Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Haven't Gone Out Yet?
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Carrying the collapsed Mina on my back, I exited the cavern.
The outside landscape looked exactly like the aftermath of a natural disaster.
The earth's surface had been flipped upside down, and a massive hole gaped in the sky.
The towering mountains had crumbled to dust rolling across the ground, and the river had dried up, exposing its barren bed.
I walked through it all.
"Ugh..."
At that moment, a faint groan escaped from Mina on my back.
Soon after her eyes fluttered open hazily, a piercing scream erupted.
"Kyaaah-!"
"Bi, Bihyeong!?"
"You passed out. For now, just rest against my back and don't push yourself."
"......"
Mina couldn't understand why she was riding on Bihyeong's back in this state.
'I was definitely... catching the yokai, and then......'
She remembered nothing.
She had simply blacked out, and now she had woken up.
'W-well... this is fine......'
Like melting into a warm bed, she leaned her body against Bihyeong's broad back.
The question of why she had fainted melted away entirely.
Just then, the surrounding scenery came into her view as well.
"...Bihyeong. What's going on with this?"
It was a scene of devastation, as if the world had ended.
Mina's eyes trembled violently as she took it in.
"...Just ran into a bit of fortune, that's all."
Bihyeong dismissed it lightly with a faint smile.
"...Fortune? Like the stuff from wuxia novels?"
That was right, too.
'Or you could call it a wondrous fateful encounter.'
The dragon drawn down by my yokai power.
And the treasure received as a gift at the end of our conversation.
It was the kind of fortuitous encounter common in wuxia novels—a truly bizarre connection.
"What kind of fortune does this?"
"More importantly, Mina. I've got something for you."
"Huh?"
Supporting Mina with one arm, I rummaged in my pocket with the other.
I pulled out a single reverse scale that came to hand and handed it to her.
"It was a gift. He gave me two in total, said one was for you."
"Why me?"
Because he felt bad for knocking you out, obviously.
But I couldn't say that, so Bihyeong just smiled and made an excuse.
"It's one of this world's rewards. You know these things are supposed to be distributed fairly among party members to avoid gossip, right? So take it."
"But... I didn't do anything... I passed out and was just a burden to you, Bihyeong..."
How could you say you did nothing?
She had a huge share in getting us into the library.
That alone made her worth one—no, two or three people's portions.
"So take it."
"...Yeah. Thanks, Bihyeong."
Mina accepted the reverse scale.
Was it because she already possessed exceptional talent?
The moment she took it, a subtle change was detected.
'Whoa. Is she about to break through here?'
I had figured that since she was at the edge of Hierarchy Rank 1, even a small trigger would push her to Rank 2.
But this was way too fast, wasn't it?
'This is a reverse scale?'
They said it contained the depths of cultivation,
and apparently, that included this kind of meaning.
'It's a dragon, so it must have passed that rank long ago, and the culmination of its cultivation grants enlightenment to surpass the wall upon reaching it.'
What a truly valuable gift.
At that moment, Mina's transformation paused briefly, then stopped altogether.
'Huh?'
What's going on?
As Bihyeong turned his head with a puzzled expression, Mina mumbled with her lips pursed before speaking.
"B-but... when you break through a Hierarchy Rank, your body improves, right? Waste buildup inside will come out too, and if I do it here..."
So that's what was bothering her.
Yeah, they say it usually comes with a nasty smell.
'I don't get it since I'm a created character and don't produce any.'
Still, a girl's feelings—I had to understand.
'Alright then.'
For Mina's breakthrough too, we needed to clear this place quickly.
'Thanks to the dragon, it won't take long.'
The dragon had smashed everywhere, exposing much of the yokai's domain.
So the yokai would try to quickly unfold other stories to repair this domain.
Look at that.
It was already starting to restore itself.
'The river is flooding again, and the sky is filling up.'
But Bihyeong's expression remained relaxed.
'Go ahead and try a hundred times. It won't restore to how it was.'
This world had been shaped by xianxia tales, Daoist scriptures, and alchemy methods.
Now elements from the yokai encyclopedia and the protagonist not holding back had been added.
'All that's left are the painting-related books.'
No matter how hard the library yokai tried to restore this world, the original 'xianxia' could never be recreated.
No, it wasn't just that it couldn't be made.
'The settings clash.'
Just as adding messy settings to a complete worldview sends the story off the rails,
the same happened here.
"Bihyeong... the sky is turning white."
Mina's puzzled voice reached me.
As she said, the restored parts of the crumbling sky had lost their original blue, filled instead with something like blank white canvas.
The clouds were black as ink, and the flowing river was fluid like brush strokes, but not transparent.
"Now it begins."
Boom!
Finally, the world began to tremble.
Settings were clashing, and something was trying to overlay onto the constructed world.
The shockwave reached even us inside.
"...Time for me to get down. We can't both respond properly if I'm still on your back."
"Up you go!"
With a grunt like that, Mina slid off Bihyeong's back.
Bihyeong let out a quiet sigh of relief inwardly.
'Phew. Thought it was a test of my patience.'
Mina's destructive power was indeed top-tier.
I knew best, having endured it all the way. No arguments accepted.
"Anyway, nothing major will happen. In this state, the library yokai can't do much."
It had already created its domain and trapped us.
Now adding more dangerous elements on top?
'That would just impose restrictions on itself.'
Not simple restrictions, but ones threatening its very existence.
There's a saying for that, right?
To kill another, you must be prepared to die yourself.
"So let's just walk. The exit should come soon."
At Bihyeong's words, Mina stood beside him.
Matching their strides, the two walked slowly through the collapsing settings.
The river's color darkened like ink, then reverted to blue at times, or writhed like a snake.
The sky was smeared chaotically like a palette of mixed colors, dizzying to the eyes.
As the mountains, clouds, wind, and finally the earth itself began to change in similar fashion,
Bihyeong arrived at the world's end.
"Here it is."
Tap, tap.
He swung his hand through empty air, and it rang out like tapping a wall.
"It should have formed right here by now."
With those words, Bihyeong clenched his fist tight.
"I'll handle this one."
"Got it!"
Bihyeong wanted to test his limits and the pinnacle of Demon Combat Technique this time—and if possible, glimpse beyond it.
'Should I use the Demon Blade or the spear?'
No need for that.
'The Demon Blade loses durability with use, and the spear... well, no yokai right in front of me.'
This was something he could brute-force with his body.
'Demon Combat Technique.'
Root down.
The energy flowing from his soles connected his body to the earth, like roots gripping a tree firmly.
Within it, he comprehended the earth's heaviness and shuddered.
'The more energy, the thicker and longer the roots extend.'
That had been Bihyeong's judgment on roots until now.
'That's why I was focused on getting a cultivation method to build energy quickly...'
But that thinking had just changed.
'Thickness, length, number—they don't matter.'
How sturdy are they?
How vibrant?
Like roots sucking up nutrients from the soil, he had to draw that power into his body.
For that, the connecting roots had to be fresh and lively.
'What if I infuse the 'Wood' attribute spell into the roots?'
A sudden idea.
It was enlightenment-worthy.
'Let's try.'
He precisely adjusted his energy and infused Wood spell into the roots.
Wood was the attribute symbolizing growth.
Its foundation lay in absorbing soil nutrients and making them one's own.
Basic Wood Art.
Sprouting.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Basic Wood Art: Sprouting Crunch!
Wood art was added to Bihyeong's roots.
It drew in far more earthly energy than before, storing it in his body.
For a moment, his fist felt as heavy as Mount Tai.
'This is it.'
Thanks to the clashing settings, his energy had surged to high-rank levels.
Harnessing it unlocked various growth paths for the roots, leading straight to the evolution of Demon Combat Technique.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Skill 'Demon Combat Technique' proficiency has increased. A new idea. This is the path. The prepared route has been deleted. And this was a path countless goblins had never walked.
A path only he, a half-demon, could tread.
Bihyeong stamped his mark clearly at that crossroads.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ You begin to see beyond the wall of Skill 'Demon Combat Technique'! He ignored it.
The alerts floating before his eyes meant less than the tiniest sensations rippling through his body.
Bihyeong thrilled at even the slightest prickle of raised hairs,
and stomped forward.
Boom!
A fierce foot cloud shook the earth.
He channeled the rebound through his roots without a single loss, loading it into his fist.
And thrust it out.
Craaaack—!!
With a deafening explosion, the transparent wall blocking his path shattered and fragmented.
Crack!
It started as a small fissure, but it grew over time,
and soon the obstacle barring their way vanished.
The space beyond was pure white, unlike the chaotic colors they had traversed.
"Let's go."
As Bihyeong turned to call Mina, she was dazed.
"Mina?"
"...H-huh? Oh... yeah. Let's go!"
Only after he strode up and called her name did Mina snap out of it and hurry ahead.
His display must have left a strong impression.
'Was it that powerful?'
Bihyeong tilted his head at the fissure he had created.
'...Yeah, it far exceeded the limits of a Rank 3 technique.'
Even with power and spells rivaling high ranks, Bihyeong had used only basic Demon Combat Technique and Wood art.
Because it felt easier to break his own limits that way.
Put differently, that power was merely from what he currently possessed.
'Impressive in that sense, sure... but Mina doesn't know that?'
Then why was she so stunned?
Bihyeong muttered that he still didn't understand women as he followed her.
"Mina, wait up!"
By the time he hurried after her,
a wriggling mass of surrounding white light had gathered in her hand.
"Bi, Bihyeong... it's suddenly doing this. Is this right?"
Mina's face showed alarm, but Bihyeong smiled instead.
"Yeah. You're doing great."
With that, Bihyeong grabbed the white wall nearby and tore it roughly.
Riiip!
The torn white mass had a slimy, liquid texture like slime, gradually clumping into a 'book' shape.
'...Finally got it.'
The book's title began like this.
📜 ITEM ACQUIRED 📜 [Colorless Painting] No color defined.
Whatever you draw becomes yours to decide.
A peerless fraudulent cultivation method embodying that meaning.
And the sole lifeline to suppress Bihyeong's yokai nature.
'I already know what to draw first.'
The anti-demon function to suppress yokai nature.
With this, his worries were over.
By the way, did Mina get hers properly?
Looking back, Mina was engrossed in the book clutched in her hand.
The Colorless Painting had soon turned to powder and entered her body.
'Looks like she got it successfully.'
After she finished absorbing it, he gave her a brief explanation of the Colorless Painting.
"Right now, it's on the level of a basic cultivation method, but depending on what you add later, its effects can multiply several times over."
"Bihyeong... thank you!"
Mina's eyes welled up, and she threw herself into Bihyeong's arms with a thud.
He knew she had exorcist talent, but a cultivation method was beyond her dreams.
If she had the money, she could have bought one on the market and entered the academy, but money was the issue.
Yet here he was, gifting her something beyond market goods or academy basics—a special cultivation method.
She couldn't contain her gratitude.
"Thank you so much!"
Mina hugged him with all her might, unaware of what she was doing,
and Bihyeong froze up like a broken machine.
'Does this girl... even realize her own figure?'
This won't do.
At this rate, my rationality won't hold!
'Think of something else.'
Mountains... peaks... damn it.
'Why does everything go there?!'
Bihyeong gritted his teeth and changed the subject.
"A-anyway, we've got everything we came for, so let's get out. Yeah?"
"...Yeah!"
Only then did Mina pull away from his embrace.
Phew. That was close.
"But, Bihyeong. How do we get out now?"
"I've got a way."
Bihyeong drew the Demon Blade that Eoduk carried.
A crimson-black blade surged from the shadows.
Gripping the hilt tight, he activated the Demon Blade's power.
Screeech...!
A grating noise like scraping metal plates.
Bihyeong gripped the Demon Blade in reverse and plunged it into the ground.
Changes began.
The white ground rippled around them.
It looked just like a stomach starting to digest.
"It's already manifested everything it had. Nothing left to spawn, so just damaging the space will make it spit us out naturally."
He turned to Mina as he spoke. A hole had opened beneath her feet, and she was falling.
Worried she might be scared, Bihyeong shouted into the hole.
"Meet you outside!"
"...Yeah!"
Her voice faded into the distance.
Bihyeong prepared to fall as well.
But.
"Huh?"
The stomach-like writhing gradually stopped.
'...No.'
I haven't gone out yet?