WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 77
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“Yes.”
The old monk was silent for a while at Yi Hyeon’s calm answer.
“You’re seventy... and you’ve never had a Dao companion, or even shared a brief relationship with a woman?”
“No.”
“Well, now.”
The monk looked Yi Hyeon up and down.
His limbs were all sound, and his face was ordinary.
The old monk rose.
“I thought highly of your alchemy skills, but I can’t admit a liar to Jewel Light Temple.”
He opened a small shrine set into the wall of the guest hall.
Inside rested a round object wrapped in red cloth.
The monk placed it on the table and removed the cloth, revealing a mirror about the size of two palms put together.
Flames and lotus flowers were carved in an alternating pattern around its golden frame.
“This is a Yang Essence Mirror (陽精鏡).”
“A magical implement for examining primordial yang?”
“Indeed. It shows how full and pure one’s primordial yang is. The longer someone has preserved it intact, the stronger its response.”
The monk ran his fingers along the mirror’s frame.
“Usually, someone who has preserved it well for several decades produces a red light. Among those who have cultivated while preserving their primordial yang for over a hundred years, some produce a golden light.”
“Can it tell someone’s age, too?”
“No. Its response also varies with physique and cultivation art. Some produce golden light at a young age, while others show only a dull red glow even after living alone for a hundred years.”
The old monk sat down again and held out the mirror.
“Place your hand on it and send in a little spiritual power.”
Yi Hyeon placed his hand on the mirror.
Hummm.
The lotus flowers carved into the frame lit up. A red glow appeared briefly, then deep golden light filled the mirror’s surface.
The monk straightened.
“Oh...!”
At that moment, a white dot appeared in the middle of the golden light.
It grew in the blink of an eye.
Flash!
“...!”
Every shadow in the guest hall vanished.
Beneath the table, behind the chairs, even inside the little shrine, everything was pure white. It was as though a tiny sun had settled on the mirror.
Yi Hyeon immediately removed his hand.
The radiance faded. Quiet returned to the guest hall, and he could smell the incense again.
“......”
The monk stared at the mirror with his mouth slightly open.
Yi Hyeon looked down at it, too.
‘I didn’t expect it to react this strongly.’
After a moment, the monk picked up the Yang Essence Mirror.
He examined the formation inscriptions on its frame and back in turn. Only after pouring magical power into it and checking it for a long while did he carefully set it down.
Yi Hyeon asked, “Did I pass?”
“......”
The monk looked at Yi Hyeon’s face again. His calm expression seemed to reflect deep meditative absorption (禪定)!
“When you see a beautiful woman... what do you usually think?”
“That she’s beautiful.”
The monk nodded slowly.
“And yet you don’t let her capture your heart...”
He let out an admiring sigh.
“To think your innate primordial yang is this pure. You have a rare natural gift for the Dao. Perhaps some connection remains from a past life spent practicing pure conduct (梵行) for many years.”
‘I didn’t do anything special in my past life...’
“A Foundation Establishment cultivator brimming with blood energy who stays away from women, yet doesn’t consider it a hardship!”
The monk pressed his palms together.
“What a precious connection has come to us.”
“Then, about joining...”
“You have my permission. I’ll register you as an inner sect disciple of Lotus Court.”
The monk immediately picked up his brush.
“My Dharma name is Hyedam (慧曇). If you’re willing, become my disciple. I’ll teach you the Clear Yang Purifying Fire Art myself.”
Yi Hyeon thought for a moment.
There was no harm in taking a Golden Core cultivator who could teach him alchemy as his master. Besides, hadn’t he come to Jewel Light Temple for alchemy in the first place?
He rose and bowed.
“Please guide me, Master.”
“Hoho. Of course, of course.”
The brush moved swiftly across the documents.
After waiting a little, Yi Hyeon asked, “Don’t I need any other examinations?”
“What examinations?”
“My bone age or spiritual root, for example.”
Hyedam looked puzzled instead.
“You’re already a Buddha in the flesh. What does any of that matter?”
“......”
* * *
That afternoon.
Thin trails of smoke rose from an incense burner in a small Dharma hall deep inside Lotus Court.
Hyedam placed a wooden token two fingers wide before Yi Hyeon. Its surface was still blank.
“Disciples who join our court make at least one vow. The same goes for those who have practiced other cultivation arts. You must first learn how to gain vow power to properly study our inheritances.”
Yi Hyeon examined the wooden token.
Tiny formation inscriptions ran through its grain.
“Will any vow do?”
“Don’t choose carelessly. The nature of the vow power you gain changes according to your vow.”
Hyedam opened a booklet beside him. It contained examples of various vows and accounts of what the cultivators who had made them had experienced.
A vow to shave one’s head at set intervals and never grow one’s hair out.
A vow to preserve one’s primordial yang.
A vow to leave none of the food one received as an offering.
There was even a vow to rise before sunrise.
“It’s better to choose something proven. Vows that many practitioners have kept over a long time come with well-developed formulas for handling their vow power. Not growing one’s hair out and preserving one’s primordial yang are examples.”
Hyedam turned the page, revealing accounts of people who had ruined their cultivation by making overly ambitious vows.
Yi Hyeon read a few lines, then closed the booklet.
“I’ll preserve my primordial yang.”
“Just as I expected!”
A satisfied smile appeared on Hyedam’s face.
“That vow also suits the Clear Yang Purifying Fire Art best.”
He carved words into the wooden token and handed it to Yi Hyeon.
“A vow isn’t something you make with your mouth alone. You must engrave it on your heart using the spoken incantation I’m about to teach you. Once the vow you’ve kept takes root in your primordial spirit, you’ll be able to add vow power whenever you wish to create a new kind of power.”
Yi Hyeon listened to the incantation, then closed his eyes.
The scent of incense grew stronger.
A long while later, his spiritual sense lightly touched the wooden token.
“I will preserve my primordial yang intact.”
Hummm.
The words carved into the vow token glowed faintly.
Yi Hyeon felt a very fine pattern forming on the outside of his primordial spirit.
It faded when he tried to grasp it, but became clear again when he recalled the vow he had just made.
Hyedam nodded.
“That went well.”
“Will I have vow power now?”
“Think of it as planting a seed. If you keep your vow and practice according to the incantation, it will build up little by little.”
He pointed at the vow token.
“If you break your vow, the token will crack. You’ll no longer be able to create Buddha-Light True Qi. When the mind that broke the vow conflicts with the vow power you’ve built up, your true qi may even flow backward and injure you in serious cases.”
Yi Hyeon carefully placed the token in his storage pouch.
Hyedam took out two jade slips.
“You’re already a Foundation Establishment cultivator, so you won’t need a basic cultivation art. One of these is the 《Buddha-Light Heart Formula (佛光心訣)》, which teaches you to cultivate vow power and add it to spiritual power. The other is the 《Clear Yang Purifying Fire Art》.”
Yi Hyeon accepted the jade slips.
Hyedam opened his palm, and pale golden energy appeared above it.
“True qi created by adding power drawn from a vow is broadly called vow-power true qi. The kind refined through our Jewel Light Temple’s Buddha-Light Heart Formula is called Buddha-Light True Qi.”
The golden energy flowed slowly between his fingers.
“It’s particularly good at dealing with inner demons and vengeful spirits, and suppressing fierce demonic power. It’s also useful against the sinister ghostly creatures and evil energies employed by demonic cultivators.”
Hyedam withdrew his hand.
Just then, the smoke rising from the incense burner flowed to one side without any wind and gathered behind the Buddha statue.
When Yi Hyeon looked that way, Hyedam explained.
“That is incense qi. What gathers in temples throughout Seo Kingdom all flows here to Jewel Light Temple. We use it to maintain the great formation and gently nurture magical implements, and it also aids cultivation. However, only monks who walk the Dao of Incense (香火道) can handle it.”
On their way out of the Dharma hall, Yi Hyeon looked over a wall.
Rows of high tiled roofs stretched beyond it, surrounded by much stronger restrictions than elsewhere.
“Is that part of Lotus Court, too?”
“That’s where we refine important alchemical pills, including Gold-Condensing Pills.”
“Can disciples go inside?”
“Of course. But you must first build up enough merit and show that you can be trusted with the work.”
Hyedam lightly patted Yi Hyeon’s shoulder.
“Don’t rush. I’m sure the connection will come for you.”
...
Yi Hyeon’s residence stood on a low peak east of Lotus Court.
Beyond a small courtyard, three buildings stood side by side. Behind them was a garden decorated with bamboo and rocks.
Inside were a cultivation room, a study, and even a room for receiving guests.
“Is it really all right for me to use such a fine place alone?”
The monk guiding Yi Hyeon smiled at his question.
“Our Jewel Light Temple isn’t poor. You’re a Foundation Establishment cultivator and a second-tier alchemist, not to mention a talent whom Master Hyedam can’t stop praising. We couldn’t put you in the same room as the young disciples, could we?”
He was the guest-receiving monk who had first guided Yi Hyeon at the mountain gate. His Dharma name was Myeongsu, and Yi Hyeon had already agreed to address him as Senior Brother.
“Is it all right if I don’t receive a Dharma name?”
“You can have one if you want, but there’s no problem with keeping your current name. There are many disciples like that in our court.”
Myeongsu pointed at the restriction beside the door.
“Use your spirit token to open and close it. When you leave the sect, let the guest hall know roughly where you’re going and when you’ll return. As long as you don’t disappear and leave your assigned work undone, you’ll be fine.”
Yi Hyeon nodded.
Living here seemed as though it would be comfortable enough.
Just then, footsteps came from behind them.
A round-faced monk entered the courtyard. Myeongsu waved, and they came straight over.
“Is this the new Junior Brother Yi?”
“He is.”
“Oh...”
The round-faced monk studied Yi Hyeon closely.
“To think a talent as precious as a jewel was living as an independent cultivator. How fortunate that you formed a connection with our temple.”
“You flatter me.”
Yi Hyeon pressed his palms together, but the monk shook their head seriously.
“Junior Brother, you must be even more careful about your conduct from now on.”
“Pardon?”
“I mean that you must guard your primordial yang well.”
Myeongsu nodded, too.
“That’s right. Don’t let your guard down just because you’ve joined our court.”
He took a thin picture album from inside his robe. Yi Hyeon’s gaze turned toward it.
Myeongsu opened the album, revealing a painting of a female cultivator standing beneath a willow tree.
The woman in the painting blinked slowly. The hem of her robe seemed to flutter in the wind.
The artwork was quite skillful.
“This is Senior Sister Heo from Life Release Court.”
“I see.”
“Don’t stay beside her too long when she feeds the spirit beasts. If she smiles and starts talking to you, it’s easy for your heart to waver.”
“Senior Sister Heo is beautiful even when she isn’t smiling.”
At the round-faced monk’s comment, Myeongsu nodded.
“That’s true.”
He turned the page.
This time, a female cultivator with her hair tied back by a red cord was holding a spear.
“This is Junior Sister Yuk from Demon-Subduing Court. Be even more careful around her.”
“Is there a problem?”
“She has a dangerous habit of looking people straight in the eye when she talks.”
Yi Hyeon looked at the painting.
The woman in it was looking straight at him.
Myeongsu lowered his voice.
“In particular, don’t readily agree if she asks you to spar.”
“Because I might get hurt during the match?”
“You might get a close look at her brushing her hair back while wiping away her sweat.”
The round-faced monk sighed deeply.
“That would be dangerous.”
‘......’
Yi Hyeon pointed at the album.
“Why do you carry something like this around?”
Myeongsu’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.
“For spiritual practice.”
“I see.”
“I look at it often to discipline my mind.”
Myeongsu closed the album.
The round-faced monk caught Myeongsu’s wrist.
“Wait. It looks like you’ve added a new page at the back.”
“Oh, this is...”
The two put their heads together over the album.
Yi Hyeon waited a moment, then went inside his residence ahead of them.
* * *
Three months later.
In the cultivation room on the eastern peak of Lotus Court.
Lying down, Yi Hyeon raised a finger and gathered clear energy at its tip.
It was primordial unity true qi.
A moment later, a very faint golden light seeped into it.
Hummm.
The energy above his finger became a little heavier and more solid.
Yi Hyeon brought his hand close to his face and examined it.
‘It worked.’
It was Buddha-Light True Qi.
By nature, primordial unity true qi could be changed into various kinds of true qi once he understood their teachings and incantations.
That was how he had produced profound yin white bone true qi to ritually refine the Bonefuzz puppets.
At first, however, he had struggled to produce Buddha-Light True Qi.
He could imitate its color and the flow of its spiritual power. But the energy he created that way lacked the distinctive nature he had sensed in Jewel Light Temple’s true qi.
The reason was simple.
He had no vow power.
‘If I had to classify it, Buddha-Light True Qi isn’t a power based purely on qi. Are qi and spirit working together...?’
For the past three months, Yi Hyeon had studied the Buddha-Light Heart Formula and built up vow power.
Though he had only made his vow and practiced for a short time, his vow power accumulated far faster than he had expected.
According to Hyedam, the vow to preserve primordial yang was also affected by how full and pure one’s innate primordial yang was. Even with the same incantation, the amount of vow power gained would differ.
With primordial yang he had preserved intact for over two thousand years, the vow couldn’t have suited him better.
Once he had vow power, the rest wasn’t difficult.
By changing the flow of his primordial unity true qi according to the incantation and adding vow power, he finally produced proper Buddha-Light True Qi. He didn’t even need to change his original cultivation art.
He sat up and used the Clear Yang Purifying Fire Art.
Fwoosh.
A small, pale golden flame formed at his fingertip. On closer inspection, its center was almost white.
When Yi Hyeon lowered the heat, the flame shrank to the size of a fingernail.
He brought over a jade dish containing a little demonic beast blood left from his refining practice. As he moved the flame close, dark red energy rose from its surface.
Ssssss.
A thin trail of smoke rose.
Yi Hyeon withdrew the flame and examined the blood.
The impure energy had been greatly reduced, while the medicinal potency that needed to remain had been preserved better than he had expected.
The Clear Yang Purifying Fire Art was a fire technique that used the purity of one’s primordial yang as a foundation to kindle Buddha-Light True Qi into yang fire (陽火).
It could burn away evil energy, but its greatest use was still refining.
‘Is it normally this effective?’
Yi Hyeon looked down at the dish for a moment.
‘I never thought staying away from women would help with something like this.’
He lowered his spiritual power further and repeated the experiment. He was deliberately practicing how to suppress the effects of the Clear Yang Purifying Fire. He worried that being too effective might draw him into unexpected trouble.
...
Five days later.
In Lotus Court’s communal alchemy chamber.
A bowl containing demonic beast marrow fluid sat before Yi Hyeon.
Hyedam examined the bowl and flicked a finger, sending a strand of flame into it.
Something like murky threads rose from the dark red marrow fluid.
As the fire passed between them, the threads broke apart and turned to smoke.
“Try it yourself.”
Yi Hyeon kindled Clear Yang Purifying Fire and sent a small flame beneath the marrow fluid.
Sssss.
The impure energy rose little by little, then vanished.
Yi Hyeon lowered the heat, but even the touch of a faint flame quickly dispersed the sinister energy within the marrow fluid.
‘I should reduce it a little more.’
As soon as he withdrew his hand, Hyedam picked up the bowl.
“That’s it!”
“Is it all right?”
“Your primordial yang is one thing, but your skill at handling fire is excellent. Teaching you will be rewarding.”
Hyedam opened a jade case beside him. Inside was a demonic core with a cracked surface.
“With a demonic core, what you leave behind is especially important. You must remove the fierce energy but preserve the structure that held the demonic power together. That structure holds true essence in place and condenses it into a golden core. If you burn it all away, the Gold-Condensing Pill will lose its effect entirely.”
“Does that structure remain even after core formation?”
“It does. It leaves traces in the golden core. The ones that show on the surface are commonly called demonic markings.”
...
Life at Jewel Light Temple was comfortable.
Lotus Court had many cultivators skilled in various disciplines.
Their cultivation arts and vows all differed.
One monk said they had vowed to praise someone once every day.
On days when they could find nothing to praise, they would visit the medicinal storehouse and compliment the disciples there on drying the herbs well or arranging the medicine bottles neatly.
Yi Hyeon sometimes received praise from them simply by being there.
Once he finished his regular practical lessons and assigned refining work, most of his remaining time was free.
He cultivated at his residence, read popular novels, and practiced the Clear Yang Purifying Fire Art.
Occasionally, he went out to buy supplies he needed or manage the Two Heavens Society.
One day, as he continued this routine, Hyedam handed him a small jade token.
“Visit the Scripture Repository.”
“May I read the inheritances?”
“Now that you’re used to handling vow power, it’s time to see which teachings suit you.”
Yi Hyeon accepted the jade token.
“How do I earn the contribution points needed to read them?”
Hyedam shook his head.
“We have no such thing as contribution points at Jewel Light Temple.”
“Then how...?”
“You learn when the connection comes.”
...
The monk in charge of the Scripture Repository looked at the jade token and nodded.
“You’re Senior Brother Hyedam’s disciple. Come this way.”
On the second floor, where they led Yi Hyeon, books and jade slips were arranged separately on long shelves.
“You may examine the inheritances here.”
“What about the other floors?”
“Your connection to those has yet to come.”
A strange thought suddenly occurred to Yi Hyeon.
‘Could someone be secretly keeping track of affinity points?’
...
《Compassion Palm (慈悲掌)》
Yi Hyeon examined the first jade slip.
It was a palm technique that gathered Buddha-Light True Qi in the palm before striking.
When the monk in the illustration thrust out their palm, the rock opposite them crumbled from within.
Yi Hyeon picked up the next jade slip.
《Deliverance Fist (超度拳)》
The opening annotation caught his eye.
「Deliver fiends with your fists and guide them onto the path of reincarnation.」
For some reason, the description sounded frightening.
Beside it was a spell called the 《Demon-Subduing Seal (降魔印)》.
It involved forming hand seals to gather Buddha-Light True Qi, then bringing down a golden seal. It was said to be useful for suppressing vengeful spirits and ghostly creatures.
After reading the descriptions of a few more spells, Yi Hyeon picked up a jade slip set a little farther away.
《Mount Sumeru Visualization Scripture (須彌觀想經)》
It contained far more material than the ones he had read before.
This inheritance used one’s vow as its center to shape a sacred image of a Dharma guardian from Buddha-Light True Qi. The explanation said that the vow must be as unshakable as Mount Sumeru, or the form built upon it would collapse.
‘There’s a lot here. I’ll come back to this later.’
One section of shelves held body-tempering methods.
《Mighty Vajra Body (大力金剛身)》
It used spirit herbs and formations to strengthen the muscles and bones. It wasn’t an art for raising one’s cultivation realm, but it allowed a cultivator to exert far greater strength within the same realm and withstand attacks from magical implements.
However, the deeper one’s practice became, the rarer the spirit herbs required.
Yi Hyeon shook his head at the enormous list of necessary materials, then reached for the next inheritance.
《Arhat Golden Body (羅漢金身)》
This cultivation art let Buddha-Light True Qi seep deep into the flesh, tempering the skin, muscles, and skeleton in turn.
According to the text, once it was complete, the golden light surrounding the body would not easily go out, and the practitioner could take attacks from magical implements with their bare body.
Yi Hyeon examined a diagram near the back.
Fine lines beginning inside the body ran in overlapping layers beneath the skin.
Strangely, it looked familiar.
He flipped back and forth through the diagrams.
‘I’ve seen this somewhere...’
After studying them for a long while, he stopped at an annotation beside a diagram.
「Some of the golden body incantations in this text were taken from the ancient method in the Golden Core Section of the 《Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art》.」
‘Huh?’
Yi Hyeon examined the contents again from the beginning.
The opening section contained a long account of the Arhat Golden Body’s origins.
On his first reading, he had skimmed it because it listed the names of ancient patriarchs and the inheritance’s lineage.
Now he slowly read one passage.
「The Arhat Golden Body passed down today is a method modeled on the ancient Unsullied Golden Body.」
The Unsullied Golden Body (無漏金身).
An unexpected explanation followed.
The ancient golden body arts differed from modern ones in the very foundation of their cultivation.
In an age when the spiritual qi of heaven and earth was dense, cultivators who used their entire bodies as a dantian bound the spiritual power accumulated throughout their flesh into a single flow to form their cores.
The ancient Daoist schools called this method Embracing Unity and Returning to the Core (抱一還丹).
It meant embracing the energy of the whole body as one and forming it into a core without allowing it to scatter.
Cultivators who formed their cores this way did not develop a separate, small golden core inside their bodies.
Their entire bodies formed a single golden core.
The interior of the golden core extended throughout the flesh, while its outer boundary, the core shell, overlapped with the skin.
Ancient Buddhist practitioners used such bodies as the foundation for their golden body arts.
A body in which the energy inside and outside the flesh formed one continuous whole, and the core shell at its surface received magical power together with the flesh and blood.
That was the foundation of the Unsullied Golden Body.
Circumstances changed in later ages.
As the spiritual qi of heaven and earth grew thinner, raising the entire body to Great Perfection in Foundation Establishment and then forming a golden core required far too much time and too many resources.
Cultivators therefore focused their cultivation on the small region of the lower dantian.
Using the spiritual power that would have filled the entire body to raise the lower dantian’s realm first was much faster. Breaking through a major realm also extended their lifespans.
Buddhist sects chose the same path.
Even after the method of forming a small golden core in the lower dantian became widespread, records of the ancient golden bodies’ power remained.
Monks of later ages tried to recreate the old golden bodies by repeatedly infusing their flesh with magical power and vow power, and engraving connected golden inscriptions across the body’s surface.
Many cultivation arts were created over the long years, and the Arhat Golden Body was one of them. The text even described the limitations that had arisen in the process and the incantations the patriarchs had added to make up for them.
Yi Hyeon traced a line in the diagram with his finger.
‘So that’s why it looked familiar.’
He recalled the Golden Core Section of the 《Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art》, which he had obtained from the Danso Sect long ago.
The latter part, which dealt with the Primordial Unity Body, contained many passages that were especially difficult to understand.
At the time, he had simply thought they were complicated formulas for breaking through to Golden Core.
Comparing them with the diagrams now, he realized those passages explained how to form a core shell over his entire body.
They were formulas for creating a body capable of practicing the ancient Unsullied Golden Body!
If he formed a golden core in his lower dantian, its boundary would arise within the lower dantian.
But what if he bound his entire body together to form a core?
That boundary would have to form on the surface of his body.
Yi Hyeon read the next annotation.
「Forming cores in several places and then connecting them is not the embracing of unity described in this method. From the moment condensation begins, the whole body must be embraced as one.」
His eyes narrowed.
This was an important passage.
When Yi Hyeon had achieved whole-body Foundation Establishment, he had absorbed the medicinal strength of the Foundation Establishment Pills one body part at a time.
He had done something similar when breaking through to the fourth layer of Foundation Establishment.
But it seemed he couldn’t use that same approach for core formation.
If any part condensed into an independent golden core first, a core shell would form around that region.
Even if he later raised the rest of his body to Golden Core, it would not become the single, unified body required by the ancient golden body arts.
Yi Hyeon read the annotation repeatedly.
It didn’t mean he had to swallow all the alchemical pills at once.
He could take in their medicinal strength in sequence. However, throughout that process, he had to prevent any one part from condensing first and prepare enough true essence throughout his body.
The final condensation had to take place as one across his entire body.
‘Then I can’t form a golden core in my lower dantian first this time... I’m already going to all this trouble to follow a cultivation method from the ancient age. It would leave a bad taste if I couldn’t achieve the Unsullied Golden Body.’
But to achieve the Unsullied Golden Body, he had to reach Great Perfection in Foundation Establishment throughout his body and then obtain enough Gold-Condensing Pills.
‘The question is whether taking a large number of Gold-Condensing Pills will also increase the time needed to refine away the demonic markings by the same amount...’
After thinking for a moment, Yi Hyeon looked again at the Arhat Golden Body’s diagrams.
In the end, the Arhat Golden Body was only a crude imitation of the Unsullied Golden Body.
He still had a path to achieving the original.
‘A true golden body...’
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