WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Episode 11: Semi-Transaction, Normal Business Operations (4)

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* * *

Ise headed straight for the Mission Pavilion and picked up a mission slip without much deliberation.

- Hunt a second-grade demon beast, Thunder Boar. (80 Spiritual Stones, 70 contribution points. Requirement: Demon Hunter at the ninth star of the Qi Condensation Realm or above.)

The official examined the mission slip Ise held out, then looked at him as though troubled.

“Cultivator, this mission is only authorized for those at the ninth star of the Qi Condensation Realm.”

“I know. But could you make an exception for an eighth star who is practically at the ninth? I really want to catch it.”

“What kind of logic is that...?”

The official scratched their head awkwardly. By the rules, they should have rejected him immediately. Yet the cultivator before them had a perfect success rate in missions. He was practically the king of mission completion.

Since the success rate of assigned missions was part of the official’s own record, they wanted to let Ise do as he pleased.

In the end, the official sent a pleading look toward the Foundation Establishment Realm senior in charge.

“Let him.”

The answer was brief. Ise respectfully thanked the senior, then immediately received the location of an outer branch outpost.

Without resting for even a moment, he visited the outpost, obtained the details, and used a Soul-Chasing Talisman to track the Thunder Boar to its habitat.

Grrrrr!

A pig the size of a house growled at Ise for intruding on its territory.

“That’s a fine specimen.”

Its tusks were as large as a saber-toothed tiger’s, its body wrapped in iron-hard armor. Its legs were sturdy enough to rival those of a giant elephant demon beast.

Lightning poured from the horn in the middle of its head, flashing across its entire hide and snapping outward in warning.

It was a truly mouthwatering demon beast.

‘No one dislikes pork.’

The most popular immortal cuisine at Dine and Go in the Training Compound had been White Earth Boar, an eighth-grade demon beast.

From snout to tail, it was a perfect ingredient with nothing to discard.

When its eyes met Ise’s, the Thunder Boar snorted in confusion.

It seemed to understand that Ise was no easy opponent, but not why he was staring at it like that.

Lightning shot from the Thunder Boar’s horn. Ise caught it with his hatchet, reinforced by Adamantine Chain, redirected its flow, and sent it back at the demon beast.

It was time to test the two spells he had recently acquired.

He threw the hatchet high into the air, then enlarged it with Giant Weapon Art.

Using Telekinesis Art, he drove down the hatchet, now large enough to split even a house-sized pig in half.

Squeeeal!

The crisp sound of a pig being slaughtered rang through the mountains.

After retrieving the hatchet, which had sunk about one-third of the way into the Thunder Boar’s body, Ise moved so quickly that he seemed to vanish.

The Thunder Boar immediately thrashed about, scattering lightning throughout the mountain.

The erratically snapping bolts were powerful enough to burn his flesh if they merely grazed him.

It possessed demonic power worthy of a second-grade demon beast.

Ise pushed away the lightning still flashing over his shoulder after it had scorched him, then raised an Earth Wall in a circle to block the wild bolts.

Boom!

The Thunder Boar smashed through the Earth Wall with its body.

Ise raised the Yellow Great Parasol in time to absorb the impact, but his body still flew far away. He spun through the air before landing on his feet.

‘If I didn’t know how to hunt one, this would’ve been a real struggle.’

Surprisingly, the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner was not very useful against enormous demon beasts like this.

The brute strength produced by their massive bodies surpassed the power of their demonic qi in the first place.

If he planted the banner carelessly and it was trampled to pieces, he would rather kill himself.

But demon hunting was not combat. It was hunting.

Even butchering a pig had its proper order and procedure.

Ise raised square Earth Walls around the Thunder Boar.

Before the beast could smash through them, he immediately coated the walls with the metal-aspect spell, Hardening Art.

Boom! Boom!

The enormous body twisted and slammed against the hardened walls, trying to bring them down.

The walls would break after three or four more strikes, but before then, Ise reinforced the sections the Thunder Boar was striking with two or three more layers.

Using “Dokkaebi Steps,” he ran straight up the wall and looked down at the Thunder Boar from its peak.

Then Fire Art burst from his palm. Great flames wrapped around the enormous demon beast.

The Thunder Boar howled in pain.

Whenever it tried to break the Earth Walls by slamming its body against them, Ise reinforced the walls again. The moment it hesitated, he seared it with flames.

Crack, crack.

The layers of hide covering the pig’s body peeled away one by one.

When facing a Thunder Boar, one first had to melt away its tough hide with fire-aspect spells and expose the tender flesh beneath.

Then one had to pierce straight through its body and shatter the demon core buried deep among its entrails.

Its recovery was terrifying. The wound Ise had cut into its waist with the hatchet had already healed long ago.

After estimating where the demon core should be, Ise formed a long Earth Spear. It was at least ten jang long, nearly thirty meters.

It was his first time creating an Earth Spear so long, and his internal qi drained away visibly.

Following Ise’s gesture, the Earth Spear rose into the air and plunged down at an angle.

The demon beast’s scream before slaughter followed.

After a disturbance that overturned an entire mountain ridge, the Thunder Boar sprawled on the ground with its limbs spread wide.

Earth Spears were embedded throughout its massive body, and its severed pig’s head had been impaled high in the air.

It had not been a brief battle. The Thunder Boar’s lightning strikes had burned several places on Ise’s Daoist robes, leaving dangerous scorch marks on his shoulder and side.

Its hide and meat had suffered some damage, but it had still been a clean hunt.

After performing the spirit-sending rite, Ise sealed the meat in the Demon-Sealing Talisman Book and immediately returned to headquarters.

That day, a rumor spread through Great Exorcist Order headquarters that a house-sized pig had flown through the sky.

* * *

“You’re here early, Senior!”

“Yeah. You’ve worked hard.”

Buchun was drenched in sweat as he cleaned the inside of Dine and Go.

The shop had gone unused for so long that it was old and dusty, but it was gradually beginning to look like a clean restaurant.

Ise took off his Daoist robes and hung them up, changed into cook’s clothes, then sharpened and washed the immortal-cuisine knife.

“What about the meat?”

“Outside.”

Wondering why he had not brought it in, Buchun poked his head outside. Then Buchun froze in shock and let out a scream.

“...That startled me. I thought a mountain had appeared in front of the door.”

Ise snickered, then went outside. After draining the blood and scalding away the hair, he butchered the meat and handed portions to Buchun.

“This could feed three hundred people.”

“There are a lot of parts that lose their spiritual essence quickly, so that might be difficult. We’ll have to throw away the organs.”

“Ah, about that.”

As though Buchun had remembered something, Buchun brought a metal storage box from the kitchen. A faint layer of frost covered its surface.

“This is a spirit artifact called the Meat Preservation Vault.”

When Ise only looked at it without responding, Buchun continued with an eager expression.

“It preserves the spiritual essence in butchered spirit beast meat. The officials at Spirit Beast Grove use them, but spirit beast carcasses rarely come in, so most of them are sitting unused. I rented this one for five Spiritual Stones a month.”

Ise stopped what he was doing and hurried over to open the Meat Preservation Vault. Cold spiritual energy brushed against his face from within.

“I didn’t know you’d bring back such a huge demon beast, but if you need more, I can get more of them.”

Ise put a piece of Thunder Boar meat inside, left it for a while, then took it out. There was almost no loss of spiritual essence.

“...Something like this existed?”

With the expression of a child who had discovered rice crackers, Ise stroked the box once. Was this not the spirit artifact Dine and Go truly needed?

Its capacity was small, but the ability to preserve demon beast meat for a long time was a revolutionary change.

“Buchun.”

“Yes?”

“You did well.”

Buchun scratched the back of his head.

“You’re truly capable. Dine and Go absolutely cannot do without someone like you.”

“Ah ha ha. You’re making me embarrassed...”

Ise’s mind began working quickly.

Originally, he had planned to give away all of the demon beast meat on opening day as a promotion.

It could not be stored for long anyway, and word of mouth would take time to spread.

But with the Meat Preservation Vault, one demon beast could make immortal cuisine two or three more times.

He could even sell organs, which produced powerful effects in small amounts but quickly lost their spiritual essence.

‘This will give me much more time to cultivate.’

A quiet smile appeared on Ise’s lips.

“Oh, you clever thing. Go rent every spare one you can find right now.”

“Yes, Senior!”

By the time the initial butchering was complete, the kitchen was filled with Meat Preservation Vaults. The refrigerator they had used before was sent back to the dormitory.

After setting aside some boiled pork to test ingredient combinations, Ise spoke to Buchun.

“Now let’s work on combinations for the supplementary ingredients.”

“Yes, Senior. I’ll bring them.”

Buchun brought out small portions of the supplementary ingredients he had prepared in advance, sorted by type.

They understood each other without needing many words.

Just as Ise was about to mix ingredients to test their compatibility, Buchun stopped him.

“Senior, how about trying these first?”

Buchun handed him honey, or rather spirit honey, along with apple-shaped spirit fruit.

“It’s hard to procure spiritual herbs within headquarters. Most of what comes in is monopolized by pellet refiners. It’s also inconvenient to keep buying them at outside markets, so I think it would be better to make dishes mainly from ingredients that are easy to obtain here.”

“That’s true. Are these produced in decent amounts?”

“Yes. Spirit fruit is used often to make medicinal pellets, but so much is produced that it is easy to get. Spirit honey is mostly used for brewing alcohol, so it is cheap as well.”

“Since it’s honey, it should be good for balancing sweetness.”

Their compatibility would not be bad. Spirit honey and spirit fruit were famous in immortal-cuisine books as ingredients that worked well together. Still, Ise had not known they were so readily produced within the Great Exorcist Order.

Ise picked up a piece of demon beast meat and put it into his mouth with spirit honey and spirit fruit.

“This is good.”

The result surpassed his expectations. As a second-grade demon beast, it already held excellent spiritual essence, but the savory meat paired well with the sweetness of the supplementary ingredients.

It was excellent both as immortal cuisine and as food.

After quickly preparing and tasting the dish he had in mind, he found that it could increase cultivation efficiency by as much as six times.

The two exchanged glances.

Time passed, and Dine and Go’s opening day arrived.

The market street in the commercial district was crowded with visitors who had come for the full-moon market day.

After holding an opening ritual with the Thunder Boar’s head, they hung the pig’s head in front of the shop.

A long line stretched from Dine and Go’s entrance.

Drawn by the sweet promise of free samples, cultivators had waited from the moment the market opened to be among the first customers.

Footnotes:

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