Chapter 470 - 470 (1/2)
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Pow—!
Crumble—
When Su-hyeun struck the skeleton just below its jawline using the blade in his hand, the pitch-black bones cracked apart and crumbled to pieces. This creature never got to find out how it got attacked from behind as it collapsed in a heap to the ground.
Crack—!
Su-hyeun stepped on the skull to completely crush it.
Normal Lichs would've had ”life vessels” that acted as their life source inside their skulls. However, the skeleton Su-hyeun had stepped on didn't have such a thing in its skull.
”So, the bones themselves possess the necessary energy and use that as their medium to move around?”
These things operated in a fundamentally different way than other Lichs.
Initially, Su-hyeun wondered if they were once upon a time Predators, or Preys that hadn't become Predators yet, but as it turned out, even that guess was wrong.
”They are not Lichs but summons.”
Despite being rather similar to Lichs and Death Knights that use magic and sword techniques, and even more crucially, despite being dead creatures, not a single one of them responded to Su-hyeun's Death Aura.
But that still didn't mean they were ”living,” either. It simply meant that some other force stronger than Su-hyeun's power to command the undead was at play here. Thus, he couldn't rely on his Necromancer trait to wrestle control of them away.
”This should be enough, I guess,” Su-hyeun glanced at his surroundings.
Using Insight, he could clearly see every single one of these undead hiding throughout the forest as if this was happening on top of his palm.
Bang—!
Su-hyeun jumped up high. Right after that...
[Wide Area - Provocation]
Giiii-iiiing—
With him in the center, his aura spread out over a wide area, meaning the entirety of the forest itself.
When that happened, the summons gathering around Su-hyeun changed their behavior.
Pahk— paaahk—!
Fwhoooooosh—!
To take potshots at him, the undead creatures hiding in the forest chose to leave their hiding spots to jump up toward him instead.
Su-hyeun, who had been waiting for this to happen, quietly muttered, ”Strike them down...”
Flash—!
[Somersault cloud - Rain of Thunder]
”Somersault cloud.”
Ruuuumble—!
Dark storm clouds gathered in an instant, and bolts of lightning emitting a blinding light crashed down like raindrops. The skeletons were charred black and turned into ashes that got scattered away by the blowing winds.
Su-hyeun didn't immediately go back down to the ground, instead of taking a bit of time to scan the forest's interior.
There were none left.
”Did they run away?”
He was certain about this not being all of them.
Even at a casual glance, the number of the undead that had gathered here easily reached the four-digit mark. He only had dealt with about half of them, but the rest of them were gone without a single trace by now.
It didn't look like they escaped to avoid falling for his Provocation, either.
”They weren't planning to fight properly from the very beginning, then.”
They constantly skulked around Master Subhuti and him but didn't do anything else besides. At first, he thought they were planning to harm Subhuti, but his thoughts had changed now that some time had passed.
Would someone like Osiris, the ”god” of the dead, send some measly summons with only this much strength to kill Master Subhuti?
Indeed, they weren't here to kill Subhuti at all. They were simply meant to locate him.
”They achieved their goal, is that it?”
After confirming that no other summoned undead remained, Su-hyeun returned to the forest below.
Thanks to activating the Rain of Thunder high up in the sky, there wasn't much damage to the forest below. Only some leaves down there were lightly singed by the electric currents.
”Huh-uh. Leaves got burned in the end,” complained Master Subhuti still.
Su-hyeun looked back at him. The old man with a slightly bent back trudging along was currently dragging a limp skeleton behind him.
”You've arrived, Master Subhuti?”
Someone benevolent-looking was dragging along a skeleton, so this sight came across a bit surreal somehow.
It seemed that several summons managed to reach Master Subhuti's side.
”The rest have run away,” said Subhuti.
”They did accomplish what they set out to do, after all.”
”And just like that, my current lifestyle is now over. Tsk,” Subhuti tutted as if he was deeply unhappy while walking up to the tallest tree in the surroundings. He reached out and began rubbing the tree along its grain.
Vitality quickly returned to the leaves that got slightly singed by the Rain of Thunder. He smiled faintly and nodded in satisfaction, ”It's done.”
”Are you going to leave now?”
To think that they had to part ways right after meeting for the first time...
Su-hyeun still had many things to ask Subhuti. No, even if that wasn't the case, this individual had deep connections to the Bull Demon King, Sun Wukong, and the Roc Demon King.
He taught them the Sage Arts. Not only did he take in Sun Wukong, who had to say goodbye to his Yogoe family back in the Mountain of Flower and Fruit a long time ago, but he even acted as a father figure to them, too.
Su-hyeun also wanted to talk to him for a bit longer.
”How can I leave right away? We should have a couple of days of leeway. I don't know about the others, but I definitely have to say goodbye to Wukong at least. He might not show it on the outside, but he'll definitely get depressed,” Master Subhuti said and then grinned bitterly. ”I'm also kind of worried about the Bull Demon King.”
”First Brother, you say?”
Now that was a surprise.
It might not be the case with the other two, but if it was the Bull Demon King, Su-hyeun naturally thought that he would be unperturbed by the prospect of saying goodbye to Master Subhuti.
Subhuti shook his head to reply to Su-hyeun's question then avoided the subject altogether. It seemed that hearing more about the Bull Demon King would not be possible now.
Subhuti turned around and headed toward the house where the Bull Demon King and Sun Wukong should be waiting for them. ”Why don't we get a move on now? I fear that there isn't a lot of time left for us to chat like this.”
Step—
Whoosh—
He took one step, and he simply vanished from the spot.
That was the ”Earth Shrink Technique.”
However, it was impossible to tell just how far he had moved with that single step. Despite using Insight, Su-hyeun couldn't see where Master Subhuti was.
”That fast...?”
Su-hyeun's brows rose slightly while staring at the spot where Subhuti used to be.
The Earth Shrink Technique was a sorcery-like technique that allowed you to leap over a fixed space by ”folding” it. It wasn't a simple movement technique at all, and it required a little bit of prep time to use, just like a magic spell.
But Master Subhuti clearly didn't require any prep time at all.
Su-hyeun, too, could use Earth Shrink Technique, but what Master Subhuti used here was literally on another realm compared to his.