Caught in the Middle
"He probably named himself. Or perhaps someone else gave it to him."
"Either way, he's a curious fellow."
"Indeed."
Two heads, two pairs of flashing eyes turned toward Jekyeong.
"We are Sagaewan."
"Elder Sagaewan," Jekyeong said, bowing his head deeply.
He didn't know if such etiquette existed among the Beast Race, but his respectful attitude would surely get across.
"Elder? That's a bit much."
"Yes. Just call us Lord Sagaewan."
The aura of the lion Great Yo-beast, who referred to himself—or themselves—as Sagaewan, was still overbearing, but his attitude had clearly softened. Flattery, it seemed, worked wonders regardless of species.
"Lord Sagaewan."
"Yes, yes. That sounds much better."
"You're quite sociable for a serpent, aren't you?"
Jekyeong felt a slight sense of relief seeing that Sagaewan had no immediate intention of harming him, but he did not let his guard down.
"Lord Sagaewan, if I may be so bold as to ask..."
"Why we came looking for you?"
"Yes, my lord."
"To gather those who can be of use."
"What do you mean by..."
"We come from Sangyo Forest. Have you ever heard of Sangyo Forest?"
"My knowledge is shallow, so I have not heard of it."
Sangyo Forest. Just from the name, he could guess it was a gathering or faction of the Beast Race or demon beasts.
Are they here to recruit members, just like human sects recruit disciples?
If that was the case, it might not be the absolute worst-case scenario. Whether it was recruitment or conscription, it meant he wouldn't be killed on the spot. However, just because it wasn't the worst didn't mean it was good. Jekyeong was already living in an ideal environment, and he naturally wanted to avoid serving under someone else and having his freedom restricted.
As Jekyeong's mind grew complicated, the head that had kept its eyes closed since their first few words spoke up, its eyes still shut.
"I think I have a rough idea of what you're thinking. But meeting us and gaining the chance to follow Sangyo Forest is actually for your own good. Even if we hadn't come, the human bastards would have descended upon this place soon. You would have been killed, or captured and turned into a pet for those humans."
"Humans?"
"Indeed. Have you heard of the Jeyeon Sect? Since you haven't heard of Sangyo Forest, you probably don't know about them either, do you? It's a faction created by those human bastards. A 'sect,' as they call it. They will arrive here soon. They will slaughter or capture every single member of the Beast Race they lay their eyes on. We of Sangyo Forest moved first to prevent such a disaster."
Jekyeong finally understood how things were playing out. It seemed the human Jeyeon Sect and the Beast faction of Sangyo Forest were about to clash. Or perhaps they were already fighting.
A shrimp caught in a battle between whales.
Talk about a bolt from the blue. It was absurd, but having heard various stories from the senior cultivators in Bulmangwon, Jekyeong knew that such occurrences were surprisingly common in the cultivation world. Until now, however, he had always thought of those common occurrences as someone else's problem. Looking back, that was incredibly naive. Whether in the Human Territory or the Beast Territory, the cultivation world was still the cultivation world.
"You don't want to die, and you don't want to become a slave, do you? So, follow us."
"I will follow you."
There was no other choice to begin with. Jekyeong knew that although Sagaewan was acting relatively harmless right now, the beast would instantly turn on him the moment he refused to join Sangyo Forest.
"Good. I assume the same goes for the two behind you?"
There was no way Cheongo and Muk-su didn't realize what Jekyeong had. Unless they wanted to die, they had no choice either.
Sagaewan ordered Jekyeong, Cheongo, and Muk-su to bring the demon beasts of Changangwon into Sangyo Forest.
So this region is called Changangwon.
Jekyeong only now learned the name of the area he resided in. Piecing together the information Sagaewan had dropped, the Changangwon region seemed to be a border zone between the Jeyeon Sect and Sangyo Forest. It felt like a buffer zone left intentionally empty to prevent direct clashes between the two massive powers.
Should I call this good luck or bad luck?
To call it good luck, he was now a shrimp caught between whales. To call it bad luck, it was precisely because this was a masterless land that he had been able to grow to his current size without any major dangers or difficulties.
"I will personally deal with those who hold territories. You lot gather the lesser demons. Kill anyone who refuses to obey."
Having given his orders, Sagaewan leaped away. He had gone to recruit the masters of the other territories.
Left behind, Jekyeong, Cheongo, and Muk-su stood in silence for a long while. Then, after some time, Cheongo, who had kept its beak tightly shut the entire time, spoke up cautiously.
"...Jekyeong. Should we run away?"
As if fearing Sagaewan might be hiding nearby and listening, the bird's whispered words were so faint they were barely audible unless one listened closely.
"No," Jekyeong replied firmly.
He, too, wanted to flee immediately, but his Spiritual Perception, honed through countless contemplations, warned him that something foreign had attached itself to his spiritual nature. It had appeared the moment he made eye contact with Sagaewan right before the beast departed, and Jekyeong was certain this mysterious mark had been placed on Cheongo and Muk-su as well.
"We can't escape."
Jekyeong briefly explained what he had sensed. Cheongo immediately deflated, and Muk-su also looked gloomy. Though they couldn't feel the mysterious thing Jekyeong spoke of, they didn't doubt his words for a second.
"Let's go."
Since they couldn't run and couldn't fight, they had no choice but to do as they were told for now. However, even while obeying, there were things they needed to be careful about.
"Cheongo, hide the fact that you can speak. No, just pretend to be a dumb bird. Muk-su, do not bear any Spiritual Fruit. Pluck all the unripe ones right now."
Although Sagaewan had already noticed that Cheongo was clever, they still had to be as cautious as possible.
That Sagaewan fellow. He's much smarter and more cunning than he looks.
At a glance, he seemed to act recklessly without thinking deeply, but that was only because he had absolute confidence in his own strength. Sagaewan's goal was clear, and though his methods were crude, they were undeniably efficient.
He doesn't care about other demon beasts at all.
Jekyeong had felt a blatant curiosity in the way Sagaewan looked at him. It was no different from the curiosity a human might feel when looking at a talking dog. Sagaewan clearly did not view him as an equal, let alone as a fellow member of the same race. If Jekyeong had refused Sagaewan's command earlier, the beast would have crushed him instantly like a fly.
This is the norm.
Perhaps hanging out only with the kind-hearted seniors in Bulmangwon had dulled his sense of reality. Even when the senior cultivators warned him about how harsh the cultivation world was, had he not listened closely, thinking he already knew enough? Humans look down on dogs, and dogs look down on ants. In the cultivation world, a cultivator's strength and cultivation stage determine their position. Jekyeong once again realized this obvious truth, known to all cultivators, with painful clarity.
With Jekyeong possessing enough power to rule a territory, combined with Cheongo and Muk-su, the low-level demon beasts who couldn't even claim a territory of their own were no match for them. Once he suppressed them with raw power and bared his dripping fangs, seven out of ten would meekly obey. In other words, three out of ten refused to listen, and Jekyeong showed no mercy to those stubborn fools.
Crunch!
Another demon beast had its entire upper body ripped away. The severed upper half went straight into Jekyeong's stomach.
"Jekyeong, is this really okay?"
"Of course. Sagaewan told us to gather the demon beasts, but he never specified how many."
In Jekyeong's eyes, a seventy percent success rate was already excellent. He could probably coax one or two more out of the remaining thirty percent if he cajoled them, but he saw no need to bother. Sagaewan had told them to gather the lesser demons. From his perspective, these creatures were mere cannon fodder—nice to have, but entirely expendable. They would likely be used as meat shields in the fight against the humans. Rather than letting them go to waste like that, it was far better to use them as nourishment.
Still not enough.
After undergoing his shedding and breaking through the bottleneck, his vital energy, which had been stagnant, began to increase once more. Binge-eating didn't mean all of it would convert into vital energy, but if he could increase his vital energy even by a fraction, Jekyeong was prepared to devour as much as he could. Fortunately, his stomach was robust enough to handle such excessive meals.
"You two eat as much as you can while you have the chance. We don't know what will happen later."
Cheongo and Muk-su were still somewhat dazed. They were moving along in a daze due to Sagaewan's terrifying pressure and Jekyeong's lead, but they hadn't fully grasped the situation yet.
"Listen carefully. We've been caught in a clash between that human sect... the Jeyeon Sect, and Sangyo Forest."
Jekyeong tossed the remaining half of the demon beast's corpse to Cheongo and Muk-su, continuing slowly as they ate.
"I know. It's overwhelming. This is... like a sudden downpour. Unfortunately, we can't avoid it, and we can't run away. So, rather than clinging to what we can't do, our best bet is to focus entirely on what we can do."
When Sagaewan had first burst in, it was so sudden—like a bolt from the blue—that his mind had frozen. Even then, he had tried to force his stiffened brain to work, but reviewing the situation calmly now brought many new thoughts.
There's no need to look at this purely in a negative light.
Of course, this was something he hadn't wanted at all, and objectively, it was a situation that made him want to curse... but if he tried hard enough, he could find a silver lining.
This is a war between cultivation factions. And war always brings opportunities.
Putting everything else aside, if he could luckily devour just a few late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators, it would be a massive help to the growth of his Spirit Seed. And perhaps, just perhaps, he could even consider fully aligning himself with Sangyo Forest through this opportunity. Of course, he didn't have even a shred of desire to do so right now; it was strictly a hypothetical.
But all of this only matters if we survive.
If Sangyo Forest sent him and the other demon beasts of Changangwon to their deaths as cannon fodder, or if they simply lost the fight against the Jeyeon Sect, none of this would matter.
"Let's move again once you're done eating."
Jekyeong carried out his mission diligently. As a result, in less than five days, he managed to gather over fifty demon beasts. It was an achievement born entirely of his raw power and sheer ferocity.
"Oh?"
"You've gathered quite a lot."
Sagaewan, dropping down from the sky just like before, looked at the disheveled crowd of demon beasts lined up behind Jekyeong, his eyes gleaming.
"A clever fellow indeed."
"Quite useful."
With the two heads speaking in turns, Jekyeong didn't know which one to play along with, so he simply kept his head bowed in silence.
"Good. With the others, this should be enough."
"We are heading to the assembly point. Follow our aura."
As if refusing to allow any questions, Sagaewan immediately leaped into the air. The sight of his massive body floating in the sky without wings was mystical in itself, but before long, Sagaewan, who had soared high, began to descend in a gentle arc.
He wasn't flying; he was jumping.
He had leaped so high that it looked like flight. It was a bit surprising that a Great Yo-beast lacked the ability to fly, but that monstrous jumping power alone was astonishing enough.
An assembly point.
Jekyeong did his best to calm his complicated thoughts. Leading the demon beasts, who were utterly dazed by the Great Yo-beast's overwhelming pressure, he followed Sagaewan's aura.