Ash and Embers
"Aaaargh!"
Jekyeong's Fire Rain Technique, a heavily modified version of the Spirit Rain Technique, was not particularly impressive in terms of practical utility. It required a massive expenditure of energy, yet its actual effects were ambiguous. While raining down a destructive torrent of fire over a wide area made for a spectacular sight, its true destructive power was somewhat lacking. It was undoubtedly a catastrophe for those of a lower cultivation realm than the caster, but against peers or superior opponents, it was little more than an expensive firework display.
Yet at this very moment, Jekyeong's Fire Rain Technique was an absolute calamity for everyone on Heukgyodo. Nine out of ten people caught within its radius perished instantly, and only those who managed to desperately scramble beyond its borders clung to their lives. Gong Byeok-un, the leader of the Heukgyobang, could only watch the horrific carnage in impotent fury, forced to repeatedly throw himself out of the way to dodge the torrential downpour of fire.
Under normal circumstances, a middle-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator like him would never have to cut such a pathetic figure. He could have easily maintained the dignified air of a master by shrouding himself in dharma power, deploying a dharma treasure for defense, or simply dispersing the monster power blanketing the sky. However, Gong Byeok-un was decrepitly old, and his strength was a far cry from his prime. To make matters worse, he had sustained minor injuries from Jekyeong's ambush back at the Heukgyojeon, and the relentless game of hide-and-seek that followed had drained a significant portion of his energy. Consequently, he could neither extinguish this rain of fire nor block it effortlessly. He had no choice but to dodge.
"I'll give you credit for one thing—you certainly know how to run!" Jekyeong laughed boisterously as he pursued the fleeing elder. Seeing Gong Byeok-un's face contort in rage only made his laughter grow louder. He wasn't doing this out of some personal grudge. Jekyeong was a pragmatist who valued efficiency above all; wasting breath on useless banter during a fight was completely contrary to his nature. Nevertheless, he mocked and provoked Gong Byeok-un now for a single purpose: to shake the old man's mental composure, even if only slightly.
Naturally, such childish tricks would never have worked under normal conditions. Gong Byeok-un was, after all, an experienced Foundation Establishment cultivator. But right now, his mind and body were pushed to their absolute limits. Mentally, he was witnessing the empire he had spent decades building crumble to pieces in real-time. Physically, the accumulation of injuries and exhaustion was gradually slowing his movements. Beset by such blatant provocations on top of it all, Gong Byeok-un repeatedly warned himself not to fall for the bait, but he could not stop the inner fire of anger from boiling over. This inner fire relentlessly gnawed at his mind, ultimately causing his mind state to waver for a split second. And to Jekyeong, who had been watching like a hawk for the slightest opening, that split second was the exact opportunity he had been waiting for.
Crash! Jekyeong's fangs were blocked. The very same shield dharma treasure that had stopped his headbutt back at the Heukgyojeon had intervened once more. However, the dharma power infused into the treasure was significantly weaker than before, and it lost its luster immediately after absorbing the impact of Jekyeong's bite.
"Cough!" Gong Byeok-un managed to wrench himself away, but he suffered internal injuries once again from the backlash of his own dharma power. Unlike their clash at the Heukgyojeon, this internal damage was severe, causing him to violently spew a mouthful of dark, stagnant blood.
"Why don't you just give up and make things easier on yourself?" Jekyeong had expended a vast amount of monster power while maintaining his spells, but in his style of combat, monster power was merely a luxury, not a necessity. His primary weapon was his colossal, indestructible physical body, not sorcery.
Boom! Every time Jekyeong thrashed his massive frame, the earth split open and buildings collapsed. At first, Gong Byeok-un had tried to steer their battle toward areas with fewer people and structures, but now he had abandoned all such considerations, desperately scrambling just to survive.
"Don't you get it? No matter how hard you run, it's completely pointless! You're only prolonging your agony!" This was a provocation, but it was also the absolute truth. Jekyeong was fully confident that he could keep up this tedious game of tag all day—even for days on end. But could Gong Byeok-un?
"Ugh...!" There was no way Gong Byeok-un didn't realize what Jekyeong was implying. The fear of losing his life, along with everything he had built over seventy long years, was not something even a Foundation Establishment cultivator could easily shake off.
In a battle where split-second decisions dictated life and death, such emotional turbulence was as fatal as a strike to a vital point. His clouded judgment paralyzed his already sluggish body. Even as a fireball falling from the heavens descended right above his head, Gong Byeok-un failed to react. By the time he tried to move, it was already too late.
Whoosh! Fire infused with monster power enveloped Gong Byeok-un's body. The intense heat scorched his flesh, and the foreign monster power began to corrupt his dharma power. To human cultivators, the countless tiny embers raining down from the sky were no different from a deadly poison.
"Argh!" The moment Gong Byeok-un's movements faltered for a fraction of a second, Jekyeong did not miss his chance. The serpent's maw gaped wide, swallowing Gong Byeok-un whole in a single bite.
Heukgyodo, which had once been bustling with life despite its harsh and oppressive atmosphere, had been transformed into a fiery hellscape in an instant. Though the rain of fire from the heavens had ceased, the gloomy sky, thick with demonic energy, remained unchanged, and more than half of the island was engulfed in unquenchable flames.
The surviving members of the Heukgyobang fled to areas untouched by the fire, but the flames were gradually spreading, threatening to consume the entire island. At this rate, they would be left with only two choices: stay on the island and burn to death, or escape.
While the latter seemed like the obvious choice, the problem lay in the water beasts lurking beneath the waves, ready to strike at any moment. It would have been better if they had fled by boat when the water beasts first launched their assault, but that was no longer an option. While they had been gathered on the island under their leader's orders, the ships anchored at the harbor had all been systematically destroyed by the aquatic monsters.
"Ah..." The despairing bandits collapsed to the ground, their strength leaving them. Even with ships, their chances of finding a path to survival would have been slim. Jumping into waters teeming with water beasts without any vessel was nothing short of offering themselves up as willing sacrifices.
They looked up at the sky in utter helplessness. Cultivators who had once vowed to defy the heavens and ascend the path of immortality now stood at the precipice of despair, looking up at the very heavens they sought to defy, searching for a glimmer of hope. Had Jekyeong witnessed this sight, he would have watched this tragicomedy with great amusement, as if enjoying a play. Unfortunately, he had no time to appreciate the irony right now.
Swallowing Gong Byeok-un whole had been a triumphant moment, but the aftermath was proving to be a problem. Although Gong Byeok-un was old and his capabilities had severely deteriorated, he was still a middle-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. Devouring such a powerhouse whole was bound to cause some serious indigestion.
The lingering thoughts of a Foundation Establishment cultivator were not the issue. While an ordinary demon beast might have gone mad or even coughed up blood and died from the mere residual traces of dharma power within those thoughts, it posed no threat to a Great Demon like Jekyeong. The real issue was the raw dharma power remaining in the corpse. The refined dharma power Gong Byeok-un had cultivated throughout his life acted like a troublesome foreign substance inside Jekyeong. It wasn't life-threatening, but it left him feeling incredibly bloated.
Fortunately, this dharma power contains a fairly strong fire attribute, so I should be able to digest it somehow. For a brief moment, Jekyeong wondered if he had been too hasty in swallowing Gong Byeok-un in one gulp. The bloated feeling wasn't the only issue; the real pity was that he had gained virtually nothing from such a hard-fought battle. He had swallowed Gong Byeok-un's storage bag and even his dharma treasures along with him.
To make an excuse for himself, the high-stakes game of hide-and-seek had subtly irritated him. Fearing that missing this window would mean chasing the old man indefinitely, he had simply acted on impulse without thinking of the consequences.
Well... it's fine. It's only a couple of dharma treasures. The true prize lay elsewhere, so losing a few secondary spoils was of little consequence.
"Jekyeong! Jekyeong!" Cheongo, realizing the battle had concluded, came fluttering down toward him. "Is it all over?"
"Not entirely, but almost. What about the turtle?"
"He's still keeping watch!"
While conversing with Cheongo, Jekyeong surveyed the burning landscape of Heukgyodo and frowned. At this rate, the island would be reduced to a barren wasteland of ash. That won't do. Although the spiritual land itself was what mattered to him, not the physical island, it was still better to keep it looking presentable if possible. Though it was a bit late, Jekyeong decided to clean up the mess.
"Huuup!" He inhaled deeply, drawing back the monster power from the fires raging across Heukgyodo. Although the energy's properties had slightly altered after mixing with the ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth, its source was still his own monster power. The moment Jekyeong, its master, willed it back, the flames that had threatened to consume the entire island ceased their expansion and were sucked cleanly into his gaping maw.
It took mere blinks of an eye for the demonic clouds in the sky to disperse and the island's fires to completely die down. The bandits of the Heukgyobang, who had been waiting for death in utter despair, could only gape in stunned silence at this sudden turn of events. While they were relieved to be alive for the moment, their hearts sank as they watched the colossal black Gyoryong in the distance turning its massive head, scanning the area as if searching for its next meal.
Population was a resource. This was a universal truth that held sway both in his past life and in this cultivation world. Jekyeong herded the surviving bandits to one side of the island. He stationed the more intelligent water beasts in the surrounding waters to prevent any escape attempts, while reaching out to Gwak Jeong-sin to see if these "resources" could be sold for a decent price.
It would be better to put them to work if possible... but that's highly unlikely. Absorbing and commanding defeated soldiers who had been fighting tooth and nail against him just moments ago was no easy task. It was even more difficult when they belonged to entirely different races. Rather than forcing himself to manage these troublesome liabilities, Jekyeong preferred to cleanly exchange them for spirit stones.
Fortunately, Gwak Jeong-sin, who arrived immediately upon receiving the message, did not disappoint him. "There certainly are quite a few of them," Gwak Jeong-sin remarked, his eyes gleaming as he surveyed the devastated Heukgyodo, and then gleaming once more as he looked at the tightly packed crowd of bandits huddled in the corner of the island. "I can offer one low-grade spirit stone per head for early Qi Condensation, five for middle, and twenty for late. How does that sound?"
"Deal."
With that satisfactory transaction settled, they began to discuss their primary business in earnest. "As I mentioned before, I can handle the matters on the human side," Gwak Jeong-sin said. "However, for that to work, the supply of Yungrin-eo must be delivered without any disruption. Can you guarantee that?"
"Of course."
Before Gwak Jeong-sin's arrival, Jekyeong had already instructed Hyeongu to search for schools of Yungrin-eo. The turtle demon had expressed absolute confidence the moment the fish were described to him, so Jekyeong had no worries regarding the Yungrin-eo trade.
"Hearing that puts my mind at ease," Gwak Jeong-sin said, letting out a sigh of relief at Jekyeong's confident demeanor. He then looked around Heukgyodo, where ash was still drifting through the air, and sighed in awe. "I cannot even begin to imagine what this place originally looked like."
One thing was certain, though: a ferocious battle had taken place here. Yet the victor of that violent clash looked almost excessively unscathed, giving Gwak Jeong-sin a clear indication of the terrifying depth of this massive Great Demon's power.
"Fellow Daoist, now that you are the master of Heukgyodo, do you have any plans in mind? For instance, regarding the neighboring islands?"
"Hmm. I am considering my options." The images of Sam-wa-do, several other nearby islands, and the people living on them flashed through Jekyeong's mind.
"Lord Dragon! I have found them!"
Coiled amidst the ruins of the Heukgyojeon, Jekyeong raised his head at the sound of Hyeongu's energetic voice. The turtle demon crawled forward and bowed deeply. "I have located the schools of Yungrin-eo you mentioned."
"Where are they?"
"They are not far. About a six-day journey from here. Er... however, some of the water beasts kept losing their minds at the sight of them, so keeping them in check was no easy feat."
Water beasts were foolish, but they were entirely driven by instinct. This meant they could easily recognize what was beneficial to them. Since Yungrin-eo possessed the effect of nourishing qi and blood, it was only natural for the water beasts to go wild at the sight of them. The Heukgyobang had been well aware of this, which was why they had always driven away any water beasts in the surrounding waters to keep them from approaching the fish.
"Understood." Jekyeong immediately set out.