WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 50: Episode 8: Great Exorcist Order Headquarters (1)

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The time when everyone at the Training Compound was focused on cultivation passed quickly.

The fallen leaves rotted away, and cutting winds began to blow.

Contrary to Park Gangseo's claim that they would move before winter came, the order to relocate to headquarters arrived only after winter had set in.

It was the day after the first snow, which had fallen earlier than usual.

The dawn mist had not yet cleared.

One by one, the entry disciples began gathering in the open ground near the Training Compound's main gate. Each had packed their belongings.

It was their last morning in Cheongsan.

By the time Ise arrived, many entry disciples were already there.

Attention turned toward him. Among them, a face he had not seen in some time greeted him warmly.

“Ise! It's been a while.”

Hae Unchan happily placed a hand on Ise's shoulder.

Then, as though it were a greeting, they checked each other's realms.

Hae Unchan was at the fifth star. He had only just crossed the minor realm boundary.

So the Heavenly Root Physique really did make cultivation faster. Of course, Ise had also been held back at the minor realm boundary longer than necessary because of the gu parasite.

“You left me behind again. I thought I'd caught up this time. Still, we're only one step apart. I'll catch up soon enough.”

Hae Unchan only grumbled as though disappointed.

Still, it was not a bad feeling to have someone close on his heels. It made Ise push himself harder.

Thinking positively, Ise looked over the other disciples from his year.

Seolryeong and Hong Wonseo had reached the fourth star. Along with a two-spiritual-root cultivator named Cho Jeongjin, a regular customer at Dine and Go, there were three in all.

Most of the others were at the second star, with the occasional third-star cultivator among them.

And Ise had crossed into the seventh star. Just that morning. That was why he had nearly been late on such an important day.

Those below his realm still seemed to see him as being at the sixth star, but Ise did not bother correcting them.

The Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator assigned to lead them arrived shortly afterward, accompanied by Qi Condensation Realm cultivators, including Park Gangseo.

“My name is Han Jae.”

He introduced himself briefly, then counted the group.

“Out of fifty-nine, five dead and two expelled midway. Fifty-two remain. Everyone is here.”

A brief silence followed. Ise turned his head and asked.

‘Someone was expelled?’

‘Yeah. They were caught hunting spirit beasts.’

‘They've got more nerve than sense.’

He did not need to see what had happened after they were expelled. All he could do was pray for their souls.

“Just as I heard, the survival rate is impressive. Last year, so many died that it caused an uproar. This year, so many survived that it will cause one too. I mean that positively. Your cultivation has also been excellent overall. The future of the Great Exorcist Order is bright.”

After looking over the cultivators, Han Jae took a strange spirit artifact shaped like a magnifying glass from his storage pouch.

He held it over each entry disciple's head in turn.

Only Ise could guess the reason for the procedure.

“Nothing. Begin.”

Thankfully, it seemed no one else had suffered from it.

At Han Jae's command, the formal disciples rushed out, checked the entry disciples' names, and stamped the backs of their hands.

The Great Exorcist Order's emblem and their names appeared briefly before fading.

Once everything was ready, the journey to headquarters finally began.

As Ise had expected, headquarters was located on the Hangsang Peninsula.

But it was not in the continent's center, where Ise had once traveled. It lay much farther west, near the wastelands, in a region called the Heungnyeong Mountain Range.

Cultivators naturally crossed mountains so often that they grew sick of them. The Heungnyeong Mountain Range was different.

Its peaks rose impossibly high, its sheer cliffs and escarpments made the heart quail. The valleys were deep, and the precipices were harsh.

They crossed several stretches of terrain where even cultivators would likely suffer serious injuries if they misplaced a single step.

At last, they arrived at a mountain pass called Eumpyeong Pass.

Its name meant that even flying birds found it difficult to cross. Looking up at its summit made Ise's neck ache.

“Remember the location of this sign well. This is the entrance to the Great Exorcist Order.”

Han Jae pointed to a wooden sign marked Eumpyeong Pass.

There was no Daoist order in sight.

When Ise looked puzzled, Park Gangseo smirked beside him and said, “Don't be surprised,” with an air of superiority.

The moment Park Gangseo finished speaking, Han Jae vanished into thin air.

“A warding barrier. An illusion formation and a defensive formation combined... It is unimaginably vast.”

Ise heard Pi Garam mutter behind him.

Following the formal disciples, the entry disciples stepped forward one by one.

The instant Ise passed through the faint wall of spiritual energy, the mark on the back of his hand glowed.

The world turned upside down.

What spread before him was not a mountain.

It was a vast plain. More than that, it was an enormous city, at least the size of a city.

Unlike the misty mountain fog outside the warding barrier, the weather within was clear.

Shrubs and ornamental flowers bloomed everywhere. Parks lay between neatly maintained buildings.

There were not only low tiled structures. In the center stood an imposing building of stone, stacked like a Spell Bell die, rising high into the sky.

The fact that a building could be constructed so tall was astonishing in itself.

The entry disciples stood frozen like stone statues.

“Another world...”

Ise agreed with someone's mutter. It looked nothing like what he had imagined.

‘Master, how can this be a Daoist order...?’

Would it not be more accurate to call it a utopia?

“Amazing, isn't it?”

Park Gangseo spoke with pride. Why he was so proud, Ise had no idea.

Several children ran past them, laughing brightly.

When Ise swept the area with spirit sight, he sensed at least several thousand people within headquarters.

But something else was truly astonishing.

A bird drifted leisurely through the sky. It was a spirit beast.

Above them, a leopard-like Foundation Establishment Realm spirit beast was curled up and resting atop a towering old tree.

The sight of spirit beasts and cultivators living together felt like a symbol of the Great Exorcist Order's identity.

Rrraah!

The resting leopard suddenly roared.

The deafening roar made the entry disciples stagger back all at once. Some reflexively grabbed their weapons.

“Ha ha ha, don't be alarmed. Senior Black Panther is only playing around. Senior can speak, but always does that first. Senior Black Panther, these are the children becoming formal disciples today.”

The leopard stretched in a long yawn and let out a low rumble.

“Welcome, rookies.”

Then Senior Black Panther lay back down on the tree branch.

“I feel like I'm dreaming...”

Seolryeong spoke in a dazed voice. The surrounding disciples nodded in agreement.

“My duty ends here.”

Han Jae stepped before the entry disciples and spoke for the last time.

“Life in the Great Exorcist Order is free. If you strive for it, you can achieve whatever you desire. Remember only three things. Go to the Registry Office and receive an identity token. Carry out one formal mission each year. Learn the Great Exorcist Order's rules and obey them thoroughly.”

He paused, then added, “May the guidance of Heaven lead the path before you. Congratulations on becoming formal disciples.”

“Thank you, Senior!”

“Those assigned to assist them, do your best until the end so your new juniors can adapt well.”

“Yes!”

At the cultivators' reply, Han Jae vanished with a satisfied expression.

After their guide left, senior cultivators approached the disciples who stood around awkwardly and began leading them to their respective tasks.

Park Gangseo took Ise and four other cultivators to a map.

“Then shall we begin the tour of Great Exorcist Order headquarters? Headquarters is divided into five districts, east, west, south, north, and central. First, the most important thing. Remember the restricted areas.”

He pointed at the map as he explained.

“Water Source Pool in the east is where the Core Formation Realm great cultivators reside, so never enter without permission.”

Park Gangseo's finger moved west.

“The Inner Hall District in the west is where the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators of the Eleven Inner Halls live, so do not enter there either unless you have a good reason.”

Next was the south.

“Spirit Beast Grove in the south is a protected district for spirit beasts and spiritual materials. It is where they can rest in nature without human interference, so no one may enter except the officials responsible for managing Spirit Beast Grove.”

Only the north and center remained.

“You can think of the Qi Condensation Realm cultivators as living mostly in the northern and central districts.”

The Inner Hall District was one thing, but only eleven people used that enormous Water Source Pool.

Since Hall Master Haeil apparently had a separate residence, that really meant ten. How much land did each of them occupy?

As expected, the treatment given at different realms was the difference between heaven and earth.

“How many people live at headquarters?”

“Who knows? At least ten thousand, probably.”

“...”

While Ise asked Park Gangseo one question after another, the other cultivators only stood quietly and listened.

It seemed difficult for them to insert themselves into a conversation between senior cultivators of higher realms without permission.

“There are only around fifty entry disciples each year at most. How can there be so many?”

“Because there were already many to begin with. The Great Exorcist Order is the union of all the major cultivation sects of the Three Peninsula Kingdoms. They also recruit talented people from outside from time to time. Most importantly, cultivators have children too.”

“...Ah.”

“A Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator known as the Prolific Seat has over fifty children. Senior is quite famous.”

Since cultivators did not have a limited childbearing age like mortals, there were probably far more people born here than Ise had expected.

“Do all cultivators' children become cultivators?”

“Not necessarily. The chance of them having good spiritual roots is much higher than it is for mortals, though.”

At that moment, a mortal passed in front of them.

“Then won't it become difficult to manage turbid qi if there are more mortals?”

Park Gangseo grinned.

“Did you forget? The Great Exorcist Order has the divine beast Crane Bird.”

“Ah.”

“They can mass-produce cultivators. The only problem is that most acquired spiritual roots are five spiritual roots.”

Even someone with five spiritual roots would be treated as combat strength if enough resources were invested in them, or if they worked several times harder at demon hunting and reached the Foundation Establishment Realm.

In the end, this place was a cradle that mass-produced demon hunters.

“Mortals who still cannot obtain spiritual roots have two choices. They can swear to never leave the Great Exorcist Order, live as attendants or servants for the great cultivators, or have all their memories erased and be adopted into a branch family of a noble clan in the mortal world managed by the Great Exorcist Order. The Hae Clan and the Hong Clan are like that.”

Park Gangseo added that noble clans in the mortal world received an enormous payment every time they produced a Great Exorcist Order disciple, then continued.

“Those born here with innate spiritual roots call themselves purebloods. They take a separate entrance exam within headquarters alongside the mortals born here.”

“What happens to cultivators who fail the entrance exam?”

“Fail? For those born at headquarters, the entrance exam is just something they naturally go through, like rolling over or learning to walk. It only ranks their talent. You cannot imagine how fierce the mothers here are.”

Park Gangseo added that the mothers' support, whether through medicinal pellets or spirit artifacts, was enormous. Competition was so overheated compared to the exam's difficulty that the leadership worried about it.

Someone raised from childhood to become a cultivator failing the exam four times had never happened. It would be a Great Exorcist Order-wide disgrace.

“So the Training Compound in Cheongsan is only a supplementary nursery, something that hardly matters.”

Only then did Ise understand why entry disciples had not been treated all that kindly.

The world he had lived in until now had only been the tip of the iceberg.

“Not exactly. Even if headquarters cultivators grow up in better conditions, their numbers are small. How can they compare to the number and talent of cultivators born across the entire Eastern Continent?”

That was true. Ise nodded.

“The overall standard is higher among headquarters cultivators, but extraordinary monsters always come from the Training Compound. Hall Master Woo Yu-hui, the youngest person ever to reach the Core Formation Realm, came from the Training Compound. So did Hae Unchan, the Heavenly Root Physique that appears once in a century. And you too. But...”

Park Gangseo paused before adding, “Doesn't the word pureblood have a rather unpleasant feel to it?”

“It does! What are we, mongrels?”

A second-star Qi Condensation Realm cultivator who had been listening quietly cautiously joined the conversation.

Park Gangseo shot the disciple a look that asked who had given them permission to interrupt their seniors' conversation. The disciple quietly withdrew again.

“It is unpleasant to watch those born in high places swagger around because they think they are above everyone else. You will soon understand what I mean. There is an exchange gathering held around this time each year.”

“An exchange gathering?”

“It is supposed to be a chance for Training Compound graduates who have just become formal disciples and headquarters cultivators to see the gap in their strength and build friendships. Usually, it is an event where the pureblood cultivators put the Training Compound graduates in their place.”

Park Gangseo shuddered as though a terrible memory had come back to him.

Then he grinned.

It was such a sinister smile that Ise wondered whether Park Gangseo was actually a demonic cultivator. Surely he did not have a gu parasite lodged in his head.

“This year will be very, very different.”

He added that he was truly looking forward to it, then clapped twice.

“All right, let us move quickly. Headquarters is vast.”

Footnotes:

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