WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 177
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The fourth Core Formation Realm Abyssal Mole-Mouse lost its head.
Half the hunt was now complete.
After finishing the spirit-sending rite, Ise paused to catch their breath.
They had a little over forty percent of their primordial qi left. They had used more than half of it already.
The problem was that there was no time to circulate their qi. Cultivators across the island were dying by the moment.
Ise had arranged in advance for the sect masters to notify Ise of victory, yet no word had come. They should have clashed by now.
‘Still, three of them should be fighting the Core Formation Realm great cultivators.’
Only one remained.
Ise's gaze turned toward a single spot.
A menacing presence poured out from beyond the reach of Ise's divine sense.
Rather than concealing its demonic qi, it had released it openly, as if calling for Ise.
Ise forced their weary body up and rose into the air.
Following that ominous demonic qi, Ise came face-to-face with its source.
The creature was at the shore, leisurely observing the situation as though it had no need to hurry with the hunt.
“So it's you.”
It looked identical to the other Abyssal Mole-Mice, but its size was overwhelming.
It had not been enlarged through a demonic art. Its natural body was twice the size of the others.
There was no need to infer that it was the leader of the demon horde.
‘Mid Core Formation Realm, perhaps even late Core Formation Realm.’
Even the range of its divine sense was fifty percent greater than Ise's own.
It was stronger than any enemy Ise had faced so far.
It could not be compared to the four Ise had killed before.
Thinking back on the other greater demons after seeing this creature, the title itself seemed wasted on them.
They had only just entered the Core Formation Realm, creatures that had lucked into that realm through their species' innate traits.
‘This one's the real thing.’
Ise looked down at the enemy and raised their presence.
The creature remained pressed low against the ground, silently meeting Ise's eyes.
Its gaze was not directed at prey, but at an enemy.
Core Formation Realm cultivators had an average lifespan of six hundred years.
As a long-lived species, it would live for at least eight hundred.
Ise did not know how many times it had attacked humans in its life, but it had probably never felt threatened as it did now.
Without looking away, Ise spoke in a casual tone.
“What, do you want to go home now?”
The creature openly sneered at Ise.
None of the demons Ise had encountered so far had seemed capable of conversation.
But this one clearly understood Ise's words and curled up the corner of its mouth.
It did not answer. Instead, the anger beneath its sneer was plain to see.
“Are you angry because the prey you meant to feed to your descendants harmed your descendants? Shameless demon bastard.”
The instant Ise finished speaking, the leader's scales all stood on end.
The flow of demonic qi twisted in an instant.
‘It isn't an offensive demonic art. What is it?’
Something had clearly happened just then.
The moment Ise thought that, an unbelievable sight unfolded before their eyes.
Seawater rose from the distant ocean and rushed toward the island.
It was a tsunami.
Ise nearly let out a curse.
A black wall of water blotted out half the sky as it surged toward the island.
Was it trying to submerge Ilgwang Island entirely?
Ise hurriedly cast a spell.
The ground rumbled as it rose.
Like building the Ten-Thousand-Li Great Wall in the Heaven-Demon Great Mountains, Ise raised an Earth Wall high and thick.
The soil compacted and hardened, then more earth piled atop it.
The area Ise had to block was too wide, and their internal qi drained away in great chunks.
Heat rose like a haze from Ise's entire body, overloaded by the abrupt expenditure of internal qi.
The tsunami raised by the demon beast collided with the wall built by a human.
Booooom!
The deafening sound seemed to overturn heaven and earth.
Even Ise thought the clash was absurd, but it was exactly the level of battle they had witnessed between Gwisusan and Hall Master Woo Yu-hui.
The Earth Wall could not withstand the impact and collapsed. Still, it somehow canceled out the tsunami's force.
Shattered water and earth mixed together and rained down everywhere.
Crash!
The Abyssal Mole-Mouse burst through the rain of debris.
Rather than dodge the leader's claws as it closed in instantly, Ise gathered primordial qi in their fist and thrust it forward.
Hand and forepaw collided.
The creature's forepaw burst apart. Ise's exceptionally aggressive primordial qi had proven its power.
Blood sprayed from the forepaw, torn apart along with its claws.
Then, at that very moment.
The raised scales shot outward like bullets. It was a demonic art called Scale Bullets.
There was no way to deflect the barrage unleashed at point-blank range. Scales embedded themselves all over Ise's body like thorns.
Then the deep-sea water qi contained in the scales spread through Ise's flesh, and the wounded areas began freezing solid.
Ise created a gale to open distance, melted the cold with a fire art, and forced the embedded scales out with their primordial qi.
Yet even when Ise used a regeneration art, their wounds would not close.
‘They won't heal?’
New flesh formed, only to scatter apart again.
The creature's demonic qi, embedded in Ise's wounds, was hindering their body's recovery.
It was the first time Ise had experienced being unable to heal at all.
Before Ise could recover from their surprise, the creature's left forepaw rapidly swelled and came crashing down at Ise as though swatting an insect.
Ise reflexively used the Wind-Riding Art and barely escaped, but the wind pressure swept Ise away like a fallen leaf.
Before Ise could regain their balance, a shockwave erupted from its mouth.
The air rang. Ise's cultivation robe tore, and Ise's skin was stripped away.
The relentless assault continued without giving Ise room to breathe.
Casting several spells at once was one of Ise's greatest strengths, but against such a threat, Ise did not even have time for that.
The moment Ise realized they could not heal, even devoting themself entirely to defense and evasion was not enough to avoid fatal injuries.
This creature was not some simple-minded demon beast that relied solely on its body to tear opponents apart.
It had to be regarded as a seasoned immortal cultivator who had fought countless battles.
Before Ise could finish the thought, the next attack came.
Lava streamed from one of its hands, a current of water from the other.
The two streams of fire and water twisted like snakes as they pursued Ise.
They were tracking demonic arts that turned each time Ise dodged and followed after Ise.
Ise condensed primordial qi and cut both streams in half at the waist.
The creature seemed not to have expected Ise to cut down an attack with another attack, and its offensive paused for the first time.
Ise did not miss that moment and counterattacked.
Wind Blades rained down at the motion of Ise's hand.
Ise, who had been desperately focused on defense until then, finally went on the offensive.
Vines from Vine-Root Bind wrapped around the creature's lower body.
While it raised its forepaws to block the barrage of Wind Blades, a huge golden spear took shape in the air.
The house-sized spear plunged down like a harpoon.
The Abyssal Mole-Mouse tore free of the vines and swatted at it with its forepaw. The golden spear flew aside and embedded itself in the ground.
Ignoring its half-split forepaw, the creature fired scales and shockwaves at Ise.
Attack and defense crossed in rapid succession.
It was a desperate battle of arts, like a game of Go, as both poured in all their strength and relentlessly sought the other's opening.
‘My internal qi won't last in a long battle.’
The primordial qi Ise had expended blocking the tsunami was the decisive problem.
In the end, impatience taking hold, Ise unfolded the Wind-Gold Submerging Thread they had saved as a trump card.
Invisible dark light covered the air and tightened.
But the creature had already sensed the threat and burrowed underground.
The dark light swept uselessly through empty space.
The writhing ground was a terrifying threat in itself.
Ise stopped fighting and retreated.
Ise intended to lure it toward the nearby formation hunting ground and seal off its Earth-Submerging Art.
But it did not follow.
It merely crouched deep underground and continued leaking its presence as a threat.
It seemed as relaxed as though time were on its side.
‘Clever bastard.’
Ise stretched both hands forward.
The entire mass of earth where the creature was hiding rose into the air.
The brutal spell, as though uprooting a mountain, drained Ise's internal qi like a waterfall.
Deprived of its hiding place, the Abyssal Mole-Mouse burst out as it shattered the clump of earth, and Ise rushed to meet it.
With Ise's internal qi drying up so quickly, they had to decide the battle, even if it meant taking risks.
Claws and fists collided.
The demon's forepaw, which had only just regenerated, burst apart again.
Blood Thorns extended from Ise's body, riddled with holes and stripped of skin, while Scale Bullets exploded from the Abyssal Mole-Mouse's body.
It was a vicious exchange, boring holes into each other's bodies at point-blank range.
It could not be called a battle between body cultivators, nor a contest of arts between spell cultivators. It was a brutal struggle for survival.
Ise's right shoulder took the entire barrage of Scale Bullets, became shredded beyond recognition, and then their arm fell off entirely.
In contrast, the creature barely managed to block even the sharply honed Blood Thorns.
But as Ise raised an Earth Wall, a single Wind-Gold Submerging Thread they had concealed in the gap flashed past and severed both of its ankles.
At last, the balance of power collapsed in an instant.
As the enormous body staggered and fell, Ise's hand plunged into its torso.
The Abyssal Mole-Mouse opened its mouth in one last desperate struggle.
Its jaws, trying to swallow Ise's entire head, closed in before their eyes.
Ise twisted their head aside, sacrificed half their head, and shattered the creature's Golden Core in exchange.
“...”
The battle had been short, but it had been a fight as perilous as placing one's body upon a blade's edge.
A delayed wave of exhaustion washed over Ise.
The huge body of the Abyssal Mole-Mouse and Ise's own body collapsed together.
‘Can this really be called great luck...?’
Thinking that Seolryeong seemed to alternate between being a gifted Shaman and a quack, Ise rolled across the muddy ground.
Ise did not even have the strength to rise.
They simply lay there, recited the Spirit Release Incantation, and began the spirit-sending rite and devouring.
Only once power flowed into Ise could they finally breathe a little easier.
Perhaps because its host was dead, the creature's ominous demonic qi, which had hindered Ise's recovery, gradually began leaving their body.
‘This is dangerous right now.’
Ise had barely won against a greater demon, but they were nearly defenseless in their current condition.
If one of the other Core Formation Realm great cultivators, having subdued a greater demon of their own, saw Ise like this, Ise would be easy prey.
Ise propped up their upper body, swallowed a Regeneration Pellet, and began circulating their qi.
Demons still swarmed across this land, but this was not the time to move.
Please. Don't get any ideas.
If they betrayed Ise in this state, Ise truly felt as if they would want to slaughter every sect and all three branches of their families.
As Ise's uneasy recovery continued, movement among the demons entered their divine sense.
The demon horde was beginning to withdraw from across the island like an ebbing tide.
It seemed word of their leader's defeat had spread.
Ise wanted to wipe them out to the last one, but recovery came first.
Maintaining a flawless watch with divine sense, Ise focused on circulating their qi.
Then a Message Talisman arrived from Shin Hyeon.
- The demons are retreating. Have you come through unscathed?
Ise immediately replied.
- Yeah. If things are all right, come over here and stand guard while I recover.
A short while later, the Azure Dragon Hall members arrived by following the blank Message Talisman. Every one of them was in tatters.
Still, they were all alive. Not one was missing.
Seeing Hall members with holes throughout their bodies and missing limbs like broken wooden dolls, Ise let out a hollow laugh.
“Why are you walking around like that instead of healing yourselves?”
“Forgive us. Our supply of Regeneration Pellets has been exhausted. The battle was so fierce that...”
“Fine. You're alive, that's what matters. I need to recover urgently right now, so I'll heal you after I finish circulating my qi. Stand guard while I recover.”
“Yes, Hall Master.”
The Hall members formed a defensive formation around Ise.
Fortunately, no betrayal took place, and Ise finished circulating their qi safely.
Opening their eyes, Ise said, “I was worried some bastards would stiff me while I was defenseless. You have more integrity than I expected.”
Shin Hyeon answered with an awkward smile.
“Um... I believe you may have misunderstood, Hall Master.”
“What misunderstanding?”
“The three sect masters... were all defeated and died. Sect Master Go Hu was driven into a corner and tried to take his enemy down with him at the end. Grand Sect Master Go Yubaek finished off the creature after it was badly wounded. As for the other two sects... I heard they have suffered losses that have brought them to the brink of destruction.”
Ise doubted their own ears at Shin Hyeon's explanation.
By all rights, this was where a traitor should have emerged to stab Ise in the back, only to be killed in turn before their entire clan was wiped out. It was practically an ancient formula of the cultivation world.
But all of them had died?
They had boasted about proving themselves, yet they had each failed to defeat even one creature and all three died?
Then Ise suddenly remembered one important fact.
Wait. What about my payment?
The thought lasted only a moment before Ise realized it was needless worry.
The great cultivators who supported those powers were dead. Did that not make them little more than Foundation Establishment Realm sects now?
“Still, the battle was a lot harder than I expected. Don't you think one million is a little low?”
At words that could have been either a joke or sincere, Eunbo tried to stop Ise.
“Please show mercy, Senior. The sects have suffered great losses. They likely will not find rebuilding easy for some time...”
“I was only joking. A Daoist cannot go back on their word.”
Ise said it was a joke and patted Eunbo on the back with a Pat, pat.
Eunbo could clearly see from Ise's gleaming eyes that Ise had been half serious, but could not bring himself to argue.
“Don't worry. I'm not enough of a scoundrel to betray the trust of those who died fighting. We won't take additional payment. What about Buchun and the refugees?”
“Most of them are safe.”
“That's something, at least.”
Ise rose to their feet, then used a regeneration art to heal the Hall members.
“Contact the sects and recover the bodies together. Seolryeong, prepare a spirit requiem ceremony. We need to soothe the souls of the fallen.”
“Yes, Hall Master.”
The most important task after a war was to ensure no vengeful resentment remained.
‘We'll be busy.’
Ise sighed while looking up at the clear sky over the Archipelago.
Ise had only come here to obtain one treasure artifact. What kind of hardship was this?
Unless it was an exceptionally fine item, it hardly seemed worth the cost.
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