NOTICE: Many of the novels have been removed because they might cause violations, which we were not aware of earlier.
Chapter 82. Those Who Chase the Dragon (3)
The Murim Regular Exam held in my previous life had been fiercer than ever before.
It had been a stage where sects throughout the murim, led by the Murim Alliance, had reached their golden age after a long peace and unleashed all the strength they had saved up until then.
There were even those who evaluated that the competition had only been at that level because several prominent Orthodox Path sects that had been caught up in the incident at the Demon Spirit Plateau had declined to attend after failing to recover even their disciples’ corpses.
Yet the current Murim Regular Exam, without even the incident at the Demon Spirit Plateau, was unfolding into an even fiercer close battle than what I had seen in reports from my previous life.
[Murim Regular Exam Situation Report]
-Total eliminated groups so far: eighty-nine.
-Total injured so far: five hundred.
-Total dead so far: fifty-seven.
※Special Note: Attacks against the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans have begun faster than before.
-The Grass-Skimming Divine Star of Qingcheng Sect was eliminated with severe injuries.
-Ak Mu-seong of the Shandong Ak Clan has also fallen into critical condition and been eliminated.
These were things that had not happened in my previous life.
Even those taking the Hell Regular Exam tended to view the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans as their final choices, yet the fact that attacks had already begun meant that the current life’s Murim Regular Exam was already unfolding more fiercely than in my previous life.
※Special Note Two: I report this in case you are curious.
The story began with that preface.
-The group in which Namgung Clan and Iron Sword Sect are moving together passed the First Trial, but suffered severe damage and is currently hiding somewhere.
The fact that even Namgung Clan and Iron Sword Sect had suffered damage was quite shocking.
‘He should definitely have completed Firmament Cloudless Sword Art.’
Azure Emperor Divine Sword had gone into secluded training with half of Jegal Cheon-gi’s Ascendant Form from Boundless Firmament Sword Art.
If he had completed it, then Namgung Seon-hwa certainly would have participated while leading warriors of Namgung Clan at the level she was originally meant to command.
‘Was he unable to complete it?’
Moreover, if she had been moving together with Iron Sword Sect, there should have been no one in Anhui Province who could oppose them.
If two such people had to hide while avoiding attacks, that did not mean they were powerless. It meant that a problem had occurred.
‘Azure Emperor Divine Sword did make a request of me, but…….’
Right now, I was already busy enough taking care of the three Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers.
“Hup!”
Dong-ryong jolted awake in alarm.
With scabs of blood that were not his own stuck all over his face, Dong-ryong looked around in every direction with tense eyes.
“Are you all right?”
“……Senior Brother.”
“It seems you had a nightmare.”
“……”
It was the third day since we had left Mount Tianmu.
Because of the repeated attacks, the children had been forced to resist ambushes without sleeping a wink.
Until a moment ago, they had fought an intense close battle. When I told them to rest a little distance away, the three brothers had tried to perform Qi Circulation and Breathing, only to fall asleep from exhaustion.
They were desperately operating Moving Circulation, but ten years’ worth of inner arts had limits.
The greater problem was rest.
The continuous battles that had gone on for three days with clenched teeth had already begun eating away not only at the children’s bodies, but at their minds as well.
“……I’m sorry, Senior Brother.”
Even after I told him to close his eyes again, Dong-ryong stared blankly at me, then lowered his head deeply.
“It is not your fault.”
“……”
“Right now, rather than thinking about what you did wrong, recovering even a little of your inner arts is the urgent priority.”
At my firm words, Dong-ryong nodded and quickly began Qi Circulation and Breathing.
“Then please take care of me.”
If I had to name the reason the children were this exhausted despite using Moving Circulation and White Tiger Sword Formation, it was Dong-ryong.
The three of them, who had moved like one body when they left Taeul Sect, had fallen out of sync worse than complete novices after Dong-ryong’s Heavenly Killing Star awakened.
More precisely, Dong-ryong’s improved skill was breaking the Sword Formation.
The instinct of the Heavenly Killing Star, which made him grow stronger each time he killed a person, caused Dong-ryong to advance one step every time he fought a battle, and Geum-pyo and Eun-ho were no longer able to keep up with Dong-ryong’s speed of growth.
However, they could not fight without Dong-ryong either, because White Tiger Sword Formation required at least three people to occupy the three directions of Heaven, Earth, and Man. Geum-pyo and Eun-ho alone could not form the Sword Formation.
“……I think it might be better if we turn back.”
Eun-ho, who had awakened at some point, quietly opened his mouth.
“You are awake?”
Eun-ho hesitated, then spoke again.
“……Would that not be better?”
Since I knew what Eun-ho was worried about, I ignored it and said,
“Has your fatigue eased a little?”
“……My inner arts have recovered to some extent, but my senses are becoming increasingly dull.”
It was about time for the side effects of replacing sleep with Qi Circulation and Breathing to begin appearing.
“Eat something first.”
I tossed Eun-ho the jerky pouch I had been eating from.
Eun-ho was about to put his hand into the pouch, but when the thick scent of blood drifted from beyond one side of the forest, he quietly withdrew it.
“If you don’t eat now, you may not know when you will be able to eat again.”
“……”
Eun-ho forced the jerky that would not go down into his mouth and retched a few times.
——————
faqwiki.xyz
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
“Eldest Senior Brother, you are learning a different Movement Art from us.”
He was probably referring to Unrivaled under Heaven Movement Art, which I had shown several times during battle.
“I was lucky enough to learn it. When the time comes, I will also pass it down to you.”
It was an ancient martial art created by successive Hell Demon Emperors and Taeul Sword Emperors. I had not yet achieved enough mastery to pass it down properly to anyone.
“That is not what I mean. If you have that, could you not leave us behind and go?”
In the end, the conversation had returned to its starting point.
“……”
Eun-ho was looking pitifully at Dong-ryong, who was taking a short nap.
The Sword Formation had collapsed because of Dong-ryong, but there was no trace of resentment toward him in Eun-ho’s eyes.
“I already gave you a chance to withdraw. So just remember that you cannot turn back now.”
“Would you not be much freer without us, Eldest Senior Brother?”
Could such freedom truly be called freedom?
Remembering the past when I had never been free for my entire life, I shook my head.
As though frustrated, Eun-ho raised his voice.
“Eldest Senior Brother…… the Sword Formation has already collapsed…….”
“I will enter it.”
“Pardon?”
“I will enter and rebuild the Sword Formation for you.”
“What kind of nonsense is…….”
Eun-ho, who had been speaking, flinched as though he had heard the laughter of a ghost and turned around.
“Senior Brother…… just now…….”
It meant the attacker targeting us had come that close.
“I know.”
“Then quickly…….”
Eun-ho tried to wake Geum-pyo and Dong-ryong at once.
“Leave them. They are cautious people, so it will take them a while to come.”
“Pardon?”
“Is it not still daytime? Moreover, if they have been watching us, they will know what kind of battles we have fought over the past three days.”
This was closer to psychological warfare than a wheel war.
They had intentionally made me aware that they were there.
And even after I sensed their presence, I advised the children to rest instead of moving immediately.
Contrary to their expectation that we would naturally flee without resting, when we sat down and began resting one by one, they were the ones who could not approach.
They must have begun suspecting that there might be some trap.
“So we are going to rest until we are attacked?”
“Because they are not the only ones targeting us right now.”
Groups of ten and twenty warriors were watching us from all directions.
“They are only watching one another to see who will attack first. They will not move until a trigger appears.”
Even in a fight where victory seemed certain, avoiding it if one would suffer damage was human instinct.
Moreover, the Murim Regular Exam had not even passed its middle stage yet.
“The exam has only passed the First Trial. Until they are certain they can deal with us completely, they will not move easily.”
“……”
Eun-ho stared blankly with the expression of someone who had heard madness, then collapsed onto the ground.
Then, as though thinking any further was too much for him, he shook his head wildly.
“I don’t know anymore. Eldest Senior Brother will handle it somehow.”
At his words, a faint laugh escaped me.
In my previous life, he had not followed me this much.
“Should I press your sleeping acupoint?”
“My sleeping acupoint?”
“Do you think you can sleep in this situation?”
Eun-ho, who had been staring blankly at me, nodded.
“Please press it.”
“Sleep.”
I fired Finger Wind and put Eun-ho to sleep.
The forest grew quiet once more as everyone slept.
Intermittently, those who revealed their presence sent out killing intent.
“Things like jackals.”
In the Murim Regular Exam, there was no longer any of the fairness and honor that the Orthodox Path cried out about.
Eun-ho was astonished in several ways.
A Sword Formation was not something that could be done simply by moving according to a fixed pattern.
Only when the bodies of the people forming the Sword Formation felt like one’s own body, and one’s own body moved as though guided by another’s mind, moving as a single heart, could it finally be completed.
That was why a Sword Formation was not something one could operate carelessly just because one’s martial realm was high.
Even Shaolin Temple, the Mount Tai and Big Dipper of the murim, did not operate Il-myeong, who was called a genius, together with the One Hundred Eight Arhat Formation.
And yet.
‘This actually works.’
It worked.
It really worked. It had been something that could work.
Moreover, it was not merely at the level of their hands and feet matching.
It felt as though they had gained a new strength they had never experienced before.
After the awakening of the Heavenly Killing Star, Dong-ryong’s martial realm had risen one step, creating asymmetry in the Sword Formation. Now Eun-ho understood why Dong-ryong had operated the Sword Formation so willfully.
The Sword Formation had become so much stronger and fiercer that the formation they had performed until now felt stifling by comparison.
‘All because Eldest Senior Brother entered it.’
For that reason, Eldest Senior Brother had deliberately drawn the enemy in, pretending to be mad and making them sleep while enemies surrounded them from every direction.
No matter how many enemies rushed in, Eldest Senior Brother had been confident that he could face them with the Sword Formation he had joined.
‘He really is an astonishing person.’
At every moment, he made choices that not only exceeded common sense but seemed insane, yet they ultimately brought about the best result.
Even now, thanks to the brief rest they had taken, Geum-pyo and Dong-ryong’s complexions had improved greatly.
“Hold on just a little longer!”
“Yes!”
At Eun-ho’s desperate answer, he felt strength momentarily enter Geum-pyo and Dong-ryong’s hands as well.
The nearly seventy people who had been swarming in from every direction like a cloud of bees began collapsing almost completely to the ground by the time the moon tilted.
Where weeds should have been, swords that had lost their owners now lay instead.
“Haa, haa, haa.”
When the last remaining enemy finally fled and Eun-ho leaned his body against his sword,
the first light of dawn began shining from the east.
“Haa, haa.”
Geum-pyo, who had gulped down the remaining water in his canteen, forced jerky into his mouth, forgetting that he had just fought a fierce decisive battle.
Chomp, chomp.
Eun-ho, who had found it unpleasant to eat jerky with bloodstained hands, also forced jerky into his mouth as though refusing to be outdone.
If he could not eat now, he did not know when he would be able to eat again.
In just three days, the Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers had lost all ease regarding food.
“Senior Brother, you should eat too.”
Dong-ryong held out the jerky pouch, but instead of answering, Jin So-un was looking into the forest.
Another attacker?
The thought that he would have no wish left if they could rest for even half a day today lasted only a moment.
From the forest where Jin So-un’s gaze had landed, three or four men in yellow clothes walked out.
Only four?
Thinking that they were manageable, Eun-ho quickly tried to rise from his spot, but Jin So-un stretched out his hand and stopped him.
“……?”
The men in yellow stood still and merely watched this side.
It was different from the people until now, who had hidden themselves and attacked in an instant.
“What are they?”
“Their bearing is quite different.”
They did not give off killing intent, but they were heavy.
That rock-like solidity felt even more ominous.
While Jin So-un silently glared at them, Sound Transmission reached Eun-ho’s ear.
-May I come closer for a moment? I would like to speak with you.
Startled, Eun-ho turned his head. Geum-pyo and Dong-ryong also seemed to have heard the same Sound Transmission, because they flinched in surprise.
“……”
Their astonishment at that mysterious method lasted only a moment.
When Jin So-un nodded, the men in yellow slowly approached.
The three men looked to be of a similar age, in their early thirties, while the freckled youth standing in the center appeared to be about the same age as Eun-ho himself.
The one who spoke was the freckled youth.
“It was impressive to watch.”
Even as the young man looked around at the miserable traces of the fierce battle scattered in every direction, he was utterly calm.
“I don’t know whether you know this, but I am Jong Seo-gang of the Yellow Sword Sect.”
Jin So-un responded to Jong Seo-gang’s greeting.
“How could I not know a fellow daoist of the same One Hundred Eight Peaks? I am Jin So-un of Taeul Sect.”
“It is a little awkward to call us the same One Hundred Eight Peaks…….”
“……”
Contrary to his calm tone, a sharp sentence flew out.
Within that sharp sentence, hostility was clearly visible.
“I heard the rumors. They say you luckily obtained First Trial Tokens this time?”
At Jong Seo-gang’s rude words, Eun-ho wanted to refute him at once.
“……How could anything in the world be done by luck alone? One gains as much as one has worked for.”
At Jin So-un’s words, the corners of Jong Seo-gang’s mouth rose in a grin.
“I don’t know whether Young Master Jin is aware, but our Yellow Sword Sect has never once failed to enter the Murim Academy.”
“Is that so?”
“But this time, unfortunately, we missed the First Trial’s exam.”
“……”
“So, about that. What do you say Young Master gives us the First Trial Tokens that you luckily acquired?”
Listening to Jong Seo-gang, Eun-ho’s teeth ground together.
Luck?
They had waged war against two Green Forest mountain strongholds to obtain the First Trial Tokens.
They had nearly died several times, and in the middle of it all, Dong-ryong’s Heavenly Killing Star had awakened, which could have caused him to die by his brothers’ hands.
He did not like how the man spoke either.
He called it a concession, but how was it any different from saying he would simply rob them?
Before he realized it, Eun-ho pulled his inner arts up tightly.
And at that moment, ‘Hup!’
Startled by the energy constricting him from every direction, his inner arts scattered to pieces.
‘What is this…….’
Interfering with someone’s operation of inner arts was an unbelievably profound method.
No matter how low his own attainment was, to interfere with his inner arts operation through pressure alone?
Eun-ho’s gaze turned toward the man standing to Jong Seo-gang’s right.
As if not denying that he was the one who had done it, the man stared straight into Eun-ho’s eyes.
As though warning him not to act rashly.
‘An expert…… and one at such a distant level that I cannot even tell his attainment…….’
Were experts above first-rate originally not barred from participating?
“……”
Jin So-un, who had been watching the scene, let out a small sigh and said,
“I am willing to yield about two.”
“Two, you say?”
Having experienced the reality of the unknown expert with his whole body, Eun-ho understood why Jin So-un had been tense from the beginning.
“With that much, I can yield them gladly. After all, are we not two places that each hold a peak among the same One Hundred Eight Peaks?”
“Oh.”
Jong Seo-gang suddenly giggled.
“You knew?”
“It would be strange not to know when you are making it this obvious.”
“Unfortunately, we cannot be satisfied with two. Not only all of the forces of our Yellow Sword Sect and the Blue Saber Gang, but also all the sects that agreed to work with us, have gathered here.”
“……”
“You will have to hand over everything you possess.”
Other sects too, beyond the Yellow Sword Sect and the Blue Saber Gang?
How many were there, exactly?
Jong Seo-gang lightly raised his right hand.
“……!”
Along with that, powerful killing intent burst out wildly from the forest in every direction.
The birds hiding in the trees were startled and all flew up at once, and the wild animals that had been crouching at the sound of human footsteps also screamed as though they had met a natural predator and fled in every direction.
“As I said just now, all. Of. Our. Forces. are here. We are different from the people you have faced until now.”
Under the formless killing intent constricting their entire bodies, the three Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers’ teeth clattered.