WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 72
──────
A few days later.
Scritch. Scritch.
Yi Hyeon turned toward a faint sound from the passage wall.
A hole sealed with earth and hardened slime was cracking open from within. A moment later, two short forelegs poked through the gap.
Crackle.
Dry earth fell away.
A golden ball of fur poked its head out. It paused halfway, then kicked its hind legs as though its rear had gotten stuck.
Yi Hyeon widened the opening a little with his finger.
Plop.
The Fuzzbee dropped onto his palm and shook itself. Its newly exposed fur was slightly damp, and a transparent film clung to the tips of its wings.
“You slept quite a while this time.”
Squeak.
A familiar response reached him through the Spirit-Nurturing Seal.
Yi Hyeon examined its body. He sensed the stable aura of a second-tier spirit insect.
It was one of the three that had mutated after eating the Meridian-Linking Jade Silkworm long ago.
...
Over the years, he had learned a fair amount about the Fuzzbees’ life cycle.
After a long period of activity, an individual would begin eating less and moving more slowly. Then, one day, it would dig a small burrow in the wall. After sealing the entrance with earth and slime, it would remain out of sight for years.
At first, he had thought they were dead.
But after confirming that spiritual power and vitality were circulating evenly inside, Yi Hyeon had left the burrows undisturbed.
When the Fuzzbees finally emerged, they left thin shed skins behind.
Their spiritual power and souls remained unchanged. Their Spirit-Nurturing Seals were still there, and they had forgotten neither the commands they had learned nor how to operate the Bonefuzz puppets.
They went through long dormant periods, gradually replacing their old tissues.
Searching through the many jade slips and books he had acquired, Yi Hyeon had found that some spirit insects did live for a very long time.
Even among second-tier spirit insects, lifespans and growth cycles varied greatly by species.
He had found no records of spirit insects resembling Fuzzbees, so he still did not know how long they could live.
But while the small Fuzzbees in his spirit fields had passed through several generations, those that had first reached the second tier remained alive, repeatedly falling asleep and waking like this.
...
Yi Hyeon cast the Spirit Rain Spell over a stone bowl, then stirred in a little Hundred-Flower Honey.
The resulting liquid was one of the few things Fuzzbees consumed besides spirit insects.
Still sluggish after its long sleep, the Fuzzbee gripped the bowl’s rim with its forelegs and drank for a long time. Once its belly had filled, it spread its wings a few times, then flew toward the workbench.
A Bonefuzz puppet lay there with its chest cover open, its inspection complete.
In it went.
Click.
The Bonefuzz took two steps and briefly staggered, but soon steadied itself. Then it lowered its body and lightly jumped onto the workbench.
Squeak!
Yi Hyeon laughed.
“You’ve only just woken up after all this time, and you’re already riding it again? Is it that much fun?”
The Bonefuzz raised one foreleg.
At the sound, Fuzzbees began appearing from all around. A few spotted the one already inside and circled its closed chest cover.
“All right. Let’s go for a walk. It’s been a while.”
Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz...
...
A rocky mountain several hundred li from Underground Hideout No. 3.
A long, narrow valley lay within several overlapping rocky ridges. It was hard to see inside from the outside, and broken stones and dry sand covered its floor instead of water.
Yi Hyeon surveyed the surroundings for a while. Once he had confirmed that there were no people or demonic beasts nearby, he opened his storage pouch and took out the Bonefuzz puppets.
He currently had forty-eight, and their forms had changed considerably since the early days.
The bone plates covering their backs and chests were divided into sections for easy replacement. Extra components reinforced the areas that took the most impacts. Curved plates made from layers of different spirit materials were fitted inside their legs.
These were the results of studying the broken bow he had obtained from the archer and the 《Spirit Bow and Arrow Repair Records》.
Yi Hyeon opened the Bonefuzz puppets’ bodies. Fuzzbees poured from his spirit insect pouch and climbed inside with practiced ease.
Those that failed to claim a Bonefuzz landed on his shoulders and arms.
As Yi Hyeon reached out, a round stone buried in the sand rose into the air.
“Bring it back.”
He threw the stone deeper into the valley.
Twang!
The spring plates inside their legs bent like bowstrings, then snapped straight.
The foremost Bonefuzz shot forward, skimming low over the ground. Using a rock in its path as a foothold, it launched itself diagonally into the air.
The Bonefuzz puppets behind it scattered at once.
While one chased the stone in a straight line, two others bounded ahead, kicking off the cliffs on either side in turn as though closing a net.
Hummm...
The first Bonefuzz to reach the landing point activated its flight-blocking restriction. The stone cutting through the air lurched sideways and was drawn toward it.
Then a Bonefuzz charging in from the opposite side activated its own restriction. The opposing pulls briefly held the stone suspended in midair.
Seizing that opening, another Bonefuzz sprang up from below like a shadow, snatched the stone with its forelegs, and hugged it to its chest.
Squeak!
With a triumphant cry, it turned and fled. The other Bonefuzz puppets gave chase.
Yi Hyeon was dumbfounded.
“I said bring it to me...”
The Bonefuzz holding the stone slipped behind a large boulder. But when it emerged on the other side, the stone was already in another puppet’s grasp.
Round bodies came pouring after it.
Clack-clack-clack-clack!
The lively sound of bony legs striking rock rang throughout the valley.
Whenever they changed direction sharply, the plates inside their joints bent and straightened. If one lost its balance in the air, it righted itself with its flight restriction before kicking off the rock face again.
Their movements as they stole the stone and evaded one another had become far quicker and better coordinated. It might have looked like simple play, but their mobility and control over rough terrain had improved beyond comparison.
A Fuzzbee on Yi Hyeon’s shoulder cried loudly beside his ear.
Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak!
“All right. It’s your turn next.”
...
A long while later.
Bonefuzz footprints crisscrossed the sand.
Yi Hyeon caught the stone and drew it toward himself. Two Bonefuzz puppets that refused to let go came along with it.
“Enough playing. Back inside.”
Their chest covers opened, and golden balls of fur emerged and returned to the spirit insect pouch.
Yi Hyeon put the empty Bonefuzz puppets into his storage pouch, then gathered the last Fuzzbees clinging to his body into the spirit insect pouch.
The valley grew quiet.
“Now, then...”
It was time to test his own body.
Yi Hyeon’s feet rose into the air.
The moment he tilted his body slightly, the valley walls rushed backward at a terrifying speed.
Whoosh...
Before the sound of his passage could catch up, a distant rocky ridge loomed before him.
His body made a right-angle turn in midair.
He flipped over, plunged downward, then shot upward again in an instant.
Having achieved Foundation Establishment throughout his body, he felt so comfortable in the air that he scarcely had a reason to stand on the ground.
Yi Hyeon stopped dead in midair and drew the Dark Palace-Gate Sword.
Shing.
The black line running down the center of the blade shone white-hot, and the sword gave a sharp ring.
Swish.
He made a light, diagonal slash.
Light flashed!
Sword light split the air and swept across the opposite cliff.
A threadlike crack appeared where it passed. Then the house-sized upper section of the cliff slid free, revealing a smooth cut surface.
Just before the huge mass of rock struck the ground, Yi Hyeon extended his left hand.
Humm!
The enormous hand of the Essence-Condensing Grasping Hand formed in midair.
It was on an entirely different level from before. Its once-translucent form was now almost solid, tinged with blue.
Boom!
The huge hand thrust forward as though tearing into the mountainside and caught the falling rock in midair. Even after taking the full force of its tremendous fall, the fingers did not so much as twitch.
Yi Hyeon clenched his hand.
Kabooom!
The enormous grip crushed the rock like clay. With a deafening blast, countless fragments exploded in every direction.
Yi Hyeon did not retreat before the oncoming debris.
Whoosh!
Using the Spherical Qi Barrier’s globe of light as a framework, the flames of the Fire-Dividing Thread Spell instantly expanded into a curtain of fire.
Hissss...
Every rock fragment that struck it softened, glowing red, and melted in midair. Molten rock and scorching winds swirled outside the curtain, but not a speck of dust touched Yi Hyeon within the flames.
After withdrawing the fire, he looked down at the Dark Palace-Gate Sword in his hand.
Riiing...
The blade was trembling faintly. Unable to withstand the surge of spiritual power, the restriction at its center gave off wisps of smoke.
It was sturdy even among high-grade magical implements, yet a single burst of Yi Hyeon’s spiritual power had left it in this state.
‘It can’t handle it.’
Magical implements were divided into low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and top-grade.
Among top-grade implements, those made with especially outstanding materials and methods were sometimes called supreme-grade. Even late Foundation Establishment and Great Perfection cultivators struggled to obtain them.
Anything better belonged to a different category altogether. Such items were called magical treasures rather than magical implements.
Magical treasures used spirit materials of Tier 3 or above as their principal materials. Their ritual refinement required a Golden Core cultivator’s magical power and subsequent nurturing, making them incomparably more precious than magical implements.
For that reason, independent cultivators without powerful backing often continued using supreme-grade magical implements after forming their cores, unable to obtain magical treasures.
‘Both the quality and quantity of my spiritual power have changed. I’ll need at least a top-grade magical implement, or perhaps a supreme-grade one.’
Yi Hyeon put the Dark Palace-Gate Sword into his storage pouch.
He could obtain a finished item, or try making one himself if he found suitable spirit materials and a method.
Still, becoming a second-tier artifact refiner did not mean he could freely make every top-grade or supreme-grade magical implement.
Just as second-tier formation masters were most familiar with the formations they had focused on studying, refining a particular top-grade magical implement required separate study of how to weave suitable restrictions and harmonize the properties of different spirit materials.
‘I have plenty of time. There’s no need to rush the decision.’
After erasing the traces of his spiritual power left in the area, he vanished beneath the ground.
...
A few days later, in the storehouse of Underground Hideout No. 3.
Yi Hyeon opened his bags of spirit stones one by one.
About 1,200 mid-grade spirit stones.
These came from spoils taken in battles over the years, combined with his earnings from selling spirit plants and alchemical pills.
Some were his share from brokering trades or supplying members with goods they needed as leader of the Two Heavens Society.
Even though he kept his profits low for the members’ convenience, the steady trade brought in spirit stones little by little.
In fact, the profits accumulated over those six hundred years or so had been much greater. At one point, he had held nearly twice as many spirit stones as he did now.
But he had spent almost all his earnings as society leader on learning various crafts.
Soul stones, cinnabar and refined demonic beast blood for inscribing formation inscriptions and restrictions, and high-grade spirit materials for the Bonefuzz frames had been particularly expensive. The mid-grade spirit stones consumed in operating the Bonefuzz puppets were no small expense either.
That was why, once their number had approached fifty, he had stopped making more and focused on repairing or improving the existing ones.
Yi Hyeon looked at the pile of faulty components beneath the workbench.
‘Well, at least I still have what I learned...’
Another cultivator would have cut spending on the Bonefuzz puppets further at this point, but Yi Hyeon’s spirit fields were full of expensive spirit plants. He could sell them for spirit stones whenever he wished, so he considered his current reserve of mid-grade spirit stones sufficient.
‘Still... I should sell a few spirit plants this time. I need a top-grade or supreme-grade magical implement...’
Yi Hyeon made his rounds of the spirit fields, considering which plants to sell.
Several varieties had passed a medicinal age of five hundred years and become third-rank spirit plants. Selling just a few of them would likely bring in a considerable sum.
The oldest plants were in Spirit Field No. 1-1.
The mother plants he had first planted were already approaching a medicinal age of seven hundred years.
‘Selling just a few of these later should give me plenty of spirit stones.’
* * *
Gokam Market, in the northwest of the Gon Kingdom.
A black flag emblazoned with silver waves hung above the city gate.
Yi Hyeon followed the line inside.
The city walls had grown taller.
When he had last visited over ten years earlier, the stalls had stood in an open area outside. Now they were enclosed within the walls. New buildings lined both sides of the streets, and the paving stones had been laid evenly to allow carts through.
Spirit tokens from various merchant companies hung beside the toll station. Some bore the name of the Nammyeong Sea.
More than six hundred years had passed since the Nammyeong Twelve-Sect Alliance took control of the Gon and Chang Kingdoms.
During that time, the alliance had suffered several internal conflicts over the division of spirit veins. Old elders had died, new Nascent Soul cultivators had emerged, and the balance of power had shifted.
Factions once belonging to the same sect had split and raised separate banners. Other sects, greatly weakened, had placed themselves under the protection of stronger ones.
The sects of neighboring cultivation kingdoms, including the Hyeon Kingdom, had also reinforced their border strongholds. After several clashes, they had agreed on boundaries neither side would cross.
The name Nammyeong Twelve-Sect Alliance remained, but there were no signs that it would expand its territory for the time being.
As time passed, the wartime atmosphere had faded from the Gon Kingdom, and merchant traffic had become common.
Now, the most frequent disputes in the Gon Kingdom concerned taxes and the prices of goods.
...
“We’ve prepared the full quota for this month. But the price of blue-horned deer powder has gone up since last time...”
“The official purchase price is fixed.”
The cultivator in gray robes did not look up from the ledger.
The shopkeeper fell silent.
“...Understood.”
The assistants beside them began unloading wooden crates.
Not far away, two patrol cultivators were dragging an independent cultivator along with their arms twisted behind their back.
“I’m telling you, I paid first!”
“Tell that to the steward.”
The onlookers cleared a path without being asked as the patrol cultivators approached.
The streets were crowded, and business appeared brisk. Yet everyone grew cautious whenever someone wearing the Nammyeong Twelve-Sect Alliance’s emblem appeared.
...
Realizing that Gokam Market was no place to trade third-rank spirit plants, Yi Hyeon lost interest. After leaving the market, he stopped at a nearby county town.
He had visited it occasionally over the past six hundred years or so, but its name had changed yet again.
Women gathered around a well, and the smell of grain dough baking rose from small roadside ovens.
People stood before the government office, checking names on a newly posted notice.
“It looks like the Gu-Rearing Institute is taking people again this year.”
“I wonder if our second child could become a gu adept by going there.”
Yi Hyeon passed through the crowd and entered a bookshop.
Many of the stories on its shelves were set at sea.
They featured wondrous islands, underwater cave abodes, and cultivators riding strange spirit beasts from island to island.
Place names from the Nammyeong Sea were no longer at all unusual in the Gon Kingdom’s popular fiction.
The demonic cultivators of the Nammyeong Sea were usually elegant and impressive in these stories. They drank fine wine, took revenge without hesitation, and often handed jade slips to protagonists who had lost their way.
Yi Hyeon took down a book and turned a few pages.
‘This one looks rather entertaining.’
Beside it was a book collecting old accounts from the cultivation world.
He opened it when he spotted the name Danso Sect. It received a brief introduction as one of the Gon Kingdom’s vanished sects.
Below that was a passage stating that several alchemy lineages in the Taehyeon Sect, along with small sects in the Hyeon and Seo Kingdoms, had carried on its inheritance.
Yi Hyeon read for a moment, then closed the book.
“I’ll take this one too.”
The shopkeeper approached.
“That book is a history, not a novel. You may not find it entertaining...”
“I know.”
* * *
A little over twenty days later.
Yi Hyeon entered the western Seo Kingdom for the first time in a long while.
Along the way, he had visited several cultivator markets and Two Heavens Society contact points, confirming the date of a gathering to be held in the west.
There was still quite some time before it began.
While heading west, he changed direction before a low mountain range.
A familiar stream ran along the mountainside and into a valley.
Yi Hyeon took a small jade token from the storage pouch at his waist and rubbed its surface with his thumb.
Eldest Senior Brother Song Gye-myeong had given it to him long ago.
...
The Yeonha Sect’s gate stood at the top of a stone stairway.
Doors and a roof had been added where there had once been only pillars, and a low wall stretched away behind it.
Inside the gate, he could see a yard where medicinal ingredients were drying. Farther up, halls and disciples’ quarters stood in tiers.
Thin smoke from the alchemy chambers drifted through the valley.
‘They’ve done surprisingly well for a long time.’
Yi Hyeon watched for a while.
He had visited several times during the first few decades, but after that, he had stopped coming because of how old Yi Dong-sam was supposed to be.
A great many years had passed since he had last come to this valley in person.
The Qi Refining disciple guarding the gate rose.
“Greetings, Senior. What brings you here?”
Yi Hyeon held out the jade token.
“I’ve brought something belonging to a person with ties to this place. May I see the sect master?”
The disciple examined the token, then called to another disciple inside.
A short while later, a Foundation Establishment cultivator came down to the gate.
He was a man who looked to be in his forties. His clothes were neat, and faint traces of handling medicinal ingredients remained on his fingertips.
“I am Heo Jeong-an, master of the Yeonha Sect.”
He cupped his hands, and Yi Hyeon returned the greeting.
Heo Jeong-an took the jade token, examined both sides, then sent his spiritual sense into it. When a faint pattern appeared inside, his expression changed.
“May I ask... what is your relationship to Senior Yi Dong-sam?”
“I inherited his teachings through several generations of successors.”
Heo Jeong-an looked at the token again.
“Please come inside.”
...
Heo Jeong-an was the Yeonha Sect’s sixth sect master.
The sect was still small.
Its disciples earned their living mainly through alchemy and preparing medicinal ingredients. A few studied formations and implement refining to maintain the sect’s equipment.
At one side of the yard, two Qi Refining disciples were carrying medicinal ingredients.
Heo Jeong-an led Yi Hyeon into a hall.
It was an ancestral hall containing memorial tablets and portraits.
Song Gye-myeong.
Bang Je-un.
Ak Mu-gu.
Yi Hyeon’s gaze passed over the names one by one.
Brief accounts of their lives, along with their birth and death years, were written beneath each name.
Mae So-gun’s memorial tablet was there too. A slightly longer account stood beside it.
The only Golden Core cultivator in the Yeonha Sect’s history.
She had supported the sect for many years and expanded its trade with Jewel Light Temple.
‘Come to think of it, I did hear in passing that Senior Sister Mae had formed her core...’
Yi Hyeon accepted some incense and placed it before the tablets.
Heo Jeong-an waited quietly beside him.
After leaving the ancestral hall, they went to the next building.
It housed documents from the sect’s founding and old possessions.
Several paintings hung on the walls.
Yi Hyeon stopped before one of them.
「Yi Dong-sam, Founding Benefactor」
The man in the painting was enormous.
Compared with the people painted beside him, he appeared to be about nine chi tall. He had broad shoulders and thick arms, and held a sword as long as a person was tall.
That much was fine.
The problem was his eyes.
Brilliant blue sword light streamed from both of them.
‘...Who is this supposed to be?’
Yi Hyeon stared at the painting for a moment.
Heo Jeong-an explained.
“No portrait from his lifetime survives, so a later generation painted this based on accounts of his deeds.”
“His deeds?”
“Ancestor Ak Mu-gu’s records describe them in detail. They say that every time he swung his sword, enemy cultivators fell in rows.”
Yi Hyeon read the inscription beneath the painting.
「His gaze was like a sword, and his enemies dared not meet his eyes.」
Heo Jeong-an asked cautiously, “Does he look very different from what you’ve heard?”
“Ha ha... I’m not sure myself.”
...
While they were drinking tea, Heo Jeong-an brought out a small ledger.
“There are some things I must give you.”
He pointed to an entry.
“These were left with instructions to hand them over if a successor of Senior Yi Dong-sam ever came. They’ve been on the handover inventory for a very long time.”
Yi Hyeon set down his teacup.
“What are they?”
“Would you come somewhere with me first?”
...
A low hill behind the sect grounds.
Gravestones stood in rows beneath old trees.
Heo Jeong-an stopped before one of them.
It was Ak Mu-gu’s grave.
Beside the gravestone, a round stone lid lay half-buried in the earth.
Heo Jeong-an formed hand seals, and small formation inscriptions around its edge lit up. The earth shifted aside, and the stone lid rose.
A narrow stone chest lay beneath it.
Heo Jeong-an took out a wine jar.
Several layers of Spirit-Sealing Talismans covered the black earthenware jar. The outermost ones were relatively recent, but those beneath had yellowed with age.
A thin stone tablet hung around the jar’s neck.
「To be given to Junior Brother Yi or his successor when they come.」
Heo Jeong-an said, “We’ve replaced the Spirit-Sealing Talismans at the prescribed intervals. The inner seal is still intact.”
“I see.”
“They say Ancestor Ak buried it separately because it was a fine spirit wine. He had already drunk every last drop of his own share... and told them not to touch this.”
The corners of Yi Hyeon’s mouth shifted slightly.
Heo Jeong-an set down the jar and two cups.
“I’ll return for you in a little while.”
He went down the hill.
...
Yi Hyeon undid the seals on the wine jar.
As he opened it, a rich, mellow fragrance drifted out.
He poured a cup and placed it before the gravestone, then filled his own.
“So you did end up buying the drinks, Senior Brother.”
Yi Hyeon raised his cup.
The wine was surprisingly mild.
...
That evening.
The wine jar and a small wooden box sat on the table in the guest room the Yeonha Sect had provided.
The box contained a letter and a jade slip left by Mae So-gun.
Heo Jeong-an had said that the sect also kept a copy of the jade slip, and that he could take the original and the letter.
Yi Hyeon unfolded the paper.
The handwriting was small and neat.
「To Junior Brother Yi.
If the person reading this letter is your successor, feel free to skip the first part as an old cultivator’s idle chatter. The jade slip enclosed with it should be of some help to anyone studying alchemy.
I don’t know how likely it is that this will reach you personally.
Still, now and then, I find myself thinking that you might be alive somewhere, advancing your cultivation. You were always the calmest of us, even when trouble came. You seemed somehow beyond the flow of the times.」
Yi Hyeon turned the page.
「The sect we founded has held up quite well.
At first, we all thought we could earn spirit stones simply by practicing alchemy. But even getting medicinal ingredients delivered on time wasn’t easy. Only then did we realize how good we’d had it in the Danso Sect, with all its spirit fields and spirit plant growers.
Senior Brother Bang, Senior Brother Ak, and Senior Brother Song had a hard time of it.」
Yi Hyeon chuckled.
The letter contained little stories: how Ak Mu-gu had gotten an upset stomach after eating improperly prepared demonic beast meat, and how Song Gye-myeong had continued teaching disciples in his final years after passing on the position of sect master.
Who had passed away first, and what those left behind had done afterward.
Mae So-gun did not lament at length. She had simply written down their names and what had happened, calmly and plainly.
...
「I succeeded in forming my core, though it came late.
I used a Gold-Condensing Pill from Jewel Light Temple.
It opened a new chapter in my life. Thanks to it, I did many things I’d wanted to do.
Later, when I looked down at the sect from the sky, I found it a little funny. After forming my golden core, my standards had risen, and the valley where I’d lived seemed rather shabby.
Even so, I rarely felt that I had plenty of time.」
Just then, leaves rustled in the wind outside the window.
Yi Hyeon read the rest.
「I also discovered something interesting about the Gold-Condensing Pill.
If you’re still alive, Junior Brother Yi, you’ve probably formed a golden core or a nascent soul already, so this won’t be much help. But after all the work I put into researching it, I don’t think I’ll be satisfied unless someone hears about it.
And if the person reading this is your successor rather than you, it might prove useful.
The claim that forming a core with this pill completely cuts off the path to Nascent Soul doesn’t seem entirely accurate.
This isn’t just my own speculation. I asked the alchemists of Jewel Light Temple, and repeatedly compared the records they’d gathered over the years with the changes in my own golden core.
I’ve written the details in the jade slip.
I’ve also left a few other things I thought useful in alchemy. Whether it’s you or your successor, I hope whoever needs them will find them helpful.
Wherever you are, take care of yourself. I hope you enjoy your life.」
The letter ended there.
Yi Hyeon folded the paper, put it back in the wooden box, and closed the lid.
Then he sat by the window and drank a little more of the wine Ak Mu-gu had left.
...
At dawn the next day.
Yi Hyeon withdrew his spiritual sense from the jade slip.
Several sheets of paper lay spread across the table.
On them, he redrew the diagrams of the golden core he had just seen.
At intervals of several decades, Mae So-gun had examined her golden core and drawn the same areas again.
In the later drawings, some of the lines gradually grew fainter.
They were demonic markings (妖紋).
...
Jewel Light Temple’s Gold-Condensing Pill helped cultivators form their cores by borrowing the power of demonic cores.
During alchemy, the demonic beast’s savage energy and impurities were repeatedly refined away. But not every trace within the demonic core could be erased.
Demonic power had remained concentrated in a particular pattern over many years. The Gold-Condensing Pill used part of that structure to help a cultivator’s true essence condense into a golden core.
Some called it a trace of demonic intent.
That did not mean the thoughts or soul of a living demonic beast remained. What lingered was the demonic core’s pattern of spiritual power circulation and concentration.
After core formation, those traces settled within the cultivator’s golden core. The ones visible on its surface were called demonic markings.
The problem came afterward.
To form a nascent soul, a cultivator generally had to fuse qi and spirit, two of the three aspects of essence, qi, and spirit. These were magical power and primordial spirit, which had to merge within the golden core, then break free of it as a nascent soul.
But the borrowed structure of the demonic markings interfered with that change.
Instead of fusing with the cultivator’s primordial spirit, the magical power clung to the original flow inherited from the demonic core.
The demonic markings were connected to the golden core’s internal structure. They could not simply be scraped off its surface. Removing them required changing the flow itself.
The natural way to remove demonic markings was to nurture the golden core with one’s own magical power over a long period, following refining instructions to gradually make the foreign flow one’s own.
That was precisely the change shown in Mae So-gun’s series of diagrams.
Jewel Light Temple had reportedly been observing the same thing for a long time.
The problem was that the refining took far too long.
The speed varied from cultivator to cultivator. But based on the records accumulated by Jewel Light Temple and the rate at which the demonic markings faded, changing the structure of an entire golden core would take roughly a thousand years.
A Golden Core cultivator, on the other hand, could live for six hundred years at most.
And they did not gain a fresh six hundred years from the day they formed their core. Those who formed their cores late had already used up a considerable part of their lifespan.
Naturally, their lives ended before the demonic markings could disappear.
That was why people said it was difficult to reach Nascent Soul with Jewel Light Temple’s Gold-Condensing Pill.
Yi Hyeon rubbed the lines on the paper with his fingertip.
‘If these records are really accurate... doesn’t that mean this pill poses no problem for me at all?’
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