The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 108

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Strongest in Our Neighborhood (108)
The source of the energy lay beneath the corpse of an enormous magical creature.
Jang Gain hurriedly lifted the beast aside and found the Duke of Fura Noid trapped underneath.
“Your Grace! Duke, can you hear me!”
Though he still drew breath, he didn’t wake at Jang Gain’s calls, so Jang Gain summoned Noxscasarsis instead.
Despite being at a considerable distance, Noxscasarsis heard himself being called and flew over at once.
“Noxscasarsis, it’s the Duke of Fura Noid here. Can you heal him for me?”
“So we finally found him. Wait—this old man was quite the powerhouse, but he’s taken a real beating. Standard healing magic from any human mage won’t fix this. Heal!”
As Noxscasarsis cast his healing magic, the Duke of Fura Noid’s wounds mended rapidly, and the vital force that had been all but extinguished began to flicker back to life.
“Phew! That was close. Another minute and we’d have lost him.”
Once the Duke of Fura Noid began breathing properly, Jang Gain exhaled in relief.
“The healing is complete.”
Five minutes later, as Noxscasarsis withdrew his hands from the spell, Jang Gain tilted his head in puzzlement.
“His wounds are healed and he’s breathing fine, so why won’t he wake? I thought most people opened their eyes right after receiving Heal magic.”
“I’ve treated his body, but I couldn’t heal the mental exhaustion that accumulated from fighting until he reached this state. My father can heal mental fatigue too—should I call him and ask him to do it?”
“No, if it’s mental exhaustion, he’s better off getting proper rest. And thank you for saving the Duke.”
“I dragged him here by force, so of course I had to save him. Still, it looks like he carried quite a lot of magical items in his Subspace, but it’s all gone now. I’ll need to gather a few things for him when he wakes up.”
* * *
Jang Gain found a secluded spot away from the others and withdrew Dragon Scales and whiskers infused with Holy Power from his Subspace.
He then sat in a cross-legged position and began absorbing the Holy Power contained within them.
The Holy Power was similar to the Internal Energy of the Poongun Divine Art, but its purity was bright and pristine, like a light that repelled darkness itself.
Thrummmmm…….
‘Is it because it’s so pure? My Dantian is trembling violently as the Holy Power flows in!’
Until now, whenever his Internal Energy had been completely depleted or he’d torn his Dantian from overexertion and then healed, he’d experienced his Dantian growing larger and becoming more elastic and resilient.
So this time too, he intended to absorb the Holy Power to the point of straining his Dantian.
Thrum-thrum-thrum-boom-boom-boom…….
As the absorption of Holy Power continued, his Dantian swelled and contracted repeatedly, and when it reached its limit, it began to tear slightly, and in turn the Meridians and Acupoints connected to the Dantian started to rupture as well.
‘Whew! No more than this. I’ll digest all this first, then absorb the remaining Holy Power later.’
He stopped the Absorption Seal and worked to harmonize the energies within him. Due to the influence of the Holy Power, he felt the damaged portions of his Dantian and Acupoints healing rapidly.
Jang Gain, who had been observing his interior through Qi Circulation Cultivation, was startled by the speed of this recovery.
‘What? This is even better than Noxscasarsis’s Heal magic.’
If the Holy Power’s healing effect was this good, he figured he could push a little harder.
Once all the torn sections of his Dantian, Acupoints, and Meridians had healed, he activated the Absorption Seal again and resumed absorbing the Holy Power.
Time passed, and when his Dantian and Acupoints reached their limit and tore again, this time he used his intention to focus the Holy Power directly on the damaged areas, healing them while continuing to operate the Absorption Seal.
His Dantian and Acupoints began tearing and healing repeatedly; his Meridians expanded more than twofold, his Acupoints grew more than threefold, and his Dantian expanded more than twofold as well.
Then, at some point, the Holy Power no longer absorbed even when he operated the Absorption Seal.
‘I’ve absorbed all the Holy Power contained in the Dragon Scales and whiskers!’
Only then did he stop the Absorption Seal and begin harmonizing the energies within his body.
Crack.
As he concentrated on harmonizing the energies, a fissure appeared in the pelvis supporting his Dantian, and it began to splinter and split open.
‘What—what’s happening? My bones are shattering! Why is something so absurd occurring?’
Hastily, he sent Holy Power from his Dantian to heal the fractures in his pelvis, but the splitting and cracking spread beyond the pelvis, traveling up his spine and descending down his thigh bones.
Crack-crack-crack, snap, crack-crack-crack…….
As bones throughout his entire body fractured and shattered, indescribable pain surged through him.
Jang Gain realized something had gone terribly wrong and continued sending Holy Power to heal, but the speed of healing couldn’t keep pace with the shattering.
‘Surely—surely the skull protecting my brain won’t shatter too?’
Crack.
But the moment he worried about it, that fear became reality.
Fissures appeared in the cervical spine supporting his head, followed by his skull splitting open, his upper and lower jaws separating, and a terrible, lightning-like pain shooting through his mind.
‘No matter what happens to the rest of my body, I have to save my head somehow!’
Jang Gain stopped sending Holy Power to his body and directed all of it to his head, rapidly healing the shattering bones.
Crack. Boom-boom-boom-bang…….
Each time a fissure appeared in his skull, it felt like lightning struck inside the marrow, his consciousness wavered and grew hazy, but the terror of dying if he lost awareness now forced him to grit his teeth and focus on healing.
‘I—I can’t die like this!’
Crack.
But the separated upper and lower jaws could not hold and shattered into multiple fragments, and his clenched teeth crumbled and fell out one after another.
‘Damn this cursed situation…… I should have stopped after absorbing a reasonable amount of Holy Power, but my greed got the better of me!’
The thought even crossed his mind that perhaps the dragon had intentionally shed these scales and whiskers and returned to the Heavenly Realm to kill him like this.
How long had he endured, healing bones as they fractured?
Eventually his sense of time dissolved, and in a world filled only with agony, he began losing his mind, until at some point the fracturing of his bones finally ceased.
And finally, all the bones began to knit together rapidly.
‘Huuuaaaagh……. I, I’m alive! I feel like I’ve experienced death a dozen times over!’
Puff, puff-puff-puff…….
He barely managed a sigh of relief when suddenly his blood vessels, tendons, and muscles began to tear apart.
‘Th-this is insane! What in the world is happening? Is this really Holy Power? Is this poison? Did the dragon disguise its venom as Holy Power and release it?’
He wanted nothing more than to expel the Holy Power from his body at once, but it had already become entangled with other energies, leaving him no choice.
Jang Gain had no option but to focus on using the Holy Power to mend his tearing blood vessels, tendons, and muscles.
* * *
Four dragons watched the scene with startled eyes as Jang Gain battled the Holy Power coursing through him.
Noxscasarsis turned to his father.
“Father, there’s an enormous surge of energy swirling through Jang Gain’s body right now. What on earth is happening to cause such a phenomenon?”
“Hm! This is extraordinary—hard to believe even seeing it with my own eyes. He’s clearly human, yet he’s undergoing something that should only happen to us dragons.”
“Something that should only happen to us dragons? What exactly?”
“When you three were around a thousand years old, you all went through something in common. Jang Gain is experiencing that now.”
The three dragons tilted their heads in puzzlement at Mayarban’ta’s answer.
Noxscasarsis asked again.
“But the three of us lived in different lairs back then and didn’t even know each other’s faces. How could there be something we’d all experience in common?”
“Think carefully. Is there only one thing we all share?”
“Ah! Do you mean when we shed our hatchling shells and molted into worm-grade dragons?”
“Precisely. You all underwent that molting around that time, did you not?”
“Yes. It was so painful and difficult back then—honestly, I thought I was dying.”
A dragon molts twice over its long lifespan. The first time is around a thousand years old, the one you all experienced. The second molting comes around five thousand years of age. Only after that second molting is complete can one be called Ancient.”
“Then is Jang Gain molting right now, just like we did?”
“From what I can see, yes. He’s being reborn into a new body, shedding his old form and gaining one that can contain Holy Power.”
“Ah! So that’s why the energy is surging like that. Wait—a body that can contain Holy Power? We’ve undergone molting ourselves, but we still can’t contain Holy Power.”
“You cannot, but when a dragon becomes Ancient, its rank elevates and it can then contain Holy Power.”
The eyes of all three dragons widened.
“Does that mean Jang Gain is becoming an Ancient human right now?”
“A human who lives barely a hundred years cannot be called Ancient. But what’s certain is that once he’s reborn like this, he’ll be incomparably stronger than before.”
“We became several times stronger after our molting, so Jang Gain should too. But he’s human—a different species from us. How is he even able to molt?”
“I don’t know that myself. I’ll have to ask Jang Gain when he wakes.”
Even as the four dragons conversed, the transformation continued within Jang Gain’s body.
In the gentle breeze, his hair came loose and scattered; eventually all his hair and eyebrows fell out, only to grow back anew. His skin peeled away, revealing fresh skin as soft as a newborn’s.
Beyond that, when he coughed a few times, teeth poured from his mouth, and later he vomited black blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.
* * *
‘Krrrrgh……. I, there’s nothing more tearing or breaking now! To think such agony exists. It was like dying alive, over and over, endlessly!’
Once the phenomenon of his blood vessels, organs, and bones breaking ceased, Jang Gain used the Holy Power to heal everything and trembled violently for a long time.
When he sensed he was at death’s door, he stopped his Qi Circulation Cultivation, but somehow the energy flowed even more violently than when he was actively cultivating, causing his organs to tear and mend repeatedly. The blood and organ fragments produced by the tearing sprayed out like a fountain.
And the food matter in his small and large intestines was expelled cleanly when the sphincter of his anus tore and lost its holding power.
Snnnnngh…….
When he drew breath through his nose, his lost sense of smell returned several times sharper, allowing him to detect scents he’d never picked up before. Through his pores came the stench of waste, feces, urine, and other indescribably foul odors.
‘Ugh! What kind of grotesque smell is this? Could it possibly be coming from my own body?’
Once Jang Gain could move again, he hastily rose from his lotus position.
There was no need to look around—he was the source of the stench.
“Jang Gain, you’re human but somehow you’ve molted…… Ugh! Wh-what is that smell?”
As Jang Gain looked around, he noticed the four dragons nearby and started in alarm.
“When did you get here?”
“We watched from a distance while you molted, and when it seemed to be finished, we came over. But what in the world is that smell?”
“Ah! That…… I’ll explain later.”
Jang Gain immediately pushed off from the ground, launching himself skyward. He summoned the Wind Character Technique to conjure a gust, then flew toward the sea and dove in.
Splash.
Virus frowned at the sight.
“Hey! Why are you polluting the sea?”
“I-I’m sorry!”
Jang Gain submerged himself to avoid the dragons’ stares, lingered underwater for a while, then surfaced with his face.
Whatever happened during his dive, his face looked remarkably refreshed.
Virus frowned again.
“Hey! All the fish around you just died!”
Jang Gain started to protest, but when he saw dozens of fish floating belly-up all around him, he fell silent.
“I-I’m sorry!”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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