The Gu Diao
Accompanied by a grotesque baby’s cry, the Gu Diao kept circling the sky. In truth, there was more to worry about than expected. It wasn’t just that the Gu Diao wasn’t attacking Han Yuhyeon first — the real problem was that the Gu Diao had emerged ahead of everything else.
“So if we just kill that thing, we’re done, right?”
“This might actually be better for us!”
None of them had ever been through a situation like this, which was exactly why they could still afford such carefree remarks.
Not knowing was only natural. A scenario like this was something you might run into once in a hundred Great Demon Beast dungeons. For Qi Condensation cultivators with so little experience, the odds of having seen it were vanishingly slim.
Han Yuhyeon, on the other hand, had cleared Great Demon Beast dens at least a thousand times even as a game. He had run into this exact situation maybe ten times already.
“Waaah! Waaah!”
The human infant’s cry pouring out of that hideous beak only made the thing more unnerving.
The Gu Diao flew about, spitting fireballs — all of which Han Yuhyeon dodged.
The Inner Disciples had no way of noticing that. The idea that a demon beast’s attacks might be deliberately avoiding a cultivator was hard enough to grasp, and none of them had the luxury of spare attention for anyone else when their own lives hung by a thread.
“Was a Great Demon Beast always this strong?”
“No way. How does Yeongil-ju even have a Great Demon Beast like this!”
Even as they fled, the cultivators felt something was wrong. They had all faced Great Demon Beasts in Yeongil-ju before, if not often. This was a region of thin spiritual energy — hard enough for cultivators to train in, and even harder for demon beasts to grow powerful.
The Gu Diao’s unnatural strength was tied to the absence of lesser monsters. When the den’s master, a Great Demon Beast, came out first, it meant there were no trash mobs left to spawn. And that meant the den master had eaten every last one of them. No trash mobs; all the combat power funneled into the boss. A dungeon built that way. But there was no time to unpack any of that for the others.
“We have to fall back!”
Han Yuhyeon shouted. A Great Demon Beast this strong was beyond them as they were now.
“Right. We abandon this!”
Hyeon Yong-gang, the most senior among them, answered at once. Im Su-weol and Jeong Cheon-o quickly nodded their agreement.
A demon den was not a place you couldn’t leave. Even in the game, you could abandon a den. There, you simply hit ESC, got the prompt asking if you wanted to flee, and clicked yes. No such function existed here. And since transmigrating into this world, Han Yuhyeon had never once run from a demon den, so he didn’t even know how the exit worked.
“Junior Brother, hurry!”
Jeong Cheon-o called out. The three cultivators fell back as if it were the most natural thing in the world, heading for the place they had first dropped into the den. That was probably where they could get out.
The Gu Diao, however, had no intention of letting them leave. Ordinarily it would have been forced to dart in every direction, striking multiple points at once — but with the cultivators all moving the same way, its attacks became that much easier.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!
As if it had read their intent, the Gu Diao dropped fireballs ahead of them and tore the ground open. Pillars of flame roared up through the cracked earth, too high for even cultivators to leap, forcing them to detour around.
“We need to stick together!”
Han Yuhyeon shouted as he skirted the fire pillars. If it had come to this, keeping himself clustered with the Inner Disciples would make him harder to attack — or so he judged.
Of course, at first hearing, that sounded like the most absurd tactic imaginable. Hyeon Yong-gang’s brow furrowed.
“So we all die together?”
“No. Stick with me. I’ll keep you alive.”
“What kind of nonsense is that! You want us to clump up and get slaughtered?”
“Junior Brother. This is not the time for suggestions like that.”
Jeong Cheon-o and Hyeon Yong-gang refused to follow. With their own lives on the line, Han Yuhyeon’s proposal looked like a suicide pact.
Fine. Dodge on your own, then. Han Yuhyeon had no intention of asking twice. Just as he was about to sneer at the other Inner Disciples, a rush of orchid fragrance brushed past him.
“Since it’s come to this, I’ll trust you one more time.”
The owner of that scent was Im Su-weol — the same woman who had taken his side when they received the mission.
“Fool.”
Hyeon Yong-gang snorted as he watched Im Su-weol move toward Han Yuhyeon. But whether they clung together or split apart, they all shared the same destination, so their paths inevitably stayed close.
“That thing’s a monster.”
Im Su-weol said, falling in behind him with a look of pure exhaustion. For Yeongil-ju’s standards, the beast was grossly overtuned — speed and destructive power the eye could barely track. The Inner Disciples were only surviving by burning through dharma treasures and talismans to barely slip past each attack. The moment they tried to fight it head-on, they would be ash before a single breath had passed.
As they ran, a staggering heat pressed against their backs — heat of a kind none of them had felt before. Han Yuhyeon spun around. The Gu Diao was spewing fire from its mouth, not rolling explosive spheres this time but pouring out a straight torrent of flame.
The fire that left the Gu Diao’s beak did not die even when it hit the ground. This was a land where flame never went out.
Han Yuhyeon glanced sideways. Im Su-weol was weaving with dazzling skill through the beams of fire stabbing down like light rays — and those flames were blatantly targeting her alone.
I don’t even like taking damage myself.
The Gu Diao’s naked targeting settings left Han Yuhyeon unsettled, but Im Su-weol was too busy dodging for her life, and none of the others even considered the possibility that the Gu Diao was deliberately not aiming at him.
So the cultivators spent their dharma treasures as freely as they could, shedding the Gu Diao’s fire, and after a hard run they reached the entrance — which was also the exit — within half a shichen.
“Faster! Faster!”
Hyeon Yong-gang urged them on, though he himself was moving slowly.
They had poured everything into dodging the Gu Diao’s attacks and run without rest to get this far. Of course their strength was spent.
The moment the exit came into view, Hyeon Yong-gang and Jeong Cheon-o both pulled something from their storage pouches. The shapes differed, but once they mounted them it was clear — flying vessels. Flying vessels didn’t allow precise, flexible movement, which was probably why they hadn’t used them until now. But with the exit right in front of them, nothing beat a flying vessel.
“Junior Brother, you got a flying vessel?”
“No. I don’t have a personal one.”
“Damn it. Neither do I.”
Coincidentally, the two who had pulled ahead — Jeong Cheon-o and Hyeon Yong-gang — both owned personal flying vessels, while Im Su-weol and Han Yuhyeon did not. Han Yuhyeon asked, a little incredulous.
“Fine for me, but you’re an eight-star Qi Condensation cultivator and you don’t have a personal flying vessel?”
“Most of the Central Plains is connected by land. You can just go by ground. Flying vessels are pointless.”
It had the ring of self-justification, but Han Yuhyeon had no intention of pressing further. He didn’t have the chance to think about it. Because the Gu Diao streaking in above them was far faster than the two flying vessels pulling ahead.
“Kiiik, kiiik.”
A cry that almost sounded like mockery. The Gu Diao had clearly been holding back while it chased them. Now it overtook the two cultivators at a speed of another order entirely.
Hyeon Yong-gang and Jeong Cheon-o, who had relaxed with escape right before their eyes, went deathly pale as a black shadow swept past them. The Gu Diao went for Hyeon Yong-gang first — he was a little farther ahead than Jeong Cheon-o.
Both men tried to change course as hard as they could, but mid-flight at that speed, a sharp turn was impossible.
Chwaak!
The Gu Diao snagged Hyeon Yong-gang right along his predicted path. Massive talons locked around his ribs and back.
“Ghk!”
The flying vessel, its qi link broken, plummeted to the ground. The Gu Diao, Hyeon Yong-gang in its grip, climbed hard in the opposite direction.
And when Hyeon Yong-gang thrashing in the Gu Diao’s claws had shrunk to a tiny speck, the Gu Diao simply let him go.
Even a Qi Condensation cultivator could manage short steps through empty air. Drop him from any height and, in theory, he shouldn’t die.
“AAAAAAARGH!”
That was what Han Yuhyeon thought when the Gu Diao first released him.
But the scream stretched on without end, and the fall was far faster than it should have been. Something was very wrong.
As he tumbled, Hyeon Yong-gang flipped head-down toward the earth, and for a split second his eyes met Han Yuhyeon’s. Only then did Han Yuhyeon understand. There was no spiritual energy in Hyeon Yong-gang’s gaze.
Like sucking water from a spring, the Gu Diao’s talons had drained Hyeon Yong-gang’s qi dry. Even so, he still had a dantian — given time, or a spirit stone, it would recharge. But Hyeon Yong-gang had nowhere near enough time.
“Aaaah—”
The long scream cut off with a sound like fruit bursting open.
What had been Hyeon Yong-gang sprayed across the ground in chunks of flesh and bone. Han Yuhyeon bit down on the scream that had been about to leave his own throat, rolling it behind his lips and crushing it.
Of course the in-game graphics would never have looked like that. In the game, when a Great Demon Beast attacked, the character just flashed red for a hit indicator and lay down when they died. There was no reason to render it with this kind of cruelty.
But this world was a cruel place. The kind of scene that would have been banned on the spot by any ratings board unfurled before Han Yuhyeon’s eyes with no filter at all.
“……Insane.”
How terrified must he have been as he fell. What did that despair feel like, when you tried to use qi to stop the plunge and the speed never slowed. The thought struck him, but this was not the time.
He still didn’t know why the Great Demon Beast refused to attack him — but if that was the case, he had to use it now.
Han Yuhyeon drew the Fire Blade from his storage pouch and poured qi into it. The already ruddy blade went furnace-red, as if it had been thrust into a forge.
“Kiiik?”
Sensing the scorching aura of the Fire Blade, the Gu Diao looked at Han Yuhyeon. It was not, in fact, the right dharma treasure for the job. The Gu Diao itself was a Great Demon Beast specialized in fire.
But that was exactly why Han Yuhyeon had no choice but to draw the Fire Blade. Only then would the Gu Diao refuse to treat him as a real threat.
“Die!”
Han Yuhyeon leapt toward the Gu Diao and thrust the Fire Blade. The Gu Diao gave its customary baby’s cry and swept up out of the way — only for the crescent-shaped Hyeonwol-soin to arc after it in pursuit.
“……Junior Brother.”
The Gu Diao cried out as it dodged the dharma treasures. To the remaining Inner Disciples, it looked as if the beast were toying with Han Yuhyeon — like a bear batting at a human for sport. After the way it had only barely, teasingly chased them all the way to the exit, that was the only way it could look.
“Get out of here! Now!”
Han Yuhyeon roared, veins standing out on his neck. Jeong Cheon-o and Im Su-weol hesitated. Even for cultivators, watching someone so openly offer themselves up as a sacrifice made bolting for the exit feel like a stab of conscience.
“If you seniors don’t leave, everything I’m doing right now is meaningless!”
Han Yuhyeon threw out the most textbook line for a situation like this. He was moving because he was certain the Gu Diao wouldn’t attack him — but from Jeong Cheon-o and Im Su-weol’s perspective, it looked unbearably noble. In a cultivators’ world where everyone was waiting for a chance to stab you in the back, it was culture-shock levels of selflessness.
“……I’ll remember this, Junior Brother!”
“Damn it! Thank you!”
The Gu Diao, still dodging the Hyeonwol-soin a beat late, saw the two of them head for the exit and dove hard, unwilling to lose its prey. The Gu Diao’s full-power speed was so extreme it looked certain to cut them off before they could clear the exit. And Han Yuhyeon had already anticipated that and moved.
“Kiiiiiik!”
The moment Han Yuhyeon planted himself on the straight line between the exit and the Gu Diao, the diving beast flapped its wings in what looked like panic. Just like Hyeon Yong-gang, the Gu Diao couldn’t overcome its own momentum — and in the end, it had no choice but to snatch Han Yuhyeon up in its talons the same way.
“Junior Brother!”
Im Su-weol screamed at the sight of him. But even a moment’s delay and the Gu Diao would dive again, so she had no choice but to throw herself through the exit. Even as she went, looking back, her eyes were bright with tears.
That was the moment the raid on the Great Demon Beast Gu Diao ended in failure.