WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 19: Essence-Absorbing Demon Valley (10)
──────
“May this old woman speak?”
A familiar, gentle voice came from behind him.
He had wondered who would approach without permission, but it was the old woman he had seen in the Village of the Corrupted.
She walked over and gave Ise a deep bow.
“With your permission, I will speak.”
The old woman still wore a green armband.
Yet the rot disease had vanished without a trace.
Even the spiritual root that had disappeared was now plainly visible again.
“You. The rot disease...”
Jin Yeonhwa answered.
“It is only an illusion.”
She made a small gesture.
The old woman's body began to blacken and rot once more.
Her healthy flesh festered, her clear spiritual root disappeared, and a foul stench filled the air.
With another gesture, the rot disease vanished as though it had been washed away.
As if every symptom had been nothing more than an illusion.
“It is a demonic art called the Green Plague Soul-Misleading Illusion Art. It is mostly used for intimidation and extortion, though.”
“Explain.”
As Ise spoke, he used the Mind-Reading Art on the old woman. She lowered her head deeply and began.
“Cultivator Jin does not plunder us. She has gathered and protected the mortals and weak people who would become targets for demonic beasts in District 4.”
“Protected them...?”
“Yes. Mortal slaves are precious here. They are the easiest and nearly the only means for demonic cultivators to raise their realms. So children born here, elderly mortals, and crippled demonic cultivators alike cannot hope to live out their natural lives.”
Ise's expression slowly hardened.
“Cultivator Jin disguised them as plague victims, then set aside a place for them to live, isolated from the demonic beasts. Elder, the suspicion you harbored... was a misunderstanding.”
Outwardly, it was a den of horrific plague, but no one within it was casually seized and devoured.
The demonic beasts spat at the place and stayed away because they considered it filthy. As a result, it had become the safest shelter in District 4.
Ise was confused.
Why would a demonic cultivator, someone no one should associate with, show compassion and protect others?
It felt as though the common sense he had relied on was shattering and changing, enough to leave him briefly dizzy.
The old woman's words did not end there.
“Cultivator Jin also greatly reduced needless killing in District 4 by introducing the culture of Demon-Mind Armbands.”
“So that was your work as well.”
Jin Yeonhwa merely smiled faintly.
“...Why go that far? There is nothing in it for you.”
“Well.”
Jin Yeonhwa paused.
“If I must give a reason... they simply stayed on my mind.”
Everything revealed by the Mind-Reading Art was true.
Without the art, it was a story he could never have believed.
The idea that even this was an act meant to deceive him felt more plausible.
Ise stood speechless for a long time before speaking to Jin Yeonhwa.
“Did you have to choose that method? A life that does not feel like living.”
Realizing he sounded as though he were forcing himself to find fault, his voice grew quieter.
“There is no such thing as a life that is not truly a life. There is only life and death.”
“......”
“They are simply doing everything they can to live. Even if they must beg for food and endure a stinking pit, being alive gives their lives meaning.”
“You could make them a better place to live.”
“A better place... Perhaps. It may be possible one day, though it is impossible while I remain the weakest among District 4's powerful figures. Unless you remove the others for me.”
Jin Yeonhwa's voice was calm.
Her eyes gleamed with a chilling brightness.
“I heard ordinary mortals live in District 3. Why not consider sending them there?”
“Mortals with no connections would only become sacrifices for the Essence-Draining Ghost Art if they went inward.”
He could not think of anything else to say in response.
After falling silent for a moment, he finally chose his words with difficulty.
“I apologize for misunderstanding and insulting you.”
“No. Your words were not wrong.”
Jin Yeonhwa shook her head.
“I, too, tried to eliminate them by using wandering cultivators, and three people I bore no grudge against died because of it. I am not so different from the other demonic beasts.”
Ise regarded her with mixed emotions.
Until now, he had thought every demonic cultivator deserved to die.
Yet even within that mire, there were people with convictions that could be called a Dao heart.
He did not think what he had done until now was wrong. Still, he was ashamed of how lacking his own Dao heart was.
Jin Yeonhwa bowed politely. Sohyang and the old woman beside her went so far as to kneel and prostrate themselves.
“Please lend us your strength.”
There were demonic cultivators who had learned demonic arts for no reason other than being born here.
Did people with no choices truly bear a sin worthy of condemnation?
It was not a question he could answer easily.
He had sworn to wipe out every last demon seed in revenge.
Had the blade of that vow been pointed in the wrong direction because of his stubbornness?
Ise forced the thought aside.
It was not a question he could answer right away.
At last, he spoke.
“In exchange for the Heart Art, I'll eliminate the remaining three as well.”
The Heart Art manual was already in Jin Yeonhwa's hands.
If removing those three was the price, it was not a losing deal.
Yes. It was only a deal. And if it was a deal, the accounts had to be exact.
“As compensation for deceiving and using me, make it one thousand Spiritual Stones. I reduced it as a gesture of apology.”
“Thank you for your generosity.”
Without even considering it, Jin Yeonhwa immediately offered the Spiritual Stones.
Ise put them into his storage pouch and asked.
“Removing them will not bring the Valley's wrath down on us, will it?”
“No. Why would they concern themselves with mere independent cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Realm?”
“What if they have connections, like you?”
“Gyeon Donu has intelligence comparable to that of a cow among dogs, pigs, and cattle. Gyeon Donu is not called Ox Head for nothing. The Bloodsucking Maniac is too arrogant to bow to anyone. And Cheon Uibaek was expelled from the Valley after committing a crime.”
In other words, there would be no repercussions even if all three died.
“Is there a way to draw the remaining three into District 5 at the same time?”
“...Surely you do not intend to settle this all at once?”
“That would be cleaner. If they panic and hide, things will become troublesome.”
“That is impossible. Even if you defeated Wang Gyu, facing all three at once is...”
“I'll decide how to face them.”
“......”
At his firm answer, Jin Yeonhwa finally stepped back.
“I will find a way. But why must it be District 5?”
“District 4 has a rule against killing.”
“...You intended to follow it?”
“Of course. Rules exist to be followed.”
Jin Yeonhwa stared at him for a moment, then let out a quiet laugh.
“You are an unusual person.”
She added softly, “It will be difficult to arrange a gathering that brings all three to District 5 at once. Still, we may be able to lure Cheon Uibaek, who is hiding in District 5, into District 4.”
“Is the ban on killing only for show?”
“Not quite. It is simply possible to clean up afterward. You bribe the Valley appropriately.”
“...”
“The demonic beasts of Demon Valley City call that common sense.”
Ise found himself thinking about the word “common sense” once again.
“One last question.”
“Yes.”
“Your plan to hand over a list without your name had far more holes than your other decisions. Why consider a method that would be exposed so quickly if anyone cross-checked it?”
“You are underestimating yourself with that question.”
Ise tilted his head.
“First, I did not think you could defeat Wang Gyu. I thought it would be fortunate if you could put even a dent in his fighting strength. Then the others would rush at him ravenously, like hungry ghosts.”
The others would hunt an injured Wang Gyu.
Then more injured rulers would appear, like fish caught one after another on the same line.
She had intended for both sides to wear each other down.
“Second, I did not expect you to come this far based on that one clue. Lastly, I did not expect you to suspect the old woman. Demonic beasts usually fall into three types.”
Ignorant and vicious.
Mean and crafty.
Or upright but innocent.
Jin Yeonhwa counted them off on her fingers.
“I judged you to be the third type. I never imagined that ‘feeling pity for a sick old person’ and ‘being suspicious’ could coexist.”
Jin Yeonhwa pursed her lips, then slowly ran her index finger from her temple to her chin before continuing.
“I have never seen a demonic beast like you. How should I put it... You are like a righteous cultivator.”
Ise fell silent at her sharp observation.
* * *
After returning to his quarters, Ise sat cross-legged and settled his muddled thoughts through meditation, as though cleaning them out.
He quietly retraced the path he had walked.
Fortunately, even though his opponents had been demonic cultivators, he had never committed a killing that went against his Dao heart.
He had always killed those who deserved death, and most had been acts of revenge.
Perhaps this, too, was part of the arrangement of the master who had taught him never to lose his center.
‘I miss them.’
Though his master was no longer by his side, those teachings remained, always guiding him along his path.
The faces of those bound to him by fate came to mind.
They were names that had always weighed heavily in a corner of his heart, even though he had tried not to speak of them since leaving.
The Three Peninsula Kingdoms under the Great Exorcist Order's protection were still places where rules and common sense held sway.
Of course, there were evil people everywhere.
The harsh customs of the cultivation world applied just as much to independent cultivators in the Three Peninsula Kingdoms.
Still, it was not a suffocating place where one had to stay tense even while taking a breath, like this place was.
When they encountered a marauder cultivator, they simply considered themselves unlucky. They did not blindly suspect every independent cultivator they saw of being one.
They might have pointed at him and called him a demon butcher, but there was still the warmth of human life there.
The nickname, “Eastern Land of Courtesy,” had been given by the Zheng Empire to mock the Great Exorcist Order and the Three Peninsula Kingdoms.
But Ise liked that mocking nickname.
He missed that place.
‘It is right in front of me, but I cannot grasp it.’
It seemed life as a wanderer did not suit him.
There was an old saying that a fox, when dying, turns its head toward the hill of its birth.
It was a day when he thought of the Eastern Continent and the Great Exorcist Order more than usual.
May the day he could return not be far away.
Ise quietly wished for it.
* * *
“Do you mean that, Cultivator Ryu Seonghan?”
Baek Gi, Sect Lord of the Tyrant Sword Sect, addressed Cheongun, the Lesser Defeated Sword who had come for an audience, and Ryu Seonghan of the Heavenly Ice Palace.
They had said they had something important to discuss, so Baek Gi had granted them an audience. What they reported was quite a spectacle.
What had happened to Ryu Seonghan and the Ryu Clan.
The secret of the Essence-Draining Ghost-Demon Valley, an act little different from rebellion carried out behind the Heavenly Ice Palace's back.
And a plan to expose them by following their trail.
“You intend to entangle the Essence-Draining Ghost-Demon Valley in this manner.”
“Yes. I speak in complete earnest, Sect Lord.”
“Reconsider. We have never met, but heed an elder's sincere advice.”
“Thank you for your concern. But my decision will not change.”
Baek Gi turned to Cheongun.
“Cheongun.”
“Yes, Sect Lord.”
“Stop Ryu Seonghan. Did you not say Ryu Seonghan was your close friend?”
“I tried my best to stop Ryu Seonghan, but I could not persuade them.”
“If I refuse, do you intend to take part on your own?”
“I gave my word, so I do not believe I have another choice.”
“Ha. You two little brats...”
The two already seemed determined.
It was not easy for a sword-wielder to turn away when a promising cultivator, who had reached the Foundation Establishment Realm near the age of fifty, pleaded so desperately for the greater good.
Besides, history offered no example of anyone being able to stop the stubbornness of an unfilial bastard of an heir one wanted to bury in snow, rather than cherish dearly.
Ryu Seonghan pressed their head to the ground once more.
“Please make your decision, so that we may uproot those treacherous people who deceive and mislead the Northern Continent.”
Most importantly, it was a plan that seemed entirely possible.
“Give me time to think.”
Baek Gi ran a hand through their snow-white hair.
It seemed Baek Gi had reached the age when retirement should begin to be considered.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
