Searching for the Serpent (2)
The next day dawned.
“I wonder… did the owner of that voice ever appear at all last night?”
The mysterious being I had conversed with in the shadows never showed itself again.
“On second thought, perhaps it’s fortunate. It was a being so powerful I could scarcely perceive it. Maybe… it was something beyond even Gaeyeol, perhaps even Jinseon.”
For now, I decided to set the matter aside.
“There’s nothing I can do about it right now… so let’s focus on what lies ahead.”
Several hours after full daylight broke, my companions finally rose.
“This… this is what? Why are all my clothes torn?!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon shouted, frantically searching for something to cover himself with while Oh Hyun-seok stripped off his outer robe to drape over him.
My own clothes had also been torn the previous night when I had pushed my body to its limit. Kim Young-hoon kindly removed his hiking jacket and handed it to me.
“First, let’s check exactly where we are. Everyone, take out your phones and see if you can get a signal.”
Following Kim Young-hoon’s order, we each pulled out the small magical device we called a smartphone and checked the current location.
“Um, Young-hoon-hyung. I can’t get a signal…”
Oh Hyun-seok shook his thick phone while looking at the sky, but nothing happened.
The same was true for Kim Yeon, Jeon Myeong-hoon, myself, and Seo Ran.
“Wait a moment…”
Oh Hyun-seok scanned the surroundings with a bewildered look.
“Where’s Hye-seon? Are we all that’s left here? And what about our car…”
The others seemed genuinely disoriented.
“Now’s the time to start adapting.”
I hid my hands behind my back and gave a tiny finger flick.
Zzt zzt zzt zzt—
There it was, the snake I had fought with last night.
The double-headed serpent called “Ssangdu” crawled into view right in front of the cave entrance.
After a day’s rest, thanks to its unique regenerative ability as a youkai, one side of its neck had already begun to heal.
“You humans. You dared to cause trouble in my forest! I shall punish you for your crime!”
I felt a little sorry for my companions, but the time for shock therapy had come.
“A snake… can it speak?!”
“We’re dreaming, right?!”
Kim Young-hoon trembled violently as he pointed at the snake. The serpent glanced at me.
[May I?]
A telepathic voice rang in my ears.
I nodded once.
This was the plan I had quietly prepared the night before for delivering the shock therapy to my companions.
After nodding in response to my gaze, Ssangdu opened its mouth wide and roared.
“You insolent wretch! How dare you point at the master of this forest! You will pay with your life!”
Crack—
In an instant, the snake lunged at Kim Young-hoon and swallowed him whole in one bite.
I glared at the serpent and whispered, loud enough for its ears but inaudible to ours.
“Digest it. Kill it.”
Ssangdu shook violently, then gave a tiny nod before fixing its gaze on us once more.
Oh Hyun-seok stared blankly at the snake, then began slapping his own cheek. Jeon Myeong-hoon and Kim Yeon retreated behind Seo Ran and me, respectively, and hid.
“Now, this is punishment for pointing at me, and I will punish you for disturbing my forest!”
Crack—
Ssangdu opened its mouth, and thick black venom spurted out.
Chiiiing!
The moment I inhaled the poisonous mist, agony flooded my entire body.
“Ku, kuhak! Get it off! Get it off!”
“Kuuaaaah!”
“Kyaah! A, aaah!”
“Uuu…”
Oh Hyun-seok and Jeon Myeong-hoon clutched their throats and screamed. Kim Yeon rolled around on the ground, nose bleeding. Seo Ran, though his memories were returning, sweated profusely as he endured the pain.
I clicked my tongue upon seeing my companions lose their senses.
“Wait. If it’s this painful, it can’t do anything else. The time has come for you to realize this world is not our Earth. If the pain is already this severe…”
Ssangdu looked at me and asked.
“I-I’m sorry. By the way, humans are given venom that can drive you to the brink of madness in an instant. Yet Senior is perfectly fine…”
“Are you deliberately emitting such strong poison because you think it will help you even if it poisons me too?”
“Ah, no, Senior. I was mistaken. I was merely…”
I decided to give the snake a good beating first to teach it a lesson.
“First, heal my companions. And if you pull any more tricks, I really will cut off your head.”
“Yes, yes, Senior…”
Ssangdu exhaled a cloud of white smoke that it sprayed over my companions.
Only then did they snap out of their daze and gasp for air.
Jeon Myeong-hoon vomited on the spot, overwhelmed by the pain.
I stepped between them, pretending to share their agony, and glared at the snake.
“Huff… huff… So now you’ve all come back to your senses? If I wanted to, I could devour or kill you all right now.”
I watched my companions’ faces, then stepped forward toward Ssangdu.
“Snake Senior. We were wrong. However… please return my brother Young-hoon who you swallowed…”
I pleaded with the snake to return Kim Young-hoon, and Ssangdu, moved by our loyalty, returned him, then escorted us out of the Deungsunhyang forest in gratitude.
Thud!
Ssangdu spat out Kim Young-hoon exactly as promised and, feigning emotion, offered its back for us to climb.
“Your loyalty is truly special, so I will personally escort you beyond the forest.”
“Thank you, Snake Senior!”
I helped the drenched Kim Young-hoon onto the serpent’s back.
My companions hesitated until I poked Ssangdu’s scales.
“What? You all plan to refuse my kindness?! Then you’ll all be eaten…”
“Ah, no! No, please!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon was the first to climb on, followed by Oh Hyun-seok, Kim Yeon, and Seo Ran.
Thud!
I struck Ssangdu’s nape, and it shot forward at breakneck speed.
Sssrreee—
The double-headed serpent raced through the forest at terrifying velocity.
My companions clung silently to its back, too stunned by the sudden situation to speak.
For how long did we ride Ssangdu?
Fwaaat!
Finally, we reached the very edge of the forest.
“We… we finally reached the end of the forest…”
Jeon Myeong-hoon’s eyes widened.
And I felt a sudden chill as well.
“Why did I keep thinking of it as an island instead of a forest…”
What lay before us was not a sheer cliff.
It was not the spiritual array barrier that had surrounded the forest, nor was it an illusion of clouds hovering in the sky.
It was an overwhelmingly rational, normal landscape.
That meant…
“The endless desert spread out before us.”
Indeed.
At this point, neither Deungsunhyang nor the forest called Ssangdu remained.
After ten thousand years of drifting, the forest had finally settled into the Dabcheon Desert and existed here as nothing more than a nameless forest.
Yet my companions were still visibly shocked.
“A desert…? Was there a desert in our country?”
“No way… we were just driving…”
I explained to my companions who still looked dazed.
“You all need to snap out of it. Someone here probably realized after seeing Senior the snake… This world is not the Earth we lived on. It’s a completely new world filled with countless mysteries. I don’t know what will happen from here, but we must abandon everything we knew about the old Earth.”
I spoke while lightly patting Ssangdu’s back.
“Hmm… so, humans. Allow me to explain the basics of this world.”
Ssangdu slid across the desert while teaching us the world’s fundamental knowledge, history, and terminology.
***
Several months passed.
We crossed the desert on Ssangdu’s spiritual energy and finally reached the eastern edge of the Dabcheon Desert.
We arrived at the Manri Kingdom.
The Dabcheon Desert was primarily governed by Siho, while the northern plains belonged to the Changcheon Gaegyeokmun, and the western Three Kingdoms to Cheongmun Ryeong. I had deliberately sent Ssangdu to the eastern tribal union because I knew Siho ruled the desert and feared Oh Hyun-seok might be captured again and forced into the Changcheon Gaegyeokmun training.
“The problem is that the Changcheon Gaegyeokmun would drag even us along in its flames. Even if it didn’t catch me or Oh Hyun-seok, my companions would definitely go mad.”
We had no inner energy and no decent weapons, so I couldn’t go meet Siho. From what I had seen of Siho’s interest in Seo Ran during our time on Bongrae Island, it was clear he intended to take Seo Ran as his companion.
I could not stop that with my current strength.
I could not go to the Western Three Kingdoms either, home to Cheongmun Ryeong.
“Even after ten thousand years, there is no Murise family left. Moreover, spiritual energy is even scarcer here, making the possibility of a demonic cult that drains blood and flesh for qi even higher.”
That was why we had come to the eastern Manri Kingdom.
Manri had few outsiders because it was constantly raided by savage youkai. As a result, demonic arts that drained the life force of one person after another had never flourished here.
“Demonic families like Murise are too well-organized for me to fight right now, but youkai that eat people are weak enough that any decent weapon will do.”
Ssangdu dropped us off at the Manri Kingdom border, bid us farewell, and fled in a hurry.
I told my companions, who had gained some sense of this strange world after months of crossing the desert.
“You all must forget Earth now. This is a completely different world. You will learn its language and adapt to its rules if you are to survive. I know this sounds impossible, but you must believe it.”
“Hahaha…”
Kim Young-hoon laughed heartily in disbelief.
The others stared toward the distant Manri tribes, their paths still uncertain.
“I managed to learn Eastern language from one of the Eastern Monarchs before fighting Won Rip… but it’s been ten thousand years. Who knows if it will work anymore?”
Recalling the Eastern language I had learned from an Eastern Monarch before battling Won Rip, I led my companions toward the distant tribes.
***
Ten years passed.
Kwaaaa—
My black scythe precisely sliced through the neck of a rocky mountain-shaped youkai, then returned to my hand.
“Waaah!!”
“General Seo! General Seo! General Seo!”
“The Great General is a god!”
I swung the scythe toward the youkai’s body, pulled out its core, and absorbed the qi inside.
Swoosh—
The qi of the black horn snake that had slain a hundred villages and feasted on their cruel inhabitants flowed into my body and accumulated in my dantian according to my will.
Crack—
I inspected the inner energy flowing through me.
“Ten years since arriving in the East.”
I had slain countless Eastern evil ghosts and demons and become a hero of the East.
Through absorbing the cores and dantian auras of those enemies, my internal energy had swelled to the equivalent of one full dantian.
“Great General Seo! Our Manrin Clan’s chief says the ‘item’ is complete!”
“Is that so? Bring it over later.”
“Yes! I will deliver it by tomorrow!”
After defeating the youkai, I returned to my makeshift shelter.
Over the past ten years, I had absorbed all Eastern martial arts and become the number one expert of the Eastern Wulin.
I was the Eastern Supreme One.
Swish—
I loosened the bandages wrapped around my body.
Then, with a slight flex, the bandages flowed like living creatures, seizing every hidden weapon scattered throughout the shelter.
This was an application of the Strange Star-Mind Scroll’s puppet manipulation combined with the Eastern martial arts technique Heavenly Restraint Ghost Art.
Slick, shlick—
I began dancing inside the shelter.
Shriii—
The bandages fluttered in response to my movements, and the weapons they gripped danced with them.
Swords, whips, blades, scythes, great scythes, chains, needles…
Every grotesque weapon moved in perfect unison, writhing like living creatures.
In an instant.
Fwaat!
When my dance reached its peak, the blade edges of the grotesque weapons all focused on a single point.
Piiit—
And the next moment.
The weapons darted, extinguishing every candle in the room in an instant.
Perfect application of power.
Crunch—
Even though I had only extinguished the candles, if I had instead compressed and erased the power rather than radiating it outward, I could have blown away an entire small hill.
“So it took me ten years to replace the Invisible Sword.”
A martial art that used bandages to control dozens of grotesque weapons in perfect unison and grant infinite trajectories.
The Heavenly Restraint Ghost Art was the technique I had created over the past ten years to replace the Invisible Sword in this world where qi was scarce and spiritual sensitivity was unresponsive.
And the result was more than satisfactory. I could now realize nearly ten-tenths of the Invisible Sword’s power.
“Now I just need to retrieve the ‘item’ from the Manrin Clan’s chief. Then I will be able to unleash my strength at the Gaeyeol level.”
Crunch—
I felt the full one-dantian power in my palm and smiled.
“Ten years… a mere instant for a cultivator, but a long time for a criminal.”
It had been long.
It had been enough time to become the Eastern Supreme One and gain Gaeyeol-level power.
Now… it was time to look for Cheongmun Ryeong again.
“Dear, are you inside?”
Kim Yeon poked her head into the shelter while I was making my vow to Cheongmun Ryeong.
“…Don’t call me that when we’re alone. Just call me Seo Eun-hyun.”
“Hehe, but officially we’re already married.”
“…”
It was the result of my mistake in choosing an Eastern country.
In the East, warriors above a certain level were required to castrate themselves if they refused to marry, to prevent arrogant strongmen from committing rape and other crimes.
I decided to fake a marriage with Kim Yeon because the social stigma was unbearable, even though the pain of castration was negligible.
Kim Yeon seemed happy about it, but I was only slightly bewildered.
“Since I’m going to marry anyway… well, no point thinking about it now.”
I sighed, shook off the thought, and asked Kim Yeon.
“So, what is it?”
“Ah… Ran-unnie… started having another episode.”
“Hoo…”
Kim Yeon and I quickly left the shelter and headed toward Seo Ran’s.
Kim Young-hoon and Jeon Myeong-hoon had already entered Seo Ran’s shelter.
“Ah, you’re here, Seo Eun-hyun.”
“Oh, Eun-hyun! Hurry, hurry!”
Kim Young-hoon and Jeon Myeong-hoon, who had been learning martial arts for several years, were restraining Seo Ran.
Self-harm scars covered her body.
“U, uuu… kuuuh…!!”
Seo Ran wept blood and writhed in agony. I approached and placed my hand on her head.
Then we slowly locked eyes.
Next, I whispered telepathically so no one else could hear.
[From now on, I will kill you.]
“Ha, haak…!”
And finally Seo Ran regained her senses.
I poured the killing intent of Void Shattering into her mind, forcing her consciousness to awaken through the sensation of her life hanging by a thread.
“Ah… so you were Senior…”
Seo Ran looked up at me with terrified eyes and said weakly.
“I… I had another dream. Among the mixed-up memories, the one I had forgotten… my [mother] appeared.”
Seo Ran clutched her body and trembled.
“My [mother]… called for me. Even now, my [mother]’s hallucination…”
“Stop. It’s fine.”
I unleashed killing intent to calm her again and said, “There is no mother here. It’s fine. Rest assured.”
Seo Ran had recently begun having dreams in which a being named [mother] called to her.
And whenever she dreamed, she felt an overwhelming fear that beyond the dream she would awaken a ‘terrifying thing’ she had lost before.
“What I fear… is that beyond this dream, I will devour myself. If I listen to the whispers beyond the dream… it feels as though the ‘Seo Ran’ I have been until now will disappear and a completely different being will take her place.”
“…Is that so.”
After calming Seo Ran, I took her outside.
“Seo Ran’s condition… seems quite serious.”
“Tsk… it’s troubling.”
Kim Young-hoon and Jeon Myeong-hoon both sighed and looked gloomy.
I told them, “We should head east as soon as possible and ask the cultivators there to temporarily seal Seo Ran’s memories.”
“Tsk… it would be best to go soon given her condition, but when will the ‘preparation’ be ready?”
Kim Young-hoon glanced sadly at Seo Ran in the distance.
“We must wait until we obtain the Manrin Clan’s ‘item’.”
“Meaning that once we have the item, we must remain on this land for another ten years…”
At that moment.
Srruk!
A massive man wrapped in black bandages emerged from the darkness.
“It’s been a while, hyung. And Jeon Myeong-hoon, Seo Eun-hyun!”
“You’ve returned, Hyun-seok-hyung. How was the mission?”
The giant Oh Hyun-seok had spent the past ten years mastering the Eastern infiltration and assassination techniques, becoming a true assassin.
Surprisingly, he possessed exceptional aptitude for the art of erasing one’s presence, allowing him to become the world’s greatest assassin in an instant.
‘I’ll have to teach Wolryeong the Wansuigungmurok once we leave this world.’
After venting our grievances, Oh Hyun-seok clapped his palm as if he had just remembered.
“Oops, almost forgot. Here’s the item you requested, Seo Eun-hyun!”
Oh Hyun-seok handed me a sword from behind his back.
A gem-encrusted blade from the desert!
“The Manrin Clan’s ‘item’!”
“Indeed. It took quite a bit of effort to steal it.”
I had asked Oh Hyun-seok, who had mastered assassination techniques, to steal the Manrin Clan’s gem sword.
This sword possessed the power of the supreme weapon of Eastern Wulin, an artifact of terrifying might.
I took the sword and smiled.
“It’s done.”
Now I could fully realize the Heavenly Restraint Ghost Art’s power.
I shouted to my companions.
“The ‘preparation’ is complete! Everyone, pack your things! We are leaving the East today!”
All preparations were finished.
What remained was simply meeting Cheongmun Ryeong!
With that, we stole the Manrin Clan’s supreme sword, then departed for the Western Three Kingdoms in a blaze of glory.
Four months passed.
***
“So this is Byeokra Kingdom.”
We arrived in Cheon-saek Castle, the heart of Byeokra Kingdom.
The reunion with Cheongmun Ryeong was imminent.