WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 52: Episode 8: Great Exorcist Order Headquarters (3)
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“I heard rumors that you’re a talent who’ll surpass my record.”
Woo Yu-hui examined him closely from behind her mask.
Ise silently waited for the Winged Dragon Hall Master to continue.
No matter how many times it happened, he could not get used to someone so openly looking him over.
“You really are unusual.”
Woo Yu-hui tilted her head, then added,
“Advance your realm quickly.”
“Yes. I’ll work hard.”
“Your role is very important.”
“Thank you for thinking highly of me, but I’m still insignificant.”
“For now, you are.”
Woo Yu-hui slowly circled him once.
Perhaps it was a habit. Even while speaking, she kept walking around him.
A slightly rude thought crossed his mind. She was like a puppy wagging its tail.
“If you rise quickly, everyone will change.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone is too comfortable. They lack drive.”
The words coming from behind her mask were difficult for Ise to understand.
“When Senior Haeil ascends, the Great Exorcist Order will collapse.”
Ise fell silent. He already knew that Haeil’s goal was ascension to the heavenly realm.
Haeil was an absolute powerhouse who single-handedly enforced peace, despite the difference in strength between the Zheng Empire and the Great Exorcist Order.
If he someday ascended to the heavenly realm, would anyone remain who could fill the void he left behind?
“Even so... surely Hall Master Haeil will not leave behind future trouble. He cares deeply for the Great Exorcist Order.”
“The only way would be to wipe out every outside enemy before he ascends. But Senior Haeil does not want to stain his hands with blood.”
Ise understood what Woo Yu-hui was worried about. Was that not why Hall Master Haeil had told him to become his sword?
Leaving aside whether the expectations placed on him were excessive, it was only natural for him to devote himself to cultivation.
“I understand. I may be lacking, but I’ll do my best.”
“Good. To commemorate our meeting, I’ll tell you a secret.”
“A secret?”
“A secret realm will open soon. Only Qi Condensation Realm cultivators can enter it. The Zheng Empire has already agreed that no one will interfere with either entry or exit. Once you reach the late Qi Condensation Realm, you can enter too. Make that your goal.”
Ise’s eyes gleamed faintly.
A secret realm. The news Park Gangseo had told him had become reality and lodged itself firmly in his mind. A dangerous challenge, but also a land of opportunity worth the risk.
“When you say soon, may I ask roughly when?”
“Two years at the earliest. Fifteen years at the latest.”
‘...Isn’t the difference between earliest and latest far too big?’
A cultivator’s sense of time was hard to get used to.
As Woo Yu-hui began to leave as though their business was finished, Ise cautiously asked,
“Hall Master, may I ask what happened with the attack on Hall Master Haeil?”
“We decided to treat it as though it never happened.”
“So you reached an agreement. That’s a relief.”
“We peacefully resolved it by cutting off the ringleader’s head and agreeing not to make an issue of it anymore.”
Ise sucked in a short breath. Could that really be called a peaceful resolution?
“...Did they willingly offer up their head? They were a Core Formation Realm great cultivator.”
“No. Senior Haeil cut it off on the spot.”
He could not follow the flow of this conversation at all.
How had that not started a war?
It was more than Ise’s common sense could handle.
“Is it all right to kill someone like that? He was worried about heavenly tribulation.”
“Senior Haeil told you that too?”
There was a hint of mild interest in Woo Yu-hui’s voice.
“That’s strange. Don’t worry. They didn’t die.”
“...?”
Ise asked again.
“Didn’t you say he cut off their head?”
“Yes. He cut off their head.”
“But they didn’t die?”
“Ah ha.”
Something like laughter escaped from behind the mask.
“As long as the Golden Core remains, a Core Formation Realm cultivator will not die even if their head is cut off. They will lose some spiritual essence, so their realm will suffer, but that is all.”
“...What?”
Ise’s mind went blank for a moment.
What kind of world did great cultivators live in?
He could not imagine people who did not die even after losing their heads walking around the streets.
Of course, the person who could have answered that question had already given him a light wave, then leaped onto a roof without looking back.
“...”
The hem of her white Daoist robe vanished from sight in a single leap.
Ise stood there for a long while, staring up at empty air.
* * *
After losing interest in the Library Pavilion, Ise immediately looked around the Arts Street in the research district.
All sorts of workshops, alchemy furnaces, and laboratories filled the buildings, but there was nowhere that handled immortal cuisine.
It was simply grouped under “miscellaneous arts” and assigned a shared workshop.
Without personal storage or space, it was not suitable for making immortal cuisine at all.
‘This is troublesome.’
He could rent a private space, but the Spiritual Stones spent each month were no small amount.
He had heard that even renting a small vegetable plot or a livestock shed cost Spiritual Stones every month.
In the end, it seemed he would only be able to properly begin making immortal cuisine after the new year, once he started carrying out missions in earnest.
‘Then I should cultivate.’
The answer was simple. The only remaining event was the exchange gathering, so he should focus on cultivation until then.
Ise turned around without regret and headed for the residential district.
The moment he turned onto the side path leading to Cheongyu Pavilion One, his residence, he saw a familiar cultivator struggling in midair, caught in a binding art.
‘...Why is that one doing this?’
Buchun, his business partner and fellow entry disciple, was being bullied by a group of cultivators.
‘This feels familiar.’
The sight was exactly like something from his childhood.
It was surprising that even after becoming adults and walking the path of immortal cultivation, there were people who acted like children.
Most of them were at the early Qi Condensation Realm. The cultivator who appeared to be leading them was at the fifth star.
‘Why don’t you cultivate at your realm instead of doing this?’
Ise approached without changing his pace or concealing his presence.
“What are you doing?”
At the sudden interruption, everyone turned toward him.
“Senior!”
Buchun brightened when he recognized Ise. At the same time, a flicker of uncertainty crossed the cultivators’ faces as they checked his realm. Still, they did not back down.
The man standing in the middle bowed politely.
“Senior, I do not believe we have met before. Are you an externally recruited disciple?”
“I’m not here to introduce myself. What are you doing? That one is from my cohort.”
The cultivators exchanged brief looks. Only then was Buchun released from the binding.
Buchun barely steadied his legs before quickly retreating to Ise’s side.
The man in the middle bowed once more.
“So you are the leading disciple from this year’s Training Compound cohort. I am Ju Guyeon, eldest senior brother of the pureblood cultivators who became formal disciples this year.”
Pureblood. Ise turned the word over in his mind. The source of the unease he had felt when Park Gangseo mentioned the exchange gathering was standing right in front of him.
“There was only a minor argument between fellow disciples. Our junior became upset and rushed at us, so we only restrained him for a moment.”
Ju Guyeon smoothly tried to settle the matter.
Ise ignored him and turned to Buchun.
“What did they say that made someone with a lower realm rush at their seniors like that?”
“These people... They said the Training Compound disciples must stink whenever they pass by because they lived in places full of turbid qi.”
“That’s not much. So?”
At Ise’s indifferent response, Buchun stared blankly before answering in a near tearful voice.
“No, even if our environments were different, we are still from the same cohort. Isn’t that too harsh...?”
Ise let out a quiet sigh.
“I thought it was something serious. It is not even that harsh. Why get worked up? Don’t you know that an unshakable center is a cultivator’s essential quality?”
“How is that not harsh...?”
“It’s not as though they said, ‘You worthless outsiders dared crawl in without knowing your place, so we’ll cut off your limbs and feed you to demons.’”
“...”
For a moment, it felt as though time had stopped.
Buchun looked up at Ise with his mouth half open, while Ju Guyeon and his group stiffened all at once.
It sounded as though Ise was about to cut off their limbs and feed them to demons.
“How can a Daoist speak so crudely?”
“What are you talking about? Bullying is supposed to start at that level.”
“...”
Having heard things like, “A bastard with no parents who drinks another woman’s milk will grow up to become a demon,” Ise considered this sort of needling to be a harmless prank that common people went through all the time.
He had been slightly worried after hearing so much about purebloods bullying others, but the boys here were, quite literally, gentle in a boyish way.
“It is clear that, as an outsider who grew up breathing turbid qi, you cannot possess proper refinement.”
A faint crease formed on Ju Guyeon’s forehead. Ise had to fight the urge to reach for his hatchet as Ju Guyeon’s tone and attitude grew increasingly disrespectful.
‘They may be mild, but there are still parts that really get under my skin.’
Perhaps it was because they bullied people so elegantly that it irritated him in a different way.
This much insubordination should be worth one wrist each... No, it should not.
“Anyway.”
Ise turned his gaze back to Ju Guyeon’s group.
“Talk it out properly, and do not use force against fellow disciples from now on. I like using force too, and I’m good at it.”
He said it casually. Yet the weight behind those words was anything but light.
Ju Guyeon watched Ise for a moment. He seemed to instinctively sense that behind Ise’s casual presence was pressure forged through real combat, something that could not be explained by realm alone.
Still, Ju Guyeon was not the sort to retreat easily.
“Enjoy yourself while you can, Senior. No matter how skilled you are at demon hunting, a Training Compound disciple without support from their clan will have clear limits. We may have fallen behind because we were not permitted to leave headquarters until now, but before long, the day will come when you call me Senior.”
“Speak louder. I can’t hear you well because your realm is too low.”
“Ghk!”
“But if you never left headquarters, how did you do demon hunting?”
“We practiced the Spirit-Sending Cultivation Method through real combat with demons transported to headquarters. What other choice did we have?”
Delicate flowers raised in a greenhouse.
Ise muttered it only in his mind.
“...Remember this! The pureblood brothers will seize control of the Founding Year 313 cohort!”
“What are these people talking about? Does headquarters have some senior-brother and junior-brother system? And what is Founding Year 313?”
“We have sworn brotherhood among ourselves.”
Ise had not asked because he expected an answer, but Ju Guyeon answered immediately. He was more pointlessly polite than expected.
“Founding Year 313 refers to this year. Do Training Compound disciples not know the history of the Great Exorcist Order?”
That dignified, needling tone scratched at him once again.
‘Should I just turn this place upside down?’
Ise seriously considered it.
The exchange gathering would be a good opportunity, but he had a feeling it would be difficult to endure until then.
Footnotes:
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