The Price of Greed
"Understood." The man tapped his waist, and the sheathless sword hanging there floated up before his eyes.
"Junior Sister, be careful. That monster is no ordinary creature. There's no telling what bizarre abilities it might possess." Warning the woman beside him, the man drew a talisman and pressed it onto the floating sword. The talisman instantly burned away, its remaining embers sinking deep into the blade.
"Go!" the man shouted, waving his hand. At his command, the glowing red sword shot toward Mokyo like an arrow.
The moment Jekyeong heard Mokyo's roar, his thoughts instantly flashed to the human cultivators Cheongo had spotted.
"Go see what's happening." He spoke with feigned indifference, but his heart was pounding faster than ever before.
Fortunately, Cheongo didn't seem to notice his anxiety or fear. Replying with a casual chirp, the bird took flight toward Mokyo.
While Cheongo was away assessing the situation, Jekyeong agonized over his options. If they really are human cultivators, what should I do? Should I save Mokyo, or let it die?
Had it been any ordinary monster, he wouldn't have hesitated for a single second to abandon it. But Mokyo was different. It was a special entity. With its help, hunting other demon beasts would remain incredibly easy. Having already tasted the sheer convenience of their partnership, erasing the option of saving it was no simple task.
It's too early to jump to conclusions. They might not be human cultivators. Perhaps it was just a passing demon beast driven mad by the scent of the spiritual tree's fruits. Though he knew this was mere denial, Jekyeong clung to the hope until Cheongo returned.
But when Cheongo returned a moment later, screeching that it was indeed the human cultivators from before, Jekyeong could only close his eyes shut.
Damn humans! Always getting in the way! Jekyeong, a human in his past life and a demon beast in his current, ground his teeth. Even though he still held onto his human identity despite his monstrous form, pure rage surged through him at this moment.
But anger was anger, and reality was reality. He had to deal with the situation at hand.
"What's the situation?"
"Bad! Very bad! There are too many humans, and the tree can't hold them off! If this keeps up, the tree is going to die!" Worry dripped from Cheongo's voice. Yet, as the bird stared straight into his eyes while reporting, Jekyeong instantly read its underlying intent.
This clever bird. Cheongo was urging him to make a choice. To abandon or to rescue.
Cheongo, too, understood Mokyo's value. Aside from the spiritual fruits it bore, they had easily hunted a demon beast just a few days ago thanks to its assistance. It would be stranger if the bird didn't realize it. Cheongo was thinking the exact same thing as Jekyeong. The only difference was that while Cheongo could only think, Jekyeong was the one who held the power to decide.
Jekyeong made his decision before Cheongo could speak another word. "I believe we must save the tree. With it around, our hunting worries will be practically gone."
"Yes! Yes! We must save it!" Cheongo clacked its beak eagerly, as if to say that's exactly what I was thinking!
"So, what about you?"
"Huh?"
"You've grown stronger too. Can you fight?"
"Ah..." Though its appearance didn't inspire much confidence, Cheongo was still a demon beast in its own right. Even if it couldn't pull off any grand feats, Jekyeong could at least expect some basic support. The real question, however, was whether the bird actually had the stomach for it.
"I... I can fight too," Cheongo replied, its voice firming up after a brief hesitation. Staring into the bird's unwavering eyes, Jekyeong turned around. "Then that's enough. Let's go."
"Watch your step! There's no telling how many of the monster's roots are hidden beneath the soil!" The shouts of the human cultivators cut through Mokyo's roars.
Even amidst the chaos, roots lashed out like whips in every direction, while flying swords carved countless arcs through the air. Every time a blade swept through the void, the roots cracked, splintered, and were severed.
With every passing moment, Mokyo's ferocious roars grew weaker. Conversely, the human cultivators, sensing the wood demon's waning strength, pressed their advantage with surging momentum. Their morale soared, driving them to attack with even greater aggression, and wounds began to multiply rapidly across Mokyo's trunk.
Uuuuuh—! With a long, mournful wail, Mokyo let its limp roots and branches droop completely to the ground. Seeing the wood demon seemingly abandon all hope of survival, the human cultivators grinned with delight.
"Do not let your guard down until the very end! It is still a monster!" shouted the young cultivator who had been wielding his sword most fiercely. At his stern warning, those who had been smirking quickly straightened their expressions. However, a relaxed mind could not be restored simply by controlling one's facial muscles. They were already standing back, waiting for the young cultivator to deliver the finishing blow.
It's over. It's finally over! There are five spiritual fruits, so I should be able to get one, right? Another young cultivator, standing furthest from Mokyo, was thinking exactly that. His eyes gleamed as he stared at the five spiritual fruits hanging from Mokyo's branches. There were five fruits and six people, meaning someone would have to go home empty-handed, but he was confident it wouldn't be him.
Stubborn bastard. He let out a sigh of relief as he looked at Mokyo, which had lost all of its initial ferocity and now resembled nothing more than a rotting tree.
The battle itself hadn't been easy, but the real torment had been trying not to damage the spiritual fruits. Fearing they might ruin the precious harvest, they hadn't dared to use spells like the Fire Arrow Technique, relying solely on their Dharma treasures to attack. However, manipulating Dharma treasures drained an immense amount of mental energy. It was one thing to use them a few times during a fight, but sustaining an entire battle with them was far too taxing for cultivators who were only in the early-to-mid stages of Qi Refining.
The toll was heavy, but the harvest is grand. That wood demon is extraordinary, so the spiritual fruits it bore must be top-tier spiritual treasures. Even if I can't use it myself, I can trade it for a massive profit once I return to the sect.
Congratulating himself on his decision to venture outside the sect this time, he waited for the battle to conclude, completely oblivious to the massive presence silently looming behind him. Was it because he was exhausted from the fight, or was he simply too mesmerized by the brilliant glow of the spiritual fruits dangling precariously from Mokyo's branches?
Chomp! Only when a massive maw clamped down and swallowed his body whole did he realize what was happening—but by then, it was already too late.
"Disciple Gyeong!" one of the cultivators shrieked, his eyes widening in horror. He immediately commanded his flying sword to strike the newly appeared 'monster,' but the beast casually swept its tail and batted it away. While the flying sword bent precariously and was deflected, not a single scratch appeared on the monster's scale-armored tail.
Crunch, crunch! The monster, Jekyeong, thoroughly chewed the unfortunate Disciple Gyeong in his mouth. Flesh and bone ground down easily under his razor-sharp teeth, but his mood was thoroughly unpleasant. It wasn't because the remaining five human cultivators were glaring at him with murderous intent. Rather, the sheer act of devouring a human triggered an instinctive, deep-seated revulsion.
There is no other way. If he didn't eat, what else could he do? If he didn't kill, what else could he do? They would have skinned him alive without a second thought, so there was absolutely nothing wrong with him killing and devouring them first.
Deftly suppressing his discomfort, Jekyeong scrutinized the five remaining human cultivators one by one. Though all of their faces were tense, the reasons behind their tension varied. In some, he saw an unerasable terror; in others, a burning, fiery rage.
First, that one. Jekyeong lunged toward a female cultivator standing nearby, who was radiating intense hostility.
"Ah!" The female cultivator panicked for a split second, but quickly regained her composure and pulled out a talisman. As the runes drawn on the talisman flared with light, the surrounding mud surged upward, instantly forming a wall like a fortress rampart.
Charging at full speed, Jekyeong frowned at the sight, but he did not slow down.
Crash! Jekyeong's massive body collided with the mud wall, which had hardened like stone. Though the impact halted his momentum, a sharp crack! echoed as deep fissures webbed across the barrier.
"Graaaagh!" A numbing shockwave rippled through his entire body, but Jekyeong ignored the pain. Pushing off the ground with his tail, he shattered the cracked mud wall into pieces. The female cultivator had already retreated during the brief delay, but the distance between them remained short.
"Attack!" The four other cultivators, excluding the female cultivator who was busy scrambling backward, launched a coordinated assault. Spell attacks they hadn't dared to use against Mokyo rained down on Jekyeong without mercy. Flaming arrows pierced his flesh, and heavy boulders crashed against his body.
Each strike brought a wave of pain, but it was nothing he couldn't endure by gritting his teeth. Jekyeong's exceptionally sturdy body proved its worth once again. Swallowing his groans and enduring the agony, he lunged forward once more. His target remained the same: the female cultivator with the fierce glare.
"Ugh!" The female cultivator's face turned pale. Defensive talismans like the one she had just used were highly expensive, and ordinary cultivators rarely carried more than one or two. Being an average cultivator herself, that single talisman had been her only line of defense.
Gritting her teeth, she channeled her spiritual energy into her Dharma treasure. A slender short spear floated before her, radiating a faint glow. "Go!" Imbued with almost the entirety of her remaining spiritual energy, the spear transformed into a beam of light and shot forward. It sliced through the air in a straight line, aiming directly for Jekyeong's head.
Sensing the lethal danger, Jekyeong swiftly jerked his head aside. He couldn't dodge completely, and the spear plunged deep into the center of his torso.
"Groooaaaar!" A roar laden with agony and fury reverberated through the area. His eyes bloodshot, Jekyeong bared his massive jaws at the female cultivator.
At that moment, the young cultivator standing closest to Mokyo gestured with a cold glare. The sword that had been hovering in the air, aimed at Mokyo, instantly pivoted.
"Caw!" If he had just one second—no, even a fraction of a second—the male cultivator's intent would have fully commanded the sword to fly toward Jekyeong. But in that fleeting instant, Cheongo swooped down on the young cultivator like a bolt of lightning.
"Damn it!" The young cultivator was shocked by the sudden intrusion of another demon beast, but he didn't panic and managed to dodge Cheongo's sharp talons. While Qi Refining cultivators could not fly, they could master body-lightening techniques. Some dismissed these techniques as trivial, neglecting their training, but he was different. In fact, outside of his primary cultivation method, he had dedicated the most effort to mastering his movement techniques. Thanks to that diligence, he narrowly avoided Cheongo's ambush—a strike that would have torn the head off nine out of ten ordinary cultivators.
Though the decisive ambush had failed, Cheongo's intervention was far from meaningless. "Junior Sister!" Because Cheongo had disrupted the young cultivator's attack, Jekyeong finally managed to swallow the female cultivator in a single gulp. She resisted until the very end, but squeezing out her meager remaining spiritual energy amounted to nothing more than a tickle to Jekyeong.
"You monstrous beast!" Shouts of fury echoed—words whose exact meaning he couldn't decipher, but whose raw, burning rage was unmistakable.