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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 28: Tyrant of the River

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A sinister-looking Demon Fish glared at a large boulder.

After staring at it as though locked in a contest of wills for some time, it suddenly opened its mouth and sprayed a blackish liquid.

The dark liquid struck the boulder at considerable speed. Smoke rose with a sizzling sound, and the boulder suddenly twitched. Cracks spread across its surface as it split apart.

A small gap opened above and below, revealing yellow pupils. Long fragments transformed into pincers, while the largest piece became a body.

It took less time than a breath for the massive boulder to become a crab.

The Demon Crab revealed its true form and met the Demon Fish's gaze.

Neither made a sound, but their eyes were filled with fierce hostility.

They soon clashed in a brutal fight.

The crab was tough, and the fish was fast.

The Demon Fish's attacks could not pierce the Demon Crab's shell, while the Demon Crab could not keep up with the fish's swift movements. Each creature's strength struck at the other's weakness, leaving their battle at a standstill.

Still, neither backed down. If they could not settle it with their weapons, they seemed determined to settle it through endurance.

Then...

"Rooooar!"

A fierce roar echoed from the riverbed far below.

The fish and crab, locked in their fierce battle, froze as though it had never happened. Their gazes, which had been fixed on each other, turned toward the depths below.

The fighting spirit in their eyes vanished without a trace, replaced by profound fear.

Without anyone taking the lead, they fled in panic.

The same thing was happening everywhere nearby.

Every demon fiend and Demon Beast that had heard the roar hurried away. They looked like prey fleeing from a predator, and that was exactly what they were.

They were running from the tyrant of this river.

Scenes like this had become commonplace lately.

After the catfish that had once ruled the river disappeared, all kinds of Water Demons that had been unable to enter the river beneath its crushing presence cautiously began to make their way in.

They were wary of the Demon Snake that had killed the catfish and become the river's new master.

Only a few Demon Beasts and demon fiends living on land had personally seen the snake kill the catfish, so the Water Demons had not initially known that the snake was the new master of the river.

They learned the truth thanks to the sacrifice of one Water Demon.

Having learned that the catfish was gone, it was the first to enter the river. It strutted about as though it had found its own world.

Then, instinctively sensing the place where Spiritual Energy was densest in the river, it entered that area...

And encountered the snake there.

The Water Demon immediately sensed that the snake was no ordinary opponent, but did not think much of it. It assumed the snake, like itself, had come to claim the ownerless river.

So it tried to seize the initiative with a light warning.

For humans, it would have been like exchanging hostile looks with insults mixed in.

Among Water Demons, that was little more than a somewhat rough greeting. Even if tempers flared further, they usually growled at each other for a while before going their separate ways.

But the snake was different.

The moment it was provoked, it bared its grotesque fangs and attacked.

Startled, the Water Demon fought back without retreating, but before long, it was being pushed back completely.

The snake was huge. Its size made it strong, yet it was surprisingly fast as well.

In the end, the Water Demon admitted defeat and tried to flee.

At times like that, even if the winner could catch the loser, they usually let the loser go. There was more to lose than gain from pursuing an opponent who had already admitted defeat and withdrawn.

Taking an opponent's life was never easy.

When someone was trying to kill them, who would sit still and offer up their throat? Whether they stood a chance or not, they would naturally resist with everything they had. Even for the stronger side, killing such an opponent carried considerable risk.

That was why fights that were not hunts rarely ended in death unless there was no other choice.

Yet the snake was different.

It relentlessly pursued the retreating Water Demon, fought it in a bloody battle, and eventually tore it apart alive.

As it watched its own body being torn apart and swallowed into the snake's stomach, the Water Demon let out desperate screams until its final moment.

Other Water Demons nearby heard those screams clearly, and some even witnessed the scene from afar.

Beyond their fear, they felt a strange emotion they could not explain.

Unfamiliarity? Unease?

Whatever it was, they were instinctively drawn to the scent of blood.

When two creatures fought, one died and the other was wounded.

That was why they did not fight to the death over something that was not prey. Once wounded and weakened, they risked becoming someone else's prey.

Now, the snake was in that position.

One Water Demon, drawn most strongly to the scent of blood, lingered nearby before suddenly attacking the snake.

The snake did not retreat. It fought back.

Another fierce battle followed, and the snake won again.

This time, it did not even give its opponent a chance to flee. It tore open the Water Demon's nape in a single bite.

Then, as if to show every watching Water Demon, it devoured its helpless enemy alive on the spot.

Such savagery was difficult to find among Water Demons, or even among Demon Beasts in general.

That disposition had nothing to do with strength or weakness.

The Water Demons were cowed by the snake's unusual brutality. A few still had gleaming eyes, intoxicated by the scent of blood, but even they could not carelessly rush at the wounded snake.

Whenever the snake's vertically slit pupils turned toward them, they trembled and backed away.

Perhaps they hoped someone brave and impatient would step forward first, once or twice. Yet no such courageous Water Demon appeared before the snake left.

The snake made a powerful first impression.

Even then, they still did not know that the snake was the catfish's successor and the river's new master. Although the snake's first impression had been intense, they had not sensed as much power from it as they had from the catfish.

The natural pressure one could feel from an existence close to the Great Demon Beast realm was absent from the snake.

Its savagery had certainly been shocking, and it had overwhelmed the Water Demons. Still, that was little more than the sudden shock of witnessing something unexpected.

Had they known the snake was so vicious, the Water Demons would not have allowed the wounded snake to leave so easily that day.

Even if they had known it was the river's new master, they would not have left it alone.

The catfish's rule as master of the river had been stubborn and thorough.

It allowed no Water Demon into its territory, causing resentment among the many Water Demons that coveted the Spiritual Land.

Some of those resentful Water Demons bravely entered the river, but every time, the catfish drove them away with all its strength and sometimes killed them.

After that happened several times, the Water Demons had no choice but to give up their greed for the Spiritual Land.

They wanted to go there because it was like living somewhere with good water and clean air. Who would risk their life for that?

If they had been clever enough, they might have formed an alliance and driven out the catfish. Unfortunately, most Water Demons had simple minds.

Unless they inherited a special Bloodline or became Great Demon Beasts, concepts like schemes and strategies were practically from another world to them.

In any case, the catfish had maintained its position as master of the river for a long time through the Water Demons' simple minds and its own immense strength.

If it had not encountered a snake that had fallen from the sky one day, its iron-fisted rule might have lasted even longer.

But there were no what-ifs in the world.

A new master had appeared in the river coveted by every Water Demon.

This master had defeated the catfish, yet did not seem stronger than it. If anything, it seemed weaker. The Water Demons, who had been forced to lower their eyes beneath the catfish's overwhelming presence, naturally raised their heads.

If the snake had tried to rule the river like the catfish, they would have torn it apart at once.

But the snake did not do that.

Rather than declare the entire river its territory as the catfish had, it stayed only in a small area and maintained a suitable degree of presence.

Aside from crushing the bones of one Water Demon foolish enough to stick its head into that area, the snake committed no other unusual acts and simply guarded its territory.

The snake's behavior was exactly what one would expect of an ordinary Demon Beast, so the Water Demons did not pay it much attention.

They saw the snake as one of their kind, vicious and strong but harmless as long as its territory was not violated.

The river was wide, with plenty of places to settle. No one coveted the territory of such a strong and vicious snake.

The Water Demons each secured their own territory.

Quite a few minor conflicts arose during that process, but they remained minor and never escalated into fights to the death like the snake's.

Again, the river was wide. If a place did not work out, they could simply move somewhere they liked a little less.

After that period of small disputes passed, the river's ecosystem found peace.

Occasionally, tensions flared over prey, and a few Water Demons unable to restrain their vicious natures picked fights with others. Yet those incidents were no more than a light breeze now and then.

It was not quiet, but peace had settled over a balance that had found its place.

Then that peace vanished in an instant, like a midsummer night's dream.

The snake, which had seemed to know its place and remain in its territory, ambushed and killed a Water Demon enjoying the sunlight above the surface.

There had been no reason for it.

It had been an ambush in the truest sense.

The Water Demons that witnessed the scene directly panicked and fell into confusion.

Some were afraid, while others bared their teeth in excitement.

Yet none of them could attack the snake.

The reason was the same as before.

They instinctively feared being wounded while fighting a powerful enemy and wanted to avoid it.

While they remained confused and hesitant, the fight ended. Covered in blood, the snake returned to its territory.

Its attitude and appearance were utterly ordinary, as though it were simply returning from a hunt.

Seeing that ordinary sight, which somehow felt all the more extraordinary because of it, the Water Demons finally began to understand the difference between themselves and the snake.

To them, the others were both competitors and enemies.

But the snake did not seem to consider them competitors, enemies, or even its own kind.

To the snake, they were prey no different from the ordinary fish in the river.

* * *

Jegyeong let out a mighty roar, warning the riffraff not to enter his territory even by mistake.

It was simple, but simple methods worked well against fish heads.

‘It still aches a little.’

The eel-like Demon Beast he had hunted three days ago had not been anything special, but its will to survive had been stronger than that of any Demon Beast he had hunted so far.

That intense will to live had turned into extreme fighting spirit at the brink of death. Jegyeong had only managed to kill it after shedding a considerable amount of blood.

The wound on the side of his head, where he had been bitten while trying to finish it off, was especially serious.

That final attack from the eel-like Demon Beast had been powerful enough to shatter scales harder than rock.

Jegyeong had headed straight for the Healing Water after the hunt, but hesitated once he stood before it.

The Healing Water, which had been reduced by half after he used it to heal his eye, had recovered by about ten percent. Yet even that seemed insufficient to Jegyeong.

Once he wondered whether he should waste a treasure that was practically an extra life on such a minor injury, he could not bring himself to use the Healing Water for a wound that amounted to nothing more than broken scales and torn flesh.

Jegyeong stared at the Healing Water like someone gazing at dried fish hanging above a dining table, then finally decided not to use it.

There was a saying that if one saved something too much, it would go to waste. But there was also a saying that one should not use medicine at every turn.

Compared to losing sight in one eye, this injury was bearable. Jegyeong also had some confidence in his own recovery.

He slept before the Healing Water for three days. When he woke, the wound on the side of his head had healed somewhat.

His scales were still torn away and the flesh beneath remained exposed, but it was much better than it had been three days ago.

‘I need to lie low for a while.’

Hunting was good, and making a display of his strength was good too, but neither meant anything unless his body was in good condition.

No matter how much fear he instilled in the Water Demons, if the day came when he grew weak and ailing, that day would be his funeral.

Whether they lived on land or in water, Demon Beasts had an almost instinctive ability to smell blood.

After thoroughly checking the rest of his body as well as the wounded side of his head, Jegyeong left his territory and headed for the surface.

He sensed quite a few Water Demons as he moved.

The moment they detected Jegyeong's Aura, they fled as if their tails had caught fire.

‘My efforts haven't been for nothing.’

There had been a reward for all the blood he had shed like a madman.

The roar he had just unleashed with all his strength would have echoed throughout the entire Spirit Spring, so his territory would remain peaceful for a while.

‘It was an unavoidable choice, but now that I think about it, this isn't bad either.’

Jegyeong knew better than anyone that he could neither become nor act like the catfish.

So he decided to throw open the gates to the river, to the Spirit Spring.

He allowed the Water Demons that the catfish had driven out to enter and led them to settle into their own places.

As a result, the Spirit Spring, which had once felt almost empty, was now crowded with all kinds of Water Demons. But that was not a loss for Jegyeong.

As long as he could protect the place where the Healing Water was, nothing else mattered.

What worried him was that, with so many Water Demons entering the Spirit Spring, someone might eventually covet his territory, or more precisely, the Healing Water.

That day might come in ten days or a month, but one thing was certain. It would come someday.

He could reduce the danger somewhat by staying before the Healing Water and guarding it constantly, but Jegyeong obviously could not do that.

He had to hunt. To do so, he needed to leave not only his territory but the water itself.

How could he stay before the Healing Water like a watchdog guarding a house?

So Jegyeong had to find another method.

The method he found was bloodshed.

He had to show the Water Demons gathered in the Spirit Spring just how violent he was.

People feared a king on a throne, but they also feared a thug in a back alley.

Demon Beasts were no different.

Jegyeong understood that, and without hesitation, he let his vicious nature run free.

As a result, he became a king unlike the catfish.

The Water Demons might not acknowledge it, but their retreating, fleeing reactions did.

Footnotes:

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