Chapter 329 - Hunting Divine Spirits (4)

The Red Light Sword dropped with a THUD.

"... Y-You, you could speak!!!"

I grabbed the Sun Monkey, but the life energy in its eyes was slowly fading away.

"Why... Why! Why didn't you say so earlier!!!"

Blood continued to flow from the hole pierced through its heart.

A massive wave of regret and reflection crashed over me.

If I had only stabbed it a little later...

"My... money..."

The image of myself laughing heartily atop a mountain of gold and silver treasures slowly faded away.

To think I could be this unlucky...

As I despaired like that, my mind suddenly cooled down.

Wait, the last word this bastard said was 'Heavenly Demon', right?

"..."

Just what were the odds of meeting a talking monkey, and the odds of its very first word being 'Heavenly Demon'?

Wouldn't it seem more likely to just throw yourself off any random cliff and stumble upon a fortuitous encounter?

"And the fact that I didn't realize it and killed it, I'm such a..."

I endlessly blamed myself before finally shaking my head.

A monkey tainted by the 'Heavenly Demon'.

Rather than being used as a public spectacle, the only place this monkey would go is the basement of the Murim Alliance's Disciplinary Pavilion.

And on top of that, as the monkey's owner, I would inevitably be dragged along as well.

Would they really not be curious about who the owner of a talking monkey was? I'd be incredibly curious.

Curious enough to want to rummage through their brain to see what they were thinking when they taught the monkey the word 'Heavenly Demon'.

"Yeah... it's a good thing I killed it. Good job, Jin Sowoon... Huh? Why are my cheeks wet? Is it raining?"

I calmed my mind and raised the Red Light Sword once again.

"Right, what's the point of building a mountain of gold? A core is better. If it's a core from this guy, it will definitely make me the number one person in the world."

Yeah, of course it will.

I consoled myself and sliced open the Sun Monkey's chest.

RIP.

As its chest split open, blood gushed out.

After taking some time to wait, I spread the chest wide open, revealing its organs.

And when I lifted the organs where the core should be, something the size of a millet seed was glowing.

"... Does the Sun Monkey keep its core somewhere else? Yeah, that must be it."

I rummaged through the organs and searched inside once again, but...

"No way..."

There was nothing resembling a core anywhere.

Is this for real?

"..."

What kind of bullshit situation is this?

If I knew this would happen, I would have tried to train it well.

Subjugating Demons and Eradicating Evil.

The pronunciation is similar, so if I made it memorize this, there'd be no need to go to the Disciplinary Pavilion, it would become a great spectacle, and I'd make money...

"AAAAAGH!"

POUND! POUND! POUND! POUND! POUND! POUND!

After taking my anger out like that for a while, my senses returned a bit.

"Haa..."

I stared at the Sun Monkey's core resting on the tip of my finger and popped it into my mouth.

Because I felt like it would be too unfair if I didn't at least eat this.

I calmed my mind and organized my thoughts once again.

First. A divine spirit lives in the Black Forest.

Second. The academy students and instructors tried to hunt one of the divine spirits, Sun Wukong... no, the Sun Monkey, and failed.

Third. I accidentally caught the Sun Monkey, and this thing can speak.

Fourth. But the only word it spat out was 'Heavenly Demon'...

What the fuck.

SCRATCH, SCRATCH.

I scratched the back of my head vigorously several times, but I didn't feel refreshed at all.

"Does this make any sense?"

I was the one who summarized it, but it was a sequence of events that made absolutely no sense.

If this report went up to the Mantong Bureau, wouldn't Zhuge Somyeong tear it to shreds and burn it?

"Not that I planned on reporting it anyway."

The problem was the fourth point, rather than the third.

A talking monkey was surprising enough, but of all things, the word this Demonic Wukong said was 'Heavenly Demon'.

Just what connection was there between the divine spirits of the Black Forest and the Heavenly Demon?

"These fucking bastards never miss a chance to butt in everywhere."

I already harbored a lot of resentment toward them, but now that resentment had grown even larger.

When I met those bastards, I wanted to smash their skulls and make sure to ask them.

What they had to do to make a monkey talk.

It wasn't about the money. Really, it wasn't.

"Huu... let's head back."

Since there was a pit nearby, I placed the Sun Monkey inside and covered it with dirt.

It was glaringly obvious that something had been buried, but since the surroundings were already a complete mess, it didn't look too out of place.

Just as I kept my mouth shut and was about to head back to where my group members were.

FLARE.

A fire started to break out in my Dantian.

* * *

I had eaten both poison cores and regular cores in the Black Forest, but I had never actually performed a qi circulation method.

Since the internal energy in my Dantian was already vast, moving cultivation alone was enough to absorb any external energy, and if I used the Jade Dragon Bracelet to absorb it, even that wasn't necessary.

But this time was different.

The flame, which started small, was already using the internal qi in my Dantian as fuel to grow even larger.

I was already deeply heartbroken over losing a talking monkey, and now that monkey's core was eating away at my internal energy.

"What kind of bullshit is this now..."

I quickly sat cross-legged and began circulating my qi, but the embers showed no signs of dying down.

Instead, it pulled in even more energy, burning wildly.

The heat that started in my Dantian traveled through my blood vessels and spread throughout my entire body.

Even though I was maintaining a comfortable temperature with the Pungryeong, the boiling heat wrapped around my entire body as if to burn it to a crisp.

'N-No!'

The most serious problem was that the internal energy in my Dantian was being wiped out by the core.

How hard had I worked to gather this...!

Using all my strength, I gathered all the energy in my Dantian and smothered the heat all at once.

I figured that with a massive energy like a vast ocean, I could easily suppress a heat the size of a millet seed.

But.

'S-Stop it, you crazy bastard!'

The heat continued to boil and expand its reach.

The more I constricted the energy, the wider it spread.

A sense of crisis hit me that, if things went wrong, my entire body might turn into a candle.

It was driving me crazy.

I had to somehow control the heat. Or pull it out...

'Wait, pull it out?'

The actions the Sun Monkey took came to mind.

The image of it setting its mane ablaze and spewing out heat.

... But was it okay for a human to copy that?

There was no time to continue that train of thought.

Because if things continued like this, my blood vessels would be completely burned away.

"Huu..."

I pushed the internal energy located in my Dantian to one side and moved only the heat.

The Sun Monkey's core, which had been transmitting heat along my blood vessels, started rushing all over my body even more excitedly once I released my control.

Because of the heat starting to extend through the pathways of my blood vessels and meridians, there was not a single place from my fingertips to my toes that wasn't in agony.

It felt as if my entire body was melting in a fire pit.

The moment it became too hard to endure any longer, I expelled the heat outward, just like when I forced the alcohol out of my entire body.

FLARE!

Beyond my eyelids, which had been filled only with darkness, I felt a bright light shining through.

'Did I succeed?'

I definitely felt the temperature of my blood vessels and meridians noticeably drop.

But because the heat that started in my Dantian tried to rise again, I once again expelled the heat out through my pores.

FLARE!

A light even more distinct than before.

When I stealthily opened my eyes, I saw small flames burning the dry leaves around me.

'My god.'

It was surprising enough that the heat escaped like this, but to think I actually breathed out fire.

Regardless, now that I knew it was effective, there was no need to delay any longer.

FLARE.

FLARE.

Every time I repeatedly expelled it, the fire energy spread in all four directions, and the flames burning in my Dantian slowly died down.

How much time had passed like that?

When I regained my senses from my state of selflessness, the fire energy that was eating away at my Dantian had disappeared.

"Huu..."

The flame inside my Dantian was gone, but I didn't feel like the Sun Monkey's core had disappeared.

No, it was rather the opposite.

I raised my hand in front of my eyes and infused my intent into my fist.

Immediately, my fist heated up and turned bright red.

"..."

This was probably that ability the Sun Monkey had shown.

When I checked my Dantian, my internal energy hadn't increased or decreased.

It seemed the Sun Monkey's core had simply replenished the amount it had chipped away.

"... Did the Sun Monkey's core have this kind of effect?"

It wasn't too surprising for a martial artist to learn a fire art, but if it became known that I obtained this kind of power just from a single core, Noh Jinha and the instructors would definitely not stay quiet.

"Anyway, it truly deserves to be called a divine spirit."

I wanted to find out more about the Sun Monkey's core, but there was no time.

"There's still plenty of time until the sun rises, but at this rate..."

All my clothes had burned away, so I was about to return stark naked.

* * *

After weaving grass into a hastily made outfit and returning to where my group members were, I used sound transmission to order them to bring spare clothes.

A moment later, Geumpyo approached with the sound of footsteps, but...

"Just what have you been doing around... EEK!"

What the, why is Geumpyo's voice so weird...

"..."

It was Saryeon who screamed and dropped the clothes.

I called Geumpyo, so why did she come?

I quickly shot out the Flying Dragon Claw and snatched the clothes.

"It's not like I'm stark naked, so why the reaction?"

Although it was hastily made, it still took the form of intact clothing in its own way.

If one really had to find a point to tease... no, be surprised by, it was just that it looked a bit primitive.

"Wh-What... happened to your clothes again?"

Saryeon, whose face was flushed bright red for some reason, kept awkwardly avoiding my gaze.

With her acting like this, it made me feel weird too.

"... Well, something just came up."

"What was it... SNIFF, SNIFF, are you just going to put that on?"

"Why?"

"SNIFF, SNIFF, don't you smell that? Did you crawl out of a demonic beast's cesspit or something?"

Following Saryeon's words, I brought my nose to my arm, and a foul stench pierced my nose.

Because my skin was clean, I hadn't realized it at all until now.

"..."

I went into a pond I had spotted on the way back and scrubbed my body with a stone, causing some yellowish, murky water to flow out.

"Ugh... just how long have you been walking around without washing?"

Why did she follow me? I told her to go ahead.

"Anyway, I called Geumpyo, so why did you come? It shouldn't be your turn for night watch."

Saryeon made an expression of utter disbelief.

"And whose fault do you think this all is?"

"What now."

Did something happen while I was gone?

"Do you know how much of a fuss Instructor Noh Jinha kicked up last night?"

"Huh?"

"He suddenly barged in during the middle of the night, yelling at the top of his lungs about where Eldest Senior Brother was, asking if you went to hunt a divine spirit, and causing a scene demanding we hand you over right this instant."

Saryeon continued with a sharp glare.

"The instructor was making a huge fuss, and for some reason, Eldest Senior Brother wasn't at his post. So we actually thought you had gone off to hunt a divine spirit."

Did he notice my absence while tracking the Sun Monkey? Or did he see me chasing after the Sun Monkey?

Depending on whether it was the former or the latter, the way I had to respond would completely change.

Furthermore, if the fact that I consumed the Sun Monkey's spiritual elixir came to light, it had the potential to ignite into a massive problem later on.

It wouldn't just end with the issue of who ate the core.

It would start with who contributed the most during the hunt for the Sun Monkey, and escalate into the issue of who ultimately possessed the ownership of the core.

"Hmm, I'm fucked."

Because if my fault was acknowledged, I might have to pay a massive amount in compensation.

Compensation for the Sun Monkey's core?

I would rather die than see that money leave my pocket.

To begin with, that kind of money didn't even exist in our Taiyi Sect.

I splashed water on my body again and asked Saryeon.

"Hmm... how exactly did he phrase it? Did he throw a fit... no, make a fuss, saying, 'Didn't he go hunt a divine spirit!'?"

"How am I supposed to remember that? I'm not you, Eldest Senior Brother."

"Think about it. It's a pretty important matter."

"Why is that important?"

"There's a completely different meaning between 'Didn't he go hunt a divine spirit!' and 'So he went to hunt a divine spirit!', and the way I have to respond changes accordingly."

"... Eldest Senior Brother."

At that moment, an emotion of shock surfaced on Saryeon's face.

"Don't tell me..."

Then, she took a large stride toward the pond.

But why was she holding a stone in her hand?

"Did you catch a divine spirit?"

Anyway, why are my junior disciples so quick on the uptake?

Could this secret be kept safe?