The Gu of Jamma Cave

"Candidate Seven wins!"

Shin Gi-woon stared at Se-hwa as she strolled back, looking for all the world like a monster wearing a girl's face. One strike. A single stroke had taken Candidate Nineteen's head clean off. The motion had been so fast he hadn't even managed to track it properly.

I took an interest because she was strong? Bullshit.

He tried to picture it. If he had been standing in that spot—would he have blocked her sword?

It hadn't even been a proper technique. No martial form, no named art. Just a casual cut, light as a flick of the wrist. Candidate Nineteen had died without so much as reacting.

I'll have to get past her first, then.

Even feeling that overwhelming gap in skill, he didn't despair. Se-hwa would make an excellent whetstone.

Shin Gi-woon steeled himself. In this little pocket of Jamma Cave, she wasn't the only powerhouse around.

"Well?"

"Did you see that damn fraud? I couldn't even follow it properly."

"Heh. Saying you couldn't follow it properly means you at least saw something."

"Interpret it however you want."

Se-hwa was strong enough to survive Jamma Cave entirely on her own. And yet she had taken a liking to a spear-user whose internal energy barely registered. Whether that counted as good fortune was debatable. Alone, she would have been a prime target—but together, the odds of turning the tables swung hard in their favor. With their combined force, it would be more than enough.

The other candidates' life-or-death duels ran their course. Those who had taken each other down vanished as well, until roughly four hundred survivors remained.

The Chief Instructor gathered the candidates still standing in their respective camps and made his announcement.

"Well done, brats. Some of you climbed up on pure skill. Others got lucky. Every candidate who survived today will receive one additional Dark Red Pill. Line up and collect it in order."

The candidates erupted all over again at his words—but Shin Gi-woon and Se-hwa already had a fair idea of how this worked.

"They're trying to make a Gu, aren't they?"

"Recycling, more like. The Demonic Cult runs on the strong. It has no use for the weak."

Gu.

The cruel practice of dumping venomous insects into a single jar, forcing them to devour one another until only one remains—then refining that survivor into the deadliest poison of all.

The recycled Dark Red Pills. The open license to kill. Everything about Jamma Cave was unfolding uncomfortably close to the making of a Gu.

The Dark Red Pill recycling had made it crystal clear.

They'll have figured it out by now. Weakness means elimination.

Most of those who had hoarded their Dark Red Pills for the future had died in the life-or-death duels. They were still children, after all—whether or not they had absorbed the energy laced through those pills made a massive difference.

The survivors would understand. Grow stronger as fast as possible, or die.

Not the worst system, honestly.

The Battle Demon Spear Sect had been a one-man succession school. No rivals. Of course, that also meant his master had worked him like a dog.

Here in Jamma Cave, with their own lives on the line, the competitive instinct would be stoked to a fever pitch.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Sure enough, the moment the instructor finished speaking, candidates began clustering around people they thought they could trust. Survival first.

Fail to form a pack, and you were living on borrowed time—a walking expiration date.

"Should we look for people to team up with?"

"Doesn't look like anyone's coming."

"Maybe I should've held back. They're treating me like a priority elimination target because I'm too strong."

Se-hwa let out a quiet hum. The martial prowess she had flaunted in the duels had clearly been too much. No one approached her. If anything, they had already marked her as the first enemy that needed to fall. And since Shin Gi-woon stood at her side, the two of them had naturally become a faction of two.

Not that they were the only ones under scrutiny. Two boys and two girls in particular had drawn the same treatment—all of them candidates who had displayed monstrous skill in the life-or-death matches.

Rather than cling to the strong, they'd rather eliminate the competition first. That kind of thinking.

Everyone understood they wouldn't make it to the end together. Even those forming alliances right now almost certainly had different agendas under the surface. The kind of people who would plant a knife in a comrade's back the moment betrayal became necessary. Only that sort of rabble would join a coalition.

Either way, the chaotic atmosphere eventually settled. Each survivor collected their Dark Red Pill, and the instructors escorted them back to the dormitories—on the stated grounds that murders could break out during the dispersal.

"This batch of Jamma Cave has quite a few promising pieces."

Two ke after the one-on-one life-or-death duels had ended, in the Chief Instructor's office.

Lee Hyeong-seop—leader of the Heavenly Net Black Death Squad and the man appointed Chief Instructor of Jamma Cave—wore a satisfied smile. Today's duels had turned up several sprouts worth cultivating.

"Candidates One, Seven, Eleven, Two-Ninety-Five, and Nine-Ninety-Nine, is it."

Five talents had caught his eye. Shin Gi-woon and Se-hwa were both among them. And the one he liked best of all—

"Candidate Two-Ninety-Five. That talent is absurd."

In a single day, a boy with no internal energy whatsoever had appeared holding roughly four years' worth. Not even twelve shichen had passed. Transcendent sensitivity. Most people struggled to accumulate even a single year's worth of energy when first starting out.

And the results he had produced in today's life-or-death duel had been thoroughly satisfying. Innate combat instinct, perhaps. The composure required on a battlefield where life and death hung in the balance. A killing intent so extreme that even the Chief Instructor himself had flinched.

Fantastic was the only word for it.

"I'm looking forward to this. Truly… looking forward to it."

He had assumed Candidate Seven held the highest talent. Candidate Two-Ninety-Five's appearance had been the exception.

But Jamma Cave was not a gentle place. No matter how brimming with potential they were, the moment a gap showed, the others would swarm like beasts.

"I do hope they survive to the end."

Hoping the ones he had marked would grow into something splendid, the Chief Instructor began drafting his report for the Cult Leader.

One month had passed since entering Jamma Cave.

Shin Gi-woon had filled nearly every hour of that time with training. Wasn't it dangerous to push yourself to exhaustion?

The dormitories formed a ring around the central training grounds. Both the training grounds and the dormitories were murder-free zones. So long as he didn't wander elsewhere, he could train without anyone interfering.

His primary focus was adapting his spear arts to this new body. As a child, the movements he had once performed were nearly impossible. His internal energy was pitifully insufficient by comparison as well.

Whoooom!

A vicious tearing of air as the spear lashed out like a thunderbolt. Shin Gi-woon's spear arts already stood at the absolute peak within Jamma Cave. Ignoring the sweat cascading down him like a waterfall, he pressed on with his training—and before long, he had earned a new nickname inside the cave: the Relentless One.

"Huuuuu…"

"Good work. How do you keep getting stronger every single day?"

"Even this isn't enough. I need to get stronger. More."

He wanted to screw over the Martial Alliance as soon as humanly possible. Maybe file for demolition of their ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠headquarters on charges of illegal occupation? Pointless thoughts like that were what got him through each day.

"Ugh. I'm wrecked."

Shin Gi-woon collapsed where he stood, hauling in ragged breaths. Se-hwa, who had somehow already fetched one, handed him a bottle of cold water. He gulped it down in great swallows, quenching the fire in his throat.

"Tomorrow. You know that, right?"

"Obviously. That's why I finished early."

At last, Jamma Cave's first trial was about to begin. Everything until now had been a taste.

There had been no general assembly since the life-or-death duels on day one—until three days ago, when a sudden notice announced the start of the first trial. The training grounds had been swamped with candidates ever since, crowded to the point of chaos. Of course, no one stupid enough to go all-out in here actually existed. No one was about to show their full hand to potential rivals.

Shin ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Gi-woon, however, was different.

"You're fine showing them everything? There might be some freak out there building a counter-strategy."

"If they manage it, I'll seriously recommend they apply for adoption into the Zhuge Clan."

"Hah… that's some confidence."

If a counter to the Battle Demon Heavenly Spear had ever existed, the Battle Demon Spear Sect would have collapsed ages ago. The strong are those who survive, as the saying goes. The Battle Demon Spear Sect had always been famous for martial arts that could not be dismantled—specialized for fighting many at once, with counters that shifted wildly depending on the number of opponents.

"What about you? Confident? The others have been grinding their teeth over you."

"If the instructors have any sense, they won't pit us against each other. Still—we'll have to keep a proper count of our lives."

Shin Gi-woon agreed. For the past month, as if by mutual unspoken pact, no murders had occurred. The problem was that the moment the trial took place anywhere outside the training grounds and dormitories, killings would become inevitable. People who tired quickly were a dime a dozen, and packs of jackals waiting for an opening would show their faces anywhere.

"I'm heading in to sleep. Take care of yourself. See you tomorrow."

"Got it. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠See you tomorrow."

"Mm."

Shin Gi-woon said his goodbyes to Se-hwa and returned to his room. He wanted nothing more than to fling himself onto the bed—but he had driven his body to its limit, and the time for energy circulation had come.

He settled into a cross-legged seat and slowly drew out the internal energy coiled in his lower dantian, circulating it through his entire body.

Wuummmmm.

His body was still underdeveloped, which offered certain advantages. The distance between meridians was shorter. Using that, he could accelerate his energy circulation and pursue a dramatic rise in internal power.

About time to climb.

Having accumulated a solid store of internal energy over the past month, Shin Gi-woon set to work without hesitation—raising the Battle Demon Divine Art to the third star.

KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!

Waves of internal energy crashed through him like a tidal surge. Eyes closed, focused entirely on the flow, Shin Gi-woon began patiently soothing the wild, runaway energy thrashing like an unbridled colt.

"Huuuuu…"

After a full ke of hard-fought struggle, the result finally came. The achievement of the Battle Demon Divine Art rose to the third star.