WeTried Translations

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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 26: Master of the River

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It was a strange, unfamiliar feeling.

Jegyeong felt like an unwelcome guest drawing hostile looks amid hundreds, perhaps thousands, gathered together in harmony.

His once-natural breathing became awkward, and the river water that had felt as warm as a cotton quilt seemed to turn into a bed of thorns.

It was all an illusion, yet for an instant, Jegyeong felt the change as though it were real.

The indescribable pressure and sense of rejection seemed to tell him that this was not where he belonged.

‘Bullshit!’

Jegyeong opened his one eye wide and poured all his strength into his body.

He squeezed the huge catfish as if he meant to burst it, then violently shook the flesh clamped between his jaws.

The catfish’s demon blood flooded his mouth.

Jegyeong drank it as though it were a delicious beverage.

Was this how vampires felt?

The blood flowing endlessly down his throat was filled with vigorous Qi and Blood, and it immediately became new strength for Jegyeong.

The catfish was biting him as well, but Jegyeong had sturdy scales that the Catfish Demon Beast lacked.

Its weak teeth could not properly pierce even his scales, and even when they did, they could not leave serious wounds.

‘It made a mistake.’

This catfish was certainly no ordinary creature.

Perhaps it possessed some impressive Bloodline. It had several strange abilities Jegyeong had never seen before.

A creature that lived in water could control water?

Had he faced it head-on, Jegyeong would have been battered beyond recognition before he could even get close.

Still, although Jegyeong had not known its power was this great, he had known it possessed such an ability. He had done his best to avoid being put in a difficult position, and he had succeeded.

The catfish, on the other hand, had not only been ambushed but had chosen the stupidest possible way to fight back.

Jegyeong stayed alert in case it slipped free from his constriction, but rather than escaping, it chose to counterattack.

‘Looks like it’s angry.’

How long had this thing strutted around as the master of this river?

It could control the river at will.

With a power like that, it must have thought itself invincible underwater.

Then was this cute little bite the childish bravado born of that pride?

‘What a waste of talent.’

How could such an excellent ability belong to such an idiot?

It was like putting a pearl necklace on a pig. Come to think of it, its cry had sounded a little like a pig’s.

Jegyeong poured his blazing jealousy and dissatisfaction into jaws that were already clenched with all his strength.

The enormous snake and catfish bit into each other as they sank toward the riverbed.

Caught in the whirlpool, they rolled along the bottom of the river.

Fish that had failed to escape were torn apart and killed, and the water around them quickly turned red.

“Gweeeek-!”

Even as he competed with the catfish in a contest of biting strength, Jegyeong carefully controlled how much force he used.

The thing had lost its head and was acting like an idiot now, but it might regain its senses and struggle to escape at any moment.

If he let it go once, there would be no second chance. He had to hold on as if letting go meant death.

‘Give up.’

Jegyeong clearly understood the difference between them.

If his cultivation was around the middle Qi Refining Stage by Human Race standards, and he had only just entered that stage, then the catfish was in the late stage.

He did not know whether it had only just entered the late stage or was somewhere in the middle, but the Aura he felt from it was clearly formidable.

Cultivation was cultivation, though. Combat strength was another matter.

In most cases, cultivation and combat strength were proportional, but that was not absolute.

The situation could make all the difference.

Jegyeong had little to boast of beyond his physical toughness, while the catfish displayed its might through its ability to control water.

If they fought by playing to their respective strengths, Jegyeong, whose cultivation was lower, would naturally be at a disadvantage.

But wasn’t it wise to use one’s own strengths against the other’s weaknesses?

Besides, the foolish catfish had abandoned its own advantage and was playing along exactly as Jegyeong intended.

For Jegyeong, these were perfect conditions.

If he could not seize the advantage even in this situation, he would never have come here in the first place.

Crunch!

A large chunk of flesh tore away from the catfish.

Jegyeong swallowed it in one gulp, then thrust his jaws and head into the exposed flesh.

The catfish’s enormous body writhed in pain, but Jegyeong pinned it down with his entire body and stopped it from resisting.

At this point, the catfish must have sensed that the situation had truly become dangerous, because it changed tactics.

The moment Jegyeong felt the pain and pressure where it had been biting him weaken, he noticed something was wrong and prepared himself.

Sure enough, a powerful suction force soon seemed to tear at his entire body.

Jegyeong could not turn his eye to look, but a small whirlpool had formed directly above him.

‘Ugh!’

If this continued, every scale on his body felt as though it would be ripped away.

Yet the greater the pain, the more venomous Jegyeong’s gaze became.

This catfish truly was no ordinary creature.

Just when he thought it should have begun running out of strength, it used an ability like this.

‘I won’t let go. Never.’

Without question, the moment his body relaxed would be the moment he died.

Jegyeong squeezed every last bit of strength from his body and constricted the catfish.

He was no longer simply binding it to keep it from escaping. He meant to squeeze it so hard that it burst.

The catfish’s blood and flesh flowed through his mouth, and the Qi and Blood within immediately became strength.

“Gwooo!”

The catfish’s slightly altered cry echoed through the entire river.

* * *

“Uh...”

Cheongo looked down anxiously at the river churning with violent waves.

They knew something unusual was happening below, but they could not grasp the exact situation. Their worry only continued to grow.

Boom!

Then the entire river shook violently, and a massive column of water shot up to Cheongo’s height.

Cheongo had no time to react before being drenched, but after the initial surprise, they cried out in delight.

“Jegyeong!”

Jegyeong and the catfish were tangled together like one body within the soaring water.

Cheongo had not seen them clearly on the way up, but as they fell back down, they distinctly saw Jegyeong, his one eye flashing as he tore into the catfish’s head, and the catfish convulsing with its eyes half rolled back.

Splash!

They plunged back into the river, and red began spreading from where they had fallen.

Then countless creatures in the river, which had originally sensed danger and kept their distance, rushed toward that spot as though possessed.

Cheongo was not surprised by the sight.

It was perfectly normal for ordinary beasts to be drawn to the blood of a Demon Beast.

Had Jegyeong not once been entranced by a few drops of a Demon Bird’s blood and hurriedly licked it up?

‘It’s over. Jegyeong won.’

As Cheongo waited for Jegyeong to raise his head above the water, they imagined what catfish meat would taste like.

They had eaten plenty of Demon Beast meat, but surely the master of a Spiritual Land would taste different from ordinary Demon Beasts.

Just thinking about it made their mouth water.

“Huh?”

Cheongo’s happy eyes sharpened.

“Tree! Others are coming!”

The Wood Demon, which had remained at the riverbank even after the whirlpool vanished, moved upon hearing Cheongo’s words.

Wooooo!

The Wood Demon let out a loud howl, flaunting its presence.

Cheongo also cried out as fiercely as possible.

Their threats stopped or slowed the Demon Beasts creeping closer from afar.

Those opportunists, naturally sensitive to profit, were also sensitive to loss.

These Demon Beasts had only approached because they vaguely sensed something strange in the river and wanted to test the waters. The threats from the Wood Demon and Cheongo were more than enough to make them hesitate.

Caw! Caw!

For the first time since being born, Cheongo cried out as freely as this.

They had always been the weaker one, living each day cautiously watching others and keeping quiet. Now that they cried out as though the entire world belonged to them, the exhilaration was beyond words.

At first, they only meant to drive away the unwelcome visitors. Before long, they were having fun with the act of crying out without worrying about anyone’s reaction, and they cawed excitedly.

The noisy crow’s cries continued until Jegyeong emerged above the water with the huge catfish in his mouth.

“Jegyeong!”

Jegyeong was about to throw the catfish in his mouth onto land when he paused at the many Demon Beast Auras he felt in the distance.

‘They caught on quickly.’

Had they already smelled the blood and gathered here?

The catfish might not have been able to leave the river, but it was still the master of a Spiritual Land. Yet these drifters were boldly sticking their heads in.

“Jegyeong! Lots of bad ones have gathered! There are Demon Beasts and demon fiends too! What are we going to do? Are we going to eat them all?”

“No. Even if I wanted to, I don’t have the strength right now.”

The catfish had been foolish, but it was strong.

Even though he had faced it under the best conditions while it was under the worst, Jegyeong was completely exhausted.

In his current state, even with Cheongo and the Wood Demon helping him, he could not handle all the scavengers that had gathered.

“Tell Tree to come into the water. We’ll divide it in the river.”

That way, those scavengers would not dare rush them carelessly.

What if one of them had the courage to enter the river?

Then he could simply deal with it. It might be difficult on land, but underwater, even in his current condition, Jegyeong was confident he could handle most drifters.

A little later, the rolling river water soaked a little more than half of the Wood Demon’s trunk.

Cheongo landed on one of its dry branches and preened their feathers, while Jegyeong coiled around a thick root extending above the water and hung from it.

“They aren’t coming in.”

Cheongo looked at several Demon Beasts and demon fiends prowling along the riverbank and smacked their beak in disappointment.

“Don’t pay attention to them as long as they stay out of the water.”

“Okay.”

Jegyeong began dividing the catfish as he tore bites from the body hanging beside him.

Its body, which had been so tough while it was alive, now tore apart as easily as an ordinary fish with a little muscle.

“This time, I get five. You two get three and two, respectively. No complaints?”

“Okay!”

Cheongo had become more important after they came here, so they generally divided their prey equally after hunting.

This time, though, Jegyeong had fought the actual battle alone, so his share had to be larger.

Cheongo, whose mouth was dripping with saliva, and the Wood Demon, whose extended roots trembled slightly, both agreed without complaint.

“Good.”

Jegyeong swallowed the catfish carcass that had become his share in a single bite.

Normally, he would have chewed and swallowed it carefully over several mouthfuls, but too many eyes were watching him eat.

They were quiet for now, but he did not know when those creatures would lose patience and leap into the water. He had no time to leisurely savor a meal.

“Awoooo!”

As Jegyeong’s enormous mouth swallowed the dripping catfish in one gulp, disappointed cries rang out from all around.

Without giving them a glance, Jegyeong sensed the huge mass of Qi and Blood in his stomach.

His digestive ability had improved greatly compared to before, but it was still not easy to handle.

That was only natural. The catfish’s cultivation realm was higher than his.

Had he swallowed all of it alone instead of splitting half with Cheongo and the Wood Demon, he might have suffered for it.

“Jegyeong! Me, me! My body’s hot!”

Not long after Cheongo eagerly tore into the catfish flesh, they began showing strange symptoms.

Unlike the Wood Demon, which slowly absorbed Qi and Blood like nutrients through its roots, Cheongo tore into the meat directly like Jegyeong.

But Cheongo did not have the capacity or digestive ability Jegyeong possessed. They had to pay the price for happily devouring more Demon Beast meat than they could handle.

“You’ll be fine after some sleep.”

“Sleep? Here? Uh... okay.”

In the past, even if their eyelids had been drooping shut, Cheongo would have tried to leave and find somewhere safe.

Now things were different.

By sharing prey and surviving brushes with death together, Cheongo had come to trust Jegyeong and the Wood Demon.

They trusted Jegyeong especially. Even when it was just the two of them, Cheongo would land before him without hesitation.

Thanks to that trust, Cheongo closed their eyes without any doubt or worry when Jegyeong told them to sleep.

Jegyeong glanced at Cheongo, who fell asleep the instant they closed their eyes, then asked the Wood Demon,

“Can you stay here?”

Woooo.

“Ah, right. I’m the problem.”

Jegyeong was so heavy that even the Wood Demon could not support him with a single root.

The root had already begun to shake. If this continued, the Wood Demon would likely start groaning in a few minutes.

“Stay here and protect Cheongo.”

Woooo!

Jegyeong was in a hurry.

He could wait a little longer until the troublesome creatures outside the water left, but the frustration of his one eye still refusing to open was becoming unbearable.

He was anxious too.

What if there was no Healing Water here? Would he have to find another Spirit Spring and check it?

Things had gone as well as they possibly could here, and even so, it had been difficult. How could he face the masters of other Spiritual Lands?

Would fortune favor him as it had this time when he faced them?

Jegyeong buried the unpleasant thoughts that kept rising up and diligently swam through the river.

‘He said I’d know when I saw it.’

Yu Gyeyun had not explained what Healing Water was.

As when he spoke of Spirit Springs, he had only said Jegyeong would be able to make it out at a glance.

‘Being able to make it out at a glance must mean Spirit Awareness. Healing Water can only come from a Spirit Spring containing Spiritual Energy, so it must surely possess dense Spiritual Energy as well.’

With that assumption, Jegyeong moved while keeping his Spirit Awareness as sharp as possible.

This river, no, this Spirit Spring, was wider than it had appeared from outside.

He had not traveled far, but the water had already become twice as deep.

‘Huh?’

As he passed over a deeply gouged riverbed, Jegyeong felt exceptionally distinct Spiritual Energy and his eye brightened.

The place where his Spirit Awareness detected something unusual was a hollow below him, as though a giant had carved it out with a blade.

It looked extraordinary at a glance, and Jegyeong slowly descended toward it with interest and anticipation.

‘No doubt about it. I don’t know if it’s Healing Water, but there’s definitely something here.’

The blade-like crack in the riverbed was neither especially wide nor narrow.

Jegyeong carefully continued downward, following the direction indicated by his Spirit Awareness.

How long had he descended?

The dense Spiritual Energy, enough to make his mind and body feel refreshed even while doing nothing, suddenly became a little thinner.

‘This is...’

Jegyeong was briefly confused, but soon understood why.

The Spiritual Energy in the surroundings was steadily flowing somewhere below.

The constant flow, neither fast nor slow, was as natural as water flowing from above to below.

He no longer needed to rely on Spirit Awareness.

Jegyeong followed the flow of Spiritual Energy.

Before long, a small underwater cave appeared before him.

It was called a cave, but its entrance was wide and it was not deep, so he could see the entire interior without entering.

He could make out something translucent resting in the center of the cave at a glance.

It seemed neither liquid nor solid, resembling jelly. It radiated dense Spiritual Energy that Jegyeong had never felt before.

‘Is that Healing Water?’

Jegyeong carefully approached it.

Only when he came close enough to touch it in a single breath did he realize it had pooled in one place.

At a glance, it seemed to sway with the gentle current, but on closer inspection, it remained exactly where it was.

As if it were contained in an invisible vessel.

‘Whether it’s Healing Water or not, it’s definitely an extraordinary spiritual treasure.’

Jegyeong slowly moved closer.

Then he carefully extended his tongue.

The moment the timidly extended tip of his tongue touched it, dense Spiritual Energy rushed along it and into Jegyeong’s body.

Before Jegyeong could even recognize what was happening, the flow of Spiritual Energy circulated through his entire body.

It raced unhindered through his blood vessels and bones. When it reached a certain point, it faltered for a moment, then pushed onward as though nothing had happened.

‘Ah!’

Only then did Jegyeong realize the change occurring inside his body.

His one eye, which had remained tightly shut and completely still for quite some time, twitched at that moment.

Footnotes:

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