WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ Xianxia Cultivation with a Dragon Heart ◈
Chapter 4: The Dharma-Ending Xianxia World
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Han Yujin did not immediately try using his ability again. He spent his time thinking about what kind of wish would be best.
After lunch, he went outside for a walk for no real reason and bought himself an ice cream at a convenience store. As he fiddled with his phone, something occurred to him, and he contacted one of his university friends.
- Busy tonight?
The reply came quickly.
- Nah, why?
- Wanna grab dinner? I've got a craving for pork skirt meat.
- Out of the blue?
His friend seemed a little puzzled, but soon agreed. It was not that unusual for them to eat together.
Time passed quickly as Han Yujin calmed himself and collected his thoughts, and soon it was time to meet.
The friend he met outside the restaurant was Park Huiwon, his closest friend at university. There was no need to explain exactly why or how they had become friends. What mattered to Han Yujin now was that Park Huiwon was quite knowledgeable about Hunters.
On top of that, he liked comics and genre fiction, so he might offer some fresh ideas.
‘Or maybe not.’
Thinking that, Han Yujin entered the pork restaurant with Park Huiwon. They settled at a table, ordered, and talked about how they had been doing while waiting for the meat.
Park Huiwon had mentioned it a few days ago, and it seemed his issue with his girlfriend still had not been resolved. Han Yujin offered some vague comfort and advice. Once the meat arrived, they began grilling it themselves, and he casually steered the topic toward Hunters.
“If you suddenly awakened, what would you do?”
“What else? I'd become a Hunter.”
“Do you have an ability in mind?”
Park Huiwon gave an incredulous chuckle.
“Like I get to decide that myself?”
“You've never daydreamed about it? I do that all the fucking time.”
“Ah, of course I have. Probably more than you.”
Their conversation did not stop after that.
Since Park Huiwon knew a great deal about Hunters, their industry, and all kinds of abilities, he did not look at them simply. He enthusiastically talked about social standing, influence, and other factors as well.
Han Yujin was very satisfied to gain a new perspective.
Still, he was not completely satisfied.
“You read fantasy novels, right?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Why don't abilities like the ones in those novels exist in real life?”
“Plenty of them do, but there are even more that don't. Giving the protagonist some special cheat ability is practically mandatory these days.”
“What kind of cheat?”
“There are a lot where they grow through a game-like system, for starters...”
Han Yujin was not completely unfamiliar with genre fiction either. He did not read novels, but he had seen a few webcomics adapted from such stories.
Still, his knowledge did not compare to Park Huiwon's, who could be called a genre fiction fanatic. That let Han Yujin listen with continued fascination.
It was also because of a small hope that, with his ability, he might somehow obtain the sort of cheat ability possessed by protagonists in those novels. This was not hoping for a lucky break. It was setting a goal.
As he listened, the conversation eventually reached the subject of settings.
“Xianxia has been gradually gaining attention lately, too.”
“Xianxia? Is it like martial arts fiction?”
“They're both Eastern-style, but they're a little different. Martial arts stories have martial artists, while xianxia has immortals.”
“Immortals?”
The only immortals Han Yujin could think of were the ones from the old Golden Axe, Silver Axe tale. But as he listened further, he learned it was a completely different concept.
The xianxia concept of an immortal was an undying transcendent being.
You could think of them as gods from an ordinary fantasy setting.
Therefore, those who cultivated in hopes of becoming immortals were called cultivators. In fantasy terms, they were somewhat like mages.
However, the power balance seemed completely insane. From the way even a top martial artist from a martial arts setting was described as struggling to defeat a low-ranking cultivator.
“That is becoming popular these days?”
“Not popular exactly. It's more like people are starting to learn about it. This is just my opinion, but it feels like readers who liked martial arts stories are slowly moving over to xianxia. They've been reading the same sort of thing all the time, so this feels fresh.”
“Ah, I guess that could be true.”
After agreeing casually, Han Yujin suddenly asked,
“Then what if someone awakened xianxia abilities in real life?”
“What do you think would happen?”
Park Huiwon smiled as if the thought alone delighted him.
“They'd just become a god.”
* * *
After returning home, Han Yujin did not go straight to sleep. Instead, he searched online for information about xianxia. Combined with Park Huiwon's earlier explanation, he had no trouble building and reinforcing his knowledge.
‘Could a world like that really exist?’
It might be nothing more than fantasy to someone else, but it was a very serious question for Han Yujin.
Depending on whether it existed or not, his future could change dramatically.
‘Still, even if it does exist, it would be incredibly dangerous.’
Perhaps because it was a setting where individuals possessed enormous power, many stories seemed to have especially collapsed moral standards. It was as if people would truly do anything for their cultivation.
And Han Yujin found that quite convincing.
‘If it really were a world where every individual could become that strong, what wouldn't they do for cultivation?’
The law of the strong devouring the weak could not possibly apply more nakedly. It would be a world where succeeding in cultivation and gaining power could solve nearly every problem.
Even in reality.
When the first Rifts appeared after World War II and people began awakening supernatural abilities, the world had been thrown into tremendous shock.
It was difficult to explain every kind of shock, what conflicts they developed into, and how they were resolved. But one needed to know that among those shocks and conflicts, concern over the emergence of absolute powers was far from small.
If a single person gained excessive power and authority, they could become a disaster at any moment. History offered the actions of countless emperors and dictators as examples.
So, the dangerous and savage atmosphere of xianxia settings was not an unreasonable premise at all. Reality was that without power to support it, no principle or logic mattered.
‘They say power rules the world in the end...’
In any case.
What mattered now was figuring out how to safely visit such a world, if one really existed.
He could not try to succeed at this in one attempt. If he rushed for no reason, a disaster like last time could repeat itself.
As he got ready for bed and continued pondering, Han Yujin suddenly came up with an idea. The more he thought about it, the more promising it seemed, and he became slightly excited.
A little later.
He lay down on his bed and tried activating his ability. This time, he fell asleep more easily than before.
* * *
A space filled entirely with darkness.
Standing before the ever-changing door, Han Yujin refined his wish one last time.
As he continued concentrating, his outstretched hand touched the door. A soft resonant sound that shook his entire body spread out, and the door's changes stopped.
What appeared was a large wooden door in an ancient Eastern style, decorated with jade in various places. Yet it was severely aged overall, with some parts rotten enough to look ready to crumble at any moment.
Soon, silver letters rose above it and drew Han Yujin's attention.
- Eternal Continent After the End of the Dharma.
‘The End of the Dharma...’
Strangely, he understood exactly what it meant. It referred to a great calamity in which the spiritual energy that filled heaven and earth faded beyond recovery, severing the Way of Immortality.
In short, it was the end of cultivation.
Han Yujin thought that if he truly visited a world like xianxia, people would inevitably be its greatest danger.
So, if it were a world where all those people had died, and unlike Earth After the Apocalypse, no unknown dangers remained, might he be able to achieve his goal?
‘A door like this really became fixed.’
Of course, he could only find out what the world beyond this door was truly like by investigating it.
Resolving himself, he pushed the door open. Then, naturally submitting to the invisible force that arose, he stepped inside.
“...”
He glanced back to confirm that the door had vanished, then looked around. It was the entrance to a mountain range filled with desolation, matching his expectations quite closely.
All he could see were withered trees. He could not tell whether they were dead or alive, and naturally there were no signs of insects or animals either.
Though the sky was not particularly cloudy, it was gray and gloomy. The earth was cracked as though it had suffered a long drought, looking beyond recovery.
Finally, he checked his own clothing. He was dressed like an ancient Eastern martial artist. It might suit the era, but it was far too clean and stood in stark contrast to the desolation around him.
‘Well... does it matter?’
There were no living things nearby to be conscious of anyway.
Maintaining only a minimum amount of caution, he considered where to go before starting up a mountain path. It was because a large stone stele at the entrance bore the words Five Elements Sect.
The letters were so weathered that only traces remained. Yet despite being characters from another world that he had never seen before, Han Yujin could read them as naturally as Hangul.
He would surely have no trouble writing, hearing, or speaking them either.
‘It was the same when I spoke to that bastard.’
He briefly remembered the middle-aged man, who still made him grind his teeth just to think about. But Han Yujin soon shook off the stray thoughts and focused on climbing the mountain.
How many times had he been forced to rest from exhaustion before climbing again?
At last, he saw the ruined buildings of a sect ahead. The closer he got, the more clearly he could feel the severity of their condition. It did not seem to be the result of deliberate destruction. They appeared to have weathered and collapsed beneath the force of time.
Stopping before the massive gate, Han Yujin cautiously searched for any possible danger. But no matter how he looked, it was simply a ruin.
‘...I shouldn't expect too much.’
It was somewhat disappointing, but he still could not be sure. And even if there really was nothing to gain, he would only be letting one night's sleep pass by.
Feeling lighter instead, he began exploring the ruins of the Five Elements Sect as a whole. Fortunately, the sun did not set early, so he was not forced to rest.
Rather than exploring blindly, it would be better to first make a broad circuit, then investigate the places that seemed important.
That was what he thought, when a tower-shaped building with a sign reading Scripture Pavilion caught his eye.
Scripture Pavilion.
In martial arts novels, it was the place where important martial arts manuals and similar texts were stored. Perhaps the Scripture Pavilion of this world was similar.
Filled with curiosity and slight excitement, he carefully opened the building's completely rotten, tattered door and stepped inside. The smell of dust in the dry air that swept over him made him frown.
Other than being worn down and crumbling with age, the interior showed no signs of any particular disturbance. Many of the bookshelves arranged at regular intervals had collapsed, but some still stood.
Han Yujin approached a relatively intact bookshelf and examined the books placed there. Most were, as expected, in no state to be read. Still, the title on one book's cover caught his eye.
Secret History of the Way of Immortality.
It roughly meant the hidden history of the Way of Immortality.
His heart began pounding when he saw a book that truly mentioned immortals. Being extremely careful, he picked up the ancient, worn-out book and opened it.
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