Chapter 84 :

Chapter 84. The Second Checkpoint of the Hell Official Exam (1)

Back when I was in the Sojeong Unit, I once saw the sea for the first time while fleeing from demonic practitioners.

It was wider and more immense than the Yangtze River, and its water carried an overwhelmingly salty taste, as though it had been filled with precious salt, making it impossible to drink.

Even though we were being pursued by the Demonic Cult’s hunting party and constantly hovering between life and death, we forgot all about it and went farther and farther, drawing closer to the sea.

The sticky mud that swallowed our ankles with every step was bothersome, but the vast, overwhelming, and wondrous sight of nature before our eyes made us forget even that discomfort.

And after we had stood there blankly staring at the sea for quite some time,

the tide slowly began to rise.

At first, the seawater merely brushed against our ankles, but by the time we came to our senses, it had already risen to our chests.

The moment we desperately tried to reach dry land, the seawater swallowed us whole.

The sea had instilled in us a terror incomparable even to being chased by demonic practitioners.

And now, it felt as though we were submerged in that very same sea.

“Whew…… It’s getting harder and harder to breathe, Senior Brother.”

The killing intent flooding the surroundings constricted us from every direction, as though seawater had risen above our heads.

The children’s faces gradually turned pale.

Dongryong seemed to be in relatively good condition thanks to the Demon-Cleansing Spirit Beads he wore, but that did not mean I could hand them over to Geumpyo or Eunho.

The moment Dongryong removed them, the murderous star within him might awaken amid this thick killing intent.

“Whew.”

“We’re going higher.”

Those who had spread the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare from the entrance of Makgan Mountain continued to release killing intent without pause, as though they intended to fill the entire mountain with it.

The Yellow Sword Sect and the Qingdao Gang each formed groups of five to maintain the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare.

The other sects formed larger groups of ten to fifteen people.

They compensated for differences in martial arts cultivation by increasing the number of warriors in each group.

As we ran farther up the mountain, a commotion from below caused us to turn our heads instinctively.

Flap, flap, flap!

The birds that had been hiding silently from the killing intent all flew above the forest at once.

Rustle, rustle, rustle!

Even though there was no wind, the forest shook violently.

Then, herds of wild animals rushed down the mountain from the forest, mixed together regardless of species as though they had encountered a predator.

Rooaaar!

Growl!

What was surprising was that bears and tigers were running at the rear of the herd.

Even those two predators drooled uncontrollably and released desperate cries, as though they had encountered their natural enemy.

“Here they come!”

At someone’s shout, flying swords and arrows came from every direction.

Roar!

The concealed weapons raining down from all sides struck everything from the smallest rabbits to deer, wild boars, roe deer, and countless other animals.

Their bodies lost all recognizable shape and collapsed like porcupines.

The bears and tigers continued running without faltering despite the arrows embedded in them, but the warriors maintaining the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare soon charged in together and butchered them in an instant.

The predators that had ruled Makgan Mountain fell like reeds.

Everything ended within a single breath.

Gulp.

The Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers swallowed hard, as though they had just witnessed their own future.

“We don’t have time to waste. Hurry.”

“……Y-Yes.”

“Yes!”

After regaining their senses, the three brothers quickly moved again so they would not suffocate within the killing intent.

However, just like the rising sea, the water climbed faster after reaching one’s chest than it had when first wrapping around one’s ankles.

“Huff. Huff. Huff.”

It was gradually reaching a level that even energy circulation could no longer endure.

The summit of the mountain.

There was nowhere higher for us to climb to escape the killing intent.

“Listen carefully. Hold out here for two quarters of an hour.”

“What?”

Eunho muttered with wide eyes.

“……By then, I feel like I’ll be missing at least one arm.”

“Don’t worry. I also know the secret art of the Poison Hand Flying Sword. If you lose an arm, I’ll teach it to you.”

“……I’ll try to hold out.”

I immediately threw myself over the sheer cliff.

“……”

The smile on Eunho’s face quickly stiffened.

Geumpyo and Dongryong, who had not understood what was happening, looked at Eunho.

“What was that? Did you discuss something with Senior Brother beforehand?”

“No.”

“Then why did you answer as though you understood?”

Eunho stared quietly at Geumpyo.

“Do you think Eldest Senior Brother would abandon us?”

Geumpyo was about to ask what kind of nonsense that was, but after a moment of silence, he answered.

“No.”

“Then isn’t that enough? Even if he did abandon us, we came here prepared for that possibility. Isn’t that right?”

“……Trying to act cool.”

Geumpyo drew his sword and stepped two paces forward.

He took the forward position of the White Tiger Sword Formation.

His posture showed a firm resolve not to retreat, regardless of who appeared.

Eunho stood on the left.

After hesitating briefly, Dongryong stood on the right.

“Two quarters of an hour. Just two quarters! Don’t lose any arms or legs.”

At Geumpyo’s words, his two brothers shouted the chant they had always used while practicing their sword formation.

“Aja!”

“Aja!”

As I fell freely beneath the cliff, I saw a cave that appeared to have been formed by two overlapping stone slabs, just as the report had described.

I fired the Flying Dragon Claw and pulled myself toward it.

After walking deeper along the narrow cave, I found a small spring carrying a damp smell, exactly as recorded.

Once I passed the spring, a fishy odor filled the entire cave, making it feel as though I had entered a swamp.

“I wonder if it’s hibernating.”

The walls of the enormous cave, wide enough for three or four people to stand side by side, were covered here and there with things resembling golden roof tiles.

However, rather than a brilliant golden glow, they were a dull yellow like dried, cracked mud.

“What an impressive appetite.”

A massive pile of bones filled one side of the cave, seemingly left behind by the creature’s meals.

There were bones from small animals such as roe deer and rabbits, along with bones that appeared to belong to bears and tigers.

“Don’t snakes usually swallow their prey whole?”

Scrrrape.

Had it awakened after hearing me?

Or did creatures that had transcended the natural order simply not hibernate?

The sound of metal scraping against metal echoed throughout the cave and stabbed at my eardrums.

Before long, two red eyes flashed within the darkness.

“So you’re the ruler of Makgan Mountain.”

A head as large as an ox.

Golden scales covering its entire body.

It was a two-hundred-year-old Golden-Scaled Blue-Line Serpent.

Roughly three hundred……

No, was it five hundred?

Dongryong suddenly remembered the feast held when every disciple of the Taeul Sect had gathered together.

‘That was so much fun.’

Ah, right.

Now was not the time to let his mind wander.

The faces of Geumpyo and Eunho standing before him were deathly pale.

After dodging the arrows raining from every direction and avoiding the flying swords, warriors approached through the killing intent.

Their movements looked sluggish, as though they were swinging swords underwater.

Compared to when they normally coordinated their sword formation, everything felt unbearably slow.

Moving that slowly would be disastrous……

Even so, Dongryong could not move recklessly.

If he did, the sword formation would collapse.

He understood.

It was not that his brothers had actually become slower.

The enemies’ movements were not particularly fast either.

That was why they somehow managed to block the attacks.

But wounds soon began appearing.

‘Can we hold out like this?’

Eldest Senior Brother had said they only needed to endure for two quarters of an hour, but that seemed impossible.

Dongryong understood it instinctively.

Ah.

My brothers are going to die soon.

Things he had never understood before now came to him through instinct.

And he could see them.

The countless corpses he had witnessed throughout his life.

Geumpyo and Eunho lying among them.

Even if Eldest Senior Brother returned after two quarters of an hour, there would be no way to resolve the situation.

No.

It had been impossible from the beginning.

This was Dongryong’s first time experiencing the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare Eldest Senior Brother had described, but even this could be understood instinctively.

It was a method of hunting humans as though they were wild beasts.

In truth, nothing would have changed even if Eldest Senior Brother had remained with them.

‘And there are terrifying people here too.’

The warriors who had stood beside Jong Seogang of the Yellow Sword Sect.

Those people were extremely frightening.

Individually, they might not have been able to oppose Eldest Senior Brother.

But if they worked together and formed a sword formation like the brothers did, even Eldest Senior Brother would not be able to do much.

And among the warriors maintaining the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare were several people just as terrifying.

‘This is all because of me……’

Dongryong knew that he was holding back his brothers and Eldest Senior Brother.

Even so, he had wanted to remain with them.

He hated being left behind alone.

He could not accept that he was the only one who could not help.

And this was the result of his stubbornness.

Had he returned, would Geumpyo and Eunho have returned as well?

Had they done so, perhaps they would not have had to die here.

“Dongryong!”

Geumpyo blocked the sword of a slowly moving warrior in Dongryong’s place.

Even though Geumpyo knew Dongryong was now faster than him, he always acted this way.

“Geumpyo!”

Eunho covered Geumpyo’s back.

The sword formation broke apart once again.

It was always like this.

Dongryong was constantly holding his brothers back.

“Reform the sword formation!”

Just as they attempted to restore it, two warriors forced themselves between Geumpyo and Eunho.

The three brothers were instantly divided and forced to confront their enemies separately.

Geumpyo’s and Eunho’s hands passed by one another.

Even as their wounds increased, their gazes remained fixed on Dongryong.

“Eunho!”

Dongryong quickly dealt with the warriors who had turned their backs to him and approached his brothers.

This would not work.

At this rate, all three of them would certainly die.

“Dongryong! Stand behind me!”

Geumpyo’s and Eunho’s faces were gradually turning black, yet they ignored the sword formation and placed Dongryong behind them.

This was not why he had come.

“Brothers……”

“Don’t worry! We’ll make sure you return alive and unharmed!”

“Damn it. Geumpyo, even so, wouldn’t I look better missing an arm?”

“No! I’d look better! You can inherit the mill instead!”

“Why are we suddenly discussing inheritance right now?”

Even though ferocious enemies were releasing killing intent right in front of them, the two brothers continued joking without pause.

Dongryong unconsciously let out a small laugh.

Eunho grinned in response.

“That’s right, Dongryong. It’s nothing serious. So don’t worry. Everything will end well.”

No.

It did not seem as though things would end well.

Eunho was telling an obvious lie.

And Dongryong wanted to keep listening to his brother’s foolish jokes for much longer.

“……”

The thoughts he had hesitated over until now finally became clear.

Then……

He removed the Demon-Cleansing Spirit Beads wrapped around his neck.

“Dongryong! I told you not to take those off!”

Vitality surged through his entire body in an instant.

His body, which had seemed ready to collapse at any moment, felt completely restored as something hot pounded within his chest.

“Brothers…… Let’s all return safely together.”

Now Dongryong was telling an obvious lie just like Eunho.

Thump.

Thump.

His racing heart gradually calmed.

Instead, his eyes grew so hot that they seemed ready to burn.

One.

Two.

Three.

Sword forms appeared within his mind.

Dongryong lightly inserted himself into the image.

“Guh!”

“Keuk!”

Three enemies collapsed in an instant.

Five.

Six……

Nine.

One person with every breath.

As though he had forgotten all fear of his first kill, his body moved with unnatural ease and took away the lives of his opponents.

He was afraid.

No.

He was not afraid.

What truly frightened him was the thought of Geumpyo, Eunho, and Eldest Senior Brother dying here.

He swung his sword wildly to escape that fear.

Because if he kept swinging his sword like this……

The only corpse left here would be his own.

“Damn it! You can’t even deal with one little brat!”

Dongryong’s sharpened hearing distinguished Jong Seogang’s voice.

Then, the terrifying man beside him rushed forward.

‘A frightening person.’

He was different from the others.

The image of their clash appeared in broken fragments.

That probably meant Dongryong’s death.

Even so, he did not stop.

Clang, clang, clang!

After exchanging three techniques in an instant, the man’s eyes widened and he swallowed a groan.

“Keuk……”

Another image appeared.

This time, it seemed half complete.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!

After exchanging ten techniques in an instant, the front of the terrifying man’s robe was sliced open.

“You…… Who are you?”

The image that appeared next was complete.

He could win.

At the end of the image, the terrifying man was bleeding.

Dongryong was about to unleash his sword immediately.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!

Two more terrifying men rushed toward him.

Now, no image appeared at all.

“A murderous star…… That brat possesses a murderous star!”

“Do you mean the Heavenly Slaughter Star?”

“That monster?”

Their contemptuous gazes pierced him.

It hurt.

No.

It did not hurt.

Even if he was a monster, as long as he could save his brothers and Eldest Senior Brother……

Dongryong threw himself forward once more to create another image.

Geumpyo and Eunho attempted to intervene, but other warriors blocked them.

‘Don’t come……’

As long as these men were gone, Eldest Senior Brother and his brothers could survive.

‘So please, don’t come……’

Red paint splashed between the fragmented images.

It was an image he had never seen before.

The scene painted in red continued without interruption.

It showed a way to defeat the enemies exactly as Dongryong desired.

However, Dongryong himself also collapsed at the end of the image.

An unending desire to kill humans.

A tenacious obsession that wished to do so even at the cost of his own life.

Those two things created a miracle.

—Dongryong! Get ahold of yourself!

—If you keep doing this, we’ll leave you behind!

He heard the distant voices of his brothers from Mount Tianmu.

Those desperate voices had barely managed to restore his senses back then.

Strangely, remembering his brothers’ voices erased even the last trace of his fear of death.

“He must be killed!”

“The Heavenly Slaughter Star……”

As his fear of death disappeared, even more vitality surged through his body.

He pushed the Taeul True Scripture beyond the level he had originally mastered.

Like a gourmet savoring the finest possible banquet,

like a calligrapher writing the greatest masterpiece of his life,

the Heavenly Slaughter Star drew out every bit of Dongryong’s potential for one final and perfect killing.

Was this as far as he would go?

Would he never play with his brothers again?

Would he never see Eldest Senior Brother enter the Martial Academy?

It was regrettable.

He wished he could play with his brothers and Eldest Senior Brother again.

He wished he could see Eldest Senior Brother proudly enter the Martial Academy……

But he decided not to be greedy anymore.

Was saving his brothers not already everything he could possibly accomplish?

Dongryong threw himself along the red image that ended with his own death.

Just as Eldest Senior Brother had calmly thrown himself into a perilous situation sometime in the past,

Dongryong also threw himself forward as calmly as he could.

At that moment,

“Aren’t you adults ashamed of yourselves? Ganging up on one child?”

Dongryong’s ears perked up.

No way.

Already?

Forgetting that enemies stood before him, he turned his head.

Eldest Senior Brother was there.

“Eldest Senior……”

Dongryong’s mouth fell wide open before he could finish.

The enemies who had been swinging their swords toward him also flinched and stopped.

Eldest Senior Brother was running toward them while being chased by a golden snake as enormous as a mountain stronghold.

A curse burst from Gam Cheoljin’s mouth despite his usually solemn expression.

“What the hell is that thing?!”