Chapter 11
Chapter 11.
[Baby Jiaolong: Guys... I think I'm about to die. Take care.]
-The weakling I was yesterday is dead. But today, I have been reborn!!!!!!!!!!!! I slaughtered every human cultivator who came to rob my house!! I! Have been reborn!! I am truth itself, a god, and the law!!
└LotsaTails: You scared me!!!!!!!!!!!!
└HumansSuck: Approved.
└Yao Immortal (178.1): Ah, fuck... I fell for it so hard. My pride's wounded.
└Yao Immortal (963.3): Heh heh. Baby Jiaolong has been reborn. No longer a baby, I suppose.
└SunshineIsThisWorld: Whew, there's still a chance for Purple Heart Grass Fruit.
└Baby Jiaolong: You're insane, seriously.
Heh heh.
The weakling Jiaolong who used to hole up in her room was dead.
The era of Lady Gyo Ran, the transparent Jiaolong who roars in every direction, had begun!
‘I'm not as shaken as I thought I'd be.’
The battle had been completely one-sided.
Well, there was nothing to be done about that.
The Silver Veil Desert's ward was absolute.
They were rats trapped in a jar, while I was the master of this forbidden ground, able to pass through the ward and attack them.
In a way, it was only natural that the battle had been so one-sided.
What surprised me, though, was the killing.
Either way, I'd killed people.
My first battle. My first kill.
Whether you liked it or not, firsts tended to leave aftereffects that lasted quite a while.
They were bound to bring mental shock and psychological distress with them.
‘But why am I fine?’
I'd killed people, but I didn't feel anything.
If anything, I was so calm it was surprising.
‘Is it because I'm a Yao Beast?’
Honestly, maybe it was because they were a gang of robbers who'd come to loot my house, but I didn't feel even the slightest bit guilty.
There was no reason to let them live.
If I'd spared them, they'd have come back later with even more people to take revenge.
‘I was right to practice body-and-spell cultivation. I wasn't wrong!’
The body-and-spell cultivation I'd suffered so much to learn.
The Purple Cloud Divine Thunder Art had performed brilliantly.
Purple Cloud Saber Accumulation (紫霞蓄刀).
A quick-draw technique that gathers purple lightning within the scabbard, then unleashes a one-hit-kill slash.
It took time to prepare, but its power was truly outstanding.
Even a Core Formation cultivator had died instantly without managing to react in the slightest. There was nothing more to say.
My body-cultivation aptitude and Yao Root aptitude probably had something to do with it, too.
[Body-Cultivation Aptitude]
* Saber Arts: 58 → 62
* Spear Arts: 63
* Sword Arts: 41
* Fist Arts: 43
* Palm Arts: 50
* Finger Arts: 43
[Yao Root Aptitude]
* Fire Root: 30
* Water Root: 60 (Jiaolong)
* Lightning Root: 85 → 86 (Innate Bloodline)
* Metal Root: 41
* Earth Root: 32
* Wood Root: 36
[Innate Fate]
* Dragon-Claw Shadow Form (龍爪影式): An innate combat instinct that tears through an enemy's defenses and barriers with a jiaolong's sharp claws.
* Desolate Ancestor's Legacy Vault (荒祖遺庫): Possesses the ancestral arrangements hidden within the cave abode.
* Slaughter-God Qi Path (殺神氣道): Instinctively converts the murderous poison and ferocious aura accumulated within the body into explosive power.
With my high saber-art aptitude and lightning root, I could unleash greater power than most when using the Purple Cloud Divine Thunder Art.
On top of that, the Purple Cloud Divine Thunder Art seemed to be a fairly high-grade cultivation method. It had the strange ability to raise my aptitude just by practicing it.
I suspected the Purple Cloud Divine Thunder Art might be Earth-grade or even Heaven-grade, among the Huang, Xuan, Earth, and Heaven grades.
‘I really must have come into a world inside a game. Just learning a technique can raise my saber-art and lightning-root aptitudes. That'd be impossible in an ordinary xianxia world.’
Either way, thanks to it, I was able to take out the intruders with ease. What a deal.
‘I'm glad this is a secret realm called Golden Ring Immortal Paradise. It must be a place people can't just come and go as they please.’
In the case of a hidden forbidden ground on the mainland, people from various sects might show up. But a secret realm was a different story.
Secret realms were places where great cultivators with profound cultivation or beings from ancient times created realms and made arrangements for their treasures or future successors.
There were laws governing the place.
And since those laws were enforced, no one could just come here.
‘So there's a level cap.’
That level restriction meant that beings of the Third Realm or higher were forbidden from entering.
Within this secret realm, where that law held sway, I could be called the strongest—at least as far as Golden Ring Immortal Paradise was concerned.
‘I'm a weakling outside, but an absolute being inside the secret realm?’
I can't resist that.
As long as I didn't leave the secret realm, I could reign supreme in here.
Sshhk.
I shook the blood off my saber.
The Seo-clan girl was standing where I shook it off, so the Core Formation elder's blood spattered across her face.
‘Oh, right. She was here. Was her name Seo Geum?’
She looked like she was about to die any moment.
As expected of a Rat Yao, the large, broad ears sticking up from her head were her defining feature.
‘She's cute...’
A beastfolk in a xianxia world.
I want to touch her!!
But that wasn't going to happen.
I pointed my bloodied saber at Seo Geum.
Whether she was an elder of the Ghost Saber Sect at the Core Formation stage or this Yao, they were both robbers who'd come after my home.
To begin with, this Yao had the innate bloodline that humans called Heavenly Blood.
If she stayed alive, she might one day figure out the Silver Veil Desert's ward and become a thieving rat who came to loot my home.
In a world like this, only fools left potential trouble behind.
Killing her was the cleanest option.
‘Though she is cute.’
It couldn't be helped.
No matter how cute she was, she wasn't more precious than my life.
“...Thank you.”
Seo Geum suddenly thanked me.
I frowned.
“Why are you thanking me?”
“I was going to die anyway, but I got to see them die... That means I have no regrets. But I was guilty of the same wrongdoing, too. S-so, in my next life, I'll pay for my sins...”
Thump.
As I watched Seo Geum collapse, I fell into thought.
‘She'll die if I just leave her alone.’
There was no need to get my hands dirty any further.
She was a rat who'd come into my house.
Nothing more, nothing less.
“But...”
I couldn't help feeling sympathy for her.
Seo Geum had chosen to die.
She'd sacrificed herself to save her younger sister.
Sacrifice, in this harsh cultivation world.
Seeing someone actually do something that sounded like a cheap joke didn't make me feel too bad.
‘Her little sister, on the other hand, ran off, so I don't even know where she is.’
As far as I was concerned, it was no different from a thief escaping. It'd be best to catch and kill her, too, to avoid future trouble, but she must have already gone quite far. I could barely hear or smell her anymore.
‘She might come back to haunt me someday...’
Just as I was thinking it over a little longer,
the Talisman-Wing Insects, their wings gone, crawled up my legs.
The Talisman-Wing Insects' wings were like talismans. Once they were used, the insects lost their wings.
The wings would grow back soon, but until then, they were extremely vulnerable.
The Talisman-Wing Insects and Seo Geum.
After gazing at the two of them for a while, I finally hoisted Seo Geum onto my back.
“It'd be good to hear what's going on in the outside world. Besides, a guide... That's perfect.”
There was no harm in keeping her alive for a little while, since she knew all sorts of stories and information.
Besides, she was only a Second Realm Yao Immortal. She couldn't be a match for me.
‘I should ask the Yao Immortal Gallery about a binding restriction that can restrain the Yao Clan.’
After collecting the fallen cultivators' storage pouches and Dharma artifacts, I headed back to the cave abode.
The storage pouches I'd been aiming for had come tumbling in by the heap, so it was time to check my spoils.
*
Sssrrk.
The blonde-haired Rat Yao opened her eyes.
Seo Geum stared blankly at the ceiling.
Instead of the familiar ceiling she should have seen, she saw the leaves of some auspicious-looking divine tree and spirit fruits.
‘What are those...?’
The divine tree gave off a gentle light, and the spirit fruits hanging from it looked, at a glance, like Peaches of Immortality fit for the immortals to eat.
It felt as if a gentle fragrance and refreshing energy were constantly drifting down over her.
Despite her aching body, the place was so incredible that she almost mistook it for paradise.
And the moment she realized this,
“Gasp!”
Seo Geum came to her senses.
“Th-this place...”
She was inside a vast cave abode.
A pitch-black pond and a bedchamber stood at its center.
Spirit trees, spirit materials, and spirit herbs surrounded it, forming a harmonious scene at a glance.
‘This much Heaven and Earth energy... A Yao Vein of this caliber must be Fourth Realm or higher!’
It looked as if some kind of formation had gathered the Yao Vein and concentrated it at a single point.
The spirit trees and materials arranged in all four directions, along with the implements set into the dragon-painted pillars throughout the area, helped make it happen.
‘Everything here is a spirit treasure (靈寶) you would never see outside. No, some of it might be even more than that.’
It seemed as if every treasure in the world, without equal, existed here.
Only after admiring the cave abode, which was impossibly magnificent and beautiful, did Seo Geum wonder why she was here.
Then she realized.
“Ah.”
Thud.
The door opened, and a figure she could never forget appeared.
Silver hair, with only the tips tinged purple.
Violet eyes.
A pair of horns.
Her white, jade-like skin and beautiful face were captivating, but the aura she gave off was razor-sharp.
The pressure unique to her kind was extraordinary. She had to be a descendant of dragons.
She was the master of this cave abode.
Knowing that all the incredible things she'd seen belonged to that small, childlike figure made it impossible to even guess what her status might be.
“Heehee.”
The girl appeared, sweating. When she saw Seo Geum, she flinched in surprise and approached.
“Y-you're awake. Ahem!”
Surprised by her unexpectedly gentle tone, Seo Geum immediately prostrated herself.
She tried to stay calm, but her whole body trembled.
“I pay my respects to the master of the forbidden ground.”
“You used up that much blood essence, so you'd better focus on recovering. You were lying there for a whole month. I was starting to wonder if I'd brought home a corpse.”
She'd been lying there for an entire month?
Seo Geum was startled and bowed her head even lower.
In truth, she knew her own condition. She'd forced herself to squeeze out her blood essence, and it wouldn't have been strange if she'd died. It was a miracle she was still alive.
This was probably thanks to the master of this place.
The being who had called herself Gyo Ran must have treated her.
“I don't know how I can ever repay this kindness.”
What on earth had she saved her for?
Cold sweat beaded on Seo Geum's forehead.
“I only kept you alive because there's something I want to know. So don't do anything foolish. I've planted a restriction inside your body. Don't do anything stupid and cut short the life I barely managed to save.”
Seo Geum brought a hand to her chest.
Sure enough, a restriction had been planted there.
She hid her unease and answered.
“Th-that's only right.”
Things like this happened all the time in the cultivation world.
Anyone who saved your life without planting a single restriction would be the strange one.
The fact that she was alive at all was more than enough good fortune.
She had no reason to complain.
“If it's something I can answer, I'll answer anything.”
The master of the forbidden ground.
Gyo Ran asked at once.
“Can you see this?”
She pointed to the empty space in front of her and asked.
Seo Geum only tilted her head in confusion.
