Possessing Nothing

It had been a week since Lee Sungmin and his group had left Devon. He took turns in between with the Crazy Heavenly Demon, to cover their tracks in an attempt to shake their pursuers. Before they knew it, they came across a dense jungle. The wet jungle was so grotesque that it was hard to tell whether it was a monster in itself. The tall trees created a maze of nature. It was extremely difficult to maintain a sense of direction in such a forest, no matter how keen one’s senses were.

[The flow of mana is strange.], Heoju murmured.

Lee Sungmin wasn’t the only one affected by the unnatural flow of mana. Like when he was in the dungeon with Rubia, they made a map with the flow of mana, but here it was useless and she eventually gave up trying to map the area. It wasn’t unusual for a forest to be full of mana, but this forest’s mana density was immense. The uncontrolled mana was like a wild torrent, gushing in all directions like a wild beast, so even Rubia was feeling irritated that her skills weren’t enough here.

[The Southern Forests sometimes have a distortion where the mana and the energy of the dead monsters intertwine. Since long ago, humans were afraid of the darkness in the forest and the cries of beasts. From that fear, monsters were born, and the deeper one travels, the density becomes stronger and impossible for any caliber wizard to make it out.], Heoju warned.

[I’m not even sure if you can find a skilled guide here.], he continued.

There were no such guides here. Erebrisa tried to find one for Lee Sungmin, but the guides they contacted shook their heads in disgust.

‘The Forest of Temptation? Haha! You guys are crazy and eager to die. I assure you, no one in their right mind will guide you once you mention the Forest of Temptation. No matter how much money you have, it’s worth nothing if you’re dead.’

Lee Sungmin was frustrated with their reactions and responses.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’, Lee Sungmin asked in irritation to Heoju.

[When this old man was alive, this forest was just a forest with not much going on. It’s evolved into a monster of a jungle since the times have past.]

Heoju protested as if he was falsely accused. It was 400 years ago when Heoju roamed the South. Given the time that passed it was only natural since one couldn’t predict changes of nature over that long span of time.

This forest also had a nickname ‘The Forest of Death’. Once you get in, you can’t get out. At some point, the strength and mana of the forest would mess with the sense of direction and caused the wanderers to lose their paths. The chances of escaping from this place were extremely slim.

“Shouldn’t we just go ahead and beat the shrubbery aside and mark it physically?”, frustrated, the Crazy Heavenly Demon spat out.

A ting of scarlet energy intertwined and coalesced in his hands. A powerful Blood Ring was fired at the dense trees. Lee Sungmin didn’t bother to stop him. So far, he had been holding in his frustration of wandering aimlessly trying to shake off the pursuers in the humid heat of the forests and he was reaching the limit of his patience.

They had been traveling around the jungle for over a day. Lee Sungmin marked a rock he had passed by to get a vantage point but, he started to cross by the same rock over and over essentially running around in circles.

Gwa-a-a-ang!

The Blood Rings smashed into the tree. However, as the bloody mist dissipated there wasn’t a scratch on the tree. The Crazy Heavenly Demon’s cheeks flushed red in embarrassment. What sense did it make that a simple tree could withstand a peak level expert’s full force attack?

[It’s not normal.], Heoju murmured.

Lee Sungmin also decided to raise his spear. He chose the most powerful and passive techniques he could unfold: strengthening magic, haste magic, The Nine Heavenly Spears technique: Nine Dragon Spirits along with Blood Predation. The bloody aura enveloped the golden light emitting from the tip of the spear. After that he added on the power of the yokai and a purple aura encased the colorful spear adding a severely powerful energy to the tip.

“Huh!”

Swallowing a short shout, Lee Sungmin pierced forward at the tree. An exploding sound rang out and the area overturned rocks and dust. Once the dust cleared, He was shocked to see the tree completely unscathed.

“What in the…?”

[Strange… I’ve never heard of such a monument like this in my 400 years in the south. It could be an illusion, but there are no skilled illusions that wouldn’t break under that sort of attack since you stacked so many powers into one strike.]

Heoju said with a bit of shock and skepticism

[Wait, look up.]

Lee Sungmin raised his head and looked up at the sky. Intense sunlight was pouring through the cracks of trees, branches and leaves that seemed endless.

[Jump to the top of the tree.]

‘What will that do?’, Lee Sungmin pondered and asked Heoju.

[If you can’t break it from the front, climbing up the tree could be a possibility. It may become too noticeable if you do and attract attention, but it’s a minor problem considering being stuck here.]

Lee Sungmin roused his internal energy and focused it into his legs followed by a jump. The ground shook from the jump and he flew up with a bang. Lee Sungmin stepped onto a nearby branch up in the air to gain a new foothold and jumped up again like a frog.

Thud.

Lee Sungmin suddenly hit his head against an invisible barrier in the air. He stumbled over and flipped. As he was falling, he looked at the sky with eyes widened in shock. He swung his foot in a hurry to regain his balance and formed a layer of internal energy to serve as a temporary platform. Standing barely balanced in the air, Lee Sungmin reached out his trembling hand and fumbled it in the air as if trying to grab ahold of something.

He verified what he had felt. There was an invisible barrier encapsulating the surroundings.

[This is amazing.]

Heoju snorted and laughed.

[This whole forest is caught up in a barrier or illusion or both. This is no longer a human’s domain. No matter how skilled or knowledgeable a sorcerer may be, it would be impossible to set up this kind of powerful and vast barrier.]

‘So what do we do then?’ 

Lee Sungmin finally calmed down in realization of what the cause of the misgivings they had been forced upon since entering the forest.

[Maybe since this old man has passed for so long, I completely forgot the territories I ruled in the South… This was one of my old territories but it seems like some brat has taken over control of my territory… GAHAHAHA!]

Heoju’s laughter rang out in his head.

—

“I can’t believe I’ve had to enter this terrible forest. In all my lifetime this was definitely not on my list of places to visit.”, Aladdur uttered a sigh.

At the whining, Zhuge Taeryong felt a mild urge to kill the sorcerer for being so annoying the entire trip, but he knew if he did they would never leave here alive, as Aladdur was their only guide in this place and killing him would be signing their own deaths off.

“It’s disgusting.”, Dang Ah-Hui muttered in discontent.

The humidity and heat from the forest was constantly racking on her already irritated flow of energy making her frown at the lingering headache she was having.

“Hold on to your mentality.”

“Men… what?”

“Ugh.. your fucking state of mind!”

Aladdur shouted at the party and continued.

“Damn it! Do you seriously know nothing about this forest?! This forest is only a week’s travel away from Devon. Zhuge Taeryong, are you seriously so incompetent to never have heard of the rumors?!”

Aladdur stood up from his seated posture and glared at Zhuge Taeryong. If he had never gotten mixed up with the arrogant fool of the Zhuge family, he would never have been stuck in such an unforgiving death hole.

“…I know about the Forest of Temptation. It’s known as an uninhabitable forest crawling with monsters. Not only that, but you can’t get out once you come in.”, replied Taeryong with frustration and then added,

“We have 45 people in our group, 3 heirs to the great and noble families of the Orthodox Faction and you seem to think we’re incapable of getting out of such a lousy place?! You fool.”

“These stupid fucking Orthodox idiots…”

Aladdur distorted his face and murmured to himself quietly. Then raised his voice and said,

“Do you not realize the situation we’re in? We ONLY have 45 people and 3 arrogant silver spoon fed babies that have never been in a real life or death situation! Do you realize we are only humans? Humans that can get their flesh torn to pieces, their bodies violated and killed by at a moment’s notice from a strong god??!”

“What…?”, Zhuge Taeryong responded shortly, as the blood from his cheeks were blushing bright red from embarrassment and anger.

“You don’t know anything about the Forest of Temptation, but of course you don’t! Well, I can’t help but NOT know! Only a few sorcerers know the truth of this forest. Damn old men, you’re cracking up and you’re playing dumb!”, Alladur complained while sputtering seemingly utter nonsense at the end.

“Calm down.”, Namgung Heewon intervened to defuse the situation.

But, there was an invisible blade of aura scratching at the tip of Aladdur’s neck. Aladdur swallowed his saliva and gulped in fear at the physical threat.

“Explain it easily so we can understand.” Heewon spoke in a curt voice.

“…there was a great monster 400 years ago.”, Alladur trembled as he recalled the story, “It was a great monster, one that could kill many practitioners at a whim if he was bored. A lot of exorcists and powerful men were mobilized to catch him once people had finally understood how much of a threat he was to humanity.” Aladdur finished shaking his legs in fear of the story and the blade at his neck.

“400 years… that’s a long time ago. It was before my father even got his place in Devon.” Zhuge Taeryong murmured.

When Aladdur heard the response, he twitched his lips.

“Even if it’s dead or sealed, this is still that monster’s territory. Dead or alive, it’s power was frightening.”

“So?”

“The monster is a foreign entity that is different from any other monster. The people who subdued it were specialists. So…”

Aladdur glanced at the forestry ahead of them.

Only

“…Let’s say the bushes are shaking. Of course you’ll think there might be a small animal. But, what if we looked through the bushes and didn’t see anything like an animal? You would then think the wind was blowing. That, or the animal that shook the bushes quickly ran away. Such thoughts are common. But for some people the fear would linger and they would ask themselves what exactly shook those bushes.”

“…so what about it?”

“Fear is a sudden emotion. Have you ever felt someone’s gaze in the dark? No matter how great a master of martial arts is, there are times when you feel scared. It’s especially true for children. Have you ever been afraid to sleep alone? Do you think there might be a monster under the bed? Ever heard a scary story and were scared of going to the bathroom alone at night? Have you ever been afraid of thunderstorms on a rainy day?”, Aladdur said in a grave voice.

“This… is much more serious than I thought.”

Taeryong contorted his face realizing the situation they had been trapped in.