WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 187
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A terrified dokkaebi warrior unleashed a barrage of demonic arts at the Nascent Soul.
As though fear were contagious, the bombardment began in quick succession.
“Stop!”
Ise shouted too late.
The Natal Spirit Artifact reflected the demonic qi straight back at them.
Just before the reflected demonic qi could swallow the dokkaebi clan, Gong Wol-a’s dokkaebi staff stirred up a gale and blocked the spell art.
Ise immediately chanted the Spell Manifestation Incantation, keeping his eyes fixed on Bi Hyeongrang’s Nascent Soul as it flew toward the blood effigy.
A Nascent Soul Realm great cultivator’s out-of-body body seizure.
That was the decisive reason it was so difficult to kill an immortal cultivator who had reached the Nascent Soul Realm.
If there was a promising sprout that might someday threaten your position, kill it while it was still in the Core Formation Realm.
That was the advice that had spread among high-ranking cultivators of the cultivation world.
As long as a Nascent Soul Realm great cultivator could get their Nascent Soul out, they would eventually regain their power and return.
They could take the time to regenerate a body or seize someone else’s.
That was why Nascent Soul Realm great cultivators considered it basic practice to prepare several layers of measures to protect and extract their Nascent Souls.
Bi Hyeongrang’s Natal Spirit Artifact and blood effigy were among those survival measures.
Driven into a corner and feeling his life was threatened, that bastard would abandon the battle now.
If he committed himself to fleeing, he would surely be able to spirit away his Nascent Soul.
That was what he believed.
It was a confidence founded on reason.
At least in the Human Realm, there was no means by which someone in the Core Formation Realm could subdue a Nascent Soul determined to flee.
By all reason, it was impossible.
In the Human Realm.
The semitransparent Nascent Soul, shaped like a newborn infant, shot out from the sphere toward the blood effigy.
It was all the more sinister that the essence of someone no different from a devil had such a pure form.
At last, Ise’s preparations were complete. His hand moved.
A spell art from a cultivation method he was using in real combat for the first time in his life began to unfold.
Soul-Return Body-Entering Art.
The cultivation method he had held onto all this time, sustained by his one hope of saving his master, finally revealed its true form.
It was the great fortuitous encounter he had obtained in the Dark Heaven Secret Realm, a cultivation method he had trained tirelessly despite never having cause to use it.
Its basic spell, the Soul-Pressing Body-Entering Art, seized Bi Hyeongrang’s Nascent Soul as it entered the blood effigy and forcefully suppressed it.
At the same time, Ise used his Telekinesis Art to lift a corpse lying some distance away and bring it flying over.
Judging by its appearance and clothing, it was an elder of Cheoryang Thunder Gate, someone who appeared to have been Bi Hyeongrang’s closest subordinate.
That servant had offered both body and soul to their master, so Ise intended to grant them the honor of having even their corpse serve as their master’s coffin.
Ise drew the Nascent Soul over and began forcing it into the corpse.
Wooooooong!
The resistance of the soul rang out in a droning cry, like a scream.
Ordinarily, the spell art of the Soul-Return Body-Entering Art could only be attempted after reaching at least the late Core Formation Realm.
If one attempted body entry without sufficient cultivation, both Golden Core and soul would be destroyed.
That was Ise’s purpose and intention.
To use a cultivation method from the Upper Realm to tear his enemy’s soul to pieces.
In other words, a planned failure.
The moment Bi Hyeongrang realized that his Nascent Soul was being forcibly dragged away toward a corpse, clear confusion flowed from it.
The Nascent Soul struggled toward the blood effigy, but it was useless.
The soul-pressing spell art bore down hard upon that struggle.
A Nascent Soul that had already left its body was prey perfectly suited to be devoured by the Soul-Return Body-Entering Art.
Like a fish caught on a hook, thrashing as its head slowly rose above the water.
The great fish was gradually dragged out into the open.
“Disappear, Bi Hyeongrang.”
As Ise deployed a spell art beyond what he could withstand, his qi and blood twisted violently.
His internal qi raged like an explosion, tearing through his blood meridians.
His teeth ground together, and blood seeped from every opening in his body.
It was the price of forcing a spell art meant for a late Core Formation Realm vessel through a mid-stage body.
But he endured.
It was a sorrowful, agonizing time of endurance.
He had endured long years for this single moment.
And his reward was Bi Hyeongrang’s suffering Nascent Soul.
Bi Hyeongrang was so vicious that even with death at his doorstep, he did not let out a single scream.
Yet through the connection between their minds, Ise felt rage, resentment, and desperate denial pour into him.
It must have been the first time the calamity who had thrown the Human Realm into chaos for centuries had felt such emotions.
Emotions a human might release while being bitten to death by a worthless insect.
Ise could not stop smiling at that frenzied mental turmoil.
With delight spread across his face, Ise warned them.
“It might explode.”
Gong Wol-a noticed the abnormality and shouted urgently. The dokkaebi clan scattered in every direction.
Then, at last.
The instant Bi Hyeongrang’s Nascent Soul was forcibly crammed into the corpse, it exploded and vanished.
Kwwwaaaang!
A massive explosion of demonic qi erupted.
Fortunately, the dokkaebi clan had already taken cover.
Debris from the explosion shot up like fireworks, while scattered demonic qi drifted like pollen.
As though announcing the battle’s end.
Ise released a deep breath and collapsed.
Gong Wol-a, who had been shielding the dokkaebi from the explosion, moved in an instant and caught him.
“You...”
“I’m sorry. The situation was urgent.”
Cradled in her arms, Ise looked over the center of the blast.
“The brothers’ corpses... it’ll be difficult to recover them.”
The nearby buildings had been blown away completely.
The main hall and key facilities had become an empty field.
The buildings themselves did not matter much, since they had already been half-destroyed.
The problem was that every corpse of the dokkaebi clan warriors within the blast radius had vanished.
Ise himself was in no better condition.
His skin had been stripped away, his pelvic bones shattered, and his blood meridians torn apart as his qi and blood twisted.
Leaning against Gong Wol-a, Ise began qi circulation.
His wounds slowly began to close.
And at the place where Bi Hyeongrang’s Nascent Soul had exploded, endless demonic qi was forming.
A sea of vile demonic qi spewed out by the destruction of a Nascent Soul that had endured for centuries.
After a brief session of qi circulation, Ise supported himself with Gong Wol-a’s help and walked into the center of that demonic qi, chanting the Spirit Release Incantation.
But the spirit-sending rite did not work.
He did not know why.
Perhaps it was because Bi Hyeongrang was an entity manifested in the Lower Realm. Or perhaps a demonic cultivator of that level was beyond something as simple as the Spirit Release Incantation.
Ise stopped chanting.
Then he placed a hand on Bi Hyeongrang’s Natal Spirit Artifact, which had endured even the explosion.
As though rejecting a new master, it cracked, then crumbled apart.
Ise brushed off his hand without regret and immediately began to feed.
An immense torrent of demonic qi flowed into him like a waterfall.
It was an astonishing amount, enough to bring him to the late Core Formation Realm in one go.
For a moment, even the sky of Gwisu Temple, always dim beneath its veil of mist, seemed almost clear.
Ise let out another long breath.
Seeing his satisfied smile, as though he had overeaten, Gong Wol-a was suddenly frightened.
“Seriously. Where did my sister find a monster like you...?”
“Smile, Acting Leader.”
Ise looked around the ruins.
“Are you going to show that face to those who are leaving?”
“...I’m a little afraid of you now.”
Gong Wol-a shook her head.
“If I were Bi Hyeongrang, instead of using you and throwing you away, I would have raised you as a demonic cultivator. That was his most decisive mistake.”
Ise considered her words for a moment.
If he had grown up as Bi Hyeongrang’s servant and become a demonic cultivator.
It truly would have been horrifying.
Come to think of it, there was something he had wondered about.
Bi Hyeongrang had seemed to know about Ise’s birth and constitution.
So why had he chosen to make himself Ise’s enemy rather than take him in and raise him?
And what had he meant when he said that Ise must not die in the Lower Realm?
Ise soon stopped thinking about it.
What was the point of learning a dead man’s intentions now?
What mattered was that Bi Hyeongrang had deceived him, and Ise had finally taken his revenge.
Even if that bastard appeared again, Ise would have reached the Nascent Soul Realm or an even higher realm by then.
Ise would simply kill him again and again.
Ise sent Haeil a missive announcing that the mission was complete.
* * *
“That crazy bastard.”
Haeil’s expression changed from moment to moment while reading Ise’s missive.
Haeil’s eyes widened, Haeil’s brow furrowed, and Haeil’s mouth fell halfway open.
“Senior, what is it?”
“I knew he was crazy, but I didn’t know he was this crazy.”
“...?”
Haeil tossed the missive to Woo Yu-hui.
Its contents were brief.
“Bi Hyeongrang broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm. There were no aftereffects, but I killed him anyway. I will join the front with the Azure Dragon Hall members.”
Woo Yu-hui could not speak after reading the almost matter-of-fact message.
“Gather the entire army at headquarters. We’re withdrawing. Tell that Hall Master he doesn’t need to come here either.”
“We’re not pressing the attack?”
“Wait and see. Something interesting is about to happen.”
Haeil chuckled while looking toward the Zheng Empire’s camp beyond the front lines.
They now had three forces comparable to Nascent Soul Realm great cultivators.
The blade that had been pressed to their throats had shattered.
Bi Hyeongrang was a figure of terror to the Zheng Empire just as much as he was to the Great Exorcist Order.
The news that a Hall Master other than Haeil had subdued Bi Hyeongrang.
Once it spread, the immortal cultivators would realize that the balance of power had collapsed.
Some would surrender, while others would go into hiding.
One thing was certain.
Even if they left it alone, the Zheng Empire would surely fall apart.
“Spread the news of this victory. Far and wide. So that even a newborn baby in some remote mountain village will know.”
Azure Dragon Hall Master, you have done something truly great.
* * *
The owner of the sachet hanging from the statue of the First Dokkaebi King had changed.
The dokkaebi clan’s cultivation method had been registered in the warding barrier once more, and dokkaebi clan warriors busied themselves searching the ruins.
They were trying to recover even a single belonging or scrap of flesh from the brothers who had departed.
“It will take quite some time to rebuild.”
“Don’t worry about it. We can sleep with the earth as our blanket and the sky as our ceiling.”
Gong Wol-a joked that the stars in Gwisu Temple’s sky were so beautiful.
“More importantly, shouldn’t we have a celebratory drink? It would be nice to pour a cup for those who have gone, too.”
“That would be nice, but there’s still work to do.”
Ise looked north.
A missive had arrived from Hall Master Woo Yu-hui, ordering him to return directly to headquarters.
It seemed they would catch their breath, then continue the war.
“Humans are truly diligent. Are you leaving right away?”
“Yes.”
Gong Wol-a tipped back a gourd that Ise had no idea when she had taken out, taking several gulps of liquor.
Then she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted.
“Everyone, gather up! Ise is leaving!”
Dokkaebi clan members came rushing in from every corner of the ruins.
Gong Wol-a bowed first, and the dokkaebi lined up behind her bowed together.
“Thank you, Ise.”
“Yes. You have worked hard as well, Acting Leader.”
“The dokkaebi clan will never forget this kindness.”
Ise awkwardly scratched his head.
It was not something he deserved thanks for.
Their enemy was his enemy as well, and they had helped him a great deal. More importantly.
“Why say that now? We’re family.”
They were not the sort of family who needed to thank each other for every act done for their clan.
“...You’re right.”
Gong Wol-a smiled, and Ise smiled back.
“When this is over, make sure you come by. We’ll prepare a festival for you.”
“You really do love having fun.”
“What can I do? It’s in the dokkaebi nature.”
She had already emptied one bottle and was flushed with drink as she took out another, laughing brightly.
They drank even as they cried, and laughed even as they drank.
Even atop the ruins, dokkaebi remained dokkaebi.
Perhaps that was the strength that had allowed this clan to rise again twice from massacre.
“The next time we meet, Master will be with us.”
“Yes. Together with my sister.”
Promising a true festival that was now close at hand, Ise stepped beyond the warding barrier with their laughter at his back.
The battlefield outside was being cleared away.
All the demons had been defeated, and the Shamans were dividing the now-quiet evil spirits into small portions and performing meticulous spirit-sending rites.
To one side, the Azure Dragon Hall members lay sprawled on the ground.
Some were spread out on their backs, while others dozed while leaning against one another.
Even Shin Hyeon, who had maintained some measure of dignity as Deputy Hall Master, had hemostatic talismans plastered all over and was snoring without restraint.
Ise stood before them.
“Get up. This isn’t the time to be sprawled out asleep.”
“Hall Master!”
The hall members sprang up like springs.
“Are you all right?”
The crowd rushed over and examined him from head to toe. Ise pushed them away as though annoyed.
Then Gonga and the dokkaebi clan rushed toward Ise as well.
“Ise!”
“You came. Thank you.”
“Of course I came! Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I don’t think this is the time to be worrying about someone else.”
Ise patted Gonga’s head as she burrowed into his arms, then quickly regenerated her badly injured wounds.
Though she was all grown up, she was still just as consistent about acting like a spoiled little sister whenever they met.
“The Acting Leader is waiting. Go on in.”
“...Mm.”
After sending off the dokkaebi clan members, who regretted the short reunion, Shin Hyeon asked him.
“Hall Master, what happened to Bi Hyeongrang?”
Ise grinned and made a cutting motion across his throat.
Cheers immediately erupted.
The blade that had been pointed at their throats was gone. Now it was time to clear away those gnat-like pests in the north.
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