The Wizard Who Endured the World of Murim - Chapter 32

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Surviving in the Martial Realm as a Mage: Episode 32
Ilhyang quietly observed the Water Bandits’ submissive demeanor.
Watching Jin Yu-seong, who remained anxious and fidgeting even now, he opened his mouth softly.
“Then I shall expect appropriate compensation from the Namgung Clan and Jinseong Transport Company.”
“Y-yes! Thank you! Thank you so much, Small Guild!”
Ilhyang’s choice had been Jinseong Transport Company.
In truth, this was his intention from the very beginning.
But Jin Yu-seong, unable to know this, answered with an overwhelmed expression.
Maeng Ryeo and Soon Hong-dan, along with the other Water Bandits, lay prostrate on the deck with expressions of despair.
Events were unfolding far too strangely, contrary to their expectations.
‘Shouldn’t we try something, anything, at this point? Are we just going to be dragged away like this?’
‘Damn it. Didn’t you just see how fast that monkey is? We’ll be dead in an instant.’
‘Cursed beast. Where did such a monster come from?’
‘It’s probably the Celestial Watchers. I’ve heard they normally don’t involve themselves in worldly affairs, but…’
‘I’ve heard that too, but if we’re dragged away like this, our necks will be severed. Will that be alright?’
‘…If we’re useful, perhaps they’ll keep us alive? Let’s just hope for that.’
‘Sigh, how pathetic. Even the great Cheol Hyeol-gyeom must now watch the mood of such a brat.’
‘Though it may not be comforting, that one looks young but is surely an incredibly ancient being inside. They’re Celestial Watchers, after all.’
‘True enough…that must be it.’
While the Water Bandits whispered among themselves and misunderstood matters on their own.
Ilhyang showed no significant change in expression outwardly.
Yet his heart had grown quite pleased.
‘If I play this right, I could acquire vast resources all at once!’
I wasn’t sure about the Yan Wang Faction or the Blood Wolf Faction.
But they too would have to pay the ransom for the skilled masters captured here.
As for the Jiao Long Faction, their leader was dead, and the situation was already half-subdued, so there was little to worry about.
By raiding their warehouses.
I might be able to obtain considerable resources.
With that thought, greed suddenly stirred within me.
‘What if I actually built a Magic Tower here too?’
Perhaps I was getting ahead of myself.
But if the Jiao Long Faction truly possessed far more resources than expected?
It might actually be possible.
A Magic Tower wasn’t something that could be created.
Simply by hastily constructing a building and leaving it standing alone.
Fundamentally, I needed to draw an enormous magic circle capable of forcibly gathering the vast mana scattered throughout the heavens and earth in one location.
Simultaneously, I required protective magic circles for the Magic Tower itself, along with spatial magic circles to enable the utilization of space.
Furthermore, I even had to create weather magic circles capable of adjusting the climate of the surrounding area entirely.
Creating just these basic necessary magic circles consumed the ten-year budget of an ordinary kingdom without difficulty.
‘When I knew nothing, I spent time gathering resources gradually and maintained it while constructing it.’
That wasn’t possible now.
Ilhyang’s standards had simply grown too exacting.
‘At least I hope these bastards have substantial wealth, as I promised earlier.’
Judging from the boastful words of Gyolyong Jae Master’s Son.
If I raided the Water Bandits’ warehouses, I could likely secure a significant portion of the resources needed to establish a Magic Tower.
Moreover.
‘I can also expect compensation from Jinseong Transport Company and the Namgung Clan!’
With luck, I could amass considerable resources from them as well.
‘That’s what troubles me.’
Once I acquire the resources, should I use them to lay the foundation for a Magic Tower?
Or should I use them to elevate my own Circle?
Sitting in Nataryongwang’s Taesamui, lost in pleasant deliberation, Ilhyang soon smiled faintly and nodded to himself.
“All right, I’ve decided.”
I’m not sure how many resources there actually are.
But if they’re sufficient, I’ll break through to the 5th Circle immediately.
‘I need to reach the 5th Circle to use even basic large-scale weather manipulation magic.’
I just casually deployed Blizzard, a massive atmospheric alteration spell.
But truthfully.
‘It was a desperate gamble.’
I mixed in every sleight of hand I could muster and activated it through a method bordering on cheating.
‘It’s only because I deployed it at the absolute minimum scale that I managed it.’
In fact, my current inner energy reserves were dangerously depleted.
Though it didn’t show on the surface, I could have collapsed at any moment.
Regardless, thanks to that reckless gambit, I’d managed to gain tremendous advantages in a short span of time.
I’d secured the complete surrender of the Water Bandits.
And I’d obtained firm promises of compensation from both Jinseong Transport Company and the Namgung Clan.
What I’d gained was substantial.
‘If fortune smiles, might there be an elixir in the Jiao Long Faction? Am I being too greedy?’
While Ilhyang busily indulged these pleasant fantasies.
Beyond the dulled senses brought on by severe inner energy depletion.
Tssss—
A subtle change was beginning to unfold just beyond Ilhyang’s range of perception.
* * *
“Too few of our children are ascending from the Lower Realm. We’ll starve to death at this rate. The humans will flay our hides.”
“Who doesn’t know that? The problem is there’s no solution.”
“This is maddening. Why did we sever the connection passage to the Lower Realm in the first place? You fool!”
“Regretting it now won’t help. It’s far too late.”
Humans believed this world was divided only into the Upper Realm and Lower Realm.
But that was an oversimplification of the situation.
In the broader sense, the division between Upper and Lower Realms was accurate.
However, the Upper Realm was again divided in half—into two massive powers.
One side was the Immortal Cultivation Realm, where human Celestial Watchers had accumulated their practice over countless ages and ascended to enlightenment.
The opposite side was the Demon Cultivation Realm, where strange beings commonly called demon beasts and demon spirits—creatures like animals and insects—had honed their demonic power over eons and ascended to the heavens.
The Immortal Cultivation Realm and Demon Cultivation Realm existed as separate worlds.
Yet in a few scattered regions, they shared overlapping territory.
Because of the unique resources found only there, they fought tooth and nail, desperate to diminish each other’s influence.
“Ugh, I never wanted to accept those cunning humans’ proposal from the start. Once the path between the Lower and Upper Realms was severed, the demon beasts and demon spirits that once infested the Lower Realm vanished completely.”
“At that time, we all needed resources urgently, so everyone agreed to it, didn’t we? There’s no point bringing it up now—you’re just wasting breath. If you keep spouting such nonsense, get out right now.”
At this clear dismissal, the white Nine-tailed Fox with nine tails narrowed her eyes.
Regardless of her reaction.
The Golden Monkey, his expression indifferent, sprawled languidly across the floor and gestured with his chin, issuing his command firmly.
“What are you doing? I said get out.”
But the Nine-tailed Fox soon relaxed her expression.
And asked the Golden Monkey carefully.
“Is there any chance you’ve picked up a signal on your end?”
An abrupt change of subject.
Yet the Golden Monkey seemed accustomed to such shifts in the Nine-tailed Fox’s demeanor.
He answered promptly, his tone still apathetic.
“We haven’t either. How could demon beasts or demon spirits survive in the Lower Realm in times like these? The humans swarm in and devour their inner cores. We can’t match them in numbers.”
“Ah… we need to take measures somehow so those below can pool their strength together, don’t we? You agree with that, right?”
“Then what? There’s no way to contact them. We can’t break through that damnable barrier those human bastards gnashed their teeth installing.”
The Immortal Cultivation Realm and Demon Cultivation Realm had, long ago.
Waged brutal wars spanning countless ages to monopolize the Upper Realm’s limited resources.
In terms of pure military strength, the Immortal Cultivation Realm was overwhelmingly larger.
But in absolute powerhouses, the Demon Cultivation Realm had far more.
This stemmed from inherent factors.
Whenever an Immortal and a Demon Immortal of equal cultivation clashed, the Demon Immortal invariably prevailed.
Only an Immortal at least two full tiers higher in cultivation could match a Demon Immortal in combat.
To such a degree did the Demon Immortals’ demonic power overwhelm the Immortals’ cultivation.
Thanks to this, despite their smaller numbers, the Demon Immortals made the conflict roughly balanced.
Then, at some point.
The leadership of the Immortal Cultivation Realm had a sudden realization.
‘Rather than fighting the Demon Cultivation Realm’s beasts over monopolizing limited resources, shouldn’t we prioritize complete separation from the Lower Realm?’
The humans and demons of the Lower Realm.
They had grown resentful of how some of them, lacking both qualification and ability, recklessly plundered the Upper Realm’s resources.
Worse, those wretches didn’t even use the resources they took properly.
So the Immortals of the Immortal Cultivation Realm.
Felt the necessity to sever the ladder connecting the Lower Realm first.
In the past, this had sounded like a reasonably compelling proposal.
The Demon Immortals too were displeased with the limited resources leaking into the Lower Realm.
And so the Demon Immortals agreed to the Immortals’ proposal.
Both sides harbored the same desire to monopolize resources for themselves.
Thus, the upper-tier Immortals and Demon Immortals joined hands to erect a barrier against the Lower Realm.
That barrier became known as the Dimensional Grand Barrier.
By establishing a complete phase differential between the upper and lower worlds,
the barrier’s essence lay in perfectly separating the two realms.
When constructing this Dimensional Grand Barrier, they established a surveillance system on both sides.
‘At the Demon Immortals’ connection passage, humans were dispatched to monitor it.’
Conversely, at the Immortals’ passage to the Lower Realm,
Demon Immortals were sent to surveil the barrier.
They created a system where each side could watch the other.
Thus, they meticulously prevented indiscriminate incursions from the Lower Realm,
and perfectly controlled the Upper Realm’s influence over the Lower Realm.
Initially, it worked well.
Resource depletion and reckless waste ceased.
But as countless ages passed, problems emerged.
Specifically, from the Lower Realm to the Upper Realm:
humans who met the conditions and ascended occasionally appeared.
Yet Demon Immortals ascending from the Lower Realm to the Upper Realm were virtually nonexistent.
The Immortals of the Upper Realm, already possessing considerable power,
gradually expanded their influence over the long ages.
The Demon Immortals, conversely, felt mounting dread as their numbers dwindled.
For now, the Great Demon Immortals’ power remained formidable enough to maintain balance.
But should the power disparity ever become absolutely overwhelming,
the Immortals could breach their initial agreement and invade the Demon Immortal Realm whenever they wished.
Thus, preventing a one-sided collapse of the power balance became imperative.
“You know, I actually managed to find a loophole to locate a connection point with the Lower Realm recently.”
The Nine-tailed Fox, now wearing human form, whispered softly, her voice hushed.
At that, the Golden Monkey—who had been lying languidly on a pristine white jade bed until moments before, known in the Upper Realm as the Celestial Great Sage—
lifted his head and fixed her with an unwavering golden gaze.
“How? How did you evade the barrier those human bastards erected?”
“Hehe, your elder sister has her ways. In any case, I managed to create a thread—precarious though it is—that connects to the Lower Realm.”
The Golden Monkey’s previously indifferent expression vanished.
Now wearing an expression of utmost seriousness, he seated himself before the Nine-tailed Fox with perfect composure.
He conjured a teacup from the empty table as if by magic and spoke.
“Care for some tea? Spider Grandmother recently sent me some fine tea leaves—a precious gift meant for special occasions like this.”
“Mmm~ So you’re finally taking interest in what I have to say?”
“Of course. A connection point to the Lower Realm would interest not just me, but everyone. The others would react the same way.”
Pitter-patter―
A teacup and teapot suddenly materialized in empty air.
The Golden Monkey tilted the teapot, pouring steaming hot water into the cup with gracious hospitality as he offered the teacup forward.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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