WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 79
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Wang Seo-rin smiled as though she was used to their masters arguing.
“Come on. They’re always like that, so don’t worry about it.”
“Yes.”
A small flying boat hovered in the clearing outside the mountain gate. A female cultivator was already on deck, her hair tied high with a red cord.
The sleeves of her dark navy enchanted robe were fastened tightly at her wrists, and she carried a black spear sheath on her back. A spearhead fitted with six iron rings stuck out above it. She had been looking down the mountain with one hand resting on the railing, but turned as the two approached.
‘Ah, so that’s her.’
He recognized her face from Senior Brother Myeongsu’s album of paintings. She was an attractive woman with a bright, open look.
Cultivators generally had better looks than ordinary people.
Even reaching the Qi Refining stage brought a degree of bodily purification. By Foundation Establishment, not only did their skin become free of blemishes, but most facial asymmetry and uneven bone structure disappeared as well.
For example, Yi Dong-sa looked to be in his forties to other cultivators, who estimated his actual age at somewhere between forty and a hundred. But that impression came from the cultivation world’s strict standards. To ordinary people, he looked no older than his late twenties or early thirties.
These effects were even more noticeable in female cultivators. With the flaws in their appearance gone, a little powder was enough for them to be called peerless beauties by worldly standards.
Some even went to great lengths to obtain and take pills such as Appearance-Preserving Pills, which kept their looks from aging. They actively cared for their appearance, so they generally looked younger or more beautiful than male cultivators.
This was one reason certain monks at Jewel Light Temple who had sworn to preserve their primordial yang suffered all the more!
The female cultivator from the Demon-Subduing Court did not seem to have put any special effort into her appearance. Still, she looked very young, perhaps because she had reached Foundation Establishment early.
Wang Seo-rin raised a hand toward the flying boat.
“Senior Sister Yuk, have you been waiting long?”
“I only just got here.”
The woman gave Yi Hyeon a brief greeting.
“I’m Yuk Hong-yeon of the Demon-Subduing Court. I’ll be your escort this time.”
“I’m Yi Dong-sa of Lotus Court. Thank you for looking after us, Senior Sister Yuk.”
Yuk Hong-yeon gave off the aura of a late Foundation Establishment cultivator. Wang Seo-rin was around the sixth layer, so Yuk Hong-yeon was clearly stronger. Apparently, she had also joined the temple several years before Wang Seo-rin.
“You two focus on examining the materials. If any demonic beasts appear, I’ll take the lead.”
Once she had confirmed that they were both aboard, she activated the flying boat’s restrictions.
The hull slowly rose.
...
Mountain ranges stretched beneath the clouds.
Whenever the flying boat descended, they could see terraced fields and villages lined up along waterways. Many of the villages had a small Buddhist temple at their center.
Yi Hyeon looked down at the scenery for a while, then took a book from his storage pouch.
It was a popular novel he had not yet finished.
“What are you reading?”
Wang Seo-rin sat beside him, and a faint fragrance drifted over on the breeze.
“A novel.”
“Is it good?”
“It’s reasonably entertaining. I can enjoy reading almost anything.”
Wang Seo-rin tilted her head toward his open book. Her loose hair brushed his arm.
“Mind if I read along?”
“Hmm... Shall I take out another novel for you?”
“That sounds like a bother. I’ll just look at yours.”
Yi Hyeon looked at her.
Up close, her eyelashes were long. Her eyes curved softly when she smiled, and there was a playful look in their clear depths.
‘She really is beautiful. But I can’t let her end my two-thousand-year achievement streak! I have to stay strong.’
After seeing the power of Clear Yang Purifying Fire, Yi Hyeon had developed a strange goal: to keep building on the achievement he had accumulated over the years.
In terms of his past life, it was like going without a date until thirty, only to discover that he really could use magic.
Buddha-Light True Qi actually formed in his hands, and its power grew stronger every year. Once he became fascinated by that ability, suppressing his interest in the opposite sex was not difficult.
Wang Seo-rin met his gaze for a moment, then smiled.
“Master made you sound like you were made of stone.”
“Haha, I simply focus on cultivation...”
When Wang Seo-rin gave a light laugh, Yuk Hong-yeon glanced back from where she was steering the boat.
...
A good while later.
As soon as Yi Hyeon closed his book, Wang Seo-rin spoke, as if she had been waiting.
“Last time I worked on the inside of a golden ring, I tried your method. It was much easier.”
“It’s only a small trick.”
Wang Seo-rin took out a little notebook and flipped through several pages. She opened it to a drawing of a demonic beast core’s cross section and the flow of flames. After asking a couple of questions, she wrote a short note in the margin.
“No wonder Senior Martial Uncle Hyedam treasures you so much, with skills like these.”
“It’s thanks to Master’s good teaching.”
“Still, it’s a bit much to talk about nothing but your primordial yang. You must have desires too.”
Wang Seo-rin set the notebook on her lap.
“Do you intend to keep that vow in the future?”
“Hmm... It hasn’t been long since I made it. From what I’ve read in the records left by our seniors, preserving primordial yang is one of the ways to create the strongest vow power.”
“What if you change your mind later?”
“I’ll have to think about it then.”
“Actually, apparently there’s a way to cultivate vow power without making a vow.”
Yi Hyeon turned his eyes toward her.
“How?”
“There’s an inheritance like that on the third floor of the Scripture Repository. It’s called the Scripture of Refining Intent into Vows (煉意成願經).”
Yuk Hong-yeon turned from the front of the boat.
“You read that too, Junior Sister Wang?”
“Only the preface. I went up there once to find a record Master asked for, and the title looked strange, so I took a look.”
Wang Seo-rin turned to Yi Hyeon.
“Did you know? Even if you keep a vow, vow power won’t accumulate unless you’re aware that you’re keeping it. What does that tell you? There isn’t someone in the heavens checking who kept their vows and handing out vow power.”
“Uh... Then what matters isn’t whether you actually kept your vow, but your state of mind?”
“Right. You refine your conviction that you’ve kept your vow through the teachings and turn it into vow power. That makes vow power a kind of mental force. It isn’t something only Buddhist sects like Jewel Light Temple can use. Cultivators skilled in sorcery or incantations can work with similar powers too.”
“Does the Scripture of Refining Intent into Vows create vow power another way?”
“That inheritance uses visualization and spirit-refining practice to develop a mind seal within the primordial spirit. Once it’s stable enough, you can generate vow power without relying on a vow to follow a particular course of conduct.”
Yuk Hong-yeon asked, “If it’s such a good method, why don’t they teach it?”
“They say it’s too difficult and takes too long.”
Wang Seo-rin gave a small shrug.
“Plenty of people practice for decades without establishing a proper mind seal, and apparently establishing one isn’t the end of it. Forcing an unstable mind seal to work can injure your primordial spirit, so you have to spend a long time refining it afterward too. On the other hand, if you make a vow and keep it, you can use Buddha-Light True Qi with similar effects in much less time.”
“I see. Better to spend that time learning another inheritance. Time is spirit stones, after all.”
Wang Seo-rin smiled and nodded at Yuk Hong-yeon’s words.
Yi Hyeon was silent for a moment.
‘So that’s how it works. If I learn that, I won’t have to keep clinging to vows either. I can just take my time cultivating it...’
Wang Seo-rin added, “If you’re interested, look for it. Perhaps you’ll get to read it if you have the right affinity. But learning it won’t make your current vow disappear on its own. Apparently, you also have to learn separately how to withdraw the vow power you’ve accumulated. And it’s still true that primordial yang helps with the Clear Yang Purifying Fire Art.”
“I see.”
Wang Seo-rin placed a small drawing board on her lap.
On it were the roofs and trees of the village they had passed earlier.
“Have you studied painting too?”
“Yes. It’s actually related to my vow.”
Wang Seo-rin answered as she moved her brush.
Instead of ink, golden Buddha-Light True Qi soaked its tip.
“I promised to draw one thing I’ve never drawn before, with my own hands, every day.”
“That’s a good vow. It must help sharpen your powers of observation.”
“It does. It’s useful in battle too.”
“In battle?”
“This brush is a magical implement. If I draw a crane with fire, it flies off and attacks the enemy. If I draw a tiger, it charges in and bites them.”
“That’s remarkable.”
The sheets stacked beneath the drawing board held pictures of unfamiliar insects, a broken teacup, and twisted branches.
Her brush followed a slender branch of the tree.
After a while, Wang Seo-rin raised her brush and studied the drawing.
“This tree looks so strange!”
She suddenly stood and struck a ridiculous pose.
Yuk Hong-yeon looked at her.
“Do you really have to act it out?”
Yi Hyeon asked, “What vow did you make, Senior Sister Yuk?”
“I vowed not to hide the mistakes I make in battle. I record them whether I win or lose.”
Yuk Hong-yeon pointed to a small book at her waist.
“Do you show it to other people?”
“No. Almost no one reads it but me.”
“And that still counts as a vow?”
“Surprisingly, yes. People tend to deceive themselves and make excuses. Facing that is quite difficult.”
She spoke calmly.
“When I win, I tend to think it was because I did well. When I lose, I think it was because my opponent had a good magical implement or got lucky. But I can be luckier than I realize, and my opponent can have bad luck too. Above all, when an opponent seems to have won through luck, it’s often because they were being modest about their own skill. Thanks to this vow, I’m not just generating Buddha-Light True Qi. I’m improving my skills faster too.”
“That’s a good vow.”
“The drawback is that I have to fight a lot to get opportunities to increase my vow power. That can turn into a dangerous habit of driving myself toward death. It’s important not to let your vow drag you around.”
...
As sunset approached, Wang Seo-rin spread out a fresh sheet of paper.
With the brush held between her lips, she looked around. Her gaze passed over the sky, the clouds, the railing, and Yuk Hong-yeon before finally stopping on Yi Hyeon.
“I haven’t drawn your face yet, Junior Brother Yi.”
A little later, Wang Seo-rin stopped her brush and looked back and forth between the drawing and Yi Hyeon.
“That’s strange...”
“What is?”
“Your face doesn’t have many distinctive features. Your whole impression is somehow vague...”
“Haha...”
Yi Hyeon realized it was because of his Seven-Aspects Disguise Art.
‘I should research disguise arts some more.’
* * *
Several days later, at Baeksapo in Haegwang Kingdom.
It was about thirty thousand li south of Jewel Light Temple.
Small houses stood beyond a wooden palisade along the coast. Flat stones weighed down their roofs, and wooden posts for hanging nets stood in every alley.
The nets seemed to have all been taken in. When the flying boat entered the harbor, the only thing moving was a scrap of cloth.
Two boats remained at the pier. One had a huge section torn out of its side. The other sat tilted on the sand with its bottom exposed.
Yi Hyeon examined the underside of the broken boat.
A thick scale was embedded between the wooden planks.
“Have you come from the main temple?”
An old monk in gray robes approached from a low hill behind the harbor, accompanied by two young monks.
All three were Qi Refining cultivators. The old monk had reached Great Perfection, but walked with obvious caution before the three Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Yuk Hong-yeon brought the flying boat down and showed her spirit token.
“I’m Yuk Hong-yeon of Jewel Light Temple’s Demon-Subduing Court. These two have come with me from Lotus Court.”
The old monk pressed both palms together and bowed almost in half.
“This humble monk is Won-o, abbot of Haean Temple. Our lack of ability has forced you immortal masters to travel so far.”
Dried mud clung to the hem of the monk’s robes, and one sleeve had been patched with fresh cloth.
“Have all the residents been moved?”
“Yes. The last cart left three days ago. They’re staying inside the city to the north now.”
“Well done.”
Wang Seo-rin spoke.
“I hear you’ve kept some demonic beast carcasses?”
“None are whole. These aren’t beasts we humble monks can kill. We only collected some remains that washed ashore...”
“Show us those first.”
...
A stone chamber behind Haean Temple.
When the Sealing Talisman was removed from the door, a fishy stench seeped out.
A turtle’s hind leg, a broken piece of shell, and part of a water snake’s body lay on a stone table. A preservation formation was running, but the materials were in poor condition.
Won-o explained.
“They say the turtle rammed the boat from below while the water snake coiled around it. When we approached using talismans, both withdrew to the east.”
Yi Hyeon examined the shell fragment and the water snake’s body in turn. He saw neither gu insects nor silver needles.
‘Is this not the Life-Sharing Sect’s work?’
Still, too little remained for him to conclude from this alone that they had not been controlled.
“Have they appeared recently?”
Won-o nodded at Yuk Hong-yeon’s question.
“We saw two turtles on an outer sandbar around sunset yesterday. We didn’t approach them recklessly.”
“Show us where.”
...
A little over a hundred li east of the harbor.
Narrow channels ran between sandbars exposed by the low tide. Small fish flashed their silver bellies as they moved through the pools left behind.
Yuk Hong-yeon lowered the flying boat.
“There they are.”
Two shapes like black rocks sat close together at the end of a sandbar.
As Yi Hyeon examined them with his spiritual sense, one slowly moved.
It was a turtle.
Its shell was nearly three jang long. Seaweed and barnacles clung to it, and hooklike claws tipped its thick feet.
“Dark-Shelled Sea Turtles. The bigger one seems to be late Tier 2,” Yuk Hong-yeon said.
Yi Hyeon looked at the channel between the two turtles.
A long red line lay beneath the water.
“There’s a snake too.”
“Yes. I saw it.”
Yuk Hong-yeon landed on a rocky shelf along the shore, then put the flying boat into her storage pouch.
“Let’s deal with those three first.”
A palm-sized bronze incense burner floated out of Wang Seo-rin’s sleeve.
It had three short legs, and its lid was shaped like a closed lotus blossom. When she poured spiritual power into it, the petals opened to reveal a red ember inside.
A brush appeared in her other hand.
“I’ll hold the smaller one. Leave their heads intact. We need to check whether they were being controlled.”
“Understood. Junior Brother Yi, take care of the water snake.”
Yuk Hong-yeon flicked two fingers toward the air.
Clang!
The spear sheath on her back burst open, and a long spear cut through the air.
Its six iron rings shrieked as a sharp whistle rang out.
It crossed dozens of jang in an instant. Golden Buddha-Light True Qi raced like lightning along the flying shaft.
The Dark-Shelled Sea Turtle raised its head.
Whoooosh!
A murky jet of water blasted from its mouth like a cannonball.
“Pierce it!”
As Yuk Hong-yeon thrust her fingertips downward, Wang Seo-rin’s brush scattered sparks behind her.
She slashed out the shape of a neck and wings in the air. The red ember inside the incense burner spat out fierce flames that swallowed her brushstrokes.
Fwoooosh!
Just as the spear flipped over in front of the water jet and swelled to three jang in length, a fire crane swept forward on a low path.
Boom!
The spear plunged onto the turtle’s back, crushing the barrier of water around its shell.
Golden ripples spread from the point of impact. Each ripple burst in turn to the low sound of Buddhist chanting, shattering the water barrier and sending huge sprays flying in every direction.
Using the spray as cover, the fire crane swooped in and swept flames across the smaller turtle’s face.
Hissss!
The shallow seawater boiled in an instant, raising thick clouds of fishy steam. Blinded, the smaller turtle recoiled in fright and drew in its neck.
But the larger, late Tier 2 turtle was different.
Grrrrr!
With a piercing roar, all the seaweed on its shell stood upright. Seawater surged upward from every nearby pool, gathering into a spinning wheel of water the size of a house.
The fierce vortex knocked away the spear as it repeatedly struck at the turtle’s flank. Sparks flew from the spearhead as it glanced off the shell.
Then the enormous water wheel tore across the entire sandbar and hurtled toward the rocky shelf where the three stood.
“Up!”
Yuk Hong-yeon rose first. Yi Hyeon and Wang Seo-rin split to either side and flew into the air.
Rrrrumble!
The water wheel swept beneath their feet, tearing away the entire edge of the rocky shelf. Spray and gravel flew everywhere, stinging their cheeks.
The surging seawater destroyed one of the fire crane’s wings. The smaller turtle seized that opening to burst through the spray.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
As Wang Seo-rin descended, she turned her brush sideways and drew a long stroke.
The fire crane’s body unraveled in an instant, becoming a low, long wall of flames.
Terrified by the fire blocking its path, the turtle twisted away from the hot sand. But directly behind the larger turtle was a blind spot with no way out.
“Got you!”
A vajra shot from Yuk Hong-yeon’s sleeve, tracing a golden streak as it fell above the two turtles.
Hummm!
It expanded to three jang in length and released an immense wave of spiritual power.
A large golden circle spread beneath it. As though a gigantic invisible millstone were pressing down on them, both turtles’ feet sank deep into the sand. The surrounding sand was pushed outward, and even the currents the larger turtle was raising were crushed apart.
Yet the larger turtle desperately lifted its head.
Its thick neck strained upward, and a blue mass of water swelled inside its mouth, filled with poisonous miasma.
Yuk Hong-yeon bent her finger downward. The circling spear plunged like a thunderbolt.
Bang!
The spear, glowing gold, drove into the open mouth, pierced the turtle’s neck, and buried itself in the sandbar. Blood gushed like a fountain, and the gathering mass of water burst apart harmlessly.
Amid the stench of blood, Yi Hyeon caught a red line at the edge of his vision. It was sliding away through a shallow channel.
‘The water snake!’
It was trying to escape the tidal flats while the turtles held their attention.
Yi Hyeon reached out. The giant hand of the Essence-Condensing Grasping Hand cleaved through the water in an instant.
The water snake twisted.
Whoosh!
Dozens of water needles burst through the surface and rained toward Yi Hyeon’s face.
Clang!
A blue-green shield plate appeared in front of him and shattered the needles.
Meanwhile, the giant hand plunged beneath the water and clamped tightly around the snake just below its neck.
Splash!
A body that looked at least five jang long was hauled into the air. The snake thrashed its tail violently, coiling around the giant hand’s wrist. Dark red mist seeped from its gaping mouth.
Just before the poisonous mist could spread, Yi Hyeon gave a slight flick of his finger.
Slice.
Silver sword light flashed from his sleeve and swept across the back of the snake’s neck, cutting through the joint between its vertebrae in one stroke.
Its long body twisted a few times, then went limp.
Yi Hyeon dragged the carcass onto the sandbar while wrapping the escaping poisonous mist in flames and burning it away.
The Moon-Sinking Sword had already returned to his storage pouch.
Thoom!
Just then, Yuk Hong-yeon’s spear pulled free of the larger turtle’s neck and traced a red arc through the air. It pierced the back of the smaller turtle’s neck as the creature lay pinned beneath the vajra, then buried itself in the sandbar.
The surroundings fell silent.
...
Yuk Hong-yeon retrieved her vajra and washed the blood from the spearhead with seawater.
After shrinking the spear to its original size and returning it to the sheath on her back, she examined a foreleg hidden beneath the larger turtle’s shell.
“It was wounded? Come to think of it, its reactions were strange from the start.”
Yi Hyeon approached and took a look. A deep gouge had been torn into the thick flesh. Dark red blood had clotted around its edges, and some of the muscles inside had been severed.
Wang Seo-rin shifted the turtle’s body slightly, revealing similar marks on the other side of its shell.
“You didn’t make these wounds, did you, Senior Sister?”
“No.”
Wang Seo-rin took a small sheet of paper from inside her robe and marked their locations.
Yuk Hong-yeon turned toward the water snake Yi Hyeon had moved.
“You’re surprisingly good at fighting, Junior Brother Yi.”
“I was lucky.”
Yi Hyeon washed the remaining sand from the snake’s body.
There was a long wound on its flank too.
...
The three moved the carcasses onto a flat rocky shelf on the nearby coast.
A low cliff stretched behind them, and a narrow footpath ran along their left.
While Yuk Hong-yeon checked the surroundings, Wang Seo-rin and Yi Hyeon divided up the carcasses.
Wang Seo-rin straightened the water snake’s body, placed needles at each point where she intended to cut, then sliced beneath its scales.
She collected the flowing blood directly into a jade bottle and tied off the meridians near the venom sac in advance.
Yi Hyeon examined the turtles’ necks and the insides of their shells.
‘If there were gu insects here, the Fuzzbees should react...’
The spirit insect pouch remained quiet.
Still, he examined everything carefully, just in case.
The place where a gu insect was implanted varied with the method and the host.
In the demonic beasts he had caught long ago at Haemun Port, he had found spirit insects beneath the venom sacs or near the neck. The Life-Sharing Gu rearing records also described methods that used other places where meridians converged.
He opened each suspicious area in turn.
But even after using spiritual sense, the Qi-Observing Spell, the Sound-Listening Spell, and other detection methods, as well as dissecting the bodies himself, he found nothing.
‘Looks like I won’t be feeding the Fuzzbees.’
...
A good while later, Wang Seo-rin called him over.
“Junior Brother Yi. Take a look at this.”
A piece of flesh cut from the water snake’s flank lay before her.
Several thin meridians beneath the wound had turned black.
“At first, I thought its own venom had seeped in, but the reaction is different.”
Wang Seo-rin added a drop of medicinal liquid. The red mucus slowly cleared, but the blackened parts remained.
Yi Hyeon used the Qi-Observing Spell to examine the inside.
“It seems to be another demonic beast’s demonic power.”
He placed a piece of flesh from the turtle’s foreleg beside it. The same energy appeared in its meridians.
Wang Seo-rin spread out two sheets of paper on which she had marked the wounds. They showed the marks on both sides of the shell and on the water snake’s flank.
Yuk Hong-yeon had approached without them noticing. She looked down at the papers.
“...Claw marks?”
“It looks as though something grabbed them and lost its grip. The same demonic power remains in both.”
“There were no traces of gu insects either. It doesn’t seem that they were moving together because someone was controlling them.”
At Yi Hyeon’s words, Yuk Hong-yeon turned toward the sea.
“So there’s something nearby capable of attacking Tier 2 demonic beasts?”
All three felt uneasy.
“Let’s head back for now. We won’t search any further here.”
As they hurried to collect the venom sacs, demonic beast blood, and shell fragments, a splashing sound came from below the rocky shelf.
Yi Hyeon looked down. A stone that had been visible beneath his feet only moments earlier was now submerged.
‘Is the tide already coming in?’
But something was wrong.
The seawater was not flowing inward. It was bulging upward in a rounded swell from farther out.
A black shell emerged above the surface.
It was a Dark-Shelled Sea Turtle.
Another appeared behind it.
“Senior Sister.”
Even before Yi Hyeon called out, Yuk Hong-yeon was taking the flying boat from her storage pouch and activating its restrictions.
Once all three were aboard, the hull rose away from the rock.
They had only gained a little height, but the sea looked completely different.
Black shadows filled every channel beyond the sandbars. There were far more than one or two.
Yi Hyeon spread his spiritual sense, and his expression stiffened.
Ten. Twenty.
Dozens were visible to the eye alone. The auras of Tier 2 demonic beasts surged beneath the surface like waves.
“I’m heading straight north.”
Yuk Hong-yeon turned the bow.
Wang Seo-rin raised her incense burner into the air and took out a Voice Transmission Talisman with her other hand.
“Won-o. A horde of Tier 2 demonic beasts is approaching the eastern coast. Evacuate the temple and retreat to the city. Immediately.”
As soon as she finished, the talisman flew west, leaving a trail of light.
Kaboom!
At that very moment, the water beneath the rocky shelf exploded. A demonic beast with a blue dorsal fin burst out and lunged at the flying boat’s underside.
Thud!
A blue-green shield plate instantly blocked the bottom of the boat, meeting the blow at an angle and deflecting its force.
The massive beast was knocked off course and crashed into the cliff opposite.
Rrrrumble!
With a deafening roar, the sheer rock wall collapsed.
“Keep going.”
With one gesture, Yi Hyeon set two more shield plates spinning, covering the flying boat’s underside and right flank without leaving a gap.
Wang Seo-rin’s brush danced through a dazzling arc.
Using the fierce flames erupting from the incense burner, she drew a huge ring in the air, filled it with spiritual power, and hurled it at the sea behind the boat.
Roooom!
The flames exploded in a circle upon touching the surface. An enormous amount of seawater boiled in an instant. Thick, scalding steam rose like a wall, completely blocking the vision of the dozens of demonic beasts leaping up behind them.
The flying boat shot up over the cliff.
But even as Yuk Hong-yeon increased its speed, she could not take her eyes off the sea.
Farther out, beyond the waters the demonic beasts had crossed, a reef several li away was slowly sinking.
No. Something behind the reef was rising.
A long, thick arm emerged, and fingers closed around the rock. The reef was large enough to be seen from far away, yet it crumbled helplessly in that grip.
A gigantic ape straightened, shaking off seawater.
It had brown fur, with scales growing across its chest and belly. As it lowered its webbed hand, the seawater that had reached its waist parted to either side.
Thoom!
The moment it looked toward them, a headache struck all three as though lightning had crashed inside their minds.
Chilling killing intent and an oppressive presence.
An overwhelming wave of spiritual sense had swept across the entire coastline.
“A Tier 3 demonic beast...”
Yuk Hong-yeon’s voice dropped.
The flying boat accelerated further.
Yi Hyeon looked back and judged the distance. It was still far away. He did not know how fast that thing could move through the sea, but if they headed deep inland now...
Whoooosh!
Just then, a shadow passed over the flying boat.
All three looked up almost at once.
Above the mountain ridge running parallel to the coast, dark blue wings slowly tilted beneath the clouds.
It was a bird.
Long, spearhead-like feathers extended from each wingtip. Two pale streams of wind trailed far behind its tail.
As it circled, the forest below bent in one direction as though struck by a typhoon.
A sharp, tearing demonic aura, different from that of the ape at sea, swept down along the ridge.
Wang Seo-rin’s brush stopped.
“Two Tier 3 demonic beasts...?”
Footnotes:
The comparison to gaining magic at thirty refers to an internet joke that someone who remains a virgin until thirty becomes a wizard.
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