Chapter v16c16

The Three Evils were right.

As they had promised, the agony of hanging upside down from a tree for an entire day was beyond imagination. Blood rushed to their heads, their brains screamed in protest, and their eyes bulged, threatening to pop out of their sockets.

“Gah… You… bastards… I’ll… kill… you…”

A strangled cry escaped from one of their throats, but no one paid any attention. No one had the time to listen to such worthless pleas.

“What are we going to do with them?” Oh Bi-wan asked, glancing at the dangling figures of the Three Evils.

“Leave them there for now. It seems like that’s what they want.” Bi Ryu-yeon replied casually, placing a pot over the fire he had just started.

“The infamous Three Evils of the Heavenly Demon reduced to this pathetic state… I told you we should have just killed them!”

The three, who had boasted of being the fearsome Three Evils, were now hanging upside down, naked and bound.

Oh Bi-wan had strongly advocated for impaling them, but his suggestion was rejected for the sake of the women’s mental health and their appetites. Bi Ryu-yeon had argued that they shouldn’t have to witness such a gruesome sight, especially before dinner.

The Three Evils were covered in snot and tears. Bi Ryu-yeon frowned.

“It’s only been a day. They’re such crybabies!”

“Those who only know how to inflict pain on others have a low tolerance for pain themselves. They forget that they can be hurt too. It’s their own fault.”

“Regret is always late. It never arrives on time. By the time you regret something, it’s already too late.”

To inflict harm on others, one must be prepared to be harmed oneself. That was fairness. And those who understood this principle would never harm anyone.

“They’re just the beginning. They were just the first to act because of their impulsiveness.”

Bi Ryu-yeon agreed.

“There will be more. We might have to issue numbered tickets to determine the order of attacks.”

He chuckled.

“Heh heh heh! They need a lesson. If you want to hurt others, you have to be prepared to be hurt yourself. But these kids these days, they have no such awareness. Like those three idiots!

What did they say they were going to do to us again? Hang us upside down… check. Cut off our legs? No, no, they were going to skin us first…”

Na Yerin, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.

“They said they were going to gut us alive, then skin us, and finally, cut off our heads.” She recited the details with a chilling calmness. Her voice was devoid of emotion, her eyes unreadable.

“Oh, right! That’s right! I remember now. Yerin, you have such a good memory. Heh heh heh, cut off our heads… That’s a good idea. Maybe we should cut off their heads, gut them, and hang them up as a warning.”

Bi Ryu-yeon’s eyes gleamed with a sinister light. Oh Bi-wan chuckled, his laughter dark and menacing. He made sure the three hanging men could hear him.

“Heh heh heh heh! That’s a great idea. It’ll show them who’s in charge here. It’ll be a lesson in empathy!”

It wasn’t quite the right word, but they didn’t care. The Three Evils, who had been so arrogant moments ago, screamed in terror. They begged for mercy, their voices pathetic.

“We’re sorry! We’re sorry, sir! We were fools to underestimate you! Please have mercy!”

They screamed in unison, their faces pale despite the blood rushing to their heads.

“Please spare us! We’ll change our ways! Brother! Sir! Hero!”

Bi Ryu-yeon pretended not to hear them, picking his ear with his pinky finger. Oh Bi-wan focused on trimming his nails. Hyo-ryong poked the fire with a stick.

They weren’t fooled by their pleas for mercy. They weren’t naive enough to believe that they had suddenly repented. Their pleas fell on deaf ears, disappearing into the abyss of nothingness.

“Sir! God! Brother! Buddha! Please spare us!”

The three men, who had been whispering among themselves, turned to face the dangling figures.

“Heh heh heh heh heh heh!”

“Cough, cough, cough, cough!”

The Three Evils trembled in fear. The gazes and laughter of the three men approaching them were inhuman, demonic. They felt like hell was closing in on them.

They finally realized that they had made a fatal mistake. They had made an enemy of someone they should never have crossed. But as Bi Ryu-yeon had said, regret was always late.

Regret was late again today.

Bi Ryu-yeon picked up his sword, his face expressionless. It was a sharp, gleaming blade, radiating a chilling aura. He raised it slowly, deliberately.

He didn’t intend to prolong their suffering. A swift death was a mercy. He needed a single, decisive strike, so fast that they wouldn’t even realize they were dead. Only speed could achieve that.

His eyes gleamed as the sword reached its apex.

Whoosh!

The blade sliced through the air, a sharp whistling sound accompanying its descent.

Spurt!

A fountain of blood erupted from their necks.

The three women watching closed their eyes. Was it too gruesome? But the world was governed by the law of the jungle. Humans had to make sacrifices to survive. He just hoped they wouldn’t forget to be grateful, and that they wouldn’t be too greedy…

“Yerin, is the water boiling?” Bi Ryu-yeon asked, expertly skinning the rabbit.

“Yes, it’s ready, Ryu-yeon!” Na Yerin replied, nodding.

Rabbit stew for dinner.

*Fear, Despair, Sorrow*

– The Grip of Fear –

Whoever had designed this trial, if they had hoped for harmony and cooperation in the wilderness, they were sorely mistaken. They were a fool, an idiot, beyond redemption.

But if they had intended to create a world of ruthless competition, a world governed by the law of the jungle, then they had made the perfect choice. They were a devious genius. Humans, when thrown into a survival situation, were more likely to fight than to cooperate.

So how would they react when faced with an unknown terror in this dog-eat-dog world?

Five days had passed since the start of the Earth Trial. Several groups, besides the idiotic Three Evils, had tried to attack Group 7. But they had all suffered the same fate. The Earth Trial had become a battle for survival, a fight to the death.

The fifth day was a foggy day, the mist so thick that it was impossible to see more than a few feet ahead.

“Huff, huff, huff!”

A man was running. He didn’t care about the branches scraping his skin, he just ran. His throat burned, his heart pounded, but he didn’t stop. He was running on instinct, driven by a single thought: to get away from that monster. He was Hyun woon, a member of Group 9, the Vermillion Bird Division.

He was running like a deer pursued by a tiger. It wasn’t an inaccurate analogy. He wasn’t arrogant about his skills. It was hard to be arrogant when you had a senior brother as exceptional as his. But Bi Ryu-yeon and Elder Yeom were exceptions. He considered himself to be quite skilled, otherwise he wouldn’t have earned the title of Nine Dragons of the Heavenly Martial.

*What was that monster?*

It had appeared out of nowhere. At first, he had thought it was an attack from another group. But it wasn’t. He couldn’t believe that such a terrifying being existed among them. And it was an old man, an old man who could defeat nine young men like him without breaking a sweat. They had been chosen from the best of the Orthodox and Black Paths, but they were no match for him. None of them could even block a single strike.

Something was wrong. Something unimaginable had appeared among them. He blinked, and he was the only one left standing. What should he do? He thought. There was no point in fighting. They couldn’t even touch the old man.

‘Boring! Boring! Boring!’

That was all the monster said. They weren’t even worthy of being his playthings.

‘How dull!’

The old man had said those words, yawning, as he watched him standing there alone, his eight teammates lying on the ground, defeated.

Hyun woon turned and ran. He had to tell someone.

*But who?*

Only one person came to mind.

He ran blindly, driven by fear. The screams of his teammates echoed in his ears. They were all so desperate, so full of pain. He wanted to scream too, but he suppressed his fear and kept running.

A shadow suddenly appeared in front of him, as if it had sprung from the ground. He screamed, his fear exploding.

“Argh!”

He screamed, but his body, trained through countless repetitions, reacted instinctively.

Whoosh!

He drew his sword and swung it at the intruder, a swift and powerful strike that would have impressed even the leader of the Wudang Sect.

“Huh?”

A startled gasp. But the shadow was fast too. It dodged his sword with a slight tilt of its head, then grabbed his wrist and twisted it with a swift grappling technique.

Hyun woon’s momentum carried him forward, and he spun in the air before landing on his back with a thud.

“Ugh!”

He groaned. The shadow looked down at him, its voice annoyed.

“Hey, that was dangerous… Wait a minute, Hyun woon?”

“S-Senior Brother!”

It was Bi Ryu-yeon. He had never been so happy to see that annoying face.

“So you were attacked by an unknown assailant?” Bi Ryu-yeon asked, after Hyun woon had calmed down. He had already gulped down three bowls of water and spent some time regulating his breathing. He had been exhausted even before encountering Bi Ryu-yeon.

“Yes!” Hyun woon nodded.

“Did you notice anything about him?”

“Of course… I… did.”

His voice trembled like a leaf in the wind.

“What is it?”

“Well… it’s…”

He shuddered, the memory of the monster returning to haunt him. Bi Ryu-yeon watched him, his brow furrowed.

*To think he could instill such fear in someone like Hyun woon… And he doesn’t even want to describe him. What’s going on?*

It seemed like Hyun woon was trying to forget what he had seen. He wasn’t ready to face it yet. But running away wouldn’t solve anything. He needed the courage to face reality… He took a deep breath and continued.

“He had snow-white hair. And a long, white beard that reached his chest. And he… he…”

He summoned his remaining courage.

“He was wearing a silver mask.”

“A… silver mask?”

Hyun woon’s body trembled, his voice barely a whisper.

“Yes, it was… a silver mask that gleamed like moonlight. And behind that mask… there was… a cold… terror.”

“N-No way… That’s… impossible… That’s ridiculous…”

Everyone gasped, their faces pale. Only Bi Ryu-yeon remained calm. The silver mask… It was a symbol of their deepest fears, a trigger that unleashed a primal terror. It was a fear that chilled them to the bone.

Bi Ryu-yeon broke the silence. He wasn’t as shaken as the others.

“So? Did he introduce himself?”

“Introduce… himself?”

“Yeah, didn’t you even exchange names?”

“Oh, he said, ‘My name is Fear. I crawl out from the darkness in your heart and devour your soul! That is my name.'”

“It’s a declaration of war. He let Hyun woon go so he could spread the word. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have made it this far.”

Things were about to get serious.

“But at least one thing’s clear now.”

“What’s clear? I’m still confused.” Hyo-ryong said, his voice bewildered.

“We’re not supposed to be fighting each other. I just don’t know how many more of us have to suffer before they realize that.”

As Bi Ryu-yeon had predicted, Group 9 wasn’t the only victim. Other groups had encountered the same monster. It seemed like eight prey weren’t enough to satisfy his hunger.