The Wizard Who Endured the World of Murim - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Surviving in the Martial Realm as a Mage: Episode 15
I felt the cold stone floor against my cheek.
Opening my eyes, I smacked my lips slightly.
‘Come to think of it, it was like this the first time too.’
When I first opened my eyes in this world.
The first thing I remembered was being thrown onto the ground with my limbs bound.
Coincidentally, the situation now was exactly the same as then.
‘Even the location is identical?’
Looking around the dimly lit surroundings, I saw a large square-shaped room that felt familiar.
A hollow laugh escaped me.
To lure out the kidnappers.
I had exchanged clothes with Inn Server Poil and continued loitering near the well.
Then, as the surroundings grew almost completely dark, the kidnappers crawled out from the well.
They suddenly suppressed my meridians and abducted me.
‘No one knew there was an underground waterway down there.’
The kidnappers traveled quite far by following the underground waterway connected to the well, abducting the children along the way.
But the location happened to be.
‘Here of all places.’
Manshizong Secret Base.
At this point, I wondered if it was some kind of fateful pull.
Moreover, listening carefully to what the kidnappers were saying, these really did seem to be Manshizong operatives.
‘No wonder I felt uneasy.’
How far could the Dongpae Rangin move against Manshizong?
Or would they even come to rescue us?
‘They say they can follow some kind of thousand-li tracking scent, but.’
Once they realized the enemy was Manshizong, they would likely flee in panic.
‘Then I’ll have to handle this alone.’
Facing this absurd crisis, I first steadied my breathing slowly.
Then I expanded my senses widely.
Thump-thump—
My expanded senses revealed through the vibrations of the floor and tremors in the air how many people were nearby and how skilled they were.
The image formed in my mind like a drawing.
This was what happened when survival was threatened.
The nerve cells throughout my body activated instinctively, awakening my primal senses.
A trace of primitive savagery that had no place in a mage.
A pure talent I possessed long before becoming an Archmage.
And.
‘These fools are careless.’
I smiled, letting my canines show slightly.
The number of people keeping watch nearby was small.
Their martial prowess wasn’t particularly impressive either.
Likely, since they’d only kidnapped children, they’d grown careless with their management.
‘But…’
There was a problem.
The number of children kidnapped and held in this place was excessively large.
‘It seems they didn’t just abduct from Giyang County alone.’
Every village in the surrounding area appeared to have been thoroughly ransacked for victims.
Then.
“Do you know who I am? Huh? Do you really think you can handle the consequences?”
A plump child—or rather, one with an exceptionally robust frame—lay sprawled across the floor in silk garments.
Bellowing at the top of his lungs toward the door outside.
“Hey! You out there? I know everything, understand? Come untie this right now! If you let me go even now, I’ll pretend I never saw any of this—untie the rope immediately! Hurry!”
Unlike the other children, who were sniffling and crying.
This child still possessed an undiminished commanding presence.
And.
That face was one Ilhyang recognized.
‘Oh? The Magistrate of Giyang’s son.’
Fortune had smiled upon me.
To encounter him so directly like this.
The child bore an exact resemblance to the face depicted in the portrait that Hak In-bo had shown—identical in every detail.
Those greedy, calculating eyes and the sagging cheeks like a toad’s.
Even the narrow eyes buried beneath layers of fat.
There was no doubt whatsoever that this was the kidnapped son of the Magistrate of Giyang.
‘So I’ve managed to locate the target of the commission.’
But I had no clear estimate of how to extract him from this place.
‘Attempting this alone would be impossible.’
While Ilhyang lay restrained, wriggling his bound wrists as he pondered the situation.
The young magistrate continued to shout with even greater bravado, staring beyond the unresponsive door.
“You bastards, when exactly will food be served! Haven’t we already passed mealtime!”
His tone had grown somewhat more mature.
Come to think of it, this wretch should have been kidnapped two days ago.
Could he really have been carrying on like this the entire time since then?
“Sigh, is he doing that again? Senior Guard. Should we really just leave him be?”
“Let him be. He’ll tire himself out eventually and stop. Remarkable. All that good eating must be why his voice carries so powerfully.”
“No matter what orders come from above, leaving that brat like this doesn’t seem right, does it?”
“What power do I have? When orders come from above, I follow them. Didn’t you see how the Family Head and all the elders became Jiangshi not long ago?”
“You were away on that business trip and weren’t at the estate for several days. But is it really true?”
“What is?”
“If the Family Head and all the elders have become Jiangshi, then the Pyeong Family is completely finished, isn’t it? Isn’t this the kind of incident that should be reported to Cheonjoong Sungdo, Senior Guard?”
“Phew, Gwanmyeong. I’m telling you this seriously because I’m worried—don’t go half-cocked and cause trouble elsewhere.”
“I don’t know what….”
“Just shut up and do whatever Mansizong tells you to do without complaint. That’s how people like us survive in this world. There’s nothing good that comes from thinking too much.”
“…Well, I know that too.”
“The higher-ups know they’d be inconvenienced without workers like us, so they leave us alone. So just work quietly. Then there won’t be any problems.”
“Yes, Senior Guard.”
The murmuring voices from the outer corridor gradually faded into the distance.
Ilhyang closed his eyes and concentrated all his senses on hearing, then slowly opened them with a smile.
‘Things are developing interestingly.’
Had they been ordered not to touch the sacrifice?
Or was that fat boy under special management?
There was still nothing he could know for certain.
‘Still.’
It seemed he might be able to create a useful variable after all.
* * *
“Did you say the Thousand-Li Tracking Scent connected all the way there?”
“Yes, Hak In-bo.”
“Hmm….”
“What should we do?”
Between the cliffs.
A thick stone gate, cunningly concealed by undergrowth, came into view.
And before it stood a single creature.
“That’s not human, is it?”
From a distant boulder, hidden from sight, the ruffians surveying the area below wore expressions that were decidedly grim.
“No. Its movements clearly display the characteristics of a Jiangshi.”
“A Jiangshi that radiates such overwhelming presence—could it possibly be a Blood Corpse?”
“That would seem to be the case.”
“If Mansizong has made a move… this is beyond what we can handle.”
Hak In-bo’s judgment was swift.
He assessed precisely what they could and could not do.
There was one problem, however.
“What about Ilhyang? What do we do about that arrogant kid?”
“…We can only hope he survives until we return.”
“Ugh, this is going to be a nightmare.”
“Adding our strength won’t improve the situation. Rather, we should return to Giyang County quickly and move the County Magistrate.”
“No, no! That won’t do!”
A strange voice suddenly called down from above their heads.
The ruffians turned with startled expressions.
Then.
A single pine tree growing at the cliff’s edge.
Where its slender branches swayed and bent.
There, hanging upside down, was a Young Boy with a corpse-pale complexion and an expressionless face.
The blue martial robe the Young Boy wore bore a distinctive symbol—a human palm print.
The moment the Ruffians saw it, they cried out in alarm.
“Mansizong!”
“Ding ding, correct! But if I let you go from here, Siou’s gonna get absolutely chewed out by his sister. So how about you all stay put, yeah?”
Hak In-bo observed the Kid’s feminine manner of speech and his slightly unfocused eyes before whispering to his companions.
“That’s a monster. Don’t be fooled by appearances. Everyone needs to escape with everything you’ve got.”
“Scatter!”
The Ruffians drew throwing needles from their robes and scattered in all directions like grasshoppers.
Ilhyang, however, remained unaware of this.
Outside, an equally fierce pursuit was already underway.
“Senior Guard! Let’s head there first!”
“Where?”
“Don’t you see that rock shaped like a horse’s head over there?”
The moment Hak In-bo sensed pursuers closing in.
He steeled himself for death.
Gyeong Hap-gi and Go An-jeok, who had fled in the opposite direction, might survive if luck favored them.
“Well, at least I hope my legs stay intact.”
Chills ran down his spine.
No matter how fast he ran, the youthful voice clinging to his heels
never fell more than a certain distance behind.
“What difference does reaching there make?”
“At least it’ll be better than now!”
“Understood.”
Yu Jeong-ui was a Ruffian of considerable renown, formerly a Jiwan—an official skilled in reading geomancy and determining the forms, shapes, number of windows and doors, and their directions for government offices and major urban institutions.
Whatever he suggested had reason behind it, so there was no choice but to follow.
“Now!”
Yu Jeong-ui leaped from the Horse Head Rock, gasping for breath.
Hak In-bo followed without hesitation.
From Hak In-bo’s perspective,
the rock they’d jumped from was quite high—perfect for a trick.
So he drew an extremely thin needle from his robe and rapidly drove it into the middle of the rock.
Thunk—
Gripping the thread connected to the needle taut, Hak In-bo descended in a controlled fall, and just before touching ground,
he swiftly drove another needle into the lower section of the rock, setting the thread diagonally.
This was Jiaolong Silk—a treasure he’d carefully maintained and guarded.
It was a special thread honed by alchemical treatment to cut through ordinary steel.
If someone fell from above without knowing anything about it?
They’d be cleaved in two.
‘But that’s far too optimistic a fantasy.’
I couldn’t determine the enemy’s exact capabilities.
Precisely because of this uncertainty, Hak In-bo set a simple yet lethal trap and bolted toward Yu Jeong-ui without a backward glance.
“Senior! This way! Hurry!”
Hak In-bo rushed after Yu Jeong-ui, squeezing through the narrow gap between two boulders.
Yu Jeong-ui withdrew several small, dark magnetic compasses from his sleeve—each no larger than two finger joints.
He then drove them into the ground in various directions according to a specific pattern.
Next, he planted a small flag pole in the center and smeared blood from his finger across the ground.
“This should bind its feet for at least a quarter hour. It’s an illusion formation.”
“Excellent.”
The two men left the billowing smoke erupting from the rocky crevice behind them.
They hastily escaped through a narrow tunnel on the opposite side.
After that, Yu Jeong-ui took the lead, guiding their path.
Despite never having visited this place before,
he navigated animal burrows and hidden trails with uncanny precision, as though he’d traveled them countless times.
Having survived in this underworld for so long,
he possessed hidden strategies others could only dream of.
As they fled without pause for breath,
just as they believed they’d nearly descended the entire valley,
a chilling voice echoed from behind.
“Siou’s arm is cut off. It hurts so much. It hurts.”
“…!”
Hak In-bo barely stifled a scream that nearly burst from his lips.
The monster had pursued them all the way here.
As Hak In-bo’s face drained of color and his single eye darted frantically searching for an escape route,
Yu Jeong-ui, who had been running ahead, suddenly stumbled and threw himself flat against the ground.
Hak In-bo crouched down as though they’d rehearsed it.
And then—
Whoosh, whoosh—
With sharp sounds, from behind a thick tree directly ahead,
Go An-jeok and Gyeong Hap-gi, who had fled in the opposite direction earlier, burst forth like shadows and unleashed their crossbows.
“Senior!”
“Go!”
The moment Yu Jeong-ui and Hak In-bo felt arrows whistle past their heads,
and heard their comrades’ sharp warning cries,
they realized the pursuing monster remained unharmed and immediately rose to flee again.
Gyeong Hap-gi and Go An-jeok likewise recovered their crossbows and ran desperately, sweat pouring from their feet.
“There!”
As a narrow side path appeared, Yu Jeong-ui led his group toward it, tearing open a leather pouch he carried and hurling it to the ground.
Hak In-bo caught the scent of oil spreading across the ground and leaped over it, then
immediately drew a fire starter from his sleeve and cast it onto the oil.
“Please, just die already!”
Screeeech―
A scorching heat erupted from behind.
Among the four companions fleeing,
Hak In-bo, who lagged at the rear, instinctively turned his remaining eye backward.
And.
“Ah….”
He shouldn’t have looked.
The creature pursuing them clutched a severed arm in one hand like a toy,
chasing them as a flaming mass engulfed in fire.
Its two legs pressed tightly together, bounding like a deer with each grotesque leap.
“Ah, ah… it hurts. You… it hurts so much. Sister Siou, it hurts so much―!”
“That… that monstrous bastard.”
Hak In-bo felt his spine crawl as he beheld the Jiangshi wearing the form of a small child.
Yet he was a seasoned veteran who had endured every hardship the Kangho could inflict.
He tightened his core and bolted forward with desperate speed, finally shaking off the pursuit.
He had sprinted all the way to the Official Road where Giyang County came into view.
Fortunately, once he reached that point, the pursuer no longer followed.
Still detecting the acrid stench of burning flesh lingering deep in his nostrils, Hak In-bo spoke to his subordinates.
“We must report this to the County Magistrate at once.”
“Understood, Senior Guard.”
Thus did this commission begin to spiral in an uncontrollable direction.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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