Chapter 399
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 399
Chapter Title: Feels Unpleasant
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Four wooden coffins crashed to the ground.
The moment Ha Mu-baek lightly flicked his hand.
Crackle.
The coffins shattered into pieces.
And those things with faces wrapped tightly in bandages appeared.
Ha Mu-baek flicked his hand again, and the bandages burned away, vanishing.
Those things opened their eyes.
"Groooar."
"Kuuuugh."
"Kaaaaah!"
"Keurgh... er."
Each letting out distinctly different groans.
"G-G-G-Jiangshi...?"
The moment one of the Fierce Dragon Corps cadets muttered in disbelief, staring at the thing in the center of the formation.
"They're Evil Jiangshi. The most numerous and weakest ones in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest. From now on, take them down. Begin!"
The instant Ha Mu-baek's voice drilled into the cadets' ears.
Without even thinking about it.
Their bodies reacted first.
In sync with the movements of the Named Style formation.
The cadets raised their swords and shields, charging toward the Evil Jiangshi.
"Kaaaaah!"
Facing the sudden rush of countless cadets.
The Evil Jiangshi let out a savage roar and swung its arms wildly.
Clang!
But it was blocked by a shield.
Slash!
And sliced by a sword.
Ha Mu-baek watched the process calmly.
Even though it was their first time seeing jiangshi.
There was no hesitation in their movements.
Their faces might have paled with fear.
But their arms and legs moved reflexively, beyond their own will.
The aura emanating from the jiangshi.
Though it fell far short of Ha Mu-baek's from the day before.
The moment they felt it, their bodies moved on instinct.
Ha Mu-baek nodded with a small smile.
Yesterday.
It was worth the extra push he'd given them.
These Evil Jiangshi had been prepared just to introduce the cadets to what jiangshi were.
They'd serve their purpose after this one go.
'The real ones are the Poison Jiangshi and Blood Jiangshi.'
For the Poison Jiangshi, detoxification wasn't an issue.
And for the Blood Jiangshi, he'd pulled all their teeth.
Just like the ones Ha Seol-ran had faced during the last Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest training exercise.
If one of these blind bastards unluckily bit someone, it would be a disaster.
So he'd prevented that in advance.
Pyeong Deok-jo's complicated gaze as he watched Ha Mu-baek yank out the Blood Jiangshi's teeth entirely.
It hadn't affected Ha Mu-baek in the slightest.
Half a half-angle.
The time Ha Mu-baek had drilled the cadets' formation.
Exactly that much time passed.
And the four Evil Jiangshi had become nothing more than four corpses.
With limbs and heads all severed.
"Hah. Hah. Hah. Hah."
"Haah. Heuk. Haah. Heuk."
"Keuheheheuk. Heuk. Heuk."
Only then.
Did the Fierce Dragon Corps cadets gasp for breath.
Now beginning to realize what had just happened to them, what they had done.
"Urp!"
Someone retched up their lunch the moment awareness hit.
Was that the signal?
A few other cadets started vomiting too.
Ha Mu-baek chuckled softly as he watched.
As expected.
It had been right to train them to face jiangshi directly under his control like this.
Judging by their current state, if they'd gone to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest without any experience, at least a quarter of them would have died in the first clash.
'Damn. This ain't no tiger or nothing. A tiger would be way better...'
Someone inwardly grumbled, recalling Pyeong Deok-jo's advice.
Jiangshi.
These things didn't seem like something you could handle just by pulling yourself together mentally.
After all, they'd just fought on instinct while out of their minds...
"Jiangshi?"
Namgung Ji-yu muttered in surprise.
Namgung Ji-hu beside her was equally shocked.
"Those are jiangshi?"
The siblings were seeing jiangshi for the first time too.
Their father had fought jiangshi in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
But the two had never been there themselves.
"Feels unpleasant."
The sinister aura from the Evil Jiangshi faintly reached where the Namgung siblings stood.
Namgung Ji-yu immediately frowned upon sensing it.
"Yeah. Not exactly fun, is it?"
Namgung Ji-hu nodded.
Dang Jin-san's boast that it would be entertaining was thus refuted by the two.
Instead.
"But it definitely has meaning."
Namgung Ji-yu muttered with a nod.
Just watching the Fierce Dragon Corps formation fight those jiangshi from the edge of the Grand Training Grounds felt this bad.
If they had to go to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
And encountered jiangshi for the first time there?
Their coordination would surely have fallen apart.
Against these Evil Jiangshi, they might have recovered somehow even if things got messy.
But if they unluckily ran into much stronger specimens in that state?
Who knows what would happen.
In that sense, getting a slight preview of the creepy disgust jiangshi evoked was definitely meaningful.
"Since Yeon Ha-min said it."
Namgung Ji-hu nodded in agreement.
As the two watched intently, the Evil Jiangshi were shredded and felled by the Fierce Dragon Corps.
Ha Mu-baek gave the Fierce Dragon Corps cadets plenty of time to recover from the shock.
Since they'd handled the first clash admirably.
It was his way of showing consideration.
How long did he wait?
The vomiting finally stopped, and one by one they calmed down, their eyes returning to normal.
"How were the jiangshi?"
Ha Mu-baek's voice, infused with internal energy, pierced the cadets' ears, but no one answered.
"Horrifying, right?"
Cadets nodded here and there without realizing it.
"As I said at the start. That was the weakest kind. Infestations crawling all over the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest."
At those words, some faces went deathly pale.
They'd somehow managed to take them down this time.
But if they kept encountering them.
Just imagining it was nightmare fuel.
"This is an incredibly easy situation right now. You outnumber them overwhelmingly and used a formation to boot. The Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest is a jungle. A dense one at that. You absolutely can't form a massive formation like this there."
The cadets' faces darkened at Ha Mu-baek's continued words.
Jegal Myeong hadn't designed a formation for five people for no reason.
He too had experience in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
He'd devised a technique optimized for that terrain.
The Named Style was that technique.
"Normally, one squad handles a jiangshi. And they don't always show up alone. Multiple could appear."
The cadets' faces grew even darker.
Ha Mu-baek flicked his hand, and the mangled remains of the Evil Jiangshi burst into flames, crumbling to a handful of ash.
"Oh, I forgot to mention. Evil Jiangshi teeth carry jiangshi poison. If they bite you and you die, you become an Evil Jiangshi."
"......"
"......"
The Grand Training Grounds fell silent.
Silent enough to hear dust settle.
This was news the cadets had never heard.
The Namgung siblings were the same.
Get bitten by a jiangshi, die, and become one?
This horrific truth was brand new to them today.
"As long as you don't die, it's fine. The jiangshi poison breaks down and fades gradually. Though it takes a few months."
Ha Mu-baek said with a smirk.
Yet silence reigned.
No one laughed, no one spoke.
Only now was reality sinking in.
A reality they hadn't felt even while fighting the Evil Jiangshi or vomiting afterward.
The reality that one slip could mean dying and turning into one of those horrors.
Of course, Ha Mu-baek had pulled the teeth from both the Evil Jiangshi and Poison Jiangshi.
But there was no way to check the mouths of the now-burned jiangshi.
And during the fight, everyone had been dazed, moving purely on ingrained instinct.
No one remembered what the Evil Jiangshi's mouths had looked like.
"So that's why..."
Namgung Ji-hu muttered softly, nodding as if it all made sense now.
"Huh?"
Namgung Ji-yu's question.
"All those jiangshi were missing their teeth. Completely toothless."
From the edge of the Grand Training Grounds, Namgung Ji-hu had clearly seen inside the Evil Jiangshi's mouths during the fight.
It wasn't hard at his level.
He'd entered the Peak realm's early stage.
"Really?"
Namgung Ji-yu apparently hadn't noticed.
The siblings' gazes turned to Ha Mu-baek.
Every action of that instructor had thought and preparation behind it.
"A bit devious, maybe?"
Namgung Ji-yu said, watching the dazed Fierce Dragon Corps cadets who didn't know that fact.
"It's for realistic training."
"Moving on. To explain ahead, next up is a Poison Jiangshi. Its claws carry deadly poison. Meaning, even a scratch from its hand means you're poisoned."
"Gasp."
"Gurk!"
Shocked gasps rose here and there.
"If you get poisoned by that, do you turn into a jiangshi?"
Someone asked with a terrified face.
"Poison Jiangshi poison isn't jiangshi poison. You'll just get poisoned—no turning into a jiangshi after death. But it's vicious stuff. It'll hurt like hell. And if you can't detoxify, you die."
The Grand Training Grounds fell silent once more.
Many cadets glared at Ha Mu-baek with resentment.
Why are you doing this to us?
A few sharp-minded ones, however, had eyes gleaming.
Knowing that failing this training here meant dying in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest anyway.
"Don't worry about the poison. It'll suck if you get hit, but I'll detox you after training ends."
Ha Mu-baek said with a smirk.
"Everyone, stand by at the edge of the Grand Training Grounds."
At Ha Mu-baek's order, the Fierce Dragon Corps spread out, encircling the grounds.
"First-year Squad One, step forward."
Squad One cadets advanced with stiff faces at the call.
"Half a half-angle. Hold out that long."
With that, Ha Mu-baek flicked his hand, and a wooden coffin flew from the wagon's cargo hold.
As before, it landed in the center of the Grand Training Grounds, shattered, and revealed a jiangshi.
The bandages around its face burned away.
Ha Mu-baek withdrew the energy restraining it.
"Keurgh!"
The Poison Jiangshi let out an unpleasant roar, scanning its surroundings.
Spotting the nearest five, it staggered forward.
Arms extended ahead.
Its claw tips gleamed dark purple.
Squad One cadets immediately formed up, surrounding the Poison Jiangshi.
Shields raised high.
Their arms trembled, but their movements were flawless.
Perfectly synchronized.
"Keurgh!"
The Poison Jiangshi charged straight at the front cadet.
Bang!
Its arms slammed into the shield.
The cadets rammed forward with full force.
It was definitely different from the Evil Jiangshi.
Faster, stronger, more fluid movements.
Slicing Evil Jiangshi had been easy, but not this one.
Its flesh was tougher; swords barely pierced.
Squad Seven cadets watched silently.
"The first time we went to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest... they said we'd see one of those maybe once or twice a year?"
Dang Jin-san said, as if suddenly remembering.
Yeon Ha-min nodded.
"But we fought hordes, right? Counting the Poison and Blood Jiangshi we faced, it's like the forest had decades' worth. Sheesh."
Dang Jin-san shook his head, recalling the horror.
Then glanced at the wagon.
"How many do you think he brought, anyway?"
Dang Jin-san kept peeking at the stacked coffins in the cargo hold, genuinely curious.
"Hoo."
Atop the Pavilion Lord's Hall.
Gazing out from the Pavilion Lord's office at the Grand Training Grounds.
Quite a distance away, but everything was clear as day.
With internal energy focused in his eyes to enhance his vision, distance was no issue.
He could see the four jiangshi appear and fight the cadets.
"He's really doing it."
He'd expected it, but seeing it hit different.
Memories of the horrors from the Great Martial War resurfaced.
Still.
The Fierce Dragon Corps fought better than he'd thought.
Though outnumbered, he hadn't expected them to dismember the Evil Jiangshi so fearlessly.
Ha Mu-baek had clearly trained them properly before unleashing the jiangshi.
"At that level... this year's Fierce Dragon Corps might see a dramatic increase in survival rates."
Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul muttered softly.
Yesterday.
He'd heard about this year's Fierce Dragon Corps finishing their Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest duty.
Only three survivors.
Numbers had been rising bit by bit until last year, so he'd hoped for more.
But this year, they'd dropped. Disastrously.
"Even with Instructor Jegal's shield techniques passed down... if it's still that bad..."
Pang Do-yul gazed at the Grand Training Grounds with worried eyes.
The cadets had pulled back to the edges, and a new jiangshi was just emerging in the grounds.