WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 88
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The Spirit-Concealing Formation’s flags were embedded throughout the bedrock surrounding Underground Hideout No. 3.
Yi Hyeon moved through the rock with the Earth Escape Spell, examining the flags one by one.
Most of the formation inscriptions on their surfaces were intact. In a few places, however, changes in the flow of spiritual qi and the earth veins had weakened the formation’s effect.
It was nothing anyone was likely to notice. After all, he had built the hideout beneath a barren wasteland where nobody would come even without a Spirit-Concealing Formation.
Now that he had one, however imperfect, discovery was even less likely.
Still, since he had found the problems, he decided to repair them.
He moved from place to place, pressing his palm against the rock walls to cast the Soil-Turning Spell, using the Soil Softening Art on stone, and repeating several other tasks.
Once the repairs were finished, the Spirit-Concealing Formation blended smoothly with the surrounding earth veins, hiding Underground Hideout No. 3 even better.
Yi Hyeon also replaced the fading mid-grade spirit stones in the formation disk with fresh ones.
...
He went up to the surface and examined the surrounding energy.
The mountainside was quiet.
Spiritual qi was thin, and he could not sense the slightest sign of anything underground.
Standing directly above Underground Hideout No. 3, he sent his spiritual sense straight down, but it fell far short of reaching eighteen li below the surface.
His spiritual sense could reach several li through the air, but underground, even detecting something a hundred jang deep was difficult.
By his estimate, even a great cultivator at late Nascent Soul would have almost no chance of discovering Underground Hideout No. 3 while flying overhead, unless they happened to probe straight down from directly above it.
Satisfied, Yi Hyeon returned below and stopped at Spirit Field No. 3-9.
The young Heaven-Origin Divine Tree seemed to be growing without any trouble despite its changed surroundings.
Squeak!
A Fuzzbee landed on his shoulder. He had no idea when it had followed him.
Yi Hyeon examined the energy flowing through its body.
After spending so long catching and eating spirit insects in his hideout, the Fuzzbees were clearly stronger than when he had first brought them home. Compared with Yi Hyeon, whose entire body was now at Foundation Establishment, however, they were still only little insects.
The Bonefuzz quietly carrying stones on one side of the cavern were also pitifully weak compared with him.
‘Should I help them grow stronger?’
With some effort, he could probably obtain better spirit insects for them to eat, mix spirit herbs into their food, and replace the Bonefuzz’s bones with better materials.
‘But...’
Why had he started raising Fuzzbees in the first place?
They caught spirit insects for him, making his life easier.
If he started running around gathering spirit insects and preparing special food just to make them stronger, he would have things backward.
As his own cultivation advanced, he might eventually need to build a hideout near a better spirit vein anyway.
By then, the spirit insects found nearby would naturally be of a higher tier, allowing the Fuzzbees to advance without any special effort on his part.
The same applied to the Bonefuzz.
When the time came to make large quantities of Gold-Condensing Pills from demonic cores, he would naturally obtain bones from Tier 3 demonic beasts as well. It would not be too late to study the matter then.
‘In the end, my own strength matters most. The Fuzzbees and Bonefuzz are only here to help me. They don’t need to become something that eats up my time.’
Squeak?
“Just keep catching spirit insects like you do now.”
Plop!
For the first time in a while, the Fuzzbee let out a dropping instead of a squeak.
* * *
On the day Yi Hyeon returned to Jewel Light Temple, Lotus Court was strangely noisy.
“Late Layer Eight?!”
Martial Uncle Hye-gak’s voice carried over the wall.
A young monk sweeping the covered walkway saw Yi Hyeon and spoke quietly.
“Elder Hye-gak has come out of seclusion. Ever since he saw Senior Wang... he’s been like that.”
He had entered seclusion for a short time, only to emerge and find that his disciple, who had spent years at Foundation Establishment Layer Seven, had reached late Layer Eight. His surprise was understandable.
‘...Maybe I should’ve come back a little later.’
...
When Yi Hyeon entered the alchemy chamber, he found Hyedam waiting for him.
The old monk beckoned without a word, led him into a small study farther inside, and even activated the restriction on the door.
Before Yi Hyeon could ask what was wrong, Hyedam came so close he looked ready to grab him by the collar and whispered.
“You rascal! Just how much of your vital essence did Wang Seo-rin suck out of you to get into that state? Do you have any marrow left in your bones?!”
“...”
“...You’re perfectly fine?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you perfectly fine?”
“?”
Hyedam pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Do you know what that rogue monk Hye-gak came to tell me first thing this morning? ‘Senior Brother, your disciple truly was an excellent spark.’ That’s what he said! What in the world happened?”
Yi Hyeon answered with a straight face.
“Senior Sister Wang is exceptionally talented. Perhaps the alchemical pills’ effects took hold late.”
“The alchemical pills’ effects took hold late? Have you forgotten that I’m a Tier 3 alchemist?”
“Please don’t worry so much. I’m healthy.”
...
A few days later, Yi Hyeon visited Senior Brother Myeongyun’s residence.
“A Tier 2 Spirit-Gathering Formation?”
Myeongyun’s eyes lit up.
“Yes. I’d like to work out the arrangement of the formation inscriptions myself, but I keep getting stuck.”
“To think you’re showing an interest in formations! Where are you having trouble?”
Yi Hyeon took out a drawing of the Spirit-Gathering Formation he had planned. Myeongyun studied it for a long time, then praised him and began explaining with great enthusiasm.
The explanation went on for more than a shichen. Though his ears were aching, Yi Hyeon listened carefully. Myeongyun even brought a jade slip from his shelves.
“These are notes I made while studying Spirit-Gathering Formations in my younger days. I compared several versions of their formation diagrams and recorded the changes I made after setting them up myself.”
“Are you sure you can share something so valuable?”
“A karmic bond has simply brought it to a junior brother interested in formations.”
After copying the jade slip and returning it, Yi Hyeon took a jade bottle from his robe.
“These are three Tier 2 middle-grade Spirit-Calming Pills. They’ll help with cultivating your primordial spirit.”
“These are... rather good.”
“A karmic bond has brought these to you, Senior Brother.”
“Hoho. I think I’ve come out ahead here.”
* * *
Thirty years passed.
Throughout that time, Yi Hyeon attended to various matters while studying Myeongyun’s jade slip whenever he could. Eventually, he learned to make the formation disks and flags for Tier 2 Spirit-Gathering Formations.
However, these formations consumed so many spirit stones that he did not immediately install one around the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree in Underground Hideout No. 3.
During those years, Yuk Hong-yeon reached Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment and attempted core formation using a Gold-Condensing Pill from Jewel Light Temple.
But she failed to form a golden core.
Her true essence flowed backward, rupturing her meridians. She had always tried not to push herself too hard, but core formation gave her no chance to retreat.
As her Buddhist cremation ceremony was held, Wang Seo-rin, Yi Hyeon, and their fellow disciples mourned her untimely death.
...
Then, one night, in a pavilion on the eastern peak of Lotus Court.
Wang Seo-rin leaned against the railing, moving her brush across the paper on her drawing board. Yi Hyeon lay beside her, reading a popular novel.
“Junior Brother, I haven’t been finding much new to paint lately.”
“You’ve been painting for decades. That’s understandable. What did you paint today?”
Wang Seo-rin turned the board toward him.
It was a moth of an unknown kind that had been resting on a pavilion pillar.
“Wasn’t yesterday’s painting the chipped corner of a saucer? Your subjects keep getting smaller.”
“Exactly.”
Wang Seo-rin set down her brush.
She looked down the mountain in silence for a while before speaking again.
“There is something I haven’t painted yet.”
“What?”
“Our child’s face.”
Yi Hyeon’s heart gave a sudden jolt.
Not because he disliked the idea, but simply because he was surprised.
He closed his book.
Wang Seo-rin continued looking down the mountain rather than at him.
“I have about thirty years left before I reach Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment.”
“I know.”
“After that comes Golden Core...”
Her voice was calm.
“You saw what happened to Senior Sister Yuk. Apparently, quite a few cultivators fail to form a golden core even after taking a Gold-Condensing Pill. Some die right then and there.”
“Seo-rin.”
“Let me finish.”
Only then did Wang Seo-rin turn toward him.
“If I fail, I’ll simply disappear.”
Her expression was serious.
“So I want to leave proof in this world that you and I were together.”
Yi Hyeon could not say anything.
“And even if I succeed, there’s another problem. Once a golden core forms, it takes over the body’s metabolism from the internal organs, changing other bodily functions too. That makes having children much harder for Golden Core cultivators.”
Wang Seo-rin paused for a breath.
“Let’s get married. Let’s leave the mountain and have children.”
The night breeze passed beneath the pavilion.
Yi Hyeon looked at her face.
In his past life, he had never even considered marriage. It had been the same after coming to this world.
For more than two thousand years, he had tried not to become too deeply involved with anyone. If he grew attached, the day would inevitably come when he had to watch them leave before him.
So he had always kept a step back.
But...
“All right.”
Wang Seo-rin’s eyes widened.
“...Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t you need to think about it? We’d be leaving the mountain for decades.”
“I’ve thought about it.”
“When?”
“Just now.”
Wang Seo-rin burst out laughing. As she laughed, she rubbed the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand.
...
A few days later, the two stood side by side before Hye-gak and Hyedam.
Both old monks looked serious, but Hye-gak soon spoke.
“Hohoho! Senior Brother, what did I tell you? Didn’t I say it was an auspicious karmic bond?”
“Hmph...”
Hyedam looked at Wang Seo-rin rather than Yi Hyeon.
“...Take good care of him. He may look a little slow, but there’s something of an old man inside him.”
“I know, Senior Martial Uncle.”
* * *
Jewel Light Temple regularly sent cultivators to mortal kingdoms throughout the Seo Kingdom.
Each kingdom had a resident cultivator in case demonic beasts descended or bandit cultivators targeted the royal family. Lodgings and suitable cultivation conditions were provided for them.
Jewel Light Temple was far from alone in this. The Danso Sect and many other great sects had followed the same practice for years.
Wang Seo-rin and Yi Hyeon decided to make use of that system.
She chose the Sanghwa Kingdom, a mortal kingdom in the northeastern Seo Kingdom.
“The Sanghwa Kingdom? Do you have some connection to the place?”
At Yi Hyeon’s question, Wang Seo-rin shrugged.
“My family home.”
“Your family home?”
“The royal family there is my family. The Wang royal family.”
Yi Hyeon stared at her for a moment.
“...You were a princess?”
“What princess? That was over eighty years ago.”
“No, but still...”
Yi Hyeon gave an exaggerated sigh.
“Oh dear. I’ve gone and seduced someone of such noble birth.”
“I’m the one who seduced you.”
Wang Seo-rin shot him a look.
“The current king is my older brother’s grandson. He’s never even seen me. It’s only a worldly title anyway. Though it does come in handy at times like this.”
...
The Sanghwa Kingdom was only a small kingdom within the Seo Kingdom, but to mortals, it was an enormous country.
The geographical scale of this world was simply that vast.
Its royal capital stood beside a river a full hundred li wide.
With a population numbering in the hundreds of millions, even a mortal dynasty’s royal family seemed impossibly powerful to ordinary people.
But when Jewel Light Temple’s flying boat landed in the square before the palace, even the mighty Sanghwa royal family had no choice but to throw every gate open.
At the front stood the middle-aged king in golden dragon robes. Behind him stretched endless rows of the queen, princes, royal relatives, and civil and military officials.
They all prostrated themselves.
“Greetings, Great-Aunt!”
“...Grandmother?”
Yi Hyeon quietly questioned the title, and Wang Seo-rin’s ears turned red.
The king raised his head to look at her face, his eyes growing moist.
“Your eyes look just like your portrait. I’ve seen your likeness since I was a child.”
“There’s a portrait?”
“Yes. I’m told that after you entered an immortal sect, the king of that time summoned a painter to make it. For generations, our royal family has prayed for your success on the path to immortality.”
Wang Seo-rin was briefly lost for words.
After her dual spiritual roots were discovered in childhood and she left for Jewel Light Temple, she had never returned home. She had only heard within the sect that her parents had died, and that her older brother had taken the throne and later passed away.
Yet throughout all those years, the people here had not forgotten her.
Wang Seo-rin helped the king to his feet.
“Rise.”
...
For Wang Seo-rin, who was approaching Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, and her Dao companion Yi Hyeon, the king provided a luxurious detached palace north of the royal capital.
A branch temple of Jewel Light Temple stood nearby, along with a warehouse storing medicinal ingredients offered by the royal family and various towns. It was a convenient place for the two of them in many ways.
An old plum tree grew in the garden, and a small mountain rose behind the palace.
The detached palace had not originally been intended for resident cultivators, so it had no Tier 2 Spirit-Gathering Formation.
But since they had chosen it as their home as husband and wife, Yi Hyeon installed one himself.
He used formation disks and flags he had made, while Jewel Light Temple supplied the mid-grade spirit stones needed to run it as part of the resident cultivators’ allocation.
When the formation activated, the spiritual qi inside the palace grew denser. It fell short of Jewel Light Temple’s conditions, but it was enough for Foundation Establishment cultivators to cultivate.
...
The two married according to the customs of the Sanghwa Kingdom.
The royal family wanted a grand celebration, but Wang Seo-rin firmly refused. In the end, it was a modest wedding attended only by the king, the queen, and a few royal relatives.
* * *
Their first child was born the following spring.
After taking the baby into his arms, Yi Hyeon could not move for a long time.
The child was so small and fragile that he was terrified the slightest mistake might cause an injury.
...
Before they knew it, ten years had passed.
By then, they had three children.
The eldest was Yi Hwa, the second Yi Dan, and the third Yi Muk.
The children grew well.
Yi Hwa took after her mother and loved painting. At five, she drew an enormous dragon in charcoal on the detached palace’s wall, nearly making the palace servants faint.
Yi Dan took everything apart. The water clock, cartwheels, even a formation disk Yi Hyeon had hidden away.
Yi Muk’s name suggested silence, but the child was noisy.
Yi Hyeon and Wang Seo-rin cultivated within the detached palace’s Spirit-Gathering Formation and carried out their duties as resident cultivators, dealing with the Tier 1 demonic beasts that occasionally appeared near the Sanghwa Kingdom.
Yi Hyeon sometimes visited nearby cultivator markets to handle Two Heavens Society business, but he spent most of his remaining time with the children.
He carved wooden figures for them. Armored knights, horned demon kings, and things resembling robots he had seen in his past life.
“Dad, what’s this?”
“Hmm... A robot?”
“What’s a robot?”
“...A person made of metal.”
“Why does a metal person look like this?”
“I don’t remember very well either.”
...
Around the time their eldest daughter Yi Hwa passed the age of ten, she stared at Yi Hyeon’s real face one day and asked a question.
“Dad, why don’t you get old?”
Before Yi Hyeon could answer, Wang Seo-rin spoke.
“Because he took a Youth-Preserving Pill.”
“What’s a Youth-Preserving Pill?”
“A medicine that keeps your face from getting old.”
“Did you take one too, Mom?”
“I did. Your dad gave it to me.”
Yi Hwa tilted her head.
“Then give me one too.”
“You’re not a cultivator, so it would be dangerous.”
“That’s not fair.”
Wang Seo-rin smiled and stroked her daughter’s hair.
...
A few years later, when their youngest was five or six, they performed the final spiritual root test.
As they had done for their first two children, Wang Seo-rin and Yi Hyeon placed a spiritual root testing orb on their youngest child’s palm.
Once again, the orb gave off no light.
None of the three had spiritual roots.
Children born to two cultivators were far more likely to have spiritual roots than children born to mortal parents. Even so, being born without them was common enough that this was nothing unusual.
Wang Seo-rin put the orb away and remained silent for a while.
“Disappointed?”
“...A little.”
Yi Hyeon picked up their youngest. The child tugged at his hair and giggled.
“I think it’s a good thing.”
“Why?”
“The cultivation world is dangerous. If our children don’t have to walk that path, that’s not so bad. They can live ordinary, happy lives.”
Wang Seo-rin looked at him and smiled.
“That’s true too.”
* * *
Twenty years had passed since the birth of their youngest.
That year, Wang Seo-rin reached Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment.
In preparation for core formation, she obtained a Gold-Condensing Pill.
It was not one from Jewel Light Temple.
She had bought it at an auction within the Nine Kingdoms of Unju. Refined from third-rank spirit plants rather than a Tier 3 demonic core, it was a proper Gold-Condensing Pill that would not hold her back when she tried to advance to Nascent Soul.
Yi Hyeon had intended to help in his own way, but she obtained it herself before he had the chance.
...
Wang Seo-rin returned to Jewel Light Temple to attempt core formation and entered a secure seclusion chamber above a Tier 3 spirit vein.
Yi Hyeon sat in the covered walkway outside and waited for forty-nine full days.
At dawn on the forty-ninth day, the chamber’s restrictions rippled violently.
A golden glow spread across the sky above Lotus Court.
A short while later, the door opened, and Wang Seo-rin walked out.
The energy flowing from her body was fundamentally different from that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Golden Core!
The moment Wang Seo-rin saw Yi Hyeon, she ran into his arms.
“I did it.”
“I know.”
“I really did it!”
“I know.”
Yi Hyeon held her tightly.
...
Jewel Light Temple granted the newly advanced Wang Seo-rin a peak and a residence.
She became an elder of Lotus Court.
As she absorbed spiritual qi from the Tier 3 spirit vein in a cultivation chamber reserved for elders, circulating her newly stabilized golden core became much easier.
Once the days of celebration were over, Wang Seo-rin faced a difficult question.
If she intended to aim for Nascent Soul, remaining at the main temple to cultivate would be best.
Fortunately, there was no reason she had to stay in the Sanghwa Kingdom.
Their three children were grown, had families of their own, and were living well under the royal family’s protection.
The real problem was Yi Hyeon.
“My lifespan has increased by several hundred years now. But you... Why isn’t your cultivation advancing?”
Yi Hyeon felt that the time had come.
In a place protected by a screening formation, he told her that his special physique would allow him to live at least as long as a Golden Core cultivator.
“You’re not lying, are you?”
“No.”
Wang Seo-rin let out a long breath.
“Then that’s all that matters.”
Suddenly, her eyes widened.
“Wait, but what are we going to do? If you spend hundreds of years at Foundation Establishment without aging or dying... how are we supposed to explain that to the sect?”
Yi Hyeon grinned.
“I can just join again.”
“What?”
“Yi Dong-sa will leave the mountain, saying he’s getting old and wants to enjoy his retirement. Then he’ll die. And I’ll join Jewel Light Temple under another name and become a disciple of Elder Wang Seo-rin of Lotus Court.”
Wang Seo-rin laughed.
“I’d become your master?”
“Don’t you like the idea?”
“No, I love it! That sounds fun!”
Her eyes sparkled.
“Then you’ll have to call me Master.”
“...Yes.”
“And speak respectfully to me.”
“Only in front of other people.”
“I’ll give you homework too.”
“That’s...”
* * *
Time passed without mercy.
Yi Hyeon and Wang Seo-rin’s children grew old.
The two visited the Sanghwa Kingdom whenever they could. Each visit brought more wrinkles to their children’s faces, along with more grandsons and granddaughters.
Before they knew it, their children’s households had become leading families within the Sanghwa Kingdom’s royal establishment.
Yi Dan’s grandson led the royal workshops, improving waterwheels and carts. Yi Muk’s daughter became a consort of the king. Yi Hwa’s paintings hung in the royal palace’s corridors.
...
One autumn, the two visited their eldest child, Yi Hwa.
Her hair had turned white, and her back was bent. The hands she painted with trembled faintly.
She was sitting on the wooden porch, looking out at the garden. When she saw the two standing at the entrance, her face brightened.
“Father, Mother.”
Yi Hyeon stopped where he stood.
Yi Hwa’s smile was exactly the same as it had been in childhood.
The same face that had proudly shown him the charcoal dragon on the detached palace’s wall.
But eighty years now lay over it.
Yi Hyeon had watched countless people grow old and disappear in this world.
Each time, it had hurt a little, but he had been able to bear it.
They had not been his children.
But now...
“You haven’t changed at all, Father.”
Yi Hwa smiled as she spoke.
Yi Hyeon could not answer.
Beside him, Wang Seo-rin broke down first.
She ran to her daughter and burst into tears. There was no trace of a Golden Core cultivator’s dignity. She was simply a mother crying as she held her elderly daughter.
“Mom, why are you crying?”
Yi Hwa patted her mother’s back with a trembling hand.
“Please don’t cry. I’ve had a good life. I really have.”
Before long, Yi Dan and Yi Muk arrived after hearing the news.
Yi Dan leaned on a cane, while Yi Muk needed a grandson’s support.
Three elderly people gathered around their far younger-looking parents and comforted them.
“Father, Mother. We’ve been truly happy.”
“I still have the wooden figures you carved for me, Father.”
...
Yi Hwa died the following year.
A few years later, Yi Dan followed her, and Yi Muk passed away the year after that.
Each time one of their children died, Wang Seo-rin went down to the Sanghwa Kingdom and attended the funeral.
And each time she returned, she took out a painting she had made of that child and gazed at it.
...
When Yi Dong-sa’s age approached the limit of a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s lifespan, he gave up his duties at Lotus Court, saying he wished to spend his remaining years outside the sect.
A few years later, word came that he had died far away.
Several more years passed, and Wang Seo-rin brought back a Foundation Establishment cultivator as her disciple, saying she had met him during her travels.
The necessary admission checks were carried out, but nobody was overly strict with a disciple whom a Golden Core elder was personally taking responsibility for admitting.
The Guest Reception Hall steward handling his admission looked through the register.
“A recommendation from Elder Wang Seo-rin? You’re fortunate. Elder Wang doesn’t have a direct disciple yet. And she’s very beautiful, too.”
Footnotes:
“Great-Aunt” translates 고모할머님, a respectful term for one’s grandfather’s sister. Yi Hyeon teasingly picks out the “grandmother” part of the title.
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