WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 17
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Once Yi Hyeon had finished thinking, he first looked around to make sure nothing had gone wrong in the hideout while he was away.
Then he examined the seeds he had bought at Chwiun Market.
The Yinwater Lotus seeds were black, hard, and about the size of a fingernail. He pressed one lightly with a finger, but the outer shell did not give at all. When he dropped it onto the stone floor, it even made a clear ringing sound.
'Can a sprout really break through a shell like this?'
The stallholder had explained that he should not simply throw Yinwater Lotus seeds into water. To improve their chances of sprouting, he needed to grind one side of the hard shell against a stone until it was thin, then soak the seeds in cold water for several days.
Avoiding the part containing the embryo, Yi Hyeon carefully ground the rounded end of each seed against a whetstone. He stopped when a pale inner layer appeared beneath the black shell.
He left the ground seeds soaking in cold water for several days.
He had already chosen where to plant the Yinwater Lotuses.
It was near the aquifer he had discovered long ago while making Spirit Field No. 1-2.
However, Yi Hyeon had no intention of reopening the stone slab sealing the aquifer. The groundwater beyond it was under considerable pressure. If he opened it carelessly, he could flood most of Underground Hideout No. 1.
He dug a separate cavern about thirty jang from the slab. He left a thick layer of bedrock between the aquifer and the cavern so that even if cracks appeared, they would not form a direct passage for the water.
He left several stone pillars between the floor and ceiling to prevent a collapse, and coated the floor with several layers of fine clay to keep water from seeping through. At one end, he made an overflow channel that would carry excess water into an unused cavern on the opposite side from the spirit fields.
Although he had not drawn water directly from the aquifer, the air in the cavern was colder and damper than elsewhere, perhaps because it was so close.
"This should be a decent place to grow Yinwater Lotuses."
Yi Hyeon cast the Spirit Rain Spell several times to fill the new reservoir. Even its deepest point was no higher than his waist, and he left a broad, shallow area in the center where the water was about knee-deep.
He lined the bottom of the reservoir with fine mud brought from around the aquifer. He buried the ground Yinwater Lotus seeds at regular intervals in the shallow area, lightly covered them with mud to keep them from floating up, then fed in a tiny amount of energy from the Germination Spell.
The vitality sleeping within the seeds stirred faintly.
In the damp soil around the reservoir, he planted the Water-Root Grass he had bought in Ungyeong.
Water-Root Grass was only an ordinary herb, but it had a tendency to sink its roots deep into the mud beside water. It seemed likely to help hold the ground around the new reservoir firmly in place.
Finally, Yi Hyeon carved some words into a wooden board at the reservoir's entrance.
「Spirit Field No. 1-6」
After looking at the words for a moment, he nodded.
...
He chose slightly higher ground than the reservoir for the Stone-Honey Peach seeds.
Stone-Honey Peaches grew by absorbing water qi and earth qi, but their roots might rot if submerged. Rather than planting them in the damp soil right beside the aquifer, he chose a place where moisture could seep in slowly while excess water drained away.
Yi Hyeon dug deep into the floor of a rocky cavern, then laid down layers of gravel, smaller gravel, and sand, in that order. He covered them with a mixture of soil from the spirit fields and mud from around the aquifer, creating a gentle slope so that excess water would flow into a drainage pit on the opposite side.
There were seven Stone-Honey Peach seeds in total.
Yi Hyeon soaked them in spirit rainwater for a day, then planted them three jang apart so their roots would not become tangled.
He put up a separate wooden board at the entrance to the spirit field.
「Spirit Field No. 1-7」
...
Next, Yi Hyeon made a small experimental spirit field. He divided it into several sections and planted a few Bone-Rotting Flowers, Yin Soul Grass, Purple Poison Orchids, and Earth Vein Flowers.
Once the spirit plants had grown a little, he planned to cast the Spirit Rain Spell at different intervals in each section. In one section, he would stop watering altogether until the plants showed signs of wilting. He recorded the conditions and dates on a wooden board in each section.
He also put up a separate board at the field's entrance.
「Experimental Spirit Field」
...
A month later, Yi Hyeon visited Ungyeong again and brought back a small model made by the elderly artisan.
The model consisted of a water tank about the size of his forearm, a thin bronze pipe, and a bucket that tipped around a pivot.
Yi Hyeon brought it to Underground Hideout No. 1 and tested it countless times. At first, the bucket did not return to its original position after tipping. When he increased the weight of the stone counterweight, it would not move even when full.
He shaved down the counterweight a little at a time and adjusted the position of the pivot. But if the pivot was too close to the center, the bucket would not tip, and if it was too far forward, the water spilled out before much had collected.
'This is trickier than I expected...'
Yi Hyeon carved the bottom of the bucket so that it narrowed slightly toward the front. This made its center of gravity shift forward more quickly as the water increased.
After that, he made several more trips to Ungyeong to buy spare parts and bronze pipes of different thicknesses.
He dug out the tanks and channels by softening the bedrock with the Earthspade Sword's Soil Softening Art. Where there was no bedrock, he firmly packed pottery clay into place and fired it. He made the buckets and stone counterweights himself, scaling up the elderly artisan's model to suit the actual spirit fields.
He made the tanks low and wide so that their water levels would not change much as the water decreased. Even so, the amount of water passing through the bronze pipes differed depending on whether a tank was full or nearly empty.
But Yi Hyeon did not need a water clock that could measure ten days with perfect accuracy. He only needed it to supply water regularly, before the spirit plants reached their limit.
...
One year later.
Spirit Field No. 1-1 in Underground Hideout No. 1.
A newly expanded cavern lay diagonally above the field's entrance, about one jang higher. Inside was a broad, low water tank. Yi Hyeon had covered it with hemp cloth bought in the mortal world to keep out dust.
Two bronze pipes, each thinner than a finger, were connected side by side beneath the tank. Clear drops of water slowly fell from their ends into a small wooden bucket mounted on a pivot.
Drip.
One drop fell.
Drip.
Another drop.
The tank held spirit rainwater Yi Hyeon had collected in advance with the Spirit Rain Spell.
Rather than flowing straight into the field, the water gathered little by little inside the bucket on the pivot.
For the past ten days, the bucket had not tipped.
But the drop that had just fallen shifted the water's center of gravity past the pivot.
Clack.
The bucket tipped forward.
Splaaash!
All the spirit rainwater collected inside poured into the distribution basin below.
From there, the water split into several streams and flowed down gently sloping channels into the field's furrows.
The dry soil quickly grew wet, and the water spread evenly around the roots of the Bone-Rotting Flowers and Yin Soul Grass.
Once the bucket had emptied and become lighter, the small stone counterweight hanging behind it dropped.
Click.
The empty bucket returned to its original position.
Drip.
A fresh drop fell from the end of one bronze pipe.
Water began gathering again for the next watering.
Yi Hyeon watched it spread evenly across the entire field.
"Hmm... Why is it working properly right from the start? That actually makes me nervous..."
It was not really the start, of course. He had already gone through several rounds of trial and error.
He had installed the bronze pipes in pairs so that even if one became blocked, the watering interval would merely double rather than the supply stopping completely.
Water made with the Spirit Rain Spell contained no impurities to begin with. Perhaps because of its spiritual qi, it also barely evaporated compared with ordinary water, so operating the system for long periods posed no great difficulty.
The results from the experimental spirit field were also in.
After more than thirty days without water, the leaves of some spirit plants began losing vitality, and the medicinal potency they had painstakingly accumulated started to disperse little by little.
In conclusion, an automatic watering interval of roughly ten to fifteen days was enough. Even in the worst case, it only needed to stay within thirty days.
The tank for each field held enough spirit rainwater to tip the bucket thirty times. If it watered the field once every ten to fifteen days, a single tank could keep the field going for about a year.
However, the spiritual qi in the stored water gradually dispersed, so the plants grew a little more slowly than when he cast the Spirit Rain Spell directly each time.
In other words, this device was not meant to grow spirit plants in the best possible condition. It was meant to keep them from dying or losing much of their medicinal potency while Yi Hyeon was away.
"Now I won't have to tend the spirit fields every ten days. Of course, it still needs more testing. I'll try running it for longer and expand it to the other fields."
...
Most of the Water-Root Grass planted around Spirit Field No. 1-6 had taken root successfully.
However, there was no sign of the ordinary herbs turning into spirit herbs.
Yi Hyeon was not disappointed and recorded the results on a wooden board. If ordinary herbs could become spirit herbs so easily, there would be no reason for spirit herbs to be rare.
Of the twenty Yinwater Lotus seeds, eleven had sprouted. At first, each had a coin-sized leaf at the end of a slender stem. As time passed, round green leaves unfolded one by one on the water's surface.
An extremely faint trace of cold water qi lingered on the undersides of the leaves. They were still barely worthy of being called spirit herbs, but at least the reservoir seemed to suit them.
For a long time, the Stone-Honey Peach seeds showed no change at all.
Yi Hyeon suspected that they might already have rotted. Yet when he examined them with the Qi-Observing Spell, a very weak trace of vitality remained inside.
After half a year, shoots from three of the seven seeds finally pushed through the soil.
The shoots had brown stems, and their leaves were thicker than those of ordinary peach trees. He could also see a pale yellowish-brown energy flowing along the leaf veins.
"I'm glad at least three survived..."
Yi Hyeon installed the same watering devices in Spirit Fields No. 1-2 through No. 1-5.
After filling the final tank with the Spirit Rain Spell, he sank to the floor, looking a little tired.
"Whew... Filling several tanks at once isn't easy."
The primordial unity true qi that had filled his entire body was now almost exhausted.
Yi Hyeon lay down where he was.
When he closed his eyes and circulated the Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art, the sparse spiritual qi around him slowly seeped into his whole body.
"The plants get watered automatically... and I can recover my spiritual power lying down..."
A smile appeared on his lips.
"Life just keeps getting better."
...
Two years later.
After repeated improvements, the automatic watering devices installed in the five spirit fields were now reliable.
One bronze pipe had become blocked with fine stone dust, but thanks to the backup pipe, the spirit plants had suffered no harm. After that, Yi Hyeon added filters to every tank.
The Stone-Honey Peach saplings had now grown to the height of his knees.
The Yinwater Lotus leaves were the size of an adult's palm and covered nearly half the reservoir's surface in green. There was no sign of flowers, but this was a variety that needed several decades to produce its first bloom anyway.
Yi Hyeon gradually grew used to a life of filling the spirit fields' tanks, occasionally checking the devices for problems, and spending the rest of his time cultivating whenever there was nothing else to do.
* * *
330 years later.
A low vibration arose in the cultivation chamber of Underground Hideout No. 1.
The primordial unity true qi flowing throughout Yi Hyeon's body surged once like a great wave.
The energy filling his bones, muscles, blood vessels, and internal organs had become far denser and heavier than before.
Yi Hyeon slowly opened his eyes as he lay on the floor.
"Hmm..."
He had reached the third star of the Primordial Unity Body 230 years ago.
He was not merely a cultivator who had just entered the third layer of Qi Refining. He had reached the late third layer, almost at the threshold of the fourth. In other words, his Primordial Unity Body was also approaching its fourth star.
For the first time in a while, Yi Hyeon took out a wooden board and carved a new homemade status panel, taking in the changes. Writing things down where he could see them now and then made even his past achievements feel fresh!
【Age: 555 years】
【Realm: Qi Refining, Third Layer (Late)】
【Spiritual Power: 206】
【Spiritual Roots: Wood, Fire, Earth】
【Cultivation Art: Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art】
【Physique: Primordial Unity Body, Third Star (Late)】
A spiritual power value of 206 was truly absurd for a third-layer Qi Refining cultivator.
Even accounting for the quality of his spiritual power, Yi Hyeon guessed that his reserves already far exceeded those of a cultivator who had reached Great Perfection in the Qi Refining stage. And he was right.
All of this was because the volume of his entire body was so much greater than that of a dantian.
After so many years of cultivation, his spell proficiency had also changed greatly. Most of the spells he had used regularly over the past 330 years had reached Major Mastery!
【Spells (Minor Mastery): Sword Control Spell, Earth Spike Spell, Wood-Binding Spell, Poison Identification Spell】
【Spells (Major Mastery): Azure Steel Sword Art, Fireball Spell, Body-Lightening Spell, Ground-Shrinking Step, Qi-Concealing Spell, Spirit Rain Spell, Soil-Turning Spell, Seventh-Stem Metal Art, Germination Spell, Earth Escape Spell, Spherical Qi Barrier, Spiritlight Shield, Qi-Observing Spell, Farsight Spell, Night Vision Spell, Earth-Sensing Spell, Sound-Listening Spell, Scent-Tracing Spell, Cleansing Spell, Clear Air Art, Breath-Sealing Art, Poison-Expelling Art, Glimmer Spell, Kindling Spell】
【Spells (Perfect Mastery): Spirit-Hiding Spell】
【Adapted Spells: Reclining Escape Art】
He had made notable progress in no fewer than twenty-nine spells. These included the Sword Control Spell, Earth Spike Spell, and Wood-Binding Spell, which he had learned to relieve his boredom over the long years.
Most of the spells that had reached Major Mastery were ones he had found some use for, however small, over the past 330 years. They were now so familiar that his primordial unity true qi responded almost as soon as the thought occurred to him.
Yi Hyeon had mastered so many spells not because he was a genius, but because basic first-tier spells had simple structures. Even an ordinary person who lived for more than five hundred years would be bound to grasp nearly all these spells.
Yi Hyeon stopped carving the wooden board and examined his essence, qi, and spirit.
"That's strange... It feels like my cultivation isn't advancing anymore..."
Over the past ten years, the upper limit of his spiritual power had barely increased.
When his entire body was full of primordial unity true qi and he tried to draw in more spiritual qi, the surrounding qi scattered as though sliding off the surface of his skin. No matter how he circulated his cultivation art, he could not force it inside.
It felt like trying to pour more water into an already full waterskin.
'Could this be the bottleneck between the third and fourth layers of Qi Refining...?'
Yi Hyeon thought of Jang Pyeong, whom he had met in Ungyeong long ago.
"I've been stuck at the third layer of Qi Refining for over fifty years."
At the time, he had thought the problem lay with Jang Pyeong, but now he could see that was not the case. He had heard about it before, but there really did seem to be a bottleneck between early- and middle-stage Qi Refining.
"I don't think cultivating blindly will solve this... There must be something I don't know."
In the end, it seemed the time had truly come for him to go outside.
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