WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 31
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“Sit.”
At Yi Hyeon’s brief command, the members straightened from their bows and sat on the large and small boxes scattered around the room.
Seongak had reached the end of their lifespan long ago, and Hoeseo had passed away even earlier. Over the past 350 years, each seat in the meeting room had changed owners an average of six or seven times.
Some masks had found new owners. Others remained on the meeting room walls, never to be worn again.
Yet the Badger mask had appeared without interruption in records dating back more than three hundred years. Even the current members did not know whether Badger was one person or a position passed down through generations.
Some thought the cultivation art and spells were passed down along with the position of society leader. Others guessed that Badger had learned some strange secret art that extended their lifespan.
But the Heaven-Drawing Society’s rules forbade members from asking about one another’s identities. Some were curious, but none voiced their questions.
Yi Hyeon received reports in turn on changes in spiritual pressure at the various vein seats, the detection formations cultivation families were using to find independent cultivators, and the assignment of new members.
When a member in a white otter mask finished the final report from an open ledger, Yi Hyeon nodded.
“Good. Make sure the new members are taught properly.”
“Understood.”
Once the general reports were over, one member placed a book on the table.
“This is the Water Escape Spell manual you requested.”
“Mm. Good.”
Yi Hyeon took the book and quickly looked through it.
‘Hmm... Nothing beyond what I expected. There’s no need to study it any further.’
Over the years, he had obtained several Water Escape Spell manuals and checked them against one another. Unlike manuals maintained by sects, those circulating on the market could not be trusted.
Even so, after spending many years picking out the points shared by different versions and comparing them with the results of actual use, he had grasped the true principles of the Water Escape Spell and reached perfect mastery.
He had learned the Soil Softening Art in a similar way.
Thanks to that, his Reclining Escape Art had also advanced another step.
His current Reclining Escape Art had become a strange escape technique that combined the principles of the Earth Escape Spell, Water Escape Spell, Soil-Turning Spell, Soil Softening Art, Ground-Shrinking Step, Spherical Qi Barrier, and more. Land and sea no longer made any difference.
Yi Hyeon put the book into his storage pouch and said, “You’ll receive fifty contribution points.”
“Thank you.”
As the member who had brought the manual stepped back, a member in a monkey mask presented a long sword case with both hands.
“The magical implement you ordered is complete.”
Yi Hyeon opened the case.
Inside lay a black longsword. Its blade was slightly wider and thicker than an ordinary longsword’s, but it was not as crude as the Earthspade Sword.
“This is the Mountain-Subduing Sword (鎭嶽劍), an implement at the very peak of the mid-grade category. It’s a masterpiece that meets every condition you requested.”
The Mountain-Subduing Sword had no restriction to assist the Sword Control Spell.
Instead, several layers of the Adamantine Form-Stabilizing Restriction (金剛固形禁制) had been engraved into it to reinforce the blade’s shape and strength.
Its main material, Spirit-Drawing Dark Iron (引靈玄鐵), was a supreme-grade tier-one spirit material that would not warp even when an enormous amount of spiritual power poured into it at once.
As a result, although the Mountain-Subduing Sword was a mid-grade magical implement, it approached a high-grade implement when wielded by hand.
Yi Hyeon took the sword and gave it a light swing.
Whoosh.
Then a mysterious light quietly wrapped around the blade.
Hummm...
“Ohhh...”
Tension mingled with the members’ admiration. Though the sword pointed at no one, several longtime members instinctively rose from their boxes, bowed their heads, and clasped their hands.
A late Qi Refining stage cultivator in a black leopard cat mask, who had only recently joined the Heaven-Drawing Society, hastily copied those around them. Yet they sent a puzzled voice transmission to the member beside them.
[What’s so impressive about that? Doesn’t everyone have at least one mid-grade magical implement? Most of the fellow cultivators here seem to be in the late Qi Refining stage... but the leader only seems to be at the fifth layer of the Qi Refining stage.]
[Don’t say things like that so carelessly! You only think that because you’ve never seen that Badger fight.]
[Are they really that strong...?]
[Take my advice. Don’t cross Mad Badger.]
The cultivator in the black leopard cat mask still looked doubtful, but obediently kept their head bowed.
Yi Hyeon put the Mountain-Subduing Sword back into its case.
“Good. To make an implement of this quality, that secretive artifact refiner who only deals with you must certainly be skilled.”
“You’re too kind.”
“Pay for the implement with the spirit stones I left with you. For arranging the deal, you’ll receive fifteen low-grade spirit stones and thirty Heaven-Drawing Society contribution points.”
“Thank you!”
Over the years, Yi Hyeon had studied martial arts manuals left behind by Profound realm masters, constantly seeking ways to increase the density and strength of his spirit force.
He felt slightly more secure fighting with a sword in his hand than using the qi-guided sword control spoken of by martial artists or the Sword Control Spell cultivators used to direct swords from a distance.
This was partly because he had more experience fighting defensively against people who attacked him than chasing people down to kill them.
He was not the type to hold a grudge and pursue someone to the bitter end.
After years of research, Yi Hyeon had realized that the most important requirement for a close-combat weapon was that it not break when it struck an enemy’s weapon or defensive magical implement.
If an implement broke at a critical moment, it could create an unexpected opening and cost its user their life. In that case, it would be better not to use one at all.
In fact, a low-grade magical implement had once burst apart while he was experimenting with compressing spirit force to its limit.
That was why Yi Hyeon had ordered the Mountain-Subduing Sword, giving up the Sword Control Spell restriction and putting all that capacity into strength, durability, and spiritual power conductivity.
...
After finishing all his work for the Heaven-Drawing Society, Yi Hyeon left Baekpo Cultivator Market.
He changed his appearance several times and checked that no one was following him. Then he headed for the vein seat with the highest spiritual pressure among those managed by the society.
...
Jamha Valley, in the southern Namnyeo Kingdom.
Jamha Valley was an unusual place where a surface river disappeared underground halfway through the valley. The Dam clan, a Foundation Establishment cultivation family, had settled there and claimed the mid-grade tier-two Jamha Spirit Vein.
Yi Hyeon entered the ground fifteen li from Jamha Valley and used the Earth Escape Spell to descend to the underground waterway.
Shhh...
His body slipped into the underground channel as though it had become one with the current. His black robe fluttered in the water, revealing something like chain armor beneath it.
This was the Force-Dispersing Underarmor (散力內甲), a mid-grade defensive magical implement that wrapped softly around his body from below his neck to his wrists and ankles.
Woven mainly from Spiritgold Thread, a supreme-grade tier-one spirit material, the underarmor was flexible because of its linked construction, but the material itself was extremely hard.
The Force-Dispersing Restriction (散力禁制) engraved into it could spread an impact at any one point across his entire body through the woven threads and restrictions.
Yi Hyeon had obtained this underarmor from a Heaven-Drawing Society member thirty years earlier for a fair price.
...
After following the underground river upstream for a long while, he reached a small natural cavern that rose above the water. This was the site of the society’s Jamha Vein Seat No. 1.
Four small stone pillars bearing the society’s mark were hidden deeper inside the cavern. When Yi Hyeon placed a low-grade spirit stone between them, a simple concealment formation spread out.
The spiritual power fluctuations leaking from the cavern blended into the flow of the groundwater and vanished.
After checking his surroundings again and again, Yi Hyeon lay comfortably on the rock and began circulating the Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art.
Ssss...
Dense spiritual qi flowed into his entire body.
His primordial unity true qi, already refined to the limit of the fifth layer of the Qi Refining stage, absorbed the incoming spiritual qi and slowly compressed.
...
Two days later.
The sound of groundwater flowing outside the cavern suddenly seemed distant.
The surrounding spiritual pressure seemed to collapse inward toward Yi Hyeon.
Thump.
The entire rock-walled cavern gave a low tremor, and Yi Hyeon opened his eyes.
‘Finally!’
Yi Hyeon had broken through to the sixth layer of the Qi Refining stage!
He looked down at his hand, then quickly clenched it into a fist.
Pop.
The air between his fingers compressed and burst out.
...
Yi Hyeon circulated his cultivation art for a day to stabilize his new realm. Afterward, he took out a wooden board and updated his handmade status panel.
【Age: 1,088】
【Realm: Qi Refining stage, Layer 6】
【Spirit Power: 233 → 517】
【Physique: Primordial Unity Body, Level 6】
【Spells (Perfect Mastery): Water Escape Spell, Soil Softening Art, Azure Steel Sword Art, Sword Control Spell, Object Manipulation Spell, Poison Identification Spell, ...】
‘In terms of quantity alone, I think my spiritual power is now more than ten times that of a cultivator at Great Perfection in the Qi Refining stage...’
Yi Hyeon felt he would have a chance of winning even in a direct fight against an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
...
Yi Hyeon returned to Tunnel No. 2.
After 350 years, the arrangement of his spirit fields had changed considerably.
Spirit Fields Nos. 2-1 through 2-5 had all become Spirit-Storing Ginseng fields. He had stopped growing the Triple-Layer Leaf, Meridian-Guarding Mushroom, and Origin-Returning Vine previously planted in Fields Nos. 2-3 through 2-5.
This was because the medicinal potency of their leaves, caps, and stem sections did not increase as the parent plants’ medicinal age rose.
Once they had grown enough to be used in Barrier-Breaking Pills, there was no practical benefit to keeping them any longer.
Even so, for a long time, Yi Hyeon had regularly replanted and harvested all three varieties to make Barrier-Breaking Pills for sale.
But ninety years earlier, he had grown tired of gathering eight kinds of ingredients at the right medicinal ages, then separately obtaining Spirit-Stabilizing Stone Milk and any other ingredients he lacked.
In the end, he had stopped making and selling Barrier-Breaking Pills and planted Spirit-Storing Ginseng in all five fields.
Quitting had left him feeling free. The spirit stones he earned from selling Barrier-Breaking Pills were no longer enough to justify the trouble.
Despite hardly ever selling off his old spirit plants, Yi Hyeon was incomparably wealthier than before.
Commissions from arranging trades between society members, rewards from requests he carried out himself, and the occasional sale of alchemical pills had accumulated. Before he knew it, he owned thirty mid-grade spirit stones and two thousand low-grade spirit stones.
The society’s membership fees and shared assets were used solely to run the organization. Even so, over such a long time, his personal wealth had naturally grown.
He had already disposed of his seven old storage pouches and his spirit insect pouch.
He now wore three storage pouches at his waist. Each had more space inside than all seven of his old pouches combined, and they were no worse than those used by ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators.
He had also replaced his spirit insect pouch with a good one capable of holding thousands of Fuzzbees.
There was a reason he had kept Spirit-Storing Ginseng out of all the Barrier-Breaking Pill ingredients. Its value clearly increased with its medicinal age.
It was likely to become a new asset alongside the spirit plants he had brought from Cheongha Valley.
At present, the five fields in the second group held 552 Spirit-Storing Ginseng roots with a medicinal age of 172 years and 916 roots with a medicinal age of thirty years.
The first group of spirit fields was also doing well.
The oldest, Spirit Field No. 1-1, held 101 Bone-Rotting Flowers, 283 clumps of Yin Soul Grass, 73 Purple Poison Orchids, and 52 Earth Vein Flowers, with an average medicinal age of 341 years.
In the fields from Spirit Field No. 1-2 through Spirit Field No. 1-5, there remained 433 Bone-Rotting Flowers, 1,105 clumps of Yin Soul Grass, 293 Purple Poison Orchids, and 205 Earth Vein Flowers, with an average medicinal age of 307 years.
The Yinwater Lotuses in Spirit Field No. 1-6 and the Stone-Honey Peach trees in No. 1-7 had reached a medicinal age of 287 years. He had yet to find any related alchemical formulas, but he enjoyed eating their lotus seeds and peaches. Both plants also attracted spirit insects for the Fuzzbees to eat.
...
Bzz, bzz, bzz...
As Yi Hyeon walked between the spirit fields, the Fuzzbees flew over.
Their population had grown considerably over the years and now numbered in the hundreds.
One Fuzzbee landed on his shoulder, while another threw itself onto the dry soil at the edge of a field.
Lying on its back, the Fuzzbee waved its short legs in the air. It rocked from side to side, shaking slime and dust from its golden fur.
Another Fuzzbee beside it threw itself onto the soil too.
Rrrr.
The pair bumped into each other and rolled around for a moment, then got up as though nothing had happened.
“Do you like it that much?”
Squeak.
One Fuzzbee raised its antennae as if answering him, then promptly pooped.
Yi Hyeon flicked a finger. The tiny dropping crumbled to powder, then burned away.
After their numbers had increased, he had begun keeping some in his spirit insect pouch. He had also connected natural cracks and caverns outside the spirit fields to create a separate hunting tunnel. There, the Fuzzbees ate naturally breeding spirit insects and their eggs.
He always left some of the gentler individuals in the spirit insect pouch so he could rebuild the colony if anything unexpected happened.
...
A few days later.
Having completed the ritual refinement of his new Mountain-Subduing Sword and made it his own, Yi Hyeon emerged into a quiet valley on the surface.
First, he took the opening stance of Single-Pole Six Swords.
A flash!
A thin ray of sword light pierced the rock face opposite him.
Without lowering his sword, Yi Hyeon changed his stance.
Besides Square-Inch Step and Single-Pole Six Swords, there was another supreme art he had recently studied.
《Boundary-Dividing Saber (分界刀)》
It was a saber art left behind long ago by No Jik (盧直), who had reached the Profound realm in the Geonyang Kingdom.
In youth, No Jik had been a stonemason working in a vast quarry. After splitting rocks into two smooth faces countless times, No Jik had grasped a principle. Later generations had called the art No Jik left behind Boundary-Dividing Saber.
Though originally a saber art, its core lay not in the weapon’s shape but in dividing a boundary along a single line. The broad, heavy Mountain-Subduing Sword was more than capable of performing it.
Yi Hyeon had learned this supreme art because he lacked a technique for working along a line.
For surfaces, he had the Spiritlight Shield and Spherical Qi Barrier. For points, he had Single-Pole Six Swords. To gain a technique for lines, he had learned Boundary-Dividing Saber.
Yi Hyeon raised the Mountain-Subduing Sword diagonally above his shoulder.
Swish!
A thin line of sword light passed diagonally across the rock face.
His wrist moved twice more. More lines of sword light cut through the air in succession, at different angles to the first.
Rrrrumble...
Part of the rock face split into several pieces along the lines the sword light had traced and slowly slid down.
Yi Hyeon inspected the Mountain-Subduing Sword. There was not a single scratch on its blade.
“Not bad. It’s well made.”
Putting away the sword, he sat at one side of the valley and watched the flowing stream.
‘Being the society leader is starting to feel like a bother too. Should I retire...?’
By now, it would be difficult to advance any further without an alchemical pill for breaking through a minor realm.
Of course, since he had only just reached the sixth layer of the Qi Refining stage, he could still accumulate more spiritual power.
But obtaining a breakthrough pill formula and preparing its ingredients could take several years, or even hundreds. It was not too early to start preparing now.
A good spirit vein could hardly replace an alchemical pill.
He was already using the best vein seat known to the Heaven-Drawing Society, but even there, he could not break through to the seventh layer of the Qi Refining stage.
There really were walls between the minor realms.
If spirit veins alone could break through those walls, cultivators at Great Perfection in the Qi Refining stage could reach Foundation Establishment simply by borrowing a tier-two or tier-three spirit vein for a while.
Major cultivation sects had plenty of spirit veins at that level. Lending their disciples at Great Perfection in the Qi Refining stage a cave abode above one for a short time would be no trouble at all.
In that case, there would be no reason for Foundation Establishment Pills to be expensive.
Yet in reality, even sects with Nascent Soul cultivators treated Foundation Establishment Pills as important medicines and constantly worked to refine or purchase them.
Of course, the wall between the sixth and seventh layers of the Qi Refining stage was nothing compared with the barrier between major realms. But in this age, when the spiritual qi of heaven and earth had grown thin, it was still difficult to cross naturally without an alchemical pill.
‘I’ll have to join a group with the formula, just as I did for the Barrier-Breaking Pill. Before that... I should get the tier-one Bone-Tempering Powder formula as one last thing.’
All the Bone-Rotting Flowers in his spirit fields now had medicinal ages of over three hundred years, making them ingredients for tier-two Bone-Tempering Powder.
Even so, the tier-one formula could teach him how to remove the flowers’ poison, how their medicinal potency changed, and how they clashed or worked together with other ingredients. It could serve as an important foundation for understanding better formulas in the future.
If he obtained seeds or young seedlings from the existing parent plants and grew them anew, he could also make tier-one Bone-Tempering Powder himself someday.
* * *
Five years later.
Jeogyo Island, in the southern archipelago of the Azure Tide Merchant Alliance.
Jeogyo Island was a small volcanic island two thousand li by sea from the Namnyeo Kingdom’s coast. Its rocks were red, its trees sparse, and hot steam rose from cracks across the island. The Azure Tide Merchant Alliance had built twenty-eight alchemy chambers over its earthfire vein for alchemists to use whenever they needed.
Inside a chamber fed by earthfire, Yi Hyeon was wrapping the last dose of Bone-Tempering Powder into a medicine packet.
Over the past five years, he had passed the guest alchemist examination and occasionally carried out requests for the alliance. At first, he had made ordinary tier-one alchemical pills using publicly available formulas. Once he had earned their trust, he had finally been taught the tier-one Bone-Tempering Powder formula. Since then, he had supplied the powder several times.
Guest alchemist Yi Muk.
He appeared to be in his fifties. Though his manner was blunt, he always met his delivery deadlines. So far, no one had paid him any special attention.
He looked at the ingredient residue left in the alchemy furnace and fell into thought.
‘It’s easy now... Next time, I might even produce high-grade Bone-Tempering Powder.’
Just then, he sensed two powerful auras outside the chamber.
‘Both at early-stage Foundation Establishment?’
The thick stone door opened.
Two alliance elders in Azure Tide Merchant Alliance robes entered the chamber.
“So it was you!”
“Senior, what do you mean?”
“Don’t play innocent!”
The elder in front flicked a sleeve, and a cultivator wearing a black leopard cat mask stepped out from behind them.
“This person infiltrated the Heaven-Drawing Society and spent five years earning your trust. At the meeting held in Baekpo Cultivator Market a few days ago, they recorded your spiritual power fluctuations with a high-grade tier-one Spirit-Tracking Talisman. Just now, when you refined Bone-Tempering Powder, the talisman reacted to that exact signature. To think the leader of the Heaven-Drawing Society was hiding as a guest alchemist in our merchant alliance.”
“Hmm...”
When the cultivator in the black leopard cat mask met Yi Hyeon’s eyes, they quietly took half a step back and hid behind the elders.
“I was planning to leave soon anyway. Don’t worry.”
“You thief of spiritual qi! Who said you could leave? Do you have any idea how many cultivation families have suffered because of you lot? Hand over the full list of Heaven-Drawing Society members. Then we might let you live.”
“The spiritual qi of heaven and earth has no owner to begin with. And the Heaven-Drawing Society has no list recording its members’ names.”
“Shameless scum! If you want to live, summon every member and help us capture them.”
“As the society’s leader, I would find that demand difficult to accept.”
“We’ll decide whether it’s difficult.”
The two Foundation Establishment elders pressed down on Yi Hyeon with their spiritual power and spiritual sense at the same time.
Light rippled across his body. The Spherical Qi Barrier, Protective Spiritlight, and primordial unity true qi filling his entire body protected him from head to toe.
Yi Hyeon gave a short sigh.
Shiiing...
As the Mountain-Subduing Sword slowly slid free at his waist, a mysterious light wrapped around its blade.
The aura flowing from the shining sword filled the alchemy chamber. Both Foundation Establishment elders stiffened and took half a step back.
Yi Hyeon held the Mountain-Subduing Sword at an angle.
“Have you ever heard of Mad Badger?”
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