WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 94: I Was Once a Madman of Chu (16)

──────

The refinement continued beyond the talisman-covered sliding door while the three stood guard.

At night, they took turns keeping watch.

A brazier burned in the center of the room. One person tended the fire until all the sand had run through the hourglass, then woke the next person and went to sleep on a bed by the wall.

The person who woke up would first turn over the hourglass, then add several pieces of firewood to the brazier.

The shifts went by.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Four times.

Five... times.

"Wait."

Yeon Sowol, who had risen for the fifth shift, stopped Won Huiseung as he headed for bed. Won Huiseung had deliberately stayed drunk, and the smell of alcohol wafted off him.

"Hm?"

Without another word, Yeon Sowol flung open the sliding door leading to the courtyard.

Beyond the dark corridor, he could vaguely make out a courtyard bathed in faint moonlight.

It was the middle of the night.

Yeon Sowol's expression hardened.

"Jin Geol. Wake up."

He even woke Jin Geol, who had been sleeping soundly.

"Mm... Is it my turn again? Ugh, I'm sleepy... I think the hangover's starting too..."

The scent of alcohol rose from Jin Geol as he groggily sat up.

Yeon Sowol asked stiffly, "Weren't we supposed to keep watch in two-hour shifts?"

Jin Geol and Won Huiseung yawned as they answered.

"That's right."

"Mm. Two hours. Right."

"Then why is it my turn again?"

"Huh?"

"What do you mean?"

Yeon Sowol sharply turned over the empty hourglass.

"We went to sleep at midnight."

"We did."

"I had the second shift. If it's my turn again, doesn't that mean four shifts have passed and this is the fifth?"

Won Huiseung nodded. He, too, reeked of liquor.

"That's right. I stood watch twice, and now it's Sowol's second shift."

"Isn't that strange?"

"Hm?"

"That means it's the Hour of the Dragon. Four shifts have passed."

"Right?"

"Then why is it still dark?"

"Huh?"

"W-what?"

Jin Geol and Won Huiseung immediately lost all trace of sleep as they looked out into the courtyard.

It was dark.

Moonlight lay across the ground.

"That's insane..."

One shift was two hours.

Four shifts meant eight hours.

In other words, it was exactly eight in the morning.

There was no way it could still be dark.

Won Huiseung's brow twitched.

"Could the Strange Ghost have stopped the sun? Even a dragon would have trouble doing that..."

Yeon Sowol shook his head.

"No way. I don't know what Strange Ghosts are, but they can't have that kind of power. If they did, they wouldn't go through all this trouble over people like us."

"Then what is this?"

Yeon Sowol fell into thought.

'Yeah. What is this? Why isn't morning coming? Why is it still dark?'

His mind spun at full speed.

First, he tried to think scientifically.

'The sun couldn't have stopped. The scale is just too absurd.'

Then what?

'We're mistaken about something.'

But what mistake, and how?

'We were definitely measuring time by turning over the hourglass...'

His thoughts would not connect.

He almost understood.

He was sure he had seen stories like this in twenty-first-century comics and all kinds of media. What was the trick in those stories?

Strangely, he could not remember.

His breathing gradually quickened. Then, all at once, a scent like a winter wind brushed past his nose.

Clear and cool.

Yeon Sowol relaxed his shoulders slightly.

'Slowly. Calm down and think again. Don't panic.'

As he quietly considered it, something struck him as odd.

'Why did Won Huiseung take a second watch without saying anything?'

They had agreed to sleep for only three shifts. So why had he taken an extra shift?

Jin Geol had done the same. The first thing he had said upon waking for the second time was that it was his turn again.

Even if they were drunk, that was strange. They had accepted another watch rotation as though it were natural.

Yeon Sowol, on the other hand, had noticed the discrepancy immediately. He had expected it to be morning when he woke up, yet it was still night. He had been told to stand watch again.

'Drunk Huiseung and Jin Geol didn't notice. Only I, the sober one, did. Ah.'

Yeon Sowol realized something.

'This isn't reality. Something is affecting our minds.'

The two whose minds had been clouded by alcohol were more easily deceived, while Yeon Sowol, relatively clear-headed, had not fallen for it.

Maybe there had been a reason he had endured without drinking.

'So this is...'

At that moment, Won Huiseung slapped his cheeks hard.

"That hurt. This is truly strange. What's going on? It's not like we're dreaming."

Yeon Sowol answered, "Huiseung."

"Hm?"

"When did you decide this wasn't a dream?"

"What?"

Smack!

Yeon Sowol's palm struck Won Huiseung's cheek.

It came without warning and with enough force to shock him.

"W-what are you doing?!"

Slap!

He struck Jin Geol's cheek as well, moving too quickly for him to anticipate.

Crash!

The two toppled backward and sprawled on the floor. They did not move, like corpses.

Yeon Sowol nodded as he watched them.

"As expected..."

He took a deep breath.

'This is a dream.'

The moment he acknowledged it, Yeon Sowol awakened not the qi sense of his dream self, but his true qi sense.

He sensed his surroundings.

Closed his eyes.

Then opened them.

"Urgh! Urrghhh!"

"Gah! W-what is this?"

The first thing he saw was Jin Geol and Won Huiseung rolling around on the floor near the entrance.

Chirp. Chirp. Chirp.

Gentle morning sunlight shone through the paper-covered sliding door.

"W-why are we here? We were definitely on the beds..."

The bedding stretched in a long trail from the beds toward the door, as if something had dragged the two of them all the way from their beds.

Only Yeon Sowol remained lying on his bed, though he was hanging off it rather precariously.

He checked himself and pressed a hand to his forehead. His head hurt.

"It can even touch the bodies of first-rate masters..."

What exactly were strange beings and ghosts, if they could do something like this?

"Still, it seems to have limits. It barely managed to touch my body, since my mind was relatively clear."

"...We were nearly dragged outside."

"...Strange Ghosts aren't ordinary opponents, then. Even if they aren't comparable to dragons."

Then a voice came from the inner sliding door.

It was low, clear, and pleasant to hear. The same voice they had heard yesterday.

"Did something happen outside?"

Yeon Sowol answered, "We had a strange dream all night and nearly failed to wake up. When we came to, my two drunken friends had nearly been dragged to the door."

An answer came from inside.

"Young Master Yeon's medicine concerns the spirit. Its medicinal properties are becoming particularly potent, so all kinds of wicked spirits appear to be running wild. You must guard your minds well."

"Yes. We'll be careful."

Yeon Sowol sighed and looked at Jin Geol and Won Huiseung.

Their hair was disheveled, and they looked like a complete mess.

"Anyway, I'll keep watch alone from now on. I'll take naps during the day instead."

Jin Geol and Won Huiseung blankly nodded.

* * *

After that, all kinds of things happened.

People kept coming by, and they always said something deeply troubling.

They told Won Huiseung that his master was critically ill.

They told Yeon Sowol that a bloody disaster had struck the Guangdong Martial Alliance.

Even knowing it was not real, they could not help being shaken by such words.

Fortunately, Won Huiseung and Jin Geol usually spotted the problem.

"They were soaked through."

"They were covered in blood."

"Their eye sockets were empty."

The drunken pair could see things Yeon Sowol could not. They were able to settle matters before their minds could be shaken any further.

But there was no solution for the meal deliveries that came every day.

"Your food is here!"

"Please have your meal!"

"Why aren't you eating?"

A different person came each time.

Each one claimed not to know any of those who had come before.

They gathered the accumulating food and shoved it into another room. Soon, the only thing coming from that room was the awful stench of rotting food.

After more than ten days had passed, Jin Geol spoke.

"...Should we just eat it?"

Won Huiseung frowned.

"You were the one who said we shouldn't."

"I did. But I'm starving."

Jin Geol looked terrible as he said it.

Of the three, his internal energy had been the lowest to begin with. He remained at mid first-rate, at Fierce Flame Pierces the Heavens.

His bodily cultivation was also the least developed. Really, it would not have been wrong to say he had not cultivated it at all.

Naturally, he was the first to reach his physical limit.

He had gone ten days without eating anything, surviving only on alcohol.

The other two were not in good shape either.

"My throat... is dry too..."

"Thirst is hard to bear..."

"If only there weren't any liquor... Then I wouldn't drink at all. But there's so much liquor in this shrine... It makes me thirstier. So thirsty."

There was a well in the courtyard.

That meant they could not use it.

There was no way they could step into the courtyard when the Strange Ghosts kept trying to lure them outside.

Even when they left the room, Yeon Sowol's group only moved around inside the shrine. They never went outside the building.

So they had no choice but to endure the thirst.

Normally, a person would die after only three or four days without water. They had only barely lasted this long because they were first-rate martial artists.

Still, their limits were drawing near.

"Can't we at least drink water?"

"For some reason, it feels like the Strange Ghosts are waiting for us to go into the courtyard."

"This is driving me crazy."

Jin Geol collapsed onto the floor, looking utterly drained.

"They said it could be done in as little as ten days... When is it going to end...?"

"..."

While the other two spoke, Yeon Sowol was deeply lost in thought. No matter what they said, only one thought continued repeating in his mind.

'Is there really no way to tell them apart?'

Jin Geol and Won Huiseung could identify those whose appearances were visibly wrong.

The problem was the ones who looked normal.

The people who brought food every day.

Yeon Sowol was sure many of them were Strange Ghosts too, but neither Jin Geol nor Won Huiseung could distinguish them.

'A way...'

Yeon Sowol thought it had to be his responsibility.

If the drunk pair could not tell, then the sober one had to do it.

But how?

'I don't know anything about strange beings or ghosts...'

Frustrated, he let out a long breath, then inhaled. Again, he caught the crisp, cold scent of winter air, entirely out of season.

Hum.

The sword at his waist trembled faintly.

Yeon Sowol tapped the hilt. It was the sword he had received as a gift from the head of the Hengshan Sect, though he had yet to become accustomed to it. It hummed quietly, but after carrying it and touching it for several days, he felt as though they had grown a little closer.

The sword had begun humming on its own today.

Even in a situation like this, that made him a little happy.

As he gently patted the hilt, a thought suddenly came to him.

'What would Father have said...?'

What would Yi Yubaek have said?

If he had seen this situation?

It felt as if he could hear his voice.

'Why couldn't you tell?'

Yeon Sowol snickered despite himself. It did not suit the moment at all, but it sounded exactly like something Yi Yubaek would say.

Then, all at once, Yeon Sowol's heart felt lighter.

As if he had found the way forward.

'That's it!'

This was not something to laugh off.

Right.

It was a matter of the heart.

To accomplish something, one had to give it one's whole heart.

Even back when he did not know the first thing about martial arts, he had thrown himself into dodging with every ounce of his strength so he would not get beaten up.

'Even if I know nothing about strange beings or ghosts, if I find a way somehow and think it through with all my heart...'

From then on, Yeon Sowol opened his eyes wide. He observed every visitor who came, then observed them again, as if he meant to take each one apart down to the finest grain and inspect every piece.

A smile formed on Yeon Sowol's lips.

Five more days passed.

Yeon Sowol's eyes gleamed brightly.

"Your meal is here!"

"Get lost."

Yeon Sowol immediately sent the cheerful boy who entered away.

"W-why would you say that?"

"I said get lost!"

After the boy hurried away, Jin Geol asked, a flicker of hope in his dying face.

"D-did you find a way to tell?"

"Maybe."

"Really? What is it?"

"Just now, the direction of his shadow was slightly different from the direction of the sunlight."

"Oh..."

"Let's take this slowly. If we identify all the fakes, the real ones will eventually show up. Then we can eat some of that."

"Good! Good! Let's eat something. Even one sip of water..."

Yeon Sowol nodded. After that, he observed everyone who came with utmost focus and sincerity.

"Get lost."

One person's footsteps were too quiet for their size.

"Get lost!"

The temperature around another was ever so slightly lower, despite there being no sign they had learned martial arts.

"Be gone."

One person never blinked.

Yeon Sowol was also in terrible condition after going more than fifteen days without even a drop of water. Still, he examined every sign with all his heart and identified every last one.

After he had sorted them all out...

"...For real?"

No one remained.

"They were all Strange Ghosts? All of them? Not a single person was human?"

None of the beings who had come to deliver food were human. Yeon Sowol was certain.

"Then where did the food the Hengshan Sect sent go? Why didn't it come?"

"How would I know?"

"No..."

Perhaps because he had let himself hope, Jin Geol fell into deep despair.

Won Huiseung did not show it, but his face had grown even paler. He clearly was not holding up well.

Yeon Sowol felt the same.

'They were all... fakes?'

He had thought there would be at least one real person among them.

After that, Yeon Sowol drove away every meal delivery that came. Accepting the food only to leave it in a room to rot had become an ordeal in itself.

Several days passed, and no one came to deliver food anymore.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Twenty days had passed.

The refinement had still not ended.

Yeon Sowol, Jin Geol, and Won Huiseung sat in the room, slowly wasting away.

Then they sensed another presence in the courtyard.

"What now...?"

Before Yeon Sowol could even stagger to his feet and open the sliding door,

Rattle!

Someone flung it open first.

It was an incredibly swift movement, without a single sound of footsteps.

"What...?"

Yeon Sowol's eyes widened.

He recognized the face.

"Senior Gong So-un?"

A first-generation disciple of the Hengshan Sect.

A peak-realm martial artist who had led the Hengshan Sect disciples when they wiped out the fallen Daoist temples last time.

Gong So-un nodded stiffly.

Reflexively, Yeon Sowol swallowed and examined Gong So-un.

Slowly, but quickly.

His shadow. His eyes. His temperature. His scent.

Every single thing.

And then,

'...There's nothing strange about him?'

He had no choice but to admit it was perfect.

No matter how carefully he scrutinized him, he could not find anything out of place.

Gong So-un lowered his voice.

"I'm sorry to barge in like this. It was urgent, so I had no choice."

"...What happened?"

"We received intelligence that a demonic practitioner is among the alchemists taking part in this refinement."

"What...?"

"It must be one who escaped detection during the previous purge. They were probably planning to use this refinement to gain strength, then flee. We must catch them before they act."

Then he strode straight into the room, toward the inner sliding door.

"Please wait!"

Yeon Sowol stepped in front of him.

"I already explained the situation."

"I understand. But we were repeatedly warned never to open that door."

"It's been over twenty days already. We don't know when something might happen. Move aside."

Gong So-un gave off a murderous air.

But Yeon Sowol could not back down either.

'Nothing seems strange. But what if that only means I failed to find it?'

Was this not too sudden? A demonic practitioner? Someone who had escaped the previous purge?

"This is not the time to be stubborn!"

Gong So-un lowered his voice as much as he could, pressing Yeon Sowol.

Then,

"Aaaaargh!"

"Aaaah!"

"You! You traitor...!"

"Aaaah!"

Terrible screams suddenly began echoing from the inner sliding door.

"P-please help us! Please help us! There's a madman in here! N-no!"

Bang! Bang!

Someone began pounding frantically on the door, hard enough to make the talismans plastered across it shake.

The voice was familiar.

Low, clear, and resonant.

The voice that had always asked what was happening outside.

Jin Geol and Won Huiseung, who had been watching with narrowed eyes, stared in shock.

"S-Sowol! This..."

"That's the voice, isn't it?"

Gong So-un grabbed his sword hilt, fury showing on his face.

"Move! There isn't time!"

Yeon Sowol felt his back grow damp.

Cold sweat.

He had not even had water to drink. Where was all this sweat coming from?

Then he glanced at Gong So-un's hand gripping the sword hilt.

A smile suddenly formed on Yeon Sowol's lips.

"Senior, did you know?"

"I said move aside!"

"The Hengshan Sect doesn't hold swords like that. The Hengshan Sect has been shaped by Buddhism, Daoist tradition, and Confucian tradition alike. But you're holding your sword in the Daoist style."

Yeon Sowol grabbed his own sword.

Clear Mirror.

A sword that protected the heart and drove away evil.

The sacred treasure carried by the head of the Hengshan Sect.

Hummmmmm!

The sword began to ring loudly.

At the same time, Gong So-un's expression vanished.

Gong So-un tilted his head.

"Is that so?"

Yeon Sowol drew his sword.

Whoosh!

At once, Gong So-un, no, the thing pretending to be Gong So-un vanished like smoke.

「 How troublesome. Two... no, three... 」

A whisper brushed past his ear like something from a dream.

Then there was nothing.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Yeon Sowol, Jin Geol, and Won Huiseung silently turned toward the talisman-covered sliding door.

It was quiet there too.

The screams they had heard still rang vividly in their ears.

They had definitely seen the door shaking.

"Sowol, did you know that too? That the Hengshan Sect holds swords differently? I never knew."

Jin Geol asked.

Yeon Sowol shook his head.

"Actually, no. There isn't any special difference in how they hold swords."

"What? Then..."

"I had no idea, so I just threw something out there."

"What?"

Jin Geol seemed to lose all his strength at once and slowly sank to the floor.

"...I'm so tired."

Yeon Sowol could only nod.

He was tired too.

A day passed.

Then two more days.

Several more beings visited after that, but Yeon Sowol was usually able to identify them.

Sometimes, a visitor came who gave off no sign at all. Then Clear Mirror would hum, telling him it was an evil being. The visitor would sigh and disappear.

After that happened several times, no one came anymore.

Three days passed, then four.

"This is driving me insane..."

The Strange Ghosts were no longer the problem.

"..."

Jin Geol had stopped speaking at some point. He only lay on the bed, gaunt and skeletal.

Won Huiseung did nothing but sit as well.

Yeon Sowol looked down at his hands.

They were trembling.

From hunger.

From thirst.

'Can we keep holding on like this...?'

Yeon Sowol gritted his teeth and glared at the courtyard beyond the door.

Rattle.

He heard a door open behind him.

"...You have all suffered greatly."

An aged voice spoke.

It was the voice of Master Yang, the elder who had led the alchemists.

Yeon Sowol continued glaring at the courtyard as he answered.

"We've reached our limit. There's no food, no water. Nothing we can trust..."

"...I thought that might be the case. We have produced a Golden Elixir, after all. I cannot imagine how wildly the strange beings and ghosts must have run amok."

Only then did Yeon Sowol turn around.

"Uh...?"

The talisman-covered sliding door was open.

Won Huiseung, his eyes bloodshot, was helping Jin Geol to his feet.

"Jin Geol! Jin Geol!"

"I... see it. This isn't a dream, right?"

Jin Geol, whose lips were cracked and dry, blinked with difficulty.

The alchemists were walking out.

They were removing the talismans.

Everyone looked exhausted, but their faces were bright with pride.

Master Yang took in their haggard state and bowed deeply.

"Whew... I can only offer my thanks. Because of you, everything was completed safely. To create one Golden Elixir and two Spirit Elixirs in a single refinement, I have never achieved anything greater in my entire life. No, perhaps no alchemist of this age has..."

As he spoke, he took a small porcelain box from his robes.

"When heaven and earth responded to the birth of a Golden Elixir, you drove off every wicked thing that sought it..."

He opened the porcelain box, holding it as carefully as if it contained a precious infant.

"This child must have seen it all. It will surely be grateful and happy."

The porcelain box held a liquid as black as the universe.

Was it filled with gold dust? Something glimmered from time to time, like shining stars.

The liquid trembled faintly.

As though it were alive.

"This is..."

Yeon Sowol stepped toward it as though entranced.

Ripples spread across the black liquid. There was no wind, and Master Yang's hands had not trembled. Starlike glimmers spread with the ripples, and its scent washed over him.

Without realizing it, Yeon Sowol's nose twitched.

It was a cool fragrance, like the scent of a winter wind lingering on clothing.

"This is the Profound Enlightenment Elixir that will show Young Master Yeon the universe."

Footnotes:

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