Chapter 1823 – 1823. Gwangmyeong Ascension
“Hoo.”
The sigh that escaped my lips instantly froze and fell downwards.
Thunder Heaven Style Electromagnetic Barrier.
Crackle!
I blocked the yin energy trying to cling to my body with the electromagnetic barrier. The yin energy was not good. It was trying to steal my body heat, and even penetrate my body.
‘This isn’t ordinary yin energy. It’s yin energy mixed with ghost energy.’
If my body were taken over by yin energy, useless, miscellaneous ghosts would target my body and try to enter. Even with Complete Recovery and Heavenly Heart, I couldn’t dare hand over my body to miscellaneous ghosts for even a second.
‘It feels like I’ve been wandering around for two hours… Where is the Heavenly Demon Divine Art?’
I took out the map Baekran had drawn again.
On the crude map, there was a withered, large tree, flowing water, and something that looked like a wild dog.
‘What I need to find is the flowing water between the large tree and the wild dog. She said to walk in the direction the water flows….’
I couldn’t find any flowing water, let alone a tree or a wild dog.
‘Damn fog.’
This thick fog was truly something, even when using Heavenly Eye, I couldn’t see through it completely. At best, the visible range I could see was just increased.
‘This must be why the Heavenly Demon Tomb is hidden and not known to the outside world.’
Baekran didn’t tell me what to do about this fog. I don’t know if she trusts me or if she’s messing with me. Personally, I hope it’s the former.
‘How did the Heavenly Demon or Cheon Yu-un get through this fog?’
There must be some method. A secret path only known to the Heavenly Demon, or a special artifact with power.
I grumbled inwardly but kept walking. In the middle, I felt frustrated and swung my hand in the air. A strong wind rose and pushed the fog away. It was only for a moment. The fog rushed back and filled the surroundings again. Even using lightning to burn the fog was useless. No matter what I did, this fog wouldn’t disappear.
Woof!
Suddenly, a dog bark was heard. My face lit up. This bark must be the sound of the wild dog drawn on the map.
‘Diagonal to the right. I heard it from the 1 o’clock direction.’
My senses were not helpful. This fog was interfering with my senses.
Grrrrr.
I felt the presence of the wild dog. It was definitely within 5 meters, but I couldn’t see it well because of the fog.
‘If I can just feel its presence, then whatever.’
The growling dog was hostile. I stopped walking. There was no reason to fight the dog. Even though I didn’t like the dog barking at me, I didn’t want to fight in this fog.
‘It’s a dog that lives in this kind of fog. It can’t be an ordinary dog.’
I pinpointed my location on the map based on the dog. Now I just needed to find the flowing water nearby.
‘The flowing water is between the withered tree and the wild dog… I don’t know the location of the withered tree.’
I didn’t know which direction to go to find the tree. I had to move to find the tree’s location. But if I moved aimlessly, I would get lost again.
‘Let’s pick a direction and walk straight. If I’m lucky, I might find the flowing water.’
I pulled out the Hwaryeon Flying Dagger from my waist. I stabbed the tip of the Hwaryeon Flying Dagger into the ground. Then, I dragged the dagger as I walked straight ahead. A line was drawn on the ground.
‘Even if I go the wrong way, I can see this line and come back.’
Dragging a sword on the ground was no different than throwing it away, but the Hwaryeon Flying Dagger didn’t get damaged even when cutting rocks. It had slightly cracked when fighting the dragon, but since then, the blade had never been damaged.
Grrrrr.
I ignored the dog. That’s what I intended to do, but the dog suddenly appeared from behind. It opened its mouth wide and tried to bite my neck.
‘I didn’t hear the dog bark from behind. Was the bark a fake?’
[Using Moment. Remaining stacks: 11]
Using Moment, I dodged its snout and swung the Hwaryeon Flying Dagger upwards. The dog’s head split in half.
Thud.
The dog fell, spraying black blood everywhere.
‘This thing doesn’t have legs.’
The dog had no legs or tail. It only had a head and torso. Its size was that of an ordinary large dog. It wasn’t big enough to bite my neck.
‘It was floating in the air.’
The dog’s head had hollowed-out eyes.
‘It’s a monster.’
Woof! Woof woof! Woof woof woof!
This time, the dog barks came from above my head. I slightly raised my head and looked up. At that moment, a dog appeared from the ground and tried to bite my leg.
Crack.
The electromagnetic barrier I had been using reacted, but like the dog that had targeted my neck earlier, it ignored it and attacked me.
Thunder Heaven Style Flying Thunder God.
The subtle lightning energy that started from my dantian rushed through the energy channels of my entire body. My body moved smoothly to the side as if someone was pulling me, dodging the dog’s attack.
If I dodged an attack, it was only natural to counterattack immediately. I held the Hwaryeon Flying Dagger in reverse and cut off the dog’s head.
Slash.
It felt quite satisfying.
‘Huh? The corpse of the one I killed earlier disappeared.’
The black blood that the thing had spilled on the ground also disappeared.
‘This is a ghostly matter. …Ghost?’
I stared intently at the dog I had just beheaded. The dog’s body blurred and then disappeared. Along with the black blood that had stained the ground.
‘Was it a ghost instead of a monster?’
Woof woof woof woof!
I heard a dog bark from the right. This time, I didn’t even look. Then, a dog appeared from the right and targeted me.
Slash!
There was no need to dodge, I immediately swung my sword. I was already on edge, knowing that an attack was coming. I could react no matter which direction it came from.
After killing the dog, I continued forward, dragging the Hwaryeon Flying Dagger on the ground.
‘Annoying.’
The dogs weren’t strong. But they were persistent. Undying dogs. They had been attacking me constantly since earlier. Roughly three attacks per minute.
‘Surely not for 24 hours straight…. No, they wouldn’t keep attacking me the entire time I’m in the Heavenly Demon Tomb, would they?’
Either way, it was a problem. Stamina and internal energy weren’t infinite. Besides, I still had to learn the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. If ghost dogs were going to interfere with learning the Heavenly Demon Divine Art? That was a very troublesome situation.
‘…Let’s worry about that later and find the flowing water first.’
If I had to find a positive aspect of the ghost dog attacks, it was that I wasn’t bored. I had to stay on edge because I didn’t know where they would attack from. It felt like I was training to prepare for surprise attacks.
Two hours passed.
Instead of a withered tree, I saw a large rock. It was a bust. I shook my head and turned my body around. Looking at the line I had drawn on the ground, I walked back to the place where I had encountered the ghost dogs.
Woof woof woof woof!
The dog barks were sickening.
• • •
Fifteen hours had passed since I entered the Heavenly Demon Tomb.
I finally found the withered tree. As Baekran had said, it was a tree ten times the height of an adult male.
‘The dog barks have disappeared.’
The ghost dogs that had been constantly tormenting me had vanished. The reason was probably the tree in front of me.
‘It’s eerie. This seems to be the source of the yin energy?’
I didn’t approach the tree carelessly. It might be a troublesome tree like the ghost dogs. Or maybe it was a ghost-possessed tree.
‘The important thing isn’t the identity of this tree.’
I knew the location of the tree. That was what was important. I turned around. On the ground was the line I had drawn while coming here.
‘The flowing water is supposed to be around the center of this line… I didn’t see it while coming here. It looks like I’ll have to go through more hardship.’
Crack.
I felt something penetrating the electromagnetic barrier.
[Using Moment. Remaining stacks: 11]
Sensing something was wrong, I immediately used Moment to dodge to the side. A withered tree branch passed through where I had been and stabbed into the ground.
Then, other tree branches stretched out and targeted me.
I lightly kicked off the ground and dodged the tree branches. The tree branches looked like whips, but they were actually awls. The ends were very sharp, and they moved erratically, but at the decisive moment of attack, they always targeted me with a stab.
‘It can’t be that they’re just stabbing without a reason. Did they put poison on the tips of the branches?’
I suppressed the curiosity that suddenly arose and buried it deep down.
‘It attacked me, so I have to kill it.’
Dozens of tree branches stabbed towards me at high speed. It might be a ghost-possessed tree. If I used Flying Thunder God, I could easily dodge them.
‘Dodging isn’t enough.’
[Using Time Acceleration. Remaining stacks: 6]
The tree branches slowed down. I ran forward and swung the Hwaryeon Flying Dagger. Red lightning pulsed on the blade.
With three slashes, I cut down dozens of tree branches, then approached the tree trunk and stabbed the Hwaryeon Flying Dagger into it.
[Time Acceleration has ended.]
Just in time, Time Acceleration ended. I could feel the tree trunk wriggling through the hilt of the sword.
‘Lightning.’
Crack crack crack crack crack crack!
A large amount of red lightning spread in all directions. I controlled the lightning strands and pushed them all into the blade of the Hwaryeon Flying Dagger. The lightning flowed through the blade and into the tree. The tree began to burn.
The tree’s wriggling became more intense.
‘It’s withstanding this? Then I’ll just increase the output.’
The surrounding area was filled with red lightning. The smell of burning wood stung my nose. I didn’t stop and kept sending out lightning.
The tree died. I felt that sensation through the hilt of the sword. I didn’t let my guard down until the end and pulled out the sword. Part of the dry, black tree had turned to ash and was scattering.
‘It’s dead. Although, I don’t know if it was a living creature in the first place.’
The thick fog that had been surrounding the area gathered around the tree. A terrible yin energy was regenerating the tree. I shook my head and stepped back.
‘It’ll keep biting until it dies like the ghost dogs, right? I need to get out of here quickly.’
I reminded myself that what was important now was to obtain the Heavenly Demon Divine Art and started walking.
After walking around for four hours with my eyes fixed on the ground, I was able to find the flowing water hidden in a crack in the rocks.
‘I thought flowing water meant something like a stream.’
The water flow was too thin to be called a stream. It wasn’t ordinary water either. I could feel compressed yin energy from the water. I poked the flowing water with my index finger. The yin energy penetrated and my index finger began to freeze. Crack. I burned the yin energy using lightning energy.
‘This is incredible water. Can it be used as an elixir?’
I shook my head. The moment I drank this water, my internal organs would freeze instantly. Moreover, lightning energy belonged to yang energy, so the extremely strong yin energy wouldn’t be of much help.
‘Let’s take this water later and go to where the water flows.’
