WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Xianxia Cultivation with a Dragon Heart ◈

Chapter 15: Not Enough Karma

──────

The fact that this one was also an escape art suggested that similar types of arts had been placed nearby. Its title was Cloud Dragon Escape Art, and it was a higher-grade art than the Wind-Cloud Art he had learned.

It was less universally useful than the Five Elements Celestial Escape Art, but its strength lay in flying long distances quickly and efficiently.

It also seemed capable of creating or controlling clouds to conceal his aura. It looked useful in many situations, not just while flying.

The book beside it, Dark Shadow Escape Art, focused on concealing one's aura while moving. The next book, Starlight Celestial Escape Art, was a combat art with both offensive and defensive applications.

'So the Five Elements Celestial Escape Art isn't absolutely the best.'

There seemed to be better escape arts for specific situations and purposes. That was simply how the world worked.

Still, no matter what anyone said, the Five Elements Celestial Escape Art was what Han Yujin needed most right now. Before learning it, he could separately master and use its lower arts: Fire Escape Art, Lightning Escape Art, Wind Escape Art, Water Escape Art, and Earth Escape Art.

Having made up his mind, he put the Five Elements Celestial Escape Art manual into his Storage Pouch. It consumed a small amount of precious spiritual energy, but the book was too thick and large to carry around.

He then passed the escape-art manuals and examined the books in the next section.

This section held cultivation-method manuals. They could all be cultivated from the Dharma Soul stage through the Nascent Soul stage, but more of them came in the form of jade slips than books, which somewhat dampened his motivation to inspect them.

Especially since it was common knowledge that one could cultivate only a single cultivation method.

'I'll be coming back later anyway. Even if I choose one now, I'll probably find a method I like better then.'

So he merely skimmed their titles and contents. Several cultivation methods strongly piqued his curiosity, but he forced himself to move on.

The following section contained arts for combat. There were many impressive ones, yet the book that caught Han Yujin's attention had a relatively simple title.

'Five Elements Arts.'

When he opened it, he found that it indeed contained many useful arts of the five elements.

From basic arts such as Fire Control Art, Fire-Avoidance Art, Lightning Control Art, and Lightning-Avoidance Art, to offensive arts such as Fire Spirit Bird Art, Lightning Summoning Art, Wind Blade Art, Water Wheel Art, and Geng Metal Sword Qi Art. It even included defensive arts with grand names like Spellbreaking Thunder Wall Art and Violet-Gold Radiance Art.

It was practically an exhaustive compilation of arts belonging to the five elements. And the more he read, the more he understood the book's true purpose.

It did not intend for its reader to master every art within. Rather, it seemed meant to help them understand which formulas were used for which types of arts, so they could apply and create arts on their own.

In fact, the author's words expressing that intention were written near the back.

'This really is the Five Elements Sect.'

Thinking that, he glanced through the remaining art manuals.

'Just learning this would take ages...'

That judgment took even his transcendent language comprehension into account.

Even though he could effortlessly overcome the greatest hurdle, the art formulas themselves. Even though he could simply understand all their layered meanings, applications, elemental generation and opposition, and methods of handling spiritual energy and dharma power.

The arts that served as tools of the immortal path truly could not be underestimated. Naturally, the same was true for cultivation methods.

'I like growing stronger through xianxia-style cultivation.'

Han Yujin thought.

'But if I focus solely on this approach... can I really reach the True Immortal stage?'

The question suddenly occurred to him.

The path of cultivation he had just begun to walk was truly not easy. His transcendent language comprehension had made things easier up to this point, but it was obvious that things would grow harder the farther he went.

In the long history of the cultivation world, could there really have been no one with comprehension equal to his?

That was impossible. There must have been people with greater comprehension than Han Yujin, people who possessed Heaven Spiritual Roots, even Spiritual Bodies naturally suited for cultivation.

But had all of them reached the True Immortal stage?

'Forget the True Immortal stage. There aren't even many who reached the Nascent Soul stage, four stages below it.'

Even cultivators at the Spirit Transformation stage directly above it were regarded as half-legendary. At least, that was what the cultivation books he had examined so far indicated.

'I need to make better use of my awakened ability.'

He was already using it, but he needed to try more active and unconventional approaches.

After standing blankly for a while longer, he shook his head and put an end to his thoughts. Then he continued examining the books in the Scripture Pavilion.

* * *

The reason he had not taken every book was that he was certain he would be unable to examine them properly until he reached the Dharma Soul stage anyway.

Even concentrating on the Five Elements Celestial Escape Art and Five Elements Arts he had already taken would leave him short on time. And he did not have an abundance of karma remaining.

Besides those two, Han Yujin took only two more art manuals.

One was the Spirit Beast Training Formula, containing knowledge needed to raise and teach spirit beasts. The other was the Bloodwood Spirit-Fruit Brewing Art.

The book on beast taming needed no further explanation. The Bloodwood Spirit-Fruit Brewing Art, however, was quite unusual. Its core was brewing spirit liquor that aided cultivation, but Han Yujin focused on the material at the beginning concerning bloodwood spirit fruit.

Bloodwood was originally a very common type of monster tree. A Nascent Soul cultivator had bred it to become docile, allowing it to absorb blood from the corpses of beasts containing spiritual energy and bear fruit. All for the purpose of brewing liquor from that fruit.

What mattered was that the fruit produced this way could aid cultivation, with almost no loss compared to cooking and eating the meat of hunted beasts directly.

The more meat there was, the longer it took to eat. As time passed, spiritual energy would inevitably dissipate from the meat left uneaten. Turning it into bloodwood spirit fruit and consuming it could only be beneficial.

It also allowed him to consume more in a shorter time. Skipping cumbersome processes like butchering was an added benefit.

Naturally, using this art required seeds from that cultivated bloodwood variety. Three seeds rested quietly in a jade box beside the manual, and he gladly took them.

They had already died during the End of Dharma Calamity, but he should be able to restore them through the harvest-selection process.

After making a complete circuit of the Scripture Pavilion, he resumed exploring the inner sect area.

Most places yielded little. That was true even of the Artifact Refining Pavilion, which stored various dharma artifacts and dharma treasures.

Dharma treasures were essentially superior versions of dharma artifacts. Since they were items that cultivators from the Core Formation stage onward could properly use, they were little more than a feast painted on a wall to the current Han Yujin.

Most dharma artifacts that might have been useful at his current level had lost their power, making it difficult to determine their purpose. Thus, he could not tell how much he had gained.

Of course, that did not mean he took nothing. He racked his brains and put everything that appeared useful into his Storage Pouch.

Then he spotted something that was clearly unusable, yet immediately seized his attention. It rested atop a central platform on the highest floor of the Artifact Refining Pavilion, where severe restrictions would once have been laid.

'Is that the Heaven-Connecting Spirit Treasure...?'

A spirit treasure was an item above a dharma treasure, and a Heaven-Connecting Spirit Treasure was something that could be classified as exceptional even among spirit treasures.

According to the cultivation world's common knowledge, a Heaven-Connecting Spirit Treasure possessed sentience comparable to a person's. It could assume a human form or create such an incarnation. Even without a master, it could display strength at least equal to the Nascent Soul stage.

The Five Elements Sect's Heaven-Connecting Spirit Treasure was, unusually, an enormous and smooth pitch-black boulder. Called the Five Elements True Spirit Boulder, it was also the foundation upon which the Five Elements Sect had been established.

'How much karma would I need to obtain it through harvest selection?'

He would probably need to diligently accumulate karma with Nascent Soul-level strength before he could bring that item into reality.

'If so, I might return here once I reach the Nascent Soul stage.'

It seemed he would keep returning here to squeeze every last benefit out of it, like getting every last drop from soup bones. He gave a faint laugh and left the Artifact Refining Pavilion.

A short while later.

Han Yujin stood before the last unexplored location in the inner sect area. It was the entrance to a large cave, blocked by a terrifyingly huge boulder.

A brightly burning sphere of flame formed over his raised hand. As he poured all his strength into the Flame Projectile Art, Han Yujin was inwardly shocked.

Compared to the primeval forest, it felt as if his spiritual-energy consumption was nearly three or four times greater. This was the first time he had cast an art at full power here, so he had not noticed until now.

'The End of Dharma Calamity really is terrifying!'

He would simply awaken in his bed in reality if he died, but he felt he could somewhat understand how desperate the cultivators who had faced this great disaster, unable to flee, must have been.

At the same time, the Flame Projectile Art, swollen to its limit, left his hand and struck the boulder head-on.

KRA-KOOOM!!

An explosive roar seemed to shake the entirety of the silent Five Elements Sect ruins. Even Han Yujin, who had caused it, slightly frowned.

Yet when the dust settled, the sight before him left him dumbfounded.

Only the boulder's surface had cracked and broken a little. It contained not a trace of spiritual energy, yet it could be this hard. He could hardly believe his eyes.

“Damn.”

The curse slipped out before he could stop it. He immediately gave up on breaking through the boulder. It seemed he would have to try again after reaching the Dharma Soul stage.

Or he could learn the Earth Escape Art and pass through without breaking it. He did not know what it had been like before, but the boulder now contained no spiritual energy at all, so it should be possible.

That left only the outer sect area to explore and harvest gains from. He would not gain as much as he had in the inner sect area, but perhaps he could learn more minor cultivation-world knowledge and information there.

As he descended the mountain toward the outer sect area, he suddenly looked at the darkening sky and thought the timing was similar.

The first time he had visited, night had fallen not long after he descended to the outer sect area as well.

Remembering the thirst and hunger from then, he opened the Spirit-Liquid Flask and took a small sip of spirit liquid. Unlike in the primeval forest, he kept strictly to the proper amount instead of drinking his fill.

'I need to last a long time.'

Since he would return here several more times, he intended to make a perfect map while he had the chance. He did not want to miss even the smallest gain.

There was also one concern. The material of the book containing the Five Elements Celestial Escape Art was extraordinary.

Compared to selecting an ordinary book as a harvest, it might consume an excessive amount of karma. So he intended to memorize every part he needed.

If he memorized only the Water Escape Art and Earth Escape Art, he would not need to bring the entire book for a while.

'This is going to be difficult.'

As he entered the outer sect area, he let out a small sigh.

Once he had finished everything to his satisfaction, he would also need to find a way to return comfortably and without pain.

And after leaving this place, he needed to plan again what he would do next.

'I don't have enough karma.'

Considering the amount of karma consumed when he selected the cultivation gains from his 27 percent Dharma Soul ascension, the karma he had left was clearly far too little.

'Maybe it's about time...'

It seemed it was time to begin working as a Hunter in reality.

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