WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: WeTried Translations
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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈
Chapter 82: Calamity Cultivator and Fugitive
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“Tsk. What a nuisance.”
Yang Yohyeon clicked his tongue.
He looked back and forth between the cultivator desperately fleeing toward them and the three cultivators pursuing him, a displeased look on his face.
Jegyeong felt much the same. Still, he watched both sides with a trace of curiosity.
“Calamity Cultivators?”
“That seems to be the case.”
Put simply, Calamity Cultivators were bandits.
Seomuso and Yang Yuwan, who had once attacked Black Shark Island, could also be considered Calamity Cultivators.
So Calamity Cultivators themselves were neither unfamiliar nor particularly remarkable.
Still, seeing a scene that felt strangely familiar unfold before his eyes left Jegyeong with an odd feeling.
“Stop! Do not come any closer!”
Yang Yohyeon shouted warily, and the other cultivator hesitated.
“Who are you? And who are those people chasing you? If you know we are from the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association, do not think of dragging us into your little game.”
“A little game? They are Calamity Cultivators! Do you think they will leave you alone after killing me?”
“They will have no choice. We are from the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association.”
This was the confidence only those backed by a powerful faction could possess.
Yang Yohyeon assumed that neither the man before them nor his pursuers had any notable backing. Even if he was wrong, it did not matter. Across all of Yangseo Lake, there was no faction that could ignore the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association's flag.
“So if you wish to live, you would do better to flee than waste time throwing a pointless tantrum here.”
Yang Yohyeon's expressionless face had the unyielding air of someone who would not bleed even if pricked by a needle.
“You... damn it!”
Perhaps the pale man realized that pleading with Yang Yohyeon was like shouting at a wall. He glared at him fiercely, then turned and began fleeing again.
One had left, but three soon arrived.
The ominous Aura radiating from their bodies seemed to proclaim that this was what a Calamity Cultivator looked like.
“The Spirit Talisman Merchant Association?”
They looked between the association's flag and Yang Yohyeon, who openly displayed the presence of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Their eyes shifted as they considered what to do.
“Let's catch that bastard first!”
Their deliberation was brief.
A middle-aged man who appeared to be the oldest took the lead, and the other two followed without complaint.
“Hoo.”
Jegyeong tilted his head when he saw Yang Yohyeon sigh in relief.
“Can the Ship-Protecting Formation not stop them?”
“I do not know. It could hold them off for a while, but it cannot continue forever. The Ship-Protecting Formation was not installed with a prolonged battle in mind.”
Jegyeong understood at once.
In other words, the Formation Array was meant to prevent unexpected accidents, not for combat.
“Do you think they will return?”
Judging by the fugitive's condition, it seemed unlikely that he could shake off those Calamity Cultivators.
He would be caught soon enough. Would they return afterward to silence the witnesses?
“Perhaps. If they are confident, they will come. If not, they will not.”
Yang Yohyeon had displayed every bit of his presence earlier so they would not be taken lightly.
He wanted the Calamity Cultivators to leave after handling their business without touching the ship.
“Hmm.”
Jegyeong did not particularly care.
It would be fine if the Calamity Cultivators left, but he would not mind if they returned. There were two early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators and one mid-stage cultivator. They were not beyond his ability to handle.
Yang Yohyeon could take one while he took the other two. Would that not be enough?
There were also the crew. They would not be much help, but they could at least draw some attention.
‘...No. That is not right.’
His fighting instincts had begun rearing their heads whenever an opportunity arose.
Even when he could let something pass quietly with a calmer frame of mind, he tended to bare his fangs first and solve matters with force rather than words.
This change was related to his improving cultivation.
More precisely, his ever-strengthening Bloodline was changing him.
Jegyeong guessed this was the nature of the Demon Race. Regardless of his will, the Demon Race body he had been born into was steadily making him more ferocious.
Yet in most situations, it was better to keep a cool head.
Jegyeong knew that well, so he tried to remain cautious in all things.
This time was no different.
Still, having maintained his transformed state for too long meant that the instincts of a Great Demon Beast were slowly trying to suppress the reason he had possessed in his previous life as a human.
“Then let us continue onward. Whether they return or not, we should keep going.”
Yang Yohyeon inwardly shook his head as he watched the unruffled Jegyeong.
‘Is he that confident?’
Many rumors circulated about the black jiao of the Black Jiao Waters, but no one knew its exact realm.
The Demon Race's cultivation system was not as clearly divided as the Human Race's. Thus, people could only make rough guesses based on his achievements, and since the Demon Race's battle strength often did not correspond to its realm, even those guesses were far from accurate.
Returning to the matter at hand, the black jiao before him had an impressive record.
Every cultivator who had lingered around Black Shark Island had either been killed or driven away by him.
‘I do not know.’
Yang Yohyeon understood it intellectually, but it did not truly feel real.
Perhaps it was because of Jegyeong's current appearance.
There was no presence or Aura to be felt from him, making it easy to forget that he was a fierce Great Demon Beast.
* * *
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the Calamity Cultivators did not return.
Yang Yohyeon did not know whether it was because they had not yet caught the fugitive or because they were wary of the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association's flag, but he sighed in relief regardless.
“This is far enough. I will make my own way from here.”
Once the ship had roughly entered the Demon Region, Jegyeong said his farewell.
“Will you be all right?”
“Of course.”
Jegyeong lightly leaped from the bow.
His body rose into the air, then transformed in an instant into a gigantic snake.
No, to Yang Yohyeon and the other members of the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association, he did not look like a snake. He looked like a Jiao Dragon.
Two enormous horns.
Scales as black as though they had been drenched in ink.
A massive body wrapped in those scales.
Bang!
His enormous body, well over one hundred and fifty meters long, plunged into the water and sent violent waves surging in every direction.
The force was so overwhelming that Yang Yohyeon immediately ordered the Ship-Protecting Formation activated.
“A Jiao Dragon...”
Someone muttered in a dazed voice.
Yang Yohyeon did not mock them.
He felt much the same.
When he heard terms like Jiao Dragon and black jiao, he had honestly felt little. He had only vaguely assumed that Jegyeong was a special and impressive Great Demon Beast.
But after witnessing his majesty in person, he understood what those words meant.
Why the merchant association valued this being.
Why Jegyeong had remained so relaxed even when they encountered Calamity Cultivators, including a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, a few days ago.
‘Not all Great Demon Beasts are alike.’
Yang Yohyeon recalled the few Great Demon Beasts he had seen before.
Compared to the black jiao now vanishing into the distance amid towering waves, none of them seemed worthy of calling themselves Great Demon Beasts.
Jegyeong, meanwhile, had no idea how tumultuous Yang Yohyeon's thoughts were.
He was too busy enjoying his sense of liberation.
His Transformation Technique had already reached a high level, and he had grown accustomed to maintaining his transformed form. Yet no matter how skilled and accustomed he became, he could not completely eliminate or suppress that sense of rejection.
It remained the same even when he maintained his composure and drank Spirit Wine.
Jegyeong guessed that to overcome this rejection completely, he would need to reach the Demon King Realm and formally undergo the Transformation Tribulation.
But that was a matter for the distant future.
For now, and for a long time to come, Jegyeong had no choice but to struggle with this discomfort.
‘Fine. Once I return this time, I will not be coming out for a while.’
It was not only that he did not want to come out. Even if he wanted to, there would be no reason to.
The auction had thinned the purse he had fattened over ten years. What would he come out for now?
Bang!
Jegyeong rammed straight into a Water Demon that had drifted into his path without the sense to move aside.
In truth, it had not been lingering in his way. Its body had simply been too sluggish for it to escape in time.
Still, the unfortunate Water Demon was launched from the water and sent soaring high into the sky.
After venting his frustration, even the last of his pent-up irritation faded.
Only then did the ferocity vanish from Jegyeong's eyes, and clarity return.
‘Hm?’
Jegyeong had been cutting through the water for some time when he sensed a faint Aura within his Divine Sense and narrowed his eyes.
It was so faint that he would normally have ignored it and passed by.
Yet Jegyeong found it familiar, so he focused on that faint Aura.
‘This is...’
He soon realized it was the Aura of someone he had encountered several days ago.
Unless he was mistaken, it belonged to the Foundation Establishment cultivator who had been fleeing from the Calamity Cultivators.
‘What happened?’
The man had already been seriously injured then, and his Aura had been faint even at the time.
But this Aura was not simply faint now.
It was so weak that it seemed ready to vanish at any moment.
For an instant, Jegyeong suspected that the man was already dead or using a Qi Concealment Technique.
‘Either way, it does not matter.’
His interest was piqued.
He checked whether the Calamity Cultivators were nearby, but even after extending his Divine Sense to its limit, he could not sense their Auras.
Once he confirmed that nothing threatening was nearby, Jegyeong immediately followed the faint Aura.
It came from far below, almost at the bottom of the river.
‘Is he hiding? Or is he really dead?’
The water here was quite deep.
Even moving at top speed, Jegyeong had to descend for some time.
‘There he is.’
Jegyeong found a rocky area that resembled a mountain range.
The faint Aura came from deep within it.
Having located his target, he used the Qi Concealment Technique and approached slowly and carefully, without stirring even the slightest ripple.
‘That is...’
Jegyeong soon found what he had been looking for.
It was the fugitive he had seen a few days ago.
His condition was far worse than before. If Jegyeong had not seen his chest rise and fall slowly, he would have assumed the man was already dead.
Yet it was not the fugitive's miserable state that caught Jegyeong's attention.
It was the large water droplet containing him.
No, more precisely, it was a jellyfish shaped like a water droplet.
‘A Water Demon? No, a Dharma Artifact?’
It gave off neither Demon Energy nor any other Aura, which made it difficult to call it a Demon Beast.
Yet its appearance, expanding and contracting as if breathing, made it equally difficult to call it a Dharma Artifact.
One thing was certain. Whatever it was, Demon Beast or Dharma Artifact, it was keeping the fugitive alive.
‘Interesting.’
Jegyeong's eyes glinted as he slowly approached.
Even when he came right before it, the water droplet-like thing showed no reaction.
‘It is alive. Definitely.’
He could not be certain from afar, but after examining it closely, he knew.
This water droplet-like creature was undeniably alive.
He simply could not tell whether it was a Demon Beast or something else.
‘Hmm.’
As Jegyeong circled the water droplet-like creature, the man inside, who had barely been breathing, seemed to sense something and trembled.
Then, when he managed to open his eyes, he saw a vertical pupil larger than his torso.
“Ghk!”
His barely opened eyes rolled back. Blood burst from his mouth as it fell open in terror.
At the same time, his faint breathing stopped completely.
Footnotes:
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