Returning Immortal

Chapter 12 : Blood-Sucking Bats

The monster's neck had a white scale hanging from it like a dragon's reverse scale.

No energy was flowing from that place.

It had clearly been flowing at first, but now, instead of internal energy, red blood was spreading.

"Hall Master! How many years do you think that dragon has lived? It's fine even after being struck dozens of times with the Sky-Piercing Halberd... its divine ability seems to be no ordinary thing."

"Gekekeke. Does that look like a dragon to you? That is a snake called a Single-Horned Red-Scaled Snake. It's just big, but it hasn't even become a flood dragon yet."

"Is that so? But it looks almost the same as a dragon. It even has a reverse scale under its neck..."

"A reverse scale?"

"Yes. Isn't that a reverse scale?"

Gwi Seongjin pointed to the white scale hanging under the Single-Horned Red-Scaled Snake's neck.

At that, everyone's attention focused on the reverse scale.

The monster, which happened to see Gwi Seongjin's pointing finger, flashed its red eyes and glared at Gwi Seongjin.

It was a flustered expression.

There was no way the supreme master, the Raging Fire Divine Lord, would not have heard Gwi Seongjin's words.

Even while fighting a life-and-death battle, he was calmly grasping the surrounding situation.

A reverse scale.

Come to think of it, he could see a white scale under the monster's neck.

It was much larger and clearer than the others.

Whoooosh.

The Raging Fire Divine Lord, thinking he had nothing to lose, thrust his Sky-Piercing Halberd into the monster's reverse scale.

But an unexpected result occurred.

The monster, which had defended with its body and taken glancing blows when he attacked other places, this time lowered its horned head and actively defended.

Thinking it was strange, the Raging Fire Divine Lord's movements suddenly became faster. At this, the monster also quickened its movements, looking quite surprised.

The Raging Fire Divine Lord, who had gained some conviction, attacked the monster and secretly pushed the Pure Yang True Qi of his middle dantian towards his lower body.

And when he explosively operated his internal energy, only an afterimage remained in the air and his figure disappeared.

Flash!

The place where the Raging Fire Divine Lord, who had disappeared like a phantom, reappeared was under the monster's neck.

Before the Single-Horned Red-Scaled Snake could twist its waist in an unknown sense of anxiety, the sharp Sky-Piercing Halberd was already digging into the monster's reverse scale.

Kieeeek!

The monster, letting out a scream that seemed to tear the sky apart, jumped into the air.

Looking at the monster, which was wailing painfully while shedding enough blood to cover the surroundings, its neck area was cut and dangling.

The monster, which hadn't even been scratched unless hit squarely, had its body more than half blown away when its reverse scale was pierced by the Sky-Piercing Halberd.

But an unexpected situation occurred.

The monster, which was struggling as if it was about to die, exploded its vengeful resentment not at the Raging Fire Divine Lord who had directly attacked it, but at a third party.

It was none other than Gwi Seongjin.

It was feeling wronged, thinking that it had been hit because Gwi Seongjin had told the Raging Fire Divine Lord its weakness.

Aaaargh!

The monster, which was glaring at Gwi Seongjin from the air with a gaze full of resentment, let out a grotesque scream and suddenly rushed at Gwi Seongjin.

A chillingly blue radiance was being emitted from the monster's eyes.

A moment of crisis.

The Raging Fire Divine Lord, who had disappeared after blowing up the monster's neck, spun around in the air and appeared in front of Gwi Seongjin.

Flash!

As the Sky-Piercing Halberd once again spewed fire, the monster was finally split into two pieces.

The monster's severed head flew in the direction where Gwi Seongjin was, but even that was hit by Ne Jinja's strike and fell futilely to the ground...

The head that fell to the ground rolled and rolled before finally stopping its movement.

Crack. Snap.

Even in the meantime, the torso was destroying the forest, but the group's interest was definitely the monster's head.

When the Ghost Medicine Hall Master rushed out and struck the monster's head with his dragon-headed staff, the skull that had fallen to the ground burst open like a watermelon.

Even the Ghost Medicine Hall Master was dumbfounded.

The powerful outer skin that had even deflected the Sky-Piercing Halberd had been reduced to just ordinary scales once it lost its internal energy.

As the burst head shriveled, the rampaging torso also shrank and gradually stopped moving.

"Gekekeke. At least this one seems to have lived for quite a long time. At this rate, it could be called a demonic creature."

In his gleeful hand was a small, green-glowing crystal stone.

It was what he had found inside the Single-Horned Red-Scaled Snake's head.

The Ghost Medicine Hall Master, who had put the green crystal stone in his leather pouch and carefully stored it, this time picked up a small short sword.

Then, after cutting the Single-Horned Red-Scaled Snake's torso and rummaging around for a long time, he grumbled with a displeased face.

"Aish! It was big and fierce, so I thought it was a demonic creature that had formed an inner core, but it was just a trivial demonic beast."

The Ghost Medicine Hall Master, who couldn't find an inner core in the monster's corpse, threw the dead Single-Horned Red-Scaled Snake's torso far away with his dragon-headed staff.

When the Ghost Medicine Hall Master took out the crystal stone from the Single-Horned Red-Scaled Snake's head, the person whose expression changed the most was definitely the Raging Fire Divine Lord.

Feeling that the texture and energy of the crystal stone were somehow similar to a sacred object, he stared intently at the hard, green-colored crystal for a long time.

On the other hand, Gwi Seongjin, who already knew the identity of the crystal stone, only gave it a brief glance.

Unless it was refined in a furnace?

An ordinary demon stone was not his concern.

* * *

The group, which had dealt with the Single-Horned Red-Scaled Snake, moved their steps again into the deep forest.

Perhaps because the territory ruled by the monster was not that small, there were no beasts that bothered the group for a long time after that.

As he walked, Gwi Seongjin thought deeply about how to use spirit energy.

The reason the demonic beast, the Single-Horned Red-Scaled Snake, was able to block the Raging Fire Divine Lord's attacks several times was because it could increase its physical defense ability with internal energy.

It was fortunate that it had protected its body by concentrating its internal energy in one place; otherwise, the monster would have been dismembered long ago.

Not only that, the monster could also divide its internal energy and defend several places at the same time.

Thinking that his ability to operate spirit energy was far lacking compared to the monster, Gwi Seongjin operated his spirit energy in various ways as he walked.

However, he refrained from excessive movements as much as possible so that the group would not notice.

After training like that for more than a shichen, Gwi Seongjin slowly stopped operating his spirit energy.

Gwi Seongjin, who had stopped his spirit energy training, looked around with his spiritual sense.

And when it was confirmed that there was no danger, this time he drew the Thunder Cloud Sword hanging from his waist.

The Adjutant Cheok, who had no eye for things, had denigrated it as a worthless sword, but the Thunder Cloud Sword was one of the few magical artifacts left in the Ghost Valley Sect.

He had heard that a certain ancestor had discovered it in an unknown ruin in the past, and one day it suddenly formed a self and became a divine object.

The problem was here.

Because the Thunder Cloud Sword had formed a self, one had to go through a spiritual communication ritual to use the sword.

Spiritual communication was a ritual in which a divine object chose its owner, a blood pact that could not be reversed once decided.

Therefore, the divine object had to be careful in choosing its owner.

There was even a legend that a certain divine object in the past had rejected hundreds of cultivators who had requested spiritual communication.

The one that divine object finally chose was a blue tortoise demonic beast.

The demonic beast used the divine object to overcome all sorts of difficulties and finally even created a primordial infant in its middle dantian.

However, it failed to go to the spirit realm, but since it had gone through the fire and lightning tribulation three times before that, the divine object's eye was not that bad.

To convey one's will to a divine object, one had to be able to use spiritual sense, so the minimum realm of a cultivator required for spiritual communication was the first stage of Qi Refinement.

But a cultivator at the first stage of Qi Refinement was unlikely to be to the liking of a divine object with high self-esteem.

The divine object would carefully examine the cultivator's Dao root and potential, as well as their temperament, and would only respond to the request for spiritual communication if it was to its liking.

That too was beyond the third stage of Qi Refinement.

So in the cultivation world, it was stipulated that spiritual communication was possible only after reaching the third stage of Qi Refinement, and if one was not chosen even after reaching the fourth stage, it was considered a failure.

Gwi Seongjin's father was like that.

When the Thunder Cloud Sword did not respond to his call even after he reached the fourth stage of Qi Refinement, he passed the sword on to Gwi Seongjin without any lingering attachment.

That was three years ago.

Gwi Seongjin, who had inherited the Thunder Cloud Sword, had not let the sword leave his body for a moment since that day.

He even hugged the sword when he slept.

Even though he had poured out such utmost sincerity, the Thunder Cloud Sword had never once responded to Gwi Seongjin's spiritual sense.

It was the same now that Gwi Seongjin had reached the second stage of Qi Refinement and could infuse spirit energy into objects outside his body.

The Thunder Cloud Sword, let alone responding, even refused to have spirit energy infused into it.

Ssssss.

Still, Gwi Seongjin, who had infused spirit energy into the Thunder Cloud Sword just in case, couldn't help but smile bitterly.

After walking for a long time, flying insects began to increase.

When a flying insect rushed towards his face, Gwi Seongjin swung his sword without hesitation.

Slice!

The Thunder Cloud Sword flashed sharply, and the insect was cut in two and fell to the ground.

Looking at the cut section of the insect, there was no crushed part.

This was because the Thunder Cloud Sword was fast, and also because Gwi Seongjin had sharpened the flow of air on the blade.

At that very moment.

[Stop!]

When the Raging Fire Divine Lord, who was in the lead, sent a telepathic message, the group stopped their movements as if frozen.

The place they were now located was the deepest part of the jungle.

Huge trees that covered the sky were soaring like mountains everywhere, and arm-thick vines were climbing the trees and intertwining with each other like snakes.

In the pitch-black darkness where even the moonlight could not penetrate.

The Raging Fire Divine Lord's fingertip was pointing at a huge tree about thirty zhang away from them.

Gulp!

Someone who had moved their gaze along the fingertip swallowed hard.

Gwi Seongjin also's eyes shot open in surprise.

On the tree the Raging Fire Divine Lord was pointing at, countless blue will-o'-the-wisps were flickering with a cold light.

Hundreds, thousands on each branch.

Looking at the whole tree, it was truly countless.

Identifying the will-o'-the-wisps was surprisingly not difficult.

Chirp. Chirp.

About ten bats flew over the group's heads, and their eyes were glistening blue in the darkness.

[Gasp! What is that?]

When a surprised telepathic sound was heard from the rear, the group's attention focused on the Ghost Medicine Hall Master.

[Hall Master! Do you know the identity of that strange beast?]

Judging by the telepathic sound, it was Ne Jinja's voice.

There was no way Ne Jinja didn't know that the beast flying in the sky was a bat.

But the reason he asked this was because the beast's appearance was so strange.

Although it looked similar to a bat, it had a human-like face with long fangs, and even a long tail like a snake.

It even had scales on its tail, so it was not easy to distinguish what it was.

[That is a blood-sucking bat called a Human-Faced Bat. Not only is it fast and ferocious, but it is also skilled in group attacks, so everyone should be well prepared.]

[Human-Faced Bat! Is there anything to be particularly careful about?]

[I also saw it in a booklet a long time ago, so I'm not sure. I just vaguely remember that there is a deadly poison on the bat's teeth and tail, and that they spew a strange sound wave from their mouths.]

[A sound wave attack... Oh! It seems they've spotted us.]

As soon as Ne Jinja's telepathic message ended, the bats floating in the sky rushed towards the group.

The speed at which the blood-sucking bats flew was very fast, but what was strange was that there was no presence at all.

It was so stealthy that it was impossible to confirm without seeing it with your own eyes.

However, a few blood-sucking bats were no threat to the group at all.

When the Raging Fire Divine Lord, who was in the lead, raised his sleeve, red internal energy unraveled like threads from the tips of his fingers.

And a few strands stretched out like flesh, pierced the bats' heads in one breath, and then leisurely returned.

The bats with their heads pierced stopped in mid-air, trembled, and then suddenly their bodies exploded and they died instantly.

Strangely, there was not a single drop of blood left in the dead bats' bodies.

The end of one bat, which had barely avoided the red threads by making a sharp turn in the air, was even more miserable.

When Ne Jinja clenched his hand in the air, the blood-sucking bat was sucked into his palm before he knew it.

Crunch!

When Ne Jinja's hand tightened, the bat was crushed without a trace.

Kieeeek!

The blood-sucking bat let out a scream at the moment of its death.

Simultaneously with the scream, the tree branches shook and thousands of will-o'-the-wisps shot up into the sky at once, and hundreds of them immediately rushed towards the group.

At that, the red internal energies that had bloomed from the Raging Fire Divine Lord's fingertips wriggled and scattered into the air all at once.

(End of Chapter)