The Heavenly Demon Who Reigns

Kiyaaak-!

Saaaaa-!

Two monstrous beasts were fighting.

One was a white bird of prey larger than a human body.

And the other was a large snake with a mouth large enough to swallow that bird of prey.

"..."

At a glance, they were not ordinary animals.

He had heard that there were especially many spiritual beasts in Musan, so those guys must be one of them.

But still, Cheon Myeong looked quite surprised, as if he had not expected to encounter a spiritual beast at all.

"Young Master!"

At that moment, Soyeon Sang approached Cheon Myeong's side.

"Are you okay?"

"...I'm fine."

Cheon Myeong's face was slightly dazed, but he didn't seem to be injured on the outside.

After confirming that fact, Soyeon Sang was relieved and turned his gaze to the same place as Cheon Myeong.

"I didn't expect there to be such a spiritual beast here."

"..."

"They haven't noticed us yet, so let's sneak out while we have the chance."

The bird of prey and the large snake seemed to be so busy fighting each other that they had no interest in this side.

If so, there was no need to deal with those guys.

Since they looked quite dangerous at a glance, Soyeon Sang was about to quickly take Cheon Myeong and leave this place.

However.

"Let's watch for a while."

Cheon Myeong answered Soyeon Sang's words.

Cheon Myeong was watching the spiritual beast with an unusual gaze, as if he was aiming for something.

Soyeon Sang asked Cheon Myeong with a puzzled look.

"Do you still have business here?"

"No, my business is done."

"Then let's get out of here before we get caught up in those guys' fight."

"They seem to be busy fighting each other and have no interest in us, so we won't get caught up in it."

How could he be so sure?

Even if that was true, Soyeon Sang couldn't understand why he had to stay here and take the risk.

"That's true for now, but they might attack us later..."

"If we wait, it seems like a fish will fall into our laps with the fisherman's gain, so let's wait a little longer."

"...?"

Soyeon Sang still had a puzzled face, but Cheon Myeong was grinning.

The two spiritual beasts were fighting fiercely in front of him.

In Cheon Myeong's eyes, they were not spiritual beasts, but elixirs.

'Not only elixirs, but the inner core of a spiritual beast is also a great help in increasing internal energy.'

The inner core refers to the mass of ki in the body of a spiritual beast.

Since a spiritual beast itself has an incredibly long lifespan unlike ordinary creatures, ki accumulates in its body like a dantian over the years.

And if you ingest that inner core properly, it will be a great help in increasing your internal energy.

"..."

Of course, it was not generally possible to ingest the inner core directly like an elixir.

Because the ki that the spiritual beast originally had remained quite strong, it was necessary to manufacture it into an elixir again.

Although that method was not very common.

Cheon Myeong had a book in his bundle right now that described how to manufacture an inner core into an elixir.

'There must be a way to manufacture an inner core into an elixir in the Medical Supplement Manual.'

Originally, Cheon Myeong's purpose in coming to Yakssobang was to obtain elixirs.

Of course, he had obtained a precious thing called the Medical Supplement Manual instead, but he was secretly disappointed that he had not been able to obtain elixirs as was his original purpose.

But now, hadn't a pumpkin rolled in with the vine?

Even if he ingested the elixir of just one of those two, it would be a great help in increasing Cheon Myeong's internal energy.

'If one of them dies while they're fighting each other, I'll take that guy's inner core.'

What else could this be but the fisherman's gain?

Since they were fighting each other on their own, Cheon Myeong just had to eat rice cakes on the side.

'It would be good if both of them died like that.'

In fact, that was the best case scenario.

However, Cheon Myeong continued to watch the fight with the thought of obtaining the inner core of just one of the two for now.

Kiyaaak-!

Saaaaa-!

The fight between the two spiritual beasts grew more intense as time went on.

Since the guys were so big, it was common for the surrounding trees to break.

At a simple glance, the much larger snake seemed to have the advantage, but the bird of prey had a firm grasp of the air and was, above all, agile.

As it attacked with its sharp claws and beak from the air, there were already many parts of the snake's body where flesh had been torn off and was bleeding.

'Is the bird of prey going to win?'

He couldn't predict the outcome for sure yet.

But from the situation so far, the bird of prey seemed to have a clear advantage.

Unlike the snake, which was bleeding from all over, the bird of prey's body was intact.

Even if it couldn't inflict a large amount of damage at once, if it continued to inflict wounds little by little like that, it seemed that the snake would collapse first.

Saaaa-!

At that moment, the snake opened its mouth wide towards the bird of prey.

Then, a thick black smoke spewed out from the snake's mouth.

'That's...!'

A very ominous black smoke.

At a glance, it seemed to be mixed with a strong poison.

"Young Master! It's poison smoke! Retreat!"

Soyeon Sang, who had also noticed that fact, said to Cheon Myeong.

The place where the poison smoke was spewing out was quite far away, but it was unknown when it would ride the wind and rush here in an instant.

Cheon Myeong retreated further back from where he was standing with Soyeon Sang.

Kiyaaak-!

The poison smoke instantly swallowed the bird of prey's body.

No matter how much of a spiritual beast it was, it would not be able to withstand the poison.

Moreover, wasn't the snake that spewed out the poison smoke also a spiritual beast?

The tide of the battle seemed to have turned in an instant with a single puff of poison smoke.

However, at that moment, a huge gust of wind suddenly raged in the forest.

Hooong-.

The cause of the gust of wind was the bird of prey.

As the bird of prey flapped its large wings vigorously, a strong wind raged around.

Thanks to that, the poison smoke that had swallowed the bird of prey was instantly scattered in all directions.

Thus, the tide of the battle seemed to be flowing in favor of the bird of prey again...

Saaaaa-!

In the meantime, the snake had bitten one of the bird of prey's wings.

Thanks to that, the gust of wind that had been raging in the forest also subsided in an instant.

And the bird of prey let out a sharp cry with one of its wings bitten by the snake.

Kiyaaak-!

The reason why the bird of prey had been in the lead until now was because it had shown agile movements while occupying the air.

But since its wing was bitten, it would no longer be able to fly freely.

At the same time, since the poison would gradually spread throughout the bird of prey's body, the battle seemed to have already been decided.

'Is it the snake's victory?'

Cheon Myeong, who was watching the scene from a distance, also thought so.

However, at that moment.

Suddenly, the snake went wild and let go of the wing it was biting.

Saaaaa-!

This time, the snake cried out as if in pain and went on a rampage.

Blood was flowing from the snake's two eyes.

Seeing that the bird of prey's beak was wet with blood, it seemed that the bird of prey had pecked out the snake's two eyes.

'Oh...'

Seeing this, Cheon Myeong was inwardly impressed.

To think it would counterattack until the end in that situation.

Although it might be lacking in strength compared to the snake, if we were to compare only in terms of intelligence, the bird of prey seemed to be superior.

"..."

How much longer did they fight to the death like that?

In the end, one of the two seemed to have run out of strength and collapsed on the ground.

Thud-.

The one that collapsed on the ground first was the snake.

As the bird of prey continued to attack the wounded area intensively, it eventually couldn't hold out and died.

But the surviving bird of prey was by no means in a sound state.

Its jade-like feathers were already covered in bright red blood.

'That guy won't last long either.'

The wounds on the outside also looked deep, and the poison would have spread.

It would probably last for about fifteen or thirty minutes at most.

If the poison spread completely in the meantime, the bird of prey would also meet its death like the snake lying there now.

Flap-.

The bird of prey, as if confirming that the snake was dead, immediately disappeared into the forest.

And a person approached the snake's carcass.

It was Cheon Myeong.

'Hmm, so this is what's left in the end.'

But the bird of prey's life was also like a candle in the wind.

If he took the snake's inner core here and then followed the bird of prey, it seemed that he could also obtain its inner core.

"Young Master! What are you trying to do?"

At that moment, Soyeon Sang hurriedly followed behind Cheon Myeong and asked.

Then, Cheon Myeong said, drawing his sword as if it was nothing.

"I'm going to take the inner core."

"Inner core..."

"Can you hold that side for me? Ah, and do you have a dagger by any chance?"

"...I have one, but."

"Then lend it to me."

Soyeon Sang handed the dagger to Cheon Myeong in a daze.

And Cheon Myeong skillfully dismantled the snake with that dagger.

Seeing this, Soyeon Sang was dumbfounded.

'He's not fazed by the sight of blood, and on top of that, even if it's an animal's carcass, to touch a carcass like that so casually...'

It seemed as if he was used to death.

If not, he had that much boldness.

Although he already knew that Cheon Myeong had changed considerably from the appearance he originally knew, seeing this appearance now, it seemed that he had discovered another side of him.

"Hoo."

In the meantime, Cheon Myeong, who seemed to have finished his work, let out a sigh.

He put the snake's inner core in one of the bottles he had brought from Yakssobang and the poison in the other.

'This snake is probably a Black-spotted Python.'

He didn't know when he saw it from a distance, but he could tell that fact when he checked it up close.

The biggest feature of the Black-spotted Python is that it has a huge black spot on its head.

The snake lying in front of him also had a black spot on its head.

'I'm lucky.'

The Black-spotted Python's inner core was one thing, but its poison would also be quite useful.

As far as Cheon Myeong knew, if even a small amount of the Black-spotted Python's poison spread in the body, black spots would appear one by one on the skin, and at the same time as those spots appeared all over the body, one would die.

There would probably be few people in the martial world who knew how to detoxify this poison, so it would be quite useful in the right place at the right time.

So when he dismantled it, he also put the poison in a bottle.

Of course, carefully so as not to get poisoned in the process.

"Young Master, are you finished?"

At that moment, Soyeon Sang asked Cheon Myeong.

Then, Cheon Myeong answered, wiping the blood on his hands on a cloth.

"Not yet. I have to go get the one over there too."

"Over there...?"

"It probably didn't go far. Let's follow the tracks."

"Ah..."

Soyeon Sang realized that what Cheon Myeong was talking about was the bird of prey that had just been fighting the Black-spotted Python.

Whoosh-.

Cheon Myeong immediately shouldered his bundle again.

Who said that greed brings disaster?

But Cheon Myeong's thoughts were different.

'When you can be greedy, you have to be greedy for sure.'

If he went back without being greedy for what he could be greedy for, it was obvious that he would regret it later.

Moreover, isn't it a waste?

To leave a guy who was going to die anyway to rot like this.

As a martial artist, he didn't think he could stand that.

'I'll make good use of you.'

(End of Chapter)