WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Episode 25: Natal Spirit Artifact (5)
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Dine and Go’s third-floor VIP room.
Eunbo’s belongings, swept wholesale from his workshop, were piled like a mountain against one wall.
Rolls of talisman paper, jars of cinnabar, brush racks filled with brushes of every size.
Crouched beside his possessions, Eunbo looked exactly like a debtor caught while fleeing in the dead of night.
A great cultivator had dragged him here, then forcibly unpacked all his belongings.
Listening to his story was surely just a pretext. The great cultivator must have brought him here to covet his talisman-making skills.
As Eunbo resigned himself and took a sip of spirit tea, the great cultivator spoke.
“I am Ise of the Great Exorcist Order, from the Eastern Continent.”
“Yes, Senior Ise.”
“Let’s hear it first. What do you mean by a horde of demon beasts attacking?”
Eunbo, who had been half resigned to his fate, immediately brightened.
“You truly mean it?”
“I said I do. Why else would I bring you here?”
Eunbo looked as though he had much to say as he glanced at the mountain of belongings, but he did not dare argue with a great cultivator.
“Where should I begin...? First, I am a talisman artisan, but I am also a scholar who studies geography.”
“Why?”
“Pardon?”
“Why would such a promising talisman artisan study something like geography?”
Eunbo blankly repeated the question. He apparently had not expected such a fundamental question.
“Ah... I have never been asked such a basic question before.”
After choosing his words for a moment, Eunbo straightened his posture.
“You know the Heaven, Earth, and Humanity Theory, yes? Immortal cultivation is the process through which humanity rises from the earth and advances toward heaven. Thus, the proper order is to understand humanity first, then the earth beneath our feet, and then heaven.”
Ise silently listened to the explanation.
“Yet most cultivators do not seek to understand the earth. They look only to heaven.”
A talisman, Eunbo declared, was the process of containing the mysteries of heaven, earth, and humanity within a single palm-sized sheet of paper.
“I understand your theory of talismans. Continue.”
“Yes.”
Eunbo set down his fragrant cup of tea.
“You know that the land of the Archipelago is moving, yes?”
“Mm. I heard about it.”
“In truth, it is not only the Archipelago’s land that moves. All the land in the Human Realm is moving.”
Having never heard that before, Ise tilted their head.
A hypothesis never recorded in any old text.
“The earth is a kind of shell. Inside it is matter of tremendous heat. That matter is what truly moves, while the land shifts according to its flow.”
At Ise’s gesture for him to continue, Eunbo went on.
“To be precise, the earth is not a single mass. It is a collection of countless broken shells. When those shells collide, they may rise into mountains or plunge down into the deep seas called trenches.”
“I see. Interesting.”
“The Archipelago’s plates merely move abnormally quickly and regularly because of some transcendent power from ancient times. Like a whirlpool.”
“I understand.”
Ise recalled the explanation Shin Hyeon had given while they crossed to the Archipelago.
The analogy of three bowls of different sizes nested together, each spinning in circles.
Eunbo’s words delved even into why those bowls spun.
“Really? As expected of a great cultivator, your comprehension is extraordinary... It took me years merely to accept this theory...”
“I don’t actually understand. Just explain the main point.”
Eunbo’s shoulders slumped.
“...The main point is this. The Archipelago’s plates make one complete revolution every two to three hundred years. In other words, during that period, every island travels in a circle before returning to its original position. And look at this.”
Eunbo drew out a scroll and spread it across the table.
It was a drawing densely packed with large and small islands.
The paper was smooth from handling and worn at the corners, as though it had been unfolded and refolded dozens, perhaps hundreds, of times.
“A map of the Archipelago?”
“It is not a full map. It is a rough chart marking only the major islands. It is not accurate, so using it to navigate would be suicide.”
Eunbo pointed to red dots scattered across the map.
“These are the places where Abyssal Mole-Mice have historically attacked islands in the Inner Archipelago.”
The red dots were scattered everywhere, from the north of the Archipelago to its east, west, and south.
At a glance, there seemed to be no pattern at all.
“It looks as though there is no regularity, doesn’t it?”
“If you connected them all, it would look like one circle.”
“Yes. It will be easier to understand if you see the sequence.”
Eunbo grasped a corner of the chart and slowly began turning it clockwise.
“This is where an attack happened three hundred years ago.”
The chart turned about a quarter of the way around.
“This is two hundred years ago.”
This time, about halfway around.
“And this is one hundred years ago.”
The chart turned, but Eunbo’s hand remained fixed in place.
“Attacks have occurred at roughly one-hundred-year intervals. The islands’ locations are all different, but their absolute locations in the Human Realm are identical, rather than their locations relative to the moving plates.”
At last, beneath the point indicated by his fingertip, were the words Ilgwang Island.
“A hundred years have passed since the last Abyssal Mole-Mouse attack. The place now standing in that position is here, Ilgwang Island.”
That meant that regardless of the movement of the plates, the Abyssal Mole-Mice remembered this absolute location and attacked it at regular intervals.
Faced with such a strange phenomenon, Ise could not help asking,
“How? Why?”
“I do not know that much. In truth, if it only happens once every hundred years, it is a disaster at the time, but once it has passed, an island disappearing is nothing special. No one pays attention, and it is forgotten by history.”
Eunbo lowered his voice.
“But Ilgwang Island is the largest and most populous island ever attacked. The loss of life will be beyond imagining.”
The VIP room fell quiet. Hong Wonseo and Pi Garam stared at Eunbo’s rough chart instead of exchanging glances.
Ise gazed down at the flags on the map and sank into thought.
Attacks on a hundred-year cycle.
Moving islands.
The unlifted baleful influence.
Long-lived ocean species that had drifted into human territory.
The pieces had been rolling about separately, but gathered together, they were all parts of the same picture.
Eunbo cautiously asked,
“Could it be... that you believe me?”
“It is convincing. One of my companions is an exceptionally skilled Shaman, and they said this whole island is shrouded in baleful influence.”
“Ah... I see!”
After organizing their thoughts, Ise exchanged glances with the two hall members and added,
“And someone at the Demon-Beast Market was selling a young Abyssal Mole-Mouse.”
“What? Truly?!”
“We will start there.”
Ise rose to his feet.
“Hong Wonseo, gather materials on Abyssal Mole-Mice. Pi Garam, collect information on the islands attacked in the past.”
“Yes, Hall Master.”
“All right.”
Then Ise nodded toward Eunbo.
“Eunbo, come with me.”
“Yes, Senior.”
The instruction was so natural that Eunbo followed Ise out as though spellbound.
* * *
The Demon-Beast Market seller bent at the waist the instant he saw Ise.
The Abyssal Mole-Mouse had not yet been sold and remained trapped within a spherical warding barrier.
It was a long-lived ocean species that could grow to the Core Formation Realm as an adult.
Its value was great enough that the price had apparently not been easily agreed upon.
The cultivator nervously darted his eyes about before swallowing dryly.
“Where did I get it...? As I said before, I captured it alive in the nearby waters. I have truly never left the vicinity of Ilgwang Island. It is true.”
The result of the Mind-Reading Art was that they were telling the truth.
In other words, the young Abyssal Mole-Mouse had either occurred naturally here or drifted in.
“Can you show me the location?”
A troubled look crossed the seller’s face.
Their eyes moved busily between Ise and Eunbo.
Following an unfamiliar great cultivator into remote waters was no different from suicide.
If Ise wished, they could cut the seller down and take the seller’s possessions at any time.
Reading those thoughts, Ise curled his lips upward.
“Your gaze is quite disrespectful. Do you think I cannot harm you here?”
“P-Please spare me, Senior...”
“If you cooperate, I will buy that demon beast. What is the highest offer so far?”
“Four thousand Spiritual Stones...”
“I will buy it for ten thousand. It is a fortuitous encounter. Risk your life once.”
“R-Really?”
The seller’s eyes nearly burst from their sockets.
If the demon beast the seller had found by chance could earn them ten thousand Spiritual Stones, it truly was a fortuitous encounter.
“Yes. Deliver it to the Dine and Go shop in central Haerin Market.”
Ise wrote out a transaction certificate on the spot and handed it over.
Only after receiving the document, bearing Dine and Go’s sign along with the payment and delivery destination, did the seller make up his mind.
If Ise intended to kill him and steal the demon beast, he would not go through such troublesome procedures.
To be safe, the seller conspicuously sent the transaction certificate to the market’s merchant association, then smiled broadly.
“I will guide you, Senior.”
The place he led them to was the waters near an uninhabited island southwest of Ilgwang Island.
After flying for about half a sijin alongside the seller’s old skiff, a barren, rocky island appeared over the horizon.
Other than flocks of seagulls coming and going, it looked unremarkable.
“That beast was eating a fisher on this island.”
From the sky, Ise slowly examined the island and the surrounding waters.
‘Demonic qi is flowing.’
A flow of demonic qi led from the third-grade Extreme Yin Demon Ground in the island’s interior.
It extended beneath the sea like a river.
Different from an ocean current and different from an earth vein, a black flow leisurely moved beneath the surface toward the distant sea.
‘I should investigate the Extreme Yin Demon Ground.’
Doksu was currently stationed at Ilgwang Island’s Extreme Yin Demon Ground.
The task was to clear the ground and investigate it, both to gain practical experience and to consume demonic qi.
It was perfectly suited for a dokkaebi who could handle demonic qi.
After returning to Dine and Go, Ise asked Eunbo,
“By the way, I heard your backing is rather impressive.”
“Pardon? Mine?”
“Where is your sect?”
“My sect is the Returning Dragon Sect of the Southern Continent, but...”
“The Returning Dragon Sect? A Nascent Soul Realm sect?”
“Yes.”
“I haven’t made you uncomfortable in any way, have I?”
“Ah! No, not at all. I am the illegitimate son of an elder of the Returning Dragon Sect...”
“Why would someone who is an elder’s son come all the way to the Outer Archipelago?”
“To study geography. I am simply a cast-off child. I have no backing at all. If I did, I would have asked my sect for help...”
That was true. Otherwise, Eunbo would not have been turned away at every sect gate and forced to wander from market town to market town.
“Let us do this. I will handle the investigation and preparations. You make talismans for us.”
“Pardon? You want me to draw talismans at a time like this?”
“Yes. Even if the Human Realm perishes tomorrow, you should earn one more Spiritual Stone.”
“...”
Eunbo considered for a long while whether the great cultivator’s words were a maxim or utter nonsense.
“Why, don’t you trust me?” Ise asked.
“No! Of course you are far more capable than I am, but... what do you intend to do?”
“We need to investigate the cause and find a way to prepare. If we cannot prepare, we will simply hunt them all.”
“You jest too much. This is not one Core Formation Realm demon beast, but a horde of them... Even if it is accepted that demons are weaker than cultivators of the same Core Formation Realm, can you withstand such a numerical disadvantage?”
There was half worry and half doubt in Eunbo’s voice.
A great cultivator who did not even blink before the disaster of a horde of Core Formation Realm demons.
It was only natural that Ise seemed reckless rather than reliable.
“That is what we need to find out now.”
Even if they were a long-lived species that could reach the Core Formation Realm, not all of them would be at that realm.
What Ise trusted was Seolryeong’s divination.
If the scale were beyond what he could handle, a reading of great luck would not have appeared.
“Share what you have investigated so far.”
“...Yes.”
“The shopkeeper here will explain which talismans to make. They are one of my people, so do not treat them carelessly.”
“Understood, Senior.”
* * *
It was that night.
A troubling signal came from the Secret-Realm Key inside Ise’s robes.
The spiritual essence within the Living-Spirit Cave Abode was churning abnormally.
Ise immediately returned to the manor, set up the Living-Spirit Cave Abode in an empty room, and entered.
Even the air within the cave abode was different.
The spiritual herbs in the garden plot had all tilted their leaves in one direction.
Like sunflowers following the sun, the entire plot faced a single point.
The sprout from the Spiritfall seed Ise had planted in a corner of the garden was growing at a visible pace.
Its gleaming stalk, which had been knee-high, had already risen to the height of their head. A fist-sized flower bud had formed at its tip.
As Ise approached, the outer leaves wrapped around the bud opened one by one.
The bud swelled. Then, as though stretching itself awake, its petals fully opened.
The blooming flower pulled its roots from the soil and slowly raised itself.
Ise could not look away.
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