Ophidian of the Immortal World - Chapter 64

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: WeTried Translations

◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 64: Harvest

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The last time Jegyeong had Molted was at the Spirit Spring, his former Spiritual Land.

At the time, he had needed strength to face Sagaewan, so he had forcibly brought the Molting forward.

Of course, that was only possible because the time for Molting had already been approaching. Jegyeong had merely hastened it a little, like running down a road he could have walked to arrive slightly sooner.

This time, though, he had no intention of doing that.

No matter how minor it might be, forcing a Molting early would still burden his body. It would also affect the changes that followed it.

And those changes would probably be negative.

So Jegyeong decided to let this Molting come naturally.

Nothing was urgent at the moment.

‘But... this feels strange.’

Jegyeong could sense the signs of Molting. He did not know exactly how far in advance he could sense them, but he estimated it was around a month.

Yet this feeling had come upon him without warning.

As things stood, he expected to Molt within five or six days.

‘It must be related to something I finished digesting. What was it? The Spirit and Flesh of a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator? A Dharma Artifact? Or the items in the Storage bag?’

There were too many possible suspects, and all of them could be wrong.

‘Still, should I run a simple test?’

He could not obtain a Dharma Artifact or a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator, but he had a fair number of Spirit Stones.

“Hmm.”

Jegyeong opened his Storage bag and took out several Spirit Stones.

Unlike Cheongo's nest, which only glittered painfully brightly, the Spirit Stones gave off an ancient, gentle glow. Jegyeong looked them over with satisfaction, then swallowed a lowest-grade Spirit Stone.

Gulp!

“...”

He felt nothing.

It was not simply because the Spirit Stone was as small as a speck of dust compared to his body.

“Hmm.”

Smacking his lips, Jegyeong turned his gaze toward the lower-grade Spirit Stones.

Unlike the lowest-grade Spirit Stone, which he had swallowed in one confident bite, he hesitated slightly when he took a lower-grade Spirit Stone into his mouth.

Still, it was only a brief hesitation.

He was now an aspiring rich man with the Black Jiao Waters in one hand and a school of Fleshscale Fish in the other. His purse was not so thin that he needed to worry over such a small expense.

Gulp!

Unlike before, Jegyeong calmly closed his eyes and waited, trying to sense a change.

After focusing all his attention inward and waiting for some time, he thought he felt something.

The sensation was so faint, though, that even with his concentration at its peak, he could not tell whether it was real or simply his imagination.

Jegyeong agonized over it for a while before finally opening his eyes.

Then he slowly turned his gaze once more.

“...”

This time, he hesitated much longer.

It could not be helped.

A mid-grade Spirit Stone.

Even though his purse had grown a little thicker, a mid-grade Spirit Stone was still a burden. It would be fine if it produced results, but if he had guessed wrong...

After hesitating for a long time, Jegyeong made his decision.

He did not want to be strapped for money in this life too.

His hesitation had been long, but he swallowed it boldly.

Gulp!

Expensive things had a reason for being expensive.

The quantity and quality of Spiritual Energy contained in a mid-grade Spirit Stone far surpassed those of a lower-grade Spirit Stone. Spiritual Energy burst outward from his stomach, spreading through his entire body and even reaching his Spiritual Essence.

At that moment, Jegyeong knew for certain.

‘This is it.’

His instincts told him that the time remaining until his Molting had shortened.

He had originally felt that five or six days remained. Now, three days seemed sufficient.

‘Did eating one mid-grade Spirit Stone shorten it by around two days?’

No, that was not all.

He had to count the lowest-grade and lower-grade Spirit Stones he had eaten before that as well.

‘This is incredibly inefficient.’

His insides stung, as if he had swallowed hydrochloric acid rather than a Spirit Stone.

“Haa.”

Still, he decided to look on the bright side.

Whether it was a secret or a principle, he did not know, but he had learned something about Molting.

For now, it was useless knowledge. Yet someday... someday, when he had Spirit Stones piled up like mountains, perhaps he would cultivate by scooping up handfuls of Spirit Stones and eating them.

* * *

With his Molting approaching, Jegyeong became curious about one thing.

What would happen if he Molted while in human form?

Would his skin peel away? Would something even more drastic happen? Or would nothing happen at all?

He was quite curious, but naturally, Jegyeong did not take such a risk.

For two days, he energetically patrolled his waters. On the final day, he obediently returned to Black Shark Island to rest.

Crack! Crack!

This Molting was different from the last one.

There was no pain and nothing unusual about it.

If anything, it felt refreshing, as though he had thrown off a set of suffocating clothes.

“Hmm.”

Once the Molting was complete, Jegyeong was about to shake his body violently out of habit when a thought made him pause.

Carefully, he pulled himself free and examined the skin he had just shed.

The shed skin of a Great Demon Beast nearly one hundred meters long gave off considerable pressure on its own.

Yet all Aura had vanished from it. It was, in the truest sense, only an empty shell, without any value.

Even so, Jegyeong lightly prodded it with his tail just in case. The enormous shed skin collapsed like a sandcastle.

‘No good.’

For a moment, he had hoped he might be able to sell it, but that was that.

The world was not so easy.

‘Still.’

Setting aside his slight disappointment, Jegyeong closely examined the changes after his Molting.

The changes were not especially large this time.

His body had grown a little more, going from nearly one hundred meters to clearly exceeding that length. The strength of his body had also increased.

Beyond that, his body, including his scales, seemed to have become somewhat more durable. Whether it had truly strengthened or whether he was simply caught up in the exhilaration of Molting, he would not know without testing it himself.

‘Not bad.’

A body well over one hundred meters long.

Would that not make him a heavyweight even among Great Demon Beasts?

Daehae, whom he had seen before, seemed to excel in close combat, but it was only around ten meters long.

‘No. Compared to that monster from Upper Demon Grove...’

Yungwon, was it?

According to Sagaewan, it had inherited the Bloodline of some grandly named Demon Beast called the Primordial Demon Ape. Compared to that monster, his current body could not be considered particularly large.

‘My growth is not finished, and I still have Molting ahead of me. Someday, I may be able to grow as large as that gorilla monster.’

Considering his fighting style, a larger body was practically the same as greater combat strength.

Besides, the larger he was, the easier it would be to pass himself off as a Jiao Dragon.

Boom!

With strength overflowing through his body, Jegyeong left Black Shark Island and resumed patrolling his waters.

* * *

Hyeon-gwi had finished gathering clams.

They had not searched every corner of the waters, but they had covered most of them.

The harvest was... decent.

It had not been a wasted effort, but neither had the results matched the work involved.

Still, Jegyeong was satisfied.

“Move the school now.”

“Leave it to me.”

Moving the school of Fleshscale Fish was simple, but labor-intensive.

Since it meant changing their habitat, it had to be done gradually over a fairly long period of time.

Even so, Jegyeong wanted the Fleshscale Fish school near Black Shark Island.

The best outcome would be keeping them within his sensing range. Even if that was not possible, he wanted them somewhere they would not catch the attention of troublesome creatures.

“Graaah!”

A monster that looked like a combination of squid and conch let out a booming shriek of rage and pain.

Several Water Demons that had not escaped far enough rolled their eyes back and either fainted or died from that single roar.

Yet Jegyeong did not stop chewing and swallowing one of its tentacles. He even mocked the creature with his eyes.

He had only torn off part of one tentacle out of dozens. It was putting on quite a performance.

Bang!

Jegyeong had just mocked it for exaggerating, but he could not mock this creature's combat strength.

The shell concealing its true body remained unmarked even when Jegyeong struck it with all his strength. Its dozens of freely moving tentacles were also quite troublesome.

They could not pierce his scales or injure him, but he still had to avoid the ones that came for his eyes.

Whoosh!

Taking advantage of the moment when the creature writhed in pain, Jegyeong opened the distance and drew upon his demon power.

Demon Flame covered his entire body in an instant, and Jegyeong charged at it once more.

Tentacles flew in from every direction, but they did not dare strike his body in the face of the Demon Flame's heat. They hesitated and pulled back.

“I only stopped by out of curiosity! Do we really need to take this so far?!”

Perhaps realizing things would not end well if this continued, the creature shouted urgently.

“What a coincidence. I was only curious about your flesh.”

“You lunatic! Are you determined to fight to the death?!”

Fight to the death?

Of course, Jegyeong had no such intention.

He had only decided to make an example of a creature that looked weak enough and seemed like a favorable matchup.

“Where do you think you're running?”

They continued fighting afterward.

In the end, the creature fled after six of its tentacles were burned away and three more were bitten off.

“Hmph!”

Jegyeong glared after it as it fled, then turned around.

He could have pursued it if he wanted.

He had expended a fair amount of strength, but he was not injured anywhere. If he truly clung to the fight until the end, he could probably kill it.

But Jegyeong did not.

He did not know how far he would have to chase it to catch it, nor who he might encounter along the way.

It would be better to stop here and hope the fleeing creature spread the word.

“Congratulations on your victory, Dragon Lord!”

As Jegyeong caught his breath, Hyeon-gwi approached from afar, squawking loudly.

Hyeon-gwi's two wrinkled eyes sparkled as though stars were set within them, while their short tail wagged wildly like a dog's.

Seeing Hyeon-gwi express such respect and awe with their whole body, Jegyeong let out a small laugh.

“Now that that cunning creature has properly tasted defeat, it will not dare approach the Dragon Lord's territory again.”

“I hope so. More importantly, is the work finished?”

“Yes! The Fleshscale Fish have all moved to the place you mentioned, Dragon Lord.”

“Good.”

It had taken a very long time.

While Hyeon-gwi moved the Fleshscale Fish school, Jegyeong had needed to keep patrolling the waters. His efforts had not been small either, even if they did not compare to Hyeon-gwi's work of moving clams and guarding the Fleshscale Fish.

But that hardship was over now.

“You must continue guarding the school well. There is no one but you that I can trust with it right now.”

Hyeon-gwi's mouth fell open at those words.

The stars shining in their eyes seemed to grow at least half again as bright.

“I will certainly live up to the Dragon Lord's trust!”

“Mm. I trust you.”

With a few words, Jegyeong raised his trusted subordinate's morale to its peak once more. Then he returned to Black Shark Island with his weary body.

“I have waited a long time for this.”

Jegyeong, transformed into a Human Race form, stood before a large tree.

He glanced at the branches swaying as if greeting him, then looked at the several plump fruits hanging from them.

Perhaps it was only his imagination, but their color seemed better than the last time he had seen them.

“Come on. Bring it here.”