Translator: miraclerifle
Zhen Cai Yuan’s head had fallen to the ground.
Plop. It made a light and dull noise once it fell.
It had happened in an instant.
Ju-Heon's team turned pale after seeing the thing on the ground.
How could they not when they saw a round human head?
They couldn't believe what they were seeing.
It had happened extremely quickly, as if someone had dropped a piece of fruit or ripped off the rotten parts of a veggie.
Zhen Cai Yuan’s body soon fell as well.
The entire team was in shock once her body fell onto the sand.
“Unbelievable.”
“That witch is really dead?”
Even Yoo Jaeha, who had ran for his life while bringing the boss mob with him, couldn't believe it.
‘That woman who never died despite everything we tried died so easily?’
It must not be a fake body as even he, an expert when it came to making fake corpses, was shocked.
‘Is it because she hasn’t contracted an Heirloom yet?’
Julian had that thought as he turned toward Ju-Heon.
It was shocking that one of the Four Emperors of the past was butchered in an instant, but Ju-Heon’s strength was even more shocking.
‘He contracted with it in the end.’
Even they couldn’t help but flinch in fear.
He could feel it with his skin even without having Zhuge Kongming's artifact on him.
The black aura surrounding Ju-Heon was now so strong that even civilians could see it.
It seemed to be threatening everything around it to not mess with Ju-Heon.
Julian realized something.
‘This is dangerous.’
Looking at Yoo Jaeha who was calm even after being burnt to a crisp was enough to tell that he was now superhuman, but Ju-Heon was at a different level.
If Yoo Jaeha was a superhuman, Ju-Heon could probably be categorized as a Demon King.
He did not seem human at all.
But at that moment...
‘!’
The Crow’s powers subsided once Ju-Heon’s eyes turned black again.
That chilling feeling had disappeared as well.
The entire team ran over to Ju-Heon after seeing him start to walk toward them.
“Captain-nim!”
They seemed relieved at the fact that their Captain was safe and full of admiration at the fact that he saved them.
He even told that witch not to touch his stuff.
“Wow! I never knew you would cherish us like that, Captain-nim......”
“Do you want to die? Who told you to put your hands on my Heirlooms? Who told you to contract with it?”
“?!”
‘That’s what he was talking about?!’
A shocked Yoo Jaeha retorted back.
“Why is it yours, Captain-nim?! We won these Heirlooms ourselves!”
“Did you forget already? You guys signed the contracts. What's yours is mine.”
“H, how can you say that?!”
“I just did.”
Yoo Jaeha started to cry.
“......Damn it. Anyway, thank you for killing Zhen Cai Yuan. I really thought she would kill me but I survived.”
It was at that moment.
“No. It sounds like you're going to die again soon.”
"Excuse me?! What do y...?!”
Ju-Heon’s eyes turned red again.
Zhen Cai Yuan's lifeless body was starting to change.
Zhen Cai Yuan’s body was turning transparent like a spider's molting exoskeleton.
"W, what the hell is that?!”
They could finally understand what had happened.
“N, no way!”
Zhen Cai Yuan was the person who used the Supreme Leader artifact after all.
“Wow, she’s definitely living up to using a spider artifact by molting.”
She seemed to be capable of moving to a new body when something happened.
That meant that......
‘Is her real body hiding elsewhere?’
Ju-Heon peeked toward the forest.
He could tell she was over there.
He kept feeling as if something was sparkling inside the forest once he activated the Crow’s artifact.
“Captain-nim?”
Ju-Heon looked toward the exoskeleton Zhen Cai Yuan had left behind.
That exoskeleton was oddly turning into an artifact.
[Memory Boost Potion (B-Grade:Rare-Grade - Possession Artifact)]
‘An artifact?’
It was very odd that a human body had turned into an artifact.
Ju-Heon started to smile.
Zhen Cai Yuan was the person with the artifact of gluttony after all. The Supreme Leader artifact must have gobbled up numerous people.
Some of them must have been ability users. Their artifacts must have been absorbed into this woman's body and it must have fallen out as she died. Ju-Heon had an entertaining hypothesis in his head.
“Does that mean that an artifact would come out every time I kill that woman?”
“E, excuse me?”
"She’s a total monster.”
Ju-Heon disappeared as soon as he said that. All of the members were shocked.
"C, Captain-nim?!”
Only the chaotic aura remained where Ju-Heon had been standing.
“Huff, huff.”
Zhen Cai Yuan was breathing heavily while touching her neck. She still could not forget the sensation of having her head cut off.
Although she had not been cut with a weapon like a sword, it was terrible feeling her veins and arteries getting cut like a hose.
‘Seo Ju-Heon, you motherfucker!’
How could he just cut her head off like that?!
Well, she wouldn't die easily as long as she used the Supreme Leader artifact.
But still......
“I lost an artifact.”
In addition...
“It’s very cold.”
Zhen Cai Yuan, who had ended up naked after molting, was shivering because it was cold. She needed to find something to wear.
But at that moment...
“Oh, you lost some of your wrinkles once you molted. Did you do some peeling treatment or something?”
“?!”
She heard a chilling voice right behind her.
Plop.
Zhen Cai Yuan’s head instantly fell off again. She had been murdered once again.
Zhen Cai Yuan's body turned into an exoskeleton again before turning into an artifact.
It was an A-Grade possession-type artifact this time.
[Opium-poppy oil that makes you smell desirable (A-Grade: Treasure-Grade - Possession Artifact)]
Ju-Heon started to smile after seeing the artifact.
Now that he thought about, Zhen Cai Yuan always had a sweet and seductive fragrance.
He had always thought she smelled like a plant luring in bugs to eat or something.
‘It must have been because of this A-Grade artifact.’
Ju-Heon’s red eyes flashed with greed.
“Will a S-Grade artifact come out if I kill her again?”
“Seo Ju-Heon, that crazy son of a bitch......!”
Ju-Heon chased after Zhen Cai Yuan as if he had gone crazy.
‘Spit out an artifact, you bitch.”
He continued to kill Zhen Cai Yuan.
It wasn’t as if she was going to really die!
[You gained a B-Grade Consumable Artifact.]
[You gained a C-Grade Possession-type artifact.]
[You gained a B-Grade Possession-type Artifact.]
...
[You’ve gained an A-Grade Consumable Artifact.]
[You gained a S-Grade Consumable Artifact.]
He seemed to be quite intrigued by the fact that an artifact popped out every time he killed Zhen Cai Yuan.
As for the victim...she was so angry that she couldn't help but swear.
“Seo Ju-Heon! STOP!!!”
Zhen Cai Yuan became younger every time she molted.
She was only 29 years old after all. Continuing to molt would turn her into a child and then a baby soon enough.
But besides that, Zhen Cai Yuan was extremely angry.
Even if she wouldn't really die, he was completely messing with her!
“It's useless. I told you to sto...... ugh!”
Zhen Cai Yuan, who died again, started to grind her teeth while looking at Ju-Heon.
“Seo Ju-Heon!”
Ju-Heon started to frown at her.
"What's wrong? It’s okay for you to kill my subordinates, but I can’t kill you?”
That might be the reason he was killing Zhen Cai Yuan like this.
“You got that? Don't touch my things. Otherwise, I’ll really fuck you up.”
She scoffed in disbelief.
He had already killed her numerous times.
She was angry that she could not get herself to hate Seo Ju-Heon even after this.
Rationally speaking she should loathe Seo Ju-Heon, but she felt oddly excited that he was showing her some interest.
It was a love-hate relationship.
She oddly felt a sense of déjà vu.
At that moment...
Zhen Cai Yuan started to smile.
‘I have no choice.’
Zhen Cai Yuan finally activated the Supreme Leader artifact.
She had struggled so hard suppressing it since earlier as it seemed to want to react to the Crow.
She knew that the Supreme Leader artifact would rip off Ju-Heon’s arm or leg if she used it.
She didn't want to harm Ju-Heon’s body but she was now at her limit.
‘I'll be in danger if this continues.’
She would just help put it back and nurse him back to health if he lost a limb.
The Supreme Leader artifact was activated.
There was a loud explosion in the forest.
The team members dropped their jaws in shock. It was obvious that it was a clash between two extremely strong auras.
They could tell who it was.
“It must be the Captain-nim and that crazy woman!”
“Captain-nim!”
The shock from their fight was intense.
It seemed to rival a nuclear explosion. The explosion happened in an instant and looked as if it would burn up the oxygen all around them.
There were strong gusts of wind blowing from the direction of the explosion.
They were so strong that normal humans should not be able to survive. It had completely disintegrated the forest that was the size of the Amazon with it’s blast!
“Captain-nim!”
They quickly rushed toward Ju-Heon.
However...
“Stop!”
“!”
Numerous excavation teams surrounded Ju-Heon's group. They were in serious trouble as they didn't have their main artifacts on them.
And at the same time...
Ju-Heon was thankfully alive.
However...
Blood was spurting out of Ju-Heon’s arm. Surprisingly, it was just a cut and nothing major.
The one to receive a major injury was......
“Seo Ju-Heon, yooooooooooooou!”
Zhen Cai Yuan seemed to be in pain as she glared at Ju-Heon.
Ju-Heon was holding Zhen Cai Yuan’s ripped off left arm in his right hand.
He nonchalantly made a comment.
“Eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
Ju-Heon started to smile viciously.
“That hurt, you little punk.”
Zhen Cai Yuan started to laugh out loud in disbelief.
‘Who is the one that is actually hurting?!’
This was the difference between a person with an Heirloom and a person without one.
In that short moment of impact, Ju-Heon had used the Crow's artifact to absorb the Supreme Leader’s power and reduce the damage.
It did not mean that he was not injured at all.
Blood was dripping down from Ju-Heon's mouth.
“Ugh.”
He seemed to have taken a lot of damage absorbing the Supreme Leader artifact's power.
As Ju-Heon walked over to Zhen Cai Yuan to finish her off...
“I didn’t want to do this.”
“?”
Zhen Cai Yuan did something quite shocking. She stabbed her own neck with a knife!
Puuk!
“......!”
Ju-Heon flinched for a moment.
It reminded him of when Zhen Cai Yuan had committed suicide in front of him in the past.
It wasn’t that his mind was shaken or that he felt pity for her.
As someone with a great memory, it just reminded him of that disgusting feeling from that time.
The fact that he was using an Heirloom that would take everybody else weeks to get used to probably played a factor as well.
[Your Dominance is temporarily falling.]
[Your accumulated fatigue and shaken Dominance is preventing you from temporarily using the artifact.]
[You cannot use it for 5 minutes.]
‘Damn it.’
It was at that moment.
“We got you now, Seo Ju-Heon.”
“!”
Numerous excavation teams surrounded Ju-Heon's group. There were some familiar faces there as well.
‘TKBM.’
Chairman Kwon's son-in-law Yoon Shi Woo was there and so was the trashy son.
“Hand over the Heirlooms while we ask nicely. You damn thieving bastard!”
"We know that you looted all of the tombs!”
They seemed quite angry.
They had snuck onto the island and into the Monarch’s tombs to find that they were all empty.
“That Heirloom you have belongs to our Chairman-nim! Hand it over!”
‘These fools.’
The area was surrounded by the Hunters they brought with them.
Ju-Heon started to frown.
‘It won’t be easy to escape.’
How could it be easy when there were numerous angry Monarchs who were here surrounding him?
“You can't take the Heirloom with you.”
"We already captured your subordinates down by the beach.”
They were extremely angry at the thieving bastards who had taken their Heirlooms.
Ju-Heon didn't have any of his useful artifacts.
His body was too injured from absorbing parts of the Supreme Leader artifact to use the Crow's artifact.
He also could not temporarily use any artifacts.
It was at that moment.
“I heard that Seo Ju-Heon can absorb artifacts. Don't use your artifacts!”
“Take care of him before he leaves the island!”
The excavation teams’ Hunters started to charge toward Ju-Heon.
But at that moment...
Bang!
“!”
They heard a scream in the distance.
Some people were charging toward where Ju-Heon was right now.
“Ugh! Uggggggh!”
They were Ju-Heon's team members.
“Captain-nim! This way!”
They had stolen TKBM's ship as the vehicle for escape as they approached Ju-Heon.
The enemies gasped.
“This is bad! All of them have contracted with Heirlooms!”
“What did you say?! All of them?”
Ju-Heon scoffed after hearing that.
"Those little punks. I told them not to touch my stuff.”
He was still proud of them.
“Why the hell are you laughing?!”
Hundreds of Hunters aimed to take Ju-Heon down. They would use regular weapons to assassinate him if artifacts would not work.
Ju-Heon clicked his tongue.
It was quite far to reach the ship.
‘What do I do?’
The hundreds of enemies all charged toward Ju-Heon.
Ju-Heon picked up a regular dagger instead of an artifact.
‘5 minutes.’
It was a short amount of time but would he be able to last that long against Hunters?
“Kill him!”
“This is our only chance!”
However...
“My goodness, isn't this too one-sided?”
The Hunters were instantly swept away as Ju-Heon heard a familiar voice.
Boooom!
It truly had only taken an instant.
The person had only used a single weapon.
Ju-Heon was truly shocked after seeing the man standing in front of him.
