Chapter 95
Chapter 95
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: Clash with the Tebrus Undead
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Phew, it’s unexpected, sure. But that doesn’t mean I can just stand here and take the hits!”
Staring at the swarming undead, Geon-woo took a deep breath to steel his resolve.
And in the next moment, his elite guard jiangshi sprang into action.
The first among them to move was the 9th spirit, Sulryeong.
His elite guard jiangshi had switched bodies multiple times up to now.
From Onblood’s creatures and demonkin, Ark Capsule users and avatars, multi jiangshi, all the way to the higher-dimensional complete demon jiangshi.
And among them, Sulryeong had especially turbulent history.
True to its name, Sulryeong had been assigned from the start to the entity that wielded sorcery.
But in the early days, he couldn’t create a jiangshi with magical abilities, so he had no choice but to keep a namesake Sulryeong for a long time.
Then, once he made a magic-type jiangshi, the proper Sulryeong was born, and after going through several more, it became the current Sulryeong.
The Sulryeong who now enveloped Geon-woo and all his elite guard jiangshi in a dome of trees and plants was a true jiangshi based on the Hakanti race, demons renowned for their exceptional magical prowess.
Having carried the jiangshi spirit of the initial Sulryeong all this way, it excelled at tree and plant magic—and true to form, it now protected the group with a dome of trees and plants.
“Alright, let’s see what you’ve got.”
Geon-woo grinned brightly at the dome Sulryeong had conjured.
Undead were already clinging to it, tearing at the branches to burrow inside, but Geon-woo’s expression was relaxed.
Shwaaah! Shwaaah!
The elite guard jiangshi were beings tied directly to Geon-woo’s soul.
If the hundred-man unit was connected via terminals extending from his soul, the elite guard was linked far more intimately.
One could say it was like their souls were melted into an extension of his own soul.
That was why Geon-woo didn’t need to issue conscious commands.
Like what Sulryeong had just done, they moved on their own according to his will.
Pssh! Kyaaaaah!
Suddenly, the scent of trees grew stronger, and the undead hanging from the dome crumbled into dust all at once.
Sulryeong’s doing.
“What? What is that? Could it be Henelis’s [Growth]?”
Marake yelped in shock at the sight of the undead scattering as powder.
Psssh! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
Keeieeek!
Tebrus’s undead swarmed the tree dome again, plastering themselves to it, but at some point, a refreshing burst of tree scent turned them to drifting dust.
“No way. That’s impossible. The Henelis clan is gone. We confirmed their extermination!”
Marake bellowed in disbelief.
Taking his will, even more undead poured from his rift, charging straight for the tree dome where Geon-woo stood.
They scaled the steep fifty-meter earthen walls, clinging to the dome woven thick with branches and leaves.
Like vicious ghouls, they ripped at the branches and leaves to force their way in.
But it was only for a moment—the dome waited until they’d clustered thickly, then unleashed the forest scent, reducing the undead to powder.
“It is! [Growth], that cursed Henelis [Growth]!”
The scene repeated exactly, and Marake’s face twisted in incredulity, though he screamed as if refusing to accept it.
From deep within his hooded cowl, green eyes gleamed as he thrust forward his skull-headed staff.
Ssssh!
The black skull at the staff’s tip opened its mouth and spewed black smoke, which the undead summoned by him and his disciples absorbed.
Crunch! Crrrunch! Crunch!
The undead that absorbed the smoke immediately showed entirely different results.
Not only had their strength in tearing at the tree dome increased, but the branches and leaves touching them began to lose their vitality.
“Going all out, huh?”
Geon-woo gritted his teeth, sensing the death mind power Marake had unleashed.
Shwaaah! Shwaaah!
At the same time, Sulryeong poured out [Growth] mind power even more fiercely through the dome.
The branches and leaves of the dome, grown by Sulryeong’s mana, had contained [Growth] mind power from the start.
The explosive release of that power was the forest scent—phytoncide.
Sulryeong unleashed a powerful surge of [Growth] mind power in the same way again.
Fwoosh! Psssh!
“Kuhahaha. Is that all you’ve got? Kuhahahaha!”
But the result of Sulryeong’s mind power was different this time.
Bone dust billowed whitely amid the undead blanketing the dome, but most survived.
Even those missing limbs or body parts had black smoke flow out to repair them.
Seeing this, Marake burst into mad laughter.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Thud! Thunk! Thunk-thunk-thunk!
In the end, a hole punched through the roof of the dome made of branches and leaves.
Undead dropped through the hole, lunging at Geon-woo and his elite guard jiangshi.
Boom! Booom! Pow! Pow!
Of course, they didn’t even get close to Geon-woo before being smashed by the elite guard jiangshi’s attacks.
With Marake now fully deploying [Death] mind power, a hole had opened in Sulryeong’s dome, and undead were flooding inside.
Geon-woo turned his gaze to the 7th spirit, Dokryeong.
Psssh!
Dokryeong thrust both palms skyward, spewing green mist.
Psssh!
The green mist from Dokryeong sealed the hole in the dome, and the Tebrus undead touching it crumbled to dust.
The green mist Dokryeong spewed was living poison, born from combining poison and [Growth] mind power.
It was a living poison using fungi among Dokryeong’s poisons, overlaid with Henelis’s [Growth] mind power.
Thus, it became a lethal toxin even against undead immune to normal poison.
“What? What is this? Retreat!”
Marake’s panicked shout echoed from outside the dome.
Geon-woo smirked, reading the situation.
“Poison—especially fungal kinds—often spreads contagiously.”
The undead turned to dust by Dokryeong’s living poison.
But that dust spread, poisoning the surrounding undead as well.
Crack! Crunch! Cruuunch!
Craaack! Grrrind!
“What? What’s happening? Can’t even control your own minions? Making them attack their allies!”
Marake’s bellow rang out again.
This time, it was him berating his disciples.
He could guess the rest from the words alone.
Tebrus’s undead were attacking other Tebrus undead.
“Our jiangshi basically use something called contagion blood, you see. Hahaha.”
Geon-woo finally couldn’t hold back and burst into loud laughter.
Tebrus undead heavily poisoned by Dokryeong’s living poison crumbled to dust.
And the dust-covered undead got poisoned too—the severity determining if they powdered or broke free of Tebrus’s control.
Dokryeong had infused the living poison with an effect similar to contagion blood.
“Insolent worm, making a nuisance of yourself.”
Marake pulled back his undead for a moment and culled the afflicted ones.
He glared at the tree dome containing Geon-woo, frowning.
He’d underestimated and taken an unexpected hit.
But.
“No matter what, you’ve got no hope!”
Marake still didn’t see the situation as dire.
The Tebrus school specialized in entangling and strangling foes with undead.
Tebrus always first sealed off the battle area when attacking enemies.
On a small scale, like now, it might be less than a kilometer wide, but sometimes it isolated entire vast territories of enemy forces.
When exterminating the Henelis family before, Tebrus had used the same method.
Henelis’s [Growth] held an extreme advantage over Tebrus’s [Death], but back then, Tebrus was just one of several forces attacking Henelis.
So they’d endlessly shoved undead into Henelis territory, polluting the entire domain with [Death].
If Henelis had any breathing room, [Growth] could have washed away the [Death], but the other forces denied them that.
Marake thought it was no different now.
It would just take time—keep pushing [Death], and that little dome would crumble soon enough.
No other forces to aid Tebrus like before, but he himself was a marquis-grade powerhouse.
Attacking such a small area, he alone could more than replace those past allies.
“Attack again. This time, no games—follow school doctrine strictly until we bring them death.”
Marake declared battle per school rules to his disciples.
His disciples extended their staffs with resolute eyes, taking control of their minions.
“This time, I won’t aid you, so you three lead the disciples properly.”
Afterward, Marake gave special instructions to his three marquis-grade disciples, then mobilized his own undead minions.
As he’d told them, Marake had only his own undead absorb the [Death] black smoke.
The three marquis-grade disciples infused [Death] mind power into the undead summoned by the other thirty-three disciples.
“Our school’s mind power lacks instant potency, but as long as it neutralizes the enemy’s power, that’s enough. We have a far more powerful attack at our disposal.”
Watching his disciples charge the tree dome with death-infused undead, Marake prepared something new.
Crunch! Cruuunch! Crack-crack!
Grrrind! Cruuunch!
Each time Marake waved his staff through the air, his summoned undead clumped together into massive lumps, bones and flesh crunching and shattering.
Thus, hundreds of Marake’s undead merged into one grotesque mass.
“Appear!”
Soon after, Marake thrust his skull staff at the lump and shouted.
Crunch! Cruuunch! Crunch!
The crushed undead mass split into five pieces that slammed to the ground and rapidly contracted.
What had been a single lump dozens of meters wide divided into five, then shrank further, forming humanoid shapes.
“So that’s it. Marake’s undead berserkers.”
While his elite guard jiangshi held off the undead, Geon-woo—who’d been sensing outside with eyes closed—detected Marake’s creations and opened his eyes.
Undead berserkers wrapped in [Death] mind power, attacking foes with mindless frenzy.
Beings already dead, they knew no fear or pain.
Moreover, condensed from vast numbers into compact forms, they had absurd durability, and any damage was swiftly repaired by [Death] black smoke.
That was why Marake’s berserker undead inspired such dread.
“But are they as tough as my elite guard? Really?”
Geon-woo instead looked curious and sent five close-combat elite guard jiangshi outside the dome.
“We’ll find out when they clash.”
“You mad bastard! Daring to challenge my berserkers?”
Marake roared in fury at Geon-woo’s response.