WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Episode 23: Core Formation Realm Great Cultivator (1)

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A faint tension hung in the air over the empty wilderness.

After exchanging a few words with Ise, Haeil moved with almost flying speed toward the north, where Seolryeong and the other disciples had gathered.

Woo Yu-hui, Irang, Gwak Chan, Heeya, and Haeil.

The five breakthrough guardians had taken positions in the five directions.

Together, they formed a formation of five cultivators to protect Ise's Core Formation breakthrough rite from outside interference.

“Move farther back.”

Haeil addressed the Mountain-Guarding Disciples.

They hesitated in confusion.

They had already retreated far enough that Ise's face was barely visible.

Still, they moved farther back without complaint.

Everyone knew the Order Lord was not one to speak without reason.

“This will take a long time.”

“…If a Core Formation breakthrough is this complicated, how difficult are Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation breakthroughs?”

Haeil answered Seolryeong's question calmly.

“This is the only time so much preparation is needed. The Core Formation rite marks the true beginning of defying Heaven. After this, breakthroughs end quickly.”

Just as those words began to reassure her, Haeil added with a mischievous smile.

“That doesn't mean they're easy. The difference is only whether you take many small blows or one massive blow.”

Meanwhile, Ise laid out every artifact he had prepared and gave them one final inspection.

A Tribulation-Failure Preservation Pellet, a Golden Core Spirit-Sealing Pellet, and a Tribulation-Soothing Pellet. A Fire-Repelling Formation, a top-grade Softening Talisman, and a Metalward Body Mirror. The Regeneration Iron Fan, Ice-Repelling Tribulation Robe, and a New Mind-Settling Mirror.

Then there was the altar, built with every last Spiritual Stone he possessed, Dine and Go's spare resources, and even the Spiritual Stones provided by the Great Exorcist Order.

It was no exaggeration to say he had smothered this attempt in resources.

If he failed, both he and those close to him would suffer a loss that would be difficult to recover from.

If he had to prepare again from the beginning, he would lose at least several decades.

‘…Don't put pressure on yourself.’

Even if it took another thirty years, he would still be under a hundred.

He had used only about one-sixth of the more than three hundred years granted to him.

Repeating that to himself, Ise slowly calmed his heart.

Of course, he had no intention of failing.

He would succeed on his first attempt and form a Golden Core.

He swallowed the three medicinal pellets one after another.

The unfamiliar energies flowing from the pellets settled silently in one part of his body.

As though they already knew what was about to happen, a strange tension lingered between the three energies, which formed a precise triangle.

Ise began the Core Formation rite.

It was a ritual to declare to Heaven that he would now walk the path of defying Heaven, transcending Heaven-ordained fate and even physical death.

The entire altar lay before him.

At the outermost edge was the Eight Trigrams Formation, encircling the eight directions of Thunder, Wind, Fire, Mountain, Earth, Heaven, Lake, and Water.

Inside it was the Five Elements Formation, marked with the five attributes of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.

Farther in was the Four Images Formation, representing Greater Yang, Greater Yin, Lesser Yin, and Lesser Yang.

Closest to Ise was the Two Principles Formation, drawn with yang and yin lines.

At the very center stood the altar where the ritualist would stand, marked with the Taiji symbol.

Symbols that revealed and explained the essence of nature had been arranged in a way that carried an almost mystical, auspicious air.

Ise looked up at the sky and began reciting the Core Formation tribulation formula of the Two Principles Return-to-Origin Art.

“From this moment, I defy Heaven and rise. I humbly pray you permit this path.”

With each word of the formula, the altar beneath his feet began to glow faintly.

From the Eight Trigrams to the Five Elements, from the Five Elements to the Four Images, and from the Four Images to the Two Principles.

The formations responded in order from the outside inward, gathering all their energy at the Taiji in the center.

For a moment, the world fell quiet, as though heaven and earth were holding their breath.

Rumble!

The blazing sunlight vanished as dark clouds gathered in the clear sky.

It was a warning.

Heaven's final warning, telling him not to defy the fate assigned to him and to live in acceptance of it.

It was Heaven's wrath, directed only at those who defied Heaven, never at those who followed the natural order.

Yet Ise ignored the warning completely.

He shattered the Dharma-Flower Dantian he had painstakingly built and the demon core at the same time.

Flash!

The Lightning Tribulation began.

From far away, it was a magnificent sight. Up close, it was hell.

Massive dark clouds covered a radius of ten li, raining lightning like a downpour without even choosing a target.

Had this been an inhabited area, the ceaseless bolts would have blackened and roasted every living thing within it.

A bolt struck Ise directly on the head.

His sturdy Foundation Establishment Realm body shuddered, and smoke rose from his skin.

‘It stings.’

It was still bearable.

Ise calmly began merging the yin and yang energies within him into primordial qi.

At the same time, he divided his divine sense and began cultivating the Rootless Thunder Art.

For now, the heavenly tribulation was only striking random areas with weak lightning.

Before it intensified, he intended to master as much of the cultivation method as possible and create as much primordial qi as he could.

The lightning that had been battering the entire area gradually began converging from the outer edges inward.

Like hunters driving prey into a trap, the bolts narrowed their range, tangled together, and steadily grew in force and momentum.

What had first scattered in every direction now closed in on Ise like a tightening net.

By the time the lightning converged on a single point, one strike alone had become powerful enough to strip away his skin, burn his flesh, and expose his bones.

As Ise combined the yin and yang energies within his body into primordial qi, he restored himself with the spiritual energy pouring from the altar.

He could not use internal qi while the heavenly tribulation was ongoing.

Every last trace of it had to be gathered and forged into primordial qi.

He had no choice but to recover his body by drawing in heaven-and-earth spiritual energy through Spirit Drawing.

The altar's role was to draw spiritual energy from the Spiritual Stones serving as its medium and enrich the external qi around him.

Crack!

A bolt suddenly grew powerful enough to overwhelm him, and Ise flinched.

His concentration nearly slipped, almost wasting the primordial qi he had already created.

Each time lightning struck, his flesh cooked and his skin peeled away.

Then Ise filled the damaged areas with spiritual energy drawn in through Spirit Drawing.

The lightning that had initially only burned away his skin soon melted his flesh and muscles, then roasted even his organs and bones.

Again and again, he became a blackened skeleton in an instant, only to slowly regenerate.

He looked little different from a corpse, yet the Golden Core Spirit-Sealing Pellet protected the minimum needed to preserve life, his soul and brain, to the very end.

Thanks to that, even as all his flesh burned away, he barely managed to cling to consciousness.

‘…I should give up on the thunder art.’

The tribulation was too powerful for him to spare any effort on it. Ise put the thunder Dao cultivation method out of his mind.

Recovery and destruction continued in an endless tug-of-war.

Even so, Ise silently forged primordial qi.

Though he was barely holding his shattered body together, he did not stop for even a moment.

‘It's still… impossible to get used to.’

The pain was enough to make his mind go blank.

But if pain alone could break him, he would never have come here.

* * *

“He took a Tribulation-Soothing Pellet, and it's still this bad?”

Seolryeong muttered in shock.

She had never witnessed a Core Formation breakthrough with her own eyes.

Still, she had studied enough books, paintings, and oral accounts.

Yet she had never heard of or seen a heavenly tribulation this merciless.

It was growing stronger with time.

Enduring the agony of a body being destroyed, restoring it with spiritual energy drawn in through Spirit Drawing, and forging primordial qi in the middle of it all.

If his focus slipped for even an instant, it felt as though his mind would collapse.

“He's not blocking it… He's taking it head-on.”

Seolryeong's voice trembled faintly.

She had personally chosen an auspicious day and carefully built the altar with her own hands.

They had prepared so thoroughly that she had thought Ise would make a spectacularly clean breakthrough.

But faced with such a destructive sight, her chest tightened.

“No matter what you use to block a Lightning Tribulation, it will destroy it and strike anyway. Trying to block or evade it only makes it stronger.”

Haeil explained quietly from beside her.

“If you don't take it with your body, the Lightning Tribulation won't end. You'll fail in the end. Talismans and spirit artifacts are no different from sheets of paper before it.”

Could a human mind truly endure something like that?

Watching the scene, Seolryeong understood with painful clarity why so few cultivators ever reached Core Formation.

It was not simply because they lacked comprehension or talent.

Few could keep their minds intact before that endless agony.

“Ordinary Lightning Tribulations aren't that severe. That's a heavenly tribulation at its maximum intensity. If lightning that brutal struck without pause as the standard, there would barely be any Core Formation Realm cultivators in this world.”

Haeil added.

He did not say aloud why Ise was suffering such a cruel heavenly tribulation.

They likely had a general idea already.

The Lightning Tribulation continued for half a day.

One would think they might grow used to it after so long, but every time lightning fell, those watching still flinched.

It was exhausting just to witness.

The yellow earth had long since turned black, and the once-level ground had sunk into a hemispherical depression.

Only Ise, standing in the center, remained still as he broke apart and recovered again and again, accepting it all.

When the Lightning Tribulation finally ceased, sighs of relief escaped from all around.

The next was the Five Elements Tribulations.

Seolryeong carefully turned to Haeil.

“…How far has Ise's breakthrough progressed?”

“Who knows? Maybe one percent?”

“……”

Only one percent.

He had endured that hell for an entire half day, yet he had only completed one percent.

Seolryeong had been about to ask what would happen if he completed his breakthrough before the heavenly tribulation ended, but she closed her mouth.

It was a pointless question.

The dark clouds then dispersed, and the sky opened.

The sky itself opened.

It was the literal Opening of Heaven.

“Look away. Either look at the ground or focus only on this cultivator.”

Haeil's quiet warning came down.

The disciples who had been trying to watch the opening sky hurriedly lowered their gazes without understanding why.

Then a massive pillar of fire descended from the opened sky.

Even the disciples, standing far more than ten li away, were hit by heat fierce enough to scorch their skin.

The scorching wind stung their noses, making them instinctively step back.

Flaming clouds fell between the pillars of fire, bombarding the ground with enough force to seem capable of wiping out the world.

The earth, which had turned black after enduring lightning for half a day, began to melt red and boil.

Still seated cross-legged at the center of that sea of fire, Ise took out a formation artifact and poured external qi into it.

Pi Garam's Fire-Repelling Formation began to shine and activate.

Pi Garam swallowed hard.

He had checked and rechecked whether the formation had been laid correctly.

Still, setting a formation where even the smallest error could lead to a companion's death was tense enough to make his fingertips tremble.

“Don't worry. The formation was perfect.”

Reading Pi Garam's unease, Hong Wonseo reassured him in a matter-of-fact tone.

Soon, the Fire-Repelling Formation Pi Garam had built with his blood, sweat, tears, and soul began pushing back the flames.

The formation had worked.

“It worked!”

Pi Garam cried out before he realized it, clenching both fists.

His companions turned to stare at his unusually intense display of emotion as though they had witnessed something remarkable.

Footnotes:

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