WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 176
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At least for now, Ise decided to focus on the enemy before him and flew toward the nearest location.
The first Core Formation Realm demon had been found in the middle of an abandoned village after the evacuation was complete.
Six Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators had been unable to flee and had become cold corpses there.
Ise stopped in midair. His gaze fixed on the six bodies.
“...”
Seeing cultivators' corpses was nothing new to him.
Yet what caught his attention was the manner of their deaths.
The traces on the bodies showed that all six had chosen to stand and fight rather than run.
Even knowing that choosing battle meant death, they had blocked an opponent a major realm boundary above their own.
He did not know why.
Perhaps they had wanted to protect someone. Perhaps they had fought for the faction they belonged to. Or perhaps they had been driven by desire for a fortuitous encounter.
If he had chosen to warn Ilgwang Island of the disaster in advance, they would have survived.
At the cost of countless mortals who had failed to evacuate in time.
In other words, his decision had sacrificed those capable of fighting in order to spare mortals incapable of fighting.
It was a decision that directly challenged the cultivation world's accepted belief that mortals were like insects crawling the streets, while those of higher realms were valued more dearly.
Had it been the right choice?
Did he have the right to choose who would die?
Faced with the corpses, those questions rose like a heart demon.
But his anguish was brief.
Whether he wanted it or not, the choice had been given to him, and he had merely decided according to his judgment.
It was not his place to determine whether it was right or wrong.
All he could do was choose, acknowledge it, and endure whatever condemnation came.
Grrrrr.
Sensing the contact between their divine senses, the Core Formation Realm demon revealed itself.
It was an Abyssal Mole-Mouse, its body more than twice the size of the Foundation Establishment Realm demons.
The fin-like mane bristling along its spine gleamed like blades, and the demonic qi pouring from its body rippled like heat haze.
It did not speak human language. The instant it saw Ise, it merely howled like a beast.
The demonic qi carried in that cry made the piles of rubble tremble.
Ise had no hobby of conversing with prey, so he did not bother speaking first.
Instead of a greeting, he sent the Clear Shadow Sword flying with the Telekinesis Art.
The Abyssal Mole-Mouse immediately avoided the sword and burrowed underground.
Ise shot upward at nearly the same instant the ground beneath him exploded.
He activated the Golden-Needle Ring, cast a defensive spell, and used the Wind-Riding Art all at once, yet even that could not outpace the creature.
Its rising claws only grazed him, but they tore apart both the Golden-Needle Ring's barrier and his defensive spell, severing one of his feet.
‘Brute.’
Ise regenerated his severed foot in midair.
Even as the Regeneration Art wove new flesh, his eyes tracked the demonic qi beneath the ground.
‘Stay calm.’
He never thought he would lose.
They had exchanged only one move, but that had been enough for him to judge that he could subdue it.
The problem was that this was not the only enemy he had to hunt.
He needed to conserve his strength and minimize the loss of primordial qi.
He moved the battlefield to the prepared hunting ground.
Ise flew with the Wind-Riding Art, luring the creature after him.
Mistaking it for an attempt to flee, the greater demon proudly spewed demonic qi.
The demon pursued him relentlessly underground.
Once Ise reached his destination, he threw out a Formation Plate. The gates of the formation he had set up in advance opened, and lightning spread beneath the ground.
A monstrous cry thundered through the earth.
The Abyssal Mole-Mouse, which had been swimming underground, burst out while thrashing under the lightning.
The Clear Shadow Sword, carrying a Thousand-Pound Strike, slammed down onto its head.
Clang!
The Clear Shadow Sword caught on the thrashing Abyssal Mole-Mouse's claws and shattered.
It was a Foundation Establishment Realm sacred relic imbued with primordial qi, yet it had failed to leave even a scratch on those claws.
‘If I had the Black Phosphorus Axe, I could have smashed its skull.’
He was once again sharply aware of the absence of his main weapon.
The Abyssal Mole-Mouse charged like a boar, and Ise narrowly deflected its attack.
‘It needs to be weakened more.’
Wind Blades poured down like a shower.
Every blade that passed left another hairline cut in its hide.
Then Ise unleashed a mass of Foundation Establishment Realm Lightning Strike Talismans upon it.
The lightning exploding from the talismans seeped into its cuts and began eating away at its body.
Again and again, the Abyssal Mole-Mouse tried to escape underground to buy time to recover.
But Pi Garam's formation seared it every time it burrowed down, forcibly driving it back out.
With nowhere left to hide, the mole could only fight on land.
The Abyssal Mole-Mouse gave a massive roar and rapidly expanded in size.
The demon art made it seem as though a mountain had suddenly appeared before him, and Ise hurriedly raised his defenses.
Thud!
A gigantic forepaw slammed directly into him.
There was nowhere to evade. Ise's body was driven straight into the ground.
His qi and blood twisted throughout his body, and pain washed over him as bone and flesh shattered.
Thud, thud.
Its enormous paws pounded the ground as though tamping it down.
Ise immediately used the Earth-Escape Art and retreated deep underground.
As if to say that it was not the only one capable of moving freely through the earth.
Underground, Ise used the Divine-Sense Severing Art to break the Abyssal Mole-Mouse's divine sense into pieces.
Seizing that opening, he created a golden harpoon that pierced through the ground and ripped open the creature's belly hide.
At the same time, Ise burst out from the earth on the opposite side.
He spat out the blood-tinged saliva that had pooled in his mouth.
He would not give it time to recover.
Dozens of golden spears surged forward in succession.
Now that it had grown larger, it was easier to hit, and its hide seemed to have become softer instead.
Whoosh!
Screams followed one after another.
Its movements grew increasingly savage.
It no longer felt like fighting a boar, but an enraged bull.
Every time it struggled and swung its claws through the air, the wind pressure alone swept away trees and plants.
These creatures swam across land as though it were water.
Its body was so swift and powerful that Ise could not imagine how threatening it would have been in the sea.
But this was land, and a four-legged beast could do nothing to a bird in flight.
The Abyssal Mole-Mouse finally abandoned its enlarged form and returned to its original size.
It snorted furiously for a while, then gathered an immense amount of demonic qi.
For an instant, Order Lord Haeil's teaching passed through Ise's mind.
“Understanding the enemy's full strength, preparing for it, and having a means of your own to cut off their life. Only when all three are in place can you be certain of victory.”
He had identified its weakness through a juvenile specimen and spent six years preparing.
At last, he had acquired a means of his own to end the enemy's life.
Vwoooom!
Having gathered a vast amount of demonic qi, the Abyssal Mole-Mouse launched itself like a cannonball.
It was a desperate strike from an exhausted enemy charging in with its anger at a peak.
Ise did not miss the opening.
As though he had been waiting for it, he unleashed Vine-Root Bind and the Shadow Net Formation at once.
Tree vines rose from the earth, while shadows spread through the air.
Two different nets tangled around the creature's body from both sides.
The binding arts were quickly torn apart by the Abyssal Mole-Mouse's powerful body, but a moment of restraint was enough.
Because the real attack was hidden behind them.
The Wind-Gold Submerging Thread had been spread wide throughout the air.
When Ise clenched his fist, nearly invisible strands of dark light tightened like a closing net.
Threads of primordial qi pierced its hard shell.
They reached the Golden Core hidden deep inside its body and wrapped around the hard inner core as though gripping it.
The Abyssal Mole-Mouse's injuries healed in an instant.
But it had no way to drive out the primordial qi already wrapped around its Golden Core.
Sensing the threat, it struggled and hurled itself at Ise.
But Ise was already soaring high into the sky.
Light flashed in Ise's eyes, and the threads of primordial qi around the Abyssal Mole-Mouse's Golden Core tightened with a Creak.
Crack!
The Golden Core exploded. Immediately afterward, Ise descended like lightning and sheared through the Abyssal Mole-Mouse's neck with a hand strike.
Even amid a fierce battle, the outcome between cultivators could be decided in the blink of an eye.
* * *
At the canyon entrance to Hanjang Sect's headquarters, a fierce battle was underway to stop the endless waves of Abyssal Mole-Mice.
The Azure Dragon Hall members set up a defensive formation on one side of the canyon and helped hold the line, while Hanjang Sect's Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators took position on the other side and continued their desperate resistance.
The two sides fought across the canyon, each conscious of the other.
Yet the difference between them was as vast as heaven and earth.
Hanjang Sect suffered casualties without respite.
Limbs were torn away, fresh blood sprayed, and screams filled the air.
Fear began to spread among the cultivators amid that brutal war of attrition.
Fear consumed the mind and stiffened the body.
When the body stiffened, mistakes followed, and someone else was killed.
It was a vicious cycle.
Even their barely maintained defensive line was on the verge of collapse.
In contrast, Azure Dragon Hall held the line on the opposite side steadily, despite having fewer people.
This was the moment Ise's training showed its value.
Only then did the Hall members personally feel the results of that harsh training.
Had they faced this moment without enduring that grueling process, they too would have been terrified like Hanjang Sect's disciples.
Compared to the spells hurled by Core Formation Realm great cultivators with the resolve to die if struck, the claws of Foundation Establishment Realm demon beasts were practically gentle.
Their bodies did not stiffen from tension, but neither did they lower their guard.
They had burned into themselves, through tears of blood, the truth that carelessness in battle cost limbs.
Pi Garam's formation completely blocked the Abyssal Mole-Mice's specialty, their underground attacks.
Whenever one burrowed down only to be seared by the formation and forced back out, Hong Wonseo, Bisang, and Hwayeong's barrage of spells struck without fail.
Doksu, Eunbo, and Seolryeong's combat puppets held the front line.
The puppets formed a shield wall, while Eunbo and Doksu slipped through its gaps and drove the creatures back.
Shin Hyeon directed and coordinated the entire battle, preparing for unforeseen variables and dangers to the Hall members.
Among them, Doksu's performance stood above the rest.
Each time he swung the Gold Chain Staff, as tall as he was and carrying a Thousand-Pound Strike, an Abyssal Mole-Mouse was smashed into pulp and sent flying.
Even when their claws pierced his belly, he twisted his body to protect his Dharma-Flower Dantian, then seized their necks and tore them apart.
It was a rough, domineering style of battle.
“Doksu! Calm your heart and fight steadily!”
“Yes!”
At Shin Hyeon's shout, Doksu took a deep breath and ruthlessly struck an Abyssal Mole-Mouse's head.
A deep breath alone could not make someone calm, but a dokkaebi clan warrior could not be restrained merely by telling him to hold back.
“It feels like I'm watching the Hall Master's younger days.”
Watching Doksu charge through the battlefield, Pi Garam spoke in admiration.
Back when Dokkaebi Hall had belonged to the Great Exorcist Order, the dokkaebi clan's battles had been famously ferocious. The rumors had clearly been true.
Just as the wave of demons finally began to subside.
The air beyond the canyon changed.
“It’s coming.”
A massive Core Formation Realm Abyssal Mole-Mouse appeared.
Its presence was so immense that the Foundation Establishment Realm demons looked like children beside it, and the Azure Dragon Hall members swallowed hard.
On the opposite side, Go Hu, the Core Formation Realm great cultivator and head of Hanjang Sect, rose into the air with a grim expression.
Late Foundation Establishment Realm elders supported Go Hu at either side.
“Can the head of Hanjang Sect win?”
Seolryeong asked. Shin Hyeon took a moment to choose their answer.
It was impossible to accurately gauge the realms of a great cultivator and a greater demon.
But judging from the pressure they gave off alone, Shin Hyeon believed it would be difficult.
“It will not be easy.”
Still, there was one fortunate point.
Foundation Establishment Realm elders stood beside Go Hu, while the greater demon's subordinates were pinned down by Hanjang Sect and Azure Dragon Hall.
The late Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators would make up for the lacking strength.
Shin Hyeon reinforced the defensive spell another degree.
If they were caught up in the battle between those two giants, casualties would surely follow.
The Hall members ignored the greater demon above them entirely and diligently held back the incoming Foundation Establishment Realm demons.
They seemed to entrust the battle's shockwaves entirely to their Deputy Hall Master, confident that Shin Hyeon would handle them.
That trust made Shin Hyeon's shoulders feel heavier.
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