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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 15: Demon Tree

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The pond they had taken from the frog, ill-tempered by Cheongo's standards and ugly by Jegyeong's, was the home Jegyeong had grown most attached to in this life.

Even setting aside the Spiritual Energy, he had loved how comfortable it was.

But the Spiritual Energy had faded enough to become inconvenient, and the falling water level told him it was time to leave. Jegyeong looked at the pond, which was noticeably more desolate than when he had first seen it, and smacked his lips.

"That's a shame."

"A shame? You mean leaving?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"It was a good place. I'd gotten used to it, too."

Cheongo tilted their head, apparently unable to understand. It was probably difficult for someone who changed sleeping places every night to relate.

"Enough. Let's go. Did you check all the ones nearby?"

"Yes. I checked them all."

"That means you checked the ones I could hunt, too?"

"Yes."

Cheongo had another special ability besides flying.

They could judge an opponent's strength. According to Cheongo, it gave them only a somewhat discerning eye when used on ordinary animals, but it was highly accurate when used on members of the Demon Race.

Cheongo did not know whether they had been born with the ability or developed it through experience, but Jegyeong could not help envying it.

'Assuming it's true, of course.'

If Cheongo had only mentioned this ability now, he would have suspected them of trying to use him, now a Demon Beast, to force him into a dangerous hunt. But he had learned of it over a month ago while they were chatting about various things, so it was unlikely to be a lie invented for some purpose.

'But I don't have another option.'

Jegyeong clicked his tongue inwardly.

After becoming a Demon Beast, he had developed an unexpected side effect. His stronger Aura made animals notice his approach far more easily.

No matter how quietly he moved, and no matter how Cheongo distracted the prey, it was useless. Once he entered a certain range, the prey immediately sensed him and fled without looking back.

This Aura was not something he could control by holding his breath or paying attention to his movements. There had to be some special method for hiding it, but that was irrelevant to him right now.

'If only I had wings.'

He did not even need wings. Legs that could run quickly would have been enough.

But he had neither wings nor legs. He had to crawl forward and close the distance with his bare body. His strength had grown and he moved faster now, but he still could not catch animals fleeing desperately from far away.

In the end, Jegyeong could only hunt prey too slow to escape him, or prey that would not run away.

The problem was that such prey was extremely rare.

Facing a threat to his survival, Jegyeong had wracked his brain and found an answer of his own.

He would target creatures with territories.

Creatures that claimed territory were like mothers protecting their young. They rarely retreated from an enemy that entered their domain.

Of course, those creatures were formidable in their own territory, but no ordinary animal, however fierce or powerful, could compare to him, a Demon Beast.

'It was a good idea.'

He had targeted five creatures and successfully hunted one.

Well, only one of the five had stood its ground. The other four had fled without looking back. Even the one that stayed had not done so because of its territory, but because of its young.

'There's no helping it now.'

At least, after becoming a Demon Beast, the amount he needed to eat had decreased greatly.

That was because his body, having completed Spiritual Energy Resonance, had begun absorbing a faint amount of the world's Spiritual Energy. At a higher realm, he would no longer need to eat in the ordinary sense.

Jegyeong had not reached that realm yet, though, so he still needed food to survive.

"Tell me what they are. Start with the closest ones."

Cheongo had found six candidates in total.

"They're all weaker than you. You should be able to hunt them without much trouble."

Cheongo said that, but Jegyeong let it go in one ear and out the other.

Cheongo was not the one risking their life in battle. He had to be as cautious as possible.

First was a leopard with three eyes.

Cheongo said it was about twice the size of the swift leopard Jegyeong had seen before. Jegyeong suspected it might be that same swift leopard after becoming a Demon Beast.

Cheongo said its Aura was markedly weaker than his, but it clearly looked like a fast creature, so Jegyeong decided to rule it out.

'Aura isn't what matters. Compatibility is.'

Jegyeong considered himself a rather extreme kind of Demon Beast.

He had no other abilities, only great strength and a tough body. On top of that, he was slow, so compatibility mattered greatly regardless of the strength of an opponent's Aura.

Creatures that could fly were out of the question, and fast ones were his bane as well. He might not lose to them, but once they chose to run, he had no way to catch them.

That was why Jegyeong quickly eliminated four of the candidates, including the three-eyed leopard.

Two remained.

One was a monstrous ox that blew smoke from its nostrils. The other was a tree, not an ordinary tree, but a Demon Tree.

According to the Human Race's classification, Demon Trees belonged among demon fiends rather than Demon Beasts, but Cheongo saw no meaningful difference. They considered the Demon Tree prey Jegyeong could eat and told him about it.

When Jegyeong first heard about the Demon Tree, he was taken aback, wondering if Cheongo was telling him to chew bark. It turned out the food Cheongo meant was not the Demon Tree itself, but the fruit it bore.

"It's good. Not as good as the Lotus, but still good. And there are lots of them."

"Hmm."

He had not known before, but he knew now.

When Cheongo said something was "good," they meant it was a spiritual treasure.

Remembering the Lotus that had floated on the pond, Jegyeong's mouth watered. He might have thought a few tree fruits could never fill him, but spiritual treasures were different.

The fruit borne by the Demon Tree probably was not as valuable as the Lotus, but a spiritual treasure was still a spiritual treasure.

"The Demon Tree uses poison?"

"I think so. Whenever a creature gets close to it, the creature starts swaying and then collapses."

"Is that so?"

Poison... not bad.

He had suspected it before, but hunting the frog had confirmed that he possessed considerable resistance to poison.

Jegyeong had once regretted not having venom, but it turned out he had an ability even better than that. Besides, that was before he became a Demon Beast. Now, his resistance to poison was likely even stronger.

'A tree demon fiend. Its weapon is poison. That can't be all it has, but still...'

No matter how he looked at it, their compatibility seemed quite favorable.

Jegyeong weighed the monstrous ox that blew smoke from its nostrils against the tree demon fiend, then soon made his choice.

* * *

The Wood Demon's territory was not particularly large compared to those of other members of the Demon Race.

Even though it had become a demon fiend, it was originally a tree, so it barely moved at all.

According to Cheongo, the Wood Demon lured other animals in with its fruit, then devoured them.

Jegyeong, who had to travel tirelessly to fill his stomach, could not help envying that ability.

'Have I entered it?'

Jegyeong moved carefully to avoid intruding on the territories of other members of the Demon Race. Before long, he felt the ground soften beneath him and realized he had finally entered the Wood Demon's domain.

Whether it was connected to the Wood Demon or whether it had deliberately settled in a place like this, Jegyeong did not know, but the soil here differed from everywhere else.

The ground grew softer and softer until it became mud, giving beneath him with every movement.

An ordinary animal would likely tire quickly just from moving through such a place.

"We're here!"

At Cheongo's words, Jegyeong raised his body and looked ahead.

Among the dead, withered giants stood one tree that was especially large and full of life.

Ignoring the bleak surroundings, the tree itself looked so sacred that anyone might have mistaken it for a divine tree.

'That's it.'

Luscious fruit hung from branches that seemed to gleam.

They were not as captivating as the Lotus, which had made it hard for him to look away at first sight, but he could still tell at a glance that they were no ordinary fruits.

Unlike the single Lotus, there seemed to be around ten of these fruits.

'It must have noticed me by now.'

Just as expected, his body suddenly grew a little heavier.

The change had come in an instant, without any warning. The farther Jegyeong advanced, the stronger that heaviness became.

If he had not been on guard from the beginning, and if his senses had not been so sharp, he would have only noticed the change once his body felt as heavy as if he were carrying a lump of iron.

'Is this its poison? It's completely colorless and odorless.'

Jegyeong became even more vigilant, but he could not help admiring the ability.

If he had possessed a power like this, hunting would not have been such a struggle every time.

Wooooong!

As Jegyeong crossed the ground, which had become like a mudflat, as though swimming, a sound like a horn blared. The earth shook, and three or four long, enormous things erupted from the ground at once.

Their true forms emerged amid the flying clumps of mud.

They were giant roots.

Jegyeong saw the roots falling like an executioner's axe and sped up. But the roots were enormous, and several moved in perfect coordination to block his paths of escape.

There seemed to be no way to avoid them all.

Jegyeong made his decision in an instant. He stopped where he was and swung his tail.

A giant root collided with Jegyeong's tail, which looked comparatively insignificant beside it.

Bang!

Splinters scattered in every direction.

The falling root was flung away even faster than it had descended.

Jegyeong struck the ground with his slightly pushed-back tail and surged forward at full speed.

At that moment, the huge tree, which looked as though it would not budge even in a typhoon, trembled.

Wooooo!

The ground shook again.

This tremor was greater than before.

Then the same attack began again.

There was one difference. This time, eight roots burst from the mud, spraying it into the air.

Soon, more than ten roots flew in from every direction.

Bang! Bang!

He could not avoid them. Nor could he strike them all back with his single tail.

He could only trust in his tough body and endure.

'Ghk!'

Fortunately, his body was tough enough.

More than ten roots lashed him from above and from the sides, but he withstood them without faltering.

It did not even hurt much. It was only a somewhat sharp sting.

He could endure this much.

Gaining confidence, Jegyeong sensed roots trying to bind him and tensed his entire body.

His body swelled in an instant, like a balloon filling with air.

"Kraaah!"

Could a tree feel pain?

It would be nice if it could, but it did not matter if it could not.

The moment Jegyeong realized he could endure being struck repeatedly by more than ten roots, he gained confidence.

Crack!

He forced apart the roots wrapped around his body, then savagely bit into the ones constricting his head.

After becoming a Demon Beast, Jegyeong's teeth had grown even sharper.

When his saw-like teeth sank in, the thick, tough roots became ragged in an instant.

Jegyeong bit down on a root that had gone limp like a squid tentacle soaked in saliva, then pulled with all his strength.

With a sharp snap, the huge root broke cleanly in two.

The Demon Tree trembled. The roots that had moved like tentacles trembled along with it.

It seemed even a tree could feel pain.

Jegyeong pressed forward with the momentum.

The roots tried to seize him and stop him, but they only delayed him briefly. They could not hold him back.

'So this is what it felt like.'

In the middle of the battle, Jegyeong suddenly found the situation amusing.

Wrapping around and constricting an opponent was one of his main fighting methods.

Now the situation was reversed, and he was the one being squeezed. He wondered if this was how his prey had felt when he attacked them.

'But they don't have enough strength.'

The roots looked threatening, and there were many of them, but each individual root was not very strong.

Poison truly seemed to be this Demon Tree's main weapon.

It likely used poison to incapacitate its prey, or at least drain as much strength as possible, then finished them with its roots.

It was a refined and efficient hunting method, but unfortunately, this time it had met its match.

'Our meeting is fortune for me and misfortune for you.'

Jegyeong had already bitten through four roots as he continued advancing, despite the others trying desperately to hold him back.

He could feel the Demon Tree's attacks becoming more frantic.

Even its long cries seemed filled with pain.

'But where is this thing's weak point?'

Biting apart and shoving aside the roots in his way, Jegyeong finally drew close to the Demon Tree's main body.

Woooo.

As Jegyeong tensed his body once again and threw off the roots, he heard a sound different from the previous ones.

Then Cheongo, who had been watching the fight high in the sky, shouted.

"It's asking you to spare it!"

Jegyeong neatly ignored the unnecessary translation and prepared to finish this.

He was almost there. One more push, and he would reach the Demon Tree's main body.

He still did not know where its weak point was, but if he shredded its main body, it would surely suffer great damage.

"Kyaaaah!"

Just as Jegyeong, certain of victory, prepared to exert himself once more, his fierce gaze turned cold.

It was not because of the noisy cries from far to his right.

It was because of the Aura he sensed from that direction.

'A mistake.'

He had been too absorbed in fighting the Demon Tree to notice.

"Jegyeong! Monkeys are coming! Four of them!"

Even without Cheongo's noisy warning, Jegyeong had sensed them.

Four of them.

Every one of them was a Demon Beast.

Wooooo.

"Jegyeong! The tree says to spare it! And it wants help, too!"

"......"

He had ignored it until now, but the situation had changed.

The Demon Tree in front of him and the monkeys drawing ever closer.

Jegyeong calculated quickly, stopped advancing, and shook off the roots trying to block him.

"If I do that, what will you give me?"

At Jegyeong's question, Cheongo chirped, and the Demon Tree answered.

Wooooo!

"It asks what you want."

"The fruit."

Cheongo chirped a few times, and the Demon Tree flinched.

The Demon Tree did not move, as though it were hesitating. Then, as the monkeys' noisy cries grew closer, it let out a low wail.

"It agrees."

"Good."

Hearing Cheongo's translation, Jegyeong glanced at the Demon Tree, which somehow seemed to have drooped, then turned toward the monkeys racing in from the distance.

Footnotes:

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