Then, Let’s Go.

Wiiiing!

A loud, buzzing wind-like sound filled the air.

Gyo-ha swung his fist toward the thing flying at him.

A yellow body and round black eyes.

Wings that beat rapidly.

It was a bee.

The problem was that it was the size of an adult man.

The bee tried to dodge nimbly, but its wing burst apart.

It spun around in circles, having lost its balance.

Seizing the opening, Gyo-ha’s fist struck the bee’s head.

Kwa-jik!

Fluids splattered in every direction.

“There’s one behind you too!”

Ah-ryeong’s voice rang out from a distance.

But even before her voice reached him, Gyo-ha was already moving.

His body turned and his foot lashed out behind him.

Pang!

The bee that took the kick to the head staggered.

Even if it was a glancing blow, it had enough power to easily crush a human skull.

Yet the bee looked unscathed.

Gyo-ha moved to attack again, but the bee was already taking off.

Perhaps realizing all its companions had fallen, it only circled in the air and wouldn’t come down.

Then it fled the area as if running away.

Gyo-ha wondered if he should chase it down with Flying Dragon Chasing Lightning, but shook his head.

It was already too late to chase after it. The bee was even faster than that bird from before.

Even if the distance had been right, there was no guarantee he would hit. The bee’s movements were that hard to read. From the start, Flying Dragon Chasing Lightning was not a martial art meant for fighting.

It was only that Gyo-ha used it in his own eccentric way.

“Haa, that was a relief.”

Once the fight was over, Ah-ryeong ran up.

By now she was speaking to him informally. That was how close they had grown. Gyo-ha too now called her Sister Ah-ryeong, not Seol Mae.

However, even with the fight over, Gyo-ha’s expression was not good.

It was not because the fight had ended halfway.

He looked at the dead bees.

There were four of them in all.

Counting the one that fled, that made five.

There had not been five from the beginning.

When they first encountered them, there had been only one.

Shortly after that one spotted the two of them, four more appeared.

‘…Scout bees.’

They were what you would call worker bees.

Bees that searched for and carried food.

Because he had grown up in the mountains, he knew well how bees behaved.

Now that they knew an enemy was here, the soldiers would swarm in.

It was hard to even guess how many there would be.

‘If I were alone, I’d probably be happy about it.’

Gyo-ha glanced sidelong at Ah-ryeong. Reading something in his gaze, she spoke carefully.

“…Am I getting in your way?”

“No.”

It wasn’t a lie.

She was not a burden. Not yet.

Perhaps it was only natural for a Hao Gate disciple. Compared to Ae-wol, whom he had seen before, her sense for reading people was on another level.

She seemed used to gauging others’ moods.

Ah-ryeong’s true talent was probably not music, but this keen perception.

‘…Though it might not be a talent at all.’

A survival instinct.

She had lived as a beggar, then been kidnapped. After that she was dragged to the Hao Gate, learned their skills, and became a courtesan.

A life as twisted as hers was rare.

Naturally, reading others’ feelings had become ingrained in her.

“For now, let’s get out of here. First…”

Gyo-ha turned his head. Among the fallen bees, two were still twitching.

They were not dead yet.

He crushed their heads one by one.

Ah-ryeong watched him with a puzzled look.

They looked like they would die if left alone. Still, she didn’t bother to ask. She simply guessed he must have his reasons.

And just as she imagined, there was a reason Gyo-ha made sure to finish them off.

When the bees died, an unknown energy flowed into his body.

Droplets of water gathered in an once-empty bowl.

‘I can’t really call it a grain of millet anymore.’

It was about the size of a bean now. Watching it grow was oddly satisfying.

But unlike his internal energy, it accumulated far too slowly.

Even now, his internal was filling without rest.

On top of that, this stuff was only absorbed when he killed something himself.

Even if he had already won, if he didn’t personally take its life, he could not take it in.

After finishing off every bee, he started walking again.

Together with Ah-ryeong, he climbed the slope.

As he walked, Gyo-ha frowned at the dead bees.

Right then, Ah-ryeong, who was following behind, met his gaze and tilted her head.

Gyo-ha hesitated for a moment, then strode over to her.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

“Huh? Ah, okay.”

Ah-ryeong looked startled as he reached toward her, but soon relaxed and entrusted her body to him.

It was because she trusted Gyo-ha.

To be honest, if he had wanted to have his way with her, he would have done so long ago.

She also realized he still had no such feelings now.

Gyo-ha slung Ah-ryeong over himself like a sack.

It showed clearly what he thought of her.

‘…This is a little hurtful in its own way.’

Ah-ryeong smiled bitterly. She hadn’t wanted to be treated as a woman, but she didn’t want to be handled like luggage either.

But that smile didn’t last long.

Koong!

Both of their bodies rose into the air.

“W-wait!”

At the dizzying height, Ah-ryeong let out a scream. But Gyo-ha was already moving.

The moment his feet hit the ground, he leapt again.

His speed was faster than before.

Ah-ryeong had no choice but to clamp her mouth shut so she wouldn’t bite her tongue.

Koong, Koong, Koong.

Gyo-ha bounded through the forest like a grasshopper.

It was to get away from this place even a little faster. Only after he had run for quite some time did Gyo-ha finally stop.

Only then did Ah-ryeong let out a breath.

“If you were going to do something like this, you should have told me…”

“Shh.”

At Gyo-ha’s low voice, Ah-ryeong swallowed her breath.

He hadn’t stopped because they had gotten far away.

He set Ah-ryeong down and lowered himself quietly. She crouched down with him.

Before long, they heard a loud, rushing sound.

Wiiiing, Wing, Wiiiiing!

It was not just one. A black swarm moved past.

“…Don’t tell me that’s…”

At Ah-ryeong’s question, Gyo-ha nodded.

It was an army. An army of bees.

They were bigger than the bees Gyo-ha had fought.

It was not just their size. The mandibles on their heads were larger and sharper, and their two arms were pointed like spears.

They were creatures born for battle.

They had deliberately changed direction, yet almost crossed paths with them.

It meant that even while fleeing, the bee had spiraled around.

But thanks to that, they had learned something.

Their nest was not far from here.

On top of that.

‘So they have a natural enemy too.’

Otherwise it wouldn’t have changed direction while running away.

It was an instinct to avoid its predator.

The first bird he had seen came to mind.

With that bird’s thick hide, it wouldn’t be harmed by the worker bees’ stingers and fangs.

But it wouldn’t be able to block these soldiers.

They looked rock-solid at a glance.

In other words, there was something even more dangerous than that bird still out there.

Gyo-ha watched the bees leaving, then sniffed.

It was to check the smell coming from his own body.

However, he didn’t smell any bee scent.

Even so, he couldn’t let his guard down. There were insects that spread scents only they could detect.

Gyo-ha waited for the army to pass, then changed direction and started walking.

Perhaps his efforts were not in vain, as even after a long time there was no sign of bees pursuing them.

Only then could Gyo-ha relax a little.

However, Ah-ryeong’s expression behind him was dark.

When Gyo-ha looked back at her, she spoke cautiously.

“Do you think we can get back?”

In truth, what she wanted to ask was different. Will we survive?

If not for Gyo-ha, she would’ve died long ago.

She was losing confidence by the moment.

Looking at her, Gyo-ha scratched his cheek.

“I don’t know. But there will be a way.”

There was something he could guess at.

This place was likely the Immortal Realm his master had spoken of.

When the Kunlun Sect fell, a passage to the Immortal Realm had opened.

If so, they could descend to Mount Kunlun through it.

Of course, he could not know if this was truly the Immortal Realm, but at the very least it was possible.

Sensing something in his words, Ah-ryeong nodded as well.

“Right. It’s too early to give up already, isn’t it? Especially when someone came all this way to help me.”

Saying so, she knocked her own head with a thump.

Her eyes changed as well.

“Okay. Let’s look for a way together.”

Seeing her speak so brightly, Gyo-ha nodded.

She might be overly conscious of others, but she wasn’t weak.

They walked, then took a break.

They didn’t need to sleep or eat, yet fatigue still piled up.

Physically, there was nothing wrong.

Perhaps this place was different from the real world, as their bodies recovered quickly even without sleep.

In Gyo-ha’s case, he even felt his body had improved.

But there was nothing to be done about mental exhaustion.

Ah-ryeong thought she would rather just sleep. Since sleep wouldn’t come, she could not truly rest.

As she sighed like that, something wriggling came into her view.

“Oh my.”

A small animal that looked like a squirrel.

When its eyes met Ah-ryeong’s, it tilted its head in a cute way.

“So you live here too, huh.”

Only then did Gyo-ha notice the new presence.

Sniff sniff.

He sniffed at it.

Then he furrowed his brows.

“Why?”

“There’s no smell at all.”

There was not even the scent a simple animal should have, never mind a yokai.

He couldn’t even sense any presence. That was why he had not noticed it approach.

‘…Can we at least eat it?’

Thinking that, Gyo-ha clenched his fist.

“You’re not seriously going to kill it, are you?”

“We don’t know what it is. You have to be wary of unfamiliar things.”

He was right. Ah-ryeong looked at the creature with regret, then stepped back.

Just as Gyo-ha was about to swing his fist.

The squirrel-like creature opened its mouth.

[Do not kill it. This fellow is only my shikigami. Ah, perhaps you do not know what a shikigami is. A shikigami is something that, in that country far to the east…]

An old man’s voice flowed out from the squirrel’s mouth.

Startled, Ah-ryeong’s eyes went round.

And Gyo-ha reacted at once.

His fist slammed toward the creature.

Pung!

It vanished with a puff of smoke.

Gyo-ha looked at Ah-ryeong as if to say, See? This is what I mean. This time, she didn’t argue.

A cute face with an old man’s voice.

It was nothing short of grotesque.

“Let’s move on then.”

Gyo-ha dusted himself off and stood as if nothing had happened.

Ah-ryeong nodded and followed after him.

This world was far too strange for them to fuss over every little thing.

After they walked for quite a while, this time a small bird appeared.

Soon an elderly voice burst from the bird’s beak.

[You insolent brat! I was trying to help you since you seemed lost…]

Pung!

Once again, the bird exploded.

This time, Ah-ryeong hadn’t even seen when he’d swung his hand.

Even after that, similar things happened two more times.

[Wait, at least hear me ou…]

Ah-ryeong asked cautiously.

“Is it really okay to just kill them like this?”

With the same thing repeating, she couldn’t help but worry.

At her question, Gyo-ha stood there and stared at the smoke.

It was something he hadn’t really thought about.

He cautiously reached out his hand. When nothing happened, he boldly waved it through.

But he felt nothing.

It was not just the smoke.

Even the animals that had appeared felt as if they had no real substance.

Not stopping there, Gyo-ha even inhaled some of the smoke.

Ah-ryeong’s eyes widened.

“Mm, it doesn’t seem like poison or anything.”

Seeing him say this so casually, Ah-ryeong shook her head.

By now, she was getting used to Gyo-ha.

Besides, it was not as if Gyo-ha acted without any thought at all.

‘There’s no need to talk with some being whose true nature we don’t even know.’

It was all the more suspicious when it didn’t even show its real form.

Perhaps his approach had worked, as nothing else appeared after that.

And around the time another day had passed, a cloud appeared before the two of them.

To be precise, there was an old man riding atop the cloud.

Face flushed with agitation, the old man opened his mouth.

“Let me ask you just one thing. Why in the world do you keep killing them?!”