WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: WeTried Translations

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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 49: Murder and Seizing Treasures

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“Urgh.”

Battered by the violent current as he emerged from the vortex, Jegyeong let out another groan and spread his Divine Sense.

Yet even when it reached the surface, he could not sense the Auras of the Human Race cultivators.

Thinking he might have gone the wrong way, he spread his Divine Sense farther, but still could not find them.

Alarmed, Jegyeong spread his Divine Sense with all his strength once more. The result was the same.

‘What? Did they leave?’

How much time could have passed?

Well, now that he thought about it, it had taken a while... but they had come out here to work. Would they really return this early?

Could they have already been preparing to leave when he first saw them?

Uneasy, Jegyeong spat out the turtle.

“Ugh...!”

Having passed through the vortex and experienced the world spinning once more, the turtle could not regain their senses even after coming out of Jegyeong’s mouth.

“Turtle. The Human Race bastards are gone.”

This time, Jegyeong did not wait for the turtle to recover.

“Ugh... What? They’re gone?”

“Where do you think they went?”

“Uh...”

The turtle slapped their cheeks several times with their front flippers, then spoke with clearer eyes.

“Dragon Lord, as far as I know, there’s an island nearby that Human Race bastards often visit.”

“An island?”

“Yes. I don’t know exactly what kind of place it is, but could they have headed there?”

For now, there were no other clues.

He could choose a direction and move while spreading his Divine Sense, but the chances of finding them were low, and it would exhaust his mind too much.

“Where is it?”

The turtle immediately pointed in one direction.

* * *

The small island where tens of thousands lived was called Three Frog Island.

It had received that name because the three mountain peaks resembled crouching frogs.

Three Frog Island had a long history.

At first, it had been uninhabited. Aside from birds nesting there and beasts that traveled between land and water, there had been nothing on the island.

Then, around seven hundred years ago, fugitives from the Human Race first set foot there.

Those who had fled the Great Capital found the island while searching for refuge and settled there. That was the beginning of Three Frog Island’s history.

Over the next seven hundred years, Three Frog Island underwent many changes.

Human Race people continued to arrive for reasons the same as, or similar to, those of the first settlers. As the settlers built lives for themselves, the island’s population steadily grew.

As its population increased, the island developed as well. Though Three Frog Island could not be called a city, it had grown into a Human Race settlement on the scale of a large village.

Still, Three Frog Island had been founded by fugitives.

Combined with its location, it could not formally become part of Human Race territory.

For that reason, Three Frog Island had no choice but to deal with water bandits and others of their kind instead of the Human Race’s official factions.

It served as a harbor where they could dock and stay for a time, trading various goods with them in return.

Yet dealings with water bandits, especially when one lacked the ability to protect oneself, usually meant exploitation.

Those who could no longer endure it fled the island. Those without the courage to do so had no choice but to remain and suffer exploitation.

“...”

The boy Han Cheongyu stood on a hill above the harbor and glared at the water bandits sailing away in the distance amid loud commotion.

His bloodshot eyes held resentment and killing intent no boy his age should have possessed.

‘Damn bastards. One day, I’ll definitely...’

In the past, the boy’s father had tried to stop water bandits who were causing trouble in the village. His heart burst, and he died.

His mother, devastated by the sudden loss of her husband, wasted away from grief and died before a year had passed.

The boy’s resentment already reached the heavens, and his blade of vengeance had long ago been sharpened as keenly as it could be.

‘Those Black Sect Hall bastards!’

It was a tragedy, but the boy’s parents had still fared better than most.

At least they had died cleanly without suffering anything worse.

On an island like Three Frog Island, where there was no one to rely on and no strength to protect oneself, such things were common.

Black Sect Hall might have been more vicious, but the situation elsewhere was much the same.

The boy vowed that one day, he would wipe out not only Black Sect Hall, but every vampire-like bastard who oppressed the weak and sucked them dry.

“Huh?”

The boy’s blade-sharp eyes suddenly widened as he watched the departing water bandit ship.

For a moment, he thought his eyes had deceived him and rubbed them. The sight before him did not change.

The water bandits’ ship had suddenly collided with something enormous that burst from the water, shattering it in an instant.

Having lost their ship, the water bandits cried out in panic and leaped away, only to be met by a huge... dragon emerging from the water?

‘A dragon? Did I just see a dragon?’

The boy’s mouth fell open.

* * *

“Is this everything?”

The Human Race cultivator floating in the water, their face pale, hurriedly nodded.

They seemed to want to say something and even opened their mouth, but no sound came out. Jegyeong had not permitted the cultivator to speak.

“I’ll know once I check.”

Even the length from Jegyeong’s head, which rose above the surface, to his neck was enough for him to look far down upon those floating in the water.

His huge, long body beneath the surface extended in a circle around the surviving Human Race cultivators, as if enclosing them.

The Human Race cultivators looking at him were filled with despair.

Resistance was meaningless. It had been from the start.

A huge tail that suddenly shot out had split their ship cleanly in two.

Their ship was not an ordinary vessel.

To water bandits, a ship was their lifeline. Though their vessel was not Spirit Artifact-grade, it was more than fine enough to be considered a high-quality item. Anyone outside the trade would never know how many Spirit Stones had gone into this seemingly ordinary ship.

Leaving speed and other matters aside, it was sturdy enough to remain intact even when several Water Demons had hurled themselves at it at once.

Yet that ship had snapped in half with one blow. Naturally, the water bandits were terrified.

‘A Great Demon Beast!’

‘A dragon? Is it a Flood Dragon?!’

When they saw the giant serpent head, especially one with horns, they could no longer keep their reason.

They were cultivators, but they had never harbored, or even considered harboring, a heart that sought the Great Dao. They had simply learned cultivation methods however they could and gathered strength.

They were used to inspiring fear, not feeling it.

These water bandits were such people.

Some had cultivated as far as the late Qi Refining Stage, but the moment they saw a head resembling a Flood Dragon’s, they lost all reason.

“Hand over your storage bags.”

Jegyeong immediately got to the point.

Originally, he had planned to deal with the two late Qi Refining Stage water bandits first, then speak. Judging by their state, though, that did not seem necessary.

“H-he spoke?”

“Storage bags? He wants us to hand over our storage bags?”

Jegyeong did not give the water bandits time to panic.

He brought his head close to one of the late Qi Refining Stage water bandits.

“Uuuugh...!”

The water bandit’s eyes had widened at the fact that Jegyeong had spoken. Then, as the Aura of the Great Demon Beast washed over them at close range, their face turned white.

“This is the last time. Storage bag.”

“Ah, ah...”

Trembling, the water bandit raised one arm.

Jegyeong’s eyes gleamed when he saw the jade bracelet around the water bandit’s small, thin wrist.

“Good. Take everything out.”

Though they could not fully grasp the situation, the water bandits obediently followed their instinct to survive.

One of them tried to pretend they had nothing, perhaps out of greed. The turtle, which had been watching the scene unfold in the water, quietly moved beside them and shouted.

“Dragon Lord! This one is trying to deceive you!”

Jegyeong, who had been carefully collecting several storage artifacts with his tongue, turned his head.

The furry water bandit, trembling in fright, hurriedly took out the pouch tied around their thigh. But Jegyeong was already watching them.

“Keep them safe.”

“Yes!”

After entrusting the collected items to the turtle, Jegyeong approached the water bandit, who was belatedly holding up the dirty pouch with both hands as cold sweat poured off them like rain.

“I, I wasn’t trying to hide it...”

Crunch!

Jegyeong swallowed the water bandit in one bite before they could finish their excuse.

There was no scream, and no blood splattered.

The storage bag and cultivator both vanished into Jegyeong’s mouth without leaving a trace.

“...”

The terrified water bandits closed their mouths. The turtle, on the other hand, opened theirs.

The turtle opened and closed their salivating mouth. Jegyeong could plainly see what they wanted, but pretended not to notice.

Instead, he observed the changes caused by the Spirit and Flesh now inside his stomach.

‘As I expected.’

After reaching the Great Demon Realm, his Spiritual Essence had become stronger and purer. It seemed that even a mid Qi Refining Stage cultivator no longer provided him with any stimulation.

He had thought this was likely, so he was not particularly disappointed.

“Collect everything.”

“Yes!”

The turtle secured the Storage Bracelet around a storage bag, then wore the storage bag around their neck like a scarf.

It looked ridiculous, but the water bandits did not find it funny at all.

The gaze of the Great Demon Beast looking down on them had stolen every feeling but fear.

“Take out everything you’ve hidden! Anyone who dares deceive Dragon Lord will not leave unharmed!”

The turtle moved among the water bandits and collected their belongings one by one.

Aside from chattering in words they could not understand, the turtle handled the work quite satisfactorily.

“Dragon Lord, here they are.”

The turtle came over and showed him the items they had collected.

Jegyeong gave them a quick look. There were six in total.

“Take them and move back.”

“Yes.”

Once the turtle had retreated a good distance, Jegyeong moved his loosely extended body.

Even a slight movement raised waves.

The water bandits caught in the waves sensed their fate and wailed, but Jegyeong did not so much as blink.

It was only a matter of order. This had been the intended outcome from the start.

What would happen if he let them live?

Would they decide there was a Great Demon Beast nearby and never return? Or would they gather experts from their group to hunt the Great Demon Beast and search the area?

Whatever the case, Jegyeong did not want to leave behind even the slightest future trouble.

Once he had decided to hunt, he needed to finish it cleanly.

What would be the point of half-heartedly wounding prey and allowing it to escape?

Jegyeong dealt with the water bandits in an instant.

He handled the late Qi Refining Stage water bandits himself. Sweeping up the rest with the current was enough.

“This is your reward.”

He swallowed the two late Qi Refining Stage water bandits and left five mid Qi Refining Stage cultivators as food for Muk-su.

He gave all the rest to the turtle.

“D-Dragon Lord! For this kindness...”

The turtle’s mouth fell open, and tears even welled up in their eyes.

Ignoring the turtle, Jegyeong recalled what he had heard about using storage bags and tested whether he could put the five corpses he had collected inside them.

‘It works.’

They were only storage bags carried by Qi Refining Stage cultivators, so naturally, there were no seals or anything similar.

Capacity was the only concern. Fortunately or unfortunately, more than half of the water bandits’ storage bags were nearly empty, so storing five Human Race corpses posed no problem.

‘An unexpected harvest.’

The storage bags themselves were useful, but several of the things inside them also looked decent.

In particular, the belongings of the late Qi Refining Stage water bandits who seemed to be leaders included quite a few of the Spirit Stones he had only heard about. There were even Jade Slips.

Jegyeong knew that Jade Slips were the most common means of recording information in the Human Race’s Cultivation World.

He did not know what was recorded inside them, but if they had been kept separately like this, they surely contained something useful.

‘I only robbed a few water bandits, yet the harvest is this plentiful.’

He wanted to return to his nest as quickly as possible and inspect his gains.

“You worked hard.”

“How could this be called hard work? If I was able to offer even a little help to Dragon Lord, that alone...”

Jegyeong quickly cut off the turtle’s rambling.

“We’ll meet again later, if the chance arises.”

After saying goodbye, Jegyeong immediately entered the water.

He passed through the vortex once more, reached the bottom of the lake, and gathered all the unusual soil into the storage bags.

After confirming one last time that nothing was wrong, he carefully and slowly returned to his nest, taking care not to damage any of the items he carried in his mouth.

Footnotes:

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