Chapter 350: Hunting a True Spirit (4)
Rumble!
From the dark clouds covering the sky, thousands of thick streaks of lightning poured down, and all of that lightning energy focused on Jin So-myeong.
Gwang Hyo-wol, who had poured down thunderbolts as if having a seizure, opened his storage pouch.
Blood-Accumulating Demonic Corpse.
He summoned a Rank 7 Jiangshi that grew by absorbing all kinds of turbid Qi…hatred, anger, and deep-seated curses…and sent it rushing toward Jin So-myeong,
And revealed his true body: a giant dragon.
Having a massive body reaching a thousand zhang in length with scales sturdier than castle walls,
The True Dragon enveloped in lightning erupted with a ferocious roar.
“Die!”
Kki-hi-hi-hi!
As if responding to the anger, the Blood-Accumulating Demonic Corpse, which let out a goosebump-inducing ghostly wail, swung its blood-soaked claws.
As its claws, elongated like whips, clawed at the empty air, crescent-moon-shaped red slashes surged toward Jin So-myeong.
In that split second.
Sreeng…
The drawn sword was revealed to the world with a metallic ring, and his gaze was unconsciously fixed upon it.
In the midst of the battlefield that was chaotic beyond measure, just as he stared spellbound at the sword shining clearly on its own,
The blade momentarily blurred and then vanished from his sight.
And,
The falling thunderbolts scattered into pieces, and the head of the Blood-Accumulating Demonic Corpse dropped with a thud.
Its entire body, including its arms and legs, split into thousands of pieces and collapsed in a heap.
‘What?’
The Blood-Accumulating Demonic Corpse, which possessed immunity to all poisons and resistance to all kinds of energies…lightning Qi, sharp Qi, flames, and cold Qi…was neutralized in the blink of an eye.
Cleaved by a sword swung at a speed that could not even be seen, it became a useless lump of meat.
Leaving his bewildered state of mind behind, he erupted his dharmic power and poured down lightning energy.
Pazizzzzt…!
The lightning Qi, which was spewing out frantically, turned into a thick pillar of light and charged straight toward Jin So-myeong.
The moment the dazzling flash enveloped Jin So-myeong.
He witnessed an astounding sight.
The column of lightning that was flying like a beam of light slowed down drastically and came to a dead halt in the air.
Trapped within the dharmic domain spread by Jin So-myeong, it could not advance even by a speck.
For the blow delivered with all his might to fail to pierce even the dharmic domain.
It meant that the difference in basic capability was extreme.
‘This is impossible.’
He gritted his teeth.
He realized that something had gone wrong, but he could not back down now.
Whoosh!
He infused the heavy rain pouring from the sky with lightning energy.
He intended to pierce the dharmic domain by pushing with numbers, but this was also meaningless.
From the hundreds of millions of raindrops pouring down fiercely, the howling cutting winds, to the pillars of lightning striking in succession.
Every single offensive,
Was frozen in the air.
No matter how much time passed, they could not advance. As if caught in eternity…
In the midst of the fierce offensive that shook heaven and earth, Jin So-myeong, whose clothes were not even slightly damaged, stared at him quietly.
Along with a freezing chill running down his spine,
The blade that had been hanging askew vanished once again.
‘Ugh.’
His left hind leg was cut off silently and dropped with a thud.
An absurd speed.
Not even a flickering sword light was visible. Let alone the incoming slash, he did not even perceive the moment it was severed.
‘He is a monster.’
The intense pain, which he was experiencing for the first time in his life, shook his head, but he endured it by gritting his teeth.
First, he had to find a weakness somehow. And if he pierced that spot…
Rumble!
Just as he continued his thoughts while pouring down a heavy assault, his right front leg was sliced off, and his horn was cut in half.
To think that his limbs were being sliced by invisible slashes, yet he could not even perceive them.
An unfamiliar and completely novel emotion welled up.
The sound of his heart pounding grew so rapidly loud that it was suffocating.
After concentrating to the point where his head felt like it was burning,
At some point, he realized.
A weakness…
Did not exist.
No matter how much he searched, it was not visible. Not even a shred of an opening existed.
The moment he realized that this was an opponent he could not defeat even if they fought ten thousand times, what he had to do became clear.
Fleeing or surviving.
To think he had to perform acts done only by the weak and mere creatures. A sense of loathing surged, but he had no choice.
Chewing on the humiliation he was experiencing for the first time since his birth, he swore.
That he would definitely pay this back.
Standing arrogantly with his weight on one leg, he printed the image of Jin So-myeong quietly staring at him into his eyes.
While remembering the enemy’s appearance clearly,
Rumble!
He unleashed the Lightning Escape Art, a divine ability he possessed since birth.
The lightning that had been focused on Jin So-myeong spread in all directions.
It streaked across the sky, distancing itself, and the heat radiated from the lightning also spread everywhere in the world.
‘It worked.’
His Lightning Escape Art was different from common Lightning Escape Arts.
It was natural that he could travel by riding the lightning energy, and wherever the heat reached, he could move there in an instant.
The lightning spread in all directions, and the heat dispersed because of it.
It meant that if even a single one of those escaped the battlefield, he could escape.
Swish!
The scenery changed completely with every single blink of an eye.
He covered an immense distance in an instant, and anger surged within him once more.
To think he had to suffer such an unjust thing.
‘Damn it. Someday, definitely…’
Right as he swore revenge once again,
“Travelling by riding the heat, what an interesting escape art. Can you not go any faster?”
He got goosebumps at the voice heard right beside him.
Swish!
Leaving all thoughts behind, he frantically unleashed his escape art. Just to escape somehow.
“However, why are you using such an escape art to flee?”
Swish!
“Does simply spreading the heat not amount to seizing control of the space? It seems better to utilize it in combat instead.”
Ah.
Ah.
It did not take very long. For anger to turn into despair.
And,
“Is there nothing more to show?”
For despair to be dyed with fear was even faster.
No matter what he did, he could not escape.
When he ran away with all his might and looked to his side, Jin So-myeong was invariably there.
The last move he had trusted.
Even the escape art, his final resort, did not work.
“If you have nothing, so be it. There is no need to drag this out any longer.”
Thud!
With a tingling pain, his inner core was extracted.
As he stared blankly at the inner core held by Jin So-myeong, the world spun.
Just when did he swing the sword?
It was too fast…
In the end, he could not see it until the very last moment. Even the moment his neck was severed…
***
The prostrate patriarch of the Black Crow Tribe swallowed his dry saliva.
The very moment he desperately prayed to awaken from the nightmare, for a miracle to happen,
The man who identified himself as Jin So-myeong appeared,
And after exchanging a few words, threw a fist out of nowhere and blew Gwang Hyo-wol away.
That was, indeed…
A truly gratifying scene.
The bone-crushing sound that rang out with a ‘Crunch!’ still lingered around his ears like an auditory hallucination.
Even though a considerable amount of time had already passed, the sight of Gwang Hyo-wol flying away with his face crushed could not be forgotten.
“Hmm.”
By the way, what on earth had happened?
The explosions that had been faintly heard from very far away, beyond the horizon, had also ceased.
Had the battle ended already?
However, no one had returned.
Until the sun set, the moon rose, and the sun rose once again.
“Uh, Patriarch. What should we do?”
“…Wait. I will go and verify it.”
Gathering his courage and rising from his spot, the patriarch calmed the confused tribe members and headed alone toward the place where the explosions had resounded.
“Sigh.”
Thus, what he witnessed was something horrific enough to make one shudder.
Pitch-black ash. Land stripped of vital energy.
From one end of the horizon to the other. Every piece of land in sight was covered in ash.
An acrid burnt smell stung his nose.
Feeling like his skin would melt under the blazing heat, he hastily released his dharmic power and unfolded a barrier.
Pazizzzt…!
He saw thick bundles of lightning crawling across the earth.
It was clearly a trace left by the thunderbolts Gwang Hyo-wol had poured down.
‘…’
Is this the kind of trace left when Unity stage Dao Sovereigns fight?
Swallowing his dry saliva, he carefully examined the ash-covered battlefield and realized one puzzling point.
Since two people had fought, it was normal for at least two kinds of energies to be mixed, but even after searching the battlefield thoroughly, only the energy released by Gwang Hyo-wol could be felt.
Did it mean he had attacked one-sidedly?
At first, he thought so.
However, as he examined the battlefield closely, his thoughts gradually changed.
It was because the bloodstains discovered here and there were all Gwang Hyo-wol’s.
“Could it be…”
Suddenly, an extremely strange thought occurred to him.
It was not that Gwang Hyo-wol had attacked one-sidedly…
But rather that he had struggled desperately to survive.
“Haha, uhahaha!”
The laughter that suddenly burst out could not be stopped.
Laughing as if he had lost his mind, the patriarch even checked the grotto where Gwang Hyo-wol had been residing.
Looking at the grotto that was cleaned out and completely empty, he was certain.
Gwang Hyo-wol was dead.
He had been trampled without even being able to resist by Jin So-myeong, who had come one day.
Just like what they had suffered, he had been swept away and killed by an irresistible calamity.
“Uhahaha! Serves you right! You son of a bitch!”
The patriarch, who returned to the tribe, erected a massive stone statue in the center of the village. A divine statue modeled after Jin So-myeong’s appearance.
***
Meanwhile,
Jin So-myeong, who had visited Gwang Hyo-wol’s grotto and swept up every single treasure, was lost in thought.
‘I had expectations because he was called a True Dragon…’
He was weaker than expected.
Compared to Gon-ak, who was asleep in his subspace, the gap was so large that it was hard to believe they were both True Spirits.
In fact, in a way, it was a natural outcome.
Since Gon-ak was a special True Spirit that even a Great Vehicle stage expert directly kept in check.
And not all of the True Dragon Race would be this weak.
One must not forget that Gwang Hyo-wol was an individual who was only five hundred years old since birth.
The True Dragon Race was famous for the difference in skill among individuals being astronomical.
Just as there were exceptionally weak individuals, there would also be overwhelmingly strong True Dragons.
‘Come to think of it, it is a bit strange.’
Why on earth are there so many True Dragons?
Other True Spirits numbered at most one or two, but True Dragons were so numerous, as if they had popped up out of nowhere.
‘Surely it is not an artificially created lifeform.’
At the sudden conjecture, he pondered and then shook his head.
Since there were no clues, it was ultimately nothing more than a conjecture.
Putting aside thoughts of the True Dragon, he deliberated on whom to choose as his next prey.
‘Hmm.’
He stroked his chin while scanning the information on the demonic beasts and True Spirits in the vicinity.
In truth, he had still not reached a satisfying decision.
Under the current circumstances, what divine ability would be the most useful to obtain?
‘What is it that I need the most right now?’
He pondered for quite a long time, but it was hard to decide readily.
So, he decided to review the divine abilities he currently possessed once again.
Excluding all the minor ones,
He picked out the ones that could be considered his main force, and exactly six came up.
The Heaven-Confounding Shattering Annihilation Palm, used for keeping enemies in check.
The eye technique that pierces all possibilities of the myriad things, the Lightning-Awakened Clear-Sight Law-Shattering Eye.
The foundation that allowed him to move overwhelmingly faster than others, the Lightning Escape Art.
The essence of the human cultivation civilization, the Light-Moon Silent-Life Sword.
The secret technique that splits the gaps between times, Moment Annihilation.
The divine ability originating purely from the Supreme Great Ability, Genesis.
These six could be considered his main divine abilities.
Although he had mastered many other spells or cultivation arts, they were ultimately secret techniques to temper his physical body or amplify his dharmic power.
It was more like they were for growing his basic size and capability.
If so, what divine ability should be strengthened under the current circumstances to be most effective?
Thinking deeply, it seemed he could just use the two inner cores he had recently obtained as they were.
Strengthening the Lightning-Awakened Clear-Sight Law-Shattering Eye with the foresight ability of the Three-Eyed Giant Cat, and strengthening the Lightning Escape Art with the inner core obtained from the True Dragon would be a perfect fit.
‘Then are there six opportunities left until the Golden Body Dharma Image is completed?’
He pondered on what divine abilities to fill the remaining opportunities with.
‘The most important things in combat… are ultimately four.’
A sharp sword, fast mobility, the insight to read the enemy’s intentions, and the endurance to sustain the fight.
This was the core. It was safe to say the rest were all side branches.
Was there anything lacking among these?
It might sound a bit arrogant, but there seemed to be nothing in particular.
‘A bit regrettable.’
When he did not know what was lacking like this, clashing with a powerhouse was the best, but there was no suitable opponent.
Leaving behind the distracting thoughts that had suddenly popped up, he returned to the main point.
At any rate, if he had to pick what was most lacking right now, wouldn’t it ultimately be his realm…
Thinking so, a very decent idea occurred to him.
What if he covered all the remaining six times with absorption or digestion-related divine abilities?
Then the Primal Chaos Wheel divine ability would grow stronger, and wouldn’t his cultivation speed accelerate rapidly?
‘That is not bad.’
The divine ability that stored energy and automatically refined it into dharmic power, the Primal Chaos Wheel.
He decided to pour all the remaining six opportunities into strengthening this divine ability.