Chapter 31
Translator: T_Fan
“Sit.”
At Lee Hyun’s brief command, the members straightened their backs again and perched on the various large and small boxes scattered around the room.
Cicada Shell had reached the end of his lifespan long ago, and Gray Mouse had passed away even before him. Over the past 350 years, each seat in the meeting room had changed hands an average of six or seven times.
Some masks had found new owners, while others remained on the walls of the meeting room, never to be used again.
The Badger mask, however, had appeared without interruption in ledgers dating back more than 300 years, all the way to the present. Because of this, even the current members did not know whether Badger was a single person or a position passed down from one generation to the next.
Some members believed that the position of society head was passed down together with its cultivation art and techniques, while others suspected that Badger had mastered some strange secret art for extending his lifespan.
But under the rules of the Qutian Society, no one asked about another member’s identity. Some were curious, but none voiced that curiosity aloud.
Lee Hyun received reports in turn on changes in spiritual pressure observed at vein seats throughout the region, the movements of cultivation clans operating detection formations to locate rogue cultivators, and the assignment of newly joined members.
The member wearing a white otter mask opened a ledger and finished the final report. Lee Hyun nodded.
“Good. Make sure the new members are properly instructed.”
“Understood.”
Once all the reports were finished, one member placed a booklet on the table.
“This is the manual for the Water Escape Art you requested.”
“Mm, good.”
Lee Hyun accepted the booklet and quickly skimmed through it.
‘Hmm… Nothing here is outside my expectations. There’s no need to research it any further.’
Over the years, he had acquired several Water Escape Art technique manuals and cross-checked them against one another. Unlike technique manuals maintained by sects, those circulating on the open market could not be trusted.
Even so, after spending many years extracting the portions common to multiple versions and comparing them against the results of actual use, he had grasped the true principles of the Water Escape Art and reached Perfection.
He had learned the Soil-Softening Art in much the same way.
Thanks to that, his Reclining Escape Art had advanced another step as well.
Lee Hyun’s current Reclining Escape Art had become a bizarre escape art that fused the principles of the Earth Escape Art, Water Escape Art, Soil-Turning Art, Soil-Softening Art, Distance-Shrinking Step, Qi Sphere Barrier, and more. It no longer mattered whether he was on land or at sea.
Lee Hyun slipped the booklet into his storage pouch and said,
“I’ll award you fifty contribution points.”
“Thank you.”
Once the member who had brought the technique manual withdrew, a member wearing a monkey mask held out a long sword case with both hands.
“The magic tool you commissioned has been completed.”
Lee Hyun opened the sword case.
Inside lay a long sword with a black sheen. Its blade was slightly broader and thicker than an ordinary long sword’s, but it was not as crude as the Earth Shovel Sword.
“This is the Mountain-Suppressing Sword, a masterpiece at the very pinnacle of mid-grade magic tools. It was crafted to meet every condition you requested.”
The Mountain-Suppressing Sword contained no restrictions designed to assist the Sword Control Art.
Instead, several layers of the Adamantine Form-Fixing Restriction had been engraved into it to reinforce the blade’s shape and durability.
In particular, its primary material, Spirit-Conducting Mystic Iron, was a Tier-1 supreme-grade spirit material that resisted warping even when an enormous amount of spiritual power surged through it all at once.
Thanks to this, although the Mountain-Suppressing Sword was a mid-grade magic tool, when wielded directly in the hand, its performance approached that of a high-grade magic tool.
Lee Hyun accepted the Mountain-Suppressing Sword and gave it a light swing.
Whoosh.
A mysterious glow then quietly enveloped the blade.
Hummmm–
“Ooh….”
The members’ admiration was tinged with tension. Although the sword was not pointed at anyone, several long-standing members reflexively lifted themselves off their boxes, bowed their heads, and clasped their hands together.
At that moment, a late Qi Refining cultivator wearing a black wildcat mask, who had joined the Qutian Society only recently, hurriedly copied the others without knowing why. Still looking puzzled, he sent a voice transmission to the member beside him.
[What’s so impressive about that? Doesn’t everyone have at least one mid-grade magic tool? Most of the fellow Daoists here seem to be late Qi Refining cultivators… while the society head appears to be only at Qi Refining Stage 5.]
[Don’t say things like that so carelessly! You only think that because you’ve never seen that Badger fight.]
[He’s that formidable…?]
[Take my advice. Don’t cross the Mad Badger.]
The cultivator in the black wildcat mask still looked doubtful, but obediently lowered his head.
Lee Hyun returned the Mountain-Suppressing Sword to its case.
“Good. To produce a magic tool of this caliber… that mysterious artifact refiner who deals exclusively with you certainly knows his craft.”
“You flatter me.”
“Pay for the magic tool from the spirit stones I left with you in advance. As compensation for arranging the deal, I’ll give you fifteen low-grade spirit stones and thirty Qutian Society contribution points.”
“Thank you!”
Over the years, Lee Hyun had continuously sought ways to increase the density and strength of his Spirit Aura while studying martial arts manuals left behind by Profound Realm masters.
Compared to the Qi-Controlled Sword Art spoken of by martial artists, or the Sword Control Art cultivators used to manipulate swords from a distance, he felt somewhat more secure fighting with a weapon held directly in his hand.
This was partly because Lee Hyun had experienced far more battles in which he fought defensively against those attacking him than battles in which he pursued someone with the intent to kill.
He was not the type to nurse a grudge and hunt someone down to the bitter end.
After long years of research, Lee Hyun had come to realize that the most important requirement for a close-combat weapon was that it not break when colliding with an enemy’s weapon or defensive magic tool.
If a magic tool shattered at a critical moment, it could create an unexpected opening and cost its user their life. If that was the risk, it would be better not to use a magic tool at all.
In fact, while experimenting with compressing his Spirit Aura to an extreme degree, he had once caused a low-grade magic tool to burst apart.
That was why Lee Hyun had abandoned the Sword Control Art restriction and commissioned the Mountain-Suppressing Sword, devoting all the freed capacity to strength, durability, and spiritual-power conductivity.
…
After finishing all his work for the Qutian Society, Lee Hyun left Baipu Market.
He changed his appearance several times and confirmed that no one was following him before heading toward the vein seat with the highest spiritual pressure among those managed by the Qutian Society.
…
Southern Nanli Kingdom, Qianhe Valley.
Qianhe Valley was a unique region where a river flowing across the surface vanished underground midway through the valley. The Tan clan, a Foundation Establishment cultivation clan that controlled the Tier-2 mid-grade Qianhe Spirit Vein, was based there.
At a point fifteen li (about 5.9 km) from Qianhe Valley, Lee Hyun entered the earth and descended with the Earth Escape Art until he reached an underground water vein.
Swoosh–
Lee Hyun’s body slipped into the underground waterway as though becoming one with the current. As his long black robe fluttered in the water, something resembling chainmail beneath it was revealed.
The armor that smoothly covered him from below his neck to his wrists and ankles was a mid-grade defensive magic tool known as the Force-Dispersing Inner Armor.
Woven primarily from spirit-metal thread, a Tier-1 supreme-grade spirit material, the inner armor was flexible due to its chain-like construction, but the material itself was exceedingly hard.
The Force-Dispersing Restriction engraved into the inner armor could disperse an impact concentrated in one place throughout the wearer’s entire body by channeling it through the woven threads and restriction.
Lee Hyun had acquired this Force-Dispersing Inner Armor thirty years earlier from a Qutian Society member in exchange for a fair price.
…
After traveling upstream through the underground river for quite some time, he reached a small natural cavern that rose above the water. This was where Qianhe Vein Seat No. 1 of the Qutian Society was located.
Four small stone pillars bearing the Qutian Society’s mark were hidden inside the cavern. When Lee Hyun inserted a low-grade spirit stone between the pillars, a simple concealment formation activated.
The spiritual-power fluctuations leaking from the cavern blended into the flow of the groundwater and disappeared.
After checking his surroundings repeatedly, Lee Hyun lay comfortably on the bedrock and circulated the Primordial One-Qi Art.
Ssssss–
Dense spiritual qi flowed into his entire body.
His Primordial True Qi, already refined to the absolute limit of Qi Refining Stage 5, absorbed the newly entering spiritual qi and gradually condensed further.
…
Two days later.
The sound of the groundwater flowing outside the cavern suddenly seemed to recede into the distance.
With Lee Hyun at the center, the surrounding spiritual pressure appeared to collapse inward.
Thoom.
The entire rock-walled cavern vibrated with a low rumble, and Lee Hyun opened his eyes.
‘Finally!’
Lee Hyun had broken through to Qi Refining Stage 6!
He stared at his hand, then swiftly clenched it into a fist.
Pop.
The air between his fingers compressed and burst outward.
…
Lee Hyun circulated his cultivation art for a full day to stabilize his new realm. Afterward, he took out a wooden board and updated his handmade status screen.
【Age: 1,088】
【Realm: Qi Refining Stage 6】
【Spiritual Power: 233 → 517】
【Constitution: Primordial Body, 6th Stage】
【Techniques (Perfection): Water Escape Art, Soil-Softening Art, Azure Steel Sword Art, Sword Control Art, Telekinesis Art, Poison-Discerning Art, …】
‘By sheer quantity alone, I think I have more than ten times the spiritual power of a cultivator at Qi Refining Great Perfection…’
Lee Hyun felt that if he faced a single early Foundation Establishment cultivator head-on, he would have a chance of winning.
…
Lee Hyun returned to Tunnel No. 2.
With 350 years having passed, the composition of the spirit fields had changed considerably.
Spirit Fields No. 2-1 through No. 2-5 had all been converted into Spirit-Storing Ginseng plots. He had stopped cultivating the Triple-Layer Leaf, Meridian-Protecting Lingzhi, and Origin-Returning Vine that had once occupied Spirit Fields No. 2-3 through No. 2-5.
The reason was that the medicinal potency of the leaves, caps, and stem nodes produced by those three spirit plants did not increase even as the medicine age of their mother plants rose.
Once they were old enough to be used in Barrier-Breaking Pills, there was no benefit in keeping them any longer.
Even so, Lee Hyun had spent a long time periodically replanting and harvesting all three varieties so he could continue selling Barrier-Breaking Pills.
But ninety years ago, he had grown tired of harvesting and storing the eight ingredients at their proper medicine ages, separately procuring Spirit-Stabilizing Stone Milk, and obtaining whatever other medicinal ingredients he still lacked.
In the end, he stopped refining and selling Barrier-Breaking Pills altogether and converted all five spirit fields to Spirit-Storing Ginseng.
Once he stopped, he felt liberated. The spirit stones he earned from selling Barrier-Breaking Pills were no longer enough to justify all that effort.
Even without selling off most of his aged spirit plants, Lee Hyun had become incomparably wealthier than before.
The commissions he received for brokering trades between Qutian Society members, the payments for requests he personally carried out, and the proceeds from occasionally selling pills had accumulated over time. Before he knew it, he possessed thirty mid-grade spirit stones and two thousand low-grade spirit stones.
Although the Qutian Society’s membership dues and communal assets were used solely to operate the organization, the passage of so much time had naturally allowed his personal fortune to accumulate.
He had already disposed of the seven storage pouches and spirit-insect pouch he once used.
Lee Hyun now carried only three storage pouches at his waist. Each one had more internal space than all seven of his former storage pouches combined and was no worse than the sort used by an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator.
He had likewise replaced his spirit-insect pouch with a better one capable of holding several thousand fuzzbees.
There was a reason he had kept the Spirit-Storing Ginseng among the ingredients for the Barrier-Breaking Pill. Spirit-Storing Ginseng was a spirit plant whose value reliably increased with its medicine age.
After the spirit plants he had brought from Qinghe Valley, it had a good chance of becoming another major asset for Lee Hyun.
At present, the five Spirit Fields No. 2 contained 552 Spirit-Storing Ginseng roots with a medicine age of 172 years and 916 roots with a medicine age of thirty years.
The Spirit Fields No. 1 were also being managed well.
Spirit Field No. 1-1, the oldest of them, contained 101 Bone-Rot Flower plants, 283 clumps of Yin Soul Grass, 73 Purple Poison Orchid bulbs, and 52 Earth Vein Flower plants, all with an average medicine age of 341 years.
Spirit Fields No. 1-2 through No. 1-5 still contained 433 Bone-Rot Flower plants, 1,105 clumps of Yin Soul Grass, 293 Purple Poison Orchid bulbs, and 205 Earth Vein Flower plants with an average medicine age of 307 years.
The Yin Water Lotuses in Spirit Field No. 1-6 and the Stone Honey Peaches in Spirit Field No. 1-7 had reached a medicine age of 287 years. Lee Hyun had yet to find the relevant pill recipes, but he enjoyed eating the lotus seeds and Stone Honey Peaches, and both spirit plants also attracted spirit insects that served as food for the fuzzbees.
…
Buzz, buzz, buzz–
As Lee Hyun walked between the spirit fields, fuzzbees flew over to him.
Their population had grown dramatically over the years as well, reaching several hundred.
One fuzzbee landed on Lee Hyun’s shoulder, while another fellow flung itself onto a patch of dry soil at the edge of a spirit field.
The fuzzbee lay on its back and kicked its short legs in the air. It wriggled from side to side, shaking the slime and dust caught in its golden fur loose.
Another fuzzbee beside it promptly threw itself onto the dirt as well.
Roll, roll.
The two fellows bumped into each other and rolled around together for a moment before getting back up as though nothing had happened.
“Do you really like that so much?”
Chirp.
As if in reply, one fuzzbee raised its antennae and promptly pooped.
Lee Hyun flicked a finger. The tiny dropping crumbled into powder before catching fire and disappearing.
After their numbers increased, Lee Hyun began keeping some of them separately inside his spirit-insect pouch. He also connected natural fissures and caverns outside the spirit fields to create a separate hunting burrow. The fuzzbees preyed there on naturally reproducing spirit insects and their eggs.
He always kept a number of docile individuals inside the spirit-insect pouch so that even if something unexpected happened, he would still be able to establish a new colony.
…
A few days later.
After fully bonding the newly acquired Mountain-Suppressing Sword and making it his own, Lee Hyun emerged into a quiet valley on the surface.
He first took the opening stance of One Ultimate, Six Swords.
Flash!
A slender streak of sword light pierced the cliff face opposite him.
Without lowering his sword, Lee Hyun changed his stance.
After Square-Inch Step and One Ultimate, Six Swords, there was another supreme art Lee Hyun had studied recently.
《Boundary-Cleaving Saber Art》.
It was a saber art left behind long ago by Lu Zhi, a man from Qianyang Kingdom who had reached the Profound Realm.
In his youth, Lu Zhi had been a stonecutter working in a vast quarry. After countless repetitions of splitting rocks into two smooth faces, he had grasped a certain principle, and later generations came to call the martial art he left behind the Boundary-Cleaving Saber Art.
Though it had originally been a saber art, its essence did not lie in the shape of the blade, but in cleaving a boundary along a single line. The broad and heavy Mountain-Suppressing Sword was more than sufficient to perform it.
Lee Hyun had learned this supreme art because he lacked a method corresponding to a line.
For a plane, he had the Spirit Light Shield and Qi Sphere Barrier. For a point, he had One Ultimate, Six Swords. Wanting a method corresponding to a line, he had learned the Boundary-Cleaving Saber Art.
Lee Hyun raised the Mountain-Suppressing Sword diagonally above his shoulder.
Swish!
A slender streak of sword light slashed diagonally across the cliff face.
Lee Hyun’s wrist moved twice more. Several more streaks of sword light, offset from the first line, sliced through the air in rapid succession.
Rumble–
A portion of the cliff split into several pieces along the lines traced by the sword light and slowly slid downward.
When Lee Hyun inspected the Mountain-Suppressing Sword, there was not a single nick on its blade.
“Not bad. It’s well made.”
Lee Hyun put away the Mountain-Suppressing Sword and sat beside the flowing stream on one side of the valley.
‘Being society head is starting to get tiresome. Should I retire….’
Without a pill that could help him break through a minor realm, advancing his cultivation realm any further would now be difficult.
Of course, since he had only just reached Qi Refining Stage 6, he could still accumulate more spiritual power.
But obtaining the pill recipe for a breakthrough pill and preparing its ingredients could take years, or even centuries. It was not too early to begin preparing now.
It was difficult to replace a pill with a superior spirit vein.
He was already using the best vein seat known to the Qutian Society, but even there, he could not break through to Qi Refining Stage 7.
There truly was a wall between minor realms.
If a spirit vein alone were enough to break through the walls between realms, cultivators at Qi Refining Great Perfection could simply borrow the use of a Tier-2 or Tier-3 spirit vein for a short while and break through to Foundation Establishment.
The great cultivation sects possessed no shortage of spirit veins of that level, so lending their Qi Refining Great Perfection disciples a cultivation cave abode atop such a vein for a short time would have posed no difficulty at all.
If that were the case, there would be no reason for Foundation Establishment Pills to be so expensive.
Yet in reality, even sects with Nascent Soul cultivators regarded Foundation Establishment Pills as important pills and constantly worked to refine or acquire them.
Of course, the wall between Qi Refining Stages 6 and 7 was nothing compared with the barrier of a major realm. But in the present age, when heaven-and-earth spiritual qi had grown thin, it was still a boundary that was difficult to cross naturally without a pill.
‘Like with the Barrier-Breaking Pill, I’ll have to join a faction that possesses the pill recipe. Before that… I only need to obtain the pill recipe for Tier-1 Bone-Forging Powder.’
Every Bone-Rot Flower in Lee Hyun’s spirit fields had already surpassed 300 years of medicine age and had become a spirit plant meant to be used as an ingredient for Tier-2 Bone-Forging Powder.
Even so, a Tier-1 pill recipe would still provide an important foundation for understanding better recipes in the future, since it would teach him the detoxification method for Bone-Rot Flowers, the changes in their medicinal potency, and the principles by which they conflicted and harmonized with other medicinal ingredients.
If he obtained seeds or young seedlings from the existing mother plants and raised them anew, he could also refine Tier-1 Bone-Forging Powder himself in the future.
***
Five years later.
Qingchao Merchant Alliance’s Southern Archipelago, Chiyao Island.
Chiyao Island was a small volcanic island located two thousand li out to sea from the coast of Nanli Kingdom. Its rocks were red, trees were sparse, and hot steam rose from fissures scattered across the island. The Qingchao Merchant Alliance had built twenty-eight alchemy chambers over the island’s earth-fire vein so alchemists could use them whenever needed.
Inside an alchemy chamber fed by earth fire, Lee Hyun was wrapping the final dose packet of Bone-Forging Powder in medicine paper.
Over the past five years, he had passed the examination to become a guest alchemist and occasionally carried out commissions for the Qingchao Merchant Alliance. At first, he refined ordinary Tier-1 pills from publicly available pill recipes. Once he had built sufficient trust, he was finally taught the pill recipe for Tier-1 Bone-Forging Powder, after which he delivered Bone-Forging Powder several times.
Guest Alchemist Li Mo.
Outwardly, he appeared to be in his early fifties. He was taciturn by nature, but unfailingly punctual when it came to deadlines. Thus far, no one had paid him any particular attention.
He stared at the medicinal residue left inside the pill furnace and sank into thought.
‘It’s easy now… Next time, I might even produce high-grade Bone-Forging Powder.’
At that moment, he sensed two powerful auras outside the alchemy chamber.
‘Both early Foundation Establishment?’
The thick stone door opened.
Two alliance elders dressed in the Qingchao Merchant Alliance’s robes entered the alchemy chamber.
“So it was you!”
“Senior, what are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb!”
The alliance elder in front swept his sleeve, and from behind him stepped a cultivator wearing a black wildcat mask.
“This man infiltrated the Qutian Society for five years and earned your trust. At the gathering held in Baipu Market a few days ago, he used a Tier-1 high-grade Spirit-Tracking Talisman to record your spiritual-power signature. Just now, when you refined Bone-Forging Powder, the Spirit-Tracking Talisman reacted to it perfectly. To think the society head of the Qutian Society was hiding as a guest alchemist of our Merchant Alliance.”
“Mm…”
When the cultivator in the black wildcat mask met Lee Hyun’s gaze, he quietly took half a step back and hid himself behind the alliance elders.
“I was planning to leave soon anyway. There is no need for concern.”
“And who gave a spiritual qi thief like you permission to leave? Do you think only one or two cultivation clans have suffered because of you people? Hand over the complete list of Qutian Society members. If you do, we may spare your life.”
“Heaven-and-earth spiritual qi has no owner to begin with. And the Qutian Society does not keep any list recording its members’ names.”
“Shameless bastard! If you want to live, summon every member and help us capture them.”
“As society head, that is a difficult demand for me to accept.”
“Whether it is difficult or not is for us to decide.”
The spiritual power and divine sense of the two Foundation Establishment alliance elders bore down on Lee Hyun simultaneously.
Light shimmered around Lee Hyun’s body, and the Qi Sphere Barrier, body-protecting spirit light, and Primordial True Qi filling his entire body protected him from head to toe.
Lee Hyun let out a short sigh.
Shrring–
The Mountain-Suppressing Sword slowly slid from his waist as a mysterious glow wrapped around its blade.
As the imposing aura radiating from the shining Mountain-Suppressing Sword filled the alchemy chamber, the expressions of the two Foundation Establishment alliance elders stiffened, and they each retreated half a step.
Lee Hyun held the Mountain-Suppressing Sword upright at a slant.
“Have you ever heard of the Mad Badger?”