Chapter 83: The Great Forest
It took two days to reach the Black Wood Forest.
During that short time, as we faced each other and talked, I could see that Miss Tang Sa-yeon had an extremely high thirst for learning(?).
“Do you have any food you like?”
“Do you tend to eat salty, or do you prefer bland food?”
“What color do you like?”
She explored my preferences without hesitation.
To the point that Baek Mu-ho, who was watching from the side, clicked his tongue.
“Are you guys on a blind date right now?”
“…”
The fact that I couldn’t immediately deny it made my feelings strangely complicated.
How should I describe this?
‘It feels like… I’m being targeted?’
After thinking of the linguistic expression ‘being targeted’, my mood became even more complicated.
“Usually, isn’t that something the man does? Haven’t your roles reversed?”
“…Shut up.”
I am already feeling it. If I had to describe what this feeling is like, saying that I feel like I might get princess-carried sometime soon would be a sufficient explanation.
At Baek Mu-ho’s sarcasm, Miss Tang Sa-yeon’s eyes sparkled.
“You just need to bring your body. I’ll take care of everything else.”
“…I will consider it when the day comes that my masculinity disappears.”
Although it was brief, the scene of me being carried in Miss Tang Sa-yeon’s two arms into the bridal chamber popped into my head, so I had to shake my head.
[A girl with a pretty face, good body, and a solid family background is telling you to just bring your body. I’m envious, you bastard.]
“…”
Perhaps because his plan to open the head had been rejected, our sulking Mister Hua Tuo scratched at me.
According to Mister Bian Que, it wasn’t particularly wrong advice. Since it meant the opportunity to wash away the infamy of dying by the Wei King had flown away, I decided to understand him.
“By the way, I understand why they call it the Black Wood Forest.”
Since it was called the Black Wood Forest, I wondered if it was a place where many black trees grew, but it seemed to be called that because the trees were so dense that sunlight didn’t enter well.
Even though it was not yet sunset, a gloomy shadow lay heavily over the area.
“It’s dense.”
[It is a wild land where you can experience with your own skin venomous snakes, poisonous spiders, poisonous centipedes, swarms of mosquitoes, and all kinds of pests.]
“…”
Suddenly, I didn’t want to enter. Anyone who has lived while enjoying civilization would surely empathize with my current feeling.
Of course, I had lived in the mountains for a short while, but it wasn’t to this extent.
Especially not a place swarming with pests like poisonous spiders or poisonous centipedes!
“You called it the Black Wood Forest, but it was referring to the Great Forest?”
Miss Tang Sa-yeon seemed to know a bit about this place.
‘Is it natural?’
This place was a two-day distance from the Sichuan Tang Clan. There was no way the Sichuan Tang Clan would leave a place like this, which seemed overflowing with poisons and medicinal herbs, alone.
“I learned it based on ancient teachings. Do they call it that these days?”
“They’ve called it that for a few hundred years… well, if it’s nowadays, I guess it could be called nowadays. If it’s based on Hua Tuo’s legacy, then it makes sense.”
If she were someone who picked on every detail, she would have clung to the end of my words, but Miss Tang Sa-yeon brushed it off as if it was no big deal. As expected, she has a generous personality.
“What should we look for?”
[As you go deeper inside, you will see a spot where the moss, leaves, and greenness deepen as if gathering to a single point. First, we need the moss in the center. And…]
As I mentioned what Mister Bian Que said, Miss Miss Tang Sa-yeon nodded, seeming to realize what he was describing.
“Mmm! I know what you’re talking about. So that was also used as medicine.”
Moreover, she also knew the location to some extent.
“To hasten the harvesting, we must split up. The habitats are all different.”
“We should.”
Since the situation was urgent, we needed to hurry.
Miss Tang Sa-yeon looked like an expert, and I just had to do as Mister Bian Que or Mister Hua Tuo instructed, so there was no problem, but the complete novice Baek Mu-ho was the issue.
“It’s fine. I understood perfectly.”
“Really?”
“You mean I just need to gather moss, mushrooms, and tree bark, right?”
It meant he could just grab whatever he saw.
‘I think people who eat poison mushrooms and die in the mountains usually say things like that…’
It seemed I would have to carefully inspect the items Baek Mu-ho brought back.
***
The ingredient I decided to take charge of was mushrooms. This was because they were harder to distinguish than moss or bark.
To be precise, I didn’t have the courage to entrust mushroom gathering to Mu-ho.
Not that I was knowledgeable about herbs, but in my case, I had people checking them for me in real-time.
“This is really a place where something might come out.”
Black Wood Forest. This place, said to be called the Great Forest these days, was nature itself, untouched by human hands.
Trees, bushes, and vines were tangled in disorder, to the extent that something would catch my feet with every single step.
[Even in my time, this was a place considered sacred. There was even a saying that it was ‘the place where the god sleeps’.]
“I can understand why.”
At Mister Bian Que’s remark, I nodded unconsciously.
A place without a trace of humans. It felt like a place where it wouldn’t be strange if something that wasn’t human suddenly popped out from that darkness of dense bushes.
“Though that ancient god’s taste seems a bit poor.”
However, what was caught by my senses was extremely unpleasant.
Bzzzzzzz!
Weeeeeeeeng!
For example, a swarm of mosquitoes like this.
As I approached the vicinity of the suspected mushroom habitat, the things that rose with a terrible sound rushed all at once.
[What makes me very glad to have come to the underworld is that, unless it’s a place like the Screaming Hell, those damn mosquitoes don’t exist here. It’s not welcoming at all to hear this hellish sound after a long time.]
“Do you think you have it worse than me?”
I didn’t want to capture in my sight the scene of a swarm of mosquitoes, thick enough to look like a light fog, rushing at me.
Human imagination is infinite, but if someone wanted to imagine this, I had the confidence to advise them that it was a serious waste of mental strength and harmful to mental health, so please refrain.
The problem was that the mosquito swarm was real, and they were running wild with excitement over meeting a feast after a long time.
My hand, facing the mosquito swarm, began to move with a tense yet relaxed sensation that could extend in any direction.
Spirit-Descending Hand.
A martial art that seemed to caress a sense of discrepancy that did not fit common sense and did not seem to exist in reality.
This martial art, which Master Zhang Sanfeng had resolved to create, was indeed out of the ordinary.
To think it was a martial art that suppressed everything caught by my senses.
‘There is no fixed form, only intent.’
Like flowing water, I set my body on the flow of senses. The water flowing in that way naturally found cracks and flowed through.
Perhaps it was a martial art that could be called the ultimate extreme of sensory guidance.
However.
Slash!
Rustle!
“It’s hard.”
There was a clear difference between knowing it and implementing it in reality.
The moment one puts all mind and thoughts into the senses, reason blurs. A person who lets go of reason in that way is merely a beast.
Controlling senses and the subconscious under the control of consciousness—that is martial arts.
Spirit-Descending Hand was certainly the best martial art.
But controlling it was no easy matter.
Bzzz!
While swatting the rushing mosquitoes, I felt the presence of a few mosquitoes digging inside.
It was just a few mosquitoes out of a massive number of a swarm that looked like a small fog, but what if this had been a martial art unfolded by someone?
‘I would have been hit.’
It meant the defense of the Spirit-Descending Hand was breached.
If I had completely set my body on the senses, it was a result that wouldn’t have been permitted.
“Tch!”
As the energy raised in irritation gathered at my fingertips, a destructive force dwelled at the edge of the changes I drew.
Rumble!
The force that swept away the mosquito swarm at once and spread out left its mark.
[Oh!]
Perhaps it was a scene worth seeing, as exclamations came from Mister Hua Tuo and Mister Bian Que.
[It is refreshing to sweep away those damn bugs.]
It seemed they just liked that I crushed the annoying mosquito swarm.
On the other hand, as expected, Master Zhang Sanfeng’s voice contained regret.
[It will take some time to handle it properly.]
“Yes.”
Like Master Bodhidharma’s Ultimate Extreme Strike, the Spirit-Descending Hand also required a considerable amount of training to become proficient.
Even now, when it was unripe, it displayed formidable power, but considering the lineup of martial arts transmission masters, the standard was bound to be high.
Ultimately, I had to complete it through training and real combat.
[I am sorry to interrupt you while you are in the middle of a wonderful realization, but why don’t you check what was destroyed by the martial art you just displayed?]
“Pardon?”
[Among the finely crushed fragments scattered around, doesn’t something look like a mushroom? It seems very visible to my eyes.]
It was a pointer that could not be ignored, rather than being dismissed as the grumbling of a displeased Mister Hua Tuo.
“It’s true.”
More so since it was the truth.
The remnants of the mushrooms, which I had heard about until they were drilled into my ears as characteristics of the ingredients to treat the Myriad Poisons Divine Lord, were scattered around.
[You will have to go deeper to reach other habitats.]
[A long time has passed, but the characteristic features don’t seem to have changed much, so you will find them quickly.]
Though I didn’t welcome it at all, it seemed I had to go deeper into this forest where bugs and poisonous creatures swarmed.
…is what I was thinking.
“Hmm?”
I felt a stir in the forest.
An artificial flow was felt in a space untouched by human hands for a long time.
Something was moving. And it wasn’t just a sign of presence.
“In such a remote place.”
I wondered if the traitor of the Sichuan Tang Clan had tracked us, but if that were the case, the sensation transmitted would have been different from this.
This was a sound coming from a clash.
Moreover, it was gradually drawing closer to my side.
To think that people who entered a remote place untouched by human hands for ages were fighting and drawing closer to this place. It was almost to the point of being too coincidental to be dismissed as a mere coincidence.
“It’s here.”
When a force that vibrated the entire Great Forest as if an avalanche had occurred violently swept through.
Rip!
The forest tore apart before my eyes.
The dense growth that had rejected even sunlight until just now was torn to shreds.
A black energy raged like a typhoon.
A red energy clashed with that black energy and retreated.
As a corner of the forest collapsed, presences showing clear existence popped out.
“A girl?”
Retreating toward my side while avoiding the clash was a girl with a slender build.
Moreover, the one attacking the girl appeared to be a demonic practitioner.
The black, dark demonic energy that surged whenever he extended his force was proof.
“Stop!”
Right before my eyes, the demonic practitioner of the Demonic Cult tried to crush the young girl. If I were of a personality to stand by and watch that, I wouldn’t have come this far.
It didn’t seem like that demonic practitioner would leave me alone after crushing the girl, either.
Raising the divine power of Earth and the divine power of Metal, I stepped in front of the imperiled girl and displayed Master Zhang Sanfeng’s Spirit-Descending Hand.
At that moment!
‘…Huh?’
An unexpected force seeped into my fingertips unfolding the Spirit-Descending Hand and flowed through my body.
It was a force as hot as fire.