WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 32
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The moment Black Leopard Cat saw the sword in Badger’s hand, they wondered whether they had made the wrong judgment.
As the beautiful light around Badger’s sword pushed back the darkness of the alchemy chamber, a single straight, white line crossed the dark stone room.
Spiritual pressure burst from the two alliance elders as they met the attack.
Black Leopard Cat hurriedly tapped their storage pouch to draw out a defensive magical implement. But before it had fully emerged, the light extending from Badger’s sword split into six branches.
For a moment, Black Leopard Cat thought they were looking at a work of art.
A pure white flower was blooming inside the dark stone chamber.
The magical robes of the elder standing in front tore open, and blood spurted from their shoulder. A thin cut also appeared on the second elder’s cheek.
But Black Leopard Cat had neither the strength to block the sword light nor the time to dodge.
‘Ah...’
Shhk.
Black Leopard Cat felt their body become strangely light. Their vision tilted.
By the time they realized that Badger’s sword light had passed through them, their limbs and torso were already sliding in different directions.
‘What beautiful swordsmanship...’
At the instant Black Leopard Cat’s life ended, the sword light cut through the floor and severed the formation lines of the Earthfire Formation engraved there. Red earthfire began flowing backward through the broken lines.
...
Kabooooom!
An alchemy chamber on Jeogyo Island exploded with a deafening roar.
Red rocks and fragments of the alchemy furnace shot high into the sky amid the flames. The entire roof blew away, and an enormous blaze engulfed one side of the island.
Startled shouts rose across the island.
“What’s happening?”
“An alchemy chamber exploded!”
The two alliance elders rose into the air through the flames and dust, wrapped in spiritual light. Yi Hyeon followed, landing on a red rock.
The two elders could not immediately strike back. They looked between the ruined chamber and the wounds on their bodies. The afterimage of the white flower that had just bloomed seemed to linger in the air.
“The sword light... formed an entire scene?”
“Impossible...”
The sword arts learned by Qi Refining stage and Foundation Establishment cultivators were generally closer to spells that condensed spiritual power into sword light and fired it out. With the correct method and enough spiritual power, even someone with a shallow understanding of the sword could produce a certain level of power.
But the six streams of sword light Badger had just released had followed different paths, weaving together and splitting apart to create a single landscape.
This was a profound skill, separate from the usual divisions of cultivation realms. Only someone who had devoted long years to the sword could display it.
“How could a thief possess such peerless martial arts...?”
Just then, Yi Hyeon kicked off the red rock and vanished in a sliding blur.
“Don’t let him escape!”
The elder with the bleeding shoulder pressed a palm downward. Blue light gathered in the air and became a giant’s right arm, accompanied by the sound of waves.
Whoooosh!
A blue palm three jang long fell toward Yi Hyeon as he ran across the red rocks.
Hum, hum, hum!
More than ten Spiritlight Shields bloomed beneath the palm.
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!
The first five shattered one after another. Even the sixth Spiritlight Shield bent sharply, and the impact passed through the Spherical Qi Barrier and into Yi Hyeon’s body.
Fortunately, his Force-Dispersing Underarmor spread the force throughout his body.
Yi Hyeon tilted the remaining Spiritlight Shields to deflect the impact and used the recoil.
Boom!
His body shot forward even faster than before.
‘That elder isn’t at early-stage Foundation Establishment!’
Yi Hyeon realized he had let his guard down. He was not the only person who knew the Qi-Concealing Spell.
At that moment, the other elder formed hand seals in midair. Six bronze flying swords shot out of their sleeve.
Swish, swish, swish, swish!
The flying swords scattered in different directions, then rushed toward Yi Hyeon together.
Yi Hyeon swung the Mountain-Subduing Sword diagonally behind him. The light around its blade bloomed into six branches again.
The six streams of sword light struck the sides of the bronze flying swords with perfect accuracy. The swords skimmed past Yi Hyeon’s body and flew off separately toward the sea, the sky, and the red rocks.
The elder controlling the bronze flying swords shouted.
“What a formidable fellow! If he escapes, he’ll be trouble later!”
Yi Hyeon shot forward with explosive speed.
‘Let’s get out before more people arrive.’
He formed several fireballs above his palm and fired them in every direction.
Whoooosh!
The two elders split to the left and right.
As the exploding fireballs painted the sky red, Yi Hyeon swung the Mountain-Subduing Sword.
Swish, swish, swish, swish!
More than ten streams of sword light burst out through the flames.
The elder with the wounded shoulder flicked a sleeve. A round curtain of blue water spread out, pushing back the fireball flames. The scattered bronze flying swords also returned to the other elder, spinning like a wagon wheel and knocking aside the streams of sword light one after another.
The water curtain and flying swords shook violently, but neither elder suffered serious harm.
“How does a mere Qi Refining stage cultivator have so much spiritual power?”
“He must be hiding his true realm!”
“But what Foundation Establishment cultivator can’t even fly?”
The elder with the wounded shoulder pressed a palm downward again. This time, blue ripples flowed from their fingertips and quickly spread over the red rocks.
On the other side, the six bronze flying swords took positions in different directions. Thin bronze lines connected the swords, forming a large hexagonal sword net.
“Close it in! He can’t fly!”
As the blue ripples passed beneath his feet, Yi Hyeon’s body grew heavy, as though he had sunk deep underwater. At the same time, the hexagonal sword net began rapidly closing in from every side.
Yi Hyeon made the Spherical Qi Barrier burst outward from his entire body, pushing away the water qi clinging to him. He moved as though fleeing, then suddenly changed direction.
Thud!
With the Square-Inch Step, Yi Hyeon shot back the other way.
The elder controlling the bronze flying swords was there. Focused on maintaining the sword formation, the elder had not expected Yi Hyeon to turn back toward them.
‘...!’
The elder hurriedly fired the bronze flying swords at Yi Hyeon while raising three layers of yellow protective barriers.
At that moment, all the spirit force around Yi Hyeon’s Mountain-Subduing Sword gathered at its tip.
The light at the sword tip spread like a halo around the sun, then contracted into a single dazzling point.
The fourth form of Single-Pole Six Swords.
White Rainbow Pierces the Sun (白虹貫日).
The sword light pierced all three yellow barriers in succession.
“Urgh!”
The elder’s right side burst open as the attack pierced through it. Blood and torn fragments of magical robes scattered through the air.
The bronze flying swords briefly lost direction and veered past Yi Hyeon.
At that instant, he sensed a terrifying surge of spiritual power overhead.
Kabooom!
The blue giant’s palm shattered eight layers of Spiritlight Shields at once and drove Yi Hyeon deep into the red rock.
Red stone dust erupted in every direction.
But when the dust settled, no one was there.
“The Earth Escape Spell!”
Cultivators rushed out of the other alchemy chambers on Jeogyo Island. An alarm bell rang loudly on one side of the island, and countless Voice Transmission Talismans flew into the air.
...
After slipping underground, Yi Hyeon moved quickly toward the north of Jeogyo Island.
Beneath the island, earthfire veins and the restrictions binding them formed a tangled web. Rather than hide deeper in unfamiliar ground and risk being engulfed by earthfire, it was better to take an underground route to the northern cliff and escape into the sea.
His Force-Dispersing Underarmor had dispersed the impact, but he could still faintly taste blood.
Today was his first time fighting two Foundation Establishment cultivators. Yi Hyeon had confirmed that his spiritual power and spells could work perfectly well against them.
But what struck him more was the difference their ability to fly made.
‘I see. Is that why no one seriously discusses a fight between a mortal martial arts grandmaster and a Foundation Establishment cultivator...?’
Yi Hyeon had long wondered about that. A martial artist in the Profound realm should be able to threaten even a Foundation Establishment cultivator, so why did no one seriously discuss who would win?
No matter how powerful a Profound realm master was, they had no way to strike back if a Foundation Establishment cultivator flew high and rained down spells. On the other hand, a Foundation Establishment cultivator could always fly away whenever the situation turned against them.
...
The northern cliff of Jeogyo Island.
Having reached the island’s northern edge, Yi Hyeon burst through the red cliff and shot straight toward the blue sea.
“Catch him!”
The two alliance elders circling above the cliff gave chase, wrapped in spiritual light.
Yi Hyeon fell below the cliff and struck the water.
Paang!
After hitting the surface once, his body bounced upward like a flat stone.
Pang! Paang!
Yi Hyeon turned and lay almost parallel to the water. In that position, each kick against the surface sent him shooting forward several dozen jang.
Paang! Pa-pang! Pa-pa-pa-pang!
The intervals between his touches on the water grew shorter. White foam burst up in succession as he rapidly pulled away from Jeogyo Island.
“What in the...?”
An unbelievable sight was unfolding before the two elders looking down from above. That Qi Refining stage cultivator, who could not even fly, was lying comfortably over the water and bouncing along like a skipping stone, leaving them behind at a terrifying speed.
The elder with the wounded side clutched the injury and gritted their teeth.
“Damn it! He really does seem to be at the Qi Refining stage, since he can’t fly. But how can he move at such a ridiculous speed...?”
“Stop talking and go faster!”
“Damn it, if not for my side...”
The two elders drew on more spiritual power. Their speed increased briefly, but they could not close the gap between them and Yi Hyeon. Instead, it slowly grew.
Yi Hyeon was even drawing on common knowledge from his past life. Using the Reclining Escape Art, he lay parallel to the water to reduce the air resistance from the front. He also shaped the screen of his Spherical Qi Barrier into the pointed nose of a high-speed train, extending it in his direction of travel.
Each time he touched the water, the Ground-Shrinking Step burst into action and added thrust. As a result, his speed exceeded two hundred kilometers per hour in the units of his past life. The two elders flew at around one hundred and fifty kilometers per hour, so the distance between them could only grow.
The elder with the wounded side spoke urgently.
“Couldn’t we contact the alliance elders living on the mainland ahead and have them surround him?”
“Can’t you see that monstrous speed? He’ll reach land before the Voice Transmission Talismans do! Besides, would he be mad enough to enter a cultivation family’s territory? Of course he’ll slip through a gap!”
The two pursued Yi Hyeon for a while longer. But the distance kept growing, and the wounded elder’s face became increasingly pale. In the end, their speed dropped first.
...
Even after confirming that the two elders’ auras were fading into the distance, Yi Hyeon did not slow down.
In truth, he had no intention of continuing a feud with them. They had tried to capture him, but they had not picked a fight without any reason.
Most of the Azure Tide Merchant Alliance’s elders were heads of cultivation families that controlled tier-two spirit veins along the southern coast and archipelago of the Namnyeo Kingdom.
For example, of the seven great Foundation Establishment families in southern Namnyeo, five had family heads who also served as alliance elders.
To be honest, the Heaven-Drawing Society really had secretly used spiritual qi flowing from their spirit veins.
The spiritual qi of heaven and earth had no owner to begin with. But from the perspective of families that had managed their formations and spirit fields for generations, they had reason to consider themselves the victims.
That was why Yi Hyeon had never intended to go out of his way to fight the two elders to the death.
Black Leopard Cat, on the other hand, could have brought death to every other member of the Heaven-Drawing Society. As its leader, Yi Hyeon had to execute the traitor.
‘A fine day to retire...’
His body sped even faster toward the coast of the Namnyeo Kingdom.
...
Two shichen later.
An unnamed cliff on the southern coast of the Namnyeo Kingdom.
A black stone slab lay inside a small underground hollow.
At its center was an engraving of a cicada shedding its shell.
Yi Hyeon fitted eight low-grade spirit stones into the grooves around the slab.
Hummm...
The formation lines connected to the slab lit up one by one.
It was an emergency communication formation the Heaven-Drawing Society had prepared long ago.
The society had established several levels of emergency procedures in case cultivation families discovered them or their meeting places were destroyed.
The highest level was the Shell-Shedding Order (脫殼令).
Abandon all meeting places.
Remove the markers at the vein seats and destroy the assignment ledgers.
Members must cut contact with one another and scatter.
Hold no meetings under the name of the Heaven-Drawing Society.
Yi Hyeon placed a hand on the stone slab.
“I issue the Shell-Shedding Order.”
The light split into eight branches and sank into the slab.
Once the news reached the nearby bases, their managers would pass the order on to the next bases. Repeating this process would allow every member to receive the news within four days at most.
...
A few days later.
Gomokjae in Baekpo Cultivator Market closed its doors.
The masks, maps, and ledgers in the underground meeting room all disappeared.
The Heaven-Drawing Society’s markers and concealment formations were removed from various residual vein nodes, including those at Cheongna Mountain and Jamha Valley.
The small passages leading to the vein seats collapsed, and the members scattered without asking where anyone else was going.
...
An underground cave near Baekpo Cultivator Market.
Yi Hyeon placed the Badger mask on the floor.
Long use had worn down its edges and the areas around its eyeholes.
The tip of the Mountain-Subduing Sword lightly tapped the mask.
Tap.
The mask split neatly in two.
Yi Hyeon burned the pieces with the Fireball Spell, then washed even the remaining ashes into an underground stream.
He disposed of guest alchemist Yi Muk’s identity token and the small objects bearing the Azure Tide Merchant Alliance’s emblem in the same way.
“Take care, all of you.”
* * *
One year later.
Tunnel No. 2.
After escaping Jeogyo Island, Yi Hyeon had spent nearly two months wandering underground through the Namnyeo Kingdom, changing direction as he went.
When no pursuers appeared, he returned to Tunnel No. 2. For the next ten months, he had stayed underground, living self-sufficiently and watching his surroundings.
He had not sensed anything suspicious once over the past year.
‘At this point, I can assume they haven’t discovered Tunnel No. 2. There’s no need to move. Moving is such a bother...’
This was different from when he had killed a cultivator from the Cheongun Sect, which he suspected was a major sect.
The Azure Tide Merchant Alliance had no Golden Core cultivators. Yi Hyeon was not afraid of them.
Still, he intended to avoid operating in southern Namnyeo for the time being. Some of Society Leader Badger’s combat methods had been exposed.
“But the Ram Kingdom is vast. Who’s going to recognize me if I work outside Namnyeo?”
Yi Hyeon took out a small medicine packet. It was the last dose of the tier-one Bone-Tempering Powder he had set aside while working as a guest alchemist on Jeogyo Island.
Having taken several doses over the past year, he seemed close to the limit of how much tier-one Bone-Tempering Powder could strengthen his bones.
He poured a third of the packet’s contents into a jade bottle filled with spirit spring water. As the ivory powder dissolved, he shook the bottle and drank it all in one go.
“Phew...”
Yi Hyeon lay comfortably on the cultivation room floor and circulated the Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art.
A short while later, warmth spread through his body.
The medicinal power passed through his meridians and seeped into his bones.
The sensation began in his fingers, wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Heat rose along his spine, while deep in his pelvis and knees, he felt an itch like hundreds of tiny ants crawling around.
Crack.
A dull ache ran through Yi Hyeon’s ribs and spine with every breath.
* * *
Two years later.
Jangchun Sect (長春門), Cheongno Kingdom.
The Cheongno Kingdom was a mortal kingdom in the central-western region of the Ram Kingdom, a tier-four cultivation kingdom.
It lay twenty thousand li north of Yi Hyeon’s Tunnel No. 2 in the Namnyeo Kingdom.
The Jangchun Sect had earned some fame for refining Origin-Raising Pills, which were used to break through from the middle to the late Qi Refining stage.
...
Inside a spacious hall in the Jangchun Sect.
Twenty alchemy furnaces stood at regular intervals. In front of each sat an independent Qi Refining stage cultivator hoping to join the sect.
Yi Hyeon was one of them.
Hummm...
The alchemy furnace before him trembled slightly.
Today’s examination task was the Spirit-Restoring Pill. It had almost no practical effect and was a test pill created by the Jangchun Sect solely to assess pill-refining skill.
The sect provided three sets of ingredients and the formula. Anyone who produced at least two low-grade Spirit-Restoring Pills within three attempts would be recognized as a tier-one alchemist.
Fwoosh...
Flames rose to different sizes from six burners in front of Yi Hyeon. Three kinds of medicinal ingredients were refined in turn inside the furnace.
Blue medicinal liquid mixed with yellow spiritual qi. Then white energy extracted from the final ingredient gently enveloped the medicinal potency of the other two.
Yi Hyeon formed the Pill-Condensing Seals.
Hum!
A short while later, round objects fell onto the bottom of the furnace.
Clatter.
When he opened the lid, three Spirit-Restoring Pills appeared.
One mid-grade.
Two low-grade.
The cultivator at the late Qi Refining stage overseeing the examination inspected the pills one by one with a surprised expression.
“A mid-grade pill on the first attempt...”
Yi Hyeon put on a suitably pleased expression.
“I was lucky.”
Just then, an unfamiliar voice came from the hall’s entrance.
“Not bad for a young independent Qi Refining stage cultivator.”
The examiners hurriedly rose and cupped their hands.
“Greetings, Elder Go.”
An elderly cultivator entered the hall. They inspected Yi Hyeon’s furnace, then the completed Spirit-Restoring Pills.
“Your control of fire is steady. Not bad. I am Go Won-hak, lord of Danjeong Peak and an elder of the Jangchun Sect.”
Go Won-hak looked down at the paperwork the examiner had filled out.
“Your name is... Yi Dong-i (李洞二)?”
“Yes.”
Go Won-hak stroked their beard.
“What a strange name. Why in the world were you named that?”
‘Because I’m based near Tunnel No. 2...’
Yi Hyeon offered a suitable excuse.
“My parents passed away when I was young, so I never learned why they gave me that name.”
“Exactly! That is why we must always remain humble and seek understanding. Isn’t the wisdom of your parents, who lived and died as mortals, ahead of that of a living cultivator? Simply saying ‘Dong-i’ sounds like an affectionate nickname. What could it be but their great wish for their child to be loved by those around him throughout his life? It isn’t too late, now that you understand their intent. There are opportunities to learn everywhere. With that in mind, would you become my nominal disciple and come to Danjeong Peak? If you study pill refining on our peak, you’ll be able to improve far beyond your current level.”
Just then, an elderly cultivator approached from deeper inside the hall, wearing clothes steeped in the scent of medicinal herbs.
“Now, Elder Go! How can you poach talent in the middle of an examination?”
“Poach? I’m merely showing him a path suited to his excellent talent.”
“Our Baekcho Peak provides the ingredients and furnaces and runs this entrance examination. Shouldn’t you at least let him hear Baekcho Peak’s terms before he decides?”
Footnotes:
Yi Dong-i is written with the characters for “Yi,” “cave,” and “two,” echoing Tunnel No. 2. Go Won-hak instead hears “Dong-i” as an affectionate nickname and reads a loving parental wish into it.
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