Chapter 167. Even If I Have to Paint Myself with Lacquer or Swallow Charcoal (13)
Several enraged village men rushed Woo-Moon with clubs and sickles.
“Kya!!!”
The terrified girl screamed as Woo-Moon’s body flickered like a ghost.
Every time he reappeared and disappeared, a man’s shoulder was completely crushed.
A moment later, Woo-Moon finally reappeared in front of the girl, while all four men who had tried to attack him were left screaming in pain.
It was only at this point that the village chief felt something was strange.
‘C-could it be? Is he one of those people of the murim I only heard rumors about?’
The village chief suddenly recalled something he had heard when young.
‘Never get involved in anything related to someone from the murim.’
Right as he thought that, Woo-Moon stretched out his hands. The two swords that were stuck into the cliff flew out and returned to Woo-Moon’s hands.
“Ahh!!”
Seeing this, the villagers were completely shocked.
“Eun-Ah,” Woo-Moon quietly called.
ROAR!!
A huge roar echoed throughout the surrounding mountains, and Eun-Ah climbed up the cliff wall and appeared behind the villagers.
Grrr....
‘A white tiger!’
The villagers froze and stared at Eun-Ah, unable to run away.
“Even though this was all out of ignorance, you sacrificed so many lives. A price has to be paid.”
As soon as Woo-Moon finished speaking, he swung the still-sheathed sword in his hand. A sword wind billowed from the swinging scabbard, blowing over each of the villagers and crippling one of their shoulders.
“Come this way, Eun-Ah. Let’s go see this guardian god or whatever.”
Huff!
With a low snort, Eun-Ah leaped into the air and landed behind Woo-Moon.
Even as Eun-Ah left their side, the villagers still couldn’t move.
They all even soiled themselves in fear, the stench spreading to the surrounding area.
‘I need to get out of here quickly, it seems.’
As the smell started to waft over, Woo-Moon quickly made his way up with the girl in tow.
As Woo-Moon held her hand and imbued her with the gentle qi of the Forbidden Divine Art, while Eun-Ah treated her well, unlike the villagers, the girl had no fear of the white tiger.
“Can you guide me to where that god is supposed to be?”
Startled, the girl looked at Woo-Moon with a trembling gaze and spoke cautiously.
“W-why would you want to? Can’t we just go down the mountain?”
The girl was afraid that Woo-Moon also wanted to offer her to the Guardian God like the others.
“I’m going to take care of it so this never happens again.”
“N-no, you can’t! You’ll lose your life like that!”
“It’s fine, don’t worry. That little rascal is going to help us, too.”
Huff.
The tiger was called the king of the mountains and was considered a sacred beast. Moreover, even among tigers, white tigers were considered especially sacred. Because of that, the girl actually trusted Eun-Ah even more than Woo-Moon.
“Okay. Then, I’ll tell you where it is. This way!”
The Guardian God was such a terrifying beast that she had never seen it herself. However, she had heard about it and where it resided.
Grr...
As they progressed forward, Woo-Moon could sense a fishy scent in the air growing stronger, and Eun-Ah began to grow seemingly out of anger, revealing her vicious side.
“So, there really was something here.”
As he walked, Woo-Moon placed a hand on the stone wall by his side and let his qi penetrate through the stone.
Crack!!!
With a loud explosion, a cave appeared, large enough to fit dozens of people.
“Go in here and wait. I’ll come back after I handle this.”
“Huh? Okay! P-please, be careful.”
The girl seemed quite kind-hearted. Feeling that it had been well worth the detour to save her, Woo-Moon nodded before heading toward the source of the fishy smell with Eun-Ah.
As they moved a little further forward, they were greeted by the sight of a vast cave, hundreds of times larger than the one that Woo-Moon had just created.
“So it’s inside here.”
Woo-Moon went inside without hesitation.
The dark aura that spread around him and Eun-Ah was blasted apart.
Zzzzzzzzzzz.
An odd, scratchy sound echoed, and Woo-Moon could feel the ground vibrating.
Zzzzzzzzz.
The fishy smell grew more intense, along with the sound of something large crawling on the ground.
“Eun-Ah, you’re pissed right now, right?”
Huff!
“Okay. Then you take care of that.”
As soon as Woo-Moon finished speaking, a snake so large that it seemed as though it could fit Eun-Ah in its mouth appeared from the dark depths of the cave.
‘Black scales and a red horn... at that size, it’s got to be a Poisonblood Horned Serpent.’
The being that the villagers revered as a Guardian God and sacrificed the living to was actually a spirit beast, the Poisonblood Horned Serpent.
Eun-Ah roared at the Poisonblood Horned Serpent, from which billowed relentless death qi.
ROAR!!!
The huge roar shook the cave so hard that stalactites fell from the ceiling.
Although the stalactites had sharp ends, the three in the cave couldn’t care less.
Eun-Ah wasn’t just a white tiger, but a silver tiger. If tigers were the kings of animals and white tigers were the emperors, silver tigers were gods!
The Poisonblood Horned Serpent had run out when it sensed something invading its territory, assuming it was the humans coming to offer it food. However, it actually found itself shivering, suppressed by Eun-Ah’s roar.
The Poisonblood Horned Serpent was also a spirit beast, one that had lived for two hundred years and had grown abnormally fast due to human sacrifices.
However, not even a beast like that could show its full strength in front of the strongest of the spirit beasts, Eun-Ah!
Woosh!
With another roar, Eun-Ah nimbly launched her large body and mounted the Poisonblood Horned Serpent, biting its neck right under its head in a single swift move.
The Poisonblood Horned Serpent's scales were so poisonous that they could cause fatal poisoning just from a single touch. Moreover, it was so tough that neither swords nor spears could leave a scratch on it.
However, Eun-Ah’s innate immunity was so strong that the Poisonblood Horned Serpent’s poison wouldn’t even give it a stomachache, and even as a cub, she had teeth strong enough to chew through metal.
Now that she had grown into an adult tiger, she’d yet to find something that could stop her bite, and this snake was not going to be the first.
Sssss!!!
Great pain and the fear of death awakened the Poisonblood Horned Serpent's instincts.
In an instant, the Poisonblood Horned Serpent, whose body had been severed in two, quickly moved what was left attached to it and turned its fangs toward Eun-Ah’s neck.
Its fangs, which seemed small at first, extended out to a terrifying length that looked nearly three times as long as Woo-Moon’s Lightflash as it bit into Eun-Ah’s neck.
The Poisonblood Horned Serpent was actually able to fight back against Eun-Ah, a testament of its might. However, it was futile. Eun-Ah was a mighty being even among its own kind, and her hide was far tougher than the most refined metal. It wasn’t something that a mere Poisonblood Horned Serpent’s fangs could dig into.
As if annoyed, Eun-Ah roared harshly and struck the Poisonblood Horned Serpent's head with her front paw, stomping on it so that it couldn’t move.
Rumble!!
The Poisonblood Horned Serpent shook in fear.
Eun-Ah roared once again, lifting her head in pride.
ROAR!!!!
“Hey! You’re being noisy. Hurry up and finish it, you little rascal.”
As Woo-Moon called out to her, Eun-Ah hurriedly bit the head of the Poisonblood Horned Serpent and chewed.
Crack!
However, she quickly started whimpering and spitting. Clearly, she was not a fan of the fishy smell and taste.
As was the case from when she was a baby, Eun-Ah still only ate cooked meat.
When Woo-Moon wasn’t able to provide any cooked meat, she would spend her days grazing on grass or picking fruit from the mountains. As a result, whenever Woo-Moon would tell her to roam by herself for a while, the herbivores in the surrounding mountains and fields would suffer from a lack of food.
In fact, Eun-Ah was so afraid of raw food that even when she was to help Woo-Moon fight, and even when she would have to bite her opponent, she would take great care not to taste their blood. She had never once before consumed even a drop of blood.
“Alright, are you done? Let’s go.”
The Poisonblood Horned Serpent was certainly a strong spirit beast, but that was just by normal standards.
Woo-Moon turned around and was about to leave the cave when Eun-Ah suddenly started digging through the carcass of the serpent with her two massive front paws.
She carefully picked something up with her tail and walked over to Woo-Moon to show him.
The dark cave suddenly grew bright as a mysterious qi filled the air, basked in the glow of seven shades of sunlight.
All of the qi and light was flowing out of what Eun-Ah had grasped in her tail.
“What is it? Oh, a neidan? Well, I don’t need it, so you eat it.”
Eun-Ah seemed to think about those words for a moment before shaking her head, her bright eyes shining.
“Hmm? What, it seems good, so you want to give it to the others?”
Eun-Ah was thinking about Gun-Ha, Dae-Woong, Jin-Jin, Woo-Gang, and even the other Song Family guards.
Moved by Eun-Ah’s heart, Woo-Moon felt his heart twinge. He rapped her head with his knuckles.
“That’s not necessary, you little brat. We’re too far from them to save this for them, the neidan will disintegrate over time now that it's outside of the serpent’s body. Look, isn’t it getting smaller?”
The energy contained in the Poisonblood Horned Serpent's neidan was indeed visibly decreasing.
Although it was a valuable item that any martial artist would covet, Woo-Moon didn’t care for it at all. After all, he was a Paragon, and his qi reserves were beyond what normal people could even dream of.
Huff.
Eun-Ah, feeling sad, expressed her wishes to Woo-Moon again through their link.
“Fine, fine. Are you sure? Then, you take half of it first. The qi inside of this is too strong, and it’ll kill the child if she consumes the entire thing.”
Woo-Moon used Spatial Manipulation and surrounded the neidan with qi before splitting it in half and feeding half of it to Eun-Ah.
The effects were immediate. Her fur turned into deeper shades of black and white, and the spiritual qi glimmering in her eyes also grew stronger.
Woo-Moon then walked outside and called out to the girl hiding in the cave.
“Ah! It’s such a relief that you’re safe!”
As the girl spoke, Woo-Moon took the moment where her mouth was open to flick the neidan into her mouth.
“Huh? W-what is this?”
“Keep your mouth shut for now,” Woo-Moon said as he lifted her body into the air with his qi and immediately started to imbue her entire body with his aura.
The girl felt a massive surge of energy come from within the thing that she had just swallowed. At the same time, she felt a rush of cooling aura penetrate her body and match the energy of that thing.
Cleansing someone’s marrow and bones commonly took quite some time, as not just anybody had the energy to do it in one go. However, as the girl had an enormous amount of qi infused into her body and Woo-Moon’s help in absorbing it all, the transformation proceeded quickly.
Crack.
As her bones twisted and grinding sounds rumbled from her body, she actually shed her skin as if she were a snake herself.
Then, a few moments later, when the process ended, the girl descended to the ground once more.
Her skin had been well-tanned and full of scratches, scars, and other injuries, making her look older than her age. Now, it was as fresh as a baby’s. She didn’t look as skinny anymore and she even seemed taller. Her eyes shone, and her entire being exuded vitality.
While she wasn’t ugly originally, after the cleansing of her marrow and bones, she was far prettier. While not otherworldly stunning, she would still be noticed everywhere she went.
Woo-Moon created a gust of wind with his qi and blew away the foul odor emanating from the girl, as well as the skin she shed.
As she looked at her hands, she realized that something had changed within her. Something major... Something good.
She bowed to Woo-Moon deeply.
“Thank you, thank you so much. Not only did you save my life, but you’ve also given me such grace.”
“It’s fine. What was your name?”
“Yu Yu.”
When she said that, Yu Yu suddenly started to shed large, round tears.
“My brother’s name was Yu Ho. Even after we became orphans and were forced to wander from place to place, he always took care of me. He made sure that whenever there was food, I’d eat first, even if that meant he’d starve himself. We were so happy when this village said that they would accept us!”