Chapter 135

I hid behind a boulder and observed the situation.
Jin Si-myeong couldn’t take his eyes off the cavern where the lava flowed in.
He had brought four lackeys from the Jin Family with him.
Jin Mu-myeong was nowhere to be seen.
It seemed he was waiting for me somewhere else along the path.

“Brother Jin, can’t we go back to the passage now?”

Yuk Ja-heung’s anxious voice reached my ears.
He was sticking close behind Jin Si-myeong.

‘So they really are together.’

I had more than expected it, but seeing it with my own eyes still left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Even if it was the sort of attachment born from constant irritation, I had thought we had built a different relationship from the one in my past life.
Apparently, I had been mistaken.
Maybe he and I were simply destined to walk different paths.

Jin Si-myeong snorted.

“Go back where? We were lucky enough to find this.”
“What do you mean, lucky enough to find it?”
“I told you we brought the No-Return Cave administrator over to our side, didn’t I?”
“Yeah.”
“He told me there was a hidden mystery inside the No-Return Cave. That if we discovered it, we might come across a fortuitous chance.”

I was surprised.
The administrator actually said something like that?
As the one overseeing the No-Return Cave, he would naturally know a great deal about its interior.
But I hadn’t expected him to know that a fortuitous chance existed inside.

Yuk Ja-heung’s eyes widened as well.

“A-a fortuitous chance?”
“That’s right. A fortuitous chance.”
“W-why would the administrator tell you about it, Brother Jin? Couldn’t he have taken it for himself?”
“He said he tried, but gave up because of the heat. The man has never learned martial arts in his life, so what could he have done? Since he was already selling information about the No-Return Cave, he probably mentioned it to squeeze out a little more profit.”
“Ah.”

Yuk Ja-heung nodded in admiration.
Listening to them made me wonder.
Did the administrator know what that fortuitous chance actually was?

‘Probably not.’

Jin Si-myeong didn’t seem to know what was actually inside.
If he knew that a secret manual left behind by a past Cult Leader was in there, especially now that they even knew a safe passage through the cave,
there would have been dozens of direct and collateral members of the Radiant Moon Jin Family swarming this place at the very least.

‘Regression really has a way of screwing with things.’

In my past life, these bastards probably wouldn’t have come anywhere near this place.
The secret manual itself wasn’t supposed to be discovered until the reconstruction several years from now.
But because the No-Return Cave had been chosen as the place to get rid of me, they had ended up remarkably close to a past Cult Leader’s secret manual they should never have had any connection to.

‘And with greed shining in their eyes, no less.’

“Isn’t it still dangerous?”

Yuk Ja-heung glanced toward the lava cavern.

“Lava in the middle of an ice field makes no sense. And it’s flowing upward on top of that.”
“That’s why it’s a mystery. I don’t know what it is, but it has to be something extraordinary. Otherwise, why would it be hidden in a place like this?”
“Th-that’s true, but…….”
“Ja-heung, are you afraid?”
“I-it’s not that I’m afraid. It just feels a little ominous.”

When Yuk Ja-heung hesitated, Jin Si-myeong chuckled.

“Don’t worry. I wasn’t planning to take you in with us.”
“Oh, really?”

His voice instantly brightened.
I clicked my tongue without realizing it.
What a pathetic bastard. He was worrying about something completely pointless.
Why would Jin Si-myeong take you somewhere with a fortuitous chance unless he had lost his mind?

“Hyung-nim, shouldn’t catching Baek Su-gyeong come first? I don’t think it would be too late to look for the fortuitous chance afterward.”

One of the Jin Family members cautiously spoke up.
Jin Si-myeong shook his head.

“There’s no rush. That bastard entered last. He doesn’t even know about the passage, so it’ll take him at least another two to four hours to get here. We can check what’s inside and come back out before then.”
“But what if…….”
“There are no what-ifs.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as Jin Si-myeong cut him off so firmly.
As if there were any such thing as a world without ‘what if.’
He probably had no idea I was watching him right now.

‘Did he really underestimate me that much?’

At the moment, it seemed Jin Si-myeong could see nothing but the fortuitous chance.
Neither his subordinate’s warning nor Yuk Ja-heung’s unease seemed to reach him.

‘That’s how you end up getting stabbed in the back.’

By me, specifically.

“Let’s go in.”

Without hesitation, Jin Si-myeong headed toward the cavern where the lava flowed.
Yuk Ja-heung asked, “What about me?”

“Go wait in the secret passage. You know where it is.”

Leaving only those words behind, Jin Si-myeong and the members of the Radiant Moon Jin Family disappeared into the cavern.
Yuk Ja-heung fidgeted anxiously as he looked around.
He would probably head to that secret passage soon.

Still concealed, I began circulating my qi.
Things would become troublesome if those bastards found the secret manual first. Before that happened, I needed to calm my surging qi and blood and enter the cavern myself.

“Whoo-”

I quickly finished circulating my qi through only the essential meridians and stood up.
At the same time, I frowned.
Yuk Ja-heung was still standing in the same place.
It hadn’t been long, but it had been more than enough time for him to leave.
What was he still doing there?
Jin Si-myeong had told him to go to the secret passage, but Yuk Ja-heung looked as though he didn’t actually know where it was.

‘Not that it’s any of my business.’

I watched Yuk Ja-heung for a moment, then simply stepped out from behind the boulder.
There was no more time to hesitate.

“Huk! What the hell?”

When I openly approached without hiding my presence, Yuk Ja-heung jerked around in surprise.

“S-Sajae?”
“Yeah. It’s me.”
“W-when did you get there?”
“For a while now. You looked awfully friendly with Jin Si-myeong.”
“……!”

Yuk Ja-heung’s face went deathly pale.
I had already seen him standing with Jin Si-myeong outside.
But getting caught with him inside the No-Return Cave was different.
It practically proved they were working together.

“S-Sajae. Look, this is…….”

Yuk Ja-heung’s lips moved.
It looked like he wanted to make an excuse, but couldn’t find anything suitable to say.

“Forget it. I don’t care.”

I waved him off and looked toward the lava cavern.
Right now, that lava cavern was the only thing I cared about.

“Y-you’re going in there too?”
“Yeah.”
“Brother Jin went in there too. If you go, you’ll die.”
“Whether I die or not is none of your business. Where are the others?”
“……The others?”
“I mean that bastard Jin Mu-myeong.”

Even if I was short on time, I still had to ask what needed asking.
He was a threat to me, and Yuk Ja-heung might know where he was.

“That guy entered earlier too. Is he waiting for me somewhere?”
“I don’t know.”
“But he is waiting for me?”
“I-I’m not sure.”

I chuckled.
That answer was practically an admission.
Though it wasn’t much help since he didn’t know the man’s location.

‘Let’s go.’

Without another word, I passed Yuk Ja-heung and headed toward the cavern.
His voice came from behind me.

“H-hey! You’re really going in?”
“Yeah.”
“A-are you crazy? Brother Jin and the others are in there!”
“Are you a parrot? Why do you keep repeating yourself? I know. That’s why I’m going in.”

Without looking back, I continued.

“Just run away. That’s why you latched onto Jin Si-myeong in the first place.”

For an instant, Yuk Ja-heung seemed to stop breathing.
I ignored him and kept walking, but he suddenly shouted from behind me.

“That’s how I must look to you! Pathetic and useless. Some bastard who does nothing but beg for his life!”

I turned around.
Yuk Ja-heung’s face had gone bright red.

“It’s not like I want to be like this!”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve got everything! You’re smart and strong. But I’m not! If I don’t do this, I’m going to fucking die!”

I clicked my tongue.
I wondered what he was going on about, only to realize it was much the same as what I had heard before.

“You sure as hell know how to whine.”
“……What did you say?”
“Your father looks down on you. You get compared to your brother. How many times do I have to listen to the same crap? Want me to cry because I feel sorry for you?”

The life Yuk Ja-heung pitied so much was a bed of roses compared to mine.
Not everyone had a roof to keep out the rain, days that didn’t begin and end in hunger, and the luxury of having whatever they wanted.
Of course, suffering was subjective.
What seemed like an ideal environment to me might not feel that way to him.
But why did I have to take even that into consideration?

“You knew what Jin Si-myeong was planning to do to me, didn’t you?”
“Th-that’s-”
“You did tell me once not to enter the No-Return Cave. But you didn’t really think I would stay out because of that, did you? You just tossed the warning my way like charity so you could ease your own guilt.”
“……!”

Yuk Ja-heung’s eyes trembled.

“You did it because your own life matters most to you. Maybe I would have done the same. But.”

I looked Yuk Ja-heung straight in the eye.

“If that’s the choice you made, then own it. Don’t dress it up with crap about lacking talent, bad circumstances, or having no choice. What exactly did you want me to say to you?”

Yuk Ja-heung’s face stiffened.
I snapped at him coldly.

“Being cowardly is one thing. Your problem is that you’re cowardly, pathetic, and petty on top of it.”
“I-I’m your Sahyung!”
“So what? You want me to watch my mouth? Do you even know what a ‘Sahyung’ is supposed to be?”

At last, Yuk Ja-heung fell silent.
Leaving him behind, I started walking again.
Soon, I stepped into the lava cavern right before me.

The first thing I felt upon entering was the heat.
It felt as though every drop of moisture in my body were evaporating.
I took out something I had prepared beforehand.
A Heat-Warding Talisman.
It was one of the talismans I had received from Hwang Si-mong.

‘Wow, that’s better.’

The moment I stuck the talisman to my body, the heat eased considerably.
I breathed an inward sigh of relief.
This was why having the right information mattered.
If I hadn’t brought the Heat-Warding Talisman, I might not even have gotten a glimpse of the secret manual.

The inside of the cavern was bizarre.
Lava spread across the walls in complicated patterns, writhing like veins in a way that was somewhat revolting.
The streams of lava merged into one, then split into dozens of branches, brightly illuminating the cavern.

‘This doesn’t look natural.’

Was it the work of the Illusory Formation Arrays, or had someone deliberately created it?
Either way, this was clearly no ordinary place.

Guuung-
At that moment, I felt a faint vibration through the cavern.
The lava writhed briefly, then settled again.

‘What was that?’

I stopped for a moment and tilted my head, then continued deeper inside.
For now, the enemies in front of me came first.
As I went farther in, I sensed people ahead and quickly concealed myself.
It was Jin Si-myeong and the members of the Radiant Moon Jin Family.

‘They’re still here?’

I was puzzled.
They had entered both the No-Return Cave and this lava cavern long before me, yet I kept catching up to them in no time.
What were they? Slugs?

“Hyung-nim, we truly can’t go any farther.”
“I can’t take another step.”

When I focused my senses, I heard the groaning voices of the collateral-branch martial artists.
Now that I looked, all four of them except Jin Si-myeong were drenched in sweat, their knees buckling.

Only then did I understand why they had stopped.
It was because of the heat.
It was far hotter here than at the cavern entrance.
Jin Si-myeong seemed able to endure it easily thanks to his deep internal energy, but the others were clearly struggling.

“Look over there.”

Ignoring the complaints of the collateral members, Jin Si-myeong pointed somewhere.
I followed his gaze.
There was something in the middle of the lava.
A raised formation of rock.
The top was hollowed out, making it look like an altar built to enshrine something.

‘Could that be it?’

My heart began pounding.
It looked like the perfect place to leave a past Cult Leader’s secret manual.

‘Of course. How could a secret manual literally be burning in fire? He must have been describing an altar above the lava metaphorically.’

“How are we supposed to retrieve that, Hyung-nim? It’s in the middle of the lava.”

One of the collateral members looked troubled.
Jin Si-myeong answered calmly.

“We just have to work together. If we push someone from behind with our internal energy, he can fly across using lightness arts. On the way back, we can link hands into a chain and pull him in.”

Easy for him to say.
Fly over that lava?
If they came up even slightly short, the man would melt on the spot.

“Speaking of which, Yong-myeong, weren’t you the best at lightness arts?”

Jin Si-myeong fixed his gaze on one of them.
The man he singled out turned deathly pale.

“M-me?”
“You’re always bragging that no one can match you when it comes to lightness arts.”
“That’s true, but…….”
“Don’t worry. We’ll give you a proper push from behind. We’re all working together. For the family.”

For the family.
I looked at Jin Si-myeong again.
He had a talent for making people laugh with just six syllables.
He had nothing to lose.
If it worked, he could claim the credit. If it failed, he wasn’t the one who would die.

‘What a sneaky bastard.’

I weighed my options.
The safest choice would be to ambush them after they retrieved the secret manual.
But what if they dropped it into the lava while retrieving it?
Then it was over.

‘No need to keep watching.’

They were already exhausted from the heat.
Thanks to the Heat-Warding Talisman, I was perfectly fine.
And the entire area was surrounded by lava.
In an environment like this, Death-Line Step would be at its best.

I immediately revealed myself.

“Hey, friends.”
“……Baek Su-gyeong?”
“There’s an old saying, you know.”

I smiled brightly as I approached Jin Si-myeong, whose expression had stiffened.

“Good things are meant to be shared. How about sharing that fortuitous chance with me?”