Chapter 108
Chapter 108
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 108
Chapter Title: I Won't Become a Dog Chasing Chickens Again
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“Fool! Did you think we’d charge in here without knowing your weakness? You’ve got no strength left to fend off the chaos mana!”
“Keh heh heh. Fool! You think we don’t know it’s time for you to escape the Great Demonic Blood? No need for such bravado.”
“The limit to enduring chaos mana? So that’s why you showed up.”
Vladiklaw and Shepalt’s smug expressions.
That was the reason behind it.
“No need for all this. Even if I fought you one-on-one fairly, I’d win. But why sweat it when there’s an easier way?”
Vladiklaw didn’t think he’d lose to Geon-woo even in a straight fight.
He prided himself on being the best in his school, second only to his master, Lafin Februs.
So there was no reason for him to fear Geon-woo, who seemed barely duke-level at best.
“Hah! Talk is cheap.”
Geon-woo snorted at Vladiklaw’s excuse disguised as confidence.
“I don’t get why everyone drags things out with their tongues in obvious situations.”
Muttering that, he summoned his jiangshi from the tattoo on the back of his left hand.
“Hmm. Even looking at it again, your summon is strange. It’s nothing like our undead. Handling both dead and living at once—quite unique.”
Vladiklaw showed no real threat from the three living jiangshi Geon-woo had called forth.
And rightly so.
Hundreds of undead were emerging behind Vladiklaw, making the mere three living jiangshi laughable.
But.
Thwoooom! Kraaang!
“Gahk!”
“Wh-what?!”
In an instant, Vladiklaw and even Shepalt beside him were engulfed in a massive explosion.
Geon-woo hadn’t paid any mind to Vladiklaw’s chatter and had simply ordered his living jiangshi to attack.
Receiving Geon-woo’s will, the living jiangshi unleashed their most powerful strike in one go.
“H-ho, chaos mana!”
“Kwaaaagh!”
Thanks to his undead kin acting as shields, Vladiklaw wasn’t badly hurt.
But Shepalt, struck by lightning next to the wrong guy, had half his face mangled and his entire left shoulder blown off.
Thwoooom! Kraaang!
“Damn it!”
“Kwaaaaaah!”
Geon-woo issued another no-questions-asked attack order to his jiangshi.
But Vladiklaw and Shepalt, having been hit once already, barely dodged the living jiangshi’s strikes this time.
“How can a summon wield chaos mana?! That’s imposs...”
“Hah! You sure talk a lot, punk.”
Geon-woo’s training space was now a wasteland after two attacks.
With Vladiklaw and Shepalt blocking the entrance, the jiangshi’s assaults had no choice but to focus there.
And now, the training space’s entrance was completely gone, exposing the vast main flow of the Great Demonic Blood.
If their plan had been to block the entrance and restrict Geon-woo’s movements, it was already scrapped.
‘Tch. Not fully prepared yet? The jiangshi’s attacks are still a bit weak.’
In that state, Geon-woo held off on ordering another attack from his jiangshi, inwardly assessing them with regret.
Two attacks using chaos mana.
That was all for the three living jiangshi Geon-woo had deployed.
Now they were left with just sturdy bodies and nothing else.
“Tch!”
Ssssh!
Geon-woo clicked his tongue and returned the jiangshi to his tattoo space.
“Oh ho! So that’s it? Your final struggle.”
Vladiklaw cheered at the sight.
Shepalt, who had barely evaded the second attack, straightened up from his hesitant stance.
“Grooo. Explosive magic using chaos mana. Can’t let you live any longer. Who knows what tricks you’ll pull next? I’ll cut your head off today.”
The moment Shepalt took the jiangshi’s attack, he’d braced for death.
Since it was just a clone with part of his soul anyway, dying would only cost him that clone.
But seeing Geon-woo withdraw the jiangshi after the second attack changed his mind.
Better to go all-out to kill Geon-woo than die himself.
Of course, that meant a huge investment compared to letting the clone die or fleeing.
His main body back in the territory would need serious recovery time.
“Still gotta do it.”
Crrrack! Crunch! Crraaack!
Shepalt firmed his resolve and immediately healed his clone’s wounds.
He maximally drew out the Halpharis race’s innate physical prowess to regenerate his body.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Let’s attack already! What are we waiting for?!”
Fully recovered, Shepalt clapped with aura gathered in his palms, urging Vladiklaw on.
“Wait? The fight’s already started!”
Prompted by Shepalt, Vladiklaw moved his kin at once.
Rumble, fsssh! Quaaarumble!
From the collapsed dirt piles, hundreds of undead began rising.
But that wasn’t the end.
A vertical black spatial rift split open behind Vladiklaw, spewing out more undead.
“As expected, the rumors of your excommunication from the Tebrus School were lies, huh?”
Geon-woo sneered at Vladiklaw while eyeing the spatial rift pouring out undead.
Calling out the fact that he hadn’t actually been excommunicated but was just pretending.
The vertical spatial rift.
It was the Tebrus School’s communal undead storage space.
Naturally owned by the school head, Lafin Tebrus, but disciples could summon undead from it based on their rank.
A dark space whose depths even Lafin didn’t know.
The mere fact Vladiklaw could still use it was clear proof he hadn’t been excommunicated.
“After today, I’ll return to the school. Successfully punishing a school traitor means my past sins will be forgiven.”
Vladiklaw didn’t waver at Geon-woo’s mockery.
He believed Geon-woo had no more tricks left.
This was the Maheol Mountains, deep inside the Great Demonic Blood where chaos mana was strongest.
Vladiklaw knew how long Geon-woo had been entering and exiting the blood realm, and had calculated his endurance time accordingly.
He was certain Geon-woo was on the verge of being corrupted by chaos mana right now—or it had already begun.
“Die!”
Kwaaabaam! Kwaaabaam!
At that moment, Shepalt’s attack erupted from beneath Geon-woo’s feet.
A powerful blast ripping up the ground.
Shepalt’s unique magic, a modified Earth Quake.
And of course, it included his Mind Power.
Fwoooosh!
“Such a racket.”
Half the training space floor flipped over in the massive explosion, sending dirt flying and falling.
But no screams or groans came from Geon-woo amid the thick dust.
Just a bored, calm voice leaked out.
Tadadak! Tadadadak!
In that brief moment, Vladiklaw’s undead were charging at Geon-woo.
Vladiklaw had also given up on talking and focused on attacking.
“Tch, still not enough...”
Feeling the undead rush in, Geon-woo clicked his tongue briefly.
Then he moved his telekinetic force.
Pfoosh! Pash! Pash! Pashaash!
“Wha—what’s this?”
The undead charging through the dust crumbled into powder in an instant.
The undead were covered in the clinging dirt dust.
With the dust thinning, Geon-woo’s figure faintly appeared.
But only for a moment—thicker dust than before now filled the entire training space.
Geon-woo had levitated the dust into the air with telekinesis.
“Nice!”
Geon-woo’s pleased voice pierced the dust, tickling Vladiklaw and Shepalt’s ears.
“D-danger...”
“What...”
Shepalt instinctively sensed peril and leaped backward.
As Vladiklaw stared in confusion at Shepalt’s actions.
Kwaaaang!
An explosion far beyond the previous ones detonated.
All the dust Geon-woo had suspended exploded at once, reminiscent of a dust explosion.
“Wh-what is this?!”
After the blast, Vladiklaw’s voice echoed from within the now even thicker dust.
Moments later, the dust cleared only around that spot, creating a clean space.
“Racial trait?”
Geon-woo emerged in the transparent space, parting the dust.
As if the horrific explosion had nothing to do with him, he looked pristine.
Meanwhile, Vladiklaw—limbs all gone, only torso and head left—lay rolling at Geon-woo’s feet.
Geon-woo’s question was about the power letting him survive in that state.
“The school’s... secret art... is still... in effect.”
Vladiklaw stammered breathlessly in response.
“Hmm. Shepalt vanished without a trace again.”
Geon-woo had checked Shepalt’s clone through the telekinetic force in the dust.
Shepalt’s clone hadn’t withstood the explosion and had disintegrated down to the cellular level.
By comparison, Vladiklaw’s current state was remarkably intact.
Though Vladiklaw surely didn’t see it that way.
“Urgh! Impressive. My [Death] is useless against you.”
While Geon-woo checked on Shepalt, Vladiklaw had recovered enough to speak more easily.
“Why not recover more? You seem to have some left.”
Geon-woo asked, sensing the blood flow in Vladiklaw’s body slowing.
“What’s the point? You’ll just wreck it again. I’d do the same.”
“No real intention to.”
Geon-woo’s ‘no need’ left Vladiklaw, who’d had his reasons, speechless.
“So, what now? Kill you clean? Or torture you a bit?”
Having thoroughly demeaned his foe, Geon-woo tossed out an incomprehensible choice.
“Die clean? Urgh, or somehow survive and bide your time?”
But Vladiklaw grasped Geon-woo’s meaning immediately.
Geon-woo’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, but he soon nodded.
“Right, you get it. So, your choice?”
“Just kill me.”
At Geon-woo’s prompt, Vladiklaw chose death without hesitation.
“Huh? Not only did you catch my meaning fast earlier, but this choice is unexpected too. Impressive.”
Most would try to survive for a chance, yet he picked death.
Clap!
“Ah! Right. You’re trying to escape again?”
But Geon-woo quickly saw through Vladiklaw’s scheme.
Clearly planning to slip his soul out upon death.
“You can’t stop me anyway.”
Vladiklaw sneered at Geon-woo.
Geon-woo looked incredulous.
“Like this. Don’t you think I might’ve improved in the meantime? Even wrecked like this!”
Snap!
Geon-woo fingersnapped in the air, and a hazy white form appeared.
It resembled the surrounding dust but couldn’t be—it was Shepalt’s ghostly figure.
“Huhk!”
Vladiklaw’s eyes bulged in shock, nearly fainting.
Then a long breath escaped his mouth, and the light in his eyes faded.
“You idiot, you think that’d work?”
But as Geon-woo extended his right hand, Vladiklaw’s soul rose from his body and gathered in his palm.
“Did you think I’d become that dog chasing chickens again? Welcome back, Vladiklaw.”
Geon-woo brought his face close to the soul in his palm.