“My Lord, Ma Taryong is missing.”
Things played out just as they did previously.
Elder Nok Jeong-gwan was sitting, with a solemn expression on his face, and the Earth Demon sat opposite of him.
“The life and death of this man is important, but I think it would be better to get rid of the traces.”
Also like before, the Elder’s concern was expressed.
“Ma Taryong is a warrior with the skills of a Peak Demon. If he is missing… obviously, the big names in Mount Hua must have intervened. And if that happened, the possibility that it entered the ears of the Supreme Pavilion Lord cannot be ruled out…”
“If that was the case, they would have attacked us right away.”
And even the Earth Demon’s rebuke did not change.
“Select those who are good at tracking, and send them to Mount Hwanga. We need people who are agile, and able to judge the situation quickly.”
“There are those who are prepared for just that.”
“Captain Seol-Hwi’s team, correct?”
However, this was something different.
In the past, it was simply ‘Hidden Truth’ that was mentioned, but now, Seol-Hwi and his subordinates were referenced specifically.
This proved that after the fighting competition, the position Seol-Hwi had in their minds was different.
“And add Cheol Gun-song as backup.”
There was one more thing - the reason Cheol Gun-song was assigned. Before, Cheol Gun-song was added in case of their ‘failure’.
“Call for Captain Seol-Hwi!”
After the Earth Demon and Elder Nok’s conversation, Seol-Hwi was called into the office.
Nothing else was different. Seol-Hwi’s meeting with the Earth Demon was the same, and he was ordered to leave immediately. Then, Seol-Hwi waited with his subordinates for the arrival of that man…
Cheol Gun-song, the third member of the Fourth Army Squad, and a Secret Warrior under the Earth Demon.
The sudden appearance of a stranger made his subordinates hostile. The masked man paid them no attention, and headed straight towards Seol-Hwi.
“How are you?”
Unlike the past, when Cheol Gun-song asked for his name coldly, this time, he gave Seol-Hwi a simple greeting.
“Good.”
“Is that so?”
He carefully looked over Seol-Hwi from top to bottom, and then tapped him on the shoulder.
“Let’s go.”
Cheol Gun-song had returned to the Sect a while ago.
Nighttime was quickly approaching, and Seol-Hwi’s team skilfully set up camp. Afterwards, they sat down in comfortable positions, while Songhwa got to work starting a fire.
Seeing the young boy handle his task, Imugi raised his eyebrows.
“You’re pretty good!”
To light a fire was easy enough, as long as you knew how to.
But Songhwa didn’t make a fire the normal way - instead, he drew something in the air, snapped his fingers, and then poof! A fire was lit.
“It’s just basic mystic arts…”
“By the way, little mystic.”
“Yes?”
Jeok Song stared into the fire, as he asked Songhwa,
“What are your abilities? You don’t look like a fighter.”
This was what everyone here had been wondering about. They were told that Songhwa was good at mystic arts, but they didn’t know exactly what.
“U-um… I… I can…”
When all eyes were focused on him, Songhwa became nervous. He stuttered, and sweat dripped down his forehead.
“It’s okay. No one here is forcing you to speak… You can talk slowly.”
Seo Ryeong, who noticed the boy’s timidness, tried to relieve the tension with her soft words. Songhwa gulped, and then said,
“I know… about 40 or so mystic art techniques. It’s just, my master told me to only tell people that I know 3 or 4 of them.”
“Wow! 40?”
“Is there anything involving flying?”
Seol-Hwi’s subordinates were smiling, since they thought it must be an exaggeration. Songhwa continued to speak, not noticing the others’ reactions.
“One is acceleration. It’s to speed up movements in an instant… I can place it on myself, but I can also place it on other people.”
“Acceleration?”
“Is it different from what martial artists do?”
Yong Jin and Imugi questioned him, and Songhwa shook his head.
“No, they’re not the same. Acceleration is much more useful.”
“How useful?”
Imugi asked straight away, and Songhwa answered,
“My master said that because the body moves faster than its original speed, you can hit twice with one blow.”
“Oh!”
“Really?”
“Show it to us!”
Everyone laughed at first, but they were now seriously interested in the topic. However, Jeok Song stopped them.
“What else?”
Songhwa continued listing off his abilities.
“Necromancy. Summoning the dead to make them move, or making them run rampant. Strong Kangshi too, maybe 50 of them at a time.”
“50!”
“That many?”
They didn’t know if 50 was a big number, since it depended on how powerful the Kangshi were.
“Will their strength be at the level of those locked in the warehouse?”
“Yes. 50 like that. If the right requirements are met, maybe stronger.”
“…!”
“…!”
“…!”
Everyone froze at that answer.
Stronger Kangshi? When the ones that they had fought were already a problem because of their durability and self destruction?
“And your third ability?”
Now everyone couldn’t deny that they were interested in what Songhwa had to say.
“The last one is spatial distortion.”
“Spatial distortion?”
“You all know Rapid Body Movement, right?”
Seol-Hwi’s subordinates nodded. Rapid Body Movement was a well-known technique by many martial artists.
“I’m not on that level yet, since it’s very advanced. Instead, my ability is moving from one fixed place to another in an instant.”
“…Did I hear you correctly?”
“That’s possible?”
Imugi and Yong Jin couldn’t believe it.
“Show us that acceleration method!”
“No, no, call on the dead!”
“We have to see you try spatial distortion!”
While everyone was excitedly asking Songhwa to demonstrate, Seo Ryeong approached Jeok Song and asked him,
“Where’s the Captain?”
“Well…”
Seol-Hwi was sitting alone in an empty space, not far from his men.
He had been silent all the way here, and that didn’t change when they arrived. He couldn’t help it.
It was because his head was full of thoughts on the Demon Zen Biography.
The only one who was unsuitable…
The last of the 12 warriors Seol-Hwi had read about.
His words, which revealed his frustrations, never left Seol-Hwi’s mind.
That’s because, this was a story of a warrior who was judged unsuitable for demonic energy.
[At some point, I thought, why do I have to kill them? Why do I have to kill people whom I have nothing to do with? Those who live kindly? I couldn’t understand. Even so, I could not refuse orders.]
[As I followed them, I grew increasingly guilty. Those above don’t like those with weak hearts, especially people who were unsuited for demonic energy. And I am one of them.]
The person who introduced himself as Gong 1, unlike others, wrote about his self-hatred and guilt. And notably, Gong was a member of the Sect.
[I seemed to understand why the Sect only wanted those who could handle demonic energy. One cannot overcome the pain if they aren’t stained by demonic nature. I had to somehow justify the murder in order to live, but I couldn’t.]
Gong seemed to have worked tirelessly to justify the killings he did. But at a certain point, this made him fall even lower.
[Is it because I got too strong? I know that if things went on, I would end up going crazy. No, it’s been a while, but there were times when I had already lost myself. Because the signs of madness occurred too frequently. Because the demonic martial arts were constantly aiming at me, like a snake’s tongue, in order to extract me of my reasoning.]
Seol-Hwi wasn’t sure what this meant. He got stronger, but not at the same time?
[In the end, I am at a dead end. If I don’t use the demonic martial arts, I cannot become stronger. But if I do use them, I will become insane. In this dilemma, what do I choose?]
[There is only one solution. To go to the extreme. Use the demonic martial arts, and have complete control over them. But that is impossible in the first place. My body is told to be unsuitable, and I cannot jump over two steps at once.]
What Seol-Hwi understood was that someone who was not suitable for demonic energy could not rise above a certain level.
“Am I like that too?”
Most martial artists from the Sect with high ranks were known to have demonic nature.
If a person was unsuitable for that energy, and reached a high level, it would be widely talked about in the Sect. But not once did Seol-Hwi hear of such a thing.
[I then stopped everything, and I fell into contemplation. And I thought, if I could control myself, and at the same time, predict the movements of treasures reflected from the outside… was it possible to climb to the top?]
Movements?
Seol-Hwi focused on those words.
Here, the ‘treasures’ were all things in the world. And Gong intended to move forward by reading the movements of all objects reflected in his eyes.
It was very broad and abstract, something that can’t be compared, even to counting the number of leaves.
However, the effort of the man inside this book could be felt. And it was another opportunity for Seol-Hwi to see things in a different perspective.
Leaves…
He watched the leaves fall from the trees.
It was to guess where they would fall.
Whoosh!
The wind blew right at that moment, changing the direction of the leaves again.
Here…?
But Seol-Hwi’s guess was wrong.
The leaves were not stationary, or still. They were light, and small, and the wind affected them.
Even the shape of each leaf looked slightly different.
How about here…!
Or maybe here…!
The leaves were shaken by the slightest wind, and they moved far. The direction Seol-Hwi guessed was wrong every time, and Seol-Hwi realized this was not as easy as he thought.
It was an act that didn’t make sense, but Seol-Hwi still could not leave.
Can I use Simulation?
He had personal questions, but he also wanted to check the book’s contents with the Simulation.
“How do I get to the Supreme Demon level?”
<Analysing...>
Seol-Hwi waited for a long time, and the result came half an hour later.
<No answer found.>
For the first time, the Simulation said that it couldn’t find an answer.
