Chapter 88
Translator: T_Fan
The formation devices of the Spirit-Concealing Formation were embedded throughout the bedrock surrounding Tunnel No. 3.
Lee Hyun used the Earth Escape Art to move through the bedrock, inspecting each formation device in turn.
Most of the formation inscriptions on their surfaces were intact. In a few places, however, changes in the flow of spiritual qi and the earth vein had weakened the Spirit-Concealing Formation’s effects.
The weakening was nowhere near enough to expose the tunnel. After all, he had dug it beneath barren land no one had any reason to visit, even before the Spirit-Concealing Formation was in place.
With the Spirit-Concealing Formation in place, imperfect though it was, discovery was even less likely.
Still, since he had noticed the problem, he decided to fix it.
He moved from place to place, repeating a series of adjustments: pressing his palm against the rock walls to cast the Soil-Turning Art, using the Soil-Softening Art on the stone, and so on.
Once the repairs were finished, the Spirit-Concealing Formation blended seamlessly with the surrounding earth vein, concealing Tunnel No. 3 even more effectively.
Lee Hyun also replaced the dimming mid-grade spirit stones in the formation plate with fresh ones.
…
He went up to the surface and checked the surrounding energy.
The lower slopes of the mountain were quiet.
The spiritual qi was thin, and there was not the slightest hint of anything beneath the ground.
Standing directly above Tunnel No. 3, he sent his divine sense straight down, but it fell far short of reaching eighteen li (about 7.1 km) underground.
Lee Hyun’s divine sense could extend at most a few li through open air, but beneath the ground, he struggled to detect anything after only a hundred zhang (about 330 m).
He estimated that even a great cultivator at late Nascent Soul would have almost no chance of detecting Tunnel No. 3 while flying overhead unless they probed straight down from directly above it.
Satisfied, Lee Hyun descended into Tunnel No. 3 again and stopped by Spirit Field No. 3-9.
The young Heaven-Origin Divine Tree seemed to be growing well despite the change in its surroundings.
Squeak!
A fuzzbee landed on his shoulder. He had not noticed it following him.
Lee Hyun examined the energy flowing through the little fellow’s body.
Having spent so long catching and eating spirit insects in Lee Hyun’s tunnels, the fuzzbees were noticeably stronger than when he had first brought them there. Compared with Lee Hyun, whose entire body was at the Foundation Establishment level, however, they were still just tiny insects.
The Bonefuzz puppets silently hauling stones at one side of the cavern were also pitifully weak in combat compared with him.
‘Should I try to make these fellows stronger?’
With some effort, he could acquire better spirit insects to feed them, mix spirit medicine into their food, and replace the Bonefuzz puppets’ bones with superior materials.
‘But……’
Why had he raised the fuzzbees in the first place?
These fellows caught spirit insects for him, making his life easier.
If he had to run around finding spirit insects and preparing special food just to make them stronger, that would defeat the whole purpose.
As Lee Hyun grew stronger, he might eventually need to build his tunnels near a better spirit vein anyway.
By then, the spirit insects found nearby would naturally be of a higher tier, so the fuzzbees could advance without him going out of his way.
The same went for the Bonefuzz puppets.
Someday, when he needed to produce Golden Core Condensing Pills in large quantities from demon cores, he would naturally acquire the bones of Tier 3 demon beasts as well. It would not be too late to research improvements then.
‘In the end, my own strength matters most. The fuzzbees and Bonefuzz puppets are here to help me. There’s no reason to let them take up all my time.’
Squeak?
“Just keep catching spirit insects like you always have.”
Splat!
For the first time in ages, the fuzzbee responded by taking a dump instead of squeaking.
***
On the day Lee Hyun returned to Baoguang Temple, Lotus Court was unusually noisy.
“Late Stage 8!?”
Martial Uncle Huijue’s voice carried over the wall.
A young monk sweeping the corridor spotted Lee Hyun and spoke quietly.
“Elder Huijue has finished his cultivation and come out. Ever since he saw Senior Wang… he has been like that.”
He had emerged from a brief period of secluded cultivation to find that his disciple, who had long been stuck at Foundation Establishment Stage 7, was now at late Stage 8. His surprise was understandable.
‘…Maybe I should have come back a little later.’
…
When Lee Hyun entered the alchemy chamber, it was Huitan who was waiting for him.
The old monk beckoned without a word, led him into a small study farther inside, and even activated the restriction on the door.
Before Lee Hyun could ask what was wrong, Huitan leaned in as though he were about to grab him by the collar and whispered.
“You brat! Just how much of your vital essence did that fellow Wang Shulin suck out of you to advance so far? Is there any marrow left in your bones!?”
“…….”
“…You’re perfectly fine?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you perfectly fine?”
“?”
Huitan pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Do you know what that damn monk Huijue came to tell me first thing this morning? ‘Your disciple was just the spark she needed, Senior Brother.’ That’s what he said! What in the world happened?”
Lee Hyun answered without batting an eye.
“Senior Sister Wang is exceptionally gifted, and it seems the pills she took have only now taken full effect.”
“Only now taken full effect? Have you forgotten that I’m a Tier 3 alchemist?”
“Please don’t worry too much. I’m perfectly healthy.”
…
A few days later.
Lee Hyun visited Senior Brother Mingyun’s residence.
“A Tier 2 Qi-Gathering Formation?”
Mingyun’s eyes lit up.
“Yes. I’d like to work out the arrangement of the formation inscriptions myself, but there are quite a few points where I’m stuck.”
“To think you’d take an interest in formations! Where are you having trouble?”
Lee Hyun took out the diagram of the Qi-Gathering Formation he had devised. Mingyun studied it for a long while, then praised him and launched enthusiastically into an explanation.
The explanation went on for more than one shichen (two hours). Though the endless talk was wearing him out, Lee Hyun listened attentively. Mingyun even fetched a jade slip from his shelves.
“I compiled these notes when I was young and studying the Qi-Gathering Formation. I compared several versions of the formation diagram and even recorded the changes I made after setting them up myself.”
“Are you sure you should be sharing something so valuable with me?”
“Fate has brought it to a Junior Brother with an interest in formations, that’s all.”
After copying the contents of the jade slip, Lee Hyun returned it and took a jade bottle from his robes.
“These are three Tier 2 Spirit-Calming Pills, all mid grade. They’ll help with cultivation of the primordial spirit.”
“These are… quite valuable, aren’t they?”
“Then fate has brought these to you, Senior Brother.”
“Hoho, I think I’m the one getting the better deal here.”
***
Thirty years passed.
Despite his other pursuits, Lee Hyun studied the contents of Mingyun’s jade slip whenever he had the chance, until he could craft the formation plates and formation devices for a Tier 2 Qi-Gathering Formation.
However, a Tier 2 Qi-Gathering Formation consumed too many spirit stones for him to install one around the Heaven-Origin Divine Tree in Tunnel No. 3 right away.
During that time, Lu Hongyan reached Foundation Establishment Great Perfection and attempted Core Formation using one of Baoguang Temple’s Golden Core Condensing Pills.
But she failed to form a golden core.
Her true essence surged backward, rupturing her meridians. She had tried not to push herself too hard, but Core Formation left her no chance to retreat.
During Lu Hongyan’s Buddhist cremation ceremony, Wang Shulin, Lee Hyun, and their fellow disciples were overcome with grief at her tragic death.
…
Then, one night.
In a pavilion on the peak east of Lotus Court.
Wang Shulin leaned against the railing, her brush moving over a painting board, while Lee Hyun lay beside her reading a popular novel.
“Junior Brother. Lately, I can’t seem to find anything new to paint.”
“You’ve been painting for decades. That’s bound to happen. What did you paint today?”
Wang Shulin turned the board around to show him.
She had painted a moth of some sort clinging to one of the pavilion’s pillars.
“Wasn’t it the chipped corner of a teacup saucer yesterday? Your subjects keep getting smaller.”
“Exactly.”
Wang Shulin set down her brush.
She gazed silently down the mountain for a while before speaking again.
“There is something I haven’t painted yet.”
“What?”
“Our child’s face.”
Lee Hyun’s heart gave a sudden jolt.
Not because he disliked the idea. He was simply startled.
Lee Hyun closed his book.
Wang Shulin kept gazing down the mountain without looking at him.
“I’ve got about thirty years left until Foundation Establishment Great Perfection.”
“I know.”
“After that comes Golden Core…”
Her voice was calm.
“You saw what happened to Senior Sister Lu. They say plenty of cultivators fail to form a golden core even after taking a Golden Core Condensing Pill. Some die on the spot.”
“Shulin.”
“Let me finish.”
Only then did Wang Shulin turn to him.
“If I fail, I’ll be gone. Just like that.”
Her expression was serious.
“That’s why I want to leave something in this world to show that we were together, Junior Brother.”
Lee Hyun could not say anything.
“And even if I succeed in Core Formation, there’s another problem. They say that once a golden core forms, it takes over the internal organs’ role in the body’s metabolism, changing how the body functions. That makes it much harder for Golden Core cultivators to have children.”
Wang Shulin took a breath before continuing.
“Let’s get married. Let’s leave the mountain and have children.”
The night breeze swept beneath the pavilion.
Lee Hyun looked at her face.
In his past life, Lee Hyun had never even considered marriage. The same had been true after coming to this world.
For more than two thousand years, he had tried not to grow too close to anyone. Once he grew attached, he would inevitably have to watch them pass away before him.
So he had always kept his distance.
But…
“All right.”
Wang Shulin’s eyes widened.
“…Really?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t you need to think about it? We’d be leaving the mountain for decades.”
“I thought about it.”
“When?”
“Just now.”
Wang Shulin burst out laughing. As she laughed, she wiped at the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand.
…
A few days later, the two stood side by side before Huijue and Huitan.
Both old monks wore grave expressions, but Huijue soon spoke.
“Hohoho! Senior Brother, what did this old monk tell you? Didn’t I say it was an immortal affinity?”
“Hmph…….”
Huitan looked not at Lee Hyun, but at Wang Shulin.
“…Take good care of him. This fellow may seem a little clueless, but deep down, there’s something of an old man about him.”
“I know, Senior Martial Uncle.”
***
Baoguang Temple regularly dispatched cultivators to mortal kingdoms throughout Xu Kingdom.
It stationed a resident cultivator in each kingdom to deal with demon beasts that might descend from the mountains or bandit cultivators targeting the royal family, and provided them with lodgings and a suitable cultivation environment.
This was a longstanding practice not only at Baoguang Temple, but at the Danxiao Sect and countless other great sects as well.
Wang Shulin and Lee Hyun decided to make use of that system.
She chose Xianghe Kingdom, a mortal kingdom in northeastern Xu Kingdom.
“Xianghe Kingdom? Do you have some connection there?”
Wang Shulin shrugged at Lee Hyun’s question.
“It’s where my family lives.”
“Your family?”
“The royal family there is my family. The Wang royal clan.”
Lee Hyun stared at her for a moment.
“…You were a princess?”
“A princess? That was more than eighty years ago.”
“Still…”
Lee Hyun gave an exaggerated sigh.
“Oh dear. So I’ve gone and seduced someone so highborn.”
“I’m the one who seduced you, remember?”
Wang Shulin shot him a look.
“The current King is my older brother’s grandson. He’s never even seen me. Besides, that’s just my status in the mundane world. Though it does come in handy at times like this.”
…
Xianghe Kingdom was only a small kingdom within Xu Kingdom, but to mortals, it was an enormous country.
Such was the sheer size of this world.
The royal capital stood beside a river an astonishing hundred li wide.
The population numbered in the hundreds of millions as well. Though the dynasty was mortal, its royal family’s power seemed almost boundless to ordinary people.
But when Baoguang Temple’s flying boat descended onto the square before the royal palace, even the mighty royal family of Xianghe Kingdom had no choice but to throw open every gate.
At the front stood a middle-aged King in golden dragon robes. Behind him stretched an endless line of the queen, princes, royal kin, and civil and military officials.
They all prostrated themselves at once.
“Greetings, Great-Aunt!”
“…Great-Aunt?”
Lee Hyun echoed the title under his breath, and Wang Shulin’s ears turned red.
The King raised his head and looked at Wang Shulin’s face, his eyes reddening.
“Your eyes are exactly as they appear in the portrait. I have known your likeness since childhood.”
“There’s a portrait of me?”
“Yes. I was told that after you entered the immortal sect, Great-Aunt, the King at the time summoned a court painter to make it. For generations, our royal family has prayed for your success on the immortal path.”
For a moment, Wang Shulin was at a loss for words.
Since leaving for Baoguang Temple after her dual spiritual root was discovered in childhood, she had never once returned home. News of her parents’ deaths, and of her older brother’s ascension to the throne and later passing, had all reached her while she remained within the Mountain Gate.
Yet through all those long years, the people here had never forgotten her.
Wang Shulin helped the King to his feet.
“Rise.”
…
The King provided a luxurious detached palace north of the royal capital for Wang Shulin, who was approaching Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, and her Dao companion, Lee Hyun.
A branch temple of Baoguang Temple stood nearby, along with a storehouse for the medicinal ingredients offered by the royal family and the surrounding districts. In many ways, it was a convenient place for the two of them to live.
An old plum tree stood in the garden, and a small mountain rose behind the grounds.
The detached palace had not originally been intended to house a resident cultivator, so it had no Tier 2 Qi-Gathering Formation.
Since they had chosen it as their home as husband and wife, Lee Hyun installed the Qi-Gathering Formation himself.
He used formation plates and formation devices of his own making, while Baoguang Temple supplied the mid-grade spirit stones needed to power the formation as part of the allowance for resident cultivators.
Once the formation was activated, the spiritual qi within the detached palace grew denser. It could not match the conditions at Baoguang Temple, but it was sufficient for Foundation Establishment cultivators to cultivate.
…
The two held their wedding according to Xianghe Kingdom’s customs.
The royal family wanted a grand celebration, but Wang Shulin firmly refused. In the end, they held a modest ceremony attended only by the King and queen and a few of their royal kin.
***
The following spring, their first child was born.
Lee Hyun took the baby into his arms and stood motionless for a long while.
She was so small and fragile that he was terrified the slightest mistake might hurt her.
…
Before he knew it, ten years had passed.
By then, their third child had been born.
Their eldest was Li Hua, their second Li Dan, and their youngest Li Mo.
The children grew up healthy and strong.
Li Hua took after her mother and loved painting. At five years old, she nearly made the palace attendants faint by drawing an enormous dragon in charcoal across the detached palace’s wall.
Li Dan took everything apart: water clocks, wagon wheels, even a formation plate Lee Hyun had hidden away.
Li Mo, whose name suggested silence, was anything but quiet.
Lee Hyun and Wang Shulin cultivated within the detached palace’s Qi-Gathering Formation and, as resident cultivators, dealt with the Tier 1 demon beasts that occasionally appeared near Xianghe Kingdom.
Lee Hyun sometimes visited nearby cultivator markets to handle matters for the Two Heavens Society, but he spent most of his remaining time with the children.
He carved wooden figurines for them: knights in armor, horned demon kings, and figures resembling robots he had seen in his past life.
“Dad, what’s this?”
“Hmm… a robot?”
“What’s a robot?”
“…A person made of metal.”
“Why does a person made of metal look like this?”
“I don’t really remember either.”
…
One day, when their eldest daughter, Li Hua, was a little over ten, she stared at Lee Hyun’s true face and asked a question.
“Dad, why don’t you get old?”
Before Lee Hyun could answer, Wang Shulin spoke.
“Because he took a Youth-Preserving Pill.”
“What’s a Youth-Preserving Pill?”
“A medicine that keeps your face from aging.”
“Did you take one too, Mom?”
“I did. Your dad gave me one.”
Li Hua tilted her head.
“Then give me one too.”
“It would be dangerous for you. You’re not a cultivator.”
“That’s not fair.”
Wang Shulin laughed and stroked her daughter’s hair.
…
A few years later, when their youngest was five or six, they performed the last of the children’s spiritual root tests.
As they had with their first two children, Wang Shulin and Lee Hyun placed the spiritual-root testing orb in their youngest child’s palm.
Once again, the orb gave off no light.
None of the three had spiritual roots.
Children born to two cultivators were far more likely to possess spiritual roots than children born to mortal parents. Still, it was common for them to be born without spiritual roots, so there was nothing particularly unusual about it.
Wang Shulin put away the orb and remained silent for a while.
“Disappointed?”
“…A little.”
Lee Hyun picked up their youngest. The child tugged at his hair and giggled.
“I think it’s a good thing.”
“Why?”
“The cultivation world is dangerous. It isn’t such a bad thing if the children never have to walk that path. They can live ordinary, happy lives.”
Wang Shulin looked at him and smiled.
“That’s true.”
***
Twenty years had now passed since the birth of their youngest.
That year, Wang Shulin reached Foundation Establishment Great Perfection.
In preparation for Core Formation, she obtained a Golden Core Condensing Pill.
It was not from Baoguang Temple.
She had bought it at an auction within the Nine Kingdoms of Yunzhou. It had been refined using a Tier 3 spirit plant rather than a Tier 3 demon core, making it a proper Golden Core Condensing Pill that would not hinder her later advancement to Nascent Soul.
Lee Hyun had intended to help in his own way, but she had acquired one herself before he had the chance.
…
Wang Shulin returned to Baoguang Temple to attempt Core Formation and entered a secure secluded cultivation chamber above a Tier 3 spirit vein.
Lee Hyun sat in the corridor outside the secluded cultivation chamber and waited for forty-nine full days.
At dawn on the forty-ninth day, the restriction around the secluded cultivation chamber rippled violently.
A golden glow spread across the sky above Lotus Court.
A short while later, the door opened and Wang Shulin stepped out.
The energy emanating from her body was fundamentally different from that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Golden Core!
The moment Wang Shulin saw Lee Hyun, she ran over and threw herself into his arms.
“I did it.”
“I know.”
“I really did it!”
“I know.”
Lee Hyun held her tightly.
…
Now that Wang Shulin had succeeded in Core Formation, Baoguang Temple granted her a peak and a residence of her own.
She became an Elder of Lotus Court.
As she absorbed spiritual qi from a Tier 3 spirit vein in the cultivation chamber reserved for Elders, channeling energy through her newly stabilized golden core became much easier.
Once the celebrations were over, Wang Shulin found herself facing a dilemma.
If she hoped to reach the Nascent Soul realm in the future, she would be better off staying at the main temple to cultivate.
Fortunately, she no longer had any reason to remain in Xianghe Kingdom.
Their three children were already grown, had families of their own, and were living well under the royal family’s protection.
The real problem was Lee Hyun.
“My lifespan has increased by several hundred years. But you… why haven’t you advanced to a higher realm?”
Lee Hyun knew the time had come.
In a place protected by a screening formation, he told her that he had a special constitution and could live at least as long as a Golden Core cultivator.
“You’re not lying, are you?”
“No.”
Wang Shulin let out a long breath.
“Then that’s all right.”
Then her eyes suddenly widened.
“Wait, what are we going to do? If you spend hundreds of years at Foundation Establishment without aging or dying… how do we explain that to the sect?”
Lee Hyun grinned.
“I’ll just join again.”
“What?”
“Li Dongsi will grow old, leave the mountain to enjoy his retirement, and die. Then I’ll enter Baoguang Temple under another name and become a disciple of Elder Wang Shulin of Lotus Court.”
Wang Shulin laughed.
“I’ll be your Master?”
“Don’t like the idea?”
“No, I love it! That sounds fun!”
Her eyes sparkled.
“Then you’ll have to call me Master.”
“…All right.”
“And you’ll have to speak respectfully to me.”
“Only in front of other people.”
“I’ll give you assignments, too.”
“Well……”
***
Time passed, indifferent to them all.
Lee Hyun and Wang Shulin’s children grew old.
The two visited Xianghe Kingdom whenever they could. On every visit, there were more wrinkles on their children’s faces and more grandchildren to meet.
Their children’s families had become prominent clans at Xianghe Kingdom’s royal court.
Li Dan’s grandson headed the royal workshop, improving waterwheels and wagons, while Li Mo’s daughter became the King’s consort. Li Hua’s paintings hung in the corridors of the royal palace.
…
One autumn.
The two visited their eldest daughter, Li Hua.
Li Hua’s hair had turned white, and her back was bent. Her brush hand trembled slightly.
She was sitting on the veranda, looking out over the garden. When she saw the two of them at the entrance, her face lit up with a smile.
“Father, Mother.”
Lee Hyun stopped where he stood.
Li Hua’s smile was exactly as he remembered it from her childhood.
It was the same smile she had worn while proudly showing off the dragon she had drawn in charcoal on the detached palace’s wall.
But eighty years had left their mark on that face.
Lee Hyun had watched countless people in this world grow old and pass away.
It had hurt a little every time, but he had been able to bear it.
They had not been his children.
But now…
“You haven’t changed at all, Father.”
Li Hua smiled as she spoke.
Lee Hyun could not answer.
Beside him, Wang Shulin broke down first.
She ran to her daughter and burst into tears. None of the dignity of a Golden Core cultivator remained. She was simply a mother weeping as she held her elderly daughter.
“Mom, why are you crying?”
Li Hua patted her mother’s back with a trembling hand.
“Don’t cry. I’ve had a good life. I really have.”
Before long, Li Dan and Li Mo arrived as well, having heard the news.
Li Dan walked with a cane, while Li Mo was supported by a grandson.
The three elderly siblings gathered around their parents, who looked far younger than any of them, and comforted them.
“Father, Mother. We really have been happy.”
“I still have the wooden carving you made me, Father.”
…
Li Hua passed away the following year.
Li Dan followed a few years later, and Li Mo the year after that.
Each time one of their children passed away, Wang Shulin went down to Xianghe Kingdom to attend the funeral.
And each time she came back, she took out one of the portraits she had painted of her children and gazed at it.
…
Li Dongsi was nearing the maximum lifespan of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
He stepped down from his duties at Lotus Court, saying he wished to spend his remaining years outside the Mountain Gate.
A few years later, word came that he had passed away in a distant land.
Several more years passed, and Wang Shulin brought back a Foundation Establishment cultivator as her disciple, claiming she had met him during her travels.
He went through the necessary admission checks, but no one was inclined to make things difficult for a disciple a Golden Core Elder had personally vouched for.
The steward of the Guest Reception Hall responsible for his admission looked over the register.
“You’re fortunate to have Elder Wang Shulin’s recommendation. Elder Wang doesn’t have any direct disciples yet. And she’s exceptionally beautiful, too.”
***
TL Note: There are two releases today, so make sure to check out the next chapter as well.
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