The Insectoid Nest
The place they took to be the Chunggapjok’s stronghold was, without question, different from anywhere else.
In truth, the sands in the desert were insect eggs to begin with. Even so, they were so small that, at a glance, it was hard to tell them apart from ordinary sand.
But here...
The sand around the Chunggapjok’s stronghold was different. If anything, the grains were simply too large.
Each one was about the size of a jujube, and because a writhing shadow could be seen inside the shell, anyone could tell at once that they were eggs.
“There’s a large teleportation array three thousand li to the northeast.”
When Nam Soyeong spoke in a confident tone, her eyes shining with a cold blue radiance, everyone nodded.
“If it’s the divine eye mystic art of Lady Nam, a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, then it can be trusted. What condition is the teleportation array in?”
“It’s intact. Looking closer, there’s a barrier around it. At the very least, it doesn’t seem like it’ll break easily.”
“Oh... thank goodness.”
Relief spread across everyone’s faces.
Except for Jin Somyeong, they all already had carapaces budding from their bodies, so they were eager to get out as soon as possible.
“A surprise attack would be impossible, wouldn’t it?”
“The Chunggapjok probably already know we’re here. From what I can tell, the bugs strewn across the sky are all their eyes and ears.”
The cultivators reflexively scanned their surroundings and clicked their tongues.
WEEEEEEEENG!
The insects filling the sky vibrated their wings threateningly, exuding a ferocious killing intent like hornets whose nest had been violated.
“Let’s go.”
The twelve Nascent Soul cultivators took their positions.
They grouped together with people they knew and formed four teams, keeping an appropriate distance between one another.
They could not fully trust each other, so they had adopted a loose formation.
Jin Somyeong, paired with Du Geumbo, scanned the area with eyes infused with lightning.
He had searched for the Chunggapjok with the Thunder Sense Insight Law-Breaking Eye, but found nothing.
They seemed to be either far away or hidden in an obscure place like underground.
Pow!
As they slowly advanced, bursting the insects pouring down on them...
“That...”
Was that a nest?
From a structure that looked like a sea anemone grotesquely twisted and magnified thousands of times, smoke continuously billowed out.
It seemed to be breathing.
Every few seconds, it swelled like a balloon and then exhaled smoke through its limp, drooping tentacles, causing someone to mutter in stunned disbelief.
“Insane... those are all eggs?”
The voice was dazed.
Looking closely at the smoke exhaled with each breath, one could see that it was made up of tens of thousands of grains, and each one was an egg.
In fact, there were quite a lot of those sea-anemone-like structures—no, nests. There were more than ten of them in the immediate vicinity alone.
“No wonder they were able to cover this whole desert. With breeding power like that...”
“Truly disgusting.”
At that pace, if they scattered eggs for a few thousand years...
There’d truly be no answer.
It was enough to make one wonder how cultivators in ancient times had ever managed to wipe out such insects in the first place.
Someone, grimacing and covering his nose with his sleeve, said, “Should we attack?”
“I’m not sure. Better to secure the teleportation array first than to meddle recklessly.”
“...Agreed.”
Just as they were about to pass it by, Jin Somyeong couldn’t look away.
Something bothered him, and he frowned slightly as he stared at the nest.
Nam Soyeong, who had happened to glance at Jin Somyeong, noticed his expression and followed his gaze with her own art, then jumped in shock.
“Wait a moment. There’s someone inside the nest.”
“What?”
“I can’t be certain because he’s so emaciated, but I think it’s Daoist Gong Hye.”
Inside the nest, a gaunt old man was hanging limp with his arms and legs bound, and sharp, thorn-like spikes had been driven into his spine and dantian.
When the cultivators used their mystic arts to confirm the sight, they all scowled in disgust.
“Was he done in by the Chunggapjok? It looks like they’ve been forcibly drawing out his true blood.”
“Hah, so this is how they treat us—as prey! How dare a bug do this!”
The reaction to the miserable sight varied.
Some only cast a brief, expressionless glance and left it at that, while others vented their anger in disgust.
“Could the other nests be the same?”
They searched all the nests scattered around them, and five of them contained people.
All of them were familiar faces—the cultivators who had entered Paeseongdojang together ten years ago.
“I thought they’d died passing through the gate. So they were alive all along. Hurry and save them.”
“Save them? What if it’s a trap?”
“This entire place is a trap already. We came here knowing that, didn’t we? Either way, if we save them, our strength increases. That’s a gain.”
There was a brief argument over whether they should save them or not, but the decision was quickly made.
They looked to be in bad shape, but they were Nascent Soul cultivators in name. Every one of them rescued would significantly bolster their fighting strength.
“I’ll attack first.”
“KRAAAH!”
Blue flame rose in the air, transformed into a tiger the size of a house, and charged at the nest.
It slashed at the nest and tore it apart like a true living beast, and the heat contained in its claws was so intense that it dried out all the moisture within several kilometers.
The sea-anemone-like nest twitched as if in pain, and the faces of those watching brightened.
“It’s working.”
Several others followed up with spells, and the rest didn’t stand idle either; they took out their fourth-grade spirit treasures and remained on guard around them.
How long had it been?
After roughly dismantling the nest and digging through it, they finally managed to pull out the imprisoned old man.
“Ugh...”
They fed him a medicinal pill, and the old man, staring blankly into the air with unfocused eyes, began to tremble all over.
“Guhk! W-what...?”
He jerked up as if convulsing, but because most of his blood had been drained by the nest, he had no strength left.
He couldn’t even steady himself and just collapsed in a heap.
“His true blood has been drained too much. It’ll take at least a hundred years for him to recover his original cultivation level.”
“...Hmm. Still, being alive is better than the alternative.”
While they treated Gong Hye, who still hadn’t fully come to his senses, they destroyed the other nests as well.
“Daoist Seo?”
The second nest held Seo Hyeongeuk, the fourth-grade refiner to whom Jin Somyeong had commissioned his sword.
Completely unconscious and hanging limp, she was in a state similar to Gong Hye, pale as a mummy and with not a trace of color left in her face.
Her pathetic condition made it hard to even recognize her, and Du Geumbo, who had been watching from beside him, was startled and rushed over to support her.
“Daoist Seo! No, how did you end up in this state?”
He hurriedly fed her an expensive restorative pill. Anyone could see they were not ordinary acquaintances.
Curious as he was, Jin Somyeong didn’t ask further, but perhaps feeling the gaze on him, Du Geumbo coughed awkwardly and said, “Daoist Seo is a talented artisan. She often does business with Manboru.”
“Ah, I see.”
In any case, they rescued five Nascent Soul cultivators like this.
Yet around them, it was still quiet.
The bugs enraged by the invasion of their territory only charged in and died pointlessly in droves.
Those on edge and guarding every direction frowned.
“Could it be they gave up because our force is too large?”
“Perhaps, but don’t let your guard down.”
There were twelve Nascent Soul cultivators stationed here. Including those trapped in the nests, there were even more.
It was a massive force that even the great powers famed throughout Jungju would struggle to deal with.
Because there were so many Nascent Soul cultivators, their abilities were correspondingly diverse.
Restoring the vitality lost after having their true blood drained would be difficult, but waking the unconscious was simple enough.
“Are you awake?”
“Ah...”
Those who woke all reacted similarly.
They offered thanks first, then tried to recover their body and mind as quickly as possible so they could regain combat strength.
At how smoothly everything seemed to be going, a few of the cultivators who had been visibly tense allowed themselves a subtle smile.
“This may end more easily than expected.”
Thirty minutes later.
As soon as the people trapped in the nests could move their hands and feet, they set out toward the teleportation array.
Having understood the situation, Seo Hyeongeuk was paired with Du Geumbo, which naturally made her Jin Somyeong’s partner.
“The gate I entered was an artifact-refinement trial. The ordeal was refining difficult materials like Shaemingold. It was quite hard, but I passed in the end.”
“That’s only natural for someone of Daoist Seo’s skill. But how did you end up...”
“The moment I passed through the gate and arrived in the desert, I was ambushed by some buglike bastards. My spiritual power was exhausted, so I couldn’t even run and was captured, ending up like this.”
“That’s awful!”
As Seo Hyeongeuk explained what had happened, her eyes grew icy.
She grit her teeth, saying that if she got the chance, she would kill every last Chunggapjok member.
Listening to their conversation, Jin Somyeong tilted his head.
Is Shaemingold really such a difficult material to refine?
One of the materials in the Seonggwangjanyeonggeom he was currently using was Shaemingold.
And yet Ha Un, the one who had completed this sword for him, had finished both the material processing and refinement in just three months.
As he furrowed his brow and sank into thought...
Completely out of nowhere.
Whoosh!
Du Geumbo, who had been listening with a serious expression, stabbed at his dantian.
It happened with no warning at all.
It was an absurdly sudden ambush, but it was not enough to threaten Jin Somyeong, who had survived countless battles.
Clang!
He reflexively condensed blood-carapace armor to flick away the claw strike and drew his sword.
He almost cleaved him in two on the spot, but hesitated. The very person who had attacked looked more panicked than he did.
“W-wait! This isn’t my will!”
In that instant, he observed the situation around him through his divine sense.
The arm Du Geumbo had used in the attack was his left arm, the one covered in carapace like a Chunggapjok’s.
Something clicked.
He looked around, and the others were in similar states.
Arms and legs transformed like those of the Chunggapjok were moving on their own, attacking everything nearby. Some were even trying to kill their own bodies.
They’re being controlled. Wait, if that’s the case...
He checked Mok Saheon, whose entire upper body was covered in carapace, and fortunately, the old man did not convulse.
He only stood there with a faint furrow between his brows.
That was a relief, but the strange incident was not over.
Those they had rescued from the nests clutched their heads in pain, and the atmosphere suggested something terrible was about to happen.
Then, while everyone was still reeling from their companion’s sudden attack—
RUMBLE...
The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck, and grains of sand burst upward like an explosion.
A gigantic shadow blanketed the earth. A centipede larger than any ordinary skyscraper appeared, spewing venomous mist.
And then there was more.
The swarm of insects that had only ever charged in pointlessly and died had gathered in the air into a giant humanoid form.
The monsters, each the size of war machines, radiated a crushing aura as they pressured the cultivators.
And it wasn’t just intimidation—they were exerting real physical force.
Just as the cultivators frowned under the pressure...
“You human dogs! Hiding in your formations like rats, and now you finally show your faces!”
“And you! You filthy bastard. You used your own kin as bait and fled like a coward, and now you finally dare show your face!”
“Were you that afraid of us? You only revealed yourselves once the whole lot of you came swarming in. Heh heh...”
A familiar voice rang out from atop the giant centipede’s shell.
Among the twenty Chunggapjok, there were two.
The familiar bastards clung particularly hard to Jin Somyeong. They were hard to distinguish because they looked similar, but they were unmistakably the ones he had fought before.
“You said you’d be waiting, didn’t you? Well, here we are again. What are you going to do about it, you arrogant little...”
Jin Somyeong gave no reply, only glanced at the Chunggapjok radiating Nascent Soul-level power and then back again.
Snap!
He deflected the left arm of Du Geumbo, which had kept attacking him since earlier, and said, “Can you control it?”
“...Ngk. I’m sorry. Just give me a moment.”
Watching him grimace fiercely and struggle to control his left arm, Jin Somyeong said lightly, “If you can’t, I’ll just cut it off. Your vitality will take a heavy hit, but that’s better than dying.”
“What?”
Seeing that he wasn’t joking, Du Geumbo turned deathly pale.
“W-wait! I’ll manage somehow!”
Terrified, Du Geumbo hastily struck at his waist pouch. He quickly took out talismans and plastered them all over his arm, sealing it completely.
“I-it’s done.”
As Jin Somyeong nodded in satisfaction at the result...
“Grrrr...”
Seo Hyeongeuk, who had been groaning and clutching her head, rolled her eyes back.
Her pupils had disappeared completely, leaving only white. She glared this way and then charged with a spirit treasure in hand.
However one looked at it, she was out of her mind.
Tap.
The tip of Jin Somyeong’s lightly extended finger touched the center of her brow.
Crackle! Crackle crackle crackle!
Five-Element Divine Thunder surged into her body in an instant, paralyzing her entire frame. Leaving her stiff as a wooden doll, he casually said, “Two managers, please take care of Daoist Seo.”
If they wanted her to live, they would have to look after her themselves.
He then turned back toward the Chunggapjok.
The urgent matters were handled; now it was time to focus on those bastards.
First, he answered the question from earlier.
“You asked what I intended to do now that we’ve met again?”
Jin Somyeong had learned many things while sparring more than a thousand times with the wooden puppet.
If he were asked to name the most important one of them, he would hesitate, but this much could not be left out.
It was swiftness.
The total principle behind how to move quickly.
The fundamental reason he had once been able to respond to a beam of light when at first he couldn’t even react at all.
Jin Somyeong was unimaginably faster than he had once been.
And so—
One breath was enough.
For a fleeting instant, while no one present could even register it...
He tore through the entire army surrounding him and extended his hand.
“Ghk?!”
In the middle of enemy lines packed with Nascent Soul-level Chunggapjok...
Crack!
He seized the neck of the mocking Chunggapjok and smiled brightly enough to show his teeth.
“This is what I was planning to do. Well? Do you like it?”
The limbs that had been shooting toward him in retaliation fell a beat late with dull thuds, then spun through the air and crashed down.
“...!”
The bastard’s eyes flew wide. Before it had even realized what was happening, all its limbs had been severed.
And then—
“Aaaaaaagh!”
Agonized pain shook the battlefield.
It came at the same moment Jin Somyeong drove Five-Element Divine Thunder into the body through the hand clutching its neck hard enough to break its bones.