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Chapter: 09
While Raiding the Nest of the Human-Faced Blue Crane, They Discover an Underground World
“It was incubating the eggs with the spiritual energy of its feathers.”
“Then shouldn’t we take some feathers too? To hatch them?”
“Probably.”
“Let’s take them for now! There are five eggs, so let’s leave two.”
“Two? Not three?”
“We’ll each hatch one, and sell one.”
“Ah, I see.”
“I’ll take two eggs, so you put only one in. And let’s take about two-thirds of the feathers.”
“Hmm, can’t we just take everything?”
“How are we supposed to handle the mother’s rage if she loses all her chicks? If we leave two eggs and some feathers, things might settle somehow.”
“Is that so? Well, if we do what Hyeon says, we won’t lose out. But look over there.”
“I see it.”
Ganghyeon nodded toward where Indeok was pointing.
A crescent blade.
A magic artifact filled with spiritual energy.
For cultivators at the early Qi Condensation stage, it was an excessive treasure.
Besides that, several talismans and a few lowest-grade magic artifacts were scattered nearby.
“It looks like it gathered things with spiritual energy and made them part of the nest.”
“It really tried hard to hatch its chicks.”
“Yeah. Huh? What’s that?”
While looking around, Ganghyeon noticed another unexpected item.
“What is it? Huh? A demon core?”
“It’s low-grade, but yes, it’s a demon core.”
“Wow, what a jackpot. Is this here because the nest boosts its effect too?”
“Probably not. I think the Human-Faced Blue Crane brought it as nourishment.”
“Really?”
“Not sure. Let’s take it anyway.”
“Yeah!”
Ganghyeon and Indeok quickly collected three eggs, the crescent blade, other magic artifacts, talismans, and the demon core from the nest.
After finishing, they immediately jumped down beneath the stone pillar.
They fell freely from a height of several hundred jang.
But for cultivators who had already reached the Qi Condensation stage, falling from a great height was nothing to worry about.
They could fly briefly if needed.
Kiiirururururuk! Kiiirururururuk!
Had they underestimated the senses of the Human-Faced Blue Crane?
A scream that seemed to tear the sky rang out, accompanied by a sharp wave of spiritual energy.
“Were we discovered?” Indeok muttered, glancing up at the cloud-covered heights.
“No. The roar didn’t go in a specific direction. If it had noticed us, it would have roared straight at us. Ah—hide over there.”
While calming Indeok, Ganghyeon spotted a crack in the cliff and led him toward it.
They slipped into the narrow gap.
“Here…”
“Don’t relax. Even places like this can have demon beasts.”
“R-Right?!”
Indeok’s relieved face tensed again.
Kwarururung! Kwa-kwagwang!
“Huh? The pillar of the nest?”
At that moment, something happened to the pillar where the nest had been.
From above, broken rocks fell, along with the huge tree and branches that formed the nest.
“Did the Human-Faced Blue Crane destroy its own nest?”
Ganghyeon muttered in confusion.
He had left two eggs and plenty of feathers to avoid this outcome.
Yet the nest was collapsing.
“Hey, that—one of the trainees who was fighting the crane earlier!”
Among the falling debris, the crushed corpse of a trainee dropped down.
“So the kids attacked the nest?”
“They noticed the eggs were gone, the crane retreated, and then the kids chased it and attacked the nest?”
“Looks like it.”
“Huh? There’s another body.”
“Tsk… greedy fools.”
Ganghyeon shook his head after seeing two bodies fall.
The Human-Faced Blue Crane must have sensed the change in its nest and retreated from the fight.
But the trainees chased it all the way back and fought at the nest.
Naturally, its anger would have exploded—losing its eggs and being pursued to its nest.
“Serves them right.”
Ganghyeon said this while gazing into the cloud-covered sky.
What was the Human-Faced Blue Crane doing up there now?
Did some of the remaining kids manage to steal its eggs?
Who destroyed the nest, and why?
Since no cries could be heard anymore, had the crane gone after the fleeing children?
“Hyeon, the cave continues inward. Should we go in?”
“You really don’t think things through. Is that the time for this?”
“Aren’t we safe anyway? Those kids took the crane’s anger for us.”
“That’s true, but still.”
“Then what’s the problem? We just keep exploring like we were.”
“Before that, let’s check what we brought. Especially this.”
Ganghyeon took out the crescent blade from his pouch and handed it to Indeok.
“Huh? Why?”
“For you.”
“You’re not using it?”
“Look at the size. It suits you more than me.”
“Who judges magic artifacts by body size?”
“There’s even a tag—no, an instruction attached. Read it.”
“Let’s see. Pungun Geumgeuk (Wind-Cloud Golden Halberd)?”
“It says it’s a spear infused with the energy of wind, cloud, and metal. Perfect for you.”
“Metal, sure, but what about the rest?”
“You’re really slow.”
“When wind and clouds gather, lightning is born. So it suits someone like you with lightning and metal attributes.”
“Oh, is that how it works?”
“You don’t seem talented in spells, so you should focus on body techniques and weapon skills. A spear artifact isn’t bad.”
“It does look cool.”
Whoong! Whoong! Shiiik!
Indeok swung the Wind-Cloud Golden Halberd widely.
Golden lines traced its path through the air.
The metal energy within the artifact manifested.
Because Indeok possessed a rare spiritual root combining metal and lightning, the metal nature of the artifact awakened.
“You’re good. Try adding lightning too. Then the wind and clouds might awaken as well.”
Wind and clouds normally give rise to lightning, but Ganghyeon was telling him to push lightning backward to awaken the wind and cloud within the artifact.
It went against common logic, but Indeok simply nodded.
“Okay. I’ll try.”
“Good. Now, let’s split these.”
Ganghyeon divided the talismans and low-grade artifacts and handed half to Indeok.
“This is enough for me.”
“You need the right knife to kill a chicken. Don’t regret not having it later. Store them well.”
“O-Okay. Thanks.”
Indeok accepted them without arguing.
“The demon core—I’ll use this. It’ll be good as food for the Treant.”
Ganghyeon put the demon core back into his pouch.
If fed to the Treant, his own spiritual energy would increase, and the Treant could absorb some of the demon beast’s power.
Indeok said nothing. Getting the Wind-Cloud Golden Halberd was more than enough.
“Alright. That’s enough. Let’s go down now.”
“Inside there?”
“You wanted to check it out. Curious what’s there, right?”
“That’s true.”
“It’s still inside the hundred-li barrier. Nothing too dangerous should happen. Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
Indeok smiled brightly and led the way into the cave.
“I thought it was just a crack in the cliff, but I didn’t expect a passage going down like this.”
“Right? This doesn’t look like a natural crack at all.”
“Yeah. There are signs something passed through.”
“And those smooth scrape marks up there—whatever it was must have been big enough to fill this cave.”
“Maybe almost three jang tall…”
“Huh? Or… don’t tell me…”
“Yeah. It could be something long, with a thickness of three jang.”
“That’s impossible. How could something that big exist?”
“There are monsters in the cultivation world far bigger than that. Haven’t you heard of divine beasts?”
“That’s just stories. Like one divine beast being as big as a continent.”
“They say descendants of ancient divine beasts are scattered across the Greater Thousand Worlds. Some demon beasts and magic beasts are really that huge.”
“But still…”
“Haven’t you heard that the sacred beast ridden by the master of the Sacred Blood Sect’s Twelve Branches is as big as an island?”
“But this place only has low-grade spirit beasts.”
“How can you be sure? We already saw the Human-Faced Blue Crane. That thing was at least late Qi Condensation or even Great Perfection. And it couldn’t even fit into this place.”
“T-Then that means something as thick and long as this cave could really exist?”
“Not just could. It probably does. Look there.”
Ganghyeon pointed to one side of the cave.
Indeok rushed over and pulled something out.
“A scale. Looks like a snake.”
He handed over a black scale with an uneasy expression.
“Most scaled creatures are long. But I don’t think we need to worry.”
“Huh? Why?”
“This is very old. All the energy inside it has drained away.”
“Oh. I couldn’t feel any energy either.”
“It originally held strong fire energy. For it to be drained this completely, it must be extremely old.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
“Let’s keep going. I want to see how far it goes.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Hearing that the scale was ancient, Indeok relaxed and moved ahead again.
“I didn’t expect an underground space like this inside a mystic realm.”
“Yeah. But Ganghyeon.”
“What is it?”
“We’ve been moving almost constantly north while following the cave, right?”
“Yeah. So you finally noticed something strange?”
“You already knew?”
“The hundred-li barrier—shouldn’t we have hit it by now?”
“Exactly. That’s what I was going to say. Even roughly estimating, we should be past a hundred li from the tower.”
“It seems the barrier set by the sect doesn’t reach this deep underground.”
“Then maybe it doesn’t reach high into the sky either?”
“Because of the Human-Faced Blue Crane?”
“Yeah.”
“That could be.”
Ganghyeon nodded.
When they reached the end of the cave, they stared in disbelief at the scene before them.
A vast space spread out ahead.
So large it could be another mystic realm itself.
“Let’s use Concealment Talismans.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Yes. There are clusters of colorful energies everywhere. Much more than above ground.”
“Then…”
“No. There are also many energies we can’t handle. So it’s not all good.”
Ganghyeon took out a Concealment Talisman and activated it, keeping it close to his body.
Indeok followed and did the same.
The Concealment Talisman was a type of stealth talisman that hid one’s aura.
But because it suppressed energy, only minimal spiritual energy could be used. Using more would destroy the talisman.
“We’ll have to rely on our bodies.”
Indeok muttered.
Since they couldn’t properly use spiritual energy, they had to move with only basic internal energy techniques.
“Let’s start by gathering herbs. There are spirit-infused plants everywhere.”
“Really?”
“Start over there.”
This time, Ganghyeon moved first.
With enhanced vision, he could clearly see condensed energies of various colors throughout the area.
“What is going on? Where in the world did you find such rare items?”
After safely finishing their gathering in the underground space, Ganghyeon and Indeok returned to the tower.
When they submitted what they brought back, chaos erupted.
They had returned with a large number of precious spirit plants that no trainee before them had obtained.
Hyeongak urgently questioned them in the courtyard.
“Wasn’t there trouble because of the Human-Faced Blue Crane this time?”
Ganghyeon asked about it.
“Indeed. Disciples of the Sacred Blood Sect meddled with the crane’s nest, and it turned into a disaster. Seven children died.”
“And what happened to the Human-Faced Blue Crane?”
“The children ended up breaking its eggs, so it was finished.”
“Finished?”
“After killing the children, the crane came all the way to the tower and went on a rampage. How could it survive that? Its head was cut off by the sword of the Paegeom Sect.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“But why do you ask about the crane?”
“This…”
Ganghyeon took out one of the Human-Faced Blue Crane’s eggs and showed it to Hyeongak.
“Hm? How do you have this?”
“Indeok and I found the crane first. We were transported close to its nest and were in trouble, when the Sacred Blood Sect’s children appeared.”
“So you reaped the fisherman’s profit?”
“That’s what happened.”
“Hahaha. You’re lucky. In the cultivation world, luck is truly important. After all, who can defeat someone born with heavenly fortune?”
Hyeongak laughed heartily.
Then Ganghyeon began to carefully recount what happened afterward.
Chapter: 09
While Raiding the Nest of the Human-Faced Blue Crane, They Discover an Underground World
“It was incubating the eggs with the spiritual energy of its feathers.”
“Then shouldn’t we take some feathers too? To hatch them?”
“Probably.”
“Let’s take them for now! There are five eggs, so let’s leave two.”
“Two? Not three?”
“We’ll each hatch one, and sell one.”
“Ah, I see.”
“I’ll take two eggs, so you put only one in. And let’s take about two-thirds of the feathers.”
“Hmm, can’t we just take everything?”
“How are we supposed to handle the mother’s rage if she loses all her chicks? If we leave two eggs and some feathers, things might settle somehow.”
“Is that so? Well, if we do what Hyeon says, we won’t lose out. But look over there.”
“I see it.”
Ganghyeon nodded toward where Indeok was pointing.
A crescent blade.
A magic artifact filled with spiritual energy.
For cultivators at the early Qi Condensation stage, it was an excessive treasure.
Besides that, several talismans and a few lowest-grade magic artifacts were scattered nearby.
“It looks like it gathered things with spiritual energy and made them part of the nest.”
“It really tried hard to hatch its chicks.”
“Yeah. Huh? What’s that?”
While looking around, Ganghyeon noticed another unexpected item.
“What is it? Huh? A demon core?”
“It’s low-grade, but yes, it’s a demon core.”
“Wow, what a jackpot. Is this here because the nest boosts its effect too?”
“Probably not. I think the Human-Faced Blue Crane brought it as nourishment.”
“Really?”
“Not sure. Let’s take it anyway.”
“Yeah!”
Ganghyeon and Indeok quickly collected three eggs, the crescent blade, other magic artifacts, talismans, and the demon core from the nest.
After finishing, they immediately jumped down beneath the stone pillar.
They fell freely from a height of several hundred jang.
But for cultivators who had already reached the Qi Condensation stage, falling from a great height was nothing to worry about.
They could fly briefly if needed.
Kiiirururururuk! Kiiirururururuk!
Had they underestimated the senses of the Human-Faced Blue Crane?
A scream that seemed to tear the sky rang out, accompanied by a sharp wave of spiritual energy.
“Were we discovered?” Indeok muttered, glancing up at the cloud-covered heights.
“No. The roar didn’t go in a specific direction. If it had noticed us, it would have roared straight at us. Ah—hide over there.”
While calming Indeok, Ganghyeon spotted a crack in the cliff and led him toward it.
They slipped into the narrow gap.
“Here…”
“Don’t relax. Even places like this can have demon beasts.”
“R-Right?!”
Indeok’s relieved face tensed again.
Kwarururung! Kwa-kwagwang!
“Huh? The pillar of the nest?”
At that moment, something happened to the pillar where the nest had been.
From above, broken rocks fell, along with the huge tree and branches that formed the nest.
“Did the Human-Faced Blue Crane destroy its own nest?”
Ganghyeon muttered in confusion.
He had left two eggs and plenty of feathers to avoid this outcome.
Yet the nest was collapsing.
“Hey, that—one of the trainees who was fighting the crane earlier!”
Among the falling debris, the crushed corpse of a trainee dropped down.
“So the kids attacked the nest?”
“They noticed the eggs were gone, the crane retreated, and then the kids chased it and attacked the nest?”
“Looks like it.”
“Huh? There’s another body.”
“Tsk… greedy fools.”
Ganghyeon shook his head after seeing two bodies fall.
The Human-Faced Blue Crane must have sensed the change in its nest and retreated from the fight.
But the trainees chased it all the way back and fought at the nest.
Naturally, its anger would have exploded—losing its eggs and being pursued to its nest.
“Serves them right.”
Ganghyeon said this while gazing into the cloud-covered sky.
What was the Human-Faced Blue Crane doing up there now?
Did some of the remaining kids manage to steal its eggs?
Who destroyed the nest, and why?
Since no cries could be heard anymore, had the crane gone after the fleeing children?
“Hyeon, the cave continues inward. Should we go in?”
“You really don’t think things through. Is that the time for this?”
“Aren’t we safe anyway? Those kids took the crane’s anger for us.”
“That’s true, but still.”
“Then what’s the problem? We just keep exploring like we were.”
“Before that, let’s check what we brought. Especially this.”
Ganghyeon took out the crescent blade from his pouch and handed it to Indeok.
“Huh? Why?”
“For you.”
“You’re not using it?”
“Look at the size. It suits you more than me.”
“Who judges magic artifacts by body size?”
“There’s even a tag—no, an instruction attached. Read it.”
“Let’s see. Pungun Geumgeuk (Wind-Cloud Golden Halberd)?”
“It says it’s a spear infused with the energy of wind, cloud, and metal. Perfect for you.”
“Metal, sure, but what about the rest?”
“You’re really slow.”
“When wind and clouds gather, lightning is born. So it suits someone like you with lightning and metal attributes.”
“Oh, is that how it works?”
“You don’t seem talented in spells, so you should focus on body techniques and weapon skills. A spear artifact isn’t bad.”
“It does look cool.”
Whoong! Whoong! Shiiik!
Indeok swung the Wind-Cloud Golden Halberd widely.
Golden lines traced its path through the air.
The metal energy within the artifact manifested.
Because Indeok possessed a rare spiritual root combining metal and lightning, the metal nature of the artifact awakened.
“You’re good. Try adding lightning too. Then the wind and clouds might awaken as well.”
Wind and clouds normally give rise to lightning, but Ganghyeon was telling him to push lightning backward to awaken the wind and cloud within the artifact.
It went against common logic, but Indeok simply nodded.
“Okay. I’ll try.”
“Good. Now, let’s split these.”
Ganghyeon divided the talismans and low-grade artifacts and handed half to Indeok.
“This is enough for me.”
“You need the right knife to kill a chicken. Don’t regret not having it later. Store them well.”
“O-Okay. Thanks.”
Indeok accepted them without arguing.
“The demon core—I’ll use this. It’ll be good as food for the Treant.”
Ganghyeon put the demon core back into his pouch.
If fed to the Treant, his own spiritual energy would increase, and the Treant could absorb some of the demon beast’s power.
Indeok said nothing. Getting the Wind-Cloud Golden Halberd was more than enough.
“Alright. That’s enough. Let’s go down now.”
“Inside there?”
“You wanted to check it out. Curious what’s there, right?”
“That’s true.”
“It’s still inside the hundred-li barrier. Nothing too dangerous should happen. Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
Indeok smiled brightly and led the way into the cave.
“I thought it was just a crack in the cliff, but I didn’t expect a passage going down like this.”
“Right? This doesn’t look like a natural crack at all.”
“Yeah. There are signs something passed through.”
“And those smooth scrape marks up there—whatever it was must have been big enough to fill this cave.”
“Maybe almost three jang tall…”
“Huh? Or… don’t tell me…”
“Yeah. It could be something long, with a thickness of three jang.”
“That’s impossible. How could something that big exist?”
“There are monsters in the cultivation world far bigger than that. Haven’t you heard of divine beasts?”
“That’s just stories. Like one divine beast being as big as a continent.”
“They say descendants of ancient divine beasts are scattered across the Greater Thousand Worlds. Some demon beasts and magic beasts are really that huge.”
“But still…”
“Haven’t you heard that the sacred beast ridden by the master of the Sacred Blood Sect’s Twelve Branches is as big as an island?”
“But this place only has low-grade spirit beasts.”
“How can you be sure? We already saw the Human-Faced Blue Crane. That thing was at least late Qi Condensation or even Great Perfection. And it couldn’t even fit into this place.”
“T-Then that means something as thick and long as this cave could really exist?”
“Not just could. It probably does. Look there.”
Ganghyeon pointed to one side of the cave.
Indeok rushed over and pulled something out.
“A scale. Looks like a snake.”
He handed over a black scale with an uneasy expression.
“Most scaled creatures are long. But I don’t think we need to worry.”
“Huh? Why?”
“This is very old. All the energy inside it has drained away.”
“Oh. I couldn’t feel any energy either.”
“It originally held strong fire energy. For it to be drained this completely, it must be extremely old.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
“Let’s keep going. I want to see how far it goes.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Hearing that the scale was ancient, Indeok relaxed and moved ahead again.
“I didn’t expect an underground space like this inside a mystic realm.”
“Yeah. But Ganghyeon.”
“What is it?”
“We’ve been moving almost constantly north while following the cave, right?”
“Yeah. So you finally noticed something strange?”
“You already knew?”
“The hundred-li barrier—shouldn’t we have hit it by now?”
“Exactly. That’s what I was going to say. Even roughly estimating, we should be past a hundred li from the tower.”
“It seems the barrier set by the sect doesn’t reach this deep underground.”
“Then maybe it doesn’t reach high into the sky either?”
“Because of the Human-Faced Blue Crane?”
“Yeah.”
“That could be.”
Ganghyeon nodded.
When they reached the end of the cave, they stared in disbelief at the scene before them.
A vast space spread out ahead.
So large it could be another mystic realm itself.
“Let’s use Concealment Talismans.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Yes. There are clusters of colorful energies everywhere. Much more than above ground.”
“Then…”
“No. There are also many energies we can’t handle. So it’s not all good.”
Ganghyeon took out a Concealment Talisman and activated it, keeping it close to his body.
Indeok followed and did the same.
The Concealment Talisman was a type of stealth talisman that hid one’s aura.
But because it suppressed energy, only minimal spiritual energy could be used. Using more would destroy the talisman.
“We’ll have to rely on our bodies.”
Indeok muttered.
Since they couldn’t properly use spiritual energy, they had to move with only basic internal energy techniques.
“Let’s start by gathering herbs. There are spirit-infused plants everywhere.”
“Really?”
“Start over there.”
This time, Ganghyeon moved first.
With enhanced vision, he could clearly see condensed energies of various colors throughout the area.
“What is going on? Where in the world did you find such rare items?”
After safely finishing their gathering in the underground space, Ganghyeon and Indeok returned to the tower.
When they submitted what they brought back, chaos erupted.
They had returned with a large number of precious spirit plants that no trainee before them had obtained.
Hyeongak urgently questioned them in the courtyard.
“Wasn’t there trouble because of the Human-Faced Blue Crane this time?”
Ganghyeon asked about it.
“Indeed. Disciples of the Sacred Blood Sect meddled with the crane’s nest, and it turned into a disaster. Seven children died.”
“And what happened to the Human-Faced Blue Crane?”
“The children ended up breaking its eggs, so it was finished.”
“Finished?”
“After killing the children, the crane came all the way to the tower and went on a rampage. How could it survive that? Its head was cut off by the sword of the Paegeom Sect.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“But why do you ask about the crane?”
“This…”
Ganghyeon took out one of the Human-Faced Blue Crane’s eggs and showed it to Hyeongak.
“Hm? How do you have this?”
“Indeok and I found the crane first. We were transported close to its nest and were in trouble, when the Sacred Blood Sect’s children appeared.”
“So you reaped the fisherman’s profit?”
“That’s what happened.”
“Hahaha. You’re lucky. In the cultivation world, luck is truly important. After all, who can defeat someone born with heavenly fortune?”
Hyeongak laughed heartily.
Then Ganghyeon began to carefully recount what happened afterward.
