WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
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◈ Carefree Tale of Cultivation ◈
Chapter 36: Cultivator from the Martial World
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Outside Pyeongeum City.
A rugged valley.
“Senior Brother! Over here!”
Seomun Hyeok immediately flew toward the shout on a magical artifact.
The Divine Flame Sect disciples had already gathered when he arrived, all staring at the same spot.
Seomun Hyeok's fists clenched involuntarily. Pale flames flickered between tightly clenched teeth.
There was a corpse there.
The body, with a gaping hole in its chest, wore shabby clothes and had no distinguishing features, though faint spiritual qi still lingered around it.
Its bloodless skin and patches of decay suggested it had been dead for quite some time.
“Is this the one?”
Seomun Hyeok asked Yeop Ho beside him.
“I am certain. I saw them several times when obtaining medicinal pills within the sect.”
“What about the storage pouch?”
Seomun Hyeok swept the corpse with spiritual perception. Where was the most important stolen item?
“W-Well, that is...”
There was no need to hear the answer.
“Then what traces did the killer leave?”
“Some demonic qi... seems to remain. It appears to have been the work of a demonic cultivator. But I cannot be certain...”
Ignoring the disciple reporting through a cold sweat, Seomun Hyeok approached the corpse.
Fwoosh.
He burned it, along with the tree it had been leaning against.
It was a fitting end for a traitor, yet Seomun Hyeok's expression remained dark.
Some demonic qi?
How was anyone supposed to identify the culprit from such information when there were so many demonic cultivators in the world? The mission might as well have failed.
‘What am I supposed to tell Master...?’
His anger forgotten, Seomun Hyeok wore a hollow expression before leading the Divine Flame Sect cultivators away.
* * *
Several days had passed since the exchange gathering.
“Hoo...”
Jin Hyeon emerged from his cultivation in the black space and exhaled deeply.
Without moving from his cross-legged posture, he quietly observed his Soul Sea.
His soul, existing as a smoke-like vapor, and the spiritual qi that permeated and enveloped it, filling the Soul Sea to the brim, always gave him a mysterious sensation.
His cultivation speed had slowed, so there had been no noticeable increase in spiritual power. Even so, it was still incomparably fast by the standards of an ordinary cultivator.
Rising from his bed, Jin Hyeon took a dharma robe from his storage pouch, put it on, and used a spell art.
A cold yet strangely stinging sensation spread over his body, as though he had rubbed alcohol solution all over himself. Pale blue light briefly enveloped him.
The faint glow flickered before quickly vanishing.
Cleanliness Art (淸潔術).
It was a great invention developed by cultivators of the distant ancient era because they found bathing troublesome.
The spell art shook away and washed off dust and filth from the caster's entire body, making it popular among cultivators.
It was also why cultivators maintained clean skin and faces, unlike mortals in the secular world, where plumbing had not been properly developed.
Of course, once one reached Foundation Establishment or above, the spiritual qi naturally surrounding the body supposedly produced a similar effect. Qi Refining stage cultivators, however, had to use the spell art themselves.
Feeling refreshed, Jin Hyeon stretched out of habit, then smacked his lips at the smell of frying oil drifting up from below.
He was currently staying not at his previous lodgings, but at an inn in the middle of Pyeongeum City's market district.
Since he had no intention of staying long after the upcoming auction, he had abandoned his plan to return to his original lodgings after the exchange gathering.
That place was expensive, likely because it had been built atop a spiritual vein, if not a cave dwelling.
As he would only be staying a few days, it seemed wasteful to remain there. While wandering through the market, Jin Hyeon had found this inn, which sold quite delicious fried food.
The cost of lodging was almost nothing, and good food was readily available. It was far better.
Just as he started downstairs with a happy smile, the noise of a fierce argument suddenly echoed through the inn.
“What? How dare you disrespect this Perfected Diamond Mountain Tiger! Kneel and beg forgiveness at once!”
“That is quite a long sobriquet you gave yourself! With that bracer and eyepatch, you look exactly like a bandit. What Perfected? Do you think you're some Core Formation old monster?”
Jin Hyeon frowned at the shouting from the street outside.
“Ha... Something like this happens every five or six hours without fail.”
Instead of ordering food, he headed outside.
A crowd had already gathered around the two cultivators, murmuring among themselves.
One was a cultivator with a head shaved so close it could put a monk to shame. Facing them with a flushed face was a skinny cultivator wearing an eyepatch and a bracer on one arm.
Both were at Qi Refining, Level 8. Since there was a talisman stall right beside them, it seemed they had gotten into a dispute over a talisman they both wanted.
The self-proclaimed Perfected Diamond Mountain Tiger raised their voice without regard for the cultivators watching.
“Give me my talisman right now!”
“I paid spirit stones for it. Why would it be yours? You only came over and said you wanted it right before I bought it. Have you no conscience?”
The bald cultivator shook their head as though it was not worth listening to and turned to leave.
At that, a sinister aura appeared on Perfected Diamond Mountain Tiger's face, and they began gathering spiritual power.
“Die, you arrogant...!”
Apparently not expecting an attack by spell art in the middle of Pyeongeum City, with so many eyes on them, the bald cultivator had not even fully turned around before terror crossed their face at the threat coming from behind.
A sharp golden blade formed in Perfected Diamond Mountain Tiger's hand and shot toward the bald cultivator's back.
Even cultivators of the same realm would not escape unscathed if caught off guard by a gold-aspect cultivation method known for its offensive power.
Just as everyone imagined the bald cultivator being pierced by the blade, a short command rang out from above.
“Stop.”
Clang!
The golden blade struck a silver pillar that had suddenly appeared from nowhere, ricocheted into the air, and soon vanished.
At the same time, a man in a green robe descended before Perfected Diamond Mountain Tiger.
“A Foundation Establishment Senior...!”
“It is the Pyeongeum City Guard!”
The surrounding cultivators lowered their heads or avoided the guard's gaze.
Jin Hyeon already knew this man, having seen him several times before.
With the character for Nam displayed on his shoulder, he was a Foundation Establishment cultivator of Pyeongeum City's Nam Family and a guard responsible for suppressing disturbances throughout the city.
Thinking that the tired-looking man resembled Nam Hyeok quite a bit, Jin Hyeon watched him bind both troublemakers, take them aboard his magical artifact, and fly away.
With little time left before the auction began, Pyeongeum City had recently become even more crowded than before.
As a result, people fighting like that in the packed market district were far from rare.
Most cultivators chose restraint under the watch of Foundation Establishment cultivators, but the world was large, and shortsighted fools could be found anywhere.
Jin Hyeon shook his head and set off.
He had intended to eat breakfast first, but his appetite had completely vanished.
He passed through streets more densely packed than ever with cultivators of all kinds.
One person carried an unusually shaped spider spirit beast on their back. Another wore a thick stone mask so heavy that it was hard to tell whether it was a face or a mask.
People wrapped head to toe in bandages or cloth did not even qualify as unusual, and he could also see female cultivators proudly wearing provocative clothes that forcibly drew men's gazes.
Their realms were equally varied. Within an hour's walk, he could spot one or two cultivators at every level from Qi Refining, Level 1 to Level 12.
And in places where people naturally made room, Foundation Establishment cultivators walked about as casually as anyone else.
Watching all manner of people, magical artifacts, and spirit beasts with interest, Jin Hyeon arrived at his destination, Moonlit Pavilion.
The building was not very tall. It seemed to serve as both a tavern and an inn, with its lower floors filled with the smell of liquor and the sound of laughter and chatter, while the upper floors were quiet.
He really did seem to like drinking. He had even chosen a tavern as his lodging.
Jin Hyeon dusted off his white dharma robe and entered through the wide-open entrance.
When he told a passing attendant that he had come to see Seomun Hyeok, he was quickly shown to a room.
“Fellow Daoist Seo. I hope I am not interrupting.”
Entering the room, Jin Hyeon found a round table occupying most of the small space, with Seomun Hyeok sitting alone at one end.
A wine cup and small ceramic flask rested before him, but neither showed signs of having been touched.
Jin Hyeon unconsciously hesitated at Seomun Hyeok's unusually stiff expression, as though something unpleasant had happened.
“Ah, Fellow Daoist Jin. Welcome. You are not interrupting at all. Please, sit.”
As though snapping back to his senses at Jin Hyeon's greeting, Seomun Hyeok forced his expression to relax, took out another wine cup, and placed it beside him.
Jin Hyeon had no intention of drinking so early in the morning, so he lightly waved off the wine Seomun Hyeok was about to pour.
Seomun Hyeok nodded in understanding and emptied his own cup.
“You have come at the right time. I was traveling outside Pyeongeum City until yesterday, so I would not have been able to receive you.”
“Outside Pyeongeum City?”
Jin Hyeon tilted his head.
Was there any reason to go outside the city before the auction?
Then he recalled what the Divine Flame Sect cultivator named Yeop Hyo had said before and shifted his eyes in understanding.
Jin Hyeon had no desire to pry into what mission Seomun Hyeok had received from his Master, so he immediately changed the subject.
“The reason I asked to meet separately is that I feel I received far too generous a gift. Is there any way I might repay you?”
Strictly speaking, the purpose of today's visit was less to repay him than to learn about the Voice Transmission Art Seomun Hyeok had used before and the gift he had given. Still, pleasant words were always useful for beginning a conversation.
Yet even though Seomun Hyeok knew it was merely a polite remark, he opened and closed his mouth once as though considering something.
Just as Jin Hyeon began to wonder at the reaction, Seomun Hyeok answered as calmly as if he had never hesitated.
“Not at all. My Master has always taught that one should not be stingy when forming good friendships and good connections. Thus, gifting Fellow Daoist Jin a Fire Spirit Blast made by Master is both an expression of gratitude and the fulfillment of Master's teachings.”
A Fire Spirit Blast.
Jin Hyeon's eyes brightened when he heard the name of the Fire Spirit Stone bomb he had received.
When he examined it at the inn, he had been surprised to find no signs of special processing or artifact refinement.
Unable to determine how it had been made, Jin Hyeon's interest in it had grown greatly alongside his interest in the Voice Transmission Art.
‘That explains it. If a Foundation Establishment cultivator made it, it's only natural that I can't reverse-engineer it.’
“To think that your Master made something with such formidable power. Their artifact-refinement skill must be exceptional.”
Seomun Hyeok smiled proudly at Jin Hyeon's response.
“Master excels in many fields. Not only does Master make devices such as Fire Spirit Blasts, the Voice Transmission Art I used on Fellow Daoist Jin before was also developed by Master. Voice transmission is originally the exclusive domain of Foundation Establishment cultivators, who use divine sense, but Master adapted martial arts from the secular world so Qi Refining cultivators could use a spell art with a similar effect.”
Master had developed the Voice Transmission Art? By adapting martial arts?
Jin Hyeon was deeply impressed.
The overwhelming majority of cultivators merely learned and used existing spell arts. Developing one personally was no small achievement.
And to develop a spell art by referencing martial artists and martial arts, which cultivators generally looked down upon?
“May I ask your Master's honored name?”
Pleased that Jin Hyeon was showing interest in his Master, Seomun Hyeok cast off some of his earlier gloom and spoke.
“Master's honored name is Gu Yang-cheon, and Master is known by the sobriquet Flame Sword.”
Flame Sword Gu Yang-cheon?
The name felt strangely familiar to Jin Hyeon.
Searching his memories, he recalled someone he had encountered not in the cultivation world, but while he still lived at the Jin Family estate.
“Could Master perhaps be related to Gu Yang-cheon, the Yeomhwa Sword Saint?”
“Pardon?”
“No, I mean... It's just that when I lived in the mortal world of the Wol Kingdom, I heard of a martial artist by that name...”
Jin Hyeon stumbled over his words.
Gu Yang-cheon, the Yeomhwa Sword Saint, was someone he had encountered only through the heroic tales and novels his uncle had told him as a child.
A martial artist said to have stood at the peak of the martial worlds of both the Wol Kingdom and Sang Kingdom, the foremost martial artist under heaven.
An expert who had cut down countless wicked forces, protected the weak, and risen to the summit with a single sword alongside a divine art that produced distinctive flames.
Now, Jin Hyeon understood how divorced the title of foremost under heaven was from reality. Still, Gu Yang-cheon, the Yeomhwa Sword Saint, had been the idol of countless martial artists in both nations.
Yet not long after passing fifty, Gu Yang-cheon had vanished. Imitations claiming to be the cultivation method or possessions left behind by the martial artist had flooded both martial worlds.
“No. Fellow Daoist Jin is correct.”
“Pardon?”
“Master was once a martial artist in the mortal world. Master has also said that Master held the sobriquet Yeomhwa Sword Saint.”
So Seomun Hyeok's Master really was a martial artist from Jin Hyeon's homeland.
The thought that someone who had existed over a hundred years ago was living in the same era as him gave Jin Hyeon the vague sense that such things were not uncommon in the cultivation world.
“That is truly amazing. To think someone I had only heard about in childhood stories is still alive, and has even reached Foundation Establishment...”
Seomun Hyeok smiled proudly.
“Despite entering cultivation late, Master reached Foundation Establishment. Master is the idol of every Divine Flame Sect disciple. Becoming Master's disciple is a great blessing.”
Having unexpectedly discovered a shared interest, the two continued their conversation in a lighthearted mood.
Along the way, Jin Hyeon traded the secret art he had learned before that drove spirit beasts berserk for the Voice Transmission Art.
He did not obtain the method for making Fire Spirit Blasts, but this alone was a great gain.
As he grew closer to Seomun Hyeok, Jin Hyeon thought that he might one day meet Gu Yang-cheon in person, obtain an autograph, and bring it as a gift to his uncle, who admired the martial artist.
Their mutually satisfying meeting ended only after taking up the entire day.
Jin Hyeon and Seomun Hyeok both had the same thought.
They had found a good connection.
* * *
At the northern edge of Pyeongeum City.
Below the enormous stone mountain that served as the northern gate stood a massive hemispherical structure.
Cultivators from throughout Pyeongeum City streamed toward the building, which was as large as the place where the Blue Willow Sect held its disciple tournaments.
“Junior Brother Jin, what are you looking at? If we don't hurry, we'll only find seats in the corner!”
Jin Hyeon had been looking around at the enormous crowd when Jo Yeongdo's shout beside him brought him back to his senses.
“Ah, forgive me. Let us go at once.”
It had already been two days since his meeting with Seomun Hyeok.
Today was finally the day of Pyeongeum City's auction. On his way to the auction house early that morning, Jin Hyeon had encountered the Blue Willow Sect disciples he had met at the exchange gathering and was traveling with them.
With his heart racing in anticipation of the various items he would see at the auction and any unexpected windfall he might find, Jin Hyeon headed toward the auction house entrance.
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