WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 100
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Yi Hyeon gathered some more information before leaving Green Forest Pavilion.
He asked about the homes and trading posts of the demon race near Cheongseok Mountain, then about the rare spiritual materials found in the Vast Verdant Forest Sea. Master Ho answered calmly, without a trace of annoyance.
Clans and other groups sometimes held markets for major transactions, but everyday supplies could also be found in nearby settlements.
“Does the demon race use spirit stones too?”
“Of course. We simply don’t tend to carry as many as the human race does.”
“What about alchemical pills?”
“They make good trade goods, provided the buyer can judge their quality and effects. However, many pills are made by alchemists of the human race, so they aren’t necessarily useful to the demon race. Our physical constitutions can differ from clan to clan.”
Yi Hyeon asked a few more questions.
Could he obtain spirit tree seeds and young saplings? Were there craftsmen who worked with high-grade spirit materials? Was it common to exchange ancient inheritances?
With each question, Master Ho looked a little more pleased.
This junior was quite curious.
He had said he lived alone in the lands of the human race, but it seemed he had plenty of interests besides tempering his body.
“Surely you aren’t thinking of growing plants?”
“That depends on the situation.”
Master Ho was shocked. To think he was considering growing plants! Yi Dong-o’s refinement truly went beyond all imagination.
Master Ho took a jade slip from a small chest beneath the shelves and offered it to him.
“These are the territories of the mountain lords near Green Forest Pavilion.”
When Yi Hyeon sent his spiritual sense into it, mountain ranges, lakes, and distant dwellings unfolded one after another. Cheongseok Mountain was marked as a small dot on one side of the map.
At the map’s edge, he found the coast they had left behind. They had traveled through an enormous stretch of forest, yet even the area shown on the map was only the southeastern corner of the Vast Verdant Forest Sea.
‘So this is just the entrance.’
Master Ho spoke.
“Don’t fly straight over another fellow cultivator’s home without good reason. At first, you would be better off following the roads.”
“What about traveling underground? I imagine some clans live in burrows.”
Master Ho nodded.
“Of course they do. But traveling underground doesn’t mean you haven’t entered someone else’s territory. In fact, they may react even more strongly if you approach an underground spirit vein or nest.”
“I see.”
Deep underground was an inconvenient place for cultivators of the human race to enter, but there was no guarantee that the same common sense applied to the demon race of the Vast Verdant Forest Sea.
‘Digging deep won’t be enough to keep me safe here. This might not even be a suitable place for Underground Hideout No. 4...’
Only after committing the boundaries and routes to memory did he gather the diagrams from the Records of Ancient Humanoid Transformation and rise.
“Thank you for all your help.”
Master Ho saw him out.
Back at Cheongseok Mountain, Yi Hyeon swept the entire mountain with the Qi-Observing Spell and Earth-Sensing Spell.
He checked where water collected and drained, the thickness of the bedrock, and the directions in which its cracks extended.
The mountain’s streams flowed through the lake in the basin before draining away. Behind the lake, a long wall of bluish rock rose into the air. The main flow of the spirit vein lay there.
Yi Hyeon placed his palm against the rock and felt spiritual qi coming from beyond it. This was different from energy forcibly drawn together by a Spirit-Gathering Formation. The flow continued without end, formed by the mountains, water, soil, and trees working together over many long years.
‘A Tier 3 spirit vein...’
For a while, he could not bring himself to take his hand away. How much thought had he once put into secretly attaching vein seats to other people’s spirit veins? He had spent long years cautiously drawing away only a little spiritual qi to avoid discovery, frequently moving his formation equipment.
Yet now, he had been given an entire mountain with a Tier 3 spirit vein right from the start. It really did pay to become stronger!
...
Before sunset, a small cave abode was finished inside the rock wall, a short distance from the temporary cave he had dug the day before. Its simple layout consisted of a room for receiving guests, an empty cultivation room, and a shallow storeroom.
Yi Hyeon smoothed the floor and brought in a table and stools cut from the rock.
He set up a Tier 2 Spirit-Concealing Formation and a basic warning formation around the cave abode. They were better than nothing, but their level was far below his current abilities.
‘I’ll have to find some good formations someday.’
After hanging Green Forest Pavilion’s token where it was clearly visible from outside, Yi Hyeon closed the cultivation room door and looked down at the floor.
Shhh.
His body sank beneath it.
...
Yi Hyeon made a small temporary stone chamber between layers of bedrock and sat cross-legged.
First, he examined the Qi-Regulating Method Master Ho had given him once more. For half a shichen, he compared various passages and tried moving a little energy himself, but it still did not suit his body.
He put down the jade slip containing the Qi-Regulating Method and pressed another to his forehead. This one held the complete Golden Core Section of the 《Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art》.
Rereading the passages about the Primordial Unity Body felt different now that he had completed the Unsullied Golden Body.
Before, he had only memorized the incantations and understood the diagrams. Now, he could clearly recognize which flows within his body they described.
Yi Hyeon slowly calmed his breathing. Fully mastering his new body mattered more than increasing his magical power right now. The problem was that even drawing on a little energy caused demonic markings to begin showing all over his skin.
‘If only I could reduce what’s leaking out first...’
According to the experimental records of Jewel Light Temple’s monks, refining the demonic markings themselves would take many years. Still, that might not mean he had to spend all those years giving off such a vicious demonic aura. Surely there was some way to tone down his presence?
Yi Hyeon moved his energy little by little, from his toes to the crown of his head.
Some time later, he took a flat stone tablet from his storage pouch. He rubbed away the old writing and carved new words with his fingertip.
【Age: 3,207】
【Realm: Golden Core stage, Layer 1】
【Magical Power: 24,500 → 50,000】
【Physique: Primordial Unity Body, Unsullied Golden Body】
【Cultivation Art: Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art (Golden Core Section)】
‘That should be about right?’
Following the cultivation world’s usual practice, Yi Hyeon changed the label from spiritual power to magical power. Generally, the power used by Golden Core cultivators and above was called magical power.
He had spent quite a while considering what number to give it.
Breaking through a major realm greatly changed both the quantity and quality of one’s magical power, making it difficult to express with a single number.
Still, this was a homemade status window for his own convenience. He decided to use a number that felt intuitively reasonable, even if it was a little inaccurate. The result was fifty thousand.
Yi Hyeon floated the tablet before him and gazed at it for a while.
The Unsullied Golden Body, a physique on the level of the Nascent Soul realm, and fifty times the magical power of an early Golden Core cultivator...
He had reached a realm that had seemed impossibly distant when he first began cultivating, one attained only by the Ancestors who supported their sects.
Yi Hyeon fixed the tablet to the wall and lay back. As he admired his homemade status window from the floor, the corners of his mouth rose on their own.
After a while, he sat up and inspected the items left after the heavenly tribulation.
The Moon-Sinking Sword he took from his storage pouch had a fine crack along one side of its silver-gray blade. If he poured his current magical power into it without restraint, it would snap at once. The Six-Leaf Shield, yellow flying swords, and Three-Molt Silkworm Robe had already been destroyed beyond recognition.
‘I’ll need to get some magical implements or magical treasures. Luckily, I have plenty of spirit stones, and sixteen Gold-Condensing Pills left. I can sell them while I’m trading.’
He also took out the jade cases with scorched exteriors and checked that their contents were undamaged. Then he applied fresh Spirit-Sealing Talismans and put them back into his storage pouch.
...
For the next few days, Yi Hyeon stayed quietly at Cheongseok Mountain.
He practiced controlling his new body, read the map Master Ho had given him, and alternated between studying the diagrams from the Records of Ancient Humanoid Transformation and the Golden Core Section of the 《Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art》.
The enormous beast in the diagrams assumed various postures or crouched low to the ground.
At first, he had struggled to understand what the pictures meant. But after observing his own body and copying the postures, he realized that they concealed a peculiar principle.
‘Unlike the Qi-Regulating Method the demon race uses today, this seems to suit my body a little better...’
On reflection, that was not so strange.
The spiritual qi of heaven and earth had supposedly been far richer in ancient times. It was quite possible that ancient members of the demon race, not just cultivators of the human race, had tempered their bodies in ways similar to the Primordial Unity Body.
‘I’d like to see the complete inheritance, but I can’t rashly approach a fifth-tier Demon Lord and demand it... The Vast Verdant Forest Sea is so large that I don’t even know who might have something useful. I’ll have to gather information little by little.’
...
He spent the rest of his time surveying a site for Underground Hideout No. 4. At first, he had intended to descend deep beneath the rocky mountain and create a large cavern, but examining the strata with the Earth-Sensing Spell and Qi-Observing Spell revealed a problem.
At roughly twenty li underground, the depth of Underground Hideout No. 3, almost none of the rich spiritual qi he had felt on the mountain remained. That would defeat the purpose of occupying a Tier 3 spirit vein.
In the end, Yi Hyeon drew on his experience as the Two Heavens Society’s leader and found a relatively deep location that could still receive enough of the spirit vein’s energy.
By guiding the spiritual qi from the Tier 3 spirit vein, he could create a spot five li underground comparable to a Tier 2 spirit vein. It adjoined a natural cavern in the bedrock, so there was ample room for trees to grow.
‘But five li is too shallow... Even with a Tier 2 Spirit-Concealing Formation, fourth-tier greater demons might discover it. In that case... I should only bring the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree.’
Unlike Underground Hideout No. 3, whose safety had been proven for more than a thousand years, the Vast Verdant Forest Sea still held too many unknowns.
But a single Heaven-Origin Divine Tree seemed manageable. He should be able to quickly gather it into his storage pouch even in an emergency.
It was also the spirit plant that most needed an environment rich in spiritual qi right now.
‘I want to try using Heaven-Origin Force soon, too.’
Yi Hyeon placed his hand against the rock wall. The hard stone softened and melted away, pushing inward.
* * *
On the fifteenth day after settling at Cheongseok Mountain, Yi Hyeon was sitting by the lake, brewing tea.
A map of the surrounding area and an underground plan lay side by side on the stone table.
As he poured water into his cup, he suddenly looked up.
Whoooom.
Heavy wingbeats sounded beyond the ridge. The air above the lake was forced to one side, sending large ripples across the surface. As the forest’s high branches bent together, four black shadows appeared.
They were four Tier 3 black hawks.
Thud!
The enormous black hawks landed roughly, shattering the rocks along the shore. The wind from their folding wings stirred the plans on the stone table. Yi Hyeon quietly reached out and put the papers into his storage pouch.
Though only Tier 3 demonic beasts, the black hawks seemed capable of humanoid transformation.
The four soon took humanoid form. The man at the front had a sharply hooked nose, with black feathers bearing a metallic sheen growing from his eyebrows, below his ears, and across his shoulders.
His cultivation was also the highest, seemingly close to the peak of Tier 3. All four, however, still had their wings.
The man arrogantly surveyed the cave abode and lakeshore. He briefly faltered on sensing Yi Hyeon’s demonic aura, but raised his chin again.
“Who are you, and why are you on this mountain?”
“I’m Yi Dong-o. What brings you here?”
“Who told you that you could use this mountain?”
“Master Ho gave me permission to stay.”
Yi Hyeon pointed to Green Forest Pavilion’s token hanging at the cave entrance, but the man merely drew his brows together. His expression did not soften.
“Lord Heukgak of Blackwing Ridge has already claimed this mountain. It’s reserved for the lord’s niece or nephew to live in after taking humanoid form. Pack your things and leave at once.”
He seemed certain that merely mentioning Lord Heukgak’s name would make Yi Hyeon step aside.
Yi Hyeon looked at the man for a moment.
Another owner had appeared after only fifteen days, on a guest mountain managed by Master Ho.
‘I see. I’ve already been dragged into a dispute! So there really is no such thing as kindness without a price. The demon race is every bit as political as the human race.’
It seemed Master Ho had placed him on disputed land. Still, considering the kindness Master Ho had shown him, it was only right to handle this much in return.
Just then, one of the black hawks at the back strode toward the cave entrance. The stone steps before the rock wall split beneath their talons with a Crack!
“You even carved stone steps, copying the human race. I suppose you’ll leave on your own once you’ve got no hole to crawl into.”
Yi Hyeon’s gaze turned cold.
“Stop.”
But the black hawk snorted and gathered a sharp wind around one wing. Just as the wing was about to sweep toward the cave entrance, Yi Hyeon vanished from the lakeshore without a trace.
The hawk sensed something wrong, but before they could even look down, an iron grip closed around their right ankle.
‘...?!’
Their body was yanked into the air. Holding the ankle, Yi Hyeon twisted at the waist and hurled the black hawk into another hawk’s chest before the first could even spread their wings.
Bam!
Black feathers flew everywhere as the two tumbled away in a tangled heap.
The pain was so great that they lost their humanoid forms and rolled along the lakeshore in their original bodies.
Seeing two companions thrown aside in an instant, the man at the front widened his eyes.
“You bastard!”
He raised a black gale and slashed his wing diagonally toward Yi Hyeon’s chest. The ordinary robe tore apart, and a harsh metallic scraping erupted from the skin beneath.
Skrrrk!
The tips of the black feathers skimmed his skin, throwing off sparks.
Yi Hyeon used the force of the man’s turning upper body against him and slipped close before his opponent could lash out with the talons on his other side.
The moment Yi Hyeon’s shoulder vanished from the man’s view, a heavy blow struck his ribs.
Thud!
A single elbow strike caved in the metallic feathers. As the man lost his breath, Yi Hyeon caught his wrist.
Crunch!
“Argh!”
At the pain of his bones being crushed, the man hastily unleashed his demonic power. The two black wings rising from his back whipped up a vortex that threatened to swallow the lake water and gravel. He tried to pull away, but his captured wrist did not budge.
Yi Hyeon tightened his fingers, and golden demonic markings appeared clearly all over his body. He pulled and twisted the arm in his grasp, driving the huge body that had been trying to rise into the sky straight into the ground.
Kabooom!
The bedrock along the shore collapsed. One wing bent at an unnatural angle as the man landed on his back. The surging vortex scattered at once, showering water and stones.
Without giving him an opening, Yi Hyeon drove a knee onto the man’s shoulder and roughly twisted the captured arm.
Crack!
“S-stop!”
The man spat blood. Black feathers sprouted fiercely from his neck and cheeks as his body swelled. Seeing signs that he was about to revert to his original form and struggle, Yi Hyeon slammed him into the ground once more.
Bam!
“...”
The last unhurt black hawk stood with their wings awkwardly spread, trembling in a manner quite unworthy of a Tier 3 demonic beast.
The two who had been thrown aside barely managed to stand, their broken wings and bleeding beaks shaking.
“Anything else to say?”
One of their beaks opened slightly, then closed again. Yi Hyeon spoke to the man beneath him.
“Go and ask Master Ho. Find out who owns this land.”
When Yi Hyeon lifted the back of his neck a little, the man coughed up dust and blood and groaned.
“...I’ll check.”
With difficulty, the man shifted his eyes toward Yi Hyeon’s hand gripping his arm. Despite the demonic power protecting his body, the ironlike feathers were crumpling wherever those fingers touched.
Beyond the golden demonic markings flickering beneath Yi Hyeon’s skin, he sensed a presence like dozens of savage greater demons tangled together and growling in hell. A chill ran down his spine.
‘What kind of monstrous bloodline is this...?!’
If his opponent used even a little more strength, his entire arm would be torn off.
“We apologize.”
Yi Hyeon looked down at him for a moment, then loosened his grip and lifted his knee.
The three black hawks hurried over and wrapped their wings around the man, helping him up as one arm hung limp. When Yi Hyeon’s gaze passed over the broken stone steps, the hawk with the shattered beak flinched. They pushed the piece of rock they had carelessly struck with their talons back into place, then backed away.
The black shadows vanished beyond the ridge as though fleeing.
Yi Hyeon stretched.
“Hmm... That should have strengthened Master Ho’s position considerably!”
* * *
Two days later, at Green Forest Pavilion.
Master Ho stared in disbelief at the man in black robes sitting with one arm in a sling.
The feathers below his ears had fallen out in patches. Above his collar, a vivid blue bruise in the shape of five fingers marked the back of his neck. Of the three black hawks crouched on branches outside the pavilion, one even had bandages wrapped around their beak.
“That’s Cheongseok Mountain, not Cheonggak Mountain...?”
“...?”
The man raised his head blankly. Master Ho took off the jade spectacles, then put them back on.
‘What an idiotic birdbrain!’
“The place I discussed with Lord Heukgak was Cheonggak Mountain, roughly a thousand li east of Cheongseok Mountain.”
“......”
...
After sending the group away, Master Ho stood by the window for a long time, lost in thought. Blackwing Ridge was entirely at fault, but the injuries were severe.
‘He was extraordinary when he sparred with Dam Ak, but I never imagined he could be this heavy-handed. He beat those underlings without a care, even with Lord Heukgak, a fourth-tier greater demon, behind them! Is his ancient bloodline truly so fierce and fond of fighting...?’
Master Ho recalled Yi Dong-o speaking gently, behaving politely, and reading books of the human race. Surely he was not bad by nature. He simply did not yet know how to get along with his neighbors or control his strength.
‘So even with all that intelligence, he’s still a beast... But he’s the most promising talent I’ve ever seen among members of the demon race. He’s only rough because he lived like a demonic beast in the wild. Given time, I can teach him to become a civilized member of the demon race!’
* * *
A month later.
Yi Hyeon followed the routes Master Ho had shown him while traveling through the forest sea. Only after drawing close to the lands of the human race did he descend deep underground.
He was passing through the Seo Kingdom and Hyeon Kingdom on his way to Underground Hideout No. 3 in the northwestern Gon Kingdom.
In the past, he would have stopped at cultivator markets along the way to buy supplies and popular novels. Now, however, even the Spirit-Hiding Spell and Qi-Concealing Spell could not hide the vicious demonic aura leaking from beneath his skin.
If he carelessly appeared at a cultivator market, every cultivator he encountered would wet themselves.
On the other hand, his abundant magical power made using the Earth Escape Spell and Metal Escape Spell incomparably smoother than before. He could channel energy through any of his limbs, and the strata parted as softly as water.
Some time later, he felt the familiar fluctuations of bedrock and water veins.
As he emerged into a passage in Underground Hideout No. 3, a Bonefuzz carrying a bucket of water stopped in the distance. The golden ball of fur inside its skull perked up its antennae.
Squeak?
Yi Hyeon raised a hand lightly and sent his intent through the Spirit-Nurturing Seal.
“It’s me.”
A moment later, the Fuzzbee emerged from the Bonefuzz’s head and circled Yi Hyeon twice with a Buzz, buzz. Only then did the other Fuzzbees begin flying over from all directions to welcome him.
Yi Hyeon inspected the spirit fields first. Thanks to the work he had done before leaving, everything was fine.
After examining the vitality flowing through the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree’s branches and checking the Ringless Divine Tree’s leaves and trunk, he felt much more at ease.
“Let’s take you somewhere nice.”
He prepared the supplies needed to transplant the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree. He intended to dig it up just before leaving, but there were things he wanted to test first.
...
Standing in the center of an underground training chamber far from the spirit fields, Yi Hyeon brought two fingers together.
Hummm.
Supreme Unity Heavenly Dipper Sword Qi formed at his fingertips, giving off an intense presence. Next, he cast the Mount Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal. A golden palm seal appeared, far clearer than before. It almost seemed solid.
‘It really is different.’
Yi Hyeon withdrew the sword qi and palm seal, then activated the cultivation method he had most looked forward to, the Mount Sumeru Visualization Scripture.
Hummmmm.
The space behind him brightened. A Vaisravana manifestation, compressed to a little over one jang in size, planted its feet on the stone chamber’s floor.
When its golden hand picked up a rock from the floor, the weight and resistance were vividly transmitted through the Dharma manifestation’s energy flow.
“Finally!”
Yi Hyeon recited the incantation in his mind and opened the jeweled parasol in its left hand. A golden curtain of light flowed down from the edges, curving around the front of the Dharma manifestation.
A piece of iron launched with the Sword Control Spell bounced away harmlessly with a Clang! The thread of fire he shot next struck the tightly woven golden lines and scattered in all directions.
The defense consumed magical power and spiritual sense in proportion to the strength of the attacks it blocked, but neither the Spiritlight Shield nor the Spherical Qi Barrier could compare to its protective power.
He closed the parasol and raised the treasured pagoda in its right hand. This time, a golden boundary settled onto the floor. A piece of iron flying into it immediately wavered and lost speed, as though caught in a swamp. The narrower he made the boundary, the stronger its suppressing force became.
‘This is fun!’
Yi Hyeon withdrew the Dharma manifestation, took out a jade slip, and pressed it to his forehead. He examined the other Four Heavenly Kings in the Mount Sumeru Visualization Scripture. There were passages on the Virudhaka manifestation with its treasured sword, the Virupaksha manifestation with its dragon and precious jewel, and the Dhritarashtra manifestation with its pipa lute.
‘Which should I learn next? Seop Hyeong-ae’s sonic arts were unusual, back when they came from the Yin Bird Sect... Maybe the Dhritarashtra manifestation with its pipa wouldn’t be a bad choice?’
After reading the teachings for a while, Yi Hyeon sensed that learning the other Four Heavenly Kings manifestations would take quite some time.
...
Yi Hyeon prepared to leave Underground Hideout No. 3.
Using the Soil-Turning Spell, he gently loosened the surrounding earth, dug up the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree without damaging a single fine root, and placed it in a large storage pouch.
Then he gathered several Tier 2 Fuzzbees, some young ones, and a few Bonefuzz puppets to use at the new home. He left the remaining Fuzzbees and Bonefuzz puppets behind to tend the spirit fields in Underground Hideout No. 3.
All that remained was to return to Cheongseok Mountain, but a new stop had come up.
A few days earlier, he had opened the secret stone chest at a contact point reserved for the society leader, intending to sell some of his Gold-Condensing Pills. Inside, he had also found a report that the Two Heavens Society’s trading network linking the southern Hyeon Kingdom and northern Gon Kingdom had been exposed.
The two sides were due to meet near the border soon, but the other party had a Golden Core cultivator. The report said the situation was too much for the Two Heavens Society’s Golden Core member to handle.
‘It’s about time I went to take a look.’
* * *
A clearing outside a mountain cultivator market, not far from the border between the southern Hyeon Kingdom and Gon Kingdom.
Under the moonlight, a dozen or so Two Heavens Society members stood around an early Golden Core cultivator wearing a red deer mask. The atmosphere was as tense as walking on thin ice.
Cultivators from Nammyeong had taken up positions around them, almost forming an encirclement.
Opposite them, an old man at middle Golden Core, who had not even covered his face, used magical power to push a jade slip toward Red Deer.
“It’s not a difficult demand. All you have to do is give us priority on a fixed share of the medicinal ingredients coming in from now on, and hand over the transaction records and lists of brokers for three trading posts.”
“What does that have to do with trading medicinal ingredients? We don’t do business that way.”
“Then you can change how you do business.”
An early Golden Core man in reddish-brown clothes beside him sneered.
“Did you think we’d be afraid just because you hide behind masks? Let’s not make this needlessly troublesome.”
When one member’s shoulders stiffened, Red Deer released their magical power. The two Golden Core cultivators opposite immediately raised their auras as well, and the air trembled all around them.
Red Deer felt trapped.
With only one Golden Core cultivator on the other side, Red Deer had thought it would be possible to send the members away and escape if necessary. But there was another Golden Core cultivator!
The society leader had sent word promising to look into it, but Red Deer could not be sure the leader would actually come all this way to intervene.
It happened just then.
The three Golden Core cultivators turned their gazes in the same direction.
Someone was approaching across the clearing, wrapped in a terrifying aura.
The Nammyeong cultivators did not dare block the figure’s path. They parted to either side, hardly able to breathe.
At last, a man in neat long robes walked out of the shadows. The tiger mask on his face shone white in the moonlight.
He carried no weapon, yet every step released a savage pressure that seemed to crush the air around him.
The middle Golden Core old man instinctively extended his spiritual sense. His face went white, and he immediately withdrew it.
‘A-a fourth-tier greater demon in humanoid form...?!’
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