Ophidian of the Immortal World - Chapter 39

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: WeTried Translations

◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 39: Ghost Province

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‘What is this?!’

Sagaewan was already irritated by the opponent stubbornly clinging to him, and now cursed inwardly at the sinister Demon Energy that had rapidly filled the surroundings.

There was no need to turn his head to know what was happening.

‘Chaesan Old Demon! What the hell is this supposed to be?’

‘Did that old bastard let his guard down and get hit by Sin Baekrim?’

Even within Upper Demon Grove, no one knew Chaesan Old Demon’s origins. There were only countless rumors.

Some said he had once been a millennium-old tree stained with the blood of a Primordial Demon. Others claimed he was a naturally born Demon Spirit who had seized the body of some unlucky Wood Demon.

There were many more theories, but every last one was ridiculous nonsense.

A Primordial Demon? What Primordial Demon? Surely they did not mean the Devil Race, that legendary race that might receive a single passing mention in the oldest historical records of the Azure Basket Realm?

And what was this about a naturally born Demon Spirit? He had seized a Wood Demon’s body? Were they talking about Body Seizure? That too was no more than a legend of the Cultivation World. If Chaesan Old Demon possessed such an ability, would he not have ruled the entire Juge Mountain Range long ago?

‘Idiots always have such uselessly rich imaginations.’

‘Is that really the problem right now? Chaesan Old Demon is finally making his move! This battle is completely different from before!’

Sagaewan could not help seriously questioning Chaesan Old Demon’s state of mind.

This had been a very simple transaction, one that could barely even be called a battle. They handed over corpses in exchange for meat.

It was an event that had continued for a very long time, and Sin Baekrim and Chaesan Old Demon were its overseers and managers. Their role should have been to ensure the flames of battle did not spread too far.

Yet what Chaesan Old Demon was doing now was like pouring oil over a fire that was already burning dangerously.

Why? Why was he doing this?

Boom!

A terrifying wave of Dharma Power reached even this distant place. The immense fighting intent and killing intent faintly contained within it made Sagaewan’s whole body tremble.

Divine light flashed repeatedly within the thick darkness far away. Unlike Sagaewan, who had retreated early, those positioned relatively close to the two old monsters’ battlefield were beginning to suffer the effects. Their Auras fluctuated unstably.

It proved once again that not every Foundation Establishment cultivator was the same, and neither was every Great Demon Beast.

At least in sheer presence, the two old monsters seemed comparable to every other Great Demon Beast and Foundation Establishment cultivator combined.

‘This is driving me mad.’

‘Sin Baekrim seems seriously angry too. It looks like he intends to fight for real.’

Angry? Of course he was.

What Sin Baekrim wanted was to prune a few branches, not uproot the entire tree.

‘Does this mean an all-out war?’

‘I don’t know. But it definitely won’t end easily.’

A violent storm raged in Sagaewan’s heart.

Still, even while countless thoughts raced through his mind, his four eyes never left the opponent in front of him. Because of that, Sagaewan immediately noticed that his opponent’s already savage gaze had grown even more threatening.

‘Damn it.’

‘Damn bastard!’

Even if he had to fight, Sagaewan wanted to move farther away from the old monsters first. Yet judging by that chilling glare, his opponent did not seem likely to cooperate.

* * *

Once Sin Baekrim and Chaesan Old Demon began fighting in earnest, the battles between the other Foundation Establishment cultivators and Great Demon Beasts intensified as though everything before had only been play.

Those fighting on the ground, though, had no time to pay attention to the sky overhead. The appearance of the dead, who attacked indiscriminately without distinguishing between former comrades and enemies, completely changed the battlefield’s atmosphere.

The momentum that had favored the Human Race was overturned in an instant. The Human Race had suffered greater losses from the dead.

Human Race cultivators had been swept up in the heat of battle, but they still retained a minimum degree of reason and fought while thinking. The Demon Race, on the other hand, had long since been ruled by madness and savagery rather than reason. To them, the dead simply meant there were more opponents to fight.

Still, exceptions existed everywhere. Not every member of the Demon Race was fighting with an empty head.

‘Ugh!’

Jegyeong irritably shook off the head of a Demon Beast that had latched onto him.

A corpse whose body below the neck was cleanly gone was clinging to him with uneven teeth. Those teeth could never pierce his tough scales, but that was not the problem. An unpleasant Aura from those dead things was clinging to him.

It felt somewhat similar to Demon Energy, yet more disgusting than any filth. It stirred instinctive revulsion within him.

Boom!

Before he could recover from that foul feeling, another Demon Beast with a body torn to shreds suddenly rammed into him.

Jegyeong’s mood darkened further. He easily crushed it beneath him, then struck it with his tail until its tattered body became pulp.

‘Huh?’

Jegyeong had struck down with his tail several times in irritation before he suddenly came to his senses.

Was this really the time to play around with these disgusting corpses? Why was he wasting his strength so emotionally?

‘This isn’t like me. This... Something is wrong.’

Jegyeong was certain. Something was affecting his mind without him even realizing it.

It was clouding his reason, provoking his savagery, and pushing him deeper into battle.

‘This strange Demon Energy.’

Jegyeong turned his gaze around.

The Demon Race members consumed by madness were still fighting fiercely, but they somehow seemed even more frenzied than before. Until recently, they had at least recoiled when they felt pain. Now, even that was gone.

They were like rabid dogs. No, worse.

‘This is dangerous.’

An invisible tide of madness was staining the entire battlefield.

For now, it seemed to affect only the Demon Race, whose eyes had already turned wild. Soon, though, the Human Race cultivators would become the same.

‘And so will I.’

He could still endure it for now, but eventually he too would be unable to hold on and would be consumed by madness.

Before that happened, he had to flee as quickly as possible. He had to get away, but...

‘What a shame.’

Jegyeong silently approached a Human Race cultivator he had been watching for some time and swallowed them in one bite.

The cultivator had been cutting down a screaming comrade rushing toward them. They met their end without noticing Jegyeong’s approach.

‘What a shame.’

Spiritual Power filled Jegyeong’s stomach, but it was still not enough.

‘Just a little. Just a little more.’

Jegyeong darted his gaze around in search of his next target.

He no longer had any intention of holding back. Those fighting in the sky did not seem to have time to worry about what was happening below, and chaos had already broken out everywhere. Even if he went wild, it did not seem likely to cause a problem.

‘Three. No, four more.’

His impatient gaze swept across the battlefield.

* * *

Crack!

Lightning flashed and split the darkness.

Yet the darkness only rippled briefly before recovering its former momentum.

“You didn’t think you could frighten me with Lightning Arts you aren’t even familiar with, did you?”

Chaesan Old Demon restored his body of dark smoke and let out a sinister laugh.

Sin Baekrim, meanwhile, frowned as though something displeased him. His gaze, which had been fixed on Chaesan Old Demon’s translucent body, shifted to the black sky above.

“You are confident. It seems you believe everything is going according to your will.”

“Of course.”

As Sin Baekrim said, Chaesan Old Demon was confident. Compared to when they first began exchanging blows, it would not have been an exaggeration to say confidence now overflowed from him.

“We shall see.”

Powerful Dharma Power swirled around Sin Baekrim. An invisible current, so profound that sensing it alone inspired awe, formed mysterious patterns and pressed down on Chaesan Old Demon and the surrounding space.

“Do you still not understand that it is useless? I truly cannot understand you. If blood must flow anyway, does it matter if a little more flows?”

“That is true.”

Even as they spoke, Sin Baekrim’s assault did not slow for an instant. Each time Chaesan Old Demon restored his form, Sin Baekrim struck and shattered him. Yet every time, Chaesan Old Demon recovered as though nothing had happened.

“You know this is nothing but childish venting. If it pains you that much, why not withdraw the remaining ones instead?”

Chaesan Old Demon’s dark form tore apart into hundreds, then thousands, of fragments.

Each fragment let out chilling ghostly wails as it flew toward Sin Baekrim. They all moved at different speeds and in different ways, as though each possessed its own will.

“Hmph!”

The scroll surrounded by light appeared behind Sin Baekrim once again. It displayed powerful suction, swallowing hundreds of dark forms.

Yet even after hundreds were erased, more than that still flew toward Sin Baekrim. Some took the form of skulls with their jaws wide open, while others resembled beast heads freshly torn from their bodies.

“Yin Evil Ghost Spirits. They are still unbearably crude.”

Even before thousands of threats that seemed ready to tear apart his Spiritual Essence, Sin Baekrim remained cold and composed.

He sent the scroll, which had swallowed hundreds of dark forms and noticeably dimmed, flying into the sky.

“Flaunting your might with such shallow tricks.”

The night sky, which should have been still and silent, writhed like a living creature.

Ink-black rain fell, and eerie cries filled the air in place of thunder.

Against that ominous sky, the scroll’s light was so faint it was difficult even to notice.

“Disappear!”

At Sin Baekrim’s command, the scroll that had done nothing but consume now disgorged everything it contained.

Yet what burst out from it was not the dark forms it had swallowed earlier, but waves of pure Dharma Power.

Boom!

A spiritual wind shook the sky.

The darkness churned, and the Demon Energy churned.

Even Chaesan Old Demon, who had remained relaxed all this time, could not do so now. He frowned and began reciting an incomprehensible incantation.

“Kyaaaah!”

The thousands of dark forms that had nearly reached Sin Baekrim let out chilling screams and vanished like smoke.

A similar sight unfolded on the battlefield below.

The Undead that had controlled corpses and rampaged on instinct collapsed or slumped down, as though they had all been struck by sudden weakness.

* * *

“Huh?”

A Human Race cultivator who had barely survived being torn apart alive by several Undead blinked without understanding what had happened.

The next moment, as they were about to smile in relief at having survived, Jegyeong suddenly appeared behind them and ended the few extra seconds of life they had gained.

‘What is this now?’

Jegyeong’s eyes, bloodshot with anxiety, impatience, and madness, scanned the surroundings as the situation changed again.

‘Have the corpses lost their strength? Has that Demon Energy disappeared?’

Come to think of it, his mind felt somewhat clearer.

He did not know whether it was his imagination or whether the Demon Energy that spread madness had truly weakened or vanished, but either way, it was not a bad change.

‘No. Is it really?’

Jegyeong worked his clearer mind, trying to think and judge.

After that sinister Demon Energy had spread madness indiscriminately, the Demon Race began attacking each other as well as the Human Race cultivators and corpses.

As a result, the Demon Race’s numbers fell rapidly. Even at a glance, they now seemed fewer than the Human Race.

‘No. This is bad.’

The Human Race benefited if the corpses lost their strength. The Demon Race had already lost their numerical advantage, and they had exhausted themselves by rampaging without regard for friend or foe. Clearly, the Demon Race now had no way to stand against the Human Race cultivators.

Things might be different if Upper Demon Grove’s high-ranking forces won their battle, but Jegyeong did not expect a good outcome even if its Great Demon Beasts emerged victorious.

‘This black rain and sinister Demon Energy must be a trick used by Upper Demon Grove.’

It was a scheme to maximize the casualties on both sides. Those being ground down by it were Jeyeon Sect’s disciples and the Lesser Demons Upper Demon Grove had gathered together.

If both sides shed blood equally, who benefited more and who lost more?

The answer was simple.

‘It’s about time to leave.’

His stomach did not feel completely full yet. Still, he had a bad feeling that if he grew greedier, he would not be able to withdraw in time.

‘Where are Cheongo and Muk-su?’

At the beginning of the battle, he had checked on their locations and conditions whenever he could. As things grew urgent, though, he lost the chance to do so.

They had probably not lost their minds as easily as the other Demon Race members. He hoped they had kept themselves safe.

‘Where are they?’

Fortunately, Jegyeong had not ranged too far while hunting Human Race cultivators. Muk-su was also large enough to recognize even amid the battlefield, so finding them was not difficult.

Using the Qi Concealment Technique with a familiarity that now came as naturally as breathing, Jegyeong moved toward Muk-su in the distance.

“Muk-su! Behind you! Behind you!”

At Cheongo’s urgent cry, Muk-su lashed out with a root without even turning around.

An arrow aimed at Muk-su’s trunk was blocked by the thick root.

Wooooo!

It was only a small arrow, but Muk-su let out a pained howl after blocking it.

At the same time, Cheongo flew as swiftly as the arrow, grazing past its owner.

“Argh!”

Cheongo was not particularly strong in battle for a Demon Beast, but they were still a Demon Beast.

Their beak and claws were sharp enough to easily leave marks on rock. That sharpness was not something an unprotected Qi Refining Stage cultivator could endure.

As the Human Race cultivator with chunks of flesh torn from their face staggered, another of Muk-su’s enraged roots struck them with all its strength.

With the sound of bones breaking, the cultivator flew far away and crashed into an enormous pile of corpses in the muddy water.

“Ugh... Aah!”

Even while the bones throughout their body were broken and they could not move, they instinctively struggled to escape the pile.

Their body slowly sank into the heap of corpses, which writhed as though alive.

Within seconds, they disappeared completely, and black rain pattered down over the corpse pile that had swallowed its prey.

* * *

The sky, which had seemed to clear for a moment, darkened again.

The scroll that had exerted enough force to drive away all darkness lost its light completely, while the ghostly cries flowing down from the sky rang out like open screams.

Sin Baekrim and Chaesan Old Demon still faced one another, but they looked vastly different from before.

Sin Baekrim’s complexion had grown somewhat pale, and his once immaculate robe was damaged in several places, making it difficult to recognize its original appearance.

Chaesan Old Demon, by contrast, appeared unchanged at first glance. A closer look, though, revealed that his Aura was fluctuating unstably.

“River-Crossing Scroll. It truly is impressive. It seems stronger than before. You must have put considerable effort into that Dharma Artifact.”

Dharma Artifacts were treasures only cultivators at Foundation Establishment Stage or above could use. They possessed power on an entirely different level from the Spirit Artifacts generally used by Qi Refining Stage cultivators.

Yet Dharma Artifacts were rare precisely because they were powerful, so not every Foundation Establishment cultivator could own one.

For a Rogue Cultivator without a particular talent for making money, it was difficult to obtain even one proper Dharma Artifact, even at the middle or late Foundation Establishment Stage.

Naturally, that had nothing to do with Sin Baekrim, Jeyeon Sect’s Supreme Elder.

When his cultivation had reached the middle Foundation Establishment Stage in the past, he acquired the mid-grade Dharma Artifact called the River-Crossing Scroll. Since then, the River-Crossing Scroll’s fame had resounded alongside Sin Baekrim’s name.

“What could a mere Yin Spirit know about Dharma Artifacts?”

Even at Sin Baekrim’s mockery, Chaesan Old Demon smiled at ease.

“I do not know much. There is no use in trying to understand it, so why would I need to?”

It would not have been an exaggeration to call the history of the Cultivation World a history of conflict.

How many Other Races had the Human Race fought before becoming the dominant race of the Azure Basket Realm? Countless victories had brought them to their current position, and behind that shining history was the heritage they took such pride in.

To defeat an enemy, one must first know the enemy.

The Other Races pushed back by the Human Race, as well as the Demon Race, were not foolish. If they had been foolish, how could they have fought the Human Race for so long?

They had constantly studied the Human Race and their heritage. They had delved especially passionately into fields that offered direct use in battle, such as artifact-refining arts.

The results, though, were deeply disappointing compared to the effort they had invested.

They could somehow imitate the surface, but no more. They could not touch the true essence of artifact refinement.

“But just as I do not know about your Dharma Artifact...”

Chaesan Old Demon’s gaze turned toward the battlefield below.

“You do not know much about my Curse Arts either.”

Chaesan Old Demon recovered the distinct form of a wooden figure. With a grave expression unlike anything he had shown before, he formed hand seals and began chanting an ominous incantation.

Sin Baekrim immediately raised his Dharma Power, but his attack was blocked by a hazy figure that had appeared between him and Chaesan Old Demon.

Boom!

As Chaesan Old Demon’s incantation rang out, the sinister sky writhed violently and poured its vast Ghost Energy down upon the earth.

In response, the Undead on the ground all cried out at once.

At last, a passage made of Ghost Energy rose between heaven and earth.

More than several thousand Undead rushed toward that pillar-like passage.

They abandoned the living they had been biting and the bodies they had been possessing, then leaped into the passage. Their crazed actions did not feel voluntary. It was as though they were being forcibly drawn in.

Sin Baekrim poured Dharma Power into the River-Crossing Scroll once more, but this time, the scroll could not display much power. It shook the flow of Ghost Energy for a moment, and that was all.

“Ha ha ha ha!”

All the Ghost Energy filling heaven and earth gathered at the Ghost Pillar, toward Chaesan Old Demon at its core.

An ordinary living being exposed to such Ghost Energy would have their mind and soul twisted at once, becoming a ghostly creature. Yet that had nothing to do with Chaesan Old Demon, whose foundation was that of a Yin Spirit.

He wielded the gathered Ghost Energy as though it were his own Dharma Power, and his Aura rapidly expanded.

Sin Baekrim watched Chaesan Old Demon’s sudden transformation clearly, but he made no further move.

“Single Qi Penetration? An interesting interpretation.”

Instead, he set aside even the hostile intent that had been pouring from him like an erupting volcano and showed interest.

“You recognized it after all? Yes. If my own strength is insufficient, why not borrow strength from elsewhere? Stubbornness and foolishness are not the same thing. The Immortal Path is never a single road.”

“That is true.”

Sin Baekrim and Chaesan Old Demon had both spent long years unable to reach the third realm of the Immortal Path.

At first, they had devoted themselves to cultivation through faith in themselves. Yet as their stagnation dragged on, confidence became doubt. They even began to fear that they had taken the wrong path.

What Chaesan Old Demon was doing now was also the result of that.

Some might call it a Heretical Path, but to someone driven into a dead end, any route that could reach beyond the wall was the Proper Path.

That was why Sin Baekrim could understand Chaesan Old Demon. If they had not been enemies and had not met in a place like this, he might even have applauded him.

Unfortunately, they were enemies.

And this was a battlefield.

“Form a Golden Core...”

Sin Baekrim let out a long sigh.

If he could only reach that distant realm, what would a side path matter? He would willingly crawl through a remote land filled with filth.

“Do not regret it so much. Even if you cannot achieve it, you will at least be able to witness it.”

A voice struggling to contain its delight rang out from the center of the Ghost Pillar, and alien Dharma Power that seemed not of this world surged violently.

That power had clearly surpassed the Foundation Establishment Stage and was reaching for the realm beyond. It was enough to make even Sin Baekrim feel pressure.

“...”

Yet even beneath a pressure that weighed down his Spiritual Essence, Sin Baekrim’s eyes remained calm.

* * *

“Aah!”

It was an ordinary scream.

But what happened after that ordinary scream was horrifyingly extraordinary.

‘Huh?’

Jegyeong had just joined Cheongo and Muk-su and was shouting that they needed to flee when he felt what seemed like a thin gust of wind brush past him.

It was a pleasant and welcome breeze amid the pain and exhaustion covering both his body and mind.

Yet Jegyeong did not feel refreshed.

He felt a terrible sense of wrongness.

‘Ah.’

In that moment, Jegyeong remembered the scream he had heard just before, along with something he had heard in the past.

“Watch out!”

That one warning to Cheongo and Muk-su was the best he could do, and all he could do.

Immediately after he shouted, the storm broke through its mask of a fresh spring breeze and swept him away.

It was a flood of emotion, a cry of pain, and a wave of cultivation.

‘A Foundation Establishment cultivator, or a Great Demon Beast, has died!’

Jegyeong remembered what the senior members of the Full-Wing Gathering had told him.

The power handled by cultivators at Foundation Establishment Stage and above was Dharma Power, and it would not be wrong to say that Dharma Power was cultivation itself.

A cultivator’s mind, strength, emotions, and all manner of other things were infused into their Dharma Power. In that sense, Dharma Power was the cultivator’s identity.

When a cultivator, meaning one at Foundation Establishment Stage or above, usually met death, their Dharma Power escaped their control and spread into the surroundings.

It was a temporary phenomenon. Before long, the Dharma Power would break down into Spiritual Energy and dissolve into heaven and earth. Before it disappeared, though, it affected the world and left traces behind.

The stronger the Dharma Power, and the more intense the emotions the cultivator felt before death, the greater those effects and traces became.

Jegyeong had listened seriously when he first heard that explanation, but the senior cultivators of the Full-Wing Gathering had dismissed it as nothing important.

They were Foundation Establishment cultivators.

No matter how large and powerful the force released by a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s Dharma Power might be, could it compare to that cultivator while alive? To them, it was only an annoyance, nothing that could not be ignored.

‘But I am different.’

Jegyeong felt his mind and emotions wavering.

Anger, sorrow, fear, and other emotions flowing in from outside tried to take control of his heart.

Yet Jegyeong knew those emotions were not originally his. He tried to resist, and the moment he made up his mind, his Spiritual Essence lit a fire.

It was still only a small spark, but it was bright enough to drive back the encroaching darkness.

Whoosh!

The moment the spark shone, reason returned to the snake’s clouded eyes.

‘Dharma Power. So this is Dharma Power?’

Having escaped the madness and regained his senses, the first thing Jegyeong thought of was not relief at surviving. It was the almost vanished Dharma Power, or rather, its lingering trace.

It was a dangerous power that might have driven him mad without the spark of Spiritual Essence. Yet it was also a power he needed to pursue.

As the lingering trace of Dharma Power vanished in an instant, Jegyeong felt both relief and regret.

Anyone who saw Jegyeong like this would have called him insane.

Yet this obsession, which bordered on madness, was what had carried him this far.

“Cheongo! Muk-su!”

Jegyeong cast aside his regret and belatedly remembered Cheongo and Muk-su.

As expected, they lay sprawled weakly on the ground, trembling.

Jegyeong raised his tail to wake them, but just as he was about to strike, Cheongo’s faint voice reached him.

“Im, Immortal...”

“What?”

Cheongo laboriously raised their head.

Their tiny eyes, their entranced gaze, turned toward the sky where Ghost Energy had gathered.