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Chapter 7: The Coming Detection

Swoosh–!! Thud-!!

After flying for a while, my body finally crashes into the ground.

I land atop a rock and shake myself off briefly.

With a strong flick to my nape that had been caught, I scowled and shouted.

“What the heck was that!”

I brushed off the arms of the Heavenly Demon, who had suddenly dragged me away when I was all set to fight.

“Didn’t you want to fight? Why the fuss?”

Why did you interrupt me? I demanded to know, and the Heavenly Demon replied.

“There was someone there.”

“What…?”

I narrowed my brows at that. Someone was there?

“Where?”

“Nearby.”

“…You’re not talking about the cow, are you?”

“Yeah, something else. A bird.”

“A bird?”

“Yeah. A bird.”

Not a cow, but a bird? I pondered over the Heavenly Demon’s words.

‘Was there something…?’

No matter how hard I thought, I felt no presence. Aside from Duryeong, I hadn’t sensed anything at all.

‘Did they sense something I didn’t?’

The Heavenly Demon said they picked up the presence of something other than Duryeong. That’s why they dragged me away, huh?

‘…Is that true?’

I couldn’t say I believed it completely. I didn’t feel anything myself, after all.

“……”

As I quietly looked at the Heavenly Demon staring back at me, no further words came to mind.

Had they really stuck around this long for no reason? That unconscious thought flitted through my mind.

‘…Damn it.’

This wasn’t good. It was not a good sign to be developing unnecessary faith in the Heavenly Demon.

But that was how it was.

‘They haven’t done anything harmful to me so far.’

Thinking back to what the Heavenly Demon had done, nothing they did seemed threatening.

In fact, if anything, they had been more helpful than not; there had been no actions that put me in danger.

So that’s why.

A growing faith in the Heavenly Demon had begun to take root in my mind.

‘…Get a grip.’

I shook my head hard, trying to dismiss those thoughts. I needed to be cautious about this, even just in case.

‘Anything could happen.’

If I handed them my trust like this, who knew what they might do later? I couldn’t let my guard down.

But.

‘…Regarding this incident.’

I couldn’t help but feel the Heavenly Demon wouldn’t have done it without reason.

I had also heard about that reason.

‘There’s something else. Something I wouldn’t have noticed.’

What could it be?

‘They said it was a bird.’

Not a cow, but a bird. I placed some significance in the way the Heavenly Demon had phrased it.

‘A bird…’

What could this bird be? I thought for a moment and then a sudden thought struck me—though it was somewhat unrelated to the current situation.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“By the way, you were fast, huh?”

“…”

As I brought it up, the Heavenly Demon flinched momentarily.

I had felt it when they had snatched me into the air just now.

“I thought you were about the same as me!”

Before setting out from Hwasan Sect to Spirit Mountain, I had tested our speeds, and they had seemed significantly slower then.

“Now that I think about it, that’s not the case, right?”

From what I’d just experienced, they seemed much faster. The difference was negligible compared to mine.

They seemed a bit slower, but still, if we were moving together, it wouldn’t be a disadvantage at all.

“……”

The Heavenly Demon slowly averted their gaze as they heard me.

“What’s up with you? You doing that on purpose?”

“…No.”

“‘No’ my foot. Look me in the eye.”

“……”

They kept their head turned, but their eyes subtly darted toward me. What was this guy?

“Ah… I’m hungry. I need to eat.”

Out of nowhere, they began to avoid me.

“Stop talking nonsense and just speak properly!”

They had been carrying me for who-knows-how-long, and now they claimed to be fast?

“Hey! Come here!”

I shouted and came closer, but the Heavenly Demon quickly evaded my grasp.

*

After some playful back and forth, a little time passed.

Night faded away above, giving way to day.

In the meantime, I stayed put on Spirit Mountain, carefully observing my surroundings.

Simultaneously, I replayed the battle with Duryeong in my mind.

‘What a pesky guy.’

That was my conclusion.

Even though he was a general like me, Duryeong felt different compared to Yusa.

‘He remains wild in his movements, still showing no hints of strategy.’

But his approach was indeed different.

First off, as I’d expected, he did play aggressively, leveraging his immortality to charge at me relentlessly.

‘But even in that, his situational awareness was quick.’

Not just recklessly throwing his body around, I could tell he was moving as efficiently as possible.

He wasn’t as dumb as he appeared.

‘What a bothersome guy.’

If he had been merely a reckless idiot, he would have been easier to deal with. Sadly, that wasn’t the case with Duryeong.

And his strength?

‘…Excessively strong.’

His power was undeniably immense. One wrong hit could be fatal.

‘That means…’

Against someone charging mindlessly, I would need to dodge and land effective strikes deftly.

‘At least it’s a relief that communication works.’

If I used that, battling wouldn’t seem too difficult.

‘Though I wish I’d seen things a bit more clearly.’

It was painfully disappointing that I missed out on closely observing other factors.

‘Tam should work.’

I had witnessed the power of immortality firsthand. Yusa’s severed arm had regenerated instantly, and he had healed from wounds in a flash.

‘But the speed and quality…’

Duryeong’s recovery was incomparable.

The image of my abdomen regenerating in the blink of an eye was still vivid in my mind.

‘Tam should be able to deal with that, right?’

I wasn’t certain since I hadn’t tried it. But I believed it would work.

‘And there was that final transformation.’

‘That entire frame turning red.’

Was he translating heat? I recalled the black leather and fur turning crimson.

‘In turn, his presence seemed to fade away.’

What effect could that have been? I had no way to know, having slipped away just before the fight.

Now, the troubling part is.

‘His senses.’

Even while he diminished his presence and erased his signs, he had still pinpointed my location.

That gnawed at me.

‘It can’t just be good senses.’

There was something distinctly off about it.

There were too many oddities to chalk it up as just being perceptive.

‘There’s something deeper.’

His senses held some hidden secret.

Whether it would aid him in battle, I couldn’t say.

‘Still…’

That was how it seemed when he reacted.

He hadn’t detected my Qi; rather, he somehow already knew I was there. Initially, I thought it was the other way around. However, Duryeong’s words made me realize the truth.

‘He had noticed me since I arrived at Spirit Mountain.’

‘How is that possible?’

Was his Qi so broad and precise? It couldn’t be as simple as that.

‘While Yusa had sharp senses, this was on a completely different level.’

It couldn’t merely end with him being perceptive.

It was something surpassing mere awareness.

‘Or perhaps, even if I had run away, he still would have known my location?’

In the worst-case scenario, he could be tracking my presence simply by my being in Spirit Mountain.

If that turned out to be true…

‘That would render escaping pointless.’

My intent was within Spirit Mountain, but if he could know what I was doing here…

‘Things would get too complicated.’

I had to unyieldingly aim to kill Duryeong.

“Cheh…”

I clicked my tongue. I had gained quite a bit of information, but the situation was rather entangled.

‘But this land itself is strange.’

In such a vast and high Mount Tai, it seemed impossible that no signs of life could be felt. How could that even make sense?

‘Even dead trees harbor some life.’

Even the old trees that had lost their vitality held insects. Beasts made their homes in the ruins.

Regardless of the situation, life should never vanish.

Yet still.

‘So why is it here?’

Why was there not a single presence to sense on Spirit Mountain?

That unwelcome sense of alienation pricked at the back of my neck repeatedly.

I had to probe deeper.

“There’s something I need to uncover in this situation.”

That instinct prompted me, persistently.

Prodding.

Prodding.

The sensation was so clear, it felt as if someone were truly poking me.

Prodding.

Prodding.

…Or rather, someone really was poking me?

“…What are you doing?”

I turned around and glared at the Heavenly Demon. They were the one poking me.

“I have a lot on my mind already. Why are you panicking so much?”

“Look there.”

“What?”

Unperturbed by my irritation, the Heavenly Demon pointed somewhere.

It was still the rocky terrain of Mount Tai. The background was identical to everything I could see around me.

Why are you pointing at nothing? I squinted at the Heavenly Demon and asked.

“What is that?”

“There’s someone there.”

“No, what do you mean there’s someone… huh? What?”

Someone’s there? I widened my eyes at the Heavenly Demon’s words, then immediately focused all my energy into my heart.

I aimed to use Qi, but I didn’t extend it as broadly as before. Just in case Duryeong could react again.

Carefully, I expanded my Qi in the direction the Heavenly Demon pointed. The slowly encroaching energy gradually widened and flew far away.

At the energy’s distant end.

“…Huh?”

I really detected something. Letting out a breath of disbelief.

“What the heck is this?”

Until last night, I hadn’t felt a single thing, but now it was different.

A presence was registering.

The presence of a living being, to be exact.

And it was.

“Is there a lot of them?”

Far from just one, I could sense many presences.

 

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