The Genius Warrior Who Remembers Everything Chapter 84

Chapter 84. Hell Regular Exam’s ‘Second’ Trial

During my days in Sojeong Squad, while fleeing from Demonic Practitioners, I had seen the sea for the first time.

It was a place greater and vaster than the Yangtze River, and its salty taste lingered so intensely that I could not put it to my mouth, as though it had been filled with precious salt.

We forgot even the fact that we were being pursued by the Demonic Cult’s pursuit unit, our lives hanging by a thread, and went farther, closer, to look at the sea.

The sticky mudflats that sank around our ankles with every step were cumbersome, but the overwhelming and wondrous sight of that vast nature filling our eyes made us forget even that discomfort.

And after we had stared at the sea in a daze for a long while,

the water slowly began to rise.

At first, the seawater only brushed our ankles, but by the time we came to our senses, it had already risen to our chests. The moment we desperately tried to make it back to land, the seawater had already swallowed us.

The sea had given us a terror far more frightening than being chased by Demonic Practitioners.

Right now, we felt as though we had sunk into that very sea.

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

The flood of killing intent constricted them from every direction, as though seawater had risen to the top of their heads.

The children’s faces were gradually turning pale.

Dong-ryong, who was at least wearing the Demon-Purging Spirit Beads, seemed to be in decent condition, but even so, I could not hand the Demon-Purging Spirit Beads over to Geum-pyo or Eun-ho.

The moment I took them off, Dong-ryong’s Killing Star Nature might awaken amid the thick killing intent.

“We climb higher.”

Those who had spread the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare from the entrance of Mount Makgan were endlessly scattering killing intent, as though they intended to fill the entire mountain with it.

The Yellow Sword Sect and the Blue Saber Gang each formed groups of five to spread the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare, while the other sects formed larger groups of ten to fifteen people and spread the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare.

They were compensating for the difference in each group’s martial realm with the number of warriors.

As we ran higher,

my head turned on its own toward a commotion below the mountain.

Flutter—!

The birds that had been holding their breath under the killing intent all flew above the forest at once.

Rustle—!

Although no wind was blowing, the forest shook.

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

ROAAAR!

GRRRAH!

What was astonishing was that at the end of that herd of wild animals were bears and tigers as well. The two predators, too, drooled wildly as though they had met their natural enemy and let out desperate cries.

“Shoot!”

At someone’s shout, throwing swords and arrows flew in from every direction.

Grrrhh.

Grraah!

The Hidden Weapons flying in from all directions struck everything from the smallest rabbits to deer, wild boars, roe deer, and more, turning them into hedgehogs that lost their shapes and collapsed.

The bears and tigers ran undaunted even with several arrows buried in them, but soon the warriors forming the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare charged into the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare all at once and slaughtered them in an instant.

The predators that had ruled Mount Makgan fell like reeds.

All of this ended within a single breath.

Gulp.

The Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers swallowed thickly, as though they had seen their own future.

“There is no time to delay. Move quickly.”

“……Y-yes.”

“Yes!”

Having come to their senses, the Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers quickly moved again so they would not suffocate inside the killing intent.

However, as with seawater, the speed at which it rose after passing their chests was faster than when it first wrapped around their ankles.

“Huff. Huff. Huff.”

It was slowly reaching a level that Moving Circulation could no longer handle.

The summit of the mountain.

There was no higher place left to climb to avoid the killing intent.

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

“Yes?”

Eun-ho muttered with startled eyes.

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

“don’t worry. I also know the secret art of the One-Armed Flying Sword. If you lose an arm, I will pass that down to you.”

“……I will try to hold out.”

Then I immediately threw myself down the sheer cliff.

“……”

Eun-ho’s face, which had been full of laughter, soon stiffened.

Geum-pyo and Dong-ryong, who had not understood the situation, looked at Eun-ho.

“What? Did you talk about something with Senior Brother beforehand?”

“No.”

“Then what did you know when you said you would?”

Eun-ho stared steadily at Geum-pyo.

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

Geum-pyo, who had been about to answer by asking what kind of nonsense that was, stared blankly for a moment before replying.

“No.”

“Then isn’t that enough? Even if he did abandon us, we came prepared for that too. Didn’t we?”

“……Acting cool, are you?”

Geum-pyo drew his sword and stood two steps ahead.

The frontal position of White Tiger Sword Formation.

A strong resolve that he would not retreat no matter who the opponent was.

Eun-ho stood to the left.

And after hesitating, Dong-ryong stood to the right.

“Two quarters of an hour. Two quarters! don’t lose your arms or legs.”

At Geum-pyo’s words, the two brothers voiced the shout they had always cried out whenever they practiced the Sword Formation in the past.

“Let’s go!”

“Let’s go!”

***

While freely falling down the cliff, I saw the cave that looked as though two stone slabs had overlapped, just as I had seen in the report, and shot out Flying Dragon Claw to throw my body into it.

As I walked inside along the narrow cave, I saw, just as recorded, a small spring that gave off a damp smell. Once I passed the spring, a fishy odor vibrated throughout the cave, as though I had come to a swamp.

“I wonder if it is hibernating.”

On the large cave wall, which seemed wide enough for three or four people to stand upright, gold-colored tile-like things were stuck here and there.

However, they were not brilliant like gold, but a yellow color like dried, twisted mud.

“What a remarkable appetite.”

Then, in one corner of the cave, there was a huge pile of bones that seemed to be what the creature had eaten.

Starting from small things like roe deer and rabbits, there were also bones that appeared to belong to bears and tigers.

“Do snakes not normally swallow their prey whole?”

Scrrrrrape—

Had it awakened because it heard me?

Or did creatures that had already surpassed ordinary principles not hibernate?

The sound it made, like metal scraping, pierced my eardrums throughout the entire cave.

Soon, two red eyes flashed in the darkness.

“So you are the local master of Mount Makgan.”

A head the size of a bull.

Golden scales covering its entire body.

It was none other than a two-hundred-year-old Golden-Scaled Blue-Line Snake.

***

Roughly three hundred…… no, was it five hundred?

Dong-ryong remembered the time when every disciple of Taeul Sect had gathered and held a feast.

‘That was really fun.’

Oops.

Now was not the time to be thinking about other things.

The faces of Geum-pyo and Eun-ho in front of him were pale.

After they avoided the arrows pouring in from every direction and evaded the throwing swords, the warriors approached through the killing intent.

Their movements were slow, as though they were swinging swords underwater.

They felt incomparably slower than when they matched the Sword Formation.

If they moved that slowly, something terrible would happen…….

Even so, he could not move carelessly.

If he did, the Sword Formation would collapse.

He knew.

His brothers’ movements had not slowed.

Relatively speaking, the enemies’ movements were not that fast either.

So they somehow managed to block them.

But soon, wounds appeared.

‘Can we hold out like this?’

Eldest Senior Brother had said they only needed to hold out for two quarters of an hour, but that possibility did not seem visible.

He simply realized it instinctively.

Ah, after a little while, my brothers will die.

Things he had not known before could now be felt instinctively.

And he could see them.

The countless corpses he had seen so many times until now.

Among them lay Geum-pyo and Eun-ho.

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

No, it had been impossible from the beginning.

He had felt the thing Eldest Senior Brother called the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare for the first time, but he could instinctively understand this too.

This was a method for hunting people like beasts.

In truth, even if Eldest Senior Brother were here, nothing would change.

‘Besides, there are scary people too.’

The warriors who had stood beside Jong Seo-gang of the Yellow Sword Sect.

Those people were very scary people.

Individually, they might not be able to oppose Eldest Senior Brother, but if they joined forces and formed a Sword Formation like Dong-ryong and his brothers, there would not be much Eldest Senior Brother could do either.

And now, among the warriors forming the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare, such scary people were mixed here and there.

‘Because of me, for no reason…….’

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

Even so, he had wanted to be with them.

Because he hated being left behind alone.

Because he could not accept the fact that he was useless by himself.

This was the result of his stubbornness.

If he had gone back, would Geum-pyo and Eun-ho have gone back too?

If they had, they might not have died here.

“Dong-ryong!”

Geum-pyo blocked in his stead the sword of a warrior moving slowly.

Even though he knew Dong-ryong was faster now, Geum-pyo always did that.

“Brother Geum-pyo!”

Eun-ho covered Geum-pyo’s back.

Once again, the Sword Formation broke.

It was always like this.

He kept holding his brothers back like this.

“Form the Sword Formation again!”

Just as the Sword Formation was about to be established, two warriors wedged themselves between Geum-pyo and Eun-ho.

In an instant, they were split in two and had to face the enemies separately.

Geum-pyo and Eun-ho’s hands crossed past one another.

Even as their wounds increased, the two of them kept their gazes fixed on him.

“Brother Eun-ho!”

Dong-ryong quickly dealt with the warriors who had shown him their backs and approached them.

This would not do.

At this rate, all of them would certainly die.

“Dong-ryong! Stand behind me!”

Geum-pyo and Eun-ho, whose faces were now gradually turning black, ignored even the Sword Formation and put him behind them.

He had not come here for this.

“Brother…….”

“don’t worry! I’ll make sure you get out of here unharmed!”

“Fuck. Geum-pyo, even so, wouldn’t I be better off as the one missing an arm?”

“No! I’d be better! Instead, you inherit the mill!”

“No, why is the succession issue suddenly coming up here?!”

Even though the ominous enemies were scattering killing intent right in front of them, his two brothers still did not stop joking.

Before he knew it, Dong-ryong laughed faintly.

Then Eun-ho grinned.

“That’s right, Dong-ryong. It’s no big deal. So don’t worry. It’ll end well.”

No, it did not feel as though that would happen.

Eun-ho was telling an obvious lie.

And Dong-ryong wanted to hear his brother’s silly jokes for much longer.

‘…….’

The thought he had hesitated over until now became settled.

Then… he took off the Demon-Purging Spirit Beads wrapped around his neck.

“Dong-ryong! I told you not to take that off!”

In an instant, vitality surged through his whole body.

His body, which had seemed ready to collapse at any moment, felt as though it had recovered completely, and something hot pounded against his chest.

“Brother……. Let’s all go back unharmed together.”

Now Dong-ryong, too, told an obvious lie like Eun-ho.

Thump, thump.

His racing heart calmly sank.

Instead, his two eyes heated up as though they were burning.

One, two, three.

Sword forms were drawn inside his head.

Dong-ryong lightly fitted himself into that picture.

“Kheok.”

“Kk.”

“Keuheok.”

Three enemies fell in an instant.

Five, six…… nine.

One person with each breath.

As though he had forgotten the fear of his first killing, his body moved far too naturally and stole his opponents’ breaths.

He was afraid.

No, he was not afraid.

What he truly feared was Geum-pyo, Eun-ho, and Eldest Senior Brother dying here.

To avoid that fear, he swung his sword wildly.

……Because if he swung his sword like that, the only corpse that would remain here would be his own.

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

His sharpened hearing picked out Jong Seo-gang’s voice.

Then the terrifying man beside him ran forward.

‘A scary person.’

He was different from the others.

The picture of the battle against this person kept cutting off.

What that meant was probably his own death.

But he did not stop.

Clang, clang, clang.

In the instant they exchanged three forms, the man’s two eyes widened in surprise, and he swallowed a groan.

“Khmm.”

The picture was drawn again.

Now it seemed to be about half complete.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang.

After they exchanged ten forms in an instant, the terrifying man’s front garment was sliced away.

“What are you……?”

The picture drawn again was complete.

He could win.

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

Just as Dong-ryong was about to send his sword flying,

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang.

Two more terrifying men charged in.

Now, no picture was being drawn at all.

“Killing Star Nature…… he’s a brat with Killing Star Nature!”

“You mean the Heavenly Killing Star?”

“That monster?”

Looks of contempt flew in and stabbed into him.

He was hurt.

No, he was not hurt.

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

Dong-ryong threw himself forward again to draw the picture.

Geum-pyo and Eun-ho tried to interfere, but other warriors blocked them.

‘don’t come…….’

If only these people were gone, Eldest Senior Brother and his brothers could live.

‘So please, don’t come…….’

Between the pictures that kept cutting off, red paint splashed out.

It was a picture he had not seen before.

The picture drawn in red paint continued without interruption.

It was a picture that could defeat the enemy as Dong-ryong wished.

But at the end of the picture, Dong-ryong himself also fell.

It was a miracle born from an endless craving to kill humans, and a tenacious obsession that wanted to do so even at the cost of his own life.

-Dong-ryong! Get a hold of yourself!

-If you keep doing this, we’re leaving you behind!

He heard the voices of his brothers that had sounded distantly on Mount Tianmu.

Those desperate voices that had barely made him come to his senses.

For some reason, when he recalled his brothers’ voices, even the last fear of death he had held disappeared cleanly.

“He is one we must kill without fail!”

“The Heavenly Killing Star……?”

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

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

Like a gourmet trying to enjoy a feast to the fullest.

Like a calligrapher writing the finest characters.

The Heavenly Killing Star drew out all of Dong-ryong’s Latent Power in order to commit the finest final killing.

Was this as far as he went?

Would he no longer be able to play with his brothers, or see Eldest Senior Brother enter the Murim Academy?

It was a pity.

If he could play together with his brothers and Eldest Senior Brother again.

If he could see Eldest Senior Brother proudly enter the Murim Academy…….

But he decided not to be greedy any further.

If he could save his brothers, then had he not already done everything he could do?

He threw his body along the red picture whose ending was his own death.

Just as Eldest Senior Brother had once thrown himself calmly into a dangerous situation at some point in the past.

Dong-ryong also threw himself forward as calmly as possible.

At that moment,

“Are you adults not ashamed? Against one child, no less.”

His two ears pricked up.

No way.

Already?

Forgetting even that there were enemies in front of him, he turned his head.

There, he saw Eldest Senior Brother.

“Eldest…….”

Dong-ryong’s mouth fell open as he was speaking.

The enemies who had been sending their swords toward Dong-ryong also flinched in shock and stopped their blades.

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

A curse burst from the mouth of the solemn-faced Gam Cheol-jin.

“What the fuck is that?!”