Chapter 28: Day 28

At the place where the city of Zuhang once stood,

now a barren wasteland scoured clean by a furious storm, Cheon Seo Ah opened her eyes.

Flash!

A vibrant, dark green light briefly flared in her eyes before fading.

She exhaled slowly, her breath carrying an unsettling, dark green aura.

More than just a visual anomaly, the exhalation was dangerous.

The air it touched began to decay. The earth below, scorched and barren, could no longer sustain life.

A single step onto this blighted ground would initiate a slow, agonizing decay.

A single breath of the corrupted air would liquefy the lungs and internal organs, a gruesome death preceded by unbearable pain.

Cheon Seo Ah gazed blankly at the sky, catching her breath.

“The Golden Core… is formed.”

A Golden Core now resided within her danjeon, pulsating with power even in its dormant state.

Cheon Seo Ah’s face was alight with triumph, but a closer examination of the Core brought a flicker of surprise.

It was larger than expected.

A typical Golden Core was no bigger than half a man’s fist.

Hers was the size of a full fist.

“Good. Very good.”

A satisfied grin spread across her face.

Perhaps the black tribulation, this unnatural Heavenly Tribulation, was the cause.

She couldn’t be sure.

Demonic Beasts who reached the Golden Core stage through Demonic Arts were rare.

Perhaps there was something unique about her, something that allowed for such a result.

Her elation was short-lived.

A slight frown creased her brow.

“The toxicity in my Demonic Qi is too strong.”

The Thousand Spirit Corpse Poison Pill, a key ingredient in her breakthrough, had left its mark.

The corpse poison, now infused into her Golden Core and Demonic Qi, had a profound effect.

On the one hand, she was now virtually immune to all poisons, her Demonic Qi potent and deadly. On the other…

“Every drop of my blood, every breath I exhale, carries this toxicity.”

Was this truly a negative? Cheon Seo Ah considered this, then shook her head.

No.

This was not a weakness.

This toxic blood, this poisonous breath, these were merely new weapons in her arsenal. Still…

“I need to be careful.”

Suppressing the toxic aura that constantly threatened to erupt, she surveyed her surroundings.

The land and air for dozens of meters around her were now saturated with deadly poison.

It would take a century for this toxicity to dissipate naturally. A century of lifelessness, a testament to her ascension.

“Not my concern.”

Despite being responsible for creating this desolate wasteland, Cheon Seo Ah simply walked away. Such matters were trivial, not worth a moment’s thought.

#

Two days later, a group approached the edge of the poisoned land. An old man with a white beard and hair, and his disciples.

“The work of a vagrant, perhaps, Master?”

“Impossible. A vagrant could never obliterate an entire city.”

“Then…?”

The disciple pressed, his expression grim. The old man, his master, considered this, his face darkening.

“This bears the mark of a Demonic Beast.”

A Demonic Beast! The disciples were shocked. A Demonic Beast in these parts?

“But even a Demonic Beast wouldn’t destroy a city… unless…”

“Unless it was powerful enough to disregard the combined might of this continent’s cultivators.

Or…” The old man’s voice was heavy with foreboding. “…perhaps a rogue Demonic Sect is at work.”

The disciples’ faces paled.

Whatever they imagined, the reality was bound to be worse.

A lone Demonic Beast powerful enough to challenge all the cultivators of the continent was a terrifying thought.

A rogue Demonic Sect with such ambition was equally disturbing.

Whatever ritual had consumed an entire city, the result was unlikely to be benign.

As the disciples shifted nervously, their fear palpable, the old man spoke.

“We have no choice. We must go to the capital.”

“The capital, Master?”

“Yes. This is beyond our capabilities.

We must inform them and request their assistance.

Though…” A shadow of resignation crossed his face.

“…they likely already know.”

#

Cheon Seo Ah, having infiltrated Zuhang from the Central Mountain Range, now returned to the mountains. Though she had reached the Golden Core stage, and her Core was unusually large…

“There must be cultivators in this vast continent who have surpassed the Golden Core stage.”

Even the White Snake Gate’s Sect Leader was far more powerful than she.

Now that she herself was at the Golden Core stage, she could truly appreciate the monstrous power he possessed.

Not metaphorically, but literally a monster in human form.

Even now, she couldn’t fathom the depths of his power, his true cultivation level.

She needed to be cautious.

The leader of a single orthodox sect possessed such strength.

This continent was home to countless nations, each with its own dominant sects, each vying for power.

That’s why Cheon Seo Ah had returned to the Central Mountain Range. Somewhere within its vast expanse…

“There was a Demonic Sect, wasn’t there?”

A Demonic Sect was different from an orthodox sect like the White Snake Gate.

They weren’t always comprised solely of Demonic Arts practitioners.

Some orthodox sects, through political maneuvering, could be branded as Demonic. Others might earn the label through their practice of unusual or unsettling techniques.

But the Demonic Sect Cheon Seo Ah sought was the real deal.

A sect that possessed true Demonic Arts, whose members pursued immortality through those forbidden practices.

“It was by chance,” she muttered.

Before leaving the Central Mountain Range. More precisely, before leaving the snake-human’s cave, she had stumbled upon a journal.

The journal, seemingly written by the snake-human, contained a record of a Demonic Sect he had once been associated with. The name was…

“The Blood King Sect, was it?”

Judging by the name, they likely specialized in blood-related Demonic Arts.

The snake-human hadn’t been a member. He’d merely encountered records of a far older sect, now considered legendary, its location within the Central Mountain Range known only through whispers and rumors.

Cheon Seo Ah grinned at the thought of obtaining new Demonic Arts from the Blood King Sect.

They might not welcome her with open arms. But surely, they wouldn’t simply turn away a Golden Core Demonic Beast?

If, by some minuscule chance, they rejected her…

“Then I’ll just steal them.”

Having reached the Golden Core stage, she needed appropriate techniques.

She couldn’t rely on the Ninefold Hell Body Explosion Art forever.

Although she had acquired knowledge of numerous techniques at the White Snake Gate, adapting them into Demonic Arts was inefficient.

Even the Six Flicking Fingers Sword Art required her to create twelve demonic sword lights to match the power of the original six.

“I wonder what kind of techniques the Blood King Sect has to offer,” she mused, traversing the mountains.

“Huh?”

Leaping between trees, Cheon Seo Ah stopped abruptly, staring into the distance.

She sensed a familiar aura, one she’d encountered before. An aura that made her skin crawl.

Where had she encountered it? She racked her brain, then…

“Ah! That hedgehog bastard!”

The aura was similar to the hedgehog monster she’d encountered shortly after escaping Solitude. Was there a spirit beast nearby? A spirit beast…

“Not bad.”

After a moment’s consideration, Cheon Seo Ah moved towards the aura.

Finding the Blood King Sect was important, but a rare spirit beast was not something to be ignored.