Over the course of four years, Woon Seong had completely changed into a young man.

Everything was developed except for his pale skin from the absence of sunlight for over 4 years.

His jawline was firm cut, and the bridge of his nose was rather high.

His long blue hair swayed easefully through the light breeze in the cave.

His body and muscles looked as if he had been sculpted out of clay.

Even though his muscles and body were well-defined, he did look swelled up or even remotely close to it. He was sleek, compact, and fit to even the finest fiber of muscle.

It was the most suitable body possible, adjusted to the nature of spear martial arts, which emphasized flow, harmony and flexibility.

On top of that, his body was now strong enough to not be injured internally or externally, when it came to unfolding the Six Seals of Destruction or Divine Spear of the Ending Night.

Thanks to the body modification that Woon Seong had achieved, it was a body that was in a pristine state.

‘But the only thing that’s disappointing is that I failed to combine the two martial arts into one.’

After four years of effort, Woon Seong realized just how short-sighted he was in thinking that combining two incredible martial art techniques would be as easy as combining the two cultivation methods he had combined before.

Considering that the one who developed the Six Seals of Destruction, the Unrecorded Heavenly Demon, had taken his entire lifetime to perfect just that martial art alone. And the fact it had taken his master his entire life to perfect the Divine Spear of the Ending Night… it might as well just take as long for Woon Seong to combine the two into one.

“But the good thing is that it wasn’t completely uneventful.’

He had caught the thread.

It was truly smaller than a needle, and was incredibly difficult to grasp, but Woon Seong had found the thread that would tie the two together.

‘And if I can find the end of that thread completely…….’

With a faint smile hanging around the corners of his mouth, Woon Seong cut his hair with the speartip in his hands.

The hair that he hadn’t cared about for four years, had grown down to his waist.

Woon Seong cut it to his shoulders.

Sagak-Sagak-Sagak-

After Woon Seong cut his hair, he scratched his unkempt beard and shaved it off roughly with the blade.

Shik-shik-

When Woon Seong finished cutting his beard, he felt the vibrations in the cave slightly as he looked at the wooden gate open in his room.

‘Perfect.’

The door to meet with the other teens was opening now.

Gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

“Hmm?”

Woon Seong looked beyond the exit and noticed something interesting.

The open exit was connected to another tunnel shrouded in darkness.

It seemed the trial wasn’t over with just the closed door training.

“You want me to come in?”

As to be expected it seemed.

What would be after this would be unknown. Would it be the outside world? Or would there be yet another trial?

Whatever it may be, Woon Seong he would be able to confidently pass whatever was thrown at him due to his incredibly fruitful 4 years of secluded training.

Therefore, Woon Seong moved without hesitation toward the darkness waiting for him.

A dark passage ran all the way through the exit. The passageways narrowed and widened, went down and continued steep slopes at seemingly random.

Through the passage, Woon Seong was walking through them without batting an eyelid at what might be a difficult path to traverse for others.

Nevertheless, his speed was very fast running through the several obstacles in complete darkness. It was hard to say that it was a speed that could be produced simply because his eyes had become adapted to the darkness.

‘I think I know now.’

Even without having to expand his reach of eyesight with his internal qi like before, Woon Seong’s body was utterly perfected and optimized due to the effects of the Heavenward Soul Earthen Body, that whenever he concentrated his mind and heightened his senses, they were much vaster than before.

How much time had passed as he wandered through the passage?

Woon Seong was traveling through the passage relatively with ease when suddenly, a chink in his senses was briefly revealed and he reacted swiftly.

Woon Seong quickly pivoted his foot into the ground, revolving the spear over and across his back in a full swing.

Whik-!

The speartip collided and deflected a small dagger that had been flung out of the darkness.

Woon Seong could feel a warmth being emitted from the blade that had been heated and shot out at him.

Then he realized what it was when a terrible smell was picked up from the blade as well. It was poison.

Woon Seong shifted his gaze back to where the dagger had originally come from and narrowed his eyes.

‘It wasn’t an ordinary passage either.’

It seemed that there was hidden machinery and traps strewn about.

He could lose his life at any moment that he let his guard down.

This was just the passage and rite of way for the cult to measure if the teens had properly trained in the 4 years. 

Woon Seong understood then. That even these exit was not meant to be taken lightly.

Sure enough, as Woon Seong moved along, more traps and machinery shot out hidden weapons and often revealed hidden pitfalls.

The range of traps varied from poisoned hidden weapons, trap doors, pitfalls, a hail of arrows, spinning blades and much more.

Of course, it was not a problem for Woon Seong.

Woon Seong’s speed was faster than the trap’s activation speed, most of the time. And if it wasn’t something he could outspeed, he could block or parry with his spear with ease.

There eventually came a trap that Woon Seong had not encountered yet.

‘Swamp of the Poisonous Demon.’

Woon Seong looked calmly at the black swamp in front of him. It was a heavy water filled to the brim with countless poisons that even leaves could not float without being melted on the touch.

It was made to look like a dark area of water, but it was the complete opposite.

As soon as one’s skin touched it, they would start to sink while having their body corrode down from the skin, all the way to the bone.

The depth of the swamp was unknown, but Woon Seong had no intention of finding out.

It was natural that one had to either cross the swamp by either emitting enormous amounts of qi around their body, which needed one to at least be a Peak Realm martial artist to accomplish. Or, they had to be able to traverse it another way.

Woon Seong looked around the swamp.

The distance to the opposite side of the swamp was just over ten paces or so.

Considering the training that the Cave of Latent Demons had been arduous thus far, it seemed they obviously needed the children to be able to jump that far in order to cross.

‘They would have to be able to at least become First-Rate in order to strengthen their limbs individually with qi.’

Woon Seong looked at the iron bracers on his arms and legs.

A weight of 90 kilograms in total.

A ten pace distance, and he wouldn’t strengthen himself with qi either. He needed to be at least this much, he thought.

‘Can I do it?’

He could easily cross with using his qi. But, he also wanted to not only wear bracers while doing it, but not even circulate his internal qi to his limbs.

‘But.. what if I can’t?’

The hesitation was short.

There was one reason. If he hesitated and ended up falling short, then he would never be able to get revenge. He had to be this strong at this age in order to slay the Murim Alliance hypocrites.

Not only that, but he needed to believe in his strength. It was the one of the core traits to becoming a martial artist.

‘Let’s do it.’

Woon Seong stepped back and blinked slowly.

Then, he gripped his right hand on the shaft of the spear and shot forward.

He decided to use a basic footwork that required no qi. It was the Gale walk!

Woon Seong’s figure became a gale of wind that was light but firm.

Whoosh-

The gale flew through the air and stopped on the other side of the swamp. Woon Seong slowly stopped rotating his body and his hair swayed.

He took a leap of ten paces successfully without using his internal qi, or taking off his bracers.

‘I succeeded.’

If it was only half a step shorter, he would have utterly failed and met his end.

But he had succeeded. Woon Seong felt the sensation of accomplishment as he calmed his shaking hands.

However, he soon dulled his sense of pride and content down as he knew there was still a long way to go in terms of fully exiting the passage.

‘I can feel better only once I fully complete the Trial.’

Woon Seong continued to move.

As Woon Seong was passing by, closer to the exit, he came down a narrow pathway once more and noticed the cracks in the wall which normally meant a trap was located there.

But….

‘Hmm?’

Picking up his senses, Woon Seong felt something amiss as he expanded his range with the Heavenward Soul Earthen Body.

It was not a machine or trap like he had been encountering up until now.

There was breathing. And the breathing of a human being at that.

Woon Seong slowly gripped his spear tightly and raised his guard, albeit giving off the appearance that he was defenseless.

Then he was sure once he felt the killing intent.

In that crack between the walls.

‘I see, there’s someone I need to kill in order to pass further.’

Sisst-

Sure enough, as soon as Woon Seong entered the range of the other person, he heard movement.

It was a movement with little-to-no sound

‘The Cult truly is heartless.’

Woon Seong pretended he didn’t notice the movement to draw out the attacker.

He could hear, feel and smell the opponent that was trying to stay hidden.

However, Woon Seong feigned ignorance and kept moving as he came to a small room. There were three other entrances leading to the room and one exit. However, the exit was blocked off with a giant stone.

Woon Seong slowly approached the stone door.

Even then, the unidentified person was looking for an opening to attack Woon Seong.

He didn’t seem to notice that Woon Seong had picked up on his presence long ago.

Woon Seong ignored him and walked up to the stone gate and read the writing engraved on the stone.

Woon Seong raised an eyebrow as he read what the writing said.

‘Only one may leave.’

3 entrances, and only 1 person to leave.

Woon Seong then understood that the assailant was probably another child who had killed the other one who came through.

Technically speaking this kind of mentality training was the harsh and extreme opposite to the Orthodox methods, but the Demonic Cult was a pseudo religion and not one to pursue anything other than strength.

It was at that moment that the other teen attempted to attack.

Whoosh-

The assailant thought that Woon Seong was utterly defenseless, leaving his back completely exposed.

The sword in his hand danced and drew a line towards the back of Woon Seong.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Suddenly the spear blurred in Woon Seong’s hand, and Woon Seong could be heard clicking his tongue.

That was all it took.

“I could already sense you long before I entered this space, did you really think you were fooling anyone.”

Kkagang-

The sword in the assailant’s hands flew backwards as the strength from the iron spear in Woon Seong’s hands was heavy.

The sparks of the collision slightly revealed the other teenager’s facial expression.

It revealed utter shock and embarrassment.

Quickly trying to reel his sword back in, the teen tried to gain distance.

Whik-

However, Woon Seong was a step faster.

Woon Seong’s arms moved smoothly like a dancer’s, and a torrent of internal qi sprung forth from his dantian as he swung the spear in the shape of a cyclone, creating a suction force.

The sword in the hands of the other teen started to get pulled forward and the teen’s eyes started to shake.

Woon Seong brought the cyclone to a halt and the sword was flung back as it collided with the centripetal force of the spear.

The expression of the other boy wasn’t good.

But, Woon Seong showed no gaps of mercy.

Boo-Woong-

The spear cut through the darkness and drew several lines in the air, marking all over the body of the boy.

Boom-

The sword was flung back and stuck into the ground with a loud boom, as the other boy quickly pulled out a blade and backed off, eyeing Woon Seong carefully.

“Are you not going to come?”

Woon Seong took a step forward.

The boy reflexively flinched back and made the mistake of showing an opening to Woon Seong.

“Then I’ll go ahead.”

Woon Seong started to circulate his internal qi rapidly and the tempered true blossom’s stored qi started to show it’s brilliance within his body.

It gushed into the internal pathways of Woon Seong’s body covering every millimeter of depth as Woon Seong’s muscle fibers stretched and contracted.

Woon Seong swiftly moved and outstretched his arm with the spear in tow.

Six Seals of Destruction : First Seal (星雨)  Raining Stars of Extinction

The First Seal of Destruction unfolded as several images of bright lights enveloped Woon Seong’s speartip.

The spear started to move faster and faster as several stabs flew towards the other boy. The light enveloping the speartip exploded and the boy tried to hurriedly defend.

Caang-The boy felt a slight sense of relief that he was able to make contact with one of the spears for a brief second, but then realized how foolish he was.Several spears appeared next to him, as his feet started to lift from the ground from the full exploding force of the stab he thought he blocked.

bubbubbubbubbubbubbubbub!

Blood shot up like a fountain and sprayed out all over the stony room.

The boy couldn’t even scream properly and collapsed on the spot.

There was no one who could survive with ten fist-sized holes on their body that were marked all from one spear.

Flop-

The sound of the boy’s body falling off the blade of the spear and hitting the ground, rang out. The blood on the spear dripped down coldly.

Soon after, a heavy vibration could be felt from the stone door.

Gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

Woon Seong could start to see the light coming through the gaps of the opening door.

It had been years since he last saw proper light. Woon Seong frowned and squinted his eyes.

His eyes slowly started to adjust as he gave himself a bit of time.

And finally, when his eye fully adapted to the light, Woon Seong was able to see the imagery of what layed beyond the door.

Woon Seong smiled faintly at the sight.

‘I passed.’

The second trial of life and death, it wasn’t as difficult as he thought.