WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 51: Episode 8: Great Exorcist Order Headquarters (2)

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Just as Park Gangseo had said, headquarters was vast.

It was far too vast.

Even moving quickly, only looking at the exteriors before heading to the next district, took them more than half a day.

The northern and central parts of headquarters were divided into eight districts.

There was the residential district, with cultivator residences for sleeping, maintenance, and private life, as well as parks for rest.

The research district gathered workshops for refining ritual implements, alchemy, talismans, and formations, along with alchemy furnaces, studies, and Library Pavilions.

The administrative district managed every large and small affair of the Great Exorcist Order, including paperwork, mission acceptance, contribution points, Message Talisman management, security, and disputes.

The training district allowed cultivators to spar with one another or rent combat puppets for practical training.

The cultivation district contained private cave abodes, seclusion chambers, and shared meditation grounds.

The commercial district was home to many shops and hosted full-moon market days.

There was a production district for farming, livestock, fishing, and more.

Finally, there was the memorial district, which held a communal cemetery for the dead.

Looking tired, Park Gangseo led them into a building in the memorial district marked Hall of Remembrance.

Quite a few of the peers who had become formal disciples with them were inside.

“This is where we honor deceased disciples by keeping their bodies or belongings. There should be some for your peers too. Over there.”

Where Park Gangseo pointed stood memorial tablets bearing the names of entry disciples, including Yeombo.

“It’s a place you’ll keep coming back to whenever you lose someone... but I hope you never have reason to visit this side.”

After saying that, Park Gangseo led them to the central administrative district.

The administrative district felt more like a city than any other part of headquarters. The buildings were tall and grand, and even their architectural styles were unfamiliar.

Park Gangseo explained that they had been built by copying structures from other continents.

Their destination was the Registry Pavilion, where the Great Exorcist Order managed its disciples’ records.

Ise approached the cultivator handling administrative work.

“Show me the back of your hand.”

When Ise held out his hand, the Great Exorcist Order’s seal and Ise’s name appeared on its back.

The cultivator brushed an unknown spirit artifact over his hand to verify it, then gave Ise an identity token made from unusually colored metal.

「Ise. Formal Disciple. Unaffiliated.」

The contents were simple.

“Your residence is the third room on the left side of the third floor in the western wing of Cheongyu First Pavilion. If you lose it, you will be fined ten Spiritual Stones for a replacement.”

“Yes.”

Ise answered briefly and placed the identity token in his storage pouch.

“Do you wish to be a duty worker or a mission worker? Duty workers must take responsibility for a specific task within headquarters, while mission workers need only complete one official mission each year.”

“I’ll be a mission worker.”

“Confirmed. You may accept your first mission after the new year. If you change your mind, you may switch roles on the first day of each new year.”

There was nothing to consider. He had heard that duty workers were cultivators who lacked talent for combat and had given up demon hunting.

Once they finished at the Registry Pavilion, Park Gangseo looked relieved.

Even though their business was done, the new disciples showed no sign of leaving his side.

Like puppies released somewhere unfamiliar, they looked around nervously and clung to his coattails.

Park Gangseo frowned and waved them away.

“My role ends here, so go look around, cultivate, do whatever you want, but stop following me. Senior, I’ll finish showing you around.”

The disciples could not complain about such blatant favoritism. They hesitantly drifted away, and Ise nodded to his peers in farewell.

It reminded him once again how miserable a place this was for anyone with a lower realm.

“Senior, is there anything else you’re curious about?”

“Nothing in particular. I’d like to have a proper look around.”

“Want me to guide you?”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Where do you want to go first?”

“First, the Library Pavilion. Then I want to know if the Four Arts Hall has a place to make immortal cuisine, like the butcher shop at the Training Compound. Should we visit the production district too? I saw spiritual herbs and spirit beasts being raised there earlier.”

As Ise eagerly counted off one thing after another on his fingers, Park Gangseo snickered.

“At times like this, you really are just a boy. Let’s start somewhere close.”

The production district was divided into neat sections like a checkerboard.

Square plots of earth held various spiritual herbs and spirit trees. At each fenced entrance stood a sign bearing the owner’s name.

On the opposite side stood countless livestock pens of every shape.

They resembled the pens that had once stood in one corner of a wealthy neighbor’s yard when Ise was young, except entire rows of them stretched across the district.

Every animal inside was a spirit beast.

Still, the beasts were of a different grade. Even a single calf gave off abundant spiritual energy.

When Ise approached a nearby plot, he saw a white orb the size of a human fist embedded beside the sign.

Sensing his presence, it slowly turned once.

Then it opened an eye and blinked.

It was not an orb. It was an eyeball.

Ise reflexively pulled his hand back.

“That’s called a Recording Eye.”

“That startled me.”

“It’s a spirit artifact that records what happened as though it had seen it with its own eye, like a recording stone. If there’s a problem like theft or damage, it serves as evidence, so don’t touch it carelessly. Handle it wrong, and you’ll be dragged to the Law Enforcement Pavilion and suffer for three days.”

Park Gangseo had clearly meant to scare him, but Ise was interested in something else.

“It must be expensive.”

“Very.”

What a shame. It seemed like it would be truly useful to own one. Ise reluctantly set the thought aside.

The livestock pens were the same. Each building had a sign and a Recording Eye attached as a pair.

Inside one pen, a Qi Condensation Realm cultivator crouched beside a cow-like spirit beast and diligently milked it.

Park Gangseo gave a casual nod in that direction. The other cultivator answered with a wave.

“Gangseo.”

“Yeah?”

“Why do Great Exorcist Order disciples raise spirit beasts and spiritual materials? Aren’t they supposed to protect them?”

“Of course they protect them. Look at those calves. Don’t they look like they’ve got it good?”

Park Gangseo snickered and pointed at the dairy spirit beast. It snorted as if asking what he was staring at.

“Meditation and demon hunting alone can’t support everyone’s cultivation. So they allow a certain amount of resource production and use.”

Ise listened quietly.

“The rules are strict, though. For example, you can only slaughter spirit beasts that died naturally. Harvesting is the same. You can only gather things like fruit and grain, and you can’t pull up the whole plant. What cultivators receive are by-products of spiritual materials, not the spiritual materials themselves.”

“I understand. So spirit beasts are mainly raised to produce milk like that.”

“Milk is the most common, but there’s plenty else to get. Fur, claws, shed skins. Even manure.”

“...Manure?”

“Some spirit beasts have spiritual essence in their dung too.”

“No matter how good it is, I really don’t want to eat that.”

“Who said you’d eat it? Why do you connect everything to food, Senior? Spirit beast manure is mixed with Spiritual Stones and ordinary soil to make spirit soil. It’s perfect fertilizer for those plots.”

As they traded pointless jokes, a Message Talisman flew toward Park Gangseo from somewhere nearby.

Park Gangseo opened it and clicked his tongue regretfully.

“Ah... Senior Han Jae is calling for me. He wants me to finish the mission report.”

“Go on. Thanks for the tour.”

Park Gangseo pointed northeast.

“If you keep walking this way, you’ll reach the research district. You won’t get lost like a child, right? I’ll see you at the exchange gathering in a few days.”

Park Gangseo waved goodbye and disappeared deeper into headquarters.

* * *

Headquarters did not have just one Library Pavilion. There were ten, from Library Pavilion One to Library Pavilion Ten.

The larger the number, the grander the building.

Library Pavilion Ten at the very back was imposing enough to rival even the inner halls of Gwisu Temple.

Ise’s heart pounded.

New cultivation methods. New spells. New knowledge.

Any of it would do, as long as it could satisfy this thirst. He had accumulated contribution points for this very moment.

Naturally, he headed for the largest building, Library Pavilion Ten. The moment he tried to enter, he was stopped.

A Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator guarding the entrance waved him away.

“You’re a new disciple, right?”

“Yes.”

“Go back. Start with Library Pavilion One.”

Ise withdrew without argument.

After steadying himself, he headed to the door of the first pavilion. A three-star Qi Condensation Realm cultivator, who looked about the same age as his peers, sat inside.

“I’ll check your identity token, Senior!”

“Here.”

When Ise handed it over, the cultivator carefully brought a spirit artifact close to it.

“You have one hundred and twenty-five contribution points. You may enter.”

“Can I ask something?”

“Yes! What are you curious about?”

“How do you use contribution points?”

“...Pardon?”

“I heard you need to pay contribution points to obtain secret manuals.”

Confusion briefly crossed the cultivator’s face. Then, seeming to realize something, they softly clapped their hands together.

“Could you... be a newly accepted formal disciple?”

“That’s right.”

“But your realm... Ah! You must be an externally recruited disciple. I’m sorry, I misunderstood for a moment!”

“...?”

“Contribution points are not a payment, they are entry requirements! Library Pavilion One requires one hundred points, Library Pavilion Two requires five hundred, and so on. Only Library Pavilion Ten lets you pay contribution points directly for copies!”

Ise’s eyes lit up at the new information.

It seemed that only truly important secret manuals were kept in Library Pavilion Ten and required contribution points, while the rest were freely open to disciples.

“Are there time limits or other restrictions?”

“Well? Wouldn’t your financial situation be the restriction, Senior?”

“You said contribution points aren’t used. Isn’t this supposed to be open for free?”

“Ha ha, what a joke! Of course not. We charge Spiritual Stones. The price lists are attached to the bottoms of the shelves!”

“...”

What a pack of bloodsucking moneylenders.

Ise stood there for a while. In his mind, he could hear his pouch of Spiritual Stones growing lighter.

This was not a Daoist order. It was a gathering place for loan sharks.

Cursing to himself, Ise headed inside.

Compared with what he had expected, the interior was somewhat disappointing.

Most of the secret manuals overlapped almost completely with those at the Training Compound’s Library Pavilion in Cheongsan.

There were some spellbooks he had never seen before, such as a Body-Cleansing Art, spells for opening locked doors, and spells for plowing fields, but none were particularly cheap.

Even the beginner’s guide to cultivating spirit rice cost more than it did at the secret-manual bookshop in front of the Training Compound.

‘No wonder I wanted to buy it... I should save contribution points and head upstairs instead.’

He could not waste his precious Spiritual Stones.

Ise bought only an information book titled Latest Compendium of Additional Information on Qi Condensation Realm Demons and the Root-Severing, Meridian-Cutting Art, then left without lingering.

The excitement he had felt upon entering remained behind when he left.

He had just stepped out from beneath the shadow of Library Pavilion One’s eaves when he heard cloth rustling above his head.

His hand moved toward his hatchet faster than instinct. Before his fingertips could reach its handle, someone landed lightly a step in front of him.

White Daoist robes. A plain white mask concealing the entire face. Only the gaze slipping through it fixed directly on him.

The figure was not particularly tall. Their shoulders did not make it possible to say they were a man, but calling them a woman also felt wrong. Their silhouette belonged strangely to neither.

Ise lowered his hand and stepped back.

He could not gauge the figure’s realm.

That could only mean one thing.

Core Formation Realm. One of the Hall Masters of the Eleven Inner Halls.

Ise immediately straightened his posture and bowed his head.

“Ise?”

“Yes.”

“Woo Yu-hui.”

“...Hall Master of Winged Dragon Hall.”

“I stopped by because I wanted to see your face.”

A quiet breath, almost like a laugh, escaped from behind the mask.

Footnotes:

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