Chapter 100

Editor: Ytho, LaidBackGuy

“We’re here . ”

The carriage stopped . The man inside the carriage got off and placed something in the coachman’s hands .

“Oh my . Why all this?”

The coachman received the money from the man while smiling widely .

His destination was also on the way anyway, and all he did was give him a ride in his carriage .

Of course, he didn’t do it out of pure goodwill . He had hoped for a certain price in exchange, but the money that the man handed him had far exceeded his expectations .

“By the way . Where are you going?”

“I’m going to the forest . ”

The man replied, raising his gat . His face looked quite young, but the youthful aura was long gone .

However, the coachman failed to see the dissonance engraved in the young man’s eyes . He looked at the man and nodded his head .

“It’s a lot . Well, I’ll take it, but……”

The coachman muttered and turned his head .

“The forest . The rumors about that place aren’t too pleasant, though…”

He knew .

He was already aware of it .

Lee Sungmin turned to look at the departing carriage . After leaving Shaolin, there was still time left to stop Baek Sogo’s death .

He couldn’t waste much time, but he shouldn’t rush either . If Baek Sogo was determined in her pursuit of Wijihoyeon, then even if Lee Sungmin intervened, he wouldn’t be able to prevent her from making a move .

It might be possible to stop her using force, but Lee Sungmin didn’t want to do that . It was because there was no justification for him to make Baek Sogo go against her beliefs .

In order to spend the remaining time efficiently, Lee Sungmin thought of the things he had to do in the future .

Contact Envirus .

Envirus was the one that Denir mentioned . The one whose flow of time was distorted in a way that was different from him . He was also the one who spent 1000 years under Denir’s trial .

It wasn’t just Envirus . While in secluded cultivation at Denir’s place, Lee Sungmin heard the names of the others who had succeeded in passing the trials before him .

‘There was no familiar name among them . ’

Lee Sungmin felt it was strange . Anyone who has succeeded in overcoming the trial in the subconscious world should be famous to some extent, at least in Eria .

But Lee Sungmin had never heard of Envirus or the other two .

Although it bothered him, Lee Sungmin first sought information on Envirus through Erebrisa .

His luck was good . This forest was not far from the Dungeon, where Wijihoyeon and Baek Sogo were supposed to meet, so he could stop by, on the way without too much issue .

Lee Sungmin’s footsteps stopped in front of the forest .

It was called the Sleeping Forest .

The information on Envirus purchased from Erebrisa was incomplete .

He seemed to be a figure that the information guild could not find easily . The information he managed to get was that a year ago, in a nearby city, a man with the name Envirus on his merchant’s plaque had come by .

It was said that he had stayed in the city for a month and told the inspection checkpoint that he would be going to the sleeping forest when asked while leaving the city gates .

‘It was a year ago . I don’t know if he’s still in that forest . ’

The Lee Sungmin of the past would never have entered the sleeping forest . As the coachman said, that forest was a dangerous place .

Lee Sungmin moved without hesitation toward the forest . He grabbed the spear on his back, and stretched out his foot into the entrance of the forest .

He had taken a few more steps when suddenly, a noise appeared in his ear .

‘Wailing?’

(T/N: 鬼鳴 gui ming, aka ghost’s cry . Lit . ghost sounds)

He wasn’t so stupid as to enter the forest without knowing anything about it .

When he decided to go there, Lee Sungmin bought information about the forest from Erebrisa .

Hallucinations were the first threat one encounters in the Sleeping Forest . The ghostly cry heard at the beginning of the forest would cause light dizziness in adults and frighten children .

The deeper one goes into the forest, the stronger the effect . By the time one reaches the end, an adult person would completely lose their mind and collapse .

And that collapsed body would become the food of those who live in the forest .

That was why the sleeping forest was dangerous . One would not go into the sleeping forest unless they were quite the crazy person .

Even in the memories of Lee Sungmin’s previous life, the Sleeping Forest was an abandoned area people spoke of in hushed tones .

However, Lee Sungmin moved forward without any hesitation . The cry of ghosts ringing in his ear was very annoying, but it could not shake his determined spirit .

He didn’t know where he was headed, but he felt more interest and curiosity than fear .

The deeper the forest, the stronger the cry .

Lee Sungmin did not hurry .

If he used a movement technique, he might be able to cross the forest at once, but Lee Sungmin’s purpose was to investigate Envirus, not to merely pass through the forest .

‘Even if I wanted to chase the traces…’

Lee Sungmin approached a nearby tree . The trees in the sleeping forest were so gnarled and monstrous-looking that one could not tell what kind of species they were .

He reached out to see if there were any traces left on the tree .

The bark on the wooden surface was cracked and opened wide . What could be seen in it were many rows of sharp teeth, densely-lined like those of a snail .

(T/N: fun fact! The average snail has more than 1,000 teeth used for scraping or cutting food . Some species may have more than 20,000 teeth held in rows called radula . And also I can no longer sleep knowing this *thumbs up*)

Lee Sungmin was not surprised at all . He clenched his fist .

Kwajik!

The fist that Lee Sungmin wielded struck the tree . No matter whether it was a tree or a monster, the unknown creature didn’t even have time to scream and bend down .

“It’s such a strange place . ”

It was his first time seeing such a monster . Lee Sungmin did not show any reaction even though his hands were all torn up .

Even after seeing such an unexpected sight, his mind was still too far away . Lee Sungmin passed the tree after tearing it apart .

The same thing repeated several times after that . Suddenly, a tree would appear, and an unknown branch would soar up and poke him; and each time Lee Sungmin would absentmindedly knock them down with his fists .

What’s with that bastard?

There were eyes watching Lee Sungmin .

They knew and could tell each other that Lee Sungmin had passed through the entrance of the forest . However they weren’t speaking out loud . The elixir taken every hour made them resistant to the confounding formation, but it deprived them of hearing .

Instead, they communicated through sign language .

‘I don’t know who he is . The important thing is that he is going inside . ’

‘We can’t stop him . ’

‘You should go and find out more about the intruder . ’

Lee Sungmin looked at the two little boys who were talking .

The boy shook his hand to protest . He was miffed because of being treated like a child .

“There is something I want to ask . ”

A sudden voice came over .

Hayato was surprised and turned around . Suddenly, he saw Lee Sungmin standing on a branch on the other side of the tree they were hiding in .

“Don’t be surprised . I’m not blaming you for watching me . It’s just…”

Hayato didn’t listen to Lee Sungmin .

He hurriedly pulled out the dagger that he had behind his back and threw it at Lee Sungmin .

Lee Sungmin had a grim face as he tilted his head to the side .

The dagger, flying with a fierce spirit, pierced the tree and cut it into two .

“Muroi!”

Hayato screamed . He couldn’t hear anything while leaping off the tree, but the sheer urgency of Hayato’s cry was still obvious to him .

The youngest, Muroi, hurriedly flew under the tree .

“So I was saying… I just want to ask you something . ”

Lee Sungmin muttered, not knowing they couldn’t hear him .

Hayato took out the dagger and rushed toward Lee Sungmin while grabbing it . While Hayato went for a close-range attack, Kuromaru quickly made a sign .

‘This is quite……’

Pointing the dagger toward Lee Sungmin, he rushed forward . Lee Sungmin jumped back to escape the dagger’s attack .

Lee Sungmin stretched out his foot and stepped onto the air in front of him .

Swiik!

Lee Sungmin’s figure disappeared from before Hayoto’s eyes . Hayato was embarrassed and looked around .

Lee Sungmin, who had appeared behind Hayato’s back effortlessly, concentrated his inner force and tapped Hayato lightly .

Hayato’s body trembled as though he was hit by a thunderbolt .

“So…… what I want to hear……”

When Lee Sungmin looked towards Kuromaru, his technique had already been completed .

The talisman he threw out suddenly burst into flames, taking the form of a blazing red firebird .

The flapping firebird tried to burn Lee Sungmin’s body along with Hayato, whom he was currently holding .

“Why aren’t you listening?”

Lee Sungmin’s eyebrows twitched . He swung his right arm widely . The strong winds caused the firebird to scatter in the air .

The surprised Kuromaru tried to summon the firebird using a talisman again, but Lee Sungmin’s moves were faster than that .

Eventually, the two fell down in front of Lee Sungmin . Lee Sungmin sat down in front of them and loosened his hold on Hayato so that he could speak .

“I have no intention of harming you . ”

Lee Sungmin said with an amiable voice, but they couldn’t hear his voice .

Hayato opened his mouth wide and stood with glaring eyes .

“Tsk-tsk”

Right before Hayato tried to clamp down on his molars and break his jaw . Lee Sungmin’s hand stretched out and grabbed his chin .

“You should listen while someone is talking nicely . ”

Lee Sungmin grumbled, pushing his hand into Hayato’s jaw .

Lee Sungmin didn’t know that Hayato was hiding a suicide pill under his molars . He just blocked it because it seemed like he was going to bite off his tongue and commit suicide .

“Isn’t life precious? You shouldn’t throw it away so easily . ”

Lee Sungmin gave strength to his grip on Hayato’s jaws . Hayato’s face turned white .

“Kkeuleuleuk!”

Hayato’s jaw was unhinged with a cracking sound . Lee Sungmin looked at Kuromaru while ignoring Hayato, who was screaming because of his broken jaw .

Kuromaru, who still hadn’t recovered from the shock, stiffened when he looked at Lee Sungmin .

“I just want to talk . Is that so hard?”

Lee Sungmin pressed down on him with a little force as he said that and then released his hold on Kuromaru .

“W-we can’t hear anything . ”

Kuromaru said in a hurry .

At those words, Lee Sungmin looked toward Hayato, blinking his eyes . Hayato had a continuous stream of blood dripping down his chin .

“I see . ”

Lee Sungmin accepted the answer without teasing them anymore . He picked a spot on a nearby branch and sat down in front of Kuromaru .

“Hey . This reminds me of the old days . It’s been a few thousands of years . ”

Lee Sungmin muttered those words and smiled .

Kuromaru watched Lee Sungmin and swallowed a gulp with a chill running down his spine . He broke a person’s jaw just now and was smiling while reminiscing as if nothing of that sort happened .

Lee Sungmin, as reflected in Kuromaru’s eyes, seemed to be quite far from a normal human .

-Who are you?

Lee Sungmin wrote on the floor .

“W-we……”

It was at the moment when Kuromaru tried to speak . Lee Sungmin grabbed him by the waist and rolled to the side .

Kwaaang!

A giant man fell on the place where Kuromaru had just been .

The ground looked like someone had just dug a pit and the trees around shook like crazy . If Lee Sungmin had not moved Kuromaru, he would have been crushed by the giant’s foot .

“Brat!”

Suddenly, the giant man screamed at Kuromaru .

“You dare to reveal the clan to foreigners!”

Kuromaru’s body trembled hearing those words .

Even if he could not hear the words, it was clearly written on the man’s fierce face what he was saying .

Lee Sungmin stared at the giant and picked up a branch, quickly wrote on the floor .

– Is that big guy deaf too?

“Oh no . He’s- ”

“Shut up!”

Roared the giant man . He glanced at Hayato, who had collapsed nearby .

Unfortunately, Hayato had gotten caught up in the giant’s surprise attack and was lying on his side with his intestines spilling out .

The man ignored Hayato and turned his head to look at Lee Sungmin .

“I don’t know who you are, but I can’t let you remain alive once you came in and saw us!”

“If you’re not deaf, let’s talk a little . ”

Said Lee Sungmin . He was still speaking with no sense of crisis on his face, even in a situation like this .

2100 years of seclusion . It was enough to make Lee Sungmin a little crazy .

Or perhaps it was a lot .