Chapter 90
Chapter 90
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 90
>Chapter Title: Selflessness (3)
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The exam had only just begun—not even a single gak had passed.
Red smoke began to rise into the sky.
It wasn’t that casualties or lost candidates had already appeared. The sticks handed out to the spectators produced yellow smoke.
The spectators hadn’t been told in advance, but the red smoke came from the traps.
“Ha. Unbelievable.”
Chu Il-hwan let out a hollow chuckle at the sight of the red smoke and turned to those waiting with him.
“Time’s still left, but I’ll head over and check it out first.”
“Then we’ll set off on schedule.”
After finishing his talk with the instructors and assistants, Chu Il-hwan unleashed his lightness skill and headed straight for the rising red smoke.
Before long, he arrived to find a pit trap revealed, its bottom studded with blunt wooden stakes.
Chu Il-hwan dropped lightly into the pit and smashed the stick spewing red smoke with his Black Thunder Demon Palm.
Every trap had one of these sticks installed—a safety measure of sorts.
The traps had been toned down to reduce lethality, but serious injuries still happened from time to time.
And those gravely wounded often lacked the spare moment to use their signal sticks or whistles.
That was why they’d set up this safeguard: activated traps would draw instructors or assistants to check for any injured.
Fortunately, no fool had fallen into this one.
Having disposed of the stick to spare the other assistants and instructors a pointless trip, Instructor Chu Il-hwan leaped nimbly out of the pit.
Just then, red smoke began billowing from somewhere far off again.
And from the very start, Chu Il-hwan was starting to get a pretty good idea who the idiot triggering traps one after another might be.
“Looks like they’re charging straight ahead like a brute.”
* * *
Just as Chu Il-hwan suspected, the one who’d already triggered two traps was none other than Dokgo Pae.
With a mighty kiai, he barreled ahead in a dead-straight line.
If a massive tree blocked his path.
“Haaap!!”
With another hearty shout, he unleashed the Dokgo Massive Sword, his giant blade wrapped in sword qi as it cleaved the towering trunk.
Boom!!
The tree crashed down with a thunderous roar.
The chain reaction splintered nearby saplings and set off a trap, red smoke rising.
“Hahaha!”
But he paid no mind to such trifles, simply pressing forward with his lightness skill once more.
* * *
Hearing the nonstop blasts echoing nearby, Bang Mi-hwa sneered.
“Sounds like that Dokgo clan wild boar’s rampaging again.”
“Keep that up, and it’ll turn out just like you said, Mi-hwa.”
“Of course. Hohoho.”
Bang Mi-hwa tossed her head back with a haughty laugh at Ha Yeong’s agreement as they traveled together.
Unlike Dokgo Pae, the pair advanced with calm precision.
In addition to scouting their path for traps, they executed their lightness skill with care to leave as few traces as possible.
Instructor Chu Il-hwan had explained: just like the last exam, the assistants and instructors would begin pursuit after one gak.
Unlike last time, though, it wouldn’t be just Chu Il-hwan chasing them down.
Of course, the exam grounds were far larger this time around, and being an individual test, the candidates were scattered far and wide.
All they had to do was reach the destination, putting them in a much stronger position.
‘As long as we leave no traces.’
“Now I see—that red smoke’s coming from the traps. Trigger one, and you leave a mark even if you don’t get caught. We’ll need to be even more careful from here.”
“Wow! As expected of you, Mi-hwa! How’d you figure that out so fast?”
“Ohohoho. Isn’t it obvious? That wild boar’s leaving traces everywhere, so it’s only a matter of time before the instructors or assistants nab him. No clue how he even made it through the prelims with a brain like that.”
The two chatted amiably as they went.
All the while, they scanned left and right, striving to avoid triggering any traps.
On top of that, they detoured around trees and rocks to minimize traces, pausing now and then to meticulously check their maps and ensure they stayed on course.
And despite Bang Mi-hwa’s smug air, this wasn’t a tactic she’d dreamed up alone.
Candidates who’d already weathered two exams had adapted to the Demonic Path Academy’s ways enough to quickly devise solutions.
Some moved in small groups like Bang Mi-hwa and Ha Yeong, others solo like Dokgo Pae—but all took pains to avoid leaving tracks.
Il-mok followed suit, though with one key difference.
‘Dokgo Pae’s drawing all the aggro by himself anyway. This is my chance.’
Il-mok had clocked that the one stirring up chaos ahead was Dokgo Pae.
So he veered slightly off his route, slipping onto a side path away from Dokgo Pae’s direct line.
No sense following the same path—the assistants and instructors would chase Dokgo Pae first, and he didn’t want any spillover.
Once he’d successfully detoured, Il-mok swung back toward the destination, drawing deeper on his dantian’s internal energy to boost his speed.
‘Long as I don’t trigger traps, a few stray footprints won’t matter.’
With all eyes on Dokgo Pae, he planned to shoot ahead from the flank.
* * *
One gak later.
The instructors and assistants set out in pursuit of the candidates.
Chu Il-hwan, who’d headed out early thanks to Dokgo Pae’s opening trap, was among them.
He’d chased a couple more just in case, but convinced it was Dokgo Pae on the rampage, he held back.
All for the sake of exam fairness.
And now, one gak in.
“Turning the whole damn test into a circus.”
Grinning with murder in his eyes, he chased Dokgo Pae in a straight shot.
Naturally, since the exam was pitched to the candidates’ level, the instructors and assistants wouldn’t pursue every last trace.
The instructors could track even diligently erased signs, but the policy was to overlook anything short of blatant evidence.
In that light, doggedly pursuing just Dokgo Pae might seem against the spirit.
‘But isn’t this a bit too blatant!’
He was practically screaming, “Kill me!” with his tracks—how could they not?
On top of that, Chu Il-hwan had another reason to be pissed.
This exam simulated several real combat scenarios.
Like securing classified intel or special cargo and smuggling it alive back to the Divine Cult, or stealthily infiltrating deep into enemy lines amid mountain warfare.
That brute-force lunge was the absolute worst approach for every single one.
Worse, this lunatic’s nonstop trap-triggering could leave them shorthanded to chase the others.
‘If it were a team test, I could spin it as a feint, but this is solo, you goddamn boar!!’
Veins throbbing on his smiling face, Chu Il-hwan raced straight ahead, swinging his twin palms at every trap Dokgo Pae had set off along the way.
Black lightning erupted from his hands, blasting the frantically smoking sticks and snuffing out the red smoke.
All to keep fresh pursuers from the rear from wasting time on those traps.
He spent ages like that, cleaning up Dokgo Pae’s mess.
Just a hair over one gak since the start, and Chu Il-hwan finally caught up.
Pat!
He shot into the air with lightness skill, bounding from branch to massive branch as he raced across the treetops.
Overtaking Dokgo Pae, he dropped to the ground, blocking the path ahead.
“Whew. One question before I take you down, Candidate Dokgo. What the hell possessed you to pull this idiotic stunt?”
“It’s the fastest way to the destination, Instructor.”
“And you end up with pursuers on your tail like this?”
“If there’s a pursuer, I just beat them!”
“…Whew.”
Chu Il-hwan sighed to steady the murderous urge roiling in his chest, then flashed a smile.
“Guess we’ll start with a beating.”
* * *
Il-mok ran on for ages, eyes fixed on the red smoke ceaselessly blooming in the distance.
“Hmm?”
At some point, he realized the red smoke had vanished.
He slowed his pace.
“Caught him in the end, huh.”
He’d pieced together that Dokgo Pae—the one hogging all the attention—had been subdued.
“Thanks to that guy, I’ve had it easy for about eighty percent of the way. Lucky break.”
Glancing at his map to roughly gauge his position, Il-mok began moving with extra care to leave no traces.
He traveled cautiously like that for another gak.
Less than half a shichen since the start, he’d covered about half the distance to the goal.
“!!!”
Then, faintly from afar, came the tinkle of a bell.
Sensing an assistant or instructor nearby, Il-mok concealed his presence as best he could and crept carefully in the opposite direction.
Once he’d put some distance between them, the faint bell faded away, and Il-mok righted his course toward the destination.
But soon enough, the bell rang again, forcing Il-mok to hide his presence once more and veer off.
He dodged the bell like that several times—shifting away, then swinging back toward the goal.
“Phew. Finally shaken them off for good?”
With the bell sounds gone entirely, Il-mok let out a sigh of relief.
“Tch. Wasted too much time.”
With a light click of his tongue, he checked his map and picked up speed again.
Pat!
He hadn’t gone far through the underbrush when a strange unease crept over Il-mok.
‘Should be getting close by now, right?’
By the map, he ought to be within sight of the destination.
He’d already passed the first peak marked on it and was climbing the next, where the goal lay.
On top of that.
“No stream like this on the map?”
Right before his eyes flowed a fairly large creek.
Sure, the maps from the assistants weren’t hyper-detailed—no every tree or boulder sketched in.
But distinctive landmarks were all marked: cliffs, inexplicably barren clearings, that sort of thing.
So why wasn’t this big creek shown?
As Il-mok mulled that over.
“Who might you be?”
A voice suddenly spoke from behind him.
‘An expert!’
Shocked that he hadn’t sensed the approach at all, Il-mok whirled around to see an old man with a staff gazing at him with a kindly face.
‘An old man?’
Doubt swelling anew, Il-mok still cupped his fists in salute. The man was an expert, after all—best to show respect.
“I’m Il-mok, a candidate of the Demonic Path Academy.”
“Hohoho. Demonic Path Academy. What a nostalgic name.”
Evidently, the old man had graduated from it in his youth.
The elder stared off blankly, lost in memories for a moment.
He cocked his head, then asked Il-mok again.
“Who are you to dare set foot in the sacred territory of the Divine Cult!”
“!?”
“Oh ho! Must be an assassin dispatched by the Martial Alliance!”
“!?”
Stunned by the old man’s successive ravings for a beat, Il-mok realized too late just where he was—thanks to the nonsense.
‘Fuck. Selflessness Ridge, of all goddamn places!?’