Chapter 22: Your Companion? You Mean This Thing?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 22: Your Companion? You Mean This Thing?
The 100,000 Great Mountains, the stronghold of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
The Cult Leader had returned.
The elders delivered their reports to Baek Yeon-yeong.
The contents were the same as always.
Whether there had been any intruders, what had happened among the disciples, and the current state of affairs.
It seemed no one, aside from Baek Yeon-yeong’s inner circle, knew she had even left.
She listened to their stories in silence, her expression as impassive as ever.
It was all just a series of tedious reports.
At some point, she found herself staring at the patterns on the ceiling.
Ornate designs that seemed to be embroidered with countless dragons.
That part over there is crooked.
Having spotted the misaligned section, Baek Yeon-yeong felt a flicker of annoyance, but the shape of it somehow reminded her of the lizard she had seen earlier, and her mood brightened.
“This concludes our report.”
The elders finished.
“Very well.”
After all the elders had departed, the personal reports from the Guardians followed.
Aside from the Left Guardian cautiously watching her every move, this too was uneventful.
For some reason, the Guardians also withdrew quickly.
It was a welcome development for her.
Now, Baek Yeon-yeong was finally alone.
She let out a small yawn and stretched.
“Haaah…”
As she stretched, she met a pair of eyes that were the spitting image of her own.
“…You startled me. If you had something to say, you should have said it earlier. Why are you still here?”
Baek Seol-hwa, the Priestess of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, was staring intently at Baek Yeon-yeong.
“How could I dare speak ill of the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult?”
Baek Yeon-yeong had never said anything about speaking ill.
So, the Priestess came here to give me a piece of her mind.
She knew it instinctively.
Baek Yeon-yeong thought hard.
Something to complain about… what could it be?
Did she find out I stole the dried persimmons last time? Or was it the candied hawthorns I secretly took?
She’d committed so many minor offenses that she couldn’t even begin to guess.
“Is that so? Then you may leave. I wish to rest now.”
“If the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult gives such an order, then this girl has no choice but to obey.”
The Priestess bowed with an elegant posture.
Then, holding that pose, she lifted only her head.
Her eyes were blazing.
“This is not a request from the Priestess to the Cult Leader, but something Seol-hwa wishes to say to Yeon-yeong. Will you hear it?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Will you hear it?”
“I said I don’t want to.”
The flames in her eyes burned hotter.
“Cult Leader. Seol-hwa says that if not now, she will be twice as angry later.”
“Is that so.”
“May Seol-hwa offer a word to Yeon-yeong?”
There was no sending her away peacefully.
Baek Yeon-yeong nodded.
“Permission granted.”
Haaa.
Baek Seol-hwa took a deep breath.
Her already large chest swelled majestically.
“You crazy bastard!”
ROAR!
It was a volume that should have been impossible for the usual Priestess.
Except when with the Guardians and the Cult Leader, Baek Seol-hwa’s conduct was truly befitting of her title—gentle and always kind.
But now, she was like a general on the battlefield, a beast seething with rage.
“Did I tell you to let me know when you go somewhere, or did I not?”
Is she making such a fuss over something so trivial?
“I did tell someone,” Baek Yeon-yeong said, unconcerned.
“What good is telling the Left and Right Guardians? They’re so busy watching you that they try to hide it from me.”
“Their loyalty is commendable. It must be a testament to how poorly the Priestess behaves that they feel the need to hide such things.”
“You, you…!”
The Lion’s Roar, a legendary martial art thought to be lost to time.
At this moment, it was being recreated through Baek Seol-hwa’s mouth.
BOOM!
Baek Seol-hwa’s nagging, like a powerful sound art, continued relentlessly.
It covered 101 reasons why the Cult Leader shouldn't abandon her post, a list of her recent wrongdoings, and most importantly, a detailed account of how difficult it was to acquire Okbong’s honey.
“Pant… pant…”
Even for Baek Yeon-yeong, who had long since surpassed the Peak Realm, Baek Seol-hwa’s sound-art-that-wasn’t-a-sound-art was quite grating.
“…Are you finished?”
What’s the big deal about stealing a little honey?
Honey.
Baek Yeon-yeong smiled faintly, remembering the little lizard frantically gulping down the grain-free pills and honey. She had dropped it for a moment but couldn’t bring herself to pick it back up.
How could she possibly disturb it when it was eating so earnestly?
“You think this is funny? …Ugh, forget it. Just forget it.”
Baek Seol-hwa shook her head.
“Cult Leader.”
Her tone shifted once again.
What kind of eccentric behavior is she planning now?
Baek Yeon-yeong looked up at the Priestess.
“There was one thing I didn’t report during the meeting.”
“Speak.”
“We’ve detected some strange movements directed toward the 100,000 Great Mountains.”
“Strange movements, you say.”
“It seems they’ve heard that there are spirit beasts here and are planning to infiltrate secretly.”
Why is she only telling me this now?
If she were to ask, she had a feeling she’d be met with a Lion’s Roar along with the words, ‘Because the Cult Leader wasn’t here, so I didn’t have time to report it personally, did I?’
“A secret infiltration means it won’t be an all-out war.”
“For now. The Five Great Families and the Nine Factions wouldn't attack without just cause. They won’t use their official names. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested.”
The gist of it was that an extermination force targeting the 100,000 Great Mountains was being formed.
The instigator was unknown. The self-righteous Orthodox Factions were feigning indifference, but each had secretly dispatched a small number of troops. And soon, they would invade the 100,000 Great Mountains.
To be precise, their target was the spirit beasts on the plains.
Baek Yeon-yeong nodded.
“Let them come.”
“What?”
“Trials are necessary for growth.”
Baek Yeon-yeong gazed at her fingertip.
There was no mark, but she still remembered the sensation of being bitten.
“Of course, I’ll have to prune some branches.”
With those cryptic words, Baek Yeon-yeong rose from her seat.
*
This time, a legion of house centipedes swarmed in.
Their grotesque appearance filled me with disgust.
I should be grateful; it’s proof that my mind is still human.
Only five of them recognized me as an enemy; the rest scurried off elsewhere.
But even five meant they still outnumbered me.
The old me would have run away.
But I’m different now.
Activate Sprint.
My specialty was, as expected, speed.
I had to make the most of this advantage.
Combining my already incredible speed with footwork, I moved at a pace they couldn’t possibly follow.
Swish!
And then, the Dragon’s Claws.
The Dragon’s Claws was a martial art that involved seizing the enemy with hands like a dragon’s talons.
My claws made contact with a house centipede’s body.
And in that instant.
Snap.
The creature’s body was severed in two.
To confirm the kill, I crossed my hands and slashed again.
Thud-thud-thud.
The house centipede’s body trembled violently.
…So damn cool.
Is this really me?
To kill that hideous monster in a single blow.
I must be getting close to Baek Yeon-yeong’s level.
In truth, there was a reason for this.
It was partly due to my overwhelming speed and the use of the Dragon’s Claws, where every move was a killing technique, but there was another contributing factor.
It was my title.
【Titles】
「Beloved by the Spider」
A bonus to strength and speed when facing insects.
Technically, a house centipede is an arthropod, but it seemed to apply.
Thank you, Nephila Jurassica.
You truly are the gift that keeps on giving.
After I took one down, the other four house centipedes seemed flustered.
“Chiiik!”
They were probably talking to each other.
How can a lizard this small have such power?
Something along those lines, I imagined.
They hesitated.
Normally, they would have attacked immediately, but they seemed wary of my strength.
This actually worked against me.
The four house centipedes gathered together, forming a battle formation.
I don’t know if it was intentional, but it certainly made the situation more difficult for me.
Even if I used both hands to finish off two of them at once, there was a high chance the remaining ones would attack me.
There’s a way to handle this.
I unfurled my long tail.
Flick.
A technique I learned from a master of the Snake Fist.
Flick, flick.
You guys are so weak.
“Gek-ge-gek.”
One of the house centipedes, enraged, charged at me.
“Chieeeek!”
Simple-minded fool.
I grabbed the house centipede’s torso with my right hand.
Green Basilisk Style, Dragon’s Claws, Third Form.
RRRRIP!
Bisected!
It was literally torn in half and died.
Now there were three left.
Their formation had long since been broken.
The time had come to complete my very own fourth and fifth forms of the Dragon’s Claws.
“Gek-ge-gek!”
Letting out the valiant roar of a green dragon, I charged toward them.
*
【Green Basilisk LV8】
HP: 80/80
MP: 30/30
【Titles】
「Beloved by the Spider」
I steadily built up my strength by hunting the enemies that swarmed me. In my spare time, I climbed onto the mural to practice Qi Cultivation and skimmed through the martial arts I hadn’t learned yet.
None of them particularly caught my eye, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to look them over.
There was no guarantee that I was the only one who could use martial arts.
It was possible that other animals, not necessarily humanoid, could use them too.
After all, didn’t that Titanoboa’s offspring use a strange attack for a snake?
An attack even its parents didn’t use.
As I diligently studied the martial arts, there was still something I couldn’t understand.
The marks next to the mural.
Should I call them sword marks?
There were inscrutable traces left there.
From what I could gather, they were likely related to martial arts.
If I had my way, I would have stayed here practicing Qi Cultivation until I figured out what they were, but that was impossible.
I had realized a few things while hunting the house centipedes and spider minions.
The Silver Dragon Cave.
This cave was an artificially created place, and it was filled with countless beasts and insects.
Their leader had been the Titanoboa that Baek Yeon-yeong had dealt with.
The moment that leader died, there was only one thing left for these creatures to do.
Decide who would become the new master of the Silver Dragon Cave.
They fought like absolute madmen.
Even the insects that had remained neutral before were now fighting indiscriminately.
It was quite profitable to watch from the shadows and pick them off one by one.
This Silver Dragon Cave had gone mad with battle.
And I was just a delicate little lizard.
However, not everyone was so belligerent.
Just then, I saw a centipede passing below me.
“Chiiik.”
The fact that it was making noise on purpose seemed to be its way of greeting me after spotting me.
“Gek-gek.”
Hello, Mr. Centipede.
“Chiik.”
“Ge-gek.”
Any luck today?
I patted my flat stomach.
The centipede tilted its head from a distance, then came closer and placed a small cricket it was holding in one of its legs on the ground before leaving.
“Gek-ge-gek!”
You’re so kind.
This centipede was, how should I put it, rather nice.
It hadn’t attacked me from our very first meeting.
I don’t know if it was intimidated because I was covered in the bodily fluids of a house centipede, but as long as it didn’t attack, I was happy.
No matter how many house centipedes I hunted, I just couldn’t bring myself to eat them.
Eating a house centipede was the last bastion of my humanity.
Since I couldn’t eat them anyway, I offered them to the centipede, and this relationship was the result.
A cricket is a delicacy, a true delicacy.
“Gek-gek!”
Thank you, Mr. Centipede.
I was expressing my gratitude to the centipede and had just taken a bite of the cricket when it happened.
CRASH!
“SAAAAAK!”
The centipede was gone.
A giant millipede that had burst from the ground had swallowed my kind neighbor.
“Gek-ge-ge-gek!”
Centipede!