WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 22: Hae Unchan (4)
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Ise glanced over the storage pouch.
Being told to inspect it after killing him meant it held something that could not be revealed while Hae Unchan was alive.
Perhaps it even contained excuses for his choice.
‘...Looks like I'll have to beat some sense into him.’
As Hae Unchan raised his sword and pointed it at him, Ise drew up his internal qi.
In the past, the mere fact that someone had become a demonic cultivator would have been enough for Ise to kill them without giving them a chance, then perform a spirit-sending rite.
But his experiences in the Essence-Draining Ghost-Demon Valley had fundamentally changed how he viewed demonic cultivators.
Not every demonic cultivator had been born an evil fiend.
Some chose that path to survive. Some were pushed onto it. Others were born already standing upon it.
So first, he would capture Hae Unchan, beat him senseless, listen to his story, and try to understand.
If he still could not accept it afterward, then Hae Unchan could simply pay for the crime of daring to join the Cheoryang Thunder Gate.
Ise launched a Wind Blade in a surprise attack.
When Hae Unchan swung his sword, an azure torrent burst from its tip and surged into the air.
It felt different from the Gale-Water Illusion Art he had shown before.
The spell that had once felt fresh and cool had become sinister and savage.
Lightning wrapped around the thick, raging torrent.
Hae Unchan seemed to have modified his clan's secret cultivation method with the Cheoryang Thunder Gate's thunder arts, multiplying its power.
Part of the swirling torrent crushed Ise's Wind Blade.
Another part writhed like a dragon and lunged at Ise.
The water split into dozens of streams, closing in from every direction.
Each was sharp enough to cut through steel, and the demonic qi deepened by his transformation into a demonic cultivator had magnified their force several times over.
An ordinary Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator would have been shredded before they could respond.
In the middle of it all, Hae Unchan closed the distance and swung his sword.
Afterimages filled the air around him.
It was a feint, a ruse to attack in the east and strike in the west, but it was laughable.
Internal qi flowing from the Golden-Needle Ring instantly pushed back the streams of the Whirlpool Art. Then Ise's hatchet collided with Hae Unchan's sword.
The golden light of Adamantine Chain, sharpened to its limit, cut through Hae Unchan's sword.
Hae Unchan retreated with a startled expression. A violent pillar of water rose beneath Ise's feet, trying to throw him off balance.
Ise used Tailwind Step and closed the distance as if walking through the air. Without even using primordial qi, he cut off the arm holding Hae Unchan's broken sword hilt with cultivation power alone.
“...!”
The balance of power collapsed in an instant.
Hae Unchan's face froze.
Ise did not know how hard he had trained.
He did not know what feelings had kept him going, or what sort of life he had lived.
Still, it could not compare to enduring for twenty years at the edge of a cliff.
The number of Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators Ise had beheaded was enough to form a mountain.
He had even fought Ghost Lord Ancestor, an early Core Formation Realm cultivator, in a cross-realm battle.
The gap between them had already grown beyond repair.
Hae Unchan's limbs fell away without resistance.
Before he could even take out a Regeneration Pellet, Ise pinned his torso down with the flat of the Black Phosphorus Axe.
At the same time, he prepared the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner so he could seal Hae Unchan's demonic qi at any moment.
Then he took out the Contract-Severing Sword.
It was a Core Formation Realm treasure artifact he had taken from Ghost Lord Ancestor.
Ordinarily, a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator could not wield such an item, but Ise possessed primordial qi.
He poured primordial qi into the Contract-Severing Sword and slowly pressed it toward Hae Unchan's soul.
Hae Unchan squeezed his eyes shut.
He seemed to think his life would end at any moment.
Yet after a while, he realized he was still alive and cautiously opened his eyes.
Whatever had been pressing down on his soul had vanished as if it had never existed.
“There are two things binding you. One is the soul-binding contract.”
Ise sent out primordial qi, forcibly shattered the defensive formation, and pulled the storage pouch within into his hand.
His divine sense swept through its contents.
After confirming what was inside, Ise looked back at Hae Unchan.
It contained information about the warding formation around the divine artifact that protected Gwisu Temple.
Gwisu Temple's divine artifact deployed a warding barrier that prevented anyone who had not mastered a designated cultivation method from entering.
For the dokkaebi, the requirement was the Dokkaebi Shadow-Hunting Demonic Art.
Ise had no way of knowing which cultivation method the Cheoryang Thunder Gate had registered.
The moment any demonic cultivator tried to reveal it, that demonic cultivator's head would have exploded.
After discovering that secret, Hae Unchan had found a loophole in the soul-binding contract. He had searched for a way to pass the information on to Ise, the only person capable of learning both orthodox cultivation arts and demonic arts.
There were cultivation manuals in the storage pouch as well.
The final safeguard protecting the Cheoryang Thunder Gate had now been forcibly opened.
‘Rather than give up everything after becoming a demonic cultivator, he chose to become a blade aimed at the Great Exorcist Order's enemy.’
At last, Ise understood Hae Unchan's true feelings.
He understood why this foolishly soft-hearted man had made that choice.
Only after seeing Ise inspect the storage pouch without Hae Unchan's head exploding did Hae Unchan realize that the soul-binding contract had been lifted.
It was unbelievable.
“And the other is your heart demon. How does the Cheoryang Thunder Gate manage the heart demons of its demonic cultivators? With the Heart Art?”
“How do you know that?”
“Just answer.”
“...Medicinal pellets. You have to take one every month.”
“That sneaky, despicable method suits him perfectly.”
They used binding contracts to restrain the body, then lured people in with medicinal pellets that suppressed their heart demons and bound their minds.
The moment they stopped taking the pellets, their heart demons would return and run wild. A demonic cultivator had no choice but to cling to the Cheoryang Thunder Gate, dead or alive.
It was a method that treated people as less than beasts.
Ise held out a jade slip.
“What is this?”
“A Heart Art manual. Once you infuse it with demonic qi, you'll learn it automatically.”
“...”
“Promise to follow my instructions, and I'll give it to you. Both restraints binding you will be gone.”
He had just severed the soul-binding contract with the Contract-Severing Sword.
The only thing remaining was the heart demon. If Hae Unchan could control even that with the Heart Art, every chain binding him would be broken.
Hae Unchan stared silently at the jade slip for a long time. Then he slowly nodded.
Ise placed the jade slip on his torso.
“I know a place where demonic cultivators are still treated as people. At the very least, you won't live as prey there. You'll have opportunities no different from those given to cultivators.”
It was an option Ise never would have considered if not for everything he had seen and experienced in the Northern Continent.
Hae Unchan asked for an explanation, but instead of answering, Ise sent a Message Talisman to Haeil.
He explained the situation and asked permission to send Hae Unchan to the Northern Continent.
If Haeil refused and ordered him to escort Hae Unchan instead, Ise would do so.
Even if he were ordered to execute a traitor who had betrayed the Great Exorcist Order, he would obey.
He had no intention of acting as he pleased.
He was no longer an entry disciple, nor was he a child.
He was one of the prospective senior members preparing to take his place as a Hall Master within the order, supported by the Great Exorcist Order itself.
No matter what circumstances Hae Unchan had faced, no matter what feelings had led him to join the Cheoryang Thunder Gate, they could not take priority over the Great Exorcist Order's commands.
By now, Haeil should have received the message, but no reply came.
He must have had much to consider.
At last, a reply arrived.
- I leave it to your judgment.
Ise let out a breath of relief and put a Regeneration Pellet into Hae Unchan's mouth.
“Go to the Northern Continent.”
“The Northern Continent? You can't just suddenly tell me to...”
“Take this.”
Ise handed over the Black Ruler Haeil had given him, along with documents listing the location of the teleportation formation to the Northern Continent.
“In the Northern Continent, demonic cultivators and cultivators are not treated all that differently. People don't blindly reject someone just because they're a demonic cultivator. Demonic cultivators even gather together and build cities of their own. Start over there.”
Ise shared a few more pieces of knowledge from his own experiences, only what Hae Unchan absolutely needed to know.
Hae Unchan listened quietly, closed his eyes to think for a moment, then nodded.
“Thank you.”
“You'll have to wait about ten years for the teleportation formation to operate, so cultivate the Heart Art nearby until then. The Northern Continent is cold, so dress warmly.”
Who knew?
Perhaps the false sword cultivator Hae Unchan would become a true sword cultivator in the Northern Continent.
Ise considered giving him Cheongun's guarantor token too, but stopped himself.
He already owed Cheongun too much. He could not use Cheongun's name without permission.
“If you meet Cheongun of the Tyrant Sword Sect, you may tell him you're my friend.”
Instead, he decided to leave only a small thread of connection between them.
“If fate brings us together, we'll meet again. Stay healthy. Oh, and you owe me five thousand Spiritual Stones.”
“...?”
“The Regeneration Pellet, the Black Ruler, and the information. You're broke right now, so I'll put it down as a debt. I left out the value of your storage pouch.”
“You really never change.”
Hae Unchan smiled brightly.
Ise smiled back. Of course, it was not a smile that meant Hae Unchan could skip out on the debt.
He was simply glad that their last meeting had not ended in tragedy. With that, Ise calmly said farewell.
* * *
The warrant for Hae Unchan was withdrawn.
Soon afterward, news spread that he had died.
No one knew where the rumor had come from.
Hae Unchan had simply become a name that could no longer be spoken within the Great Exorcist Order.
Hae Unchan's storage pouch contained three cultivation manuals and a handwritten letter.
- The cultivation method currently registered in the warding barrier is the Blood Cultivation Art, but it may change if I disappear. Bi Hyeongrang is a suspicious man. That is why I recorded every common demonic art in the Cheoryang Thunder Gate that anyone can learn.
The letter, written in an elegant hand, contained every detail of the information Hae Unchan had been able to obtain.
They were the traces of atonement he had built over twenty years.
Ise looked down at the three cultivation manuals.
Every one of them was a demonic art that raised cultivation by draining the lifeblood of others.
Normally, he would not have spared them a glance, but they would now become the keys to opening Gwisu Temple's gates.
‘I'll capture demonic cultivators and practice the demonic arts with them.’
Just as they had captured mortals and cultivators to drain their lifeblood, Ise intended to repay them in kind.
A few days later, Ise received word from Hong Mi-hee, the Hall Master of the Vermilion Bird Hall.
At her request to come to her residence, Ise got up.
Her business concerned the materials for the Regeneration Iron Fan.
“I'll get straight to the point. I can't obtain a Dragon First Scale.”
“I see...”
A Dragon First Scale was the first scale shed by a spirit beast after it became a dragon.
Finding a dragon in the first place was like plucking a star from the sky.
He had expected it, but he could not quite keep the disappointment from showing on his face.
“Dragon First Scales are not completely unavailable, but most are already part of someone's life-bound spirit artifact. Even if you could obtain one, it would be too precious to use in a Foundation Establishment Realm spirit artifact.”
“Is there another way?”
“Fortunately, we obtained Anbimok Wood, so I'll try making a spirit artifact with a similar effect using that as a base. Its effect will be much weaker, but there is a substitute material.”
Hong Mi-hee continued her explanation.
Ise listened quietly.
“Birdfolk menstrual blood, Littlefolk menstrual blood, Giantfolk menstrual blood, and a dokkaebi's Juvenile Horn.”
As Ise considered the meanings of the Hanja, his brow furrowed slightly.
“To make an artifact aligned with a particular attribute, or one that opposes an attribute, you basically need materials with those kinds of qualities.”
An unexpected lecture on the Five Elements followed.
“The wood attribute corresponds to birth in life, spring in the seasons, and dawn in time. That is why materials symbolizing beginnings and purity are used.”
Hong Mi-hee had explained only the essential points, then added more.
“The Littlefolk and Giantfolk have been driven nearly to extinction... and Birdfolk territory has effectively become the land of demon beasts. That leaves only the dokkaebi. No human has ever had the nerve to ask the dokkaebi for a Juvenile Horn, but couldn't you at least ask? After all, Mongryeon's return depends on your advancement.”
“Well...”
Ise had only been listening because Hong Mi-hee kept talking, leaving no opening to interrupt. Now, he took a cloth-wrapped object from his Cosmos Pouch.
“I already have a Juvenile Horn. It was a gift from a childhood friend.”
“...”
When Ise handed over the Juvenile Horn Gonga had given him, Hong Mi-hee narrowed her eyes.
“Are you a womanizer?”
“Me? No.”
“You've got the same talent as the previous Order Lord, charming person after person with that innocent, handsome face while acting like you don't know anything. Is that a family trait?”
“I don't know where you heard such a ridiculous rumor, but I've never behaved in a way that would cause that kind of scandal. This is truly a misunderstanding.”
Ise protested with an aggrieved expression.
Footnotes:
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