Return of the Shattered Constellation

Chapter 101: Star, The Winter Palace (1)

Chang-Sun didn’t come up with the Fire Bolt, the strategy created by combining [Explosive Thunder] and [Lightning Web], on his own. He got the inspiration for it from his battle against the Hongsal King.

‘The Hongsal King condensed his mana in advance and made it explode whenever we clashed,’ Chang-Sun recalled.

Chang-Sun couldn’t get the upper hand against the Hongsal King even though he utilized Double Sword Resonance using [Yuchang Sword] and [Tiamat’s Snaggletooth]. After all, the Hongsal King’s mana explosions were just as destructive as Chang-Sun’s. The Hongsal King made Chang-Sun think he could come up with a new offensive technique that revolved around making the concentrated Eon Fire explode. If he could combine it with divine and demonic energies, he could create a much bigger explosion than the Hongsal King could.

‘No, it’s too dangerous,’ Chang-Sun thought after pondering for a long time. It would be difficult for him to use the technique.

The Double Sword Resonance alone already significantly overtaxed him. Creating a bigger explosion could be helpful in the short term, but it would ruin his body in the long run. Besides, he had to be careful with his new Integrated Magic Circuit until it stabilized. Otherwise, it could break.

Hence, Chang-Sun didn’t linger on the idea of using Fire Bolt. Even though he often gambled in times of need, he preferred to rationally analyze his condition in combat. He couldn’t let such a good technique go to waste, however, so he came up with a new method to use it. If he applied runes while installing traps, he could build a big ‘snare’ that no one could ever get out of once it had caught them.

Rumble…!

The blood trace that dyed the snowfield red, the chaotically-made footsteps, the corpses… Everything disappeared when the avalanche swept the snowfield. The world had now become snow-white.

Tap!

Folding the Jigwi’s wings, Chang-Sun quietly flew down on the snowfield.

[The Player ‘Noh Ui-Jeong’ has died.]

[Successfully killed all the enemies!]

[Acquired the ‘Red Wolf Dagger’ as a trophy.]

[Acquired the ‘Assassin Walk’ as a trophy.]

…

[Earned a significant amount of experience points!]

[Level up!]

…

[The Celestial ‘A Good Season to Hunt’ says she likes your battles because they are so wild. Her eyes sparkle.]

[The Celestial ‘World-Encircling Serpent’ shakes his head. He says your technique is eviler than the ones devils use.]

[The Celestial ‘Calamity Tiger’ sneers at your foolish enemies who got buried alive.]

The Black Ghosts and Blood Wolf Group’s annihilation was inevitable. No matter how skilled they were, they could never have survived a head-on collision with a giant avalanche. Even if they did luckily survive using an item, they likely couldn’t have fended off Chang-Sun’s attacks. When Chang-Sun used [Beast Senses] after the battle, he found no survivors.

“Gyeo-Ul,” Chang-Sun called.

Swish!

Chang-Sun’s shadow immediately became longer, and Baek Gyeo-Ul jumped out of it, still wearing the pitch-black shadow armor. He harshly tossed the two people in his right hand, Kim Hyeong-Jun and Lim Joo-Han, before Chang-Sun.

“U-urghh!”

“P-p-please…!”

The two trembled like an aspen leaf. Following Chang-Sun’s instruction, Gyeo-Ul had quickly taken out the remaining Black Ghosts assassins and apprehended Kim Hyeong-Jun and Lim Joo-Han, the catalysts of this situation, to figure out who exactly was behind this.

“I’ll do anything you want!”

“P-please d-don’t kill me!”

Despite being considered some of this year’s highly skilled trainees, Hyeong-Jun and Joo-Han couldn’t even think about resisting since they had realized they weren’t skilled enough to fight Chang-Sun and Gyeo-Ul. Joo-Han and Hyeong-Jun believed it would take rankers to fight the Black Ghosts and Blood Wolf Group. Hence, they were naturally shocked when Chang-Sun and Gyeo-Ul did that all on their own.

Although Chang-Sun won by causing an avalanche, that didn’t change the fact that Chang-Sun was so exceptional that Hyeong-Jun and Joo-Han couldn’t even attempt to resist.

Chang-Sun just nonchalantly looked down at them in silence, scaring Hyeong-Jun and Joo-Han even more and filling them with the thought of saying anything to appease him. The only thing they could do was blame everything on each other.

“T-t-technically, I didn’t do anything wr-wrong! I-I kept saying I didn’t w-want to do it, but he kept-kept on insisting…!” Joo-Han sold Hyeong-Jun out.

Hyeong-Jun was indeed the one that persuaded him to join in on killing Chang-Sun.

Hyeong-Jun straightened his posture. “Stop lying! In fact, you were the one who said my plan was lacking and even offered to recruit the Blood Wolf Group to get the job done!”

“W-what? You were the one who paid, you son of a bitch!” Joo-Han yelled in anger.

Hyeong-Jun clenched his fists. “I’m going to kill you, bastard!”

“What did you say?!”Joo-Han scowled at Hyeong-Jun.

They grabbed each other’s collar, pathetically trying to lessen their sins by killing each other. Joo-Han looked back at Chang-Sun as he hurriedly yelled, “Th-this bastard funded the whole thing! The demonic beings could hide their identities and join the punitive force because of this bastard and his fa—”

“Shut up!” Hyeong-Jun turned deathly pale and drew up his mana to close Joo-Han's mouth when he was about to spill information that he shouldn’t.

Paah!

However, Gyeo-Ul pointed his spear at Hyeong-Jun’s forehead before the latter could do anything. He made it seem as if he’d immediately smash Hyeong-Jun’s head if he kept making a fuss. Hyeong-Jun turned pale with fright and trembled profusely.

Thinking this was his chance, Joo-Han hurriedly yelled, “His father is Director Kim Yeon-Seung! The Black Ghosts and Blood Wolf Group likely entered the Dungeon with Director Kim Yeon-Seung’s help. On top of that, they conspired with the Future Strategy Department Head Shim Geon-Ho, and even received a weird pipe from him!”

“A pipe?” Gyeo-Ul asked on Chang-Sun’s behalf.

Joo-Han turned his head to Gyeo-Ul and urgently nodded. “Yes, sir! You’d f-find it if you search the inner pocket of his top!”

“No-no…!” Hyeong-Jun resisted.

After smacking Hyeong-Jun’s head with the shaft of his spear, Gyeo-Ul ransacked and pulled out the pipe Joo-Han was talking about from Hyeong-Jun’s pocket by force.

[The Celestial ‘World-Encircling Serpent’ bizarrely laughs, saying they use really odd tricks.]

[The Celestial ‘Calamity Tiger’ lightly snorts.]

Gyeo-Ul handed the pipe he collected to Chang-Sun.

[Gu[1] Pipe]

This pipe grants its user the ability to control a special type of Gu with a specific frequency.

· Type: Pipe.

· Effect: Control Gu, Manipulate minds.

Unable to look at Chang-Sun directly in the eyes, Hyeong-Jun busily looked all over the place.

Chang-Sun snorted. “You were planning to make me ingest the Gu and control me, huh?”

Gu Toxin was an insect toxin made from a very rare insect called ‘Gu.’ By feeding a Gu to a target, the person in control of it could manipulate the target however they wanted through Gu’s special characteristics. In the outside world, Gu was an ordinary insect that fed on grasses, but it would instinctively turn into a parasite upon entering someone’s body. It would settle down on the person’s spine, which was close to the central nervous system.

It was similar to a gordioidea, which forced its host to jump into water and commit suicide, but a Gu could control the host in much more sophisticated ways. [Gu Pipe] could order the Gu to control the host in a specific way.

“Th-that’s…!” Hyeong-Jun stuttered.

“I already knew the White Tiger Clan mix Gu into the trainees’ meal while they were still in the training institute.” Chang-sun tilted his head.

“…!” Hyeong-Jun opened his eyes widely.

Chang-Sun shrugged. “It doesn’t work on me, though.”

‘He was aware of everything!’ Unable to say anything, Hyeong-Jun felt as if he was suffocating.

In contrast to their public image, the White Tiger Clan was close to a group of demonic beings, but only the White Tiger Clan executives knew about it. Although many incidents could be incurred, they were successfully kept under wraps since the White Tiger Clan’s higher-ups could control the employees however they wanted.

Planting [Dream Spheres] in all of the White Tiger Clan members was too expensive, but while a Gu wasn’t cheap, it wasn’t as expensive as [Dream Spheres].

The White Tiger Clan had also poisoned this year’s trainees with Gu Toxin, but it didn’t work on Chang-Sun. Gu Toxin was a kind of poison, so [Single Eon Fire] was activated and burnt the Gu up as soon as it entered his body.

Unaware of that, Hyeong-Jun had blown the [Gu Pipe] Geon-Ho gave him multiple times but couldn’t affect Chang-Sun with [Gu Pipe] during the battle at all. Belatedly noticing something was wrong and feeling the incoming danger, Hyeong-Jun waited for an opportunity to bolt, only to ultimately get caught by Gyeo-Ul.

[The Celestial ‘Twilight-Piercing Owl’ wishes you would strike the villains who objectify lives with the mace of justice!]

‘Do I really have to use a mace?’ One end of Chang-Sun’s lips curled up.

“Kim Yeon-Seung and Shim Geon-Ho, huh? Those flies are bugging me,” Chang-Sun muttered to himself.

“W-wait!” Hyeong-Jun tried to interject, feeling as if he’d really die here unless he did something.

Slash!

Gyeo-Ul cut off Hyeong-Jun’s head with his spear first.

Squirt!

Still looking terrorized, Hyeong-Jun’s head rolled off toward Joo-Han.

“Urgh, uhh…!” Joo-Han unwittingly flinched away when he met Hyeong-Jun’s wide-open eyes.

It didn’t matter how tough he acted. This was his first time seeing a decapitated human head, so he couldn’t help but tremble at the thought that he could end up like Hyeong-Jun. He looked up with hope, but…

Paah!

…a red line also horizontally cut through Joo-Han’s neck.

“W-why…?” Joo-Han looked at Chang-Sun, opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish.

“I said nothing about not killing you,” Chang-Sun nonchalantly answered.

At that moment, blood poured out from the red line on Joo-Han’s neck. “Fu…ck…!”

Squirt!

Joo-Han’s headless body collapsed backward. Chang-Sun wiped off the blood on [Tiamat’s Snaggletooth], which had returned to its dagger form after it had finished resonating. He then returned the dagger back to his belt and checked his wristwatch.

‘I wasted too much time,’ he thought.

One hour and twenty minutes remained until the curse was activated again. Considering the distance to the Winter Palace, it seemed he should pick up the pace.

[The Skill ‘Windstalking Tiger’ has been activated, manifesting the Skill ‘Lightness’!]

Paah!

Spreading out the Jigwi’s wings, Chang-Sun sprang forth again, and Gyeo-Ul naturally blended into Chang-Sun’s shadow.

Woosh!

After Chang-Sun left, the ominous wind blew, covering the abandoned corpses of Hyeong-Jun and Joo-Han with snow as if nothing had happened.

1. the raw was 고(蠱). This venomous creature could be found in Asian black magic. To create Gu, a wizard would seal several poisonous creatures inside a closed container. The creatures would fight and devour one another until only one remained. The survivor would have a complex poison. ☜