WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Episode 13: Foundation Establishment Breakthrough (3)

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“Y-yes, I’ll remember that.”

“Come along.”

At a nearby shop, Ise exchanged one Spiritual Stone for gold coins and bought the boy an armful of food.

The child looked up at Ise with wide eyes, then bowed his head deeply and vanished as though fleeing.

As Ise watched the boy’s back disappear quickly into the crowd, his expression slowly hardened.

His spirit sight had caught a trace of baleful energy.

Ise leaped up, crossed the rooftops, and caught up to the boy.

‘It wasn’t my imagination.’

A ninth-grade evil spirit, a Fetal Ghost, clung to the boy’s shoulder.

It was not particularly dangerous, since it was the kind of evil spirit formed when a child died and became a resentful ghost.

Still, it was not the sort that arose naturally.

A Fetal Ghost...

It was the resentful ghost of a child who had starved to death.

There was no way children simply starved to death in a market city of this size.

Even if they were orphans, there was always at least one kind person somewhere in the world willing to show a child compassion.

That left only one answer.

There was a demonic cultivator.

And one vile enough to create Fetal Ghosts.

Ise let out a short sigh.

‘I've become too nosy.’

There was no reason to interfere in the affairs of an alleyway on the Zheng Empire’s frontier when it had nothing to do with him.

His original goal, breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, was right before him. This was no time to let himself be distracted.

Still, everyone had something that set them off when touched.

Children and hunger.

Those were exactly Ise’s sore points.

The demonic arts used to create Fetal Ghosts were the kind no one who bore the name of a Daoist could ignore.

Ise knew how the ritual was carried out. He could not bring himself to walk away.

* * *

He headed toward the alley where the boy had disappeared.

The trace of demonic qi he had glimpsed through spirit sight was faint, but tracking it was not difficult.

Spirit sight at Great Completion had an effect almost like seeing through walls.

Following the energy of a mere wandering ghost was as natural as breathing.

The boy slipped into a narrow alley at the eastern end of the market streets, where few people passed.

Every light cast a shadow.

The more splendid the city, the deeper and darker its back alleys were.

This was a place untouched by the bright lights of the market city.

A narrow, moss-covered path wound farther inward.

Ramshackle shacks leaned shoulder to shoulder along both sides, while sour odors and the stench of excrement drifted from somewhere nearby.

It was a slum, a place where beggars and orphans driven from the light had gathered in the darkness.

Ise headed toward the most secluded, shabby shack among them.

Baleful energy billowed from it so strongly that it could not be mistaken.

Before entering, he checked the inside with spirit sight.

There was a demonic cultivator around the fifth star, clumsily concealing their demonic qi with a low-grade Demon-Qi Concealment Talisman.

‘What an idiot.’

The demonic qi released by the Fetal Ghosts already filled the entire area. What would concealing only their own demonic qi change?

With such a gap in realms, there should be no problem even confronting them head-on. Ise lifted the straw mat that served as the shack’s door.

The entire interior came into view at once.

An extinguished brazier sat in the middle, beside a small wooden enclosure.

Seven or eight children huddled together inside it.

All were thin and filthy. They stared silently at Ise with hollow eyes.

The boy who had run away earlier was among them, his face even paler than the others.

Ise forced a smile to reassure the boy that he had not come to punish him, then patted his head.

The demonic cultivator had not gathered these children to make them pick pockets.

Stealing was only a way to find food so the children chosen as sacrifices for demonic arts would not starve to death beforehand.

There was another room farther inside.

When Ise strode in without hesitation, the demonic cultivator within finally turned to look at him.

“...What? Who are you!”

A small box, containing an even smaller severed wrist.

“...”

Ise grew quietly furious.

Fetal Ghosts were the product of extreme evil.

A child was locked away and starved to the brink of unconsciousness.

When death drew near, food was placed before them.

The instant the child reached for it, that hand was cut off.

The hand containing the child’s sealed soul was placed into a small box and infused with demonic qi. Before long, it became a resentful ghost and evil spirit.

Then the evil spirit was tortured, and the resentment it released was used to replenish the cultivator’s demonic qi.

That was the method of demonic cultivators who practiced Ghost Path Demonic Arts.

They were so vile that practitioners of Pure Calamity Demonic Arts, who drew a virgin woman’s vital blood to make medicinal pellets, almost seemed respectable by comparison.

Spiritual energy poured from Ise’s body and began pressing down on the demonic cultivator.

Overwhelming spiritual pressure. Unable even to think of resisting, the demonic cultivator could only tremble with their face pressed to the floor.

“Urk...!”

The man’s knees buckled. The spiritual pressure grew stronger and stronger.

“P-please, spare me...!”

He tried to struggle, but when the spiritual pressure descended again, the demonic cultivator’s palms sank into the ground.

Black demonic qi began to rise from the man’s fingertips. Ise added another layer of spiritual pressure.

The demonic cultivator’s body was crushed into the floor.

Crack. Creak.

The dirt floor caved in, and the man’s body gradually twisted out of shape.

Extreme rage did not show itself on the surface. Ise’s face was almost perfectly expressionless.

Pop.

In the end, the demonic cultivator’s body could not endure and burst into a lump of flesh.

Even afterward, Ise continued pressing the corpse down with an irritated hand until not even a scrap of flesh remained, burying everything beneath the earth.

Then he used an earth-element cultivation art to turn over the ground once and clean the floor.

As if nothing had been there from the beginning.

He looked around.

The space was filled with resentful ghosts and evil spirits.

It felt as though anguished screams were battering his ears, though not a single sound could actually be heard.

After steadying his breathing, he recited the Memorial Incantation.

May they be born into ordinary, loving families in their next lives.

May they be raised in abundant love and enjoy all the happiness they had been denied in this life.

Ise recited the Memorial Incantation again and again.

* * *

He slowly turned back toward the wooden enclosure.

Even though the demonic cultivator was gone, the children who remained were still a problem.

Ise’s gaze settled on one child within the enclosure.

It was the boy who had pickpocketed his storage pouch earlier.

He looked to be the oldest. He had probably volunteered to steal so he could feed the other children.

As Ise took a step forward, the children other than the boy he had given food to instinctively backed away.

Ise asked gently, “My name is Ise. What is yours?”

“...G-Giwon, sir.”

“A new beginning. That is a good name.”

Ise’s eyes softened.

A callused hand rested gently on the boy’s head.

Giwon’s small shoulders flinched once, but he soon accepted the touch without moving.

The warmth of Ise’s palm spread through his greasy hair.

Ise’s fingertips twitched faintly.

‘He has a spiritual root.’

Giwon was still young, so it was difficult to assess him accurately, but Ise’s particularly developed spirit sight could see it, however faintly.

Fire, water, and metal, three spiritual roots. That was above-average aptitude.

Ise slowly bent his knees until he was at eye level with the boy.

“How old are you?”

“Ten... sir.”

Ise handed him an entire pouch of gold coins.

“Take this, and use it to feed yourself and the younger children. Do not let other adults find out. If anyone tries to take it from you, tell them that Hui-dan, a Daoist of the West Lake Guild, gave it to you and said she would protect you.”

“...”

“When you turn fourteen, go to the West Lake Guild. Tell them you have a spiritual root and enter the cultivation world. Grow strong, then become someone the younger children can rely on.”

Giwon stared at Ise for a long time before slowly nodding.

“...Yes, Elder. Thank... you.”

His answer was clear, even though he had to be afraid.

Ise took two talismans from within his robes.

One was an automatically activated protective talisman.

It would activate automatically when faced with danger, even for an ordinary person who could not use spiritual energy.

He had planned to give it to Wiseong when they met again.

The other was a Luck Talisman.

It was a talisman he had extorted from Seolryeong to accumulate good karma.

“Keep these safe. They will protect you. Do not show them to anyone.”

“...Yes.”

Just as his master had done for him.

He did not have the character of a great person like his master, so he could not take responsibility for the boy until the end.

Still, for Giwon’s tomorrow, he returned a small portion of the kindness he had gladly received.

“If fate allows it, we will meet again.”

Ise patted Giwon’s shoulder one last time, then stood and walked away.

Giwon watched him silently for a long time before finally clasping his hands and bowing deeply.

The other children followed, prostrating themselves on the ground.

* * *

After passing through the main gate of the External Affairs Pavilion, Ise went straight to receive a number ticket.

Dusk was when the External Affairs Pavilion was most crowded.

Independent cultivators returning from missions during the day and cultivators from nearby clans all came at once to settle their affairs.

Ise asked the attendant handing out tickets, “Can I request a consultation with a specific attendant?”

“Yes. It is possible if you pay an additional five Spiritual Stones.”

“I’d like Hui-dan.”

“Understood. Please wait a moment.”

The attendant accepted the Spiritual Stones and handed him a ticket of a different color from the one he had received before.

The instant Hui-dan saw Ise, her eyes widened. Then she quickly put on the same bright, professional smile she had worn yesterday.

“Oh, Senior, you’re back. I’m honored that you specifically requested me!”

Hui-dan beamed with a cheerful businesslike smile.

“I want to make a deal.”

“A deal?”

“Yesterday, you told me to join the West Lake Guild. Do you benefit if you bring in a talented cultivator?”

Hui-dan blinked once.

“That’s right. Recommending members also has the side benefit of expanding one’s connections, but the recommender receives Spiritual Stones and contribution points based on the person’s current ability and future potential.”

“I see.”

Ise paused for a moment. He was making one final assessment of whether this was the right choice.

“There is an orphan named Giwon in the slum at the eastern end of the market streets. There are several other children there too.”

“Ah?”

Hui-dan tilted her head and waited for him to continue.

It was unusual for a cultivator to take an interest in ordinary people.

It was even more unusual for an independent cultivator of Ise’s standing to remember the name of an orphan from the slums.

“I’ll give you one hundred Spiritual Stones as a commission fee. Protect those children until they become adults.”

Hic!

Perhaps startled, Hui-dan began hiccuping.

She was at the first star of Qi Condensation, a realm hardly different from that of an ordinary person. Still, children in the slums would rarely ever encounter a cultivator.

With her status as an attendant of the West Lake Guild, protecting a few orphans should not be difficult.

“Among them, the child named Giwon has a spiritual root. A three-spiritual-root bearer has fairly good aptitude, right?”

“Y-yes... That would put him among the top twenty out of a hundred...”

“When he turns fourteen, bring him in and help him go through the West Lake Guild’s formal entry process. As his recommender.”

“No, yes... Well... It isn’t difficult, but...”

Hui-dan simply could not understand.

All she could think was that this Senior was truly strange.

Footnotes:

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