Chapter 59 - Act 9. The Demonic Beast Farm on Wailing Mountain (4)

The droplets of blood gradually took shape.

At first, they were scattered droplets. Then they drew one another together in midair, forming a mass that began to develop a sharp point.

The Demonic Energy grew denser by the moment. Honed, tightened, compressed.

'I have to stop it.'

Yise shifted the Meridian-Cutting Blade into the hand bearing the Yellow Grand Parasol. Just as he reached to draw the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard, the man vanished from the edge of his vision.

WHOOSH!

The air split diagonally, and the brush, its tip sharpened to a point, swept past Yise's arm.

Had he reached into the storage pouch, he might have lost that arm.

Yise tilted his head to evade one attack, then twisted at the waist to evade another.

Attack after relentless attack followed, as though the man intended to prevent him from drawing the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard at any cost.

Even when Yise's intermittent counterattacks gouged out his flesh, the man kept aiming for the storage pouch.

All the while, the mass of blood behind him silently neared completion.

'What kind of spell is this?'

It took so long merely to prepare, and he was willing to come within lethal range to protect it.

The instant it was complete, this drawn-out battle would end. His instincts screamed as much.

Yise decided quickly.

He hurled the short blade at the man's throat. It flew straight and swift from his hand.

The ornate Dokkaebi supernatural treasure, imbued with Adamantine Lock, was enough to make the demonic practitioner flinch.

Seizing that opening, Yise swept his empty hand into the storage pouch, grasped the shaft of the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard, and moved to drive it down.

That was precisely the moment the demonic practitioner had been waiting for: when Yise channeled his internal reserves into the supernatural treasure.

The fleeting opening when, occupied with deploying the barrier, he could not wrap that energy around himself in defense.

Blood-red Demonic Energy transformed into spell power and shot from the man's brush tip.

A red blade spiraled around Yise's wrist and sliced straight through it.

SLICE!

Sensation and control vanished from the right hand gripping the bannered spear. A beat later, burning pain came rushing in.

Still, Yise did not stop. As though he had anticipated even this, his left arm had already begun reaching toward his falling right arm before it was severed.

He drove the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard into the ground, severed arm still clinging to it.

The barrier spread its domain, engulfing the surrounding area.

Feeling his Demonic Energy seal shut, the man grimaced and tried to throw himself backward.

But the moment the Demonic Energy vanished from his body, his half-severed ankle held him back.

Yise closed the distance with Dokkaebi Steps. A layer of Adamantine Lock's golden light coated the edge of the Yellow Grand Parasol hanging from his left wrist.

The shield's edge buried itself in the center of the man's chest.

Blood spattered as ribs cracked.

"Die, you relentless bastard!"

The man's shout was almost a scream.

At the same instant, a massive torrent of blood hurtled toward Yise's heart from behind.

Sealing Demonic Energy could not nullify a spell that had already been activated.

He had learned that in his fight against the Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

Just before the vivid Demonic Energy pierced his heart, Yise twisted his body a mere half-span.

Barely missing his heart, the spell punched through his back and emerged at the pit of his stomach, entering his field of vision.

Burning heat seared beneath his ribs. He could hardly breathe.

But Yise gritted his teeth and moved his left arm.

Golden spiritual energy poured like sunlight from the arm holding the Yellow Grand Parasol.

The fear of death spread across the man's face. An instant later, his body split diagonally.

Deprived of support, his upper body fell first. Half a beat later, his lower half crumpled.

Yise retched up a mouthful of blood.

'So... sleepy...'

Fighting the urge to collapse then and there, Yise brought his left hand down toward the fallen practitioner's neck.

The Seventh Principle of the Demon-Exorcizing Arts: Make certain a fallen enemy is dead.

The Eighth Principle of the Demon-Exorcizing Arts: Once you believe the enemy is dead, check again.

CRACK!

The neck snapped cleanly, leaving the demonic practitioner in three pieces.

Yise swayed. With a violently trembling hand, he took a Healing Pill from his storage pouch, bit into it, and swallowed.

The few breaths it took for the medicine to spread through his veins felt as long as a season.

If he let go now, it would all be easier.

At the edges of his consciousness, exhaustion tempted him to fall down and sleep.

Yise refused.

This was enemy territory. There was no telling what might happen the moment he lost consciousness.

He staggered to his feet.

Retrieving the Meridian-Cutting Blade, he pulled up the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard and used it to support himself as he recited the exorcism prayer in a cracked voice.

The devouring stage followed naturally.

As fresh spiritual energy and Demonic Energy flooded his depleted body, breathing became a little easier.

He exorcised the demonic beast carcasses scattered about the area one by one, then searched inside the compound, stuffing everything he found into his storage pouch: formation-disc fragments, formation flags, pieces of ritual implements that had fallen from the man's robes.

Only after finally sealing the corpses in the Demon-Sealing Album did Yise sink to the ground.

'No. Not here.'

Steeling himself once more, he forced his exhausted body to move.

Again and again, he dropped to one knee and struggled back up. Only after getting as far from the compound as he could did he all but collapse into the undergrowth to hide.

He took out a message talisman, wrote the brief words "Requesting Reinforcements" followed by his two-syllable name, and sent it flying into the air.

Yise's eyelids slowly sank shut.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, sunlight was slanting through the Healers' Pavilion window.

"You're awake."

A calm voice. Yise let out a relieved sigh. He had survived.

"It was a miracle you were alive. When I first saw you, I thought you were already dead. Tsk. If you ran into a demonic practitioner of higher attainment, you should have fled without looking back."

The healer on staff, who had been making something beside him, abruptly launched into a worried scolding.

Yise had never seen this person before, yet the manner was oddly familiar.

"All sorts of people, including someone quite distinguished, came to visit while you were unconscious and made a racket in the pavilion. You owe everyone you worried an apology."

"Yes. Thank you for treating me."

Looking at his restored right hand, Yise asked anxiously,

"Um... how much will the treatment cost?"

"You lunatic. You wake up, and the first thing you ask about is the bill? Don't worry. Hall Master U Yuhee closed the hole in your body and reattached your arm before leaving. The rest of the treatment can be provided free of charge."

Realizing who the distinguished visitor had been, Yise felt both grateful and puzzled. He had not expected that much concern.

"How long was I asleep?"

"About four days."

He had slept for quite a while.

The thought of having missed four whole days of cultivation made the healed hole in his stomach and his once-severed wrist seem to ache.

"You're the first to come back victorious from a fight across a minor threshold. You've caused quite a stir throughout Daemudo. The Chief Administrator must be curious about your mission report, too, judging by the messages that keep coming. Thanks to you, I've had a wonderfully easy time. Wonderful."

"I'm sorry for worrying you. Might I ask your name, Senior? I will repay your kindness."

"My name? Seong Boyeong. This is my job. No need to repay anything. Just don't come back injured."

Seong Boyeong waved a hand in feigned annoyance and made to leave.

When Yise sat up and picked up his neatly folded robes, Seong Boyeong whipped around.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Oh. You said the Chief Administrator was waiting. I was going to write my report."

"Lie back down this instant!"

"Yes."

Yise immediately laid his head back on the bed and reviewed the battle.

The fight with the demonic practitioner had been a mass of unforeseen complications. He remembered the helplessness that had driven home his lack of experience, the brush with death, and how he had overcome pain and his own limits despite it all.

One thing was certain: he had gained much from this mission.

Experience no amount of spirit stones could buy, a tremendous increase in internal reserves, and thirteen demonic beast carcasses. There were also the spirit stones and ritual implements from the compound.

'Oh, I need to check the spoils...'

He had been too overwhelmed at the time to do anything but stuff things in haphazardly. If he remembered correctly, he had even packed away scraps of Grain-Abstinence Pills the demonic practitioners had left uneaten.

He would have to sort through everything when he had time.

Unable to resist the mounting drowsiness, Yise finally fell asleep again.

After waking again, he received a substantial additional reward from the Mission Pavilion.

He turned over the demonic practitioners' corpses and kept everything else.

The extra payment was exactly twice the original reward.

Even after deducting the ritual items he had consumed during the mission, the spirit stones he had taken from the demonic practitioners and the proceeds from selling all the acquired ritual items he did not need brought his holdings to nearly eight hundred spirit stones.

They were so heavy that he had to divide them among several bags before stowing them in his storage pouch.

'A thousand would be enough to buy a Qi Refining supernatural treasure.'

With just a little more saved, he could add a decent piece of equipment to his arsenal.

After putting away his resources, Yise went straight to his private cultivation cave.

The door closed. With a reverent heart, Yise ate the immortal cuisine he had prepared, then installed the formation disc he had purchased from a ritual-implement merchant. It contained a Spirit-Gathering Formation—a formation that gathered spiritual energy to improve cultivation efficiency. Then he sat cross-legged.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth within the cave quietly enveloped him.

As he sat and examined his inner body, the imbalance he had vaguely sensed became unmistakable.

The Spirit-Exorcizing Cultivation Art purified and absorbed only part of the Demonic Energy, but devouring swallowed it all.

One demonic practitioner at Great Attainment of Qi Refining, one sixth-star demonic beast tamer, and demonic beasts ranging from the third to the fifth star.

The sheer quantity he had swallowed was more than enough to cross the barrier to the eighth star.

'Going on too many missions upsets the harmony of yin and yang.'

Yise exhaled slowly.

He needed to bolster his spiritual energy. For the time being, he would balance the two energies through immortal cuisine, elixir pills, and conventional cultivation.

The cultivation cave opened again after day and night had alternated some hundred and eighty times.

Harsh sunlight streamed through the opening into the dark stone chamber.

It was the tail end of summer.