WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Episode 12: Dark Heaven Secret Realm (4)

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“Lucky me. I never expected to meet a fellow disciple in a place like this.”

The other cultivator spoke first.

The voice trembled faintly, with relief and fear mixed together.

“My name is Muk Hwi.”

“I’m Ise.”

After introducing himself, Ise watched Muk Hwi for a moment. There was no reaction.

“I was just thinking this would be too much alone, so this is a real relief! Fellow Daoist, shall we travel together?”

“Are you truly from our sect?”

“Of course! I belong to the Great Exorcist Order too.”

The cultivator beamed as though genuinely pleased and offered a handshake.

Ise looked at the hand extended toward him, clad in a glove with the finger joints exposed. He slowly reached out to take it.

At that instant, dark red thorns shot from the cultivator’s fingertips. As though he had been waiting for it, Ise knocked them aside and swung his hatchet.

Clang!

The impact sent the cultivator flying backward.

A metal-aspect defensive spell had already been wrapped around the cultivator’s body.

“Ha ha, you’ve got good instincts. How did you know?”

Instead of answering, Ise sent an Earth Spear at the cultivator’s torso. The cultivator easily deflected the spell.

There had been several clues.

The expression that suggested Muk Hwi had no idea who Ise was.

The unfamiliar accent.

The unsteady posture and untrained body.

And the stripped corpses Ise had found on the way here.

This was someone who stole other people’s Daoist robes and used them as disguises. One of those stripped corpses must have been a fellow disciple of the Great Exorcist Order.

The overwhelming malice pouring from a cultivator who was not even a demonic cultivator left Ise daunted.

He had heard the cultivation world compared to an asura realm, but he had never imagined it would be like this.

Ise rushed in as if to swing his hatchet, then immediately widened the distance between them.

He was checking whether Muk Hwi had prepared a defensive spirit artifact that could counterattack.

Then, as he retreated, Ise dropped a Stone Hand.

Boom!

The enormous stone palm slammed down onto the cultivator’s defensive spell. A Fireball Art struck the barrier from the front. It was quite a sturdy defensive spell.

During that time, Muk Hwi pulled bundles of talismans from within his robes. The talismans sharpened into shapes like narwhal horns and poured toward Ise.

At the same time, two unfamiliar black talismans rose into the air.

Ise knocked away the talismans with the Yellow Great Parasol while tracking the black talismans with his eyes.

When they unfolded in midair, pitch-black tendrils of spiritual energy spread out.

It was clearly spiritual energy, yet it gave off an evil aura like demonic qi.

‘Not quite a curse. It’s mind arts.’

By the Great Exorcist Order’s standards, Muk Hwi was a cultivator specializing as a Shaman.

The tendrils descending from the black talismans swayed as they reached for the ground.

Ise tried to burn them away with Fire Art, but the flames simply passed through the black tendrils.

These were mind arts that ordinary techniques could not block.

He immediately took the Vajra from his storage pouch. When he poured spiritual energy into it, it emitted a brilliant light and scattered the black tendrils.

“Hmph. You’ve got all sorts of things.”

Muk Hwi pretended to be relaxed, but the tension was plain on the stiff face.

It was as if Muk Hwi had never expected even this to be countered.

Mind arts were certainly rare. This was the first time Ise had encountered them since obtaining the Vajra.

Once again, he realized how important it was to prepare for every possibility.

Ise closed the distance.

Muk Hwi stepped back and tried to pull out a second bundle of talismans.

Ise threw his hatchet. As the spinning hand axe flew forward, he activated Giant Weapon Art, and it rapidly grew larger.

Voom. Voom.

The chilling sound shook the ground.

Muk Hwi immediately cast a defensive spell. A blue warding barrier spread in a dome from above the cultivator’s head.

Boom!

A heavy impact struck the barrier, and the axe shrank before falling to the ground.

After blocking the attack, Muk Hwi froze in confusion.

Ise, who had been directly ahead when he threw the axe, had vanished from sight.

The moment the enlarged axe obscured him, Ise had activated a Concealment Talisman.

Muk Hwi hurriedly tried to use spirit sight to locate Ise, but a hand suddenly reached out from behind and shattered the defensive spell.

“You broke a defensive spell with your bare hand! What the hell are you...”

“Your defensive spell is full of holes.”

Muk Hwi could not finish speaking. Ise’s rough hand had clamped tightly around the cultivator’s throat.

“S-save...”

Crack.

The powerful grip of spiritual energy twisted Muk Hwi’s neck.

Ise impaled the killer’s limp body on an Earth Spear by the neck, then stepped away and searched the area for a while. This time, it had not been a duplicate.

With an indifferent expression, he patted down the corpse and pulled out a pouch-shaped storage pouch. The pouch floated through telekinesis and settled on Ise’s palm.

He tried putting his hand inside and taking out something at random, as he did with his own storage pouch, but nothing happened.

Tilting his head, Ise poured spiritual energy into it instead.

A list of the items inside the pouch appeared in his mind.

Twelve medicinal pellets, bundles of talismans, a pouch of Spiritual Stones, quite a few Qi Condensation Realm spirit artifacts, and more than ten sets of Daoist robes in various colors.

‘It works differently.’

Looking at the spirit artifact, which was more advanced than his own storage pouch, Ise learned something else.

Even storage pouches varied in form and function.

‘Just how many people did this bastard kill?’

There were ten sets of Daoist robes alone. The actual number of victims had to be far higher.

Seeing that there were quite a few spirit artifacts of the same kind, it was obvious that most of the contents were stolen loot.

After searching the body further, he found two more empty storage pouches.

Ise confirmed that a storage pouch could not contain another storage pouch, then carefully tucked them into his robes.

‘So he knew the Great Exorcist Order’s robes.’

They had said cultivators from other continents had entered the secret realm, but this person was very likely a cultivator from the Zheng Empire.

If even cultivators who did not belong to a demonic sect could be this ruthless, then perhaps this was the true nature of the cultivation world.

It made Ise realize again how precious the order the Great Exorcist Order had created in the Three Peninsula Kingdoms was.

‘...Still, this isn’t a bad start.’

He did not know how many cultivators he would fight during the days ahead.

Once again, Ise thought this place resembled a massive dogfighting pit.

A place where they killed one another until only the final survivor remained.

* * *

Ise followed the flow of spiritual energy once more, heading deeper into the secret realm.

After activating a Swiftbody Talisman and moving as though he were flying, the rocky terrain of black sand gradually came to an end. Ahead lay land covered in black soil.

Grass had sprouted from the earth, and trees rose here and there.

The plants’ leaves were still black, but faint silver spiritual energy flowed through their veins.

It looked like the sort of place where spiritual herbs and spiritual materials might be found deeper inside.

Keeping his spirit sight focused, Ise continued forward.

After walking for some time, he found eight corpses sprawled across the center of a clearing littered with signs of battle.

One corpse wore red Daoist robes, while the other seven wore blue.

Judging by the bloodstains leading toward the Inner Reaches, it seemed two sects had clashed head-on and one side had been wiped out.

As Ise was about to pass the corpses, he heard faint breathing.

One survivor remained among the bodies he had thought were dead.

“Senior... please save me.”

It was a young face around Ise’s age. The cultivator was at the eighth star of the Qi Condensation Realm.

The left side had been torn open, and the right shoulder was badly burned.

The cultivator had lost so much blood that the face was as pale as a corpse’s.

Ise hesitated for a moment. It seemed wiser to simply walk away.

“Please... I’m begging you.”

Still, Ise eventually let out a soft sigh and turned back.

Since this person seemed to have entered earlier, Ise intended to get some information while he could.

He took out a Healing Pellet and put it in the cultivator’s mouth.

“Thank... you.”

The cultivator slowly circulated spiritual energy to treat the injuries. The serious wounds remained, but the body gradually recovered enough to move.

As soon as the cultivator finished administering emergency treatment, the cultivator approached the corpse in red Daoist robes and began kicking it.

“You fucking bastards! How dare you do this to my fellow disciples!”

Taking anger out on a corpse felt somewhat foolish, but Ise let it pass.

It was understandable. The cultivator had lost fellow disciples.

“Hey.”

“Yes, Senior. Forgive me for introducing myself so late. Thank you for saving me. I am Solrim of the Gwangyeong Sol Clan.”

“I’ve never heard of that clan. Are you from the Zheng Empire?”

“What? No, I’m from the Moon Kingdom.”

“Then you must be from another continent.”

“Yes. We entered from a place called the Archipelago. And you, Senior?”

“The Eastern Continent. I’m from the Three Peninsula Kingdoms.”

“I see. I’ve never heard of it, but it’s good to meet you.”

“By the way, it’s twenty.”

“Pardon?”

“The price of the Healing Pellet.”

Ise naturally held out his hand. Nothing in the world was free. If someone received a favor, they should pay for it.

“Ah... I’m sorry. Those damned Red Demon Sect bastards took all the storage pouches from me and my fellow disciples...”

‘Broke, huh.’

Ise sighed. It looked like he would not even recover the cost.

“Then tell me everything you know about this secret realm. You need to pay for the Healing Pellet somehow.”

“You must have entered recently.”

When Ise nodded, Solrim began earnestly explaining everything Solrim knew.

The Dark Heaven Secret Realm was divided into the Inner Reaches and the Outer Zone, separated by a massive stone wall surrounding the Inner Reaches.

The truly valuable things were said to be within the Inner Reaches. Cultivators confident in their realms and large sects had likely entered the center to fight over territory.

Outside, independent cultivators, small and medium-sized sects, and cultivators below Great Completion were searching in case any resources had been left behind.

Solrim added that the secret realm itself was so vast that plenty of resources probably remained in the outer area.

“For all that, I haven’t seen a single spiritual herb on the way here.”

“Ha ha... To be honest, neither have we.”

“But how did your clan members find one another? I heard people were separated when they entered.”

“What? You didn’t bring a Resonance Bell? It’s a spirit artifact that tells you the locations of people who practice the same cultivation art. Is there really a place that sends cultivators into a secret realm without giving them one?”

“Looks like there is.”

Ise answered with a self-mocking smile. It was his own lack of preparation. Perhaps the Great Exorcist Order disciples had already gathered in the Inner Reaches.

“Still, Senior is at Great Completion of the Qi Condensation Realm, so you must be heading into the Inner Reaches. Would it be all right if I traveled with you? I want to join any surviving members of my clan, if there are any...”

“Sure.”

Ise readily agreed. Solrim knew more than expected, so the cultivator would be useful to question about various things.

Footnotes:

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