Instant-Death Cultivation: Surviving in an Immortal World with Instant Kill - Chapter 53
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 53: Provocation (2)
Kukukukung!
A mighty lightning bolt falling from the sky, Black Lightning Descent Strike.
This time, he had even drawn upon the Yang Bright Energy from the Yang Brightness Dry Poison Corpse Mountain Technique, so it had even more tremendous force than before.
Dan Mok-gil was inside a fortress-like barrier, having set up a defensive formation.
But this Black Lightning Descent Strike pierced through even that barrier.
“Ah….”
Dan Mok-gil tried to scream.
But he couldn’t even finish his scream properly.
The black lightning energy that fell from above penetrated from his Upper Dantian through his body, eventually annihilating his entire physical form.
And that lightning energy didn’t stop at erasing Dan Mok-gil’s body but spread in all directions, turning even the poisonous herb Spirit Fields he had tried to protect into scorched earth.
‘It’s over.’
Cheon Woo-jin took out a Yin Replenishing Pill from his Storage Bag with his completely dried fingers.
And he forced it into his equally parched mouth and swallowed it.
Feeling the Yin Energy being replenished and his bodily fluids recovering, he finally let out a sigh.
Until just moments ago, he had barely been able to breathe properly, wanting to reduce even slightly the moisture leaving his body.
‘He was only early Foundation Establishment, but he was more troublesome than the Foundation Establishment Cultivators I’ve faced so far. Indeed, when they’re not careless, it’s difficult in many ways.’
Until now, Cheon Woo-jin had defeated several Foundation Establishment experts in the Ghost Beast Castle Lower Levels.
But they had always confronted Cheon Woo-jin without proper preparation.
What Foundation Establishment Cultivator would be wary of a mere Qi Refinement cultivator and make full preparations?
Cheon Woo-jin had been able to achieve victory against them because they had been so careless.
This Dan Mok-gil was different.
While he hadn’t completely avoided looking down on Cheon Woo-jin, he had treated him as a Foundation Establishment Cultivator and seriously tried to subdue him.
To guard the Spirit Fields alone, he had set up defensive formations and prepared powerful wide-range poison attacks.
When a Foundation Establishment Cultivator came at him like this, even Cheon Woo-jin found it difficult.
‘I’ll encounter more situations like this while active in the Ghost Beast City Middle Section. I need to stay sharp.’
Cheon Woo-jin looked around.
The Spirit Fields at the Spirit Mountain Peak, which had been his final target, were almost completely scorched.
But not all the poisonous herbs that had been growing in the Spirit Fields had burned up.
‘I salvaged one.’
In a corner spot that had barely escaped the effective range of Black Lightning Descent Strike.
There, a single white flower was blooming.
‘Seeing that it has nine leaves… it’s White Flower Nine Leaf Grass.’
Combined with the poisonous herbs he had gathered while climbing the mountain, he could create a powerful poison liquid.
It wouldn’t be as good as the Dark Dew Great King Centipede’s poison liquid, but it should still be able to poison Foundation Establishment Cultivators.
Cheon Woo-jin pulled out the White Flower Nine Leaf Grass by its roots and put it in his Storage Bag.
Then he heard murmuring sounds from below the mountain.
“I absolutely can’t understand what happened.”
“When the Ten Thousand Poison Six Death Gate’s Poison Wind was raging, I thought we were all dead, but suddenly the wind stopped and we were fine….”
It was the Scattered Cultivators who had been fighting their way up the mountain path from the south.
Lee Geuk-gyeol was also looking around with a bewildered expression as he climbed toward the summit.
“Did something happen to Dan Mok-gil? Why on earth….”
“Fellow Daoist! Look over there!”
Then one of the Scattered Cultivators in the lead spotted Cheon Woo-jin.
The gazes of everyone, including Lee Geuk-gyeol, focused on Cheon Woo-jin.
“You, why are you already here….”
Lee Geuk-gyeol was about to interrogate Cheon Woo-jin, but immediately closed his mouth.
He had belatedly grasped the surrounding situation.
The Spirit Fields that had been the final target were completely scorched.
There was no sign of Dan Mok-gil, the Foundation Establishment Cultivator who should have been waiting at the summit.
And only Cheon Woo-jin stood there alone, looking somewhat tired.
“H-hey.”
Lee Geuk-gyeol swallowed and spoke to Cheon Woo-jin.
“What on earth happened here?”
“….”
Cheon Woo-jin didn’t answer and looked down the mountain.
Smoke was rising from various places.
“Two places?”
“What?”
“I’m talking about the number of Spirit Fields you burned while coming up.”
Confirming the locations of the Spirit Fields that had been burned so far, Cheon Woo-jin spoke in a cold voice.
“I burned about eight places, so I won the bet.”
“E-eight places?”
Lee Geuk-gyeol’s mouth fell open.
“Then the Spirit Fields that were already burning on our way up… you’re saying you burned all of them? That was eight places?”
“Including this place here.”
Cheon Woo-jin pointed to the Spirit Field that had just been devastated by the Black Lightning Descent Strike.
Including this place, it made eight locations in total.
“D-don’t talk nonsense! This place was guarded by Dan Mok-gil, a True Transmission Disciple of the Ten Thousand Poison Six Evil Sect! A Core Formation Daoist was guarding it, so how could you possibly…!”
Just as Lee Geuk-gyeol raised his voice in disbelief.
A voice came from behind.
“Truly remarkable.”
Clank, clank.
Cultivators wearing golden armor climbed up to the summit.
Unlike Lee Geuk-gyeol and his group who had come up the southern path, they revealed themselves through the northern path.
Seeing their appearance, Lee Geuk-gyeol swallowed hard.
“G-Gwak Daoist…”
The one Lee Geuk-gyeol called Gwak Daoist was a tall, sturdy man who had come up at the front.
Strong will could be glimpsed in his thick, straight eyebrows.
[Gwak Gyeong-in]
* Race: Human Race
* Age: 347 years
* Realm: Core Formation Middle Stage
* Constitution: Metal Spirit Root
* Faction: Orthodox Sect
* Affiliation: Golden Wing Sect
* Destiny: Family Harmony
It was Gwak Gyeong-in, who was in charge of commanding the Golden Wing Sect side.
The plan was for Lee Geuk-gyeol to lead the Scattered Cultivators up from the south while Gwak Gyeong-in would climb up from the north with his companions and meet at the summit.
However, this side had fewer people.
Even including Gwak Gyeong-in, there were only five in total.
It was said that the Golden Wing Sect had recently lost many disciples to traps set by the Ten Thousand Poison Six Evil Sect.
Such manpower shortage seemed to be manifesting here as well.
“Since Dan Mok-gil would obviously deploy nasty formations and hold out, we decided to attack from both north and south.”
Gwak Gyeong-in smiled as he looked around.
“To think you finished off Dan Mok-gil before we even climbed all the way to the summit, truly remarkable.”
“N-no, this is…”
Lee Geuk-gyeol tried to say something, but Gwak Gyeong-in didn’t even glance at him.
“Cheon Daoist, this must be your achievement?”
Gwak Gyeong-in pointed directly at Cheon Woo-jin and smiled.
“Indeed worthy of a skilled warrior who made a name in the Lower Levels. I heard you recently reached Foundation Establishment, but if you’re already achieving such feats, you’ll soon be making a name for yourself in the Middle Layer.”
Unlike the others, Gwak Gyeong-in didn’t look down on Cheon Woo-jin for being from the Ghost Head City Lower Levels.
This was because he had heard about it in advance through Seo Seol-ryeong.
“Huh…?”
Meanwhile, Lee Geuk-gyeol blinked in confusion.
He had thought Cheon Woo-jin was just an ordinary Mercenary hired to fill numbers.
He never imagined that he was a collaborator specially recruited by Gwak Gyeong-in through Seo Seol-ryeong.
“It took us quite a while just to climb up the northern path, yet Cheon Daoist climbed to the summit in that time and eliminated Dan Mok-gil. Truly excellent.”
“It would have been difficult with just me alone.”
Cheon Woo-jin spoke in a calm voice.
“Thanks to drawing the enemies’ attention from the northern and southern paths, I was able to infiltrate to the summit.”
“Haha, is that so?”
“The Scattered Cultivators on the southern path put in a lot of effort.”
When he said that, the Scattered Cultivators who had climbed up with Lee Geuk-gyeol showed surprised expressions.
They hadn’t expected him to say such things to the Golden Wing Sect, their employers.
“I see, understood. I’ll take that into consideration when paying the rewards as well.”
Gwak Gyeong-in looked pleased.
The Ten Thousand Poison Six Evil Sect, which uses poison, was a troublesome enemy for the Golden Wing Sect.
But this operation could be concluded early without major casualties.
He was in the mood to generously reward not only Cheon Woo-jin but the other Scattered Cultivators as well.
“However.”
“Hmm?”
“While you may pay rewards to the others, please don’t pay any reward to Cultivator Lee Geuk-gyeol over there.”
When Cheon Woo-jin pointed at Lee Geuk-gyeol and spoke, everyone showed surprised expressions.
“I made a bet with Cultivator Lee Geuk-gyeol. Whoever achieved greater merit would take all the rewards.”
“Haha, quite spirited.”
Gwak Gyeong-in smiled as he looked at Lee Geuk-gyeol.
“Cultivator Lee Geuk-gyeol, should I give all the reward meant for you to Cheon Daoist here?”
“…”
Lee Geuk-gyeol could only remain silent with a stiffly hardened expression.
* * *
“Cheon Daoist, let’s have a word for a moment.”
While the other Scattered Cultivators had all dispersed, Cheon Woo-jin followed Gwak Gyeong-in toward the 4th Floor Northwest.
There stood the Main Hall, which was the Golden Winged Sect’s main base.
“Large sects with great power like Sacred Horn Unity Gate establish their Main Halls in Ghost Beast City Upper Section, but mid-tier sects like us have no choice but to place our Main Halls in the Middle Layer.”
The Dao Yo Gate, which had recently attached itself to the Guangshi Sound Spirit Sect, also had its Main Hall on the 4th Layer.
Now that the Guangshi Sound Spirit Sect had withdrawn from Ghost Head City, it was said to be completely ruined and in a state of ruins.
“Come, enter. This is our Golden Winged Sect’s Main Hall.”
“….”
The Golden Winged Sect’s Main Hall was magnificent from the entrance.
The gate was an ornamental archway with a roof placed atop red pillars, and beautiful divine birds soaring upward were carved into the pillars.
It was probably the Golden Winged Bird, called the king of all birds.
‘They said it was a wealthy sect, and it truly lives up to its reputation.’
Cheon Woo-jin followed Gwak Gyeong-in inside the ornamental archway.
The interior was just as splendid as the entrance.
However, for such a place, he got the impression that it was too desolate.
It was probably because not many people passed through here.
“There are quite a few Outer Sect Disciples at the Branch Hall on the 2nd Layer.”
As if reading Cheon Woo-jin’s mind, Gwak Gyeong-in spoke in a bitter voice.
“But they’re all at the Qi Refining stage, so they can’t come up here. Even if they did come up, they wouldn’t be of any help.”
“….”
“Right now we’re severely lacking Foundation Establishment Cultivators. It’s because of the mass deaths from falling into the Ten Thousand Poison Six Death Gate’s trap.”
Cheon Woo-jin had never seen a sect called the Golden Winged Sect in the game.
So he had speculated that it might have been destroyed by the Ten Thousand Poison Six Death Gate, and it seemed his speculation was correct.
With such a shortage of people, it would have been difficult to withstand the Ten Thousand Poison Six Death Gate.
“Sit in this room. Let’s talk over a cup of Spirit Tea.”
As he sat in the room Gwak Gyeong-in had guided him to, another disciple came and prepared tea for them.
“The energy I feel from this tea seems very profound.”
“This is Spirit Tea we specially cultivated. One cup of this is worth tens of thousands of ordinary Spirit Stones.”
“Ahem!”
He almost choked.
Even if it was Spirit Tea imbued with spiritual energy, wasn’t it too expensive to be worth tens of thousands of Spirit Stones?
“Hmm….”
But after taking one sip, his thoughts changed.
He felt his entire body, exhausted to the limit from fighting the Ten Thousand Poison Six Death Gate, recovering.
The energy dwelling in the tea water was incredibly pure.
If he could drink this regularly, it seemed like it would be of great help to his cultivation.
“Have you heard the reason why we’re feuding with the Ten Thousand Poison Six Death Gate?”
“I haven’t heard that.”
Gwak Gyeong-in slowly explained to Cheon Woo-jin, who was eagerly drinking the Spirit Tea.
“Those bastards are targeting our sect’s divine object.”
“Divine object?”
“It’s a Magical Treasure that allows entry into a Cave Heaven.”
Originally, Cave Heaven meant the ideal realm of Daoists.
But in today’s Cultivation World, artificially created subspaces are also called Cave Heavens.
The Taeul Cave Heaven Mirror that Cheon Woo-jin frequents is such a place.
“Inside that Magical Treasure, wide plains spread out, and since the environment can be freely controlled, any Spirit Herbs can be cultivated at will. They even grow more than ten times faster than when cultivated outside.”
“….”
Unlike the Taeul Cave Heaven Mirror, it seemed to be a Cave Heaven specialized for Spirit Herb cultivation.
If that was the case….
“It seems the Ten Thousand Poison Six Death Gate wants to cultivate poisonous herbs in that Cave Heaven.”
“Exactly.”
Poisonous herbs can’t be grown just anywhere.
At that Spirit Mountain earlier, only poisonous herbs with dry properties could be cultivated.
But if they secured the Golden Winged Sect’s Cave Heaven, they could freely cultivate any poisonous herbs there.
Since the environment could be freely controlled, and the growth rate was more than ten times faster.
They could mass-produce any poisonous herbs they desired.
“If that happens, Ghost Beast City Middle Section will completely fall to the Ten Thousand Poison Six Death Gate. It will become a world dominated by their Poison Arts.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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