WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 27: Episode 4: Bamboo-Tube Beauty (8)
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* * *
When word arrived that the items he had requested had reached the apothecary, Ise immediately began refining.
It was only a little trick he had just learned, but he intended to use every resource available to him.
The five Spiritual Stones remaining after the five he had spent in Cheongsan City.
He threw all five into the process.
The one he had turned into a necklace and kept as a memento could not be used, so this meant he had poured all ten Spiritual Stones he had received as wages into this mission.
Of course, those five had not actually been consumed yet.
Seolryeong watched the refining process with bright eyes.
“That actually looks pretty convincing. When did you learn pill refining?”
“I didn’t learn pill refining. I only memorized how to make a few pills. They’re not even worthy of being called medicinal pellets.”
“So what are you making?”
“An antidote.”
Seolryeong almost pressed him for details, but quickly thought better of it.
The process of simmering pills with Spiritual Stones looked more exhausting than she had expected.
She simply assumed he was preparing for the possibility of being poisoned during an encounter with a cultivator.
‘You need to prepare an antidote for a specific poison... No need to jinx it, I suppose....’
Still, it would be useful to have a general antidote.
“Seolryeong.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t just sit there wasting time. If you have nothing to do, go buy a gift or something.”
“A gift? For what?”
“You never know. We might get invited by a senior cultivator. It would be good to show some sincerity.”
Of course, whether they would be treated as guests or robbers remained to be seen.
* * *
“Buy a new pot.”
After spending half a shichen stirring the mixture and completing the antidote he wanted, Ise told the physician to throw the pot away, then headed for where the independent cultivator’s cave abode was supposed to be.
Finding it was easier than expected.
At the deepest point of the mountain the innkeeper had indicated, they found a shabby hut that looked like it might belong to a mountain keeper.
It happened exactly on the seventh day, just as Seolryeong had said.
“Do you have some ability to read Heaven’s secrets or something? I didn’t think we’d find it in exactly seven days.”
“Hehe. People have often said I have the makings of a great Shaman. Want me to read your fortune?”
“Tell me whether I’ll still be alive after today.”
“Let’s see... You’ll be alive and in one piece! No need to worry.”
“I’ll pay for the reading if I survive.”
“Oh my, it’s unlucky to put off a fortune-telling fee, you know?”
“What a miserly Shaman,” Ise muttered, tossing her a single coin.
Rather than make a rash move, the two kept as much distance as possible and watched the independent cultivator’s cave abode.
Not a person passed by. Not even a rat.
If they had not been certain a cultivator’s cave abode was here, it was the sort of place they would have passed without a second glance.
A full-fledged high-grade warding barrier would have been difficult for an independent cultivator to obtain in the first place.
The best option was likely to disguise the place as a mountain keeper’s hut and set up a low-grade warding barrier that kept the dense spiritual energy inside from being noticed outside.
Because of that, the spiritual energy appeared to flow naturally from the outside, without anything especially suspicious about it. Still, once they assumed there was a cave abode on this mountain, this was the only possible location.
But...
‘...Something’s strange.’
What bothered Ise was a certain presence mixed into the concealed spiritual energy.
He was not certain, so he did not mention it to Seolryeong. Instead, he added another possibility to his mind.
Having arrived at dawn, they waited until dusk began to fall.
He had hoped to encounter the independent cultivator outside the cave abode, but it seemed the cultivation session would last a while.
Once cultivators immersed themselves in cultivation, they could remain shut away for days or even months. Even if they waited here, there was no telling when they would meet the person.
“What should we do?”
The answer was already mostly decided, but Ise wanted to confirm Seolryeong’s resolve one last time.
If they went any farther, cultivator Kim Siwon would notice their approach.
There would be no turning back.
“What do you think this is?”
Seolryeong held a talisman between her index and middle fingers. Its pattern was one they had seen at the Great Exorcist Order outpost a few days ago.
“A Message Talisman?”
“That’s right. I got one from Hong Sadeuk.”
“You’re pretty ungrateful.”
“What are you talking about...? I only took it because I thought we might need it. Let’s send our location to Hong Sadeuk, along with a message telling him to report to headquarters if we don’t return.”
“So you want to confront him directly.”
“You catch on quickly, don’t you?”
Seolryeong meant they would approach the cave abode, announce their affiliation, knock on the door, and bluntly tell him that his spiritual material was waiting for him.
Though their realms were low, an independent cultivator had more to lose than gain by harming two disciples of the Great Exorcist Order.
If Kim Siwon showed hostility, they would warn him that the Order had also been informed of this cave abode’s location.
They would force him to choose.
He could kill the two cultivators, abandon the cave abode, and flee, or he could endure the unpleasantness and agree to talk.
“What exactly would we confirm if he agrees to talk?”
“First, I’ll ask him to tell us the truth. Then, if he really did abandon her... I’ll ask him to tell a lie.”
To tell Bamboo-Tube Beauty that he had not abandoned her. That he simply could not come to see her because of circumstances beyond his control. Then to call her name.
It was a request for a well-meaning lie.
Even then, Bamboo-Tube Beauty’s corruption might not stop. It was only a hope.
Still, a spirit requiem, true to its name, was a way of offering a small comfort.
At least she could die as a spiritual material without leaving behind resentment.
“Let’s do it.”
After meeting Seolryeong’s eyes, Ise slowly approached the cave abode.
“Just in case, prepare a defensive spirit artifact.”
Seolryeong nodded. Ise also readied himself to draw up spiritual energy at once and protect his body if necessary.
People often said that cultivators were more frightening than demons of the same realm.
They said that if the opponent was a cultivator, one should never let their guard down, even against someone two or three stages higher.
Conversely, that meant even a cultivator two or three stages above them could be hunted.
Ise took one step at a time, with Seolryeong following behind him.
He kept his Dokkaebi Senses stretched as taut as possible.
When they reached the immediate vicinity of the hut, he suddenly felt himself enter a formation.
As expected, it was a simple illusion formation.
Ise took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
“Is anyone inside?”
There was no response.
Still, he could feel it.
Seolryeong and Ise waited tensely outside the door.
Independent cultivator Kim Siwon stood straight on the other side, watching them.
All three were aware of one another, staring through spirit sight.
Clearly.
‘Judging by the amount of spiritual energy, he’s at the fourth or fifth stage of the Qi Condensation Realm.’
Either he was stuck at a minor realm boundary, or he had only recently broken through it.
It was exactly the realm they had expected.
“We are Daoists affiliated with the Great Exorcist Order. We have not come to harm you. May we speak with you for a moment?”
There was still no answer.
“Cultivator Kim Siwon?”
The moment Ise thought that he would not be able to ignore the sound of his name...
Click.
The door opened. Something fell to the ground, and the door immediately shut again.
A projectile-type spirit artifact.
Ise immediately shielded Seolryeong behind him, raised his round shield, and reached toward the object.
He wrapped spiritual energy around the parts of his body the shield could not protect.
Then came the explosion.
Boom!
As the smoke cleared, Ise’s sharply glowing eyes fixed on the cultivator’s silhouette beyond the shattered door.
So he had chosen to launch a surprise attack without bothering to exchange words.
“Are you okay?”
Seolryeong’s worried voice came from behind him.
Fortunately, he had not suffered any major injury.
“Your hand...”
“I’m fine. It’s only slightly torn.”
The palm he had failed to wrap in spiritual energy had split open, blood running down it.
The black iron shield had not been pierced, but the impact had torn his skin.
It was not powerful enough to kill, but it was clearly meant as a threat.
“It’s only a threat. Hide your hostility unless you want to fight for real.”
At Ise’s murmur, Seolryeong slowly took a deep breath. Beyond the broken door, cultivator Kim Siwon watched them.
Kim Siwon was an ordinary-looking man in his fifties.
He had the sort of unremarkable face that could be found anywhere, one among countless passersby.
He stared at the two with a tense expression, then relief appeared on his face.
He had likely measured their realms properly.
If he had only now confirmed their realms, it seemed he could not even properly open his spirit sight.
Yet the two people at lower realms had accurately understood his realm from outside the warding barrier.
“Cultivator Kim Siwon.”
“Call me Senior. How dare brats around the second stage of the Qi Condensation Realm speak to me as equals?”
“Yes, Senior.”
“How do you know my name? And the location of my cave abode?”
“We are entry disciples dispatched by the Great Exorcist Order. We learned of it by chance while carrying out a mission. If you cooperate with us, we will also keep silent about this cave abode.”
“...”
A chilly gaze swept over them.
Kill them, or let them live.
His eyes looked as though he were weighing the lives and deaths of the people before him.
Footnotes:
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