Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 17
>Chapter Title: Flag (2)
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-Crack! Thud!
‘!!!!!!’
At the sight of So-hwa’s neck snapped and her body crumpling dead, the group members momentarily lost their words.
Since they had all gathered around her as their focal point, this death struck them with even greater bewilderment.
Among them, one boy couldn’t hold back and shouted.
“Y-You crazy bastard, what the hell are you doing?”
No one had anticipated this situation.
They had trusted her and thought they could use the guy somehow before discarding him.
They still had stamina left, their eyes wide open as they watched, yet this happened right in front of them.
Mok Kyung-un’s lips twitched as he spoke.
“Shall we call this delightful mealtime?”
“What bullshit is that!”
Another boy quickly regained his senses and shot back at Mok Kyung-un’s words.
He signaled with his eyes to the other boys,
-Rumble!
and the six of them surrounded Mok Kyung-un in a circle.
At this sight, Mok Kyung-un tilted his head slightly and opened his mouth.
“Unexpected.”
“What?”
“I figured you’d all scatter in panic like a swarm of bees following their queen.”
‘!?’
At Mok Kyung-un’s words, the boys’ faces twisted fiercely.
He had likened them to idiots hopelessly infatuated with their sole girl, So-hwa—who wouldn’t grasp that insult?
“You son of a bitch, I’ll kill y—”
“Don’t get heated!”
One boy shouted.
He assumed a starting stance for Fist and Claw Technique toward Mok Kyung-un and said.
“Don’t lose your cool and fall for his tricks. Even with So-hwa dead, we hold the advantage.”
“You’re right. We almost fell for it.”
Charging one by one in excitement could lead to them being picked off individually.
Their internal energy was sealed under the same conditions, but the fact that he pulled this stunt meant he had some confidence in facing them.
“We overwhelm him with a coordinated assault. Then make him die painfully as payback for killing So-hwa.”
“Got it!”
Mok Kyung-un chuckled softly.
“Playing at friendship, are we?”
-Thud!
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Mok Kyung-un kicked off the ground.
Dirt erupted up to knee height, and in an instant, his figure closed in right before the nose of the boy in front.
‘W-What?’
The startled boy tried to check Mok Kyung-un with a push kick.
However,
-Grip! Crunch!
Mok Kyung-un seized the boy’s ankle with one hand and yanked it.
In that moment, the boy’s balance shattered, his body arching backward.
“Hngh!”
They knew he was strong, but this exceeded expectations.
Mok Kyung-un, still gripping the ankle, swung the boy’s body toward another boy standing right beside them.
-Whoosh!
‘This guy!’
The surprised boy hurriedly ducked to evade.
But that wasn’t the end.
Using centrifugal force, he spun once, then swept low,
-Bam!
“Urk!”
The boy who failed to dodge had his head smashed into the head of the boy whose ankle was gripped.
The two skulls collided with such force that something shattered audibly.
Both boys’ heads seemed caved in.
‘What the hell is this bastard?’
Two down in an instant.
Without internal energy, how could his strength be this immense?
“A-Attack him together!”
At one boy’s shout, two boys charged at Mok Kyung-un.
One aimed a kick at his face, the other slid along the ground from the opposite side, targeting Mok Kyung-un’s ankle.
This setup would inevitably topple his balance one way or another.
Or so they thought,
-Thud! Flutter!
Mok Kyung-un kicked off in a flash, spinning his body in midair like a top to evade,
-Swoosh! Thud!
“Eugh!”
and stomped down on the crown of the sliding boy’s head with his instep.
-Bam!
The boy’s jaw slammed into the ground, his eyes rolling back as he lost consciousness.
“You bastard!”
Startled for a moment but seizing the opening, the boy targeting the face kicked out at Mok Kyung-un’s left leg—the one supporting his body—to topple him.
However,
-Thud!
“Argh!”
The boy’s ankle was gripped and twisted.
He had clearly kicked out, yet his own ankle throbbed as if it would snap.
‘W-What is this?’
“What are you doing!”
At the staggering boy’s sight, another boy, incredulous, rushed at Mok Kyung-un to smash his head with a sharp rock.
But before he could, Mok Kyung-un kicked his ankle.
-Thud!
“Argh!”
The kicked boy’s leg shot upward, his body tilting and toppling to the opposite side.
-Bam!
In that instant, Mok Kyung-un stomped on the boy’s neck.
-Crack!
The boy’s neck snapped, and he perished on the spot.
The staggering boy and the two who hadn’t attacked yet couldn’t hide their shock at the scene.
Four down in a blink.
Though their internal energy was sealed, they had trained in martial arts and held numerical superiority—they thought they could subdue him somehow.
But that assumption was utterly wrong.
‘This mad...’
This guy rivaled second-rate levels with raw strength alone.
Only then did regret wash over them.
They should have stopped So-hwa when she suggested bringing him in.
They had poked something they shouldn’t have.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
In that moment, the one boy who hadn’t attacked chose to flee.
He had no confidence in handling this monster.
Even five charging together failed—what could he alone accomplish?
‘Damn...’
The boy with the sprained ankle cursed inwardly at the fleeing boy.
But he understood.
Fleeing was the right choice now...
-Swish!
In that instant, the sprained boy’s eyes widened.
“Gasp!”
-Bam!
The fleeing boy’s ankle jerked backward mid-stride, sending him tumbling.
What was that? As he wondered, he saw Mok Kyung-un reaching out toward the fallen boy and mimicking a pulling motion.
Then,
-Crunch!
In that moment, the boy’s leg—no, his entire body—was dragged backward.
‘!!!!!!’
An unbelievable sight.
‘A-Air Grasp?’
Air Grasp.
It was a technique where profound internal energy experts drew objects or desired items with qi.
Something only peak transcendent masters could perform, yet it unfolded before his eyes—the boy could only gasp in horror.
‘No way.’
What in the world was happening?
Not only was he doing this, but his internal energy was clearly sealed?
It was in the midst of his bewilderment.
“N-Nooooo!”
-Scraaaape!
The fallen boy clawed at the ground to resist, leaving long nail marks, but he was still dragged.
His ankle ended up in Mok Kyung-un’s outstretched hand.
-Thud!
-Crack!
“Kwaaaaaah!”
No sooner had he gripped the ankle than Mok Kyung-un twisted it.
The boy screamed as his ankle bent backward, but Mok Kyung-un stomped on the back of his neck.
-Crack!
The screaming boy’s breath cut off instantly.
‘Ahhhh.’
The sprained boy watching this went ghastly pale.
They truly shouldn’t have touched this.
Not a monster—this was more like a malevolent ghost.
How could such a being exist?
Even if the seal on internal energy lifted, could they handle this ghost who wielded Air Grasp?
-Tremble!
His body shook violently.
He wanted to steady himself, but his legs gave out, and he collapsed.
-Thud!
Mok Kyung-un turned his head toward him, smiling as he approached.
It was the first time a smiling face felt this terrifying.
In that moment, the boy’s mind selected the absolute best option among those available.
-Smack!
He dropped to his knees and kowtowed on the ground.
Then shouted toward Mok Kyung-un.
“I surrender! I surrender! I’ll do anything you command. Make me a slave if you want—just please spare my life!”
He believed begging unreservedly for mercy was the only answer.
As long as he survived, this humiliation didn’t matter.
“Please spare m—”
“Shh.”
“Yes?”
“Be quiet.”
At Mok Kyung-un’s words, the boy anxiously shut his mouth and lifted his head.
As he did, Mok Kyung-un glanced in a certain direction of the forest, then chuckled softly and said.
“There was one more rat.”
‘!?’
Hearing that, the boy recalled one of their original group members.
The boy they planned to kill Mok Kyung-un with at dawn before regrouping.
They had told him to keep his distance and follow—had he been spotted?
Come to think of it, faint sounds of something running away echoed from the direction Mok Kyung-un was looking.
‘.........Yeah. Run and tell someone about the danger.’
This guy was utterly different from the others.
He had gone beyond competition into outright slaughter.
At that moment, Mok Kyung-un pulled something like a wooden doll from his bosom, formed a strange hand seal, and muttered.
“Yeonwonjise guhwandowon hae (解).”
Then he tucked it back into his bosom.
What had he done?
As he puzzled over it, Mok Kyung-un turned his head and approached the boy again.
He bent his knees, lowering himself, and said.
“Ah. What did you just say?”
“Sp-Spare...”
-Smack!
Then Mok Kyung-un grabbed the boy’s head.
The boy panicked and tried to shake off his hand,
-Crack!
but Mok Kyung-un snapped his neck right there.
Staring into the eyes of the boy who died with his head twisted, Mok Kyung-un sneered.
“Better not to torment with false hope, right?”
With those words, Mok Kyung-un gripped the dead boy’s head and recited the incantation for the ‘Contact’ technique in his mind.
It had been a delightful mealtime.
He needed to absorb the death energy with minimal loss.
* * *
-Tatata tatatak!
‘Whoa, he’s completely insane.’
The running boy.
His flesh crawled at the scene he had just witnessed.
He had kept his distance, but hearing screams, he approached in shock—and gasped in horror at the sight.
He hadn’t even neared the flag, yet So-hwa and the group members had been slaughtered indiscriminately.
No, it was a massacre.
‘A malevolent ghost. A malevolent ghost.’
Moreover, was his internal energy truly sealed?
It didn’t seem so.
That last technique was unmistakably Air Grasp using qi, no matter how you looked at it.
‘Does that make sense?’
Something only profound internal experts could perform, done by a guy not even seventeen?
It was utter chaos in his mind.
Yet amid the confusion, one thing was certain.
‘I have to tell someone.’
Whether the other guys or the people undergoing this Blood Valley trial—they needed to know.
He was already dangerous, but if only his internal energy wasn’t sealed, this was no different from cheating...
-Thud!
In that instant, something slammed into him like a wall, sending the boy’s body flying backward.
He reflexively used a falling technique, spun around, steadied his stance, and looked ahead in shock.
But nothing was there.
What the hell?
‘What did I hit?’
Puzzled, he stood and unconsciously turned his head.
In that moment,
“Hngh!”
The boy toppled backward in terror.
‘Th-This is...’
He couldn’t believe his own eyes.
Before him loomed a hazy figure—a massive monk wearing skull prayer beads around his neck.
The monk stared down at him with stark white eyes, and it felt like his heart would stop.
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