Throwing another chapter your way today!
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The Reiatsu being vented by the two battling Adjuchas was beyond anything I could have imagined. I tried to crawl just a little bit closer, but the moment I moved, the strength drained from my legs and my lungs seized up. It was impossible to advance any further. Left with no choice, I maintained a safe distance and sat there dazed, unable to even witness the details of the clash.
"Wait… how do I even know what Reiatsu is, let alone feel it?"
Come to think of it, even though this was the first time I'd ever experienced spiritual pressure, I immediately identified it as the weight of spirit power being exerted. I realized then that there was spiritual power dwelling within me as well. It was nowhere near the level of those two Adjuchas currently tearing each other apart, but I could definitely feel that I could generate my own Reiatsu with it.
"But seriously, when is this going to end?"
I hadn't felt the passage of time while I was walking, but sitting here like this was excruciatingly boring. There was nothing else to do, and I had to wait for the exact moment their battle concluded, so I forced my eyes open and fought back the urge to sleep, waiting in silence.
"Is it over?"
I have no idea how long I sat there. The crescent moon was still hanging in the sky, so it couldn't have been that long, but to me, the wait felt like an eternity. Finally, it seemed my wish was granted—the suffocating weight of the Reiatsu vanished. But that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
"Dammit, one of them actually won."
I couldn't help but feel a surge of frustration. After all that waiting, the only thing left was bitterness. The duel between the two Adjuchas had ended with a clear victor. My grand plan to 'Eat Two Exhausted Adjuchas' had completely gone up in smoke. Only after the winning monster had left the area did I dare to approach the site of the carnage.
"This is insane…"
Just looking at the site told the whole story. The scorched earth and the fragments of battle they left behind were staggering. Splintered remains of dead trees and deep, gouged craters in the white sand bore silent witness to the intensity of their struggle. As I scanned the wreckage, something caught my eye.
"Wait, over there!"
I sprinted toward the spot. There, lying in the sand, was an unrecognizable, blood-red mass. Since the victor had already gorged themselves on it, the original shape was gone, but the faint, lingering Reiatsu and the jagged bite marks confirmed it. This mess of gore was all that remained of the Adjuchas that had been fighting just moments ago.
"But even if it's just a lump of meat, there's spirit power left in it!"
It had been heavily consumed, but a portion of the carcass remained, and it was still saturated with energy. To me, this was a basketball-sized lump of 'food' overflowing with Reishi. Even so, I hesitated to reach out. I couldn't help but think that just a while ago, this thing had been a sentient, living being. Touching the blood-soaked flesh was a mental hurdle I hadn't expected.
"I have to eat! I have to devour this if I want to live!"
My hesitation lasted only a moment. I reached out and grabbed the gory mass. Even if it was just the leftovers of another predator, it was a feast for someone at the bottom of the food chain like me. Suppressing my human revulsion through sheer self-hypnosis, I took a massive bite out of the meat.
Crunch! Snap! Tear!
With every mouthful, the disgust I felt evaporated. The more I ate, the sweeter the flavor became, and spirit power began to surge through my veins. I rapidly polished off the entire basketball-sized lump of flesh. The moment I finished, a foreign sensation washed over me as the massive influx of energy began to overflow.
"My body… it's burning!"
A searing heat, like a literal fire, began to consume me. My original spirit power and the Reishi I had just ingested tangled together, thrashing against my insides. It felt exactly like those descriptions in cultivation novels when a protagonist absorbs a spirit core or a divine elixir.
"Aaagh!"
I tried my best to stay conscious, to keep my mind clear during the assimilation, but the agonizing heat was too much. In the end, I collapsed onto the white sands and passed out from the pain.
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Please give me lots of recommendations, bookmarks, and comments~
The chapter is a bit short because of my part-time job!
If he ate two whole Adjuchas at once, he'd be way too broken, so for now, our protagonist grows stronger by eating the leftovers!