WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 24: Episode 4: Bamboo-Tube Beauty (5)
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“That seems a little too extreme... We should report it to headquarters first.”
Ise agreed with Seolryeong’s suggestion.
Then Bamboo-Tube Beauty cut into their conversation.
“Honored ones! Could you please listen to my story?!”
“What story?”
“Please... grant my request. I’m begging you.”
Ise had a feeling this was about to become troublesome.
They had taken this mission hoping it would help their cultivation progress.
He had no desire to get tangled up in something tedious that offered little in return.
The problem was that someone soft-hearted enough to be swayed by the desperate emotion in Bamboo-Tube Beauty’s voice was standing beside him.
“Um... Let’s hear her out first?”
As though he had expected it, Ise gave a small nod.
Bamboo-Tube Beauty immediately began.
“I am looking for a human. Someone I must see.”
A long story poured from her tiny mouth.
“When I naturally gained spirituality and first became conscious, the forest on the Immortal Mountain where I lived lay deep in the mountains, untouched by human feet. There were no humans, and not even another spiritual material besides me. So for three hundred years, I never spoke to anyone. Then I met a human. They were a scholar, neat in appearance and with clear features... They were such a kind person.”
She wore a dreamy expression, as though recalling a distant memory.
“They said they were a wandering scholar who had come down to the Southern Sea to recover their health. When they found me, they smiled so brightly. I had never seen such a beautiful smile.”
Her dreamy expression seemed full of happiness, and her description was so vivid that it sounded like something that had happened only the other day.
“They came to talk with me for an hour every day. They taught me letters, composed poems for me, and sang songs. I was truly happy then. Truly... happy. I was no longer lonely.”
Yet something about her story already struck both of them as strange.
An ordinary scholar had happened to find a guardian spirit deep in the mountains?
It was as unlikely as a bamboo gaining spirituality and becoming a spiritual material.
‘A cultivator.’
‘Seems that way.’
They spoke only with their lips.
And once a cultivator and a spiritual material had met, the end was surely bound to be ruinous.
“I gave them small portions of my spirituality for their health. Fortunately, they seemed to recover little by little. Then... they said they had to return to their hometown.”
“Will you come with me?”
“Where do you mean?”
“My hometown.”
“To your hometown? What kind of place is it?”
“A lively place. Full of energy and pleasant things. Every day brings something new.”
“If I follow you... will you talk with me as you do now?”
“Of course.”
“Will you compose poems for me as you do now?”
“Certainly.”
“Will you stay by my side, so I won’t be lonely?”
“As long as my life has not ended, I will always be your friend. I promise.”
“Then I do not wish to part from you either.”
“I followed them.”
Bamboo-Tube Beauty had followed the scholar north.
“Because I did not want to be alone again...”
And she received a name.
The environment was unsuitable for her, and her spirituality gradually diminished as she used it to restore the scholar’s health. Still, she was happy.
Once the scholar finished their daily work, they would place her by the window and speak with her each night.
During the day, she watched the human world beyond the window. At night, she listened to the scholar’s stories until they fell asleep.
For seven years, she had been happier than she could have imagined.
But out of more than three hundred years, she had only been happy for seven.
On the day that marked exactly seven years since she had met the human...
“I was left here without knowing why.”
She added that she had waited here for that human for fifty years.
Her voice was steeped in longing and resentment.
By then, her spirituality had already run dry. To see the scholar again, she had endured by creating this bamboo grove.
At the cost of her own lifespan.
“At first, I only missed them. Soon, though, resentment began to grow.”
Bamboo-Tube Beauty had likely become a guardian spirit because she wished to protect the bamboo grove.
Yet as her resentment grew, she must have lost her way and stepped onto the path of corruption.
“I feared I would soon become fully corrupted, lose my reason, and turn into a demon that did nothing but harm humans... So I captured ordinary people and frightened them. I thought perhaps rumors of me would reach their ears. Perhaps they would hear news of me and come find me again.”
For fifty years, she had continued to cry out alone, hoping someone would hear.
Her time had stopped fifty years ago. Bamboo-Tube Beauty’s voice became a desolate echo, drifting weakly through the bamboo grove.
“I wanted to ask them. Why did you abandon me? Why haven’t you come looking for me...?”
Silence fell over the bamboo grove.
No one could say anything.
Ise tilted his head back in frustration and looked up at the sky.
A flower bloomed atop Bamboo-Tube Beauty’s head. It was flowering sickness.
Bamboo did not normally flower. When bamboo rarely did bloom, it could not endure long after the flowers fell and would die.
For ordinary bamboo, that would mean making way for the next generation. Yet the flower on her head likely meant that she did not have long left to live as a spiritual material.
She would become a complete demon.
“You should have stayed quietly on your Immortal Mountain.”
Ise murmured softly.
Bamboo-Tube Beauty seemed to understand what he meant and smiled faintly. Her eyes said that she had no regrets.
“That scholar was probably a cultivator. They likely brought you along because...”
“Let’s help her.”
Ise shook his head at Seolryeong’s firm gaze as she interrupted him.
“Our opponent is a cultivator. One who has cultivated for at least fifty years. This is several times more dangerous than eliminating a low-level evil spirit.”
“I know. But... at least we can learn the truth. We can’t be certain they meant her harm. That cultivator might have been hurt, or there may have been circumstances they couldn’t avoid.”
“Even so, simply encountering a cultivator of a high realm can be dangerous. Did you forget what the Great Exorcist Order Basic Handbook says?”
Seolryeong flinched for a moment, then argued back.
“I know. I know. But...”
“If you want, I can comfort her soul with a spirit requiem instead of performing a spirit-sending rite for her. But nothing beyond that. It’s too dangerous.”
“Ise.”
Seolryeong’s quiet voice reached him.
Instead of her usual light, cheerful tone, it was utterly serious.
“Don’t forget. We are Daoists.”
“...”
“Immortal cultivation is the path of defying Heaven. If, when you stand at a crossroads, you abandon righteousness and seek only the easy road, you will not escape a great heavenly tribulation. The size of that tribulation depends on how far the path you have walked has strayed from righteousness.”
Ise silently listened to Seolryeong.
“Immortal cultivation is not the goal. It is the result of the path we walk. Remember, what we must do now is not seek immortal cultivation, but cultivate the Dao.”
She was a cultivator his own age who often seemed endlessly young, yet her words carried clear wisdom.
She was insisting that it was righteous to try to find a way for this spiritual material with such a painful past, and no spirituality left, to avoid corruption.
After a moment of silence, Ise closed his eyes as though considering it. Seolryeong tipped back her head and jingled the Spell Bell die in her palm.
It was as though she were reading the will of Heaven or casting a fortune.
After some time, Ise asked her, “So. What do you want to do?”
“Let’s spend only seven days looking for news of the scholar this child mentioned. If we still can’t find them, I’ll give up.”
Seven days.
Could they achieve anything meaningful in seven days and seven nights?
It seemed impossible. Besides, this talk of heavenly tribulation had little to do with his physique.
Still, Seolryeong was a grateful companion who had readily accepted a dangerous mission because of their friendship.
At the very least, her opinion deserved respect.
Ise let out a quiet sigh and asked Bamboo-Tube Beauty, “Can you be saved?”
“My final hope... is for that person to call the name they personally gave me. If I reclaim my name... perhaps I can stop the corruption.”
“What’s the name?”
“Ah... I’m sorry, but only the scholar can call me by it. You may call me Bamboo-Tube Beauty instead.”
“All right, Bamboo-Tube. How long can you hold out?”
“...”
“You should answer.”
“If you mean before I become corrupted... I believe about a month.”
“Save your strength, and stay out of sight of ordinary people. If we return and you have become a demon, I’ll perform a spirit-sending rite for you.”
“Yeees...”
“Write down everything you know about the scholar here. Their name, traits, and appearance. Draw them as accurately as you can. Everything you remember.”
After handing Bamboo-Tube Beauty a brush and ink paper, Ise turned back to Seolryeong.
“First, we report this to the Order. If they accept our proposal, then we will look for the cultivator.”
“Okay.”
“One week. Just as you said, that is all the time we will spend. And if that cultivator is alive and turns out to be in a higher realm than us, we must never become hostile.”
“I won’t.”
Footnotes:
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