Book 12 Chapter 5

Crunch time, Na Yerin.

"Holy…, no way!"

He couldn't believe his own wide-open eyes.

I'm already past the point of presbyopia, but I've been able to get by thanks to the work I've done. But what is that thing down there?

His gaze drifted downward, revealing a small, circular clearing. The problem was, the circle was too small for any of his pets to approach.

And in the center of it all stood a woman of unearthly beauty.

"Are they covering their faces?

Given her beauty, it was a possibility that couldn't be ruled out.

'She's certainly got the kind of beauty that attracts not only humans, but all living animals……. If only I were fifty years younger…….'

For a moment, Bisamagun forgot his age, and his head tilted awkwardly to the wrong side, but it was still beyond his common sense. He had never seen such a thing in his hundred-plus years of life.

"How did this happen?

When everyone else was busy fending off a horde of ravenous, hungry vipers that were charging at her, Na Yerin couldn't believe her own state of relaxation. It didn't make sense. Even now, the half-mile radius around her was empty, as if there was an invisible wall around her. Even these vipers, so thoroughly trained to strike death and terror, didn't dare to approach her. Here and there, a scream echoed from a group of vipers, but not once did they flash their venom at Na Yerin. Instead, they simply tried to slither away from her.

"He's afraid!

Clearly, the vipers were afraid of her.

"Why?

For a moment, a memory flashed through her mind.

'Take it!

Na Yerin's gaze fell to her own waist.

'It's an amulet!

In the memory, Bi Ryuyeon smiled innocently and held out her hand. In it she held a strange trinket that looked like a black crescent moon. In a way, it reminded her of a small water buffalo horn, with delicate silverwork at the tip and glossy black silk and silver thread beneath.

'This and this make a pair, and one day this will protect Yerin!'

He pointed to a similarly shaped trinket hanging from his waist and laughed.

'…, I see!'

It was a silversmith's rendering of one of the two poisoned children of the Muklin bloodline. I had no reason to refuse it at the time, so I took it. And ever since, it has always dangled from Na Yerin's slender waist as she dances.

After catching the Muklin Blood Net, she kept it in a place no one knew about, and when she was done, she completely disassembled it and sold it for a lot of money.

When word spread within the academy that the meat of the Muklin Blood Net, which he had secretly shed, was effective in enhancing the inner gong, many of the well-to-do students of the Heavenly Martial Academy, who had a strong desire to become stronger than anyone else, quickly became his good customers.

Muklinskin, a blood-red leather that could not be scratched by most swords, also sold for a high price. There were few better materials for making light, strong, and tough armor. He had to go as far as the Heavenly Martial Academy's most accomplished craftsman, the Heavenly Machinist, to find someone who could work the skin, for no one else dared to forge it into something harder and tougher than steel. After some bargaining, he graciously agreed to forge a large quantity of mullein. Afterward, Chen Kisuo locked himself away in his workshop for a while to study and process the rare material that had been returned to him, and for days and nights he worked with such fervor that he forgot about erosion.

'It must be true!'

Apparently, the odor emanating from this black venom (although undetectable to the human sense of smell) was striking fear into the vipers.

'류연…….'

His face, always smiling and fearless, flashed before her eyes, and before she knew it, a thin smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. The fear and nervousness had vanished like dust.

But Na Yerin hadn't yet recognized the growing part he played in her heart.

"Burn, burn, burn, there's no end to it! Does this thing have some kind of magic pouch that spits out an infinite number of snakes?"

Yeomdo, who had been diligently performing group cremations on the snakes following the sizzling roast feast, grumbled.

"That can't be right, can it? Enough with the white noise in this time of need! There's still enough danger. From what I've heard through the grapevine, this is not the worst of Bizarro's fears!"

"Chet, what a mother-in-law!"

Quick!

Blood rose to Bing'er's brow, but he barely spoke, desperately trying to control himself. A part of him wanted to slap Yeomdo on the back of the head with all his might, but his learned self restrained himself.

"…If it's really Bisama-kun Mosarim who's in control of this picture, then we'd better watch out for his Crimson Twins!"

"A turquoise pygmy? Chet, it's only a snake……."

Binggum snapped at Gyudo's dismissive response.

"Don't dismiss it as a mere snake! It's already more than a mere snake. Though I wouldn't be at all sorry if you were to be slithered to death by your own carelessness."

Truly, this man never listened to anyone's advice. And his unbridled stage presence was unparalleled. It was truly infuriating.

Quick!

This time, a gash appeared on the copper-colored skin of Gyudo's forehead.

"They are already too precious to be compared to these insignificant vipers. One of them is worth tens of thousands of these vipers. It's also said that they have some sort of special ability, though we don't know exactly what it is. There's an old record that says, 'Don't make eye contact with the Crimson Twin Serpents, or disaster will follow. If you look down on it, you'll go to hell in a handbasket. For emphasis, of course, I will never be sorry!"

Every word he spoke was bad luck, but Yeomdo was stunned to see the tension in the ice sword's gaze. It was the look he got when he met a great enemy. There weren't many enemies that could make that wretched ice ball tense up to that degree.

A sense of alarm began to rise in his chest.

"The weather is so changeable today! "

Shhhhhhhhhh! Shhhhhhhhhh!

But then a torrential downpour of arrow rain and serpentine hail!

To make matters worse, it was a great opportunity to learn what it means to be a spy. I'm not sure I'll ever be in a situation like that again in my life where I'll have to deal with such an abusive situation.

"This will never end! "

Qing Shui shouted, swinging his sword wildly. No snakes or arrows had yet pierced his body, but they could not continue to defend so casually. They had already decided which of them would be drained first.

The vipers' attacks were relentless. Suddenly, Qing Shui turned his head to look at Mo Yonghui. Mo Yonghui was already beside him, swinging his sword furiously. Their positions were very close.

Their gazes met at the same time.

Mo Yonghui nodded. Qingfeng nodded as well. Could it be a heart-to-heart? This was the moment when their opinions became one.

The Three Spiritualities of the Tao Te Ching: Righteousness

Mixed-origin mutations (混元一始 萬變生)

Qing Shui leaped up, swinging his three swords in all directions, glowing in the colors of blue, red, and yellow. The tricolor aura of blue, red, and yellow rotated above his head, forming a tricolor tetrad.

Galactic Stream Opening Sword Extreme Righteousness

Galactic Annihilation (銀河滅絶)

At his side, Mo Yonghui's entire body was enveloped in a dazzling silver sword energy, like the North Star shining at the center of the night sky. The silver glowing sword stabbed into the center of the Tai Ping Sphere formed by Qing Shui.

It was the moment when the two martial arts merged into one.

Boom! Kwagwagwagwagwag!

A meteor storm poured out from the North Pole, filling the heavens and earth. Thousands of meteors oviposited the heavens. Swarms of meteors tore through the sky, tearing apart the skies that had been tainted by vipers and arrows.

The sky, reddened again by dusk, loomed over the torn space. No matter how fierce the serpent, no matter how fast the arrow, they could only chop it into small pieces before their passing sword.

It had been forced to be sharpened by someone during a training camp at Mudang Mountain, and it made its spectacular debut in the world.

"Good, that's what a disciple of the Heavenly Martial Academy is for!"

Yeomdo called out curiously.

"Slice and dice everyone! Tonight's dinner is roasted snake, roasted snake. Kahahahaha!"

Another burst of crimson flames rose from the Dao of Yeomdo and swept through the air. The snakes caught in his sword energy were instantly turned into roasted snakes and laid on the ground.

He swung his sword without losing a beat, and the snakes, engulfed by the sword coldness emanating from the ice rings, were frozen solid, their green scales coated in white frost, retaining their freshness. It was a technique I would have coveted in the open.

"These…, these guys are taking my cute little babies……."

When the babies she had fondly nurtured and raised, the ones she had bred by hand, were oviposited at the hands of fierce villains, her heart broke. It was as if her own children were being murdered.

Moreover, the provocations of Yaldo, "Where is Bisamazole? Come out and play with me!" were going on in a tumultuous manner. He had had enough of living in the frivolous affairs of the Visāmagun, and he decided to go to any lengths to avenge the babes and avenge his anger.

"I hope I never have to use these guys! "

He draws out his all-powerful plasma. The Crimson Twins nested, fed, and lived inside his staff. He had been nurturing it for a hundred years. There were many people who had fought with the Mansa Plasma, thinking it was an ordinary staff, and had lost.

This is a male-female pair, with the male having blue scales and the female having red scales, and they both have small horns, hence the name.

They were more than thirty times faster, more agile, and more clever than any vipers he had ever trained. They were also more than fifty times as venomous as normal vipers.

"Bow!"

He stretched out his hand, and one of the blood marshals quickly bowed respectfully to his hand.

"Arrow! "

In his right hand was again a blood arrow. He drew the drawstring of his black bow and strung the blood arrow on it. Two ropes, one red and one blue, ran up his arm, twisted around the arrowhead, and tied a quill to the end of the shaft.

They had horns on their foreheads as if they were dragons. The tip of the arrow, drawn hard, pointed at Na Yerin, who stood in the center of the clearing.

She saw it. Her eyes, which could not normally see, but were already beyond normal, pierced through the wall of fog and saw it clearly.

Just as the downpour of arrows was losing its momentum in the thinning cloud cover, a strange arrow, writhing on a bowstring in the hand of some old serpentine gnome, pointed toward the battlefield at the bottom of the gorge!

He quickly realized that the writhing, ominous tip of the arrow was aimed at a small, circular hollow at the bottom of the cleft, like the entrance to hell. For some reason, the snakes had been unable to reach the hollow.

Bi Ryuyeon couldn't figure out what it was that made the old snake rage so fiercely. No, in the first place, he was in no position to know the old man's anger, his identity, or anything else.

All she knew was that he was an extraordinary master, incomparable to any of the others in sight, and that the terrifying flesh he exuded pointed to the center of the clearing below, with Na Yerin at its center.

The moment that was confirmed, Bi Ryuyeon's eyes widened. He once again shot a glare at Mo Shaolin, but he still lacked the ability to kill someone with just a glance.

"Stop!"

A great roar erupted, like the howl of a thunder god. Like a tidal wave, the enormous will swept over Mo Shaolin's entire body. The waves of will became countless blades, piercing through his body. However, Mo Shaolin was also an expert, like a hundred year old martial artist who had paid a heavenly blood tax.

For a moment, his movements paused in surprise, but he did not pause in his actions. He drew the dark will of desire from within his chest once more, and drew back the string, aiming his bow. There was a moment's delay, but nothing changed. A lesser man would have fallen to his knees, dropping his bow in one fell swoop, but the old man was still clever and cunning.

As he stared at the tautly drawn bow, Bi Ryuyeon's heart raced. He moved quickly, but then something strange happened that he couldn't understand. Time suddenly seemed to slow down around him. Each movement felt heavy and cumbersome, as if he were walking under the immense pressure of the deep sea.

I could see so clearly, as if I could hold it in my hand, what the old snakehead on the other side of the canyon was about to do.

The skinny hand pulled back was reaching its peak. His arm stopped pulling on the protest. Then, very slowly, the index finger and thumb of his right hand came off the string. The arrow left the demonstration.

By this time, Bi Ryuyeon was stepping on chains that pointed downward. Na Yerin was still busy parrying the arrows flying at her. The amulet could ward off venomous snakes, but not a rain of arrows.

She knew with a chill in her bones that this red arrow was no ordinary arrow (she didn't know much about its history or the stories behind it, but she knew its power).

That was a dangerous thing. Bi Ryuyeon leapt downward with all her might. The wind stopped and even time began to slow down.

The serpentine eyes of the demonstrator were filled with glee, lust, and cruelty. It was clear that he had absolute confidence in his strike. The red arrow that had left Shi Shi tore through the air, coming closer and closer to Na Yerin. It must have been only a fraction of a second, but now, in Bi Ryuyeon's eyes, it was as clear as if it was standing still. But as slow as that one was moving, this one was also moving at a tediously slow pace that made her bored and her heart burst with anger.

His eyes blazed a bright golden color, almost as bright as the sun. It was a race of arrows and human speed, but this race was won by the red blooded warrior who had gotten a head start. When the Blood Warrior reached Na Yerin's periphery, Bi Ryuyeon and Na Yerin were still more than ten zhang away. It was impossible to make it in time, and it was also unreasonable to hope that she would know and notice.

'No, no, no!

Bi Ryuyeon's mind let out a soundless scream. He didn't give up until the end.

Just as the Blood Demon was about to pierce Na Yerin's body, Bi Ryuyeon reached out with her right hand, plucking at the threads of her soul with all her might.

Pod!

A moment later, an arrow leaped into the air. The transparent silver thread that dangled like a long tail in the sunlight glistened like jeweled sand.

The situation was this

At the very moment that a single Blood Demon Warrior, fired by some clueless, conceptless outlaw who had obviously lost his age, was about to destroy and annihilate the most beautiful crystal of beauty in the world, a starry silver flash flew from Bi Ryuyeon's right sleeve at a speed that resembled a lightning bolt. Even in this slow-moving place, it was so fast that it seemed to defy the barriers of time.

The silver flash traveled through time and space to the spot of the bloodbath, and before he could blink or flinch, it coiled up the tail feathers of his unearned violence and tossed them into the air. The arrow, once disoriented, no longer had any use for killing.

But something happened that Bi Ryuyeon did not expect: the arrow with its evil purpose lost its power, but the two hideous beasts hanging from its end retained their strength and purpose; they were servants, full of intentions to faithfully carry out their master's desires.

Two flashes of blue-red fell like arrows from the soaring heavens. Deadly white venom flashed like a reaper's scythe from the gaping mouth of this vile creature, each bite of which was said to contain the venom of a thousand common vipers.

Boom! Quack!

There was a loud boom that tore through the air, and a cloud of dust rose around Na Yerin. The atmosphere seemed to swirl around her. The blowing dust momentarily obscured her vision. Closing her eyes for a moment, she opened them to find a sturdy, trustworthy back blocking her path, and in his hands were two horned blue and crimson snakes, one in each hand, struggling to break free.

It was only then that she realized that she had been saved once again by Bi Ryuyeon; she knew all too well how dangerous and frightening these two snakes were.

"Ryu Yeon……."

Na Yerin called his name in a quiet voice. Her voice was not as cold as winter, but as soft as spring, but he was at a loss as to how to follow up, for the words did not come easily to him.

"Are you okay? "

Looking back, Bi Ryuyeon smiled brightly and asked. Na Yerin smiled slightly and nodded. She suddenly felt a surge of trust in him.

"You always come to my aid. I never thought I was weak enough to need someone's help like this……. You always show up when I'm in danger, when I'm in pain, and you always extend a helping hand."

How many times had he helped her this time? When she was in crisis, he always remembered to show up. And stood by her side. This is the kind of person I could trust with my back…, she thought.

Ryuyeon looked at her and laughed, but not as much as she should have.

'…, was that too much?'

Bi Ryuyeon could feel the muscles in her entire body twitching and screaming like electric eels. Her entire body was tingling. It was clear that her body had been overworked. His body must have been pushed beyond its limits at some point.

'What was that?

She reflected on what she had just experienced. It was a world that could not be defined by words.

"Have I hit another wall?

Memories of the past flashed through my mind.

"This world is made up of three dimensions: points, lines, and planes. The human body cannot leave the third dimension, but the human mind can break through its boundaries and reach the fourth dimension. If you catch up with time before then, everything around you will move slower, even yourself, and the air will feel hot from the friction.

'Is this what my teacher was talking about?'

The heat still lingered on his face, but he still couldn't easily define the world he'd seen.