Possessing Nothing

Chapter 198 – Elven Forest (3)

Translated by : betterdays

T/N : Quick term changes (from before remember, I’m slowly re-introducing the proper terms.)

Ghost Gun(Lee Sungmin’s martial nickname) -> Ghost Spear

(not sure how I want to play around with this since it can go Spear Ghost or Ghost Spear. Nonetheless, leave a comment on how you want to see it be played out name wise).

—

Qian Zun listened to the words spoken by Guan Zun and could not shake the eerie feeling he got from hearing them.

It was too sudden for Qian Zun to receive such news.

He hadn’t heard or seen Guan Zun in a couple years, and he now finally shows up at Qian Zun’s hometown bearing him news of why he suddenly was visiting.

Because Qian Zun was prophesied to die by the Divine Spirit

Qian Zun stared at Guan Zun with a pale face. After a few moments of silence, he opened his mouth.

“I was…. in the message of the divine spirit?”

Qian Zun’s shoulders shuddered slightly as he spoke.

Guan Zun nodded silently. Qian Zun’s face distorted in anxiety and confusion.

He was lying in a bed, rendered immobile, but managed to raise his upper body with much effort and shout.

“I? I’m going to die? Me?!”

“Calm down.”

Guan Zun spoke with a calm voice, but Qian Zun was anything but calm right now.

Elves were beings who lived for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Qian Zun had lived for 400 years, but his life as an Elf was just beginning the young adult-hood phase.

If you were to also take the fact that Qian Zun was in the realm of transcendence, it was clear he had a much longer life expectancy than just a thousand years or so.

Therefore, Qian Zun naturally did not want to believe the prophecy. To an Elf of his caliber, it was ludicrous that he would die this young.

Qian Zun’s shoulders trembled as he spat out.

“The shaman said… I am going to die?!”

“You might die,” Guan Zun replied matter-of-factly.

Unlike Qian Zun, who was showing visible anxiety, Guan Zun was rather nonchalant about the matter.

“I’m here to stop that possibility from happening. The Divine Maiden said you might die, but she didn’t say who, why, or how they would kill you. It’s still possible to prevent it from happening due to how many open flaws there are in the reading.”

“But…!”

“Don’t be so agitated. I’m here to protect you. Or do you for some reason think I’m not good enough?”

“They said someone might kill me…… Couldn’t it be Sima Ryunju? It’s too likely that he would want to kill me in order to remove the curse from the Minor Heavenly Demon, which is under his protection…….”

“It’s unlikely. Even if the Divine Maiden has gone into closed door training, it does not mean Sima Ryunju can come and act how he pleases. Her existence simply is already enough to keep the Sama Order in check.”

“What about the monsters and demons that are active in the South right now?”

“What? That makes even less sense than your previous assumptions. The monsters in the South have been trapped in the forests they belong to, and the 5 Black stars of Predator have no reason to attack you and anger us openly.”

“Then who the hell could it be?!”

“You are incredibly weak right now, please understand.”

Guan Zun answered carefully to Qian Zun’s questions. Seeing how calm he was, it angered Qian Zun more and made him even more anxious, as he became more aware of how powerless he was right now.

“I would not worry about anybody like Sima Ryunju or Black stars of Predator. You may be a transcendent realm expert, but right now you’re weaker than a disabled person. You could be killed by a toddler at this point, so please understand you shouldn’t be worried about who.”

“Why would I want to keep doing this…….”

“I know, just hold out for the sake of Beyond the Heavens and the Divine Spirit. The only thing you need to know for now, is that I will be protecting your safety.”

The words spoken by Guan Zun, which seemed to be obvious, were filled with sincere and immovable conviction.

It was also reasonable for him to be confident as well. Asides from Wolhu and Kang-Seok, Guan Zun was the strongest master in the Transcendent Realm within their organization.

Although Dou Zun regarded him as a rival, everyone knew that Guan Zun was unrivaled within the Four bearing the surname ‘Zun’.

Guan Zun’s mastery of the sword was indeed a level higher than Dou Zun. Anybody would agree.

“You will not die.”

Guan Zun stared at Qian Zun and stated in a calm tone, yet with utter reassurance.

“Because I won’t let it happen.”

Qian Zun’s anxiety and tension that he was feeling, slightly loosened up.

Yeah, it would be alright.

As long as Guan Zun was earnestly here to protect him, nothing would happen to Qian Zun.

That was the logical reasoning to think so, but Qian Zun’s anxiety and displeasure had not been completely resolved.

The fact that Divine Maiden calculated the possibility of his death itself made Qian Zun’s mind wander in displeasing thoughts.

‘Who the hell could be after me?’

Qian Zun had no intentions of leaving the Elven Forest. As long as he was maintaining the curse, he believed he would be safe right where he was.

However, if the Divine Maiden had prophesied his death, then even Qian Zun, who was born and raised in the secret and secluded forest, had no choice but to worry.

Why would they go as far as to kill him? Was there some sort of personal grudge he was not aware of? When Qian Zun thought of anybody he might have a personal vendetta with, he naturally thought of Wijihoyeon, the Minor Heavenly Demon. But she was insignificantly weak, just like he was at the moment.

The nickname ‘Spear Ghost’ was so insignificant to him, he didn’t even bother to think of that name as a possibility of the person who would kill him in the prophecy.

—

Lee Sungmin stared at the forest. He had visited and seen many forests through his journey in the South, but the forest in front of him was known as one of the ‘Ancient Forests’. As he looked at the Elven Forest in front of him, he couldn’t help but think that there was an odd and mysterious difference compared to any of the prior forests he had traversed through.

The Elven Forest seemed to be completely isolated and different from the rest of the world itself.

Large, towering trees both far taller and thicker than the trees that surrounded the perimeter could be seen.

It wasn’t just the trees. Everything around him that encompassed the Forest, was big. Lee Sungmin glanced at the odd and large flowers that were closeby.

It was a standard looking poppy… at first glance at least. However, it was the size of a small child. The petals of the poppy were quite vibrant and gave off a thicker aroma than usual due to its larger properties.

‘Who is it?’

Before entering the area, Lee Sungmin had acquired information about the ancient forest that also served the title as ‘the Forest of Elves’.

The Forest of the Elves, was not home to just the elven race. There were several large animals, rather closer to the size of monsters that also inhabited the perimeters of the forest, hiding the hidden Elven Village deep within.

It was the area that had the highest population of Elves known to others, however even if it was somewhat common knowledge, nobody would dare come close to the village.

Elves were highly valued and popular as slaves. But if one were to enslave even one of their kind, they would receive the entire resentment and force of all the elves within the village, which would guarantee that no slave trader would be able to leave alive.

Of course, there were those that hindered those warnings and wouldn’t mind trying to enslave an elf.

Nevertheless, they still would not come to this forest.

Elves were loved by the forest and nature and general.

The large animals, that were actually not monsters, would communicate and live in harmony with the elves, providing protection for them as well.

The ability to communicate with forms of nature and the forest, enshrouded by such large trees and tough visibility, made it near impossible to find one, let alone sight them.

Countless people had been searching for the Elves living in the Elven Forest, but so far none of them had ever been successful in locating the village of the Elves, which was almost like a myth to them.

And so, because of this odd and peculiar forest that was housing such a mysterious population, it was naturally recognized as the ‘Forest of the Elves’.

But…… just a few days ago, someone had gone into this forest alone.

Lee Sungmin recalled the meeting he had with the gatekeeper to the Forest.

Elves were not a violent race in general. They were also rational people just like any other, and they also knew that living in the forest could not provide them with everything they needed.

Therefore, at the entrance of the forest was a small clearing that served as a port to trade the necessary goods their village needed, with some of the trusted merchants the village did business with.

There, Lee Sungmin had met the ‘gatekeeper’ of sorts, to the forest and had gotten some peculiar information.

A few days ago, someone had walked into the depths of the forest. When the ‘man’ was asked about his destination, the man had replied to the gatekeeper that he was going to the village of elves. The way the man spoke however, was something that seemed odd to the gatekeeper, since the man replied as if it were an insignificant task to even find it in the first place.

Lee Sungmin listened to everything he could hear from the gatekeeper, and put together the most important bits and pieces of information he could find without alerting too much suspicion.

This was because Lee Sungmin thought it would be annoying if the elves knew an unknown human was coming unannounced, into their territory.

[A man with a sword around his waist you say? Well, the world’s full of swordsmen these days.]

Heoju murmured.

Even though Lee Sungmin had found out that the ‘man’ the gatekeeper had seen, was wearing a sword tucked by his waist, it wasn’t a whole lot of information to go off of.

Just knowing that the man had a sword with him, did not give any kind of information pointing to the man’s identity.

Lee Sungmin was bothered by the presence of this “man,” but he was not too caught up in thinking or worrying about it.

‘Have you ever met an Elf?’, Lee Sungmin asked Heoju.

[I have. I’ve had a lot of good times with elves haha.]

‘How was meeting them?’

[What? Why do you need to know about the details of my adventures in bed with them?]

‘No, not like that you old pervert. The Elves themselves as a race. How was meeting them in general?’

Lee Sungmin frowned at Heoju.

Although Selgerus, The master blacksmith that had forged Lee Sungmin’s orchicalcum spear, was a dark elf. The elves and the dark elves should be regarded as almost completely different races.

[Didn’t you hear enough about the Elves from that annoying little asshole?]

As Heoju spoke with an annoyed tone, Lee Sungmin did indeed inquire a lot of information about the Elves with Erebrisa through Neville.

What he had learned from Neville, was that the elves were loved by nature itself, and had superior mana sensitivity and spirit affinity than humans.

Having a higher mana sensitivity made it easy to deal with tasks performed with mana and magic in general, while having a greater affinity with spirits made it much easier to for contracts with spirits from the spirit realm, and got along well with most spirits in general.

In other words, the average elf had a great advantage in becoming a Wizard or Spiritual Magic User from birth.

They had fundamentally different senses from humans as well. The sixth sense that certain human martial artists and wizards only could develop through years of hard work, experience or overwhelming talent, was something that came easily for the Elves. Not only that, but when being inside of a forest, they would never get tired or run out of stamina.

Heoju muttered to Lee Sungmin.

[The Elves gain various and several advantages just by being in the forest. The animals of the forest, the bugs, any living lifeform really, is something they can communicate with. It’s stupid to fight the Elves in the woods. They’re much more dangerous and stronger when they’re in the woods. Maybe even right now-]

Heoju was cut off mid-speech as Lee Sungmin stopped walking, and both felt the sudden murderous intent aimed at them.

Pababak!

Five arrows shot out from the depths of the forest and lodged themselves in the ground right before Lee Sungmin’s feet.

[Of course it would never be this easy, Haha!]

Heoju spoke with a big grin.

Lee Sungmin raised his head and eyes, while ignoring Heoju’s annoying rambling.

He looked in the general direction of where the arrows flew at him from, but there was nothing that anyone would be able to see that was out of the ordinary.

However, Lee Sungmin simply roused up a bit of internal energy and focused the flow of the energy around his eyes. Then, he was able to see quite a distance further and spotted his assailant.

Their eyes met. The elf looked embarrassed as if it had never imagined it would have been spotted in the woods by a mere human.

The elf immediately bounced off the branch that it was crouching on. Lee Sungmin did not miss the movement of the elf at all.

‘No energy?’

The elven race had several advantages over humans including a stronger and well balanced physique. On top of that they lived much longer than humans in general and could train and achieve large amounts of mana and internal energy over that time. But, what was the point of it all if they were arrogant with these advantages and didn’t even bother using them?

Lee Sungmin wondered why the elf wasn’t using any forms of internal energy movement techniques or mana reinforcement, but quickly traversed the distance between him and the elf.

‘Haste’

Lee Sungmin’s body crossed the space in an instant using nothing but his incredibly strong and natural body combined with auxiliary magic.

The elf probably thought that with the natural racial advantage it had it would be able to flee quickly, but it was not all that fast in the eyes of Lee Sungmin.

It was obviously easy for Lee Sungmin to track the Elf’s simple movements. Lee Sungmin was incredibly near the realm of Transcendence, and his body, which had mutated slightly to that of a monster, was already comparable to the physique of a Transcendent Realm Martial Artist.

“Hik!”

The Elf gasped and was embarrassed when he saw Lee Sungmin closing the distance in a mere instant.

However, although frightened, the elf immediately turned its body with it’s waist slightly pointing its bow at Lee Sungmin with an arrow locked in at the bowstring.

Seeing this, Lee Sungmin shifted his weight into his front foot and shot forwards, accelerating even faster. The arrow was then fired at Lee Sungmin, who was accelerating right at it in a straight course.

When the sharp arrowhead came right near Lee Sungmin’s face Lee Sungmin’s body started to blur and the arrow hit nothing but an afterimage.

However, this time the elf was not being arrogant any further. Seeing that Lee Sungmin had spotted it and had no trouble at all following it, the elf knew Lee Sungmin was no ordinary human and was exceeding the limitations of being a human.

A white form of energy started to appear out of thin air and floated around the elf. It was a wind spirit. When the Elf landed on a branch, the wind spirit supported the elf’s movements and allowed it to run freely and faster with more fluidity in it’s movements.

Five arrows then rose out of the elf’s quiver, turned around in mid-air with the help of the wind spirit and shot with renewed vigor and speed at Lee Sungmin.

Vrrnnn-

Lee Sungmin’s body started to coat itself with a violet purple energy. Lee Sungmin’s internal energy started to surge around his body like flames and the arrows disintegrated on the spot when colliding with his violent energy. The small wind spirit quickly noticed the vast difference in power between the two and immediately scattered into thin air.

Lee Sungmin did not even need to swing his spear. A yellow light started to pulsate from his violet coated hand and soon turned blood red. His hand was layered in several rings of brightly colored blood, symbolizing the Blood Rings martial arts passed down from the Crazy Heavenly Demon.

BAM!

Lee Sungmin’s palm reached forward at lightning speed and struck the chest of the elf directly. The elf tried to perform a quick mana barrier and re-summon the wind spirit, but Lee Sungmin’s raw power and internal energy output were… immense to say the least.

“Ugh…. kack!”

The elf’s body fell on a large branch and it coughed out blood from the huge force that hit it. If Lee Sungmin had decided on attacking to kill and didn’t hold back his power, the elf’s head would have popped like a water balloon.

Lee Sungmin slowed down his steps and landed right in front of the fallen elf.

The elf, who was slouched and injured with a pale face, was intrinsically beautiful as Lee Sungmin got a closer look.

It was hard to tell whether the elf’s gender was that of a man or a woman’s, but thanks to the protruding Adam’s apple, Lee Sungmin could tell from a glance that the elf was a man.

Lee Sungmin approached the fallen elf and grabbed his neck firmly as he raised the elf up.

“Are you a hunter from the Village of the Elves?”

asked Lee Sungmin. The Elf looked up at Lee Sungmin with astonished eyes that did not hide any of the absolute fear it was feeling at that moment.

The elf was still in shock and wasn’t speaking, so Lee Sungmin felt the need to regain it’s attention and strengthened his grip around the elf’s neck a bit tighter.

“I have some business with your village, I’m afraid you’ll have to be the one to show me around.”

“UcKkkkkKkk..…!”

The Elf made a painful groan but did not relax his eyes as he stayed wary of Lee Sungmin.

Lee Sungmin acted without hesitation.

Whack!

Lee Sungmin smacked the elf across the cheek with such force and a tooth went flying from the elf’s mouth as the head whipped to the side.

“You may have lived much longer than I have, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t afraid of death…”

“rk….”

The elf began to struggle once more and refused to open its mouth and give information. Lee Sungmin looked at the bared teeth of the elf, showing clear hostility to him. Lee Sungmin started to then wonder just how many teeth he would have to pry out before he would get some information.

Lee Sungmin’s hand headed to the mouth of the elf who was baring its teeth at him. Lee Sungmin already decided to go for the front two canine teeth that were irking him the most.

However, Lee Sungmin did not get the chance to pull out the elf’s canines. This was because he noticed dozens of arrows in his surroundings all aiming at his body.

“I don’t want to fight all of you.”