WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 73: When Water Is Too Clear, There Are No Fish (21)

──────

The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was also known as the Demonic Cult.

Within it was a place known as the Demon Garden.

The master of the Demon Garden had been called the Flower Elder for generations.

It was a title that did not suit the sinister place known as the Demonic Cult at all, yet its current owner was quite fond of it.

“Have the flowers bloomed well?”

At the question from So Akyeong, the master of the Demon Garden, the demonic practitioners guarding the storage room of flowerpots lowered their heads and trembled.

“...It does not seem so.”

“Yes. Flowers are such fickle things.”

She nodded, looking like a kindly old grandmother.

Gripping her skirt, So Akyeong stepped into the building.

A wooden corridor stretched deep inside.

Not a single candle had been lit, and the thick wooden pillars and polished floorboards had been swallowed by darkness.

The air smelled of damp rain.

Creak-

The floorboards groaned with every step.

So Akyeong strode down the corridor, into darkness too deep to see through. Two demonic practitioners followed behind her.

“Has the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion still not returned?”

“No.”

“I heard he completed his mission quite some time ago. Still not back?”

“No.”

“And Elder Killing Demon has not returned either?”

“No.”

“...I can understand Elder Sa, but the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion is being quite unpleasant. He has only just become Pavilion Master, yet he is taking far too long. He did not even come to see his own little ones bloom this time. How cruel. So cruel.”

“...”

As So Akyeong’s mood darkened, the demonic practitioners following her hunched their shoulders and tried to make themselves invisible.

Creak- Creak-

The old woman’s footsteps were slow and steady.

Creak- Creak-

Huuuu...

The floorboards creaked at a steady rhythm as well. Yet the deeper she went down the corridor, the more other sounds mixed with those footsteps.

Between strange noises that sounded like crying and wind, voices that could not have belonged to anyone older than their late teens echoed through the darkness.

“Huu... Hic... Where am I? Where... am I?”

“My hand. My hand... I can’t feel it. Where is my hand...? Where am I...?”

“It’s cold... Cold... It keeps digging in... Get out! Shut up!!!”

“I can’t see. I can’t hear... I can’t see... I can’t hear... This isn’t me. This is...”

“Who, who is it! Who keeps whispering...? Who is it! Huuuu... Huu...”

A corridor untouched by even a speck of light.

Boys were imprisoned on either side of it.

So Akyeong, master of the Demon Garden, peered through the darkness and examined their condition.

“Oh dear. Tsk, tsk, tsk. The children are having an especially hard time this time. How pitiful...”

With a sorrowful furrow in her brow, she sniffed through her wrinkled nose. Before long, the corridor had filled with damp, sticky vapor.

“Yes. Drinking Dark Shadow Fumes is difficult, is it not? The darkness is frightening, is it not? Yes, I know. This old woman has tried something similar. It must feel as if something that is not you is entering your body. As if you are becoming someone else. It must be frightening.”

So Akyeong placed a hand on the thick wooden bars with a pitying expression.

“But the you that exists now is useless anyway, is it not? Then you must throw it away. Throw it away and accept something better. Why cling to something so worthless? Pathetic little things. Tsk, tsk.”

Clicking her tongue, So Akyeong began walking again.

“Still, the merciful Cult Leader lets even useless things like you serve as low-ranking demonic practitioners of our cult, so you should always live in gratitude.”

Sniff-

So Akyeong wrinkled her nose once more.

She deeply inhaled the thick vapor filling the space.

It had been created by gathering all kinds of spiritual elixirs, thoroughly rotting them down, collecting their extract, specially treating it, and boiling it. It was so dense and heavy that it would have looked dark as smoke even beneath bright light.

Those who drank it could gain the energy of Dark Shadow.

“Hmm. There are unusually many failures. What could be the problem...? The Dark Shadow Fumes are the same as always. Were the children simply too lacking in talent...?”

With an air of pity, So Akyeong kept moving.

No matter how far she walked, it was all the same.

In darkness where nothing could be seen, children who had been given nothing to eat were all gaunt with hunger. The only thing they had to eat or drink was this sticky vapor, so they continued swallowing that cold darkness as their bodies shook.

After passing children floundering in terror with vacant eyes for a long while, So Akyeong suddenly stopped.

“Oh? There is at least one useful child after all.”

Hoo.

Hoooo...

Unlike the other children, who twisted their bodies in rejection as though they did not want to breathe in the damp, cold vapor, this child sat still and repeatedly drew in deep breaths of Dark Shadow Fumes.

“Let us see. Number one hundred thirty-eight?”

At the sound of the number, the imprisoned child jerked his head up. His entire body seemed to ask whether anyone was there and beg to be let out. Yet no sound came from his mouth.

“Hmm. Your self-control is excellent too. Good. This old woman has something to ask you, child. What has kept you going?”

The child’s shoulders trembled as he answered.

“I give what must be given, and protect what must be protected.”

“You give what must be given?”

“Yes... This cold, dark energy seeping into my body cannot be properly controlled. So I let it do as it wishes. But within the larger framework, I am taming it so that it moves according to my will.”

“You are taming it, you say.”

So Akyeong straightened up.

She brushed past the bars.

“I thought you might become a candidate for Young Pavilion Master if you did well, but I suppose that will not happen. Still, you may rise as high as a unit commander in the Dark Shadow Pavilion.”

“E-Excuse me!”

As she moved away, the boy finally could not hold himself back and cried out.

Ping!

At that instant, a demonic practitioner following So Akyeong snapped their fingers.

“Argh!”

The boy rolled across the floor and hurriedly covered his mouth with both hands.

The sound of his muffled groaning gradually faded away. So Akyeong did not look back. She simply continued through the darkness with a pitying expression.

“Do you remember what the current Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion said when he came out of his flowerpot?”

The demonic practitioner behind her answered quickly.

“He said that when you dream with your eyes open, time passes very quickly.”

“Yes, yes. That was it. Right. It was quite a good answer. Yes. He did not become the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion for nothing.”

So Akyeong continued walking through the darkness. At times she stopped to speak to someone. Sometimes she was pleased, and other times disappointed.

Then she stopped before one boy.

“Yes, child. What has kept you going?”

The child asked back, sounding puzzled.

“Enduring what?”

“Hmm? Are you not afraid? Does the unfamiliar energy burrowing into you not hurt?”

The child tilted his head.

“Unfamiliar energy?”

Then he answered as though it were obvious.

“Can my own energy be unfamiliar to me?”

A smile bloomed on So Akyeong’s lips.

“You cannot see ahead, and your physical senses must be dulling. Is that not frustrating?”

The child answered again.

“I do not understand what you mean.”

So Akyeong’s smile deepened further.

“This old woman has a question for you. When were you born?”

“I do not know that very well...”

“Then where were you born?”

“I was born here.”

“And your parents?”

“Yes?”

“What do you hope for in the future?”

“Yes?”

“Good.”

So Akyeong turned around with a broad smile. Noticing this, the demonic practitioner lowered their head and answered.

“He lived with his parents until he was nine. His skin was dark, and he liked climbing trees. His martial arts progressed quickly until he was eighteen, so he acted as the leader among his peers. When he entered the Demon Garden, he stated that his ambition was to become a demon and serve the Cult Leader without fail.”

“Very. Good. Good.”

So Akyeong reached through the bars and stroked the boy’s hair.

“You are the Young Pavilion Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion. You will quickly become Pavilion Master, and perhaps even rise to elder.”

Patting him with her wrinkled hand, So Akyeong murmured.

“A flower has bloomed. After so long. A very fine flower.”

* * *

「Young Master Yeon, the cultivation of our Daoist tradition follows the principle of Reverse Cultivation, Return to Origin. The essence, qi, and spirit granted by heaven and earth, in other words innate true qi, are returned to ever greater purity until they become the single energy of the beginning.」

For that reason, practitioners of the Daoist tradition do not add new energy.

They simply return the energy they possess to greater purity.

Even when they add new energy, they add acquired energy rather than innate true qi.

If they truly have no choice but to add new energy to their innate true qi, then they accept only pure energy.

「The heart of Daoist cultivation is preserving the identity called ‘I.’ We only return what we possess to purity, so even if our bodies transcend humanity, we may remain ourselves.」

Tension colored Noh Huideok’s voice transmission.

「But the Demonic Path is different. They continually add new energy to their innate true qi. And not pure energy either, but energy twisted by turbid qi.」

Noh Huideok’s sword shifted slowly as he warily guarded against the man before him.

The Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion.

The man who had come looking for Yeon Sowol, dressed in a pale yellow robe hung with jingling ornaments.

Noh Huideok knew neither that he was the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion nor that he belonged to the Demonic Cult, nor anything else about him. Still, he could clearly sense it.

The person before him was something irreparably ruined.

「In other words, the heart of the Demonic Path is addition and transformation. They keep adding things that are not themselves to their own essence, until they finally change. That is the nature of their martial arts. As strange qi consumes them, it produces an equally strange harmony. They grow strong quickly, and they are difficult to deal with. But that is all.」

Noh Huideok’s transmitted voice dropped.

「Their outward appearance may remain the same, but they are no longer the person who first resolved to cultivate. In the end, they do not even remain human. What meaning could such cultivation possibly have?」

Goosebumps rose over Yeon Sowol’s skin as he thought.

‘Why would someone like that be after me?’

He had no idea.

‘Could it be?’

A memory suddenly crossed his mind: the day he had first fallen into this world, when an old man had killed an eminent monk of Shaolin Temple and stolen a Greater Rejuvenation Pill.

‘He called himself Killing Demon.’

Looking back on it now, that old man had been the very image of what the Demonic Path meant.

But...

‘Could he know I killed that old man? But is that even possible...?’

The situation made no sense.

The only thing certain was that it was extremely dangerous.

He could not gauge the level of the Demonic Path practitioner before him.

At the very least, peak realm.

‘Still, if he is at peak realm, Great Hero Noh Huideok is here...’

Yeon Sowol was tense enough to snap, yet the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion showed no tension at all as he trudged forward.

“You there. You’re Yeon Sowol, right? Let’s talk.”

“Stop!”

One alliance member raised their sword, revealing their killing intent.

Snap!

The Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion opened his fan and lazily fanned his face.

“You’re giving off killing intent? How arrogant,” he said.

That was all.

Yet...

“What the hell are you talking about... Urk!”

Drip-

The alliance member suddenly collapsed, blood pouring from their eyes, ears, and nose.

Their knees hit the ground first with a thud. Then their body arched backward, and the blood flowing from their eyes and nose ran upward over their forehead and hair, staining the ground.

The pavilion master had opened his fan, said, “How arrogant,” and the alliance member had died.

“W-What was that?”

“How did he do that?”

“Dark arts?”

“It’s the dark arts!”

Everyone fell into chaos.

Yeon Sowol was especially shaken.

‘What was that? An instant-kill skill?’

Sowol was flustered, while the alliance members only staggered backward, crying that it was the dark arts.

Noh Huideok’s booming shout was what settled the uproar.

“Stay calm! It is only sound arts!”

Yeon Sowol snapped back to his senses.

‘Sound arts? ...Sound arts?’

He had heard of it while studying various things under Yi Yubaek.

‘A discipline where you send martial force through sound...’

When he had only read about it in books, he had thought it was exaggeration.

How could anyone put martial force into sound?

It was no different from saying sound itself became a blade, and he could not imagine it at all.

Yi Yubaek himself had said he had never seen sound arts before.

‘But it is real? This is... sound arts?’

Even as he thought that, the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion continued walking directly toward Yeon Sowol.

Though the Martial Alliance members were in a state of extreme panic, they gripped their swords firmly again once Yeon Sowol was targeted.

“Stop!”

Another alliance member raised a sword, once again revealing killing intent.

“How tiresome.”

The Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion’s opened fan snapped shut this time as he pointed it at the alliance member.

‘The fan!’

Yeon Sowol realized it instinctively. The fan. Looking closely, every rib was made of metal. Whenever the fan opened or closed, those pieces of metal meshed together with a sharp metallic ring.

‘If it really is sound arts...’

He moved the instant the thought came to him.

He stirred his true qi to its limit and poured it into the Demon-Severing Sword.

The Demon-Severing Sword absorbed the harmony of true qi Yeon Sowol had produced.

Wooooooong!

It gave out a long cry.

The echo of its vibration was so deep that even the swords held by the alliance members resonated with that cry all at once.

The song of the sword rang out and collided with the sharp sound of the fan ribs clicking together.

“Urk!”

The alliance member who had been targeted stumbled backward, blood dripping from their ears.

They swayed as though dizzy, but did not spurt blood and die as the first alliance member had.

“It really was sound arts?”

“He... blocked it!”

“Young Master Yeon did it!”

The alliance members looked at Yeon Sowol with eyes full of awe.

But Yeon Sowol’s back was damp with sweat.

He held the Demon-Severing Sword out in front of him with one hand, formed a sword hand seal with his left, pressed it against his right forearm, and crept forward.

“Who are you? Why are you looking for me?”

“A fine sword. An irritating one.”

The Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion frowned, pointed the tip of his fan at Yeon Sowol, and said,

“I just want to ask something. You've seen an old man who looked like a skull, right?”

“...”

Yeon Sowol did not answer.

No, he could not answer. It felt as though his throat had been seized.

‘How...?’

He had killed the old man well over a year ago.

And now a pursuer had appeared?

It was something that seemed difficult even with twenty-first-century technology, which only made Yeon Sowol more bewildered.

Regardless, the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion asked,

“Did you kill him, by any chance?”

“...”

Yeon Sowol pressed his lips tightly together.

“An answer?”

“...”

The Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion raised his fan and scratched the back of his head.

“I suppose I have no choice. I don’t like using too much strength. Still...”

Hooooo-

Darkness, so black, so cold, and so terribly sticky, burst from his entire body.

The instant it seemed to spill out, it had already covered the surroundings.

The whole world suddenly became muffled and numb.

[[[Shall we start by killing everyone I don’t need?]]]

The voice echoed around them, though it was impossible to tell where it came from.

“I-I can’t see!”

“Great Hero Noh Huideok! W-What kind of martial art is this?”

The alliance members were beside themselves in the sudden darkness as they called for Noh Huideok.

Yeon Sowol was no different.

If anyone knew about this phenomenon, it would be Noh Huideok, who was deeply knowledgeable about the Demonic Path.

He focused on Noh Huideok’s faintly visible light brown robe and waited for an answer.

After a moment of silence, Noh Huideok answered in a voice choked tight with tension.

“The dark arts...”

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried