WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: WeTried Translations
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈
Chapter 40: No One Wants It
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The Human Race's Foundation Establishment Stage. The Demon Race's Great Demon realm.
The names differed, but those who had reached the second realm of the Immortal Path all sought the same goal.
The third realm of the Immortal Path.
Form a Golden Core.
To Form a Golden Core was to continuously nurture and condense a painstakingly refined wisp of qi until it became a spiritual embryo, a Core.
No one could dare guess how many cultivators had fallen before that wall of despair, cursing the heavens as they perished.
Nor were they novices who had only just stepped onto the Immortal Path. They were true cultivators who had proudly entered the true Immortal Path.
In remote regions, they would have been exceptional talents of the Cultivation World, people who could proclaim themselves chosen by heaven and receive nods of agreement. Yet before the wall of Forming a Golden Core, they were no more than ants.
Sin Baekrim was no exception.
He led a sect and stood at the late Foundation Establishment Stage, yet even for him, the wall of Forming a Golden Core remained unbearably distant and hopeless.
Looking at Chaesan Old Demon, who had been swallowed by a storm of Ghost Energy, Sin Baekrim spoke.
“A Yin Fiend Ghost Core?”
At the stage of Forming a Golden Core, the Human Race formed Golden Cores, while the Demon Race formed Demon Cores.
These were the Cores best suited to each race, conclusions drawn from long ages of accumulated history and experience.
Still, exceptions existed everywhere.
There were many paths of cultivation, both now and in the past.
Even in the present Cultivation World, quite a few cultivation paths had lost their lineages. One of them was called the Ghost Path.
As its name suggested, it was the path of ghosts. A branch of cultivation for the dead.
“That’s unexpected. You recognized it at a glance?”
Chaesan Old Demon raised his eyes as though genuinely surprised.
There was no curiosity in his eyes. Only wariness.
“What’s so surprising? Other than a Demon Core, what could a Yin Spirit like you choose but a Ghost Core, and among them, a Yin Fiend Ghost Core?”
Sin Baekrim spoke as though it were nothing, but the wariness in Chaesan Old Demon’s eyes only deepened.
Few people in the present Cultivation World knew anything about the Ghost Path’s cultivation system or defining characteristics.
Chaesan Old Demon was part of the Demon Race, and as a rare Yin Spirit, he had miraculously come across a Ghost Path inheritance.
That had been the beginning of his cultivation. Afterward, he tirelessly sought every scrap of Ghost Path knowledge he could find. Only after spending ages on it had he learned of the Yin Fiend Ghost Core and how to form one.
Yet Sin Baekrim knew about the Yin Fiend Ghost Core? Was this another piece of the Human Race’s vaunted inherited knowledge?
Perhaps it was, but Chaesan Old Demon’s instincts screamed that it was not so simple.
“Sin Baekrim, whatever schemes you have, it’s already too late. The Ghost Pillar has linked heaven and earth. Single Qi Penetration is only a matter of time. If you want to live, withdraw now.”
“You seem afraid.”
“What did you say?”
Sin Baekrim calmly looked over the pillar of Ghost Energy surrounding Chaesan Old Demon, then raised his gaze to the sky.
He had struck it again and again with Dharma Power. He had even attacked with the River-Crossing Scroll at full strength, but the black sky still gave off ominous wails.
“Ghost Net Veiling Heaven. Ghost Path Curse Arts are certainly troublesome to deal with. If one has not prepared beforehand, it would be difficult to face even an opponent of the same realm.”
“You bastard...!”
Chaesan Old Demon’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“A Yin Spirit who has lived for over a thousand years, yet you’re so naive. No, that isn’t it. The fortuitous opportunity to Form a Golden Core clouded your eyes. Yes, that must be it. I understand. Who among those who have collapsed before that wall would not be the same?”
With a casual gesture from Sin Baekrim, a plain talisman appeared before him.
Compared to the River-Crossing Scroll, which proclaimed its presence with mysterious light whenever it appeared, this single talisman looked almost shabby.
Yet the moment it appeared, Chaesan Old Demon was seized by instinctive unease. Unease that bordered on fear.
The instincts of a late Foundation Establishment cultivator standing on the verge of Forming a Golden Core were trustworthy enough on their own.
“A Sun-Reversal Talisman?!”
Chaesan Old Demon cried out in disbelief.
“You recognize it.”
A faint smile appeared on Sin Baekrim’s face.
“Chaesan, you old monster. Did you truly think no one knew what you were hiding?”
“...”
Sin Baekrim’s calm gaze met Chaesan Old Demon’s trembling one in midair.
“A Golden Core cultivator. Should one be born, the balance of power in the Juge Mountain Range would change completely. The Juge Mountain Range matters to us, but would the Higher Sects above us consider it valuable? If yielding one mountain range could preserve the dignity of a newly born Golden Core cultivator, they would not be stingy.”
“...”
“But that is the Higher Sects’ concern. Who among people like us would want another master placed above our already burdened heads? I’ll say it again, Chaesan. You were too naive.”
The Ghost Energy surrounding Chaesan Old Demon surged violently.
He seemed to understand everything now. The confusion in his eyes was gone, replaced by agitation and rage as he glared at Sin Baekrim.
“You’re saying this was a trap? You knew I was trying to form a Yin Fiend Ghost Core? How could you possibly...!”
“I didn’t know. Not until recently.”
Chaesan Old Demon’s eyes widened.
After hearing that much, anyone who still failed to understand would not deserve the position of elder in Upper Demon Grove.
“Those damned bastards dared...!”
“Don’t feel too wronged. In a way, this was inevitable.”
Having said that, Sin Baekrim gestured toward the Sun-Reversal Talisman.
A mysterious talismanic pattern began to form across it. It started from a single dot and slowly completed itself, as though someone were writing it with a brush.
Chaesan Old Demon watched in fury, but there was nothing he could do.
The Ghost Energy and Ghost Pillar surrounding him were both a sturdy shield and shackles that bound him.
Having entered Single Qi Penetration, he could not interfere until the process of Forming a Golden Core was complete.
“The success or failure of cultivation depends on oneself, heaven, and other people. You knew that as well.”
“Hahahahaha!”
Watching the talismanic pattern nearly fill the talisman, Chaesan Old Demon burst into mad laughter.
“I know. I know it well! Gwak So was like this before, and now I follow in Gwak So’s footsteps!”
“...”
“It’s almost funny. You stabbed Gwak So in the back, and now you’re using his Life-Bound Talisman to corner me.”
“...”
Sin Baekrim did not respond. Instead, he launched the nearly completed talisman high into the sky.
Fwaaaash!
When the Sun-Reversal Talisman received its final stroke high above, the tiny talisman released a tremendous light and pierced the dark sky.
The sky, filled with Demon Energy, Ghost Energy, and Undead, shook. Cracks spread through the Ghost Pillar that connected it to the ground.
“An artifact is only an artifact. It cannot display its true power with its owner gone, but it will be more than enough to break one of your Curse Arts.”
Chaesan Old Demon did not answer Sin Baekrim’s declaration. He seemed to have given up.
“Since when?”
“From the beginning.”
Chaesan Old Demon gave a hollow laugh. His empty gaze turned toward the trembling sky.
“Heh. From the beginning...”
“Who would welcome another presence above their heads? No one wants it.”
The light that pierced the sky burned away the darkness, and the cracks spread over the Ghost Pillar.
Within the collapsing Ghost Pillar, Chaesan Old Demon laughed madly before crying black tears and shouting.
“I failed because I was lacking, so I have no grievance! But what a shame! One step! I was only one step away!”
The Ghost Pillar collapsed even faster. Chaesan Old Demon had given up and let go.
Within the crumbling pillar, the Ghost Energy he had controlled like his own limbs began to tear into him without mercy.
Even a Yin Spirit was not a complete ghost creature. Freed from his control, the Ghost Energy judged him to be something to tear apart and corrupt.
Had he succeeded in Forming a Golden Core, things would have been different.
Having formed a Yin Fiend Ghost Core, he would no longer have been an ordinary Yin Spirit. He would have become an existence like a Ghost King.
But that was no more than a pointless assumption.
The brilliant future that might have been his had now lost all light.
“What a shame! What a shame!”
If he had tried to endure, he could have lasted a little longer. Yet Chaesan Old Demon did not make the effort.
The Immortal Path before him had already been cut off. If he had to stop, he wanted to stop of his own accord rather than collapse disgracefully.
And he wanted to say it.
It was a shame, but he had no regrets.
“Sin Baekrim! How did Gwak So meet his end?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see his final moments.”
“Is that so? He escaped your hands even after you stabbed him in the back. He was better than me.”
Chaesan Old Demon remembered the old-looking man who always wore a bitter smile whenever they met. A strange fellow who sighed at the sight of dying disciples and sometimes withdrew far too early.
Who would have thought that face would arise in the final moment of his life? Was it because Gwak So’s Life-Bound Talisman had ruined everything?
‘How funny.’
Crack!
At last, the Ghost Pillar collapsed, and his thoughts were cut off as well.
* * *
As the Ghost Pillar collapsed, the Ghost Domain created by Ghost Net Veiling Heaven disappeared as well.
Its effects did not vanish at once. The Ghost Energy condensed within the Ghost Pillar was released, spreading in every direction.
Then came the final blow. As Chaesan Old Demon died, his Dharma Power, which had nearly formed a Golden Core, rained down like rain while carrying lingering thoughts.
It was like adding Yama’s sulfur fire to a battlefield that already resembled hell.
“Cheongo! Get a hold of yourself!”
Jegyeong urged Cheongo on as they dazedly muttered, “Lord Immortal,” then struck Muk-su several times to wake it from a different kind of stupor.
“We need to run! Now!”
Jegyeong’s sense of danger had reached its peak.
No, in truth, it had been at its peak for quite some time. What had just happened made him feel something beyond even that.
“Jegyeong. Lord Immortal... It’s Lord Immortal’s Aura.”
“Get a hold of yourself! Lord Immortal is dead! Didn’t you say you saw it yourself?”
“Huh? Right. Lord Immortal is dead... But... Lord Immortal? No, is it something similar? Lord Immortal’s Aura? Is it similar?”
Cheongo continued rambling as though still half asleep. Unable to bear it any longer, Jegyeong snatched them into his jaws and fled with Muk-su.
“Aaaagh!”
Another Foundation Establishment cultivator, or perhaps a Great Demon Beast, had died. An unbearable, unpleasant lingering thought brushed against Jegyeong’s mind.
Even as he fled in a panic, he tried to savor the remnants of Dharma Power as much as possible. At one point, he collided with a rampaging corpse, but his sturdy body kept him from being injured.
Wooooo.
Cheongo seemed as though they had become foolish, but Muk-su was in no good condition either.
It seemed to have reached its mental limit, but its outward condition was serious as well. From its roots to its trunk, there was not a single intact part.
By all appearances, it desperately needed rest, but Jegyeong had no choice but to keep urging it on.
Every time they stopped to catch their breath here, their chance of survival fell by one-tenth. Thinking that way, he could not stop, even if he felt he might breathe his last at any moment.
Jegyeong forced himself to keep moving with that thought in mind, but Muk-su could not.
It was not because Muk-su lacked the will. Its condition had simply become too poor for even survival instinct to move its body.
Woooooo.
Muk-su released a sound that could have been either a groan or a sigh, then stopped moving. Only then could Jegyeong examine Muk-su’s condition more closely.
Its body had always been black, so he had not noticed at first. Looking again, though, he saw that much of it had turned pitch-black and died.
It had shriveled dry, and foul-smelling fluid continued to seep out. In that fluid, Jegyeong sensed accursed Ghost Energy and the stench of death.
“Muk-su. You...”
Muk-su let its roots and branches droop as though it had given up. Then, as though remembering something, it lifted one relatively intact branch.
Woo.
After a short cry whose meaning Jegyeong could not guess, Muk-su’s entire body slowly began to shrink.
It looked as though it were squeezing out every last trace of vitality.
As its whole body dried away, the raised branch became green and fresh, as though newly sprouted. Soon, it bore a small fruit.
Jegyeong’s eyes widened as he watched the small fruit grow large in an instant.
Woo.
Muk-su’s faint cry rang in his ears like an auditory hallucination.
When Jegyeong suddenly came to his senses, the branch that had lost all vitality was already before him, holding a single precariously hanging fruit.
Thud.
The fruit fell.
Jegyeong hurriedly opened his mouth and extended his tongue. The fruit struck the still-unwell Cheongo on the head before settling on his tongue.
‘This...’
The moment the fruit touched his tongue, Jegyeong realized that it was entirely different from the fruits he had steadily consumed until now.
Pssssh.
At that moment, Muk-su’s branch crumbled into dust.
Then its roots and trunk followed, turning to powder and vanishing one after another.
It took less time than a blink for the enormous Muk-su to turn to dust.
‘Muk-su. You...’
A thought passed through Jegyeong’s mind.
It might have been hope, or it might have been a delusion, but Jegyeong tilted the scales in his heart toward the former.
There was nothing else he could do.
“You monster! Where do you think you’re running?!”
A Human Race cultivator, looking as though they had bathed in blood, blocked his path while babbling words Jegyeong could not understand.
Jegyeong ignored them and charged forward.
He ignored the incoming attack as well. He believed he could somehow endure an attack from a weakened Qi Refining Stage cultivator.
Bang!
His body did not disappoint him this time either.
Jegyeong crushed the Human Race cultivator blocking his path in one blow. Unfortunately, Cheongo and Muk-su’s fruit were in his mouth, so he could not swallow the cultivator he had killed.
‘Get out of my way, you bastards!’
Whether they were Human Race cultivators or members of the Demon Race, he shoved aside and crushed everything that blocked his path.
The Human Race cultivators rushing at him as though they had found prey were troublesome, but the Demon Race members who now seemed to be regaining their senses and running around in confusion were just as troublesome.
With his strongest weapon, his teeth, or more precisely his biting and tearing, sealed off, it was even more frustrating.
Had Cheongo’s signal not reached him from within his mouth in time, things would have become more complicated.
“Jegyeong! I’m okay now! Let me out!”
The moment Jegyeong heard Cheongo’s voice, he opened his mouth.
As though they had been waiting, Cheongo burst out while shaking their damp wings. Before they could open their beak again, Jegyeong passed Muk-su’s fruit to them.
“Keep it safe! Don’t lose it, no matter what!”
“Huh? Jegyeong. This...”
Cheongo reflexively caught the fruit between both feet, then their expression changed as though they had sensed something.
“There’s no time to explain. We have to escape!”
The black pillar that had connected heaven and earth was gone, yet the eerie Ghost Energy and Demon Energy had grown even thicker. They were spreading farther and farther as well.
They had already traveled quite a distance, yet ghostly wails still came from all directions. That was proof enough.
“Jegyeong. Muk-su...”
“Move!”
At Jegyeong’s urging, Cheongo closed their beak and flew up powerfully.
“We’re going to the Spirit Spring! Find the direction!”
“Got it!”
Cheongo immediately found the way, and Jegyeong followed behind them.
* * *
“Damn it! I’ll tear that bastard to pieces!”
“Quiet. Stop shouting. My head is throbbing.”
The battered Sagaewan landed unsteadily.
Under normal circumstances, they would have planted all four feet on the ground with pride. Now, after not even jumping very far, they staggered as though about to collapse.
“I can’t see ahead.”
“Because both your eyes were torn apart.”
“So that’s what happened. How inconvenient.”
“It’s fine. I can see.”
One of their two heads had both eyes slashed as though they had been shredded. The flesh on its face was gouged out in several places as well.
The other head was in relatively better condition, but it was hardly unharmed. Its nose had been completely crushed, and one ear had been torn off.
“It’s a mess. What a complete mess.”
“It’s because of that old monster Chaesan.”
“Right! That damned old bastard Chaesan!”
“I told you not to shout.”
The blinded head, unable to calm their anger, muttered weakly.
“What do we do now?”
“It’s fine. Neither of us is in good condition, but we just need to get one more. We already have someone in mind, don’t we?”
“Ah, right. That snake.”
“Yes.”
The head with both eyes intact licked the blood around its mouth, its eyes gleaming.
“That one isn’t an ordinary snake. Setting aside how clever it is, the fact that it escaped that chaos alive means it must have something special. It might even have an extremely precious Bloodline. Either way...”
“It’s good enough to become a third head.”
“Exactly.”
Thick drool dripped from both mouths.
Their body and mind had both been driven close to their limits, and the reins on the greed they had struggled to suppress finally came loose.
“Urgh!”
“Ghk!”
Sagaewan groaned and launched themself forward.
Compared to before, they moved no faster than a crawling turtle, but their direction was clearly toward the Cold River Plain.
Footnotes:
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