#127. The Black Flame Dragon Who Steals Opportunities (2)
“Are you really planning to go in there?”
I had a backpack stuffed with dried rice cakes and jerky slung over my shoulder, and a massive waterskin—about as long as my leg—tied to my waist.
“What other choice is there? We can’t just leave them to die.”
“……No, why the hell do you have to clean up after those idiots?!”
Seong Moran bellowed like a demon was chasing her away, and every time she did, sharp glares from the elders and the Nine Great Sect disciples shot her way. But she didn’t give a damn, raising her voice even louder.
“Tell your high-and-mighty elders to go in! If you can’t raise your brats right, it’s your responsibility as adults!”
It was the kind of insolence that would normally warrant calling in the Execution Hall on the spot, but no one stepped forward. If they kicked up a fuss here and hurt my feelings, it’d be their disciples who ended up dead.
“Um, O-oppa. Are you going to be okay?”
Eun Seolran, who’d come with Saryeon, spoke up cautiously. Namgung Seonhwa, Seong Moran, and Hong Saryeon all widened their eyes like rabbits, staring at her.
“O-oppa?”
“Oppa?”
“Did she just say oppa?”
Under their interrogation, Eun Seolran flustered for a moment before blushing bright red.
“He said a friend of my little brother is like a little brother to him, so he gave permission……”
“……”
The three women’s gazes turned razor-sharp, glaring daggers at me.
“You must like being called ‘oppa,’ huh?”
“Oh no, what a shame. I’m too old to call you that—what now?”
“Big senior brother, I’m disappointed.”
I sighed at them.
“Is that what’s important right now?”
The brief commotion died down, and amid everyone’s worries, I stood before the Muryangbulgolmokhonjin under Yu Ji-ryang’s guidance.
You’ll be able to get out, right?
I turned at the sudden transmission, locking eyes with Jegal Somyeong, who had stepped out from the edge of the crowd.
If we try to search safely, everything inside will die. It takes an hour to traverse the Muryangbulgolmokhonjin. If we check every path they took one by one, they’ll all be dead before we confirm even twenty.
If it comes down to the lives inside versus yours, prioritize your own.
I couldn’t help tilting my head at Jegal Somyeong’s words. He didn’t know me as well as I knew him. And from his perspective, I was the guy who kept using him to cause trouble—why talk like he cared about me?
Are you thinking of letting those guys off with a slap on the wrist?
Jegal Somyeong, who’d been expressionless, let out a short scoff.
If we get them out, they’re expelled without question. Their sects will pay reparations for the damage too.
I’ll bring them out alive, no matter what.
The moment I took a step forward, the noisy clamor of the crowd cut off, plunging me into perfect silence.
The Muryangbulgolmokhonjin wasn’t a place where you could freely navigate even if you memorized all two million paths. The third step I took might land me on path 1.6 million or 800,000—who knew? That uncertainty set it apart from other geomunjinbeop formations.
Finding someone inside the Muryangbulgolmokhonjin, with no landmarks or references, was like hunting for a needle in the Taklamakan Desert.
“They must’ve gotten confused calculating the sexagenary cycle.”
The Murim Academy didn’t even test basic common sense, so plenty of students could barely write their own names. For idiots like that to blindly step into the infinite formation using three paths they’d peeked over someone’s shoulder? This wasn’t “ignorance is bravery.”
Honestly, starving them to death here might benefit the Murim Alliance—and Murim as a whole—in the long run.
“But if I did that, I couldn’t properly screw over the Jeongdohoe bastards.”
Truth be told, when I raised hell in the plaza, at least a few elders or Nine Great Sect students should’ve stepped up. They didn’t because it wasn’t about their safety—it would’ve sown unease among everyone following the Jeongdohoe.
“That’s why you bastards have to come back alive.”
I steeled myself, retracing my steps so far. In Eun Seolran’s case, I’d remembered which step the guy chasing her messed up on, so I found her quick. Now, it was just a matter of predicting their paths.
I positioned myself at the start of the sexagenary cycle.
“Hoo…… To think I’d have to do this on foot. If the Chief Strategist hadn’t spoken up, you idiots would’ve starved here.”
I circulated the Tae-euljin-gyeong at full power, opening all five senses to probe the paths. I recalled the hidden flow of the Muryangbulgolmokhonjin I’d grasped after one wrong step on the Mareung Plateau.
Two million streams of energy flowed endlessly beneath my feet. The moment I stepped sideways, they shifted in an instant. The white void and silence were the same, but the energy underfoot was utterly different from before.
The Muryangbulgolmokhonjin had revealed its secrets.
“Hoo…… Let’s go.”
I started stepping forward again.
“Who the hell came up with this idiotic plan?!”
The Jeongdohoe elders couldn’t hide their boiling rage as they glared at their sect disciples. They’d lost the top spot but held the majority, threatening the academy representative position. Without incident, they could oust him by claiming the students wouldn’t follow.
“……The students were too agitated. We had no choice.”
“You call that an excuse?!”
Myeonghyeon wanted to pulverize the guy in front of him, but too many eyes were on the plaza.
“You should’ve at least stepped up for your own haejin!”
“……”
They could’ve stopped their disciples citing safety, but from the students’ view, even elders risked death entering the Muryangbulgolmokhonjin.
“Enough. Let’s drop it, Myeonghyeon Dojang.”
Dwelling on the past just fueled anger—no solutions there.
“Two million paths, you said. Rescuing someone from that? Not easy.”
“If he saves his own skin coming out, that’s a win.”
“……”
If by some miracle he pulled them out……
“Best if he vanishes in there too.”
Those who overheard Myeonghyeon’s mutter flinched but said nothing. That was the ideal outcome now. Rescuing was impossible anyway. Sure, Jin Sowoon saved thousands on the Mareung Plateau, but that had one path. No human could memorize two million and find the lost.
This wasn’t just Myeonghyeon and the Jeongdohoe’s thought.
A bit away, Hyeok Mu-gang asked the ever-reliable answer-giver about the unsolvable puzzle.
“What do you think, Chief Strategist? Can he pull it off?”
“I don’t know.”
Hyeok Mu-gang’s eyes bulged at Jegal Somyeong’s flat tone.
“Ha… Never thought I’d see the day.”
Stroking his white beard, he pressed.
“Even you don’t know?”
“No matter how I rack my brain, I can’t figure how to rescue anyone from there.”
The answers kept shocking him.
“Then why tell the academy rep to go in?”
“Because he said he could.”
“Huh?”
Hyeok Mu-gang wasn’t that senile yet.
“Did I mishear? He said it was impossible.”
“He said he’d have to risk his life—not that it was impossible.”
Hyeok Mu-gang stroked his beard furiously, thinking it was semantics. Jegal Somyeong continued.
“When he first grasped the problem and faced the elders, he never panicked once. Lives were at stake—Nine Great Sect elites no less. He knew blame could fall on him too, yet he stayed calm.”
“……”
“He was confident he could save them.”
“But he didn’t step up till the end.”
“No justification yet.”
“Justification?”
“If he’d rushed in right away, he might’ve been held accountable for poor management.”
Hyeok Mu-gang’s jaw dropped.
“No way……”
“He waited till the blame clearly fell on the Nine Great Sects.”
A faint smile played on Jegal Somyeong’s lips as he turned to Hyeok Mu-gang.
“And at the end, didn’t he infuse his shout to ‘get lost’ with energy, saving those who’d call for haejin?”
“So what??”
“It’s a message to Jeongdohoe followers: ‘Jeongdohoe won’t protect you. They don’t care as much as you think.’”
“……Hah.”
“He turned a situation where arrows could fly at him into a perfect opportunity.”
“……”
Hyeok Mu-gang was too stunned to close his mouth. Jin Sowoon’s political maneuvering was shocking enough, but Jegal Somyeong grasping it perfectly was another level. Now Jegal Somyeong grinned, showing teeth.
“I didn’t believe it before, but today confirmed it. His brain outshines his martial prowess.”
“Haha, first time you’ve praised someone’s mind since Maeng Ju-won.”
“That’s why he must join the Mantongbu.”
Hyeok Mu-gang smacked his lips at the afterthought.
“He still has to pull it off first.”
“Indeed.”
“We need a plan if he fails. Time’s already……”
The sun had fully set—three hours past.
“I’ve summoned Shangcheondang’s elites from the Alliance.”
“Shangcheondang alone? Better call Seunghodang too.”
“Haejin attempts must be a last resort, just once. Mess up, and Alliance members could chain-die into ghost souls.”
“Hoo……”
Hyeok Mu-gang sighed deeply.
“What do we do……”
“Haa……”
“He shouldn’t have gone in……”
Jin Sowoon’s group around the formation wore grim faces. Fifty Shangcheondang elites, geared like him with dried rations and water, studied under Mosanpa sorcerers.
A day and two hours. Nearly eleven days inside, and no one had emerged.
Most in the plaza, including the Alliance Leader and Chief Strategist, were clouded with worry.
“Hoo……”
Decision time loomed. Max was one day. If Jin Sowoon took longer, they’d attempt haejin—and two hours were gone.
Send Shangcheondang to die trying, or abandon the trapped? After agonizing, Jegal Somyeong nodded to Hyeok Mu-gang.
“……”
Hyeok Mu-gang pondered, then stood.
“Shangcheondang, listen up. We begin haejin on the Muryangbulgolmokhonjin now.”
Jeongdohoe elders swarmed.
“Alliance Leader, what?! Haejin?!”
“We can’t just watch them die.”
“Even Jin Sowoon, who knows it best, hasn’t returned. You’d risk Shangcheondang too?”
“The Alliance was mocked for slow response at Mareung Plateau. We can’t repeat that.”
“True, but wrong approach. Use this as a lesson—seal the formation forever as a taboo.”
Hyeok Mu-gang glared at Myeonghyeon.
“Myeonghyeon Elder, you okay with academy students dying inside?”
“No one regrets their deaths more than me. But I fear greater disaster and Alliance gaps.”
Contempt filled Hyeok Mu-gang’s eyes.
“I won’t see their mummified corpses when we dismantle it.”
“……”
Conversation over. He addressed Shangcheondang again.
“Prepare!”
Mosanpa sorcerers positioned the fifty warriors one by one; they listened intently, faces pale knowing the formation’s terror—even these brave elites.
Jegal Somyeong raised a blue flag; all eyes locked on it. Drop, and step precisely.
“Hae……”
Hyeok Mu-gang’s call halted; the flag froze mid-drop.
Their gazes snapped to the formation’s life-death gate. White mist rippled, and a haggard figure staggered out, something slung over his back.
“……”
The emerger dumped his burden and crawled on all fours toward the elders’ table like a madman.
Crash! Even elders recoiled in shock as he shoveled water and food from their table into his mouth.
“Hua…… Thought I was done for……”
“B-big senior brother?”
Dongryong spoke first; Jegal Somyeong snapped to.
“W-water! Bring water and food!”
The plaza erupted in panic. Someone spotted the six sprawled bodies.
“Th-they’re alive! Everyone who entered came back alive!”
The crowd froze, then roared in cheers.
“Woooaaah!”
“““Waaaaaaah!”””