WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Episode 12: Dark Heaven Secret Realm (8)

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He was the one who had said before the battle, “Once we break through the entrance, let’s immediately scatter without attacking one another.”

Come to think of it, there had not been a shred of falsehood in his words.

The moment they broke through the entrance, without attacking anyone, he had immediately broken away from the group.

Someone cursed in outrage, but it was already too late.

The cultivator’s figure had been swallowed by the Inner Reaches.

“Don’t get distracted!”

Ise shouted too late. A demonic cultivator’s Blood Thorn pierced another cultivator’s head.

The cultivator had let their guard down while watching the traitor’s actions, and paid dearly for it.

Their force of five against three became evenly matched in an instant.

Ise drove the demonic cultivator before him back while scanning the battlefield from the corner of his eye.

Even at the eighth star, Hae Unchan was holding up quite well. His body, tempered through a body-tempering cultivation technique, and his clan’s secret swordsmanship were finally showing their worth.

The blue stream pouring from his sword tip occasionally disrupted the demonic cultivator’s blood arts. Even when he was not casting spells, his sharp sword strikes gradually cut into the demonic cultivator’s flesh.

As if refuting his own joke about being a fake sword cultivator, he pressured an opponent of a higher realm with flowing movements.

The problem was their last remaining ally, the cultivator at the ninth star. They were being driven back helplessly by the demonic cultivator’s lightning arts.

It was time for Ise to act.

If the balance of numbers collapsed, Hae Unchan would not be able to endure, even if Ise could.

Ise moved even faster.

His movements, layered with all manner of spirit artifacts and techniques, relentlessly hammered his opponent.

The demonic cultivator could only wrap demonic qi around their body and desperately cast defensive spells.

Sweat drenched the demonic cultivator’s face, twisting it into a dreadful grimace.

They hastily formed a hand seal and created Blood Thorns, but the spell was far too slow.

‘Wood-element spells were more effective against the Blood Cultivation Art.’

Relying on the elemental affinity he had learned through several encounters, Ise used the Wood Armor Art to absorb every Blood Thorn.

The moment he blocked the attack, he sent an Earth Spear flying back. The shift from defense to offense was absurdly fast.

Deciding it was too late to cast a spell, the demonic cultivator pulled out a defensive talisman. Ise’s Telekinesis Art snatched it away.

Stealing an opponent’s spell item in the middle of battle was an enormous humiliation.

It showed just how completely Ise was looking down on them. Driven mad by the blatant insult, the demonic cultivator immediately cursed.

“You son of a bitch!”

Ise drove an Earth Spear into the body of the demonic cultivator who had dared call his adoptive parents dogs.

As someone who had reached Great Completion, the demonic cultivator did not die at once. Still, blood burst out like a fountain, enough to cast the Blood Cultivation Art using their own blood.

Ise rushed forward and threw the Vein-Severing Blade.

The demonic cultivator swayed aside to avoid the small blade hurtling fiercely toward them.

In that opening, Ise’s hatchet flew at the demonic cultivator’s body.

Clang! Clang!

The edge of the hatchet grew duller as it repeatedly struck the demonic cultivator’s stone-hard body. Just as the demonic cultivator regained their breath and layered demonic qi over their body to block the axe blade...

The Vein-Severing Blade, returned by Telekinesis Art from behind, sank into the back of the demonic cultivator’s thigh.

Its ravenous feeding began at once.

An eerie light poured from the Vein-Severing Blade as it disrupted and devoured its prey’s demonic qi.

The demonic cultivator reached for the small blade with an expression that said they had no idea what was happening, but Ise’s hatchet cut through their neck before they could pull it free.

Slice.

The demonic cultivator’s head soared into the air.

Ise immediately kicked off the ground and cast Earth Shadow Snare at the demonic cultivator fighting Hae Unchan.

“What is this?!”

The evenly matched battle tipped in an instant.

The demonic cultivator poured in spiritual energy to tear free of the shadow, but had to hastily activate a defensive talisman against the Earth Spear flying in after it.

That brief opening was enough.

Hae Unchan’s sword struck precisely through the gap and pierced the demonic cultivator’s heart.

The last one could no longer hold out. Only after both allies fell in succession did they choose to flee.

Yet escape was impossible once the balance had crumbled this badly.

Under the combined attacks of three people, the demonic cultivator fell before even the time it took to drink a cup of tea had passed.

“...”

The cultivator at the ninth star, the only ally who had remained and fought, collapsed onto the ground as their strength gave out.

It felt as if they had been crossing the River of Three Crossings a moment ago, only to be dragged back.

Ise approached the corpse of the demonic cultivator he had finished off, beheaded it and hoisted the head for display, then took the storage pouch.

“Oh, they had three storage pouches.”

“What? This one has two.”

Hae Unchan took the storage pouch from the demonic cultivator he had faced, then handed Ise the pouch from the cultivator who had died with their head pierced.

Ise quickly accepted it and added, “I’ll split half with you later.”

“Oh, really? You can’t take that back.”

“Have you ever seen me skim off the spoils?”

Hae Unchan answered, “No, I haven’t,” then laughed.

After such a fierce battle, the two of them still looked so relaxed that the cultivator could only stare at them with a daunted expression.

They repeatedly glanced at the demonic cultivator’s corpse lying before them, then watched Ise and Hae Unchan cautiously.

“Take that one. You were the only one who did your part, after all.”

“Th-thank you.”

Afraid they might change their minds, the cultivator hurriedly grabbed the storage pouch.

“But I don’t have to share these, right?”

Ise pointed to the cannon-type spirit artifact and the dead cultivator’s storage pouch.

The cultivator nodded, then stared at the cannon-type spirit artifact. Greed appeared in their eyes.

It was a chance for a Qi Condensation Realm cultivator to obtain a spirit artifact with the power of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Anyone’s heart would waver before such an item.

Ise did not pretend not to notice. He only raised his eyes and met the gaze of the ninth-star cultivator.

“I already have plenty, but if you insist on giving me another storage pouch, I won’t refuse.”

His words were calm.

The cultivator scrambled to their feet and fled into the Inner Reaches.

“I’ll send this to headquarters.”

“Yeah. That would be best.”

Ise and Hae Unchan quickly agreed and took the Foundation Establishment Realm spirit artifact.

After finishing the spirit-sending rite and the feeding, Ise turned his gaze toward the arched gate.

“Let’s go too. It’s hard enough just getting a look at the Inner Reaches.”

* * *

The moment he stepped beyond the arched gate, Ise had to pause and catch his breath.

The heaven-and-earth spiritual energy in the Inner Reaches was extremely dense.

Everything visible through spirit sight wavered hazily, and the world was filled with a pale blue-green glow.

It was difficult to distinguish even Hae Unchan’s internal qi beside him from the external qi flowing through heaven and earth.

“At this rate, I can’t even tell which way the center is.”

Hae Unchan muttered as he waved a hand in front of his eyes.

Ise silently agreed.

“At this level, we could spend the rest of our time cultivating and leave without doing anything else.”

Judging by the density of spiritual energy alone, it was purer and denser than even the cultivation zones at headquarters.

It felt as though his spiritual meridians would fill on their own without taking a single medicinal pellet.

Once they gradually adapted to the dense spiritual energy and the scenery came into view, those idle thoughts quickly vanished.

A ruin lay before them.

It had once been a massive city that must have boasted a glorious civilization. Now it was buried, weathered, and sunken.

The gray-white buildings, seemingly made from a limestone-like material, were mostly broken beyond repair. Moss and vines spread green across them.

Fresh plants grew everywhere, while enormous ancient trees that seemed thousands of years old rose high enough to support the sky.

“Ise. Let’s split up here.”

Ise tilted his head at Hae Unchan’s words.

“Why?”

“I don’t want to play petty mind games with you over resources. And I want to find a fortuitous encounter without anyone’s help.”

At the frank confession, Ise nodded.

“Don’t push yourself too hard.”

“I won’t.”

Hae Unchan lightly stretched, then turned to the right. He began walking away without a farewell, and Ise called after him.

“Ah, you fight well.”

Hae Unchan only raised a hand in reply.

* * *

Ise moved forward carefully.

The external qi was so thick that if someone ambushed him, he would have no choice but to take the attack head-on.

Fortunately, unlike other cultivators who had to rely solely on their five senses, his Dokkaebi Senses could catch the slightest movement of plants trembling in the wind, even within the dense spiritual energy.

That alone gave him an advantage here.

Before long, he found a single orange flower blooming elegantly in a gap between collapsed stone walls.

Even Ise, who had memorized spiritual herbs from top to bottom while learning to make immortal cuisine, had never seen this flower before.

Still, considering how strongly it radiated spiritual essence even in such an environment, it was certainly a precious spiritual material.

‘My first harvest.’

Ise carefully dug it up with the surrounding soil and stored it in the Spiritual Herb Pouch. It gave him a deeper satisfaction than killing a person and taking their storage pouch.

Perhaps he had the instincts of a mountain herb gatherer within him.

True to its dense external qi, the Inner Reaches were a land of opportunities and resources.

Besides his first find, Ise dug up several other kinds of spiritual herbs.

Then he suddenly stopped.

Thump. Thump.

Heavy footsteps were approaching.

There was no need to rely on Dokkaebi Senses. He could tell just by listening.

A huge mass of stone. Dozens of rocks had fused into one, and it moved with heavy steps in the rough shape of a human.

It stood more than six meters tall, and its weight was impossible to estimate.

‘Should I consider that... a combat puppet?’

It stood more than six meters tall, and its weight was impossible to estimate.

For now, Ise named the thing a stone puppet, then raised his guard as he judged the enemy’s strength.

‘It doesn’t seem to have spiritual meridians, and I can’t see a Dharma-Flower Dantian either...’

It was neither a cultivator nor a spiritual being, so what principle made it move? Spiritual essence clearly flowed from its massive body, but he could not identify its source.

No easy conclusion came to him. One thing was certain, though. His Dokkaebi Senses screamed danger more loudly than they ever had before.

‘If there are mechanisms or formations whose nature you cannot understand at your level, never touch them.’

He remembered Irang’s advice.

The difference in their levels was obvious. He concluded that battle was absolutely impossible.

This was not something a Qi Condensation Realm cultivator could face.

Perhaps even if they gathered every cultivator who had entered this place, they would not be able to hunt it.

Just as Ise finished his assessment and slowly began backing away, a blue light flickered at the place where the stone puppet’s head should have been.

The next instant, a beam as thick as three feet shot straight out.

Ise reflexively rolled aside.

Crack!

The stone pillar where the light struck split cleanly in two. It was roughly fifteen meters long.

The cut surface was as smooth as if it had been sliced by a blade. The edges around it glowed red-hot and took a long time to cool.

It was neither fire nor lightning. It was light, yet a single strand of it cut through anything the moment it touched.

It was an attack that could only be described as a beam or a ray of light. Ise had never encountered anything like it.

A bead of cold sweat slowly ran down his spine.

Blue light flickered again at the place where the stone puppet’s head should have been.

Ise immediately ran at full speed.

The stone puppet’s second ray slashed diagonally through the place where he had stood moments ago, splitting a large rock in two.

It was the same kind of rock as the stone wall separating the Outer Zone from the Inner Reaches.

Had he been even slightly slower, his whole body would have been cleaved in half.

‘...What in the world is that?’

Faced with an attack that made him instinctively beg for his life, Ise ran until even the stone puppet’s feet were out of sight.

Fortunately, perhaps because of its enormous size, it was not fast. The thumping footsteps gradually faded into the distance.

It was the first time in his life that he had felt such incomprehensible terror.

Ise stood still for a long time, steadying his breathing.

Footnotes:

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