WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Episode 16: Chance, Fate, and Destiny (1)

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It was a beautiful snowfield.

No matter where he looked, there was nothing but white snow. Pure white stretched endlessly before him.

The earth, the plants, even the mountains and rivers all seemed buried beneath snow.

Sunlight poured down from above, and wherever the rays touched, the snow’s surface glimmered with a soft silver sheen.

Ise had never seen a snowfield spread so vast in all his life.

After his first impression of beauty came a cold so severe it was hard to comprehend.

Whenever the wind blew, his bones ached and his body trembled.

Even when he breathed in, he could feel the cold piercing the lungs that had become spirit organs.

Normally, a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator could easily drive off any ordinary chill with the spiritual energy in their dantian.

Most of their body had also been reconstructed with spiritual energy, so they were not easily affected by heat or cold.

Yet the cold digging into Ise’s skin was on another level.

‘A cultivator can feel this cold?’

He first used the Fire-Release Art to warm the air around him with flames.

At this rate, he might earn the disgraceful title of the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator who froze to death.

Ise also realized something else and let out a faint sigh.

‘The heaven-and-earth spiritual energy is thin.’

There was barely any flow of spiritual energy, as though he stood in an ordinary city where mortals lived.

A hollow laugh escaped him.

His breath came out as white mist and scattered through the air.

Ise rode the Dream-Saving Cloud into the sky.

He wanted to get a look at the surrounding terrain first.

As he rose higher, his view widened.

Yet all he could see across that vast horizon was a snowfield.

Ise stretched out his hand and raised a wide Earth Wall with an earth-element spell.

The entire space where the teleportation formation had stood was lifted high into the air.

The terrain was so indistinguishable that he needed a marker he could spot from far away when he returned.

‘Any ordinary marker would be buried in snow.’

The earth-shaking rumble startled wild animals hidden beneath the snow, sending them racing out.

Every one of them was covered in thick fur.

Ise watched them for a moment with an envious gaze, then shook his head.

It would be embarrassing for a Daoist to commit needless slaughter just because he was cold.

After considering which way to go, he headed south.

It was common sense that it grew colder the farther north one went.

If people lived here, they would surely seek out somewhere even slightly warmer.

Whoosh.

The flying cloud began cutting through the air.

He did not get far before he had to lower his altitude.

Even when he floated only a little above the ground, the cutting wind grew steadily fiercer.

Then again, flying around on a cloud while shooting fire from his hands would make him look like a madman.

In the end, he lowered his altitude and moved as slowly as possible while driving away the cold.

‘Qi Condensation Realm cultivators wouldn’t be able to move at all in this kind of cold.’

A body that had not undergone rebirth and transformation would not last even two hours.

It was strange enough that people could live in a place like this.

Could the teleportation formation have malfunctioned and dropped him in an uninhabited land?

It was a reasonable suspicion.

Fortunately, the scenery gradually changed as he continued flying.

The snowfield slowly began to take on different colors.

There was still no vegetation, but he occasionally saw brown earth beneath the snow.

Ise continued onward.

After three days, coniferous forests came into view.

The bitter cold remained, but it was no longer severe enough that he had to constantly drive it away.

When daytime came, a group of demons slowly creeping out caught his divine sense.

Several dozen were crossing the snowfield in a pack.

They were demons he had never seen before.

They had human bodies that looked as though they wore thick fur coats, monkey-like faces, and sharp claws on both hands.

Ise lowered the flying cloud and approached the pack.

Then he stepped down from the Dream-Saving Cloud and landed lightly in the middle of them.

All the demons turned to look at him.

“Keek! Kkiik!”

The closest one bared its fangs and lunged at him.

Ise raised a hand and scattered Wind Blades from the Wind-Shattering Qi Art.

Dozens of blades of wind flew in every direction.

Slash, slash, slash.

The Wind Blades precisely severed the demons’ necks.

Dark red blood sprayed across the white snowfield all at once.

‘It works well in real combat.’

Its effect was like setting off the Needle-Launching Armor, and Ise was satisfied.

There seemed to be no better spell for dealing with a large number of weak enemies.

He chose the largest demon from the pack and began butchering it.

After cleaning up the hide and wrapping it over his outer robe, the cold piercing his skin eased considerably.

“Much better.”

Ise looked at the frozen corpse after its fur had been stripped away.

Was it a demon beast?

It had a monkey’s face, so it probably was.

He roasted the remaining meat whole on the spot.

He wanted to warm himself from the inside.

Ise opened his mouth wide and took a bite, only to spit the meat right back out.

The furred monkey demon beast’s meat tasted absolutely awful.

“That ruined my appetite.”

Even if it were made into immortal cuisine, its foul stench seemed impossible to remove.

* * *

He continued south for several more days.

At some point, heaven-and-earth spiritual energy began to flow little by little.

Its concentration was lower than on the Eastern Continent, but there was at least enough to get his bearings.

Finding cultivators was simple.

Cultivators gathered where heaven-and-earth spiritual energy gathered.

Just as fish appeared where water pooled, and moths flocked where flames rose.

Sure enough, a massive shadow came into view beyond the snowfield.

Something darker rose above the white landscape.

As he approached, its identity became clear.

It was a makeshift wall reinforced with earth and metal elements.

Ise cautiously approached the wall and climbed onto it.

A city spread out beyond it.

The first human settlement he had encountered on the Northern Continent.

It was too small to call a metropolis, yet too large to call a fortress. Its scale fell somewhere between the two.

There was no city gate, though. No guards watched the wall either.

Something else was strange.

The cold wrapping around his entire body vanished the moment he set foot on the wall.

Instead, a warmth almost like a gentle spring breeze touched his skin.

Was there a formation covering the entire city?

Ise fell silent for a moment as he judged its scale, then gave a brief exclamation of admiration.

A formation of this size would have been difficult even for the Great Exorcist Order or the Pill Altar Sect to establish on the Eastern Continent.

Ise quickly organized his plan in his mind.

The final volume of the Two Principles Return-to-Origin Art.

Since it was a cultivation manual, at least a few cultivators on the Northern Continent must have heard of it.

But it was a sealed cultivation method whose nature no one knew, so it had likely been treated as a useless curiosity. As time passed, it might have lost even that value.

In the worst case, it could be lying around as an ornament in some remote household.

In the end, he had two options for finding the Two Principles Return-to-Origin Art.

First, search every secret-manual bookshop on the Northern Continent.

Second, find high-ranking cultivators who might know of an item from three hundred years ago and ask them directly.

The latter would be faster, but an outsider could not simply approach great cultivators without warning.

‘...I can only hope the great cultivators of this continent are people I can reason with.’

He took out the Spirit-Veiling Talisman and concealed his internal qi.

Then he lightly jumped down at the nearest point inside the wall.

Although the temperature was much warmer than outside the formation, the people here still dressed heavily.

On the Eastern Continent, people usually covered themselves in cloth or silk.

Almost everyone here, however, wore thick fur garments.

‘Mortals and cultivators mix naturally here.’

Among the people on the streets, there was roughly one cultivator for every three mortals.

Perhaps the harsh environment limited the number of places fit for habitation, and those poor conditions had instead made the mortals’ turbid qi thinner.

“Can’t you keep your head straight?”

The sound of someone being beaten came from somewhere nearby.

A cultivator was roughing up a mortal.

Looking closer, mortals were treated almost like livestock.

Most walked with their heads and backs bowed deeply, afraid they might even meet a cultivator’s eyes.

Mortals being beaten by cultivators on the street were not uncommon. Others carried cultivators in shoulder chairs, seats carried like palanquins, as though they were oxen or horses.

Ise did not intervene.

If this was the culture here, he intended to respect it for now.

“Excuse me.”

He stopped a mortal to ask a question, but the moment he spoke, the mortal immediately threw themself flat on the ground, knelt, and trembled violently.

“I-I'm sorry. Please spare me...”

They kept begging for their life without even saying what they were sorry for. They were in no state to answer questions.

Left with no choice, Ise spoke to a nearby second-star Qi Condensation Realm cultivator.

“Fellow Daoist. May I ask something?”

It felt awkward to speak so politely to an early Qi Condensation Realm cultivator, but there was no need to reveal his realm.

At least not until he became familiar with this place.

The cultivator turned at once, their face tense and wary, then frowned deeply.

“What are you? A mortal? A mortal dares raise their head and speak to me? What the hell is wrong with you?”

It seemed the Spirit-Veiling Talisman had caused a misunderstanding. Apparently, mortals here were not even allowed to address cultivators freely.

Whoosh.

Still, even so, if that fist infused with spiritual energy struck a mortal, their head would burst and they would die.

Ise lightly caught the incoming fist.

It seemed cultivators here had dunked their Dao hearts in rice soup and swallowed them whole.

Come to think of it, a bowl of hot rice soup would be perfect in this weather.

“You’ve got a bad habit of using your hands.”

The cultivator could not move at all, and their face turned red.

Then they realized that Ise was not a mortal and looked flustered.

“How... D-don’t tell me you’re a cultivator?”

“I have my reasons for concealing my internal qi. Can we talk now?”

“How can I trust someone who hid their realm before approaching me...?”

The cultivator remained wary and looked around.

They seemed to be searching for someone nearby to call for help.

Before the misunderstanding grew worse, Ise released their fist and watched as the cultivator backed away.

“Then I’ll ask just one thing.”

“...Speak.”

“Are there any Core Formation Realm great cultivators in this city?”

As he asked, Ise used the Mind-Reading Art and wrapped the cultivator in it.

“What kind of ridiculous question is that? I thought your face looked unfamiliar, but are you an outsider?”

The thoughts that surfaced in the cultivator’s mind were a denial. There were no Core Formation Realm cultivators here.

“So there aren’t any?”

Ise immediately dispelled the Spirit-Veiling Talisman’s concealment and opened the spiritual energy of his Dharma-Flower Dantian.

The spiritual pressure of a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator immediately bore down on the other cultivator.

“...!”

An urge to scream filled the cultivator’s face.

Cold sweat ran down their skin, and their hands and feet began to tremble.

“F-F-F-Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator...”

Why were they making such a fuss?

Ise tilted his head and asked,

“Do you feel like talking now?”

“Please spare me, Senior!”

The cultivator immediately threw themself down with their head lowered.

They were far more thoroughly trained in hierarchy and manners than Ise had expected.

Ise kept that thought to himself.

Footnotes:

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