WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Episode 12: Dark Heaven Secret Realm (6)

──────

* * *

“That damn gnat is seriously getting on my nerves...”

Ise cursed without meaning to.

Someone had ambushed him again while he was resting after growing tired.

What made it infuriating was that this was not the first time that bastard had ambushed him.

It was the same person who had launched a sudden preemptive attack right after entering the secret realm.

Whenever Ise cut off the ambusher’s head, the ambusher turned out to be a clone. By the time he found the real body, the other cultivator had already fled far away.

He had let the bastard get away twice.

The attacks were not especially dangerous once he noticed them, but they were unbearably irritating.

If he let his guard down or focused on something else, an attack could still injure him.

‘Show yourself one more time.’

Next time, he would definitely catch the bastard.

Ise gritted his teeth. He had struggled against powerful enemies before, but this was the first time he had felt toyed with by someone so clearly inferior to him.

He stopped walking, leaned his back against the rock wall, and steadied his breathing.

The huge trees before the cliff, along with fallen rocks and scattered debris, made this an ideal place for an ambush.

That was why the bastard had stubbornly pursued him and finally revealed themselves here.

If Ise waited, they would come again.

He closed his eyes. Partly to show his enemy an opening, but also to feel the flow of spiritual energy more clearly without relying on sight.

If he focused only on the attacks before him, he would miss the real one.

As he sensed the flow of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy for a long while, a set of spiritual meridians approached at lightning speed.

Ise looked past it.

At the real body of the vicious beast, which had suppressed its internal qi and waited for its prey to collapse from exhaustion.

He kicked off the ground.

A sharp metal blade flew toward him, and he slipped past it by a hair.

He headed straight for the real body.

The cultivator tried to flee in a panic.

A Swiftbody Talisman tore apart inside Ise’s robes. The talisman spell imbued with wind attributes joined with Dokkaebi Steps.

The distance between them rapidly shrank.

Once the cultivator entered the range of his art, Ise activated Earth Shadow Snare.

No matter how fast someone was, they could not escape their own shadow.

A shadow burst from beneath the cultivator’s feet and seized the ankle. The other cultivator had moved so quickly that the backlash sent them tumbling across the ground.

Dokkaebi Shadow-Hunting Demonic Art.

Shadow Net Formation.

The shadow net bound the cultivator, and Ise closed the distance in an instant. His hatchet swung toward the ambusher’s neck.

“Aaaagh! Please spare me, Senior!”

Ise ignored the plea and swung his hatchet.

Then, in the next instant, the cultivator’s body sank into the earth.

They had used the Earth-Escape Art.

“No, you had another trick hidden away?”

Wearing a sickened expression, Ise planted the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner into the ground.

A warding barrier spread outward, and the surrounding spiritual energy began to seal away.

He did not know whether the barrier would work underground as well, but if it did, the bastard would soon be trapped beneath the earth.

A moment later, a hand suddenly burst through the soil. The cultivator hurriedly clawed their way out.

Ise stomped hard on the top of the cultivator’s head.

Unable to move because their spiritual energy had been sealed, the cultivator stuck out only their head and pleaded again.

“Please spare me, Senior. I’ll become your slave if you want.”

“There’s one rule I set when I entered this place.”

“W-what is it...?”

“Anyone who attacks first never gets to live.”

“Please, don’t...”

The cultivator’s words broke off in a scream. Ise’s hatchet approached, its blade gleaming.

“A soul-binding contract!”

At the cultivator’s shout, Ise’s hatchet paused.

“Should we... sign a contract? I have a soul-binding contract...”

After firmly tying the cultivator with the Shadow Net Formation, Ise accepted the soul-binding contract.

Once he confirmed that the document was genuine, he asked the cultivator a question.

“Name.”

“Ryu Seonghan...”

「Ryu Seonghan shall obey Ise’s commands absolutely and shall not attack other cultivators within the Dark Heaven Secret Realm. This contract shall remain effective until one of its parties dies. Should Ryu Seonghan violate the contract, Ryu Seonghan’s head shall burst, resulting in death.」

“Hand over your storage pouch. Put every item you have in it.”

“What? Then I won’t be able to survive here... Aaaagh!”

Ryu Seonghan immediately clutched his head. Then, in a frantic rush, he put all his belongings into the storage pouch and handed it to Ise.

“So the contract really works.”

“P-please... Let me keep at least one defensive spirit artifact.”

“You need to take off your shoes too, right?”

“...”

Those shoes were clearly a spirit artifact. Ryu Seonghan had tried to leave them out naturally, but could not escape Ise’s notice.

“Go.”

“Aren’t you going to protect me?”

“Why would I?”

Ise had concluded that traveling alone was much more comfortable here.

Taking someone with him would only make them a nuisance.

“...?”

“If we meet again outside the secret realm, I’ll take you in. Try to survive until then.”

“Senior...!”

Another cultivator’s head had nearly ended up displayed on an Earth Spear, but Ryu Seonghan survived, and Ise gained another storage pouch.

* * *

‘Maybe I should’ve just killed Ryu Seonghan.’

Ryu Seonghan honestly had talent worth acknowledging. It had been a long time since Ise had faced such an annoying opponent.

If this had been outside the secret realm, he might have captured Ryu Seonghan and tried to persuade them. If they met again, Ryu Seonghan might prove useful somewhere.

Still, the spoils were sweet.

There were not many Spiritual Stones or talismans, but he had gained several rare-looking spiritual herbs and a shoe-shaped spirit artifact.

‘Honestly, you should pull up the spiritual herbs with the soil around them. If you pull them out like this, you can’t replant them.’

Ise grinned and placed the spiritual herbs into the Spiritual Herb Pouch.

He would have to keep these for himself.

‘There’s even a quality certificate.’

Ise let out a hollow laugh. He had found a wooden plaque inside the storage pouch, and the words quality certificate were written on it.

[Ghoststep Boots.]

[Spirit-artifact artisan: Sira]

[Rank: Qi Condensation Realm treasure artifact.]

[Effect: Conceals the wearer’s aura from their footsteps and increases their walking speed, as though a ghost were walking.]

[Guaranteed repair period: 10 years.]

A treasure artifact called Ghoststep Boots.

They were shoes that granted their wearer the gait of a ghost. It seemed this treasure artifact was why Ryu Seonghan had been able to harass him.

The spirit-artifact artisan had an unusual name, and there was even a guaranteed repair period.

Curious about which continent Ryu Seonghan had come from, Ise felt a little regret. He should have kept Ryu Seonghan around for a while and gathered some information.

With his body tempered by the body-tempering cultivation technique, Dokkaebi Steps, the Ghoststep Boots, and the Swiftbody Talisman, his movement became almost like flight.

His body slid through the air as though cutting through it. He left almost no friction against the ground or traces of his aura.

Satisfied by the smooth, exhilarating movement, Ise smiled.

As he flew along, several cultivators were startled by his approach and prepared for battle.

Still, Ise passed everyone who did not attack first.

He did not want to kill indiscriminately like a demonic cultivator, and he wanted to enter the Inner Reaches quickly rather than waste time in the Outer Zone.

Perhaps because his movement technique looked extraordinary, the cultivators did not dare attack him easily.

Ise continued toward his destination much more comfortably.

There had been dangers of his own, of course.

At a point where the rock wall curved inward like a coastline and blocked his view, nine demonic cultivators in red Daoist robes had ambushed him at once.

He hurriedly blocked the ambush with the Yellow Great Parasol and tried to counterattack with every spell and talisman he had, but there was no way to withstand the barrage of spells that overwhelmed him through sheer numbers.

In the end, Ise retreated.

One demonic cultivator at the tenth star of the Qi Condensation Realm continued pursuing him alone. Too focused on the chase to defend properly, the demonic cultivator’s head was crushed by Ise’s hatchet.

When someone underestimated their opponent and neglected their defense, death was the only outcome.

Ise made sure the demonic cultivators understood that clearly.

After displaying the demonic cultivator’s head on an Earth Spear, Ise performed the spirit-sending rite and devoured the corpse’s demonic qi, then placed the remains in the Demon-Sealing Talisman Book.

A nameless fear spread among the demonic cultivators who arrived afterward.

Only then did they stop pursuing him.

‘I need to be careful around groups.’

Fighting together was neither cowardly nor shameful. Ise decided to avoid groups of three or more in advance.

By the time he felt that about five days had passed since exploration of the secret realm began, his long journey finally brought him to its starting point.

A gap had appeared in the natural rock wall, forming an arch-shaped entrance about fifteen meters high and six meters wide.

The entrance to the Inner Reaches.

Spiritual energy flowed out from it as though gushing forth.

“Hey, you. Stop there.”

Three men stood before the crack. All had reached Great Completion of the Qi Condensation Realm, and they were lined up as though guarding the entrance.

Ise’s eyes narrowed slightly when he saw their robes.

‘Cheoryang Thunder Gate?’

Their Daoist robes were pitch-black.

Black robes themselves were common enough, but robes embroidered with azaleas, the symbol of the Cheoryang region, were unquestionably the symbol of Cheoryang Thunder Gate.

A demonic sect with azaleas as its symbol. Even a passing dog would laugh.

“You can’t go through here. Entry is closed.”

Ise stared at the demonic cultivators, who were spouting lines fit for bandits, then looked around.

They looked less like demonic cultivators and more like common street thugs.

He could not see anyone, but he sensed spiritual energy from far away. It seemed he was not the only one being blocked.

As Ise gripped his hatchet and took a step forward, the guards snickered and raised their demonic qi.

He did not say anything as foolish as asking what right they had to block the way.

They were not blocking it because they had the right. They were doing it simply because they wanted to.

“If you don’t move, I’ll take that as permission to attack.”

“Really? Then I’ll take an attack as you asking to be killed.”

To test the demonic cultivators’ mastery of spells, Ise enlarged a Fireball Art and launched it toward the entrance to the Inner Reaches.

One demonic cultivator raised a Water Wall to block it, while another behind them took a large cylindrical piece of iron from a storage pouch.

It was an enormous spirit artifact shaped like a black cannon barrel, much like the artillery used in mortal wars.

But it could not truly be artillery. The artillery used by mortals was little more than stone throwing to immortal cultivators.

A flash of lightning shot from the cannon barrel.

Ise instinctively raised two Earth Walls, put the Yellow Great Parasol before himself, and added another layer of spiritual-energy protection inside it.

His instincts told him that he would die if he blocked it wrong.

Even so, his judgment had been wrong.

The lightning released by the cannon barrel shattered the Earth Walls, punched through the Yellow Great Parasol, broke the spiritual-energy shield, and pierced straight through his solar plexus.

Ise coughed up blood and was flung backward. Even then, his mind did not stop working.

‘That’s the power of a Foundation Establishment Realm spirit artifact.’

Those men were clearly cultivators of the Qi Condensation Realm. Yet that spirit artifact undoubtedly contained the power of Foundation Establishment.

He did not know how cultivators of the Qi Condensation Realm could use a Foundation Establishment spirit artifact, but this was dangerous.

The instant he made that judgment, Ise quickly retreated.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried