Chapter 137

Before moving, I glanced toward the altar.
Crimson lava surrounded it like a wall.
It had been like that ever since the phantom beast appeared.

‘It’s not a coincidence.’

There was a high chance the secret manual was on the altar.
The phantom beast had emerged from that altar, and the wall of lava appeared at the same time.
It was a bit of a leap in logic, but killing this thing might make the barrier disappear.
If so, that would open the way to the secret manual.

I steeled myself and thought it through.
I would go through three stages to defeat the phantom beast.
The first was escaping the lava cavern. More precisely, I had to lure that thing out onto the frozen ground.

I slowly backed away.
The phantom beast’s eyes tracked my movements.
A low growl rumbled from its throat.
Its jaws slowly opened.

‘Here it comes.’

Feeling genuinely tense for the first time in a while, I took another step.
Puhwak!
At that moment, a mass of lava shot from its mouth toward me.
Because of the distance between us, it had immediately resorted to a ranged attack.
Tat!
Reading its trajectory, I twisted my body to the right.
From that moment on, I never stopped running.

Another lava projectile struck behind me and exploded.
The blast of hot air raked across my back, but I used its force to accelerate instead.

‘I can’t get too far ahead.’

What I needed was just enough distance to avoid getting hit by the lava projectiles.
I knew very little about that phantom beast.
If I pulled too far ahead, it might turn back. If that happened, I could kiss the secret manual goodbye.
Because there was no way I could kill that thing inside the cavern.

I zigzagged across the cavern and darted behind a boulder.
Kwaang!
Another lava projectile smashed the boulder apart.
Flaming chunks of rock scattered, grazing my shoulder and arm.

Dodging another incoming lava projectile, I kicked off the wall, grabbed a scorching stalactite on the ceiling, and changed direction.
The moment I landed, I ran again, rolled, and slid through a gap between the rocks.
A trail of destruction formed everywhere I passed.

‘Good.’

Fortunately, the first stage was going according to plan.
I could see the exit ahead.
The passage was narrowing, and there was a pillar behind me.
Even if it fired another lava projectile, it would only hit a wall or the pillar, so my escape was as good as assured.
At least, that was what I thought.
But then the heavy footsteps pursuing me suddenly accelerated.
Wondering what was happening, I glanced back and saw the phantom beast charging at me with terrifying momentum.
Kwaang!
The pillar shattered from its base, and the wall broke apart.
The distance between us rapidly vanished.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

At that point, I completely forgot about maintaining distance.
I shot forward with Lightning Step to instantly increase my speed.
Unfortunately, the phantom beast was faster than I had expected.
Just as I unleashed Lightning Step,
Ppeok!
its head slammed into my back.
My body flew into the air.
For a moment, it felt as though I had become a bird soaring freely through the sky.
I was launched even faster than Jin Si-myeong had been and rolled several times across the ice outside the cavern entrance.

“Ugh.”

If I wanted to live, I had no time to lie around.
As I tried to get up immediately, a sharp pain tore through my back.
It was from the impact just now.

‘It’s not bad enough to keep me from moving.’

I let out a small sigh of relief.
Had that struck me cleanly, the attack might have blown my body apart.
But my body had already been shooting forward with Lightning Step, and the Protective Armor I borrowed from Du Jung-baek had helped minimize the impact.

-Kwooooooh!

The monstrous roar swept across the frozen ground.
Still on one knee, I raised my head toward the cavern.
The phantom beast stood at the cavern entrance, roaring as though showing off its power.
It carried such terror that anyone nearby would have had no choice but to flee.

‘Why is it just standing there? Don’t tell me it won’t come out.’

A flicker of worry rose inside me.
As I had considered earlier, the phantom beast might have a fixed range of operation.
Or perhaps it simply hated the cold.
Either way, if I couldn’t lure it out, I wouldn’t get the secret manual.

But my worries were unfounded.
It began charging toward me.
I got up and started running again.

‘Now for stage two.’

The second stage was successfully making it across the frozen ground.
The temperature here was completely different from inside the lava cavern.
The phantom beast that had rampaged inside might calm down a little out here. Its entire body was basically a ball of fire, after all.

Sure enough, the phantom beast wasn’t as fast as it had been inside the cavern.
The ice melted into slush before its feet even touched down.
Its footing suffered as a result, but it didn’t give up on chasing me.

A lava projectile flew toward me.
There wasn’t much cover on the frozen ground, but perhaps because its footing was unstable, dodging wasn’t difficult.
As I continued toward my destination,

the beast let out another monstrous roar.
I glanced back and saw its jaws spread impossibly wide.
It looked thoroughly enraged.

‘The lava projectiles won’t work anymore.’

But this time, it wasn’t a lava projectile.
Red light gathered inside its maw.

Shwaaaaaah!

A stream of lava erupted from its mouth.
The heat felt intense enough to melt the entire frozen ground.

“Huk.”

My body reacted before I could think.
I kicked off the ground and leapt into the air.
The stream of lava swept beneath my feet, carving horizontally across the ice ahead.
White steam exploded upward from the huge swath of ice it had melted away.

‘How is this even possible?’

I couldn’t help but be shocked. Then again, at this point, anything was possible.
With Illusory Formation Arrays resonating with one another and even a phantom beast appearing, what couldn’t happen?

Now that it had unleashed an insane attack like that, this was no time to conserve internal energy.
I squeezed every last bit from my dantian and sprinted at full speed.

‘I see it.’

Relief washed over me.
After evading several lava projectiles and streams, my destination finally came into view.
At last, my plan entered its third stage.

The third stage was to lure the phantom beast into the cold trap.
Even brushing the trap’s area with the tip of a foot caused vicious cold to erupt.
Earlier, I had nearly died there myself.
I had only survived thanks to the Cold-Resistance Talisman Hwang Si-mong thoughtfully included.
There had only been one of those talismans.
It didn’t matter.
Because this time, I had no intention of stepping into the trap myself.

“Whoo.”

I stopped directly in front of the cold trap.
Then I turned to face the phantom beast charging toward me.
As I said before, the Heavenly Demon and I walked different paths.
But even I had times when I couldn’t retreat.
No. There were many.
That had been true until now, and it would probably remain true in the future.

What I had to do now was clear.
Use Death-Line Step to slip right into its reach, then pass through.
Unable to overcome its own momentum, it would plunge straight into the cold trap.
The vicious cold erupting from there might be enough to freeze the phantom beast.

-Kwooooh!

The bastard was thoroughly enraged.
It launched itself at me from a distance, raising both massive forelegs.
If those claws raked through me, the number of pieces my body came in would be exactly one more than the number of claws.

‘Stay calm.’

Thinking of the principles of Death-Line Step, I stepped forward as well.
Once we crossed paths, this would be over.

Its enormous forelegs came crashing down over my head.
They were so huge it felt as though the entire sky were collapsing.
Crimson lava light filled my vision.

‘I might die.’

Why?
For one fleeting instant, my instincts warned me of death.
There was no opening between its two swinging forelegs.
There had to be a gap to slip through, but there was none!

‘No. There’s a space.’

In the fleeting instant given to me,
I closed my eyes.
I thought of the man I sought to surpass.
The sight of him leisurely executing Death-Line Step on Demon Awakening Peak, leisurely passing through the very heart of death.
I replayed that image in my mind.

The ultimate essence of Death-Line Step was to seize life from within the domain of death.
Words the Heavenly Demon had once said in passing.

I opened my eyes.
The claws bearing down on me slashed through the space before me.

‘Half a step forward.’ ‘Half a step forward.’

The skin around my temple burned.
Not from the claw itself, but from the intense heat it carried.
The claws of its right foreleg followed the left.
This time, they seemed determined to tear me apart.

‘Another half step.’

This time, not heat but a razor-sharp wind swept across my ribs.
The sound of my clothes tearing thundered in my ears, followed even more clearly by the crunch of my ribs breaking.

‘Another half step.’

I didn’t stop.
By the time I registered the pain in my ribs, I had already passed the phantom beast.

Its enormous body continued hurtling forward.
It tried desperately to change direction, but its momentum wouldn’t allow it.
Koong!
At last, the phantom beast crashed into the trap.
Vicious cold erupted from every direction.

White mist swallowed my vision.
Instinctively, I raised my left arm to cover my nose and mouth.
Even so, the cold seemed to burrow into my very brain.

‘Is it over?’

Without lowering my guard, I stared into the frigid mist.
That was when it happened.
Kwaang!
The phantom beast’s foreleg slammed down in front of me.
Perhaps because of the cold, the ground beneath its paw didn’t melt.
It dug its claws into the ice and tried to drag itself out.

‘Not a chance!’

I pulled two things from my robe.
Pak!
I slashed its foreleg at the ankle with my cold-iron dagger.
As it roared, I tore a talisman.
It was a Wind-Pressure Talisman, one of the many talismans Hwang Si-mong had packed for me. It generated wind to push a target away.
When he gave it to me, I had wondered what I would ever use it for. Now I knew.

Whiiing! A fierce gust slammed into the phantom beast.
It wasn’t especially powerful.
But it was enough to knock the foreleg I had cut back into the trap.

-Gwoooooh!

With yet another roar that was starting to become tiresome, its movements visibly slowed.
Everything was going according to plan.
The cold trap was the answer.
A short while later.

“…….”

Only silence remained.
Behind the gradually thinning mist, the phantom beast stood frozen white.

“Whoo.”

The tension suddenly drained from me.
My legs gave out, and I sank to the ground.
I had already spent internal energy dealing with the Jin Family’s collateral members, and then that phantom beast appeared out of nowhere. I’d nearly been done for.

‘Still, I gained something important.’

When I used Death-Line Step just now,
something had felt different.
It wasn’t a vague sensation, but a definite change.
My understanding of Death-Line Step had deepened, raising my attainment from the third stage to the fourth!

The Heavenly Demon had said the No-Return Cave was the ideal place to train the Six Extremes Demon King Step.
Only now did I truly understand what he meant.
Though I had no idea whether he had anticipated even a battle with a phantom beast.

“……This is no time to slack off.”

I was utterly exhausted and had broken ribs, but I still had to move.
It wasn’t over yet.
Gripping my cold-iron dagger tightly, I stepped into the cold trap.
Frost immediately formed across my body, but I could endure it for a short while.
Otherwise, earlier I would have frozen solid before I could even pull out the Cold-Resistance Talisman.

‘It was definitely there.’

I crouched and stabbed my cold-iron dagger into the phantom beast’s abdomen.
It was where the core had been.
The blade sank in with barely any resistance.
Paat-
The phantom beast scattered like dust.
And in its place, a single key appeared.

‘What’s this?’

A small key made of dark-red metal.
Right after the phantom beast appeared, lava had surrounded the altar like a barrier.
The phantom beast, the altar, and this key.
Could there be something on the altar that this key was meant to unlock?

‘I’ll take it for now.’

I slipped the key into my robe and left the cold trap.
After tearing one of my three Concealment Talismans to hide myself, I felt along my ribs.
My fingertips found the broken section.
Gritting my teeth, I forcibly set the bone back into place.

“Agh!”

A scream escaped me.
My vision went white.
After taking a moment to catch my breath, I applied Bone-Mending Powder to the injury.
It wouldn’t take effect immediately, but since it helped bones mend, it was better than nothing.

“Hiss, whoo.”

Still concealed, I finished circulating my qi as well.
What now?

‘I have to go back to the lava cavern.’

After coming this far, I couldn’t give up on the secret manual.
I also wanted to find out what the key was for.

“Ughhh.”

I struggled to my feet.
But something was wrong.
Cracks had formed in the ice beneath my feet.
A fissure that looked well over a hundred meters long.

‘That wasn’t there before.’

As I wondered what was happening,
Kururururu-
a thunderous rumble sounded in the distance.
I raised my head.
Cracks were spreading through the vast space formed over the ice by the Illusory Formation Arrays.

‘Oh, shit.’

Clutching my aching ribs with one hand, I ran like mad.
Time. Time. I had said it over and over, but now I truly had none left.

The Illusory Formation Arrays were collapsing.