“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: 鬼鸣 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.