At 7:00 in the morning, Taeseok was lying in bed having a wonderful dream. In the dream, Chori was wearing that set of purple pajamas and dancing to 《10 minutes》. Just as it reached the best part, his phone exploded with noise.

"Ring-ring-ring—"

Taeseok closed his eyes, felt around for his phone, swiped to answer, and muttered a vague "Hello."

"Taeseok, you brat, you're about to graduate, aren't you?" Master Hongfa's robust voice came from the other end of the phone, with birds chirping and insects buzzing in the background, making it obvious that Master Hongfa was still enjoying his "pastoral life" in that dilapidated ancestral hall.

Hearing that it was his master, Taeseok instantly woke up halfway, sat up, and rubbed his eyes. "Why did an old man like you suddenly think of calling me?"

"What do you mean an old man? Am I, your master, that old?"

Master Hongfa was so angry that his beard bristled and his eyes glared. "Get back to the ancestral hall right away. As your master, I'm going to check the results of your recent cultivation and see if you brat have been slacking off."

"Master, how would I dare slack off? Aren't I busy—"

"Busy chasing women, right?"

Master Hongfa interrupted him, chuckled twice, and said, "Stop talking nonsense, hurry back. As your master, I have something to give you."

Taeseok glanced at the calendar. He was graduating at the end of August, and counting the time, there was less than half a month left.

He flipped through his work schedule; today was a relatively leisurely day.

So Taeseok greeted Sister Jin, rented a second-hand Hyundai, and drove from downtown Seoul toward the suburbs.

After driving for forty minutes, the streetscapes on both sides gradually changed from skyscrapers to farmland and mountain fields.

When he saw that small hill from afar, a sense of familiarity inexplicably welled up in Taeseok's heart.

It had been nearly four years.

Back then, he had been lured away by Master Hongfa with half a steamed bun, and he had been living in this dilapidated ancestral hall for more than ten years.

Today, the three rooms were still as dilapidated as ever, the cracks on the walls were even more numerous than four years ago, and a few tiles on the roof were missing.

Master Hongfa was truly still the same Master Hongfa, thoroughly embodying the concept of "receiving baptism."

However, the vegetable garden was lush and verdant, planted with all sorts of plants whose names he didn't know.

Parking the car, Taeseok pushed open the main door of the ancestral hall with practiced ease.

In the main room, Master Hongfa was sitting cross-legged in front of that dark, grimy Buddha statue.

He was wearing a washed-out grey monk's robe and had stubble on his face, making him look like an ordinary old monk.

But Taeseok knew that if this old man put on a gold-thread monastic robe and sat in a temple in Sakura, he could transform into an eminent monk of great virtue in a split second, and his fans would line up from Kyoto to Osaka.

Taeseok didn't make a sound, walking light-footedly over to the cushion beside Master Hongfa, sitting down cross-legged, and closing his eyes.

Thirty minutes later.

Master Hongfa opened both eyes, a divine light flashing through them and disappearing instantly.

He turned to look at Taeseok, looked him up and down, and raised his eyebrows slightly.

"You brat have made quite a bit of progress." Master Hongfa stroked his beard. "Did you have another romantic encounter recently... cough cough, miraculous encounter?"

Taeseok opened his eyes, lines of black dots covering his forehead: "Master, can you not ask so directly?"

"A cultivator does not tell lies," Master Hongfa said with a straight face.

"You call yourself a cultivator?" Taeseok retorted, "Meat and wine pass through the intestines, the Buddha remains in the heart—didn't you teach me those words yourself?"

"Those details aren't important," Master Hongfa waved his hand. "Don't change the subject. Tell me, who have you hooked up with recently?"

Taeseok sighed and roughly recounted his experiences over this period—ever since returning from Sakura, his relationship with Hara had continued to heat up; after experiencing the trip to Busan, he had also broken through the last line of defense with Chori; and there were potential clients like Sung Yuri and Park So-yeon, who all had the potential to be converted into core clients later on.

Viewed this way, romantic... ah no, miraculous encounters really were quite numerous.

Of course, he selectively skipped over certain overly private details.

After hearing this, Master Hongfa slapped Taeseok on the thigh and burst out laughing.

"Good! Good! Good!" Master Hongfa praised repeatedly, his face filled with the gratification of "having a successor to my legacy."

"Not bad, not bad. You have a few fractions of your master's prowess back then. You truly deserve to be the Esoteric Sect successor personally chosen by your master!"

Taeseok looked speechlessly at his own master. This old man was narcissistic as always.

Suddenly, Master Hongfa put away his smile, pinched his fingers to calculate, and frowned slightly.

"Taeseok," Master Hongfa spoke, his tone rare and serious. "Your glabella is somewhat darkened; did you stir up trouble?"

"Glabella darkened?" Taeseok was stunned. "Master, don't scare me. I only offended some spoiled rich kid, surely it's not that serious?"

Thus, he roughly explained what happened at the graduation prom, including meeting Kim Jaekyung and Kwon Nara, as well as that arrogant-to-the-heavens Kim Nam-lip, and how he inexplicably brought trouble upon himself...

"A spoiled rich kid?" Master Hongfa shook his head. "You're thinking too simply. Judging from the situation you described, although this person doesn't have much real ability, he's no pushover either."

"Even though he lacks the capability to retaliate against you directly, he probably won't lack dirty tricks behind the scenes."

Taeseok remembered the venomous look in Kim Nam-lip's eyes when he left that day, and his heart sank slightly.

Master Hongfa continued, "Things like framing you, launching public opinion attacks, or even hiring hitmen to harm you are all possible."

"No way?" Taeseok frowned. "Just over two women?"

"You don't understand," Master Hongfa sighed. "To some people, pride is more important than life itself."

"You made him lose face in front of acquaintances, and even'snatched' away the woman he had his eyes on—to him, this is an unforgivable humiliation."

Taeseok fell silent. "Master, then what should I do?"

Master Hongfa didn't answer directly, instead standing up and motioning for Taeseok to follow.

The two passed through the main room and came to the inner room of the ancestral hall.

Taeseok had entered this place a few times before; inside were placed all sorts of archaic and peculiar utensils—some made of copper, some of wood, and some of materials Taeseok couldn't recognize at all.

Master Hongfa walked over to an old wooden cabinet and took out a palm-sized object from inside.

Cast from bronze, less than twenty centimeters long, with an archaic shape, its surface was densely covered with runes. One end was pointed, the other end was round, and there were several ring-like protrusions in the middle.

This item had some age to it; its original sharp edges had all been worn smooth, making it look like a fake antique sold by a shady dealer.

"Master, this is..."

"This is one of the Esoteric Sect's dharma implements, the vajra, which symbolizes Buddha-wisdom and the Bodhi mind," Master Hongfa said with a straight face.

"Every successor of the Esoteric Sect has their own dharma implement. Starting today, this vajra is passed down to you."

Taeseok took the vajra and weighed it in his hand; it was heavy, and the texture was quite good.

Master Hongfa then opened another exquisite small wooden box and took out a ritual bell from inside.

The bell body was bronze-colored, also engraved with fine runes on it. With a gentle shake, it emitted a crisp and pleasant sound.

"This is the sigh bell," Master Hongfa handed the ritual bell to him as well. "Esoteric Sect cultivation emphasizes the blending of yin and yang; the vajra is yang, and the sigh bell is yin. Using these two dharma implements together can help you advance further in your cultivation."

Holding the two dharma implements, Taeseok wore a somewhat excited expression.

His master had actually dropped equipment for him, and it looked like divine equipment!

"Master, how do you use these dharma implements? What effects do they have?" In his mind, Taeseok was already imagining pictures of himself wielding dharma implements and slaughtering enemies in all directions.

Master Hongfa scratched his head and said with some embarrassment, "Have you read too many cultivation novels? This is the modern urban world; these two dharma implements just add a bit of a sense of ritual, and at most have some symbolic meaning."

Taeseok: "..."

"So they're just decorations?"

"You can't put it that way," Master Hongfa coughed. "As for dharma implements, what matters is intent. If you have the dharma in your heart, then it's a dharma implement. If you don't have the dharma in your heart, then it's just a lump of copper."

"Then why did you make it sound so profound just now?"

"Wasn't your master just trying to add a little sense of ritual to the inheritance?" Master Hongfa said with perfect justification.

Taeseok's mouth twitched, and just as he was about to retort, a familiar, slight stinging sensation suddenly came from his fingertips.

Immediately following, he felt a wave of dizziness, and that cold mechanical voice sounded in his mind:

【Ding! Detected that the host has obtained the Esoteric Sect's inheritance dharma implements "vajra" and "sigh bell", Esoteric Sect inheritance progress increased.】

【Reward: Kalachakra Mount Meru Contemplation Cultivation Technique.】

【Kalachakra Mount Meru Contemplation: A visualization-type Cultivation Technique. Requires extremely high cultivation level. When visualizing the Kalachakra Mount Meru Mandala and synchronizing with the universe's space and time, it can briefly foresee the trajectory of crises and glimpse the "lines of causality".】

【Given that the host's current cultivation level is too low, Kalachakra Mount Meru Contemplation cannot be actively cast and can only be triggered passively.】

Well, another chicken rib that could only be looked at and not used.