The Chaotic Immortal Wood Sect: Immortal Cultivation War - Chapter 22

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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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22. Rob Everything and Get Far Away

“For just a Mid Qi Refinement Stage dwelling, this is quite impressive.”

“The Broken Sword Sect’s Yang cultivator had good quality but small quantity compared to this. But this one is packed full of miscellaneous items.”

“It’s not just about quantity. Ancient text scrolls are definitely not something to take lightly.”

“Really?”

“Even though they’re filled with indecipherable characters, they surely contain something profound.”

“Well, you’ll figure it out, Kang Hyeon. Haha.”

“Don’t you ever think about trying it yourself?”

“I should do the physical work. You do the brain work.”

“You say that, but when things get urgent, you seem to dump everything on me?”

“It’s just your imagination.”

“Huh?”

“I said it’s just your imagination. Come on, let’s go. We don’t know when that old man’s friends or gang might show up, so we need to get out of here quickly.”

“Haha. Right. Let’s go, let’s go.”

Kang Hyeon burst into laughter at In Deok’s jest and left the cave dwelling.

Afterward, Kang Hyeon and In Deok rode their flying magical devices and disappeared into the distant sky, leaving behind No Cheong Woo’s cave dwelling as nothing more than a pile of dirt and stones – an earth tunnel with no trace remaining of it ever being a cultivator’s residence.

And after several days passed over such ruins, someone appeared.

“Hmm? What’s going on here? This should definitely be the No family’s cave dwelling?”

He was a human male cultivator in his mid-forties with the cultivation level of Late Qi Refinement Stage.

He wore neat blue scholarly robes, and the aura he emanated felt quite refined and clear.

He stared at the ruined cave dwelling of No Cheong Woo for a long time, then interlaced his fingers to form hand seals while chanting an incantation.

Then, contrary to his appearance, a sinister energy burst forth from his sealed hands, and at the same time, an eerie radiance flowed from his eyes that had turned ashen gray.

“Come forth, fragments of souls sent to the Underworld, pieces of abandoned memories, come and speak!”

Wooooong! Woooooong!

Puhwahwahwat!

“Kugh. Cough!”

However, the spell arts he had been building up while chanting the incantation shattered as a backlash struck him.

The middle-aged cultivator, who spat out a mouthful of blood from the aftermath, looked around with a bewildered expression.

“Nothing? If he died, there should be a soul remaining, but there isn’t? Then could he have been struck by a Soul-Killing Nail? But that old man wasn’t such an easy target?”

When his spell arts failed to draw out a soul, he began to harbor a suspicion.

“No. This old man definitely faked his death and disappeared. Since he’s not dead, no soul was summoned. He used the Soul-Killing Nail as bait. He must have calculated that when we learned something happened to him, I would summon his soul, and when that failed, we would think he was struck by a Soul-Killing Nail.”

He was wary of No Cheong Woo’s cunning tricks.

And he considered more importantly the fact that No Cheong Woo, being old, was not someone to be taken lightly.

“His breaking of the sworn promise he made with us must also be to lure us to this place! To make us believe in his death and chase after some nonexistent culprit. Then why?”

The middle-aged cultivator continued his delusions.

And suddenly he struck his thigh and sighed.

“Some great treasure must have fallen into that old man’s hands. And since there are those tracking it, he must have tried to divert attention this way. Then? Ick!”

Having thought that far, the middle-aged cultivator immediately lifted his body into the air, then took out his flying magical device and inflated it to ride.

His flying magical device was arrow-shaped, and just from its appearance, one could tell it specialized in speed.

But just as he was about to activate that flying magical device.

“You’re a quick-witted fellow! But what use is that!”

An unfamiliar voice rang out from the air, and the middle-aged cultivator’s arrow-shaped flying magical device snapped in half.

Crack!

“Ahhh!”

The startled middle-aged cultivator screamed as he fell to the ground, then buried his forehead in the earth and prostrated himself, trembling violently.

“Pl-please spare me. If there’s anything I know, I’ll tell you everything.”

And he begged for his life from the unknown cultivator.

“You’re a quick-witted fellow.”

“If you’ve lived in the Wandering Mountains that long, it’s natural survival instinct.”

“Is that so?”

“These days, if you have even a little talent, sects will take you in and raise you, so who wanders the mountains? Yet if he’s still wandering, it means there’s some flaw, but despite that, he reached Late Qi Refinement Stage, so that experience shouldn’t be dismissed.”

“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”

As if the middle-aged cultivator prostrating and trembling on the ground was of no concern, a conversation between two people continued from the air.

And the owners of those voices were the two disciples of the Blazing Fire Spirit Beast Sect who had recently received orders from Dam Yeol to investigate the area where Eung Ryeong had been hiding.

They were at the Late Foundation Establishment Stage, so someone at Late Qi Refinement Stage was beneath their notice.

But they had found traces of formations in the forest where Eung Ryeong had stayed, and following the movement of spiritual energy from those traces, they had come here.

And when they arrived and looked around, wasn’t that Late Qi Refinement Stage cultivator babbling about something.

Wondering what was going on, they watched quietly and saw him using demonic spell arts to summon the souls of the dead, but when it didn’t succeed, he spouted various speculations.

But the content seemed to be related to the treasure they were pursuing, so how could they not be interested.

So they were watching tensely when the fellow suddenly tried to flee.

It was truly a suspicious situation, so they immediately smashed his flying magical device.

“Let’s ask him first.”

“Let’s do that.”

After chatting for a moment, the two turned their gaze toward the middle-aged cultivator prostrated on the ground.

“We’ll ask you something.”

“Y-yes, please ask me anything.”

“Whose cave dwelling were those ruins originally?”

“A-a fellow named No Cheong Woo. Though he’s just a worthless 6th layer Qi Refinement Stage cultivator, he was deep-minded and full of cunning tricks. Despite being only 6th layer Qi Refinement Stage, he’s a vicious fellow who has extended his lifespan to nearly two hundred years.”

“Ho, 6th layer Qi Refinement Stage but lived to two hundred? Wasn’t he human?”

“Human! Definitely human. He just learned various forbidden arts to extend his lifespan.”

“Forbidden arts… I can roughly guess. So where would that fellow be now?”

“I cannot know that. My, my coming here was just falling into that fellow’s trap.”

“We heard your muttering. So you’re saying that No Cheong Woo fellow broke a sworn oath to lure in those related to that oath in order to fake his own death?”

“Y-yes. It must surely be so.”

“Hmph!”

Whoooosh!

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

In an instant, the middle-aged cultivator’s right arm burst into flames and turned to ash.

The middle-aged cultivator screamed in agony and pressed his forehead to the ground, rubbing it.

At least he didn’t raise his head to look at the two cultivators performing Air Walking in the void – it was a desperate struggle to somehow increase his chances of survival.

“You spoke so definitively, but what if your guess is wrong? Where do you get the audacity to claim certainty!”

The rebuke from the Blazing Fire Spirit Beast Sect cultivator who had burned the middle-aged cultivator’s arm followed.

He was explaining the reason for the punishment.

“I-I’m sorry. I was foolish and didn’t think of such things.”

“Wouldn’t it be troublesome if you’re of no use? We’d have no reason to keep someone like you alive.”

“You’re just a wanderer with no backing, so you understand well what we’re saying.”

“P-please spare me. There must be some way I can be helpful. Please.”

The middle-aged cultivator supported himself with his remaining arm and repeatedly bowed his head.

“Hmm. So your thinking is that this No Cheong Woo fellow who lived here obtained a treasure and disappeared with it?”

“That’s what my limited insight suggests.”

“And he called you to disguise his own death?”

“Since I perform Soul Summoning, he calculated that the soul wouldn’t appear when summoned.”

“You said it was because of something called a Soul-Killing Nail – what is that?”

“As the name suggests, it’s a nail that kills souls, but in reality it destroys the soul rather than the spirit.”

“After all, souls that have entered reincarnation cannot be touched. Whether it’s Soul Summoning or spirit calling, it summons the memories accumulated during the deceased’s lifetime, and the accumulation of those memories is the soul.”

“Y-yes, that’s right.”

“But a Soul-Killing Nail that destroys the mass of memories left by the dead? Such a thing existed?”

“That bastard No Cheong Woo had it, but I don’t know its origin either.”

“It’s an uncommon artifact in the Cultivation World. So, because such a thing exists, when you summoned No Cheong Woo’s soul here and it didn’t appear, you concluded it was affected by the Soul-Killing Nail?”

“That’s right. In my opinion, it’s far-fetched that No Cheong Woo was attacked by someone, had the Soul-Killing Nail stolen, and was then killed by that same Soul-Killing Nail.”

“Far-fetched?”

“Unless high-level elders had touched this ruin, these are just traces at the Qi Refinement level.”

“Right. Even we can see no traces of power beyond the Foundation Establishment stage.”

“That’s why I suspected it was that bastard No Cheong Woo’s scheme. He’s only at the 6th layer of Qi Refinement, but near his cave dwelling, even I couldn’t guarantee victory.”

“Indeed, a cave dwelling built over many years could cause trouble even for Foundation Establishment cultivators if they’re careless. Hmm. So your prediction has at least a 60% possibility.”

“Th-thank you.”

“Then what should we do? Do you have a way to track this No Cheong Woo fellow?”

“I, well, that is…”

“If not, your value ends here.”

“E-Elder, I don’t have it myself, but there’s someone who has a way to track No Cheong Woo.”

“Oh? Really?”

“He’s also related to the Golden Word Oath, so he might come here.”

“Is that so?”

“Hmm. Someone’s coming from over there. I hope it’s the fellow we were just talking about.”

“Indeed. Hahahaha.”

The two Blazing Fire Spirit Beast Sect cultivators sensed the late Qi Refinement stage aura approaching from afar and quietly concealed their presence.

And after a while, a cultivator in his early thirties wearing a brown martial robe descended beside the prostrate middle-aged cultivator.

“Lee Moon Tak, what’s with that appearance? What are you looking for on the ground… Hm?”

The robed cultivator who was speaking to the prostrate middle-aged cultivator seemed to sense something and his body stiffened.

“What are you doing! Get down!”

A voice came from the void toward him.

The robed cultivator immediately prostrated himself on the ground.

“Jin Gwan Ho of Mal Hak greets the elders.”

“Quick on the uptake indeed, is it because you’re a wanderer?”

“That’s right.”

“W-we greet the elders.”

As another voice was added, Jin Gwan Ho repeatedly bowed his head and changed his greeting.

“You, is this the fellow you mentioned?”

But the Blazing Fire Spirit Beast Sect cultivators ignored Jin Gwan Ho and asked the middle-aged cultivator Lee Moon Tak.

“I-I’m sorry. No. The one I mentioned is called Bang Yul, someone who specializes in Mystical Arts.”

“Hmm. Mystical Arts?”

“Yes. That bastard should have No Cheong Woo’s hair or nails. And with those, there should be a way to track No Cheong Woo.”

“Just speculation?”

“I-I’m sorry. But it’s almost… certain.”

“Hahaha. I can hear your eyeballs rolling around from here. Fine. We’ll know when this Bang Yul fellow shows up.”

“Hm? Did these guys make an appointment? Another one is coming from over there.”

“Indeed. It’s good we don’t have to wait long.”

“But was Bang Yul a woman?”

“N-no. If it’s a woman, it would be that bitch called Ha Eun Ryeong.”

“Really? Oh ho, Assassination Arts?”

“Really? That’s uncommon? That’s hard to learn alone? She must belong to a sect.”

“Hmm. We’ll need to find out if we should handle her carefully.”

“Right. There’s no harm in being careful.”

The Blazing Fire Spirit Beast Sect disciples sensed cultivation methods and spell arts of a different depth from the two prostrate cultivators in the approaching female cultivator.

Feeling that this was no ordinary matter, they decided to approach her considering that the female cultivator’s background might not be simple.

The two prostrate cultivators trembled with betrayal, shocked by the fact that there had been something hidden about the female cultivator they knew.

Though it was just their inner feelings that no one would acknowledge.

***

“Hey, but where are we going now? Why are we going this way? You said there was a big market town over there.”

In Deok sat cross-legged on his flying sword and asked while looking at Kang Hyeon.

They had been flying for about ten days since leaving No Cheong Woo’s cave dwelling, and during that time they had encountered other cultivators’ territories several times and detoured around them.

And now that cultivators were becoming more frequently visible, there was a fairly large market town not far away.

This was based on information left by No Cheong Woo, and it was a question about Kang Hyeon ignoring that market town and setting course for somewhere else.

“If someone were chasing us, where would you go first?”

“Hmm, I’d scout the surroundings and then check the market towns, right? So we should avoid the closest market towns?”

“Exactly. Not just this one, but we’ll probably pass by about three more ahead.”

“Then should we spend about a year on the flying sword like this?”

“That bastard No Cheong Woo’s friends are a problem, but more importantly, there’s the item Elder Eung Ryeong entrusted to us. If there are those chasing after it, we need to move considering Elder Eung Ryeong’s level. Even being cautious on top of cautious might not be enough.”

“Mmm. I see. Got it. Kang Hyeon, do whatever you want!”

“What? When did you learn to say that?”

“Hahahaha. I’ve been by your side since you were running around the neighborhood with your butt exposed. Hahaha.”

In Deok laughed loudly at Kang Hyeon’s surprised expression, as if he had scored a point.

Having watched Kang Hyeon’s sometimes incomprehensible words and actions from the sidelines, In Deok was now gradually understanding the meanings behind them and using them against Kang Hyeon.

Thanks to such moments with In Deok, Kang Hyeon could occasionally recall memories from his previous life.

‘Good guy.’

Kang Hyeon quietly hung a smile on the corner of his mouth.

And so the flying ship carrying the two continued flying endlessly down the long road.

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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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