WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: WeTried Translations
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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈
Chapter 50: Jang Huam (Paid serialization begins here)
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When Jegyeong arrived at the cave on the island, Cheongo had also returned from their outing and was sitting in their glittering nest.
Well. At this point, it would be more accurate to call it a small hill than a nest.
‘They really collected a lot.’
Looking at Cheongo, who was now nearly at his eye level, Jegyeong clicked his tongue inwardly.
Where had they even found all that stuff...?
“Jegyeong. Where did you go?”
Without answering, Jegyeong went to the pool of water he usually used as a bed.
Then he carefully set down the items he had been carrying in his mouth.
“What are all those?”
Cheongo came closer with interest.
Their gaze was fixed on the jade bracelet beneath the long pouch.
“A strange item.”
“Strange? What’s strange about it?”
Cheongo tilted their head, still staring at the jade bracelet.
But when Jegyeong began taking items out of the Storage bag one by one, not only their head but their entire body turned toward him.
“How did you do that? Is that the strange item?”
“Yes.”
Jegyeong tossed the five corpses toward Muk-su.
In the past, he had needed to make sure Muk-su could absorb the flesh and blood directly. Now, all he had to do was throw them somewhere nearby, and Muk-su would absorb them on its own.
“Huh?”
Jegyeong was about to take out the remaining items when he saw Muk-su twitch and brightened.
Was it finally going to stop being a glutton and wake up?
“Huh?”
Cheongo also noticed Muk-su’s strange behavior and raised their head.
With both of them watching, Muk-su, or rather the fruit half-buried in the earth, swayed from side to side before finally popping free with a thud.
That was not the end of it. It kept rolling, passed right by the corpses Jegyeong had thrown over, and charged toward the large mound of soil.
And then...
Thump.
It buried itself so deeply in the soil that it vanished from sight.
Only then did the fruit stop moving.
Having watched the bizarre sight from beginning to end, Jegyeong and Cheongo exchanged glances at the same time, as if asking the other to explain what had just happened.
“The fruit is alive? Um... no, Muk-su is alive. Hm? That’s not right either.”
Cheongo rubbed the back of their head with a wing, as though something felt wrong.
“It’s strange that the fruit is moving, but it isn’t strange because it’s Muk-su. Muk-su is alive, and it could move before. Yes.”
Having questioned themself and reached an answer alone, Cheongo pointed at the soil where Muk-su had buried itself with the wing that had been rubbing the back of their head.
“But what is that soil? Is it strange too? It feels kind of... a little heavy.”
“Yes. It’s good soil.”
A heavy feeling? Cheongo was probably referring to the earth qi. Their Spirit Awareness was certainly sensitive for a Demon Beast.
Perhaps their senses in that area had developed because they lacked combat ability.
‘Seeing how Muk-su reacted to that Spiritual Soil... did it sense that the soil would help it?’
Jegyeong briefly considered whether Muk-su had been drawn to the earth qi within the soil or the soil itself, then gave up.
At some point, he had begun to feel that thinking about Muk-su at all was a waste of time.
Calling it a living bundle of mysteries would not have been an exaggeration. To begin with, how could a fruit think and make judgments?
“It’s fine if you absorb Spiritual Energy, but don’t damage the soil.”
Giving up on thinking about it was one thing. He still had to warn it.
That Spiritual Soil was now his precious property. Even if it was Muk-su, he could not permit damage to his belongings.
He had only allowed it to bury itself because he knew the Spiritual Soil could restore its earth qi.
Twitch!
The soil trembled at Jegyeong’s quiet warning.
No, it must have been Muk-su trembling beneath the soil.
Either way, it seemed to understand the warning, so Jegyeong paid it no more attention.
‘These are Spirit Stones, and these are... Medicinal Pills?’
He piled the Spirit Stones separately as his first priority, then put the items with unclear uses in another pile.
The Medicinal Pills belonged to the latter. He knew they were Medicinal Pills, but not what effects they had.
‘Even if they’re something like Demon Beast Pills... I don’t know whether they’d work on me.’
Medicinal Pills were troublesome possessions for him as well.
‘Clothes? Why are there clothes? Those water bandits were thorough in their preparations.’
After clearing away various pieces of junk and items useless to him, little remained.
The most useful and valuable items were the Spirit Stones. Judging by the quantity and quality of Spiritual Energy they contained, most were lowest-grade, while a few could barely be considered lower-grade.
Once Jegyeong finished sorting them, Cheongo lightly tapped a Spirit Stone with their beak and asked,
“Is this a Spirit Stone?”
“Yes.”
“It’s pretty because it glows a little. Being close to it makes me feel good too.”
“Right. So if you’re going to pick things up, bring back things like this.”
“But I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
That was only natural. What cultivator would leave a Spirit Stone lying on the ground?
“I was joking.”
“A joke? It wasn’t funny.”
“There are jokes that aren’t funny.”
“Mm. I see.”
Jegyeong had only called it a joke because Cheongo’s gaze toward the Spirit Stones seemed dangerous.
If he did not say so, Cheongo might try to snatch a Spirit Stone from a cultivator somewhere.
Cheongo was not foolish, of course, but seeing how absorbed they had been in collecting things lately made him a little uneasy.
In the end, Jegyeong only relaxed enough to properly admire his spoils after tossing Cheongo one lowest-grade Spirit Stone and repeatedly warning them not to do anything dangerous.
As Cheongo had said, simply looking at the Spirit Stones made him feel warm and content. Aside from those, the items that caught Jegyeong’s eye were two Jade Slips whose contents he did not know.
One had come from each of the late Qi Refining Stage water bandits’ storage artifacts. Jegyeong cautiously touched one with his tongue and poured demon power into it.
This was another important test.
He had already confirmed that he could use the water bandits’ storage artifacts with demon power, but Jade Slips were different from storage artifacts.
They were similar in that both stored something, but Jade Slips were generally considered more important than storage artifacts.
They contained not objects, but knowledge and inheritances.
The Human Race valued inheritances. They cared about cultivation methods, of course, but tended to value various arts such as alchemy and artifact refinement even more.
For that reason, Jade Slips containing such knowledge could have all kinds of restrictions placed on them. For example, they could be given specific conditions for use...
What if the Jade Slips could only be read by Human Race cultivators? Even if Jegyeong obtained them, he would only be able to stare at them in frustration.
‘Though Jade Slips carried by mere water bandits wouldn’t have such advanced functions.’
Even so, one never knew. Jegyeong carefully made contact with the Jade Slip.
The demon power he released seeped into it, and a faint blue light swirled around the Jade Slip.
Then, in an instant, knowledge poured into Jegyeong’s mind.
Jegyeong slowly examined the knowledge conveyed by the Jade Slip.
He did not need to make any effort to memorize it. The Jade Slip’s knowledge had already been firmly etched into his mind, and it would not be easy to forget unless he deliberately tried to.
‘Water-Wielding Alteration Art. As expected, it’s a cultivation method.’
It was likely the cultivation method practiced by the late Qi Refining Stage water bandit.
He was glad to obtain a cultivation method for free, but unfortunately, this was a water-aspect cultivation method.
‘That’s only to be expected.’
A cultivator’s cultivation was affected by their environment.
Things would be different if one possessed enough cultivation resources to ignore the environment, but most cultivators who did not either adapted themselves to their environment or adapted the environment to themselves.
Yangseo Lake was an enormous lake, so most who cultivated here would have learned water-aspect cultivation methods.
It was only natural, then, that a cultivation method like this would come out of a water bandit’s storage artifact.
Jegyeong checked the other Jade Slip as well.
It too contained a water-aspect cultivation method.
‘I can’t cultivate it, but I can sell it, right?’
Still, it had belonged to late Qi Refining Stage water bandits, so it probably was not worth much.
‘My only real gains are the Spirit Stones and Spiritual Soil. Ah, and the storage artifacts too.’
He did not feel disappointed in the slightest.
Looting the water bandits had been an unexpected windfall, so there was nothing to be disappointed about. Besides, the Spiritual Soil was clearly an extraordinary spiritual treasure.
He had gained this much from going out once. Jegyeong was more than satisfied.
‘The Spirit Stones are one thing, but I should look into the Spiritual Soil.’
* * *
Forget-Me Garden.
Jegyeong left the empty gathering place and traveled to the gathering grounds through a nearby Teleportation Pillar.
‘As expected.’
Until he traveled through the Teleportation Pillar, he had not sensed the presence of any cultivators. Yet the moment he arrived at the gathering grounds, he sensed at least several hundred cultivators.
They were all scattered about, with no more than three gathered in any one group.
Jegyeong deliberately disturbed his Heart State slightly, exposing a little of his Spirit Body as he moved at an unhurried pace.
As he moved, he kept a suitable distance from the cultivators. Still, that distance was close enough for the Divine Sense of an early Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator to reach him.
“Hey, Fellow Daoist over there!”
Before long, a vigorous voice called out to him.
Jegyeong looked toward the voice and saw a brightly shining Spirit Body flying quickly in his direction.
“Were you calling for me?”
“I was. I am Jang Huam. And you are?”
“My name is Jegyeong.”
“A pleasure.”
Jang Huam came closer, looked Jegyeong over as if confirming something, and made their pleasure even more obvious.
“Did I happen to stop a busy person?”
“No. I only came to look around the gathering grounds because I had some time.”
“That’s fortunate. Then, if it isn’t too much trouble, would you spend some time with me? Ah, don’t misunderstand. I simply enjoy meeting people...”
“You don’t need to put it so indirectly. You became interested because I’m of the Demon Race, correct?”
“Haha. Correct. I won’t lie.”
Jegyeong did not refuse Jang Huam’s request for company.
From what he could judge through their Spirit Body, Jang Huam was a mid Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator like Uh Dobaek.
Judging from their words and conduct, Jang Huam did not seem to be the type to shut themself inside a sect and devote their entire life to cultivation.
In short, they met Jegyeong’s requirements.
Since each wanted something from the other, their conversation continued smoothly.
The topic began with everyday cultivation, then before long turned to lamenting their lots in life.
Jang Huam spoke of the hardships of being a Rogue Cultivator, while Jegyeong described the fierce life of the Demon Race.
After they spoke of this and that for a short while, the conversation naturally opened up enough for more serious matters.
Thinking the time was right, Jegyeong casually brought something up as though it had just occurred to him.
“By the way, I obtained an interesting item not long ago.”
“Oh? What kind of interesting item?”
When Jang Huam showed interest, Jegyeong explained the Spiritual Soil in detail.
Naturally, he did not say how he had obtained it, and Jang Huam did not ask about that part at all.
“Fellow Daoist, you are fortunate!”
Jang Huam sighed enviously.
“As far as I know, there are quite a few spiritual treasures like that Spiritual Soil which produce Spiritual Energy on their own. But they’re quite rare, and their abilities are so useful that Rogue Cultivators like me can go their whole lives without seeing one. I hear sects and great clans use such spiritual treasures to create places for cultivation.”
“Oh. Then I really was fortunate.”
“You were. I truly envy your luck, Fellow Daoist.”
Jang Huam did not hide their envy, but did not show it to an uncomfortable degree.
Instead, they expressed it just enough to make Jegyeong feel even better.
“Unfortunately, it’s an earth-aspect spiritual treasure, so it doesn’t suit me. I don’t know what I should use it for.”
“What’s the problem? If it is of no use to you, Fellow Daoist, can’t you sell it?”
“You are right. But I know little of the world, so I worry that I may fail to receive its proper value and suffer a great loss.”
“Hmm. That is a reasonable concern. With such a valuable item, you must worry not only about failing to receive its proper value, but also about whether you can receive the payment safely.”
“Just as you say, Fellow Daoist.”
Jang Huam seemed to consider it for a moment before suggesting a method in a subtle tone.
“Fellow Daoist. Have you heard of the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association?”
“How could someone who knows True Lord Yingfu not know the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association?”
When Jegyeong even mentioned True Lord Yingfu’s Daoist title, Jang Huam brightened and continued speaking about the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association.
“Then this will be quick. Fellow Daoist, as you know, cultivators of the Forget-Me Garden are scattered throughout the Azure Basket Realm, making it difficult to interact directly. So...”
Jang Huam’s explanation was long, but easy to understand.
According to them, the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association played a role similar to a delivery company within the Forget-Me Garden.
When cultivators of the Forget-Me Garden wished to trade with one another, it acted as both broker and courier.
Problems of trust in transactions and the protection of cultivators’ personal information were all neatly resolved under the name of True Lord Yingfu.
True Lord Yingfu was a cultivator as well as a merchant, and his reputation was better known outside the Forget-Me Garden than within it.
The trust he had built as a merchant over more than a thousand years was as renowned as his strength as a Nascent Soul True Lord. Among those who knew him, no one doubted his reliability.
“It does not matter where Fellow Daoist is. The item and payment will safely reach their owners without any trouble. Of course, you should keep in mind that the commission may differ depending on where Fellow Daoist is located.”
Jang Huam spoke at length as if reading from an instruction manual, sounding like an experienced salesperson.
“Fellow Daoist Jang, could you perhaps...”
“That’s right. Though I am lacking, I am affiliated with the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association. Fate has brought us together, so I will do Fellow Daoist a favor. If you wish to sell that Spiritual Soil, I will help you obtain the best possible price.”
Jegyeong could not see it, but he was certain that Jang Huam’s eyes were gleaming like Cheongo’s collection.
“Hmm. I have not decided to sell it yet, but what price did you have in mind...?”
“We would have to see the item first. As Fellow Daoist knows, the same name does not mean the same value. There are many points to consider, such as how much there is and what quality it is. To determine its price, I would first have to inspect the item directly...”
The glow of Jang Huam’s Spirit Body became even more intense.
“So, Fellow Daoist. Where do you live?”
Footnotes:
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