Seongcheon Yoon Clan (4)
Fear was one of the most primal emotions in humans.
…No, when you think about it, it couldn’t just be limited to humans.
Fear was the most basic internal warning sign of peril inherent in living beings.
Any creature that couldn’t feel fear would have long been eliminated in this unpredictable world.
‘What’s wrong with deeply understanding, savoring, and praising such fear?’
Heresy? Heresy, you say!
Isn’t it rather heretical for those who shy away from the very essence to call themselves ‘practitioners’?
He encountered a fragment of that truth and gained enlightenment due to certain events.
After that, he completely cast aside the chakra he had practiced until then and began to walk a wholly new path.
At that time, he was quite successful in his previous endeavors, so the process brought all sorts of trials and tribulations, but he didn’t care.
He firmly believed that trials and suffering were values that a practitioner must endure.
And so, time passed.
As if he was being rewarded for making the right judgment at a crossroads, he was able to reach a considerably high level within the realm of the abyss.
Perhaps there were not many in the world who could confidently claim to be stronger than him.
But at the same time, he also felt it.
A massive wall blocked his path.
Like facing the end of the world, he felt a despair of inescapable hopelessness.
[Ah… this is…!]
But at this very moment.
A rope was descending from beyond the wall he had merely been gazing at.
He writhed with joy, his body trembling.
Grrrr—
It would be a lie to say he had no expectations when agreeing to join the plan.
If things went well and the world were once again filled with fear, would there be any progress in his practice?
But who would have thought a fortuitous event would come so quickly and in such a direct form!
[Did you really think a mental attack would work on me, who reached the depths through fear? …Anyway, I should be grateful. Thanks to you, I’ve gained a clue to surpass the wall.]
Various thoughts surged in his mind.
Among them mixed with ‘fear’ were numerous elements, but that wasn’t too problematic.
After all, he was an existence who had delved deeply into negative emotions to reach a higher state.
“Really? I’m glad it seems to suit my taste. Then I won’t hesitate.”
[…Hmm?]
“I realized something thanks to you. Since this is a rare opportunity, it wouldn’t hurt to complete my first trial.”
[What do you mean…?]
…Yes, it should have been this way.
However, there were a few facts he had overlooked.
There was a saying in the world that too much of anything is as bad as not enough.
And now, the one he was facing was not just a mere lower-level practitioner.
Immediately, a surge of thoughts overwhelmed him.
Death, pain, oppression, anger, madness, malice, laziness…
All manner of negative thoughts rushed in.
His inner world began to creak.
His mind, honed through years of ascetic practice, was certainly not weak, but even so, there were limits.
[Wait…!]
Justice, belief, resolution, will, courage, tolerance, compassion…
All sorts of positive thoughts whirled about.
A noise pierced the mental image he had believed would be strong forever.
Though not as pure as the negative emotions, their incompatibility with fear made them difficult to handle.
[How the hell…!]
Thoughts of completely opposing natures couldn’t coexist.
Moreover, the purity of each one could not be underestimated.
They continued to surge in like pouring liquid through a funnel stuck in his throat.
Continuously.
Endlessly.
Without the prospect of retreating.
[Ugh, how long will this go on…!]
He had long since exceeded his limits.
He was merely gritting his teeth and somehow enduring by drawing on his experiences in reaching the depths.
But even if he was holding on, there was no sign of improving the situation.
‘I can’t believe it! There’s no way such an abyss could be contained by just one lower-level practitioner…!’
That was indeed correct.
What was flooding into him now was neither from a lower-level practitioner nor a single individual.
Hans, Heinz II, Heinrich, Harley, and so on…
They were beings of equal or higher divine levels, not just transcendent beings.
How could he, at a depth level, handle the thoughts of those whose collective might even surpassed that of transcendent beings?
“I’m so proud to see you thriving.”
At that moment, the culprit of the situation murmured calmly.
A voice that was entirely out of place for this urgent scenario.
“There’s still plenty left, so enjoy yourself.”
His consciousness was gradually fading away.
At that point, he had to admit.
What had approached from beyond that wall was not a rope to pull him to the next stage.
‘…I don’t understand.’
It truly was the unknown.
Chakra was a mystery grounded in understanding.
For a practitioner handling chakra to be consumed by something unfathomable was terror beyond compare.
‘Is that so? This is…’
An unknown fear that couldn’t even be measured or understood.
[Ah… finally, I… am…]
This was precisely the ultimate ideal he had longed for and searched for.
[…I have faced true fear.]
With those words, his dimming consciousness was drawn deep beneath the abyss of eternity.
*
“Cough! Hack, hack!”
Hoon, who was trying hard to maintain his composure, furrowed his brow and coughed dryly.
With a headache from excessive use of his abilities, he grabbed his head and staggered as he looked forward.
“…Phew, maybe I overdid it. I won’t be able to use Thought Overload for a while.”
Before him stood a black mummy, completely unmoving.
The form that he couldn’t properly recognize had long returned to what it looked like when it first appeared.
No, even before that, it had lost all signs of life.
‘Perhaps that was to be expected.’
Initially, it was astonishing that it was even alive.
The powerful chakra that had reached the depths must have been the driving force that kept its life artificially extended.
It wouldn’t be odd if it had ceased to exist the moment its foundation was lost with the mental world’s destruction.
‘Even though I haven’t reached transcendence, I certainly went to the brink. It should be worth studying.’
Now that there was no one around to snap back to reality, it was the right moment.
Hoon, glancing around cautiously, quickly used Spatial Dimension Storage to stow the mummy away.
“Since it held on better than I expected, I overdid it a bit…”
‘Thought Overload’ was a finishing move that mobilized both Communication and the chakra of thought contact.
Naturally, there would be no way to use such a powerful ability without any cost.
Plus, since he had also used the Limit Break to enhance his output, the burden on him was even greater.
He would probably need a few hours to recover.
‘But it was definitely worth it. I gained a lot from it.’
Essentially, ‘communication’ was meant to be a two-way street.
Until now, there hadn’t been anyone enduring his mental attack for long, so it hadn’t stood out much. But the mage practitioner he had just faced was a different case.
‘I never expected to reach the middle level this quickly. And considering this much, I might soon reach the upper level.’
He had effectively leveled up explosively by hunting high-level prey.
Normally, Hoon would also have suffered and struggled more than the experience gained, influenced negatively by the mummies’ consciousness…
But now, that couldn’t be seen as a sure penalty.
And one more thing.
《The entity has achieved enlightenment by meeting the conditions. You have acquired the skill ‘Wheel of Law’.》
Being able to gain Yoon Clan’s vision in the midst of his struggles was a huge benefit.
With this ‘Wheel of Law’, he could now connect multiple images at once rather than pulling up just one at a time, so the contribution to his combat power would be enormous.
“Indeed, practical training surpasses all! Now, what remains…?”
Just as he muttered to himself.
Crackle—!
Lightning surged up in the chaotic courtyard of the lodging.
“Hoon! Are you alright?!”
Amidst the sparks, Lucette appeared, her whole body wrapped in golden lightning.
She looked a mess, with dust and blood clinging to her, just like when she was trapped in the barrier.
‘Looks like she’s already been through a brawl.’
Well, that was to be expected.
She was one of Yoon’s top powers.
In the turmoil where the entire clan was turned upside down, she couldn’t just stand idly by.
“What is this…?”
Upon arriving at the scene and seeing Hoon unharmed, her expression sighed in relief, but then instantly stiffened.
She sensed the remnants of a dreadful aura still lingering in the air.
With a cold, rigid expression, her vigilance heightened as she scanned the vicinity.
‘To have this level of aura left…?’
She had been running around the orphanages in full force to protect as many as she could from the chaos erupting in the outer fortress.
Compared to adult warriors, the orphanages filled with unarmed children were the most vulnerable spots in Yoon Clan.
‘This energy, a lower-level mage practitioner? But it’s definitely not below me. What on earth happened here…?’
Was everything still okay?
With such thoughts, her gaze fell on Hoon.
In a place where everyone else had collapsed, he was standing tall and proud.
She soon realized one thing.
The problem that had occurred here was completely resolved by this man.
‘…There was no need to worry at all.’
Thinking it over, he was the strong person who had saved her in danger.
In such a chaotic situation, he must possess enough ability to protect himself.
Seeing the lack of invader corpses at the scene, it seemed he had driven them away somehow, and in this current state where even one hand was needed, that was more than enough of an achievement.
“Once again, we have received help from the Yoon Clan. I hadn’t even repaid the previous favor, and now I am in a dilemma about how to repay this one…”
“Don’t worry about it. As a member of the guest faction, it’s only natural to help when the main base is in danger.”
It was only natural for him to step up when the stronghold was in trouble, especially since the invader had even targeted him directly.
“Even so, I can’t just let it slide. If you hadn’t dealt with the enemy from the depths, I can’t imagine how much more damage we would’ve suffered. I must ensure to report this properly. Including the fact that you saved me, it’s a big dilemma on what kind of reward to give you.”
“Well, if you insist on rewarding me, I won’t refuse.”
“Leave it to me. I’ll do my best to ensure you’re satisfied. …Now that things seem to be okay here, I’ll move on to find other locations.”
The time they spent exchanging words was just a brief moment of respite for Lucette.
As long as everything had not been settled yet, the longer a powerhouse like her took to rest, the greater the damage to the Yoon Clan would be.
Crackle—!
After Lucette vanished with the flash of lightning.
Hoon moved the fallen people into the lobby of the lodging and headed up to his room.
Since it was inefficient to guard over the whole room, he intended to bring Ramu, who’d be in the room, down to the lobby.
The expensive lodging had barriers that prevented unapproved outsiders from entering, but it was unreasonable to rely solely on that and leave those who had lost consciousness in this situation where the outer fortress barriers were breached.
“…!”
Just as he grabbed the handle of his door with such thoughts.
Shiiiing—!
With a fierce surge, the door was split in two as a sharp aura lunged towards him.
However, the sudden attack did not stop there.
Swish— Sssshhhh—!
An invisible storm of an aura began to swirl down the corridor from inside his room.
Hoon instinctively lowered his body and rolled back to evade the onslaught of attacks.
If he hadn’t acquired the Wheel of Law or if he hadn’t upgraded his physical abilities and senses with chakra at the middle level, he likely wouldn’t have reacted at all.
“Ugh!”
But he couldn’t completely avoid the sudden ambush.
As something grazed past one of his thighs, a splash of red blood erupted.
His body stumbled with minor wounds not just on his thigh, but all over his body.
He had come away unscathed even against a mage practitioner from the depths, yet he now showed vulnerabilities against such sudden attacks.
“…Not bad. I was planning to slice you up in one hit with my first attack.”
At that moment, a figure slowly stepped out from his room, stepping over the smashed door.
A man close to two meters tall, covered in tattoos.
“Anton… what the hell is going on?”
Belarusian and an upper-level practitioner, Anton glared at Hoon with eyes gleaming with abnormal lust.
The madness flickering in his eyes was truly that of a dangerous lunatic, no matter how you looked at it.
“What do you mean, what’s going on?”
He grinned broadly, confidently opening his mouth.
“I’m just here to reclaim what’s mine!”
An incomprehensible claim.
Yet he only twisted his face and continued to make excuses.
“I don’t know why she’s interested in you, but… the solution is simple.”
Thin threads flickered between his fingers, barely visible.
He gazed satisfied at his weapon, which seemed to melt into the air, then glared at Hoon with a twisted smile.
“Simply put, you just need to disappear.”
A lunatic blinded by a woman, willing to commit murder in the chaos.
But as Hoon composed himself to assess the situation, he knew.
Anton was not in his right mind.
‘…Perhaps the traitors who breached the Yoon Clan’s barriers might be in a similar state.’
To investigate that, he first needed to securely subdue Anton.
Since he couldn’t use Thought Overload, the killing blow, for a smooth investigation.
‘Though, I can’t use it right now anyway.’
He had to take down an upper-level practitioner without any finishing moves.
In the past, he would have gracefully given up.
But now the situation was different.
He had quite a few decent weapons at his disposal.
“Fine, whatever. To be honest, I didn’t like you much either.”
Hoon’s eyes turned red.
The blood flowing from all his small wounds coalesced into a sharp blade.
Then the wounds began to heal, and all the muscles in his body started pumping.
“Haha! Now let’s see…!”
For some unknown reason, Hoon felt an exhilarating sensation as he let out a light laugh.
And in that very moment.
“…Let’s play as much as we want!”
Figures multiplied into dozens, rushing toward him along the walls and ceilings of the corridor.
