WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 69
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Dawn the next day.
Large flying boats hovered low over the clearing north of Cheongseok Market. Cultivators hurried between them, carrying the last of the cargo.
The boat carrying the Danso Sect’s alchemists was in the middle of the fleet.
The cargo on deck had already been secured, and disciples at the Qi Refining stage sat together inside the cabin.
While Song Gye-myeong checked the roster, Bang Je-un and Jin So-yeong inspected the restrictions around the hull.
Ak Mu-gu raised a hand as Yi Hyeon came aboard.
“Junior Brother Yi. Over here.”
Beside him, Mae So-gun was watching the cabin entrance. Yu Jeong-won finally came aboard, dragging a shield as tall as himself. Meeting her gaze, he sheepishly hunched his shoulders.
“Sorry I’m late.”
Soon afterward, Dam Un-saeng came down onto the deck.
“Is everyone aboard?”
Song Gye-myeong folded the roster.
“Yes.”
Dam Un-saeng looked over the cabin and deck.
The small gourd the elder had worn when setting out from the main sect grounds still hung at their waist.
“If fighting breaks out along the way and we get separated, go to the meeting point we agreed on. Don’t wander around trying to board another flying boat.”
The disciples bowed their heads.
“Yes.”
...
Before long, the lead boat began moving north.
The lamps along the edges of the deck went out one after another. The boats following it rose into the dark sky, keeping their distance from one another.
The vast formation surrounding Cheongseok Market trembled. The moment the last boat in the rear guard passed through, it faded from the air and vanished completely. The halls and towers that had once shone through the night sank into pitch-black darkness.
...
That afternoon, six flying boats from the Byeokra and Danso Sects joined them from beyond the eastern mountains. By evening, troops withdrawing from other strongholds had also joined the fleet, bringing the number of Golden Core elders escorting it to four.
There were Dam Un-saeng and the long-bearded elder from the Byeokra Sect, along with two new arrivals: a blue-robed elder from the Danso Sect and a female cultivator from the Byeokra Sect.
People’s expressions brightened.
The oppressive mood aboard the boats gradually eased beneath the towering auras of the four Golden Core elders. With this much strength, they believed they could break through even if they ran into an ambush.
...
The fleet continued north without stopping for a full day.
The Foundation Establishment cultivators took turns checking the boats’ restrictions. The disciples at the Qi Refining stage rested in the cabins, replacing spirit stones whenever they were ordered to. Twice along the way, groups of raiders appeared, but after seeing the fleet’s strength, they withdrew without daring to approach.
They were less than a day from the Hyeon Kingdom’s border when it happened.
Clang!
A sharp bell rang from one of the boats. Every cultivator on deck looked up.
At the very moment the four Golden Core elders rose into the air between the boats, the dark clouds in the southern sky twisted into a vast whirlpool and tore apart.
Boom!
A pulse of magical power shook the entire sky like a heartbeat. A gigantic black beast emerged through the clouds.
Its frost-sharp claws crushed and scattered the clouds, and black scales covered a body dozens of jang long. A man in fluttering black robes stood atop the flood dragon’s head, its thick horns thrust upward.
“The Bokhae Sect!”
“That demonic beast is an Ink-Scaled Flood Dragon...!”
Before the cries had even ended, an immense pressure descended from above.
Three figures appeared behind the flood dragon.
One was a Tier 3 gu adept from the Geonyang Kingdom, dark red veins writhing beneath their skin. Another was a Golden Core cultivator holding a large bow carved from the bones of a bird that had been stripped alive. The bird’s head at one end was still rolling its eyes. The last was a thin Golden Core cultivator carrying an enormous jet-black coffin tightly bound with chains and talismans.
Four Golden Core-level cultivators and an upper Tier 3 demonic beast had appeared.
The spiritual pressure overhead alone made the boats’ defensive screens creak. Several disciples at the Qi Refining stage in the cabins coughed up blood. Their vitality had been thrown into turmoil by the spiritual sense and waves of magical power radiating from several Golden Core-level beings.
“You’re off on an outing. Surely we can’t send you away empty-handed?”
As the Bokhae Sect cultivator’s mocking voice cut through the air, the Golden Core archer drew their bow.
Whoom!
Three beams of red light shot through the air and struck the space ahead of the fleet. Formation inscriptions linked them together, violently seizing the surrounding wind-element spiritual power. The air currents supporting the boats twisted, forcing the vessels downward.
Crrrack!
As the lead boat lost its balance and plunged, a fourth arrow tore through the air toward its hull.
Boooom!
The Byeokra Sect’s female cultivator deployed a bronze mirror and knocked the arrow aside. The deflected red light reduced an entire distant mountain peak to dust.
Clank!
Seizing the opening, the cultivator carrying the coffin released its chains.
The lid opened, spilling out yin energy that seemed cold enough to freeze the bones. A corpse with flesh as hard as bronze stepped out.
It was a Bronze-Armored Corpse, its eyes and mouth sewn shut with golden thread.
As the monster, which had been a Golden Core cultivator in life, stepped into the air, its dense corpse qi and spiritual pressure violently drove back the surrounding clouds.
“Keep heading north! If you stop here, the entire fleet will be wiped out!”
Dam Un-saeng’s shout battered the disciples’ eardrums. The elder took the small gourd from his waist and opened its stopper.
Fwoosh!
The moment a tiny spark sprang out, dazzling blue light pierced the dark clouds brought by the Ink-Scaled Flood Dragon, illuminating the sky. With every beat of its wings, a firebird as clear as blue glass drew in terrifying amounts of the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. The entire stretch of sky a hundred jang ahead of it disappeared into a blue net of fire.
“Azure Void Glass Flame?!”
The cultivator riding the Ink-Scaled Flood Dragon formed hand seals in alarm. The beast spat out an enormous water dragon. Yet wherever it touched the Glass Flame, the water dragon turned into white vapor. Steam erupted across the sky.
Bang!
The firebird slipped through a momentary opening and brushed the flood dragon’s scales. Dozens of ink-black scales, harder than steel, melted away, and the exposed flesh beneath them began to burn. The flood dragon’s roar of agony shook heaven and earth.
Graaaah!
Meanwhile, the elderly Byeokra Sect cultivator threw a Nine-Jointed Emerald Vine into the air. Hundreds of huge, jade-green vines spread outward and intertwined into a forest, blocking the enemies’ path.
Boom! Crack!
The Geonyang Kingdom gu adept’s blood spear tore through the forest of vines. The Bronze-Armored Corpse charged into it, setting off thunderous explosions.
Even as the fleet sped north at full speed, the storm of magical power raging behind it tossed the boats like fallen leaves. Yi Hyeon looked back and clearly saw a mountain peak beneath the distant Golden Core battlefield being sliced diagonally through its middle.
...
No sooner had they escaped the Golden Core battlefield than ambushers swarmed up from the surrounding mountains.
“Enemies to starboard!”
“Block the flying swords!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Flying swords and fireballs rained in from every direction. One of the boats at the rear had its stern torn away and burst into flames. Mae So-gun’s silk ribbon and Yi Hyeon’s Essence-Condensing Grasping Hand reached out in turn, hauling aboard the disciples spilling from the falling vessel.
Clang!
Just as Yi Hyeon’s Dark Palace-Gate Sword knocked aside a throwing knife aimed at his face, the now-empty boat shattered and fell to the ground. Every disciple had made it off.
Signals rose one after another from the boats ahead. Song Gye-myeong immediately grabbed the formation disk.
“We’re splitting off too!”
As the fleet scattered in every direction, Yeonha Peak’s boat skimmed beneath the clouds and darted between mountain ridges.
...
Their desperate flight continued for a shichen.
But the enemies had smelled blood and refused to give up. As the boat tried to circle around a valley to the northeast, twelve Foundation Establishment cultivators and gu adepts completely blocked its path ahead and behind, accompanied by two monstrous Tier 2 birds covered in gray scales.
“Push through! Don’t slow down!”
Song Gye-myeong poured spiritual power into the formation disk like a madman, while Bang Je-un pressed talismans over the restrictions on the cracked hull. Ak Mu-gu and Mae So-gun also drew their weapons.
Then, in an instant, the balance of the aerial battle was shattered.
Thrum!
An archer’s purple arrow drove in and struck Yu Jeong-won’s shield.
Boom!
The metal-crushing impact forced him to his knees, opening a deadly gap in their defenses.
A gu adept who had been hiding their presence at the bottom of the valley shot upward, taking advantage of that opening. Ferocious gu-origin true qi wrapped the adept’s spearhead as they charged into the blind spot beneath the boat, directly below the cabin. The spiritual pressure pouring from them was on par with an early Golden Core cultivator!
An early Tier 3 gu adept.
But beneath the adept’s torn clothing was a deep gash running from the chest to the left shoulder. Blood still flowed from the wound, which had not been fully closed. The Protective Spiritlight over that area alone flickered unsteadily.
Yi Hyeon moved at once.
‘Damn it, why is there a Tier 3 gu adept here?’
Whoooosh!
Yu Jeong-won’s shield had been knocked aside, and Mae So-gun’s silk ribbon was tied up fighting one of the monstrous birds.
Yi Hyeon vaulted over the railing and dove beneath the hull, compressing spiritual power into his Dark Palace-Gate Sword. It was already too late to block the spear projection head-on.
His blade flashed.
Yi Hyeon’s sword slid diagonally along the spear shaft. The gu adept had committed their strength to piercing the boat, but the spearhead veered about a handspan off course, tearing a long strip through the restrictions and outer planking beneath the hull.
As the gu adept tried to pull the spear back after this unexpected interference, Yi Hyeon slid his blade along the shaft and closed in. He aimed for the open wound in the adept’s chest.
Claaang!
Gu-origin true qi surged through the spear shaft, nearly tearing apart the hand gripping his sword. But Yi Hyeon did not let go. Supreme Unity Heavenly Dipper Sword Qi, held tightly compressed into a single point, flashed through the wavering spiritlight over the wound.
“Urgh!”
Blood burst from the gu adept’s chest. An instinctive twist saved the adept’s heart from being pierced, but the barely closed wound ripped open again all the way to the shoulder. The gu-origin true qi they had painstakingly contained began leaking out violently.
The moment Yi Hyeon pulled his sword free, he used the recoil of his Spherical Qi Barrier to propel himself away. The gu adept’s sweeping spear shaft grazed his toes. That counterattack alone blasted apart an entire section of the nearby cliff.
‘One mistake and I’m dead!’
The gu adept halted their fall against a nearby rock face and tried to leap upward again. But true qi surged backward through the torn chest. Coughing up clots of blood, the adept dropped to one knee.
In that brief opening, the flying boat rounded a bend in the valley. Yi Hyeon shot up alongside the hull and returned to the deck.
The disciples on deck had only staggered from the impact beneath the boat. They had not seen the brief clash clearly. Before they could regain their footing, attacks rained in from every direction again.
Clang!
Ak Mu-gu’s iron plate knocked aside a monstrous bird’s claws. Just as the plate veered off course through the air, another gu adept slipped into a blind spot and unleashed countless insect threads.
Hummm!
Yi Hyeon twisted his left hand inside his sleeve. A brief burst of Earth-Origin Force pulled the gu adept sideways, bringing them directly into the path of Ak Mu-gu’s stray iron plate. It smashed squarely into the adept’s collarbone.
Crunch!
“Aaaargh!”
As the insect threads scattered with the scream, Ak Mu-gu’s second iron plate slammed into the adept’s back and sent them tumbling downward.
But there was no time to rest.
Boom! Crack!
The other monstrous bird threw its enormous weight against the bow of the boat. The railing shattered, sending wooden splinters raining down. Yu Jeong-won, who had braced his shield against it, coughed up blood as his shoulder bone was crushed.
“Junior Brother Yu!”
Jin So-yeong shouted and sent a jade ruler flying. It struck an enemy cultivator in the side and knocked them out of the sky. While Mae So-gun’s silk ribbon wound around the monstrous bird’s neck and hurled it away from the boat, Yi Hyeon slid down the outer planking of the damaged stern.
The Dark Palace-Gate Sword flashed in his hand.
Supreme Unity Heavenly Dipper, Twelfth Form: Bending Turn.
An archer was drawing their bow, aiming at the weakened light screen beneath the boat. Yi Hyeon’s sword qi curved through the air and sliced off the archer’s wrist with ease.
“Aaagh!”
Before the scream ended, a cultivator carrying a shield ritually refined from human skin rushed at him. But Yi Hyeon’s arm moved at an unbelievable speed. Sword light split the shield, and the cultivator’s head flew from their neck.
As a mist of blood spread, Yi Hyeon snatched the storage pouch and returned to the deck.
Having seen their companions fall one after another, the enemies backed away the moment he landed. The archer with the purple bow, who seemed to be their commander, retreated and shouted.
“Don’t fight the sword cultivator up close! Break through the side of the boat!”
“Once the boat goes down, everything’s ours!”
The enemies seemed to believe that if they simply shot the battered boat down from a distance, they could claim all the storage pouches and the wealth aboard.
The remaining enemies all dropped lower and began attacking the boat in waves.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Under the barrage of magical implements, the deck rocked as though it would flip over. The cabin roof collapsed, and the disciples screamed. Even the defensive barrier cast by the formation disk flickered. At this rate, the boat would shatter in midair.
‘I have to take that one out first.’
Yi Hyeon stepped onto the railing.
“Junior Brother Yi!”
“I’ll be right back.”
Crack!
Before he finished speaking, Yi Hyeon shot into the air like a bolt of lightning.
The archer grinned viciously and aimed again at the sword cultivator who had leaped out into the open sky. Meanwhile, a gu adept sprayed a net of insect threads from their palm, blocking Yi Hyeon’s path.
But then...
Humm!
Yi Hyeon clenched his left hand hard in the air. The gu adept blocking his way pitched forward as though pulled by a magnet. The insect-thread net closed in the wrong direction, completely blocking the archer’s view instead.
“You son of a...!”
Slash!
Before the archer could finish cursing, the gu adept’s head flew off. As Yi Hyeon charged through the spraying blood, the flustered archer fired three arrows in quick succession straight at his face.
Thrum! Thrum! Thrum!
The purple arrows flew so fast they seemed to burn the air.
Boom!
Yi Hyeon’s Spherical Qi Barrier pressed down on the first arrow and bent it off course. His spinning Dark Iron Buckler deflected the second. The last arrow slid along the blade of the Dark Palace-Gate Sword, throwing off sparks with a dreadful scraping sound.
Scrreeech!
By the time the sparks grazed his cheek, Yi Hyeon was already right under the archer’s chin.
‘What kind of monster is he...?!’
Though terrified, the archer quickly threw his high-grade magical bow at Yi Hyeon. The restrictions carved into its limbs came undone, and the bow exploded.
Boooom!
‘You didn’t see that coming!’
Using the blast of heat as cover, the archer retreated and took out his most treasured bow, a top-grade magical implement, from his storage pouch.
At that very moment, Yi Hyeon burst straight through the flames behind his Dark Iron Buckler. His sword was already thrusting toward the archer. In a panic, the man hurriedly raised his bow. Sword and bow collided, releasing a violent shock wave.
Claaang!
Disbelief spread across the man’s face.
Yi Hyeon’s sword pierced straight through the joint in the bow’s frame.
Crack!
The sturdy spirit bow split in two with a shriek. The sword’s tip smashed through the man’s Protective Spiritlight and drove deep into his chest.
Splurt!
“Ghurk...”
The light faded from the man’s eyes as his heart was pierced. Yi Hyeon kicked the corpse away, turned, and swept his sword sideways at a demonic cultivator attempting a sneak attack from behind with a flying sword.
Light flashed.
A crescent of sword light cut through the air, cleanly separating the cultivator’s upper and lower body.
As blood rained down, Yi Hyeon caught up with the boat ahead and landed lightly on its deck. Blood dripped from the tip of his sword.
“...”
When even their commander died in an instant, the remaining monstrous birds and demonic cultivators rose higher in alarm. None dared approach the boat.
“Full speed ahead!”
At Song Gye-myeong’s shout, the flying boat roared and slipped into a gorge between the mountains.
...
Only after another shichen of flight, when they had finally left the mountains behind, did the cultivators aboard sink to the deck, gasping for breath.
Clutching his crushed shoulder, Yu Jeong-won barely managed to lower his shield with a trembling hand. Ak Mu-gu slumped against the blood-soaked railing and tipped a Qi-Restoring Pill into his mouth.
“...Junior Brother Yi.”
Ak Mu-gu looked up at Yi Hyeon with dazed eyes.
“That archer?”
“I killed him.”
“Good. Good work... The bastard deserved to die...”
At Yi Hyeon’s calm reply, Ak Mu-gu let out a hollow laugh and muttered to himself. Perhaps the release from that terrible tension had left him so utterly exhausted that he could only repeat the same words in a daze.
...
As the sun sank toward the west, the long mountain range began to fall away.
The boat emerged from the layered mountains. A broad plain and a majestic river spread out below.
Song Gye-myeong’s hand stopped as he compared an open map with the terrain ahead.
The people on deck rose to their feet. Disciples also began emerging from the cabin, one after another.
Far away, enormous pillars of light towered over the mountain ridge along the border. Beneath them, the flags of the three great sects fluttered above a border gate.
The Cheongun Sect, the Taehyeon Sect, and the Geumjeong Sect.
Below the flags, several boats that had arrived earlier were descending in a line.
Song Gye-myeong sent a Voice Transmission Talisman toward the gate to identify them, then glanced back at the southern sky. Dam Un-saeng and the other elders were still nowhere to be seen.
“The Hyeon Kingdom...!”
Someone cried out in a voice thick with tears. Bathed in the reassuring glow of sunset, the battered flying boat began its slow descent toward the gate.
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