Siege
A wave of dizziness washed over me. It wasn't severe enough to make me faint or collapse, but it was the kind of vertigo that could cause serious trouble in the middle of a fight. I pulled out recovery pills and talismans from my robes to use them, leaving the parts that couldn't be healed by medicine and charms to Ryeo-ah.
"Give me a heal."
Demonic energy wasn't something you could use immediately just by absorbing it. Even if it was high-quality demonic energy, it had to be processed into energy compatible with one's own cultivation technique. Therefore, after taking recovery pills to restore spent energy, one had to spend time refining the demonic energy, or else resort to using unrefined energy, which was highly inefficient and weak.
But that didn't apply to me—or more accurately, to Ryeo-ah. Having regained a portion of her power as a supreme being who had once reached the pinnacle of cultivation, refining a mere handful of demonic energy was child's play to her. The speed of her refinement was utterly absurd.
"Maybe someday." I wondered if I could manage it once I reached the absolute mastery of Qi. The strain that couldn't be healed by pills or talismans was cleared away by Ryeo-ah, who used a peculiar secret art with her restored strength. Shaking off my thoughts, I looked at the Yaksha Captain who was approaching me.
"My lord. Everything has been cleared."
He wore a distorted demon mask, stained only with the blood of our enemies. Even though I had taken on the strongest foe, the fact that he hadn't sustained a single decent injury in this chaotic melee proved he was well-suited for his position as captain.
"We will regroup with the Elder."
Along with the Yaksha Unit, several cultivators in the **Ungi (Qi Circulation)** realm had finished cleaning up. Since they belonged to Elder Do's faction, they clasped their hands in a polite salute to me the moment they were done and vanished. As my body neared full recovery, Ryeo-ah asked slyly:
"Don't say such horrifying things." How could someone say something so cruel? At most, I had only told her to let me plow her tight virgin pussy, fill her with cum, and become my personal slut to breed whenever I was bored. But my dear sister's mouth was far too foul.
"What?"
Honestly, there was only one way to claim the greatest merit, wasn't there? The ultimate achievement in martial arts that even So-ye couldn't dispute. And the best of them all was, of course...
"Hunting a **Samgeuk**."
It was a rather—no, highly arrogant phrase to escape my lips. Yet Ryeo-ah expressed deep, intense delight, as if she had been waiting for this exact moment.
"Of course, I don't plan on going alone." I wasn't quite at that level yet. But I could certainly swoop in and steal a massive piece of the pie. Since we had launched such a massive raid, the enemy's Samgeuk cultivators were bound to show up. When they did, I would join the Elders in a raid. I had more than enough power to do that much.
"First of all..." There was no need to worry about my women. So-wol, Jeongha, Cheonma, and the others were all gathered together. I had already slaughtered many of the Ungi realm cultivators responsible for defending the western wall, and as long as I stayed ahead of them on the vanguard, I could filter out any dangerous threats beforehand. I could let them handle opponents up to the **Tong-un (Universal Circulation)** stage, but if that bastard with the Dharma treasure from earlier had gone after them, it would have been dangerous.
"But first..." Since this was the headquarters of a human cultivation sect, there had to be an elixir garden or a treasure vault. The greedy Centurions and Captain-level demons would have already swarmed that place, so let's go loot it first.
"They'll keep fighting until I'm done looting." The Samgeuk of both sides weren't so pathetic that their battle would be decided while I was robbing a vault. They couldn't possibly be incompetent enough to get their heads taken so easily by a cultivator of the same realm. They were masters who had reached the Samgeuk, after all. I'll loot as much as I can and kill as many as I can on the way. With that, I moved toward the treasure vault. How did I know the location? Well, after I let the prisoners fully experience the elements of Mother Nature—forcing them to speak the truth—they happily spilled the layout of the castle. I didn't know who or what kind of defenses were waiting, but knowing the location was enough.
"Hold them back!"
"Break through!"
Sure enough, the demons who had caught the scent of treasure and the humans utilizing the vault's formations were locked in a fierce struggle. It looked like the humans, whose front lines had collapsed, were staging a siege inside the treasure vault, which was heavily layered with barriers and security formations. I didn't have the luxury of watching leisurely.
"Damn it, this is frustrating! Is there really no way? That special destructive Dharma treasure of yours isn't doing anything!"
"Ugh, do you think it's easy to break a barrier designed specifically for this? A Samgeuk formation master designed this barrier to be impenetrable!"
"It blocks all attacks from the outside, yet lets attacks from the inside pass right through. What kind of absurd barrier is this?!"
Five or six Centurions were huddled together, as if they had agreed from the very beginning to head straight for the treasure vault.
"As expected of a treasure vault, the formation is formidable."
"If we don't break through quickly, other jackals will swarm this place, Cultivator Seo."
Yes, jackals like me, who were perfect for crashing the party. I didn't even bother greeting them. Instead, I raised my bow. The **Red Agate Bow**. A spiraling wedge arrow wound around my hand, and the feathers spat out runic characters, imbuing the wedge with power.
"That's the aura of a Dharma treasure! Is it an Elder?"
"No, it's him! The Scout-Slaying Ghost!"
"The Yaksha Ghost Lord!"
I really needed to do something about those cringe-inducing nicknames once this war was over. Instead of giving them a piece of my mind, I drew back the string of the fully charged Red Agate Bow. *Twang!* Before the sound of the string could even echo, the arrow slammed directly into the golden barrier! *Zzzzt!* Perhaps it had an automated defense mechanism, because the moment it was struck by a Dharma treasure-grade attack, it began to retaliate like a living creature screaming in agony. Lightning shot out from the barrier itself, not to mention the attacks from the cultivators holed up inside. *Swoosh—* The Dharma treasure draped over my body, the **Golden Command Robe**, deflected the bolts, and I immediately loosed another arrow. *Creeeeak!* After repeating this a few times, the barrier finally shattered.
"Great! Advance, quickly—"
The skull of a Centurion who dared to rush ahead of me followed the shattered barrier into oblivion.
"What is the meaning of this?!"
"What do you think you're doing?!"
I couldn't be bothered to talk. The Yaksha Captain and the Yaksha Unit blocked their path, embodying their master's will.
"You shall wait here until my master has finished his business."
"What tyranny is this! No matter how famous the Crimson Young Master is, we cannot tolerate this!"
"And what are you going to do about it?" I drew my bowstring.
"..."
"Well, ahem."
Truly, a bow was an excellent tool of persuasion. Leaving the Yaksha Unit outside, I entered the vault and began sweeping everything in sight into my storage. I was still a bit hesitant and lacked confidence, but since I didn't know when the tide of battle would turn, I had to move fast.
Elixirs, materials, artifacts. I had no idea what they were used for or even what they were called, but they would surely come in handy if I kept them. When I had looted about half of the vault, the expected guest finally barged in.
"Look at my little brother, playing petty thief when my back was turned."
"I'm busy."
"Right. Boys, start looting."
It was **Kang So-ye**, holding a bone-carved greatsword—a Dharma treasure—in one hand, accompanied by her subordinates and several Centurions. There was no sign of the Yaksha Unit that was supposed to be guarding the entrance. Given her personality, she probably hadn't left them alive. It was completely expected, so I didn't really care. Still, for the sake of reputation management, maybe I should pretend to be sad.
"You wench! What have you done to my precious subordinates?!"
"You might want to stop greedily stuffing your pockets with treasures before you say that. It would make you at least slightly more convincing, don't you think?"
"That's impossible."
Even as she spoke, Kang So-ye's hands were moving just as busily as mine, like a pair of hyenas tearing into a carcass. If I hadn't been strong, she probably would have ripped my stomach open to take the treasures I had already looted. The only reason she didn't was because she was calculating the aftermath of a direct clash with me. While minor competition or bickering was tolerated, trying to kill each other would disrupt the grand scale of the war for personal greed. The absolute authority of military law had a way of forcing even a crazy bitch to act rationally. So-ye, myself, and our respective lackeys began looting the vault with frantic energy. The wealth accumulated by some sect over countless generations was torn apart by outsiders and stuffed into our storage.
"Brother, you've stuffed yourself quite a bit, haven't you?"
"I barely ate anything, but I do feel full. Shall I make you full too, sister?"
"How? Did you suddenly decide to share the treasure?"
"No. I was thinking of making your belly swell for ten months. By knocking you up, of course."
Needless to say, she flipped me off before leading her forces away. She had probably headed off to some pre-scouted location to rack up achievements. As I diligently followed the trail left by Elder Do and his group, Ryeo-ah showed signs of excitement.
"Ah, don't raise death flags like that."
*BOOM!* Fuck. A massive shockwave rippled through the entire castle. And even more immense than the physical impact was the presence of incredibly powerful beings clashing. They had finally met. After a brief moment of hesitation, I changed direction to slaughter more humans.
"I need to charge up first. You said the more I kill, the more power you can draw upon." I say it again, but those who reached the Samgeuk realm were no fools. I needed to stack up as much insurance as possible.
"That bastard! Raise the barrier's output to the maximum!"
"Demon-Slaying Unit! Our target is that slaughtering demon over there! He's the one who killed our captain last time, so we end our vengeance here!"
"He's the one who killed Senior Brother Sa! Disciples of the Blue Current Pavilion! Rise!"
"That son of a bitch took Junior Sister Ryu...!"
Malice, hostility, intent to kill. Countless deep grudges had been forged in such a short span of time. As the tattoos carved into my club grew darker and the blood dried, the web of karmic debts only expanded. One person's happiness is another's misfortune. Fittingly, my mere presence possessed a magnetic charm that drew humans to me like moths to a flame.
The tattoos on my club began to glow.
Black obsidian and brown, bizarrely shaped rocks erupted from my back, and squeezing between them was another dark red mineral.
It felt as heavy as carrying a mountain on my back, but I grew exponentially stronger. Clinging to the crimson reef like barnacles were faces of people distorted in agony, and strands of hair-like fibers swayed like seaweed. My honest impression was...
"It's ugly."
It was hideous. It wasn't that I disliked horror, but this was just plain ugly. Why did it have hair-like strands and disgusting barnacles attached to it? And the smell... it reeked of rotting corpses. Ugh.
"Alright, alright." Grumbling, I manifested the crystals of the three peaks. Though they were different types of power, with Ryeo-ah mediating and me guiding them, they somehow locked together.
"Mmh..."
"Die!"
A storm of fireballs poured from the formation. *Thud!* Stomping my foot, a wall of obsidian erupted and cut through them all.
"Grudges can never be severed, monster!" *Crunch!* I impaled the armored figure charging straight at me through the abdomen with a jagged, rough, bizarre rock.
"Demon-Slaying Unit. Form the Fourth Joint Attack Formation."
*Screeech—* The Demon-Slaying Unit surrounded me, drawing a formation diagram solely with their footwork. Their joint attack technique was indeed impressive, but a crimson reef suddenly erupted, sinking their path like a ship hitting a reef. The barnacles shrieked, disorienting their inner ears and organs, while the hair-like seaweed wrapped around their ankles, dragging them down like water ghosts.
"Hup!"
I swung my club—now twice its original size, with all those powers somehow blended and condensed—and slaughtered them all. Left in their place was a single, blood-drenched Dokkaebi, catching his breath atop a mountain of corpses.
"Phew..."
"Fucking amazing."
*I'm actually pretty strong, aren't I?* I was gloating while recovering my strength with Ryeo-ah's help when—*Thud!* "Whoa, startled me." A figure flew through the air and crashed right in front of me. If it was an enemy, I planned to tap them on the head to silence them forever. Even if it was an ally, unless they were absolutely essential, I was tempted to give their skull a gentle knock.
"Ugh... Hayun?"
"...Elder Do?" Why are you here? Ah, I have a bad feeling about this.
"How dare you set your filthy feet upon our sect's sacred grounds and expect to leave alive?"
"Indeed, a mere monster attempting such insolence is utterly laughable."
Let's see... One, two. There were two of them. If an Elder of Snow Demon Valley stepped up, they should be easy enough to handle. But Elder Do looked at me and shook his head. *Boom!* Another massive clash of energy echoed from far away.
"Let us finish this quickly while Cultivator Jeok keeps that Snow Demon Valley monster bitch occupied."
"Haha. Do not worry. With the two of us joining forces, how could a single goblin survive?"
"Who is that fellow next to the Elder?"
"Who cares? A mere Ungi realm trash will pop like a bug if we step on him."
Ah.