novelraw Chapter 147
Chapter 147
Chapter 147
After obtaining the Dragon Jade, Yuwon collapsed on the spot, and while unconscious, he dreamed. In the dream, Yuwon was wandering through a pitch-dark abyss where not a single ray of light reached, having taken the form of a gigantic snake he had never seen before.
‘…What is this? A snake? Is this a dream?’
A dream in which he transformed into something other than a human. Feeling that unfamiliar sensation, Yuwon immediately realized that he was dreaming.
‘Did I pass out again…? It’s not even surprising anymore. But this is a first. Feeling that I’m dreaming while dreaming….’
Recalling the last scene in his memory, Yuwon easily inferred that he was currently unconscious.
‘Tsk. I know it’s a dream… but waking up isn’t up to me.’
Since it was hardly a time to be sprawled out comfortably, he tried to wake himself up, but it was futile. Yuwon relaxed his mind and decided to wait until he woke naturally.
‘No need to rush. Like always, I’ll wake up when the time comes… though I hope it doesn’t take too long….’
After that, Yuwon leisurely observed his own dream. In the dream, having turned into a snake, he slowly roamed through the darkness.
‘Just what am I doing like this….’
Before long, Yuwon’s question was answered.
‘Wait… that is…?’
From far away, within the darkness, he faintly sensed a living presence. The snake, which until now had been slowly crawling along the ground, flicked its tongue at the sign of life, smacked its lips, and picked up speed. Only then did Yuwon realize what the snake had been doing.
‘Right. It was looking for prey.’
Srrrk―
The gigantic snake glided along the floor of the abyss, closing in on its prey. Soon, the prey’s form came into view.
‘…A dragon? No, it doesn’t have wings? The dragons in the murals definitely had wings….’
It was the form of a massive lizard. A lizard that would have looked exactly like a dragon if only it had wings. The problem, however, was whether the snake could truly take such a creature as prey. The lizard was nearly as enormous as the snake itself.
‘It’s only slightly smaller than its own body. It plans to eat that? Won’t its belly tear open…?’
Yuwon’s concern did not reach the snake. As if determined to devour the lizard before it, the snake raised its vertically slit eyes and constricted its prey with a chilling gaze.
His worry proved unfounded. The lizard standing before the snake merely trembled in fear, unable to put up any resistance at all. That was only natural. In the deep abyss where not even the smallest glimmer of light reached, the snake was a ruthless apex predator that ruled the darkness.
And then the snake moved. Slow, but decisive.
Chomp―!
The snake’s jaws split open to nearly 180 degrees and swallowed the prey in one gulp. The prey, trembling as if it had encountered its natural enemy, neither fought back nor fled, and instead was reduced to a single meal for the snake.
Gulp!
The snake’s fangs instantly severed the lizard’s lifeline, and the snake swallowed the now-limp body whole.
Was it food coma? As if it never even considered that another predator might attack it, the snake coiled itself on the spot after finishing its meal and prepared to fall asleep.
‘Eating and then sleeping right away. Just like that? What a carefree fate.’
As the snake sank deeper into sleep, Yuwon’s consciousness slowly began to blur.
‘Am I dreaming within a dream…? I guess it’s about time to wake up.’
Soon, the snake fell into a deep slumber, and Yuwon’s consciousness returned to where it belonged. Even after Yuwon’s consciousness had departed, the snake remained there for a long while. That fact proved that all of this had not merely occurred within Yuwon’s dream.
Contrary to Yuwon’s assumption, this place had never been his dream to begin with. It was a fragment of memory forged from the thoughts of an undying snake that had lived for a span longer than history itself.
The true identity of the snake that appeared in Yuwon’s dream was none other than the ruthless predator born from devouring mana, ‘the Primordial Serpent.’ The very creature Yuwon referred to as the Black Serpent.
While it adjusted Yuwon’s body in his place as he lay unconscious, Yuwon glimpsed the creature’s past through the medium of a dream.
With even Yuwon’s consciousness gone, only the snake remained in the deep abyssal darkness. Though the darkness—where nothing could be seen and nothing remained—should have been frightening, the creature instead used it as its bed and sank into an even deeper sleep.
Hiss― hiss―
The snake, fast asleep, exhaled rhythmically. While it slept, cracks formed along the shell surrounding its body, splitting apart and slowly peeling away.
This was not a mere nap taken to rest briefly. After swallowing prey as large as its own body, the snake had entered a deep slumber to grow larger. At that very moment, a similar change was occurring in Yuwon’s body in reality.
Crack― craaack―!
Cracks spread across Yuwon’s entire body. His jade-white skin split and shattered, the peeled skin crumbling into powder and vanishing. Originally, Yuwon’s skin had already been in good condition due to harsh training, profuse sweating, and purging impurities with internal energy. Now, it shone as fair and pristine as that of a newborn infant.
And it did not end there. Throughout Yuwon’s body, his bones were being reassembled into an optimal state, accompanied by eerie cracking sounds. As the snake shed its skin, so too was Yuwon shedding his.
This was the result of the mana of the Dragon Jade, purer and cleaner than any mana that existed in this world. The vast mana of the Dragon Jade—far beyond what Yuwon could normally accept—was converted into internal energy through the Black Serpent, and only the exact amount Yuwon could currently withstand flowed into his body.
Even so, it was by no means little. The overflowing internal energy, which Yuwon had never once possessed in either his past or present life, surged forth like a colossal tidal wave.
Rumble―!
That immense tidal wave surged through Yuwon’s meridians, washing away old impurities he had been unable to fully expel. After the impurities that any human would inevitably harbor were swept away, Yuwon’s blood vessels became as pure as those of a newborn child.
Even after thoroughly cleansing every corner of Yuwon’s meridians, the tidal wave showed no sign of subsiding. That alone was not enough to quell its overwhelming power.
Having finished its cleansing, the tidal wave of mana gathered its remaining strength and surged upward along Yuwon’s Conception and Governing Vessels. Passing the Mingmen Point, the Zhongshu Point, and the Tanzhong Point, it charged unimpeded all the way to the Baihui Point!
Boom―! Kraaash!
Blocked at the Baihui Point, the tidal wave unleashed a thunderous roar. Each time, Yuwon’s body shook as if it might shatter apart. Yet the wave did not give up, relentlessly battering the Baihui Point.
Rumble― boom―!
At last, when the tidal wave broke through the barrier, pitch-black impurities and filth burst forth from Yuwon’s seven orifices. It was the very moment when his Conception, Governing, and Yang Meridians were fully opened and the process of rebirth through bone cleansing was completed.
Srrk―
Yuwon awoke from his deep slumber and opened his eyes once more. At the same moment his eyes—glowing with a piercing blue reminiscent of a winter sea—opened, a massive bolt of lightning flashed across the sky above the Great Jungle.
Flash―!
A sharp blade of light split the heavens of the Great Jungle in half. Immediately after, a terrifying thunderclap echoed as if the sky itself were collapsing.
Rumbleee crash―!
It was a scene as if heaven and earth were being remade.
“Hoo….”
‘My body… feels light.’
Not only did his body feel strangely light, but an unpleasant stench also emanated from his entire body.
‘Could it be….’
The words rebirth through bone cleansing surfaced in Yuwon’s mind. Instinctively, he realized it. He had succeeded in rebirth through bone cleansing.
“Rebirth through bone cleansing… I’ve truly crossed another great wall now.”
Terrien, who had no idea what Yuwon had just gone through, let out a sigh of relief.
“Ugh, Thunder Bird’s power or not, if you got struck by lightning like that just now, you’d be charred to death. Still, that’s a relief. Looks like the rain might finally stop….”
That terrifying lightning, visible from anywhere in the vast Great Jungle, was witnessed by every living being that made the jungle its home.
“Grrrr….”
As if something about the unprecedented lightning bothered him, the Orc Great Chieftain Mukwiam snorted sharply.
“M, Master! Did you see that just now?”
“Bern. Do you truly think that is something you should ask a master whose eyes are blind?”
“Ah… s, sorry. I was so shocked that I….”
“Enough. I was joking. Do you think I am blind enough not to see? I saw it. All of it… I saw it.”
Kahaad teased the flustered Bern and then turned his gaze toward the distant river.
‘That one is no longer the King of the River… That greenhorn who dares call himself the Emperor of Aphahiel now seeks to become the king of the Great Jungle.’
The Thunder Bird Tribe, which had lost its god at Terrien’s hands, also witnessed it clearly.
“Chieftain… d-did you see that just now?”
“…I did. It was impossible not to.”
“Could it be… that a new Thunder Bird has been born…?”
In response to that desperate, hopeful question, Herran spoke words he did not truly believe.
“Yes… perhaps that is so.”
However, Herran had already realized that the massive lightning he had just seen did not originate from a Thunder Bird. His instincts were pointing toward the river, which had grown eerily calm as if lying.
‘What a terrifying power. How much time has even passed since he arrived in the Great Jungle….’
From beneath the river, the presence of a dreadful predator was slowly rising like mist. Even Herran, who had lived a long life and weathered countless trials, felt fear before that power.
The fact that his wrinkled hands were trembling uncontrollably was proof enough.
As the three great pillars that formed the backbone of the Great Jungle simultaneously felt a fear and dread they had long forgotten, the rain that had been pouring down ceased, and the sky cleared as if nothing had happened.
“Then I should be going.”
Yuwon brushed himself off, stood up, and exited the temple. A rare rainbow rose across the wide sky of the Great Jungle.