WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 87
──────
Yi Hyeon sat on the edge of the bed and laid the Cheonggang Sword across his knees.
When he closed his eyes, Jeong U-baek’s final sword strike came to mind.
The force that had reached out before the sword even moved. The spiritual power and spiritual sense that had gathered into one behind it.
And mixed among them, something that resembled vow power.
‘Shall I give it a try?’
Yi Hyeon slowly ran his fingers along the blade.
Sword qi rose from it, refined through countless uses of the Supreme Unity Heavenly Dipper Sword Art.
He awakened the mind seal within his primordial spirit, drew out a strand of the vow power that gently stirred, and added it to the sword qi.
Bzzzt.
The tip of the sword qi trembled.
Yi Hyeon immediately added his spiritual sense. He held the two energies together as they tried to scatter, pushing them along the course prescribed by the sword art.
This time, the sword qi grew a little longer.
But that was all.
Its surface rippled roughly, then scattered into thin fragments of light.
Yi Hyeon looked down at the sword.
‘So I can’t just throw things together and expect it to work?’
He tried several more times, but the results were similar. Only the point at which the sword qi grew rough or lost its cohesion changed a little.
At the very least, adjusting the amounts of vow power and spiritual sense did not seem enough to solve the problem. Unlike Yi Hyeon’s sword, the form Jeong U-baek had used carried an intent that advanced together with the blade.
‘Even with Buddha-Light True Qi, vow power only blended naturally into true qi when I followed the Buddha-Light Heart Formula. I also referred to the teachings and spoken incantation when forming a Spirit-Startling Needle.’
All of those things were possible because of the research and experience built up by earlier generations.
‘I’ve only just begun to understand the broad outline of the mind sword. It would be stranger if I could use it right away.’
Swinging a sword for a long time would not somehow give him answers to questions he had never considered.
Jeong U-baek must have built up something of their own.
Something honed over a long time by trusting the sword and placing intent within it.
‘Does that lead to sword intent?’
Yi Hyeon raised sword qi from his fingertip again.
‘The sword I want...’
He had no intention of walking a sword path where a single retreat could break his faith and even shake his Dao.
If an opponent was strong, he would avoid them. He would block what he could, deflect what he could, and cut down whatever stood in his way when necessary.
‘Easy enough to say...’
If thinking up a fine-sounding phrase could produce sword intent, the world’s sword cultivators would have no reason to work so hard.
...
After about a shichen, Yi Hyeon put away the Cheonggang Sword.
‘I might obtain an inheritance that uses both the sword and vow power someday. For now, I’d be better off getting more familiar with the methods I already know.’
He took two jade slips from his storage pouch. They contained cultivation records for the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree and observations of a mature tree.
Then he took out the flowerpot.
The young Heaven-Origin Divine Tree stood quietly in its small pot. Even when he examined its leaves up close, he could not sense any strange force pushing away the objects around it.
‘A thousand years, huh.’
...
The next morning.
The matchups were announced for the main tournament of the Unju Dao Discussion Gathering, which had been suspended.
Yi Hyeon’s first opponent was a Taeak Sect cultivator at Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment.
After checking his name on the bracket, he went straight to Martial Uncle Hyejeong.
“I won’t be competing in the rest of the main tournament.”
Hyejeong looked up.
“Is something wrong with your body?”
“No, nothing like that. But my magical implements were damaged, and I’ve obtained what I wanted. I don’t intend to push myself any further.”
Considering how much attention he had already drawn, Yi Hyeon had decided to keep a low profile. Drawing Senior Sister Jin So-yeong’s attention in particular would be troublesome.
He had disguised his face when he lived as Yi Dong-sam, and his current appearance was different from back then. But he could not be sure that his habits when moving his sword or casting spells had changed as well.
For a start, his name was Yi Dong-sa. She might think nothing of it, but if they met up close a few times, she might remember Yi Dong-sam.
Yi Hyeon had even imagined making an excuse that he was actually Yi Dong-sam’s successor if Jin So-yeong came looking for him.
Fortunately, she had not.
There were plenty of people in the world, and plenty of similar names. It was not strange that she had no suspicions.
If he withdrew from the main tournament now, he could reduce the attention Yi Dong-sa had gradually attracted because of the battle with Nammyeong.
Many people had been injured in that battle. Yi Hyeon had also made a show of the damage to his Dark-Scale Underarmor and Triple Union Shield in front of everyone, so his withdrawal would not seem unusual.
It was a little disappointing that he would not get a supreme-grade magical implement like the Whirlwind Shoes, but he would have to fight several more matches to obtain one. He had no idea how much of his ability he would have to reveal along the way. If he really needed something like that, he could spend spirit stones to find a similar implement later.
Obtaining the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree was enough.
Martial Uncle Hyejeong nodded.
“Very well. I’ll inform those in charge. Knowing when to step forward is important, but so is knowing when to stop.”
“Thank you.”
When Yi Hyeon left the room, Yuk Hong-yeon happened to be approaching from the other end of the corridor.
After hearing about his decision, she nodded.
“Good call. Anyone who gets back on the sparring platform after fighting Nammyeong like that is the strange one.”
“I hope you do well too, Senior Sister Yuk.”
...
The matches resumed.
There were still more than a hundred main tournament contestants in Cloud-Gathering Immortal City, and people’s attention soon shifted to the new matches.
Trade within the city continued throughout the tournament.
In fact, as the end of the Dao Discussion Gathering drew near, more cultivators sought to sell their goods or find things they needed.
The Jewel Light Temple party planned to stay a while longer.
Wonseok could walk, but still looked unwell. Yu Gyeong-do’s right arm also needed time to recover.
...
“The dual-cultivation art you requested, Inspector.”
Behind a small shop that sold medicinal ingredients, several masked cultivators sat in an underground stone chamber.
While trading was in full swing at the meeting, a jade slip was placed in front of Yi Hyeon, who wore his cicada mask.
“Of the arts our members obtained, this one has the most confirmed cases of use in Unju. There’s also a record left by a cultivator who practiced it with their Dao companion.”
Yi Hyeon picked up the jade slip.
He had asked them to look for it.
Dual-cultivation arts themselves were not rare.
Some focused on one partner taking the other’s vital essence. Others promised rapid progress but carried a high risk of conflicting with the user’s original cultivation art.
Yi Hyeon wanted an art they could practice together for a long time without strain.
Even with the Two Heavens Society’s information network, choosing an art that met those conditions and checking the experiences of people who had actually practiced it had taken some time.
“Well done.”
Yi Hyeon handed over the agreed payment and put away the jade slip. Then he briefly looked at the cultivator guarding the stone chamber’s entrance.
When he had arrived earlier, that cultivator had not stepped aside simply upon seeing his cicada mask. Only after checking the restrictions on his jade token and comparing it with a letter of introduction sent ahead had the guard shown him inside.
Yi Hyeon approved.
Never trust someone based on a mask or title alone!
It was a rule he had stressed until they were sick of hearing it.
The older an organization became, the easier it was to skip procedures out of familiarity. Then, if one person was caught, everyone connected to them would be dragged out one after another.
That was why Yi Hyeon limited each member to knowing only a few contacts. They could pass on requests, but no one knew the full chain or whose hands a request would ultimately reach. Anyone entrusted with running a meeting, along with any new contact network, had to be checked by the higher ranks.
Complaints about the inconvenience never stopped, but the Two Heavens Society had continued without major trouble so far.
...
Back at the lodge, Yi Hyeon took out the jade slip.
《Yin-Yang Origin-Harmonizing Art (陰陽調元法)》
It was a dual-cultivation art that had been passed down in Unju for quite a long time.
The members had compared its main text with versions obtained at other cultivator markets. Most differences were annotations adding precautions to take during practice.
It also explained in detail what Dao companions with different kinds of spiritual power needed to adjust when practicing together. In Yi Hyeon’s case, primordial unity true qi had no particular attribute, making it relatively safe for both him and his partner.
Yi Hyeon examined the jade slip’s contents.
「When yin and yang first mingle, long-preserved primordial yang and primordial yin are released. The vital essence transferred to the other person does not immediately disperse, but remains mixed with their vital essence. If energy from primordial yang and primordial yin remains unrefined, the first practice session may be particularly effective. A mistake at this point can cause true qi to flow backward, so calmly...」
...
The rest of the Unju Dao Discussion Gathering proceeded without incident.
No one from Jewel Light Temple placed high enough to receive a supreme-grade magical implement.
The temple had sent fewer contestants than the other major sects, and they had not selected only their very best disciples in the first place. As such, no one was particularly disappointed.
* * *
The journey back to Jewel Light Temple went smoothly.
After completing everything they needed to do in Cloud-Gathering Immortal City, the party boarded a flying boat and reached the sect base six days later.
Including the ten-day wait before the opening, the event that had lasted a little over a month, and the round trip by boat, nearly two months had passed since they left.
As soon as Yi Hyeon disembarked and finished saying goodbye to his fellow disciples, he flew toward Wang Seo-rin’s residence with a flutter of excitement.
...
Wang Seo-rin happened to be home. The moment she sensed Yi Hyeon’s presence, she rushed out, unable to hide her delight.
She came straight over, checked their surroundings, then nestled into his arms.
“Phew... I can finally breathe again!”
They went inside. Several sheets of paper listing medicinal ingredients and quantities lay spread across the table.
When Yi Hyeon looked at them, Wang Seo-rin began chattering about what had happened while he was away. Most of it concerned the trouble she had gone through while learning how to combine the ingredients for Gold-Condensing Pills.
When she finished, Yi Hyeon took the jade slip from his storage pouch.
“I brought something too.”
“What is it?”
She took the jade slip without much thought and pressed it to her forehead. A moment later, she looked up with an embarrassed expression.
“Did you go to the Dao Discussion Gathering to get this?”
“I happened to come across it. I thought it might help our cultivation.”
...
They first practiced the Yin-Yang Origin-Harmonizing Art that night.
By dawn, the two sat facing each other, circulating their qi.
Since they were learning the art for the first time, Yi Hyeon limited the energy they exchanged to small amounts. Wang Seo-rin also circulated her qi slowly, following the sequence in the jade slip.
After several cycles, Yi Hyeon felt an unfamiliar movement within his body.
It was a very thin strand of energy.
Normally hidden among his own vital essence, it slowly began to stand out as it responded to Wang Seo-rin’s energy.
It was calm and gentle.
Simply saying it carried yin energy could not fully describe it.
This was the distinct quality said to remain only when vital essence that had never been released was exchanged for the first time.
It matched what he had read in the jade slip’s annotations.
‘This is...’
Yi Hyeon followed the energy with his spiritual sense. It was a trace of primordial yin that had passed from Wang Seo-rin into his body and remained there, not yet fully refined.
‘So I was Seo-rin’s first too. And here she was, acting like she knew everything because she was my senior...’
Yi Hyeon opened his eyes. Wang Seo-rin was looking at him too. Her face also showed signs of having realized something.
When their eyes met, her gaze shifted slightly to the side.
“What!”
“Nothing.”
“Stop smiling and focus.”
“Okay.”
He closed his eyes again.
A short while later, he felt a slight tremor through their touching hands.
This time, it was not from embarrassment.
“Junior Brother.”
Wang Seo-rin’s voice had changed a little.
“Try reducing your energy.”
Yi Hyeon immediately drew back the true qi he had been sending her.
Even so, the changes inside her body did not settle down. Pure energy continued to be released as Wang Seo-rin circulated her qi.
It was not newly entering her body from outside. It had already been mixed into her vital essence.
Yi Hyeon noticed this too.
‘Could it be because of my primordial yang?’
The traces of primordial yin he had received had helped him quite a bit.
But the traces of primordial yang being released inside Wang Seo-rin were far greater.
Wang Seo-rin immediately slowed her circulation.
Rather than trying to turn all the released energy into spiritual power at once, she gathered it in portions she could manage.
Yi Hyeon matched her pace.
The room fell quiet.
As time passed, Wang Seo-rin’s energy swelled once, then gradually drew inward. Yi Hyeon waited for her to finish circulating her qi without speaking to her.
Only after a long while did Wang Seo-rin let out a deep breath.
A faint blush remained on her cheeks.
“Junior Brother Yi, aren’t you a little too healthy? I just broke through!”
‘Huh?’
Yi Hyeon examined her now-stable energy again.
Wang Seo-rin, who had still been at the seventh layer of Foundation Establishment earlier that day, had already reached the eighth!
The suddenly refined pure energy had joined the true essence she had accumulated over the years since reaching the seventh layer, carrying her past the final barrier.
They had only practiced the art once.
‘Is this the power of two thousand years...?’
Wang Seo-rin stared at him.
“Just what have you been eating while you cultivate?”
Yi Hyeon gave a vague answer.
“I think my physique has something to do with it. I didn’t know it would go this far either.”
The look in Wang Seo-rin’s eyes changed. After experiencing such a powerful effect on her cultivation, this was no time to sit around feeling embarrassed. She too was a cultivator walking the Great Dao!
“Let’s do it again!”
“...You should stabilize your cultivation first.”
* * *
Half a month later.
The restrictions surrounding Wang Seo-rin’s residence trembled lightly.
The spiritual qi gathering in the room briefly thickened, then sank into one person’s body.
Sitting across from her, Yi Hyeon waited quietly as her breathing gradually steadied.
Some time later, she opened her eyes.
She looked down at her hands, examined her dantian again, and finally looked at Yi Hyeon.
“...I’m already late in the eighth layer! Isn’t this a demonic cultivation art?”
Confusion came through in Wang Seo-rin’s voice before joy did.
She circulated her qi again and realized that she had refined nearly all the traces of primordial yang remaining in her vital essence. She was not yet fully used to handling her increased true qi, but there were no impurities in her energy or signs of strain on her meridians.
The corners of her mouth slowly rose.
“Junior Brother, you’re a walking tonic! Let’s cultivate every day from now on!”
“You’ve used up almost all the vital essence from the first exchange. I’m happy to, but...”
“You never know!”
Wang Seo-rin examined her changed energy for a while, then suddenly looked at him.
“Why haven’t you broken through, Junior Brother?”
“It helped me too.”
He was not just saying that.
As Wang Seo-rin’s primordial yin was refined, the spiritual power in his lower dantian, which had only recently reached the seventh layer, became more stable. It had also filled a considerable part of what he would otherwise have needed to build up through cultivation, and his balance of yin and yang had improved.
However, Yi Hyeon had distributed the energy he received evenly throughout his Primordial Unity Body. Even his lower dantian had only recently reached the seventh layer, so the energy he gained this time was not enough to advance another layer.
Above all, there had been a large difference in how much vital essence they transferred to each other during their first exchange. The amount of his primordial yang Wang Seo-rin had received was unusually large.
...
Within a few days, they discovered that the Yin-Yang Origin-Harmonizing Art no longer had the same effect as before. Once the traces of primordial yang and primordial yin mixed into their vital essence had been thoroughly refined, only the art’s original, gentle effect remained.
Still, their relationship grew even better. Senior Sister Wang remained embarrassed whenever the art came up in conversation, but when it was time to practice together, she enjoyed it even more than Yi Hyeon did.
* * *
Three months later.
Yi Hyeon left the sect base.
He had finished his duties at Lotus Court, and there was some time before he needed to help refine medicinal ingredients again.
He also brought along the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree, pot and all. He had been caring for it at his residence, watering it with the Spirit Rain Spell. Now he intended to give it a place in his underground hideout.
On the way, he stopped at several cultivator markets to buy materials for work on the hideout and repairs to its formations.
Once he had everything he needed, he disappeared beneath the ground in a place few people visited.
...
Several days later, at Underground Hideout No. 3.
After he passed through the thick bedrock, the familiar cavern appeared.
Before Yi Hyeon could even land, a golden ball of fluff shot out of a nearby passage.
Squeak!
Then a second and a third followed.
Wings buzzed all around, and Fuzzbees clung to various parts of Yi Hyeon’s body as if pleased to see him.
“Have you been well?”
Squeak, squeak!
When he opened his spirit insect pouch too, the cavern became even noisier.
They immediately mingled with one another and scattered to familiar places.
First, Yi Hyeon made his way around the cavern and spirit fields, filling the water tanks with the Spirit Rain Spell and checking the water pipes.
In a few spirit fields, he removed withered leaves and thinned out seedlings that had sprouted too close together.
Some Fuzzbees followed him around, pouncing whenever small spirit insects appeared in the soil he turned over.
‘No particular problems.’
He no longer worried as much as he used to, but returning to the hideout and confirming that nothing was wrong still gave him a warm sense of comfort.
...
Yi Hyeon chose a spot some distance from the existing fruit-tree spirit field for the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree.
It would be the new Spirit Field No. 3-9.
There was room to expand the area later as the tree grew.
First, Yi Hyeon examined the grain of the bedrock, then removed as much earth and stone as needed.
He used the excavated stone to reinforce the inner passage and gathered the soil separately. He spread the spirit soil he had brought across the floor of the new space, mixing it into the existing soil a little at a time.
When he cast the Soil-Turning Spell, the clods broke apart.
A Bonefuzz standing at one side of the cavern moved its head.
Yi Hyeon pointed at the remaining pile of stones.
“Take those over there.”
Two Bonefuzz began carrying the stones.
Fuzzbees circled around them. They seemed to be watching for anything edible whenever the soil was turned over.
But the newly dug area was mostly hard bedrock.
Before long, they lost interest and flew off to other spirit fields.
Yi Hyeon extended bamboo water pipes from an existing tank and made a shallow drainage channel for excess water.
After finishing the ground, he took out the pot.
The sapling was not even two chi tall.
Looking down at it, he found it a little funny that he had even fought a battle to the death to obtain such a small thing.
‘Other people wouldn’t understand if they saw this...’
He tapped the edge of the pot with a finger.
Tap.
A thin crack appeared in the clay.
As he peeled away the pot bit by bit, the roots and soil were exposed together. Supporting the clump of earth with spiritual power so that the root tips would not break, Yi Hyeon lowered it into the hole he had prepared.
He filled in the surrounding soil, pressed it down lightly, then cast the Spirit Rain Spell.
Pitter-patter.
Clear droplets fell onto the leaves and soil, and the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree’s thick leaves stirred a little.
Yi Hyeon crouched in front of the tree and cast the Qi-Observing Spell. He could see energy flowing from the roots to the trunk and leaves.
The slow intake of spiritual qi from the soil.
The vitality gathering inside, then spreading back out through the branches.
But he could not tell where heaven-origin qi was being produced. It seemed he really would have to wait until the tree bore fruit to observe the changes described in the records himself.
Just then, one leaf moved ever so slightly.
Yi Hyeon looked toward it.
A golden Fuzzbee hung from the underside of the leaf. It had been feeling along the veins with its thin forelegs, but raised its head when their eyes met.
Squeak?
“Keep this one safe from spirit insects too. You’re heavy, so try not to hang from it.”
The Fuzzbee examined the edge of the leaf once more, then took flight.
It seemed to have found nothing.
Yi Hyeon tidied the soil around the tree again, then carved the spirit field’s number, the tree’s name, and the planting date onto a small stone plaque and planted it beside the tree.
Next, he prepared to set up a formation around the new spirit field.
He took out the formation flags and disk for a first-tier Spirit-Gathering Formation, which he had made for practice when first learning formations.
He wanted to give the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree even a slightly better environment.
The first-tier Spirit-Gathering Formation consumed low-grade spirit stones, but this was a small space with just one sapling. The expense would not be difficult to manage.
After calculating the formation disk’s consumption, Yi Hyeon estimated that ten low-grade spirit stones could keep it running for about a year at its current strength.
At that rate, even a hundred years of operation would cost only the equivalent of ten mid-grade spirit stones. It was no burden to him at all.
‘Should I replace it with a better Spirit-Gathering Formation when the tree grows?’
He began to consider studying Tier 2 Spirit-Gathering Formations too.
While learning Tier 2 formations, Yi Hyeon had spent most of his time studying the Spirit-Concealing Formation, which could hide Underground Hideout No. 3 by making use of the terrain.
Designs for its formation disk and flags had been included in a jade slip he obtained at the Danso Sect.
He had crossed the threshold to becoming a Tier 2 formation master, but the Spirit-Concealing Formation was effectively the only Tier 2 formation for which he had personally made the flags and disk and completed the whole setup. His knowledge of other formations was limited to basic theory and recognizing their inscriptions. He would need to study a Spirit-Gathering Formation separately to actually make one.
Fortunately, there were plenty of people he could ask at Lotus Court. Senior Brother Myeongyun would gladly answer questions about formations.
When Yi Hyeon finished setting up the first-tier Spirit-Gathering Formation and activated it, the formation flags and the inscriptions carved into the ground glowed faintly. The surrounding spiritual qi slowly began to gather.
He watched it for a while, then left the tree and headed out of the cavern.
‘It’s been a while. I should check the Spirit-Concealing Formation too.’
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
