A Dragon? Or a Flood Dragon?!
The moment they laid eyes on the massive serpentine head—especially one adorned with a thick, curved horn—they completely lost their minds. Though they were cultivators, they had never once harbored or even contemplated a seeker's heart. They had merely practiced whatever cultivation methods they could get their hands on and accumulated power haphazardly. They were men accustomed to instilling fear, not feeling it. These water bandits were precisely that kind of rabble. Though some among them had managed to reach the late stage of Qi Condensation, the sight of a head so closely resembling a legendary Flood Dragon shattered their sanity instantly.
"Hand over your storage bags." Jekyeong cut straight to the chase. Originally, he had planned to dispose of the two late-stage Qi Condensation bandits before speaking, but seeing their current state, it seemed entirely unnecessary.
"I-it spoke?"
"A storage bag? It wants our storage bags?"
Jekyeong did not give the bandits any time to process their confusion. He thrust his massive head directly in front of one of the late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators.
"U-ugh...!" The bandit, whose eyes had gone wide at the fact that Jekyeong had just spoken, turned deathly pale as the overwhelming aura of a Great Yo-beast washed over him from mere inches away.
"This is my last warning. The storage bags."
"A-ah..." Trembling violently, the bandit raised one of his arms. Jekyeong's eyes gleamed as he spotted a jade bracelet wrapped around the man's thin, spindly wrist.
"Good. Take them all out."
Even though they couldn't fully grasp what was happening, the bandits faithfully followed their survival instincts. Yet, even in this dire situation, one greedy fool tried to play dumb and hold out. The turtle, who had been watching the situation unfold from beneath the water, slithered up beside him and shouted.
"Lord Dragon! This bastard is trying to deceive you!"
Jekyeong, who had been carefully gathering the various storage items with his tongue, turned his head at the turtle's cry. The terrified, hairy bandit hurriedly pulled out a pouch he had concealed around his thigh, but Jekyeong's gaze was already locked onto him.
"Keep a close eye on them."
"Yes, my lord!" Leaving the gathered items with the turtle, Jekyeong glided toward the bandit, who was now sweating buckets and belatedly holding up the dirty pouch with both hands.
"I-I wasn't trying to hide it, I just..."
Crunch! Before the bandit could finish his excuse, Jekyeong swallowed him whole. There was no scream, nor did a single drop of blood splatter. The storage bag and the cultivator vanished into his maw without a trace.
"..." The terrified bandits clamped their mouths shut, while the turtle did the exact opposite, hanging its mouth wide open. It smacked its drooling beak, making its desires painfully obvious, but Jekyeong ignored it. Instead, he focused on the changes occurring within his body as he digested the spiritual flesh.
Just as I suspected. Having reached the Great Yao realm, his spiritual nature had become far stronger and purer. A single mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivator was no longer enough to provide even the slightest stimulation. Since he had already anticipated this outcome, he wasn't particularly disappointed.
"Collect everything."
"Yes, my lord!" The turtle slipped the storage rings onto the rolled-up storage bags and draped them around its neck like a scarf. It was a comical sight, but none of the bandits found it funny. The cold gaze of the Great Yo-beast looking down on them had stripped away every emotion except absolute terror.
"Hand over everything without hiding a single thing! Anyone who dares deceive Lord Dragon will not survive!" The turtle bustled among the bandits, snatching up their belongings one by one. Aside from the fact that it kept babbling in a language the humans couldn't understand, the turtle's work ethic was quite satisfactory.
"Lord Dragon, here they are." The turtle waddled back and presented the gathered loot. Jekyeong glanced down; there were six items in total.
"Take them and step back."
"Yes, my lord." Once the turtle had retreated to a safe distance, Jekyeong shifted his coiled body. A mere flex of his massive frame sent violent waves surging outward. Swept up by the churning waters, the bandits wailed as they realized their fate, but Jekyeong didn't bat an eye. It was only a matter of timing; this outcome had been decided from the very beginning.
What would happen if he let them live? Would they decide to never return because a Great Yo-beast nested here? Or would they gather the masters of their faction to hunt the beast down and scour the area? Whatever the case, Jekyeong had no intention of leaving even a shred of future trouble. Once he resolved to hunt, he had to finish the job cleanly. Letting wounded prey escape half-heartedly was nothing but foolishness.
Jekyeong wiped out the remaining bandits in an instant. He personally dealt with the late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators, while simply whipping up a powerful current was more than enough to drown the rest.
"This is your reward." He swallowed the two late-stage Qi Condensation bandits himself, set aside the five mid-stage ones as nourishment for Muk-su, and gave the rest of the corpses to the turtle.
"L-Lord Dragon! This grace is..." The turtle's jaw dropped, and tears welled up in its eyes. Ignoring the emotional display, Jekyeong recalled the instructions on how to use a storage bag he had heard previously and tested whether he could store the five corpses inside one.
It works. Since these storage bags belonged to mere Qi Condensation cultivators, they naturally lacked any spiritual seals. The only potential issue was their capacity, but fortunately, more than half of their bags were practically empty, so stuffing five human corpses inside posed no problem at all.
An unexpected harvest. Aside from the storage bags themselves, there were a few items inside that looked quite decent. In particular, among the belongings of the late-stage Qi Condensation bandits—who seemed to be the leaders—there was a substantial amount of spirit stones, which he had only ever heard of, and even a jade slip. Jekyeong knew from hearsay that jade slips were the primary medium for recording information in the human cultivation world. Though he didn't know what was recorded on it, the fact that it was kept so securely meant it likely contained something useful.
To think robbing a few mere water bandits would yield such a bountiful harvest. He wanted to return to his nest as quickly as possible to inspect his spoils.
"You did well."
"Oh, it was no trouble at all, Lord Dragon! If I could be of even the slightest assistance to you, that alone is—" Jekyeong swiftly cut off the turtle's rambling.
"We shall meet again when the opportunity arises." With those parting words, Jekyeong immediately dove back into the water. Passing through the vortex once more, he reached the lakebed and gathered all the unusual soil, packing it into a storage bag. After a final check to ensure nothing was amiss, he swam slowly and carefully back to his nest, making sure not to damage the items held in his mouth.
Upon arriving at the cave on Jang Hu-am's island, he found Cheongo, who had been out, already returned and perched atop its glittering nest. Honestly, at this point, it was hard to call that thing a nest anymore; it looked more like a small hill.
It sure gathered a lot. Jekyeong clicked his tongue inwardly as he looked at Cheongo, who was perched so high they were nearly eye-to-eye. Where on earth did it even find all that junk...?
"Jekyeong! Jekyeong! Where did you go?" Jekyeong didn't answer. Instead, he glided over to the pool of water he usually slept in and gently set down the items he had been carrying in his mouth.
"What's all that?" Cheongo hopped closer, its curiosity piqued. Its gaze was locked onto the jade bracelet peeking out from beneath a long pouch.
"Interesting things."
"Interesting? What's interesting about them?" Cheongo tilted its head, its eyes still glued to the jade bracelet. However, as Jekyeong began pulling items out of the storage bags one by one, the bird's entire body spun around to face him.
"How did you do that? Are those the interesting things?"
"Yes." Jekyeong tossed the five corpses toward Muk-su. In the past, he had to carefully guide the beast to absorb flesh and blood, but now, simply throwing them nearby was enough for it to feed on its own.
"Huh?" Jekyeong, who was about to empty the rest of the bags, paused in surprise as he saw Muk-su twitch. Was the parasite finally graduating from its vegetative state and waking up?
"Oh?" Cheongo also noticed Muk-su's unusual behavior and craned its neck. Under their combined gaze, Muk-su—the plump, round fruit that had been half-buried in the dirt—began to rock side to side before suddenly popping out of the ground with a soft *plop!* But it didn't stop there. It kept rolling and rolling, bypassing the corpses Jekyeong had thrown, and charged straight toward the freshly piled heap of spiritual soil. Then, with a soft *thud*, it buried itself so deeply within the mound that it vanished from sight. Only then did the fruit stop moving.
Having witnessed this bizarre spectacle from start to finish, Jekyeong and Cheongo simultaneously turned to look at each other, their eyes demanding an explanation.
"The fruit is alive? No, wait... Muk-su is alive. Huh? That's not right either." Cheongo scratched the back of its head with a wing, looking thoroughly confused.
"It's weird for a fruit to move, but since it's Muk-su, it's not weird! Muk-su is alive, and it could always move. Yep!" Having asked and answered its own question, Cheongo pointed its wing toward the dirt where Muk-su was buried. "But what's that dirt? Is that interesting too? It feels... kind of dry and heavy."
"Yes. It's good soil." A dry, heavy feeling? It was likely sensing the earth-attribute energy. Cheongo certainly possessed an exceptionally sharp spiritual perception for a beast. Perhaps its sensory abilities had developed to compensate for its lack of combat prowess.
Seeing how Muk-su reacted to the spiritual soil... did it sense that the dirt would be beneficial to it? Jekyeong briefly wondered whether Muk-su was drawn to the earth-attribute energy within the soil or the soil itself, but quickly dismissed the thought. At some point, he had realized that trying to understand Muk-su was a complete waste of time. It was no exaggeration to call the creature a living enigma. After all, how a mere fruit could think and make decisions was a mystery in itself.
"You may absorb the spiritual energy, but do not damage the soil." He might have stopped overthinking it, but a warning was still necessary. This spiritual soil was now his precious property; even if it was Muk-su, property damage would not be tolerated. He only allowed it to bury itself because he knew the soil had self-regenerating properties.
Tremble. The soil shook slightly at Jekyeong's low warning. Or rather, it was Muk-su trembling beneath the dirt. At any rate, it seemed to have understood the warning, so Jekyeong paid it no further mind.
These are spirit stones, and this is... an alchemical pill? He prioritized stacking the spirit stones to one side, while placing items of unclear purpose in a separate pile. The alchemical pills fell into the latter category. Though he recognized them as such, he had no idea what effects they possessed.
Even if they are something like demon-nourishing pills... I don't even know if they would work on me. To him, these pills were nothing but white elephants.
Clothes? Why do they have clothes in here? Quite prepared for mere water bandits. After sorting through the various junk and discarding what was useless to him, very little remained. The most useful and valuable items were indeed the spirit stones, but judging by the quantity and quality of the spiritual energy they contained, the vast majority were of the lowest grade, with only a few barely scraping into the low-grade category.