Chapter 56
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 56
Act 9. Mount Bimyeong Demonic Beast Farm.
Ise currently stood in Mount Bimyeong, a rugged range within the Suari Kingdom, the easternmost nation of the Three Peninsular Kingdoms.
Mount Bimyeong truly lived up to its name: the Mountain of Screams.
Winds tore through its ravines like the mournful wails of dying beasts, and eerie, inexplicable lights occasionally flickered deep within the valleys.
Plagued by rumors of endless bizarre occurrences since ancient times, it was a desolate land. Not even a proper village, let alone a county seat, had ever been established here. Because it was so remote, there were no Outer Gate Outposts of the Great Martial Dao anywhere nearby. It was a mountain of pure, untamed wildness.
Standing atop an unnamed ridge, Ise gazed out at the dozens of peaks rising around him. Before commencing the mission, he reviewed the details once more. Normally, he would have collected and reviewed this document at a nearby outpost, but this was his first time undertaking a mission without going through one.
[Mission Grade: Grade 4]
[Source: Secret Inspection Unit 7]
[Location: Suari Kingdom, Mount Bimyeong, near the 13th peak]
[Target: 1 Demonic Cultivator (6-Star Qi Refining Stage, presumed Demonic Beast Tamer), confirmed presence of multiple 4- to 5-Star Demonic Beasts including Three-Headed Chickens. Eradicate all Demonic Cultivators and Demonic Beasts.]
[Reward: 70 Spirit Stones, 80 Contribution Points]
He rolled the bamboo scroll back up and tucked it into his robe. Coming to the Main Mountain had clearly changed both the scale of the rewards and the difficulty of the missions. It was on a completely different level from the tasks he used to receive at the Training Center Management Office. Back then, most rewards had been in the single digits.
'I heard Foundation Establishment seniors won't even accept a mission to go take a dump in a field if it pays less than a hundred Spirit Stones.'
He had thought it was just a crude joke, but now he realized it might not have been an exaggeration.
Ise’s eyes scanned the mountainous terrain. His vision was far broader than that of mortals, but it still wasn't enough to inspect every nook and cranny of the vast range. What he was looking for were signs of human presence. No matter how remote a place was, humans were bound to exist somewhere. And humans always left traces.
After sweeping his gaze across the mountainside for a long while, Ise spotted a thin plume of smoke rising from a cooking fire, and his figure darted toward it. He needed to verify whether the Great Martial Dao’s intelligence had missed anything.
There were three villages in the vicinity of Mount Bimyeong. None were large enough to be called proper settlements; they were tiny clan villages inhabited by barely a dozen people.
Ise changed into the hunter’s attire he had prepared in his Storage Pouch beforehand. Slipping out of his Daoist robe and stowing it away, he slung a bow and quiver over his shoulder, fastening only a Small Axe to his waist. He disguised himself as a hunter rather than a Daoist, just in case the Demonic Cultivator had planted informants in the neighboring villages.
"Is anyone home?" he called out at the village entrance.
An elderly man biting a tobacco pipe shuffled out slowly. "Haven't seen a stranger in quite a while. What kind of beast brought you all the way into these deep mountains?"
"I heard rumors that something strange has been roaming these mountains lately. Have you by any chance seen a chicken with three heads?"
"……" The mouth puffing out smoke paused momentarily. "Where on earth would you find a chicken with three heads? You're talking like a featherbrained fool! What, does it have six legs too? Well, at least folks won't be fighting over the drumsticks then. Bwahaha!"
The old man chuckled softly at what he took to be an amusing joke. "There are plenty of strange rumors about this area, but in all my years living here, I've never seen anything suspicious."
Ise asked a few more questions but gained nothing of value. The man claimed no strangers had passed by recently, nor had anyone heard strange cries in the mountains. Ise visited the other two villages afterward, but the results were the same. They were all mere mortals who had never seen a Demon Ghost in their lives. They were hardly the type of people who could serve as eyes and ears for a Demonic Cultivator.
'There are no outposts and no witnesses in this land.'
Ise rested his chin in his hand. Where, then, had the intelligence for this mission come from? Was there some kind of Ghost Treasure that detected demonic energy? No. If such an artifact circulated freely in the market, Demonic Cultivators across the Three Peninsular Kingdoms would have been wiped out long ago.
'It must be the Dark Snakes.'
The answer wasn't far off. Among the missions exclusive to the Dark Snakes, quite a few involved patrolling designated routes to report traces of Demonic Cultivators and Demon Ghosts. The wheels of the Great Martial Dao's operations were spinning diligently, even beyond the scope of Ise's awareness.
Ise gradually drew closer to his objective. Having ruled out potential external threats, it was time to take a closer look. He climbed to the highest peak adjacent to the 13th peak. Then, he pulled three types of talismans from his Storage Pouch. He had prepared two of each specifically for this mission: Spirit Concealment Talismans, Clairvoyance Talismans, and Invisibility Talismans.
They cost fifteen Spirit Stones each—no small sum. If he used up all six, he wouldn't even break even on this mission. Besides those, he had thoroughly prepared Poison Pills, Healing Pellets, and Messenger Talismans—absolute essentials for operatives.
'Let's hopefully finish this in one go.'
As Ise activated a Clairvoyance Talisman, the landscape before his eyes magnified severalfold. Despite the vast distance, his vision became crystal clear, allowing him to discern the growth rings of trees and the delicate veins on leaves. He rapidly scanned the profile of the 13th peak from the south. The talisman's effect lasted for two hours. To scan all four faces of the peak, he had to hurry.
'Nothing here.'
There was nothing he sought on the southern face. As Ise took a step, the sudden shift in perspective caused a brief wave of dizziness, but he adapted quickly and picked up his pace. Next, he scanned down the slope of the eastern face.
Fortunately, he found what he was looking for.
The mission target was located near the entrance of a ravine along a steep mountain slope. It was a plausibly disguised mountain lair, complete with a crudely woven fence behind it and a building that looked like a livestock pen. It blended cleverly into the surrounding terrain, but to Ise’s eyes, the demonic energy smoldering between the structures was unmistakably clear.
As Ise focused his gaze, his vision zoomed in further, revealing a three-headed chicken inside a small ventilation window.
A Three-Headed Chicken. It matched the intelligence report precisely.
Ise narrowed his eyes, tallying their numbers. Eight at 3-Star Qi Refining, four at 4-Star, and one at 5-Star. The Demonic Cultivator's demonic energy was emanating from deep inside the lair.
'The intelligence is accurate.'
Though he desperately wanted to launch an immediate assault, slaughter the Demon Ghosts, and devour them, Ise waited calmly.
He waited like that for three days. After activating another Clairvoyance Talisman to confirm that nothing had changed with the target, he dropped down from the tree where he had been perched. Descending the peak, he circled around toward the opposite foot of the mountain.
Once he closed the distance to where the Demonic Cultivator might sense his presence, he tore open a Spirit Concealment Talisman. The talisman’s spiritual energy spread through his body, suppressing and settling his internal qi. Then, suppressing his footfalls with Dokkaebi Footwork, he advanced step by step, gradually drawing closer.
The mountain lair came into view, about two hundred jang away.
It was around then that the air beneath his feet warped subtly. Before his Dokkaebi Sense could trigger an alarm, a thin layer of characters flared briefly on the dirt beneath his feet before disappearing.
'A trap?'
It wasn't a snare or a physical trap. This was...
'A formation.'
As he focused his Spirit Eye again, he saw fine formation patterns stretching long and thin across tens of jang to either side of where he stood.
'...Dammit.'
He had been plenty cautious of traps and barriers, but he hadn't anticipated a formation carved directly into the dirt and concealed under soil and fallen leaves.
Among the Four Great Arts, the area where Ise was weakest was none other than Formation Deployment. In other domains, he might have groped around blindly, but with formations, he had only learned the absolute theoretical basics.
'It was completely undetectable.'
Ignorant as he was in that field, he could still tell that the formation before him was no ordinary work. He had never imagined that a Demonic Beast Tamer would also be skilled in formation arts. The informant couldn't have gotten this close either.
He had fought cultivators three times in total, and none of those battles had gone according to plan. While he made almost no mistakes when hunting Demonic Beasts, too many variables arose when facing cultivators. He keenly felt his lack of experience.
Before his brief train of thought could finish, the Spirit Concealment Technique suppressing his internal qi was shattered by the power of the formation. Immediately after, a long, shrill sound echoed from the direction of the mountain lair.
Kkiaaaak—!
The Demonic Beasts inside the fence began to screech in unison. The three throats of the Three-Headed Chickens wailed slightly out of sync, shaking the entire mountain valley. The beasts tied to the ground raised their heads all at once.
The door of the lair swung open, and a Demonic Cultivator stepped out. She was a woman who looked to be in her thirties.
Ise prepared for battle while gauging his enemy's condition. Wearing a worn-out Daoist robe with one sleeve casually rolled up, she had a small whistle- or flute-shaped Dharma Artifact hanging around her neck. A single Jade Hairpin was stuck haphazardly into her hair.
'For now, I shouldn't close in; I'll gauge her fighting style with basic Dharma Spells.'
The enemy might have a Dharma Treasure like Needle Eruption Armor prepared. While Ise slipped his hand into the Storage Pouch under his robe and sharpened his senses for combat—
The Demonic Cultivator's gaze, filled with tension, located Ise standing at the edge of a boulder's shadow. Her expression shifted rapidly. Fear turned to bewilderment, which soon morphed into relief and welcome. Once. Twice. Her scanning eyes grew strangely soft, and the tension in the hand holding her flute slowly relaxed.
"......Mmm." The woman uttered a quiet sigh. Relaxing her guard considerably, she spoke. "Senior. Which faction do you belong to?"
Senior? A Demonic Cultivator addressing a cultivator as Senior?
Honorifics of respect were a culture reserved only for those who walked the same path. For a moment, Ise was rendered speechless. Then, realizing the reason behind her question, he let out a dry chuckle.
She must have sensed the demonic energy softly surrounding his body. Since the eyes of a Demonic Cultivator could not read spiritual energy, she had mistaken Ise for one of her own—a 7-Star Qi Refining Demonic Cultivator. She could never have imagined that demonic energy and spiritual energy could coexist in a single human body.
'...This just got interesting.'
Ise took his hand off the Storage Pouch at his waist and silently slid his half-drawn Small Axe back into place. He thought it would be highly beneficial to extract some information about Demonic Cultivators while he had the chance. Perhaps in the future, he could even carry out missions by posing as one.
"Where are you from?" Ise asked, taking a step forward and addressing her informally as a superior would.
The Demonic Cultivator held up both hands, palms facing outward. "Aiya, Senior. Forgive me, but would you mind not coming any closer until you identify yourself?"
When Ise raised an eyebrow, the Demonic Cultivator did not back down, meeting his gaze head-on. "I'm glad to meet you, but it's still frightening, isn't it? Even if you are a minor realm higher than me, as you can see, I'm not the only fighting force here. Wouldn't it be better for both of us to resolve this peacefully?"
"Are you trying to threaten me with mere vermin?"
"How could I dare? It's just that I was startled to meet a fellow Demonic-Path Cultivator in a place like this."
Demonic-Path Cultivator. Demonic cultivator. So that's what Demonic Cultivators call themselves. Ise noted the term in his mind.
"I belong to the Suari Branch of the Cheolyang Lightning Sect. What about you, Senior?"
Ise pondered briefly before answering. The only Demonic Path Sect he knew of was the Cheolyang Lightning Sect, so a careless lie would easily be exposed.
"I am a rogue cultivator."
"A rogue Demonic-Path Cultivator in the Three Peninsular Kingdoms? That is surprising! And your realm is 7-Star? Heh. How did you manage that? What cultivation art do you practice? Curses? Essence Harvesting? Ghost Path? Seeing as you're disguised in such ridiculous clothes, is Tribulation Cultivation your specialty?"
"Why should I tell you that?"
"Ahaha. I was just curious, that's all. But what brings you here?"
Ise quickly considered what information he could glean from her and came to a decision.
"I want to join the Cheolyang Lightning Sect."
"Ah..."
"What do I need to do to enter your sect?"
"Our sect is always open to talented Demonic-Path Cultivators." She smiled, her eyes curving into crescents, then tilted her head. "By the way, Senior. There's just one thing..."
Her eyes suddenly rolled wide as she glared intently at Ise.
"How did you know about this location? It's not somewhere you could stumble upon by chance."