WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: WeTried Translations

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 60: The New Master of Black Shark Island

──────

Rain of Fire.

Each falling fireball was smaller than a knuckle.

Yet this was no ordinary flame. It was fire formed from the demon power of a Great Demon Beast.

The Qi Refining cultivators felt intense dread and fear at the falling fireballs. They were too busy trying to evade them to even consider attacking or blocking them.

But rain was not easy to avoid.

Especially not rain of fire that burned everything it struck.

“Argh!”

Jegyeong's Fire Rain Technique, his heavily modified version of the Spirit Rain Technique, was not a particularly practical technique.

It consumed a great deal of power for uncertain results.

A wide-area rain of powerful fire looked impressive, but its actual might was not that great. It would be a disaster for those below the caster's realm, but against opponents at the same realm or higher, it was hard to expect any effect beyond spectacle.

At this moment, though, Jegyeong's Fire Rain Technique was a disaster for everyone on Black Shark Island.

Nine out of ten people caught within its range failed to survive. Only those who barely escaped beyond its reach managed to save their lives.

Gong Byeok-un, Hall Master of the Black Sect Hall, was enraged by the horrifying scene, yet he had to keep throwing himself aside to avoid the rain of fire pouring down like a downpour.

Ordinarily, a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator like him would not have needed to look so pathetic.

He could have wrapped his body in Dharma Power, defended himself with a Dharma Artifact, or scattered the demon power covering the sky. He could have carried himself like an expert.

But Gong Byeok-un was old, and his strength had declined far from its peak. He had suffered a minor injury during Jegyeong's surprise attack at Black Shark Palace, then spent the entire time afterward playing hide-and-seek without rest. His stamina had been greatly drained.

As he was now, he could neither dispel this rain of fire nor block it easily.

So he had no choice but to run.

“I'll give you this much. You're good at running away!”

Jegyeong laughed loudly as he pursued Gong Byeok-un. When he saw the man's expression twist, his laughter grew even louder.

It was not because Jegyeong bore some deep grudge against Gong Byeok-un.

Jegyeong valued efficiency, and wasting his breath during a fight was far from his preference.

Even so, he mocked and provoked Gong Byeok-un because he wanted to shake his composure, if only a little.

Of course, such childish tricks would not have worked under normal circumstances.

Gong Byeok-un was an experienced Foundation Establishment cultivator, after all.

But his body and mind were both pushed to their limits. Mentally, he was watching the enterprise he had built over seventy years collapse before his eyes. Physically, his injuries and exhaustion were slowing his movements bit by bit.

Then he was subjected to such blatant provocation. Gong Byeok-un repeatedly told himself that he could not be drawn in, but Heartfire still surged within him.

That Heartfire kept gnawing at his mind, and for a brief instant, it disturbed his Heart State.

For Jegyeong, who had been waiting for even the slightest opening, that brief instant was the opportunity he had longed for.

Bang!

Jegyeong's fangs were blocked.

The same shield Dharma Artifact that had stopped his headbutt at Black Shark Palace blocked him again.

But it contained far less Dharma Power than before, and it lost its strength immediately after stopping Jegyeong's fangs.

“Ghk!”

Gong Byeok-un managed to pull himself away somehow, but the backlash from his Dharma Power still inflicted internal injuries on him.

Unlike at Black Shark Palace, this injury was not light. He even coughed up a mouthful of black, dead blood.

“Why don't you give up and make this easier on yourself?”

Jegyeong had consumed a great deal of demon power using the Fire Shadow Technique, but demon power was not essential to his fighting style.

His greatest weapon was his powerful body, not techniques.

Crash!

Every time Jegyeong moved violently, the ground split and buildings collapsed.

At first, Gong Byeok-un had tried to move through areas with as few people and buildings as possible while evading him. Now, he was struggling to escape without caring about any of that.

“Don't you understand? No matter how desperately you run, it won't mean a thing! You're only dragging out your suffering!”

It was a provocation, but it was also the truth.

Jegyeong was confident he could keep up this tedious game of chase all day, or even for several days.

But could Gong Byeok-un?

“Urgh!”

There was no way Gong Byeok-un had failed to consider what Jegyeong was thinking.

The fear that his life, along with everything he had built over seventy years, might come to an end was not something even a Foundation Establishment cultivator could easily cast aside.

In a battle where a moment's judgment decided victory, defeat, life, and death, such emotional turmoil was as deadly as having one's vital point pierced.

His clouded judgment stiffened his already sluggish body.

Even when a falling fireball descended above his head, Gong Byeok-un could not react. By the time he tried to move, it was already too late.

Boom!

Fire imbued with demon power wrapped around Gong Byeok-un's body.

The heat burned his flesh, and the demon power tainted his Dharma Power. To Human Race cultivators, the countless small fireballs falling from the sky were like poison.

“Ugh!”

The instant Gong Byeok-un's body stopped, Jegyeong did not miss the opening.

His gaping jaws swallowed Gong Byeok-un in a single bite.

* * *

Black Shark Island had once been lively, though it carried a somewhat rough and oppressive atmosphere.

In an instant, it became a hell of fire.

The rain of fire had stopped, but the gloomy sky filled with Demon Energy remained. More than half the island was engulfed in flames that refused to die out.

The surviving Black Sect Hall members fled to places the flames had not yet reached, but the fire was slowly spreading as though it would consume the entire island.

At this rate, they had only two choices.

Stay on the island and burn to death, or escape the island.

The latter should have been the obvious choice, but Water Demons could emerge from the water at any moment.

It would have been better if they had fled by ship when the Water Demons first attacked, but that was no longer possible. While they had entered the island on their Hall Master's orders, every ship docked at the harbor had been destroyed by the Water Demons.

“Ahh!”

The despairing Black Sect Hall members collapsed weakly.

Even with ships, their chances of finding a path to survival would have been slim. Without ships, throwing themselves into waters swarming with Water Demons would be no different from offering themselves up as sacrifices.

Helplessly, they looked up at the sky.

Cultivators who had sought to defy heaven and ascend the Immortal Path looked toward the very sky they had vowed to defy, searching for hope at the edge of despair.

Had Jegyeong seen this sight, he would have watched it with interest, as if it were a film.

Unfortunately, he had no time to watch this comedy.

Swallowing Gong Byeok-un so boldly had been all well and good, but what came afterward was the problem.

Gong Byeok-un may have been old and greatly diminished from his prime, but he was still a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Swallowing someone like that whole was bound to cause trouble.

The residual thoughts of a Foundation Establishment cultivator were not a problem.

An ordinary Demon Beast might have gone mad from the lingering traces of Dharma Power within those thoughts, or even vomited blood and died. But Jegyeong was a Great Demon Beast, so they posed no problem to him.

The true issue was the Dharma Power contained within the corpse.

The Dharma Power Gong Byeok-un had refined while alive was like an irritating foreign substance to Jegyeong. It would not threaten his life, but it left his stomach feeling heavy.

‘Fortunately, this Dharma Power contains quite a lot of fire energy. I should be able to digest it somehow.’

For a moment, Jegyeong wondered if swallowing Gong Byeok-un in one bite had been too rash.

The heavy feeling in his stomach was not the issue.

What bothered him was that he had gained nothing after fighting so hard. He had swallowed Gong Byeok-un's Storage bag along with his Dharma Artifact.

In his defense, the tense game of chase had gradually irritated him without his realizing it.

He had thought that if he missed that chance, he might have to continue the chase for who knew how long. So he acted without thinking things through.

‘Well... it's fine. It's only two Dharma Artifacts.’

The real prize was elsewhere, so it did not matter whether he gained a few extra spoils or not.

“Jegyeong!”

Cheongo flew over after realizing the battle was over.

“Is it all over?”

“Not all of it, but almost. What about the turtle?”

“Still keeping watch.”

As Jegyeong spoke with Cheongo, he frowned at Black Shark Island, which was turning into a sea of fire.

At this rate, it looked as though Black Shark Island would become a bare island covered in nothing but ash.

‘That won't do.’

What mattered to him was the Spiritual Land, not the island itself, but it would still be better if it looked decent.

It already seemed a little late, but Jegyeong belatedly began cleaning up the mess.

“Hup!”

He drew in the demon power from the fire spreading throughout Black Shark Island.

It had mixed with the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth for a short time, slightly altering its nature, but it was still fundamentally demon power that had originated from him.

When Jegyeong decided to reclaim it, the flames that had been spreading as though they would burn the entire island stopped expanding and were all sucked into his mouth.

It took only a few blinks for the demon clouds in the sky to disperse and every flame on the island to die out.

The Black Sect Hall members, who had been waiting in despair for death, could only gape at the unexpected change.

They were happy to have survived for the moment, but their hearts sank when they saw the enormous black jiao in the distance turning its head this way and that, as if searching for prey.

* * *

Population was a resource.

It was a truth that applied both to the world of his previous life and this Cultivation World.

Jegyeong gathered the surviving Black Sect Hall members in one corner of the island.

He stationed intelligent Water Demons in the water to ensure no one escaped, then planned to contact Gwak Jeongsin and see whether these resources could be sold for a suitable price.

‘It would be better to use them if I can... but that probably won't be easy.’

Absorbing and employing defeated soldiers who had fought a bloody battle until moments before would never be easy.

Especially when they were of a different race.

Rather than forcibly taking in troublesome people who would be difficult to control, Jegyeong hoped he could simply trade them for Spirit Stones.

Fortunately, Gwak Jeongsin flew over as soon as he received Jegyeong's message and met his expectations.

“There are quite a lot of them.”

Gwak Jeongsin's eyes gleamed once as he looked over the devastated Black Shark Island, then again when he saw the Black Sect Hall members crowded together in a corner of the island.

“For early Qi Refining, one lower-grade Spirit Stone each. For mid-stage, five each. For late-stage, twenty each. What do you think?”

“Sounds good.”

After completing the satisfying transaction, they began discussing the larger deal in earnest.

“As I told you before, I can handle matters on the Human Race side. But for that to happen, the supply of Fleshscale Fish must continue without interruption. That will be possible, correct?”

“Of course.”

Before Gwak Jeongsin arrived, Jegyeong had already ordered the turtle to search for schools of Fleshscale Fish.

The turtle had shown confidence as soon as it heard the description of Fleshscale Fish, so Jegyeong was not worried about the trade.

“I'm relieved to hear that.”

Seeing Jegyeong's confident manner, Gwak Jeongsin let out a sigh of relief.

Then he looked around Black Shark Island, where ash still drifted through the air, and sighed in wonder.

“I can't even imagine what this place originally looked like.”

There was one thing he could infer.

A fierce battle had taken place here.

Yet the one who had fought such a fierce battle looked almost too unscathed. That let Gwak Jeongsin glimpse just how extraordinary this enormous Great Demon Beast's strength was.

“Fellow Daoist. Now that you have become the master of Black Shark Island, do you have any plans? For example, concerning the nearby islands?”

“Hmm. I'm thinking about it.”

Three Frog Island, several other islands, and the people living on them came to Jegyeong's mind.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried