Chapter 336
Chapter 336
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 336
Chapter Title: Golden Turtle Island (3)
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In the silent space where only stillness lingered.
Twitch—
At some point, the body of a man sitting cross-legged at the center trembled faintly.
Then, his closed eyes slowly opened, and at the same time, a dazzling flash exploded outward.
The light that dyed the surroundings in an instant gathered back into a pair of pupils.
"...The connection has been severed."
Immediately after, a strange voice emanated from the man—one that defied easy categorization.
It blended the ordinary and the extraordinary, seasoned wisdom and youthful impetuosity into a heterogeneous tone.
"Is this... the Reverse Heaven Realm?"
The owner of that voice, the Pyeoncheon Society Leader, closed his eyes again to recall his senses, but nothing had changed now.
The link to his apostle proxying his divinity in the Reverse Heaven Realm had been cut.
And that meant only one thing.
'What happened? There shouldn't be anyone left in the Reverse Heaven Realm capable of harming the Heavenly Demon.'
Naturally, ascending to godhood wasn't merely a matter of raw power.
A god only truly existed when there were worshippers offering faith and devotion.
In other words, this was no different from the sudden, unexplained death of the chief administrator of a faith-supplying colony, sealing off every related line in the process.
'Tsk, of all times, this has to happen now.'
The Pyeoncheon Society Leader—who had secluded himself to recover from the damage he'd suffered in Outerica not long ago—clicked his tongue.
Who could have foreseen a being on the level of the Heavenly Demon dropping dead so abruptly?
Something utterly unforeseen had clearly taken place.
'...But I can't afford to act rashly right now.'
Crossing dimensions demanded tremendous effort.
Moreover, revisiting a world he'd already entered once required several times more time and resources on top of that.
The god overseeing that world certainly wouldn't just stand by and let him come and go at will.
Factoring in the opportunity cost, it was far better to pioneer a fresh new world.
"I overestimated him, it seems. I thought he was at least somewhat useful."
In the end, the Pyeoncheon Society Leader merely clicked his tongue once more and closed his eyes again.
Losing an apostle tasked with managing an entire world was a substantial blow, but it fell within acceptable losses.
'The yokai remnants are the most likely culprits. I thought I'd wiped them out properly, but I must have overlooked something. I'll need to be more thorough next time.'
Dismissing the sudden anomaly as inconsequential, the Pyeoncheon Society Leader sank back into profound silence.
He never once suspected that the true perpetrators were the very same group that had humiliated him back in Outerica.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Um, e-excuse me... Mad Demon sir?"
"Hm? What's up, buddy?"
"Well... Just to reiterate, I really don't taste good at all. No joke—it's pretty much our main survival strategy. Sardines with zero flavor are actually considered a delicacy..."
"Ah, geez! I got it already. Why are you such a scaredy-cat?"
"...Then could you please stop smacking your lips while staring at me..."
"Ah."
Slurp!
Harley finally noticed the drool trickling down and swallowed it, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
They were currently en route away from the Yungjung Mountains toward elsewhere.
Once Harley learned his counterpart belonged to Golden Turtle Island, he'd formally requested a more in-depth discussion. Cheonggwan had reported it to his superiors, and permission had come down to escort him there.
'No way I'm messing up such a smooth situation with something dumb. Plenty of chances later anyway.'
He was personally intrigued by the first yokai he'd encountered in this world, but he had zero intention of actually harming him.
That reflexive bodily response earlier? Just a natural reaction to encountering a novel genetic strain.
No matter how close to transcendent perfection his body had become, this was an instinct etched into his very origins at birth—something even he couldn't override.
"Ahem. Aren't yokai supposed to regenerate limbs like it's nothing? You're reacting way too sensitively, buddy."
"I have no idea what kind of environment led you to that conclusion, but not all yokai possess such abilities. I'm particularly specialized in sorcery rather than physical prowess."
"Ah, what a shame..."
"...Pardon?"
"Nothing, nothing. Come on, let's get moving! Kahahahat!"
"......"
The yokai forces shrouded in secrecy: Golden Turtle Island.
Their public-facing front, the Mosan Sect, lay at the eastern edge of Jiangsuseong Province along the coast—but luckily, they wouldn't have to trek all the way there themselves.
"Truth be told, that place was created for external dealings and maintaining public facades when needed. Aside from a few exceptions, the Mosan Sect headquarters is mostly staffed by humans. We yokai mostly reside elsewhere."
With that simple explanation, Cheonggwan led them to a fairly large river nearby.
"Everyone has their own methods, but this one's the most familiar to me, probably thanks to my origins. It does depend heavily on terrain, but if you find the right waterways, it's pretty convenient."
Finishing his rough explanation, Cheonggwan unpacked various ritual tools from his gear, set up an altar on a flat spot by the riverbank, chanted an eerie incantation, and promptly began a ritual.
Before long, the nearby water began rippling and surging dramatically.
'Now that's a sight. ...But what's that?'
Then, at one point.
As Harley watched the ritual with rapt fascination—distinct from the Jeoksalsega's sorcery methods—he noticed something on the riverbed beyond the churning waters that hadn't been there before.
A mysterious hole reflecting not their current surroundings, but an entirely different forest.
"...Phew, it's ready. Just step through there, and we'll enter Golden Turtle Island's pride and joy—the illusory realm built in this world's hidden underbelly! Honestly, it's rare for a wandering yokai to get entry permission this quickly. Looks like the higher-ups are positively inclined toward meeting you, Mad Demon sir."
Jingle—
Cheonggwan, having already repacked his gear, approached with a shake of a small bell, his face bright.
Truth be told, he wasn't feeling half bad himself—heading home like this, process be damned.
"Alright, then let's g— Ah!"
"What's wrong, Mad Demon sir?"
"...Nah, just remembered something I'd completely forgotten about."
Harley paused abruptly, scratching the back of his head with a grimace.
Through Hugo's lingering gaze back at Shaolin Temple, he'd just realized he'd come here alone without so much as a heads-up to the former Mad Demon, Mok In-gwang.
"Eh, water under the bridge! Let's go, buddy! Uhahat!"
But he shrugged it off just as quickly and strode forward confidently.
Shaolin's current treatment of Mok In-gwang wasn't bad anyway.
No matter how much they usually scorned the orthodox sects' figures, they wouldn't mistreat someone who'd rolled up his sleeves and helped in a crisis.
Even if it hadn't been intentional, the end result had been a huge help.
Besides, fresh off suffering massive damage themselves, Shaolin would want to keep a powerhouse like that around as long as possible for any contingencies.
'So I can swing by after wrapping things up here.'
His reason for coming this far was to gather intel anyway.
It probably wouldn't take too long even after finishing everything.
With that, Harley followed Cheonggwan—who had shaken the metal bell and plunged into the water—stretching his foot toward the hole in the riverbed.
The next instant, he realized he stood in the heart of a forest that felt dreamlike and ethereal.
And—
"Grrr— What the hell is this? A mutt? Hey, you—what's your deal?"
He came face-to-face with an advance guest already there.
A massive yokai standing right in front of him, arms crossed, looking down with disdain.
"Eek! D-Do-ol sir? Why are you here...?"
Whether because that figure was infamous in the worst way, Cheonggwan—who had crossed into the illusory realm with Harley—paled and stumbled back.
"What, can't I be here? And you there—you mute? Or has my majestic presence frozen you solid? Kruk kruk—!"
A height soaring well past five meters, a bipedal tiger-like body with a long tail, lips absent to reveal gleaming fangs flanking a pair of protruding boar-like tusks, and eyes blazing with goblin fire.
An overwhelming pressure matching his ferocious appearance began creeping outward, saturating the area with violent menace.
'Impressive. No wonder the yokai have held out this long—with monsters like this among them.'
Not on par with the Heavenly Demon, who stood at a different tier even among transcendent realms, but roughly on the level of Nangong Sega's Sword Saint.
As Harley inwardly admired, Cheonggwan—who had retreated—swallowed hard and cautiously stepped forward.
"Um, Do-ol sir? This person is here as a guest of the Azure Dragon..."
"Scram, fish. Before I turn you into sashimi."
"Hngh!"
But his courage didn't last.
With a low, rumbling growl and Do-ol's gaze piercing downward—eyes brimming with ghostly flames—Cheonggwan froze in place, mouth agape.
Convinced this wasn't a mere welcoming committee, Harley curled his lips in a subtle smile and took a bold step forward.
"Hold up, big guy. Just to confirm before anything— you picking a fight right now?"
Better safe than sorry; confirmation was key.
He was an invited guest entering their turf, after all.
With his goals unmet, he needed to play along with their tune for now.
"Kruk kruk, picking a fight? You could call it that... Or think of it as a simple test. Can't just let some unknown in unchecked, right? A warrior's worth is proven in combat."
"Aha! So it's an initiation rite, huh?"
"Ho? Intrigued, are you?"
"Kahahat—! You bet!"
Cheonggwan flailed his arms in panic at their exchange, but the two monsters had already tuned him out.
As the bloodlust steadily intensified.
"Right up my alley! I love that kinda thing!"
True to his word, Harley's delighted voice rang out as his mouth split into a wide grin, revealing saw-like teeth.
A few drops of the saliva he'd forcibly held back before arriving here now pattered to the ground.
'That guy's obviously a physical powerhouse—.'
Unlike Cheonggwan, his hyper-developed physique brimmed with violent energy in every cell.
Harley instinctively knew.
'That' would be the ultimate delicacy nowhere else to be found.
'—Just one bite... Nah, he's huge, so a few bites should be fine!'
The hunger he'd suppressed came surging back like a tidal wave.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Do-ol had been bored out of his skull lately.
The problem stemmed from the restrictions he'd accepted when taking refuge on Golden Turtle Island out of necessity after his brothers—all comrades like family—perished, leaving him alone.
Do not harm those belonging to Golden Turtle Island first.
He'd initially shrugged off the condition as trivial, but as time wore on, Do-ol realized it was anything but simple.
For someone innately belligerent who thrived on conflict and battle, every day here felt like prison.
Snooping around to incite fights for entertainment or deliberately baiting preemptive strikes worked once or twice at best...
Plus, his notorious reputation made such tricks ineffective from the start.
He was seriously contemplating just heading outside to fight to the death when...
By sheer coincidence, he heard that a wandering yokai had been granted entry to Golden Turtle Island.
'An outsider!'
I.e., someone not bound by Golden Turtle Island's restrictions.
Permission to enter implied he was a guest with high odds of joining later, but Do-ol couldn't care less about such minutiae.
He was an outsider right now—that was what mattered!
Rushing to the entry point, he soon encountered his target.
A man exuding an oddly familiar, extraordinary aura.
His initial impulse to rip off and devour a few limbs softened a bit upon seeing him.
Might be worth beating him down moderately and taking him as a subordinate.
With that in mind, Do-ol greeted him with what he considered utmost courtesy and—contrary to his original plan of jumping straight into a brawl—reached a smooth agreement.
What shattered his expectations came right after.
"Alright, let's start by matching sizes, shall we?"
The moment those words ended.
Crunch— Crackle—
The body that had barely reached his thigh began swelling explosively.
Waist, chest, shoulders, even surpassing his crown... up to a height where he had to crane his neck.
"Ah, whoops. Too big? Haven't done this in ages—control's a bit off! Kahahahat!"
Rumble—
A thunderous laugh whipped up a storm, the shockwaves reverberating through the surroundings.
Do-ol gaped upward, mouth slack-jawed.
It wasn't just size.
His muscles writhed like independent lifeforms, dense and pulsing, while volcanic energy blazed with palpable presence, crushing the area and forcibly imprinting its vivid texture into his mind.
'Uh...'
As things progressed that far, a cold thread of rationality pierced Do-ol's mind.
'Is this really okay?'
...Of course, it absolutely was not.