WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 11: Semi-Transaction, Normal Business Operations (1)
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* * *
The disturbance was settled in an instant.
No matter how numerous the enemy was, without demonic qi, they were no more than herbivores before a beast of prey.
More than a hundred laborers had been forced to their knees. At their head was Han Chunhwa, the demonic cultivator who had caused and led this affair.
After learning the full situation through interrogation, Ise began punishing the ringleader.
“...Please spare me.”
Ise swung his hatchet once at the demonic cultivator who uttered such nonsense.
The woman’s body, split diagonally from shoulder to waist, collapsed a beat later.
Ise gave an order to Jangsaeng, the highest-realm cultivator among those who remained.
“Gather the disciples’ bodies and send them to headquarters with this.”
“Yes, Senior.”
Ise glanced at Goe Tong’s head.
Behind half-open eyelids, Goe Tong’s pupils stared blankly into the air.
“...What an idiot.”
Silver Dragon Mine had earned its name because, despite being only a small hill, its terrain twisted like a dragon and turned people’s insides upside down.
Perhaps it truly had bad veins of water running through it. Incidents had not ceased in this short time.
The old man who had seemed to have no attachment to life had endangered his father while trying to prolong it, while the Daoist who warned others to beware of women had lost his life pursuing them.
After Ise reported the situation, headquarters sent back only a message telling him he had done well.
There was no reprimand demanding accountability for the mine’s management, nor any reward for resolving the affair. It seemed they had balanced merit against fault and treated the matter as though it had never happened.
* * *
After his eventful first formal mission ended, Ise returned to headquarters for the first time in a while.
Even Cheongyu Garden, with fallen leaves fluttering through it, felt deeply welcoming.
‘There’ll be dust everywhere again.’
The moment he opened the door to his residence with that idle thought in mind, two familiar faces suddenly sprang out from inside.
“Senior!”
It was Park Gangseo and Buchun.
“What is this?”
“A surprise welcome party, I suppose? Senior, we heard about what you did. How about a small celebration to mark your becoming famous at headquarters?”
“You worked hard, Senior.”
Seeing familiar faces made Ise truly feel that he had returned to headquarters.
“You impudent early Qi Condensation Realm brats. Barging into a senior’s residence... How did you open the door?”
“The day you were brought back after fighting that demonic cultivator who practiced the Blood Cultivation Art. We got it from the Registry Pavilion while collecting your clothes.”
When Ise silently held out his hand, Buchun placed the key in it.
“No. Keep it.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Come clean once a month. Practice making immortal cuisine too.”
“...Yes.”
At a signal from Park Gangseo, Buchun groaned and unpacked a bundle. It contained snacks made with spirit wine and spirit rice purchased in the commercial district.
They filled three cups.
“Time passes quickly. It feels like we entered headquarters only yesterday, but a year has already passed.”
“You’ll switch to mission duty next year, right?”
“Yes. They said we could apply in advance, so I applied to become a manager at Spirit Beast Grove.”
“Spirit Beast Grove?”
“It’s an administrative position in the southern protected district. It gives managers priority when purchasing byproducts from spirit beasts and spiritual materials, so I thought it would help when Dine and Go opens.”
“Then it must be popular. The competition for positions must be fierce.”
“I heard the turnover rate is just as high, so openings come up quickly.”
When Ise tilted his head, Park Gangseo explained from beside him.
“The work mostly consists of cleaning up spirit beast droppings. What cultivator would want to keep doing that for long?”
Ise looked at Buchun as though asking whether that would really be all right, but Buchun’s expression was resolute.
After laughing and chatting about trivial matters for some time, Buchun asked Park Gangseo a question.
“By the way, Senior, how are things at the Training Compound?”
“Nothing much. Aside from this year’s entry disciples being weak and having no real talents.”
“Isn’t that because last year’s entry disciples were unusually exceptional...?”
“That’s true. But the numbers have risen far beyond previous years. So much that people are saying the facilities need expanding.”
“Why?”
“Who knows? I hear the number of applicants has risen every year for the last year or two. Did one of the Three Peninsula Kingdoms start some kind of childbirth encouragement policy?”
The number of applicants naturally corresponded to the number of children born each year.
From the Great Exorcist Order’s perspective as the power behind the Three Peninsula Kingdoms, population meant national strength and an expanding foundation for the order. It was not bad news.
Park Gangseo took a sip of spirit wine and added, “Anyway, Senior, what will you do now? Go straight back to missions?”
“I should.”
“You really are relentless, Senior.”
Ise set down his cup and looked between the two of them.
“But why haven’t your realms improved?”
“...”
Both flinched at Ise’s question.
Park Gangseo was still at the fourth star. Buchun was still at the second star.
Even cultivators with five spiritual roots should make gradual progress if they cultivated with resources and immortal cuisine.
“This senior really knows how to hit where it hurts without a second thought...”
“You’re simply too fast, Senior.”
“I don’t think so.”
Truthfully, Ise did not care much about other people’s realms. He usually thought only that they had improved to some degree, much like asking after their well-being.
But if those who called themselves his hands and feet fell too far behind, was there really any reason to use them?
“We work hard too. But when you have time, could you look us over just once?”
“All right. Since it came up, we might as well start now.”
“Really?!”
“I’ll resume missions in a week. I need time to get myself in order anyway.”
Ise had an idea why their cultivation had stalled.
They would not make progress by simply grinding away without resolving the cause.
Since they would save him time in the future, he considered the time he spent now an investment.
The three immediately rented a sparring platform.
Before the two, who stood there half tense and half excited, Ise took off his Daoist robe and then removed the inner garment beneath it, hanging both aside.
His bare upper body, rarely exposed, was revealed beneath the sunlight.
“...”
Neither knew why Ise had suddenly taken off his clothes, but both unconsciously let out sounds of admiration at the body that seemed perfectly sculpted.
His shoulders were solidly built. Long, prominent muscles and tendons ran from his forearms across his back. His pectorals bulged, his abdominal muscles were sharply defined beneath them, and smaller muscles seemed embedded between them.
It was a physique so perfect that the word strongman suited it.
“Who would think this was a Daoist’s body?”
“But Senior... why did you suddenly take off your clothes?”
“Look at your bodies.”
“Was that suddenly a personal attack?”
The difference was so vast that comparison was impossible.
“You have both neglected Body Tempering far too much.”
“...”
“What is written on the first page of the Demon Extermination and Spirit Subjugation Method?”
“- Temper the body.
- Hunt demons and store the purified heaven-and-earth spiritual energy within the tempered body.
- Add enlightenment to the accumulated spiritual energy and advance to the next realm.”
Ise recited the preface he had memorized without missing a single word.
“Temper the body. You have not even done the most basic part. Great Exorcist Order disciples tend to neglect physical training, but why ignore the very first line written in the cultivation manual?”
“I just thought physical training could not be that important for a Daoist...”
Even now, Ise spent roughly thirty percent of his cultivation time on pure physical training.
He wanted to ensure that the body he had perfected would not slacken in the slightest, and that it could always display strength at its limit.
How could early Qi Condensation Realm cultivators have such weak bodies? It was sheer arrogance.
“For one week, I’ll get your slack bodies back into proper shape.”
The two answered with serious expressions.
As expected, he was a hardworking genius. Their respect for him rose still further. His words were certainly persuasive.
“There is a method I learned from my master. To borrow my master’s words... ‘If you get beaten until you’re nearly dead, your body will shape itself.’”
“...What?”
When Master Mongryeon built up the bodies of young dokkaebi, she would beat them all day, then leave after saying, “If I see any flesh jiggling when I return, you’ll get beaten just as much again.”
Naturally, the young dokkaebi would train as though possessed and build their bodies.
Of course, Ise had worked more than hard enough even without experiencing that method himself.
Still, it was time for his master’s teaching, which had seemed unlikely to be useful, to shine.
As expected, his master was great. There was not a single lesson she had taught that should be discarded.
Soon afterward, shrill screams rang out continuously from the sparring platform.
For an entire week.
Act 11: Semi-Transaction, Normal Business Operations.
The 316th year since the Great Exorcist Order was founded.
That is, three years and three seasons had passed since Ise entered the cultivation world.
An unnamed mountain stronghold in southern Tabaro.
Ise stepped lightly down from the corpse of a demonic cultivator.
Inside a binding formation deeper within the stronghold, three Great Exorcist Order entry disciples lay sprawled on the ground, their faces bloodless.
They had set out to exterminate a ninth-rank evil spirit, only to be captured by a demonic cultivator and made into sacrifices for the Blood Cultivation Art.
Ise sent spiritual energy into the formation, destroying the pattern drawn across the ground.
“Thank you, Senior...!”
One of the cultivators freed from the bindings looked up at Ise with bloodshot eyes.
They had clearly suffered terribly. Their bodies were covered in injuries.
Their spiritual roots were unharmed, but the Blood Cultivation Art had twisted all their spiritual meridians, so they would have difficulty moving for some time.
Ise handed each of them a Healing Pellet.
“Th-thank you... How can we ever repay this kindness?”
“Forget the kindness. I came out here for a mission too. And they’re ten Spiritual Stones each.”
“Excuse me? What...?”
“The price of the Healing Pellets.”
“...”
Hong Wonseo’s Healing Pellets cost five Spiritual Stones each, but the price of anything changed with time and place.
“Circulate your energy. I’ll clean up here.”
“Yes, Senior.”
Ise stored the demonic cultivator’s corpse in the Demon-Sealing Talisman Book, then swept the stronghold’s belongings into his storage pouch.
Then he found a secret manual.
[Telekinesis Art]
A non-elemental spell that controlled objects without touching them. A spell worth forty-five Spiritual Stones.
He had considered buying it several times, but always gave up because the Spiritual Stones felt too precious.
‘What a haul.’
Grinning broadly, Ise shoved the secret manual into his storage pouch. Then he heard the cultivators whispering deeper in the stronghold.
“He looks young, but his realm is incredibly high.”
“That’s him. The one who reached the eighth star within two years of entering the cultivation world, and is supposedly nearing the ninth star even though it has not been four years yet. The hatchet and yellow shield are exactly as the seniors described.”
“Oh, that... monster beyond a genius.”
“Shh. Keep your voices down.”
These chicks did not seem to know that no matter how quietly they spoke, it was useless against cultivators beyond a certain realm.
‘Then again, I was the same.’
Ise remembered chatting quietly with Hae Unchan during the Great Exorcist Order entrance exam, only to be called out by Hall Master Kang I-tae.
At the time, he had thought, ‘He heard that?’
After sending the rescued entry disciples back to Cheongsan City, Ise sent a message to headquarters reporting that he had completed the mission.
Since he was already nearby, he considered visiting the people at the Training Compound, but he was stopped at the entrance. Only those on missions were permitted inside.
“How heartless.”
Despite refusing him entry, the gatekeeper on duty at the Training Compound made a huge fuss upon seeing Ise, saying they had heard so much about him.
Ise grimaced. Being famous did not suit him.
Of course, that was only within the Great Exorcist Order.
Fortunately, disciples’ cultivation information was treated as top secret. Nothing had leaked to independent cultivators, outside sects, or even demonic sects.
That was why Ise found it more comfortable to carry out missions outside than remain at headquarters.
‘Since I’ve come this far, I should repay a debt.’
He intended to repay the debt he owed Hong Sadeuk of nearby Namsangol.
People’s lives were short. It would be troublesome if he did not repay his debts soon enough.
Footnotes:
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