Since first opening his spiritual awareness, Jaekyung had been steadily trying to hone this spiritual sense in his own way. However, his training did not include intentionally dulling or closing his spiritual awareness. This was only natural.
Who would not want to see and hear farther? Who would willingly close their eyes and ears? But now he realized.
There were things in the world that should not be seen and things that should not be heard. It was good to have gained a valuable realization, but the price was too harsh.
'Ugh!'
Jaekyung struggled to hold onto his wavering consciousness. The indescribable pain transmitted through his not-yet-fully-retracted spiritual awareness tormented him. Far away, all sorts of strange things were mixed in the energy radiating from the clash between the Foundation Establishment cultivators and the Great Spirit Beasts.
Pure power, killing intent, and various other things he couldn't identify. Every time his spiritual awareness detected them, Jaekyung’s stomach churned as if he were suffering from terrible motion sickness, and even his mind was shaken.
Just as he felt it would be a matter of time before he went mad if this continued, what saved him, ironically, were the human cultivators with bloodshot eyes trying to kill him.
Poof!
Flames covered parts of his body, including his head. For something that flew in so fiercely, all he felt was a slight impact and some heat. That slight impact and heat pulled Jaekyung’s fading consciousness back to reality.
His mind clearing in a flash, Jaekyung let out a sharp cry and retreated. Jaekyung thought to himself that with this level of acting, he could very well appear in a movie. But perhaps because his acting was too good, the human cultivator who had sent the fireball charged at him with great vigor.
'Should I kill him?' Jaekyung was momentarily conflicted. The human cultivator, convinced that he was on the verge of death, was running at him holding nothing but a single spear that looked like a toothpick... it was truly laughable.
Should I just eat him in one bite? But if I eat a stupid one, will the stupidity rub off on me? With such trivial thoughts, Jaekyung waited calmly.
Chewing that fool to pieces would be a simple task, but it would be troublesome if he stood out too much, so he had to create the most natural scene possible. As it was, his large size compared to the other demon races around him was already drawing the attention of the human cultivators.
He absolutely could not show any special abilities. On the battlefield, a threatening enemy could be avoided, but on the other hand, they could also become the target of skilled fighters.
“Guooo!”
While Jaekyung maintained the appearance of being pushed back, he was also looking for a moment to counterattack, when suddenly something let out a dull roar and rammed the human cultivator. A spirit beast with a sturdy build. A large horn growing where its nose should be pierced the human cultivator's body.
The human cultivator trembled without even screaming before going limp.
“Junior Brother!”
One death fueled another’s rage. When the spear-wielding cultivator died, this time a cultivator with a large axe charged with bloodshot eyes. Of course, not toward Jaekyung, but toward the spirit beast that had just killed the spear-wielding cultivator with its horn.
Since both were quite skilled, their fight was not easily decided, and it soon drew in others from the surroundings.
'Good.'
But amidst it all, Jaekyung, the very cause of the fight, remained far away, continuing his wholehearted performance of a wounded person. While silently wishing for the success of his kin, he narrowed his eyes at a few of the demon races who were ravenously devouring the human cultivator's corpse even in the midst of this chaos.
‘Truly no different from beasts.’
To be lost in gluttony even while consumed by rage from some kind of brainwashing. Was it because their innate appetite was stronger than that of other demon races?
After a final glance at one who was excitedly tearing at human flesh before dying from an ice pick to the back of the head, Jaekyung felt the heat of the battlefield growing stronger. 'The time is ripe.' Jaekyung had been lying low all this time, but he had been constantly observing the atmosphere of the battlefield.
After the initial clash, the weak ones had died off appropriately, and the strong ones had begun to fight amongst themselves. In particular, the Foundation Establishment cultivators and the Great Spirit Beasts had each chosen an opponent and were fighting fiercely.
If he moved quietly now and was only careful of unexpected blows from behind, he would not be in great danger. If you rush out first, you are likely to be beaten first, but if you go out too late, you'll just be picking up trash where others have already rampaged.
So, Jaekyung had been carefully choosing the right moment to act.
'Now.'
The moment the head of a spirit beast that looked like an awkward combination of a worm and a spider was severed, Jaekyung launched himself. The human cultivator, intoxicated by the joy of victory after defeating an opponent that had given him a tough fight, did not notice Jaekyung approaching faster than an arrow.
His attention had been scattered, and Jaekyung’s movement was fast, but it was mostly due to the effectiveness of his Aura Concealment Art, which he had pushed to its limit. In that moment, Jaekyung gave a non-existent thumbs-up to his past self for deciding to learn the Aura Concealment Art.
“Huh?!”
The human cultivator noticed Jaekyung's approach too late; by then, Jaekyung had already closed in behind him and opened his mouth wide. Before his startled eyes could fully widen, his body, leaving only his two knees, was swallowed into Jaekyung’s mouth.
‘Good.’
He was reminded once again, but the strength of human cultivators was abnormal. They could shatter a large rock with a flick of their fingers, but their bodies were not as sturdy as a rock. Of course, this was an assessment based on the human cultivators he had seen so far.
There might be some human cultivators whose bodies were as tough as a spirit beast’s. For example, the body cultivators who were said to train by pouring in enormous resources…
'Or the Foundation Establishment cultivators.' Jaekyung tried not to turn his head, even by mistake, in the direction of the continuous explosions. At the same time, he struggled to dull his spiritual awareness, which was still causing him pain.
But Jaekyung's efforts were like trying to sleep by staring wide-eyed and gritting his teeth. The more he focused on it, the more information his spiritual awareness tried to convey, and this became an even greater pain.
To ignore the various pieces of information and the churning in his stomach coming through his spiritual awareness, Jaekyung focused on the chunk of meat in his mouth. The dense spiritual energy contained in the chunk of meat, whose flame of life had already been extinguished, was just as Jaekyung had expected.
'Indeed, one big catch is better than a hundred minnows.' It wasn't a matter of quantity. In terms of quantity, a hundred minnows would be much more.
What was important was not quantity, but quality. The early Qi Refining Stage and the middle stage are different, and the middle and late stages are different again.
The early Qi Refining Stage is like a child just taking its first steps in the world of Cultivation, while the middle stage can be called an adult who can run around freely. And the late stage can be said to be those who look up at the sky, preparing to fly beyond walking and running.
“Late Qi Refining Stage. But it seems to be just the beginning of it.”
Jaekyung gauged the spiritual energy within the chunk of meat he had not yet swallowed. The quantity itself was not as much as he had expected, but the quality was satisfactory enough. This much seemed like it could promote the growth of his spiritual seed for at least a month.
Gulp!
If human cultivators were living treasures in the eyes of the demon races, then in the eyes of the demon races, humans were like living elixirs. Most demon races used this elixir to purify their chaotic origins, in other words, their impure Qi, but Jaekyung had no need for that. His origins had never been unclean.
He didn't even know that other demon races suffered from such problems. So he guessed that the reason the demon races coveted human cultivators was similar to his own.
That there was some element that helped in surpassing the realm of the Great Spirit Beast, which was why they were burying their heads and swallowing meat even in the middle of a battlefield.
'Good.'
Jaekyung felt the spiritual energy extracted from the chunk of meat in his stomach quietly seep into his spiritual nature, like a breeze flowing through a small crack. And naturally, there was no way his spiritual seed would not detect what he had detected.
Fwoosh!
The small ember greedily absorbed the spiritual energy. Although it had been refined by a cultivator, it was fundamentally no different from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. To Jaekyung’s spiritual seed, it was no different from a luscious fruit with its flesh carefully prepared.
Jaekyung’s spiritual seed was a part of him. To be precise, it was a part of his spiritual nature, no, its central axis. In some ways, it could be said to be closer to his existence than his physical body, and because of that, Jaekyung could vividly feel his spiritual seed growing in real time.
That growth was perfectly natural. It almost seemed as if it was not growing but regaining its original form. Jaekyung tried to estimate how long this digestion process would take.
Just as tougher meat is harder to chew, higher quality spiritual energy is harder to digest. Likewise, the spiritual energy of a late Qi Refining Stage cultivator, no matter how voracious his spiritual seed was, would be difficult to digest in a short time.
But fortunately, Jaekyung's stomach was large enough, so even if he couldn't digest it immediately, he could store plenty of it. Flicking his tongue in satisfaction, Jaekyung turned his eyes to find his next prey. * From the moment the battle first broke out, the battlefield had been constantly expanding.
Most of the demon races tried to close the distance for close combat, while the opposing human cultivators tried to increase the distance to fight back, making the expansion of the battlefield inevitable. In the cultivation world, where there was no set format for battle, large-scale battles were mostly fought this way.
In other words, a large-scale battle in the cultivation world meant a large-scale free-for-all. The battlefield, now several times larger than at the beginning. However, the center of that battlefield had not changed even once from the very beginning.
Shin Baek-rim and the Old Mountain-Picking Demon. The vast space centered around these two was the absolute center of this battlefield where nearly ten thousand cultivators were clashing. Even the human Foundation Establishment cultivators and the Great Spirit Beasts of the demon races consciously tried to distance themselves from them while engaged in life-and-death struggles.
A few with poor instincts who were overly absorbed in battle would occasionally cross the invisible line and step into their territory, but their end was always the same. First, they would collapse on the spot like a puppet with its strings cut. Next, they would writhe like insects, screaming incomprehensibly, as their bodies repeatedly swelled and shrank.
And finally… they would 'pop!' and explode.
“Shin Baek-rim. Do you plan to continue having a staring contest with me here?”
“We’ll see. I’m thinking.”
Shin Baek-rim calmly replied to the Old Mountain-Picking Demon's sly smile. Neither of them cared in the slightest about those who had died miserably far below. To them, those people were nothing more than mayflies.
Such worthless beings that rush into a blazing fire only to be burnt to death in an instant.
“What a heartless Grand Elder you are. Do your sect disciples down there know that they are just branches to be cut off? Compared to that, our side, which gives them a chance to eat their fill whether they live or die, is far more merciful. Don't you agree?”
“A tree can grow healthier only by pruning its useless branches.”
“There's no one listening, so why don't you stop deceiving yourself. Speak honestly, aren't you trying to reduce the number of unnecessary mouths to feed because cultivation resources are scarce?”
Shin Baek-rim did not react to the Old Mountain-Picking Demon's blatant mockery. His expression remained calm, and his presence did not waver.
“It is merely a matter of selection and concentration.”
“Ah, yes. Selection and concentration. A sacrifice for the future. Well said.”
To these words, even the Old Mountain-Picking Demon nodded in agreement. Not only him, but anyone in the cultivation world would have to agree with these words. After all, the resources under the heavens are limited.
Those who can enjoy those resources are also bound to be limited. In addition, the higher one climbs, the more resources one needs, so the birth of a single master inevitably requires countless resources and countless sacrifices.
“Hmm. Chatting with you isn't as bad as I thought, but it's about time we get started.”
The Old Mountain-Picking Demon’s body began to crackle and split, and an enormous amount of black smoke, no, demonic energy, spewed out. The semi-materialized demonic energy instantly stained the Old Mountain-Picking Demon and his surroundings completely black.
At that massive eruption of demonic energy, Shin Baek-rim, who had maintained a calm expression all along, showed a strong reaction for the first time.
“What are you trying to do!”
If he was trying to fight an opponent of equal standing, such a display was unnecessary. This meant that the Old Mountain-Picking Demon's sudden action was not aimed at him.
“The same as you. A small sacrifice.”
Simultaneously with the Old Mountain-Picking Demon's short reply, the darkness fell like rain. Countless raindrops fell to the ground and seeped in, fell on the corpses and seeped in. Seeing this, Shin Baek-rim’s eyes sharpened as if he had guessed something, and he stretched out his hand.
Then, a large scroll appeared out of thin air.
“I don’t understand. Why are you angry?”
As the Old Mountain-Picking Demon laughed and retreated, the space in the void where he had been was sucked into the fully unfurled scroll. The space, which had shimmered translucently as if in a vacuum, returned to its original state in a few seconds, but the spiritual energy there was noticeably reduced compared to its surroundings.
“Don’t try any foolish tricks.”
Shin Baek-rim warned coldly, but the Old Mountain-Picking Demon paid no heed.
“You know it, don’t you? It’s already too late.”
Down below on the battlefield, those who had been lying dead began to stir. * 'Did I see that wrong?' Having just gulped down another human cultivator at an opportune moment, Jaekyung felt the urge to rub his eyes.
Unfortunately, he had no hands to do so, but instead, he blinked his eyes rapidly a few times to confirm if he had seen correctly.
“What?”
A spirit beast that had clearly died with its head blown off was stirring. It pushed itself up with its broken, limp legs, and after flailing a few times, it finally stood up again. Still with its head blown off.
'Did it come back to life? Can you even call that coming back to life?
No, this…' This is.
His attention briefly wavering at the shocking scene, Jaekyung belatedly noticed that the air had changed. This was not a figurative expression, but a clear fact detected through his spiritual awareness. The air had changed.
Even the surrounding spiritual energy had changed. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth, which had become somewhat rough and sharp under the influence of the killing intent of well over a thousand human and demon cultivators, had now turned sinister and sticky.
‘What in the world is…?!’
The corpse with its head blown off starting to move again was just the beginning. Everywhere Jaekyung’s gaze fell, similar things were happening. The dead, regardless of whether they were humans or demon races, were rising again and began to rampage indiscriminately.
Those who rose again showed hostility to everything living, and the battlefield instantly descended into uncontrollable chaos.