WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 16: Episode 3: Great Exorcist Order Entrance Exam (9)
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The first team’s examination began.
The moment the shackles came off, the demon convulsed at the sight of Kang I-tae, then threw itself in the opposite direction.
It did not get far. At the edge of the pattern on the floor, it crashed into an invisible wall and tumbled back.
“Kieeeek!”
A spiritual energy barrier. That was the true nature of the formation drawn across the floor. Neither the demon nor the applicants could leave it.
Seeing the demon shriek in terror, the applicants gathered their courage and crept toward it one cautious step at a time.
Even if they had not awakened spiritual roots, they had trained their bodies to the limit to enter Great Exorcist Order.
Once they surrounded it, the applicants swung their weapons together.
If they coordinated properly, a low-level demon like this should be easy to handle...
Slash!
Blood sprayed through the air with the sound of something being severed.
“Aaaah!”
Their confidence was repaid with a terrible scream.
The demon had slashed off the wrist of an applicant who had swung a weapon at it.
It then leaped toward the fallen applicant and fled again.
The applicant whose hand had been cut off collapsed on the floor, weeping and sniffling until they finally surrendered and were dragged outside.
“They’ll reattach it if you go to the Medicine Hall.”
The result was a complete failure.
The examiners rescued the injured applicants crawling across the floor, while Kang I-tae calmly placed the demon back inside the Ghost-Storing Prison.
The examinations continued.
Teams that included people who had awakened spiritual roots somehow managed to kill their demons.
Yet the claim that the true examination had begun was no exaggeration. Some applicants lost limbs, others were left with holes torn through their bodies, and one even died in a single blow.
“...They really died.”
The real problem began after that.
The death of another person was a tremendous shock to these young cultivators. Their bodies stiffened with tension before the examination even began, and injuries only became more frequent.
“I don’t think it’s truly random.”
The others turned toward Ise at his mutter. Their faces had grown stiff with tension, but his remarkably calm expression somehow eased their nerves instead.
“They’re still only low-level demons. Relax. A ten-year-old could kill those things.”
“You’re joking at a time like this...? Aren’t you nervous at all?”
Ise shook his head at Seolryeong’s question.
“The combined amount of spiritual energy in each team is roughly proportional to the demon’s aura. It seems to be a spirit artifact that selects demons suited to a team’s level.”
“Wait, then we...”
Seolryeong’s face went pale at his words.
“Even so, there must be a limit.”
The highest number on the die was fourteen. Every demon they had seen so far had been a Grade Nine, low-level demon.
Their opponent would probably be among the strongest of the Grade Nine demons.
“Next. Ise, Hae Unchan, Seolryeong, Pi Garam.”
The Spell Bell die spun through the air.
It landed on fourteen.
Just as expected.
The creature trapped inside the Ghost-Storing Prison looked like a monkey, with gleaming eyes, blue skin, and a red mane.
“An Eye-Light Demon.”
An Eye-Light Demon. An eighth-grade demon.
“It’s a Lust Demon!”
Seolryeong recoiled in disgust after recognizing it. It was bad enough that their team alone had drawn an eighth-grade demon, but they had to get such a vile one.
“It looks weak.”
“It’s far more troublesome than the demons we’ve seen so far. It’s aggressive too.”
“Kiek! Kieeek!”
As Ise had said, the Eye-Light Demon was not frightened like the others had been. Even in shackles, it thrashed and snarled threats the moment it emerged.
Its gaze flew toward Seolryeong and locked onto her.
“Seolryeong, be careful.”
“I’m already planning to try again next year if things go wrong.”
The Eye-Light Demon’s other name was the Lust Demon. Whenever men and women were together, it would always charge for the woman first, shamelessly using its claws to rip apart clothing.
It was one of the few demons known to violate humans.
People even said that if a woman bathed alone in a pond, an Eye-Light Demon would surely appear.
Its red, gleaming eyes swept over Seolryeong’s body.
“Ugh... That’s creepy.”
Seolryeong shuddered.
“Its weapons are its speed, sharp claws, a thundercloud that calls down lightning, and blade-like wind attacks from a distance. Stay calm.”
The others looked at Ise in surprise as he rattled off information the instant he saw the demon.
As they took their positions and gripped their weapons, Ise explained the demon’s traits in greater detail.
Then the Eye-Light Demon’s shackles came off.
With a shriek, it shot forward in an instant.
Hae Unchan and Ise leaped to meet it at the same time.
Hae Unchan’s sword, filled with spiritual energy, and Ise’s hatchet came at it from opposite sides.
The Eye-Light Demon’s figure vanished in a blur, and it slipped past them both.
An arrow flew toward its body, but it knocked the arrow aside with its claws and charged straight at Seolryeong.
Seolryeong cried out and swung her ritual staff, only for the Eye-Light Demon’s claws to strike it and fling her into the air.
Just as the demon reached toward Seolryeong, Ise closed the distance and smashed his hatchet into the Eye-Light Demon from behind.
A tearing screech, like iron scraping against iron, rang out.
While the Eye-Light Demon blocked Ise’s hatchet with its claws, Hae Unchan rushed in like lightning and kicked it flying.
“The hardness of its claws is about the same as black iron. Be careful.”
The Eye-Light Demon shrieked wildly.
It clearly did not like the two men standing between it and Seolryeong.
A moment later, black smoke began to rise from its mouth and float in the air. It looked like a dark cloud.
The cloud moved slowly at first, then quickly drifted above Ise and Hae Unchan.
“Move!”
Ise threw himself aside with a shout, and Hae Unchan instinctively rolled in the opposite direction.
A small bolt of lightning struck where they had been standing. The ground blackened and charred.
Then, as the Eye-Light Demon flailed in midair, blade-like winds shot toward Seolryeong.
Seolryeong hurriedly spun her ritual staff to block them, but her clothes were cut in several places, and blood began to flow from her wounds.
If Pi Garam had not quickly covered her with arrows, she might have suffered a fatal injury.
“It’s targeting Seolryeong with frightening persistence. Want me to give you something to cover up with?”
Hae Unchan’s clothes were in even worse condition. His upper body was practically bare, showing off his muscular, sun-bronzed skin.
Rather than answer, Seolryeong tore a strip from the lower hem of her robe and tied it around herself.
“I’m fine. It’s not like that much got torn. You should fix your clothes first. I’m embarrassed just looking at you. Anyone would think the Lust Demon was after you.”
“...It’s not that bad.”
“Enough. Let’s buy time around Seolryeong and create an opening first.”
At Ise’s words, the other three moved around Seolryeong as though shielding her.
“Its weakness is fire-aspect arts. Do you have any related spirit artifacts?”
As a shaman, Seolryeong should have quite a few spirit artifacts.
“I have a Fireball Talisman. It has three charges.”
Just as he expected.
They were basic fire-aspect attack talismans. Three should be enough.
“Hae Unchan, take the lead and face the Eye-Light Demon. Pi Garam, prepare the formation you mentioned before. I’ll cover Seolryeong. Seolryeong, maintain your focus as much as possible. When I give the signal, launch the fire.”
He had no intention of using the Vein-Severing Blade.
It was an artifact worthy of being called a sacred relic. Showing off something so valuable before this many people could invite someone’s envy.
Mongryeon’s teachings had stayed with him, even her ordinary nagging.
Hae Unchan bravely rushed out to meet the Eye-Light Demon. His sword remained in its black scabbard.
At his realm, he could not fill a weapon with spiritual energy. He would be better off fighting barehanded and barefoot while channeling spiritual energy through his body.
Ise blocked the lightning and wind blades launched from a distance with his shield.
It was the same shield that had blocked the attacks of a sixth-grade demon.
It was an ordinary shield, but its durability was good enough for it to be called a spirit artifact.
He might have looked as though he was succeeding through superior equipment, but the examiner himself had said they could use any means or methods they wished.
The equipment they had prepared was part of their strength.
The Eye-Light Demon seemed to decide that Hae Unchan was the greater nuisance and turned its assault on him.
Hae Unchan was gradually pushed back, and one wound after another appeared on his body.
“Fire!”
When Hae Unchan was suddenly driven into danger, Seolryeong’s talisman erupted with fire and saved him.
Once Ise confirmed that Hae Unchan had pulled back for a moment, he asked Pi Garam, “The formation?”
“It’s ready.”
Pi Garam’s formation was completed at just the right time.
“Hae Unchan! Fall back!”
Beginning to struggle, Hae Unchan flung himself sideways.
The Eye-Light Demon immediately charged for Seolryeong.
That was the space they had deliberately left open.
The sealing formation beneath it lit up.
The Eye-Light Demon’s body stiffened for an instant.
“Fire!”
The second blast of flame came roaring in.
As the Eye-Light Demon struggled to escape the fire, Ise used Dokkaebi Steps to close in on it.
A fireball flew at it from one side. A human approached from the other.
Whichever it chose, it would leave itself exposed.
The Eye-Light Demon’s shining eyes rolled frantically.
In the end, it chose the human, who seemed more dangerous.
As Ise approached, the Eye-Light Demon ground its teeth and reached out.
Pi Garam’s skill was not yet sufficient, so the formation had failed to restrain it completely.
Boom!
Its claws crashed into Ise’s shield, and the overwhelming force knocked the shield away.
But the fire that had struck its body began to spread.
Ise reached out to seize its writhing body.
“Watch out!”
The shouts of his companions hit his ears all at once.
He did not pull his hand back.
The demon had no way to put out the fire. If they took their time and hunted it down slowly, they could kill it more safely.
But what mattered to Ise was standing out.
He needed an overwhelming performance, enough to rank first or second.
So he had to kill it with this strike.
In that fleeting instant, time seemed to stretch out.
Ise sent his intent toward the spiritual energy and demonic qi flowing through his body as though ordering them to move.
Stretch out.
Even if you refuse to move, I will. And if I die, you will lose your master and fade away in the end.
As though responding to that fierce will, the spiritual energy and demonic qi raced each other toward his fingertips.
Ise grabbed the Eye-Light Demon’s arm. The moment their flesh touched, the two energies crossed over and clung to the demon.
The monkey-like demon convulsed as though it sensed that something had gone wrong.
Ise’s hatchet came down like lightning and bit into the demon’s flesh.
Crunch!
The hatchet buried halfway into the demon’s neck. Ise put all his strength into it once more and drove it down.
Slash.
At last, the Eye-Light Demon’s head fell to the ground and rolled away.
In the silent arena, only Ise’s breath escaped in quiet bursts.
He raised his slightly slumped shoulders and steadied his ragged breathing.
Looking around, he saw his teammates staring at the demon that had been killed far too quickly.
Ise stared intently at his left hand, the one that had dropped the shield.
He reflected once more on the realization he had found in the middle of battle, a realization that had carried him beyond the wall he had been unable to cross.
Recognize the qi within him.
Fill it with will.
Control it as he desired.
Golden spiritual energy swirled across his palm, then vanished. In its place, black demonic qi appeared, rough and possessive as though jealous, before it too faded away.
Second Star of the Qi Condensation Realm.
He had crossed the stage that had troubled him for days in a single bound.
A feeling close to pleasure rose from his heart, one that he could not explain.
Someone might ask why he was making such a fuss over reaching the Second Star of the Qi Condensation Realm.
Yet for Ise, this was the first growth he had achieved without anyone’s help.
It felt like a small step, yet a tremendous one.
Ise lifted the Eye-Light Demon’s severed head high, still impaled on his hatchet.
The bizarre display left every onlooker staring in horror.
Footnotes:
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