WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 94
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Black Wolf stared down at the jade slip for a long time.
Crane and the false Badger had been far from weak. Even Black Wolf would have struggled to emerge unharmed after facing them both at once.
Yet someone had killed them, then sorted through the goods in the storehouse and the account books?
That meant the attacker had not struck and fled in a hurry, but stayed there for quite some time after the fight.
‘Did they not even care that it might be a trap, or that another elder might arrive? If there’s a Nascent Soul cultivator behind this...’
Black Wolf felt a sense of dread.
‘Could they already be nearby...?’
- Nothing in this world happens by chance. By the time you realize you’re in danger, it’s already too late.
That was the iron rule Black Wolf had lived by while enduring the harsh life of an independent cultivator and rising from the very bottom to Golden Core.
Crow, standing opposite, asked cautiously, “Shall I send word for the remaining elders to gather?”
Black Wolf narrowed their eyes for a moment, then spoke in the same calm voice as always.
“Yes. Send word to the elder in the Hyeong Kingdom and the elder in the northern Jeong Kingdom. Tell them to come here. You keep watch for anyone coming from Cheongseok Ridge.”
“Yes, Grand Elder!”
As soon as Crow withdrew, Black Wolf opened their storage pouch.
...
The next day, Black Wolf’s residence was as quiet as a grave.
After watching the outskirts all night, Crow returned to find the stone door of the secret storehouse standing wide open. Crow was speechless.
The storehouse was empty.
Black Wolf’s collection, the goods entrusted by members, and even the spirit stones the Council of Elders had collected as tolls were all gone.
Only ashes and broken jade slips remained on the shelves where the accounts had been kept.
However, a single jade case sat alone on a table at the back.
It held the members’ primordial spirit brands.
* * *
Ten days later.
At a small contact base in the western Hyeon Kingdom.
Settlement records lay before Yi Hyeon, who wore a cicada mask.
A cultivator in an otter mask sat opposite him.
Until recently, this person had been Toad.
“Word has come from the Jeong Kingdom. Black Wolf apparently took all the members’ entrusted goods and spirit stones and fled.”
“A slippery one.”
“Black Wolf even abandoned Crow, a direct subordinate. Crow handed over the locations of the bases and the transaction records they knew about, then disappeared.”
“What about the Jeong Kingdom members’ brands?”
“Black Wolf left the whole jade case behind. Crow handed that over as well.”
“Bring it here. I’ll check it and release them.”
Otter bowed.
“And the remaining elders?”
“The elder in the Hyeong Kingdom also took the goods and fled. The other elder in the northern Jeong Kingdom left their residence, and we’ve lost contact.”
...
Once the elders fled, the bases that had sided with them rushed to contact the inspector.
Two Golden Core elders had died at Cheongseok Ridge, where Inspector Cicada had visited. Then the Grand Elder and the remaining elders had all disappeared. It was clear whose rules they should follow.
Yi Hyeon checked the jade cases he received against the binding art, then released the remaining primordial spirit brands.
He also had them gather records of the stolen goods and proof of the transactions. Of the wealth recovered from Cheongseok Ridge, he set aside some of the spirit stones left after returning goods to their owners to help cover the losses.
That could not make up for all the damage, and Yi Hyeon could not repay everything himself.
Nor could he scour several kingdoms in search of the fleeing elders.
He did not even know what Black Wolf looked like, and both the Moon-Sinking Sword and the Six-Leaf Shield were damaged.
He left records of the Council of Elders’ actions and the fugitives’ known physical descriptions, then ordered the replacement of the contact networks and bases known to the fugitives.
He also checked the backgrounds of the two dead Golden Core cultivators. After comparing the letters and transaction records from their storage pouches with information from other bases, he confirmed that both were independent cultivators who currently belonged to no major sect. He found no sign of a sect acting behind them, either.
...
A few days later, reports arrived from other bases.
Trading resumed first in the places that had suffered less damage. Medicinal ingredients previously held back by the Council of Elders began coming in again.
The ingredients for Origin-Nurturing Pills were also easier to gather than before.
‘Time to get back to my own work.’
* * *
The next day.
Yi Hyeon spread out the operating records for the Golden Light Pagoda and the Azure Lightning Mother-and-Child Rings, then tested both magical treasures.
As he poured primordial unity true qi into them, the Golden Light Pagoda’s surface brightened and the Azure Lightning Mother-and-Child Rings floated into the air. But that was all.
Whenever he tried to activate their central restrictions according to the records, the flow of spiritual power stalled. Adding more spiritual power made no difference.
‘It seems they really do need a Golden Core cultivator’s magical power. In that case...’
There was no need to keep holding on to spoils he could not use right now.
Still, he was reluctant to sell them in Unju. A cultivator who had known their dead owners might recognize the magical treasures.
‘What about selling them in the south?’
The Two Heavens Society had bases in the Gon Kingdom as well.
It lay within the Nammyeong Twelve-Sect Alliance’s territory and had little contact with Unju. That made it less likely that someone would recognize the treasures’ former owners.
Yi Hyeon put in a request to arrange a sale.
...
After returning to Underground Hideout No. 3, he took out a jade case he had stored deep inside.
When he removed the seal, a small incense burner and a brush appeared side by side.
Lotus-petal patterns circled the incense burner’s body, and its lid still held faint traces of energy built up through years of nurturing.
Beside it lay a magical treasure shaped like a painting brush, called the Cloudsmoke Brush. Silvery spirit beast hair was neatly bound to a shaft carved from clear jade.
These were magical treasures Wang Seo-rin had acquired after reaching Golden Core. After her death, he had collected them along with her storage pouch.
They were on an entirely different level from the ordinary drawing board and brush she had given him before leaving, telling him to try painting.
Yi Hyeon had tried to use these treasures before, only to run into the same limitation.
He lightly ran his fingertips over the incense burner’s rim and the smooth shaft of the Cloudsmoke Brush.
He could still clearly picture her burning incense as she painted in the air.
Yi Hyeon stayed like that for a while, then put the incense burner and brush back in the jade case.
These, at least, he did not want to sell. Nor did he intend to erase the traces she had left and ritually refine them, or melt them down to make something else.
* * *
Three months later, on the western coast of the Gon Kingdom.
Ebbing Tide Market stood on a black basalt cape that jutted out into the sea.
Even the air was different from the markets in Unju.
At the docks, corpse puppets wrapped tightly in cloth carried cargo. A cultivator bargained while feeding spirit insects to a centipede that had crawled out of their sleeve. Dried venomous insects, gu insect eggs, and the venom sacs of sea beasts lay on the street stalls.
Wearing a lion mask, Yi Hyeon entered a dried-seafood shop deep in an alley.
The person in charge of the Gon Kingdom base was an elderly cultivator in a seahorse mask.
“So Inspector Lion is the one who brought the goods from Unju.”
“And the buyer?”
“Already here. They’d like to see the goods before setting a price.”
A woman sat in the underground stone chamber.
Her hair was piled high, and a sword case as tall as she was stood beside the table. She was not even wearing a mask.
What was more, she was a Golden Core cultivator!
Yi Hyeon placed the Golden Light Pagoda, the Azure Lightning Mother-and-Child Rings, the cracked stone stele, and the mirror fragments on the table. Her gaze paused briefly on the shallow sword qi mark on the Golden Light Pagoda’s surface.
“The former owner’s energy is still strong inside.”
“The owner is gone.”
“One hundred and twenty high-grade spirit stones for the two intact pieces.”
“One hundred and sixty.”
“A Foundation Establishment cultivator brings in a Golden Core cultivator’s magical treasures, then dares to raise the price?”
As the woman released a blade-sharp aura, the elderly cultivator in the seahorse mask quietly backed toward the wall.
Without replying, Yi Hyeon spread his spiritual sense.
The aura pressing toward him split to either side as though it had struck an invisible wall. The woman’s eyes narrowed.
‘Tsk... Is that the Qi-Concealing Spell? I’ve never seen anyone hide their realm this thoroughly.’
She withdrew her aura.
“Fine. One hundred and sixty. But the broken mirror and stone stele fragments come with them.”
“Agreed.”
She took two jade cases from her sleeve and opened the lids. They were packed with high-grade spirit stones.
Yi Hyeon accepted the stones and handed over the goods.
...
Before leaving the market, he also sold the materials from the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle through Seahorse’s mediation.
Keeping only a few wing bones for his bone puppet research, he sold the sealed demonic core, claws, beak, and other parts to a trading company that dealt in demonic beast materials.
He received 1,300 mid-grade spirit stones for the intact early Tier 3 demonic core, and another 320 for the remaining materials after the brokerage fee.
With the accounts settled, Yi Hyeon put the spirit stones in his storage pouch and headed north.
* * *
Half a month later, in the Hwa Kingdom, north of the Seo Kingdom.
One of the Nine Kingdoms of Unju, the Hwa Kingdom was home to the Myriad Implements Sect, a major sect famous for implement refining.
Artifact refiners from the sect had opened workshops or founded cultivation families nearby, spreading the craft throughout the kingdom.
Thousand Furnaces Mountain was a gathering place for such refiners. The cultivator market at its foot was so large that some called it Thousand Furnaces Immortal City.
On his way to Thousand Furnaces Market, Yi Hyeon looked up.
A huge flying boat belonging to some unknown sect floated in the sky.
Its hull was over a hundred jang long, with three levels of cabins below the deck. A giant bronze crane puppet sat at the bow with its wings folded, examining the wind and clouds ahead with light from its eyes. Human-sized puppets checked the passengers’ jade tokens and carried their luggage.
As he traveled and took in the sights, Thousand Furnaces Mountain came into view.
It was a vast mountain with dozens of connected peaks. Chimneys crowded every summit, and the smoke rising from them formed a red band across the sky.
Earthfire drawn up from deep underground glowed red through the mountain’s cracks. The entire mountain brightened and dimmed as though it were breathing.
The sky was busy, too.
Flocks of palm-sized bird puppets flew about with letters in their beaks. A giant beetle puppet loaded with ore buzzed on six pairs of wings as it landed at a storehouse halfway up the mountain.
Above it, a cultivator testing an unfamiliar disc-shaped magical implement was spinning toward the ground, trailing smoke.
...
The market rose in tiers like steps along the mountain’s southern foot.
The lowest level was a street where raw ore and spirit materials were bought and sold. Cart-sized chunks of ore stood piled beside the road, and appraisers called out prices as they scanned them with spiritual sense. Higher up, the goods increasingly consisted of processed parts, restriction plates, puppet joints, and spirit thread for weaving flying boat sails.
Above that lay the workshop district.
The sound of hammering never stopped. Heat from furnaces spilled out into the street, and the light of restrictions being engraved flashed through gaps in the doors.
The large shops even accepted orders from Golden Core cultivators. Smaller workshops only handled magical implement repairs or the forging of particular parts.
Yi Hyeon first visited a large shop.
After examining the Moon-Sinking Sword, the artisan spoke politely.
“We can repair it. However, we have a backlog of orders from Golden Core seniors at present. You would have to wait about two years before we could begin.”
Yi Hyeon put the sword away.
After getting estimates from several other workshops, he found that repairing the Moon-Sinking Sword alone would cost between four hundred and eight hundred mid-grade spirit stones.
One workshop suggested cutting off the chipped tip and attaching a new one made from a different material. Another examined the Six-Leaf Shield as well and said it would be better if all its restrictions were replaced.
But Yi Hyeon had no intention of spending a large sum to alter their properties. He would only use them until he became a Golden Core cultivator anyway, so he wanted them restored to their familiar, original forms.
After visiting more workshops, he found a small shop deep in an alley.
The owner’s name was Moyong Gak.
An elderly late Foundation Establishment cultivator, Moyong Gak had a good reputation for skill in implement refining, but was rather prickly.
“If you’re in a hurry, go somewhere else.”
Yi Hyeon set down the sword case.
“First, please see whether you can repair it.”
Moyong Gak took out the Moon-Sinking Sword and examined it for a long time.
Only after checking the tip, studying the hairline cracks in the blade, and probing the restrictions inside did the artisan speak.
“A fine sword. Is it from the south?”
“How did you know?”
The Moon-Sinking Sword had disappeared from the Nammyeong Catalogue of a Hundred Implements long ago. To earn a place in either the Unju Implement Appraisal or the Nammyeong Catalogue of a Hundred Implements, an implement had to regularly stand out through its use among Foundation Establishment cultivators. But Yi Hyeon often disappeared for hundreds of years at a time, so the supreme-grade magical implements in his possession naturally fell out of the rankings.
Moyong Gak’s voice broke into his thoughts.
“Southern refiners have a habit of applying Moonshadow Stone powder in a layer this thin. The Light-Concealing restrictions are in their style, too. What’s it called?”
“The Moon-Sinking Sword.”
“Never heard of it.”
The old cultivator held the sword at an angle.
“This looks like damage from striking a magical treasure... But here, it burst from the inside. What on earth did you do to this sword?”
“...”
Moyong Gak set it down.
“I can repair it. The central restrictions are intact, and the Thick Earth Refined Gold still retains its properties. But I’ll have to add material and reshape the chipped tip.”
This time, Yi Hyeon took out the Six-Leaf Shield.
The old cultivator’s eyebrows rose.
“This too?”
“I’d like both repaired.”
Moyong Gak laid out the six shield plates one by one.
“A shield made of six plates... This takes a lot of work. Each plate needs its own restrictions, and they all have to work together. Not many refiners make them this way anymore.”
The two plates that had taken the attacks at the front had broken edges. Fine cracks and warping remained in the other four as well.
“Two will have to be made anew. I can save the rest. But the restrictions distribute the force between them, so I’ll need to adjust all six to match the new plates.”
Moyong Gak wrote out an estimate.
Four hundred and fifty for the Moon-Sinking Sword, and five hundred and fifty for the Six-Leaf Shield. A total of one thousand mid-grade spirit stones.
It was expensive.
For an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, it would have been an enormous burden. Not for Yi Hyeon.
‘The spirit stones from the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle alone will cover it, with some left over.’
“How long will it take?”
“Half a month. Possibly longer if the materials are in poor condition.”
“Very well.”
Yi Hyeon also took out the Goldthread Cold Iron.
“I’m curious... Could adding a Tier 3 spirit material like this make a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s supreme-grade magical implement sturdier?”
Moyong Gak examined the material, then shook their head.
“Simply mixing it in won’t make it better. Changing the sword body’s properties too much could ruin its strengths.”
“I see.”
“The same goes for the Six-Leaf Shield. If you were redesigning it, that would be another matter, but it would be a waste to use this for the current repairs.”
Moyong Gak tapped the Goldthread Cold Iron with a finger.
“And my furnace can’t melt this. I’d have to borrow the Tier 3 earthfire from a workshop higher up. Besides, I’ve never worked with this material.”
Yi Hyeon put the Goldthread Cold Iron away.
...
He watched the repairs as far as Moyong Gak allowed.
He paid another hundred mid-grade spirit stones to observe, plus fifty for a jade slip containing the essentials of the repair process.
It covered such things as how to heat the parts containing Thick Earth Refined Gold, fill fine cracks, and then check the flow through the restrictions. Yi Hyeon, who had reached the Beginner level of Tier 2 implement refining, had a great deal to learn from it.
Even when striking the same spot, Moyong Gak made small changes to the hammer’s angle and force. Yi Hyeon watched without looking away, trying not to miss those differences.
...
After half a month, the repairs were complete.
The Moon-Sinking Sword’s tip was as smooth as when he had first seen it, and all six plates of the Six-Leaf Shield fit together perfectly.
On his way back, he also bought six top-grade yellow flying swords from a workshop on a lower level for three hundred mid-grade spirit stones.
He felt he lacked options for fighting at long range.
If necessary, he could also use them to perform the Supreme Unity Wisdom Sword, which he had yet to master. With six swords, he would not have to worry as much about damaging them.
* * *
One month later.
In a deserted mountain valley in the southern Seo Kingdom.
Yi Hyeon set up an alchemy site far from the coast. He checked the surroundings for signs of powerful demonic beasts and placed warning restrictions at the valley entrance.
He did not want another ambush at his pill furnace like the one by the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle.
Before long, a small dark cloud formed above his head.
Crackle.
Lightning descended.
Krrboom!
Purple light spread across the alchemical pill’s surface.
At that moment, a strand of medicinal strength clustered inside suddenly broke loose.
Crack.
The alchemical pill split.
Silvery-purple light leaked through the crack, then quickly faded.
Yi Hyeon stared at the alchemical pill, now broken in half.
When he had first made a Dao Pill, he had thought he only needed a little more practice.
But copying the heat control and hand movements from that attempt did not produce the same result.
He placed the broken pieces on a jade dish and examined them with his spiritual sense.
‘It’s incredibly sensitive...’
...
After that, Yi Hyeon examined the medicinal liquid more carefully once refining was complete.
Just before pill condensation, he looked for places where the medicinal strength had not blended evenly and recorded which part began to solidify first.
He moved the fire threads of the Fire-Dividing Thread Spell more slowly than before, changing the flames whenever the flow inside the alchemical pill shifted.
Sometimes he widened the opening for the tribulation lightning a little. At other times, he delayed closing it.
Dao Pills were still difficult to make, but he was improving little by little.
...
Ten years later.
He obtained Dao Pills from two batches out of ten.
Compared with the mere three or four pills he had managed in the first few years, it was a major improvement.
Yi Hyeon was delighted.
...
Another hundred years passed.
After returning from an alchemy session, Yi Hyeon spread jade slips across the table and checked his recent alchemy records one by one.
「Last 100 batches.
52 Origin-Nurturing Dao Pills.」
“Over fifty percent!”
* * *
After that, Yi Hyeon’s life settled into a regular routine.
Forty-eight batches a year.
Sometimes circumstances forced him to make fewer batches or produce several close together, but over the years, that was roughly the average.
He obtained a little over twenty Dao Pills a year, or nearly thirty in a good year.
He took about sixty ordinary Origin-Nurturing Pills each year and sold the rest.
The plan he had first drawn up had become his daily life.
He alternated between several alchemy sites and never stayed long at a place where tribulation lightning had appeared.
He also used different bases to obtain ingredients and sell alchemical pills.
The surplus Origin-Nurturing Pills trickled into several regions, so no single place saw a sudden flood of them.
The Two Heavens Society’s members welcomed the steady flow of good deals.
For independent cultivators, a reliable supply of Origin-Nurturing Pills for cultivation was reason enough to remain in the trading network.
Every ten years or so, he sold a few old spirit herbs from his fields to cover any shortfall in spirit stones.
...
When turbid qi accumulated in his body, he stopped taking alchemical pills for a while. He tended to his body with Yinwater Lotus seeds and Stone-Honey Peaches while continuing his qi circulation.
He checked the spirit fields every day, too.
He replaced leaking irrigation pipes and moved spirit herbs that had grown too close together. He replaced Bonefuzz’s worn joints and cleared passages blocked by the Fuzzbees.
After cultivating, he read novels or painted.
He continued practicing spells and never neglected his sword.
On days when his sword condensation grew unstable, he practiced at reduced power and learned to withdraw his strength before it damaged the blade.
Whenever the Moon-Sinking Sword developed a small nick, he repaired it himself using the methods Moyong Gak had taught him.
...
After a long absence, Yi Hyeon visited Thousand Furnaces Market to have the Moon-Sinking Sword inspected.
The skies above Thousand Furnaces Mountain were as busy as ever, and the workshop’s sign had not changed.
But the person who greeted him inside was not Moyong Gak.
The old cultivator had reached the end of their lifespan decades earlier. A disciple now ran the workshop.
...
The wearers of the Two Heavens Society’s masks changed one by one as well.
When the person wearing the goose mask grew old, someone else took their place.
One year, word stopped coming from Toad, who had survived Cheongseok Ridge and switched to an otter mask. Upon asking, Yi Hyeon learned that Toad had handed the work over to a successor and left to spend their remaining years in peace.
The Council of Elders incident became an old story told to new members.
Some members newly reached Golden Core, but none tried to call themselves elders and seize control of the trading network.
...
So he cultivated, refined pills, ate, and rested.
People changed, and the market streets changed.
Some alchemical pills grew more expensive, while some ingredients became cheaper.
The proportion of Dao Pills he produced varied from year to year as well.
Still, time steadily flowed on...
* * *
Three hundred and thirty years after he began seriously researching Origin-Nurturing Dao Pills.
In a stone chamber at Underground Hideout No. 3.
Yi Hyeon sat cross-legged.
Spiritual power circulated throughout his body according to the Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art.
Through his limbs and internal organs, his muscles, bones, and skin.
He slowly continued the circulation, making sure no single place held too much energy.
Again and again, he had sent medicinal strength into the areas that had long lagged slightly behind, bringing them to the same level as the rest.
The medicinal strength of an Origin-Nurturing Dao Pill completed a circuit.
Hummm.
A vibration began deep inside him and spread through every limb and bone.
As the medicinal strength soaked into the final area that had remained lacking, the energy throughout his body resonated as one!
Whoooosh.
The dark stone chamber filled with light in an instant.
An auspicious glow rose like mist from Yi Hyeon’s entire body, gently wrapping around his cross-legged form like a round cocoon.
Clear light flowed through his skin, muscles, and bones, as though congratulating him.
Dust rose from the chamber floor with the light, then settled again.
How much time had passed?
The light filling the chamber slowly seeped into Yi Hyeon’s body.
For a moment, his skin held a brilliant glow. Then it returned to its ordinary appearance.
Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment throughout his body!
Yi Hyeon slowly opened his eyes, and a clear light flashed deep within them.
“At last!”
He looked down at his hands and flexed his fingers.
Even that small movement let him feel the energy filling his entire body.
After examining himself inwardly for a while, he took out the stone tablet, erased the old writing, and engraved the new details.
【Age: 3,191】
【Realm: Foundation Establishment stage, Great Perfection (whole body)】
【Spiritual Power: 18,100 → 24,500】
【Physique: Primordial Unity Body, Foundation Establishment stage, Great Perfection】
【Cultivation Art: Primordial Unity Single-Qi Art (Foundation Establishment Section)】
Yi Hyeon lifted his hand after engraving the final character.
How many long years had it taken?
Through quiet, steady cultivation, he had finally laid the foundation for the Unsullied Golden Body.
Had he cultivated only his lower dantian first, he would already have reached another realm. But Yi Hyeon had refused to compromise, and at last, he had come this far!
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