WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: WeTried Translations

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 83: Beast Taming Platform, Fierce Beast

──────

‘Hmm...’

Jegyeong let out a low murmur as he looked at the former fugitive, who had become a corpse in an instant.

It was not because he pitied the man, but because of the lingering thoughts the man had released the moment his eyes rolled back and he breathed his last.

The Dharma Power that spread like a lingering echo carried the injustice and fury he had felt.

Such lingering thoughts would not have much effect on cultivators of the same realm.

When Jegyeong had swallowed Gong Byeok-un, Hall Master of the Black Sect Hall, whole before, the man's lingering thoughts had exploded as well. Yet Jegyeong had only experienced a brief shift in mood.

This time was different.

The lingering thoughts had a considerable effect on him.

The surging anger and directionless resentment felt similar to the suffocating fury that had risen to its limit while he was in his transformed state.

“Hoo. Hoo.”

Each rough exhale was a massive, violent blaze.

The fire energy born from his Spiritual Essence had already taken deep root throughout his Spirit and Flesh. It would not have been an exaggeration to call him a fire-aspect Demon Beast.

A single drop of his blood was hotter than boiling water, while his breath could cook ordinary creatures in an instant.

Jegyeong moved far away from the strange droplet-like thing to calm his emotions.

He did not know whether it was a creature or an object, but it did not seem ordinary either way. If he could take it, he intended to.

‘How much hatred did he harbor?’

After getting his emotions under control, Jegyeong looked at the corpse within the droplet differently.

The man had clearly been at the early Foundation Establishment stage. By cultivation alone, he had been below even Gong Byeok-un.

Yet the emotions he held until his death had been stronger than those of anyone Jegyeong had seen so far.

He did not know where such vicious feelings had come from.

They might have been resentment toward the Calamity Cultivators chasing him. They might have been regret over the Immortal Path he could not finish walking. Or they might have come from something else.

‘This thing...’

Jegyeong examined the droplet-like creature once more.

‘It isn't a Demon Beast.’

He had reached that conclusion because it showed no reaction even with him before it.

If it were a Demon Beast, it could not remain completely unresponsive with a Great Demon Beast right in front of it.

The same applied not only to Demon Beasts, but to any other living creature.

Still uncertain, Jegyeong opened his Storage bag.

If it was not alive, he should be able to store it inside. He wanted to test it.

Yet the Storage bag, which could easily hold Spirit Stones and even boulders as large as a person, remained silent.

‘It's alive.’

Jegyeong came to his conclusion.

‘But it doesn't seem to possess Spiritual Intelligence. In terms of intelligence alone, it seems worse than an ordinary beast.’

The strange creature had piqued his curiosity, but Jegyeong did not forget what came first.

The dead man had been chased by three Calamity Cultivators.

Had he completely shaken them off? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Still, if the man had made it this far, could the Calamity Cultivators not do the same?

Jegyeong did not think they could reach this deep, but one could never be certain. They might have special means of their own, like this strange creature.

He wanted to avoid becoming entangled in dangerous and troublesome matters whenever possible.

That meant leaving this place, where he might encounter the Calamity Cultivators, as quickly as he could.

‘Hmm.’

Jegyeong carefully pushed his head into the droplet.

His head entered without meeting any resistance.

The interior was far too cramped to fit even his entire head, so Jegyeong immediately transformed and landed beside the corpse.

He looked back and forth between the man's wide-open eyes and the Storage bag clenched tightly in one hand.

‘Rest in peace.’

Jegyeong closed the man's eyes himself and took his Storage bag.

He did not inspect what was inside. That could wait.

Instead, he searched the corpse to see whether anything had been hidden on it. Before long, he found a thin item wrapped around the corpse's left forearm.

‘What's this?’

Jegyeong had steadily learned all kinds of knowledge about the Cultivation World and seen countless Storage bags. The moment he saw it, he recognized the item as a spatial Dharma Artifact.

Considering the droplet floating like a balloon beside him, he guessed that the thin, cloth-like item in his hand was the Beast-Containing Pouch he had only heard about.

‘A good item.’

It was similar to a Storage bag in that both were spatial Dharma Artifacts, but the Beast-Containing Pouch was much rarer.

A Storage bag held objects, while a Beast-Containing Pouch could hold living Demon Beasts.

In theory, even a Great Demon Beast could be placed inside one.

Well, not just any Great Demon Beast. It had to be a Great Demon Beast bound by a soul contract.

Jegyeong looked briefly at the droplet-like thing, which might or might not have been a Demon Beast, then tried placing it in the Beast-Containing Pouch.

As far as he knew, that should not have been possible.

The cultivator who had formed a soul contract with it was dead, so its soul contract should naturally have disappeared as well.

Yet contrary to his expectations, the strange creature slipped into the Beast-Containing Pouch without the slightest resistance.

‘Just as I thought.’

The droplet-like creature was clearly alive, yet it did not seem to have thoughts of its own.

Without thoughts, it had no emotions.

Push it, and it moved. Press it, and it yielded.

Likewise, put it inside, and it went in.

‘I should examine it carefully later.’

That could wait as well.

For now, leaving this place as quickly as possible was the priority.

* * *

Despite his scorching blood and burning Spiritual Essence, Jegyeong still defined himself as a Water Demon.

Some might laugh and ask what kind of absurdity a fire-aspect Water Demon was, but it was the truth.

The fire energy born from his Spiritual Essence was the result of the cultivation he had accumulated after birth.

Breathing underwater and feeling at ease there, on the other hand, were traits he had possessed from the beginning.

As a Water Demon, Jegyeong enjoyed enormous advantages underwater.

His movements were not restricted like those of creatures on land. Supported by his exceptionally sturdy body, he could move freely through depths where most Water Demons would struggle even to approach.

It was an absolute advantage.

At the dark riverbed where he was currently traveling, Jegyeong was confident he could fight an enemy of a higher realm.

That was, of course, assuming the enemy was not a Water Demon.

Bang!

The enormous clam's teeth snapped together viciously.

That was right. A clam's teeth.

The giant clam, which was about half Jegyeong's size, possessed teeth as sharp as a shark's. Its shell even had eyes.

“Do you really want to do this?”

Killing intent flickered in Jegyeong's eyes.

An ordinary Water Demon would have fainted or trembled in fear the moment it met that gaze. Even a Great Demon Beast would have flinched for an instant.

The clam did not.

That was not because it was brave, but because it was simply stupid.

It could not distinguish the strong from the weak. It could not think.

It only followed the instinct to hunt and devour any living thing that moved.

There were quite a few creatures like that among the Demon Race, especially among Demon Beasts.

The Human Race had even given them a special name: Fierce Beasts.

“Raaah!”

Jegyeong had detected the creature early with his Divine Sense, but he had not paid it much attention. He had planned to pass by as though he had not noticed it.

Its Aura was not weak, so he had judged it would not be easy to deal with.

But if it insisted on starting a fight, that changed things.

Besides, he had not known from sensing its Aura alone, but after seeing it with his own eyes, he did not think dealing with it would be particularly troublesome.

This Great Demon Beast in the form of a clam, or perhaps this Fierce Beast, seemed to be the typical sturdy-bodied type.

Its weapons appeared to be its sharp teeth and crushing bite. Considering its greatest strength seemed to be its sturdy shell, those were rather ridiculous weapons.

Was that not so?

To attack, it had to open its shell and reveal its teeth. That naturally exposed the soft flesh inside.

To Jegyeong, the clam was quite a deformed creature.

At the same time, it was lucky.

If its home had not been in these deep waters, something would have eaten it long ago.

Whoosh!

Jegyeong's body was massive, but it was not slow.

At the very least, he could easily evade the giant clam's attacks.

In truth, Jegyeong did not think the clam's bite could seriously harm him.

If the clam's greatest strength was its hard shell, Jegyeong believed his own greatest strength was his sturdy body.

His body, which had undergone repeated Molting and received the baptism of Spiritual Essence, was a terrifying weapon in itself.

That was not arrogance. It was fact proven in battle.

When he had fought the Calamity Cultivators who came to Black Shark Island before, even being struck directly by a Dharma Artifact launched with his opponent's full strength had not left him with a single wound.

Of course, he had to consider that the Dharma Artifact had been somewhat poor in quality and that the cultivator's Dharma Power had already been more than half depleted at the time.

Even so, it was still terrifying.

‘But there's no reason to take an attack I can avoid.’

He was not a foolish beast that relied solely on his strength and charged straight into everything.

If he could fight more wisely and gain an advantage, why wouldn't he?

Whoosh!

Intense flames burst from his wide-open mouth.

Demon Flame saturated with demon power swept over the giant clam in an instant.

Through years of cultivation, Jegyeong had gained a deeper understanding of how to control demon power. As a result, he could use Demon Flame freely as well.

He could now release Demon Flame from his entire body, but breathing it out through his mouth produced the greatest power.

It also gave him greater control. As long as his demon power did not run dry, he could keep breathing it out.

Fwoooosh!

The endlessly pouring Demon Flame turned the cold deep waters into a sea of lava in an instant.

The giant clam could not think straight through the pain of being roasted alive.

It thrashed wildly, but Jegyeong had no intention of being struck by such futile struggles.

He calmly avoided the giant clam's attacks while continuing to breathe Demon Flame, burning it again and again.

“Gurgle!”

In some ways, this giant clam was worse than a beast. Even so, a Great Demon Beast was still a Great Demon Beast.

An ordinary Demon Beast would have turned to ash in an instant from the Demon Flame. Yet after being bathed in it for several whole minutes, the clam only writhed in agony and endured without dying.

But it had its limits.

Once the surroundings were swallowed by dense demon power and flames spread in every direction, the giant clam's tenacious life finally came to an end.

Its mouth, which had never fully opened even when it attacked, spread completely apart.

Jegyeong's eyes gleamed when he saw the golden-brown flesh within the wide-open clam and something sparkling at its center.

Footnotes:

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