WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

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◈ Cultivating Underground ◈

Chapter 2

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That day, Yi Hyeon returned to his hut without even selling his firewood.

He fetched water from a nearby stream, poured it into a basin, and nervously looked down at the surface.

The face reflected there was exactly the same as when he had first woken up in this body twenty years ago.

Apart from his skin being tanned by the sun and his hair being a little longer, nothing had changed. There wasn't a single wrinkle around his eyes, and his hair was still jet-black.

No matter how he thought about it, remaining completely unchanged after twenty years wasn't normal.

Had possessing this body somehow caused an error in the laws of the world? Or had the body's original owner been something other than an ordinary human?

Yi Hyeon stood up and cautiously spoke into the empty air.

“Status window.”

Nothing happened.

“System.”

A bird chirped outside the window.

“Open.”

This time, a gust of wind made the hut creak.

“What is this...?”

Not growing old wasn't a bad thing. But it frightened him.

If word spread that an ordinary human wasn't aging, Yi Hyeon would be as good as dead.

This was a xianxia world where cultivators existed. Why did they risk their lives to cultivate? Wasn't it to gain endless lifespans and immense power?

Yet a mere mortal who hadn't even reached the Qi Refining stage already had a body that didn't age? The consequences of that becoming known would be beyond imagination.

‘If anyone finds out, I'll suffer worse than death... Someone might take over my body, use me for experiments, or turn me into an alchemical pill!’

Starting the next day, Yi Hyeon grew out his beard and rubbed dirt and ash on his face. He also deliberately walked with a stoop.

But it was already too late.

Whatever Jang Sam had said must have spread. Whenever Yi Hyeon came down to sell firewood, the villagers quietly studied his face. No one asked outright, but their eyes held a mixture of fear and curiosity.

In the end, Yi Hyeon decided to leave Baengmok Village.

...

Although he had lived in the hut for twenty years, packing didn't take long. An axe, a knife, a shovel, a hammer, a cooking pot, and a few changes of clothes made up all his luggage. He wanted to take the wooden figures he had spent so long carving, but they were heavy, so Yi Hyeon left them behind.

Even after packing everything, Yi Hyeon didn't leave right away.

He went around the hut and deliberately knocked down the fence. He carefully scratched the door to make it look as though an animal had clawed it, then made a mess of the surroundings.

Next, he killed a wild rabbit caught in a trap he had set a few days earlier for food. He awkwardly splashed its blood here and there across the hut's floor and threshold. He was making it look as though a fierce animal, such as a bear or tiger, had attacked.

“Ugh... I'm sorry.”

He still wasn't used to killing animals.

He took one last look at the hut he had grown so attached to.

He was sorry to leave, but there was nothing he could do.

Yi Hyeon crossed the mountain before dawn.

* * *

The second place Yi Hyeon settled was a remote mountain area several hundred li from Baengmok Village.

This time, he changed his name as well.

He introduced himself as Yi Muk and claimed to be a wandering woodcutter who had fled from wild animals. The villagers were somewhat suspicious, but they showed little interest in a wanderer living alone.

Yi Hyeon built a hut near a cliff a short distance from the village, then immediately began digging.

At first, he only intended to make a small cellar for storing food. There were many wild animals in the mountains, and when he kept food inside the hut, animals often followed the smell to his door.

After finishing the cellar, he added a space large enough for one person to hide in.

Then, thinking the entrance might become blocked, he began digging a passage leading out the other side.

Digging through soil was manageable, but whenever he came across rock, it took days of hard work. He built a fire to heat the stone, splashed cold water over it to make it crack, then chipped it away with a small hammer.

As he dug the passage, he put up wooden supports at intervals.

Yi Hyeon wasn't in a hurry.

He had nothing in particular to do and plenty of time. After twenty years as a woodcutter, he had grown familiar enough with the work to have free time. Digging the tunnel little by little became something he enjoyed doing in those spare hours.

If he dug one chi today and grew tired, he could simply start again tomorrow. He had no deadline to meet and no one waiting for him anyway.

After several years, the small cellar had become a fairly long tunnel.

The passage ended beneath a thicket in the forest on the other side. From outside, it was difficult to tell there was an entrance at all.

To keep animals from entering through the exit, he temporarily blocked it from inside with a pile of stones and soil.

Yi Hyeon stored food and firewood in the cellar. On nights when he heard wild animals calling nearby, he slept in the tunnel itself. It was damp and dark, but he felt safer there than in the hut.

He also dug a small room farther inside, laid down a thick layer of dry grass, and stocked it with a water jar and dried grain. That way, he could hold out for several days even if the entrance collapsed.

...

Time continued to pass after he settled near the second village.

Another ten years went by.

Yi Hyeon still hadn't aged.

He could no longer dismiss it as coincidence or a mistake. His body was clearly different from that of an ordinary human.

Then, one summer night, a tremendous explosion rang out in the sky.

Woken from sleep, Yi Hyeon initially thought it was thunder. But the next sound was much closer than thunder, and even the ground shook.

When he stepped outside the hut, red and blue lights flashed across the night sky.

Two cultivators were fighting in the air in the distance.

One wore a long red robe, and enormous flames coiled around them like a dragon. Opposite them, a figure in blue had dozens of blue flying swords lined up in the air.

Whenever the two gestured, light streaked across the sky.

As a beam of blue light grazed a mountain peak, one side of the mountain collapsed with a deafening roar.

The cultivator controlling the flames burst into laughter and hurled an enormous ball of fire.

A moment later, part of the fireball, sliced off by the blue-robed figure's flying swords, struck the mountainside. Dozens of trees burst into flames at once, and earth and stones shot upward as though from an explosion.

Yi Hyeon stared with his mouth open.

The sight was far more unreal than any movie from his past life. Yet the hot wind against his skin and the tremors beneath his feet made it perfectly clear that this was real.

Then a fireball flew toward him.

“...!”

Yi Hyeon rushed into the hut and pulled up the floorboards.

He threw himself straight into the cellar, closed the entrance, and crawled deeper into the passage. His elbows scraped against stones in the walls, but he had no time to feel the pain.

A moment later, the world turned upside down.

A deafening boom shook the entire tunnel, and dust and fragments of stone rained from the ceiling. Yi Hyeon lay flat on the floor with his arms over his head.

Smoke and heat poured into the passage.

‘I could die.’

Only then did Yi Hyeon truly feel the difference between never growing old and never dying.

Even with a body that didn't age, he couldn't survive an attack that could blow apart a mountain. If the tunnel collapsed, he would be crushed to death. If the flames reached him, he would burn to death.

He crawled to the exit on the other side, moved some stones to make a small air hole, then lay beside it and caught his breath.

The battle continued until dawn.

Yi Hyeon lay near the exit, trembling and unable to move. He didn't know who was fighting, why they were fighting, or who had won. All that mattered to him was that while those two cultivators fought, a mountain that had nothing to do with their battle was collapsing, and the forest was burning.

...

Only after three days did he return through the passage to the hut.

More than half the hut had collapsed, and the surrounding forest was burned black. Dark smoke still rose from the direction of the village.

‘Have I been thinking about this the wrong way all along...?’

Becoming a cultivator was dangerous. But not becoming one didn't mean he would be safe.

Yi Hyeon had no interest in power or fame. He had even less reason to cultivate to extend his lifespan. He already had a body that didn't age.

But he began to think he would like to become a little stronger.

Strong enough not to be bitten to death by a wild animal. Strong enough to escape if he encountered bandits. Strong enough to withstand a stray bit of fire if he got caught in a battle between cultivators.

That would be enough.

‘I'm bored anyway... There's so little to do for fun in this world. Maybe cultivating would make it less boring?’

He still didn't know whether he had spiritual roots, but Yi Hyeon began to think that joining a cultivation sect might not be a bad idea.

Once inside, he could learn a little about cultivation methods. If possible, it would also be good to learn how to grow spirit herbs or make alchemical pills.

Then, when the time was right, he could sneak out of the sect, dig a tunnel in some mountain no one visited, and live in hiding. Who would bother asking around about the whereabouts of an insignificant disciple like him?

Even if the sect branded him a traitor, he only had to hide until everyone who remembered him grew old and died.

The novels from his past life had said that the longer spirit herbs grew, the more potent their medicinal effects became. As it happened, Yi Hyeon had plenty of time.

If it took ten years, he could wait ten years. If it took a hundred, he could wait a hundred. He didn't need to risk his life entering secret realms to search for thousand-year-old spirit herbs like other people. He could plant seeds somewhere quiet and grow them at his own pace.

And so, partly to relieve his boredom, Yi Hyeon decided to join a cultivation sect.

...

Even after deciding to join a sect, Yi Hyeon felt no need to hurry. He repaired his ruined hut and leisurely went about his daily life. A full five years passed before he chose the sect he would join.

During that time, he picked up stories from merchants at the market and listened to rumors travelers shared at taverns.

After that long investigation, Yi Hyeon chose a sect called Cheongha Valley.

Cheongha Valley was fairly well known in the southwestern part of Daeyeon Kingdom. It wasn't large, but it had a long history and a decent reputation among the people nearby.

Most importantly, it specialized in growing spirit plants and spirit herbs.

Most of its disciples tended spirit fields and grew medicinal herbs. Apparently, the sect also had alchemists who made pills. There were no rumors of it fighting with other factions, either.

It came closer than any other sect to what Yi Hyeon wanted.

* * *

Two years later.

Hundreds of people had gathered below Cheongha Valley's sect gate.

Their ages ranged from children of around ten to young people who looked nearly twenty. Some were well-born children dressed in silk, while others were barefoot and wore rags.

Including the applicants' families and servants, there were over a thousand people. The area below the gate was as noisy as a marketplace. Here and there, parents could be heard holding on to their children and giving them final words of advice.

Yi Hyeon climbed the mountain path among them.

He had discarded the name Yi Muk when he left the second village. At Cheongha Valley, he had decided to use his original name, Yi Hyeon.

...

The first step was the spiritual root test.

When an applicant placed a hand on a transparent orb, the color and strength of the light that appeared revealed the attributes and quality of their spiritual roots.

For most people, no light appeared at all. Those who made the orb glow even a little went through the sect gate. Those who didn't descended the mountain with disappointed faces.

Yi Hyeon's turn approached.

His palms grew sweaty.

He carefully placed his hand on the orb.

A moment later, three colors of light appeared inside it.

Blue, red, and yellow.

The Cheongha Valley disciple conducting the test examined the orb and spoke.

“Triple spiritual roots: wood, fire, and earth.”

‘So I really do have spiritual roots?’

“Go through the gate.”

Following the instructions, Yi Hyeon passed through the sect gate.

Inside, curtains taller than a person enclosed an area. The applicants who had passed the spiritual root test entered one at a time.

When his turn came, Yi Hyeon stepped behind the curtains. Another Cheongha Valley disciple was waiting there with a bronze mirror.

“I'll check your bone age.”

Yi Hyeon's expression stiffened.

“Bone age?”

“People sometimes lie about their age. Unless they have exceptional talent, we only accept those over twenty-five as menial disciples.”

Light shone from the bronze mirror and swept over his body. A warm sensation seemed to flow along his bones, then writing appeared on the mirror's surface.

The disciple conducting the test read the result without much interest.

“Bone age, nineteen. You pass. Leave through the other side.”

‘I really haven't aged?’

Yi Hyeon stopped for a moment in surprise. The Cheongha Valley disciple waved impatiently.

“Didn't you hear me? The test's over. Move along.”

Yi Hyeon collected himself, stepped out through the other side of the curtains, and entered Cheongha Valley.

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