WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 22: Hae Unchan (3)
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The greatest difference between the Soul-Controlling Art and the Mind-Reading Art was whether one could force the target to act.
With the Mind-Reading Art, the target only had to steel themself for death and keep their mouth shut.
The Soul-Controlling Art, however, could force them to speak even if a restriction would kill them the instant they revealed anything.
It was like gripping their very soul in one's hand. Their own will had no room to intervene.
Ise stared into the demonic cultivator's lifeless eyes.
“Name.”
At Ise's command, the demonic cultivator moved their lips and answered.
“Cha Ongyeol.”
“Affiliation.”
“Cheoryang Thunder Gate's Five Slayers Squad.”
“Do you have any restrictions placed on you?”
“I have restrictions placed on me from when I joined Cheoryang Thunder Gate.”
“Explain them in detail.”
The restrictions that flowed from the demonic cultivator's mouth were as follows.
Absolute obedience to the leadership's orders.
Never reveal classified information or allow outsiders to learn it.
Never leave one's assigned territory.
Violation would result in death by having one's head explode.
They were cruel shackles, fitting for a demonic sect that treated its members as disposable tools. Once someone stepped inside, there was nothing they could defy.
Still, even the most thorough restrictions had loopholes.
The only way to restrict everything was to kill the target and erase them entirely.
Ise did not take out the Contract-Severing Sword. He intended to save it for the most critical moment.
“From now on, when I ask something restricted by your restrictions, answer that it is a restricted question.”
“…Yes.”
“What are you doing here?”
“That is a restricted question.”
Ise did not ask further. He already knew what they were doing here.
He had not expected to gain much information.
What Ise truly wanted to know was the whereabouts of his friend and fellow entry disciple.
Since Hae Unchan held a position important enough to oversee an area, Ise judged that Foundation Establishment Realm demonic cultivators would at least be able to exchange basic messages.
“Do you know Hae Unchan?”
“…A defector from the Great Exorcist Order. A demonic cultivator who must be watched closely.”
“Tell me what restrictions are placed on him.”
“I do not know. However, I understand that traitors are placed under especially complex restrictions.”
“Where is he?”
“I do not know his exact location. I understand that he is currently carrying out a mission within Tabaro.”
“Can you send him a message?”
“Yes.”
His judgment had been correct.
Demonic cultivators required even closer coordination among themselves than cultivators did.
Of course, they would have prepared a means for Foundation Establishment Realm demonic cultivators to contact one another.
“Send him a message.”
In place of the armless demonic cultivator, Ise wrote, “There is an important matter to convey. Leave your companions, go somewhere secluded, and wait there.” He then placed the Message Talisman on the demonic cultivator's body.
The instant the demonic cultivator sent the message with divine sense, Ise's Black Phosphorus Axe flashed down like lightning and severed their neck.
He immediately mounted the Dream-Saving Cloud and chased after the message.
The Message Talisman was fast, but Ise attached another talisman to increase his flying spirit artifact's speed and pursued it at full speed.
Fearing he might lose it, he extended his divine sense as far as he could and did not lose track of the talisman's presence for even a moment.
It flew at a speed that would startle even birds, heading for northern Tabaro.
It entered the territory seized by Cheoryang Thunder Gate, a place called the Training Forest.
After confirming that the Message Talisman had descended to the ground, Ise used the Far-Sight Talisman from above to see whether anyone else was nearby.
‘Two Qi Condensation Realm demonic cultivators.’
As expected, Hae Unchan was not alone. He appeared to be under surveillance.
Hae Unchan, who had received the message, seemed to be explaining the situation to the demonic cultivators with him, but it was not going well.
Before matters became even more complicated, Ise began descending on the Dream-Saving Cloud.
* * *
‘Insolent bastards.’
Hae Unchan muttered under his breath as he looked at the two Qi Condensation Realm demonic cultivators following him.
His mission was to search for demons within Tabaro, capture them alive, and bring them into Gwisu Temple.
It was not work suited for a Foundation Establishment Realm demonic cultivator, but what bothered him more was the tails that followed him everywhere.
Two Qi Condensation Realm demonic cultivators.
They were not much help in a fight. The only reason they had been assigned to him was to watch him.
A defector from an orthodox sect, and from Cheoryang Thunder Gate's longtime enemy, the Great Exorcist Order.
It was only natural that he would not earn their trust easily, no matter how much time passed.
“Still, hunting those Great Exorcist Order bastards is pretty satisfying. Seeing those lofty bastards beg for their lives with tears and snot streaming down their faces feels great. You don't know that feeling yet, do you, Senior?”
Their cackling words, passed off as a joke, were nothing but an attempt to needle him.
He had not expected special treatment, but did they have to deliberately provoke him like this?
‘At least I should be grateful I managed to settle in safely.’
Thanks to spending over twenty years quietly, the hostile gazes directed at him had lessened. Even so, some of Cheoryang Thunder Gate's higher-ranking members still kept him in check.
The demonic cultivators before him were their lackeys.
Hae Unchan recalled the day he had knocked on Gwisu Temple's entrance.
The moment he met the infamous Bi Hyeongrang after pushing through hostile stares and suspicion.
‘It is quite rare for someone corrupted from the Great Exorcist Order to knock on this door.’
Bi Hyeongrang, the Ten Thousand Demons in Turmoil, smiled with his thread-thin eyes curved into crescents.
Or perhaps he had not been smiling.
His eyes were naturally curved, making his expression difficult to read.
His thin voice was an androgynous, beautiful monotone, and his skin was as white as Seolryeong's.
He did not look at all like the leader of the demonic cultivators who had thrown the Eastern Continent into uproar.
Yet after becoming a demonic cultivator himself and gaining a body that could sense demonic qi, Hae Unchan had clearly felt how foul and chilling the demonic qi radiating from that Core Formation Realm great demonic cultivator was.
After deciding to seek refuge with Cheoryang Thunder Gate, Hae Unchan gave the answer he had prepared and practiced countless times.
Bi Hyeongrang had surely been using the Mind-Reading Art on him.
To conceal the one thing he wanted hidden, Hae Unchan revealed every other truth.
‘The truth is, I didn't want to seek refuge here either.’
‘Oh?’
‘But isn’t it also true that I don’t have many choices?’
‘Doesn’t that mean you have some other motive?’
‘Yes. If possible, I'd like to take what I can gain and leave if I find a way to do so.’
‘This isn't a place one can come and go from with such a half-hearted mindset.’
‘…….’
‘You may have every scrap of information squeezed out of you and be discarded as an empty shell. Depending on what you do, you may never escape for the rest of your life. There is probably no hopeful future like the one you dream of.’
‘Then I suppose there is nothing to be done. I could not overcome my heart demon… It is simply my fate.’
‘Then struggle all you like. That should be entertaining too.’
At the time, Bi Hyeongrang had laughed brightly for a long while, as though something had amused him greatly.
Thankfully, that was the end of the interrogation.
He had come to live a life burdened by countless restrictions, but life continued nonetheless.
That was why he lived.
Hae Unchan ignored the Qi Condensation Realm demonic cultivators who kept taunting him.
They were only following the orders of a few Foundation Establishment Realm demonic cultivators from Cheoryang Thunder Gate who did not look kindly upon him.
He had no mental energy to waste on a pointless struggle.
Just then, a Message Talisman flew over.
- There is an important matter to convey. Leave your companions, go somewhere secluded, and wait there.
The message came from a demonic cultivator named Cha Ongyeol.
Hae Unchan had heard the name before, but he had no particular connection to them.
The handwriting seemed strangely familiar. He tilted his head, then spoke to the demonic cultivators.
“I'll go take care of something.”
“Number one or number two?”
“A message came from the sect. It seems they may be assigning me another mission.”
“Pfft, a solo mission for Senior? What nonsense are you talking about? If you're trying to pull something, you're underestimating us far too much. Hand it over. We'll send it to Gwisu Temple and confirm it.”
Even if he was under surveillance, there was still an entire major realm boundary between them.
Hae Unchan was about to call out their excessive insolence when divine senses collided for an instant, followed by a rush of wind.
The next moment, the two demonic cultivators' heads slid off at an angle and fell.
An ambush.
Just as Hae Unchan flinched and moved on reflex, a Voice-Transmission Art struck his mind.
- Don't run. I'll chase you to the ends of hell.
The person who landed before him was someone he was rather glad to see, though not in the way he had wanted for their reunion.
“Hae Unchan.”
Hae Unchan stared at Ise with a startled expression.
“…Ise.”
More than twenty years had passed since they last saw each other.
Ise, who seemed to be thinking the same thing, silently studied Hae Unchan's face.
“You're damn hard to find. I don't even know how many years it's been.”
They had last met inside the Dark Heaven Secret Realm, so it truly had been a long time.
Hae Unchan was unchanged.
Even after becoming a demonic cultivator, he was still handsome and imposing, and his clothes were as neat as ever.
At a glance, he looked like nothing more than a refined Daoist.
But the deep shadows beneath his eyes, his darkened, roughened skin, and the sinister demonic qi leaking from his body clearly revealed how much he had changed.
He had the same face and the same voice, yet the person standing before Ise felt like someone entirely different.
“You're a little late.”
Hae Unchan smiled faintly.
“I thought we'd meet again before long. I didn't expect it to take twenty years.”
Ise could not immediately continue.
What should he say first?
Hae Unchan had been the first friend Ise made after entering the world of immortal cultivation.
They had taken the entrance examination together and competed for first place.
Even when they were apart, they had remained aware of one another. In danger, they trusted each other enough to watch each other's backs.
Countless memories flashed through Ise's mind.
But no matter what he said, he would not receive a proper answer.
Too many restrictions covered Hae Unchan's body.
The questions that could receive answers would be limited as well.
Ise asked about the event he had least understood.
“Why did you kill the pursuit party?”
“I couldn't control my heart demon. When I came to… only their corpses remained.”
Hae Unchan added with a self-mocking expression.
“But even if I had been in my right mind, I don't know whether I would have gone along quietly. I couldn't give up immortal cultivation like this. At the very least, my end had to mean something.”
Ise's voice grew lower at his resolute words.
“Do you still feel that way?”
“Who knows.”
Hae Unchan smiled again.
“At least now that you came to find me yourself… I understand that this is where I end.”
He looked steadily at Ise.
“You already know why I succumbed to a heart demon, don't you?”
Ise did not answer.
“I'm sorry. I've made you feel indebted to me.”
“Change your mind, even now. Cheoryang Thunder Gate won't last much longer anyway.”
“You're as confident as ever. You may not know this, but demonic cultivators have no freedom to choose.”
“What if there is a way?”
Hae Unchan fell silent.
He stared at Ise for a moment, then let out a small laugh.
“That doesn't sound like you. You're even trying to bluff me.”
“…….”
“Even if there were a way, I've already accumulated far too much bad karma. Rather than become a mortal and live a few more decades before falling into the Bottomless Abyss, I'll stake everything on defeating you and continuing my immortal cultivation. Do you think I joined a demonic sect without even that much resolve?”
There was resignation in his voice, but his eyes were sincere.
It was a strangely relieved expression that only someone prepared to die could wear.
Hae Unchan wedged his storage pouch into a crack between rocks and set up a defensive formation over it.
His relaxed action, as though he believed Ise would never ambush him, made Ise frown.
“If you win, kill me and open this.”
Footnotes:
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