Unrivaled Spear Demon
Chapter 17 - The Staff Fiend (5)
Thwack!
With a dull roar, Chui's spear embedded itself in the cliff.
The spearhead had pierced through the Staff Fiend's head before penetrating deep into the solid rock.
The mangled corpse was pinned to the cliff.
Whoooooosh…
A dreary wind blew, pushing the Staff Fiend's corpse, making it sway from side to side.
And below it.
“Huuu”
Chui let out a deep sigh.
The silk cord dangled from the spear shaft that was lodged through the Staff Fiend's head.
Grabbing the silk cord, now stained crimson with blood, Chui slowly climbed up the cliff.
‘…My condition is not good.’
Chui assessed his own body.
His head was cracked, and his internal organs were a mess.
All his ribs were broken, and both his legs felt as if they had been shattered.
The only reason he could move at all was thanks to the life force he had barely managed to wring out from his numerous Changwi.
Creeaak
The silk cord wrapped tightly around his palm dug into his flesh, catching on the bone.
Chui gritted his teeth, wrapped the cord around his hand, and scrambled up the cliff.
…Thump!
Chui collapsed onto the clifftop.
Drip, drip. It began to rain.
The raindrops, growing heavier, washed over the Staff Fiend's corpse pinned to the cliff.
Chui, too, felt the blood that soaked his body being slowly washed away.
Before long, Chui's eyes returned to their black color.
“…”
Chui pushed himself up.
His organs were ruptured and his bones were broken, but he was not dead.
As long as he didn't die, he could eventually recover.
For that was the power of the mysterious demonic arts, Art of Unrestrained Demon.
‘Hong Gong. He, too, never gave up hope until the very end.’
Chui pictured the face of the Blood Demon who had taught him.
It was all thanks to the miraculous regenerative power of the Art of Unrestrained Demon that he, driven to a distant frontier battlefield, could dream of revenge even with a half-paralyzed body.
Pooooour…
The rain poured down like mad.
An ocher-colored waterfall formed at the cliff's edge.
The moment Chui barely managed to raise his upper body.
CRACK!
A bolt of lightning fell from the sky.
Coincidentally, it struck the black spear embedded in the cliff, and because of it, the Staff Fiend's corpse became a charred mummy.
…Ruuuumble!
The cliff began to crumble.
Chui crawled on all fours across the mud to get away from the cliff's edge.
Just then.
Wooo-woooooo…
Something moved from beneath the collapsed cliff.
The Staff Fiend.
A formidable enemy that could never have been defeated by ordinary techniques and conventional skill.
It reappeared before Chui.
His entire body stained crimson, he stood in the mud, glaring at Chui with a terrifying gaze.
But Chui was not particularly surprised by the Staff Fiend's resurrection.
“Staff Fiend, Gu Kang-ryong.”
Chui reached out his hand.
At that, the Staff Fiend flinched.
A peak-level master.
An ultimate warrior capable of claiming the title of hegemon in any region.
The Staff Fiend, who once roamed the entire martial world alone, looking down on all, and rampaged across the lands of the heretics.
“Staff Fiend, Gu Kang-ryong.”
He trembled at Chui's call.
Thud
The Staff Fiend crawled up from the cliff and took a step onto the ground.
Thud
A step steeped entirely in blood.
Thud
It drew closer and closer to Chui.
Finally…
“Staff Fiend, Gu Kang-ryong.”
Chui had called his name three times in total.
Tssssssssssss……
The specter of the Staff Fiend, having reached Chui, turned into a red mist and was absorbed through Chui's entire body.
“Huuu”
Chui let out a long breath.
A peak-level master had become Chui's Changwi.
It would take quite some time to tame this one.
‘It's like I've obtained a fine elixir.’
Chui nodded.
Now, the material needed to advance from the Compression stage to Tempering stage was prepared.
‘First, I need to recover. I can open the Ren and Du meridians after that.’
Chui crawled out of the mudflat.
Beneath a pine forest, where a thick layer of dry pine needles lay.
The pine needles above were so dense that the rain barely penetrated.
Chui brushed aside the dry pine needles, dug into the dark red earth beneath, and crouched down like a toad.
[Heehee- Serves you right!]
[Die! Please die!]
[Just stay buried and die!]
[Buried alive! Buried alive! Buried alive! Buried alive!]
[Don'topenyoureyesdon'topenyoureyesdon'topenyoureyesdon'topenyoureyesdon'topenyoureyesdon'topenyoureyes……]
The ghosts in his mindscape wailed.
They performed a ritual, praying for Chui's death.
…But they would never get what they wanted.
Because their hatred for Chui was, to him, like a restorative medicine that healed his body.
How much time had passed?
Thwack!
A hand burst through the dried earth and pine needles.
Chui was crawling out from under the ground like a frog ending its hibernation.
“I've survived again.”
His voice sounded as if he had grown used to it.
Chui quietly got to his feet and headed for the site of last night's fierce battle.
The sky, impossible to tell if it was dusk or dawn, was a ripe, golden red.
The rain had stopped, and the world was submerged in silence.
The mist, the single-rope bridge… nothing remained.
The cliff was clean, as if such things had never been there.
However, one witness remained to testify that two men had fought for their lives the previous night.
A black staff.
Its length was one jang.
The shaft was hexagonal, a crude and rugged weapon.
It was the beloved weapon the Staff Fiend, Gu Kang-ryong, had used until the very end.
Chui pulled it out from where it was embedded in the cliff's edge.
…Shhhk!
The distinct chill of a cold weapon spread through his hand.
It was much heavier and sturdier than the black spear he had used before.
Its surface, too, was incredibly rough and coarse from countless small scars.
Chui himself, having been struck by it dozens, hundreds of times, knew the power of this terrifying staff best.
“I'm not fond of the staff. It'll need a spearhead.”
Chui muttered, looking at the staff's blunt end.
The Staff Fiend, Gu Kang-ryong, had said this staff was made of black iron.
And that its original form had been a spear, but it became a staff after the spearhead broke off.
If this staff had retained its original form, Chui might not have been a match for the Staff Fiend.
The same was true for the Staff Fiend himself, who had once been a wanderer who roamed the martial world freely, only to end up as a dog of the Heretics' Alliance.
“…You can't go around without your teeth.”
That goes for people, and for spears.
Chui muttered, stroking the end of the staff.
He had fought his first life-or-death battle since regressing.
It was a chance to sharply discipline himself, as he had unconsciously grown lax since returning to the past.
Finally, Chui left the clifftop, staff in hand.
The single-rope bridge was gone, so the way back was long.
On the path opposite the cliff leading back to Gorae County, Chui was able to retrieve the sack of money the Staff Fiend had left behind.
The Staff Fiend must have intended to pick it up again shortly after setting it down, as he hadn't done anything to the money sack.
The sack was full of rainwater, mud, and fallen leaves, but thanks to the weight of the gold ingots inside, nothing seemed to have been lost.
Chui poured out all the muddy water and silt from the leather sack, sorted out only the gold ingots, and shouldered them.
And just as the Staff Fiend had done, he hung the money sack on the end of the staff and turned to leave.
He did not sing.
By the time he reached Gorae County, night had fallen.
It had started to rain again.
The downpour was so heavy that the falling raindrops were painful when they hit.
Splish- splash- splish-
Chui was walking barefoot along the road.
Perhaps because the rain was so severe, there was not a single person passing by.
Just as Chui was about to exit the alley and head toward the main street where Hojeong Gate was located.
Rrrrip—
The money sack hanging from the end of the staff tore, unable to bear the weight of the gold ingots.
Clang— Clatter— Rattle-rattle-rattle…
The gold ingots scattered across the road.
As Chui was about to pick them up.
Creak—
Suddenly, a back door in the alley opened.
“Hey! Which bastard is shitting on the street!?”
An attendant yelled from beyond the pouring rain.
It seemed the gold lumps in the muddy water looked like clumps of dung to the attendant's eyes.
“Aren't you going to pick this up right now!? How dare you do this in front of someone's dumpling shop... Hah?!”
The attendant stopped shouting and gasped.
He had seen Chui's eerie silhouette standing beyond the rain.
“S-Sorry. Please, go on your way. Y-You might need to take a dump… yes, yes, just go ahead and leave it. I'll clean it up tomorrow morning. Ah! with all this rain, it'll, uh, just wash away. Nothing to clean up, then. Haha—hahahaha….”
Come to think of it, the attendant's face was familiar.
It was the same fellow Chui had asked about Hojeong Gate before.
The attendant seemed to recognize Chui as well, for he hastily covered his own cheek and slammed the back door shut.
“…”
Chui gathered the scattered gold ingots from the ground, put them in the sack, and got up again.
The cold rain beat against his body, but he still felt hot.
Like a spearhead just pulled from a furnace, glowing red-hot.
Despite the hammering of countless raindrops, his body was not softening; rather, it was being forged even harder.
Sleepiness washed over him.
Suddenly, Chui realized he was staggering.
The blood, the muddy water, the rain soaking his entire body.
The black staff and the money sack in his hands also grew heavier and heavier.
Soon, the back gate of Hojeong Gate would come into view.
Once I get over the wall and into the stables, the first thing I'll do is collapse onto the soft hay and sleep like the dead.
With that thought, Chui slowly stepped onto the mud-caked road.
At that very moment.
“Excuse me.”
Someone's voice stopped Chui in his tracks.
A clear voice, audible even through the downpour.
A voice that had been newly layered over his blood-stained memories since his return to the past.
Chui lifted his drenched head and looked into the alley.
“…”
Ho Yeyang was standing there.
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