WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 45
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Yi Hyeon examined the spoken incantation for the Shared Swarm Seal Spell and the structure of the Spirit-Nurturing Seal in turn.
It covered everything from the basics of placing a Spirit-Nurturing Seal on an individual spirit insect to choosing the core members of a swarm and dividing their seals into hundreds or thousands of branches.
‘I’ll need a few months of practice.’
Click.
His two shichen of reading time were over.
When he came out, the disciple in charge took back the blue token.
As Yi Hyeon left the outer section of the Scripture Repository, he looked up at the inner section.
A translucent curtain still hung across the entrance to the stairs that led up to it, where the building met the clouds.
‘If I became an inner sect disciple, I could study the teachings in there too...’
* * *
Two and a half months later.
His probationary period at the Outer Alchemy Court ended.
Yi Hyeon finished all his basic duties in the medicinal ingredient room, pill inspection room, and alchemy chamber, then applied for leave.
“Twenty-five whole days?”
Yang Jin-pyeong asked the question while checking the ledger.
“Yes.”
Yang Jin-pyeong checked the quantity and quality of the pills he had submitted over the past three months.
“You’ve submitted more than your quota and haven’t caused any trouble, so I’ll approve it.”
“Thank you.”
...
Nine days later.
「Underground Hideout No. 3」
Thud.
Yi Hyeon dropped from the ceiling into the cavern.
“It’s... too far!”
He had traveled a full 58,000 li northwest from Danso Immortal City!
Underground Hideout No. 3 was at the far northwestern edge of the Gon Kingdom, while the Danso Sect stood east of the kingdom’s center.
‘The watering system can last three years, so I should leave a little more time between visits from now on.’
Yi Hyeon opened his spirit insect pouch.
Bzz. Bzzzz.
Over a hundred Fuzzbees poured out like a golden cloud.
Back in a wide-open space for the first time in ages, they flew wildly around the tunnel.
The Fuzzbees living near the hunting tunnels and spirit fields heard the buzzing and flocked over too. As the two groups mixed, the number floating around the cavern rose to about a thousand.
Squeak! Squeak, squeak!
“Have you been well?”
Squeak.
“I suppose you have. All you’ve done is eat and sleep.”
Instead of answering, the Fuzzbees circled his head and body.
A few began tugging at his hair.
“Don’t pull.”
...
Yi Hyeon brought the Fuzzbees to the largest cavern.
A shallow stone bowl he had prepared in advance sat on the floor.
He filled it with water made using the Spirit Rain Spell, then stirred in a spoonful of Hundred-Flower Honey bought at a cultivator market. Next, following the incantation for the Shared Swarm Seal Spell, he released a thin stream of primordial unity true qi from his fingertip.
Hummm.
A faint light seeped into the sweet water.
The Fuzzbees caught the sweet scent and gathered around the stone bowl.
Bzzzzzz.
“Don’t drink it yet.”
Squeak?
They didn’t understand him.
Yi Hyeon blocked the Fuzzbees rushing toward the bowl with a Spiritlight Shield, then called the three mutated ones over and placed them on his palm.
As he formed hand seals with his left hand, thin strands of spiritual power gathered above his right.
The lines joined and overlapped, forming a small seal. Patterns resembling leaves and antennae intertwined inside a circle with an empty center.
It was the Spirit-Nurturing Seal.
Hummm.
Yi Hyeon turned his palm over.
The seal split into three branches and settled onto the heads of the mutated Fuzzbees.
Squeak!
All three spread their wings at once.
One tried to fly away in surprise, but the faint light passed through its fur and head, seeping naturally into its body.
The Fuzzbees’ spiritual power fluctuations briefly grew erratic.
Yi Hyeon immediately withdrew his primordial unity true qi.
‘There’s hardly any strain.’
Identical traces had appeared inside all three.
Yi Hyeon placed the three mutated Fuzzbees in front of the stone bowl.
“Drink.”
They hadn’t understood the command, but as soon as the Spiritlight Shield vanished, all three began drinking the honey water as though they had been waiting for that moment.
Squeak, squeak.
The other Fuzzbees rushed in at once.
With the three marked Fuzzbees mixed into their midst, about a thousand of them bumped against one another as they drank.
Yi Hyeon formed hand seals again, and the Spirit-Nurturing Seals on the three mutated Fuzzbees lit up together.
Hummm.
Thin strands of light stretched from the seals, branching again and again. One after another, the branches connected to the Fuzzbees drinking sweet water from the same bowl.
Faint Spirit-Nurturing Seals appeared on the ordinary Fuzzbees.
One.
Ten.
A hundred.
The same seal spread throughout the entire swarm of about a thousand.
Bzzzzzz.
The Fuzzbees took flight together.
The golden swarm filled the cavern ceiling.
Yi Hyeon slowly lowered his hands as he examined the seals.
‘I think it worked.’
When he raised his right hand, a few nearby Fuzzbees gathered around it.
“Come here.”
Bzzzzz.
About ten landed on the back of his hand and his arm.
The rest were still wandering around the cavern or licking up the sweet water left in the stone bowl.
“I meant all of you.”
Squeak.
Yi Hyeon sent his intent through the Spirit-Nurturing Seals and repeated the command.
A moment later, about a thousand Fuzzbees settled tightly across his arms, shoulders, and head. Golden fur and wings filled his vision.
Bzzzzzz.
They covered his face too.
“Move away.”
They didn’t move.
“Move away.”
Squeak?
“...”
...
The next day.
“Gather.”
Bzzzz.
The scattered Fuzzbees gathered in front of Yi Hyeon, forming a round swarm.
“Scatter.”
The golden ball spread out in every direction.
“Stop.”
About a thousand Fuzzbees stopped moving through the air.
“Not bad.”
They followed basic commands quite well.
They simply couldn’t understand complicated instructions.
‘That’s probably a matter of their intelligence rather than a limit of the Spirit-Nurturing Seals.’
Yi Hyeon packed only some of the Fuzzbees into his spirit insect pouch. They could detect Life-Sharing Gu and warn him when a gu adept approached.
He left the rest to live around the hunting tunnels and spirit fields.
After checking the watering system, spirit fields, and storehouse, Yi Hyeon finished his work and left Underground Hideout No. 3.
...
The day he returned to Danso Immortal City.
While walking along a main street, Yi Hyeon noticed a newly opened bookshop.
Novels with colorful cover illustrations filled a table at the entrance.
A general holding a long spear.
A man and woman falling off a cliff.
Two martial artists crossing swords before an imperial palace.
One thick set of books caught his eye.
《The Slave Soldier Rebuilds a Fallen Kingdom》
‘The title alone tells me what it’s about.’
The shopkeeper spoke.
“It’s the bestselling new release in Danso Immortal City right now.”
“How many volumes?”
“Twelve so far. The next one should be out in two months.”
Yi Hyeon considered it for a moment.
Buying an unfinished popular novel meant waiting for the next volume, but he liked the feel of the title and cover.
“I’ll take them all.”
“Thank you!”
...
Back in his quarters at the Outer Alchemy Court.
Yi Hyeon lay comfortably on his bed, reading the novel.
The protagonist was the last prince of a fallen kingdom.
Having lost his country as a child and been sold into slavery in an enemy kingdom, he had been moved between mines and military camps along the front lines. He learned martial arts as he survived one battle after another. Gathering slave soldiers who would follow him, he eventually came to lead three thousand armored cavalry.
Only then did the prince, who had hidden his identity for over ten years, reveal who he was and begin reclaiming his homeland. When he seized the first border fortress, former retainers and displaced people flocked to him. By the time he retook the second city, his army had doubled in size.
But every city he reclaimed needed troops to defend it and food to distribute to the people. The prince intended to recover all seventy-two cities between the border and the royal capital, one at a time. By the seventh, fewer than a thousand of his original three thousand armored cavalry remained.
Yi Hyeon clicked his tongue as he turned the page.
‘He was clever at first, but now he’s getting frustrating. If he leaves people behind every time he takes a city, when does he expect to reach the capital?’
The protagonist’s strategist thought the same thing.
Late in the tenth volume, the armored cavalry hid in a ruined mountain fortress to escape a vast enemy army.
As the protagonist stared in anguish at the cities on his map, the strategist spoke.
“Your Highness intends to reclaim every piece of lost territory before becoming king.”
“How can I call myself king when I haven’t reclaimed my people or my land?”
The strategist pointed at the royal capital in the center of the map.
“Reverse the order.”
“The order?”
“Don’t try to reclaim all your territory before becoming king. First seize the capital and become king. Then recover the remaining territory by royal command.”
In the end, the protagonist abandoned every city he had reclaimed and gathered his forces into a single army. He then launched a surprise attack on the capital along a route no one had expected.
Yi Hyeon nodded and was about to turn the page.
‘...Reverse the order?’
His gaze moved slowly, then stopped on the map.
A single red dot marked the royal capital in the middle of a vast kingdom.
‘Wait...’
‘Do I need to bring my whole body up to Foundation Establishment at once?’
‘What if I broke through to Foundation Establishment with just one central dantian first, like taking the capital first...?’
He sat up.
A memory from over a thousand years ago surfaced.
It was something Wang Jin had said in Cheongha Valley’s lecture hall.
“There is no separate organ called a dantian inside the human body. A dantian is simply an area designated by a cultivation art for storing spiritual power. Following the art’s guidance, you define a particular area below the navel and repeatedly gather refined spiritual power there, gradually turning it into a dantian.”
Yi Hyeon placed a hand near his Sea of Qi acupoint.
‘Later versions of the Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art were improved to use only the area around the Sea of Qi acupoint as a dantian. Couldn’t I begin Foundation Establishment that way too?’
He would create a small lower dantian centered on the Sea of Qi acupoint within his whole-body dantian.
He would leave the rest of his body at the early ninth layer of the Qi Refining stage and train only his lower dantian to the limit of Great Perfection. Then he would take a Foundation Establishment Pill and concentrate its medicinal strength within that narrow area.
If it worked, he could enter Foundation Establishment through his lower dantian, just like an ordinary cultivator. One or two Foundation Establishment Pills would be enough to attempt it.
‘Why did I assume I had to liquefy fifty times the spiritual power of another cultivator at my realm all at once?’
‘Back then, I wasn’t eager to advance, and I thought being stronger than my realm suggested would keep me safe. But that doesn’t mean I have to stay at the Qi Refining stage until I find fifty Foundation Establishment Pills.’
‘That’s it. Ever since I made my whole body into a dantian, I’ve been stuck in the habit of thinking I had to advance all of it together.’
Yi Hyeon was now a disciple of the Danso Sect. Within the safety of a sect, he had no need to obsess over being fifty times stronger than other cultivators at the same realm.
‘Besides, if I reach Foundation Establishment and become an inner sect disciple, I’ll have access to better teachings.’
‘Once I establish myself as a second-tier alchemist, I’ll also have a better chance of encountering the ingredients for Foundation Establishment Pills or learning how they’re refined. If I’m lucky enough to obtain the formula, I could take pills I make myself and gradually bring the rest of my body up to Foundation Establishment too...’
...
Yi Hyeon immediately went to the cultivation chamber to try following the incantation for the later, improved version of the Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art.
When he filled the Spirit-Gathering Formation with low-grade spirit stones, the formation inscriptions on the floor lit up one after another.
Hummm.
The surrounding spiritual qi gathered inside the chamber.
For the first time in a while, Yi Hyeon sat cross-legged instead of lying down.
‘It’s my first attempt, so I’ll do it by the book.’
* * *
Three years later.
The Outer Alchemy Court.
Clatter.
The pill furnace’s lid opened, and round brown pills rolled out onto a jade tray.
Yi Hyeon divided them among jade bottles, then placed them in the return box along with the remaining ingredients.
For the past three years, he had quietly refined pills at the Outer Alchemy Court and saved up contribution points. Once a year, he visited Underground Hideout No. 3 to inspect its facilities.
With the Spirit-Nurturing Seals fully settled, the Fuzzbees had become much easier to handle.
...
“It’s about time I pretended to break through to the ninth layer.”
When he joined the sect, he had lowered his apparent cultivation to the eighth layer of the Qi Refining stage, but there was no reason to keep it there. Raising Yi Dong-sam’s apparent cultivation to the ninth layer now would make it seem natural when he later reached Great Perfection and sought a Foundation Establishment Pill.
‘With my cultivation focused on just the lower dantian, I don’t think it’ll even take ten years to reach Great Perfection...’
Yi Hyeon released a little of the aura he had concealed with the Spirit-Hiding Spell, making it look as though he had broken through to the ninth layer.
...
The next day, the stewards of the Outer Alchemy Court noticed Yi Dong-sam’s advancement but thought little of it. There was nothing strange about a hardworking alchemist who had already been at the eighth layer upon joining reaching the ninth after three years in the Danso Sect’s excellent environment.
...
Half a month later.
A small pavilion stood in the woods near the Outer Alchemy Court.
A stream carrying the scent of medicinal herbs flowed beneath it.
This was where purified water from the court’s alchemy chambers and medicinal ingredient rooms joined the valley stream. It wasn’t dirty, but faint traces of various herbs remained, so the scent changed whenever the wind blew.
Three people were already seated in the pavilion when Yi Hyeon arrived.
The round-faced Yeo Mun-deok.
Dang Yeon-bi, her black hair tied high and her sleeves neatly fastened.
Mun So-ha, with a small wooden ingredient box on her lap.
Yeo Mun-deok was at the seventh layer of the Qi Refining stage.
Dang Yeon-bi had passed the Special Skills Selection alongside Yi Hyeon and Yeo Mun-deok, joining the sect on the same day. She had been at the seventh layer then and had broken through to the eighth a year ago.
Her family ran a small medicinal ingredient merchant company in the southern Gon Kingdom.
Mun So-ha was a senior sister at the eighth layer who had joined the Outer Alchemy Court ten years before the other three. She knew more about appraising medicinal ingredients and growing spirit plants than about alchemy. When outside merchant companies delivered ingredients, she helped the stewards identify their varieties and medicinal ages.
Over the past three years, the four had naturally grown close while working together on alchemy and ingredient appraisal. When their schedules allowed, they met at this pavilion to discuss cultivation and exchange news from inside and outside the sect.
Mun So-ha handed Yi Hyeon a cup of tea.
“Congratulations on reaching the ninth layer, Junior Brother Yi.”
“Thank you, Senior Sister Mun.”
Dang Yeon-bi spoke.
“You were already at the eighth layer when we joined, so I knew you’d be the first to reach the ninth, Fellow Cultivator Yi. Still, three years is quite fast.”
“I was lucky.”
...
For a while, they talked about alchemy and cultivation.
There was a rumor that the outer sect had been allotted one fewer Foundation Establishment Pill this year than last.
There was a story about a Foundation Establishment alchemist in the inner sect who had gone into seclusion after ruining three consecutive batches of second-tier pills.
There was also a story about a crane escaping from the Spirit Beast Garden and setting fire to a medicinal ingredient room.
Then Dang Yeon-bi brought up news from the south.
“I heard from my family’s merchant company recently. Apparently, things have been looking unsettled in the southern Chang Kingdom.”
Yeo Mun-deok asked, “Has something happened in the Chang Kingdom?”
“They say the overseas cultivators who took over the Ram Kingdom have been appearing in the Chang Kingdom’s markets too.”
It was already widely known that the Ram Kingdom had fallen to a power from beyond the Nam Myeong Sea. After hundreds of years of war, many of the kingdom’s great sects had collapsed. Even those that survived had submitted to the overseas power.
Mun So-ha spoke.
“I heard the war finally ended about a hundred years ago.”
“That’s right. That’s why everyone thought they’d settled down in the Ram Kingdom.”
Dang Yeon-bi continued.
“But lately, overseas cultivators have been spotted at several markets in the southern Chang Kingdom. They aren’t just Qi Refining cultivators traveling with merchant companies. Apparently, there are cultivators at Foundation Establishment and above whose origins are unknown.”
Yeo Mun-deok asked, “Since they’ve taken the Ram Kingdom, couldn’t they simply be trying to trade with the Chang Kingdom?”
“They could. But I hear some have become guest retainers for local cultivation families, while others have been asking about the Chang Kingdom’s spirit veins and sects.”
Mun So-ha’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Hasn’t the Myriad Gu Sect taken action?”
“They might already be doing something. But my family’s company has only picked up a few rumors.”
Yi Hyeon’s fingers stopped at the rim of his teacup.
He remembered the twelve dark blue beads Vast Sea Guest had produced during the attack on the Jangchun Sect long ago, and the light that had stretched beyond the southern sky.
‘So that power took over the Ram Kingdom in the end.’
A great deal of time had passed since he left the Jangchun Sect.
He didn’t know how the Taehwa Sect, the Jami Sword Sect, or the Ram Kingdom’s other great sects had responded back then.
By now, there was almost no chance that anyone he knew remained.
‘And now they’re coming into the Chang Kingdom...’
They had crossed the vast Nam Myeong Sea. Crossing the 30,000 li of sea between the Ram and Chang Kingdoms would probably be easy for them.
The problem was that the Gon Kingdom, where Yi Hyeon lived, bordered the Chang Kingdom directly to the north.
It didn’t concern the Danso Sect yet, but their movements were drawing too close to dismiss as mere rumors from a distant country.
If the overseas cultivators invaded, the Chang Kingdom’s cultivation world would respond first, followed by the martial arts world of the Geonyang Kingdom. The Gon Kingdom’s cultivation world would be third.
Yi Hyeon said nothing in particular.
Nothing was certain yet. The overseas cultivators might simply be moving to trade and expand their influence.
Dang Yeon-bi added cautiously, “My family still sees these as nothing more than rumors circulating among merchant companies. But considering what happened in the Ram Kingdom, it’s worth keeping in mind.”
...
When the conversation paused, Mun So-ha placed the wooden box from her lap on the table.
“There’s something I’d like your opinions on.”
Yeo Mun-deok asked, “What is it, Senior Sister Mun?”
“A seed, rather than a medicinal ingredient.”
Mun So-ha opened the box.
Inside lay a single seed about the size of a thumbnail.
Its color was almost ink-black.
Rather than smooth, its surface was wrinkled like old bark. A closer look revealed several thin silver lines spreading across it like cracks.
Dang Yeon-bi examined the seed with the Qi-Observing Spell.
“It looks dead. I can barely sense any vitality.”
“Barely any, but it isn’t completely dead.”
Mun So-ha took out a thin needle and brought it close to the seed.
The blue light at its tip wavered ever so slightly.
“I’ve checked it several times with the medicinal ingredient room’s Vitality Needle. Its response is very slow, but there’s definitely some vitality left.”
Yeo Mun-deok peered at the seed.
“What kind of spirit plant is it?”
“Have you heard of the Ringless Divine Tree?”
None of the three could answer.
Mun So-ha continued as though she had expected that.
“I only learned about it after getting this seed. It’s a tree recorded only in a surviving fragment of a very old spirit tree guide.”
Dang Yeon-bi asked, “Does ‘ringless’ mean it has no growth rings?”
“That’s right.”
Mun So-ha picked up the seed.
“Ordinary trees grow a little each year as sap and spiritual qi circulate through them. But those flows are extremely slow in a Ringless Divine Tree. Even after hundreds of years, it barely grows. And even if you cut it down, there are no growth rings to tell you its medicinal age.”
Yeo Mun-deok asked, “What use is a tree that grows so slowly?”
“Apparently, it pays off if you grow it long enough.”
“How long?”
“At least two thousand years.”
Yeo Mun-deok froze.
“...Two thousand years?”
“Once it passes two thousand years, dark blue lightning patterns appear on its trunk and leaves. At five thousand years, it starts releasing a kind of lightning called Dark Nether Frost Thunder (玄冥凍雷).”
“Dark Nether Frost Thunder?”
Only then did Yi Hyeon speak.
Mun So-ha looked at him.
“Is this your first time hearing of it too, Junior Brother Yi?”
“Yes. What sort of lightning is it?”
“I only know what was written in the fragment.”
Mun So-ha paused to recall the details.
“It said its power doesn’t smash or burn things like ordinary lightning. When Dark Nether Frost Thunder touches a target, their magical power freezes, and even their primordial spirit’s thoughts slow down.”
Dang Yeon-bi’s eyes sharpened.
“It can affect the primordial spirit?”
“The record even said that escape light could freeze in midair. Though I don’t know whether that was true or an exaggeration.”
Yeo Mun-deok looked at the seed again.
“If that’s true, isn’t it an incredible treasure?”
“Only if you can prove it’s genuine.”
Mun So-ha smiled wryly.
“Apparently, the vitality in a Ringless Divine Tree seed is so weak that it’s hard to tell one apart from an ordinary dead seed. It can take anywhere from several decades to a hundred years just to sprout. Even after that, you have to grow it for two thousand years before the first lightning patterns appear.”
“Even the Foundation Establishment stewards couldn’t confirm whether it was genuine?”
“They told me it probably was. But since it takes so long to grow, they said they’d only value it as an ancient spirit plant seed.”
“How much?”
“Three low-grade spirit stones.”
Yeo Mun-deok asked, “How much were you hoping for, Senior Sister Mun?”
“Shouldn’t I get at least twenty low-grade spirit stones?”
Dang Yeon-bi spoke as she looked at the seed.
“That’s cheap if it’s genuine, but for an ordinary cultivator, a harvest two thousand years away is as good as no harvest at all. It’s not surprising that no one wants to buy it.”
Mun So-ha sighed.
“A few years ago, I appraised some medicinal ingredients for an outside merchant company. This was mixed in with the seeds they gave me as payment. It feels like a waste to hand it over to the sect for next to nothing, but there’s no point growing it myself.”
She was about to return the seed to the wooden box.
At that moment, Yi Hyeon spoke.
“I’ll buy it.”
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