WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

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◈ Xianxia Cultivation with a Dragon Heart ◈

Chapter 19: The Year of Earth's End

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The Waiting Area was dark and empty in every direction.

Han Yujin felt slightly tense as he looked at the familiar rusted fire door bearing the words Earth After the Apocalypse.

The first time, it had been when he first awakened his ability, and he had simply opened it and stepped through like someone possessed. Looking at it again now, though, it carried an ominous feeling that was hard to put into words.

'Well... the worst that can happen is I die.'

Fortunately, the death he had experienced here had not been especially gruesome. Of course, that was only because he had been so weak at the time that he died before he could even feel pain, but still.

He would have to actively explore more unknown worlds many more times in the future. He could not hesitate over every little concern whenever that happened.

'I'll show you how much I've changed.'

Having steeled his resolve once again, Han Yujin opened the Door and stepped inside.

A chill, dry gust swept over him. After briefly watching the Door disappear behind him, he surveyed his surroundings.

Everywhere he looked was a city that appeared to have been abandoned for at least several decades. Cars lay scattered along the roads, while buildings were cracked or collapsed in places. Every window had been shattered, and all the metal was rusted.

Not even the commonest weed could be seen. In a landscape that looked as though every living creature had gone extinct, Han Yujin shuddered at the strange, corrupted spiritual energy.

It was sinister.

There was no other way to describe it. With every breath, it felt as though cold ice were filling him. His spine tingled, goosebumps rose across his skin, and his body trembled on its own.

“Ugh...”

This felt far harsher than expected.

It seemed he had underestimated the difficulty of this ruined world. There had to be a reason a world had been driven all the way to its end.

'First, I need to find out what year it is.'

He just needed to find a calendar. And calendars should be easy enough to find in the many apartments and homes nearby.

'But before that...'

He wanted to identify the thing that had attacked and killed him in that jewelry store.

It was nearby, so Han Yujin traced his memories and moved quickly while casting the Concealment Art and Spirit Vision Art.

It took barely a minute to reach the jewelry store. Rather than entering carelessly, he first looked inside. Just as expected, there was no trace of Han Yujin's previous visit. It looked exactly as it had before.

It seemed he would have to go in.

Han Yujin carefully slipped through the glass door, more than half of which was missing, then smiled bitterly at the gold jewelry sitting neatly inside the display cases. It reminded him of how greed had blinded him despite the situation he was in.

Still, even thinking about it now, his actions back then had been natural. It would only have delayed him by a few minutes, and there had been no way to know such deadly danger was lurking there.

While looking around amid those thoughts, he still could not find any danger, even with Spirit Vision Art active.

'Does something only trigger once I take an item...?'

The sky outside had begun to darken, just as it had then. Han Yujin cast Jade Skin Art, drew the Five Elements Sword, and opened a glass display case. Then he casually grabbed some of the gold jewelry inside.

At that very moment.

“Fuck...!”

Startled, he threw away the jewelry and stumbled back.

A dark figure stood motionless in one corner of the shop, as if it had appeared from nowhere. Its bloodshot eyes, looking ready to burst with blood, were fixed on Han Yujin.

With the Five Elements Sword aimed at the ghost, Han Yujin stimulated its inscribed spell restrictions to their limit and studied it closely. His skin crawled again, and the hairs on his head stood on end.

'It really is a ghost!'

Looking closer, its form faintly rippled, and the blood beginning to stream from its eyes had no substance. Its mouth slowly opened, revealing nothing but icy darkness.

Everything about it was designed to provoke human fear. Its presence was the same.

Countless thoughts swept through Han Yujin's mind in that brief instant. In the end, he chose to attack.

The Five Elements Sword glowed and growled before flashing. Golden energy shot forth, and the ghost reacted by opening its mouth impossibly wide and rushing at him.

Shraack!

As though he had cut through a real, physical body, the ghost's body was severed and blood splattered everywhere. Yet even with its head split down to its chest, it did not die. It kept reaching toward Han Yujin with its grasping hands.

Those were unmistakably the hands that had crushed his head in the past.

Kra-kaboom!!

Han Yujin reflexively manipulated the Five Elements Sword's inscribed spell restrictions again. They flashed blue-white, and lightning burst forth. Struck head-on, the ghost crumbled to ash without so much as a small scream.

Among the Five Elements, lightning naturally excelled at breaking dharma. It stood to reason that it would be effective against a ghost, which could only be a spiritual phenomenon.

'...Did it die? Or did it run away?'

Without relaxing, Han Yujin scanned all around. The Five Elements Sword's attack had clearly scattered blood everywhere, but it had completely vanished as though it had been an illusion.

As he slowly exhaled in tension, his breath began to fog.

Han Yujin was only at the Entry Stage, but he was still a cultivator. Yet it was cold enough to be hard to endure. The sky outside was visibly darkening at a rapid pace.

It seemed there was not much time.

'Let's say I've roughly gotten my revenge.'

He did not know whether it was dead or alive, but he had not completely died either. That made them even.

As Han Yujin stepped outside, he suddenly sucked in a breath and froze.

'Fuck...'

The instant he emerged, black figures that had been looking down at him from every nearby building window vanished in a blur. It had happened so quickly that it almost seemed like a hallucination, but on second thought, that could not be true.

It seemed this world had been ruined by a ghost apocalypse.

Not a pandemic, not nuclear war, not even the Rift Rampage some scholars had feared. It had been destroyed by a ghost apocalypse that did not even feel like a joke.

'An asteroid impact would be more believable.'

Then a passage from a book he had seen in the Five Elements Sect ruins came to mind.

It had been a miscellaneous text discussing various calamities that had actually appeared, or were believed capable of appearing, in the cultivation world. Han Yujin had read it with great interest because the End of Dharma Calamity, which the book ranked as the worst, had truly destroyed the Five Elements Sect's world.

In any case, according to that book, there were many calamities besides the End of Dharma Calamity, such as the Primordial Chaos Backflow Calamity and the Calamity of Extraterritorial Heavenly Demons' Arrival. Among them, one ranked around the top ten was the Calamity of the Heaven-Defying Ghost Path.

It was a calamity in which the laws of life and death under Heaven became warped for various reasons, until the entire world was covered in ghosts and destroyed.

'Could a calamity like that have truly happened here?'

Han Yujin sank into thought for a moment, but the cold soon brought him back to his senses.

Worried about how much more terrible things would become once night fully fell, he cast Wind-Cloud Art and hurried onward. He had to find a calendar and check the year somewhere before dying, or this expedition would have been pointless.

After traveling for about two minutes.

“Aaaaaaaaaah...!!!”

An impossible-to-ignore, echoing cry suddenly rang out from behind him.

It sounded like someone in extreme pain, or a desperate plea for salvation from someone deeply pitiable. It was faint yet immense, swallowing every other sound around it.

Han Yujin turned around reflexively and saw a man in a suit pursuing him with bizarre movements.

Each time he staggered forward with his upper body twisted like a zombie's, the scenery around him warped at will and the distance between them rapidly shrank. Han Yujin faintly heard the ghosts inside the surrounding buildings scream in unison and flee from the thing.

Kra-kaboom!!

The Five Elements Sword's inscribed spell restrictions flashed, and lightning shot out. But though the man screamed when struck, he continued closing the distance.

“Get lost!”

Rrrumble! Crack!!

Naturally, Han Yujin fled at full speed while firing lightning at him again and again. Yet the man kept shrieking in agony without showing any sign of stopping.

It was as if the lightning itself was not especially painful. Instead, it seemed to torment him through some memory it stirred within him.

'I can't beat him.'

Every time the distance closed, instinct screamed a warning. His spine tingled as though an electric current were running through it. Even with Clear Mind Art, his trembling limbs felt unfamiliar.

'Where...! Where do I go?!'

He had originally planned to find an apartment complex and search the homes, but if he entered a building now, that thing would catch up and kill him immediately.

He also had to consider what other ghosts might be lurking inside.

As Han Yujin ran in a panic, an unfamiliar school building caught his eye.

It seemed wider and less complex than an apartment complex, so he might be able to buy more time. With luck, he might even find a calendar in the faculty office. Han Yujin immediately changed direction.

“Aaaaah...! Aaaaaaah...!”

By then, the suited man's screams, somewhere between wailing in pain and pleading, were dangerously close.

Even though dying would only wake him up in reality, Han Yujin felt an incomprehensible, uncontrollable terror and ran more desperately than ever before.

The moment he vaulted over the school wall and entered the building.

All sound abruptly stopped. The terrifying pressure vanished in an instant, and Han Yujin's legs gave out beneath him. He tumbled across the floor.

“Gasp... Gasp... Hah...”

He tried to stand while breathing heavily, only to fall several more times. Cold sweat, though he had no idea when he had begun sweating so much, dripped onto the dusty floor, leaving clear marks.

'Did I survive, for now?'

He continued watching the situation outside, but there was only heavy silence and no other threatening presence. After pursuing him so desperately, why had he suddenly stopped?

'No... wait.'

Why had he suddenly stopped chasing him?

Was this place some kind of sanctuary?

'No way.'

A chilling possibility came to mind. Maybe he had no choice but to give up because an even more terrifying ghost lived here.

Tensely surveying the area, Han Yujin cast the Concealment Art, Spirit Vision Art, Jade Skin Art, and more as carefully as possible. Gripping the Five Elements Sword's hilt as though it were a lifeline, he began moving slowly.

He had entered this place, and he could not go back outside. As he had vaguely planned while fleeing, he needed to find a faculty office and check a calendar.

'Please, just let me find out what year the world ended. I don't want anything else...!'

Even if someone offered to let him live longer in a place like this, he would refuse. The moment he confirmed the year, Han Yujin intended to escape.

After walking about halfway through the first floor.

Tap.

Han Yujin nearly jumped at the faint sound from behind. When he turned around, a paper card had fallen there.

It looked somewhat like stationery, but blood began flowing from the words written on it, making it impossible to ignore.

“See you soon, kind senior.”

'...I don't particularly want to see you. And what do you mean, kind?'

Just as that thought crossed his mind.

Han Yujin looked up at sudden commotion from above and froze in horror.

Countless student ghosts had been clinging to the ceiling like cockroaches. Now, they scattered madly in every direction.

“Aaaah...!”

“Wonhui... Wonhui...!”

“Wonhui is coming...!”

Only then could Han Yujin hear the echoing voices they made. The overwhelming fear in those voices immediately frightened him as well.

Their reaction alone made it obvious what was about to happen.

Han Yujin abandoned stealth and moved at full speed. A few seconds later, he rounded a corridor corner and found a rusted door with a faculty office sign. He threw it open with enough force to nearly break it and rushed inside.

'A calendar!'

At a glance, he spotted a calendar hanging on one wall, nearly torn to pieces and dangling in tatters. Han Yujin rushed over, turned the page, and checked the year.

'2032...?!'

It probably meant the world had remained normal only until 2032, when that calendar had been hung on the wall. But it was now 2022 on Earth in reality.

If this truly was Earth's future, only ten years remained.

'What could possibly happen in that time to make it like this...?'

As the thought came reflexively, Han Yujin sensed something and turned around.

A female student stood in front of the faculty office door through which he had entered.

Though she was dyed black with darkness, the color of the blood soaking her entire body and flowing down from it was distinct.

The smell of blood had spread without him noticing. It went beyond numbing his nose, making it feel as though he were directly breathing in blood. The rapidly rising cold felt like being doused in liquid nitrogen.

She felt far more overwhelming than the ghost in the suit. It went beyond simple fear, creating a transcendent sense of awe so powerful it could almost be mistaken for reverence.

Almost like...

The gaze Han Yujin had felt while receiving Baptism in Ikhapa Pangaea of the Demon Followers.

The female student merely stood there and stared at Han Yujin with black eyes that bled. Her posture seemed as though she wanted something, or as though she was looking forward to prey putting up a small fight.

“...What are you?”

The voice that finally emerged trembled pitifully, contrary to his intent. Naturally, there was no answer.

Only after running Clear Mind Art with all his strength did Han Yujin barely regain control of his body. He could no longer feel anything because of the terrible cold, but he somehow moved and reached toward one of the faculty office windows.

Just as he cast Flame Projectile Art to blast through the wall of windows and escape.

A fierce ripping sound came from all around him. Then a wave of countless strands of hair, appearing from nowhere, madly shredded Han Yujin into dozens of pieces.

'If it was going to end like this, why drag out the scare, fuck.'

At the moment of death, Han Yujin thought the curse like a lament.

- You have died.

Within his darkened vision, silver letters appeared mysteriously, bringing immense relief.

All the terrifying sensations vanished, and the surrounding darkness felt impossibly warm.

- Select your harvest.

* * *

In any case, he had confirmed the year in that terrifying ruined world.

He did not know whether it truly was Earth's future, and it seemed difficult to verify for the time being.

Still, even if it was, ten years should be enough time to come up with some kind of plan.

'After I grow stronger quickly and explore it again to find the exact reason... No, I don't know if it's possible, but if I could open a Door to the period just before that world's end...'

Han Yujin suddenly started.

There was one harvest option he had not expected to see.

It was the paper card bearing the sentence, “See you soon, kind senior,” written in vivid blood.

“...”

Fortunately, the blood endlessly seeping from the words seemed to be cleanly erased by the special nature of this space. Still, the fact that it had appeared as a harvest option was itself horrifying.

It did not even require any Karma to select, making him feel that something was off.

“Ugh...”

Han Yujin turned away and considered it from every angle, but no matter how positively he tried to look at it, choosing that now seemed insane.

He repeatedly shook his head and left the Waiting Area.

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