Chapter 1191

The only path connecting reality and a Gate.

The sensation of passing through a magical field was more than familiar to a veteran Hunter like me. Even so, it was often unpleasant enough to make me shudder.

Like now.

Whoooosh.

Was this what it felt like to be swept into a whirlpool?

The cold, sticky sensation of magical power wrapped around my entire body, then spat me out somewhere on the other side.

The moment I opened my eyes in the new space, I realized something I hadn’t known before.

It’s different.

Branches packed so tightly they covered the sky. Steep hills.

The mountains of corpses and rivers of blood that had filled every direction were gone.

But the scenery wasn’t the only thing that had changed.

Magical power.

That filthy energy should have fallen away the moment I left the Gate. Instead, it was still clinging to my body.

No. It filled this entire space.

“This is…”

The words came out like a groan.

Jeok Cheongang, who had been shuddering at the magical field’s repulsive sensation, reacted at once when I fell silent.

“What is it?”

Normally, I’d have laughed it off and said it was nothing.

But the intense sense of déjà vu pressing in on all five senses since the moment I opened my eyes brought back memories from less than a few weeks ago. And Jeok Cheongang already knew most of the truth about me.

“I’ve been somewhere like this before. Very recently, in fact.”

“Ah. Could it be…?”

“Yes. The incident I told you about.”

A gigantic mushroom cloud swallowing civilization. A metropolis with no trace of life.

And a being waiting for me in a dark castle newly raised above the blackened earth.

Morgoth.

That was it.

This place carried an energy remarkably like the Dragon Lair the Black Dragon Duke Morgoth had built atop the ruins of Moscow.

An energy intense enough that you could call it the Demon Realm.

No. It’s even stronger.

According to Jeok Cheongang, I’d been unconscious for a little over a day.

I hadn’t felt magical power this pure until I approached Morgoth’s Dragon Lair. Here, power nearly as strong was already churning all around us.

So this is what the System meant by a restricted area.

Now I understood.

All kinds of absurd rumors floated around Murim, but if anything, the stories about this damn mountain range had understated the truth.

Now that I’d seen and felt the Tianshan Mountains for myself, I knew they were a forbidden land. A Land of Ruin.

Uninvited guests who hadn’t received their master’s permission shouldn’t enter—and couldn’t leave.

And this endless range of dark mountains showed no sign of revealing the secrets it hid within its vast bulk.

Not its master. Not the other uninvited guests besides Jeok Cheongang and me.

“I don’t see the others.”

“I suspected as much when that strange thing—whatever it was called—caught us. Seems I was right.”

Jeok Cheongang narrowed his eyes at the mist drifting around us, but that didn’t make the missing people suddenly appear.

Even a superhuman who could make out an ant over three hundred yards away couldn’t peer through the space between reality and a Gate with human eyes.

…Right. That would be impossible.

Then a thought crossed my mind.

With human eyes.

I couldn’t be sure this idea would work. Frankly, the odds favored me wasting my strength and making things worse.

But when there’s only one path ahead—and you’ve already traveled it once—then no matter how huge an obstacle stands in the way, you have to smash through it and keep going.

Bzzzzzz.

The air began to tremble. I took a deep breath and raised my spearhead.

Slowly enough to make someone yawn, I spread the energy coiled within me through my entire body.

I felt Jeok Cheongang react to the move, but only for a moment. Then everything around me fell silent.

More precisely, my concentration reached its peak and shut out everything I didn’t need, down to the slightest noise.

For one purpose alone.

To find the other spaces hidden behind the invisible veil.

And then—

Keeeeeng.

A ringing like thunder filled my ears. A terrible headache struck without warning, turning my vision white.

Ding.

Somewhere, a clear chime rang faintly. I knew my reckless attempt had succeeded—and that I couldn’t let this fleeting opening slip away.

Drip. Drip.

Had the tiny blood vessels in my eyes burst one by one? Or was it the blood slipping between my lips without my noticing?

Everything I saw was red. Pain stabbed through my chest and brain.

It didn’t matter.

I’d already seen it. Read it.

Cut.

I let out the breath I’d been holding and brought the spearhead slashing down from high above me.

Along the single path my other eye—the Mind’s Eye—had shown me.

Shhhhaaa—

A blinding flash split the world. Split the invisible veil.

System

• Status effect Trance has ended.

That was the first line to appear before Jin Taekyung’s eyes.

It was the signal flare. A signal flare announcing a wave of System notifications.

Ding. Beep.

System

• Special ability Mind’s Eye has been activated because its activation conditions have been met!
• Your insight into Mind’s Eye has deepened.
• Always exercise caution. This ability can cause severe harm to the user’s mind and body, and in the worst case, can lead to death!
• Status effect Exhaustion has been applied!
• Status effect Extreme Fatigue has been applied!
• Status effect Internal Injury has…

Jin Taekyung gasped for breath.

His chest felt tight. Nausea rose, and his disoriented body swayed from side to side.

Through vision warped like a heat haze, he saw Jeok Cheongang rush up to support him, shouting something. His battered senses could barely register the man’s words or touch.

For a moment.

Then a second wave swept over him, accompanied by a cascade of chimes.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

System

• Mutated Gate Forest of Death-II destroyed!
• Mutated Gate Forest of Death-III destroyed!
• …
• Mutated Gate Forest of Death-VI destroyed!
• You have achieved the very rare achievement Knock, and It Shall Be Opened!
• You have gained a tremendous amount of EXP as a reward for achieving a very rare achievement!
• You have acquired the Title Door Opener!
• Level up!
• All injuries and fatigue have been recovered as a result of leveling up!

High risk, high reward.

The attempt had been dangerous, but the payoff was worth it.

He’d gained all at once the EXP it would take to defeat several Black Ghosts—and, more importantly, achieved his main goal.

“What on earth…!”

At his Master’s stunned expression, the Disciple curled his bloodied lips into a smile.

“You can see for yourself.”

The changes around them were already plain to the naked eye.

Grrrrk.

The empty air warped, like the face of a monster forced to spit something out.

And then—

Whoooosh.

Several previously invisible gaps opened their maws one after another.

They spilled out the darkness that had filled them, along with what they’d hidden away.

More precisely—

“Arrrgh! You sons of bitches—you’re worse than beggars!”

“Come forth! I am Hyuk Mu—best hero the great Jin Family of Taiyuan has to offer!”

One beggar who didn’t hesitate to criticize himself, and one martial artist whose fierce loyalty to his family was matched only by his willingness to trade self-awareness for a piece of candy.

“……”

“……”

“……”

“……”

In the suffocating silence, the Jin Family of Taiyuan’s greatest hero finally spoke.

“Don’t be fooled, beggar. This is all their dark arts.”

The beggar, who was a little better than a son of a bitch, shot back.

“Do I look like an idiot who’d fall for this? I saw through this crap ages ago.”

“Heh. Just what I’d expect from the Beggars’ Sect’s Successor Beggar.”

“You’re not bad yourself. You figured it out right away.”

Master and Disciple watched them with distant eyes and had much the same thought.

Can’t we put those guys back?

Should I just put them back in?

Unfortunately, neither got the chance.

Before they could seriously consider how, a second rift opened.

Whoooosh.

Beyond the darkness fading away, a man appeared in a rush. His eyes were as cold as his expression as he surveyed the area, then asked Jin Taekyung,

“Dark arts?”

“This asshole’s at it too.”

At the answer that came without a pause, Song Ilseom lowered his blood-dripping blade.

“It’s really you.”

“Glad you’re alive. Where’s Young Lady Ju?”

“She’ll be out soon. It might’ve been a trap, so I went first.”

Song Ilseom hesitated, then added, “The employer’s safety comes first.”

“I didn’t ask— Ah, Young Lady Ju!”

“Benefactor! Great Hero Jin! Young Master Jin!”

Unlike the three before her, Ju Hwaran ran toward Jin Taekyung without the slightest hesitation.

More precisely, she would have—

If the third and fourth rifts hadn’t opened at the same time.

“Wow! I’ve never felt anything this gross before!”

Cheongpung emerged sounding remarkably cheerful for someone who’d just said that. Behind him, a shadow appeared like a ghost, as though it were one with the magical power. It acted without a word.

Shwack—CLANG!

A flash crossed the space faster than sound.

Jin Taekyung knocked aside the dagger flying at him with terrifying speed and shrugged.

“You could’ve just said something. Did you really have to go that far?”

“Assassins and physicians have a few things in common. Being suspicious of everything around us is one of them. The more we question, the fewer mistakes we make.”

“So, are you satisfied now?”

“I think I’m less suspicious of the reality I’m seeing, at least.”

The Slaughter Saint looked at Jin Taekyung with a curious glint in his eyes.

“I’m more suspicious of myself now, though. How did you wake up already?”

“Because you’re a quack.”

“Well, I’m nothing special. Anyone with the Heavenly Martial Physique and martial arts like mine could do it.”

“……”

The Slaughter Saint squeezed his eyes shut at the Master and Disciple’s mocking, arrogant answers. Just then, someone emerged from the fifth and final rift.

Unlike the others, she neither hurried nor moved stealthily. Not a drop of blood stained her clothes or skin.

But Bow Saint’s eyes were different from usual.

A tempest.

It lasted only a moment, but a few people saw it clearly: the traces of fierce emotion in eyes that were usually clear and unshakable.

Just as a wave striking a reef can’t hide its white foam, that emotion had left its mark somewhere in her eyes, black as the night sky.

Before anyone could form a clear suspicion about what they’d just seen, the low-voiced conversation between a beggar and a hero reached everyone’s ears.

“What? Is it real?”

“I told you it isn’t. Leave it to the Successor Beggar to talk like a filthy footwrap.”

“No, it looks real to me, no matter how I look at it.”

“I said it’s real dark arts.”

“Ha, shit. Is that so?”

Hyuk Mujin delivered the final blow to the frowning Gung Gibang.

“But dark arts can never be perfect. They grant power to those who abandon the proper path, but there’s always a flaw. Look—we’re one person short. They managed to imitate everyone else, but they must not have dared try that man.”

“……!”

“……!”

Everyone listening suddenly remembered something they’d forgotten.

Even now, after the final rift had closed, Great Sir was nowhere to be seen.