Chapter 176: Promising Madmen

The Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader’s personal training ground.

In the space wide enough for dozens of people to swing weapons at the same time, Sunwoo Jeha sat alone in meditation, legs crossed.

“Huuuuuu.......”

As she slowly repeated deep breaths, her eyebrow twitched.

“......Always faster than expected. Annoyingly so.”

Despite her words, Sunwoo Jeha gave a small laugh and opened her eyes. At that moment, there was a loud crash from outside, and the door to the personal training ground flew open.

Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon shoved each other as they came inside.

“Sect leader! That thing just now......”

“Teacher! What did you do?”

Laser beams seemed ready to shoot out of the two young rising stars’ eyes.

It was because of the technique Sunwoo Jeha had personally shown them a moment ago.

“I definitely wasn’t cut anywhere......”

“But for an instant, it felt like my breath got blocked.”

Shin Kangheon rubbed his goosebump-covered forearm, while Kim Muhyuk touched his own neck.

“Your breath got blocked? That’s an interesting way to put it.”

Sunwoo Jeha showed interest in Kim Muhyuk’s answer and nodded.

Then she drew her sword and saber again and aimed them at the two.

“Experience it one more time. This time, I’ll cut.”

Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon drew their weapons with serious expressions, as if they would not be caught so easily.

But at that moment, Kim Muhyuk lowered his sword.

“Hold on. I think Senior Bu Yeonha was supposed to learn this too.”

“Oh, right! Senior Bu Yeonha fought with us that time too.”

When the two young rising stars recalled that fact, Sunwoo Jeha nodded as if she remembered.

“I’ll call her separately and teach her later. But you two need this right now, don’t you?”

Kim Muhyuk, who failed to understand those words for a moment, soon asked back with an absurd expression.

“......You mean we’re supposed to learn it today and use it right away tomorrow? Against a Great Anomaly, no less?”

Sunwoo Jeha tilted her head slightly, looking as though she could not see what the problem was.

“Why? Can’t you?”

It sounded almost as if she were asking whether they could not even do something this simple.

At the provocation of the Strongest in Korea, the competitive spirit of the two young rising stars, neither of whom ever fell behind anywhere, flared up.

“......Of course we can.”

“Just hurry up and teach us!”

Having unintentionally stirred up their motivation, Sunwoo Jeha swung her sword and saber once more.

And this time, the result was no different.

SHHK-SHHK-SHHHK—!

Only, unlike the first time, when they had not suffered a single wound, faint threadlike cuts appeared across Kim Muhyuk’s and Shin Kangheon’s skin.

“That’s how you do it.”

“.......”

“.......”

An unfriendly lesson that skipped every concrete explanation.

It was an explanation that not just most young rising stars, but even mid-level experts of the Eight Great Sects would not easily understand.

However, as expected of young rising stars who had already proven their talent before the Strongest in Korea, Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon grasped the core of it after experiencing it twice.

“You block...... the natural qi and cut?”

“You make something similar to a vacuum state. Right?”

Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon looked at each other and exchanged a brief conversation as if confirming it, then gained certainty from the fact that they had felt the same thing.

Seeing that, Sunwoo Jeha nodded with an indifferent expression, as if she was not surprised.

“If an anomaly can’t absorb qi, it slowly dies. Most suffer just from being cut off temporarily. Making it enter that state is the first step.”

To an anomaly, qi was like oxygen to a human.

Even in the case of a Great Anomaly, if it could not absorb qi for a long period of time, it generally sealed itself or fell asleep.

“You completely block the breathing hole through which the anomaly absorbs qi. Then you push your internal energy into that place.”

“......So that breath-blocking sensation from earlier was?”

At Kim Muhyuk’s question, Sunwoo Jeha nodded and confirmed it.

“My internal energy. You really are sensitive.”

Sunwoo Jeha’s technique was to perfectly block, for a single instant, the qi that flowed into an anomaly, then push her own internal energy inside while cutting it down at the same time.

An anomaly that accepted processed qi different from what it normally absorbed would, metaphorically speaking, enter a state similar to having absorbed deadly poison into its body.

“Even spirit-body anomalies that physical attacks don’t work well on can be easily extinguished with this method.”

After finishing her explanation, Sunwoo Jeha shrugged.

“Easy, right?”

Of course, it was not a technique as easy as she made it sound, so Shin Kangheon looked at his saber-art teacher with an incredulous expression.

“What do you mean, easy? You’re telling us to swing a saber while finely controlling external qi!”

Natural qi circulated endlessly through the world, and blocking that flow even briefly was an extremely difficult thing.

It required innate qi control, delicate handling, and instantaneous focus.

That process had to be carried out at the same time as executing martial arts.

Of course, it was not something that could be done with just a day or two of practice, but......

“Theoretically, a pinnacle expert should be able to do it well enough. That’s why I taught it to the main sect’s disciples too.”

Of course, for a talent like Sunwoo Jeha, who could do several things simultaneously as naturally as breathing, it was a technique she could execute easily.

But after seeing Sunwoo Jeha’s ambiguous expression, Kim Muhyuk could guess the result.

“When you taught it to your disciples, most of them failed, didn’t they?”

“.......”

Sunwoo Jeha nodded with a sullen expression.

In reality, she had been teaching this technique to the Transcendent Extremity Gate’s elites for several years.

However, the people in the conference room were all who had mastered it to the point where they could use it in actual combat.

To be honest, she had not shown it to Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon with great expectations either. No matter how exceptional the two of them were, they only had one day left.

“......I taught you all the tricks. Figure out the rest yourselves. Leave.”

Sunwoo Jeha issued a dismissal to the two of them. She intended to focus quietly on her own training for the remaining time.

But as if they had no intention of doing so at all, Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon instead raised their weapons and aimed them at Sunwoo Jeha.

“......What are you doing?”

“I think I can roughly copy it if I see it with my eyes a few more times. Please show us again.”

Kim Muhyuk spoke while glaring at her with fierce eyes.

“Just carve it into my body a few more times! That’s the easiest and most convenient way for me!”

Shin Kangheon cracked his neck from side to side and grinned.

As she watched the two reveal their fighting spirit toward her, looking as though they would charge at any moment, Sunwoo Jeha let out a laugh of disbelief.

“Ha. Such promising madmen.......”

Her hands gripped a sword and saber respectively, and arcs far sharper than the previous two times targeted the two young rising stars.

“I’ll play along. Until you beg me to stop.”

SHHK-SHHK-SHHHK—!

Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon were cut by Sunwoo Jeha again and again, gradually making her secret technique their own.

*****

“Why aren’t these guys coming?”

The crew members, who had decided to spend the night in the lodgings prepared by the Transcendent Extremity Gate, were each resting while checking their equipment and condition.

Kim Bokja, who had come outside the lodgings to get some fresh air for a moment, flinched when she saw something walking toward her through the darkness.

“Hehehe. Kim Bokjaaa....... Let’s train our joint attack......”

“Kyaaah! What the hell!”

When something covered in blood came toward her, the startled Kim Bokja instantly threw a talisman first.

“Keheuk....... Hey, it’s me!”

Shin Kangheon, a talisman stuck to his forehead, fell backward with a THOOM— and sprawled out on the ground with his arms and legs spread wide.

“Shin Kangheon? Why are you covered in blood?”

“Because he sparred with the Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader......”

Kim Muhyuk, who approached a little later than Shin Kangheon, answered in his place. He too was covered head to toe in scratches.

Hwang Suksu and Han Jaechun, who had run out because of the commotion outside, were also startled when they saw the two.

“You okay, crew leader?”

“What were you two doing? The hunt is tomorrow......”

Everyone looked at them with expressions full of panic and worry.

But Kim Muhyuk shook his head, saying he was fine. In fact, a satisfied smile hung at the corners of his mouth.

“I’m tired, but I’m not as badly hurt as I look.”

In truth, the two of them only had wounds on their skin and flesh. Their bones and organs were not harmed at all. That was Sunwoo Jeha’s consideration.

They were wounds that would heal completely if they applied wound ointment and slept properly.

Still, I gained a lot.

He was tired enough to collapse and fall asleep at any moment, but thanks to that, he had gotten a certain feel for the technique to cut anomalies.

“The hunt starts tomorrow afternoon, right? There’s plenty of time to rest until then......”

At that moment, Kim Muhyuk lost his balance and staggered, and Han Jaechun quickly stepped forward to support him. Then he began nagging.

“Don’t think about stuff like that. Just hurry up and sleep.”

“Seriously, come on! Both of you better not be wobbling tomorrow.”

Hwang Suksu also lifted the fallen Shin Kangheon and slung him over his back. Shin Kangheon was already snoring in his sleep.

Kim Muhyuk, too, muttered with his eyes half-closed.

“I really am fine. I need to practice a few more times tomorrow before the end, so wake me up before breakfast......”

The crew members took the two to their rooms and laid them down.

As Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon fell into a deep sleep the instant they lay on their beds, as though they had fainted, the three stared at their faces and sighed.

“They really are crazy bastards obsessed with martial arts.”

“Let’s not wake them until they get on the bus.”

“How about we press their pressure points and tie them to the beds?”

The three looked at one another and nodded with the same thought.

*****

The next day.

Kim Muhyuk, having slept deeply and woken refreshed, opened his eyes inside a bus.

“......?”

“We’re on our way to the place with the spell barrier where the Giant Tree Ghost is sealed. We’ve been driving for hours, so we’ll arrive soon.”

At Kim Bokja’s briefing from the seat beside him, Kim Muhyuk blinked several times, then asked in a voice still half-asleep.

“How many hours did I sleep?”

“About twelve hours?”

“Why didn’t you wake......”

The moment Kim Muhyuk looked back with an absurd expression and tried to say something, something slid into his mouth.

Kim Bokja, who had blocked Kim Muhyuk’s mouth with an energy gel, spoke.

“Eat while you listen. I’ll tell you what was passed along in the meeting before departure.”

“You should have woken me......!”

He tried to get angry that they had not woken him despite there being a meeting, but when he saw Kim Bokja’s fierce glare, he shut his mouth.

“Excuse me, nothing happens just because one of you is sleeping, you know?”

“Still, important things should be heard directly by me......”

“If you’re going to do everything alone, why do we have a vice leader of the crew? And more importantly, are you going to manage your condition properly or not? You worry the crew members, then say you two are fine and think that’s enough?”

“.......”

Having nothing to say, Kim Muhyuk quietly sucked down the energy gel, then adjusted his seat and sat upright.

Then he needlessly looked out the window and stretched.

“......I do feel refreshed after sleeping properly.”

“You’re seriously acting up. If you behave like yesterday one more time, it’s really going to be a life-or-death fight!”

Kim Muhyuk gave an awkward laugh and nodded.

“Sorry.”

Only now did he realize that in trying to do everything well, he had made the people around him worry.

“Well said!”

“That made me feel better too.......”

Hwang Suksu and Han Jaechun, who had been listening quietly until then, each added a word, while Shin Kangheon was still snoring in his sleep.

“You wake up too, idiot!”

“Uhuuuurk! I can’t breathe!”

In the end, after the incident of Kim Bokja shoving an energy gel into Shin Kangheon’s mouth to wake him up—

“We’ve arrived.”

When they got off the bus, the entire area was filled with fog so thick that it was hard to see even a few meters ahead.

“......I can’t even guess where we are.”

“We might actually get lost if we’re not careful.”

While the group briefly looked around, the spellcasters from Mystic Hall soon arrived as well.

When Kim Bokja spotted Dr. Man getting off the bus, her expression brightened, and she ran over.

“Master!”

“Hoho. You came quickly.”

And Kim Muhyuk watched for a moment as Dr. Man welcomed Kim Bokja.

—If you could go back to the past, what would you want to do most?

The Dr. Man before him now was not the old man whose face had been filled with madness and regret when he sent him into the past.

A pleasant smile rested on Dr. Man’s face as he talked with his disciple.

For some reason, Kim Muhyuk felt proud. He approached and greeted him first.

“I’m Kim Muhyuk, the crew leader of Blue Wolves. I’ve heard a lot about you from Bokja.”

At those words, Dr. Man turned to Kim Muhyuk, stared at him quietly for a moment, then said something unexpected.

“By any chance...... have we met before?”

“.......”

In that instant, Kim Muhyuk could not answer at all.