WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 74
──────
A blue ring flashed on Wi Jong-ak’s finger, creating a patch of light one chi across in midair.
A huge sea hawk spread its wings and burst out of the rippling space within, its beak gleaming.
Kreeee!
The fierce wingbeats of the late Tier 2 spirit beast swept gravel across the rocky slope.
At the same time, Wi Jong-ak’s second ring flashed. A flat turtle sprang out and clung to Wi Jong-ak’s forearm.
With a cruel grin, Wi Jong-ak charged at Yi Hyeon, arm held out in front.
The turtle’s shell blazed with demonic light, giving off spiritual-power fluctuations comparable to those of a top-grade magical implement. Behind Yi Hyeon, the hawk plunged toward the back of his neck with its talons extended.
Just then, Yi Hyeon tilted his shoulders half a handspan to the side.
As the hawk’s talons brushed his robe collar, he drew the Moon-Sinking Sword.
Shing.
Spiritual power from his entire body surged into the blade.
Supreme Unity Heavenly Dipper, Eleventh Form: Overlap.
Claaang!
The first streak of sword light drove a deep dent into the sturdy curtain of demonic light.
Almost simultaneously, the second and third streaks followed the same path and crushed the turtle’s entire shell.
Crack!
The shell shattered, spraying blood.
Despite the shock, Wi Jong-ak reacted with the speed expected of a cultivator at Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, leaning back and retreating. But Yi Hyeon’s blade had already blurred out of sight.
Shhk.
“Aaaargh!”
Wi Jong-ak’s right foot was cut off before it could touch the ground, sending the cultivator tumbling off the rock.
The sea hawk spread its wings and swooped in, wrapped in demonic light, to save its master. Sword light flashed through the air.
Slash!
The hawk fell, spraying blood, and landed right before the writhing Wi Jong-ak.
Startled, the cultivators on either side launched throwing knives and a short spear. Without drawing back his sword, Yi Hyeon twisted his body, sweeping the Moon-Sinking Sword in a low circle.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
The throwing knives broke and flew aside.
Yi Hyeon extended his left hand and attached an Earth-Origin Force anchor to the man who had thrown the spear.
Whoom!
Dragged helplessly forward, the man hastily summoned his Protective Spiritlight. But the fist of the Essence-Condensing Grasping Hand was already before his eyes.
Boom!
The man flew backward, a bloody pulp, and slammed into the rock face.
Crunch!
Terrified, the cultivator who had thrown the knives tried to take out a talisman with trembling hands, but,
Shhk!
Sword light swept past their shoulder, severing an arm.
“Eek...!”
The last cultivator, who had been blocking the retreat, turned deathly pale and backed away.
Wi Jong-ak was crawling across the dirt, trying to stem the bleeding from the severed leg, when Yi Hyeon’s shadow fell directly ahead.
Just then, Yi Hyeon froze midstep.
Thump!
His Earth-Sensing Spell detected a vibration in the earth vein.
Goosebumps rose all over his body. Without hesitation, he shot into the air, took the Body-Guarding Bell from his storage pouch, and turned it upside down.
Hummm...
The blue-green bell expanded, about to cover him from below, when,
Boooom!
The rocky slope erupted from within like a volcano.
House-sized boulders flew in every direction. A gigantic maw surged out of the dust, sharp teeth jutting forward as it struck the Body-Guarding Bell head-on.
Crash!
The Body-Guarding Bell shattered in an instant.
Yi Hyeon slipped between the fragments and spun twice in midair. Before he could steady himself, a huge shadow burst through the rock dust after him.
Whoooosh!
A single wingbeat reduced the boulders behind it to powder. Yi Hyeon hastily slashed his sword and twisted aside. Talons aimed at his throat collided with his sword light, throwing off sparks.
Golden eyes flashed within a mane.
Black scales covered its lionlike head and sleek body. Long, bladelike feathers extended from the tips of the two wings on its back. Its mane and tail flowed like waves through the thick mist surrounding it.
‘A Tier 3 spirit beast!?’
The remains of an Earth Escape Talisman burned red on the spirit beast’s chest.
Its spread wings cast a shadow over the rocky slope.
A thick iron chain encircled the huge beast’s neck.
Clatter.
Yi Hyeon narrowed his eyes.
‘That sound outside the auction’s private room...’
The chain stretched through the air to a man in blue robes. An endless, crushing pressure poured from the loop around his wrist.
He was a Golden Core cultivator!
Still crawling on the ground, Wi Jong-ak coughed up blood and shouted.
“Master! That bastard!”
‘If he’s the master, he must be Perfected Hyeonjo.’
Perfected Hyeonjo looked down at his disciple.
His cold gaze passed over the severed leg and the dying spirit beast.
“My disciple. If you trade on my name, shouldn’t you bring back spoils to match?”
“I... I’m sorry! It’s just that he’s from... Skull Island...”
“Skull Island? I thought you’d only lost a leg. Have you gone blind as well?”
Perfected Hyeonjo’s gaze settled on the Moon-Sinking Sword in Yi Hyeon’s hand.
The chain tore through the air like lightning.
Boooom!
The ridge split in two, sending rock and soil surging upward like a waterfall.
Yi Hyeon barely managed to fling himself aside. Above his head, Perfected Hyeonjo twisted his fingers.
Blue seal characters circled through the air, then formed a huge seal made of water-based magical power.
Thoom!
The air stiffened for an instant.
As though crushed by the pressure of the deep sea, Yi Hyeon plunged straight down.
At the very instant his movements locked, the huge beast below opened its jaws and spewed sea mist. Dozens of water currents, honed like blades, surged upward as if to shred his entire body.
There was nowhere to retreat.
Yi Hyeon twisted the Moon-Sinking Sword and slashed upward.
Light flashed!
Chilling sword light split the storm of sea mist. Yi Hyeon twisted into the opening and fiercely cut at the blue seal pressing down overhead.
Crack!
The characters forming the seal burst apart.
Perfected Hyeonjo’s eyes widened.
‘A Foundation Establishment cultivator broke my Ship-Sinking Seal?’
Despite his surprise, he immediately fired three indigo light pellets from his fingertips, each no larger than a drop of water.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Viciously compressed currents swirled inside the pellets as they hurtled toward Yi Hyeon’s brow, chest, and shoulder.
The Dark Iron Buckler he hastily brought out screamed.
Skreeee! Boom!
Its surface buckled, and its restrictions burned.
The huge chain crashed down right after them, folding the shield in half and driving it into the rock wall.
Yi Hyeon sharply severed the spiritual sense connected to the shield and rolled through the air with the recoil.
The beast’s wing sheared away an entire section of the rock face. As he twisted away from the fragments, its gaping jaws rushed right before his eyes.
He took out the black iron spear and thrust it diagonally into the beast’s jaws to brace them open. But the shaft could not withstand its monstrous strength and snapped in two.
Crack!
Yi Hyeon slipped through the gap and circled aside, sweeping the Moon-Sinking Sword upward in a clean slash.
Swish!
Several scales fell from the beast’s neck, and blood seeped out. It roared and jerked its head aside.
Just then, an indigo flash flew in from behind Yi Hyeon, passed just beside his cheek, and pierced the rock face.
Boom!
As fragments of shattered rock rained down, Wi Jong-ak stared up at the scene in a daze.
‘That monster... He’s withstanding repeated attacks from Master’s spirit beast, Black Tide Chain, and spells?’
Yi Hyeon released all six bronze flying swords from his storage pouch.
“You never run out of trash to bring out.”
As Perfected Hyeonjo’s cold voice rang out, the chain curled toward Yi Hyeon’s ankle.
At the same time, Yi Hyeon’s flying swords scattered in every direction, shooting toward the chain and the beast’s eyes. But Perfected Hyeonjo shifted the chain’s path by a handspan, smashing them one after another.
Only the final flying sword slipped inside Yi Hyeon’s sleeve.
Space distorted overhead once more as a blue seal descended. From both sides, light pellets packed with powerful water-based magical power rushed at him.
Instead of resisting the crushing pressure, Yi Hyeon threw himself in the direction it pushed him.
Straight toward the beast’s huge head.
Thick sea mist gathered inside its open jaws, leaving the wound on its neck fully exposed.
Yi Hyeon’s sword moved with terrifying speed.
The sword light tore into the wound and emerged behind the beast’s ear. In agony, the beast’s demonic light shifted to one side.
At that moment, a bronze flying sword shot from Yi Hyeon’s hand like lightning, propelled by the Divine Finger Flick.
Bang!
Thwack! Boom!
Graaaaargh!
The flying sword buried itself deep in the beast’s right eye, then exploded, unable to contain Yi Hyeon’s spiritual power. The beast thrashed and shook its head. The sea mist in its mouth erupted in the wrong direction, engulfing the entire mountainside.
Perfected Hyeonjo’s face twisted.
He pulled on the chain and pressed a Beast-Commanding Seal onto the beast’s brow, delaying his next move by a beat.
Yi Hyeon seized that brief opening and rushed straight into Perfected Hyeonjo’s reach without hesitation.
As the silver-gray sword tip rushed before his eyes, Perfected Hyeonjo moved his fingers.
Three layers of scaled protective armor interlocked over his chest, blocking the sword.
Claaang!
The brilliantly shining Moon-Sinking Sword pressed deep into the scales.
Veins bulged along Yi Hyeon’s arm as spiritual power from his entire body poured into the sword tip.
Perfected Hyeonjo’s upper body was pushed back.
‘How dare this bastard...!’
His chain shot toward them.
The moment Yi Hyeon caught the Black Tide Chain with the Moon-Sinking Sword as it curled toward his side, a blue seal sprang from Perfected Hyeonjo’s free hand.
Yi Hyeon drew the Dark Palace-Gate Sword with his left hand and met the approaching seal.
When the blade bent under the incoming magical power, he forced an immense amount of spiritual power into it all at once, then let go.
Boooom!
The Dark Palace-Gate Sword exploded.
Caught in the blast, the blue seal shook violently. Yi Hyeon slipped away through the opening.
A sharp fragment, flying outward with the compressed spiritual power, grazed Perfected Hyeonjo’s cheek.
At the same time, the Black Tide Chain caught against the Moon-Sinking Sword slid along its edge.
Thwack!
The end of the chain struck Yi Hyeon’s side.
The Spherical Qi Barrier, Spiritlight Shield, and Protective Spiritlight appeared in a flash. The Dark-Scale Underarmor also lay beneath his robes, but none of them could fully block the heavy impact.
Yi Hyeon was flung away. He steadied himself, but his side throbbed a little.
Perfected Hyeonjo was enraged by the fresh blood running down his cheek.
“How dare you!”
Without even wiping away the blood, he brought his hands together.
The scattered sea mist and water-based magical power formed a huge vortex. A seal large enough to swallow the entire mountainside rose into the air.
Rrrrrumble...
Solid boulders were crushed into the ground. The surrounding trees began breaking into pieces all at once.
The enormous seal of magical power descended from the sky. The one-eyed spirit beast attacked from the front, and the chain surged up from below.
Yi Hyeon’s gaze hardened. He poured a tremendous amount of spiritual power into the Moon-Sinking Sword.
Hummm.
The Moon-Sinking Sword’s Light-Concealing restrictions responded, blurring the edges of its sword light like mist.
His target was not the spirit beast’s neck.
It was the base of its left wing, where the scales had spread apart as it fiercely extended a foreleg!
Yi Hyeon’s hand blurred, and the Moon-Sinking Sword traced a sweeping arc.
Clang!
The chain rose to block the sword light. But it failed to track the blurred path completely and slipped past it.
The impact traveled back through the magical treasure, forcing Perfected Hyeonjo’s arm back. The deflected sword light cut deep into the inner side of the beast’s wing.
Splurt!
Graaaaargh!
Its left wing severed, the huge beast screamed and plummeted down the cliff.
Perfected Hyeonjo’s chain pulled taut as he tried to support the falling beast.
‘Now!’
Supreme Unity Heavenly Dipper, Thirteenth Form: Return Flow.
An uncanny light surged from Yi Hyeon’s blade. Enormous streams of Supreme Unity Heavenly Dipper sword qi swept outward in a spinning storm!
Perfected Hyeonjo hastily pulled the chain back.
Claaaaang!
The magical treasure collided with the sword qi.
Amid the tremendous shock wave, Yi Hyeon rode the storm raised by Return Flow and broke away in an instant. Dodging the blue seal descending overhead, he flew straight toward the ground.
Thud.
Yi Hyeon struck the ground and vanished underground without losing speed.
Almost simultaneously, the Black Tide Chain slammed into the spot where he had entered.
Boooom!
Bedrock burst apart to a depth of dozens of jang. But the presence Perfected Hyeonjo had been tracking with his spiritual sense had already descended deep into the mundane earth layer and vanished.
Perfected Hyeonjo was astonished.
‘An Earth Escape Spell that fast...’
...
Perfected Hyeonjo silently looked down at the collapsed mountainside.
Behind him, the huge beast panted in pain, its wing gone. Sword qi lodged in the wound disrupted its demonic power, keeping the bleeding from stopping.
Perfected Hyeonjo touched the wound on his cheek.
‘What was that bastard?’
The spiritual-power fluctuations had clearly been those of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
But the sword strikes that had pushed back his magical treasure, the Black Tide Chain, and severed a Tier 3 spirit beast’s wing were absolutely beyond a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
‘I see. A Golden Core cultivator hiding his realm. What an extraordinarily refined Qi-Concealing Spell... To master it to that degree, he must be a truly sneaky bastard.’
Just then, a voice came from behind him.
“M-Master...”
It was Wi Jong-ak.
Supported by one surviving cultivator, Wi Jong-ak looked up at the master with an ashen face.
“Is he... dead?”
Without answering, Perfected Hyeonjo looked at Wi Jong-ak’s severed leg.
“Tsk, tsk. You’re broken... I’ll have to find a new disciple.”
“...What?”
Clatter.
The black chain wrapped around Wi Jong-ak’s waist and lifted them into the air. The supporting cultivator let go in horror.
“Master? Master, wait...!”
Perfected Hyeonjo gently stroked the spirit beast’s neck. Bleeding and missing an eye, the huge beast turned its head, its remaining eye bloodshot.
The last trace of color drained from Wi Jong-ak’s face.
“Master! Please wait, I...!”
* * *
Fifteen days later.
Yi Hyeon opened his eyes in a small natural cavern deep underground beneath a remote mountain in the northern Hyeon Kingdom.
He slowly drew a breath.
The pain in his bruised side had subsided.
Yi Hyeon looked down at the objects on the ground.
The Dark-Scale Underarmor and the Moon-Sinking Sword.
Those were all the magical implements he had left.
The Dark Iron Buckler had been smashed by light pellets and the chain. The Body-Guarding Bell had also shattered.
The black iron spear had snapped, and he had made the Dark Palace-Gate Sword explode. He had even lost all six bronze flying swords. In a single battle, the magical implements he had grown used to over so many years had vanished completely.
“Hmm... I did use them for a long time.”
He could not even remember how long he had used some of them.
Yi Hyeon picked up the Moon-Sinking Sword.
Its blade shone a clear silver-gray, without a single scratch.
When he fed a little spiritual power into it, the restrictions within responded smoothly.
‘This really was a good purchase.’
While his other magical implements had broken helplessly before a Golden Core cultivator’s magical treasure, the Moon-Sinking Sword alone had taken its blows head-on and pierced the spirit beast’s hide.
Until now, he had never seriously considered the importance of magical implements. But after fighting someone truly powerful, he realized just how enormous a difference equipment made.
‘One reliable supreme-grade magical implement is better than five mediocre ones.’
Yi Hyeon stared for a while at his eyes reflected in the blade.
The strength of a Golden Core cultivator, which he had experienced for the first time, had been overwhelming.
In fact, Perfected Hyeonjo was a beast tamer, so close combat probably was not his strength.
Even so, his spells and magical treasure had worked together in an almost seamless assault, giving Yi Hyeon no room to breathe even at close range.
‘What would’ve happened if I’d kept fighting?’
Even after that fierce battle, he had still had plenty of spiritual power left.
‘I think I had more spiritual power in terms of sheer quantity... But the difference in quality and equipment meant I couldn’t be certain of winning. No, there was no reason to fight to the death in the first place.’
It had been the territory of the Nammyeong Twelve-Sect Alliance. If even one more Golden Core cultivator had appeared, things would have been far more dangerous.
There was no need to throw himself into a battle he was not sure he could win. He had plenty of time. He could cultivate slowly, enjoy a leisurely life, and fight only when he truly needed to.
‘It’s a bit of a shame that I lost most of my high-grade magical implements, but I’m not short of spirit stones anyway. If anything, I gained valuable experience by fighting a Golden Core cultivator and making it out alive. Now I understand how strong Golden Core cultivators are, and how important magical implements and magical treasures can be.’
Yi Hyeon sheathed the Moon-Sinking Sword.
‘I should get more supreme-grade magical implements if I can.’
* * *
A month later.
A cultivator market in the western Hyeon Kingdom.
Yi Hyeon passed through streets dyed red by the setting sun and stopped in the backyard of an old shop on the market’s outskirts.
Instead of his familiar Badger mask, he took out a cicada mask and put it on.
He descended a narrow staircase behind an old storehouse and entered a tangled network of underground passages.
At a dead end, he pushed sections of the stone wall inward in a particular order. With a heavy vibration, the wall rotated, revealing another staircase leading deeper underground.
After a long descent, he finally reached a spacious underground stone chamber.
Three or four cultivators wearing various masks sat apart from one another in silence.
At the center of the chamber sat a man in an eagle owl mask, giving off an imposing aura.
He was actually a Golden Core cultivator!
Sensing Yi Hyeon’s arrival, the man in the eagle owl mask slowly raised his head and looked at him.
“A newcomer?”
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
