Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Cultivation Through Copulation.

Episode 1: Fucking Status Window.

An immortal who strolls above the clouds, sharing longevity with heaven and earth.

Cultivators, beings who shed their human form, defying the heavens to be reborn as immortals.

The story of a protagonist cultivator who overcomes heavenly tribulations and competes for immortality, ascending to the peak of the heavens.

That’s the essence of the xianxia genre.1

Sang-sik was a xianxia genre enthusiast.

He liked wuxia2 too, but his love for grand-scale stories couldn’t be satisfied with just wuxia. That’s how he came across xianxia.

Unlike wuxia, which involve clashing swords on the ground, the stories of immortals flying in the sky and controlling the elements truly satisfied Sang-sik’s desires.

“Fuck yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. I need to hog up all the fortuitous encounters here and jump straight to the Foundation Establishment stage. Indeed, xianxia has a satisfying charm.”

Sang-sik was addicted to growth. He loved rapidly advancing in xianxia, enjoying everything as a high-level immortal.

He preferred watching characters monopolize fortuitous encounters, quickly grow stronger, and live boastfully rather than debating about righteousness or loyalty in xianxia.

It was even better if there were easy growth elements. Protagonists in xianxia always have at least one cheat key.

That was why xianxia perfectly suited his taste.

There were more Chinese works than Korean in xianxia, and Sang-sik even used AI to translate those Chinese works. That’s how deep his love for xianxia was.

A growing protagonist, a protagonist with cheat keys surprising everyone, a protagonist who inevitably gains from fortuitous encounters.

Yuk-gyeong enjoyed the reactions of such protagonists and the characters around them.

In xianxia, you definitely need at least one cheat key.

“This is how the world should be.”

However,

that didn’t mean he wanted to go to a xianxia world.

It was the time when dawn still lingered, just before the sun was about to rise.

In the sleepy hours when even roosters haven’t woken up, a thatched house bustled with activity.

A woman, whose hands and skin were rough and appeared to be in her late thirties, shouted towards the house while carrying a basket.

“Yuk-gyeong! Go fetch some wood!”

Inside the house where the woman shouted,

a young man, who seemed to have just reached adulthood, sat on the bed with disheveled hair as if he had just woken up.

The young man’s face was handsome enough to make women cry, but his eyes looked somewhat foolish.

“Where am I, who am I?”

Sang-sik, once again, woke up today in an unfamiliar bed, dazed.

It had already been several days since Han Sang-sik, a robust man from Seoul, found himself in this Chinese-styled world.

At first, in his bewilderment, he tried to resist and return to his original world, but what he got in return was a severe beating from his father.

Yes, his father.

Han Sang-sik, the Seoulite’s father, had already passed away, but his father in this world was alive. On top of that, he was too vigorous, which was a problem.

This barbaric world considered it natural to use violence on children.

Sang-sik, now the young Yuk-gyeong, tried doing handstands, jumping into water, and leaping around to return to his original world, while his father took the ‘medicine’ of the rod.

Saying that the rod is the medicine for a madman.

It was indeed effective.

After getting beaten severely, he had to pretend to come to his senses because he didn’t want to be hit anymore.

“Yuk-gyeong!”

“Yuk-gyeong, you wretch, you’re still not up yet? How many days has it been since the ritual, and you’re still not coming to your senses and lazing around! Where’s the stick?”

Yuk-gyeong was startled by the deep male voice and quickly jumped up from bed, running outside in a hurry.

“Alright, alright! I’m coming out!”

Carrying an axe, Yuk-gyeong climbed the mountain to chop wood, muttering to himself.

This damn world.

They beat me as if they’re going to kill me at the drop of a hat. I’m still their child.

Father really beats his children as if he’s going to kill them.

I heard Yuk-gyeong’s brother actually died from being beaten?

He didn’t want to farm, said he’d start a business, and touched Father’s money, only to get hit on the head and die.

Recalling that memory, Yuk-gyeong vowed never to defy his father.

With a father who genuinely beats his children to death, Yuk-gyeong wouldn’t be safe either.

After pretending to help with farming for days in an effort to return home, all that effort was now in vain, leaving only resignation.

What can I do? There’s no visible way to return to the original world from here. There’s no answer.

Goodbye, fried chicken. Goodbye, pizza. Goodbye, computer.

Yuk-gyeong humbly accepted that he couldn’t return and was trying to adapt to this world.

The only thing he hoped for was a small perk since he was dropped into another world. It’s unfair to be thrown into another world, right? They could at least give me one perk!

Oh heavens! The god who brought me here! If you have any conscience, you should give me something!

Yuk-gyeong shouted fervently, wondering if such a thing existed. In novels, when you shout like this, you get perks.

“Status window!

“Status window?

“Information!

“Setting!

“Logout!”

Damn it. Of course.

The world isn’t a game, and reality sucks. Ah, my life.

Yuk-gyeong finally cursed heartily and flipped off the sky.

“DAMN IT, FUCKING STATUS WINDOW!”

Ding!

Name: Lee Yuk-gyeong (Han Sang-sik)

Ability: Harvesting Yin to Replenish Yang, Plunder

Attribute: None.

Huh?

What is this?

Something’s appeared in front of my eyes.

No way, is this a status window?

What did I just say?

Didn’t I say “fucking status window”?

The translucent window that appeared in front of Yuk-gyeong slowly faded away.

Yuk-gyeong shouted once more.

“Fucking status window?!”

Ding!

Name: Lee Yuk-gyeong (Han Sang-sik)

Ability: Harvesting Yin to Replenish Yang, Plunder

Attribute: None

Is it really fucking status window?

Not status window, but fucking status window?

Yuk-gyeong dropped his axe and became absorbed in the fucking status window in front of him.

The name is my name, Lee Yuk-gyeong, with Han Sang-sik in parentheses.

The ability is Harvesting Yin to Replenish Yang?

There are no Attributes at all?

Isn’t this status window too simple?

No, no.

Still, it’s better than nothing.

I thought I had no abilities at all, but it seems that I do.

.

.

.

Even after awakening the fucking status window, nothing much changed.

The abilities listed, Harvesting Yin to Replenish Yang, and Plunder, came with no explanations or intuitiveness, leaving Yuk-gyeong to figure out how and where to use them on his own.

Such an unkind fucking status window. It sucks, seriously.

“Isn’t Harvesting Yin to Replenish Yang that, draining women through sex or something? Like turning them into mummies?”

In his past life, Yuk-gyeong was a wuxia and xianxia enthusiast. He knew what Harvesting Yin to Replenish Yang was.

Harvesting Yin to Replenish Yang. It’s a sinister technique that steals the Yin-Qi of others to bolster one’s Yang-Qi.

Plunder probably means taking something. Though I didn’t know what I could exactly take.

What am I supposed to do with these abilities?

Is it just telling me to have sex with women? I mean, sure, if I wanted to, it’d be easy, since I’m so damn handsome. But the problem is having to keep taking something from them. The issue is what happens after taking it.

If I take away their ability, then what happens to the woman I take it from?

Will they be aware that something was taken from them? If they realize it, they’ll try to kill me.

Even if they don’t realize it, the changes after taking it could be a problem.

If the woman dies or something goes wrong, that’ll be a big problem too.

If the woman he sleeps with turns into a mummy and shrivels up dead just like in the wuxia novels Yuk-gyeong read, he’d become a murderer. A murderer who killed with sex, no less.

Naturally, he’d be branded as a sex fiend in Murim and become a public enemy.

People seeking fame, righteous heroes wanting to enforce justice, officials who can’t stand the emergence of evil, and so on.

There would be countless people trying to kill Yuk-gyeong.

And if word got out that he kills people with sex, who would want to have sex with him? Then he wouldn’t be able to have sex anymore and would be doomed.

The first sex would be the last sex.

You know what? Forget about it.

I’ll just live without using such an ability.

One year later,

the year Yuk-gyeong came of age.

During that time, Yuk-gyeong lived quite an ordinary life.

He helped with his parents’ farm work, did odd jobs, and spent his days laboring quite diligently. If asked if he had any complaints, he would say he was full of them, but at least outwardly, he got along without showing his dissatisfaction. Since complaining would just earn him a beating.

The days of unpaid labor built a lot of muscle on Yuk-gyeong’s body. The small muscles that clung to his body, perhaps due to his physique, complemented his handsome face, developing him into a fine-looking young man.

Whenever Yuk-gyeong walked around the village, he felt the village girls stealing glances at him.

This popularity.

He didn’t have such a handsome face in his past life, but it seemed he fulfilled that desire in this life, and it felt good.

And he has a younger sibling at home too.

A girl with the rustic name of Lee Chil-nyeon.

When I asked my parents why I’m Yuk-gyeong and she’s Chil-nyeon, they replied that it’s because I’m the sixth child, so I’m Yuk-gyeong3, and she’s the seventh4, so she’s Chil-nyeon.

It turned out that four of the children died young, and one, well, was beaten to death.

So Yuk-gyeong became Yuk-gyeong, and Chil-nyeon became Chil-nyeon.

Anyway, they were names given without much thought.

It was just that kind of time and world.

The days when the whole family would rush to a fortune teller or a shaman’s house in South Korea to obtain a child’s name are gone.

There’s no crispy, oily fried chicken, and no pizza with various toppings on the dough.

All there was to eat was coarse mixed-grain rice and pickled radish-like side dishes. There would only be meat on village feast days.

Still, our family was kind of middle class with pigs and cows, so we had two meals a day. I heard that some households barely manage one.

Should I be happy about this?

I’m getting scared because I’m getting used to this… I want to go back to the world I came from.

And I even locked eyes with a village gal named Hye-chun.

There was even subtle talk about us having a wedding next year.

Hye-chun.

She was the prettiest girl in the village.

With a white, round face, a well-shaped body, and distinct features, she was a rare beauty in a countryside area like this.

My parents complained that Hye-chun was too pale and thin, but to Yuk-gyeong, that was beauty, and they just didn’t know it.

“Can’t I take Hye-chun back to the original world? Maybe I’d be able to if I really become an immortal?”

Yuk-gyeong was on his way to meet Hye-chun.

If I circle around the wall of the house of the lord who had returned home after serving in the capital, I would reach Hye-chun’s place.

Counting the patterns on the wall as he walked, he soon arrived at Hye-chun’s.

If it weren’t for the lord’s house, it would have been more convenient to visit Hye-chun’s house. Despite lightly grumbling, Yuk-gyeong’s steps were filled with excitement.

What should I give Hye-chun today? Last time, she was thrilled when I gave her flowers. Should I pick some mushrooms from the mountain this time?

In the distance, Hye-chun’s small, white figure appeared. As always, she was waiting in front of the house.

Just as Yuk-gyeong was about to run up and hug her,

“Let’s break up.”

What?

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.

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TL/N: Xianxia (meaning “immortal heroes”) is a Chinese fantasy genre heavily inspired by Chinese mythology and Taoism, focusing on characters who cultivate supernatural powers and seek immortality through martial arts, meditation, and other practices ↩️

TL/N: Wuxia (meaning “martial heroes”) is a genre of Chinese fiction or cinema featuring itinerant warriors of ancient China, often depicted as capable of superhuman feats of martial arts ↩️

TL/N: Yuk means six ↩️

TL/N: Chil means seven ↩️