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4.
“Mukrim is not a place to wander around carelessly…! Do you know how many people have entered the forest and never been able to come out?”
No Jin-ha scoffed at Yang Ja-pyeong’s words.
“It seems Nam Gwon-mun cannot write funeral inscriptions?”
I’ve been putting up with this guy for so long!
“……
“This person?”
Just as Yang Ja-pyeong was about to step forward in a fit of anger, No Jin-ha stood up from his seat with a cold, hardened expression.
“How dare a nobody from Namgwonmun, who didn’t even graduate from a prestigious academy, treat me like this, the head of Baekhogak?”
“…….”
When No Jin-ha was about to start a fight in earnest.
Please stop.
The person from Namgwonmun who came out with Yang Ja-pyeong stopped the two of them.
Then, gazing intently at Noh Jin-ha, he asked in a low voice.
Is it correct that the academic center instructors should clearly take responsibility for this matter?
“joy!”
Instead of answering, No Jin-ha snorted.
However, the man of Namgwonmun did not back down.
“You must clarify that part. Otherwise, we intend to withdraw immediately and report to the Murim Alliance.”
“Haa… This is just ridiculous.”
Are you taking responsibility?
Noh Jin-ha, who had been rolling his eyes for a moment at the repeated questions, nodded confidently.
“Fine. I’ll take responsibility.”
“Understood. Then, Namgwonmun will take charge of the exploration guides. However, please stipulate the condition that the students unconditionally follow the guides’ instructions.”
“What about attacks by wild animals or monsters encountered during exploration? Can the Namgwonmun handle that, too?”
This time, Yang Ja-pyeong took a step forward and shook his head.
“Unless it were a tiger or a bear, we don’t have the power to subdue monsters.”
Then, Noh Jin-ha’s face brightens with pride.
“Then why should we follow Namgwonmun’s orders?”
Yang Ja-pyeong said with a serious expression.
Because otherwise, I would die.
That’s ridiculous. Just giving directions?
However, Yang Ja-pyeong did not back down either.
Please promise me.
Noh Jin-ha, who had been glaring at him as if to kill him, finally nodded.
“I’ll do that. And there’s no need to guide all the students.”
I don’t understand what you mean. Have you perhaps prepared another guide?
“That shouldn’t be Namgwonmun’s business anymore, should it?”
“All right.”
As Yang Ja-pyeong stepped back after receiving the promise, No Jin-ha assigned exploration areas to the leaders of each group.
One by one, the regions were assigned, and when it was my turn last.
widely
No Jin-ha pointed to the deepest part of Mukrim.
“If you’re the student center representative, you should at least do this much exploration, right?”
A place called Magyeong even within Mukrim.
Ha, this person… … .
“Why are you scared?”
I thought you were a total useless human being, but to think you’re actually caring about me like this?!
Actually, isn’t this person interested in Taeeulmun?
I smiled and expressed my gratitude.
“I am not even a disciple of Cheongseong, so what is there to be afraid of?”
“……!”
Noh Jin-ha was also so moved that he couldn’t find the words to speak.
It is truly an undeniably harmonious teacher-student relationship. As we gathered in groups to prepare for the exploration the next day, the clock struck me.
“Master Jin… please be careful.”
Gak comes with his hands clasped together, his face full of worry.
Why is this person so worried? Did he go bald from worrying so much?
It’s not like I’m going to my death, so why go to such lengths?
Il-gak lowers his voice and lets out a sigh.
“I have heard that the Demon Realm is… a particularly dangerous place even within the Silent Forest. The Venerable Master Taesu, the senior leader of our sect, entered the Demon Realm in the past and nearly died several times…”
What is this bald guy trying to do to me?
Is this like a Buddhist curse?
Still, since they said he was the one who went in first, I became curious and asked.
Did he obtain a miraculous elixir or a spiritual creature from the Demonic Realm?
“No. They said there is absolutely nothing. They advised us not to even think about going in there.”
What a useless bald guy.
Yang Ja-pyeong took on the role of guide for our group again.
They say Yang Ja-pyeong is the only one who has been to the Demon Realm.
Anyway, unlike before, walking through a slightly denser forest, my speed was unbelievably slow.
Should I say it’s slower than the average person walking?
It is hard to believe that the entire group is composed of warriors and the guide is the person managing the Mukrim.
With every few steps he took, Yang Ja-pyeong left a mark on the tree with a knife and retraced the path he had taken several times.
It is true that the foliage is so dense and the sun is blocked so it is impossible to tell the direction, but even so, it is to the point where I think this is a bit too much.
“Do we have to keep going at this speed?”
When I finally voiced my dissatisfaction, Yang Ja-pyeong nodded as if it were only natural.
In Mukrim, securing the exit is more important than entering. That is why we must enter this way, even if it takes time.
I didn’t really understand.
No matter how much they call it a dense forest, isn’t it still just a forest?
Although the trees have grown so tall that they cannot be seen in the Central Plains, they are not so high that a warrior cannot climb them.
And if you climb up a tree, you can identify the sun or constellations to figure out the direction.
If you know the location and direction, can’t you get to the destination?
“As expected…… That is a typical Central Plains mindset.”
A laugh that feels somehow hollow.
He looked at me for a moment, then started to move his body.
It would be better to show you directly rather than explaining it in words.
Yang Ja-pyeong gathered the dry leaves around him.
Then, he took a flint and a cotton ball out of his pocket and started to light a fire.
Click, click.
Eventually, the cotton caught fire, and the fire spread to the dry leaves.
As the flames grew fiercer, he suddenly broke off some wet leaves and covered the fire.
As the moisture on the leaves evaporated and the flames weakened, acrid smoke began to rise.
Yang Ja-pyeong turns his head toward me, who had been watching the series of events with a puzzled expression.
Would you like to go up now?
I looked at him for a moment, then kicked off the floor and jumped up.
Except for the leafy top, the tree did not have many branches.
Moreover, the spacing between the branches is quite wide, making it inconvenient to take consecutive steps.
That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to go up.
ping.
I threw the Flying Dragon Bird into the tree, wrapped the Heavenly Silk around it, and used that strength to kick off the tree once again and jump up.
After repeating that about three times, I almost reached the top of the tree. ‘It is certainly incredibly high compared to the Central Plains.’ By the time I reached the summit, the branches had grown so thick that I no longer needed the help of the Flying Dragon Bird.
Just as I was about to kick off the branches and leap up the forest with nothing but my bare body.
“Huh!?”
My body is not flying through the void across the forest.
Whoosh.
It was plummeting to the bottom.#“Crazy!”
Perhaps because it kicked off the ground with such excitement, the falling speed is unusual.
I shot out the Flying Dragon, fixed my body to the tree, and looked up again.
He clearly climbed up by stepping on the branches.
But for some reason, my body was plummeting to the floor.
“Senior Brother! What are you doing there!”
Moreover, my companions were ten paces away. ‘What on earth is going on?’ I kicked off the tree again and climbed up. However, this time I moved cautiously, prepared for the possibility of falling.
Fortunately, this time I was able to climb up the forest and see the sun.
But… … ‘What’s going on?’ Smoke that appeared to have been kindled by Yang Ziping right below was rising from a distance of twenty zhang.
It is a situation that is impossible to explain unless Yang Ja-pyeong put out the fire and another group started it.
I started running toward the place where the smoke was coming from, stepping on the trees.
But this time, isn’t the smoke getting further and further away?
This is driving me crazy.
At that moment, Yang Ziping’s telepathic voice was heard.
Can you keep up with the acting?
It is a strange thing.
It is clearly visible to the eye, and the smell can be distinctly felt.
But why do we keep drifting further apart?
I noticed you had an interesting tool earlier, so please come down just as you are. I will go.
As Yang Ja-pyeong said, I released the Flying Dragon Bird and went down.
By the time I reached the ground, Yang Ja-pyeong pushed through the bushes and approached me.
How was it?
“What on earth is this?”
It is the influence of the spirit vein.
“The spirit vein?”
Yang Ja-pyeong nods heavily.
In the Mukrim, natural dust forms on both the ground and the ceiling. As a result, it takes on a cave-like form. In addition, the dust emitted by the insects living in the Mukrim confuses human senses.
It was not particularly surprising that natural ash formed in the mountains, but it was truly strange that it also formed above where trees had grown.
Isn’t that saying they are continuously drinking a scent of unmarried people from an unknown source?
If I can step on the empty air and fly through the sky to completely break free from the influence of the spiritual veins, I might be able to escape just as you said, Representative.
Yang Ja-pyeong continued speaking calmly.
“However, the moment you step into the tree even once, your orientation will be off. Representative, will you be able to distinguish your direction and move forward?”
They speak so easily of the fact that one must at least reach the level of walking on air or mastering the Way of the Void.
Moreover, it does not merely confuse the way, but confuses the senses.
A single forest is a forbidden area
It was designated as such, and countless warriors entered with great arrogance. It was only now that I understood why they left only after becoming spirits.
“Never again…….”
I readily admitted it.
I won’t act cocky.
As I lightly bowed my head, Yang Ja-pyeong wore a surprised expression.
“Why are you acting like this? What is wrong?”
Yang Ja-pyeong, after choosing his words for a moment, opened his mouth.
No. I thought he was a person with truly many facets.
“……?”
Well, anyway, I was wrong to act up.
I spoke politely once again.
I look forward to working with you.
And so, the movement began again.
The team members, realizing the mess they had gotten into for acting up, quietly followed Yang Ja-pyeong.
I didn’t urge them to speed up any further, but I couldn’t help being bored.
The only saving grace was that the deeper we went inside, the easier it became to find poison.
Are you planning to keep doing that?
Would Miss Seong also like to?
visor!
“Get out of here right now! Before I kill you!”
Wow. I don’t think his temper was always this bad…
“I said clean it up quickly!”
“yes.”
At first, I didn’t know how strong the poison was, so I asked Yang Ja-pyeong about each one individually, but after repeating the process a few times, I became able to roughly distinguish the poisons based on their color or shape.
And so, before I knew it, I could feel my resistance increasing as I gradually neutralized the thirty poisons.
Practicing walking all day to neutralize poison and then finding and neutralizing another poison was also fun in its own way.
Certainly, once neutralized, the toxicity was not very strong even if exposed to the poison repeatedly.
At this rate, it even gives rise to a strange sense of anticipation that by the time the long journey ends, nothing will be a major problem unless it is a very critical poison.
The more I did that, the more greedy I became, and before I knew it, I found myself licking my lips as I looked at the disciples. ‘Tsk, those guys need to do it too.’ I wanted to train the members of the Taeeul Sect to build up their poison resistance, even if it didn’t affect the other squad members, but Sa-ryeon absolutely refused to allow it.
Geumpyo and Eunho didn’t want it in the first place, either.
entirely…….
“Senior Brother, may I try this?”
A guy with eyes sparkling purely.
Dong-ryong shakes the purple mushroom he is holding in his hand.
It looks like it has dangerous poison just by looking at it, but Dong-ryong has already digested over twenty poisons.
I smiled fondly as I looked at him.
“Try it. If you think it’s dangerous, spit it out immediately.”
If it gets really urgent, I can just release the poison using my internal energy.
After doing this for about three days, not only our group but also Yang Ja-pyeong stopped saying anything.
On the fourth day after moving to the Demon Realm, something interesting happened.
Why don’t Senior Brother and Dong-ryong get bitten by bugs?
Geumpyo, whose cheek was swollen from being bitten by an insect last night, tilted his head.
As I was carrying a wind chime in my bosom, no insects swarmed around me from the moment I first entered the dark forest.
Dongryong suffered until the second day, but from the third day onwards, he was bitten by insects less often.
Yang Ja-pyeong showed signs of hesitation about whether to speak or not, and eventually opened his mouth.
In fact, even the Tang family members rarely get bitten by insects in the Mukrim.
An answer where the exact cause cannot be pinpointed, but something roughly fits.
Unlike Dong-ryong and me, who wore triumphant expressions, the rest of the group frowned, and Seong Mo-ran’s face turned pitch black as if she were about to die.
I asked Eunho.
“Want to give it a try?”
After agonizing over it for a long time, Eunho finally let out a long sigh.
It seemed that not being able to sleep a wink on the second day after being bitten by bugs all night had a significant impact.
You don’t intend to buy the Baekdokdan anyway, do you?
I didn’t answer.
“shit…….”
Why are you asking such a pain in the mouth?
Eunho approached me with a look on his face as if he were about to cry.
Right, welcome.
I caught a suitable one from among the bugs I had worked on for poison resistance so far and had it bite Eunho’s arm.
“Cough……!”
Soon, Eunho’s face began to turn yellow.
As soon as the physical changes occurred, Eunho began cultivating his energy, followed by Geumpyo, Jaehwa, Seolran, and others.
I stared blankly at the remaining people.
“Haa… I never thought I’d do this of my own free will.”
In the end, Saryeon and Namgung Seonhwa also reached out to me.
Because there was no one in the forest who didn’t suffer from the bugs.
In the midst of that.
“Aaaargh! No! I don’t want to! I’d rather be a snake!”
After even Seong Moran, who vehemently rejects bugs, was bitten, Yang Ja-pyeong began to look at us with a disgusted expression.
“If I tell this story to the sect, probably no one will believe it.”
Because I can’t practice external martial arts right now.
Moreover, you also need to secure poison resistance.
How great.
It has been five days since we left the base like that.
“Shhh—.”
Yang Ja-pyeong, who was leading the way, raised his hand and stopped the group.
Yang Ja-pyeong, who had been holding his breath for quite a while, spoke in a low voice.
It is a monster.
Finally, the first treasure chest appeared.
