The Secret Realm of Dark Chaos (1)
Even watching the centipede yokai, now risen to the Core Formation Realm, charge straight at him, Cheon Woo-jin did not lose his composure.
He was exhausted beyond measure, but he had already spread his spiritual power around himself like a spider's web.
There were no other threats nearby, and the four Yuk brothers showed no signs of leaving the cave to come looking for him.
As he reconfirmed his current situation, he fixed his gaze on the Dark Marsh Great King Centipede.
The Radiant World Nether Spirit Sect surely knew something like this lurked inside the secret realm as well. They would have heard every detail through the Do'yomun.
And yet they had never once considered subjugating it directly.
Slaying a Core Formation yokai with one Foundation Establishment cultivator and four Qi Condensation cultivators was simply not a realistic proposition.
They had presumably planned to hunt lesser yokai within the Secret Realm of Dark Chaos while doing everything in their power to avoid crossing paths with the Great King Centipede.
In the game as well, the Dark Marsh Great King Centipede could not be brought down by ordinary means. It was more like a stage gimmick than an enemy.
There were ways to defeat it, to be sure — but the preparation was so convoluted and demanding that it amounted to nothing more than an achievement for veteran players to chase.
'But still.'
Cheon Woo-jin stared at the Great King Centipede bearing down on him from mere paces away.
It was so colossal that a simple collision would surely have crushed his body to pulp. Each time its hundreds of legs churned in turn, the ground split open and stones went flying.
From its endlessly working maws radiated a raw will to devour everything in its path, and even its venom-dripping maxillipeds gave off a chilling bloodlust.
Any ordinary cultivator would never even have dared to run — he would have wet himself on the spot.
Cheon Woo-jin did not turn his eyes away. Instead, he murmured silently within his heart.
'Instant death.'
Kukukung!
The Dark Marsh Great King Centipede, mid-charge, toppled over and rolled across the ground. The jaws that had seemed capable of crushing anything hung slack, and cracks split open across its armored shell, spewing revolting fluid from within.
It was the moment the hidden boss of the Secret Realm of Dark Chaos — whose overwhelming presence had dominated everything around it — met instant death at the hands of Cheon Woo-jin's authority.
'In the game, it took over a year of preparation just to kill this thing.'
Gazing down at the enormous centipede sprawled lifeless on the ground, Cheon Woo-jin felt a modest flicker of satisfaction.
But this was no situation for lingering. Once the other yokai realized the Great King Centipede had died, they would begin to rampage. He had to take what he could take before they showed themselves.
He reached out toward the massive corpse. Sending his spiritual power seeping through the cracks in its segments, he surveyed its interior — and there, around the middle of the body, he sensed something heavy and dense.
'There it is.'
Hooking his spiritual power like a claw, he drew out an object the size of a goose egg — a Golden Core, the core spiritual organ newly formed within a yokai upon reaching the Core Formation Realm.
'Weaker in feel than Heukha-ryong's.'
When he had first arrived in this world, Cheon Woo-jin had likewise instantly killed Heukha-ryong and harvested its Golden Core, then devoured it to acquire his Water Spiritual Root and the Body of the Dark True Abyss.
But this time there was no need to eat it. Cheon Woo-jin already possessed a Spiritual Root, so consuming the centipede's core would be meaningless.
'But instead……'
He laid the Golden Core on his palm and examined it with meticulous care.
When the Instant Killing Heavenly Eye acted, the core ceased all activity. But as he fed it thin threads of his Water Spiritual Qi, he felt it respond from within.
'This will serve perfectly as a Water-attribute foundation spirit material for the Foundation Establishment Pill.'
Spirit materials suitable for the Foundation Establishment Pill had strict conditions. Only a being that had spent long ages steadily accumulating spiritual qi within a sealed space like a secret realm — to the point that a spiritual structure for efficiently processing that qi had formed within its body — could qualify. This applied to spirit herbs and yokai alike, though for yokai only those of Core Formation or higher, whose Golden Cores housed that processing structure. Moreover, it had to possess a single-attribute Spiritual Root, unmixed with any other element — like the Dark Marsh Great King Centipede's Water root.
In reality, of course, using a yokai's Golden Core as a foundation spirit material was an impossibility. Anyone who needed such a material was a Qi Condensation cultivator, and a Qi Condensation cultivator slaying a Core Formation yokai to claim its core simply did not happen.
And the one who had made the impossible possible was Cheon Woo-jin's Instant Killing Heavenly Eye.
'With this, I've secured foundation spirit materials of three attributes.'
After the Metal-attribute Hundred-Leaf Autumn Spirit Herb and the Wood-attribute Verdant-Dew Spring Leaf Herb, he now held a Water-attribute material as well. Once he received the Fire and Earth materials from the Yuk brothers, he would have the full set of Five Elements. With just one more base material after that, he could brew the Foundation Establishment Pill itself.
Ordinary cultivators dedicated decades of loyalty to their sects for the sake of a single pill. Cheon Woo-jin, exploiting the freedom of a rogue cultivator's life, was assembling the ingredients in a fraction of the time.
'Might as well gather the rest too.'
He dismantled the centipede's body — tearing free the enormous jaws, prying off several plates of the dorsal carapace. He might have wanted to strip it down to nothing, but his Storage Pouch simply had no room left for greed. Finally, he squeezed the venom glands inside the maxillipeds and collected their dark liquid.
'This can also serve when crafting antidotes.'
The principle of fighting poison with poison. Combined with other spirit herbs in an alchemy furnace, it could yield a medicine harmless to the human body that would purge other toxins from it.
"Grrrr……"
"Shaaaah……!"
Just then, an unsettling stir began to spread through the surroundings. Yokai that had sensed the Great King Centipede's death were converging on the site.
Cheon Woo-jin decided it was time to leave. The centipede's corpse remained, but it needed no concern — the yokai would tear it apart until nothing original remained, leaving no trace that Cheon Woo-jin had been the one to bring it down.
Cheon Woo-jin made his way to the hidden cave where he had stashed the four Yuk brothers. Checking the talismans he had planted at the entrance, it seemed they had stayed quietly inside rather than venturing out.
"A-ah, there you are at last!"
As he stepped into the cave, Yuk Baek-dal, the eldest brother, rushed toward him with the others close behind.
"How are things out there? Are we meant to keep waiting in here?"
"It's gotten worse outside."
"What?"
Cheon Woo-jin spoke in a grave voice.
"An enormous dark-purple centipede has appeared. A Core Formation beast, from the feel of it."
"Guhk……!"
The four brothers drew a sharp breath at once.
"Th-that's the Dark Marsh Great King Centipede!"
"Has it really shown itself after sixty years?"
"The other yokai are rampaging alongside it — or in response to it. Even the demonic cultivators seemed too busy fleeing to bother with anything else."
To the terrified Yuk brothers, Cheon Woo-jin spoke in a level, serious tone.
"So stay hidden a while longer. I'll call for you when it's safe."
"W-wait, young man! What about you? You look utterly spent — if it's truly that dangerous out there, surely it would be wiser for all of us to hole up in this cave together……"
"My task is to see that you complete your survey of this secret realm unharmed."
Cheon Woo-jin kept his manner cold and distant.
"So don't trouble yourselves over it. Once I've eliminated the hazards and secured your safety, I'll come back for you."
"……!"
Having framed it as going out to sweep away the demonic cultivators amid the chaos, Cheon Woo-jin left the cave — and then plastered a few more talismans over the entrance, reinforcing the seal. It was to keep the brothers from charging out in a fit of misplaced heroics.
With that handled, he headed for another of the hidden caves scattered throughout the Secret Realm of Dark Chaos. There, in a place of confirmed safety, he sorted through his spoils once more, then closed his eyes and rested.
'I need to recover my energy fully.'
After a deep sleep, Cheon Woo-jin emerged from the hidden cave. Outside, the gloom lingered as thick as ever, black clouds occasionally flashing with lightning. Careful to avoid any stray bolt, he flew high into the sky.
His destination was the massive mountain rising in the far distance. When he reached it, he saw the slopes blanketed in flowers of every imaginable shape and color — but looked closely, and every blossom bore the face of a human being. Twisted, agonized faces.
The Resentment-Face Flower, said to bloom from the souls of those who had died cursing their fate.
'Are these the faces of cultivators who lost their lives exploring this realm — or of those sacrificed by the Yin Soul Ghost Bone Palace that built it?'
As he walked between the horrifying flowerbeds, Cheon Woo-jin stretched his power in every direction, searching for a response within his finely woven web of spiritual force.
'There you are.'
What he had found was the Serenity-Face Flower — the sole blossom among the Resentment-Face Flowers wearing a peaceful expression. While the Resentment-Face Flower was harmful to the human body, this one did the opposite, invigorating a person's vitality. The reasoning was that the Resentment-Face Flowers drank in all the baleful qi around them, leaving only benign energy for the Serenity-Face Flower to absorb.
'A versatile spirit herb for pill-making. It will be useful for crafting artifacts, too.'
Cheon Woo-jin harvested the Serenity-Face Flower into his Storage Pouch and kept walking through the fields, his spiderweb of spiritual power spread wide. The search turned up several more of the flowers, and just as he judged it enough and turned to go, a sinister presence stirred behind him.
"Kkikik!"
"Kkikikkik!"
Monkeys no bigger than young children were staring straight at him. At a glance they looked like perfectly ordinary monkeys — but their red eyes gleamed with greed, and they were smacking their lips.
"Kkiik!"
As the monkeys shrieked and flung their arms up, a purple miasma billowed out — a poison that, inhaled even briefly, sent fever burning through the body as though one had caught the ague.
'Curse-Plague Apes, were they?'
Cheon Woo-jin cast a spellwork to launch himself skyward, out of the miasma's reach, and from the air he formed black sword energy and hurled it down at the pack.
"Kkiik!"
"Kkieeak!"
Under the rain of sword energy, the monkeys' bodies were hacked apart. They flailed, spewing miasma skyward in defiance, but it was futile. Beyond the pointlessly scattering purple haze, Cheon Woo-jin conjured a single enormous blade and swung it in a great arc, crushing the remaining monkeys utterly.
"……"
The remains of the pack lay strewn across the Resentment-Face flowerbed, but Cheon Woo-jin spared them not a glance. He had sensed something else approaching.
"Uwoooooo!"
Thud. Thud!
Shaking the earth with every step, a colossal monster ape was lumbering toward him. The moment he laid eyes on the enormous body, Cheon Woo-jin checked its status window.
In terms of realm alone, it stood at the Peak of Foundation Establishment — the equal of the Nether Ghost Wraith. But its bulk was mountainous, and a fog of purple miasma poured from every inch of its body. What was more, the fur around its mouth was stained dark purple, as if it had been gorging itself on the Great King Centipede's corpse.
"Uwooooooo!"
The monster ape lunged at Cheon Woo-jin.
He met the charge with a steady stare. He might have wondered whether it sought vengeance for its fallen kin, but with its jaws hanging open and drool streaming thickly from them, it clearly had nothing in mind but to devour him whole.
'Instant death.'
Kukung!
The great ape charging toward him toppled where it stood, face-planting at the foot of the mountainside. Blood welled from its fallen body and dyed the Resentment-Face flowerbed crimson.
Twenty-four hours had passed since he had instantly killed the Dark Marsh Great King Centipede. That meant the Instant Killing Heavenly Eye was ready to be used once more.
'In another twenty-four hours, I'll be able to use it yet again.'
Extending his spiritual power to dismantle the Great Ape's corpse, Cheon Woo-jin calculated the time remaining.
The exploration of the Secret Realm of Dark Chaos concluded around the hour of the Horse — high noon — on the fifth day. It was now the afternoon of the second day, which left him two more uses of the Heavenly Eye, give or take.
Two more boss-grade yokai he could claim.
The Radiant World Nether Spirit Sect had intended to sweep this secret realm clean of its cultivation resources — to purge the other cultivators and hunt the yokai around their Nether Ghost Wraith, monopolizing every rare treasure within.
But that plan now belonged to Cheon Woo-jin.
'I carry out every resource I can, until there is no space left in my Storage Pouch.'
Kwajik!
From within the Dim Curse-Plague Great Ape's body, the spine was drawn out.