Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Red Bow White Arrow
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-Ku-gwa-gwa-gwa...!!
The energy of Baek Hyun, which had been slowly fading, reignited intensely once more.
The Imoogi watching that sight was convinced.
That it was the final spasm of the arrogant prey.
-Kiya-aa-aak-!!!
To put an end to the prey's final spasm, the Imoogi swung its tail with full force.
Even as it did so, the Imoogi's red eyes persistently fixed on Baek Hyun, never loosening their tension.
It appeared to have taken quite a serious wound, so no matter what, it couldn't possibly move as it had before.
Even if the thing before its eyes dodged its coil, it planned to immediately sink its fangs in and sever its breath.
It intended to chew that existence—which was loathsome simply by virtue of existing and breathing—until its form was unrecognizable, then spit it out.
However, in the very next moment.
-Ta-ang!!
Baek Hyun's figure completely vanished from the Imoogi's sight.
Having pierced the Imoogi's murderous gaze, Baek Hyun moved behind it without the slightest hesitation.
In an instant, he slipped out of the Imoogi's field of vision and faced its defenseless rear.
Of course, given Baek Hyun's current physical state, even seizing this perfect opportunity, landing an effective blow on the Imoogi was impossible.
He intended to play his final trump card.
The supreme card that had dwelled within Baek Hyun since the moment of possession alongside the Solar Body, yet had never been used even once until now.
"Red Bow White Arrow parts the firmament" "Nine suns fall to earth, all things revive"
⟨ Red Bow White Arrow ⟩
-Shuuu...
The pristine white treasured weapon dwelling in the soul realm responded to its master's call and manifested in the physical world for the first time.
In ancient times, the ten divine swords that felled nine suns and countless Malevolent Spirits.
-Wung-wung-wung...!!
Now gripped in Baek Hyun's hands, it had taken the form of a sword coalesced from pure white light.
The Red Bow White Arrow consisted of ten swords bearing the authority to slay all things.
What had been summoned was but a single one among them.
Even that alone sucked in the internal energy amplified to the point of qi deviation through his mid dantian like a black hole.
The yang energy that had always filled his entire body vanished in an instant, leaving only chilling yin energy in his emptied meridians.
The seemingly inexhaustible vitality disappeared as if it were a lie, and an intense fatigue he hadn't felt in so long settled heavily upon him.
'Damn... this is exactly why I didn't want to use it...!!'
The Red Bow White Arrow was innately designed not to be wielded by hand, but as a 'sword of will'.
In other words, it was a weapon crafted for those who had at least reached the Profound Realm.
As it presupposed sword-of-will control, it boasted an unimaginable consumption of internal energy.
For him now, wielding even a single sword required drawing upon every last drop of internal energy in his body, and...
-Wuuung...
'...even my Innate True Qi to boot.'
The most pure internal energy one was born with, incomparable to the ordinary internal energy gathered through meditation and breath control.
That primal life force, the very vessel for internal energy itself—he poured it all into the Red Bow White Arrow.
Only then did the blade of pure white awaken from its long slumber and stretch.
-Tsu-kaaaang-!!!
A fearsome energy, fiercer than a blazing sun and redder than freshly spilled blood, erupted from the white blade and enveloped the entire sword.
This divine weapon bestowed by Jeokkok, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, was not merely a powerful armament.
Malevolent Spirits, evil ghosts, suns, and even immortals who defied the laws of nature.
It was the manifestation of authority to 'judge' all things that existed in this world.
No matter how sturdy the armor.
No matter how profound the divine abilities.
No matter how exalted the being.
None could block this arrow.
That was the 'law' of this world.
-Ki-eek!? Kiya-aa-aak!!!
The Imoogi, belatedly sensing its presence from the erupting fearsome energy, thrust its massive maw forward.
If he had reached the Profound Realm—or even the Flower Realm—he might have danced with the freshly awakened Red Bow White Arrow.
Honestly, he had not a speck of strength left now.
All he could do was...
-Thud
...loosely toss the activated Red Bow White Arrow.
But even that was enough.
-Je-e-e-eong-!!!
The pure white blade that fell into the Imoogi's mouth pierced its upper palate and skull with absurd ease before clattering to the ground.
A display of power truly worthy of the term divine weapon.
The Imoogi's body, slain in a single strike, collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
Baek Hyun's body, which had been floating in the air via Azure Hawk Seven Forms, also plummeted to the ground.
-Thud! Thung!!
Baek Hyun's form crashed onto the Imoogi's incredibly tough scales.
The pain was severe, but not even a scream escaped his lips.
Only a feeble death rattle leaked out.
"Kuhk, u-uuh..."
His body was torn to rags, his internal energy dried up like a wrung-out cloth, and even his Innate True Qi had been depleted.
A state where simply being alive was nothing short of a miracle.
The sun that had always blazed in his heart was slowly extinguishing.
A cold chill crept up his spine, casting the shadow of death.
If this continued, he would die.
No one needed to tell him; the fact hammered into his mind with crystal clarity.
'Ha... damn it, what ordeal is this just to find one fortuitous encounter.'
He had defeated the Imoogi, but even that victory felt forced, bringing him no joy.
Without the Red Bow White Arrow, the moment he allowed that first effective hit, he would have had no chance of winning.
In truth, he had essentially lost to the Imoogi.
'Ha... if I'd just stayed a bit more alert, I wouldn't have needed to use my Innate True Qi.'
Extreme fatigue and helplessness crushed his entire body.
His eyelids, which he had regretted not closing every night, now felt impossibly heavy.
Sleepy, tired, cold, in pain.
Yet Baek Hyun forcibly moved his limbs, crawling across the hard scales.
Every time his face scraped against the scales as he advanced, the backward-facing ones poked at his wounded face.
More wounds here wouldn't change anything, so he pushed his body onward.
His destination was the gaping hole near the Imoogi's head.
Somehow crawling to the wounded area, he...
-Gulp, gulp, gulp
...without hesitation plunged his head deep inside and began gulping down the blood surging from the wound.
The blood of the freshly slain Imoogi was rich with the power it had held in life, and its tonic effects were excellent.
It wasn't something one would do in normal circumstances, but in his current state with not a shred of power left, even a sip of that fishy blood was desperately needed.
"Huu... have I finally lost my mind? Why does this taste like doenjang stew..."
Baek Hyun kept drinking the Imoogi's blood in a daze until yang energy returned to his body.
Midway, the toxins in the blood stung his throat, but they were quickly broken down by the reactivated blazing sun.
Thus, only nutrients and power remained in the Imoogi's blood, rapidly digesting in Baek Hyun's stomach to form the foundation for healing his wounds.
The gradually returning yang energy throughout his body accelerated his recovery, mending his organs and muscles at tremendous speed.
How much time passed as he mindlessly drank the blood?
Just as the Imoogi's blood began to clot and solidify, Baek Hyun felt his condition improve enough to stand and walk on his own two feet.
"Mm... surprisingly, Imoogi blood is palatable."
Baek Hyun wiped the blood from his mouth and stepped deeper into the Imoogi's maw, busily searching for something.
He had barely escaped death, but the aftereffects of using Innate True Qi still lingered in his body.
The speed at which yang energy spread through his body was pathetically slow compared to before, and his near-infinite vitality had noticeably diminished.
Serious aftereffects that would severely hinder not only martial arts training but daily life.
To overcome them, under the assumption of the sect's full support, he would need years focused solely on recuperation.
Throwing away precious years of his youth that could be spent cultivating martial arts.
However, if he could find 'that' from the Imoogi's corpse—unlikely though it was...
-Click
At that moment, something round caught in his hand between the Imoogi's upper palate and throat.
A round, hard object about the size of a soccer ball.
'! Th-this is...!!'
Baek Hyun pulled the lump from the Imoogi's mouth without hesitation.
Upon confirming its true nature, he muttered softly with a dazed expression, as if dreaming.
"No way... the Cintamani (Wish-Fulfilling Pearl) actually exists?"
Cintamani.
Also known as the Wish-Fulfilling Gem.
This pearl, the source of all a dragon's divine powers, was a heavenly treasure incomparable to the inner core of ordinary Spiritual Beasts.
It was the final gateway an Imoogi had to pass to ascend as a dragon.
After a thousand years of cultivation in water, an Imoogi poured all its amassed power into forming the Cintamani and ascended as a dragon.
Cultivating for a thousand years was the hard part; forming the pearl and ascending wasn't particularly difficult, so most rampaging Imoogi that failed ascension hadn't even attempted to form one.
But this Cintamani from this one was, though imperfect, nearly flawless.
It had simply halted midway, preventing it from becoming a true Cintamani, but the power contained within rivaled the finest specimens.
'You poor thing... more pitiful than I thought.'
It had diligently cultivated for a thousand years, right on the verge of ascending as a dragon, only to fail at the end...
How could such a steadfast creature, who trained consistently for a millennium, slip at the easiest hurdle?
It couldn't be the arrangement of the Starpoint Sect's ancestors who created this place.
That ancestor was fundamentally a Daoist.
No warrior of the harmony-loving Starpoint Sect would commit such extreme animal cruelty(?) by capturing and imprisoning an Imoogi on the cusp of ascension.
Moreover, since the Starpoint Sect hadn't discovered it until now, the failure seemed recent...
'Could it have been interfered with by someone outside the Starpoint Sect?'
Baek Hyun's eyes sharpened for a moment.
No matter how he thought about it, it was hard to accept that an Imoogi with a millennium of cultivation would fail at the last step amid the Starpoint Mountain teeming with Daoists.
If unidentified assailants had sneaked into Starpoint Mountain targeting this thousand-year Cintamani and disrupted its ascension at the critical moment?
'Might be overthinking it, but best to keep it in mind.'
Anyway, enough dull speculation.
This Cintamani should more than fully restore his Innate True Qi—perhaps even allow it to grow beyond its previous state.
Sorry to the Imoogi that became a Malevolent Spirit right before ascension, but nature was survival of the fittest, wasn't it?
Him claiming its Cintamani was just part of the natural flow.
'Then, shall I absorb it right here?'
He needed to recover his Innate True Qi quickly and set out to find the ancestor's manual slumbering in this place.
Baek Hyun smacked his lips as he gazed at the brilliantly shining Cintamani.
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