficulty balancing.
If too many people cooperated, conquering a secret realm would become too easy.
Even in groups, two to five people was the maximum.
Any more than that would be scattered among countless unnamed secret realms.
"More importantly, no one will enter this place specifically to hunt us."
The people who entered secret realms were all busy.
They had to obtain the cultivation resources they needed within a fixed period.
The matter involving Jang Bung and Hyeon-o was a very minor incident from the perspective of the entire immortal cultivation world.
In wars between sects, Qi Refining Realm cultivators.
Dying by the hundreds or thousands was commonplace.
This incident amounted to nothing more than something that had happened during a group of Qi Refining Realm cultivators' trip into a secret realm.
It was a brief piece of gossip among low-level cultivators.
"Wouldn't it still be better to remain cautious?"
Hyeon-o was partly right.
Like the male and female cultivators from before, two or three people at different realms might enter together.
Some of them might know about the incident involving Jang Bung and Hyeon-o.
They could be blinded by revenge or greed.
Then the two of them would have to face someone one or two realms higher.
"That's why I'm going to eat everything in these storage pouches now......."
Jang Bung had not given Hyeon-o every medicinal pill they obtained this time.
The storage pouches taken from the human cultivators were packed with medicinal pills and spirit stones.
Jang Bung had advanced from 6-Star to 7-Star this time solely by devouring human cultivators.
If he consumed all the medicinal pills and spirit stones, he could reach 8-Star in one leap.
"And we still have a year."
They could advance their realms further during that time.
Once Jang Bung reached 8-Star or 9-Star, he could easily deal with the cultivators who entered the secret realm.
If such people came, they would merely become his prey.
"Let's eat these first."
He took every medicinal pill and spirit stone out of the storage pouches.
Jang Bung prepared to power-level.