Hunting
Contrary to my decision to kill the four of them, daily life did not change much.
Maybe it was because I was growing impatient, as if I could reach Transcendence if I only stretched out my hand. I spent most of my day training, like a man being pursued by something he could not see.
"Lee Hyun, are you at it again? You should come outside once in a while."
"Leave him be, Sis. You can’t waste your breath on a guy like that."
"..."
The Danri siblings came by the pavilion where I stayed often. Whenever I saw them, my thoughts tangled into knots.
I tried to ignore them, but they followed me around all day, and in the end I had no choice but to go along with them. That pattern repeated itself day after day.
By the time I’d grown used to walking with the Danri siblings and to the servants fussing over me a little too much, I could feel it.
It was time to move.
Even I had adapted to this comfortable life, so the others had surely done the same. This was the moment when their guard would be at its lowest. They would think that now that they were out of the cave, no great danger remained for the time being.
If you’re going to pull a horn from an ox, do it while the iron is hot. There was no reason to delay. I intended to begin tonight.
I searched my memory for the day the candidates for Young Sect Leader had been chosen.
Excluding the Danri siblings, the remaining four were one Peak expert and three First-class martial artists.
Two swordsmen, one spearman, and one oddball who fought with an axe.
The spearman, since he was only at the latter half of First-class.
His realm wasn’t especially high, but if the four of them joined forces, he would be the most dangerous of the bunch. If his spear were restricted, he would have a hard time bringing out his full strength.
And if I struck one of them, I had to account for the rest banding together, which meant it was right to take him out first.
It had been a while since I had a worthy opponent, and my body was already warming to the thought.
Had even I grown bored of training alone? I found myself looking forward to nightfall.
The forest was quiet under the dark. Only the faint chirring of insects brushed against my ears.
I drew my sword without a sound and forced my qi into it until it reached its limit. Scarlet demonic energy surged along the blade in streams, dyeing the darkness all around me.
Before me stood a pavilion, straight and narrow. There was no reason to fight in that cramped space. It would only play into the spearman’s strengths.
The sword sliced through the cold night air and shot forward. A red line was drawn through the middle of the pavilion.
BOOM!
With a deafening crash that rattled my eardrums, the pavilion exploded.
Fragments flew in all directions, and among the debris, I could see red splashes of blood scattered everywhere.
The servants inside were probably all dead.
Through the whirl of dust wrapped around the half-destroyed pavilion, a woman stepped out.
She held a long spear in one hand, her face twisted so tightly with fury that it seemed she could hardly contain it.
"You fucking lunatic!"
I had just killed dozens of people, yet I felt no guilt for them.
They were merely stepping stones on the path to Yiryeong. That was all the value they had.
What I did regret was that the spearman had not been caught in the explosion and killed outright.
Through the scattering dust, the spear tip closed in on me at frightening speed.
It was clearly a thrust packed with ferocious force, and yet no outward energy showed itself.
I swung my blazing red sword and met it head-on.
Claaang!
The clash rang out like a hammer blow, and the spearhead shattered into pieces.
The woman’s eyes, fixed on her broken weapon, lost their focus and trembled.
"This... what—"
The difference between Peak and First-class. Her spear could not withstand sword energy born from overwhelming internal power.
Red blood-flowers burst across her clothing, likely struck by shards of the broken spear.
Then I raised my sword and cut through the rigid body that had frozen in place. From her left waist to her right shoulder blade, she split apart, and bright blood sprayed into the air.
She fell to the ground in two halves.
Life drained from her wide-open eyes.
I exhaled lightly and wiped the blood-soaked sword against my robes. It was already red anyway, so a little more wouldn’t make any difference.
Then I heard the sound of someone rushing through the forest. By the footsteps, there were five of them.
It seemed the noise from the collapsing pavilion had been too loud; they’d all come together.
막조위, one of the candidates for Young Sect Leader who had reached Peak, couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.
He had been lying in bed, trying to sleep, when an explosion so loud it couldn’t be ignored had shaken the place. He had come to see what on earth was happening, only to find... this?
Looking around, he saw that everyone else had the same dazed expression.
A pavilion nearly identical to his own quarters had collapsed so completely it was hard to recognize as a building at all.
But that wasn’t what was truly terrifying.
Everything was red. The air was crushed beneath a vile stench of blood. It looked as though blood, not rain, had fallen here.
In the midst of that slaughter stood the culprit, expressionless, with a corpse split cleanly in two at his feet.
It was the same bastard who had taken the place of Young Sect Leader candidate last time. A monster who had toyed with and then killed the strongest among the candidates.
If what happened today had happened to him, what would it have been like?
He would have ended up exactly like the corpse sprawled on the ground, like an insect crushed beneath a boot.
He was trembling with deep fear when the monster turned his head.
His gaze was eerily calm as it swept over the others. It was the look of someone deciding on his next hunt.
Seeing those eyes, he understood. Someday, his turn would come too. Maybe it would be next.
He needed a plan. He needed some way to survive that mad bastard.
When the monster walked off without saying a word, 막조위 spoke to the remaining four.
"You saw that, right? If we don’t want to be hunted by that monster, we need to join forces. Our turn is coming soon."
"...You’re right. No idiot would try to fight him alone, would they? If the five of us work together, we should be able to manage."
"Yeah... let’s do it."
Fortunately, the other two seemed to be thinking the same thing, and they agreed at once.
But the mood that had been building was shattered when the quiet Danri Yeon finally spoke.
"My brother and I will sit this one out."
"...Why? Do you really think the two of you can kill him by yourselves?"
In an instant, a thick body stepped into view and blocked him from sight. Danri Myeong glared at him.
"You—don’t you dare argue with my sister. I’ll kill you."
What kind of provocation was that in a situation like this? His face flushed with humiliation, but there was no time to waste on that now.
"Hah... Fine. Then get lost. And stop eavesdropping."
"Don’t mind him. We won’t tell anyone you’re forming an alliance, so don’t worry."
"Good. That’s appreciated."
I turned my back on the two who were walking away and spoke to the pair still looking at me.
"Three will be enough. But waiting around for him to come to us won’t do."
"So you mean we should go on the offensive."
To kill him, we had to use every method available.
Hope flickered across 막조위’s face.
When I returned to my room and was washing the blood off in the bath, I remembered the expressions of those who had been unable to close their mouths at the sight of me.
After today, they would be alert and cooperate. They weren’t fools enough to face me alone. After all, these were the ones who had survived that cave until the very end.
Whether there were three of them or five including the Danri siblings, I didn’t know. But however many came, and whatever method they chose, I was certain I would win.
Two days later, just as I was wondering if I should go find them first since they still hadn’t come for me, the inside of the pavilion suddenly fell silent.
Even the servants’ footsteps disappeared.
They had come.
I drew my sword and went down. The servants lay sprawled across the floor.
A faint evil energy drifted from the black mist spread all around.
Corpse poison.
A poison that worked its way through the body and rotted everything it touched. If I absorbed too much of it, even I would be in danger.
I quickly sealed my pressure points, but far too much of it was entering my body.
My constitution was the problem. The channels that drew in qi through my entire body swallowed even poison without filtering it.
Getting out of here came first. But the doors were shut, which meant I’d have to break them down with inner power. That would only let the poison spread deeper.
They had chosen their method well. I didn’t know whether it was deliberate, but it was especially dangerous for me.
BOOM!
The moment I broke through the wall and stepped out, sword strikes came raining toward me.
Crimson demonic energy surged across my entire body. I swung my sword, now wrapped in dense sword qi, and saw them flinch in surprise.
My overwhelming internal power drew the demonic energy right out of their swords.
Shhk.
The blade that met mine was cut apart like tofu. It was the fate of a sword that held no inner power, no sword qi—nothing at all.
I could feel the corpse poison boring into my qi channels, but it was still bearable.
My tough blood vessels, torn apart and mended over and over as demonic energy flowed through them, were not so easily invaded by corpse poison.
I suppressed my inner power, reducing the sword qi’s force. That had been the method they chose. They were probably planning to drag things out until I was poisoned.
But why should I let myself fall for their obvious scheme? All I had to do was trust my body and smash straight through.
I saw two of them retreating as they drew fresh swords. I was about to cut them down right there when an axe wrapped in demonic energy intervened.
"Hup!"
The axe blade came at me in a black arc, with the momentum to shred everything it touched.
I couldn’t block that. I had to dodge and look for the next opening.
I concentrated demonic energy under my feet and stamped down hard.
Thud!
The ground exploded, and I shot away from him in an instant.
The axe blade fell, and I saw the man’s body pitch forward sharply as he lost his balance.
He tried to bring the axe up again to continue the attack, but my sword was far faster.
Because an axe relied on one threatening strike at a time, the follow-up was naturally slower.
Five forms of swordplay bloomed through the air.
Just before the sword tore him apart, two people stepped into its path and shielded the man, their own swords slashing up in an attempt to block the many branching lines of my blade.
Clang!
The feint made only of sword qi was stopped by their blades, but both of them spat blood. Their abdomens split open lengthwise, red flesh and blood spilling out.
The heavy axe burst through the gap between them. I tried once more to wrench my body free, but my feet wouldn’t move.
Four blood-soaked hands had clamped tightly around my ankles.
Yes. If I dragged this out any longer, it would become dangerous. I’d end it here.
Pouring out demonic energy until the sword was on the verge of bursting, I made the blade tremble violently and cut through the air.
The moment the dark axe blade met the scarlet sword, the shock hit my body.
A ripple spread from the point of impact and flung me far away, and my thoughts broke apart.
Beeeeep—
A ringing noise flooded my ears from all directions. I forced my eyelids open with difficulty, and before me was a gigantic crater torn into the earth. Massive trees lay scattered like discarded toys.
The moment I tried to rise, a pain that felt as though my entire body were breaking apart seized me. My back was especially bad, which meant I had probably slammed into something.
When I looked inward, I could feel evil energy riding along my pressure points and contaminating my body. I had to deal with the corpse poison first.
I ran demonic energy through my entire body, washing the poison out of my qi channels and gathering it in one place.
I raised my sword to cut myself open, but all that remained of it was a shattered hilt. With no choice left, I drove my fingers deeply into my own hand.
Spurt.
Black blood burst from my hand, and the plants nearby withered at once.
Once the poison was dealt with, I dragged my trembling body toward the crater. Inside it, I could see three corpses, all too mangled to recognize. It looked as though I had taken care of them all.
Just as I was beginning to feel relieved, someone approached from behind me.
Step.
A short woman and a large man. The Danri siblings.
Damn it. My body was a rag, and I didn’t even have a weapon I could use right now. If they attacked, I’d be helpless.
Only then did I realize I had been far too careless. Cursing my former self, the one who had believed he could win no matter who came, I clenched my fist.
No, I tried to clench it, but my body no longer listened. My eyelids were slowly sinking shut.
Through the dimming haze of my vision, the figures of the Danri siblings drew faintly closer.
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