WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Episode 23: Core Formation Realm Great Cultivator (2)

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As the flames of the fire tribulation gradually died down, Ise sped up his refinement of primordial qi.

At that moment, Haeil turned toward the rear.

“It's finally showing its head.”

A great demon from nearby, drawn by the heavenly tribulation, was approaching.

The breakthrough was spectacular enough to be seen from the Great Exorcist Order headquarters. Hoping to get through it quietly had been wishful thinking.

Among demons, a heavenly-tribulation breakthrough was known as the moment when tasty prey was at its most vulnerable.

It was only natural that something drooling over the prospect would come along.

Before the Mountain-Guarding Disciples could even ask a question, Haeil leisurely walked out to meet the approaching Core Formation Realm great demon.

What emerged was a fox demon.

A white demon with eleven swaying tails.

It was a demon commonly called a Three-Tailed Fox, one that had grown by devouring humans' innate spiritual energy. They were famous for growing more tails with every advancement in realm.

The Core Formation Realm demon had boldly appeared to devour someone foolish enough to attempt a breakthrough near its territory.

It immediately realized its mistake.

Even to a fox that had grown powerful by devouring countless humans, the great cultivator before it was terror itself.

“F-forgive me. I won't be greedy again, so could you please let me go?”

The great demon's soft voice sounded like a woman's sorrowful cry, but Haeil only snorted.

“You dare run your mouth while using a Bewildering Soul Art?”

Thousands of water-hued swords formed around Haeil.

Watersword Filling the Heavens.

The moment it saw the cloud of swords covering the sky, the Core Formation Realm great demon could only despair.

Each was a deadly spell honed with primordial qi.

Kyaak!

Faced with a foe that threatened its life, the demon's instincts from its days as a fox burst forth.

It was an animalistic cry it had barely made since gaining intelligence.

Primordial qi mixed with the scream and surged from its long snout.

However, Haeil's attack, powerful enough to be called a natural disaster, shattered the fox demon's demonic spell and crushed its entire body.

Even as its torso was torn apart, it spasmodically cast demonic spells in an attempt to survive.

They were useless.

* * *

Ise could tell from the vibrations that something had approached and someone had begun fighting.

But he had no room to worry about it.

He could only trust those protecting him.

They were breakthrough guardians he could rely on completely.

The heavenly tribulation continued without pause.

After the fire tribulation came the water tribulation.

In an instant, the temperature around him plummeted.

It was such extreme cold that his breath froze the moment it left his mouth.

It was closer to an ice tribulation than a water tribulation.

The heavenly tribulation was quiet, but it threatened the one who defied Heaven with deadly force.

Frost quickly formed across his body, while his flesh and bones began freezing from within.

At the same time, the Ice-Repelling Tribulation Robe he had put on beforehand began to glow.

The heat released by the spirit artifact Seolryeong had personally made clashed with the cold of the heavenly tribulation.

During that time, Ise pressed on with his refinement.

But after holding out for a long while, the Ice-Repelling Tribulation Robe finally cracked apart.

Ise briefly stopped refining primordial qi and focused on driving out the cold flooding into him.

The chill that had seeped into his bones slowly retreated as it collided with the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy drawn in through Spirit Drawing.

The spirit artifact had broken, but it had bought him a considerable amount of time.

Next came the troublesome Wood Tribulation.

The core of the Wood Tribulation, which was so rare that information on it had been difficult to find, was the theft of vitality.

Vitality slowly drained from his body. Before long, his skin wrinkled like an old man's, and strength seeped from his entire body.

The helpless weakness of old age, so severe that he could barely move a finger, crushed him.

With a wrinkled hand, Ise gripped the Regeneration Iron Fan Hall Master Hong Mi-hee had made for him.

It was a fan-shaped iron plate, like a round disk split into four pieces.

The moment he grasped it, the vitality draining from him began to return as though it had all been a lie.

The spirit artifact Seolryeong had prepared was excellent in its own right, but the Crimson Emperor sacred relic lived up to its name.

The heavenly tribulation and the artifact pulled against each other as before, but this time the balance was far steadier.

Ise's face kept changing, becoming that of an old man, then a child, over and over again. Soon, the artifact began overpowering and suppressing the heavenly tribulation.

The Wood Tribulation he had worried about was resolved in one stroke.

Still, having fulfilled its purpose, the Regeneration Iron Fan soon crumbled like sand.

To maximize its effect, it had to be made into a single-use divine artifact.

‘What a shame.’

Hall Master Hong had personally made it for him, yet he had to lose it after using it once.

Thinking of the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner, which he still put to good use, made the loss feel even greater.

Ise forced down his regret and assessed the situation.

‘Thirty percent. No, maybe twenty percent.’

A substantial amount of primordial qi had already accumulated within him.

Next came the metal tribulation, said to be second only to the Lightning Tribulation in pain.

The metal tribulation began by severing his entire lower body without warning.

Though caught off guard, Ise fell to the ground and used Vital Wood Art to temporarily reattach his lower body.

Then he immediately activated the Metal-Defying Body Scripture.

Sharp golden blades of unknown origin mercilessly carved up his entire body.

Cut apart, reattached, then cut apart again.

While the Metal-Defying Body Scripture weakened the blades somewhat, Ise silently endured by repeatedly regenerating his severed flesh.

It was a grotesque sight, as though someone were dismantling and reassembling a jointed wooden doll.

He did not have enough strength to restore himself completely.

If he simply left his limbs severed, the metal tribulation would go after his soul and brain. It was important to maintain as many easy targets for it as possible.

If it wanted to cut him, then it could cut here.

He was offering it bait.

The bizarre heavenly tribulation, which required him to offer parts of his own body as bait, gradually weakened.

By the time he passed the metal tribulation, he had refined around forty percent of his total internal qi.

‘...This is slower than I thought.’

Only one heavenly tribulation remained, yet he had not even finished half the process.

He had expected it, but the heavenly tribulations had been even more dangerous than anticipated.

‘I need to finish refining primordial qi while the earth tribulation is underway.’

He had to complete the refinement before the Five Elements Tribulations ended if he wanted to reach the Core Formation Realm successfully.

He needed to hurry.

The earth tribulation progressed very slowly.

His body would gradually stiffen. He would lose the ability to see, hear, and move, then eventually even the ability to breathe, as petrification overtook him.

It was said to last a full fifteen days.

It was time during which he could do nothing but refine primordial qi.

As long as he could endure for a long time without breathing, the heavenly tribulation itself was not threatening.

Of course, without breakthrough guardians, it was also a period of utter helplessness, when even a Qi Condensation Realm cultivator could take his head.

He used a top-grade Softening Talisman to delay the petrification as much as possible.

The talisman would last fifteen days, giving Ise brief chances to breathe from time to time.

The key to the earth tribulation was to draw in as much breath as possible during those brief moments, then focus on refining primordial qi for the fifteen days.

‘This is much better.’

Compared to the other heavenly tribulations, which had brought him endless pain, this one was almost kind enough to let him catch his breath.

Of course, he would soon be unable to breathe at all.

It started at his toes.

The petrification slowly rose through his calves, thighs, and pelvis.

His skin faded to gray and hardened like stone.

Smells, sounds, and his vision all disappeared.

At last, even his breathing stopped, trapping him in complete isolation.

Within his stone-hardened body, only his consciousness remained, silently continuing to refine primordial qi.

* * *

After turning a Core Formation Realm great demon into a lump of bloody flesh in an instant, Haeil returned and watched Ise pass through the Five Elements Tribulations one by one. The corner of his mouth lifted.

“You've all done quite well. Your artifact crafting, formation deployment, and medicinal pellets are all excellent.”

“Ah... Thank you, Order Lord.”

While the other two froze at the sudden praise, Hong Wonseo lowered her head in response.

It was recognition from the leader of the Great Exorcist Order, a Nascent Soul Realm great cultivator.

“The Great Exorcist Order's future is bright. Very bright.”

To mere Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators, it was an honor beyond measure. They did not know what to do with themselves.

Haeil glanced at their reactions as though he found them amusing, then added a word of reassurance.

“From here on, it'll be much easier to watch. You won't see anything that makes you wince. As long as one hasn't neglected Body Tempering and has a proper top-grade Softening Talisman, the earth tribulation is fairly easy.”

Haeil quietly watched Ise.

Judging from the boy's temperament and visible physique, there was no chance he had neglected Body Tempering.

That meant the deciding factor was whether he could finish refining primordial qi within fifteen days.

In other words, it was a race against time.

‘He must know he needs to hurry.’

Fifteen days was not much time to refine such a large amount of primordial qi.

On top of that, Ise had accumulated an unnecessarily large amount of internal qi.

When the Heaven-Demon Dual-Meridian Physique broke through, it was best to meet only the minimum internal qi requirement needed to reach the Core Formation Realm.

Otherwise, it could hold him back during the earth tribulation.

Haeil was fairly sure he had told him that once, but there had probably been no other choice.

No one, not even Ise himself, could have expected him to defeat a Core Formation Realm great cultivator and absorb that demonic qi.

Sometimes, one needed to know when to let go.

He could release the excess internal qi and form his Golden Core with what remained.

The internal qi he had painstakingly accumulated would become useless, but still.

‘He can handle that much.’

Then a Voice-Transmission Art message came from Woo Yu-hui.

- Senior. A group of Foundation Establishment Realm demon beasts is approaching from the south.

- Tell the kids to deal with it themselves.

Haeil dismissed it with a few words.

As the somewhat uneventful heavenly tribulation continued, Haeil floated into the air and sprawled out.

Soon, the three Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators other than Woo Yu-hui and Haeil charged toward the demon beasts.

A greatsword swept through the pack, and fire meteors, no different from a heavenly tribulation, fell from above.

The demon beasts trapped in a formation screamed and writhed in pain.

While the three of them steadily held back dozens of demon beasts, one fleeing demon beast was split apart and fell beneath a golden blade that seemed to have flown from nowhere.

- Focus. Don't let any escape.

- Yes, Hall Master. I'm sorry.

* * *

By then, Ise had also recognized the severity of the situation.

With his body turned to stone, Ise bit down on his hardened lips.

‘This is tight.’

One day had passed since the earth tribulation began. That was enough to calculate how long it would take at this pace to finish refining primordial qi.

Though he was refining primordial qi with all his strength, he concluded that it would be impossible to finish within the remaining time.

He had not been careless with his refinement. He had done everything he could and squeezed out every bit of strength he had.

He had simply accumulated too much internal qi.

Everything he had carefully built up was now holding him back.

Realizing he would fail at this rate, he forcibly increased the speed of refinement.

The primordial qi, unable to withstand that pace, exploded.

Parts of his body caught in the blast fell to the ground, petrified into chunks of stone.

The severed parts crumbled away, while dry stone dust spilled from the wounds.

It should have been a moment of panic, but Ise instead forced his mind to stay clear.

‘I’ll just throw away the excess internal qi.’

It would take time for the internal qi he released to fill up again.

He only had to finish the breakthrough before then.

He could always gather more internal qi later.

Nothing could be more foolish than trying to turn every bit of excess internal qi into primordial qi, only to fail the breakthrough itself.

Ise pushed spiritual energy and demonic qi out of his body in equal amounts.

The petrification that had bound his body gradually loosened and disappeared.

The process of consuming internal qi and creating primordial qi continued. With exactly two hours remaining before the full fifteen days passed, he completed the refinement.

In the end, he minimized the internal qi he had to discard.

It was such precise control that even he felt proud of himself.

He let out a breath of relief. He had made it most of the way.

‘Now, the last step.’

At last, only one process remained.

Footnotes:

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