WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 46: Episode 7: Assigned Mission (3)

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* * *

After accepting the mission, the first thing Ise did was gather information.

The victims' names, estimated dates of death, cultivation realms, and even the kinds of spirit artifacts they usually carried.

He pulled out everything he could from the mission records and his fellow disciples' memories.

Since it concerned the murderer, the entry disciples readily offered up every memory that might serve as even the smallest clue.

After spending an entire day gathering information, three unusual details remained in Ise's mind.

Every victim had been a top-ranking disciple who actively went out on missions. They owned a fair number of spirit artifacts and had accumulated relatively substantial stores of Spiritual Stones.

All three had also been killed while carrying out Grade 7 missions. Their bodies had been found not far beyond Great Exorcist Order territory after descending Cheongsan.

Finally, the victims had set out on their missions on the first day of the month, the tenth day, and the fifteenth day.

Ise considered those three facts together.

Since they actively went on missions, they would have had plenty of resources on hand.

To carry out Grade 7 missions, they would need to be well equipped with spirit artifacts.

The market shops in Cheongsan City had limited stock, so they likely used the larger markets where they could find more spirit artifacts.

Cheongsan City's Five-Day Market.

Every five days, independent cultivators and outer disciples from all over gathered in Cheongsan City for a market.

The murderer had surely targeted those days.

The problem was how to identify them.

If the murderer was selling the victims' spirit artifacts, it would be easy enough to solve... but that was unlikely.

If the independent cultivator were that foolish, their trail would have been discovered long ago.

They had probably sold them in another market city or hidden them away carefully.

If he could not find evidence, there was only one method. Make them attack first.

Even if someone was not his mission target, anyone who attacked first could be killed. That was the way of the cultivation world.

The best outcome would be to make the culprit confess during the process.

‘The nearest Five-Day Market is in two days.’

He would begin the mission in two days.

Ujeol had said Ise did not need to move alone even if he did not hire a senior cultivator, but Ise needed every Spiritual Stone he could get. He did not want to split the reward.

No matter how close they were, unpaid labor was nonsense in the cultivation world.

The resources tied to this mission were even greater than he had expected.

Leaving aside the reward for completion, he could take all the wealth the robber had accumulated so far, along with the belongings left behind by his dead fellow disciples.

Having this mission assigned to him was a good opportunity.

Great Exorcist Order had no intention of investing resources beyond the established amount into incidents involving entry disciples, and cultivators did not want to take missions unless the pay matched the effort.

They avoided complicated cases that took a long time or had uncertain solutions.

That was why this opportunity had come to him.

‘I will succeed.’

He had both a grudge and a guaranteed reward.

That was more than enough motivation.

* * *

Two days later, after completing his dawn cultivation, Ise was heading for Cheongsan City when a cultivator approached him with an awkward cough.

It was the junior cultivator from the Medicine Hall. An unforgivable enemy who had extorted one hundred Spiritual Stones from him for a medicinal pellet worth seventy.

For some reason, the cultivator stood before Ise with a hesitant manner before speaking.

“Um... I'd like to apologize for making Fellow Daoist pay so much for the Regeneration Pellet before.”

“Now?”

Ise tilted his head.

Of course, he had added the cultivator's name to his list of enemies, right after his family's enemies and the demonic cultivator from Cheoryang Thunder Gate. Even so, he had not expected this.

“I didn't consider the feelings of a Fellow Daoist who had lost part of his body. I only thought about the number of Regeneration Pellets remaining. I believe I was too coldhearted... I'll calculate it at the lowest price and return your Spiritual Stones.”

A cultivator was giving back Spiritual Stones that had already gone into their pocket?

There were thirty Spiritual Stones in the pouch the cultivator held out.

Ise took the pouch and said nothing for a moment.

The cultivator studied him with an increasingly stiff expression, then added another five Spiritual Stones.

“Resources naturally gain interest over time. Please accept this as a gesture of my sincerity.”

Only then did Ise slowly smile.

“What generosity, truly worthy of a Daoist.”

Ise smiled at the cultivator, who let out a breath of relief.

“Please take good care of the entry disciples for the rest of the time here. And the ones who come next year, too.”

“...Of course. Naturally.”

The cultivator hurriedly bowed and vanished.

Ise watched their retreating back for a moment before turning away.

He felt strange as though he were gradually becoming a miser, but resources were both cultivation and a lifeline in the cultivation world. The pure heart he had possessed while living at Gwisu Temple was slowly fading.

It was regrettable.

Still, his steps were light with his now-heavier pouch of Spiritual Stones.

Cheongsan City was crowded with people.

The markets of mortals were open alongside those of cultivators.

There were more people throughout the city, but the mortal market streets in particular were packed so tightly that there was barely room to walk.

Avoiding the sharp smell of turbid qi, Ise headed for the outskirts of Cheongsan City.

Like the market shops, the cultivators' markets had been established in quiet places away from the crowds of mortals.

There were four market streets in total.

They stood in the east, west, south, and north of Cheongsan City, and were called Magnolia Market, Plum Blossom Market, Rose of Sharon Market, and Chrysanthemum Market.

Ise visited the nearby Magnolia Market first, strolling naturally between the stalls.

Most cultivators wandered around as though enjoying a leisurely outing, but some occasionally raised their voices or frowned.

The market shops that operated regularly were places approved by Great Exorcist Order. Their prices were fixed, and no one played tricks with Spiritual Stones.

The market stalls were different.

Most sellers and buyers were independent cultivators, and they would likely never see each other again.

Overcharging, swindling, and every kind of scheme were standard in that truly wild world.

If you did not know better, you deserved to be taken advantage of. That was practically the basic rule.

Ise stayed alert as he examined the stalls.

The mission came first, but he was willing to buy if he found a useful spirit artifact.

He had already sold all the single-use spirit artifacts that had become unnecessary after his realm rose.

All he had left were the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner, the Vein-Severing Blade, one Spirit-Sealing Talisman, one Thunderbolt Bomb, Healing Pellets, and Antidote Pellets.

Excluding the Spirit-Veiling Pearl and Life-Saving Armor that he had to return, his equipment was embarrassingly sparse for his realm.

Ise walked toward a stall in the best location.

The cultivator at the stall quickly assessed Ise's realm and brightened. Ise probably appeared to be around the fourth or fifth star to them.

Even so, that was a relatively high realm in this market.

“Welcome, Senior. Please have a look around.”

Ise inspected the spirit artifacts laid out before him one by one.

Most were single-use artifacts he had no use for.

“Do you have any defensive spirit artifacts?”

“Oh, would any cultivator bring such an expensive spirit artifact to a market like this...?”

“I see.”

Ise answered briefly and headed to the next stall. He repeated this several times, but everyone only looked troubled.

Ise knew it too. No independent cultivator would possess a defensive spirit artifact.

Even so, he asked at every stall he visited as part of scattering bait.

He wanted to appear like appetizing prey when he encountered the murderer, or when word of him reached the murderer.

Looking for a defensive spirit artifact meant he had no current means of protecting himself.

It also meant he possessed enough wealth to buy one.

Finally, he would look like an inexperienced fool who did not even know that a market of this size could not offer a defensive spirit artifact.

By the time he had visited most of Magnolia Market's stalls, a merchant stopped Ise as he was about to pass by.

“Senior, please don't go. I have something precious. Would you like to take a look?”

“Something precious?”

When Ise showed interest, the independent cultivator presented a wooden box they had carefully kept hidden.

Inside was a medicinal pellet that gave off a soft pink light.

‘A medicinal pellet!’

It was something rarely seen at a market. The independent cultivator smiled confidently and explained as though showing off.

“This is a Spring-Returning Pellet. It isn't as effective as a Joyous Union Pellet, but as the name suggests, it'll make you feel like you're drifting through the clouds. It was extremely difficult to acquire.”

“A Spring-Returning Pellet? What does it do?”

“Ah. You don't know? That happens.”

The merchant gave a lewd smile and lowered their voice.

“Even without learning a Dual-Cultivation Art, it's a medicinal pellet that lets a man and woman increase their cultivation when they share a bed. And it feels very good.”

Ise's expression stiffened. The embarrassing words about sharing a bed caught his attention, but something else bothered him more.

“Wait. What did you say a Dual-Cultivation Art was?”

The merchant stared at Ise with a puzzled expression.

“You seem to have reached the middle stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, yet you don't know what a Dual-Cultivation Art is? It's when a man and woman cultivate together by sharing a bed.”

“...”

“How about it? The price is seventy Spiritual Stones.”

At that moment, Ise could no longer hear the independent cultivator's voice.

“Dual cultivation? ...It's a cultivation art practiced by a man and woman to unite yin and yang.”

“What would a man and woman do together to cultivate?”

“Who knows. Maybe they play a clapping game. To be exact... I don't know either.”

“You sound like you know.”

“I said I don't! Why are you asking about something like that?”

“You said it was a cultivation art, so I only asked because I thought we might try it together.”

Even though Ise had only recently become an adult at sixteen, he knew what men and women did together in bed.

“...How about sixty-eight?”

He had learned even if he had not wanted to because of the dokkaebi people's breeding-season festival.

“Fine, then. I'll give you a generous discount. Sixty-five! I absolutely can't go lower!”

Now that he understood why Seolryeong had jumped in alarm, Ise felt such shame wash over him that he feared for his life.

“Senior! Senior!”

Ise fled the spot as though running for his life.

He crouched in a corner for a long time with his face buried in both hands.

Passing cultivators glanced at Ise, but he had no room to care.

After wallowing in self-loathing for a while, he slapped both cheeks twice.

Get a hold of yourself. What did it matter if he had made a slip of the tongue because he did not know? If it still bothered him that much, it was regrettable, but he would have no choice but to cut ties with Seolryeong.

Ise decided to continue the mission.

After making the rounds of all four markets through the morning, the effect began to show.

The merchants who saw Ise that afternoon spoke before he could even open his mouth.

“We don't have any defensive spirit artifacts.”

Ise nodded bitterly and walked toward the next stall, only to stop before one of them.

It held something he had never seen before. Two small bottles were tied together as a set. One contained a transparent powder so fine that its grains were almost impossible to see, while the other held a grayish-white liquid.

“What are these?”

“You have a good eye. These are spirit items called Lingering-Scent Powder and Scent-Chasing Water. They're used as a pair. If you scatter even a small amount of Lingering-Scent Powder, its fragrance will remain for a day. If you drink Scent-Chasing Water, you can smell that scent within one hundred li.”

Ise looked between the bottles. These were fairly useful items.

“How much?”

“Thirty Spiritual Stones per divided set.”

“That's too expensive.”

“Oh, I wouldn't make any profit at that price. It may not look like much, but if you use it sparingly, it'll last quite a while. You should keep one on hand.”

“Goodbye.”

Ise put the bottles down and turned away.

“Wait, wait. Senior, you like the item, don't you? How about twenty-five?”

Cultivators really tried to fleece people whenever they had the chance.

Ise even threatened that they were trying to overcharge a Daoist of Great Exorcist Order, and eventually took the items for twenty-three Spiritual Stones.

After visiting every open stall, Ise sat in a secluded corner with a tired expression.

He quietly acted dejected and waited for a fish to bite the bait.

How much time had passed like that?

At last.

“You're looking for a defensive spirit artifact?”

The float had moved.

Ise slowly turned his head at the voice coming from behind him.

Footnotes:

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