The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 31

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

Our Neighborhood’s Strongest (31)
“Cute? You’re calling these grotesque mutant things cute? I’d take them for the Demon Race, but could aesthetic standards really differ so wildly, even among demons?”
Jang Ga-in answered with an air of ease, but his skin prickled beneath the other’s Demonic Energy, and he swallowed dryly without showing it.
‘This one’s Demonic Energy feels qualitatively different from that of a Mutant Monster!’
The very first Mutant Troll he’d faced could only be cleaved by a blade carrying condensed Qi—yet this being was the one who’d created such trolls.
He couldn’t fathom how strong he truly was.
‘I could lose this.’
If he lost, he died.
Perhaps because it had been so long since a life-or-death struggle, every nerve pulled taut as a bowstring, and blood surged through his veins; a strange exhilaration coursed through his entire body.
While Jang Ga-in tensed, the Demon male flared his nostrils and smiled enigmatically.
“Hmm! But what is that smell? A Spirit? Ah, a Spirit indeed. A Water Spirit! So there was a Druid wielding a Water Spirit here not long ago! I was just in need of materials to create a Dark Druid, and fortune smiles. You I shall slay and remake as a Death Knight, and the Druid—I’ll feed it blood to transform into a Dark Druid.”
The moment the Demon in the Black Cloak finished speaking, Jang Ga-in’s eyes snapped wide, and he drove his blade—dense with Internal Power—forward.
Clang.
Sparks erupted from the sword’s tip as elongated claws materialized, and in the next instant, the figure of the cloaked Demon—who had been some twenty meters away until moments before—appeared before him.
“Ho! That you’d even react to that is astonishing—and to counterattack in the bargain! Now I see you’re no mere insignificant insect.”
“Did you… leap through space? How?”
Jang Ga-in had simply thrust his blade by instinct the moment he sensed space ripple around his opponent, then ripple before him—a reflex born of danger.
“Magnificent Death Knight material indeed! One like you deserves to know whom I am. I am the servant of the great Adrammelech, and—hck!”
Clang.
As the Demon spoke, his blade vanished from sight, then seemed to pierce through space itself, driving toward the space between his brows. The Demon recoiled in shock, striking the sword aside with his claws.
“Quite the defiant resistance! Excellent! At this rate, I can forge a Death Knight of legendary caliber.”
Clang, clang-clang.
Again mid-speech, as Jang Ga-in’s blade skipped across space and thrust at him repeatedly, the Demon yelped in alarm and stumbled backward.
“Ha! This is maddening—making me retreat! But how thrilling this is!”
After a barrage of thrusts, Jang Ga-in caught his breath and studied his opponent.
“Even the elders of the Main Sect falter against my Extreme Thrust, yet you evade it all. By the way, I heard demons had horns—why don’t you? Are you perhaps a lowborn demon of little account?”
“What! Low—lowborn! I am Jelato, which in your human hierarchy places me above the rank of count—ngh!”
Clang-clang.
“If you’re going to ambush, don’t waste breath talking!”
Jang Ga-in grit his teeth as his all-out Extreme Thrust continued to be blocked.
‘Extreme Thrust alone won’t suffice.’
In the next instant, slashes wove themselves into his relentless thrusts.
Slice.
And that slash, remarkably, tore across the Demon’s chest.
‘What?’
“Ugh!”
In that instant, both the Demon and Jang Ga-in were shocked.
The Demon seemed stunned that he’d been wounded; Jang Ga-in was astounded his unexpected attack had landed.
Splash.
Immediately after, the Demon’s body slid backward without a hint of preparation, as though something behind him dragged him away.
“Tch! Careless as I was, to be wounded by a mere human—!”
The Demon retreated, gazing at his gashed chest, and grit his teeth so hard they creaked audibly.
Between the torn folds of his cloak, flesh gaped wide, and dark crimson blood welled forth.
Jang Ga-in was no fool to squander an opening once seized.
The instant he perceived the Demon’s retreat, he kicked off the earth, gave chase, and swung his blade.
He blended the Extreme Thrust—honed for piercing—with the Extreme Slash—perfected for cutting—and bloomed a single magnificent flower.
The flower’s name was Death Flower.
One of the three supreme techniques among the Wind Command martial arts, unleashing Sword Qi in an assault.
Boom, boom-boom.
The bloom of Sword Qi shot from the blade’s tip collided with the Demon’s fists and burst, its petals of Sword Qi cascading down upon him.
Whoosh, slice, thud-thud-thud.
In seconds, the Demon’s cloak hung in tatters like a rag, and countless shallow wounds bloomed across his body.
“This… cursed…!”
Curses spilled from the Demon’s lips as Jang Ga-in’s blade suddenly erupted in Sword Qi more than a meter long.
‘Strike the killing blow while the chance remains. Heavenly Blood Extreme!’
The supreme technique he’d once employed to slay dragons before arriving in this world.
The surging Sword Qi became a colossal blade, cleaving down to bisect the Demon’s form.
Yet the Demon was not one to suffer passively.
He raised his right hand to deflect the Sword Qi and extended his left toward Jang Ga-in’s heart to pierce it through.
Though they stood a good three meters apart—a distance where no outstretched hand could reach—impossibly, the Demon’s left arm stretched like rubber toward him.
Crash!
A wet, tearing sound.
The Demon Race’s right arm vanished up to the forearm as it parried the sword qi, and in return, Jang Ga-in’s flank was pierced through.
Jang Ga-in swung his blade to sever the creature’s arm lodged in his side, then poured fresh energy into the steel.
‘Heavenly Blood Extreme!’
In an instant, sword qi bloomed a palm’s length from the blade’s tip, and the Demon Race’s eyes flew wide.
‘Without both arms, you’re finished now!’
A low rumble echoed through the forest.
The sword qi shot forth toward the creature, but suddenly the space where it stood rippled and warped.
A sharp, cutting sound.
The blade of qi tore through that distorted space and struck a tree behind it, exploding on impact.
“Damn it! It jumped through space again!”
Jang Ga-in’s jaw clenched as he spotted the Demon Race reappear atop a boulder some fifty meters to the left, the air around it still wavering.
He’d never faced a technique that crossed space like this before—he had no strategy for it.
“It doesn’t seem like martial technique. Magic, perhaps?”
Whether it was martial or magical, he needed to end this now.
Jang Ga-in sprinted toward the creature, teeth gritted, drawing on his Internal Power.
‘Can I use Heavenly Blood Extreme one more time?’
Heavenly Blood Extreme was a supreme technique grounded in Demonic Energy—its might was immense, but so was its cost to his Internal Power reserves.
He’d already unleashed it twice, and the creature’s arm still embedded in his flank writhed constantly, making it difficult to circulate his energy smoothly.
Yet to kill this enemy, he had no choice but to use it.
Rapid footfalls thumped against the earth.
Suddenly the Demon Race spun and bolted away at terrifying speed.
Jang Ga-in invoked Wind Command, summoning gusts of wind to pursue, but the creature vanished into the darkness faster than he could follow.
After chasing it for some two hundred meters and realizing capture was impossible, he stopped and wrenched the Demon Race’s arm from his flank.
“Damn it—without this thing, I’d have caught it… wait?”
As Jang Ga-in moved to fling the Demon Race’s severed arm to the ground, he froze. The hand still convulsed, fingers working as if trying to grasp something.
“Why is it still moving? Once severed from the body, it should stop—shouldn’t it?”
A severed limb might twitch briefly, but this one had kept moving even as he’d sprinted two hundred meters back here, and it moved still.
More than that—the Demonic Energy hadn’t dissipated. It clung to the flesh as if alive.
“Is this because Demon Race physiology has such unusual vitality?”
He’d meant to discard it, but something told him it was better to bring it to the village and ask Elena or Malata. He wanted to hear their thoughts.
“Saber! Saber!”
Moments later, Jang Ga-in called out, and Saber Tiger appeared with Sai-ran on his back.
“Ga-in! Oh! Your flank—you’re wounded!”
Sai-ran leaped down and rushed to examine his injury.
“The Demon Race’s arm suddenly stretched like taffy. That’s how my flank got pierced.”
Jang Ga-in showed her the severed limb he held, and worry flickered across Sai-ran’s face.
“Ga-in, wounds from Demon Race attacks carry a high risk of Demonic Energy corruption. My Spirit Power alone might not purge it entirely. You need my healing first, then Elena’s care afterward to be safe.”
“I have Spirit Power myself and I’ve been managing the wound, but understood. Please go ahead and treat it.”
“Yes. Since Spirit Power burns away Demonic Energy, it will sting—like searing flesh.”
“I don’t flinch at ordinary pain. Don’t worry and proceed with the healing.”
“Understood. Beginning now.”
Sai-ran placed her hand over his wound and gathered her Spirit Power.
Brilliant light flared, bathing the injury, and the wound began closing at remarkable speed.
As Sai-ran worked, she watched his expression—but Jang Ga-in neither grimaced nor showed any sign of discomfort. She tilted her head slightly, puzzled.
“Does it not hurt?”
“The pain fades quickly. Now it’s barely more than a tickle.”
Sai-ran continued channeling Spirit Power, her brow furrowed in confusion.
“Wait—the flesh isn’t burning either. That’s strange. Spirit Power and Demonic Energy are opposites; the Demonic Energy should burn away…”
She gathered Spirit Power in her other hand and pressed it against the severed face of the Demon Race’s arm.
A sharp, sizzling sound pierced the air.
Smoke erupted where they met—like fire meeting water.
“See? That’s the reaction when Spirit Power and Demonic Energy clash.”
Sai-ran checked his flank again.
The wound was healing, yes—but no such violent reaction occurred where her power touched his flesh.
As Sai-ran tilted her head in bewilderment, Jang Ga-in spoke.
“Elena and Malata told me my Spirit Power is abundant enough to contract with intermediate-tier Spirits. Perhaps that’s why the Demonic Energy doesn’t affect me.”
“Ah, that could be it! If so, you don’t need to see Elena afterward.”
After treating his wound for roughly ten minutes, Sai-ran withdrew her hand.
Once Jang Ga-in’s wounds were treated, he moved to the shade of a tree, crossed his legs, and settled into a light circulation of Internal Energy Circulation to check his condition.
This basic level of Internal Energy Circulation allowed him to spring into action the moment danger appeared, and if needed, he could immediately deploy the energy he’d gathered through the technique.
‘Hm? My Dantian was depleted, but my Internal Power is refilling at a rapid pace. Even if I’m absorbing Demonic Energy mixed in the air, it shouldn’t be this fast.’
Jang Ga-in paused mid-circulation, surprised. He quickly focused his attention to identify the cause.
Soon he sensed a torrent of energy converging from his ribs toward his Dantian.
‘The energy is gathering at the wound site on my ribs! Did Sai-ran convert the Spirit Power she used during treatment into Internal Power? Wait—that’s not just Spirit Power turning into Internal Power. This is Demonic Energy… Good heavens! The Demon Race’s Demonic Energy has mixed with my Internal Power!’
He’d expected the Demonic Energy radiating from the Demon’s Arm to be too dense to absorb. Yet astonishingly, he was drawing in all of it, filling his Dantian.
The moment Jang Ga-in realized that even the Demon Race’s Demonic Energy was aiding his cultivation, he decided he needed to capture the demon that had fled earlier.
After all, it was a demon that had lost both arms—finding it would make killing it a simple matter.
‘If I absorb all that demon’s Demonic Energy, my Internal Power will increase by at least ten years!’
“Sai-ran.”
“Yes?”
“The Demon Race I fought lost both its arms and fled covered in blood. It escaped so quickly that I abandoned pursuit and called for Saber Tiger instead. But now I’m thinking—with injuries that severe, it couldn’t have gone far.”
“Ah! You mean to find it and kill it?”
“Yes. That way there won’t be any lingering threats.”
“That’s right. Demons must be killed when the opportunity presents itself.”
Jang Ga-in noticed that Sai-ran no longer showed any fear toward the Demon Race, and a faint expression of approval crossed his face.
“Saber Tiger, you remember that demon’s scent, don’t you?”
A low rumble answered him.
“It was bleeding when it fled, so tracking it won’t be difficult. Go.”
At Jang Ga-in’s command, Saber Tiger bolted rapidly in the direction the demon had vanished.

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