WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 10: Silver Dragon Mine (5)
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* * *
“Oh my, it’s the newly promoted Seok Gongju. What’s your name?”
While Ise patrolled Silver Dragon Mine with Goe Tong, a female laborer approached and spoke in a gentle voice.
The laborers were not even given proper meals, yet this woman was dressed remarkably neatly.
The ease in her manner, utterly unfitting for a laborer, made her seem even more out of place.
As if someone powerful had her back.
It did not matter. Whoever was backing her, no one within Silver Dragon Mine held greater authority than Ise.
“Step back. Come any closer, and I’ll cut off your wrist.”
Even though her demonic qi had been sealed, Ise still disliked having a demonic cultivator approach him.
“My, how fierce. I only meant that this is also a karmic connection, so we ought to introduce ourselves and get along.”
“What karmic connection? Get lost, bitch. Move already.”
Even at Goe Tong’s roar, the demonic cultivator kept smiling as she slowly crept closer.
Thinking she would not listen to reason, Ise let killing intent seep out.
The laborer flinched and backed away several steps, then grumbled under her breath as she left.
What changed after becoming Seok Gongju was his quarters and the information available to him.
Bamboo slips listing the identities of the mission personnel and laborers were stored in the Seok Gongju’s office.
As Ise examined them one by one and learned the duties of his position, his eyes stopped on the information about the female demonic cultivator he had just encountered.
- Han Chunhwa: Eighth-star Qi Condensation Realm demonic cultivator. A harvesting demonic cultivator, arrested after kidnapping several Great Exorcist Order Daoists to practice the Harvest Yang, Supplement Yin Art.
She had once been at a higher realm than Ise, and she looked dangerous at first glance.
Ise turned to Goe Tong, who had somehow ended up serving as a supervisor again.
“About the demonic cultivators. Is there a reason you only place restraints on them instead of performing the Root-Severing, Meridian-Cutting Art?”
“That? If we use the Root-Severing, Meridian-Cutting Art, they can’t work as miners in a Spiritual Stone mine. Spiritual Stone mines are as hard as diamond, so mortals can never mine them. That’s why, when they’re captured, we select those whose spiritual roots remain intact, place restraints on them, and use them as laborers.”
At Goe Tong’s answer, Ise tapped the jade slip marked Suppression Art, which had been kept in the Seok Gongju’s library.
“What are you worrying about?”
“I’m not worried.”
He was only the temporary Seok Gongju. Was it all right for him to learn a Suppression Art used by actual Seok Gongju cultivators?
Ise quickly made up his mind.
It was a free spell. Buying it from the Library Pavilion with Spiritual Stones would cost plenty.
There was no reason to refuse.
* * *
The Law Enforcement Pavilion cultivator had said they would send a replacement in a few days, but nearly two months passed without a spirit-stone artisan arriving.
Thankfully, nothing else happened.
According to newly assigned cultivators, the scattered remnants of the demonic sects were resisting more stubbornly than expected.
“It seems they’re busy rooting them out everywhere. Normally, war-related missions aren’t assigned to Qi Condensation Realm cultivators, but this time even seniors at Great Completion have been drafted as an exception.”
If things were that bad, it would be embarrassing to complain. Ise decided to accept the situation quietly.
‘I should at least earn the value of that medicinal pellet.’
Medicinal pellets were incredible.
The realms gained through medicinal pellets felt exhilarating. The Pill Altar Sect was right, the Great Exorcist Order was wrong, and Hall Master Hong Mi-hee was a god.
Three days ago, Ise had crossed the minor realm boundary and reached the eighth star.
It had taken ten months since he reached the seventh star. He had barely managed to shorten a process that might have taken longer than his goal.
Naturally, the biggest reason was the mid-grade Qi-Condensing Pellet refined by Hall Master Hong Mi-hee.
The moment he took it, the mid-grade Qi-Condensing Pellet replenished most of the spiritual energy he lacked. It was clear, pure energy that did not require Cast Off Turbidity, Purify Spirit.
‘It didn’t feel like breaking through a wall.’
The final handful of energy had seemed within reach, yet never quite graspable. Then there were memories of the battlefield where he had crossed between life and death. The old man who had gambled everything to save his parents. The weight of farewells bound up in the path of longevity. The recurring question of what immortal cultivation truly was.
After deeply considering the path of immortal cultivation and the pursuit of longevity, then repeatedly reflecting on life and death, he had reached a conclusion.
‘Since I began immortal cultivation, I’ll keep moving forward without stopping, toward the end.’
That conclusion and resolve melted away the final layer that had formed the barrier.
It felt less as though something had blocked him and more as if the process itself had simply been long.
That was only natural. The spiritual energy required for the eighth star was twice what the seventh star required.
‘Next is the ninth star.’
Ise craved growth like a charging wild boar.
* * *
Late at night.
A secret meeting was taking place inside a shabby shack built near the female laborers’ quarters.
Goe Tong lifted the straw mat blocking the entrance and stepped inside. The woman already waiting there turned her eyes toward Goe Tong.
Goe Tong lay down beside her and quietly reached out a hand.
The woman, Han Chunhwa, coyly slapped it away.
“You haven’t been coming to see me lately. Have you grown tired of me already?”
“It’s not that. The newly appointed Seok Gongju is incredibly strict. Unless he’s in seclusion, I can’t find even a moment.”
“I even let it slide when you insulted me before. What was it you said? ‘Get lost, bitch’?”
“No, that was wordplay. Inyeon, ‘karmic connection,’ sounds like i-nyeon, ‘you bitch.’ It was a joke. Why are you still holding onto it?”
“I don’t know. The wound hasn’t healed yet. Senior, I want you to leave today. I’m not in the mood.”
“What? That would be a problem. I don’t have much time left before I return. This might be our last time, and you’re going to act like this?”
At the thought that Goe Tong did not have much time before returning, Han Chunhwa softened and released the hand she had been holding as though reluctantly.
Goe Tong’s hand immediately began moving busily.
Summer had long since passed, but inside that shack, it was a torrid midsummer night.
“Senior.”
“Mm?”
At Han Chunhwa’s languid call, Goe Tong answered as though swallowing a breath.
“When you finish your mission and return, how will I live?”
“...”
“If I undergo the Root-Severing, Meridian-Cutting Art and become a mortal, could I enter a marriage pact with you, Senior?”
“That...”
Goe Tong could not answer.
This was no more than a one-night fling.
Inside, Goe Tong thought, ‘Would I enter a marriage pact with a mere mortal?’ But there were more important matters on Goe Tong’s mind than such useless thoughts.
“It would be impossible, wouldn’t it?”
“What does that matter?”
“Today is our last time, right, Senior?”
“Probably. Tomorrow is when the temporary Seok Gongju patrols. That person has sharp senses, so I could never avoid his notice.”
“Then could you lift my restraint for just a moment? Only tonight.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I learned the Bedchamber Art. That’s why I was branded a demonic cultivator. But it’s the last day anyway. What do you say? Would you like to feel a night hotter... sweeter than anything else in the world? Even after leaving me, I’ll give you a night you’ll never... forget.”
Her languid whisper tickled Goe Tong’s ear.
“But I don’t know how to lift a restraint.”
“I do. You never know when you might be kidnapped.”
“But... that seems difficult.”
Han Chunhwa gently pushed Goe Tong away. A burning thirst rose from Goe Tong’s throat.
“I’m only at the fourth star of the Qi Condensation Realm. Are you afraid of me?”
“It’s not that. This is just...”
“Or was all the love you whispered to me a lie from the beginning? Did you only treat me as a toy for one night?”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Then don’t be afraid.”
Han Chunhwa guided Goe Tong’s hand toward the point on her body where the restraint had to be lifted, a rather intimate spot.
“Lifting the restraint begins here. Put spiritual energy into my body. Slowly. Like playing an instrument.”
As if entranced, Goe Tong’s hand began to move.
A short while later, Han Chunhwa rose, driving her nails into Goe Tong’s throat.
She licked the blood dripping from her fingertips and smiled seductively.
* * *
On a night when the crescent moon hung slanted like a bolt of white silk, the alarm blared.
Someone had activated the Alarm-Chime Art spirit artifact installed at the mountain peak.
Ise immediately burst from the cave dwelling Shin Hyeon had used.
The moment he stepped outside, he saw demonic qi raging everywhere.
The demonic cultivators had been released from their restraints.
Before the question of how they had done it could leave his mind, Ise filled his voice with spiritual energy and shouted, “All mission personnel, gather in front of the Seok Gongju’s office!”
He did not know what method they had used, but as long as he protected the Seok Gongju’s office, the demonic cultivators could not escape.
The Great Exorcist Order’s defensive formation would not allow it.
Seventeen people gathered shortly afterward.
Five were missing.
Goe Tong was absent, as was the night-duty worker. The three members of the dawn patrol were missing as well.
“What happened?”
A mission worker who appeared injured, as though they had already fought the demonic cultivators, spoke.
“Someone released all the demonic cultivators from their restraints. They attacked the patrol and seem to be gathering all the demonic cultivators to attempt an escape... They’ll probably soon...”
Before the cultivator could finish, demonic cultivators surged toward them from the western mine tunnels, carrying torches.
There were nearly a hundred of them.
Han Chunhwa led the group. The demonic cultivators following her carried the severed heads of Great Exorcist Order disciples.
The face in Han Chunhwa’s hand was familiar.
It was Goe Tong.
“...”
Ise stared at that face for a moment.
Then he raised his eyes to Han Chunhwa.
“This damned Silver Dragon Mine never gets a peaceful day. Once this mission ends, I won’t even piss in this direction again.”
Han Chunhwa smiled brightly.
“Oh my, Seok Gongju. Shouldn’t you greet someone warmly when you see them?”
Sticky demonic qi rolled around her.
The demonic qi Ise had felt before had been creepy, but the demonic qi this woman gave off felt thick and clinging.
Frowning, Ise spoke to the demonic cultivators.
“You can’t get out anyway, so what are you doing?”
“Why can’t we get out?”
Han Chunhwa pointed at the Seok Gongju’s office behind Ise.
“Once we kill all of you, we only need to find and destroy the formation artifact maintaining the warding barrier.”
It was true that physically destroying the formation artifact would collapse the warding barrier.
If they could destroy it.
Ise glanced at the tense cultivators’ faces.
Every one of them was filled with despair and fear.
The enemy outnumbered them five to one. The highest realm among them was the eighth star.
Most of the formal disciples facing them were below the middle stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. And they likely still believed Ise was at the seventh star.
Even if the laborers’ bodies had been starved and abused, demonic cultivators were still demonic cultivators.
“Relax, everyone. It’s fine.”
Han Chunhwa responded to Ise’s calm words.
She examined his realm once more, then tilted her head strangely.
“You... I heard you were at the seventh star, but you reached the eighth. But is something wrong with my eyes? Why does it feel like demonic qi?”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
Han Chunhwa narrowed her eyes and ran her tongue across her upper lip.
“Yes. Whatever it is, you truly have... talent so astonishing it makes me covet it.”
Rather than answer, Ise pulled the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner from his storage pouch.
He did not like the idea of this sacred relic’s effect becoming widely known. But he could not allow more of his companions to die.
He also did not like having his precious cultivation time taken from him.
He immediately swallowed a Bursting Spirit Pellet.
Internal qi began raging through him.
He gathered the rampaging demonic qi in a single motion and drove the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner forcefully into the ground.
Like a conqueror victorious on the battlefield declaring this place his domain.
A warding barrier spread from the sacred relic.
The translucent film widened until it touched the warding barrier surrounding the mountain peak and the entire mine.
The flow of demonic qi stopped within every demonic cultivator’s body at once.
“...?”
For the first time, the smile on Han Chunhwa’s face froze.
Her recovered demonic qi had been sealed again, unable to stir in the slightest.
“W-what is this?”
The demonic cultivators struggled to draw up their demonic qi after their restraints had been lifted, but not one of them received an answer.
“Say that again. Who were you going to kill, and what exactly were you going to do?”
Color returned to the formal disciples’ faces.
They did not know why, but the demonic cultivators were in disarray.
“They’re no different from mortals now, so don’t worry.”
The sinister momentum from moments earlier had completely vanished.
It had to be connected to that spirit artifact and the translucent film spreading from it.
Ise spoke quietly.
“Subdue them all.”
At that one command, the formal disciples moved as one.
As golden spiritual energy surged forward, the demonic cultivators hurriedly began to run.
But there was nowhere to flee.
Just as when they faced the demonic cultivator who used a formation, Ise had removed the option of leaving the warding barrier entirely.
“I really have managed this place too softly. I’ll reflect on it.”
Footnotes:
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