WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Episode 20: Die Standing, Never Bow (5)

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Before Ise could react, corporeal ghosts spread in every direction, forming a curtain like a warding barrier.

This had to be the Ghost Prison he had heard about somewhere before.

Ise immediately launched Wind Blades at the curtain, but it did not so much as tremble.

The entire curtain was a massive spell formed from primordial qi.

At the same time, the divine sense of a great demonic cultivator crashed down upon him from above.

He had called them ghost jars.

Judging by that disgusting phrase about pickling souls, this had to be the person who had built and operated the Essence-Refining House.

A Core Formation Realm great demonic cultivator who ran the Essence-Refining House...

An early Core Formation Realm Supreme Elder, said to have retired from active duty and merely awaited death.

There was no doubt. It was Ghost Lord Ancestor, the master of spirit arts.

‘Why hadn’t a Core Formation Realm great demonic cultivator joined the war?’

This was a war where every scrap of strength should have mattered.

Before Ise could finish wondering, an aged monster slowly appeared out of thin air.

His body was so thin and frail that it would not have been surprising if he dropped dead on the spot.

The ancestor looked Ise over, then clicked his tongue.

“I was already furious at being treated like some old relic shoved into the back room... but I never expected a little rat like you to turn the valley upside down. Thanks to you, I’ve lost all face. How do you intend to make up for that?”

A piercing gaze bored into him.

“I don’t care about the others, but I cannot let the one who interfered with my ghost jars go.”

Black smoke seemed to rise from the aged monster’s eyes.

“...Wait.”

His irritated gaze gradually filled with interest.

“What an amusing little thing. You have a very strange body. I’ll make you my test subject.”

Ise gripped the Black Phosphorus Axe he had taken from his Cosmos Pouch.

Before considering whether escape was possible, the clear answer was that he should turn back now.

He was poorly matched against spirit arts, and above all, there was an undeniable gap between their realms.

Yet he did not feel like retreating.

He did not know how much longer the old monster would live, but if he let him survive, the filthy legacy of the Essence-Draining Ghost-Demon Valley would continue.

This was not a decision driven by emotion.

He could not always fight only opponents at the same realm, opponents he knew he could defeat.

If he had to experience cross-realm combat for himself someday, the enemy before him could not have been more suitable.

Late Foundation Establishment Realm and early Core Formation Realm. It was a major realm boundary, but ultimately only one wall.

An old, exhausted enemy.

A clear reason to fight burning within him.

There could be no better opponent for his first cross-realm battle.

As for their unfavorable compatibility, he would trust the energy he had obtained in the Dark Heaven Secret Realm as his final safeguard.

He did not know its exact origin, but one thing was certain. It had wrapped around and protected his soul.

He raised the Black Phosphorus Axe.

Seeing that Ise had no intention of surrendering, Ghost Lord Ancestor curled his lips in a mocking smile and waved a hand.

Skulls wreathed in black smoke flew toward him in a swarm.

Ise sensed the condensed primordial qi within each skull and slipped between them with Tailwind Step.

When the skulls struck the ground, the earth melted away, leaving black holes behind.

He immediately charged toward Ghost Lord Ancestor.

There were three differences between early Core Formation Realm and late Foundation Establishment Realm.

The reach of divine sense and the absolute quantity of internal qi.

Whether one could wield primordial qi.

And the deficiency of the soul.

His absolute quantity of internal qi was woefully lacking. The only hopeful point was that Ghost Lord Ancestor was expending a considerable amount to maintain the curtain.

As for primordial qi, Ise could wield it too. His was especially aggressive and destructive.

He did not know what the deficiency of the soul meant, but it did not seem like something that directly affected this battle.

As Ise leaped, the Dream-Saving Cloud supported him beneath his feet.

He flew like the wind and swung the Black Phosphorus Axe at the aged monster.

He had calculated that a slender body that looked as though it had never undergone Body Tempering would struggle to react to such speed.

But the aged monster’s body turned into black smoke the moment the hatchet struck.

It was not an illusion.

He had literally turned his body into black mist through a spell.

Rustle.

The old monster appeared behind him and thrust a finger toward Ise’s Dharma-Flower Dantian.

Ise instinctively twisted away, but the fingertip he failed to evade completely pierced his heart.

Spitting blood, Ise turned and swung his hatchet.

The old monster’s body turned into black mist and vanished once more.

Ise surrounded himself with pillars of fire to form a wall, then used Metal Body Art to replace his heart.

The hole in his body filled with metal.

Ghost Lord Ancestor cackled as if this were a game, then flicked his robes. Skulls came raining down.

They fell across the ground like grains of rice, regenerated their bodies, and rose with a clattering rattle.

Clack, clack, clack!

Ise unleashed a barrage of Wind Blades, sweeping away the skeletons in one stroke.

A massive crescent of primordial qi formed by Ghost Lord Ancestor immediately flew diagonally at him.

The ground split with a roaring impact.

‘That power is...’

A deep ravine formed in the snow-covered ground.

The spell did not end there.

He barely avoided the strike, but remnants of black primordial qi stretched from the ravine in either direction like tree roots.

Even the ground beneath his feet crumbled away. Ise poured internal qi into the Golden-Needle Ring and barely withstood the remnants.

‘He won’t give me a moment to breathe.’

Attacks powerful enough to muddle his mind kept coming, while another spell was already taking shape in the old monster’s hands.

An immense mass of primordial qi gathered with crushing force.

It was large enough to cover everything within the warding barrier.

‘I can’t avoid this.’

Faced with an attack too large to evade or block, Ise hurriedly took an Origin-Defense Talisman from his storage pouch and tore it apart.

The primordial qi that had been about to crush his body disappeared when it struck a round protective barrier.

He had used the only Origin-Defense Talisman he possessed, but Ghost Lord Ancestor’s expression remained utterly calm.

If anything, he looked pleased.

“I’ve changed my mind.”

Ghost Lord Ancestor paused his attacks, narrowed his eyes, and looked at Ise.

“Not as a living test subject. I will take you as my disciple.”

Ise chose the most fitting insult he had picked up after entering Demon Valley City.

“Dogs should be the ones barking.”

“Kahahah! I’ll ask only once more. My life is nearly over anyway, so I’ll pass everything I have on to you. What do you say?”

“Die quietly, old monster.”

“What a pity.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, relentless spells descended upon Ise.

Skulls wreathed in black ghost fire poured forth without end, while the ancestor’s primordial qi rained down between them.

No matter how quickly he moved to escape, the skulls stubbornly pursued him to the end.

Like hunting hounds tracking prey, they snapped at his heels.

In the end, Ise had no choice but to pour an enormous amount of internal qi into the Golden-Needle Ring to withstand them.

Even then, he could not block everything.

Holes opened one after another across his body, and cold metal filled each wound.

His arms, sides, thighs, jaw, and shoulders.

He had barely protected his head, but it was difficult to find anywhere on him that remained intact.

When continuing the battle became nearly impossible, Ise took out a Regeneration Pellet and tossed it into his mouth.

Primordial qi slipped through an opening and severed his arm once again.

‘The cost is worse than the benefit.’

He had consumed a Regeneration Pellet, yet his injuries had only grown worse.

His metal replacement arm twitched as Ise raised his heavy gaze toward the aged monster.

* * *

His internal qi dried up quickly.

At some point, it had begun overflowing like seawater, and he had thought he would never lose a battle because he lacked internal qi.

He had been wrong.

The gap across a major realm boundary was far greater than he had imagined.

It had been a long time since he had felt so completely crushed by spells alone.

He was waiting for the one moment he could exploit an opening, but it felt as though his internal qi would run dry before then.

He could not hold out much longer.

Ise briefly considered the Escape Talisman in his storage pouch, then looked once more at the aged monster.

‘It’s about time to finish this.’

After the prolonged battle, he admitted defeat.

He had used every means at his disposal except primordial qi and the energy of the Dark Heaven Secret Realm, yet he could not overcome the major realm boundary.

Unless he could draw out this enemy’s carelessness, he had no chance of winning.

Still, everything remained within his calculations.

Ise himself had never imagined he could lose to a Qi Condensation Realm cultivator. This enemy would surely think the same of him.

When Ise began panting with exhaustion and his movements slowed, boredom appeared on the ancestor’s face. He began preparing a new spell.

Hummm. Ghost Wail echoed sinisterly through the air.

‘...This is different from his attacks so far.’

These were not corporeal ghosts like the first spell.

Ise’s gaze darkened.

‘He doesn’t intend to kill me.’

Then Ghost Lord Ancestor would surely target his soul at least once and use a mind-control spell.

He wanted to subdue Ise alive and make him his own, not kill him.

‘Is this really the right approach?’

Confronted with the foul ghost qi radiating from the spell, he could not help doubting whether his strategy was truly safe to carry out.

But he had no hope of winning if he only fled, defended himself, and consumed internal qi.

He could not narrow the gap of a major realm boundary without taking a gamble.

The old monster did not give him time to hesitate.

Ghost qi shot toward him.

Ise swung his hatchet at the black energy rushing at him.

He knew he could not block it, but he needed it to look like he had given the strike everything he had.

The hatchet cut through empty air, and the black energy was drawn directly into Ise’s body.

A groan escaped him.

A cold, sinister hand burrowed to the depths of his consciousness, trying to bind his soul.

An ordinary cultivator would have already gone blank-eyed and become the aged monster’s puppet.

But the energy of the Dark Heaven Secret Realm wrapped around Ise’s soul emerged again, silently but stubbornly pushing that hand away.

Ise clenched his teeth and steadied his mind.

He let his eyes go unfocused, lowered his head, and dropped his hatchet as if all strength had left him.

Ghost Lord Ancestor watched with a cackle. Once he confirmed that the spell had worked, he slowly floated closer.

“What a truly fascinating creature.”

Could this be the final fortuitous encounter that would continue his path to longevity, a path he had thought was already over?

Uncontrollable greed rose in the old monster’s eyes.

That greed shattered the schemes he had honed over a lifetime in an instant.

Just as Ghost Lord Ancestor reached out toward Ise, the limp hand at Ise’s side shot forward like lightning.

His primordial qi, concealed to the very end without revealing even the slightest trace.

His hand filled with primordial qi pierced the ancestor’s body and seized the Golden Core within.

“What?!”

Before Ghost Lord Ancestor could react, Ise detonated the primordial qi and shattered it.

The next instant, his other hand snapped the old monster’s neck.

He pulled the hatchet toward him, cut through the broken neck, and destroyed even the remnants of the Golden Core.

Still uneasy, he was about to use Wind Blades to tear the aged monster’s body apart.

Whoosh!

A fierce gale hurled Ise away.

Wind full of ghost qi continued to hum around him.

The battle was not over.

The scattered ghosts instantly gathered as one.

Hundreds of resentful souls spiraled together, and a new Golden Core formed at their center.

Ghost Lord Ancestor’s severed neck regenerated as though nothing had happened.

The aged monster bent his neck repeatedly from side to side, as if uncomfortable.

Ise briefly lamented.

“...You’re a monster.”

His Golden Core had shattered and his neck had been severed, yet he still would not die.

The sight drained both Ise’s strength and his will.

“What was that just now?!”

Ghost Lord Ancestor’s voice was thick with wariness, apparently greatly startled by Ise’s trick.

“Primordial qi? How did you keep your mind intact?”

The aged monster’s eyes rolled wildly as though they might pop from their sockets.

The expression was even more grotesque because of the glaring eyes shifting beneath his dry skin.

What radiated from Ghost Lord Ancestor was unmistakable killing intent.

The realization that the little rat before him was not helpless prey made him decide that, test subject or not, he needed to kill Ise with one strike.

Even as helplessness gnawed at his mind, Ise straightened his stance.

At least he had learned one fortunate thing. The old monster could be injured.

Compared to before his Golden Core was destroyed, the aura he gave off was not even half as strong.

Ise forged primordial qi and charged.

Dragging things out would only disadvantage him as his internal qi continued to dry up.

Then he had no choice but to clash with everything he had.

Ghost Lord Ancestor also began gathering a tremendous amount of primordial qi, as though he would allow neither evasion nor defense.

He had finally acknowledged Ise as a threat.

Advancing through the cutting wind, Ise suddenly recalled Order Lord Haeil’s teachings.

“The best defense available to you is a stronger attack. You must be able to cut through your opponent’s primordial qi if you want to protect your own body.”

He even remembered the warning Haeil had added with concern.

“If you rely on power you haven’t mastered, it’ll kill you.”

Had he mastered his power?

The answer did not come easily.

But if he asked whether he had any other choice, he could not answer that either.

A colossal mass of primordial qi came crashing down at Ise.

It was the ancestor’s final strike, wringing out every bit of strength he had left.

Ise thrust the hatchet filled with primordial qi straight ahead to cleave through that enormous force.

The two masses of primordial qi collided.

Ise’s primordial qi split the ancestor’s primordial qi down the middle and drove forward.

He stepped through the gap in the divided primordial qi, moving toward the newly formed Golden Core.

The backlash tore away his skin, and dark red blood burst from every opening in his body.

Still, he reached it.

The Black Phosphorus Axe struck the old monster’s head and split his body in a straight line from top to bottom.

His aged body separated into two halves.

Ghost Lord Ancestor’s divided face still showed complete disbelief.

Huff. Huff.

Ise kept taking ragged breaths.

Not a trace of internal qi remained in his body.

The weakness from his emptied Dharma-Flower Dantian brought him to his knees.

‘If he comes back to life one more time, this will be my grave.’

He waited in silence, repeatedly praying for the old monster to remain dead and disappear.

There was no sign of resurrection.

The scattered ghosts showed no indication of gathering again.

After losing his Golden Core twice, the old monster no longer had the strength even to put his body back together.

Only then did Ise draw a long breath.

After catching his breath and drawing in heaven-and-earth spiritual energy to restore his internal qi, Ise performed a spirit-sending rite on the ancestor’s corpse.

A vast amount of demonic qi rushed into him like water flowing into a drain.

There was enough spiritual energy and demonic qi to break through to Core Formation.

The demonic qi overflowed so greatly that balancing it would be difficult.

He placed the lucky-pouch-shaped storage pouch left behind by the aged monster into his Cosmos Pouch, then walked away from the burning Demon Valley City.

There was one final task he had to complete in the Northern Continent.

* * *

Ise headed directly to the Yun Clan and cut down its cultivators.

A killing tribulation, not for himself but for others, accumulated within him.

Ise brought vengeance to the one who had first called himself Ise’s subordinate, then sent Cheongun a Message Talisman.

Cheongun, who had been fighting in Demon Valley City, arrived soon afterward.

Covered in blood, Cheongun ran over, breathing heavily.

“You’re safe.”

After hesitating for a moment, he added, “About Ryu Seonghan... I’m sorry.”

“Just accept it.”

“...”

Having once chosen death over life himself, Ise had to respect the decision Ryu Seonghan had found the courage to make.

“It was his choice. He fulfilled his revenge with his own hands, so it deserves praise.”

The words sounded cold, but Cheongun thought that even this was like Ise.

“...What about the war?”

“It’s one-sided.”

Ise took Ryu Seonghan’s storage pouch from his clothes and held it out to Cheongun.

“There should be members of the Ryu Clan left in Demon Valley City. If you find any with the aptitude to become cultivators, take them in and look after them. Give this to them someday.”

Cheongun easily recognized it as a request from a friend.

He put away the storage pouch and asked Ise, “We’ll see each other again, right?”

“Next time, you should come visit the Eastern Continent.”

“...Then I need to reach the Core Formation Realm as soon as possible.”

Ise nodded, then slowly turned away.

Only now did the suffocating weight pressing down on one corner of his heart seem to dissolve.

Among cultivators who desperately searched for ways to survive and piled up endless reasons to keep living, Ryu Seonghan had proudly chosen the place where he would die.

Through him, Ise had learned that how one died mattered as much as how one lived.

Rather than clinging to his feelings about Ryu Seonghan, he engraved the path Ryu Seonghan had shown him into his Dao heart.

With that, he tied off their karmic connection.

It was time to end his long journey abroad.

Let’s go back.

Back to the homeland he missed so dearly.

Footnotes:

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