Chapter 57 - Act 9. The Demonic Beast Farm on Wailing Mountain (2)

The instant the demonic practitioner's demeanor changed, Yise launched an Earthen Spear. A clump of earth honed to a sharp point shot straight toward the woman's heart.

She reacted quickly, too. In the brief moment it took her to bend at the waist and let the spear pass, she brought her flute to her lips.

TWEEEE!

A shrill, nerve-scraping note filled the ravine. The demonic beasts inside the fence charged out as one, veins bulging in their dark-red eyes. Three-Headed Chickens with teeth filling their beaks, beasts somewhere between foxes and wolves, and serpentine creatures rushed him with piercing screams.

The sight of so many demonic beasts charging at once was chilling. Yet Yise did not move. To his enemy, he might have looked frozen with fear. He merely tightened his grip on his hand axe.

'A little closer.'

The beasts closed in. His spirit sight captured each one's position and speed with perfect clarity. Just as they came dangerously close, a peculiar satisfaction spread across the woman's face, as though she was certain this would be more than he could handle.

A Three-Headed Chicken opened its beaks. Just before the sharp teeth inside reached him, Yise infused spiritual energy into the armor beneath his robes.

SHIIING!

The Needle-Firing Armor sent hundreds of large needles shooting out from his body. The supernatural treasure displayed its might, impaling everything within his immediate radius.

All three heads of the Three-Headed Chicken were pierced at once, leaving it thrashing in midair. Beasts skewered from flank to back stiffened without so much as a final breath.

One strike.

A single activation had turned the entire horde into porcupines pinned in the air.

"Ah, aah, no!"

Despair settled over the demonic practitioner's face, then gave way to terror. The creatures she had spent a lifetime raising had died in an instant.

One beast fortunate enough to escape instant death still snapped its teeth, its belly pierced through. Foolishly, it struggled to drag its impaled body toward Yise. He casually swung his axe once to sever its head, then withdrew his spiritual energy and retracted the needles.

The impaled beasts fell from the air in a series of thuds. Yise stepped into the scene of mingled blood and flesh, then suddenly accelerated, surging forward to close the distance.

The woman's reaction lagged a beat. She seemed not yet to have recovered from the shock of losing all her beasts at once. It was a clear opening, but Yise remained cautious. In case she had something hidden up her sleeve, he stopped his advance and sprang backward.

Only then did she snap out of her daze, pulling out talismans and firing them in rapid succession.

'No defensive ritual implement, then.'

Nothing had activated even when he came fairly close. She seemed to have no special tricks besides her horde.

Basic spells from Firebolt Talismans, Lightning Current Talismans—talismans that emitted lightning qi—and the like flew at him in succession. Yise raised the Yellow Grand Parasol to block them. Fire and lightning scattered harmlessly over the shield.

"Aaagh! Aah! Stay away!"

Yise approached her one step at a time, keeping a pace that would let him pull back at any moment. The closer they drew, the paler she became. Every talisman was blocked, and when his hand axe swept in and severed her arm, she dropped to her knees.

"Spare me, Senior!"

Her will to fight was utterly broken. Still, Yise did not lower his guard. He conjured an Earthen Spear and drove it through her abdomen. It slammed her into the wall and pinned her there, and she coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Gurk...!"

Only after binding her entire body with the Shadow-Net Formation did Yise look down at the battered demonic practitioner.

"P-please, Senior... Resources, dual cultivation, anything you want—I'll give you everything. Just spare my life..."

Rather than answer, Yise slowly approached. Carefully placing his feet to avoid the pool of blood, he rested his palm on her forehead.

The Art of Severing Roots and Meridians.

It was a technique he had newly acquired with spirit stones at Library One on the main mountain. The demonic practitioner's eyes widened as his energy swept through the spiritual meridians inside her, painfully cutting them into pieces.

"This is...!"

It was the stuff of demonic practitioners' nightmares—a technique Daemudo used to interrogate captured Cultivators of demonic-path sects and enslave them. Her body convulsed violently. Her spiritual root shattered at its very foundation, minute ruptures echoing inside her body that only someone with keen senses could hear.

"Ah... Aaaagh! No!"

At last, the woman who had lost her spiritual root jerked her head up. Her face showed that she had finally realized something would never flow within her again.

"Y-you bastard...! Th-this technique..."

Her lips trembled.

"Y-you're a dog of Daemudo! How can a demonic Cultivator betray a comrade and willingly become Daemudo's dog?!"

"Who's your comrade, you disgusting demonic scum?"

Yise looked down at her expressionlessly. With that, he placed his hand axe against her neck.

"Now, let's finish our conversation."

Her eyes became bloodshot. Unperturbed, Yise calmly asked,

"Do you know a Foundation Establishment demonic practitioner who handles Deathwind Black Tigers? Or one who handles Wadu-Scholars will do."

Information about the demonic practitioner who had attacked him, or about his family's enemy. Either would do. But instead of answering, she gathered saliva and spat.

Yise merely tilted his head to let it pass, then used an ignition spell at his fingertips to sear the stump at her shoulder.

"Aaaaargh!"

"Next I'll cut off a foot at the ankle. You're an ordinary person now. You ought to look after the limbs you have left."

"You... you..."

"Cooperate, and I'll let you live. Where's your main mountain?"

"... You ignorant, filthy butchers. With you bastards scouring every last corner of every mountain, how could we have a main mountain?!"

She laughed through the blood in her mouth.

"You have no intention of letting me live anyway!"

Yise straightened up.

"If you won't cooperate, I have no choice. I'll take you back to our main mountain and have them get everything out of you with mind reading. I wasn't expecting much anyway."

At those words, her laughter slowly ceased. Instead, one corner of her mouth twisted upward strangely.

"... You will die here."

Her eyes flicked toward the ridge behind him.

"Do you think... I spoke to you for no reason? You worthless worm. You'll regret setting foot here."

At that moment, a thick surge of Demonic Energy rolled in from behind Yise. Dense, heavy, and powerful, it felt as though the energy itself had formed a solid mass. His Dokkaebi Senses sounded a belated, piercing warning. Only then came the furious roar.

"You bastaaard!"

Yise whipped his head around at the thunderous voice.

"Get away from her this instant!"

Another demonic practitioner was rapidly approaching. A vast quantity of Demonic Energy roiled around him, all but overflowing. It resembled the energy of the Qi Refining Cultivators who had competed in the spell combat tournament. Unmistakably, this was Great Attainment.

"My wife! You bastard! Get away from her now!"

His enraged roar shook the entire ravine. Birds burst from the trees all at once.

The pieces quickly fell into place in Yise's mind. The barrier formation that detected intruders and stripped away spirit-concealing spells. A demonic beast tamer who used no formations. It had not been one person practicing the two separate crafts of beast taming and formation laying. There had been two demonic practitioners all along. Someone else had laid the formation.

Without a word or another look behind him, Yise slowly lowered himself. Battles against Cultivators always held unforeseen factors. But he had never encountered one this significant. He made his decision quickly.

His axe flashed once. The head of the demonic practitioner pinned to the wall tilted sideways, her neck half severed. As she drew her dying breaths, her eyes slowly rolled back.

It stung to lose his chance at information. But his opponent was at Great Attainment in Qi Refining. When faced with a dangerous enemy, eliminate even the smallest uncertainties first. That was Master Mongryeon's teaching.

"I'll kill you! I'll tear you to pieces and feed you to the beasts!"

"Sorry, but I don't think there are any beasts left to feed."

Only then did the demonic practitioner notice the beasts' corpses. His expression turned almost deranged.

'Stay calm. Get him worked up.'

Tenth-star Qi Refining. Apart from the Foundation Establishment demonic practitioner, whose advantage of an entire major realm had left Yise desperately fleeing, this was the strongest enemy he had ever faced.

'He's in a hurry.'

To save the demonic practitioner bleeding to death behind Yise, the man would want to subdue him as quickly as possible. Impatience created openings. Yise would seize one and drive into it.

'Formations aren't as useful in one-on-one combat. If he's a formation practitioner, I can handle him.'

As the man drew closer and saw his wife's condition, his eyes became bloodshot all at once. They rolled back to expose the whites like a beast's, no longer looking human.

The approaching demonic practitioner took out a large brush and moved it through the air. Yise knew exactly what the motion meant. It was the most basic way of laying a formation: using a formation implement, a ritual implement made for that purpose.

Without knowing what formation the man was using, he could not allow him to finish it. Yise drew the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard with his right hand and planted it in the ground. Its barrier expanded to cover the surrounding area.

The man on the ridge faltered for an instant. The half-drawn formation symbols dispersed in midair, and the light at the brush's tip vanished.

At the same time, Yise leaped forward like lightning, preparing to swing his axe at the man's neck. A single fatal strike: the hunting method that had subdued most of the enemies he had faced thus far. On top of that, he cast the metal-element spell Adamantine Lock, which honed a weapon's edge, making it harder and sharper.

But the moment the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard's domain expanded, the demonic practitioner seemed to sense something amiss. He immediately abandoned his formation and bolted away from the standard.

'He's retreating? When he's beside himself with rage and every moment counts?'

Yise pursued at full speed, but even with his Demonic Energy sealed, the Great Attainment practitioner's physical abilities were exceptional. Yise managed to swing his hand axe at him just before he escaped the barrier's edge, but left only a thin line of blood across his chest before ultimately letting him get away.

Outside the barrier, the demonic practitioner met Yise's next axe swing head-on.

CLANG!

It was not the sound of metal striking stone, but of stone striking something even harder. A stinging shock ran through Yise's wrist.

He immediately withdrew. A red explosion erupted where he had been standing a moment earlier.

"Playing tricks, are you?" the demonic practitioner said in a low voice.

"That bannered spear is a ritual implement embodying the principles of a Demonic Energy-Sealing Formation. Cunning little bastard."

For the first time, someone had countered the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard. Dismay spread across Yise's face.