Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Underground World
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Even the royal palace of the Liang Kingdom had its cultivators.
It made exchanges smoother between the cultivation sects and the mortal kingdoms if information flowed quickly between them.
That was why Investigator Go stayed in the dust-filled palace.
His residence was a tall pavilion within the palace grounds.
This building, with its ten stories, was publicly known as an observatory.
But in truth, it was Investigator Go's home.
He was a genuinely good person.
Polite, earnest, and impeccably neat.
He would have been the perfect man, if not for his excessive cleanliness.
Who could blame him for his mysophobia? He truly despised dust.
"Too filthy..."
Investigator Go muttered as he gazed out the window.
The haze filled his entire view.
To him, the capital was no different from a filthy swamp.
In fact, using his Clear Eye Technique, he could see the dust roiling like ocean waves.
Fortunately, it didn't reach the height where he lived.
That was the very reason he resided in a ten-story building.
As he stared at the one clear sky, he spotted something.
A lotus flower carved from stone was flying toward him at high speed.
It was Seoran.
Investigator Go welcomed her warmly.
"Pleased to meet you. Come on in. First, would you mind washing your hands thoroughly with this solution?"
Seoran washed her hands in fifteen different ways.
She slipped on the provided indoor slippers and entered the building.
The interior resembled a dust-free laboratory.
"Now, have a seat and let's talk."
It was so clean that sitting down felt almost rude.
"No, I have some dust on my clothes..."
"That's very considerate of you. But don't worry. I do a full deep clean every evening."
Seoran sensed an unsettling glint of madness in him.
Yet from their brief conversation, she could tell Investigator Go was a person of outstanding character.
He would likely remain gentle, unless she brought in a handful of sand and scattered it on the floor.
Seoran's reason for coming to the capital was cultivation tourism.
But she also aimed to establish an emergency communication network.
Investigator Go was the liaison to the mortal world.
After some small talk, the two headed to the top floor.
"Has Investigator Ryu ever seen a human-faced bird in person?"
"No, only in illustrations from the Spirit Beasts Encyclopedia."
"Oh dear, illustrations can't capture their full beauty. I'll show you, so get ready."
"I'm really curious."
Filled with anticipation, she followed Investigator Go.
Spirit beasts commonly called human-faced birds varied wildly in appearance by species.
They were hybrids of human and bird, but with wildly different proportions.
Seoran vaguely recalled bird-people from comics or animations in her past life.
Cute girls flying naked with wings instead of arms from the shoulders.
Or girls like angels with wings sprouting from their backs.
In the end, her guess was somewhat close.
"A human! First one I've seen!"
"It's a female!"
"She's tiny!"
Girls with cute faces chattered noisily.
The problem was that only their faces were cute.
Everything else was pure bird.
It was as if someone had grafted a human head onto a sparrow body the size of a fist.
Suddenly, she remembered a beastkin scale chart from her past life.
It was divided into five stages total.
Stage one was super light beastkin: human bodies with just rabbit ears or cat tails.
Purists might not even count this as true beastkin.
Naturally, it wouldn't faze friends if shown off.
Stage five was super heavy beastkin: perfectly animal forms.
These profound stages differed from animal characters only in facial expressions, so beginners might not even recognize them as beastkin.
Thus, they could be the most confident.
So, what stage were these dubious human-faced birds that Seoran encountered?
Somewhere between stage four and five.
Truly a tricky level.
Investigator Go asked quietly.
"Aren't they just adorable?"
Investigator Go truly adored human-faced birds.
That was why, despite his mild mysophobia, he took the mortal liaison role.
He could live surrounded by them in this vast aviary.
Seoran was a civilized person who respected others' tastes.
"Yeah, they're really cute. No males around?"
"Males are timid and weak, useless except for breeding. We keep them isolated from the females normally. The females bully them relentlessly."
Opening one door revealed a room where several male human-faced birds huddled together.
Their faces were immature and androgynous, their bodies much smaller.
At the sight of a stranger, they all fled to the corners.
Seoran left the room and closed the door.
The female human-faced birds were still flapping about wildly.
Their beaks never stopped, babbling nonstop.
It made her ears ring.
Investigator Go and Seoran chatted about birds for a while.
Then, one human-faced bird shot through an open window.
"Oh, looks like we have a message."
Investigator Go approached the newcomer.
It had a small cylinder around its neck.
He opened the lid, revealing a tiny note.
It seemed similar to how messenger pigeons were used.
"Hm, an urgent support request. There's a problem inside the mines, disrupting spirit stone supply. Miners are vanishing en masse..."
"Spirit stones are mined?"
"Of course. What, you think they fall from the sky?"
Seoran's knowledge grew.
"But this is worrying. An anomaly in the mines calls for dispatching an earth-aspect cultivator, but they're so rare."
"Are earth-aspect cultivators that few?"
"Almost no one chooses earth-aspect techniques. Fire or water aspects are the popular ones."
Seoran's knowledge grew again.
"Perfect timing! I'll handle it!"
Seoran volunteered.
She'd consumed heaps of spirit stones so far; now was her chance to earn her keep.
Investigator Go was startled.
"You're an earth-aspect cultivator, Investigator Ryu? Well, with a single spirit root, you had no choice."
Nodding, he handed her a map.
"Head here, and you'll find a branch office that looks just like this building. The staff there will brief you."
Seoran listened to the details and flew south.
Then a sudden doubt struck her.
What was wrong with earth-aspect techniques?
Why were they so unpopular?
Did people hate the earthy smell or something?
She'd look into it later when she had the chance.
*****
For the cultivation sects to function properly, vast resources were essential.
Spirit stones for cultivation, diverse ingredients for nutrition, enormous amounts of daily water, spirit herbs for pills, spirit beasts raised as needed, metals for artifacts.
Listing every resource for food, clothing, shelter, and daily life was endless.
Thus, cultivation sects constantly consumed countless supplies to maintain their organizations.
Naturally, they needed diversified, stable supply chains.
The mine where Seoran was dispatched was one such source.
Strictly speaking, "mine" was a slight misnomer.
Salt crystals, spirit stones, ores, stone materials—all the underground resources the Black Bamboo Sect required were excavated and supplied here, but not by humans.
It was the Labyrinth Moles, a yokai collective.
Literally, moles that build labyrinths.
This massive yokai group, allied with the Black Bamboo Sect, dominated everything beneath Liang Kingdom's surface.
In the sunless depths, the mole yokai continued their tunneling today.
Thus, this place was no mere mine.
It was a world of the Labyrinth Moles, by the Labyrinth Moles, for the Labyrinth Moles.
It deserved to be called the underground world.
Seoran entered the eternally expanding three-dimensional labyrinth.
She'd already heard about it at the branch office, but seeing it firsthand was breathtaking.
Clearly dug from the earth, yet the ceiling vanished into darkness.
Without the glowing stones everywhere, it would feel like being cast alone into empty space.
One Labyrinth Mole approached Seoran.
The bipedal mole wore a safety helmet made of glowing stone.
Its height was roughly Seoran's.
"You're the support from the surface?"
"Yes. Seoran Ryu."
"Ah, welcome! Truly welcome! We've been tearing our fur out over the string of disappearances. I'm Toto the Investigator, handling this case."
Labyrinth Moles had intelligence enough for interspecies communication.
They used simple spells naturally and had sophisticated political systems.
Essentially, the only difference from humans was living underground.
Seoran stretched both arms out, forming a cross with her body.
The standard Labyrinth Mole greeting.
It signaled she wouldn't use spells on them.
Toto mirrored the gesture and got to the point.
"Come on, let's go. The stench of heinous crime calls us. Ready, sidekick?"
"Of course, Investigator!"
The girl and the mole plunged into the darkness without hesitation.