WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Episode 9: Screaming Mountain Demon Beast Farm (4)

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The drops of blood gradually took shape.

At first, they were scattered droplets. They drew each other through the air, gathered into a mass, then began forming a sharp point.

The density of the demonic qi deepened by the second. It was honed, tightened, and condensed.

‘I have to stop it.’

Just as Ise shifted the Vein-Severing Blade into the hand wearing the Yellow Great Parasol and reached for the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner, the man's figure vanished from the edge of his vision.

Whoosh. The air split at an angle, and the sharp tip of the brush swept past Ise's arm.

If he had reached into his storage pouch as he was, his arm might have been cut off.

Ise bent his neck once, twisted his waist again, and diverted the attacks.

The attacks came in relentless waves, as though the man was determined to stop him from taking out the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner at any cost.

Even when Ise's counterattacks tore away flesh, the man's attacks stubbornly aimed for the storage pouch.

All the while, the mass of blood behind him silently ripened.

‘What kind of spell takes this long to prepare?’

Why would he guard it so fiercely, even at the risk of his own life?

The moment that thing was completed would be the end of this drawn-out battle. His instincts screamed it at him.

Ise made his choice quickly.

He threw the short blade at the man's neck.

The blade flew straight at him.

The flashy sacred relic of the dokkaebi clan, infused with Adamantine Chain, was enough to make the demonic cultivator flinch.

Taking advantage of that opening, Ise swept his empty hand across the storage pouch, gripped the shaft of the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner, and moved to drive it into the ground.

The demonic cultivator had been waiting for the very moment Ise filled the sacred relic with internal qi.

For that instant when Ise could not wrap his body in internal qi while deploying the warding barrier.

Blood-red demonic qi transformed into cultivation power and shot from the man's brush tip.

A red blade spinning in a spiral coiled around Ise's wrist and sliced through it.

Slice.

The sensation and control in his right hand, which gripped the banner spear, vanished. A beat later, burning pain flooded in.

Still, Ise did not stop. As though he had expected this moment, his left arm had already moved toward his falling right arm before it was severed.

Ise drove the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner, still clenched in his right hand, into the ground.

The warding barrier expanded its domain and swallowed the area.

Feeling his demonic qi being sealed, the man twisted his face and tried to leap backward.

But the moment the demonic qi vanished from his body, his half-severed ankle held him in place.

Ise closed the distance with Dokkaebi Steps. A layer of Adamantine Chain's golden light covered the edge of the Yellow Great Parasol on his left wrist.

The shield's edge buried itself in the center of the man's chest.

Blood sprayed out with the sound of ribs breaking.

“Just die, you tenacious bastard!”

The man screamed, almost shrieking.

At the same time, an enormous stream of blood rushed toward Ise's heart from behind.

Once a spell had been activated, sealing the demonic qi could not nullify it.

Ise had learned that in his fight against the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator.

Just before the vivid demonic qi pierced his heart, Ise twisted aside by barely half a handspan.

The spell narrowly missed his heart, pierced through his back, and emerged from his solar plexus, entering his view.

A burning heat flared beneath his ribs. His breath caught in his throat.

Yet Ise gritted his teeth and moved his left arm.

Golden spiritual energy poured from the arm holding the Yellow Great Parasol like sunlight.

The fear of death spread across the man's face. The next moment, his body split diagonally apart.

His upper body, having lost its support, struck the ground first. Half a beat later, his lower body collapsed limply after it.

Cough.

Ise spat out a mouthful of blood.

‘I'm... so sleepy...’

Forcing himself not to collapse, Ise brought his left hand down toward the fallen demonic cultivator's neck.

Demon Hunting's Seventh Rule. Always finish off a fallen enemy.

Demon Hunting's Eighth Rule. When you think you have finished them off, check again.

Crack!

The neck bone broke cleanly, dividing the demonic cultivator into three pieces.

Ise swayed. With a trembling hand, he took a Healing Pellet from his storage pouch, bit into it, and swallowed.

The few breaths it took for the medicine to spread through his veins felt as long as a season.

It would be easy to let his mind go.

Exhaustion tempted him from the edge of his consciousness, urging him to fall over and sleep.

Ise rejected the temptation.

This was enemy territory. The moment he lost consciousness, anything could happen.

He staggered to his feet.

He retrieved the Vein-Severing Blade, pulled out the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner, and leaned on it like a cane as he recited the Spirit Release Incantation in a ragged voice.

The natural devouring process followed.

Fresh spiritual energy and demonic qi poured into his body, whose internal qi had nearly run dry, making it easier to breathe.

He performed spirit-sending rites for each demon beast corpse scattered around the area. After searching the mountain stronghold's interior, he stuffed everything he found into his storage pouch, including Formation Plate fragments, formation artifact banners, pieces of spirit artifacts that had fallen from the man's Daoist robes, and more.

Only after sealing the corpses in the Demon-Sealing Talisman Book did Ise sink to the ground.

‘No. I can't stay here.’

He steadied himself again and forced his exhausted body to move.

He repeatedly dropped to one knee before hauling himself back up. Only after getting as far away from the mountain stronghold as possible did he collapse into a thicket and hide himself.

He took out a Message Talisman, wrote four characters, “Requesting support,” followed by his two-character name, then sent it flying into the air.

Ise's eyelids slowly fell shut.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, sunlight was slanting through the windows of the Healer Pavilion.

“You're awake.”

At the calm voice, Ise breathed out in relief. He had survived.

“It was a miracle you were alive. When I first saw you, I thought you were already dead. Tsk. If you meet a demonic cultivator of a higher realm, you should run without looking back.”

A Healer official, who had been making something beside him, immediately began scolding him with worried words.

Ise had never met them before, yet they spoke with a strange familiarity.

“While you were unconscious, this person and that person, including someone important, came by and made the Healer Pavilion noisy. Apologize to the people you worried.”

“Yes. Thank you for treating me.”

Ise looked at his perfectly restored right hand and asked anxiously, “Um... how much is the treatment fee?”

“You crazy brat, is that what you ask the moment you wake up? Don't worry. Hall Master Woo Yu-hui patched up the holes in your body and your arm before leaving, and the rest of the treatment can be handled for free.”

Ise realized who the important visitor that had stirred up the Healer Pavilion was. He felt both grateful and puzzled. He had not expected her to care this much.

“How long was I asleep?”

“About four days.”

He had been out for quite a while.

Thinking that he had missed four days of cultivation made Ise's solar plexus and severed wrist ache.

“You're the first person to return after winning a fight across a minor realm boundary. Thanks to you, the Great Exorcist Order has been in an uproar. The Chief Master has also been sending messages now and then, apparently curious about your mission report. I've been living in luxury, real luxury.”

“I'm sorry for causing concern. May I ask your name, Senior? I will repay this kindness.”

“My name? Seong Boyeong. It was my job anyway, so don't bother repaying me. Just don't come back injured.”

Seong Boyeong waved dismissively and moved to leave.

When Ise sat up and picked up his neatly folded Daoist robes, Seong Boyeong sharply turned around.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah. You said the Chief Master was waiting. I was going to write the report.”

“Lie back down right now.”

“Yes.”

Ise immediately laid his head back on the bed. Then he reviewed the previous battle.

The fight against a demonic cultivator full of unpredictable variables. The helplessness that had made his lack of experience painfully clear. The memory of facing death, yet enduring pain and surpassing his limits.

One thing was certain. He had gained much from this mission.

Experience that could not be bought even with Spiritual Stones, an enormous amount of internal qi, and thirteen demon beast corpses. There were also the Spiritual Stones and spirit artifacts he had obtained from the mountain stronghold.

‘Ah, I need to check the spoils...’

At the time, he had been too overwhelmed and had stuffed everything away. As he recalled, he had even taken the scraps of fasting pills the demonic cultivators had left behind.

He would sort through it all when he had time.

Unable to resist the overwhelming drowsiness, Ise soon fell asleep again.

When he woke once more, the additional reward from the Mission Pavilion was quite substantial.

He turned in the demonic cultivator's corpse and kept everything else.

An additional sum equal to exactly twice the original reward had been paid out.

Even after accounting for the magical items he had used during the mission, the Spiritual Stones he had taken from the demonic cultivators and the proceeds from selling all the artifacts he did not need brought his savings to nearly eight hundred Spiritual Stones.

They were so heavy that he had to divide them into separate pouches before storing them in his storage pouch.

‘A thousand is enough to buy one sacred relic for the Qi Condensation Realm.’

If he saved a little more, he could add a decent piece of equipment to his arsenal.

After organizing his resources in the storage pouch, Ise immediately headed for his personal cultivation cave.

The door closed. With a reverent heart, Ise ate the immortal cuisine he had prepared, set up the Formation Plate containing the Spirit-Gathering Formation he had bought from the spirit-artifact store, then sat cross-legged.

The heaven-and-earth spiritual energy within the cultivation cave quietly wrapped around him.

Once he sat cross-legged and examined his body, he clearly sensed the imbalance he had only vaguely felt before.

The Spirit-Sending Cultivation Method purified and absorbed only part of the demonic qi, but devouring swallowed all of it.

One demonic cultivator at the Great Completion of the Qi Condensation Realm, one sixth-star demon beast tamer, and demon beasts ranging from the third to fifth stars.

The amount he had swallowed alone was more than enough to break through the wall of the eighth star.

‘If I go on too many missions, the balance of yin and yang will be thrown off.’

Ise let out a long breath.

He needed to strengthen his spiritual energy. For the time being, he had to balance the two energies with immortal cuisine, medicinal pellets, and steady cultivation.

The cultivation cave opened again after day and night had changed around one hundred and eighty times.

Stinging sunlight streamed through the gaps of the dark stone chamber.

It was the end of summer.

Footnotes:

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