Quite The Instinct

It didn’t seem like it would forgive the intruder who had trespassed on its territory.

At that sight, Darkshadow Mountain Ghost quickly took a stance.

‘Kuh.’

Pain throbbed in his left arm.

He had no choice but to swing his right hand at the charging Human-Faced Spider.

The spider’s leg shot out like a spear.

Tung!

The leg split and fluids splattered.

But Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s fingers alone couldn’t cut through the spider’s thick legs.

It only served to further enrage it.

“Kieeeh! Kieeh!”

The long legs came for Darkshadow Mountain Ghost.

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost evaded deftly.

But the spider’s weapons weren’t just its long legs.

A liquid shot out from its mouth.

He twisted his head to dodge, but a few drops landed on his shoulder.

Chiiik.

Smoke rose along with pain.

‘Acidic poison?’

It was a deadly toxin strong enough to melt cloth on contact.

Already fighting one-handed, he now had to worry about poison as well.

At this rate, there was no chance of victory.

‘I have no choice, then.’

The instant he steeled himself, its leg swung for his back.

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost continuously swung his arms in defense.

At one point,

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost and the spider switched places.

Its cold blue eyes glared at him.

‘…So it doesn’t plan on letting me leave.’

No wonder it was called a spiritual beast.

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost, grimacing, saw Gyo-ha standing blankly.

Biting his lip in thought, Darkshadow Mountain Ghost spoke.

“Are you just going to watch?! When I die, you’re next!”

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s shout.

“You can’t take this thing down alone. We can settle our score after we kill it.”

He was proposing a truce to defeat the Human-Faced Spider together.

‘If he helps, we might win. And if not…’

If he refused and tried to flee, it would still divert the spider’s attention.

It wasn’t a bad plan.

The Human-Faced Spider wouldn’t let them escape. It would go after the one who fled first.

But Gyo-ha’s next action went against his expectations.

He plopped down on the ground and closed his eyes.

“W-what…?”

Meditating at a time like this?

A bit of breathing wouldn’t change anything—especially when the Human-Faced Spider was still rampaging.

Even the slightest shock would cause internal injury.

‘He’s really a lunatic.’

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost swallowed a curse.

---

Contrary to Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s assumption, Gyo-ha wasn’t meditating.

He had learned an inner cultivation method.

The Primal Heaven Art.

But he’d rarely practiced proper breathing circulation.

‘Don’t circulate qi carelessly. It only shortens your accumulation.’

His master had said that when teaching him the Primal Heaven Art.

That was because for Gyo-ha, it was practically suicide.

So what Gyo-ha was doing now was closer to an expulsion breathing method.

Exhale the old, inhale the new.

It meant expelling the stale and taking in the fresh.

It was merely a breathing technique.

Gyo-ha’s breathing became thin and long.

Soon, his breath grew so faint that even the sound of it vanished.

It was as if he were breathing through his whole body, not his nose.

He forcibly suppressed his qi from moving instinctively along his meridians.

Yet even that was effective enough.

After a while, Gyo-ha opened his eyes again.

He exhaled deeply and clenched his fist.

He felt a bit better, though his body was still a wreck.

But—

‘I can fight.’

A spark rekindled in his eyes.

He rose to his feet.

Even in that short time, Darkshadow Mountain Ghost looked terrible.

Clothes torn here and there, skin reddened with burns.

His breathing was ragged.

However, as if to show that the Peak Realm was not attained for nothing, even the Human-Faced Spider wasn’t unscathed.

It had already lost a leg, and its body was covered in wounds large and small.

Even so, the outcome was already tilting.

At this rate, Darkshadow Mountain Ghost would fall.

But as he’d said, Gyo-ha couldn’t beat it alone.

Without hesitation, Gyo-ha leapt in.

Sensing his approach, a leg shot at him.

Its tip was as sharp as a spear. The tip wasn’t the only thing. The bristles along it were sharp like needles.

But thanks to Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s efforts, cracks showed here and there.

Whoosh.

Dodging the strike, Gyo-ha swung his iron shackle at one of the cracks.

Kwaang!

The spider staggered.

‘Not yet.’

Gyo-ha’s body spun.

Then his foot struck the same spot again.

Kwagang!

This time, it worked.

Its leg snapped, and its body wobbled.

“KIEEEEEE!”

It shrieked and sprayed venom.

But he quickly rolled to dodge.

Chiiik.

The ground sizzled and melted.

Then its leg lunged like a spear toward Gyo-ha.

He rolled and weaved, dodging from side to side.

Frustrated, it thrashed.

But it had forgotten something.

“It’s intelligent, but inexperienced.”

With two legs gone, only six remained.

Four supported it, and two aimed for Gyo-ha.

Naturally, its guard against Darkshadow Mountain Ghost weakened.

Puk.

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s hand drove into its large abdomen.

“KIEEEEEEEEE!”

The spider twisted in pain.

It reacted differently than before.

But even Darkshadow Mountain Ghost, who attacked it, grimaced.

He hastily pulled his hand back.

Smoke rose from his blackened hand.

‘Its body fluid has acid mixed in.’

Although it wasn’t as strong as what it spat, it still stung.

Looking at the wounds on the Human-Faced Spider, Darkshadow Mountain Ghost clicked his tongue.

The color of the fluid seeping from its limbs and body had changed.

It was darker.

But this gave them a chance.

Gyo-ha pressed the spider.

Its movements grew more cautious than before.

It was wary of Darkshadow Mountain Ghost.

Darkshadow Mountain Ghost circled, as if to threaten it.

But he didn’t attack directly.

Seeing Gyo-ha’s back turned to him, Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s lips curled.

‘Foolish brat. He’s lost it.’

But he didn’t plan to attack yet.

He couldn’t afford to lose such a useful piece.

‘I’ll let him fight while I conserve my strength.’

Like Gyo-ha before, he needed a breather too.

And when it was over, he planned to take Gyo-ha’s head.

The calculation was set in his head.

At that moment—

“I came out because it was noisy, and look at this mess of a home.”

A strange woman’s voice reached his ears.

He turned his head and saw a woman.

‘When did she…’

Hair cascading down to the ground.

A black dress clung to her, revealing shoulders and cleavage—so tight that in shadow, she looked naked.

Pale skin in contrast to her clothes, and lips vivid red. She was a beauty fit to topple nations.

The fight stopped.

Gyo-ha lowered his fist and stared at the newcomer.

And from the moment he saw her, even breathing became hard for Darkshadow Mountain Ghost.

It wasn’t because of her beauty.

It was the most primal instinct living beings possessed.

Fear.

There was no internal energy felt from the woman, yet an unknown fear crept through Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s body.

The woman stepped out gracefully, her drowsy eyes sweeping over the cave.

Seeing the cave in ruins, littered with signs of battle and spider corpses, she sighed.

“Ah, and I rather liked this home, too.”

The woman shook her head slowly.

It was a bewitching sight, but Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s face was stiff with fear.

“And on top of that, you even bullied my child. Isn’t that a bit cruel, when she’s already so sensitive?”

“Kieeek!”

The Human-Faced Spider cried out as if responding to her words.

Its cry was different from before. It crawled to her and rubbed against her affectionately.

It wasn’t just the Human-Faced Spider.

Before long, spiders gathered at her feet.

A black mass of spiders.

Blending with her black clothes, they looked like one living organism.

A grotesque sight.

That alone made it clear the woman was not human.

The spiders gathered because of her.

Soon, her gaze turned to Gyo-ha and Darkshadow Mountain Ghost.

“…We have trespassed upon your domain unintentionally. If you would forgive us, we’ll take our leave.”

It was Darkshadow Mountain Ghost who spoke.

He bowed with a polite clasp of his fists.

Unlike him, Gyo-ha simply stared at the woman’s face.

Naturally, her gaze shifted to him as well.

As she ignored his words to look at Gyo-ha instead, a glint flashed in Darkshadow Mountain Ghost’s eyes.

With the Human-Faced Spider withdrawn, now was the only chance to escape.

He leapt straight for the water.

But his plan failed.

Something tugged at his arm.

He turned and saw his arm bound by pale threads.

‘Since when—’

He hadn’t even noticed.

He tried to pull, but was instead dragged.

Even his fingers couldn’t sever them.

Only then did the woman turn her head.

With a mocking smile, as if she had expected it, she spoke.

“How rude. I wasn’t even finished speaking, and you’re already—”

Kwaang!

Her words stopped short as a sudden fist flew at her.

It was Gyo-ha.

The woman caught the punch with her palm and frowned.

She waved her hand, and Gyo-ha’s body was flung back.

The Human-Faced Spider and the other spiders by her side stirred violently.

“KIEEEEEEEEE!”

They lunged toward Gyo-ha, but she raised a hand to stop them.

“Such ill manners.”

“…You weren’t planning to let me live anyway.”

Gyo-ha rose and said bluntly.

At that, the woman’s brows arched.

“Me?”

“There’s no predator that spares its prey.”

The feeling Darkshadow Mountain Ghost had sensed instinctively—

Gyo-ha knew what it was.

The woman didn’t see them as conversational partners.

Predator and prey.

She only saw them as food.

As expected, the woman’s eyes curved softly at Gyo-ha’s words.

“You’ve got good instincts.”

She had complained about the mess in her home, but in truth, she didn’t seem displeased.

Rather, she looked delighted—like someone pleased with a new toy.

‘Anyone would, when prey walks right into their den.’

Confirming his thought, Gyo-ha leapt forward again.

His fist rushed toward the woman’s face.

She waved her hand as if swatting a bug.

Gyo-ha’s body tilted and twisted.

But his other hand chopped toward her head.

The iron shackle, nicked and rough from his battle with Darkshadow Mountain Ghost.

It looked even more menacing.

But his strike was caught between her fingers.

Just two fingers.

“……”

Gyo-ha frowned. He hadn’t even felt the sensation of being blocked.

At some point, his hand had simply stopped.

But the surprise came after.

The woman twisted the hand holding the shackle.

As her palm turned upward, the shackle began to vibrate.

Gyo-ha quickly tried to pull back, but it was too late.

The trembling shackle exploded with a bang.

Not just the shackle—his exposed wrist was twisted and bent in several places.

It wasn’t like the Internal Heavy Hand Technique his master or Ghost Evil Blade had shown.

Qi surged violently from within, swirling like a storm.

Even the slightest impact could make his wrist snap off.

With his arm like that, even attacking was hard.

Clicking his tongue, Gyo-ha swung his leg immediately.

But—

“You really don’t learn, do you?”

His kick was caught by her hand as well.

And again, that vibration rose.

But Gyo-ha didn’t stop. His body rose in the air and he thrust out his other leg.

It wasn’t aimed at her.

Kwaang!

The other leg kicked the vibrating shackle.

The shackle exploded, and Gyo-ha’s body was blasted backward.

Gyo-ha rose, limping.

The foot that kicked the shackle—and the other one too—were both ruined.

But the look in the woman’s eyes as she watched him changed.