WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

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◈ Xianxia Cultivation with a Dragon Heart ◈

Chapter 40: I'll Show You the World Beyond the Well

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Park Seryong’s entire vision flickered wildly in black and white. His body convulsed uncontrollably, and even the Mana he had been wielding fell into disarray until the gray energy pouring from him finally faded.

It was a miracle he had not died.

Amid the conflicting sensations of paralysis and pain sweeping through his body, Park Seryong suddenly thought that. But the crisis was still ongoing, and he barely managed to hold on to his fading consciousness.

'I have to run.'

That was his only thought. Since becoming an S-Rank Hunter, he had almost never been this desperate.

No, this was the first time.

But he was too late.

Just as his wildly flickering, blurred vision began to return to normal, a hand suddenly reached for him. Before he could react, it grabbed him by the collar and easily pulled him away from the apartment's exterior wall.

Reflexively grabbing the arm clutching his collar, Park Seryong took in his opponent's appearance.

A twenty-something brat who was clearly a psychopath.

Someone who had never properly proven his abilities, and likely never had the opportunity to, had effortlessly subdued Park Seryong and was looking at him with a pitying expression.

And, astonishingly, he was floating in midair.

'He can fly too?'

Perhaps because humans had no natural connection to wings, flight abilities were extremely rare. In terms of rarity alone, regardless of their usefulness or power, they were comparable to S-Rank Hunters.

And the person who had so easily subdued Park Seryong possessed a flight ability as well.

Even in this situation, an intense feeling rose within him. Was the world really this unfair? It was resentment toward something unidentifiable, as well as the helplessness of having his confidence in himself utterly denied.

"Kill... me."

That was why Park Seryong let those words slip without thinking.

His five senses were rapidly recovering, but the paralysis and pain throughout his body remained. The scattered flow of Mana was still tangled in complete chaos, impossible to control properly.

At this moment, he was a fish on the chopping block. Faced with a reality he could not possibly ignore, his final stubborn defiance had emerged.

But his opponent did not react seriously at all.

"Are you reflecting on the fact that you've committed a crime worthy of death? Though, from what I can see, it doesn't seem that serious."

Rather than anger, those calm words filled Park Seryong with disbelief.

"After doing all this... you're saying you'll let me live?"

If that was the plan, how could someone dare commit an act of terrorism like this?

Rumble...!

At that moment, the upper floors of the apartment building, which had been threatening to collapse, tilted toward them with a heavy roar and cast a shadow over them.

"Why did you have to provoke me when I was minding my own business?"

Han Yujin clicked his tongue and spoke as though the situation were truly regrettable.

"Well, even if I can't sympathize, I can understand it rationally. History has proven countless times how power drives people insane and turns them into idiots."

"..."

"But I wasn't interested in that. If you hadn't messed with me, we could've gotten along quietly."

Nonsense.

Just as Park Seryong rejected that inwardly, Han Yujin continued.

"Do you know why I wasn't interested? Because I'm humble? Because I've realized the spirit of possessing nothing? Neither. It's just... how could I possibly feel greedy after seeing people squabble in such a cramped little well?"

There was no time to ask what exactly that meant. The apartment building that had been leaning above them began to fall onto their heads with an even greater roar.

"Look carefully, you frog. See how insignificant the power you possess and the authority you were trying to seize truly are."

In that desperate situation, where terror would have been only natural, Han Yujin's voice rang out with strange clarity and struck Park Seryong's mind.

Then the mass of apartment building falling like a heavenly hammer transformed in an instant into a raging storm of pink petals.

Shhhk!

Sharp sounds rang in their ears louder than thunder.

When the petal storm that seemed capable of sweeping away heaven and earth had passed over Park Seryong, leaving them stunned in shock, the scene around them had completely changed.

The familiar view of an Earth city was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a fierce battlefield sprawled across an enormous fortress wall.

They unconsciously turned their head and saw unfamiliar monsters flooding toward the wall like a tidal wave, filling the ground all the way to the horizon. People were fighting them bravely, humans dressed in extremely old-fashioned clothing.

Resounding shouts and screams, flashing bursts of light, explosive booms that shook the ground, and intense waves of Mana erupting and raging everywhere.

It was a battlefield straight from mythology.

Not just the monsters that looked powerful at a glance, but every person fighting them with an aura fierce enough to seem savage, not one of them was weaker than Park Seryong.

It was easier to find those stronger than him. Those of similar strength were few.

'What is this?'

Just as he stood there blankly, unable to grasp the situation and without even knowing when he had landed on the ground, an enormous impact suddenly crashed over him. It was a Mana presence that carried a terrifying pressure, as though a boulder were falling onto his head.

"Now it is time for you human vermin to die."

Immediately afterward, an unknown mental wave rang in their mind, crushing every thought they had.

His head turned on its own, driven by survival instinct, toward one side of the sky. Though it had to be extremely far away, there was a pterosaur so immense that he could see it clearly.

It was no ordinary pterosaur. Its body was adorned with precious metals, and it was a monster among monsters, wreathed in an enormous Mana aura that seemed capable of burning out his eyes just from looking at it.

When the pterosaur opened its mouth, a radiant golden sphere appeared before it. It rapidly grew larger, then fell toward the battlefield.

At that moment, Park Seryong felt every trace of moisture vanish from the surrounding air. It was still far away, yet the dreadful heat devoured everything around him and seemed to burn him alive.

Park Seryong thought he screamed.

But he could not be sure if he really had, because at that exact moment, an explosion that swallowed every sound on the battlefield erupted.

A humanoid figure shot toward the pterosaur like a ray of light.

It collided with the falling golden sphere.

An indescribably loud explosion rang out again.

A ring-shaped shockwave tore apart every cloud in the sky and spread as though it would cross the horizon. Space itself warped violently, and the sky seemed to churn like an ocean caught in a storm.

'A god...?'

That thought came to him despite the horrific heat.

Then a monster that looked like a cross between a praying mantis and a scorpion dove toward Park Seryong like a hawk. He tried to resist instinctively, but its scythe-like arm struck far faster.

He was going to die.

The moment he became certain of it, something shot forward with a thunderous crack and knocked aside the attack aimed at him.

"There's still more for you to see."

It was Han Yujin's voice, ringing clearly enough to strike his mind.

The instant someone roughly grabbed the back of his neck and flipped his entire body over, darkness dyed the surroundings. Soon, he found himself standing in another unfamiliar place.

"Huhk...!"

The chilling realism that suddenly struck him made Park Seryong groan and stagger. The heat he had just felt, along with every blow that had accumulated before it, left him in agony.

But the scene around him was far too ominous for him to collapse in relief.

It was at least the sight of a familiar modern city, but one that looked as though it had been abandoned for decades after the apocalypse. There was not even a common weed to be found.

Every window had been shattered, and there was not a piece of metal free from rust. Under the gloomy sky, the strangely bitter cold made his body shiver. White breath poured from his mouth with every inhale and exhale.

"What...! What kind of ghost trick is this?!"

Park Seryong transformed his fear into an angry shout. At least, he made it appear that way.

"Come out, Han Yujin! This, this is..."

After his words caught several times, he suddenly remembered something.

"This is all an illusion!"

"Is it?"

After that casual question,

"Aaaahhh...!!"

A sudden cry, entirely different from Han Yujin's voice, echoed spiritually from far behind him.

It sounded like something in unbearable pain, like a desperate plea for salvation from someone pitiful and urgent. It was faint, yet immense enough to swallow every other sound.

Park Seryong reflexively turned and saw a man in a suit running toward him from the distance with the most grotesque movements.

"If you believe it's an illusion, then do nothing and die."

Han Yujin's indifferent voice rang in his mind again. As Park Seryong stared at the mysterious suited man continually running toward him, his pupils dilated and his entire body began to tremble like an aspen.

That horrifying sense of realism washed over them again.

And within that reality, events did not stop.

Each stride of the suited man, twisting his upper body repeatedly like a zombie, made the surroundings ripple as the distance rapidly closed. With those movements, terrified screams of unknown origin faintly echoed from nearby buildings.

It was as though countless other ghostly beings hidden there feared the suited man as well and were fleeing.

The moment that thought came to him, Park Seryong turned and ran wildly without realizing it. He was far slower than normal, but fortunately, the suited man was not especially fast either.

It was because the man occasionally slowed and howled as though suffering immense agony.

"Where... where do I go...?!"

Panting, Park Seryong asked for help without realizing it.

Han Yujin was nowhere to be seen, and only his voice could be heard. But since Han Yujin had put him in this situation, Han Yujin was the only one who could save him.

"Just run, if you want to live."

He was already doing that.

Overwhelmed by terror far worse than the shivers racing down his spine, Park Seryong felt close to losing his mind as he drew on every last bit of strength.

As he ran desperately, a school building suddenly came into view. His stamina had apparently reached its limit, so without time to weigh his options, he headed straight for it.

He thought he might be able to shake his pursuer inside. The building did not seem especially complex, so it should also be easy to escape in an emergency.

But then.

The moment he practically smashed open the school's glass doors and entered, the echoing cry behind him abruptly stopped.

"Hah...! Hahh...! Hah...!"

In the unnaturally heavy silence, Park Seryong continued running down the thickly dust-covered corridor for a few more seconds before slowly stopping. Half relieved and half puzzled, he looked behind him to see what was happening.

"Hey."

At that moment, Han Yujin's voice sounded, and Park Seryong nearly cried. Han Yujin should have felt like an irreconcilable enemy, yet hearing that voice was unbelievably welcome.

But the next words turned that relief into taut tension.

"Why did you go in there? Do you want to die?"

"...W-Why? What's wrong with this place?"

"Why do you think the pursuit stopped there?"

For a brief moment, countless possibilities flashed through Park Seryong's mind. Before any particular thought could fully take shape, he instinctively began running again.

Immediately after they started running.

"Aaaahhh!!"

"Aaah...!"

At the spiritual cries layered dozens deep from above, Park Seryong reflexively looked up at the ceiling.

Countless student ghosts were pursuing him with insect-like movements. Their heads were bent at grotesque angles, their bodies were wreathed in dark energy, and blood streamed from all over them.

"Ahhhhhh!!"

Park Seryong finally could not hold it in and screamed. Nearly losing all reason, he ran at full speed. Fortunately, by then he could manage a little Mana, which made him faster.

"Grrrghhh...!"

"Don't go!!"

The student ghosts gave chase at a terrifying speed with equally terrifying movements. They spread from the ceiling to the walls and floor, wildly pursuing Park Seryong from every direction like hungry ghosts from hell.

Fortunately, an exit leading outside came into view ahead. Park Seryong barely managed to grasp his slipping sanity, and in the midst of terrible fear, a spark of hope began to rise.

"Kyahhhhhh!!"

"Wonhui...!"

"Wonhui...! Wonhui is coming...!!"

The student ghosts chasing him seemed to stop and scream instead. No, they did more than stop. They fled desperately in the opposite direction.

As Park Seryong turned to confirm what was happening, instinctive fear made him stop as well.

The door they had believed was an exit opened, and a female student appeared.

More precisely, a female student ghost.

She stood still and watched him with black eyes as abyssal and terrifying as darkness itself. Though her entire body was dyed in pitch-black shadows, brilliant red blood streamed down her face so vividly that it seemed to pierce his vision.

The scent of blood that swept over him was so thick that it felt as though his lungs had filled with it. The already bitter cold surged beyond mere discomfort, paralyzing his entire body and locking him in place.

The feeling of oppression was indescribable. Despite the extreme terror, he could not look away from the student ghost's eyes.

It was something else.

The sensation of facing not a mere ghost, but a transcendent being. He felt not only shriveled by terror and awe, but crushed beneath it.

Just before Park Seryong completely lost his mind, hair extended from the student ghost and melted into the surrounding darkness. Filled with boundless sharpness, it rushed toward him like waves from every direction, ready to cut him to pieces.

At the same time, a hand grabbed the back of his neck and yanked him away. His body flipped over, and a strange sensation came over him as though he were rapidly shooting upward.

The entire world turned white, then soon returned to normal.

"..."

Unable even to breathe properly, he remained stiff and trembling as he barely moved his eyes to inspect the scene around him. Cold sweat soaked his forehead as his eyes moved.

Thankfully, it was the Safe House.

It was the utterly normal, peaceful scene from immediately before Han Yujin had launched that sudden attack.

"If you think it was all a fabricated illusion, then go ahead and keep acting however you want. But if even a little part of you thinks otherwise..."

Han Yujin, seated before him, spoke with complete calm.

"You'd better reflect on the sight beyond the well that I showed you and consider what you should do from now on."

Han Yujin then jerked his chin toward the entrance, signaling for Park Seryong to leave.

Park Seryong immediately rose as though they had never been frozen and headed toward it. They staggered dangerously several times, but somehow made it through the front door without falling.

Then, soaked in cold sweat and looking utterly miserable, they fled as though running for their life.

* * *

Less than an hour after Park Seryong had been driven out like a mangy dog, Han Yujin was snickering as he watched Park Seryong hold an "official apology" press conference on his smartphone.

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