Childhood Friend of the Zenith – 424 (Part 1)



424 (Part 1)

**Chapter 425: The Snake (2)**

What on earth should I do about this?

This thought crossed my mind as I looked at the snake staring intently at me.

Setting aside its yellow eyes just the sight of its red scales was enough to tell me something.

This creature.

‘It looks just like the one I killed earlier.’

No matter how I looked at it that was the case.

Of course this wasn’t particularly strange.

The red demonic beast that appeared in the river is called the Red Water Snake.

The Red Water Snake is a demonic beast that can appear in both rivers and seas.

Its size is considerable among red demonic beasts but it wasn’t a demonic beast that was difficult to deal with due to its size alone.

If there was a problem it was simply that its habitat was water.

Moreover…

‘As far as I know it seems to use poison.’

Its fangs contained extreme poison and even without that I remembered it as a demonic beast that exhaled toxic fumes.

But I hadn’t felt that kind of aura when facing this one.

There might be some that don’t use it but…

‘Strange.’

It also called me something great while looking at me.

It felt as if it was intentionally trying not to attack me.

Why is that?

Why me?

It was already strange that a demonic beast spoke to me. The fact that this demonic beast showed me favor was the biggest question.

‘This one too.’

As I shifted my gaze with my hand a small Red Water Snake was staring at me blankly.

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Right now this little one was my biggest concern.

What is this one?

I frowned as I made eye contact with the Red Water Snake.

‘That little bastard almost got me killed.’

Right after I extracted the magic stone from the body of the demonic beast.

I felt something strange and examined the magic stone.

Upon seeing it I instinctively understood.

I could feel an unknown stirring coming from it.

Stirring from a magic stone what is this? It’s not like it’s an egg so why is there stirring all of a sudden?

I was so surprised that I almost gulped down the river water.

Even more astonishing was that.

Upon discovering it I instinctively knew how to hatch it.

Hatching.

Yes I could hatch this magic stone.

What would pop out from inside? I couldn’t know that but one thing was certain.

So what should I do?

There was no time to ponder. Before I could even think I was already ‘putting’ my energy into it as if I was entranced.

‘This is…’

The method of hatching was simple.

Instead of absorbing the demonic qi from the magic stone with the Martial Arts Heaven-Sucking Technique I would rather inject my own demonic qi into it.

Just like how one injects demonic qi into others to corrupt them into demonic practitioners.

The same principle was being applied to the magic stone.

If you ask how I knew it felt as if someone had told me that this was how it should be done.

If there was one problem…

‘Why is it consuming so much…!’

The magic stone was ravenously devouring my energy.

I thought it would consume a certain amount but the extent was too severe.

Thanks to the martial arts and miraculous encounters I had I was in a state with an unusually high amount of qi even among those at the same level.

Yet even in that situation it was consuming this much.

‘I feel like it’s already consumed half of it.’

I thought I would have enough since I hadn’t used much in battle.

But the amount it was consuming was abnormal.

Moreover I couldn’t even stop giving it energy.

‘This crazy bastard…?’

At first I was voluntarily injecting my energy.

But at some point the magic stone had reached a level where it was absorbing my energy.

Normally if you cut it off that would be the end of it but this time it was different.

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I could feel it from the way it absorbed my energy.

If I forcibly cut it off my acupoints would twist leading to qi deviation.

Especially since I was in the water it was hard to struggle and with my energy being consumed it felt like I was on the brink of death.

If I lost all my energy like this I might really die.

Thinking that I desperately tried to regain my composure.

I couldn’t die in a place like this.

That was my mindset but there wasn’t really a method.

My energy was gradually running low.

‘Damn it.’

At this rate I felt like all my energy would be completely drained.

What should I do?

As I felt like I was truly heading into a crisis and needed to do something suddenly—

Thud-!

Finally the draining of my energy stopped.

‘…Hah.’

I immediately checked my body at that sensation.

All the energy in my body had been drained leaving only a very small amount.

If it had drained just a little more it would have truly been the end.

A sense of relief that I hadn’t died began to creep in.

Crack-!

I felt a change in the magic stone in my hand.

The magic stone had cracked.

And suddenly I felt something in my hand.

Frowning I checked my hand and a red snake was coiling around my arm.

I should have widened my eyes at that sight but getting out of the water was my priority.

As my qi dwindled my breathing became labored.

I had to survive first so regardless of the snake I quickly escaped to the surface.

Time passed and now.

“What are you?”

I was facing the snake that had emerged from the magic stone.

A demonic beast had jumped out of the magic stone.

‘…Is this how it’s supposed to be?’

It shouldn’t be.

I had never heard of a demonic beast emerging from a magic stone.

I had never seen it in my life.

Of course I had never looked into or been interested in the breeding or birthing of demonic beasts.

But at least I knew that demonic beasts didn’t come out of magic stones.

‘Then what is this?’

That’s why it was even stranger.

The fact that a red demonic beast suddenly emerged after sucking my energy from the magic stone was odd enough.

The behavior of the demonic beast was also strange.

Shaaah…

Lick.

The Red Water Snake flicked its tongue and licked my finger.

Seeing this I could tell that it didn’t exhibit any hostile intent.

It was absurd.

Originally demonic beasts are creatures that do not show favor to humans so why is it acting like this?

This was a big deal.

The Murim Alliance had long desired to tame demonic beasts for hundreds of years but ultimately concluded that it was impossible and gave up.

Demonic beasts are inherently ferocious leaving only greed and hunger as their traits.

They can never be tamed and must be hunted for peace.

This was the conclusion the Murim Alliance had reached through long experience.

‘What a funny creature.’

The Red Water Snake continued to lick my arm as if showing favor.

I had to look at it in disbelief.

“Speak. What are you?”

I kept trying to talk to it but the Red Water Snake didn’t respond at all.

It was ridiculous to believe that a demonic beast would answer me.

But recalling the earlier situation it wasn’t entirely impossible.

That creature had definitely spoken to me.

“Are you different from that one I killed earlier?”

I was asking if this Red Water Snake was different from the one I had killed but it just stared blankly at me sticking out its tongue.

“Hey you answered well earlier. Why are you quiet now? Speak up.”

Shaaah?

The snake tilted its head as if it didn’t understand.

“Hah…”

I was starting to get annoyed and heat rose to my head.

Now I was having this kind of conversation with a snake in the middle of the night.

I was already overwhelmed and this was just infuriating.

Crack-!

Shaaah-!

Unable to hold back my temper I finally grabbed the snake by the neck.

“How much energy have I given you? You can’t be useless like this.”

Shaaak…! Shaaah!

The captured Red Water Snake struggled as if it was suffocating.

“What are you? If you don’t answer I’ll kill you right here. Answer me clearly.”

I was at a significant loss.

Not only had I given up a high-grade magic stone for this little creature but I had also poured out precious energy.

In a situation where I was already pressed for energy it was truly infuriating.

Shaaak… Shaaah…

“You’re red so you must have a magic stone right?”

It didn’t seem to have much strength and its body was so small that it didn’t seem like it would have anything inside.

But I had to swallow this.

That way I wouldn’t feel as wronged.

With that thought I glared at it while maintaining my grip.

Shaaak…

It still didn’t say anything and just kept struggling without any special reaction.

If I had to point something out it was that it was still licking my hand as if showing favor even in this situation.

Why on earth was this demonic beast acting like this towards me?

The sudden appearance of the red demonic beast and the fact that it seemed to want something from me was unsettling.

It was absurd that it was trying to show favor when it should be sinking its fangs into me with killing intent.

That sight reminded me of my past life.

I felt quite disgusted.

“…This is ridiculous.”

I frowned and then relaxed my grip.

As a result the Red Water Snake fell to the ground with a thud.

Thud-.

Shaaah…

As soon as it hit the ground it quickly crawled back up my body again.

What on earth was it doing?

Could it be that it thinks I’m its parent?

‘A demonic beast’s parent? What kind of nonsense is that?’

The idea that it thinks of me as a parent because it’s the first one it has seen.

It’s a story that is often used but it doesn’t apply to demonic beasts.

This means that.

This Red Water Snake is either something different from an ordinary demonic beast.

‘It means there’s something different about me.’

Even during my travels I had been attacked by demonic beasts several times. I had hunted them whenever I had the chance but I had never encountered a situation like this.

‘What could it be?’

The appearance of the red demonic beast and the emergence of the baby demonic beast from the magic stone.

Just adding one would complicate things but now two had appeared simultaneously.

“Hah…”

It was truly a situation that only brought out sighs.

Shaaah?

Hearing my sigh the Red Water Snake peeked its head out as if asking what was wrong.

Seeing that I slightly furrowed my brows and said.

“I’m going out so go back in.”

Whether it understood my words or not the Red Water Snake slipped back into my sleeve and disappeared.

This little guy seems to understand what I’m saying…?

‘Could it really be something different?’

I still didn’t know.

Whether it was the offspring of the demonic beast I killed or the same one I couldn’t be sure.

In this case it would be the easiest method to just kill it and dispose of it.

But for some reason I felt uneasy about killing it and stopped.

‘For now I’ll wait and see.’

It seemed to understand my words and it didn’t feel like it was causing any harm.

For now I would just observe.

For now.

Creeeak.

I opened the door and stepped outside.