Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Elder Han Ryeo-un
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◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Elder Han glared back and forth between Shangguan Ji and Elder So.
This was deep within the ruins.
Until they reached the true heart of the ruins, the three elders had formed a truce and entered together.
With their combined power, formations and barriers melted away without resistance. Their Core Formation auras seemed capable of piercing anything.
But then they hit a barrier that looked like it would take too long to break through, and they were in the middle of debating what to do.
The discussion boiled down to whether to bypass it or spend the time to dismantle it properly.
The former drew opposition from Old Monster Shangguan, who argued it would waste too much time. The latter drew opposition from Elder So, who warned that forcing it might cause the ruins to collapse.
This way was no good, that way was no good.
What the hell were they supposed to do?
Elder Han was fed up with their ridiculous stubbornness.
Old monsters whose eyes had gone mad over an ancient ruin.
Of course, Elder Han wasn't young herself. She'd passed a hundred and fifty climbing to Core Formation. But compared to these near-three-hundred-year-old monsters, she was barely half their age.
"What do you plan to do? This isn't good, that isn't good. What the hell do you want?"
"We're clashing over opposing views, so we need to hash out our differences, don't we? You think we want to just walk away from treasures and opportunities?"
"Exactly, exactly. There might even be clues to the Primordial Infant Realm here. At my age, I need every opportunity I can get."
Shangguan Ji and So Han-pyeong answered like a pair of tag-teaming funeral orators, perfectly in sync.
"Hashing out differences is taking too damn long. At this rate, a whole day will pass and we still won't agree."
Shangguan Ji brazenly replied to Elder Han's incredulous words.
"Hm, how about we decide the order of treasure division first? We can think more on whether to go around or break through."
"What? We haven't even decided how to get in, and you want to divvy up treasures that aren't even in front of us?"
"The order of dividing treasures is crucial."
"Forget that. Just decide how we're getting in."
Despite Elder Han's words, Shangguan Ji turned to Elder So.
"Elder So, what do you think?"
"The order of dividing treasures..."
Mid-sentence, Elder So of the Complete Cloud Sect made his move first with his signature cloud technique, darting toward the left passage they'd settled on as the bypass route.
His movement art was rare even among Core Formation cultivators.
Propelled by cloud and wind techniques, his speed was nearly impossible to track with the naked eye.
At Elder So's sudden bolt, Elder Han frowned beneath her veil. Cowardly bastard.
She moved to follow swiftly, but...
"Where do you think you're going?"
Psssh! Psssh!
Elder Han's vision drowned in blood. Blood surged from the walls, ceiling, and floor, as if devouring the space itself.
The ruin passage turned entirely crimson.
Was this a sea of blood? Part of the legendary Blood Realm, where everything dissolved into a single puddle of gore?
Shangguan Ji's technique induced such delusions.
A Core Formation cultivator's technique could make their mental image supplant reality. Shangguan Ji's image, 'Blood Sea Blankets the World', eroded the passage, expanding its domain.
A Core Formation cultivator's contemplated mental image became reality.
Within that manifested image, they became a god. With a gesture, they could summon storms, upheave the earth, or sunder the heavens.
Even another Core Formation cultivator was at risk inside it.
Shangguan Ji was trying to drag Elder Han into his image.
But she wasn't one to stand idly by.
She unleashed her own image of raging snowstorms, halting the Blood Sea's further encroachment on the ruins.
A chill permeated the air.
Her breath already formed white mist; the air had grown that cold.
The floor, ceiling, and walls remained a blood sea, but the open air was filled with frozen moisture forming tiny frost crystals.
The crystals swirled like falling snow.
Crack!
Shangguan Ji felt his skin freezing. Every movement caused surface moisture to ice over into thin frost.
This chill would intensify until it froze everything utterly.
It was Elder Han's image: 'Glacial Snowscape Annihilation'.
Glacial Snowscape clashed with Blood Sea, transforming the passage into an otherworldly realm.
Blood gushed everywhere, countered by the chill freezing it solid.
The blood froze, surged, froze, and surged in endless cycles.
Shangguan Ji stood atop the roiling blood sea; Elder Han atop the frozen one.
Their images reached a strange equilibrium.
Elder Han pressed her image hard while trying to reason with him. Fighting like this would just drag on endlessly without resolution.
"Aren't you going to chase after Elder So? Aren't you afraid he'll take everything?"
"So Han-pyeong? Who cares how far that little shit's gone right now? What matters is that you're here, Han Ryeo-un."
"You mad bastard!"
Elder Han spat in disgust at his creepy tone and surged her spiritual energy.
The chill intensified into a blizzard.
razor-sharp frost tore at skin, turning the passage into an icy world.
Shangguan Ji cackled grotesquely, channeling energy to make the blood sea surge.
The blood sea churned with waves carrying screams, roars, murderous cries, and the ecstasy of slaughter.
Blood gushed thicker from every surface.
It froze, only to erupt with heat and boil up again.
The chill froze the sea, but it wouldn't stay frozen, surging back. Frozen and unfrozen blood split evenly, equilibrium restored.
Shangguan Ji dragged it out, advancing and retreating in stalemate.
Suddenly, he asked,
"Don't you smell something weird?"
As Elder Han tried to sniff, her head spun.
Her mind grew hazy, her body itching unbearably—or was it burning? Some bizarre sensation tormented her.
Especially her groin, her intimate folds: maddeningly itchy and hot, love juices leaking uncontrollably.
'Aphrodisiac!'
She realized it instantly.
Not because she knew it well, but her body's feverish arousal matched textbook descriptions perfectly.
Furious at the poisoning, her rage fueled the blizzard, frost whipping into a frenzy. Ice became hail, battering walls and shaking the ruins.
Boom! Kaboom!
The impacts of ice on walls and blood sea boomed like falling bombs, shaking heaven and earth.
Elder Han unleashed her full power, enough to rattle the entire ruin!
"Shangguan Ji! You coward!"
"Uahaha! In battle, there's no such thing as cowardice! Come to me, Han! Embrace me!"
Shangguan Ji had long lusted after Radiant Moon Sect's Elder Han, the Ice Jade Divine Maiden Han Ryeo-un.
They said the Moon Kingdom's top beauty, like glacial snow, resided on the sect's Jade Maiden Peak. The rumor was widespread in the kingdom's cultivation world.
Anyone who saw her would fall in love; a visiting poet who'd glimpsed her stayed up three days and nights composing songs for her. The tale was legendary.
But Radiant Moon Sect was one of the kingdom's premier sects. Who could visit to ogle an elder?
She loathed the fuss over her looks, always veiling herself—a fact nearly as famous.
How stunning must she be for merely seeing her face to be a dream?
Shangguan Ji, who reveled in blood and violence, was equally obsessed with women.
To him, Ice Jade Divine Maiden Han Ryeo-un was a prize more tantalizing than any treasure or opportunity.
So he'd baited Elder So to keep him out of the way and deceived Elder Han into thinking he cared only for fortunes.
The result: this moment.
He'd isolated her and dosed her with potent aphrodisiac.
Of course, as one of Radiant Moon Sect's five peak lords, her personal strength was formidable.
Even so, in the ruins' confines, her power had limits—and with the aphrodisiac taking hold, it was Shangguan Ji's easy win.
The drug made her breaths hot, her head reeling. Her mind filled with shameful urges she could barely contain.
She was suppressing it with her cultivation, but if it surged unchecked, she'd become a beast in heat.
"Kuh,"
"Euhehehe, stop struggling and come to my arms, Han Ryeo-un! That aphrodisiac is vicious. Without sex to purge it, you'll die!"
"Even if it kills me, I'll never submit to you!"
She roared and twisted the heaven-earth spiritual energy massively. Her Glacial Snowscape shuddered violently and detonated.
BOOM-BOOM!!
It exploded like a chill bomb.
Frost scattered; ice battered everywhere. The whirlwind chill could freeze the entire blood sea in an instant.
Shangguan Ji threw up his arms to shield himself from the blast.
'She's let her image run rampant! Overloading a lifetime's contemplated image is no easy choice! Does submitting to this Shangguan mean that much to her?!'
As the blizzard subsided,
Elder Han, whom he'd sought, had vanished.
Her hidden escape art was extraordinary.
Fast enough that even he couldn't catch her in the moment.
Shangguan Ji began tracking the traces she'd left, pursuing her.
"Tch, obviously an emergency movement art burning through her reserves. She can't have gone far. It's only a matter of time before I catch her."
Han Ryeo-un... You think you can escape my grasp?
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