Chapter 436: Regret (Regret)

“Gasp…!”

Regaining consciousness, I let out ragged breaths.

Then, after coughing a few times, I rolled my eyes around.

‘Where is this place…?’

It’s not an unfamiliar ceiling… because I can’t see a ceiling.

The first thing I see is the sky.

Is it night, or perhaps dawn?

A subtle sky, impossible to gauge the time, met my eyes.

Thump.

Seeing that, I immediately sat up.

I looked around immediately.

‘…Where am I again?’

All that was visible around me was black, scorched earth.

Picking up a handful and examining it closely.

‘This…’

The dirt was rotten.

Terribly so, at that.

Judging by the circumstances, it seemed to have rotted from the effects of poison.

Fortunately, perhaps due to the passage of time, the poison seemed to have dissipated…

Brushing off the clinging dirt casually, I got up.

First, I needed to figure out where this place was.

‘Where on earth did they send me.’

I circulated the naegi within my body.

Energy flowed through my acupoints, circulating through my body.

My naegi level had recovered just a tiny bit. I felt no abnormalities in my body.

Soon after, I recalled the Tang Master’s words.

Since they said it was a test, could this place itself be the testing ground?

‘For that to be the case, it feels far too strange.’

An unidentifiable atmosphere caught my eye. And I’m not talking about the pit.

Something cool emanating from outside was poking insistently at my instincts.

Putting strength into it, I leaped.

Thwack-!

Breaking through the dirt floor, I emerged from the pit.

“Huh…?”

As soon as I landed, I widened my eyes at the sight outside the pit.

I scanned the surroundings back and forth continuously.

After a few seconds of this, I couldn’t help but be startled.

And no wonder.

“…What is this?”

Surprisingly, the space I had been lying in until just moments ago was the Poison Lake itself.

The water that should have been full was completely gone, leaving only the pit, and it seemed I had been lying right on top of it.

“…Huh?”

Seeing this, I could only let out a hollow sigh.

All that water disappearing in an instant? What in the world is going on? But the water disappearing wasn’t even the main issue.

“Fuck…”

Considering the Poison Lake was treated as a prized artifact representing the Tang Sect.

And suddenly, right after an outsider (me) had observed it, all the water vanished?

This was not a situation where excuses would help, no matter how much I tried.

Seriously screwed.

How am I supposed to explain this?

‘…Shit.’

I thought I’d encountered a truly fortuitous event, but it seems this one was a bust too.

Trying hard to smooth my throbbing brow, I turned my head.

It was to find Nahee, who should have been waiting outside.

“…!”

As I slowly surveyed the surroundings, I felt another sense of strangeness.

First, the fields spread out in all directions were completely withered.

The forest I had passed through was the same.

The trees, like the dirt, were stained black.

It was proof they were rotten not just on the outside, but deep within.

The vibrant forest that the Tang Sect had painstakingly cultivated.

Was all dead.

Thump.

Seeing that, my heart pounded violently.

My body was already moving.

I moved, using the minuscule amount of naegi that had recovered.

Something’s wrong.

Was it an attack?

Did an attack happen while I was gone?

My head isn’t working properly.

I just ran.

‘The kids? The kids…!’

I don’t have the mental capacity to grasp the situation.

Right now, I just had to run.

Was it because I exerted too much force too suddenly?

Blood vessels burst in my eyes.

Thump-! Rumble-!

Kicking up dust, I arrived at the quarters.

I hadn’t seen a single person on the way.

A faint smell of blood and a killing intent mixed in the air lingered around.

I tore open the door to the quarters.

“Hoo…”

I tried hard to calm my chest, but it wasn’t easy.

What if something happened?

Such thoughts filled my mind.

I headed towards where Namgung Bi-ah and Wi Seol-ah were.

Even while walking down the corridor, I bit my lip hard at the blood staining the walls and floor.

The blood flowing from my lips trickled down my chin.

Finally, at the place I arrived.

“Haa…”

As expected, there were no signs of people.

Only faint traces that someone had been there remained.

I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or what.

As if my strength gave out, I sank down.

‘What… what is this?’

I felt my fingertips trembling slightly.

What in the world happened?

It was a situation that called for rational thought, but I couldn’t maintain my composure.

My heart was beating faster than usual, and my breathing was already ragged.

As my emotions swayed violently, heat rose within my body.

What went wrong?

How long was I in the Bigo? For the situation to become like this?

What happened to the kids? Are they okay?

What on earth happened…

Clutching my rattling chest, I tried to turn my head somehow.

Creak.

Something was detected by my ki sense.

It was people.

My head turned back.

“Damn it… what is this situation…! Are the other units out of contact?”

Voices could be heard.

“…Senior, we need to regroup immediately…! Otherwise, the other infiltration teams will…”

“You punk, what are you going to do going there? Just get ourselves killed like dogs? Don’t you know who’s there?”

“But…!”

Hearing the conversation up to that point was enough.

Crack-snap-!

Approaching the presence that entered the quarters, I pounced.

I shattered one guy’s leg, breaking his stance, and the moment he fell, I grabbed the other guy by the neck.

“Guhk!?”

Caught off guard by the sudden turn of events, the intruder looked at me, startled.

With his neck in my grasp, I confirmed the appearance of the one who had appeared.

His face was that of an ordinary person.

At least, not someone I knew.

Moreover.

“Murim Maeong?”

The clothes he was wearing were definitely the Geomdae-bok of the Murim Maeong.

“Grk… urgh…”

Right after confirming the clothes, I slightly loosened my grip on his neck.

“Who are you? Why is the Murim Maeong here?”

“Gasp… cough… A, a survivor…?”

Seeing me appear so suddenly, the guy’s eyes widened in surprise too.

A survivor?

“H, how can there be a survivor…! They said there were no survivors…?”

At those cold words, my expression contorted.

This meant that the Tang Sect had been attacked.

“What happened here? Tell me.”

“A, are you from the Tang Sect? I am from the Murim Maeong…”

“Answer first. If you don’t want to die.”

Speaking with killing intent filling my voice, the man’s face turned pale.

Sniffle… sob…

Beside the man whose neck I held, the man with the broken leg groaned.

He looked at me and shouted.

“Wh-who are you…! How can a martial artist do this to the Murim Maeong!”

“Shut up and answer. Why is this place like this?”

I’m impatient. I don’t know how things turned out.

The Tang Sect in chaos and the situation devoid of life.

It was a situation where I couldn’t even tell how much time had passed.

With no knowledge of the other kids’ fates, there was no way I could calm down.

I was forcibly restraining the urge to smash everything right now. Perhaps sensing something was very wrong with my state, the man started speaking to me.

“F-first, calm down…! If we get caught by other Maneaters…!”

“What?”

That statement was the problem.

“Did you say ‘Maneaters’?”

“Y-yes… Do you know who is here right now…”

Grind-grind-grind…!

As the man spoke, I felt something twist within me.

“…Maneaters… How do you know about them?”

“What on earth are you talking about…! Now is not the time… Hup!?”

I drew the magi up to my heart.

A sinister energy permeated my entire body, eventually surging into my eyes.

Seeing my face, the man began to tremble, seemingly crushed by fear.

“M-Maneater…?!”

The man definitely shouted that.

Surely, people of this era wouldn’t know that word.

‘…What the…’

But what was that reaction?

How do they know about Maneaters?

As my thoughts reached that point, goosebumps spread all over my body.

I moved my head, surveying the surroundings once more.

Additionally, I pieced together the sights I had seen so far.

The Poison Lake, water gone, leaving only a pit.

The forest, rotten and devoid of life.

The Tang Sect filled with blood.

The Murim Maeong and people who know about Maneaters.

Slowly piecing it together, a clue gradually emerged.

“Ugh…”

As I was thinking, I couldn’t hold it in and vomited.

“Gack…”

It felt like everything inside me was coming out.

The more my thoughts progressed, the more ‘fear’ gripped my throat.

“…Bullshit… Don’t bullshit me.”

I had to pray it wasn’t true.

The test the Tang Master mentioned, and…

The regret she kept talking about couldn’t be this.

As I was spewing out the piercing fear with my mouth.

Killing intent brushed past me from behind.

The moment I felt it, I swung my hand.

Flames erupted.

“Aaaargh!”

The black flames mixed with magi latched onto the one trying to attack me.

The embers quickly grew, engulfing the human body.

It didn’t take long for the man’s breath to cease.

Seeing that, another man covered his mouth with his hand.

“Bl… Black flame… Black Flame Demon…?”

Crack.

Before he could spout more nonsense, I snapped his neck.

Crackle, crackle-

Flames burning, using the human body as firewood.

Watching that, I wiped the traces of vomit from my mouth with my hand.

Finally, I clenched my fist and swung it at the wall.

“…Fuuuuuck!”

KWAANG-!

My fist dug into the wall.

Crumble-grind-!

Cracks spread like a spiderweb across the entire wall surface.

Watching the falling dust and crumbling fragments, I recalled.

Everything felt real.

The discomfort I felt until just now.

The sensation of killing people.

Even the feeling in my arm that just dug into the wall.

Everything was like reality.

Could this truly be an illusion?

What if… it’s not an illusion? Then what happens?

“…This isn’t real. It’s not… This is too much.”

With trembling hands, I kept wiping my face.

When the situation becomes like this, I can’t help but realize.

I had to recall the situation and place I was in.

Combining all the circumstances, I reached only one conclusion.

It wasn’t that some incident occurred while I was in the Bigo.

It meant time hadn’t passed unreasonably or anything like that.

‘Far from time passing…’

This is rather…

Fzzt-

“…!”

I turned my head towards the energy that grazed past my body.

It was energy felt from far beyond, very far away.

I cast my gaze far away.

I spread my ki sense fully towards the direction where the energy was felt.

Only then could I see it.

The black storm clouds gathering over the distant, crimson-dyed sky.

And at the same time.

‘No way…’

The Lei Qi (Lightning Energy), so familiar to me, was being felt from that location.

I immediately leaped and headed there.

The speed of my run was faster than before.

Furthermore, a different emotion arose than the impatience and anxiety I felt earlier.

What emotion could I dare call this?

I don’t know.

Right now, I just had to run.

Passing collapsed buildings and rotten trees, I ran for a long time.

My naegi was depleted, and my dantian was starting to scream, but…

I paid no mind to that either.

I ran endlessly.

The distance gradually closed.

As I got closer, an unknown smell of blood began to sting my nose.

A scent of blood strong enough to make me frown unconsciously.

I tried hard to ignore it and finally reached my destination.

I had to be horrified by the scene unfolding there.

How could I not be?

Rumble… rumble-rumble!

Above the cloudless sky.

Contrary to the situation, dark storm clouds filled with Lei Qi.

And, corpses filling the ground and puddles formed from the blood flowing from them.

These were all warriors of the Murim Maeong, wearing the sect’s uniforms.

Splish.

I took a step.

It was a brutal and terrifying sight, but it didn’t register in my eyes.

Because from the start, I wasn’t looking at the surroundings, but solely at one person.

The strong smell of blood.

The corpses covering the ground.

None of that mattered.

Only one thing was important to me.

The pool of blood created by the corpses.

I saw a figure standing alone upon it.

Splish.

She must have sensed my presence with the splashing sound, yet she still appeared uninterested.

I moved a little closer.

One step. Another step.

Ignoring my trembling toes, I approached little by little.

When I reached a certain point, her gaze finally turned towards me.

Cold, faded blue eyes met mine.

The woman’s appearance was exactly as I remembered.

Her white hair had lost its color, and her pure white skin was striking.

Though she was covered head-to-toe in blood, I knew it wasn’t her blood.

It was all the blood of those she had killed.

“Ah…”

Once I confirmed, a tired sigh escaped me.

She tilted her head at my reaction.

Even that reaction was exactly like my memory.

‘…’

Seeing her, I recalled.

…In my hellish past life.

There was a woman whose thoughts I could never fathom throughout her life.

Why she chased the moon so much.

Or what she wanted to cut so badly that she swung her sword daily, changing day by day.

I knew nothing about her.

It was because my life was so intense that I couldn’t pay attention to my surroundings.

That remained true even until the time she unhesitatingly met her death for my sake.

She, wearing the same expressionless face as back then.

Pointed the tip of her sword at me and asked thus.

“Who… are you…?”

Her voice, subtly carrying killing intent.

She was undoubtedly the Sword Demon Queen I remembered.