Returning Immortal

Chapter 13 : Shifting Form Steps

The internal energy, unraveled like threads, flew through the air like birds, slaughtering the bats in all directions.

The corpses, torn and cut by the red internal energy, fell like rain.

Despite that, many bats escaped through the red threads.

This was thanks to the blood-sucking bats' excellent turning ability, which allowed them to freely change direction in the air, and their strange ability to fly without a presence.

The bats that had broken through the Raging Fire Divine Lord's offense were greeted this time by Ne Jinja's murderous hand shadows.

As Ne Jinja's sleeve shook, dozens of hand shadows cruelly clawed at the sky, and soon, terrible screams echoed through the night sky.

Flap, flap, flap.

At the screams, tens of thousands of bats sitting on the trees flashed their eyes and flew up into the air.

The night sky was dyed blue by the blue will-o'-the-wisps flowing from their eyes.

As thousands of bats descended from the sky in a swarm, even the Raging Fire Divine Lord seemed to be tense.

The Raging Fire Divine Lord, who had withdrawn the internal energy he had been emitting from his fingertips, drew his beloved weapon, the Sky-Piercing Halberd.

Perhaps due to tension, the blade of the Sky-Piercing Halberd was already glowing red.

Swoosh!

Kieeeek!

As the Sky-Piercing Halberd, filled with flames, was swung, the screams of the bats and the smell of burning flesh filled the forest.

However, a few safely escaped the sword shadow and approached the Raging Fire Divine Lord closely...

Chirp! Chirp!

As time passed, a few even thrust their hideous teeth at his face.

"This won't do. We are outnumbered, so let's avoid clashing with them as much as possible and get out of here quickly. We will maintain a wedge formation, so Divine Lord, please take the lead."

Ne Jinja, who was slaughtering the bats that escaped the sword net with his ultimate technique, the Yin Talisman Ghost Killing Art, shouted loudly as he glanced at Gwi Seongjin.

As the number of bats flying down from the sky increased, even Gwi Seongjin was now dealing with the bats.

Swish!

A bat that was rushing in, baring its hideous teeth, was killed by the Thunder Cloud Sword swung by Gwi Seongjin and fell to the ground.

Looking at the bat that fell to the ground, its neck was sharply cut.

A few bats like this were no great threat to Gwi Seongjin, a first-rate master.

But this was only when there were a few like now.

It was fortunate that the Raging Fire Divine Lord and he were blocking most of the bats; if the number of bats increased beyond this, it was clear that Gwi Seongjin's skills would not last long.

This was not just for Gwi Seongjin.

If all the hundreds of thousands, millions of bats that were still sitting on the trees, emitting a damp will-o'-the-wisp, flew up, no one in the group could guarantee their life.

At Ne Jinja's command, the group immediately flew up and formed a formation.

The Raging Fire Divine Lord opened the way at the front, and on both sides, the Ghost Medicine Hall Master and Ilgeom were positioned to protect Gwi Seongjin and the Grand Prince in the center.

Ne Jinja was positioned at the rear.

At that very moment.

The bats, which had been covering the sky like a black curtain, suddenly showed a strange movement.

Thousands of bats floating in the sky gathered in one place and clumped together in the shape of a giant bat.

Feeling a sense of dread, Ne Jinja shouted to the group.

"Their actions are unusual, so Raging Fire Divine Lord, open the way right now. We must protect Gwi Seongjin and get out of here as quickly as possible."

At Ne Jinja's command, the Raging Fire Divine Lord swung his Sky-Piercing Halberd and shot his body forward.

The rest of the group followed closely behind, and since they were all masters, their movements were as swift as could be.

Gwi Seongjin also performed his movement technique with all his might.

However, since his martial arts realm was shallow, it was inevitable that he would fall behind.

Thud!

The Grand Prince, who couldn't bear to watch, placed his hand on Gwi Seongjin's back and lent him strength.

He didn't transfer his internal energy, but the Grand Prince's technique was as skillful as could be.

Gwi Seongjin, whose body suddenly became light as if floating on the wind, had his speed increase significantly and was barely able to keep pace with the group.

Thanks to that, the speed at which the group was fleeing also became much faster, but they couldn't shake off the bats flying in the sky.

A huge cloud in the shape of a bat rushed towards the back of the group and instantly covered the sky in black.

Gwi Seongjin, who was flying with all his might in the center of the formation, raised his head at a chilling feeling.

Whoosh!

A wave containing formidable killing intent was pouring down like a gale from the cloud clumped in the shape of a bat.

"Scatter!"

Before Ne Jinja's shout ended, the formation collapsed in an instant, and the masters scattered in all directions.

Boom!

The ground where the group had been gathered shot up into the sky, creating a huge cloud of dust, and the nearby trees and rocks were swept away by the wave and were torn and swept away in an instant.

Ugh!

Gwi Seongjin, who had barely escaped the crisis, led by the Grand Prince, momentarily staggered.

It was because his mind went blank and he couldn't distinguish between the sky and the ground for a moment.

The moment the strange wave was detected from the sky, he had protected his hearing with spirit energy, but it seemed his response was a little late.

Fortunately, the dizziness did not last long.

"Maintain the formation again and let's get out of here!"

Gwi Seongjin, who was instinctively moving his body in response to Ne Jinja's voice, unconsciously swung his sword at the suddenly increased swarm of bats.

The bats that had emitted ultrasonic waves in the air were pouring down like a swarm of locusts and fiercely attacking the group.

Chirp! Chirp!

Gwi Seongjin, who was frantically swinging the Thunder Cloud Sword while listening to the sharp cries of the bats, felt a sting on his back, spun his body, and roughly shook off the bats.

Then, he killed all the bats that had bitten him with the Thunder Cloud Sword and let them fall.

In the meantime, he spread his spirit energy to the area bitten by the bats, and fortunately, he felt the stiffened muscles gradually relax.

The effect of the bat's poison had disappeared upon contact with the spirit energy.

Well, it was the spirit energy that had neutralized the chronic poison that the Luminous Cult had administered.

No matter how poisonous the Human-Faced Bat's poison was, it was no match for that.

As thousands, tens of thousands of bats poured down from the sky at once, the group could no longer maintain the formation as stably as before.

As a result, the number of bats rushing at Gwi Seongjin, who should have been protected in the center of the formation, increased as time went on.

Swish! Swish!

Gwi Seongjin, who had killed three bats by swinging the Thunder Cloud Sword in a cross shape, spun his body and thrust his blade out briefly.

Screech!

Two bats that were about to sink their sharp fangs into Gwi Seongjin's back, with their large mouths open, were pierced at once by the Thunder Cloud Sword.

The pupils of the pierced bats were blazing blue.

But they soon darkened and suddenly their bodies went limp.

Gwi Seongjin, who had shaken off the bats by turning his wrist, this time lay his body to the side and stretched out his form.

Thanks to his spiritual sense, Gwi Seongjin was able to deal with the bats' attacks efficiently.

Of the ten or so bats that had attacked him, seven had futilely crossed the space.

And the remaining three fell to the ground, dead.

Thud, thud, thud.

They were torn into dozens of pieces, as if struck by some kind of technique.

During the bloody battle with the bats, Gwi Seongjin's ability to operate spirit energy had made considerable progress.

Since he had to fight while running forward using his movement technique, the parts where Gwi Seongjin had distributed the most spirit energy were his arms that swung the Thunder Cloud Sword, his waist, and his two legs.

Then, when he was bitten by a bat or stung by the poison stinger of its tail, Gwi Seongjin concentrated his spirit energy on that area.

On top of that, as his spiritual sense was also being used, he could now deal with the bats with ease.

Gwi Seongjin, who had gained some leeway, looked at the Grand Prince.

The Grand Prince's martial arts were very peculiar.

He was dealing with the bats by covering his entire body with a black demonic qi as dark as pitch-black darkness.

Wriggle, wriggle.

Just by touching the demonic qi that covered his body, the bats died and fell to the ground.

As the demonic qi wriggled as if it had eyes and ravaged all around, not a single one of the bats that had rushed at him escaped safely.

In contrast, Ilgeom was using a rather peculiar sword technique.

He was stabbing the air with the tip of his sword as if making a dot, and every time the sword light flashed, a bat died and fell to the ground.

Swoosh!

As many bats rushed in at once, about ten sword flowers bloomed in the air like flowers.

Every stem was stained with blood.

A formidable fast sword.

As if to prove it, the ground at his feet was filled with the corpses of dead bats.

Ugh!

Among the bats, there were also some with small horns on their heads.

They were a little faster and more ferocious, and it was not easy to avoid them even if he specified their direction with his spiritual sense.

When a horned bat broke through the Thunder Cloud Sword, Gwi Seongjin's waist twisted and his body moved strangely.

His form scattered like mist and he momentarily moved to the side.

The movement technique Gwi Seongjin had performed was the Stance of the White Tiger.

A peerless movement technique called shapeshifting in the martial world.

But what Gwi Seongjin had just performed was at an incomplete level.

No, it could be said that he had almost just mimicked it.

The name of the technique was also Shifting Form Steps.

Even so, the bat could not catch up with Gwi Seongjin's movement.

When Gwi Seongjin performed the Shifting Form Steps, the bat, which had lost its target, turned its body in the air and rushed at him again.

But by then, Gwi Seongjin was also in a state of full readiness.

When he focused his spiritual sense solely on one bat, the flow of the bat was drawn in Gwi Seongjin's mind like a video.

When he performed the Thunder Cloud Sword against that flow, the horned bat's wings were finally cut and it fell.

Like that for half a shichen.

Although his body was tired, the number of bats being cut down by the Thunder Cloud Sword did not decrease at all. Rather, it was gradually increasing.

However, there were still many bats left in the sky.

"It's a sound wave attack. Scatter and then gather and sprint with all your might."

The bats' ultrasonic attack was terrifying, but they couldn't fire ultrasonic waves indefinitely.

Once they fired an ultrasonic wave, they couldn't scream for about half a quarter-hour.

Moreover, the second time, the power was slightly reduced.

The bats that had fired ultrasonic waves more than twice like that had their energy exhausted and had no choice but to retreat to their base.

Using that gap, the group ran as far as they could.

After going through such hardships, they were barely able to shake off the bats.

Gasp! Gasp!

Phew!

While they had stopped walking and were catching their breath, a long sigh suddenly flowed out.

Gwi Seongjin, who had turned his head at the sound of the sigh, looked at the jungle they had just escaped from.

On top of a large tree soaring like a mountain in the distance.

The blue will-o'-the-wisps lurking on it were blazing like torches.

* * *

After that, no such terrifying swarm of beasts appeared.

Instead, strange things appeared, and among them were beings like demons.

The demon that was now dying in front of Gwi Seongjin's eyes was also the same.

This time, it was a red demon that flowed like water, like mist, without a special form.

Since it had no fixed form, it was a matter of course that there was no damage even if it was split by the Sky-Piercing Halberd.

The demon, which had passed through the Raging Fire Divine Lord's attack, was split in two again by the black-clothed young man's sword, then went around the forest in a large circle and rushed at Gwi Seongjin.

It seemed to have sensed that Gwi Seongjin's martial prowess was the lowest among the group.

However, Ne Jinja was positioned at Gwi Seongjin's rear.

The moment the merged demon was about to dig into the Baihui acupoint on Gwi Seongjin's head.

Ne Jinja's arm shot out and grabbed the demon that had turned into a blood mist.

But a strange thing happened.

The blood mist, which had been moving like a shadow without a clear form, was firmly caught in Ne Jinja's grasp.

It struggled to escape, but its movements gradually slowed down...

Kieeeek!

When Ne Jinja's black fingernails grazed its body, the demon let out a scream as if it had been cursed.

Groan, groan.

The demon, which was being torn to shreds by Ne Jinja's fingernails like that, finally made a grotesque expression and melted into a pool of water.

It had completely disappeared without even leaving a trace of its form.

The group, which had eliminated the demon, quickened their pace even more.

Rumble.

As a loud roar, big enough to shake the sky, was heard as they walked, Gwi Seongjin's anxiety gradually increased.

'What kind of monster will pop out this time?'

As he followed the group nervously, Ne Jinja suggested a break, saying they should rest for a while.

"Is the sound we're hearing now from the Blood Flow Waterfall?"

"That's right. If we go just a little further, we will be out of the Phantom Beast Forest."

"That's a relief. By the way, Ghost Medicine Hall Master, did you have any gains?"

The white-robed middle-aged man asked the Ghost Medicine Hall Master.

"Nothing special. I got a few demon stones, but this is the only one that's usable."

The Ghost Medicine Hall Master answered, taking out a green crystal stone from his pouch.

It was the demon stone he had obtained after killing the Single-Horned Red-Scaled Snake.

"It's a relief that you got at least that. Vice Director! Let's get up now."

"I will do so. There is a swamp ahead, so from now on, Ghost Medicine Hall Master, please take the lead."

"Gekekeke. I understand."

Following Ne Jinja's opinion, this time the Ghost Medicine Hall Master took the lead.

It was to subdue the poisonous creatures that inhabited the swamp.

Half a shichen of advancing forward while listening to the cool sound of the waterfall.

The group finally escaped the Phantom Beast Forest.

Looking at the sky, the morning was gradually dawning.

(End of Chapter)