WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

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◈ Xianxia Cultivation with a Dragon Heart ◈

Chapter 5: Exploring the Five Elements Sect Ruins

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The writing in the book was clearly logographic, not phonetic. It felt slightly similar to Chinese characters at first glance, but the longer he looked, the more that impression faded. It was a completely different script from another world.

In any case, the important thing was its contents.

Rather than actual history, it was a collection of hearsay tales. Time had damaged much of it, so he could not grasp every detail, but it was still immensely useful.

Most interestingly, it gave him a rough understanding of this world's structure and culture.

How much time had passed?

After carefully returning the book, Han Yujin's face was flushed with excitement.

'This world is so much like xianxia.'

Of course, it was not identical. There were many differences, but overall, calling it a xianxia world would not be much of a stretch.

That was especially true in the way people cultivated to become immortals, growing endlessly stronger and gaining longevity.

'If I can get and learn a cultivation method too...!'

Forcing down his rising excitement, he continued exploring the Scripture Pavilion. At the same time, he organized the information he had just learned in his head.

Still, he could not help some stray thoughts.

Considering the near-infinite vastness of the universe, it was only natural that countless other worlds existed.

Yet even so, it was astonishing that a world this similar to Earth's genre fiction existed. It was almost as if the existence of those worlds had influenced humanity's unconscious through some cosmic, incomprehensible force.

'No, wait...'

Han Yujin suddenly thought of a more plausible hypothesis.

The concept of immortals had appeared on Earth surprisingly recently. But according to the Secret History of the Way of Immortality he had just read, this world's cultivation civilization had lasted for at least tens of thousands of years, perhaps even hundreds of thousands.

If one had to decide who came first, this world was overwhelmingly more likely to be the original.

'What if rifts caused by dimensional collisions had existed, even faintly, much earlier?'

The first officially recorded rift appeared after World War II, but perhaps there had been rifts before then that had never been recorded or discovered.

Fragments of this world's culture might have flowed into ancient China through those rifts, influenced Taoism, and brought the concept of immortals to Earth.

He could prove none of it, but the more he thought about it, the more thrilling it felt, as though he had uncovered one secret of the universe.

A while later.

To his immense delight, Han Yujin found books containing a cultivation method.

They had naturally weathered badly over the ages, but there were more than twenty copies available, perhaps because they had often been borrowed. The books themselves also seemed to have been sturdily made from the start, leaving them relatively intact.

By comparing and reading those twenty-odd books together, he should be able to reconstruct the complete contents.

The book was titled Returning to the Origin Art, roughly meaning to return to one's origin. It sounded impressive, though it did not seem to carry any particularly profound meaning.

Han Yujin sat down on the floor nearby and began studying its contents. He had prepared himself for something extremely complicated and difficult, but unexpectedly, it was not difficult at all.

It was not because he was a genius.

'It's thanks to my ability to understand languages...'

He could understand every sentence perfectly, without even the slightest misunderstanding. The same was true when he examined the dharma patterns that formed the framework of the Returning to the Origin Art.

Dharma patterns served a role similar to the runes commonly found in fantasy novels. Each held mysterious effects of its own, enough for anyone to guess that they had extraordinary origins.

Their forms were fundamentally complex, and they held multiple meanings. Some seemed to have been written over repeatedly, requiring commentaries to discern their original forms. They could even reinforce or counter one another.

For newcomers to cultivation, understanding these dharma patterns was likely the hardest part.

But thanks to his language comprehension ability, Han Yujin could get through it with ease.

'I'm not a genius, but doesn't that make me practically the same as one?'

He was already excited, and now his blood seemed to run even hotter. He had never realized that a clear hope for the future could make someone feel so exhilarated.

As he immersed himself in the book's contents, hunger suddenly struck him, jolting him awake as though from sleep. He did not know how much time had passed, but it was still not dark outside.

'It feels like at least several hours have passed...'

Thinking that, Han Yujin stepped outside and looked up at the gray, gloomy sky.

Then he realized something extremely important.

There was nothing here to eat or drink. Nor would he be able to find any.

'I wished for a world where humanity had gone extinct so there would be no danger, and now it looks like I'll dry up and die within days!'

As expected, gaining one thing meant losing another. Nothing in the world was simply good.

After thinking for a moment, he returned to the Scripture Pavilion and took two copies of Returning to the Origin Art that were in good condition. Then he went back outside and resumed his exploration.

No matter how slim the chance seemed, he did not want to simply die of dehydration.

It was not merely that he disliked the idea. It would be a loss of time as well. If he could find something, even mushrooms, that he could eat, he would be able to stay here much longer.

He explored broadly, as though sketching a rough map in his mind. Though he only glanced at and passed many places, the Five Elements Sect ruins were so vast that they showed no sign of ending.

Just as he was growing tired enough to want to collapse, Han Yujin spotted a large building labeled Alchemy Hall. One corner had collapsed, but because it was built largely of stone, it was mostly intact.

'Could there be...'

Perhaps it held something like the fasting pills that so often appeared in martial arts novels. The kind where one pill kept you from feeling hungry for a day.

He entered with a little hope, but there was unexpectedly no particular smell. Perhaps the doors had not been shut, unlike at the Scripture Pavilion.

The interior was not especially complex, and its purpose was easy enough to guess. He soon found where medicinal ingredients were stored and checked the contents by opening the jade storage boxes one by one.

One area appeared to hold unprocessed medicinal ingredients, while another seemed to store round, refined pills.

The problem was that almost none of the contents remained intact.

A few refined pills had retained their shape, but there was no telling whether their medicinal efficacy remained. He could not exactly swallow one as a test.

Moving elsewhere, he found where books rather than medicinal ingredients had been stored. After barely managing to obtain several books in decent condition, he quickly looked through them.

'Spiritual pills...'

There were books explaining what the pills were, as well as ledger-like records stating which pills had been made and stored here, and what they were used for.

Thanks to that, Han Yujin learned something he had not known.

The Five Elements Sect ruins he had explored so far were merely the Outer Sect grounds. The Inner Sect grounds, where the key figures lived, lay separately farther up the mountain.

'I haven't even explored a quarter of the place, and the Outer Sect grounds are larger than the Inner Sect grounds...?'

He would not know until he went there himself.

After finishing his exploration of the Alchemy Hall, he came outside with one additional book, having only confirmed that there was nothing to eat or drink.

It was time to choose.

Should he continue exploring the Outer Sect grounds, or should he head straight for the Inner Sect grounds to save even a little time?

There might be a spring somewhere in the Outer Sect grounds. But if such a thing existed here, then the more important Inner Sect grounds would surely have one as well.

Even if he gained something from continuing his exploration, the results from the Inner Sect grounds would naturally be far greater.

'Let's go.'

Having made up his mind, he headed in the direction he had roughly guessed. While exploring earlier, he had found a path leading up the mountain, but had passed it by because he did not know where it led.

He walked neither hurriedly nor leisurely. Perhaps because he knew he could neither eat nor drink, thirst was beginning to set in, but he was not truly afraid.

'It's okay if I die.'

It felt as though his great failure in Ikhapa Pangaea of the Demon Followers had become a kind of inner strength.

'It's not easy to die that horribly.'

Even if it were similarly horrible, there was bound to be a difference between being tossed around helplessly without knowing anything and facing it knowingly, prepared in advance.

In truth, Han Yujin believed survival would be nearly impossible even if he reached the Inner Sect grounds.

So he had already prepared himself to die of dehydration.

'I'll just wake up in reality again.'

As he thought that, he found the path leading upward and began climbing the mountain.

This climb was not easy either. It was especially difficult because he was hungry and thirsty, but whenever he had to rest, he read the copy of Returning to the Origin Art he had brought.

By the time he had read Returning to the Origin Art once from beginning to end, Han Yujin could smile at the ruins before him, which he assumed to be the Five Elements Sect's Inner Sect grounds. The hardship of climbing this far had not been wasted.

It certainly seemed to be a more important area. Traces everywhere gave a rough sense of how magnificent and grand this place must have been in the past.

'Where would the Scripture Pavilion be...?'

He had obtained the Returning to the Origin Art in the Outer Sect grounds, so he would surely be able to obtain a higher-grade cultivation method here. Even if not a cultivation method, he might find useful spells or secret arts.

At the very least, he would be happy with books containing stories of this world. The more common knowledge he had about cultivation, the better.

This time as well, he intended to make a broad circuit and first grasp the general layout. But not long after he started, he found unusual terrain.

It was like a gorge. Caves had been bored into both cliff faces at regular intervals, with neatly built stairs leading to each one.

'Cave abodes?'

They were the cave-like cultivation residences of cultivators, another common element in xianxia novels. The Secret History of the Way of Immortality he had read earlier had also mentioned cave abodes.

If these were cave abodes in the Inner Sect grounds, they must have been homes for important figures. He might be able to find something.

Filled with interest and expectation, Han Yujin began exploring the nearest cave.

He carefully climbed the stairs and explored the first cave, but gained nothing. More precisely, its interior was completely pitch-black, making exploration nearly impossible beyond the area around the entrance.

"..."

After considering it, he gave up on greed and decided to search only around each cave entrance. He did not want to get hurt by needlessly making himself blind.

How many caves had he explored like that?

At last, he discovered something unusual at the entrance to one cave.

'A skeleton...'

It was unmistakably human. Yet even after so many years, it was a remarkable skeleton, white and lustrous like white jade. Even the thick layer of dust could not hide its color.

He could not tell whether it was an artistic sculpture or an actual person's remains.

Of course, given the circumstances and the various belongings scattered nearby, it could not be an artistic sculpture.

'Do cultivators' bones become special too?'

Han Yujin carefully examined the skeleton, as well as the belongings left beside it.

There was a pouch made of dark ash-gray leather, an Eastern-style longsword that had not rusted but had become extremely dull in color, and finally, a jade-green gourd flask that seemed as though it had once shone with a brilliant light.

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