Horde of Demon Beasts
Twenty days had passed since Jin Somyeong had leapt into the Blue Radiance Spring.
His proficiency had climbed without pause, until only a single point remained.
Kwa-rung!
As though the Blue Radiance Spring were making one last desperate struggle, it spat out a bolt of lightning. A blue dragon surged higher than the clouds, then plunged straight down.
The lightning energy pierced through the crown of his head and seeped deep into his bones. It thrashed with savage force, as though intent on snuffing out his breath entirely... but to the Cheonroedochegyeol, which had grown explosively over the past several days, it was nothing more than a delicious meal.
The thunderbolt within his Mental Realm raced along his meridians. It devoured the intruding blue lightning, leaving not a trace behind.
And then—
"Ah!"
He could not hold back the cry. The moment Cheonroedochegyeol broke through its barrier, a fierce rapture shot up along his spine.
Within his Mental Realm, the bolt of lightning had thickened visibly, and for an instant, the outline of a dragon flickered within it. It flashed and shimmered as though dancing, as though expressing its joy.
Good.
He was delighted to sense that its spirituality had grown stronger. If it continued to develop like this, there might come a day when Cheonroedochegyeol moved on its own and repelled his enemies for him.
Pat!
He was looking at the hologram floating before his eyes with satisfaction when—
Boom!
Another whip of lightning poured down from the Blue Radiance Spring. It had happened countless times already, so he moved to absorb it by reflex, then paused.
Without responding at all, he observed the lightning as it churned through his body.
Something's different.
Was it because he had reached the Orthodox stage? The bolts that had at least stung before now caused him no discomfort whatsoever. If anything, they felt as comfortable as lying beneath a warm blanket.
...No way.
On a hunch, he tried absorbing the lightning.
Spiritual power increased within his dantian.
He had gained the ability to absorb lightning and convert it into spiritual power.
"Ooh."
When he measured the speed at which his spiritual power rose, it was more than twice as fast as when he had been in the Jade Purity Pond.
Gulp...
His mouth watered on its own. The Blue Radiance Spring, which had once emitted such ominous light, now looked like nothing but a mass of spirit medicine.
Five days later.
Hoo!
After exhaling the turbid air from his body, Jin Somyeong let out a satisfied groan.
In only a few days, he had broken through again from the fourth layer. Coming to a cleansing holy land truly had allowed him to grow properly.
The effect is incredible. It's almost a shame today is the last day.
He stroked his chin as he looked at the Blue Radiance Spring.
This lightning-aspected spirit spring was truly tempting. If possible, he wanted to move the whole thing into his Mental Secret Realm.
Splash!
After considering his options, he dove to the bottom of the Blue Radiance Spring. He intended to observe what sort of structure had formed this spirit spring.
When he had descended roughly thirty meters, the light dimmed a little, and he saw things that looked like stars floating in a night sky.
...Blue stones?
There were 232 of them in total. On closer inspection, they were blue beads about the size of a baby's fist.
Crackle!
Judging by the lightning energy they emitted without pause, these beads appeared to be the source of the Blue Radiance Spring.
He wanted to sweep them with his Divine Sense, but the restrictions installed in the cleansing holy land made that impossible.
Tap.
When he approached and touched one, his fingers met something like a transparent protective barrier.
If I can just take these beads...
Hadn't the Golden Core merchant said it himself? If one had the ability, one could take anything.
Later, after he became a Golden Core cultivator, he could replenish them with something better.
After examining the restriction that protected the blue beads from several angles, Jin Somyeong nodded.
Crack.
Three hundred beads of the Boundless Great Ability turned to powder.
A hole opened in the otherwise perfect restriction.
Whip!
The instant he reached out with lightning speed and seized the bead, he felt a heavy resistance at his fingertips.
He forcibly pulled it free with the strength he had gained after reaching the second tier of body refinement, but the blue bead kept trying to slip from his grasp, as though desperate to return to its proper place.
When he used Divine Sense to check what was happening, he sensed a faint connection between the bead and the bottom of the Blue Radiance Spring.
Slice!
The moment he cut even that connection with Sword Qi, the blue bead was briefly freed from every restriction. It suddenly became light, and he tossed it into his subspace.
Done!
The energy of the restriction, already restored, wandered here and there as if searching for the bead, but it was meaningless.
The blue bead was already in his subspace. No matter how excellent the restriction was, the situation had long since ended.
Wuuung...
At last, the restriction settled down. Jin Somyeong looked away from it and turned his gaze elsewhere. The floor was still full of blue beads.
Ten... no, I'll take about twelve.
A short while later, Jin Somyeong smiled broadly as he examined the twelve blue beads now sitting in his subspace.
As long as he had these beads, he would be able to create his own Blue Radiance Spring in the Mental Secret Realm.
It'll be smaller in scale, but it should be more than enough for me alone.
Shwaaak!
After finishing everything he had come to do, he emerged from the water and looked back at the Blue Radiance Spring.
Rumble...
The thunder that had once sent chills crawling over his skin somehow felt weaker now. The blue light that had flashed without cease had also dimmed noticeably.
For the past twenty-five days, Jin Somyeong had been absorbing it without pause.
It would probably take several decades for it to recover to its original state...
For a moment, he thought of the many blue beads still remaining, as well as the spirit springs of other elements, but shook his head.
This is enough. I'm nearly out of time anyway.
With the Boundless Great Ability nearly depleted, it would be difficult to mine any more.
To be honest, he would be lying if he said he did not feel the slightest regret, but he did not push himself. Too much of anything was never good. At the very least, he ought to leave enough for the next generation to eat.
Of course, he made that choice because he had come to like Sky Island quite a bit.
Thud.
He sat cross-legged and entered meditation, bringing under control the spiritual power that had grown so rapidly over the past month.
Had about thirty minutes passed?
Wuuung!
The atmosphere trembled, and an unknown suction force took hold of him.
Pat! With a dazzling flash of light, his vision blurred.
He knew exactly what that faint sense of nausea meant. His allotted time had ended, and he had been transferred outside the cleansing holy land.
...Hm?
But then—
When the dazzling glare faded and the scenery came into view, he could not help but be bewildered.
Kiiiiik!
Kak, kak!
Along with grating shrieks, the acrid smell of burning reached his nose.
The peaceful scenery of Sky Island was nowhere to be found.
Dozens of demon beasts were trampling a village that had been reduced to ruins...
Piiiik!
A monstrous bird with the body of an eagle and the head of a chicken spewed fire, turning a three-story pavilion to ash.
"..."
There were no people in sight, perhaps because they had already evacuated, but it was hardly a pleasant scene.
Grrr?Awooooo!
Just then, a wolf that had been sniffing the air as though it had detected something let out a howl, and every gaze snapped toward him.
Kyaaaaak!?
The demon beasts ravaging the surroundings bared their teeth.
They rushed at him all at once, shedding killing intent as though each one wanted to be first.
Boom!
And they all died to a single bolt of lightning.
With Cheonroedochegyeol, which had reached the Orthodox stage, he swept the demon beasts away.
He compared the map in his head with the ruined village. It seemed to be a small settlement near Hyowol City.
I don't see anyone else who entered the cleansing holy land.
Since each of them had been in a different place, it seemed the location they were transferred to outside was different as well.
In any case, what mattered now was grasping the situation on Sky Island.
He frowned, then flinched.
"Humans, you turtles! Stop hiding in your formation like cowards and come out! Let's have a proper fight!"
The air shook with a deep hum.
A voice loud enough to hurt his ears thundered from the sky.
So far away that even an ordinary building would have looked like a speck, a third-tier Demon King that seemed to be a cross between a crocodile and a human scattered a ferocious aura as it issued its provocation.
"Good. I was just wondering how tough your hide was."
The voice was as cold as a blade. At the same moment, the front foot of the rampaging crocodile Demon King dropped away.
"Guh!?"
It had been severed by a sharp slash that arrived without a sound.
As blood fountained from the cut ankle, the Demon King's eyes turned vicious.
Pop!
The leg falling toward the ground burst apart. It turned into blood and flowed back to the Demon King, regenerating in an instant.
It was an absurd regenerative ability, but...
The moment Gwang Myeong, the Golden Core sword cultivator who had appeared at some point, swung his sword, it was cut off again.
"Kaaaaak! You bastard!"
Compared to the enormous Demon King, the blade was tiny, not even worth calling a toothpick. Yet every time that blade scattered light, a scream thick with pain rang out.
The crocodile Demon King, which had been provoking them with such confidence, was driven to the brink of death in moments.
"Stop him!"
Another third-tier Demon King appeared from somewhere and joined the fight, but Gwang Myeong was not pushed back.
Against multiple opponents, he displayed the overwhelming combat strength of a sword cultivator. Each time a silver line appeared in the air, the Demon Kings were forced to retreat in haste.
That did not mean they were powerless beings.
Boom!
Every time a shockwave erupted, every cloud in sight scattered.
For the impact to reach this far despite the tremendous distance, he could tell just how immense the forces colliding outside the formation had to be.
Jin Somyeong was staring blankly at the battle beyond the sky when—
"Gwang Myeong! Enough. Come back. There are too many enemies!"
The voice of Hyeonjinja, the third-tier formation master he had heard several times before, snapped him back to his senses.
Fortunately, the formation is intact.
First- and second-tier demon beasts might be sweeping across Sky Island, but that did not mean the formation had been breached.
The formation installed over Sky Island was called the Reverse Polarity Adamant Chain Formation.
It specialized in blocking Demon Kings of the third tier and above, beings of great existence, operating on a principle similar to a sieve.
It had been chosen because, realistically speaking, preventing every demon beast from entering a vast place like Sky Island was impossible.
For now, I should return to the city.
Sky Island had been humanity's home for several thousand years. It would not collapse so easily.
He fixed his direction and flew toward Hyowol City.
Kwang!
His Divine Sense, which had reached the late Foundation Establishment level, faintly detected an explosion.
Someone was fighting at a distance beyond the horizon, too far away to see.
A horde of nearly a hundred demon beasts had surrounded five or six cultivators and was pouring attacks down on them.
It was obvious who held the advantage. The situation was that one-sided.
Among the humans, every cultivator except one was in Qi Refining, while more than fifteen of the demon beasts had reached the Foundation Establishment level.
"Aaaah! Lady Ha Yulhui, what do we do now? They keep coming!"
Ha Yulhui, the only Foundation Establishment cultivator among the humans and Jin Somyeong's opponent in the finals, shouted back furiously.
"Shut up, you useless fools! If you're going to make such a racket, then pray instead!"
She glared at the demon beasts surrounding them from every direction and bit her lip.
At some point, she had replaced them; she was controlling ten intact shields, blocking the swarm of demon beasts while desperately considering how to escape this situation.
Just then, a young man hiding behind Ha Yulhui and trembling shouted, "The Wind Fang Fan! Can't you use the third-tier artifact?"
"...Not with all of you here."
"Pardon?"
"I still can't control it. If I use the Wind Fang Fan, all of you will die too."
She said it with a pout, and the Qi Refining cultivators went pale.
They had realized that the situation was far worse than they had imagined.
"And... I don't think even the Wind Fang Fan could resolve this."
Ha Yulhui's gaze flicked aside, toward the monkey directing the demon beasts while brandishing a snow-white shinbone.
The late Foundation Establishment monkey, which had four arms, bared its fangs and screeched.
"Kiiik! The child of Sky Island's lord! If we kill that girl, the Great King will grant us a great reward! Keep pressing them!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
When the monkey beat the crude drum made of hide, a strange soundwave burst out.
Every time that heart-shaking sound spread, the eyes of the demon beasts turned redder and redder.
Kiiiiik!
Sharp stone spears, blazing rings of fire, even clouds of poison mist that reeked of something fishy—every kind of spell poured toward the qi barrier created by the shields.
Wuuung, wuuung, wuuung!
The violently shaking qi barrier reflected the innate divine abilities of the demon beasts.
Thud! More than a dozen first-tier demon beasts died at once, but the beasts' momentum did not falter. If anything, they grew more ferocious by the moment.
Any living creature should, by nature, fear death. Yet that rule did not apply to these demon beasts.
Kyaaaak!
Awooooo!
With eyes glowing red as blood, they charged mindlessly like emotionless slaughter machines.
Their numbers did not even decrease. Demon beasts drawn by the commotion kept arriving and replenishing the swarm.
Boomboomboomboom!
The monkey's arms swelled as though they were about to burst.
It beat the drum at a speed invisible to the eye, and as if responding to the drumbeat that had reached its peak, the demon beasts hurled themselves madly at the shields.
Like puppets being controlled.
"Don't ever stop! Don't give them time to breathe!"
For the one with the highest cultivation to hide behind the demon beasts and only give orders was utterly despicable...
But the tactic was unquestionably effective.
"Ugh..."
Under the bombardment of spells pouring down like a rainstorm, Ha Yulhui could no longer endure it, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Cracks began to spread one by one across the once-sturdy shields.
And then—
Kwa-rung!
A single bolt of lightning fell from the sky.