Chapter 103
In the bamboo forest on the way to Great Buddha Temple,
Wi Gwakdu appeared in his military uniform for the first time in a while.
“Five days left, huh.”
Less than a week remained until the promised three months were up.
“You never know.”
On the off chance that Hyuk-min had forgotten, Wi Gwakdu came five days early.
He walked leisurely through the vast bamboo forest.
Though identical bamboo stalks filled the place in every direction, he felt as if he could still see bloodstains between them, stains not yet washed away.
Pfft.
“Since we went through life and death together, I guess you could call us comrades.”
Looking at the unnaturally gouged earth here and there, the memory of that day rose vividly in his mind.
The memory of that day when they hurled grenades and drove back the Baeksan and Haeundae alliance with explosives.
And that memory always ended with Hyuk-min.
That unbelievable sight of him taking down Knife Rain, the leader of the White Shadows, and Yaksha, the captain of Haeundae’s elite special strike team.
Just recalling it made a smile spread across Wi Gwakdu’s face.
“He has the skill, so it’s only right to treat him accordingly.”
Snap!
He flicked up the collar of his military uniform.
“I’ll go greet him myself!”
As he passed the site of the fierce battle, the traces of where Yaksha had been flung came into view.
And then the unresolved question from that day resurfaced.
“But it’s strange. Who took Knife Rain and Yaksha, and when?”
After taking down the last of Yaksha’s men and cleaning up the remnants, he had come to his senses and found that Knife Rain and Yaksha were gone.
He clearly remembered the number of people left behind, and that number also matched the report he later received.
A few had escaped, yes, but they had literally fled for their lives. There was no way any of them could have taken Knife Rain and Yaksha with them.
And yet those two, the team leader-level figures who should have been held accountable for the attack, had vanished. Even after returning to Korea and trying to make an issue of the assault, he had ultimately accomplished nothing due to lack of evidence.
“No matter how I think about it, they’re slippery bastards.”
In the end, they were nothing more than pawns who had suffered both heartache and physical injury on a board those bastards had laid out in advance.
“Tsk.”
Thinking about it again made irritation surge through him, but there was nothing he could do.
It was a damn shame, but what could he do about it?
All he could do was lament that even the Ministry of National Defense was weaker than the Baeksan and Haeundae Guilds, which currently held sway over South Korea.
“The more I dwell on it, the more it just gets on my nerves. Right, enough of that. They lost all their elites, so they won’t be making another move anytime soon. More importantly…”
As he walked the bamboo path, memories from that day surfacing one after another, Great Buddha Temple began to appear in the distance.
Along with the now-familiar sight of the temple, the image of Hyuk-min from that day came back to him as well.
The image of him gripping a crimson sword and sweeping away the entire Baeksan and Haeundae alliance.
“I wonder how much stronger he’s gotten.”
When he first fought Hyuk-min, he could never have imagined he was that strong.
But something must have happened, because despite only a few days having passed, the Hyuk-min he saw during the bamboo forest battle had been completely different from the one he first met.
And now, unlike then, it had not been just a few days but nearly three months.
When he remembered how much Hyuk-min had changed in that short span, simply imagining how much stronger he must have become by now was enough to make him smile.
“Well, well~ The gatekeeper sirs have been doing well, I see?”
He was close enough now to make out the gatekeepers’ faces in the distance.
Just as his steps were about to lighten with a sense of welcome…
“Hey~ Gatekeeper si… rs?”
Fwoooosh!
The welcoming expression on Wi Gwakdu’s face, directed at the gatekeepers, froze the instant he felt the sudden, overwhelming surge of power.
His head slowly tilted upward.
And as his gaze passed over the main gate of Great Buddha Temple and climbed toward the sky…
he saw an immense blood-red energy, enough to fill his entire field of vision.
“Is some demon awakening or something…?”
He was just about to lose himself to the sheer scale of the blood-red energy that covered all of Great Buddha Temple…
when Wi Gwakdu’s eyebrows twitched.
A crimson energy.
‘Don’t tell me… Hyuk-min?’
That colossal power was something no human should have possessed.
It was so vast, so far beyond what any individual should be able to contain, that the first thing he thought of upon seeing it was a demon.
And yet, for some reason, that blood-red energy felt strangely familiar.
As if he had seen it once before.
“Gatekeeper sirs! Did you just feel that?”
“The head monk said you would be arriving soon. Please, go on in.”
“That fellow Chang-kyung?”
“Please do not speak the head monk’s venerable name so casually.”
“No, more importantly, did you feel that just now?”
The gatekeeper monks nodded.
“What, do you know what that is?”
Seeing how calm the monks were, Wi Gwakdu asked with interest, but they shook their heads.
“We do not know. We are curious as well. But what can we do? We can only lament that our duty and mission is to guard this gate and this post.”
Wi Gwakdu’s lips curled upward.
As he entered Great Buddha Temple through the gate the monks opened for him…
he briefly turned his head and tossed a quiet remark toward the backs of the monks still standing guard at their post.
“Good, very good. That’s exactly the kind of spirit our Republic of Korea Army ought to learn from. Yes, indeed.”
Wi Gwakdu was the kind of man who proudly showed that he was a soldier to the bone.
But even that thought was short-lived.
He looked here, then there.
Everywhere, there was nothing but the crimson energy dyeing the whole world in a bloody light.
It felt as though he had stepped into another world.
“Is it over there?”
Wi Gwakdu’s gaze, which had been sweeping across the surroundings, fixed on Taebudong.
On the place where the giant Buddha statue stood.
= = =
The world was dyed in bloody light.
The 327 points of Mana, according to the white System’s standards, began to transform into Blood Demon Energy all at once.
「”Ooh! The blood-red Mana has appeared! All Master!! As expected of the world’s 2nd-ranked hunter, he has begun turning the tide of battle all by himself!!”」
The positions of his past life and present life had reversed.
The blood-red power spreading outward as it transformed.
Whenever that blood-red energy had appeared, everyone would cheer and shout All Master’s name.
But not anymore.
Fwoooosh.
As the spreading Blood Demon Energy began filling his Dantian little by little, intense pain followed.
“Keuk.”
“Hyuk-min!”
When No Death tried to rush over at the sudden phenomenon, Chang-kyung grabbed his shoulder.
“It is the pain caused by powerful energy entering an empty Dantian.”
“What does that…”
“You are not a martial artist, so you may not be able to see it clearly, but at this level, even you should be able to see it faintly.”
Chang-kyung’s gaze turned toward the sky.
Following his gaze, No Death also looked up, and only then did he notice something strange.
“This is…”
“This is what the leader you spoke of sought to obtain through the trial of Taebudong. To think he possessed this many Stats…”
A strange light flickered in No Death’s eyes.
This look in Chang-kyung’s eyes.
It was a kind of look he had never seen before.
There was wonder in it, ecstasy, and even something like reverence that wished to follow after it.
“Kuaaaaargh!!”
Hyuk-min’s scream-like roar burst out, as if he were expelling all the pain he had been holding back at once.
At the same time, the faint membrane-like energies could be seen rapidly seeping into Hyuk-min’s body.
“How absurd.”
Looking at Hyuk-min, Chang-kyung let out a hollow laugh, as if he could hardly believe what he was seeing.
“His body was one in which not a single Ki Meridian or Ki Vessel had been opened. How could he possess such a high understanding of ki?”
“What do you mean?”
“Right now, that fellow Hyuk-min is opening and expanding his Ki Meridians and Ki Vessels on his own, without our help. Rather than simply storing that immense Demonic Energy in his Dantian, he is tearing apart and regenerating his Ki Meridians and Ki Vessels the instant the energy enters. It seems he is using that power you possess.”
“My power… you mean the curse I have?”
Chang-kyung nodded.
“Puhuk!”
Blood burst from Hyuk-min’s nose and mouth.
“If he were an ordinary person, not only would his life as a martial artist be over, he would already have died several times. But that ability of yours, the one that keeps him from dying and lets him regenerate quickly, is becoming an enormous strength for that child.”
“Then…”
“A task that would normally take years will be completed in a matter of hours, no, minutes. And once it is all over…”
A strange light gleamed in Chang-kyung’s eyes.
“That child will have become the monster he first spoke of.”
It was a tremendous amount of Blood Demon Energy, enough to fill all of Great Buddha Temple.
If all of it could be contained within his body…
then ascending to the level of the monster Chang-kyung spoke of would be no problem at all.
“Hyuk-min…”
No Death’s eyes were filled with both worry and anticipation.
And as Chang-kyung looked at No Death, he chuckled inwardly.
‘What do you mean he’s not your leader? You already see him as one, don’t you?’
Then Gakyak suddenly came to mind.
In the distance, he could see Gakyak sitting collapsed on the ground, staring at Hyuk-min with eyes full of wonder.
Gakyak, who had always become sharp and deeply broken whenever anything related to Taebudong’s back gate came up.
For the first time, a positive change was beginning to show in him.
“Hah, is this what they call fate?”
A smile rose to his face on its own.
Hyuk-min, who was handling the Blood Demon Energy.
No Death, who, without even realizing it, had perfectly cleared Taebudong’s trial and become a monster no less fearsome than Hyuk-min.
And finally, Hyun-jung, who was diligently undergoing her own trial behind the still-closed Stone Gate.
As Chang-kyung looked over them one by one, a happier smile than ever spread across his face.
“It seems I was not merely a stepping stone for you. You, too, were stepping stones for me.”
When Chang-kyung looked up at the sky, he saw the face of the giant stone Buddha, cracked and broken.
At the sight of the Buddha statue smiling down in benevolence, Chang-kyung’s smile deepened.
“This is good.”
How much time had passed?
Since morning had dawned over the tightly shut back gate of Taebudong.
With one last smile, Chang-kyung descended the stone steps, leaving behind Gakyak, who was rejoicing at the sight of the two who had grown stronger through the trial.
= = =
[Beep!]
[Warning! Warning!]
[Target will soon perish.]
[Beep! Beep!]
[Warning! Warning!]
[Target will soon perish.]
It was intentional.
From the moment he obtained the Party Armament System and registered No Death, he had been planning for this day.
Of course, there would be some losses, but by taking advantage of his undying body, he had been able to open and widen the Ki Meridians and Ki Vessels that would normally take years to cultivate, while also expanding his Dantian and raising himself to the level he had reached in his past life.
“Haa… haa…”
At last, everything was done.
‘It took longer than I thought.’
After swallowing [Regression Mode], his inflated Mana Stats had given Hyuk-min far more Blood Demon Energy than he had originally planned for.
Thanks to that, he had ended up spending quite a long time tearing open and widening his Dantian even further.
Still, it was not a bad thing. If anything, it was a good one.
Wasn’t there a saying? The more, the better.
Internal Energy was exactly like that.
“Hoo!”
How long had he been at it?
The blood splattered around him had pooled enough to start flowing, and the sweat drenching his entire body had soaked through his clothes and was dripping off him.
“Good!”
He felt refreshed.
“Have they all gone already?”
No one was around.
Only pools of blood and sweat remained.
“Better this way.”
He still had something left to do, and that was something he needed to do without anyone finding out.
‘LIMITLESS.’
[Qualification: 5 / 10]
He now had some grasp of the qualifications for LIMITLESS, something he had not been able to figure out before.
Now that he had the general idea, and with the war not far off…
he decided not to put it off any longer, since any additional power would be an invaluable asset.
Just as he was about to take the items out of his Inventory…
‘Gakyak?’
Now that his Internal Energy had returned, his Ki Sense had expanded.
Because of that, he was able to instantly locate Gakyak, who had been sitting so still that it was as if he had no presence at all.
Hyuk-min slowly turned his head and looked at Gakyak, who was sitting in one corner of Taebudong.
“How long have you been here?”
“I’ve been here the whole time.”
Everyone else had left, but he had remained until the very end.
A smile formed on Hyuk-min’s lips.
He knew the reason very well.
“It’s all thanks to you.”
“Your skill in handling ki is masterful. Were you originally a martial artist?”
“No. I just had a good dream.”
“The trial… are you… satisfied?”
Hyuk-min looked at Taebudong.
“I am very satisfied. If it weren’t for this place, I would have died in the war on December 26.”
At the words that he would have lost his life, a strange light flickered in Gakyak’s eyes.
“The trial is a place where you must risk your life. Wouldn’t it be better to endure, and endure, and choose to run away?”
Hyuk-min knew the intent behind those words well.
‘Is this also fate?’
He had sought out Great Buddha Temple out of necessity, and he had undergone Taebudong’s trial out of necessity.
But the timing was almost too perfect.
Hyuk-min let out a small laugh again.
“Life is short when you look at the big picture. Whether I die this way or that way, if there’s something I’m chasing, then shouldn’t I at least try for it?”
“But if you die in the process, wouldn’t that be a dog’s death?”
“Then even that would have its meaning. I think that’s better than stopping and rotting away without ever trying.”
“Better than doing nothing…”
It was the kind of sound that disappeared the moment it was spoken.
But words held far more power than people thought.
Normally, it would have been just another passing phrase, but if the timing was right, a single word could wound a person’s heart, or heal it.
“A life where you die without doing anything, and a life where you keep challenging yourself even knowing death might come. If I had to choose between the two, I’d choose the latter. You only live once. Isn’t that… cooler?”
He closed his Inventory.
Then, after bowing his head once to Gakyak, he began descending the stone steps.
As he went down, he could see Gakyak still staring blankly into the air.
Looking at him, Hyuk-min muttered quietly to himself.
‘The grace I received in my past life, I can finally repay it now. Left Darma Protector Gakyak, please cast it off and recover soon.’
Smiling, he descended the stone steps one after another.
The slowly setting sun and the red glow spreading across the sky.
Unlike Great Buddha Temple, where everything was turning for the better, beneath that same sky, in another place, the seed of disaster was slowly cracking open and beginning to sprout.
===
[The time has come….]
Inside a dark cave.
To be precise, at the bottom of a deep hole located within Wind Cave.
[Come to me…. Come to me…]
A strange voice echoed throughout the cave as if it were bewitching someone.
There were many people there, but only one person heard that voice.
“Huh? Is someone there?”
The guide, Kim Sang-gyu, tilted his head and slowly began venturing deeper into the cave.