Chapter 1070

Senses were a source of information.

Through sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, people learned what was happening around them.

Just like now.

This is…

The sensation arrived without warning, like an uninvited guest. I held my breath and stared into the darkness, where I could barely make out objects a hundred feet away.

But as martial arts improved, so did the senses. The several jiazi¹ of internal energy stored within me were more than enough to push mine beyond their limits.

“Don’t take it off yet.”

“……!”

One short sentence was all it took.

Jeong Hogun’s eyes widened, answering for him.

Nearly at the same time—or, no, a hair before me—Bow Saint and Jeok Cheongang noticed the change. They spoke in turn.

“Dust cloud. About a thousand yards out.”

“They’re not like the ones we’ve faced so far. Everyone, prepare yourselves.”

Bow Saint told us what she’d seen and heard. Jeok Cheongang voiced his suspicion.

The same ominous suspicion I’d been having.

Rumble. Rumble.

A vibration traveled through the ground, drawing closer.

But something was different this time.

The rumble was incomparably louder and deeper than anything caused by the pursuers we’d fought on three separate occasions.

What is it?

I strained my senses further and finally caught a new clue.

Boom. Boom.

Amid the constant, faint tremors came the occasional, heavier impact.

No.

A thunderous boom.

The moment I realized, a chill ran down my spine.

That sound wasn’t something a mere human could make. It belonged to the cursed monsters that should never have existed in this world, yet had become real all the same.

Rooooom!

The boom drew closer and shook the earth. Another layer of darkness and stench spread over the low hill.

And then—

“Grrrraaaah.”

Something that could hardly be called human slowly raised its head above the hill, letting out a low, ominous roar.

No. A monster.

The moment the three thousand people saw the cursed monster with their own eyes, they froze.

Even the Embroidered Uniform Guard, whose loyalty was harder than steel.

Even the martial artists of the Black Dragon Demon Gate, who’d weathered every hardship the unorthodox martial world could throw at them.

Even the Disciples of the Zhongnan and Kongtong Sects, who’d spent long years refining their minds and bodies in the Daoist tradition.

In that moment, neither the level of their martial arts nor their experience in the martial world meant anything. Skill, age, experience—none of it could shield them from the shock.

It couldn’t have been otherwise. It was only natural.

What the hell… is that?

Everyone had the same thought as the monster appeared atop the hill.

It was huge. Just huge.

Faced with that overwhelming sight, they forgot measurements altogether. Anyone would have, seeing a monster nearly twenty feet tall with a torso as thick as an old tree.

“Grrrraaaah.”

A vast hole opened—the monster’s mouth—and wind blew from it.

Its cry was too slow to call a roar, which made it all the more chilling. The wind that poured out with it carried more than a horrible stench.

Fear.

It was fear.

The darkest emotion a human could feel—and, for some monsters, a power bestowed at birth.

There was no other word for it. People from another world called that power exactly what it was: Fear.

Hummmmmm.

The people felt the air tremble. Their vision grew hazy, and their legs would no longer lift from the ground.

“P-Primordial Heavenly Venerable…”

The groan that escaped one Daoist’s lips spoke for them all.

Supernatural powers?

The inexplicable?

No. Wrong. Not enough.

What words could possibly describe this moment, this monster, in full? Why had the god they followed allowed such a cursed being upon the earth?

Only days ago, countless followers of Dark Heaven had blackened the vast snowy fields of Great Snow Mountain. Even they hadn’t inspired this much terror.

Nor had the jiangshi who, following the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord’s bell, had stained the imperial palace’s great banquet hall with blood—the ones the Embroidered Uniform Guard remembered all too well.

At least they’d had human shapes. However far they’d fallen from being human, they’d retained something of their original form.

But—

This can’t be real.

It can’t be. This is impossible.

It’s a dream. Yes. It has to be.

Frozen where they stood, the people stared through distant, clouded eyes at the monster towering over the hill.

If Pangu, the primordial giant said to have opened the world with a single swing of his axe, had existed in some unimaginably distant past, perhaps he’d looked like that.

Of course, unlike Pangu’s majestic myth, passed down through rumor alone, this monster looked as though it had been dragged straight out of someone’s nightmare.

Boom. Rumble!

One step.

But no one who saw the low hill crumble in a single step could call it “just” a step. The monster’s heavy footfall trapped them in endless terror.

It was fear of something they’d never seen or heard of before. Just looking at it felt enough to stop their breath, as if that fear had become an invisible hand squeezing their hearts until they burst.

That was what would have happened—if a dazzling flash hadn’t erupted from somewhere at that very moment.

Whoosh!

In an instant, the pitch-black darkness split apart.

Space warped along a deep blue flame, dark yet bright, bright yet dark.

Something that was neither light nor darkness.

Fire.

Hellfire that held both darkness and light, powerful enough to burn and purify everything.

At the very tip of that fire, warping space as it surged forward, stood the enormous monster that had just stepped over the hill.

“Grrrraah!”

Its roar shook the air in every direction. At the same time, an arm as thick as a log swung toward the fire, bursting through the compressed air.

No.

It swung toward the small, unimpressive human flying at it as though he and his flame-wreathed spear were one.

Whoooosh!

A horrifyingly violent rush of air.

But even as the monster’s fist, packed with tremendous force, bore down on him, Jin Taekyung’s gaze didn’t waver. He rushed toward the monster, stepping on invisible stairs in midair.

Neither did his stride, his body hurtling forward—or the silver-white spearhead wreathed in deep-blue flame.

Shhk.

The spearhead suddenly moved with fluid grace, flames rippling along it. Their tremendous heat warped the space around them, making it look as though a fire dragon were moving through the air.

Just like the name of a spear form an old ancestor of the Fire Gate Clan had devised long ago after painstaking thought.

Fire Dragon’s Single Tail.

The fire dragon’s tail glided through the air and met the monster’s fist.

Slice!

Everyone on the ground heard the chillingly sharp cut and saw an enormous mass of flesh separate from its owner’s body.

The monster saw it too.

“Grr…?”

Puzzled, it looked at its huge fist—or rather, where its fist had been.

Only now did blood begin to bead along the cleanly severed edge.

Splaaash!

Blood erupted in a fountain. The pain arrived a moment late, while the question remained unanswered. Overwhelmed by a feeling it couldn’t comprehend, the monster writhed.

It never noticed the spearhead still streaking toward a single point.

Thud.

The monster felt something so hot its vision turned white, yet so cold it shuddered.

The spearhead had driven straight into its throat. It cut off the roar the monster had been about to unleash and poured out a fire it couldn’t possibly resist.

Just like the eyes of the man filling its vision.

“This isn’t a Troll or an ogre… What the hell are you?”

Jin Taekyung’s voice was low.

The monster lacked the intelligence to understand him. He saw as much in its large, bewildered eyes.

“Yeah. I figured. That’s all you were allowed, isn’t it?”

A monster’s Intelligence was proportional to its strength.

Jin Taekyung murmured the words as he studied it with a somber gaze. Unable to make a sound past the spearhead in its throat, the monster stared back at him, its eyes slowly dimming. He clenched his teeth.

“Who brought you into being? How?”

He wasn’t asking the monster for an answer.

It was a question for himself—and for the other enemies appearing beyond the giant’s shoulder.

Boom! Rumble!

Large and small shadows, cloaked in darkness, surged forward like a wave.

The ground, which had trembled faintly, now shook violently, as though an earthquake had begun. And it wasn’t happening in just one direction.

Rumble.

Beneath the tremendous noise of the enemies now a few hundred feet away, he felt fainter vibrations. They came from farther off, layer upon layer, in every direction.

Jin Taekyung muttered without realizing it.

“…A net over heaven and earth.”

There was no doubt. They’d been surrounded—and with meticulous care.

He knew better than anyone that low-Intelligence monsters could never have formed a net like this on their own.

Jingle. Jingle.

Faint bells sounded from all around, carried on the wind. Jin Taekyung twisted the spearhead embedded deep in the monster.

Crack. Splaaash!

The monster died without a final cry. Its body crumpled, and foul-smelling blood burst out, soaking his collar.

He didn’t care.

He’d have to be drenched in their blood countless times before the night was over. Perhaps for days to come.

It was the only way to tear through this horrifyingly tight net and make it east.

“You all saw that, right? These fuckers ain’t shit.”

Jin Taekyung spoke to everyone.

East, west, south, north.

There was nowhere to run. All they could do was fight.

“Let’s go.”

At his low command, three thousand weapons leveled toward the enemy.