Chapter 88 – Imugi (4)

A giant water snake that had been hiding in a deep lake for hundreds of years to ascend to a dragon while receiving Mount Hua’s vital energy. The imugi at some point could no longer understand why it had to hide in such a place.

Having such strong power and wisdom, waiting hundreds of years into the future to become a dragon while living lonely.

In an instant, the imugi ridiculed its past self.

It had become contaminated.

The imugi immediately shot up from the lake bottom, extended its body above the lake, and proclaimed its existence to the world.

Kuaaaaang!

At its roar, plants and trees shook and animals fled in all directions in terror. But there were beings not terrified.

Humans who suddenly appeared began rushing at the imugi.

Enraged that mere humans dared attack it, it tried to punish them with the abilities accumulated until now, but contrary to its thoughts, it was the imugi side being hunted.

After fighting frantically for a while, the imugi that came to its senses from the sudden movement of the lake hid its body back in the water, but it was already too late.

The neidan created through hundreds of years of cultivation was still intact, but the imugi still trapped in its framework had no way to escape its flesh that had nearly reached death.

The imugi that came to its senses was absurd. It couldn’t understand that wise itself had moved according to instinct, and couldn’t accept that it had been pushed by mere humans to near death.

The wise imugi could finally admit that something had gone wrong with its mind.

It hid in the water trying to make a final counterattack, and just then one human jumped in before it.

And when the imugi saw the human before its eyes, it couldn’t maintain reason. Feeling instinctive rejection, it poured out the last remaining strength toward the enemy.

***

Though called a lake, it was a small lake with a diameter of less than 100 meters. But the lake bottom was deep enough that the end wasn’t visible.

Inside such a lake, the fight between Sun-woo and the imugi continued.

Thanks to enhanced water magic, Sun-woo could stay underwater for a long time and could swim quickly using water flow, but that much couldn’t follow the imugi’s movements.

Thanks to that, he got struck by its tail and body several times. If Sun-woo didn’t have the <Physical Enhancement> skill, he might have already become fish food even underwater.

Unfortunately, because it wasn’t human, illusion technique didn’t work either, so the fight proceeded very difficultly.

Martial arts and lightness kung fu that had reached absolute level weren’t very helpful underwater, and being far from the ground, he couldn’t use sorcery either.

Eventually, Sun-woo decided to give flesh and take bone. He pushed mana and all his internal energy into <Physical Enhancement> and stopped in place.

Seeing Sun-woo who stopped swimming, the imugi immediately opened its mouth wide and swam quickly toward Sun-woo, and Sun-woo gritted his teeth and raised his sword toward the imugi.

The imugi, even half out of its mind, wasn’t stupid enough to swallow prey raw.

The imugi bit Sun-woo with sharp teeth.

At that moment, Sun-woo’s sword pierced through the imugi’s upper palate and penetrated through to the nostril.

The imugi had no choice but to open its mouth again from tremendous pain. When the imugi opened its mouth, Sun-woo, hanging from the sword, thrust his fist toward the upper palate.

Sun-woo’s face was also contorted with pain. The Association’s suit, a powerful blade and bullet-proof vest, was torn off once again by the imugi’s teeth, and the body strengthened with <Physical Enhancement> couldn’t completely block the imugi’s force either, so several ribs were smashed.

Sun-woo could only be grateful his body wasn’t cut off.

The imugi thrashed wildly from continuing pain but couldn’t shake Sun-woo off.

Bang! Bang!

Even while his body shook according to the imugi’s movements, Sun-woo’s fist strikes continued, and eventually his fist pierced through the upper palate and dug inside the skull.

Sun-woo gathered internal energy in his dug-in hand and shot it forward.

A technique commonly called “palm blast,” but unlike manga or novels, even absolute-level experts could barely launch it a few meters and it was difficult to give fatal blows. But in this situation right now, it showed completely different results.

The storm of energy bursting from Sun-woo’s hand passed through the punctured skull and tore up the imugi’s brain.

‘Ah, was I possessed by something? To blow hundreds of years of accumulated merit in one moment…’

The imugi finally fell into despair and died.

Confirming the imugi’s death, Sun-woo hastily took out a potion from his phone inventory and put it in his mouth. Fortunately, the potion was a great help. The broken ribs weren’t completely healed, but the pain decreased considerably so there was no discomfort in moving around.

The imugi’s corpse that had descended deep down slowly floated up when movement stopped. Though a legendary creature, the imugi was ultimately just a kind of animal. When dead, it had no choice but to float on water.

Sun-woo also clung to the imugi and floated up together.

Sun-woo, who barely caught his breath, checked inside the imugi’s open mouth to retrieve his sword and saw a shining object deep in the neck area.

Time was still needed to rise to the surface. Sun-woo pulled out the sword stuck in the imugi and began swimming into the imugi corpse’s neck.

***

After the imugi died, the murky lake and surrounding color began returning to normal.

But Erica, who was floating above the lake continuously pouring attacks downward, didn’t notice such changes.

She had no capacity to check surroundings because of hostility toward Sun-woo and runaway mana.

Fortunately for her, just before, the spatial ability user fighting on the other side flung Wang Mun-pung far away and began helping the Blood Cult martial artists.

Unlike first-rate Wang Mun-pung, disrupting absolute-level martial artists’ fight wasn’t easy, but breaking the balance of the fight wasn’t difficult.

Because just hovering around with space teleportation naturally couldn’t help but disperse attention.

Erica wasn’t paying attention at all, but if just a bit more time passed, others could help her.

But before the fight on the other side ended, changes in the lake occurred first.

A huge object floated up from below the lake. A giant, long, black shadow. It was the imugi.

Erica poured flames toward the rising imugi’s shadow, and the water surface shot up in all directions as if hit by a bomb.

Puaaaak!

And through the bursting water surface, the imugi shot up and opened its mouth toward Erica, and inside the imugi’s open mouth, Sun-woo stood holding up his sword.

Sun-woo had hidden inside the dead imugi’s mouth to avoid flame attacks pouring in the air.

He injected mana into the water to push up the rising imugi even faster, making the imugi’s upper body shoot out of the water.

The moment the imugi’s mouth opened, Erica also discovered Sun-woo’s figure, but it was too late.

Before Erica extended her hand toward him, the sword Sun-woo threw penetrated her chest.

Erica looked down at the sword stuck in her chest and chuckled.

It was a world full of pain without him. She could finally meet her beloved lord.

Erica fell into the lake pierced by the sword.

At the same time, a voice was heard in Sun-woo’s ears.

[You eliminated a Grade 4 contaminated summoner. Rank experience has increased. The contaminated summoner has skills. Skills will be granted instead of points.]

Though he obtained a skill from an enemy after a while, Sun-woo had no time to check the skill.

Sun-woo hastily retrieved his sword from Erica’s body that fell in the lake. If it sank into the water for nothing, finding it wouldn’t be ordinarily difficult.

While retrieving the sword, Sun-woo saw the smile that bloomed on Erica’s face. At the extremely happy-looking face, Sun-woo could only tilt his head.

***

When Sun-woo defeated Erica, the fight on the other side also ended quickly.

Because the spatial ability user who learned Erica died opened a gate and fled to his own dimension.

The remaining two Blood Cult members fought fiercely, but the fight with Sun-woo also participating ended before long with one Blood Cult warrior’s death and the other warrior’s suicide.

“Failed to capture one alive again this time. Since they cut off heart meridians by training, unless you eliminate martial arts in an instant, it’s difficult to prevent suicide.”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom clicked his tongue looking at the Blood Cult member who committed suicide. But Nan-seol and Sun-woo looked at such Hwangbo Ja-gyeom with absurd expressions.

The Blood Cult member who committed suicide was the one Nan-seol had been facing. The Blood Cult member Hwangbo Ja-gyeom faced, he had cheerfully cut in half with his saber.

Even with the two people’s gazes, Hwangbo Ja-gyeom didn’t care, and eventually Nan-seol and Sun-woo gave up.

“Since things seem finished here, I’ll go deal with the remaining contamination sources.”

Seeing no more enemies, she left words to the two people and began running down the mountain.

Because she had left contamination sources behind due to the suddenly changed mission. Though also because of completing the mission, she had no intention of leaving even one contamination source that made mountain villages into hell.

“Oh no, I’ll lose at this rate! I’ll leave the aftermath to you!”

Seeing Nan-seol running, Hwangbo Ja-gyeom was startled and began running after her. He seemed to treat contamination source elimination as a competition.

When the two people disappeared like the wind, Sun-woo left alone made an awkward face. For him who wasn’t even a person from this world to handle the aftermath…

If Wang Mun-pung didn’t return in time, he might have used sorcery to move earth and cover up the entire surroundings.

Not long after the two people left, Wang Mun-pung returned with a pale face. He had been caught by the spatial ability user and flung far away before barely returning.

“Good heavens, why did the hidden weapons run out at that moment? I almost fell off a cliff and died.”

The reason he, who was only first-rate, withstood against the spatial ability user for a long time was because he used hidden weapons stolen from Sichuan Tang Clan in the past.

The butterfly-shaped hidden weapons with poison had the characteristic of swimming through empty air, making it impossible for the opponent to easily space-teleport.

But unlike Tang Clan experts, he couldn’t endlessly move hidden weapons with internal energy.

Eventually the hidden weapons all ran out, and he was caught by the spatial ability user and space-teleported outside the cliff.

Fortunately, he could save his life with his excellent lightness kung fu, but even now Wang Mun-pung was inwardly full of self-reproach for stepping out for nothing.

But Wang Mun-pung’s self-reproach disappeared the moment he saw the imugi’s corpse floating on the lake. The moment he saw the imugi, he shouted in joy and ran to the lake.

“It’s an imugi! A dead imugi! This is something I couldn’t see even in dreams!”

He arrived at the lake in one bound and jumped onto the imugi with lightness kung fu that looked almost like walking on water.

Wang Mun-pung who climbed onto the imugi jumped right into the imugi’s mouth with reddened eyes.

“Neidan! Neidan! Let me see the legendary neidan!”

But his cheers shortly changed to a voice of despair.

“It’s gone! Why is there no neidan? The books definitely said it exists! It can’t be missing!”

Hearing Wang Mun-pung’s commotion, Sun-woo slightly took out an egg-sized shining stone from his pocket.

It was a stone discovered inside the imugi’s neck. If Wang Mun-pung’s scream was true, this stone was definitely the neidan where the imugi’s internal energy or spiritual energy gathered.

“But what can I do with this?”

Sun-woo glanced toward Wang Mun-pung rummaging through the imugi’s body, but soon shook his head.

If he informed him for nothing, at worst he might get robbed.

Sun-woo pondered for a moment then remembered his phone and began photographing the neidan with the camera.

Shortly after, information about the neidan appeared on the phone.