WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Xianxia Cultivation with a Dragon Heart ◈

Chapter 70: The Shadow Demon Cult's Secret

──────

It was as though the hand of a transparent giant had briefly appeared in the form of storm clouds. The giant drove a pale blue lightning spear into the earth with the force of a meteor.

Amid the burst of light and thunder, the massive, heavy gates melted away almost instantly, as if they had evaporated. The sight was truly unreal.

The metal immediately glowed an intense red and flowed downward. Nonmetallic materials could not endure the heat, exploding into ash or even turning into plasma and causing electrical discharges.

Naturally, by the time anyone recognized what had happened, every martial artist atop the gates and nearby walls had already died without leaving even a trace.

With their deaths, the will to fight of those fortunate enough to survive died as well.

Han Yujin leisurely rose into the air and stood atop the head of the Thunder Dragon he had created. Maintaining that proud stance, he passed through the ruins that could no longer be called gates and entered the fortress.

KRAKABOOM!

Rrrrumble...!!

The Thunder Dragon was surrounded by flashes too intense to look at without considerable Internal Energy, and thunder loud enough to damage the ears of anyone without considerable Internal Energy.

Standing atop the Thunder Dragon's head as it swam through the air beneath churning storm clouds, releasing savage growls that seemed to overwhelm heaven and earth, Han Yujin calmly took in the Dark Shadow Demon Cult's main headquarters.

It would not have been an exaggeration to call this place a city.

Yet now, this vast and magnificent headquarters was utterly overwhelmed by his presence.

The martial artists who should have rushed out one after another to defend it merely stared helplessly at him as he rode the Thunder Dragon.

Still, people were all different.

There were some within the Dark Shadow Demon Cult whose loyalty to the group was immense and whose personal convictions were unshakable.

“Golden Lotus Martial Venerable! Stop!”

With a solemn cry, a Transformation Realm expert shot toward him, employing the principles of Bowed Body, Leaping Shadow.

Their two-handed sword was distinctive enough that information about it naturally came to Han Yujin's mind.

As Han Yujin pointed at them, dozens of violent lightning bolts burst from all across the body of the Thunder Dragon as it swam leisurely through the air.

Terrifying flashes exploded in rapid succession, making it seem as though everything in the world had been chopped into pieces. Thunder roared across the area and echoed all around.

The Transformation Realm expert who had charged at him completely vanished in the lightning barrage, as though they had never existed in the first place.

He would no longer need to remember anything about them.

KRAKAKAKABOOM!!

From that point on, the Thunder Dragon stopped advancing quietly. It began continuously firing lightning in every direction, destroying and burning anything that got in its way.

Explosions and flames rose everywhere, and the Dark Shadow Demon Cult martial artists who had stood around helplessly as spectators scattered in every direction like locusts.

It was a calamity.

Han Yujin, the one causing it, was now holding the Dragon Heart, which had shrunk to the size of a fist.

The benefits he could enjoy merely from completing the Heart Stage refinement were tremendous. He could draw upon a small portion of the power released by the Dragon Heart.

Thanks to that, the Thunder Dragon Emerges, Shaking and Calling the Clouds spell he had cast now displayed the might of a late Dharma Soul stage cultivator, yet he did not feel short on dharma power.

‘Now I should be able to use the original Gold Lotus Nine Revolutions Full Bloom instead of Gold Lotus Three Revolutions Full Bloom without any trouble.’

After advancing for some time with a presence that could only be called mythical in this martial world, he finally spotted the building that appeared to be the most important one at the center of the Dark Shadow Demon Cult's main headquarters.

His Divine Sense, strengthened by his increased mental power, spread outward and enveloped the entire building, examining every detail.

At the same time, a mocking smile appeared on Han Yujin's lips.

The people who could be called their finest elites were lying in ambush inside, fully prepared.

There were nine Transformation Realm experts, three Profound Realm experts, and he could clearly sense the strongest presence of all, likely belonging to the cult leader, Dark Shadow Divine Demon Cheon Rajin.

‘An ambush and coordinated attack inside a building constructed according to formation array principles.’

If he had entered that building carelessly when he had first set foot in this world, he would most likely have died.

A Life and Death Realm expert's Divine Sense secret art would assault him, a sturdy formation array based on the building would activate, and three Profound Realm experts and nine Transformation Realm experts would launch a coordinated attack. There was no way he could have survived that.

But unfortunately for them, that was no longer the case.

Even if he generously agreed to enter and fight them fairly, he could not imagine losing.

He felt as though he could wipe them all out simply by detonating the Thunder Dragon he was currently riding. Since it was a confined space, the lightning's explosion would be even more powerful.

‘Should I really try it?’

After thinking for a moment, he shook his head. Killing them all would be convenient, but it might make it difficult to learn what kind of Divine Sense secret art the Dark Shadow Divine Demon possessed.

So he descended to the ground and shrank the Thunder Dragon until it coiled around his body. After placing the Dragon Heart back into his Storage Pouch, he habitually stroked Muyong and entered the building.

Of course, he did not simply walk in.

KRAKABOOM!!

A bolt of lightning shot from the mouth of the smaller Thunder Dragon, wrapped in even more concentrated light and thunder. With the Lightning School's innate spell-breaking power, it pierced the building's walls and very effectively destroyed the formation array's internal anchors.

Ptoo!

Muyong seemed to find the Thunder Dragon's actions amusing and excitedly copied it by spitting out Geng Metal Sword Qi.

Naturally, the Geng Metal Sword Qi was useless except for making a few holes in the wall.

“Living up to your name.”

Bzzzt! Squeak?

“I mean you're cute.”

Damaging the formation array's anchors as he went, Han Yujin passed through a long, wide corridor, crossed a couple of places resembling reception rooms, and even went through a small garden open to the sky in the middle of the building.

At last, he blew apart the doors of what could be called the main hall with the Thunder Dragon's lightning and stepped inside.

“We've been waiting for you, Golden Lotus Martial Venerable!”

“You'll regret daring to attack us so fearlessly!”

Along with several rather clichéd shouts, the experts he had already detected with Divine Sense launched Aura attacks following their predetermined attack routines. At the same time, one of them skillfully scattered a powder that seemed to be an extremely deadly poison.

In response, Violet-Gold Radiance more dazzling than the shrunken Thunder Dragon erupted from Han Yujin's body. The Thunder Dragon also focused on defense rather than attack, intercepting the incoming sword auras with dozens of lightning bolts.

At the same time.

The Six Paths of Samsara emerged in his eyes and began to revolve.

This time, it did not exist only within his pupils as it had before.

Behind Han Yujin, who stood surrounded by Violet-Gold Radiance and the Thunder Dragon, it appeared like a massive illusion. Despite the dazzling flashes all around, it radiated a strange light that inevitably drew the eye.

Upon a ring that seemed forged from every color in the world and refined into pure white, six worlds of emotion emerged with indistinct boundaries and revolved.

Backlit by the Six Paths of Samsara behind him, Han Yujin looked like some mysterious and exalted being whose facial features could not be seen at all.

The Heavenly Bliss Realm of happiness.

The Human Desire Realm of anticipation.

The Departed Souls Realm of sorrow.

The Beast Realm of anger.

The Strange Insect Realm of loathing.

The Abyss Realm of despair.

Divine ability, Six Paths of Samsara.

Mixed into it was an incomprehensible intent containing a kind of enlightenment, which rang out like the toll of a massive temple bell.

It did not end after a single toll. It lingered like an echo, violently shaking the minds of those who opposed him.

A young, beautiful woman who was an elder and a Profound Realm expert, almost certainly the Black Sand Blood Maiden, suddenly burst into mad laughter. Then she stabbed both eyes with her own hands and detonated her Aura, killing herself.

Another Profound Realm expert's eyes became so bloodshot they looked ready to burst. With a shriek, they charged at the cult leader, Dark Shadow Divine Demon Cheon Rajin. The third Profound Realm expert fell to their knees with the expression of someone who had lost everything in the world and began to weep bitterly.

The Transformation Realm experts were in similar states.

Some killed themselves. Some, filled with rage, tried to kill one another. Some became completely satisfied and threw down their weapons as if nothing mattered anymore. Others were consumed by ultimate despair, forgot everything around them, and collapsed where they stood.

Only the cult leader, caught in the relatively ordinary Human Desire Realm, defended without difficulty against the attack of the charging Profound Realm elder.

“It is his Heart Sword! Everyone, come to your senses!”

His shout, filled with mighty Internal Energy, was completely useless.

Flashes burst from the clash between the cult leader and the elder, followed by shock waves. Shimmering fragments of Aura mixed within them tore apart the nearby defenseless martial artists, spraying blood and scattering flesh.

Just then.

A golden streak flew in and instantly beheaded the Profound Realm elder who had been roaring madly as they attacked the cult leader.

Cult Leader Cheon Rajin involuntarily looked toward the source of the attack, the Golden Lotus Martial Venerable.

There, amid the darkness formed by the overwhelming backlight, Cheon Rajin saw a pair of eyes holding an eerie violet gleam.

Immediately afterward, the bone necklace Cheon Rajin wore crumbled into powder.

“...Hm?”

Han Yujin let out a brief sound of confusion when the Illusory Dream Heart-Seizing Art was unexpectedly blocked so easily.

Then Cult Leader Cheon Rajin, despite a reputation that shook the martial world, became completely terrified and immediately tried to flee. It was partly because of the Human Desire Realm's influence, but it also revealed Cheon Rajin's true nature.

For all their status as a Life and Death Realm expert, Cheon Rajin was incredibly fast.

The Dark Shadow Descent Step, which only the cult leader could learn, was an extraordinary divine art that strangely expanded the surrounding darkness, allowing its user to meld into it and move at high speed.

It was much like a cultivator's escape art.

“This bastard...?”

Han Yujin immediately borrowed the power of the accompanying Thunder Dragon and began pursuing him with repeated uses of Lightning Escape Art.

KRAKABOOM! Rrrrumble!

KABOOM! BAM!

Flashes of light burst amid repeated thunderclaps, mercilessly tearing through the surrounding darkness.

Just before Cheon Rajin was caught, Cheon Rajin smashed through the floor of a side room and vanished into the dark underground.

Han Yujin appeared before the underground passage with a thunderclap a moment too late, his eyes narrowing.

‘And I failed to notice this?’

Until Cheon Rajin broke through the floor, he had not detected this passage at all with Divine Sense.

‘Those Dark Shadow Demon Cult bastards really do have something going on.’

The suspicion he had felt while examining the Yin-Yang Gu seemed to be slowly revealing its true nature.

Fortunately, now that the passage had been exposed, there was little interference when he examined it with Divine Sense. Han Yujin descended the stairs with the Thunder Dragon, which had grown somewhat smaller from his excessive use of Lightning Escape Art, sent ahead of him.

The passage went quite deep, but even though he deliberately took his time, he crossed the stairs in an instant.

The underground depths he reached were a truly unpleasant hemispherical space.

Fresh bloodstains covered the area, and a sticky darkness lay over the ground, faintly interfering even with Divine Sense. As if the bloodstains were not mere decoration, they gave off a dreadful scent of blood. Faint whispers also seemed to come from the darkness spread across the floor.

At the center of that hemispherical space was Dark Shadow Divine Demon Cheon Rajin, the cult leader of the powerful Dark Shadow Demon Cult and a dignified Life and Death Realm expert.

Completely contrary to their rough and fierce appearance, Cheon Rajin lay prostrate and pleaded desperately.

The object of Cheon Rajin's pleas was something hanging by its neck from a rope formed by condensed darkness in the air, slowly swaying back and forth.

‘...Human skin?’

It was, chillingly, human skin.

The human skin dripped bright red blood from its entire body as though it had been alive moments ago. Within its hollow, limp interior, darkness that seemed almost materialized flowed out with the blood, spread into the air, and vanished.

“Patriarch... Please save me...! Save me from that terrifying man...! I will make offerings... I will make offerings continuously...!”

Dark Shadow Divine Demon Cheon Rajin repeatedly bowed their head to the human skin, knocking their forehead against the ground as they performed humiliating obeisances.

Then.

Han Yujin realized that the blood flowing from the human skin was not simply flowing out at random.

It flowed from a dense series of inscribed dharma patterns and formula sequences.

At that moment, Han Yujin met the gaze of the human skin's two darkness-filled eye sockets.

The human skin's head clearly moved to look at him.

“Dao Friend...”

An extremely faint but impossible-to-ignore voice spoke directly into his mind.

“Dao Friend...”

As if it could say nothing else, one finger of the human skin twitched along with the same mind-speech.

Footnotes:

Muyong's name plays on identical Korean readings: one means “useless,” while another means “martial valor.”

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