Chapter 685

FWOOSH. KWAANG!

Blue-white light-flames filled the Great Snow Fiend’s vision.

An explosion sounded as though announcing the end of everything. His aged body flew through the air in an arc and slammed into a massive boulder, shattering it.

KRRRUNCH.

His blood-red vision grew hazy. The sounds reaching his ears seemed to come from hundreds of li away.¹

And yet his mind remained startlingly clear.

Like a candle burning brightest just before it went out.

A final rally.

The four characters flashed through the Great Snow Fiend’s mind. At the same time, something hot rose in his throat.

COUGH.

Dark-red blood soaked his lower body. Bits of organs were mixed in with it. He stared blankly at the mess, then realized something.

No. He was certain.

This time, there could be no mistake.

It’s over. All of it.

Strange as it was, pain was how people knew they were alive.

Yet even with the meridians throughout his body torn apart by Scorching Yang Qi, his flesh and bones crushed, the Great Snow Fiend felt no pain.

Only fear.

Fear of the death finally looming before him, and of the figure approaching through his blood-red vision.

“Jin… Taekyung.”

The name escaped his trembling lips in something like a moan.

No answer came to the dying old man.

No—Jin Taekyung could not answer.

DRIP. DRIP.

Blood fell with every step he took. He staggered as though he might collapse, his eyes unfocused.

But he was alive.

With his beloved spear lodged near his ribs, Jin Taekyung was coming toward the Great Snow Fiend, fighting off even the death closing in on him.

How can this be…?

It was not just death or the cold that made the Great Snow Fiend tremble.

He was afraid. And he wanted to know.

They were made of the same flesh and blood. How was that young monster still standing? What had brought the two of them to this?

Where did it begin? What went wrong?

Nearly half a century had passed since he had left his family, subordinates, and friends behind and departed his homeland alone.

To overcome his limits, he had created new martial arts. He had risked death countless times and devoted his life to perfecting them.

The righteous path? He had never cared for that shallow phrase hypocrites liked to spout.

He had to survive, whatever it took. And if he was ever to return home, he had to become strong enough that no one could ignore him.

Without that single-minded purpose, he would never have taken the hand Dark Heaven offered him decades ago.

The day the Lord of Heaven descends upon this land, everything you desire will come true.

Everything…?

Yes. If that is what you want.

The Great Snow Fiend had believed those words. He had pledged himself to Dark Heaven. At the Southern Heaven Demon Empress’s command, he had even taken on a successor—something he had never imagined doing—and taught him the martial arts he had created.

All while waiting for that day.

So why?

“Why should this old man—why should I die by your hand? Why!”

The Great Snow Fiend raised his head with that strangled cry and saw a pair of eyes still holding a flame that had not gone out.

A faint voice reached him.

“Because I have a reason.”

What?

“A reason I have to survive, no matter what. A reason I sometimes have to risk dying.”

“……!”

“That’s the biggest difference between us.”

Jin Taekyung reached out with a trembling hand. His blood-soaked fingers closed around the spear lodged in his chest.

SPLASH. DRIP, DRIP.

He drew the spearhead out slowly. Blood came with it, spattering across the Great Snow Fiend’s face.

Jin Taekyung convulsed in agony, and the Great Snow Fiend laughed as though he had lost his mind.

“Follow me soon. I’ll be waiting in the afterlife.”

SWISH.

The wavering spearhead touched his throat. Jin Taekyung muttered, his voice worn thin.

“Idiot. Go find your parents.”

And that was the end.

SHNK.

The cold blade pierced his throat.

In a moment that seemed to stretch on while everything else stood still, the Great Snow Fiend watched the world darken. It was nowhere near enough time to look back over the century he had lived.

Damn it.

The curse never left his lips. The old monster who had dominated an era fell into deep darkness.

No one survives a spearhead through the throat.

Not a Supreme Peak master with several jiazi² of Yin-Cold Qi. Not a fiend who has lived nearly a century.

Just as it was now.

SHNK.

The transparent spearhead pierced his throat, and that was it.

The Supreme Peak master once known as the Great Snow Fiend was gone.

I stared blankly down at the corpse, its eyes wide open and its body frozen in place, then let out a short groan.

“……Ah.”

It was over. Finally.

The moment I recognized reality along with the thought filling my mind, the world tilted.

SLIP.

No. I was tilting.

I tried to stay on my feet, but there was nothing I could do. The last scrap of strength left my hand, and the spear shaft slipped from my grip.

THUD.

My vision blurred. Pain, exhaustion, and relief—everything I had managed to forget for a moment—came crashing over me.

I collapsed where I stood and lay gasping, staring into the air.

System

• You have defeated Level 155 Hanbaek!
• You have acquired a massive amount of EXP!
• You have acquired a massive amount of Fame!

That was all.

There were three numbers in the holographic window visible through my blurred vision. None of them announced a level-up, and the System remained silent.

And I…

This would be pretty lame if it were a hidden-camera prank.

I laughed at the stupid thought. There was no particular reason. The corners of my blood-crusted mouth lifted, and a hollow chuckle escaped.

Fuck. Hidden-camera prank, my ass.

Right. So that’s how it is.

How long could I last like this?

Fifteen minutes? Seven and a half?

Should I just be glad Muyaho got away alive?

It was strange. My last hope had fallen apart, but I felt calm enough to surprise myself.

Maybe I had seen it coming, somewhere deep down.

Luck doesn’t come twice in a row.

The level-up I had gained from killing the Black Hand Fist Demon had been a gamble in the first place. Without a way to see my exact EXP, I could only guess.

That should be enough to level up.

Or:

No. That won’t do it.

Unfortunately, this time it was the latter.

The Great Snow Fiend had left behind a massive amount of EXP, just as the System said. But it was less than what I had earned on the way to the Poisonblood Grounds and from the Black Hand Fist Demon combined.

Or maybe my earlier stroke of luck had raised the amount I needed for the next level.

Either way, the conclusion was simple. My first gamble had paid off. My second hadn’t.

As if Heaven had decided my fate from the start.

Damn fate.

Fate. I had hated that word for a long time.

It could mean something good, sure. But it was also two little characters you could use to lump together every fucked-up thing that happened in the world.

Some things in life were too cruel and hopeless to shrug off as fate.

Like the memory of a certain day I kept hidden in one corner of my heart.

“Um, Mr. Kim?”

“Oh! Yes, Vice Principal. What brings you here all of a sudden…?”

“Sorry to interrupt your class, but could we talk outside for a moment?”

Even now, I remembered it like a scene from a cheap black-and-white movie.

Scene one: The bald vice principal appeared, cleared his throat, and left with my homeroom teacher.

Scene two: Through the glass window in the classroom’s front door, I watched my homeroom teacher’s bewildered face slowly harden.

And scene three: After returning to the classroom, my homeroom teacher called out a student’s name after a brief silence.

“Taekyung. Could you come outside for a moment?”

That was how I went from Extra Number One to the star of the movie.

No. I had never wanted to be the star. I wished it really had been a movie. Then I could have half-killed the screenwriter and director behind that shitty story until they called for another take.

But life is one take.

With every moment and every choice, the story flows with me at its center.

I had never given life a serious thought until I saw my father beneath a white sheet.

Cause: a Monster Wave. Cause of death: crushing.

That was when I understood. My father’s story had ended because of that damn word, fate, and mine had begun.

“……COUGH.”

SPLASH. DRIP, DRIP.

But I didn’t want the last scene of my story to be me bleeding from my seven apertures³ on the cold ground.

No soft music over ending credits listing my family, friends, and comrades, either.

I still had a chance to defy this damn fate. A third chance to put my life down as the stake before it burned to ash and scattered.

I want to live.

That single thought filled my head.

It was as simple as that. I didn’t want to die here. There was too much I still had to do, too many people I had left behind.

CRUNCH.

I mustered what little strength remained and bit my tongue. The sharp pain brought my fading sight and mind back into focus, if only a little.

Now.

I opened my trembling hand and gave the command in my mind.

Inventory Open. Summon.

SWISH.

Something cool and smooth settled against my palm. At the same time, two very different System alerts sounded in my ear.

DING.

System

• Water God Dragon’s Origin Essence has been summoned successfully!

BEEP!

System

• Water God Dragon’s Origin Essence contains an immense amount of qi unlike any ordinary elixir. Exercise extreme caution before consuming it!
• Your Scorching Yang Qi is incompatible with the water qi contained in Water God Dragon’s Origin Essence! This is extremely dangerous. Exercise caution!

I knew. I knew this was insane.

What I was about to do went against the principles of Yin and Yang⁴ and the Five Elements⁵—the foundation of most internal energy cultivation techniques.

Pouring water on fire. It was like trying to evolve Charmeleon into Blastoise.⁶

But…

There’s no time.

To hell with incompatibility. Whether I bled to death in fifteen minutes or exploded because I couldn’t contain the Origin Essence’s power, I’d be dead either way.

At least the second option gave me a sliver of a chance.

GURK.

I spat up another surge of blood, squeezed out what little strength I had left, and pushed myself upright. Fighting through pain that made my body feel as though it were crumbling, I sat cross-legged and looked up at the sky.

Fuck, look at those storm clouds. Even the sky has to be dark as hell.

It was partly because it was nighttime, but no matter how I looked at it, this was a perfect day to hate dying.

No one was watching, and there wasn’t even anyone to stick a cigarette in my mouth. Not that I’d smoke it if there were.

HAAH.

My trembling breath drifted away instead of cigarette smoke.

Night wasn’t the only reason my briefly clear vision was darkening again.

I was dying. Quickly.

The moment for my final gamble was almost here.

Now.

I lifted my convulsing hand to my mouth and swallowed the blue pearl, filled with impossibly pure and dangerously vast qi.

Or I tried to.

Until cool qi suddenly swept in from somewhere and engulfed me.

FWOOSH!

What?

Every hair on my body seemed to stand on end. I froze like a statue, and one word flashed through my mind.

Enemy!

But it wasn’t. Something had brushed past me, yet I was still alive. Then a thunderous roar in the distance drove the question from my mind.

“GRAAAAH!”

“……!”

I had been sure he’d escaped. I’d told myself to be glad at least he had survived.

You came back after all.

My sight was blurred, but the snow-white body shone bright enough to recognize even in the dark.

Nor was it difficult to make out the figures of two people sitting on the back of the White Tiger as it raced toward me like the wind.

Heugung. And Yohi.

As their faces came into view, I remembered the Quest I had forgotten for a moment.

Then I stared blankly up at the sky and muttered:

“Just as I thought. It’s a perfect day to hate dying.”

DING.

System

• Mission: Find Yohi (Complete).
• Quest I Can See Your Tracking Scent has been completed successfully!
• You have acquired a substantial amount of EXP!
• You have acquired a substantial amount of Fame!
• Level Up!

I could feel it.

Death falling away from me. A gentle warmth wrapping around my wounded, exhausted body.

DING. DING. DING.

Clear bells rang beneath the storm-clouded sky. I slowly closed my eyes.

SLIP.

With no moonlight to be seen, the sleep demon came pouring down instead.

It was stronger than any enemy I had ever faced.