Distribution
The moment I saw the fox demon baring its teeth and charging at me, the wooden puppet sprang forward to meet it head-on.
Seop Myeong-gyeol was, in truth, a formidable cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage. Yet now she could only draw upon the wooden puppet’s original power, no more than the early Qi Refining realm.
And even so, I believed she could buy me at least a moment against the fox demon.
Just as I had never once imagined, even after falling from the realm of life and death to the feeble inner power of a third-rate martial artist, that I would lose to my father—who had once stood in the first-rate realm.
As though to answer that trust, Seop Myeong-gyeol began to reveal a most astonishing sight.
Tap. Tap-tap.
As she shaped her hands into a series of signs like forming seals, the instant she opened her mouth, a phenomenon unlike anything I had ever witnessed began to unfold.
“Bind the body and annihilate the heart.
Seal the soul and fetter the spirit!
Bind fate and seize consciousness.
Block the path of heaven and earth!
Seonshinmyeolsim.
Sohwongeolryeong!
Sungnagegyeomyeong.
Soeoksimimiseom.
Pyecheonjeoljji!”
It was as though Yukhapjeonseong had been unleashed; Seop Myeong-gyeol’s voice rang out from all directions at once, and blue letters bloomed through the air in countless places, linking together like the rings of a chain and fastening themselves to the fox demon’s body.
When the first strand of chained script clung to the fox demon, its movements merely grew sluggish, but as more and more chains multiplied, its motions became drastically slower.
There was only one problem: the fox demon and the wooden puppet were already far too close.
Crack, crackle!!
With the sound of its joints twisting and snapping, the spell-chains tightened around the fox demon’s body, yet in the end it still succeeded in biting down on the puppet’s arm.
Crack!!
One of the wooden puppet’s arms, caught in the fox demon’s jaws, shattered as lightly as a dry autumn leaf. But that, too, seemed to have been part of Seop Myeong-gyeol’s intention. The way it had rushed headlong at the fox demon had apparently all been for this very move.
Sizzle—! Yip! Yeee!
A sound like meat searing over fire rang out, and the fox demon, leaping and writhing in pain, spat out the wooden arm it had clamped in its mouth.
At once, the spell-chains binding its body tightened even more fiercely, as if sensing that now was the chance.
“Neung So! With this body, I can’t hold the curse any longer! Now is the time—now that the wood spirit orb inside its body has awakened! Hurry and kill it!”
In truth, it was no easy thing for me, a Qi Refining cultivator, and Seop Myeong-gyeol, who could likewise wield only early Qi Refining power, to face a fox demon that had so casually trapped Jeong sasi with illusion arts despite her being a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
And yet, now that we had borrowed the power of the lord that was already tormenting the fox demon, there was certainly a chance.
So I began to force out every ounce of strength I had left. Clenching my teeth, I drove power through my body, and at last the leg that had been stiff as a log began to move.
But I was not the only one who had regained movement. The fox demon, too, which had been thrashing in place and howling in pain, began tearing through the curse-chains binding it one by one with those violent motions, and then staggered into action.
At that moment, I understood. This battle would be decided in a single exchange.
So I drew in a thin, long breath and poured all the spiritual energy still remaining in me into my sword. Immediately, the yellow sword aura unique to Hontaengwijeopbeop began to flare like a roaring flame.
'PahwanggeomSeventh Form! Myeolhwang! Raise the sword and annihilate all things. The land of chaos shall receive a new order!’
The instant the strongest martial technique I could use now hurled that fiercely surging yellow sword aura forward, the fox demon met my gaze, opened its mouth, and began spewing fire.
It was the same scorching blaze I had faced within its illusion.
But unlike the illusionary me, who had briefly cleaved through that fire only to be swallowed by it in the end, I now drove straight through the fox demon’s searing breath as if slicing open a curtain of flame.
And then, at the end of that blaze, I thrust my sword toward the fox demon’s crimson palate.
Whoosh!!
The sword, sheathed in yellow aura, pierced its palate with shocking ease, and the fox demon suddenly began to shudder all over. At the same time, the fierce torrent of flame vanished as well.
Even so, I did not let my guard drop, despite the creature’s appearance of being on the verge of death. I had seen with my own eyes how Jin Myeong had reconstructed his missing arm.
So this time, I poured inner power into the sword still embedded in its palate. The spiritual energy I had possessed had already been exhausted by the strike just now, but inner power remained within me.
'SasahyeolgeomFifth Form! Bonghyeol! Like blood exploding, the sword rends everything apart!’
The fifth form of Sasahyeolgeom, which unleashed shards of dark red sword aura like scattering droplets of blood. When it burst forth through the sword driven into the fox demon’s palate, I unexpectedly felt a faint resistance before explosions began to detonate from within.
Bang! Boom!
Though it was a storm of sword aura that could casually slice through human flesh, the creature was still able to resist, if only slightly, even against the sword aura erupting from inside its own body.
But only for an instant. The blasts soon subsided, and then, with a sound I knew well, red sword aura began shooting out through the top of the fox demon’s head.
Slash. Slash-slice.
Unless it had some way to survive with its skull reduced to pulp, I could safely say its true end had arrived. Naturally, Jeong sasi, who still seemed unable to collect her wits, would soon recover as well.
Then there was only one thing I needed to do.
“Seop Myeong-gyeol! Tell me where the spirit orb it carries is!”
It was the treasure the fox demon had greedily seized despite knowing it was not suited to it at all. Now it was time to make it mine.
“Inside its throat!”
At her words, I thrust my hand without hesitation into the blood-soaked depths of the creature’s throat.
Soon my fingers closed around a bead the size of a child’s fist. I ripped it free at once and then shoved it into my geomdudae.
And at that very moment, a cold voice sounded.
“Neung So! You’d better explain to me properly what in the world is going on here. If you spout nonsense, I’ll kill you, tear your soul out, and question it instead.”
At those words, I slowly turned to look at Jeong sasi.
Her figure was a mess, rolled across the dirt as she writhed in the false agony wrought by the illusion arts.
No doubt her pride had been just as thoroughly ruined. If I carelessly lied to her now, she might very well turn hostile.
Still, I answered in a calm voice.
“As you can see, sasi, that creature died by my hand. It fell to the martial art I practice. If you ask how that was possible, I can only tell you this: I endured the pain of my whole body burning beneath its flames and swung my sword with nothing but the single-minded will to kill it.”
I faced her directly, withholding as much falsehood as possible, and let her wounded pride make of my composure what it would.
As expected, the sort of words that are often spat out by those whose pride has been wounded came from her lips as well.
“You were unimaginably lucky... That only worked because the beast was a great demon fox specialized solely in illusion arts.”
People who cannot bear to admit their own shortcomings prefer to say others achieved results through luck rather than skill.
In the end, Jeong sasi, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, was no different from ordinary people whose pride had been bruised.
Naturally, that had been my intention, so I answered with a nod of my own.
“Even so, if the martial art I practice had been weak, this result would not have been possible.”
And then, as though she had completely let go of her suspicions toward me, Jeong sasi gave a faint snort of laughter before continuing.
“I admit the martial art you practice is special enough to deceive my spiritual sense. That bastard probably fell victim to that special quality as well. But if the sword you happened to stab into him had struck anywhere other than his palate, your blade would have been unable to pierce even his flesh.”
Jeong sasi refused to acknowledge me to the end, clinging instead to the notion that it had all been nothing but luck.
Seeing her like that, I let out a small laugh of my own.
“Still, in the end, we have captured the fire-attribute great demon fox we set out for, so I suppose our hunt ends here?”
Though less than a day had passed since our arrival at Peach Blossom Grotto, we had already brought down the prey we had aimed for. There was naturally no need to continue hunting.
But instead of nodding at once, she remained silent for a while. Then, quite suddenly, she brought up something entirely different.
“I’ll take the demon core from that thing. After all, the reason we came here in the first place was because you said we needed the demon core of a fire-attribute great demon. You can take the corpse instead.”
She was distributing the spoils of the beast I had killed all by myself however she pleased and dodging my question besides. At that, I frowned slightly and spoke.
“So this means our hunt is over, yes?”
She looked at me in silence for a moment before replying.
“You seem to hate being with me quite a lot, don’t you?”
I gave her a suitably measured answer.
“I dislike having my personal training time taken from me.”
But once again, rather than answering my words, she chose another course of action. She strode straight toward me, examined the dead fox demon for a moment, and then placed a hand against its belly.
Immediately, the fox’s hide split open without resistance, as though sliced by a razor-sharp blade, and only then did Jeong sasi continue.
“If you dislike it, I won’t force you any further. Still, it’s late, so let’s leave in the morning.”
It was a reassuring thing to hear; it seemed she had no intention of keeping me tied up any longer.
Just as I was about to nod agreeably, she pulled from the fox demon’s body a crimson bead no larger than the width of a finger joint and clicked her tongue.
“Tsk. I thought it was something special among great demon beasts because its illusion arts were so powerful, but it’s utterly disappointing. At best, this is the size of a demon core one would expect from a beast that has only just stepped into the threshold of a great demon. No wonder it died to a sword swung at random.”
At that, Seop Myeong-gyeol, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke.
“That demon core has become small because it spent its power fighting against the strength of a spirit orb of another attribute. Your eyesight is what’s terrible.”
A small smile rose to my lips at her words.
Then, after glancing at my face, Jeong sasi went on.
“You’re so absurdly lucky that I probably don’t even need to say this, but if possible, just hand over that corpse whole before the mission. If you start dividing it up piece by piece because you want to handle several missions at once, you’ll only draw the elders’ attention faster.”
If becoming a Jeonjeon disciple after catching the elders’ eye would be far better than remaining as I was now, as an Ibmun disciple, or even becoming an ordinary Naemun disciple, then her words were strange indeed.
As I casually nodded at her remark, I heard something even stranger.
“And when you hand over the corpse whole before the mission, don’t forget that it should be counted as having been acquired by Guest Disciple Jeong So-sang, not by you.”
Of course, I could let her demand that the fox demon’s kill be credited to herself slide easily enough, but her name was something I could never simply dismiss.
Jeong So-sang...
She bore the same name as the woman I had once loved beyond measure.