Cornered by the Giant Serpent
—CRASH.
“Guhhh!”
I tumbled across the ground amid pain so fierce it felt like my entire body was shattering.
“Mumyeong!”
[I'm listening.]
I coughed up blood and screamed in desperation.
“I take it back—thinking I should stay vigilant and mope just because my body has tilted a little more toward the Heavenly Demon’s! Aigoo, I’m gonna die!”
[…Fine.]
I wiped the blood from my lips and gasped for air.
Those words just now had not been a joke. In my old body I would have burst and died a hundred times over.
The durability of my current body had clearly grown incomparably stronger than before.
I had not realized it earlier, but as I rolled through this jianghu day after day, meeting one powerhouse after another—and especially after clashing directly with the Demonic Cult this time—I found myself rethinking the “Heavenly Demon” that dwelled within me.
This was no ordinary unorthodox martial artist.
It was the tyrannical Heavenly Demon Divine Cult itself, and among all its successive cult leaders, the very first.
Even though the body was incomplete, it was still sturdy enough to transcend the bounds of an ordinary human.
Of course, what that meant was—
—BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
“You damn snake bastard, take it easy! Aaargh!”
—that no matter how thoroughly I got beaten, it only hurt; I would not die.
I desperately shielded my head and leapt this way and that, dodging the storm of the snake’s thrashing tail.
—CRASH!
Crimson-black flames and lightning wrapped around my body.
As the Heavenly Fire Baeksam and Heavenly Thunder Baeksam intertwined, the more I pushed my inner force to its absolute limit, the more flames and lightning mixed and sparked.
Hwan-yeong-dae-sin-bo and the Belt of Protector Ryu resonated with each other, letting my movement arts skim past the snake’s massive attacks by the narrowest of margins.
[Host, if you keep dodging like this, you’ll be caught.]
“I know! But—!”
I sprang like a frog to avoid a descending tail.
Using the subtlety of Noeryeo Tagon, I tumbled and rolled clear of the snake’s fangs.
“That Mount Hua Guardian bastard used up all my weapons!”
In the fight against Jeokmaryeong, Eun Seollyeong had taken the iron sword—my only weapon, the one issued at the waiting area—and smashed it to pieces.
Ever since, I had been bare-handed.
I should at least have scavenged a weapon from among the corpses on the battlefield on the way here, but the thought had never crossed my mind.
On top of that, this rattlesnake was no mere oversized spiritual beast.
At first I had dodged its attacks with room to spare.
But as time passed, the strikes drew closer and closer, until now they were grazing me by the thickness of a sheet of paper.
This bastard! It’s tracking my movements!
[This won’t work. Fall back for now and secure a weapon.]
“Right!”
If I stayed like this I would end up flattened under a horse’s hoof like a crushed rat.
I poured everything into a sprint toward the cliff.
The snake swept its enormous tail sideways at me.
I ducked low and slipped under it.
The tail carved through empty air and slammed into the cliff face.
—CRASH!
“The cliff!”
The cliff was collapsing.
The very cliffs I had traversed sideways cracked under the impact, crumbling and plunging into the dizzying depths below.
Even my escape route had been cut off.
“Damn it! You monster!”
—RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE!
The snake shook its rattle and flicked its tongue.
Starving as it clearly was, the creature looked determined not to let me escape today no matter what.
“You bastard, do I look that delicious?! I’m black food full of impurities, you hear me?!”
[…Black impurities?]
I clenched my fists.
Now it was a head-on fight or nothing.
If I made it out of here alive, I was wrapping weapons around my entire body from then on!
“Don’t you dare look down on me, snake!”
—HUMMM!
Both my eyes flushed red.
I dodged the fangs that lunged to snatch me up. Moving according to the principles of the twelve forms of the Vajra Demon Subduing Fist, I brought my fist down hard.
“Guh! What kind of scales are these—iron plates?!”
I thought my fist had shattered.
Clutching the rapidly purpling, swelling hand, I retreated.
The snake’s eyes rolled back in pure rage as it charged me again.
—BANG! BANG! CRASH!
My form kept slipping just out of reach, and the snake’s venomous fury only climbed higher.
It had no facial muscles capable of expression, yet its rage was vivid and unmistakable.
How do I break this situation? What technique?
I clutched my throbbing right arm and fled.
No clever solution presented itself.
Every form I had learned until now required a sword.
Without a blade I could not unleash those techniques.
Eun Seollyeong had clearly executed sword forms with a spear, but that was only possible because she had completely deciphered the fundamentals of the techniques and martial arts—and could even reforge them. That was her level.
I was someone who simply copied and possessed martial arts and their corresponding essences, nothing more.
Application was hard for me.
That was my clear limitation.
This Heavenly Demon’s power of mimicking things like licking the surface of a watermelon was certainly a vast ability, yet it fell short against someone who had truly mastered a single path.
Just as the old jianghu saying went: a tool that can do everything ends up doing nothing properly.
And my only fist technique, the Vajra Demon Subduing Fist, had just proven completely useless, as moments ago had shown.
“What am I supposed to do…!”
As if to cut off every thought, the rattlesnake’s maw shot toward me.
“Guh!”
I twisted my waist just in time to evade.
But the fluttering edge of my clothes caught on the tip of a razor-sharp fang.
The instant the snake sensed something snagged on its tooth, it sprayed venom through the holes in its front fangs.
“Shit!”
I ripped the cloth free and tore it away.
—SPLAT, SPLAT!
Before the shredded fabric even hit the ground it melted into sludge and stuck to the earth.
Mere contact dissolved it.
I had even considered diving into its mouth and tearing my way out from inside, but one look at that venom told me a single bite would be the end.
The Sacred Lotus Flower was no longer the issue.
If this continued, I was finished.
I understood with certainty now.
This was absolutely not the difficulty of a trial.
Pahwanggun had said it before.
The purpose of the trials at Cheonsubaekryeonsa was to present harsh environments so that disciples could grow by overcoming them—not to eliminate or harm the disciples.
This was most definitely not that kind of purpose.
It can’t be, but if some bastard planned all of this…
Rage surged toward whoever had woven this scheme.
I did not know how far the intent had gone, but looking only at the results, three overlapping contingency plans had been layered so that escape was impossible.
They had sent me to Baekhakmubong to run into Demonic Cult members and get killed by them.
Even if I had somehow avoided them, I would still have met this giant spiritual beast and died.
With this level of inner force and the Belt of Protector Ryu, even footwork that ordinary disciples would never dare attempt was gradually being overtaken—this was nowhere near a disciple’s level.
And most decisively, setting everything else aside, this place itself was somewhere I never would have found without Eun Seollyeong’s advice.
The young male secretary had spoken as if the flower could be picked as easily as flowers on a back hill if one simply went to Baekhakmubong, but that too had been a lie.
Who would ever discover a place that only appeared after traversing cliffs sideways?
—Ssssss….
I was driven into a corner.
There was nowhere left to run.
As if protecting the hermitage where the Sacred Lotus Flower bloomed, the enormous white rattlesnake coiled completely around the building, head raised, watching for the slightest opening to deliver the final blow.
Cold sweat rolled down my forehead.
It gathered on my chin and dripped to the ground.
—ROARRR….
From a dizzying height a waterfall plunged, creating a ferocious roar.
I suddenly looked up at the falls.
“That…”
The water was pouring from a gaping hole.
A cave.
It was high enough to make the head spin, but I was certain.
Up there, at least the snake’s head would not fit.
If I can reach that!
I thought of it as a refuge.
I thought of it as a path to survival.
And then I hesitated.
Countless thoughts flashed through my mind.
What if there was not even space to set foot inside that cave?
I would just be swept out by the current.
What were the odds I could enter that sky-high cave in a single attempt?
Could I make it on the first try?
What if I bounced off?
What if none of this went according to plan?
What if I slipped?
What if that was not a cave at all, but merely a shadowed optical illusion…?
Fear paralyzed my reason.
—ROOOAAAR!!
The snake charged with its massive jaws wide open.
“…Please!”
Rank 4, Kongtong Sect’s Hwan-yeong-dae-sin-bo!
The beads embedded in the Belt of Protector Ryu resonated as if about to explode, and inner force flooded into both legs until they felt ready to burst.
“Hyaaah!”
I threw every last scrap of strength I had ever possessed and charged straight at the open-mouthed snake.
Only one chance.
This was the only way to climb high enough to escape its assault.
—CRASH!
The ground shattered under my stomp.
I threw myself sideways with all my might.
The snake’s jaws bit down on the spot where I had stood and drove its snout into the earth.
—HISSSS!
Enraged, the snake opened its mouth wide again to tear into me—
“Now!”
I kicked off the ground and leapt.
I landed on the bridge of the snake’s nose while its jaws were still spread wide.
Then I used the enormous force of those opening jaws to launch myself once more.
I dove into the cave from which the waterfall poured, as if hurled by a sling.
In an instant everything went pitch black; I could see nothing.
—ROARRR!
From the spray on my face and the sound alone I could tell that right below me, ink-black water was rushing violently past.
I can’t get swept away!
The moment I entered the cave I twisted my body sideways with every ounce of strength.
In the darkness I prayed that solid ground would exist beside the stream.
—THUD!
I was flung onto hard stone.
It was bare rock beside the watercourse, just wide enough for my body to lie sideways.
—SPLASH
The space was so cramped that my right foot bounced off and plunged into the water. The instant it entered, the fierce current seized it and tried to drag me out.
“Tch!”
I gritted my teeth and clawed at the stone.
Grip strength honed through training clamped onto a protruding rock on the cave wall like a sucker.
Only after thrashing desperately was I able to pull my right foot free.
“Hah… hah…!”
—THOOM. THOOM.
Far below outside the cave, the snake’s howls mixed with the sound of its body slamming into the cliff.
“Serves you right, you bastard. Did you think I’d just let myself get eaten?”
I muttered as I barely managed to push myself upright.
“It was a gamble, but heaven really was on my side.”
There had been no guarantee of any kind.
I had simply thrown my whole body in, hoping it would work.
That was how desperate I had been, how thoroughly I had been driven into a dead end.
“So what now?”
Careful not to fall into the water flowing beside me, I drank a little and caught my breath.
Coming from the bright daylight into the cave, it took a long while for my eyes to adjust to the dark.
It was so utterly silent that nothing reached my ears except my own breathing.
Even the snake’s hate-filled roars, which had gone on for so long, eventually quieted with time.
—Whoooosh.
A faint breeze brushed against me.
At first I simply let the wind wash over me while I carefully considered what to do next.
I began devising ways to divert the snake’s attention and retrace the path I had come so I could escape.
[Host. I feel wind.]
“Yeah, I know. Still, it’s a relief. At least there’s space to lie down and re—wait.”
I stopped mid-sentence.
I dipped my hand into the water flowing on the right, then pulled it out.
Wetness made the flow of air feel even more vivid.
The main breeze was clearly coming from the cave entrance ahead.
But within it, faint yet unmistakable, I felt wind blowing from behind as well.
I turned around.
In the darkness yawned a pitch-black abyss, like an open mouth.
“It’s open?”