WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: DereKimchi

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◈ Carefree Tale of Cultivation ◈

Chapter 1: Have You Heard of Cultivators?

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To the east of the Wol Kingdom stood a mountain called Mount Pyeongan.

Gossipmongers claimed its name came from a line of poetry composed by a poet who saw the mountain, covered in pine trees and green year-round, but no one knew whether it was true.

At the summit of Mount Pyeongan stood the Pine Sword Sect, a sect established centuries ago.

This martial sect had little contact with the outside world, yet whenever it displayed its strength, it had put numerous Peak Realm masters forward. Countless people wondered about the secret behind its power, and over its long history, it had become the subject of many rumors.

Malicious suspicions that it practiced demonic arts and ate people. Near-legendary tales that immortal medicine grew in a hidden realm somewhere within the sect. Claims that it had inherited the spirit of the great ancient Namgung Clan.

Yet among those many stories, one was the most famous.

The Pine Sword Sect served Immortals.

Early in the morning, before the dawn dew had dried, two people were climbing Mount Pyeongan in search of this mysterious sect.

“Uncle, how much farther do we have to go?”

The boy in a dark blue martial outfit asked as he caught his breath.

He looked to be in his early teens. His unbound black hair fell over his brows, while his pale skin showed that he had been raised with care.

“Not much farther. You can already see the signboard over there.”

The person who answered was the middle-aged man walking beside him.

He wore a loose black martial outfit and carried an enormous sword at his waist, fitting for his large frame.

“Didn't I tell you to work on your stamina regularly? Come along now.”

Smiling through the faint wrinkles on his face, the middle-aged man patted the boy’s shoulder and walked ahead.

The boy shook his head and followed him up the steep mountain path with difficulty.

There wasn’t even a trace of a signboard, let alone another person. What exactly was Uncle seeing?

“It’d be really convenient if there were something like a cable car here...”

“Hmm? What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

Watching his uncle glance back over his shoulder before continuing onward, the boy, Jin Hyeon, thought to himself.

At times like this, he truly missed modern conveniences.

Jin Hyeon was a reincarnator.

He had originally been an ordinary person enjoying all the comforts of the twenty-first century, but one day, he had been born into this new world.

He did not remember how he had died. He only knew that he had died shortly after graduating from university.

The place where Jin Hyeon had been reborn after such an unexpected reincarnation, without even knowing his cause of death, was like the martial arts novels from his past life.

When he learned that he had been reborn into a martial world, Jin Hyeon had been full of anticipation.

Wasn’t it only natural for a reincarnator to be granted some special talent?

Thanks to his memories from his past life, he had learned quickly from childhood, and the elders of his family had shared the same expectations.

Wasn’t it only natural for such an exceptional child to possess special talent?

Furthermore, he was the son of Jin Mukseong, the clan head of the martial Jin Family and a martial artist in the Peak Realm. Many expected him to inherit his father’s talent as well.

But reality was cruel.

Jin Hyeon had no talent for martial arts. None at all.

He could not even sense inner qi, much less accumulate it. At first, some thought he might simply be too young, but as time passed, the conclusion was that he possessed a constitution incapable of accumulating inner qi.

The expectations and treatment he had received vanished in an instant.

His mother had died in childbirth after giving birth to him. Across both the Jin Family and his maternal Baek Family, the only person who cared for Jin Hyeon was his uncle, Baek Woo.

Thus, the once-promising child of the Jin Family spent his peaceful years until the age of fourteen enjoying writing, calligraphy, and various hobbies instead of martial arts.

He did not think such a life was bad.

His previous life had ended in vain, so in this life, he would spend his days doing what he wanted for as long as he lived.

At least, that had been his plan until Baek Woo dragged him out of his comfortable room two days ago.

Kicking aside stones in his path and pushing away branches blocking the way, Jin Hyeon recalled that day.

“Hyeon! Come out quickly!”

At the time, he had been leisurely admiring a newly purchased painting.

Then his uncle had burst in, throwing open his door as if he meant to break it down.

Startled by the sudden return of his uncle, who had been away for some time, Jin Hyeon had not even had time to greet him before being asked a question.

“Hyeon, have you ever heard of cultivators?”

Of course, he had no idea what that meant.

But without waiting for an answer, his uncle had taken him straight to the clan head and declared that he would take Jin Hyeon away for martial training.

Jin Hyeon could not forget the expression on his father Jin Mukseong’s face that day.

His father’s eyes clearly showed what he was thinking. What sort of training could a child incapable of learning martial arts undergo? He had simply told them to do as they pleased and sent them away.

Jin Hyeon had been unable to make sense of the stormy turn of events either, but he trusted Baek Woo. So he left the Jin Family that very day and headed for Mount Pyeongan as his uncle wished.

Over the course of their two-day journey, Jin Hyeon learned why his uncle had been so excited.

Baek Woo had trained at the mysterious Pine Sword Sect as a child, then returned to the Baek Family after reaching the Second-Rate Realm. Recently, after breaking through into the Peak Realm, he had visited the Pine Sword Sect for the first time in a long while.

He had gone to revisit old memories and see his fellow disciples, but unexpectedly, his high realm had been acknowledged, and he had been offered the position of sect elder.

Baek Woo had refused, saying that he had no intention of leaving the Baek Family and needed to look after his nephew. Then he heard something extraordinary from the sect leader of the Pine Sword Sect.

The rumor that the Pine Sword Sect served Immortals was true. Moreover, every ten years, each elder had the privilege of sending one person from among their relatives or close acquaintances to the place where the Immortals cultivated.

Baek Woo immediately accepted the position of elder upon hearing this.

Then, after learning that there was not even a week left before the Immortals, who called themselves cultivators, would arrive, he had ridden without resting for a single day to fetch Jin Hyeon.

Jin Hyeon had felt warmth at the sight of his uncle smiling brightly as he told him that an opportunity had come for him as well.

Since his reincarnation, his uncle had been the only person to care for him like this.

In truth, Baek Woo was practically his only family.

Still, despite being touched, Jin Hyeon did not entirely believe his uncle’s story.

‘People in this world are so prone to exaggeration that I can’t trust them...’

It was not that he distrusted his uncle.

He simply could not trust the sect leader of the Pine Sword Sect, who had told Baek Woo about Immortals, or cultivators.

This was undoubtedly a martial world where martial arts and martial artists truly existed.

Once someone accumulated enough inner qi to become a First-Rate master, their physical abilities surpassed ordinary human limits.

Peak Realm masters like his uncle and father could collapse a house with a projected palm blast or shatter a boulder by sending out sword qi without much difficulty.

But according to what his uncle had heard, the abilities of these sudden cultivators included agelessness and long life as a matter of course, boiling seas, and splitting mountains.

Considering that people in this world were better at saving face and boasting than at martial arts, cultivators were likely either an elite group possessing martial arts superior to those of ordinary martial artists or people who had learned special secret arts.

Even in the history of his past life, there had been no shortage of people who called themselves Immortals and caused rebellions or chaos.

Of course, since martial arts truly existed here, they likely possessed some real ability. Still, claims about boiling seas were difficult to believe.

Even so, if martial artists who had reached the Peak Realm revered them as Immortals, perhaps they could open a path for someone like him, who could not learn martial arts.

Holding on to that faint hope, Jin Hyeon wiped the beads of sweat from his brow and followed his uncle.

* * *

Three hours after Baek Woo had said that he could see the signboard.

“Huff... huff... Uncle, can’t we rest for a moment?”

Jin Hyeon slumped down, drenched in sweat.

Just how high up was this damned sect? And had that signboard, which had supposedly been visible so long ago, gone off to climb even higher by itself?

Baek Woo lightly shook his head.

“We’re truly not far now. At this point, I can carry you the rest of the way.”

“What?”

Baek Woo picked up the exhausted Jin Hyeon, who had been leaning against a nearby rock, slung him over his shoulder like a sack, and kicked off the ground in a sprint.

“Uncle, ugh! Too fa... ugh!”

With leg strength enhanced by inner qi and the distinctive movement art of martial artists, Jin Hyeon was able to recall the feeling of riding a roller coaster for the first time in a very long while.

Unlike a roller coaster, however, there was nothing enjoyable about watching the scenery flash past while being carried on the back of a middle-aged man.

“We’re here!”

Fortunately, the experience was brief.

After covering an enormous distance in an instant, Baek Woo set down the dizzy, staggering Jin Hyeon.

Jin Hyeon steadied his spinning head and let his vision settle. Only then was he able to take in their destination.

And he was sincerely impressed.

The first thing to seize his attention was the entrance to the Pine Sword Sect.

A colossal arch-shaped rock cast its majestic shadow over the ground. It appeared to stand nearly several dozen meters tall.

The rock had not been artificially carved. Its uneven, rough surface suggested that it had taken on that shape through natural erosion.

Yet its rugged form only made the words Pine Sword Sect (松劍門) carved at its peak stand out all the more.

Then, beneath those words, Jin Hyeon’s eyes shone at the sight beyond the arch-shaped rock.

Behind an enormous brick-paved square stood a six-story building adorned with deep blue roof tiles, rising like a mountain peak.

On either side of what appeared to be the Pine Sword Sect’s main hall, the largest building Jin Hyeon had seen in this life, stood a slightly lower three-story building, one on each side, surrounding the square.

And that was not all. Buildings large and small stood across the lofty peaks of Mount Pyeongan, from nearby places to distances beyond Jin Hyeon’s sight.

Combined with the thin mist draped over the high mountain, the broad and magnificent scene gave off an indescribable air of mystery.

“Well? This is your uncle’s Pine Sword Sect. Isn’t it impressive?”

Under normal circumstances, Jin Hyeon would have mocked him for calling it his Pine Sword Sect when he had only recently returned. But overwhelmed by its grandeur, he merely nodded silently.

Baek Woo smiled and ruffled his hair.

“Now, let’s go meet the sect leader...”

“Uncle?”

Baek Woo had stopped in the middle of speaking and was staring intently at something. Jin Hyeon raised his brow as he looked at the hand resting on his head.

There was no answer.

Why had he suddenly stopped talking? What was he looking at?

Jin Hyeon followed his uncle’s gaze and raised his head.

Then he saw it.

“Ah.”

Far across the vast blue sky,

a massive ship was flying toward them as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

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