WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 19
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The official glanced between Yi Hyeon's face and waist, then brought their hands together in a respectful greeting.
"May I ask you something?"
"Please do."
"Do you happen to have a court retainer token from the Heaven-Serving Directorate?"
"I don't."
"Then please wait a moment."
They immediately turned and went back to the carriage.
Yi Hyeon frowned slightly as he watched the official walk away.
'What's going on?'
Just then, a sound rang out.
Jingle.
Despite the lack of wind, one of the jade bells hanging from the four corners of the carriage roof began to sway on its own.
Each time its clear note rang out, the tip of the bell tilted a little farther toward Yi Hyeon.
Jingle. Jingle.
'Is it a magical implement?'
Yi Hyeon used the Qi-Observing Spell and saw faint threads of spiritual power woven across the jade bell's surface.
A moment later, the curtain opened.
The first person to step out of the carriage was an elderly cultivator in blue robes.
The cultivator looked about sixty, but the spiritual power coming from them was beyond comparison with that of Jang Yu-san, the third-layer Qi Refining stage cultivator Yi Hyeon had seen outside the old west gate.
'Late Qi Refining stage!?'
A glint also passed through the elderly cultivator's eyes as they looked at Yi Hyeon. Their gaze lingered near his dantian before moving over his whole body.
Their expression barely changed.
'They couldn't see through the Spirit-Hiding Spell? What a relief.'
A young man stepped out of the carriage behind the cultivator.
He looked to be no older than thirty.
A gold crown held his black hair in place, and clouds and waves were embroidered in silver thread on his deep purple robe. He wore a jade belt and a longsword at his waist. Not a speck of dust marked his black leather shoes.
As he appeared, the officials and soldiers nearby bowed even lower.
The middle-aged official called out loudly.
"His Highness the Crown Prince!"
'The crown prince?'
The Hoereung Yu clan had ruled the Untaek Kingdom for hundreds of years. People called them the Hoereung royal family.
That meant the man before him was the current king's legitimate son, already formally appointed as the next king.
Yi Hyeon had not expected someone like that to step out of his carriage because of him.
The crown prince walked up to Yi Hyeon.
Unsure what etiquette he should follow with a crown prince, Yi Hyeon brought his hands together as cultivators did when greeting one another.
"My name is Yi Dong-il."
Although Yi Hyeon had greeted him first, the crown prince gave no answer. Instead, he gathered up the front of his robe.
Thump.
The crown prince dropped to his knees in the middle of the street.
"...?"
Yi Hyeon's eyes widened.
The people around them also drew sharp breaths in surprise.
With his hands together, the crown prince bowed his head deeply.
"I, Yu Jeong-hwi, Crown Prince of the Untaek Kingdom, beg you, Immortal. Please become a court retainer of the Heaven-Serving Directorate and protect our kingdom."
"..."
'What is happening?'
'I've heard independent Qi Refining stage cultivators are hard to come by, but enough for royalty to kneel in the street before one they've never met?'
Yi Hyeon instinctively looked around. He wondered whether this was some trap or trick he knew nothing about, but he could see no suspicious signs.
The crown prince continued with his head still bowed.
"You needn't take up a sword and go south yourself, Immortal. Even drawing a single talisman for us would help. Simply putting your name on the directorate's register would give the people of the Untaek Kingdom great strength."
"Well..."
"If what we can offer isn't enough, please tell us. Spirit stones, spirit herbs, a place to live... Whatever lies within the Untaek Kingdom's power, we'll do our utmost to provide it."
The elderly cultivator in blue finally sighed.
"Your Highness."
"Court Retainer Jeong, don't stop me."
"I'm afraid I must."
The elderly cultivator stepped up beside the crown prince and took his arm.
"Showing respect to an immortal is one thing. Putting a fellow cultivator you've just met in a difficult position in the middle of the street is another."
"But..."
"At this rate, you'll drive away even those who were willing to join."
The elderly cultivator helped the crown prince to his feet.
The crown prince rose without resisting, but showed no sign of embarrassment.
"You're always talking about dignity, Court Retainer Jeong."
"This isn't about dignity. It's about etiquette. Every time you set out to recruit court retainers, the first thing you do is kneel. The independent cultivators in Ungyeong have even given you a nickname."
"What nickname?"
"You're better off not hearing it."
The crown prince's expression stiffened slightly.
The elderly cultivator brought their hands together in greeting to Yi Hyeon.
"My apologies. I'm Jeong Won-baek, a resident court retainer of the Heaven-Serving Directorate."
"I'm Yi Dong-il."
"You seem to be new to Ungyeong, fellow cultivator. Please don't take His Highness's actions too seriously. Ever since Baeksu Fortress fell, he's done this whenever he meets a cultivator who hasn't joined the directorate."
"Court Retainer Jeong!"
"Am I wrong?"
Jeong Won-baek ignored the crown prince's protest.
"Was it the jade bell on the carriage that recognized me as a cultivator?"
"That's right."
Jeong Won-baek pointed at the carriage roof.
"It's a low-grade magical implement that rings when a Qi Refining stage cultivator is nearby. Once it senses a court retainer token from the directorate, though, it stops."
"I see."
Jeong Won-baek glanced at the crown prince.
"That doesn't mean a member of the royal family should immediately kneel whenever it finds someone."
"What do my knees matter if I can recruit someone the kingdom needs?"
The crown prince answered without hesitation. Jeong Won-baek sighed again.
Yi Hyeon spoke.
"Actually, I was already on my way to the Heaven-Serving Directorate."
"...Really?"
"I wanted to learn how to advance from the third layer of the Qi Refining stage to the fourth, and to ask about pill refining. I was also considering registering as a court retainer."
The crown prince turned to Jeong Won-baek.
"Did you hear that?"
"I did."
"He says he would have come to the directorate even if I hadn't knelt."
"That's why I told you not to make a spectacle of yourself."
"..."
The crown prince cleared his throat and brushed the dust from the knees of his robe.
Jeong Won-baek continued.
"However, registration requires an examination by two resident court retainers qualified to conduct it, both present together. As it happens, everyone who could conduct the examination right away is out on assignment. Of the two who will return first, one has gone to inspect the formations at another city, and the other has gone to deal with a demonic beast that appeared in the east... You'll have to wait three or four days."
"I can wait that long."
"We'll arrange somewhere for you to stay in the meantime."
The crown prince immediately joined in.
"I'll send someone to let you know as soon as the two of them return."
"Thank you."
"We're on our way to the Great Drill Ground at the Martial Training Institute. Would you care to join us, Immortal?"
"What are you going there for?"
"There's a review today for the reinforcements leaving for Nosu Pass. Before that, there's also a sparring match scheduled to assess the general's martial skills."
"In that case, I'll join you."
The crown prince pointed at the carriage.
"There's room inside."
Yi Hyeon hesitated. The crown prince was one thing, but sharing a cramped carriage with a late Qi Refining stage cultivator like Jeong Won-baek made him uneasy.
He was not used to combat. Although he had plenty of spiritual power, he was not confident he could respond to a surprise attack at close range.
He also worried that spending time together in such a small carriage might allow Jeong Won-baek to discover the spiritual power throughout his body that the Spirit-Hiding Spell concealed.
After all, the assessment of his proficiency in the Spirit-Hiding Spell was only something he had carved onto the wooden board himself. He had no way of knowing whether the spell would keep his power hidden under the close scrutiny of a late Qi Refining stage cultivator.
"I'll walk."
"I couldn't allow that. If I rode in the carriage while you walked, people would say our Hoereung royal family mistreated its guests."
Just then, Jeong Won-baek spoke calmly.
"Then you can walk too, Your Highness."
"Whose side are you on, Court Retainer Jeong?"
"The directorate's."
"On second thought, that sounds fine. It's just ahead, anyway."
In the end, neither the crown prince nor Jeong Won-baek returned to the carriage. They walked beside Yi Hyeon along the inner city's main road, with the carriage and cavalry following slowly behind.
As they walked, the crown prince talked constantly about the Heaven-Serving Directorate.
According to him, the directorate currently had fewer than two hundred Qi Refining stage cultivators.
Of those, only a little over fifty were battlefield court retainers who actually took part in combat. That was nowhere near enough to defend the entire southern frontier.
Fifty Qi Refining stage cultivators might sound like a formidable force, but Cheongha Valley alone, where Yi Hyeon had once belonged in the southwestern Daeyeon Kingdom, had around a thousand.
There had been that many cultivators in such a small area. For the vast Untaek Kingdom to have only a little over fifty Qi Refining stage cultivators ready to enter a war was truly a tiny number.
The southern border between the Untaek and Geonyang Kingdoms stretched more than twenty thousand li from east to west.
In the end, the Geonyang Kingdom was not the only one that depended on martial arts experts. Apart from key strongholds, the Untaek Kingdom also had to entrust many places to martial arts experts rather than Qi Refining stage court retainers.
"Isn't that far too few battlefield court retainers? You must have no choice but to ask the field court retainers to fight as well."
"We can ask, but we can't force field court retainers onto the battlefield."
The crown prince continued.
"If the royal family breaks the promises made when we first welcomed them as court retainers, what immortal would trust the Untaek Kingdom enough to join the directorate in the future?"
Yi Hyeon looked a little surprised.
"Even if the kingdom were in real danger?"
"We might gain one or two more people for the moment."
The crown prince shook his head.
"But from that moment on, the Untaek Kingdom would no longer be a country that welcomes immortals. It would be a country that orders them around. When our situation grows even worse, no one will help us."
...
They continued along the main road.
Before long, rhythmic shouts and the clash of weapons reached them from beyond a high wall.
"That's the Martial Training Institute's Great Drill Ground."
...
The Martial Training Institute's Great Drill Ground was larger than Yi Hyeon had imagined.
The expanse of yellow earth within the high walls was so vast that he could not see the wall on the other side.
Separate grounds for archery and mounted training had also been set aside along one side.
Martial artists swung weapons here and there, while tens of thousands of soldiers carrying spears and shields moved in several square formations.
"Thrust!"
"Hah!"
Thousands of spears shot forward at once.
The sounds of them cutting through the air merged into something like the roar of an enormous beast.
"Withdraw!"
Thud!
The soldiers stamped their feet together, making the earth tremble faintly.
Yi Hyeon followed the crown prince's party up to a high pavilion on one side of the drill ground.
From there, they could look down over the entire area.
The most striking sight was the enormous sparring platform in the center.
Its floor was paved with thick stone slabs fired with black sand mixed into them. Sword marks and deep dents scarred the surface in places.
More than a thousand martial arts experts stood around the platform.
Everyone in the front row had powerful blood energy.
More than ten among them gave off a presence strong enough to interest even Yi Hyeon.
'Are those Transformation realm experts?'
For now, those experts stood in silence, their eyes fixed on the center of the platform.
Two people faced each other there.
One was a huge elderly person whose hair had gone half white. The sleeves of their gray martial robes were rolled up, and they held a plain longsword without a single decoration.
The crown prince pointed them out.
"That's Master Gwak Cheon-ung, head of the Martial Training Institute. They are a Profound realm expert who oversees martial training and combat sparring for the military's martial artists."
Opposite Gwak Cheon-ung stood a middle-aged martial artist in armor.
"That's General Kang Mu-jin of the Southern Army, another expert who has reached the Profound realm. The general is leaving today with thirty thousand reinforcements to strengthen the garrison at Nosu Pass."
Nosu Pass was a fortress where the waterways and embankment roads of the southern Untaek Kingdom converged. A large Geonyang army would have to pass through it to enter the kingdom's south.
Today's match was meant to assess Kang Mu-jin's martial skills before departure and make a final check of how the general would respond to the enemy commander at Nosu Pass.
The two stood about a hundred jang apart.
"They start that far away from each other?"
"If they stood close together, the match could be over before the starting drum even sounded."
No sooner had those words ended than a huge drum rang out.
Boom.
Its note still hung in the air when both figures vanished at once.
Crash!
A thunderclap erupted in the center of the platform.
A gust swept outward in every direction, making even the flags atop the pavilion flap violently.
The first thing to come into view was brilliant white sword aura shooting through the air.
A crescent of sword aura several jang long cut diagonally across the platform. A line as thin as a hair appeared in the black slabs. A moment later, they split open along it with a crack!
Boom!
As Gwak Cheon-ung's and Kang Mu-jin's swords collided, the air seemed to cave inward. A translucent ripple spread in a circle from the point of impact.
The black slabs covering the platform burst apart in every direction.
Slash!
Kang Mu-jin's sword aura cut Gwak Cheon-ung in half.
But what it split was an afterimage.
Gwak Cheon-ung had already appeared behind Kang Mu-jin and swung. Three streams of sword aura poured toward the neck, waist, and knees.
Kang Mu-jin turned and swung in response. Sword aura extending from the longsword met all three streams head-on.
A flash!
White light erupted.
Before the sound of the first collision could reach them, the second and third clashes had already followed.
To ordinary soldiers, there were only flashes of light.
Yi Hyeon, however, could see their movements.
When a sword was blocked, an elbow flew in. When one fighter dodged an attack to the upper body, a knee aimed for the abdomen. The moment one retreated half a step, the other had already begun the next attack.
Booom!
At one point, Kang Mu-jin was driven back dozens of jang. A long crack opened in the general's armor.
Before even coming to a stop, Kang Mu-jin stamped down.
Crash!
The slabs exploded, and a black figure shot forward like an arrow.
Slash!
Sword aura grazed Gwak Cheon-ung's cheek and sliced through a stone pillar behind them.
Before the severed pillar could hit the ground, a low hum rose from Gwak Cheon-ung's longsword. Dust and powdered stone were pushed away all at once as brilliant white sword aura surged up like a whirlwind.
Rrrumble.
A flash swallowed the platform.
When the light faded, both fighters had already stopped.
Gwak Cheon-ung's sword tip touched Kang Mu-jin's throat.
From Kang Mu-jin's longsword, a length of sword aura no longer than a finger joint extended to a point an inch in front of Gwak Cheon-ung's chest.
They stood like that for a moment.
Gwak Cheon-ung withdrew the sword first.
"You were half a move too slow."
Kang Mu-jin also lowered the longsword.
A thin line of blood remained on the general's neck where the sword tip had cut it.
"If this had been a real fight, you wouldn't have escaped unharmed either."
"If every expert in the Geonyang Kingdom were only as good as me, that would be true."
Gwak Cheon-ung wiped the blood from their cheek with a sleeve.
"But O Cheon-ak, the Army-Breaking Sword coming up to Nosu Pass, is faster than I am."
Kang Mu-jin's expression grew grim.
"While General Kang holds O Cheon-ak back, the rest of you must work with the battlefield court retainers to cut off the experts under O Cheon-ak's command."
...
Yi Hyeon looked down at the platform.
'So that's what Profound realm experts can do.'
It was difficult to compare them directly with cultivators, but there was no doubting their ability to kill.
Even more impressive than their power was the speed of their decisions.
Neither waited for the other's technique to take shape. They were already dodging the moment a sword began to move, and the instant one attack was blocked, the next followed.
Yi Hyeon, on the other hand, had learned dozens of spells, yet when he imagined Gwak Cheon-ung charging at him now, he could not immediately decide which to use first.
Should he push them away with the Spherical Qi Barrier? Pierce their skull with the Seventh-Stem Metal Art? Blast the space in front of him with the Fireball Spell and open up some distance? Hide underground with the Earth Escape Spell? Meet their sword head-on with the Azure Steel Sword Art?
By the time he had gone through his options one by one, Gwak Cheon-ung's sword might already be at his throat.
'Reaching Major Mastery in spells isn't the same as being good at fighting.'
The spells Yi Hyeon had learned so far were like well-forged weapons. But no matter how many weapons he had, they were useless if he did not know which one to draw at the right moment.
Just then, a loud drum sounded.
Boom.
The soldiers scattered around the grounds began to move.
Before long, thirty thousand soldiers stood in formation at the center of the Great Drill Ground.
The crown prince went down from the pavilion without a word.
As he stepped onto a raised platform in the center of the grounds, the soldiers' murmurs died away.
The crown prince did not immediately raise his voice.
First he looked at the shattered sparring platform, then slowly swept his gaze from the front of the ranks to the rear.
"At dawn three days ago, people fleeing the Geonyang invasion came through the south gate. They had escaped from three villages outside Nosu Pass."
Heralds stationed throughout the ranks took up his words and called them out. Through them, the crown prince's voice traveled in stages to the back of the formation.
"There were twenty-seven carts. Most of those riding in them were the elderly and children. Only eleven able-bodied men could still walk on their own. They said the rest had either stayed behind and died, or fought along the road to buy their families time to escape."
"If Nosu Pass falls, next time we won't even be able to count the carts. The household registers of the three southern counties will be empty. The grain meant for the autumn harvest will burn, and the grain barges carrying military provisions will stop coming. Before winter comes, lines of refugees will reach the gates of Ungyeong itself."
"When Baeksu Fortress fell seven years ago, my elder brother was defending it. When the court discussed withdrawing, I was the one who insisted we hold the fortress to the end. I believed we couldn't abandon the people inside and pull out only the troops."
"My brother died, and I, who pushed that decision through, am still alive. So today, I won't tell you to give your lives or call death glorious. Death is only death. It leaves a debt to the living and ends a family's line."
Yu Jeong-hwi looked at the soldiers in the front row, then shifted his gaze to the farthest military banner.
"But if you surrender Nosu Pass, someone else will have to pay that debt in your place. Your elderly parents will die on the road, and your young children will have to beg for food in unfamiliar towns."
"The people you're going to protect are the ones who will call your names from inside when you come home and knock on the door."
Not even the rustle of armor could be heard across the Great Drill Ground.
Only then did the crown prince draw the sword at his waist.
Shing.
Its tip pointed south.
"Behind Nosu Pass, there is no second fortress to retreat to. There are only the people. Your parents, your wives and children, your ancestors' graves, and the fields not yet harvested."
Yu Jeong-hwi paused.
"Don't die. If you want to come home alive, don't surrender Nosu Pass."
"Go and protect them."
The heralds repeated his final order, carrying those words over the heads of thirty thousand soldiers.
Thud.
The weapons of thirty thousand soldiers struck the earth together.
"We obey!"
A single roar shook the Great Drill Ground.
No further chants followed.
Kang Mu-jin turned, and the standard-bearers raised their banners. The thirty thousand soldiers split into several marching columns and began moving toward the south gate.
For a long while, the clash of metal and the footsteps of thirty thousand soldiers lingered over the Great Drill Ground.
Yi Hyeon watched in silence.
To him, mortal dynasties were short-lived things.
But to these people, the Untaek Kingdom seemed to be the very world in which they lived: the villages and homes where they had been born, where their parents and children lived.
He felt he could understand a little of why the crown prince had cast aside his dignity and knelt before a cultivator he had never met.
...
After the review, the crown prince returned to the pavilion.
His voice was slightly hoarse.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."
"It's fine."
"Weren't you bored?"
"Quite the opposite. I learned a great deal."
Yi Hyeon looked at the sparring platform, split apart by sword marks.
"Can cultivators learn martial arts or combat at the Martial Training Institute too?"
The crown prince's eyes brightened.
"Of course. Some court retainers regularly spar with the institute's experts to gain practical combat experience."
Jeong Won-baek added an explanation.
"Powerful spells don't necessarily make someone a good fighter. Independent cultivators who've trained alone in the mountains are often particularly poor at fighting other people."
Yi Hyeon nodded, keeping his expression neutral. It sounded as though Jeong Won-baek was describing him exactly.
"Then if I register as a court retainer, I could learn as well."
"A good idea. Once you've become a court retainer, I can ask Head Gwak personally if you'd like."
"Would that be all right even though I know nothing about combat?"
"Fellow cultivators like you are precisely the ones who need to learn."
Jeong Won-baek pointed at the ruined platform.
"A third-layer Qi Refining stage cultivator who knows nothing about combat can be killed even by a Supreme Peak expert. But a properly trained cultivator can fight a Transformation realm expert. With talent, they won't simply lose their life without a fight even against a Profound realm expert."
"It can make that much difference?"
"In real combat, things more extreme than my example happen all the time. Your realm only shows part of your strength. The difference between someone who understands both the enemy and themselves, and someone who doesn't, is far greater than you imagine."
Jeong Won-baek stroked their beard.
"Cultivators have so many means at their disposal that once they learn to fight properly, they can grow stronger much faster than martial artists. Most, however, consider it shameful to learn from a martial artist."
"If it helps me survive, I'm willing to learn from anyone. I'd like to learn not only how to fight martial artists, but martial arts themselves if possible."
"Haha, you generally don't need to go as far as learning martial arts, but that's an excellent attitude."
Listening to Yi Hyeon and Jeong Won-baek, the crown prince's expression brightened. Yi Hyeon seemed likely to join the Heaven-Serving Directorate.
"First, let me arrange somewhere for you to stay over the next few days."
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