Heavenly Mountain Incident 5
The second trial of the Young Leader Contest. A test designed to measure command—how well a candidate led those under them—and cooperation, the ability to gain strength by moving as one.
Shin Gi-woon had been the first to pass Yeom Gyeong-hong's examination. Time was granted for the next challengers to step forward.
No one did. Not a single soul volunteered. The difficulty had been absurdly high.
Worse, Shin Gi-woon had essentially cleared the trial alone—on raw ability. Granted, the supporting instructors had been a catastrophic matchup against Yeom Gyeong-hong, but even setting him aside, look at the other three.
Ma Jin-cheon, Lord of the Radiant Guardian Corps. Great Law Protector of the Demonic Cult, an Extreme Demon expert ranked among the top ten. Absolutely not someone you wanted to draw.
Shindogun, Lord of the Thousand Transformations Soul Chasing Squad. A seasoned Extreme Demon in his own right, but his specialty was face-changing disguise arts. With only a single target in play, that gift was useless. On paper he looked like the softest option—except even without his signature technique, he was still an Extreme Demon.
Sama Rin, Lord of the Black Kill Ghost Shadow Corps. An Extreme Demon of roughly Shindogun's caliber. What she lacked in raw power she more than made up for with blinding movement arts. Pick her and you would likely die without landing a single clean strike.
And last, Yeom Gyeong-hong, Lord of the Yama Demon Emperor Corps. No further explanation needed—his fight with Shin Gi-woon had already proven the point. Without the strength to pierce his external arts, you could not even begin.
So no one stepped up. Charge in first, fail, and you would look like a complete idiot.
Time bled away. Even under the instructors' prodding, the candidates stayed silent. At last Ma Jin-cheon, fed up, adjusted the difficulty.
He would fight with one arm behind his back. Only then did the candidates find their courage and enter the trial.
Dan Jung-ho was among them. The challengers were full of spirit—and produced a mass of failures. The verdict was not courage but reckless bravado. So the difficulty was lowered another notch: the number of permitted supporters was expanded dramatically.
Bolstered by the change, most of the remaining candidates cleared the second trial. Fifty-six in total passed the day's task.
A test that had begun early in the morning dragged on until the sun painted the sky gold before it finally ended.
"You've all worked hard. Not many of you deserve praise. Pull this kind of attitude again tomorrow and I'll kill you—so mind yourselves."
Ma Jin-cheon delivered the announcement with a voice already gathering heat. Today they had been far too lenient. Hoping the difficulty would drop because you could not handle it—was that really the conduct of a Young Leader candidate?
Shin Gi-woon was disappointed in nearly everyone gathered here. Among those who stepped forward as Young Leader candidates, you would expect at least one person worth liking.
There was no one. Dan Jung-ho, maybe, at a stretch. A Cheongung plant, yes—but the only one who had passed after the first difficulty reduction.
Which meant fifty-four of the fifty-six had cleared only after the trial had been gutted. At this rate… tomorrow's test was obvious without looking.
They would run something designed to kill everyone. Disappointment already sat thick in the squad leaders' eyes.
They knew the Cult Leader had already designated Shin Gi-woon as Young Leader. In truth, every participant in the contest was aware of it.
That was why a massive faction had formed to check him—yet the instructors kept handing out tasks that made checking him impossible.
Dan Jung-ho and the rest reached a decision. Today was their last chance to go after Shin Gi-woon.
If the trials continued and the numbers thinned further, the only ending waiting for them was being swallowed whole by him.
Ma Jin-cheon declared the trial over and ordered free time. At once, every candidate converged on a single spot.
Dan Jung-ho stood at the center.
"What are you?"
"What about me?"
"Why are you in this?"
"Because I felt like it?"
Shin Gi-woon had drifted casually toward their cluster, only for snake-eyed candidates to shove him out. He shrugged and backed off.
Fifty people. So what. One mouthful.
"Don't work yourselves too hard. It'll all be pointless."
Leaving that single piece of advice, Shin Gi-woon returned to his quarters. His pulse ticked with the question of when they would strike. How many would he have to butcher as an example before they thought better of it?
He intended to slaughter as savagely as possible. Dark scenarios circled through his mind.
If he was not brutal enough, the damage would spread. Not every candidate was a Cheongung plant, and he did not want to casually kill people who might prove useful in the war against Cheongung.
He had no intention of killing Dan Jung-ho either. If word reached Dan Ju-hyeong that his son was dead, there was no telling how the man would react.
Then—
"Excuse me…"
"State your business first."
"May I come in?"
"Drop every weapon you have and come in. Hide a throwing blade or anything like it and I'll put a hole in your skull the second you cross the threshold. I'll know—so choose carefully."
"Y-yes!"
The woman hurriedly dumped every piece of armament she was carrying. They hit the floor in a clattering rain. Enough hardware that she might have been aiming for an assassin's path, he thought—
"I've taken everything out. May I enter?"
"Come in."
"Pardon the intrusion…"
The woman who opened the door looked, at a glance, not yet twenty. The Young Leader Contest was a den of half-mad rising talents—and a girl who had not even reached her majority was standing here. Mild interest stirred. What circumstances had brought her into this contest?
"Name?"
"Ah. I'm Hyeon Wol-ah."
"Hyeon Wol-ah… the Hyeon Sect Master's daughter?"
"Yes!"
The girl introduced herself as Hyeon Wol-ah. Not an assassin, then—a spellcaster. That explained the arsenal of hidden tools. Understanding it, however, was a separate matter from trusting it.
"What do you want? Not joining the pack over there?"
"Um… honestly, this place felt safer than theirs."
"Safer?"
"Even if all of them piled on at once, they still wouldn't be stronger than Young Master… Shin Gi-woon, would they?"
A glint entered Shin Gi-woon's eyes. Hyeon Wol-ah's realm, roughly estimated, was no higher than First-Class. First-Class before twenty. Fast progress—but in a contest crawling with geniuses, still a little short.
How had a girl like this cleared the second trial? After the difficulty drop he had spent the rest of the time circulating his energy, so he had not watched how the others fought. At First-Class, she should have failed the second trial outright.
If she survived, she must have something special.
The squad leaders were merciless. Backing, bloodline, even the children of the Seven Great Sect masters—none of it mattered. Failures were killed on the spot.
Hyeon Wol-ah would have been no exception. She was standing here because she had passed. For a First-Class expert to clear that trial should have been like plucking a star from the sky.
"What's your angle? They didn't send you, did they? Soften me up, then brainwash me with some curse technique, or—"
"You know I can't. A mere First-Class expert can't brainwash an Extreme Demon."
"So you really came to attach yourself to me just to stay alive?"
"Yes. My mother told me—if you want to survive the Young Leader Contest, pick your rope carefully. From where I'm standing, the only rope worth grabbing is Young Master Shin."
Shin Gi-woon studied the bright eyes looking up at him. For a lie… there was no trace. She was delivering pure sincerity.
Even in a free-for-all, protecting one Hyeon Wol-ah would be trivial. And a single spellcaster could easily shift the balance of a battlefield.
The problem was if Hyeon Wol-ah had set out to deceive him deliberately—if she was acting at the absolute limit of her skill, so cleanly he could not catch it.
His paranoia would not let him trust her. That old disease of suspicion had never healed.
"Then pretend to cooperate with them."
"What?"
"Tell them you tried to fool me, failed, got hurt, and ran. And when they hit me… use a disruption technique and come to my side."
"Will that be enough?"
"Then at least I won't kill you. I wipe out anything that gets in my way."
Shin Gi-woon's eyes turned cold. Hyeon Wol-ah swallowed hard.
This man… was the real thing. Different from the countless fakes she had seen until now.
From that single look alone, Hyeon Wol-ah was certain. He was strong. He was sure of his own power.
Defeat never touched his eyes. She decided to trust him. To do exactly as he said.
"Yes! I won't let any harm come to you, Young Master!"
"I'll give you a few cuts. I'll keep it from hurting."
"Yes!"
Shin Gi-woon opened shallow wounds across her skin. Her clean clothes were soon mottled with blood.
Hyeon Wol-ah left the room with a vow to complete the mission no matter what. If she truly was an ally, she would sow proper chaos.
Hope that wasn't a lie.
If this turned out to be a trap of Hyeon Wol-ah's design… he felt his remaining faith in humanity might finally die.
He would know soon enough. When night fell, Dan Jung-ho's pack would try their ambush—
And Shin Gi-woon intended to meet them like a reaper crawled up out of hell.
For him and for them both, a night they would never forget was not far off.