WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 7
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“There's nothing wrong with the Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art itself. In fact, it's far more profound than the other basic cultivation methods given to new disciples. But... No, never mind. I don't yet know whether that applies to you...”
No Baek-san pointed toward the open doorway of one of the two rooms farther inside.
“Use that room. Unpack your things, then come back out.”
Yi Hyeon entered the room No Baek-san had indicated.
Inside stood a small bed and an old chest. The room seemed to have been empty for a while, as a little dust had gathered on the floor and furniture. Still, there was no visible damage to the walls or ceiling. Opening the window gave Yi Hyeon a clear view of the pond and the green spirit fields.
Yi Hyeon took bedding and clothes out of his storage pouch, set them on the bed, and left the room.
No Baek-san was already outside the building, so Yi Hyeon hurried after him.
“Today's work is pulling weeds.”
“Won't we use spells?”
“Do you know any?”
“Not yet.”
“Then pull them by hand.”
“Yes.”
The green grass covering most of the spirit field had grown knee-high.
Its leaves were narrow, with clear drops of dew hanging from their tips.
“What kind of spirit herb is this?”
“Azure Dew Grass. It's used in Spirit-Restoring Powder, which quickly restores depleted spiritual energy, and Clear Meridian Pills, which ease heat in the meridians. It's not a rare spirit herb, but it has many uses, so demand is steady.”
“How do I tell which plants are weeds?”
“Anything that isn't Azure Dew Grass is a weed. Don't leave the roots behind.”
“Yes.”
It sounded simple, but actually doing it wasn't easy.
Azure Dew Grass had thin, white roots, and many weeds had similar ones. A careless tug would snap a weed's stem, so Yi Hyeon had to gently dig through the soil and pull out the roots as well.
Removing a single weed took quite some time. No Baek-san had already moved far ahead.
‘I thought cultivators would do all their farm work with spells... So they pull weeds by hand too.’
Still, Yi Hyeon didn't dislike it.
In his previous life, this sort of work would have brought endless complaints. Perhaps because Yi Hyeon had reached the first level of Qi Refining, though, neither his back nor his knees hurt at all.
With no physical discomfort, the work wasn't mentally tiring either.
Sometimes, while digging through the soil along a weed's roots, Yi Hyeon found unfamiliar insects or plant roots.
‘Ugh... What's this?’
When Yi Hyeon found an insect with a blue shell and showed it to No Baek-san, asking what to do, he explained that it was a blue-shell beetle that sucked the sap from Azure Dew Grass. With a gesture, he lifted it into the air and burned it.
On the other hand, he said there was no need to kill a creature that looked like an ordinary earthworm. It was an earth spirit worm, which spread spiritual energy evenly through the soil.
Even within the same patch of soil, some things had to be removed while others needed protection. It was only the first day, but learning to tell them apart, one by one, was quite interesting.
As the sun began to sink behind the mountains, No Baek-san straightened up first.
“That's enough for today.”
“We still have that part left.”
“After sunset, the dew on Azure Dew Grass returns to its roots. Disturbing the soil then damages its medicinal properties.”
No Baek-san gathered the weeds they had pulled and piled them on the stone wall. He formed a hand seal with his fingers, and the weeds were instantly engulfed in flames and burned away.
“Do you have anything for dinner?”
“I have Fasting Pills.”
“Save those for when you run out of food. There's spirit rice in the storehouse behind the house. Let's scoop out a bowlful and cook it.”
Waist-high jars stood in rows inside the storehouse.
When No Baek-san opened one, a faint fragrance spread through the air. Inside were grains of rice with a radiant sheen.
“Is this spirit rice?”
“Yes. It's a variety called Cheongha Rice. There's no need to wash it.”
No Baek-san put water and spirit rice in a pot, covered it, then lightly rested his palm against its side.
A faint red glow spread from his fingertips. Before long, the rich smell of cooked rice rose from the pot.
No Baek-san divided the cooked Cheongha Rice between two bowls and took a little salted spirit vegetable from the cupboard. That was the entire evening meal.
Yi Hyeon picked up a mouthful of rice with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth.
The grains were soft, yet pleasantly springy as Yi Hyeon chewed. A gentle sweetness spread through his mouth. After swallowing, Yi Hyeon felt warmth slowly spreading through his stomach. The hunger built up from walking around the spirit field all day soon faded.
‘This is good.’
Just from eating the rice, Yi Hyeon felt the primordial unity true qi in his dantian increase ever so slightly.
“Eating spirit rice regularly would help with cultivation.”
“This Cheongha Rice is middle-grade Tier 1 spirit grain at best. It'll only have an effect during the early part of Qi Refining.”
“Thank you, Senior Brother No.”
“It's the sect providing it, not me. You don't need to feel indebted.”
...
For the next few days, Yi Hyeon pulled weeds and cleaned irrigation channels in Spirit Field No. 73.
At night or before dawn, Yi Hyeon practiced the Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art. Once the sun rose, he went out to the spirit field.
Yi Hyeon scooped fallen leaves out of the channels and shoveled away mud blocking the water. He pulled weeds growing among the Azure Dew Grass and reported signs of spirit insects that had appeared overnight to No Baek-san.
No Baek-san rarely spoke while working.
But as Yi Hyeon avoided repeating mistakes and handled tasks well even without being told, his attitude gradually began to change.
On the tenth day, No Baek-san stopped Yi Hyeon in the middle of pulling weeds.
“Don't pull that one.”
“It doesn't look like Azure Dew Grass.”
“It's an Earth Vein Flower. It isn't a spirit herb, but its roots draw up small amounts of spiritual energy from deep underground. Leaving a few around the edges of the spirit field helps the Azure Dew Grass too.”
No Baek-san pointed to the soil around its roots.
“A spirit-plant cultivator who can only tell weeds from spirit herbs is only half-trained. Don't miss the forest for the trees. You need to see the whole picture: what harms the spirit field, and what helps one another thrive.”
“I'll remember that.”
From that day on, No Baek-san sometimes explained things about spirit fields and spirit herbs as they worked.
One day, while organizing supplies in the storehouse, Yi Hyeon found an old book. Its contents were nothing more than basic knowledge about the cultivation world, but two characters caught his eye.
“Senior Brother No, are these two characters also read as yeongsik?”
“Which yeongsik do you mean?”
No Baek-san looked at the passage Yi Hyeon had opened, then used a dry twig to write two terms on the ground.
Yeongsik (靈植), spirit plants.
Yeongsik (靈識), spirit awareness.
“They're both read as yeongsik, but their meanings are different. The first is a broad term for plants that grow while holding spiritual energy. Spirit grains, spirit fruits, spirit trees, and spirit herbs all belong to this category.”
No Baek-san pointed to the second term.
“The other is an old term for a cultivator's ability to sense their surroundings beyond the physical senses.”
“Is it no longer used?”
“You still see it in old books, but these days, most people call it sinsik (神識), or spiritual sense.”
With the tip of the twig, No Baek-san drew a long line between the two terms.
“It's said that the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was abundant in ancient times. Rather than deliberately planting spirit herbs in fields, people more often gathered natural spiritual treasures from the mountains and plains. So yeongsik usually referred to a cultivator's awareness. But as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth gradually declined and naturally growing spiritual treasures became rare, later generations began specializing in growing spirit herbs, spirit grains, and the like. As the field of spirit-plant cultivation grew in importance, cultivators began using the term sinsik instead of the old yeongsik for spirit awareness, simply for convenience.”
“Can Qi Refining cultivators use spiritual sense too?”
“Didn't you gain a new sense when you entered Qi Refining? That's what we call spiritual sense. Of course, compared with a Foundation Establishment cultivator's spiritual sense, what a Qi Refining cultivator has is little more than child's play...”
“I see.”
“Language has life in it too, just like spirit herbs. Isn't it only natural that it changes with time?”
...
Yi Hyeon realized that No Baek-san's knowledge and experience in spirit-plant cultivation went far deeper than those of the ordinary senior brothers on Herbfield Peak.
No Baek-san supervised not only Spirit Field No. 73, but also several small spirit fields nearby. Outer disciples who couldn't deal with spirit insects or plant diseases often came to seek his advice. After hearing his explanations, every one of them thanked him politely before leaving.
Sometimes, No Baek-san took Yi Hyeon to other nearby spirit fields and showed him the spirit plants commonly grown in the outer sect.
He held up a yellowing ear of grain.
“This is the Cheongha Rice we've been eating. You need to harvest it when more than half the ear has turned yellow. That way, its spiritual energy remains intact.”
Next, he pointed to a plant with red leaves.
“This is Blood-Clotting Grass. It's applied to wounds or used to make Blood-Staunching Powder. Its medicinal effects are weak, but it grows well and is in high demand, so it's commonly grown in the outer sect's spirit fields.”
The more Yi Hyeon heard, the more he realized that spirit plants differed from what he had imagined.
None of the spirit fields Yi Hyeon had seen so far contained varieties that took a long time to grow. Some spirit plants even took less than twenty days from sowing to harvest.
“Senior Brother No, if we leave these spirit plants to grow instead of harvesting them right away, won't their medicinal properties become stronger?”
“Not necessarily. In fact, the ones we grow have short lives. If you leave them past the right time, their medicinal properties often fade, and they die after producing seeds.”
No Baek-san plucked a red leaf from the Blood-Clotting Grass and rubbed it between his fingers.
“This Blood-Clotting Grass reaches its strongest medicinal potency after three months. Past six months, its stem grows hard and it produces less medicinal sap. Grow it for a year, and rather than becoming more potent, it'll become useless.”
“Then are there no spirit plants that become more valuable with age?”
“There are plenty whose medicinal properties strengthen over time. But the precious varieties are mainly handled by the inner sect.”
“Would there be any way for me to get seeds like that?”
“Precious varieties would be difficult. But seeds for low-tier spirit plants that need many years to become useful are easy enough to find at the cultivator markets frequented by independent cultivators. They're just unpopular.”
“Unpopular?”
“Yes. Independent Qi Refining cultivators who belong to neither a sect nor a clan have short lifespans and little room to think about future generations. Even if they do grow spirit plants for many years, they lack the strength to protect their fields, so others often seize them. That's why there's little demand for varieties that don't help them earn spirit stones quickly.”
‘It's not as simple as I thought. Still, that means I can find seeds worth growing for a long time at a cultivator market. I'll have to visit one someday...’
...
One day, No Baek-san handed Yi Hyeon four old, yellowed books.
Their covers read 《An Introduction to Spirit-Plant Cultivation》, 《An Illustrated Guide to Tier 1 Spirit Herbs》, 《Spirit Soil and Underground Waterways》, and 《Cheongha Valley Spirit Field Regulations》.
“These contain the basic knowledge you need for spirit-plant cultivation. I'm lending them to you, so don't lose or damage them.”
“Thank you.”
From that day on, once work was over, Yi Hyeon read the books between cultivation sessions.
...
The seasons changed several times after that.
In spring, fresh shoots of Azure Dew Grass covered the spirit field in green. In summer, spirit insects ran rampant. In autumn, the yellow ears of Cheongha Rice bowed their heads, and in winter, thin ice formed over Herbfield Peak's irrigation channels.
Yi Hyeon repeated much the same work every day.
At first, Yi Hyeon often confused even Azure Dew Grass with weeds. After a year, though, he could tell whether a plant lacked spiritual energy just by the color of its leaves.
Yi Hyeon also began learning basic spells from No Baek-san.
The first was the Spirit Rain Spell. What Yi Hyeon first created was less a cloud than a handful of mist floating above his palm. It dropped just three raindrops before stopping.
Only after several months of daily practice could Yi Hyeon summon enough rain to wet a single furrow.
Next came the Soil-Turning Spell.
Gently turning over the soil was easy enough, but removing only weeds and stones without disturbing the spirit herbs' roots was difficult. Once, Yi Hyeon failed to control the spell's strength and uprooted ten clumps of Azure Dew Grass at once, earning a scolding from No Baek-san.
The third and fourth spells were the Seventh-Stem Metal Art and the Germination Spell.
The Seventh-Stem Metal Art was the hardest spell Yi Hyeon had learned so far. At first, the silver needle flew only a finger's length before scattering. Even after Yi Hyeon began to get used to it, the needle often pierced an Azure Dew Grass leaf instead of a spirit insect.
Although the Seventh-Stem Metal Art was classified as a basic spell, killing only spirit insects without damaging the herbs required extremely precise control.
In the end, Yi Hyeon continued practicing the Seventh-Stem Metal Art but caught and disposed of the spirit insects by hand.
At least the Germination Spell was easier to learn than the Seventh-Stem Metal Art.
When Yi Hyeon gathered primordial unity true qi converted to the wood attribute at his fingertips and let it seep into a seed, a faint trace of vitality stirred inside the hard shell. But adding too much vitality made the shoot swell unnaturally and quickly rot.
Only toward the end of the second year could Yi Hyeon claim even a beginner's grasp of all four spells.
“Senior Brother No, do I lack talent for learning spells?”
“Hmm? No. Your understanding of spells is among the best of any junior I've seen. You're so practiced that you seem eighty rather than twenty-one.”
‘...’
“But I heard these four spells were the basics of spirit-plant cultivation, and they're still very difficult.”
“Hmph. The people assigning the work only call them basic for their own convenience. Do you think anyone in all of Cheongha Valley has achieved complete mastery of the Seventh-Stem Metal Art or the Germination Spell? Having a lot of spiritual power doesn't automatically make you good at casting spells. What matters is understanding the meaning within them.”
...
Yi Hyeon also continued cultivating steadily.
Progress with the Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art was slow, but Yi Hyeon didn't grow impatient. Once accustomed to the practice, he could even absorb spiritual energy while walking through the fields.
After cultivating every single day without fail, Yi Hyeon finally broke through to the second level of Qi Refining one winter, two and a half years after joining the sect.
“At last, the second level of Qi Refining!”
Yi Hyeon felt an immense sense of satisfaction as strength surged through his whole body.
The primordial unity true qi in his dantian was incomparably more abundant than at the beginning. His spiritual sense had also grown a little stronger, allowing Yi Hyeon to sense the outlines of objects within a little over ten jang with his eyes closed.
...
Life at Spirit Field No. 73 wasn't bad.
No Baek-san was blunt but dependable, and Yi Hyeon had grown used to the work. Good harvests even earned a few extra contribution points.
It seemed that Yi Hyeon only needed to spend a few more years learning spirit-plant cultivation and spells, then leave the sect before anyone discovered that he didn't age.
* * *
A month later.
Yi Hyeon was floating a cloud made with the Spirit Rain Spell above the spirit field. Across from him, No Baek-san was checking whether the irrigation channel Yi Hyeon had dug was the right depth.
Just then, a crane's cry sounded above the field.
‘Hmm?’
A paper crane appeared in the sky, circled the spirit field once, then stopped in front of No Baek-san. Light streamed from his identity token, and the paper crane unfolded itself into a letter.
As No Baek-san read, his expression grew increasingly grim.
“Senior Brother No, what's wrong?”
Footnotes:
A jang is a traditional unit of length, roughly three meters. Ten jang is about thirty meters, or one hundred feet.
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