Return of the Legendary Hunter
chapter-21

After retrieving the Sarira of King Munmu, Woojin called home to let his mother know that he will be traveling to Kyungju for a company seminar. His mother wanted Hwangnam Bread, his father wanted Kyodongbub liquor, and his sister wanted Chomseongdae Chocolate as souvenirs. It was a bit of a list and although Woojin was on a difficult mission, he was glad and even felt relieved by his family’s requests.

As he rode through the highway on his bike, he organized his plans. Today was a full moon, a good day to start his plan. He first stopped by Kyungju to purchase all the souvenirs, checked into a hotel, and unpacked. He bought two bottles of soju and emptied them so that he could have empty bottles.

Today was the day for him to get the spiritual blood and a piece of equipment. Woojin took out a note to reexamine what he needed to do. If this project went well, he would have the chance to become an avatar. If he became an avatar, he would become more powerful than a normal human. But Woojin himself was still capable of killing multiple Avatars only with the help of Cocktails. Thus, he needed equipment to bolster his arsenal. The Starfish Fang was an unexpected weapon, but he couldn’t stop there.

Today he could finally get the weapon he wanted. He set an alarm and slept so that he could wake up before dawn. After preparing himself with Wyvern armor, a black mask, and a baseball cap, Woojin walked up to the beach. There was King Munmu’s tomb in the distance, said to have been built at the sea to become a Sea Dragon to protect the country from foreign invaders even in death.

Woojin looked around. There weren’t any people since it was still dark. Woojin then jumped into the water. The tomb wasn’t far; it was only about two hundred meters from the beach. Woojin then got up on a giant rock and checked again to see if anyone was around.

The moon was in the western sky and the east side was becoming bright.

Woojin took out King Munmu’s Sarira and placed it on his palm before he used his Starfish Fang to cut his palm and let it bleed. As the blood dripped onto Sarira, it began to glow blue. It wasn’t strong but it didn’t matter as the change soon started.

The water that was inside King Munmu’s tomb began to wash out and soon, a being rose from the tomb itself. Woojin took a step back to look up at it. It was a giant figure with a twenty-meter-long body. It was King Munmu who had literally become a Sea Dragon. But it only became a reality under certain conditions and he wasn’t strong as dragons. Nonetheless, Woojin still summoned him.

Woojin checked on the Sarira. It was now cracked and scattered; thus he shifted his gaze to the Sea Dragon. The Sea Dragon looked down at Woojin and sent his message to Woojin’s mind.

-Is it you who awakened me from my slumber?

“I am sorry, Great King, for waking you up.”

-Tell me. Has disaster struck Shilla? Is that why you have come here?

“No, my king. It has been 1,300 years since you have been asleep. Many kingdoms have already perished.”

-Has it been that long?

The Sea Dragon looked up to the sky and Woojin waited. The dragon looked at the moon for a while and turned back to Woojin.

-So, if it’s not because of Shilla, why have you awakened me?

“A danger, not only to the descendants of Shilla, but to all the people in the world is coming. I need the power to stop it.”

-And what is that danger?

The Sea Dragon was unconvinced and Woojin raised both his arms up and spoke.

“If you can read my memory, you will see.”

The dragon then approached slowly and Woojin embraced the dragon fearlessly. This wasn’t anything scary compared to facing the god of the otherworld. The dragon placed his forehead upon Woojin’s forehead. Soon, the dragon backed off in shock.

-W-what has happened here!

“A being that became an Avatar of a demon did this. It must be stopped.”

The dragon then looked down at Woojin silently and spoke.

-I do not have the power to fight such a being.

He was not a true dragon, so he certainly didn’t have that kind of power. It wasn’t like he had a body that could provide spiritual blood either. However, there was one thing he could do.

“Take me to Mount Guisoo.”

The dragon was shocked. He then burst into laughter and asked,

-Do you seek the Peacebringer’s Flute? That alone cannot stand a chance against the being in your memory.

“No,” Woojin answered, “I need power to destroy everything, not just the power to bring peace.”

The dragon nodded.

-Maybe you can achieve it with that. It is not hard to take you to Mount Guisoo, but that thing is a divine beast. I am unsure if it will allow you to take it.

The dragon then became hesitant and turned. Its horn then began to shine and change shape.

-Hold onto my horn. I will take you there. You will retrieve it the moment the sun and the full moon rise together.

That was why Woojin had come here today. He grabbed onto the dragon’s horn gladly and the dragon dove down into the sea. Everything worked as expected up until here.

In the future when all legends were awakened, a lot of research was done and there was a man who met a Sea Dragon. After talking about the Day of Chaos, the Sea Dragon gave a small godly object to the man. However, Woojin wasn’t interested in that. He was focusing on another legend of Mount Guisoo and was using the Sea Dragon to get to it. If he got there, he needed a bamboo tree from the place.

After a while, Woojin found a dark figure far ahead. It was moving its giant body very slowly on the surface of the red sea where the sun was rising up. Its hundreds of meters in size made it look like an island, hence the name ‘Mount Guisoo’. The dragon sent a message.

-There is a dragon living inside Mount Guisoo. I’ll draw his attention. You are on your own from here.

The horn then became transparent. Woojin couldn’t hold onto the horn that turned into a spirit and fell plopped into the sea.

-You must make haste. The divine energy will decrease if you fail to retrieve it while both the sun and moon are up.

“Thank you.”

-I hope you can fulfill your wish.

The dragon understood what Woojin had set out to do and decided to help. Woojin began to swim as the dragon left him. It was quite a distance that would make him drown if it wasn’t for the power that the Starfish Fang had consumed. Woojin was barely able to get to Mount Guisoo.

As he got up on the land, he felt his hair rising. Fierce spiritual power was coming from the peak of Mount Guisoo. It was probably from the Black Dragon that lived there. Woojin let out a breath and began to move in the opposite direction toward the peak of the mountain.

As he got to the top, he saw the bamboo. As the sun rose, the bamboo divided into two and showed the sun rising between the stalks. If he stood on the opposite side, he would see the full moon falling into the horizon. When it was in one piece, the bamboo used to make the flute will become the Peacebringer’s Flute that brings peace, but when the bamboo is divided into two, it was said to wield a different power.

Woojin took out his Starfish Fang. It was more durable than before, but he wasn’t sure if it was enough to cut the divine bamboo.

As Woojin grabbed onto two bamboo stalks, he felt a pulse. He realized this looked like bamboo, but it was an actual body part of the Mount Guisoo. He took out the Fang and took Cocktail-C. After preparing himself, he slashed down on the bamboo.

Fortunately, it could easily be cut. The bamboo turned red and hardened while the area where it was cut began to bleed. Woojin quickly brought up his empty bottle to collect the blood. He then approached the other bamboo to cut it down. As it was cut, the bamboo turned incredibly hard again.

Then the ground began to tremble as if there was an earthquake. Woojin balanced himself to gather the blood and turned back. In front, there was a being upon him, a being that was much larger than the Sea Dragon. It has been 1,300 years since the legend of Mount Guisoo was known. It was about time for the Giant Serpent to become a dragon.

The Black Dragon unleashed terrible powers and looked down on Woojin.

-WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!