Water naturally flowed in rivers or streams, there was always a current and a direction in which it flowed.
The flow of time was no different.
It had been three years for Woon Seong and the other children within the Cave of Latent Demons.
The once-children, were now reaching the adolescent years of their lives. The boys had started to grow more masucline and their muscles started to become more defined.
The same could be said for the girls for their muscles, and natural body curves were becoming more accentuated.
But the children within the Cave of Latent Demons, were unlike any other children their age within all of Murim.
Although hidden from the surface, they all were emitting fierce and predatory auras underneath their appearances.
They had miniscule amounts of it growing when they all passed the first Trial of Life and Death, but not only did it grow to a substantial amount unlike before, the children were also able to completely contain these fierce auras and hide them.
Almost all of the children were able to hide their fearsome auras and would be considered premium talents within all of Murim when compared to other kids their age.
It wasn’t just the children’s bodies and mastery over their internal circuitry that had changed.
Over the past three years, the children had started to align with other children that shared similar goals to their own and created several groups.
It was like watching the very basis of Murim unfold as these children created their own tiny factions within this Cave of Latent Demons based on each other’s interests and goals.
It was natural that wherever these groups and factions within Murim were formed, there were certain gains and losses to working as a group.
Such a nature was not an exception to the groups of children within the Cave of Latent Demons.
Despite the children pursuing their own goals and interests along with others, they did not slack off in their training at all. However, they did spend their free time together chatting and what not amongst themselves.
Their training time was dedicated mostly in the time they had with the instructors, and didn’t extend much outside of that time-wise for their training.
However, there were also individual children and groups that showed superb work ethic when it came to practicing their martial arts.
As a result, their proficiency and mastery over their respective martial arts became more and more refined.
In addition to growing older, these children were also given more autonomy within their free time within the Cave of Latent Demons
The instructors before this period, had only been there to set up the foundation of which these children would survive and grow upon. After which, they let the children have more freedom to do what they wanted and grow stronger on their own.
‘It might not have been just that though. Maybe the instructors wanted to create a divide amongst ourselves and the groups were exactly for that.’
Woon Seong had other thoughts about the intention of letting the children have more free time, as he thought the creation of the groups was to let the children find allies for their own ideals when they joined the Cult formally.
And unlike those children, Woon Seong rather, did not join any group and remained diligent in every second of each passing day, with his training.
The individuals who were not in groups, were either children who were too weak to join any, or who had no interest in relying upon others and pursued their own individual strength.
Woon Seong’’s case was the latter.
He was so powerful that he didn’t feel the need to mix and mingle with the other children.
Not only that, it just felt a little peculiar and odd for himself to interact with kids who were 15 years younger than himself when it came to his total years of life in both bodies.
Naturally most children knew that Woon Seong was incredibly powerful and no longer looked down upon him for his number as No. 900. They knew he was a monster, but also naturally took offense to his ignorance to their groups as brooding arrogance.
“Is that No. 900?Tsk- What a jerk.” (T/N : the following are all different children talking amongst themselves in a group.)
“Well, there’s a time I need to pay back for him humiliating me.”
“Pft, training by himself. Who does he think he is pretending to be all noble?.”
“Yeah, plus my skills aren’t what they used to be.”
“Even so, just in case, if I had one or two people to move with me, I’d turn him into a mess.”
Furthermore, Woon Seong obviously had been attacked out of purposes of revenge by groups of these children. But, Woon Seong crushed them all without an ounce of mercy.
Amongst the other children who lived alone without being a part of a group, Woon Seong had a particularly notorious reputation because of that.
Eventually after this time of three years… an incident had broken out.
* * *
It was around evening that the incident broke out.
It also happened to be on the day when the instructors called all of the children in the cave to gather, unlike the usual.
‘What’s going on?’
Woon Seong wondered, and moved to the place where the instructors ordered the call.
Over the most recent year of the past 3 years that had gone by, there had been little to no contact with the instructors, let alone an order to gather.
Only during the morning training and handing out for meals throughout the day, could the instructors be seen or talked to by the children.
In the process, any changes to the schedule or routines were normally discussed then one-on-one with the instructors, and then later passed on between the children’s groups.
That was the children’s normal routine.
But this time, the instructors ordered a meeting. It meant they were going to be delivering some important news.
Woon Seong thought about what it could be, several times as he headed towards the hall, but he couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on.
There were some guesses, but this was the Cave of Latent Demons.
This was not a place that could be predicted so easily,
Plus, there was no point in thinking too much about it, since he would find out everything he needed to know once he got there.
‘There’s no point in thinking about it.’
As Woon Seong went to the hall, the children who came first gathered and were chattering and talking amongst themselves.
But when Woon Seong arrived, the groups of children parted to let a path through for him to walk.
They were children who knew their own limits and didn’t want to start a meaningless fight right then and there to piss off Woon Seong somehow.
Of course, there were some kids who stared at him from afar with eyes full of malicious intent.
‘Hah, seems you haven’t given up on your revenge yet.’
The one Woon Seong was thinking of, was No. 185 who was glaring at him from afar.
‘What a whiny little bitch.’
If anything Woon Seong was irritated No. 185 didn’t just come and attack him already. However, he knew that No. 185 stood no chance and that No. 185 knew that as well.
‘Sure, you’re being cautious. But that doesn’t make you smart.’
Come to think of it, No. 185 had displayed the same type of behavior in the past as he was now, clearly overestimating his own power and underestimating his opponents.
If No. 185 hadn’t tried to attack Woon Seong just because he was numbered No. 900 in the past, none of this would have happened.
‘He’s as fat and big as a bear, yet he’s got the traits of a fox. At this rate, he’s got the traits to be leading of these stupid groups by now.’
It’s not like Woon Seong actually cared for No. 185, but No. 185 continuously annoyed Woon Seong with his glares and cunning nature.
Woon Seong then did recall that No. 185 actually did happen to be a leader of one of the groups of children within the Cave of Latent Demons.
In their own way, these groups did have some leaders of sorts, being the ringleaders of their respective group of children.
It would make sense to Woon Seong since typically leaders of factions, clans and sects needed not only martial prowess, but cunning and wit.
‘But compared to those, No. 185 is like a complete child.’
Real and proper leaders knew when revealing their anger would only result in terrible results. Thus they would hide their anger until it was the right moment to strike. However, No. 185 was an idiot in that sense, as he openly displayed his bitterness to Woon Seong.
Not only that, but Woon Seong could tell that No. 185’s martial arts were far from being even subpar in his eyes.
Since that was his evaluation of No. 185, it only made sense that Woon Seong did not like to spend his time and energy even being in the same space as No. 185.
It was so natural that Woon Seong didn’t even spare him a glance, despite No. 185’s open resentment.
Of course, the face of No. 185, when he saw this, was distorted. Woon Seong went his own way without paying attention to his face, which was visible without seeing it.
However, Woon Seong’s look of indifference soon disappeared.
“Hello?”
Like Woon Seong, who was not a part of any group, Ah-Young, No. 17 did not join any group and was standing in front of him.
“What do you want?”
Ever since that first visit to Woon Seong’s living quarters three years back, Ah-Young would periodically come and annoy him and see what he was doing.
Therefore, Woon Seong had no choice but to feel uncomfortable around Ah-Young.
“I just said hello to you because I saw you. Don’t look at me like that.”
Woon Seong snorted and turned his head away at Ah-Young’s words.
Ah-Young was about to tease Woon Seong for his tsundere attitude but didn’t have the chance.
This was because the Instructors came into view first and let out a shout throughout the hall.
“Quiet!”
Boom-
The senior instructor’s stomp shook the floor heavily.
The internal qi of the instructor, was channeled from his dantian and into his foot, resonating and shaking the floor violently, as Woon Seong’s eyes widened.
In fact, over the past three years, Woon Seong naturally had the chance to check and evaluate the skills of the instructors in more detail.
There was even an incident where some of the children felt fed up with the instructors’ domineering tone and tried to raise a fuss out of them, and attacked them.
However, the moment that incident happened, the insolent and rebellious children had their necks cut off without a moment’s delay in front of the instructors’ frightening skill.
There was also the accompaniment of the qi around the instructors’ feet to vibrate and be felt through each and every child’s body.
‘If they can channel their internal qi briefly into their actions, then that means at the very least, they’re first-rate martial artists.’
It was ridiculous and showed just how much power the cult had, to have first-rate martial artists as mere instructors for children.
It just went to say how rigorous and extreme the talent of the children were, if they were to be supervised by such high-level martial artists.
Through these small experiences over the years, it made Woon Seong realize just how frightening and powerful the Cult of the Heavenly Demon was.
‘The Cult of the Heavenly Demon truly does not lack in comparison to the entirety of the Murim Alliance in terms of manpower and strength… If I can somehow utilize the power of this Cult, it will be incredibly useful in my revenge!’
It wasn’t just the leaders of the factions who had murdered and conspired against his Master and himself. It was also their direct disciples of the multiple factions.
Those factions were the core strength of the Murim Alliance, and almost no known power could directly oppose them.
Dealing with them would be no different than declaring war on the entirety of Murim itself, all by himself.
Therefore, it was only natural Woon Seong felt that if he had the power of the Cult, which was the only known individual power to rival such a large and frightening force of power, he could achieve his goals.
As Woon Seong had these thoughts at the display of power from the instructors, he clenched his fists tightly.
At that moment, the lead instructor opened his mouth carefully.
“Good job, everyone.”
The surprised expressions and wariness of the children became present from those words onwards.
* * *
“…….”
After the senior instructor’s words, there was silence in the hall. The senior instructor’s words complicated the children’s minds.
Woon Seong also slowly mumbled at the senior instructor’s words.
‘He said the Trials of Life and Death were only beginning? That we will be doing closed door training and that the past 3 years was only the beginning’
The words ‘Trial of Life and Death only beginning in earnest as of right now’ were enough to make all the children in the hall become incredibly vigilant.
They remembered the first time they had ever faced death with their own two eyes against the Grey Wolves in the first Trial of Life and Death, 3 years ago.
At that time, over half of the children in the Cave of Latent Demons had died back then. The notion that they were going to start closed door training, wasn’t exactly something they were sure they should be thrilled about.
As long as the name remained as ‘the Trials of Life and Death’, there was no way they would remain calm in their minds.
‘I don’t know what it is, but there’s no way what comes in the future will be easy.’
Woon Seong was no exception when it came to being wary at the words like the other children.
However, for every trial and tribulation, Woon Seong knew there would be equal opportunity to grow a step stronger with equal risk.
The other children could be seen with the same stiff expressions as Woon Seong and Ah-Young, as they started to prepare themselves mentally for the oncoming strife.
Once again, as the children recollected their thoughts, the lead instructor spoke up.
“If you need anything, just let myself or the other instructors know before you go into your personal closed-door training sessions. If it’s a simple request, We will prepare it for you. You don’t have to worry about food or water since you will be prepared and fed well with grains and water daily…. And starting from today onwards, you may take off your iron bracers that you have been required to wear the past 3 years.”
At the words of being able to take off their bracers, the children buzzed with excitement.
The weight of the iron bracers was no longer heavy for Woon Seong, but it was thrilling for the other children to hear.
Woon Seong had trained harder than anyone else in the Cave of Latent Demons, so the iron bracers just felt as if they were just another extension of his own body.
This did not mean that there is no difference between wearing them and taking them off.
‘You’ll be much stronger as you lighten up the weights on your body.’
Some of the other children were already showing signs of excitement.
The senior instructor smiled genuinely at the sight of some of the other children showing their visible excitement about taking their bracers off.
“Five days from now, we will enter the first series of this Trial of Life and Death for closed-door training. Remember that if you need anything, make sure to ask us before you leave. Now, you can have dinner and talk amongst yourselves. Dismissed!”
“Yes Sir!”
The children shouted loudly, repeating the words of the senior instructor, and Woon Seong stood in front of the senior instructor, not going back with the other children to dinner.
“Hm, what’s going on No. 900?”
As soon as the order to dismiss the children was ordered, only a few children had stayed but none had come to request anything, and the instructor’s eyebrows wriggled at the sight of No. 900, Woon Seong, who was in front of him.
“I have something to request.”
The senior instructor looked a little surprised at the words.
He had given the children five days to decide if they needed anything before they underwent their closed door training, but Woon Seong, No. 900 had already decided on what to request.
Depending on what each child requested, if they did at all, their path of training would be influenced for the next few years based on this request.
“It’s a matter of careful consideration, isn’t it?
“I’ve thought it through enough.”
Nevertheless, there was only one such case for Woon Seong who already knew what he had been wanting.
‘You’ve only been thinking about training for this entire time, haven’t you?’
The senior instructor smiled faintly as he thought about Woon Seong who was standing in front of him.
‘He’s been a completely different person ever since he consumed that poison a few years back.’
The instructor continued his thoughts, as he could see that the achievements were increasing day by day for No. 900.
If anything, it would be nigh impossible for the instructors to not notice the incredible growth displayed by Woon Seong.
‘I’m sure he’s not even first-rate yet… is he?’
The instructor swept his eyes over Woon Seong, as he tried to inspect the level of strength within Woon Seong’s internal qi.
However, the instructor couldn’t get a proper gauge on Woon Seong’s true strength and it was a great surprise for the instructor to notice this, as Woon Seong rarely interacted with the other children and even less with the instructors.
“Are you ready for my request?”
The words caught the senior instructor’s eye.
“What can I get you?”
“I need four different iron braces, and I need each of them to weigh 20 kilograms. I would like to have them measured if possible, as accurately as you can get them, as well as an iron spear.”
The senior instructor felt perplexed at the unusual request.
He had just offered the children to take off their bracers, and yet here was No. 900 asking for more, and at almost 3 times the weight than the weight he was currently wearing!
“It must be heavy.”
The total weight on Woon Seong’s body would be around 90 kilograms if he added the spear on top of the bracers’ weight.
It was about the weight of adding a healthy adult male onto his body.
It was definitely not something any other children had requested in years prior in the history of the Cave of latent Demons.
“That’s all I need.”
“Okay, that’s definitely possible. Wait until the end of 5 days before you start your training and I will have them prepared for you.”
Woon Seong lowered his head and bowed to the instructor to give his thanks as he turned around and headed back towards his room.
