4 – The Cave (1)

Of all the types of training that had happened so far, none were quite as cruel as this one.

It was precisely because of the mental and physical fatigue piled on with wariness amongst the other children. It was the first time they had been pitted against each other in anything like a competition.

Among all the peaks in the Cult of the Heavenly Demon, the mountain that was selected this time, was one of the steepest in the entire domain.

It was so high up, that it seemed like the very peak of the mountain was about to pierce the heavens themselves.

Not only that, but the road was one of the most dangerous ones for the children to climb. The rocks were hard to grip and had no real solid footholds.

“Hoot. hoot.”

For any 10-11 year old climbing this mountain with lumps of metal on their limbs and not using any internal qi, this was a nigh impossible task.

But, not everybody here was average.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

A boy next to Woon Seong had just lost his hold and rolled off the slope and landed on a patch of ground a few feet below.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Although he was not seriously injured, his wound looked serious.

Woon Seong looked back and silently started to climb the mountain again.

In fact, he felt like he was about to die, too.

He refused to use his internal qi as a shortcut, and the body of No.900 was still incredibly lacking despite the small changes he had undergone through the Heavenward Soul Earthen Body technique.

“Hoo- hah, hoo- hah.”

His hands and fingers were bleeding a bit, as the blisters on them popped. His lungs felt like they were burning.

The hem of Woon Seong’s clothes was drenched with sweat, which only restricted his movement even more.

He really wanted to take a break right now.

‘No, I can’t rest right now.’

Woon Seong knew that if he rested here, his mind and body would get so relaxed, that he wouldn’t even continue to climb after he stopped.

Therefore, he steeled his mind and decided he would allow himself some rest once he reached the top and got a flag first.

Woon Seong just kept the image of his master in his head fresh every time he took a step up the mountain, and gritted his teeth with determination.

However, being strong-willed and suffering from physical exhaustion were slightly different issues.

Woon Seong climbed the mountain, biting his lips to the point of bleeding. As he was getting close to the top of the mountain he was almost crawling on all fours.

It wasn’t just him though.

Almost all the children who were near the summit were at the point of climbing on all fours.

It was that difficult to endure.

The one silver lining in all of this, was that Woon Seong had fulfilled his promise to himself and not stopped once for rest until he would reach the top.

“Huhu, Hahaha.”

Woon Seong finally had reached the top, pulled out a flag and laid sprawled out on the floor to rest his body for a bit.

Fortunately, it was a large space at the summit to rest and about 50 other children were sitting or lying down resting their exhausted bodies next to their flags.

‘I definitely feel like I’m dying again ahah.’

Woon Seong started to regulate his breathing and regain his stamina as fast as he could.

As he finally was at the summit, he could feel the cool breeze hit his skin and start to cool down his clothes.

It was good to rest, but if he stayed too long his clothes drenched in sweat would get cold.

‘I have to go down quickly.’

There was even a time limit for this test, so he couldn’t afford to rest more than a few minutes.

During the time he gave himself to rest, Woon Seong stretched his limbs that were sore and tried to regain as much stamina as possible before heading back down.

As Woon Seong was examining his body’s condition, he darted his eyes to see how many flags were left.

There were about 30 flags left, excluding the one already in his hands.

‘If the amount of flags gets thin, the last ones to reach the mountaintop will fight for the flags.’

It was just another reason for Woon Seong to leave and go down the mountain quickly.

If he stayed here, he would get caught up in a fight.

Sure enough.

The flags quickly ran out, and the children who came up late started to fight the ones with flags in their hands, trying to steal them.

Of course, Woon Seong had just slipped out before that started.

‘Hm….’

Perhaps because Woon Seong took a short break, it felt like his muscles were a little rejuvenated and the way down was much easier.

What was even more interesting to him was the way he was descending down the mountain.

‘Long flags are a problem for other kids to carry, but not for me.’

If the mountain is steep, it was harder to go down than to go up since you could slip and seriously injure yourself with your exhausted muscles.

On top of that, if you had to take a long flag in addition to the iron bracers, it became increasingly difficult to maintain one’s sense of gravity.

However, this common sense was being broken by Woon Seong. It was quite comical if one looked at him going down the mountain.

He sprinted down the mountain using the flag like a spear, flipping, turning and gliding through the air multiple times as he speedily moved down the mountain with ease.

Tadak-Tadak-Tadak-

Woon Seong maneuvered the flagpole brilliantly and used the swiftness to cut some of the branches and twigs that hindered his view.

Woon Seong cut in from one of the side routes he was taking and went down the open road inbetween.

In a situation where one could have slipped, the only thing that could be seen was circular imprints from Woon Seong’s flagpole as he flew down.

Toong-

He used the rebound of the force in the flagpole to propel him even faster.

It was absolutely incredible just how nimble he was. Anybody watching could tell Woon Seong in the body of No. 900 was incredible with a spear in his hand, just based on how he maneuvered with the long flagpole.

‘It shouldn’t be that hard to get down.’

It was natural for a smile to hang around the mouth of Woon Seong as he felt free like a bird with something resembling a spear in his hand.

However, the smile soon disappeared from Woon Seong’s lips.

It was around the time he was about to arrive at the bottom of the mountain where the instructor was.

“Hey, leave your flag behind and get lost!”

A sudden voice shouted out at him in Woon Seong’s direction.

Woon Seong slowed his movements and gradually came to a stop.

Comparing No.900’s body to the body of the boy who had just shouted at Woon Seong was hilarious to most if they saw this. The boy was a head taller, wider and had a much deeper voice than Woon Seong in No. 900’s body.

As Woon Seong stopped in place and glanced at him with indifference, No. 185’s face contorted in anger and pointed with his two fingers at Woon Seong.

“Didn’t you hear me? The flag in your hand, leave it and buzz off you mongrel!”

Woon Seong’s look of indifference disappeared and he looked at him, like he was looking at a fool and laughed.

The children gathered in the Cave of Latent Demons were in the ages between 10-15 years old

To Woon Seong, a mere height difference and deeper voice was a complete joke to him.

With a flagpole in his hand that could be used like a spear, it was borderline insanity for No. 185 to try and pick a fight with him.

But, it wasn’t like No. 185 could possibly think that the boy in front of him could be the worst choice to try and rob. He, No. 185, who was used to intimidating others with his size and weight thought this would be easy even if things had to get physical.

In the Cave of Latent Demons, the children brought there didn’t have such easy lives before they came there, so it wasn’t as if No. 185 didn’t know how to fight.

‘I bet you’ve probably grown up thinking size and intimidation is the easiest way to get the things in life that you want.’, Woon Seong thought.

He wasn’t wrong, seeing how No. 185 was acting right now.

“Oh, this is funny to you?”

It seemed No. 185 had his pride hurt, as Woon Seong blatantly laughed at him.

Woon Seong boldly walked right up to No. 185 and sized him up.

looking at No. 185, Woon Seong spoke with a cold smile.

“What a fucking idiot. You ever heard of picking on somebody your own size?”

It was such a cold laugh that Woon Seong’s canine teeth were revealed.

Woon Seong glared at No. 185.

He already knew why No. 185 chose to try and rob him.

The ones who came down earlier than him were the ones who had continuously proved themselves to be elites among the elites here, and he didn’t want to fight them.

After those elites had passed, No. 185 was just waiting for the next person with a flag to show up since he was confident in beating them as long as they weren’t at the level who had shown up earlier.

No. 185 didn’t want to try his luck fighting against the other elite talents, even though he was technically an elite himself. He was just looking for an easy person to beat up, rob and get his breakfast.

And it just so happened the next one to come down the mountain was No.900.

To No. 185, No. 900 seemed to have non-existent talent, physique and strength. He assumed Woon Seong probably got the flag through sheer dumb luck.

‘That’s why he made a move on me.’

Because Woon Seong knew exactly what this bastard’s thought process was, he couldn’t just sit still and rather decided to beat him down here and now.

No. 185’s morality and behavior was incredibly hypocritical. Bowing down to the strong and beating up on the weak, just because he could.

For some reason a bitter memory surfaced as Woon Seong thought of this.

“What did you say to me?”

No. 185 approached Woon Seong with an incredibly irritated expression.

From his point of view, meeting No. 900 was an absolute fortune.

Sure, No. 900 was doing alright these past few days, but he used to always beg and grovel like a bug half a year ago.

He was small and rarely talked to other children, so he was clearly an easy prey.

No. 185 didn’t know how he came down quickly, but he pretty much knew that he must be exhausted.

So he had thought that if he threatened that bug a little bit, he would put the flag down quietly and obediently.

But what the hell was this?

Some half-wit who was ranked in the 900’s was talking back to him? Him, who was ranked in the 100’s?

Thinking about that fact, No. 185 couldn’t hold back his anger and shouted loudly.

“What did you say? AAH!”

Cuckoo-

But he didn’t know.

Even before No. 185 could process what was happening, the flagpole in the hands of Woon Seong was swung around.

It was a blow with the might of 7.5 kgs in both of his hands.

The wooden flagpole smacked the temple of No. 185.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

No. 185 was holding his bleeding temple, jumped to his feet.

“You bastard!”

Then he swung his big fist right in front of Woon Seong.

But there was something that No. 185 couldn’t possibly know. Sure the body was that of No. 900. But the soul was from a person that had reached the Transcendence Realm in his past life, using the spear.

Boo-woong-

Woon Seong casually avoided the blows from No. 185 very easily by taking a step back and shifting his center of gravity just a bit.

Boomph!

The flagpole had moved so fast No. 185 couldn’t even see the movement, and struck No. 185’s ribs incredibly hard.

“Uh-Urk!”

No. 185 was beaten down and his ribs were definitely broken as he was forced to kneel on the spot and gasp for air.

But that wasn’t even the end of it from Woon Seong.

Puck-

Taking advantage of the fact No. 185 was forced to kneel, Woon Seong mercilessly and brutally crushed No. 185’s ankles.

“Ack!”

No. 185 fell on the spot as he stretched out his legs one after another and rolled his feet.

It was fortunate that he didn’t hit his head against the big tree behind him, but…….

Thud!

Before No. 185 knew it, the flagpole in the hands of Woon Seong was pressing down on the chest of No. 185 coldly.

“I bet you felt good being beating up the weaker kids than you, didn’t you?”

At the question of Woon Seong, No. 185 lips trembled and dared not open his mouth.

He was so afraid of No. 900 right now that he felt as if he were the one that was a head shorter in height.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

Looking at his trembling expression, Woon Seong lifted up the flagpole in his hand.

Then, he grabbed the flagpole firmly as if he was about to drop it.

“No!! Please!!!”

No. 185 couldn’t even move from his position and prayed to Woon Seong to spare him with a trembling voice.

No. 185 was only eleven years old.

It wasn’t too young, but it was also not that old.

He wasn’t at the age where he could clearly distinguish what it meant to be good or evil. He was old enough to pick on others and feel good about it, but he still had the chance to change his ways.

And trying to take Woon Seong’s flag was not a sin worthy of death.

Of course, it was a sin big enough to warrant death if this was in another place and he was of a different age.

“I’ll let you live. But..”

That didn’t mean Woon Seong would just let him go though.

Furthermore, Woon Seong was not a just man either. At least not in this life, he couldn’t be. Not only that, but if it were the other way around, he might have been killed without being able to fulfill his revenge for his master.

“You have to be punished.”

Woon Seong lifted the flagpole in his hand high.

“So far, You’ve done nothing but pretend to be strong and do what you want to do to those who are weaker than you. You were probably sure that you would steal a flag off somebody weaker than you today as well. But now, maybe you’ll be able to know what it’s like to be the one on the receiving end of being weak.”

“Come on, come on!”

No. 185 cried and pleaded with Woon Seong, but there was no mercy in the hands of Woon Seong whatsoever.

Qua-ric!

With the powerful impact of hitting his forearm, No. 185 lost consciousness.

But before No. 185 had lost consciousness, Woon Seong leaned in close and whispered to him some parting words.

“There won’t be a second time.”

At that voice, No. 185 trembled in utmost fear before losing consciousness.