WeTried Translations

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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 46: Bulmang City Gathering 2

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It was as though he heard the light snap of fingers.

Perhaps there had been a sigh as well.

There seemed to be longing, and his body seemed to tremble with joy.

Vaguely, he felt as though he had seen a painting.

The painting had contained so much, yet expressed it all with astonishing simplicity.

He could not remember how much it had contained, nor how it had rendered so much with such simplicity.

‘I don’t remember?’

Had he understood it before and forgotten? Or had he failed to understand it from the beginning?

The moment the confusion blooming in his heart touched his drifting consciousness, Jegyeong awoke.

But what had he awakened from? Sleep? Delusion? Enlightenment?

It was none of those.

It was as though he had dreamed a long dream, yet nothing came to mind. It was as though he had realized something, yet he could not explain a single word of it.

All he could do was sigh blankly and try to shake off the emptiness in his heart.

From the disappointed voices rising all around him, Jegyeong realized that many others had undergone the same experience.

The cultivators were frustrated and regretful.

They knew well how difficult it was to encounter a Nascent Soul True Lord, a legend of the Cultivation World. They also knew that hearing one give a Lecture on the Dao was close to impossible.

At the same time, they knew that gaining something from a Nascent Soul True Lord’s Lecture on the Dao was like trying to catch a whale with a tiny fishing rod.

That was why they were disappointed, but they soon accepted it.

Even if they could neither remember nor understand, they were satisfied simply to have heard a Nascent Soul True Lord’s teachings. They believed the True Lord’s care would bless the cultivation paths ahead of them.

Such a response seemed natural enough to them.

Jegyeong was different.

He kept trying to recall the memory that would not surface and struggled desperately to grasp something he could not even see. Only when his mental power had been drained and even his Spirit Body began to waver did he have no choice but to stop. Yet the lingering regret and disappointment in his heart did not lessen in the slightest.

“You held on for a long time.”

Uh Dobaek spoke with a bitter smile.

Like the others, he had long since been satisfied and was looking forward to the Lectures on the Dao the Golden Core cultivators would give afterward. Then he noticed Jegyeong foolishly repeating that “futile effort,” and his feelings grew complicated.

“Well? Did you gain anything?”

When Uh Dobaek asked casually, Jegyeong answered a little bluntly.

He had spent too much mental power, and despite that, he had gained nothing. He could not manage a pleasant tone.

“I gained a great deal of lingering regret.”

“Haha! Regret isn’t bad either. If you handle it well, it can serve as fuel for the desire to improve.”

“That’s true.”

It sounded a little like mockery, but Jegyeong chose to take it well.

“Look. Those only just waking now must be at late Foundation Establishment or equivalent. The higher one’s cultivation and the deeper one’s realization, the later one awakens.”

Jegyeong shifted his gaze and saw that Uh Dobaek did not seem to be wrong.

Every one of those only now regaining their senses had Spirit Bodies he could not see into.

‘But they probably gained nothing either.’

Whether they had awakened early or late, they all sighed as soon as they came to their senses.

They even accepted it and became satisfied after a while.

“The only ones who can truly reap something from the True Lord’s Lecture on the Dao are the seniors up there.”

Uh Dobaek gazed longingly at the Spirit Bodies of the Golden Core cultivators floating like ghosts before the Grotto-Heaven.

“How long will it take?”

“Who knows? Still, I’ve heard that a Nascent Soul True Lord’s realizations often continue for more than a hundred years. Those people are at the Golden Core Stage, and the stories I heard likely contained both truth and exaggeration, so I imagine it won’t be that long...”

A hundred years for a single realization? Exaggeration had its limits, and so did lies.

‘...Right?’

Even if it had been exaggerated tenfold, that was still ten years. Even if it had been exaggerated a hundredfold, that was still a year.

Did that mean he had to wait here for at least a full year? Surely not? He did not think he could endure even half a year. No, not even three months.

But what if the Lecture on the Dao ended while he was away?

Jegyeong’s thoughts suddenly became tangled.

No matter how much he thought it over, he could not find an answer, so he asked Uh Dobaek. Uh Dobaek laughed as though he found the question absurd.

“Your cultivation has already reached a certain level, but your heart has yet to shed its mortal ways. An opportunity one could not gain through thirty years of harsh cultivation lies before your eyes. What does a little time matter? What if it takes a month? What if it takes a year? Even if I had to wait here for ten years, I would wait.”

“I was foolish.”

It seemed a little excessive, but Jegyeong understood Uh Dobaek’s response.

The longer a cultivator had cultivated, the more deeply they understood how arduous that path was.

Uh Dobaek often seemed young and adaptable, making it easy to forget, but he was not actually young.

At the previous Full-Wing Gathering, Uh Dobaek had mentioned that his grandson cared only about cultivation and had no interest in marriage. Since cultivators in this world usually married late, it was easy to guess that Uh Dobaek was far from young even for a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

He was already advanced in years.

On top of that, his cultivation remained stuck at the middle Foundation Establishment bottleneck.

A minor breakthrough could extend one’s lifespan somewhat, but only somewhat. Even if he somehow reached late Foundation Establishment, would he have enough time left to reach its end and aspire to Form a Golden Core? Uh Dobaek himself surely knew the answer.

Had the opportunity never come, that would have been one thing. But now that such an opportunity stood before him, he would never want to let it go.

To be honest, Jegyeong vaguely understood Uh Dobaek’s desperation, but he could not truly relate to it.

Perhaps that was because, though he had suffered all kinds of hardships, he had never been chased by time.

Considering only the time it had taken him to come this far, it would not have been an exaggeration to call him an unmatched genius by Human Race standards.

He did not possess a Bloodline that raised his cultivation on its own like those members of the Demon Race born with silver spoons in their mouths. He had achieved his current cultivation through his own strength alone.

Even the Human Race had Spiritual Roots. Considering that, his accomplishments deserved even greater recognition.

Jegyeong knew that as well, so he took a measure of pride in his accomplishments.

He knew the road ahead would not be easy, but he had no doubt that he would somehow continue forward, just as he had until now.

Yet when he thought about it, which cultivator had not once been like that?

The cultivators gathered here had all reached at least the second realm of the cultivation path.

Some may have once been confident, only to break after meeting a wall. Others may not yet have broken and still firmly believed they could reach the end of the cultivation path.

They too would one day strike a wall, and he would be no different.

When that time came, would Jegyeong be any different from Uh Dobaek now?

Time was an enemy that could neither be defeated nor avoided. All one could do was flee from it diligently.

Even a Nascent Soul True Lord would be no different.

‘Until they attain the Great Dao, everyone is a fugitive from the passing years.’

With that thought, the Golden Core cultivators who had seemed only distant and terrifying, and even the Nascent Soul True Lord, looked a little different to him.

Perhaps it was only a momentary illusion. Even if they did look different, they remained terrifying beyond measure.

“Senior Uh.”

“Hmm?”

“I remember you mentioning the Transformation Secret Art before.”

“Oh.”

Uh Dobaek’s solemn air returned to normal.

“I did. Are you interested?”

“There is no harm in learning whatever I can.”

“Hmm. I suppose I can agree with that to an extent. So?”

“If it can be obtained, I’d like to obtain it. As you know, it would be difficult for me to act directly...”

“I understand what you mean.”

Their conversation flowed a little differently than usual.

Both of them knew this was not an ordinary exchange, but a transaction.

“I can’t guarantee it, but I think I can find one somehow. It will cost a fair amount, though. Is that all right?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. As you can probably guess, I have no Spirit Stones, so I would have to pay with something else... but I don’t know what I could offer.”

“I expected that. I’d like to help you if I could, but obtaining something like a Transformation Secret Art isn’t something I can do through goodwill alone.”

“I understand. The teachings you’ve given me so far are already more than I could possibly repay. This time, I want to pay properly.”

“Thank you for saying that. Then I’ll look into how to obtain it at the best price I can.”

“Thank you. I’ll make preparations of my own as well.”

Jegyeong did not rush the matter.

At present, Demon Beast corpses were about the only payment he could offer. He had heard that wild Demon Beasts were difficult to find deep within the Human Territories, so they might have some value. But would that be true even by the standards of a middle Foundation Establishment cultivator? Unless it was the corpse of a Great Demon Beast, ordinary Demon Beast corpses probably would not be enough.

Still, hunting a Great Demon Beast was a dangerous venture even for Jegyeong now. Setting aside the aftermath, he could not even be sure whether he could hunt one safely.

‘If nothing else works, I’ll gather Demon Beast corpses and offer them.’

Lost in thought, Jegyeong noticed the meaningful glances Ye Janggyeong and Choe Jutang quietly sent his way.

They meant that they were willing to trade as well.

Since he had discussed a transaction with Uh Dobaek first, they did not dare interrupt out of consideration for Uh Dobaek’s dignity. Still, they made it clear that if the deal fell through, they were willing to take over.

‘They seem to be expecting too much.’

Jegyeong could guess what they were thinking.

Through a trade with him, they hoped to obtain cultivation resources difficult to find in the Human Territories.

But Jegyeong lacked the means to grant that wish.

For one, where he was was not some Demon Region overflowing with milk and honey, as they seemed to imagine. It was a lake whose continent he did not even know, and the Human Race was settled right next door.

If Yangseo Lake truly held anything good, would the Human Race, the locust swarm of the Cultivation World, not have swept it all away long ago?

There might be something left in places they could not reach, but that had nothing to do with Jegyeong. If a place was dangerous enough that even Human Race greed could not touch it, there was no chance it would have any connection to him.

‘Still, I need some capital of my own.’

The Forget-Me Garden gave him the clear advantage of being able to trade with people he could trust to some extent. Yet to make use of that advantage, he needed resources worth trading with them.

He did not know what Uh Dobaek would ask for in exchange for the Transformation Secret Art, but the only resource Jegyeong could offer now was Demon Beast corpses. He needed to find something else, something that could at least draw the interest of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Jegyeong spent his time planning for the future.

Sometimes he spoke with Uh Dobaek and the others, and sometimes he contemplated his own Spirit Body.

There was no particular meaning to it, but he had nothing else to do, so he focused as though cultivating his heart.

Once he concentrated on one thing, time passed frighteningly fast.

A couple of times, he sensed Cheongo approach the physical body he had left in the Azure Basket Realm in a half-sleeping state and say something. He could have listened if he wanted to, but Jegyeong did not.

Judging by Cheongo’s manner, they were probably just complaining because they were bored. If it had been urgent, Cheongo would have tried to wake him even by pecking him with their beak.

How much time passed like that?

“Thank you for Senior Hyeondo’s teachings! Still, it seems the Human Race’s Dao does not suit me. The Dao I must attain must lie in those high heavens after all!”

The first to awaken from sudden enlightenment was the White Thunder Wing King.

He left behind words that were hard to believe he would say to a Nascent Soul True Lord, then stirred up a fierce wind and departed as flamboyantly as he had appeared.

The other Golden Core cultivators began to wake one by one only much later. Watching them, Jegyeong guessed that the White Thunder Wing King had cut off his realization by choice.

As he had said, the White Thunder Wing King must have believed that True Lord Hyeondo’s teachings did not suit him and risen from his place midway through.

‘Impressive.’

Was he not someone who truly lived as his heart pleased? If he rose and left because the teachings did not suit him, what would become of the dignity of the Nascent Soul True Lord who had gone to the trouble of teaching?

Jegyeong could not decide whether to call it bold or insane.

One thing was certain, though. That White Thunder Wing King was no ordinary being.

“Thank you for Senior Hyeondo’s teachings!”

A short while later, the Golden Core cultivators who had finished consolidating the insights from their enlightenment offered their thanks to True Lord Hyeondo.

Yet no reply came from True Lord Hyeondo.

The Golden Core cultivators seemed to consider that natural and began talking among themselves without any sign of surprise.

“Then I’ll begin.”

One cultivator’s Spirit Body rose into the center of the gathering.

As tens of thousands of cultivators watched, Jegyeong thought the voice he had just heard sounded familiar.

‘Senior Yu Jeonggyeom?’

Footnotes:

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