WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Episode 25: Natal Spirit Artifact (7)
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Ise had fought at sea with Hall Master Woo Yu-hui before, but this was his first time entering the water itself.
Unless one made a living diving for seafood, why would a human ever venture beneath the sea?
The clear seawater revealed a world that was unfamiliar yet strangely wondrous.
It felt as though he had stepped inside a jewel.
Fish and demon beasts swam peacefully together, while brilliantly colored coral swayed beneath his feet.
Ise moved through the water as though flying.
The waters around Ilgwang Island grew deep soon after one left the shore.
Before long, the moonlight had already faded near the surface, and endless dark blue water stretched below.
Several fish demons swimming through the water sensed the spiritual presence of a great cultivator and scattered in alarm.
Following the current of demonic qi, Ise descended toward the seabed.
He could have immediately used the Earth-Escape Art to bore into the seafloor. But the land beneath the sea was vast.
If he chose the wrong direction, he would wander like a castaway in the open ocean and waste all his time.
He needed to find a proper entrance.
If the Abyssal Mole-Mouse larva had emerged from underground, there had to be a passage large enough for something to travel through.
Or at least traces of something having broken through.
Ise thoroughly searched the breathtakingly beautiful seabed, where coral colonies rose like hills and unknown bioluminescent seaweed blinked like stars.
How long had he combed the ocean floor?
His divine sense, broad enough to envelop a small island, finally discovered an underwater cave roughly four cheok across, about four feet in diameter.
The cave burrowed endlessly downward at a diagonal.
Ise entered without hesitation.
The farther he descended through the cave, the darker his surroundings became, and the stronger the water pressure grew.
Relying on divine sense in the darkness, Ise followed the cave until the pressure bearing down on his body intensified. He reinforced the defensive spells around himself.
How far had he descended?
At first, the temperature of the deep sea had steadily fallen. At some point, however, it began to rise again.
At last, the cave came to an end.
As if it had kindly guided him this far and no farther.
Ise placed a hand against the wall blocking his path and examined it with divine sense.
It was a hole that had been filled in recently.
Even its material differed from the surrounding rock.
The walls of the passage were naturally formed stone, but the rock sealing the way ahead was black and smooth as hardened glass.
It resembled a stone known as obsidian.
Heat seeped through his palm where it touched the rock. This was proof that the high water temperature originated here.
It meant the high-temperature substance Eunbo had mentioned, lava, was nearby.
Ise used the Earth-Escape Art to burrow through the obsidian.
Its unusual rock formation protruded among the natural stone like a thorn embedded in flesh.
At some point, as Ise followed the obsidian deeper down, the world turned red.
The rock layer ended, revealing a molten layer.
Ise's body was thrown into the lava without resistance.
On land, it would be called lava, but what lay beneath the sea was a substance without even a name.
It was an unknown space filled with it.
A sea of boiling stone with neither above nor below.
Density, pressure, and heat far beyond anything underwater constricted his body from every direction.
From here onward, this was a domain only great cultivators who had long surpassed human limits could traverse.
The barrier around his body melted away in the blink of an eye, forcing him to continuously add more defensive spells just to endure.
Without a clear goal, no one would dare enter such a place. It was the worst possible environment, one that demanded a person stake their life before burrowing in.
As though he were undergoing heavenly tribulation once more, a question arose in his mind.
‘Even a Core Formation Realm great cultivator would find this path threatening. Could a mere larva really pass through an environment like this, even if it belongs to a long-lived deep-sea species?’
He decided it would be impossible without some sort of spellwork.
If he had to force an answer, the Abyssal Mole-Mouse was a long-lived species whose adults could reach the Core Formation Realm.
Perhaps the elders of its race had prepared a means to protect their larvae.
He would see the truth for himself.
Ise gauged the direction of the route he had taken.
It had been slanted, but almost perfectly straight.
He pictured a straight line continuing beyond the broken path, set his course precisely, and moved forward.
How much farther did he descend?
At last, an open space entered the range of his divine sense.
The direction had shifted slightly, but his destination was still within reach.
From the moment his divine sense detected the empty space, the molten layer ended and solid rock appeared once more.
Shortly afterward, Ise landed inside an enormous cavern.
The surprises never ended.
Who would have thought there would truly be a space like this beneath that hellish molten region?
Ise shook off the unknown substance clinging thickly to his feet and surveyed the unfamiliar place.
A unique, vicious yin energy unlike anything he had ever encountered filled the entire cavern.
Yin energy was ordinarily cold.
Yet the demonic qi here contained heat greater than any yin energy he knew.
Perhaps this unique environment had shaped the long-lived species known as the Abyssal Mole-Mouse.
Ise's gaze moved toward the writhing eggs embedded throughout the space in rows, like moles in the ground.
This was a spawning ground.
An Abyssal Mole-Mouse spawning ground, with a demonic art spread throughout the entire space so powerful that its level was impossible to judge.
It was such an intricate and enormous demonic art that merely probing it with divine sense made his head throb.
‘If this race can grow as far as the Core Formation Realm, perhaps one of them reached the Nascent Soul Realm or beyond and became a Demon King.’
That being had created the ideal spawning ground for the race's safe reproduction and preservation.
Thanks to that, demons grew calmly in an environment hot enough to turn ordinary eggs into stone-baked eggs.
‘A few have already hatched.’
Among the hundreds of eggs, several had been broken open by larvae.
The other eggs visibly wriggled as well, as though they might finish hatching at any moment.
Traces of demonic art remained on the empty shells, so it seemed measures had been put in place to ensure that the hatched larvae could safely follow the path to the seas of the Human Realm.
Ise took out the recording stone and recorded the site in full. Then he fell into thought.
‘If I break all the eggs and destroy the spawning ground, will they attack?’
No.
If humans simply removed something that inconvenienced them, the creatures could just move from one deep-sea region to another.
If they wished, they could travel between the spawning ground and the ocean without ever drawing human notice.
Yet records stated that the Abyssal Mole-Mice had wiped out islands and devoured the corpses left behind.
In other words, the demon beast horde's attack was likely meant to secure food for the newborn larvae.
They might attack before checking on the spawning ground, or retaliate after discovering it.
Whether or not he destroyed the spawning ground, an attack was highly likely.
‘Either way, a clash will be hard to avoid.’
Ise walked to the foremost egg.
He intended to try infusing it with spiritual essence.
Like Bisang or Hwayeong, it might consume his spiritual essence and be reborn as a spirit beast.
Spiritual essence flowed in, and the eggshell gradually cracked.
What emerged was a complete demon beast, containing not even a trace of spiritual essence.
‘It seems I'm too late.’
The head of the demon larva that lunged at him flew into the air.
Primordial qi rippled and gathered in Ise's hand.
As though they had sensed danger from the unfamiliar energy, several eggs began to crack.
But before the demons could emerge into the world, a Wind Blade swept in and sent them tumbling apart.
The spawning ground filled with thick demon beast blood and broken eggshells.
Lastly, Ise hurled spells at the demonic art spread throughout the space.
He intended to destroy the spawning ground itself.
‘...Hah.’
Even Core Formation Realm spells could not leave so much as a scratch on the art carved into the space.
After performing spirit-sending rites for every egg he had broken, Ise turned toward the surface without lingering.
* * *
After returning to the surface, Ise immediately summoned his subordinates to the estate.
As they gathered one by one, they cast puzzled looks at the unfamiliar being.
“A new member of the household. This is Hwayeong, a spiritual being.”
“...You haven't completely changed paths to become a spirit beast tamer, have you?”
Ise shook his head at Seolryeong's question.
“Nothing like that. It just happened.”
“My name is Hwayeong. Please take care of me.”
A spiritual being had been added to Azure Dragon Hall's already complicated mix of members.
Ise spotted Bisang, who had arrived last, and frowned.
Bisang was clearly still a bird, but the tips of its wings and its legs had changed into human hands and feet, creating a half-human, half-bird form.
For the result of Hwayeong's lessons, something had gone terribly wrong overall.
This was not a person. It was simply a bird with hands.
“Is that the best you can do?”
“Is it strange, Father?”
“Yes. It's strange. Go learn more.”
Bisang lowered its beak dejectedly at the sigh that escaped Ise.
Ise took out the recording stone and placed it on the table.
As the footage recorded beneath the sea began to play, everyone froze.
The unknown culprit had revealed itself.
“So... that race held such a secret. This is truly astonishing.”
Eunbo let out an impressed sigh.
“Seolryeong. I destroyed the spawning ground. Is the baleful omen still there?”
“...Yes. If anything, I should say it has become rougher than before, or perhaps more savage...”
Seolryeong hesitantly shared the divination, then added something else.
She had realized that the basis for Ise's seemingly reckless expedition had been her divination.
“But, Hall Master, please don't throw yourself into danger so recklessly just because you trust my divinations. Divinations are only references, and they can change at any time depending on the choices a person makes in the moment.”
Using Ise's past survival despite a grave misfortune that had brought him close to death as an example, Seolryeong emphasized that it was dangerous to blindly trust divinations.
“Understood. I'll be careful. In any case, we can't avoid a clash. But I've destroyed every egg in the spawning ground, so if we deal with those that attack, we should be able to root them out.”
His companions swallowed dryly. Shin Hyeon raised a hand and asked,
“Hall Master. What if we evacuate the island's residents?”
“All the people on this huge island? Where would they go? How?”
There was no answer to his question.
Evacuation was only possible for one or two people.
Unless they could lift the entire island and move it, it was impossible.
Even if there were a way to move them, millions of refugees would become another disaster in themselves.
There were no islands that could take them in, and more would likely starve to death at sea than die in an attack.
“First, send word to this island's Core Formation sects. We will need cooperation to mount an effective defense.”
Ise rose from his seat. Seolryeong grabbed his sleeve.
“Wait, Hall Master.”
“Why?”
“Since you made that decision... your fortune has worsened.”
Everyone's eyes turned toward Seolryeong.
Even she seemed uncertain, speaking in a thin, trembling voice. Still, she did not release his sleeve.
“You can read fortunes that precisely?”
“I can't see whatever I want to see, but sometimes I can see the flow of things. Your fortune is particularly clear to me, Hall Master, but...”
“That is probably because you read the Hall Master's fortune fifteen times a day.”
“When have I ever done that?”
Hong Wonseo murmured as though speaking to herself, “No? I must have been mistaken.”
Ise gave Seolryeong an obvious look, then looked away.
He immediately sat back down, as though withdrawing his decision.
Pi Garam asked with a puzzled expression,
“Why would informing the Core Formation sects of this danger bring an ill omen?”
The reply came from Ise, who had quietly sunk into thought.
“It means the sects here won't cooperate willingly.”
“Surely not...”
“I was anxious and nearly made a hasty decision. Good job stopping me, Seolryeong.”
At Ise's praise, Seolryeong looked away, unsure where to put herself.
“For a moment, I overlooked the nature of cultivators. If the Core Formation sects are greedy, instead of fighting the demon beast horde, they will withdraw for a while and try to claim the abandoned island for themselves.”
“...”
“Even if we win the war against the demon beast horde.”
Seolryeong flinched.
“Those who fled may try to strike at our exhausted forces and devour us.”
No one voiced the doubt of whether people who walked the Dao could truly do such a thing.
They were all seasoned cultivators who had spent decades in this world.
Then Hong Wonseo broke the silence.
“Just take the disciples of the Hanjang Sect and withdraw.”
It was a clear and ruthless answer, one that seemed to chill the room.
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