WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Episode 12: Dark Heaven Secret Realm (5)
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Perhaps Solrim's tension had finally eased, because Solrim began chattering about this and that.
The stories about the cultivation powers that dominated the Archipelago were especially interesting. Solrim said the Red Demon Sect, a demonic sect, had dispatched no fewer than three hundred Qi Condensation Realm cultivators.
Unlike the relatively peaceful Eastern Continent, the Archipelago was a brutal world where great powers killed one another and only the strong survived.
Sects were classified as Foundation Establishment Realm sects, Core Formation sects, and so on, according to the highest realm among their members. Foundation Establishment Realm sects were often wiped out entirely.
Foundation Establishment Realm sects constantly kept Qi Condensation clans in check, fearing a new Foundation Establishment sect might rise.
Core Formation sects did the same, continually hindering the growth of Foundation Establishment Realm sects.
If a Qi Condensation clan among a region of Qi Condensation sects rose to become a Foundation Establishment Realm clan, that day marked the beginning of a bloody purge.
The stories were dangerous and fascinating enough to make Ise want to experience another continent someday.
As they talked, the two of them reached a fairly deep part of the secret realm.
Then a massive presence caught Ise’s spirit sight, and he stopped Solrim, who had gone tense.
“You felt it too, Senior?”
“It doesn’t feel like a spiritual vein. I think it’s a spirit beast.”
A spirit beast lay injured and curled up amid a rock wall enclosed on three sides by enormous boulders. Two cultivator corpses lay nearby.
It was a silver tiger spirit beast at the late Qi Condensation Realm.
It was more than three times the size of an ordinary tiger. A vertically slit eye sat on its forehead, and with both ordinary eyes injured, it watched them through that third eye alone.
Whenever the tiger’s shoulder muscles twitched, spiritual energy leaked through its silver fur.
It had already suffered serious injuries fighting cultivators.
As though resigned to its fate, the tiger bared its fangs.
It had no strength left to fight, yet it still looked ready to tear them apart to the very end.
“A Three-Eyed Tiger. But its spirituality is far higher and purer than that bastard from the Archipelago.”
Solrim’s eyes gleamed.
“We’re lucky. We found a spirit beast someone else already caught for us.”
“Leave it alone.”
“What?”
Solrim raised their voice as though Ise had said something absurd.
“Our sect doesn’t hunt spirit beasts.”
At that, both Solrim and the Three-Eyed Tiger looked surprised.
“You’re joking, right? Then why did you even come in here?”
Instead of answering, Ise took out a Healing Pellet and approached the Three-Eyed Tiger.
Sharp spiritual energy flew toward his back. Yet as though he had expected it, the Needle-Launching Armor activated first, spraying needles in every direction.
In an instant, Solrim became a pincushion and stopped breathing with their eyes still open.
“I had my suspicions, but I didn’t think you’d stab the person who saved your life in the back.”
He had expected it to some degree. It was only regrettable that it had actually happened.
If he had been in Solrim’s place, he would never have attacked a cultivator of a higher realm empty-handed, without even a spirit artifact.
“One innocent person died because of you. Eat this and get out of here.”
Ise tossed the Healing Pellet to the Three-Eyed Tiger. The tiger opened its mouth and snapped it out of the air.
“A sect that protects spirit beasts. You are an unusual kind.”
“I think so too.”
The Three-Eyed Tiger rumbled with laughter. After circulating internal qi to treat its wounds for a moment, it rose and stretched its front paws.
Remembering something, Ise took out the flute-shaped spirit artifact supposedly related to spirit beast taming and tried blowing into it. A painfully awful performance continued for quite some time.
“What are you doing?”
“…Is this thing defective?”
“You truly are unusual. Since you helped me, I have one request.”
“What a shameless tiger.”
The tiger burst into laughter at Ise’s incredulous remark.
“It won’t be a bad thing for you either. Let me tell you a secret. At the western and eastern edges dwell the kings of Dark Heaven.”
“The kings of Dark Heaven?”
“One rules the spirit beasts here, and the other rules the demon beasts.”
“They’ll still only be at the tenth star of the Qi Condensation Realm because of the spiritual pressure. Isn’t calling them kings a little grandiose?”
“Puhuhut. You might think so. But you’ll think differently if you meet them. Aren’t you curious?”
“Why are they in the outer zone instead of the Inner Reaches? They don’t live where spiritual energy is richer?”
“Invaders always enter from the outside and head inward. It allows them to avoid tiresome battles every time.”
Ise realized something he had not known before.
If they were intelligent beings, staying at the very edge really was safer.
“If you take me there safely, I will grant you an audience with the king. What do you say? I have heard humans are a race willing to risk their lives in pursuit of knowledge. Give me the chance to repay my debt.”
“You could repay it now. Pull out one of your teeth or something.”
“That isn’t a funny joke.”
The tiger turned around.
“Follow me, one who walks the Dao.”
Its silver fur drifted calmly into the darkness.
“I wasn’t joking.”
Ise muttered, then followed the tiger.
The Inner Reaches were still far away. Yet he had already encountered so many incidents.
‘…At this rate, it’ll take forever to reach the Inner Reaches.’
Still, the time allowed in the secret realm was not short.
He would encounter enough fortuitous encounters before then. Ise repeated that to himself.
* * *
The western edge of the secret realm was a dense forest that perfectly suited the description of a rainforest from the books.
“This is the place.”
“The air is refreshing.”
Ise took a deep breath as he answered.
The heaven-and-earth spiritual energy was somewhat weaker than in the Inner Reaches, but the clean air released by the dense vegetation made his chest feel clear.
“Thanks to you, I arrived safely. Thank you.”
“It was nothing. We didn’t even fight.”
They had encountered cultivators from time to time, but no one dared approach in the face of Ise’s realm and the silver tiger’s fierce presence.
Besides, the farther they went toward the outer zone, the more they encountered only cultivators Ise could handle alone.
Ise followed the spirit beast. At the heart of the forest, beneath the shade of towering trees, sat an enormous tiger.
‘A tiger den.’
That was not all. Around them, three pairs of bright yellow feline eyes glowed in the darkness as they watched Ise.
“My King, I have returned safely.”
Ise looked at the great tiger called king. It was clearly at Great Completion of the Qi Condensation Realm, but its presence felt overwhelmingly powerful.
Dozens of silver orbs floated around it, each carrying an aura like the demon core of a demon beast at Great Completion of the Qi Condensation Realm.
“This human is a Daoist from a sect that does not harm spirit beasts. He saved me from the brink of death. Since it has been so long since I met one who walks the Dao, I granted him an audience with Your Majesty.”
“I’m Ise from the Great Exorcist Order. I came because it said it would repay me if I protected it.”
The other did not seem especially more imposing than him, so Ise spoke casually.
Growls sounded from all around him.
“Silence.”
The moment the great tiger spoke, silence fell.
“I thank you for your kindness. It pleases me to see your honest manner, free of lies and pretense. Before I reward you, I will allow you three questions.”
Three questions.
After considering for a moment, Ise asked his first.
“Were you spirit beasts born in this place?”
“Other than the first ancestors, we were. I cannot know what happened thousands of years ago, but I understand that the ancestor of the Great Silver Three-Eyed Tiger and the ancestor of the Great Black Serpent were raised by a great being.”
“What is the most precious thing in this land?”
“The Records Stele left behind by those who once ruled this land. Only those who possess the qualifications may examine it. I know no more, nor can I say more. Aside from that, there is a flower called the Ten-Thousand-Year High-Spirit Flower, which invaders consider an extremely precious spiritual herb.”
It sounded vague and unhelpful. For all its confidence in allowing him questions, the answer had not helped much. Still, it meant there was something valuable here.
Ise carefully chose his final question. One needed knowledge before one could ask questions.
He did not know what to ask, which made things difficult.
“You can’t tell me about the qualifications you mentioned, can you?”
“That is correct.”
“What should I be careful of in the Inner Reaches? Please give me some advice.”
“Do not enter. That is all I have to say.”
“That’s a problem.”
“Then find the path of life and travel only along it.”
The path of life. Ise nodded, thinking the tiger was quite fond of obscure words.
One of the orbs floating around the great tiger then drifted toward him.
When Ise held out his hand, it settled on his palm.
“It is one of my inner cores. It is a gift to you for saving my kin.”
An inner core. That meant the great tiger before him possessed dozens of inner cores.
Since it could not raise its realm beyond the Qi Condensation Realm, it increased the number of inner cores and stored them outside its body.
So that was how it had survived and grown stronger in this world.
If his guess was right, the great tiger before him had likely surpassed the Qi Condensation Realm long ago.
Ise stared at the inner core for a moment, then asked, “Can I eat it?”
“That is a funny joke.”
“Why do you keep calling it a joke when I’m not joking? You tigers are strange.”
The tiger burst into laughter and waved a front paw.
“Keep it. You may find a use for it. It is time to part. I wish you luck, cultivator.”
“Thanks.”
Ise put the Great Silver Three-Eyed Tiger’s inner core into his storage pouch.
* * *
The massive black rock wall blocking his way stretched endlessly.
Not only above and below, but to the left and right as well.
The natural wall was beyond majestic, so astonishing that Ise let out an involuntary exclamation.
It felt as though he had run for two full days.
The secret realm was that vast.
‘So beings called True Immortals can cut off a space this large?’
The more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed. It was so absurd that he wanted to believe it was an unfunny joke.
Ise enlarged his hatchet with the Giant Weapon Art, then struck the wall with all his strength.
It did not break, and not even a speck of debris fell.
‘Even master weapon smiths couldn’t work with this.’
He did not know what kind of stone it was, but it was incredibly hard.
‘Can I run up it?’
Instead of thinking further, he leaped forward, planted his feet against the rock wall, and began climbing the cliff vertically.
Before long, though, Ise gave up and descended as the spiritual pressure grew stronger.
If he climbed any higher, it felt as though the pressure would burst his spiritual meridians.
‘There’s no way in or out except through the entrance.’
Before it had been cut away, this place must have been a wall built to defend something.
He did not know whether the secret realm had been designed or formed naturally, but to enter the Inner Reaches, he had to pass through the designated entrance.
Standing before the rock wall, Ise chose a direction.
Left or right. He did not know where the entrance was, but he set off toward the direction where spiritual energy flowed even slightly more densely.
Footnotes:
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