WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Episode 13: Foundation Establishment Breakthrough (2)

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Ise stopped only when he reached the External Affairs Pavilion.

Inside the five-story black wooden pavilion was a spacious hall lined with enclosed counters at even intervals along the walls.

He made his way through the crowd, looking for an empty seat.

“Take a number token!”

When Ise turned toward the voice, a clerk distributing number tokens handed him a small plaque.

Ise gave a slight bow and accepted it.

His turn came soon enough.

The clerk seated behind the counter he had been directed to smiled gently the moment she saw him.

She was a young-looking female cultivator at the first star of the Qi Condensation Realm. Her hair was pinned up with a single wooden hairpin, and her plain clothes were neat and tidy.

“Welcome, Senior. This is the West Lake Guild External Affairs Pavilion, where we serve with kindness and sincerity. How may I help you?”

Listening to the high-pitched welcome that sounded like something a traveling medicine seller might use, Ise thought it was rather strange.

“I’m an independent cultivator who travels across the continent, and this is my first time at West Lake Market. I’d like some information. Where the cultivators’ market is, what rules or prohibitions I should be careful of, the basics like that.”

“Ah, I see. But you’re an independent cultivator? You’re already at Qi Condensation Great Completion?”

“I got lucky. When you travel around, fortuitous encounters find you now and then.”

“Ah, I see! Congratulations. What level of information would you like? We have high-grade, mid-grade, and low-grade information. They cost one hundred, fifty, and ten Spiritual Stones respectively!”

After thinking for a moment, Ise asked for the high-grade information.

His pockets were well lined at the moment, and in unfamiliar territory, more information was always better.

“Wow! You’re quite generous. Thank you!”

Perhaps pleased to have made a large sale at once, she gave him another professional smile.

Then she took a thin booklet from beneath the counter and handed it to Ise.

Neat regular script on the cover read, “West Lake Market Guidebook [High-Grade Edition].”

After looking over the booklet once, Ise took out one hundred Spiritual Stones from inside his robes and placed them on the counter. The clerk swiftly put them away.

“Can I accept missions too?”

“…I’m sorry, but it is difficult for independent cultivators to accept missions because proving their identity is not easy.”

The clerk answered apologetically, then added,

“Why not join the West Lake Guild while you’re here? Someone at your realm would be welcome. Would you consider becoming a guild member?”

“No. I find it inconvenient to belong somewhere.”

“That’s too bad… If you ever change your mind, please, please come find me! My name is Hui-dan!”

The clerk gave her name, but Ise let it pass through his mind without remembering it.

There was no reason to remember the name of a clerk he had exchanged greetings with at the northern edge of the Zheng Empire. They would probably never meet again.

“Then can I buy information about demon beasts or demonic cultivators appearing nearby?”

“Yes, of course. As long as you pay in Spiritual Stones, we’ll get you whatever information you want.”

“Thanks. I’ll come back if I need anything.”

“Enjoy your visit, Senior!”

The clerk waved cheerfully.

* * *

After leaving the External Affairs Pavilion, Ise leaned against a corner along the market street and opened the guidebook.

It was not very thick, but every page was packed with information.

The exact location of the cultivators’ market, along with maps detailed down to each alley.

Places where outside cultivators could rent cave abodes short-term, along with fair market rates.

Restricted areas closed to outsiders.

Basic rules to follow inside the city.

The procedures and eligibility requirements for formally joining the West Lake Guild.

Matters that independent cultivators needed to watch out for in particular.

At the end was even a list of the West Lake Guild’s high-ranking cultivators and a summary of their likes and dislikes.

At first, spending one hundred Spiritual Stones on simple information had seemed excessive. Yet information this detailed was worth the price.

Ise read through the guidebook once more, committed the eastern district’s location to memory, and tucked it into his robes.

It was time to turn his secret realm spoils into Spiritual Stones.

The cultivators’ market lay two alleys east of the External Affairs Pavilion.

The first place he visited was a pill shop.

He chose one of the larger shops in West Lake Market and entered. A middle-aged pill merchant seated behind the reception counter raised his head.

“Welcome, Senior. What are you looking for?”

“I’m here to sell medicinal pellets.”

“Oh?”

Ise poured out every medicinal pellet from his storage pouch.

The pill merchant picked them up one by one, smelled them, examined their color, and felt the texture of their surfaces with his fingertips. His hands moved with practiced ease.

“They’re all low-grade. I’ll give you thirty Spiritual Stones for ninth-grade pellets and fifty for eighth-grade ones.”

Perhaps demand was high because supply was plentiful.

The prices were better than in the Three Peninsula Kingdoms. Ise willingly handed the medicinal pellets over.

Even if he took them himself, they would only build up pill toxin. He would not have eaten them even if someone had given them to him for free.

His next destination was a spirit-artifact shop.

It was the largest one in West Lake Market and was said to be run directly by the West Lake Guild. The attendant instinctively checked Ise’s realm, then immediately led him inside.

“I’d like to appraise and sell some spirit artifacts.”

“Yes. Please show me.”

Ise placed the spirit artifacts he had acquired in the secret realm, along with the flute he had left sitting around because he could not identify it, on a broad counter.

Nearly thirty spirit artifacts were arranged in a row. The white-haired spirit-artifact merchant blinked once.

“Ah… With this many, it will take some time. Please allow me to escort you to the inner guest room.”

Ise followed the merchant into the guest room.

It was an elegant space set even farther inside than the private rooms, with tea and refreshments prepared for guests.

“Senior, would you like me to bring you something to read while you wait?”

“I’m fine.”

Ise declined. He planned to carefully go through the guidebook he had bought from the External Affairs Pavilion.

By the time he had read it twice and memorized everything, two spirit-artifact merchants came in carrying the artifacts.

They began explaining their functions one by one.

“This is a bracelet that strengthens the Fireball Art. This one slightly increases the cultivation speed of water-attribute cultivation arts, and this one summons a wooden man. Its power is…”

The explanation continued for quite some time. Quite a few of the artifacts were interesting, but by Ise’s standards, they were things that would soon lose their usefulness.

Once he entered the Foundation Establishment Realm, spirit artifacts of the Qi Condensation Realm would no longer be effective. Only treasure artifacts would have any chance of being useful at a higher realm.

It made far more sense to turn them into Spiritual Stones and obtain even one more Foundation Establishment Realm spirit artifact.

At last, the spirit-artifact merchant picked up the flute.

“Finally, this flute is a Spirit Fish-Breath Flute.”

“Spirit fish? Not spirit beasts?”

“Well, spirit fish are often grouped together with spirit beasts for convenience. It does sound strange to call fish beasts, though.”

“How do I use it?”

“If you play this flute in a water spiritual ground, spirit fish will gather. Put simply, you can think of it as bait for fishing.”

After considering it carefully, Ise sold most of the spirit artifacts.

In the end, he kept only the Vein-Severing Blade, the Yellow Great Parasol, the Needle-Launching Armor, the Twin-Curtain Spirit-Domain Sealing Banner, the Vajra, the Spirit Fish-Breath Flute, the Ghoststep Boots, and a pill furnace called the Ninefold Cauldron Furnace, which seemed especially useful among the appraised artifacts.

He planned to sell it to Hong Wonseo after returning to headquarters.

Another heavy pouch of Spiritual Stones was added to his possessions.

Most were mid-grade Spiritual Stones, and there were quite a lot of them.

He planned to use spiritual herbs with damaged roots, which were difficult to use as medicinal-pellet ingredients, as ingredients for immortal cuisine after returning to headquarters.

The healthy spiritual herbs preserved with their soil intact would be returned to headquarters and planted in Spirit Beast Grove.

He intended to take all the ores with him. He would commission the spirit-artifact artisans at headquarters to make spirit artifacts from them, or if that was impossible, sell them to Seolryeong at a suitably inflated price.

He had not obtained a single cultivation manual.

It seemed that no one he had encountered in the secret realm had brought one inside.

Naturally, no one would bring their sect’s secret cultivation art into a place where they might die and have it stolen.

His final destination was the secret-manual bookshop.

He was not looking for a secret manual. He intended to buy empty jade slips.

Ise selected and purchased two storage jade slips.

They were large-capacity types with two layers of locking spells. Together, they cost eighty Spiritual Stones.

‘It feels like I’ve become rather free with my spending.’

Before entering the secret realm, he would never have done something as insane as spending eighty Spiritual Stones on empty jade slips.

They said a full purse made for a generous heart. The old saying was exactly right.

After looking around West Lake Market, Ise rented a room at a nearby inn.

The most important task was copying the Soul-Return Body-Entering Art onto jade slips.

Carefully, Ise copied it out one character at a time in neat handwriting.

The jade slips were fairly large, but one was not enough to hold the whole technique, so he divided it between two.

Last, he counted his Spiritual Stones.

He knew he had gathered an enormous amount, but they were divided among too many pouches for him to estimate how many he had.

He took out every pouch of Spiritual Stones and poured them all out, then sorted through the jumbled mid-grade and low-grade Spiritual Stones.

When he counted them, there were more than nineteen thousand.

It was nearly equal to two months and fifteen days of output from Silver Dragon Mine.

“…Long live secret realms.”

Then he lay down directly on the pile of Spiritual Stones.

They felt wonderfully soft.

* * *

Ise was in a good mood.

The secret realm had been exhausting and dangerous, but it had left him with rewards equal to his hardships.

‘I’ll break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm.’

It was no longer a goal. It was a reality close enough to reach.

He immediately finished his business, straightened his Daoist robes, and left the inn.

He headed back to the External Affairs Pavilion.

The sun was beginning to set, but he no longer needed rest or sleep anyway.

His body was burning with anticipation as he stood on the verge of advancing.

The order was clear.

He would hunt a first-grade demon beast or a tenth-star demonic cultivator, then replenish his internal qi through the spirit-sending rite and devouring.

He would fill his demonic qi first, then make up the lacking spiritual energy with medicinal pellets.

It would take a few days at most, or half a month if things went badly.

The mortals’ market streets remained lively even in the evening.

Ise was walking quickly toward the External Affairs Pavilion when a boy running from the opposite direction crashed into him.

“I’m sorry!”

The boy shouted his apology and ran off behind him. Ise checked his storage pouch, found it missing, and gave a hollow laugh.

‘What a cute little brat.’

With telekinesis, he lifted the boy into the air and brought him before him.

At another flick of his finger, the storage pouch slipped from the child’s clothes and floated back into Ise’s palm.

Once the boy realized that the man before him was a cultivator, he began shaking like a leaf.

He looked like nothing more than a beggar, thin and filthy enough that Ise could not tell whether he even ate properly.

“Eek, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…!”

“If you do wrong, you should be punished.”

Thinking that Ise would not let him off easily, tears began to gather in the boy’s eyes.

As Ise reached out, the boy squeezed his eyes shut.

Flick!

Ise flicked the boy’s forehead. His head rocked back once, and a bright red welt soon rose on his skin.

The child blinked. His expression showed that his thoughts had not caught up to what had just happened.

“Being hungry does not justify stealing from others. It’s dangerous too. Beg instead, where it’s safer.”

Footnotes:

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