WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 29
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The person who arrived carrying a flowerpot was an elderly cultivator who appeared to be in the late phase of the Qi Refining stage.
A clerk at Spirit Materials Hall immediately led them to a table farther inside.
“Please put it here.”
Thud.
The elderly cultivator removed the cloth wrapped around the pot.
Whooosh.
Along with a strong medicinal fragrance, poisonous powder rolled out like a thin mist. Several nearby cultivators stepped back, their expressions stiffening. The clerk immediately activated a small formation to contain the powder.
Beyond the formation stood a flower with layers of ivory petals. It was the same species as the Bone-Rotting Flowers Yi Hyeon grew, but the concentration of poisonous powder rising from its stamens was unlike that of any Bone-Rotting Flower he had seen before.
The steward handling the appraisal examined the petals’ color and sheen, the thickness of the stem, and the patterns on the roots. They took a little pollen and singed it over a flame, then inspected the spiritual qi seeping from the roots.
After a long while, the steward spoke.
“Its medicinal age appears to be around 220 years.”
“Our family has grown it for 247 years.”
“Then there must have been a period when it lacked spiritual qi, causing its medicinal potency to develop more slowly.”
The elderly cultivator frowned.
“Are you saying our family’s records are wrong?”
“Actual age and medicinal age can differ. Even if it has grown for 247 years, if its accumulated medicinal potency is equivalent to 220 years, we use the latter when trading.”
“Surely that’s not much of a difference?”
“Three of its fine roots are also damaged. That won’t prevent it from being replanted as a mother plant, but it will need time to recover.”
The steward worked an abacus for a moment.
“We can offer 158 low-grade spirit stones.”
“I need at least 170.”
“I’m afraid that isn’t possible.”
“You don’t get a mother plant this large every day, do you?”
“We can offer up to 160. No more than that.”
After a brief hesitation, the elderly cultivator finally nodded. Their expression brightened when the clerk counted out the spirit stones.
“If you bring us another old mother plant, we’ll offer you a good price.”
“That’ll be difficult before I die.”
The elderly cultivator took the pouch of spirit stones and left Spirit Materials Hall.
After quietly watching the exchange, Yi Hyeon asked a nearby clerk a question.
“Bone-Rotting Flower mother plants fetch quite a price. Can you make a profit if ingredients for a Tier 1 spirit medicine cost that much?”
“Haha, it isn’t an ingredient for a Tier 1 spirit medicine.”
The clerk explained.
“A Bone-Rotting Flower with over 200 years of medicinal potency is an ingredient for Tier 2 Bone-Tempering Powder.”
“There’s a Tier 2 Bone-Tempering Powder? Is it a spirit medicine for Foundation Establishment cultivators?”
“That’s right. Its medicinal potency is so strong that taking it would actually be dangerous for a cultivator in the Qi Refining stage.”
The clerk pointed to the Bone-Rotting Flower inside the formation.
“Besides, we can keep growing that one as a mother plant instead of using it as an ingredient right away.”
“Do you have someone who can refine Tier 2 Bone-Tempering Powder?”
“There’s just one person in our alliance who can. They are an alliance elder who is both a Tier 2 alchemist and a Foundation Establishment cultivator.”
“I see. Then does Tier 3 Bone-Tempering Powder exist as well?”
The clerk smiled and shook their head.
“I’ve heard it does. But to make Tier 3 Bone-Tempering Powder, the Bone-Rotting Flower would need a medicinal age of at least 500 years. Something like that wouldn’t be traded at a publicly listed price. It’s beyond what our Azure Tide Merchant Alliance can handle in the first place.”
“I see.”
Yi Hyeon looked at the wooden plaque on the wall again.
A medicinal age of 200 years, for 120 low-grade spirit stones.
His storage pouch held nearly 600 Bone-Rotting Flowers with medicinal ages of over 135 years. Of those, the 116 plants he had dug up from Spirit Field No. 1-1 had medicinal ages approaching 170 years.
‘If I let just 500 of those 600 plants reach 200 years and sell them, that alone would be 60,000 low-grade spirit stones!’
Sixty thousand low-grade spirit stones were worth about as much as 600 mid-grade spirit stones. That exceeded the wealth of not only cultivators in the Qi Refining stage, but even an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator.
And Yi Hyeon also had Yin Soul Grass, Purple Poison Orchids, and Earth Vein Flowers.
He still didn’t know whether there was any demand for Earth Vein Flowers, but at least Yin Soul Grass and Purple Poison Orchids would fetch high prices somewhere in the cultivation world.
‘More importantly, there’s no reason to sell them all just because they reach 200 years. If I sell only what I need, a little at a time, the rest will keep gaining medicinal potency. There’s no reason to flood the market, drive down the price, or invite someone to follow me.’
‘The Bone-Rotting Flowers, Purple Poison Orchids, and Yin Soul Grass are basically my retirement pension from Cheongha Valley. My living principal builds up its own medicinal age, and even after I sell some, the rest keeps rising in value.’
The corners of his mouth lifted on their own.
‘But a great pension alone isn’t enough. My retirement has no end... I’ll have to invest in new spirit plants too. I still don’t know what Yinwater Lotuses and Stone-Honey Peaches are used for, but... whenever I find useful seeds or seedlings, I should try planting a few.’
...
Yi Hyeon stayed another day at Namae Market, visiting various medicinal ingredient shops.
Perhaps because the market was so large, six of the eight ingredients for Barrier-Breaking Pills were actively traded there: Essence-Condensing Fruit, Clear Void Seeds, Meridian-Piercing Flowers, Origin-Returning Vine, Triple-Layer Leaves, and Spirit-Stabilizing Stone Milk.
However, he couldn’t find a single merchant selling Spirit-Storing Ginseng or Meridian-Guarding Mushrooms. He would have to pray that those two spirit plants grew well in Underground Hideout No. 2.
Of course, the Namnyeo Kingdom surely had cultivator markets besides Namae Market, so there was no need to worry too much yet.
‘Actually, Meridian-Guarding Mushrooms are mushrooms, meaning fungi, so there’s a good chance they’ll have no trouble growing underground. Spirit-Storing Ginseng is a type of ginseng, so it might be fine in shade without sunlight too...’
For now, Yi Hyeon carefully memorized the merchants and shops that handled the six ingredients in the Barrier-Breaking Pill formula. He also checked the going prices for ingredients that met the formula’s requirements.
Taking out a small wooden board, he recorded the prices he had researched that day. He wrote in Korean from his past life, so nobody who looked at it would understand.
「At age 573.
Namae Market, ingredient prices for one batch of Barrier-Breaking Pills.
All prices in low-grade spirit stones.
3 Meridian-Piercing Flowers: 15
3 Essence-Condensing Fruits: 18
3 sections of Origin-Returning Vine: 8
9 Triple-Layer Leaves: 6
12 Clear Void Seeds: 4
3 drops of Spirit-Stabilizing Stone Milk: 10」
‘The six ingredients come to 61 low-grade spirit stones... Add Spirit-Storing Ginseng and Meridian-Guarding Mushrooms of the right medicinal age...’
He suddenly recalled Master Mun Seong-hak’s words.
“If you buy all the ingredients for one batch, you should expect to spend around 70 to 120 low-grade spirit stones.”
‘Adding those last two should bring it close to the prices I heard in the Untaek Kingdom. I wouldn’t be getting ripped off if I bought the ingredients I lack here.’
‘To secure 50 low-grade Barrier-Breaking Pills, I’ll need to refine at least 25 batches... If I buy all the ingredients, that’ll be roughly 2,500 low-grade spirit stones... Huh? That isn’t much, is it?’
‘I’ll try growing the spirit plants in Underground Hideout No. 2 first. If that doesn’t work, I can buy whatever I’m missing.’
Until recently, 2,500 low-grade spirit stones had been an unimaginable sum to Yi Hyeon. But after confirming the value of his spirit plants, it suddenly felt like a manageable expense.
...
After finishing his tour of the market, Yi Hyeon went to a deserted cliff and looked out at the sea.
‘Time to build Underground Hideout No. 2!’
He unfolded a map of the southern Namnyeo Kingdom.
First, he ruled out places with well-known spirit veins or mines. He also excluded locations near mortal cities or official roads, strategically important gorges, and low-lying areas that rivers might flood.
The location needed to have no value to cultivators and give even mortals no particular reason to visit. Underground, however, it needed soil and water for spirit fields, as well as solid bedrock to support the facilities. A suitable aquifer would make it perfect.
“Shall I start looking for a site?”
Yi Hyeon’s finger stopped over an unnamed mountain range stretching north from Namae Market.
* * *
165 years later.
Five thousand li north of Namae Market stood a small mountain range whose name did not appear even on maps of the Namnyeo Kingdom.
It had no famous spirit veins or mines. It was of little use to mortals either, and the nearest village could only be found by going all the way to the river outside the range. Even herb gatherers only occasionally entered to collect wild greens. They never ventured deep inside.
On the lowest, least remarkable mountain in that small range...
Swish.
Something swept through the undergrowth.
It was so fast that only the surrounding blades of grass stirred, as though a gust of wind had passed. A tiny insect clinging to a grass stem raised its antennae, then soon went back to moving as though nothing had happened.
...
Fifteen li underground.
Tap.
Yi Hyeon’s feet touched the smooth floor of a stone chamber.
On the wall ahead were words he had carved himself.
「Underground Hideout No. 2」
“Phew... Nothing puts me at ease like coming home.”
Underground Hideout No. 2 had been built far more systematically than the old Underground Hideout No. 1.
A lounge, cultivation room, training hall, laboratory, and storeroom branched off the central passage. Thick stone doors separated the chambers.
Marks from spell testing remained on the training hall walls, while the laboratory shelves were packed with jars containing soil and medicinal ingredient samples.
Beyond the living area lay Spirit Fields No. 1-1 through No. 1-7.
One hundred and sixty-five years earlier, Yi Hyeon had hurried to make these seven fields before the spirit plants in his storage pouch could suffer damage. Afterward, he had expanded the passages and facilities outward, one at a time, to avoid disturbing the existing fields. That had brought the hideout to its current form.
Drip.
The sound of a falling water droplet echoed through the quiet underground space.
Drip. Drip.
Each spirit field had watering buckets mounted on axles. One level above the fields was a broad, shallow reservoir as large as all the fields combined. Bamboo pipes extended from it, allowing water to drip into each bucket.
One difference between Underground Hideout No. 2 and No. 1 was its use of bamboo pipes instead of bronze ones.
Yi Hyeon had realized that he had no particular need for bronze pipes. The automatic watering system merely let water flow under gravity, so bamboo pipes were enough.
If he smoothed their insides with spells, baked them, and applied lacquer, even bamboo could serve as piping for decades.
By varying the height of the pipe openings and the size of the holes, he could also adjust the watering interval for each field. In many ways, it was an improvement over the automatic watering system in Underground Hideout No. 1.
After refilling the reservoir with the Spirit Rain Spell, he headed for Spirit Field No. 1-1.
Grrrk.
As the stone door opened, a strong medicinal fragrance and poisonous miasma flowed out.
Ivory Bone-Rotting Flowers, violet Purple Poison Orchids, and dark blue Yin Soul Grass filled the field. Between them, the slender stems of Earth Vein Flowers stretched along the ground.
Bzz, bzz.
Several Fuzzbees flew over and landed on Yi Hyeon’s shoulders and sleeves.
After lightly stroking one Fuzzbee’s back with a finger, he examined the Bone-Rotting Flowers.
Most of the spirit plants transplanted from Underground Hideout No. 1 had survived unharmed. However, Underground Hideout No. 2 also lacked anything that could be called a spirit vein, so their medicinal potency still accumulated slowly.
Although 165 years had passed in the outside world, their medicinal ages had increased by only about 55 years on average.
The Bone-Rotting Flowers growing in the oldest field, Spirit Field No. 1-1, had reached medicinal ages of around 225 years.
Yi Hyeon inspected the other fields in turn. The Yinwater Lotuses had flowered and produced seeds several times, and the three Stone-Honey Peach trees had fully taken root in their new home.
...
Beyond the original seven fields lay the newly built Spirit Fields No. 2-1 through No. 2-5.
Spirit Fields No. 2-1 and No. 2-2 each held 300 Spirit-Storing Ginseng plants, for a total of 600. Spirit-Storing Ginseng died when its root was harvested, so Yi Hyeon had allotted it twice as much growing space as the other spirit plants.
Field No. 2-3 held 600 Triple-Layer Leaf plants. Although the formula called for their leaves, their medicinal age was measured by the age of their underground rhizomes. As long as the roots and young buds remained untouched, the leaves would grow back. However, the plants needed several years of rest to recover the medicinal power they had spent.
Field No. 2-4 held 200 log sections that Yi Hyeon had obtained. Each had been inoculated with Meridian-Guarding Mushroom spawn, and mature caps had sprouted from them. A Meridian-Guarding Mushroom’s medicinal age was determined not by its cap, but by how long the mycelium inside the spirit wood had lived. If he cut a mature fruiting body at the base and took only the cap, the mycelium would survive and send up another cap a few years later.
In Field No. 2-5, 300 Origin-Returning Vine mother plants wound around stone pillars and wooden trellises. If he cut no more than two stem sections from each mother plant, then sealed the cut with clean clay, new shoots could sprout from the remaining vine.
The Triple-Layer Leaf plants, Meridian-Guarding Mushrooms, and Origin-Returning Vines he had planted first had already exceeded the formula’s upper medicinal-age limits. He had therefore staggered their propagation to ensure he always had plants within the required age range. He intended to let the rest keep aging, apart from the portions needed for Barrier-Breaking Pills.
Earth Vein Flowers grew around the edges of every field to draw in the faint spiritual qi outside. With the Fuzzbees around, controlling spirit insects posed no problem either.
The results of 165 years of testing were clear. Spirit-Storing Ginseng, Triple-Layer Leaves, Meridian-Guarding Mushrooms, and Origin-Returning Vines could all grow perfectly well underground.
On the other hand, Meridian-Piercing Flowers, the Clear Void Grass that produced Clear Void Seeds, and the Essence-Condensing Trees that bore Essence-Condensing Fruit had never adapted to the underground fields. Including Spirit-Stabilizing Stone Milk, a mineral spirit liquid, he would have to buy four ingredients at a cultivator market.
For that reason, over the past few months, Yi Hyeon had changed his appearance and traveled between markets, selling ten Bone-Rotting Flower mother plants with medicinal ages above 220 years in separate lots. He had raised a total of 1,600 low-grade spirit stones.
On this return visit to Namae Market, he had bought enough Meridian-Piercing Flowers, Essence-Condensing Fruit, Clear Void Seeds, and Spirit-Stabilizing Stone Milk for 35 batches of Barrier-Breaking Pills, allowing for failed batches and a reserve for his breakthrough. Even after 165 years, prices had barely changed. The purchase had cost him 1,650 low-grade spirit stones.
His existing supply of low-grade spirit stones had fallen from 670 to 620.
“Now it’s time to harvest the formula’s other four ingredients.”
...
Yi Hyeon returned to Spirit Field No. 2-1.
He dug up 35 Spirit-Storing Ginseng roots, then transplanted young seedlings he had prepared into the empty spaces.
He also took out the 315 Triple-Layer Leaves, 35 Meridian-Guarding Mushroom caps, and 105 sections of Origin-Returning Vine stem that he had recently harvested in stages and stored.
He divided the four harvested ingredients and the four purchased ingredients into single-batch portions, packed them into 35 medicine boxes, and put them in his storage pouch.
“Done.”
Leaving the spirit fields, Yi Hyeon cast the Earth Escape Spell and descended another ten li below Underground Hideout No. 2.
...
Twenty-five li underground.
A small, artificially shaped cavern appeared between layers of solid bedrock. Intense heat flowed from within.
It was Underground Hideout No. 2’s alchemy chamber.
A bronze pill furnace stood in the center, with nine red formation stones set beneath it. The Nine-Fire Flame-Storing Formation was connected to an earthfire vein running below the floor.
Yi Hyeon took the 35 medicine boxes out of his storage pouch and opened them. Once more, he checked that the ingredients inside met the conditions recorded in the formula.
“Let’s do this.”
Hummm.
Primordial unity true qi flowed into the Nine-Fire Flame-Storing Formation.
Whoosh!
Earthfire rose from the nine fire vents.
...
Two full days later.
The earthfire beneath the furnace slowly died down as the thirty-fifth batch was finished.
“Phew...”
Three types of jade bottle stood before him.
One high-grade Barrier-Breaking Pill.
Ten mid-grade Barrier-Breaking Pills.
Seventy-seven low-grade Barrier-Breaking Pills.
Eighty-eight pills in total.
At the start of the 35 batches, he had obtained only two pills per batch. But through trial and error, his pill formation rate had improved, and from the middle batches onward, some attempts had yielded three pills or more.
‘If my guess that I have about 50 times as much spiritual power as other cultivators is right, 88 pills should be enough to break through. Besides, I’m already at the very end of the third layer of the Qi Refining stage. I should only need a small push.’
After tidying the furnace and cavern, Yi Hyeon went back up to Underground Hideout No. 2’s cultivation room.
He closed the stone door, lay down, and rested until his concentration recovered from the alchemy.
Once his breathing had grown calm and the primordial unity true qi throughout his body had settled, he opened his eyes.
Then he began taking the Barrier-Breaking Pills one by one and refining their medicinal power. Since he needed to take dozens in succession, he started with the high-grade and mid-grade pills, which contained fewer pill toxins.
...
Several days later.
He had absorbed all the medicinal power of one high-grade pill, ten mid-grade pills, and 39 low-grade pills, but the barrier to the next layer remained.
Yi Hyeon took out another low-grade Barrier-Breaking Pill.
Gulp.
Just as the alchemical pill dissolved and its medicinal power mixed with the primordial unity true qi throughout his body...
Crack.
With the sensation of an invisible wall cracking, the spiritual power throughout his body surged violently.
A moment later...
Boom!
A wave of spiritual power burst from Yi Hyeon’s body and spread in every direction.
Whoooosh.
At last, he opened his eyes.
“I did it!”
He couldn’t hide the joy in his voice.
Yi Hyeon fetched the wooden board from one side of the cultivation room. Looking inward and observing his essence, qi, and spirit, he began updating the numbers on his homemade status panel.
【Age: 738】
【Cultivation Realm: Fourth Layer of the Qi Refining stage】
【Spiritual Power: 206 → 233】
【Physique: Primordial Unity Body, Fourth Degree】
The increase in spiritual power looked small because 206 had not represented the middle of the third layer of the Qi Refining stage, but a value already close to that layer’s limit.
His current value of 233 was definitely more than 50 times the spiritual power of a cultivator who had just entered the fourth layer of the Qi Refining stage.
Moreover, the spiritual power figure on his homemade status panel was calculated based on how many times he could cast the same spell. Since his breakthrough had also changed the quality of his spiritual power, numbers alone could not express the actual increase in his combat strength.
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t updated my spell proficiencies in a long time either.’
【Spells (Minor Mastery): Object Manipulation Spell, ...】
【Spells (Major Mastery): Sword Control Spell, Poison Identification Spell, Wood-Binding Spell, Earth Spike Spell, ...】
【Spells (Perfect Mastery): Qi-Concealing Spell, Fireball Spell, Body-Lightening Spell, Ground-Shrinking Step, Spirit Rain Spell, Soil-Turning Spell, Seventh-Stem Metal Art, Germination Spell, Earth Escape Spell, Spherical Qi Barrier, Spiritlight Shield, Qi-Observing Spell, Night Vision Spell, Earth-Sensing Spell, Sound-Listening Spell, Cleansing Spell, Clear Air Art, Breath-Sealing Art, Poison-Expelling Art, Glimmer Spell, ...】
He had become so proficient in most basic spells that there was little room left to improve.
‘Writing down every spell I’ve learned makes this board feel small. Next time, I won’t bother listing the basic spells.’
‘Still, I didn’t expect to have 37 low-grade Barrier-Breaking Pills left. Selling those could bring in a tidy sum too...’
‘Anyway... now all I need is time to reach the sixth layer of the Qi Refining stage!’
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