The sounds and cries within the forest were buzzing.
Lee Sungmin could hear the cry of animals from afar.
He was fully aware of the dangers in these ancient forests. The giant beasts were docile most of the time, but when they decided on an enemy like Lee Sungmin, they could be more powerful than monsters.
It was one of the main reasons that Orcs and even Ogres could not survive in this forest.
The animals that resided here were just that strong.
Due to the close relationship between nature and other living beings, the elves got along extremely well with these beasts. If anything that meant they were just hazards waiting to hunder Lee Sungmin, and he would not allow that. Lee Sungmin tilted his head as he heard more footsteps approaching him.
Dozens of wild boars had been raging, and crushing the trees that Lee Sungmin had knocked down.
They were each the size of a house baring their sharp tusks. However, Lee Sungmin’s response was sour as well.
He raised his hand without raising his spear and faced his palm outwards. The internal energy surrounded his forearm and blood-scarlet rings of blood vibrated around him.
Since the death of the Crazy Heavenly Demon, Lee Sungmin had been increasing the amount of time practicing, and use of the Blood Rings martial arts, in battle.
It was because Lee Sungmin truly did wish to follow The Crazy Heavenly Demon’s last will, which was to not let the Blood Rings Martial Art techniques get lost and forgotten. And if anything, Lee Sungmin wished to bring the technique to the level of Transcendence when he got there.
Quang! Crazy Heavenly Demon Blood Rings Martial Arts : Blood Mist Explosion (血霧爆炸)
The Blood Rings rebounded against each other with tension and formulated one big misty ring of blood that shot forwards with surging strength and exploded when they hit the incoming boars.
‘One more time should be enough’
Shooting one more of the same move, the blood, guts and shattered bones of the boars and other beasts splattered in a gruesome mess all over the place.
It wasn’t just the boars and land animals. Lee Sungmin had also slain copious amounts of birds and the like as the mile radius around Lee Sungmin was no longer green and brown with shrubbery. The area was covered with a sea of red containing splintered wood, guts, intestines, animal hides, and shattered bones.
“It seems like they’re finally coming.”
Lee Sungmin murmured, recalling the hunting group that was mentioned earlier. Seeing the animals suddenly attack and then get brutally slaughtered, the hunting group must have started their move.
Lee Sungmin raised his right hand over his head.
Pababak!
The Blood Rings shout out beams of bright red blood at speeds invisible to the eye and tore right through the wings of the flying beasts.
Even if they were stronger than monsters, they were no different from ordinary animals in front of Lee Sungmin.
It’s a matter of perspective of course. These monsters would be incredulously difficult for 2nd rate martial artists and even 1st rate martial artists. It was possible for early level peak martial artists to even struggle slightly against them. But for Lee Sungmin who was at the very verge of the peak realm and about to step into Transcendence, as well as being equipped with all sorts of strong hidden powers within himself, it was as easy as swatting flies.
Thanks to the several humans that transmigrated to Eria from different worlds and alternate universes, humans could easily learn different techniques for any variety of hunting monsters.
Of course, not all humans were able to sing-handedly defy these tactics and logistics with sheer unadulterated power, but Lee Sungmin was a strong individual who was standing amongst the cream of the crop that humanity had to offer.
The beasts continued to attack. However, none of the animals were able to come close to lee Sungmin.
The number of bodies increased as they were brutally slaughtered. The smell of blood and the smell of rotten flesh began to permeate a thick scent.
Lee Sungmin felt the gaze of someone looking at him. But it wasn’t a group of elves directly looking at him.
Lee Sungmin’s senses were spread wide and examined every nook and cranny of his surroundings. The ones responsible for the gaze he was feeling were detection magic spells and lower-level spirits. The hunting group seemed to be observing the movements of Lee Sungmin through spirits and magic while still maintaining a safe distance.
“The bodies will only increase in number as you hide.”
Lee Sungmin murmured as if to state the obvious and relay a message to the hunters. The Captain of the Hunters heard Lee Sungmin’s harsh and brittle words.
She could feel it from the man slaughtering the beasts. They had somehow invited a real ‘tiger’ into their forest.
Humans were normally capable of hunting down the monsters in the forest by using large groups of hired guards and mercenaries to protect the slave traders, but none of those large groups could compare to the man in front of them right now.
“He is a true martial arts master.”
“Not as powerful as the elder though.”
The Hunting Captain replied to the elf in the hunting group that was visibly nervous. Qian Zun acted as the elder of this forest and the Guardian of the village of Elves. Although he had been away from the forest due to his alignment within the organization known as ‘Beyond the Heavens’. Although he had been absent the past 100 years, until that point, he had been teaching and guiding all the elves in the village.
The hunting group, numbering a total of 20 elves, were taught directly by Qian Zun. And the Hunting Captain was Qian Zun’s direct disciple. The Captain before her was also Qian Zun’s disciple.
Qian Zun himself, had practiced and trained in sorcery for decades at the very least, and a century or two at the minimum in martial arts. None of the hunting group members present were yet at the stage of Transcendence.
The Realm of Transcendence was not some mere realm that could be reached simply by training a few centuries.
Still, the hunting captain was closest to the realm of Transcendence among the other elves in the hunting group.
She was Qian Zun’s daughter, and she was incredibly talented from birth even amongst her elven peers. She had started to read earlier than the others, learn martial arts and contract with a spirit faster than them and even start learning magic and sorcery to a certain extent.
“The damage being done to the forest is only increasing.”
One of the hunters said with a worried face. It was the hunter that was tasked with getting rid of the traitor, Rajun.
The message the hunting group of elves had given to the beasts was simple. Kill the intruder of the forest.
As time went by, the bodies of the beasts had been piling up, and the remaining beasts started to attack more desperately and fiercely in anger.
“Yes that is true.”
The hunting captain nodded her head. The animals that were dying were not of great importance to her.
However, not only did it seem impossible to exhaust the human through the waves of attacking beasts, she also couldn’t get an accurate measure of the man’s power.
Took .
The hunting captain’s foot kicked the giant wolf’s stomach slightly.
The wolf kicked the ground. The hunting captain lowered her posture on the back of the wolf as they increased in speed together.
More wolves then followed, and started to move forwards with great vigor behind the hunting captain on her mount.
Suddenly Lee Sungmin heard a cry. He quickly shifted his eyes to see the source of the noise. Thanks to clearing out his surroundings, he could see clearly a pack of wolves and about 20 or so elves riding them.
It seemed the hunting group was finally making their move.
Unlike the group of elven guards Lee Sungmin killed a while ago, they were equipped with slick armor and various flexible, yet tough armaments that focused on sleekness and mobility.
The wolves started to come into view for Lee Sungmin as he started to look over them individually to scout the differences between the elves.
One, two, three.Lee Sungmin counted the numbers of the approaching hunting group. In all, they numbered to about twenty.
[The one with the larger wolf in the front must be the boss of them. She seems pretty good.]
Heoju spoke to Lee Sungmin through their shared conscience. Lee Sungmin could feel it as well. The other members of the group were masters in their own right. They had all at the minimum, reached First-Rate and some were in the early Peak Realm. Lee Sungmin had no choice but to accept it and admire it.
The elves had longer life spans than others. They had superior mana affinity and overall, stronger physiques. But… Lee Sungmin noticed something off.
‘What?’
[These elves haven’t picked a side yet. They have learned both some martial arts and magic but will not even excel in one or the other. What a bunch of contradictory idiots. They don’t want to learn and excel down the path of martial arts since it is pioneered by humans, but they’re using tools made by humans as well.]
Heoju spoke in a mocking tone. Perhaps they were influenced by Qian Zun and his indecisive path of dabbling in sorcery, magic and some martial arts? Lee Sungmin thought so and pulled out his spear he had stabbed into the ground earlier.
A golden and violet hue of Lee Sungmin’s internal energy wrapped around his body. Although they were rather foolish in their path to power, Lee Sungmin still judged them to be as strong as the dead elf had painted them out to be. So he felt the need to show his sincerity.
The scattered pack of wolves did not immediately attack Lee Sungmin but rather started to circle around him and trap him in an encirclement. They took out the crossbows they had placed behind their backs and aimed at Lee Sungmin.
“Human.”
The hunting captain spoke out. Lee Sungmin nodded at the hunting captain’s voice as she stared right at him.
“Why did you come to this forest?”
“Don’t you already know?”
Lee Sungmin replied. He knew the contracted spirits of the deceased elves had relayed the information to the hunting group before their contractors died. The hunting captain’s face turned cold after hearing Lee Sungmin’s answer.
“……what is your business with the elder?”
“He needs to die.”
The hunting captain decided there was no need to ask any more questions. Since their brethren had already died in the first place, asking the question instead of attacking him on the spot, was a luxury in the first place.
Pababababak!
The crossbow arrows from the 20 elves shot out simultaneously. Their arrows which were mixed with the spiritual magic of the wind spirits and their own internal energy, shot out like lightning.
Quaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
The arrows hit the ground where Lee Sungmin was standing as the ground cracked and heaved around with a large cloud of dust. As the dust cleared and the elves were able to see the results, Lee Sungmin was nowhere to be seen.
The hunting captain quickly captured the traces of Lee Sungmin, who had disappeared from their senses. From birth, the innate sixth sense was ingrained into elven lineage and was further developed as they grew stronger in the forest.
The hunting captain swung the two daggers at her waist as soon as they were pulled out in one fluid motion.
Kringggg!
The spear from Lee Sungmin and the daggers from the hunting captain collided mid-air.
‘Hm.. she was able to block it.’
[Indeed, it was a fast response…hehe]
Heoju giggled with laughter as if he found the situation cute. Lee Sungmin held onto the spear as he pointed the toes on his feet slightly upwards and circulated his internal energy..
Silent Flare Shadowless Technique : Two-step Gentle Ripples ( 温柔的水 )
In the face of Lee Sungmin’s incredulous might with the spear, the hunting captain kept her grip as firm as possible and blocked the spear’s stabbing trajectory in place.
It wasn’t just the hunting captain. The wolf she rode on raised its large paw and swiped at Lee Sungmin.
The wolf’s strike was faster and fiercer than the attack of a first-rate martial artist. Lee Sungmin twisted his body in the air and avoided the wolf’s front paw.
Dozens of arrows were also fired behind Lee Sungmin’s back. The arrows that were affected with spiritual magic, changed their trajectories as they fired to confuse Lee Sungmin’s senses.
Lee Sungmin twisted and twirled his body as he retracted his spear. The violet and gold internal energy around him coated fiercely around him and spun at an incredulous speed, creating a fierce series of winds that struck down all of the arrows fired at him.
The hunting captain and her wolf backed down as the other hunting members rushed in. Their respective wolf mounts opened their teeth and tried to bite at Lee Sungmin in the air, while the elves brought out a different weapon while they put away their crossbows.
The rushing elves brought out a chain and sickle and threw the chain sickles at Lee Sungmin who was slowing his twisting momentum.
If Lee Sungmin did not respond to these weapons that seemed to be channeling a much higher amount of internal energy, it seemed things wouldn’t be ending with a simple broken bone. He grabbed the spear and circulated his internal energy with a fierce surge of power from his dantian.
Clang!
Five of the chain sickles were locked around the shaft of the spear. The hunting group members who threw the chain sickles started to run back in the opposite direction with their wolf mounts. The chain was pulled and stiffened up, shaking the grip that Lee Sungmin held over the spear.
Two more hunting group members jumped at Lee Sungmin. Lee Sung-min was holding the spear with one hand, but he was not being dragged in the direction of the chain being pulled. Lee Sungmin raised his right foot at the incoming group of two and roundhouse kicked the jaws of the two wolves the elves were riding on.
Fwack!
The head of the wolf kicked by the foot was smashed inwards However, the elf on the back of the wolf tried to shoot at Lee Sungmin’s head with a curved sickle.
Lee Sungmin’s free hand on the right that was not holding the spear, rose up. The internal energy of Lee Sungmin wrapped around his arm and shifted the trajectory of the sickle, drawing in the elf’s arm towards him and smashing a blow at the arm of the elf.
The elf, whose wrist joint was smashed with the blow, dropped the sickle in pain. Lee Sungmin pulled the elf’s forearm close.
Puck!
The sickle that had its trajectory changed also collided with an elf behind Lee Sungmin and tore the elf’s flesh at the waist apart.
“AHHH!”
‘Nineteen.’
Lee Sungmin counted the remaining elves of the hunting group.
The remaining elf who had it’s arm smashed inwards and whose sickle killed one of its own brethren, screamed in pain and agony. The remaining members of the hunting group had their gazes harden in anger and wariness.
Lee Sungmin opened his hands wide while gripping the screaming elf’s forearm.
Spurrrrt!
Several Blood Rings surrounded Lee Sungmin’s arm and shot out at the nearest elf. The wolf belonging to the elf took a leap and avoided the attack, and the elf balanced itself with the wolf’s waist tightly wrapped around it with both of its legs.
Lee Sungmin aimed at the air as he clenched his fingertips to meet his palms and made fists. Blood scarlet rings started to pulsate around his arm as he unfolded the 3rd move in the Blood Ring martial arts.
Crazy Heavenly Demon Blood Ring Martial Arts: Blood Ring Smithereens (血環破碎)
“It would be easier to move if you’re off those things.”
‘Eighteen.’Lee Sungmin erased one more number from the count. He grabbed the spear with both hands and pulled it with an immense amount of strength from the chain sickles wrapped around it.
Paddeak!
All five of the chains connected to the sickles were snapped on the spot.
“I don’t think it’s such a good idea to be riding a wolf in front of me.”
The hunting captain gritted her teeth at Lee Sungmin’s words. She didn’t want to admit it, but Lee Sungmin was right. She signaled to the remaining 17 to get off their mounts and prepare for up-front combat. The five elves, whose chain sickles broke from Lee Sungmin’s sheer strength, abandoned their weapons.
They lifted their clenched fists without a weapon in sight. They did this because Qian Zun had taught them some martial arts, and the best one he had taught them was one that required no weapon other than their fists.
The other elves of the hunting group kept Lee Sungmin in check by wielding a chain sickle or pulling out their crossbows from earlier.
“Are you not going to use any higher level magic or martial arts?”
Lee Sungmin asked the group bluntly.
It was something that could easily wound the elves’ pride. They had mastered the techniques they were practicing in all aspects of their paths to power : sorcery, magic and martial arts. But the overall level of the technique was not that high.
This also applied to the level of spiritual magic they could apply to their weapons which Lee Sungmin was asking about. Due to their indecisiveness in their paths, they could contract with only lower to mid-level spirits at best.
Despite being a rather obvious weakness to anyone with a sane mind or higher level of power like Lee Sungmin, the elves took pride in the teachings of Qian Zun, even if they were not an opponent for a higher-level martial artist or Arch-Mage.
Five of the hunting group members, who did not take up any weapons, jumped at Lee Sungmin. Getting off their wolves, they bobbed and weaved from all directions, applying spiritual magic, auxiliary magic and martial arts techniques all in one process.
Lee Sungmin calmly chose to use the fear-controlling breathing technique he learned from the village of the Crazy Heavenly Demon and circulate Heoju’s direct source of power within the depths of his dantian. A brilliantly, sinister and purple sheen of internal energy burst out from Lee Sungmin and wrapped around his spear with a frightening might.
The first member of the 5 unarmed combatants who ran at Lee Sungmin threw a clenched fist.
Fast and heavy.But in both aspects, Lee Sungmin with his feet and spear were much, much stronger.
The speartip, which pointed from the front, penetrated the fist of the elf all the way to the forearm. Even if the 17 remaining members were also at the Peak Realm, their levels were fundamentally different.
Even if they had lived for decades to more than a hundred years and trained in martial arts arduously during that time, they were not stronger than Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin pulled his spear that penetrated the elf’s fist and forearm, and Lee Sungmin slightly twisted his wrist and stretched the end of the spear upwards. The injured elf couldn’t even scream as its head was penetrated in a flash.
They were still coating themselves with barriers of internal energy like any martial artist or magician would do, but Lee Sungmin’s strength, which used both unparalleled spear techniques and obscene amounts of strength for anybody in the Peak-Realm and even for a few in the Transcendence Realm, penetrated the coating of internal energy like paper with a blade.
‘Seventeen.’
And it didn’t stop there. Shortly after, the other 4 members that rushed in bare-handed died before they could even notice it.
“Thirteen.”
Lee Sungmin this time, murmured in a small voice instead of counting completely in his head.
Blood dripped from the tip and shaft of the spear.