SYM 48

After resting for a while inside the cave, Ha Yeo-un carried Eun-hyeon on his back again.

This time, Ha Yeo-un used his outer robe to tie Eun-hyeon and himself together, instead of just shifting Eun-hyeon onto his back with his hands. Eun-hyeon’s face flushed red at being carried like a child, but Ha Yeo-un didn’t care. Safety was more important.

He had thought it was enough not to use his hands until now, but his thoughts had changed slightly. He thought the formation technique was nothing special, but it was more effective than he had thought.

The formation technique not only changed the weather and terrain, but also disrupted Pure Qi and made people feel negative thoughts.

It was a formation technique that was meticulously designed to irritate people in many ways.

After realizing that, Ha Yeo-un had been carefully injecting Qi into Eun-hyeon.

Eun-hyeon, who was already weak, seemed to be more affected by the formation technique.

Moreover, the fog that kept following them felt ominous and unpleasant. At first, he thought it was just ordinary fog and ignored it, but he seemed to get tired faster than usual while walking through the fog.

“Where is this damn smell coming from? It reeks of rot.”

The unpleasant smell had been bothering him for a while. Ha Yeo-un sniffed for a long time and shook his head.

He was already guessing that those who set up this formation technique were related to the Hongbaek Sect, but the strange smell made him even more concerned.

“Eldest Young Master must find my back very comfortable. You close your eyes as soon as you touch my back.”

“…I, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m doing this…”

“You didn’t drool all over my back, did you? I feel like my back is wet.”

“No… I think I’m just tired. I keep falling asleep…”

Even when he teased and irritated him as usual, Eun-hyeon’s slow speech still contained drowsiness.

Unlike his light tone, Ha Yeo-un’s expression hardened. He was constantly injecting Qi into him to prevent him from losing his energy, but it didn’t make sense that he was feeling so tired that he couldn’t resist falling asleep.

Eun-hyeon’s condition was unusual in many ways.

Ha Yeo-un gradually increased his speed. He was now even using light body skill (Qinggong) to break through any obstacles in front of him.

He fixed his location at Godeok Temple on the top of the mountain and traversed the shortest distance to get there. If anything blocked his path, he would cut it down or eliminate it.

Eun-hyeon’s body, which was touching his back, was getting hotter and hotter.

“…Damn it. These bastards. Just let me see you.”

He kept talking to him to keep him from losing consciousness, but now there were fewer and fewer answers coming back.

Ha Yeo-un was getting more and more anxious. There seemed to be a limit to just injecting Qi while carrying him on his back. It would be better if he could directly help him circulate his Qi, but it was dangerous to meditate and regulate his breathing in a place like this where he didn’t know what might pop out, without anyone to protect him.

As Ha Yeo-un was running, his steps suddenly stopped.

Ha Yeo-un glared into the hazy fog with his eyes wide open. Then, he saw someone walking out of the thick fog.

As Ha Yeo-un raised his energy, the fog around Ha Yeo-un retreated as if it were a living creature with a will. When the fog around him was completely cleared, the sound of breathing behind him became much more comfortable.

Ha Yeo-un looked back at the ‘thing’ in front of him.

It was a moving corpse, an Undead.

It wasn’t just one or two. The Undead swaying through the bushes looked like about a dozen at first glance.

“Now all sorts of dirty things are crawling out. Good. If you’re going to attack, hurry up and finish it.”

The moment Ha Yeo-un gestured at the Undead, they rushed at him with a fierce momentum.

However, their limbs were stiff like those of a corpse in rigor mortis, and their movements were not very fast. Even if they weren’t martial artists, they could be easily defeated as long as they kept their wits about them.

Ha Yeo-un lightly pushed back the Undead with a fan instead of a sword. The Undead, who were rushing at him while flailing their arms and legs in a ridiculous manner, were pushed back in an instant.

The folding fan that Ha Yeo-un was holding was not an ordinary object. The ribs of the fan were made of cold iron, and the paper connecting the ribs was made of silk spun from heavenly silkworms.

“This is hardly even worth calling an Undead.”

Undead Manipulation was a technique rarely used outside of the Moshan Sect, but in the Demonic Sect, there was someone called the Asura Demon who used Undead Manipulation.

Ha Yeo-un had also witnessed the Undead created by the Asura Demon a few times, and the Asura Demon’s Undead moved much more smoothly and delicately than these.

“To try to greet a guest with this kind of trash. How rude.”

Ha Yeo-un lightly hit the Undead’s head with his folding fan. At that moment, there was a loud thud, like the sound of hitting a watermelon with a hammer.

The Undead did not die even when its head exploded. No, since it was just a corpse without life, the expression ‘die’ was not appropriate.

It would be more accurate to say that it was disgustingly flailing around, imitating life.

Watching the Undead wriggle with its head exploded was like watching an insect flapping around with its head cut off.

Ha Yeo-un stared at it for a moment, then frowned and waved his fan. The Undead didn’t even touch the fan, but its arms and legs were cut off by the blade-like wind created by the fan and flew into the air.

The same thing happened several times after that. The Undead fell with a thud as Ha Yeo-un lightly shook or hit them with his fan. If it weren’t for the ridiculous sight of him carrying Eun-hyeon on his back with his outer robe as a baby carrier, he would have looked like a celestial being from a story.

Regardless of the brutality of Ha Yeo-un’s handiwork, all of his movements were extremely beautiful. They were simple yet the most perfect form of movement. It didn’t take long to eliminate all the Undead.

However, Ha Yeo-un’s brow did not show any signs of relaxing.

“Tsk. The floor has become dirty. But Undead…”

Pieces of Undead flesh were scattered everywhere.

Ha Yeo-un had only seen Undead before, but this was the first time he had actually fought them.

They weren’t strong, but there was one thing that bothered him. Undead didn’t have the energy or killing intent that living things should have, so they were hard to detect. There was no way to detect them except with his eyes, and if there was fog like this, he wouldn’t be able to tell at all.

After becoming Cheonma, nothing had ever deceived his senses and approached him. But for such insignificant things to deceive his senses and approach him…

What if a stronger and faster Undead appeared?

“…How dare they.”

Not Ha Yeo-un, but Heavenly Demon Cheong-un, expressed his displeasure.

“Undead are always creepy, no matter how you look at them.”

The thought of Cheonma himself being unaware of and being toyed with by mere Undead caused a fierce aura to emanate from him.

It was not Ha Yeo-un, the promising young martial artist of the orthodox sects that he had been imitating until now, but the overbearing energy of Cheonma, the sky of the Demonic Sect.

In an instant, a black aura swirled around Cheong-un’s body, driving away the fog.

Most people learn Demonic Art to easily become masters. But the Demonic Art that Cheong-un had learned was completely different from that.

The extremely high demon was as pure and profound as that of the orthodox sects.

Cheonma was an existence that had reached the extreme of such pure demon.

And now, Cheong-un was looking at the Undead and was angry as Cheong-un, not Ha Yeo-un.

“…Great Hero Ha?”

At that moment, a small voice struck Cheong-un’s ear.

It was such a small and weak voice that it was hard to hear if you didn’t listen carefully, but the moment Cheong-un heard that voice, he perfectly concealed his black aura and returned to White-Robed Divine Dragon Ha Yeo-un.

“Wh, what happened? I’m sorry. I keep falling asleep and I think I dozed off again. I don’t know why I’m doing this, really…”

Eun-hyeon, who had been sleeping comfortably on Ha Yeo-un’s back, had just felt a chilling energy and opened his eyes. His mumbling voice was slurred as if he were drunk, and his head was dizzy.

Eun-hyeon tried to pull himself together and catch his breath.

“…Eldest Young Master.”

Ha Yeo-un’s voice was lower and somehow more unstable than usual.

Could it be that Ha Yeo-un was tired because he had been carrying him all this time?

Eun-hyeon recalled that Ha Yeo-un had been carrying him on his back almost all day while climbing the mountain.

“Ah… Great Hero Ha, I’ve come to my senses now. If you put me down, I’ll walk.”

“There were Undead around here a moment ago.”

Eun-hyeon, who had been struggling to get off Ha Yeo-un’s back, was startled by Ha Yeo-un’s words and raised his head.