WeTried Translations

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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 77: Ten Years Later

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Jegyeong had only obtained one of the fire-aspect spiritual treasures he had hoped for, but he was satisfied.

At first, he had thought he might come away empty-handed.

Yangseo Lake was enormous.

The Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth here was heavily inclined toward the water aspect, so fire-aspect spiritual treasures naturally struggled to emerge. Obtaining even one was fortunate.

Besides the spiritual treasure that resembled a sea cucumber, Jegyeong had acquired a fist-sized orb.

It was the Eye of a Big-Eyed Fish, an item capable of purifying the surrounding Spiritual Energy. Purified Spiritual Energy was easier to absorb while cultivating a cultivation method, so it would likely appeal more to Human Race cultivators than members of the Demon Race.

Jegyeong intended to ask Gwak Jeongsin whether he could exchange this cultivation-aiding spiritual treasure for another spiritual treasure.

‘This is as good as it gets.’

The two spiritual treasures pleased him, but what pleased him even more was making acquaintances among the nearby Great Demon Beasts.

Jegyeong had contacted nearly ten Great Demon Beasts for this trade. He had spoken at length with each of them, making an effort to show that he was someone they could reason with.

It had not been difficult.

The Great Demon Beasts had mistaken him for a Jiao Dragon and were deeply intimidated. As long as he did not threaten them and focused on trade, he could leave a favorable impression.

It was like holding a sword while still willingly paying for goods.

When someone who did not need to trade because of an imbalance in strength still chose to do so, the other party would see them as trustworthy and not greedy.

‘Well, rather than thinking that... they probably just want to believe it.’

Wasn't it the wish of every weak being for their powerful neighbor to be gentle and kind?

In the end, the weak could only seek the mercy of the strong.

Cultivation was the foundation of the Cultivation World.

Jegyeong understood that truth well, which was why he always made advancing his cultivation realm his highest priority.

‘Mid-stage Great Demon Realm. I should be able to rest a little easier once I reach that point.’

Even Human Race cultivators known for cultivating quickly usually needed several decades or more to advance a single minor realm.

There was no need to look far. Ye Janggyeong and Choe Jutang had already spent years stuck at the early Foundation Establishment Stage.

And Jegyeong was a member of the Demon Race.

By Demon Race standards, he had only just entered the Great Demon Realm. Looking toward the mid-stage Great Demon Realm already was no different from chasing an impossible dream.

Jegyeong knew that himself, yet his resolve did not waver.

Fixating on a destination too far away was often poisonous, but that did not apply to him. He was certain that his Dao-Seeking Heart would not be shaken by a little excessive ambition.

* * *

Just as Jegyeong had expected, the Eye of a Big-Eyed Fish was highly sought after by the Human Race.

The moment Gwak Jeongsin saw it, his eyes lit up. He promised to do his utmost to obtain the fire-aspect spiritual treasure Jegyeong wanted.

Not long afterward, Gwak Jeongsin brought him a spiritual treasure called a Heat-Emitting Stone.

It was a massive boulder as large as Jegyeong's head, and as its name suggested, it gave off intense heat. Even Jegyeong found it warm, so its heat was no weaker than an ordinary flame.

Of course, what mattered was not the heat itself, but the faint fire qi contained within it.

Even at its lowest grade, a Heat-Emitting Stone was a fine cultivation-aiding spiritual treasure. In terms of grade, it was not much inferior to the Eye of a Big-Eyed Fish, another cultivation-aiding spiritual treasure.

The Eye of a Big-Eyed Fish was more versatile, but for cultivators who practiced fire-aspect cultivation methods, a Heat-Emitting Stone could be more valuable.

Jegyeong was satisfied with the trade, and Gwak Jeongsin felt the same.

‘To make proper use of this stone... I'll have to set it apart after all.’

Jegyeong made a large pond inside his palace.

When he placed the Heat-Emitting Stone in its center, the pond soon became a hot spring.

After assuming human form, Jegyeong soaked in the hot spring. As he circulated the Burning Flame Art, the faint fire qi in the water entered through his pores, soaking his body and then his Spiritual Essence.

The effects of cultivation-aiding spiritual treasures truly were remarkable.

His cultivation efficiency felt thirty percent better than before... though naturally, that was not actually possible.

What mattered was believing that it was.

Borrowing an expression from his past life, it was a kind of placebo. Yet in cultivation, the power of such belief played a much greater role. Cultivation was deeply tied to a cultivator's state of mind.

If a cultivator's mind was unstable, their cultivation would also become precarious. On the other hand, if their mind was firm and tranquil, their cultivation would progress without wavering.

If one believed that a Heat-Emitting Stone greatly aided cultivation, cultivation would truly become smoother. If one believed it was of little help, it would feel no different from putting on a few extra layers of clothing before cultivating.

The difference was not enormous, but neither was it small enough to ignore.

In truth, Jegyeong did not understand these principles well.

It was simply his first time cultivating with the help of such a spiritual treasure, so the Heat-Emitting Stone felt exceptionally effective. In a way, his limited experience had earned him a slight benefit.

It might have been no more than an illusion inflated by excitement, but at this moment, Jegyeong felt that the mid-stage Great Demon Realm was not far away.

Most members of the Demon Race would struggle to reach that realm even after one or two hundred years. Yet he felt that if he continued cultivating diligently for around ten years, he could reach it.

Jegyeong continued cultivating in the bubbling hot spring for some time. When his emotions began to stir and his mind showed signs of growing hazy, he drained a bottle of Spirit Wine in one gulp and returned to the spring.

* * *

After Seomuso and Yang Yuwan, his first uninvited guests, had arrived, several more unwelcome visitors came to Black Shark Island.

Fortunately, their strength was within Jegyeong's ability to handle, so he fought them fiercely.

Still, he could not capture or kill all of them.

He mainly lacked the means to restrain them.

Luring them onto the island and trapping them with a Formation Array was effective, but it would not work on everyone. It would fail completely against suspicious people, and if he encountered someone excessively cruel, he could not guarantee the lives of the workers serving as bait.

More importantly, the Spirit Rice harvest was approaching, and Jegyeong did not want to fight on the island.

By choosing to fight beyond the island, he protected the Spirit Rice and brought in the harvest safely. The price was that several plunderers escaped.

Those who burned their own Essence Blood to flee were impossible to catch.

Yet allowing them to escape worked out in his favor.

The people who had barely survived spread ominous rumors about Black Shark Island.

When Jegyeong first heard this through Gwak Jeongsin, he worried that powerful cultivators who heard the Jiao Dragon rumors might come out of curiosity alone. Fortunately, that did not happen.

The very existence of those who had returned alive caused the Jiao Dragon rumors to be dismissed as nonsense.

If the Demon Beast settled on Black Shark Island had truly been a Jiao Dragon, early Foundation Establishment cultivators who encountered it could never have returned alive.

Jegyeong had unintentionally shaken off the interest of the powerful, but those of middling ability still could not let go of their greed.

They were ignorant, and ignorance made them bold.

Jegyeong did not fear such people, but he did not welcome them either.

It would be nice if he could capture or kill them and obtain their Storage bags, but if he developed a taste for such bloodstained windfalls, there might come a day when he cut his own tongue on them.

Two or three early Foundation Establishment cultivators were not frightening, but what if five or six came at once?

Before such an unbearable situation arose, Jegyeong leaked some information through Gwak Jeongsin.

That he was a guest elder of the Dragon King Palace.

Just as among the Human Race, the difference in standing between wandering Rogue Cultivators and cultivators belonging to great factions was as vast as heaven and earth among the Demon Race.

The Dragon King Palace was Yangseo Lake's only Demon Race faction. Not only the Demon Race, but even the Human Race had no choice but to be cautious around it.

Sect cultivators, Rogue Cultivators, and even Calamity Cultivators who pursued profit as if by instinct hesitated before the name of the Dragon King Palace.

And so, peace came to Black Shark Island.

Bang!

The lid of the Alchemy Furnace shot into the air with a loud blast.

At the same time, smoke thick with medicinal fragrance spread through the room.

“Hmm.”

Jegyeong carefully examined the dozen or so intact Medicinal Pills inside the furnace, along with the twenty or so that had been crushed or cracked.

‘Tsk. I didn't even save half of them.’

A Pill Completion Rate of around thirty to forty percent could not be called good, but it was not terribly bad either.

If he had to judge it, it was somewhat below average. Still, this was enough for him to pass himself off as an alchemist in a small market town.

Of course, to truly act as an alchemist, he would need to have mastered at least five or six pill formulas. Jegyeong could only make three types of Medicinal Pill at most, so he could not yet be called an alchemist.

At best, he was a skilled apprentice.

‘What went wrong?’

As he inspected the intact Medicinal Pills, Jegyeong slowly reviewed every part of the alchemy process, including the amount of ingredients, the temperature of the flame, and the allocation of time.

This review was as important as the refining process itself.

‘Hmm.’

After taking enough time to finish reviewing the process, Jegyeong collected the Medicinal Pills.

Qi-Nurturing Pill.

It was a Medicinal Pill used for cultivation by Qi Refining Stage cultivators and could be considered a local specialty of Yangseo Lake.

Mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators mainly consumed it, as did late-stage cultivators who were not well-off.

Foundation Establishment cultivators, however, would not consume such Medicinal Pills, no matter how poor a Rogue Cultivator they were.

The reason was simple. When a Foundation Establishment cultivator consumed a Qi Refining Stage Medicinal Pill, its effect on increasing Dharma Power was negligible, while Pill Toxin accumulated just as it had during the Qi Refining Stage.

Pill Toxin was poison that accumulated little by little whenever someone consumed Medicinal Pills. The higher a Medicinal Pill's grade and the poorer its quality, the more Pill Toxin accumulated.

Even top-grade Medicinal Pills always carried Pill Toxin, and the more it accumulated, the more minor and major side effects it caused.

That was why cultivators had to carefully control the number of Medicinal Pills they consumed.

‘Not bad.’

Most of the Medicinal Pills Jegyeong had just refined were mid-grade, with a few high-grade pills mixed in.

The lowest-grade pills were treated as ruined pills, while lower-grade pills were treated as impure pills.

Medicinal Pills of mid-grade or higher could be sold at their listed price anywhere, so this was quite a satisfactory result.

‘I'll be able to get more than five hundred lower-grade Spirit Stones for these.’

Jegyeong placed the bottle of Medicinal Pills into his Storage bag and headed outside.

As he left the alchemy room, fresh air brushed the tip of his nose.

After being shut inside the alchemy room for more than three days, coming outside made both his body and mind feel thoroughly cleansed.

“Dragon Lord, everything is ready.”

Han Cheongyu, who had been waiting outside, bowed respectfully.

There was no trace left of the boy he had once been. He had grown into a fine young man, and faint waves of Spiritual Power comparable to the late Qi Refining Stage radiated from him.

“Good. Let's go.”

Jegyeong took a habitual swallow of Spirit Wine and headed toward the pier with Han Cheongyu.

A large ship bearing the flag of the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association was moored at the tiny pier, which looked as though it would be full with just three or four ships.

“Greetings, Dragon Lord!”

The Spirit Talisman Merchant Association cultivators waiting outside all bowed toward Jegyeong at once.

Footnotes:

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