The story about the Demon Realm began like this.Day One.The landscape we saw after entering through the rift was desolate.The sky was a black, ashen gray, as if it were forever stuck at dusk.The ground was choked with dense undergrowth that carried a sinister air.A world saturated with magi.If we hadn’t gone through acclimation training, I don’t think we could have endured.No—the truth is, even now it’s hard to endure.I feel like I could lose my mind at any moment.But I have to grit my teeth and hold on, and squeeze as much information out of this place as I can.We need intel on the Demon Realm if we’re going to prepare for them.Day Two.We were staring at a massive flower, amazed, when it suddenly turned into a monster and pounced on a teammate.Thankfully, my teammate reacted fast and put down the flower-turned-monster.I thought the crisis was over. It wasn’t.The place we’d stepped into was packed with those things.A brutal fight raged long enough that I lost any sense of time.Just when everyone was nearing their limit, we cut down the last of the monster-flowers.But two teammates died because of it.Damn the Demon Realm.Even flowers were monsters.Day Three.We never got a break.The monster-flowers weren’t the end.Unidentifiable creatures poured out without end.In the end, we had to stop trying to survey the forest.We were attacked even as we pulled out.Ever seen a tree that moves?In the Demon Realm, even the trees were monsters.Part of me wanted to set the whole forest on fire.We barely made it out of the woods when the ground shook.In an instant, the earth collapsed and a massive hole yawned open.My teammates burst into lightness, springing across the shards of stone that shot up as the hole formed, and raced ahead.Then we looked down.It wasn’t just a sinkhole.The “hole” was the mouth of a colossal creature.In the Demon Realm, even the ground was a monster.There wasn’t a single thing here that wasn’t.If this is the environment the Demonic Race lives in, just how monstrous are they?I never wanted to meet one.Day Four.No one could live here. Not humans.There was nowhere without monsters.Yesterday, three teammates were lured away by a monster that wore a woman’s face.A face you see once and never forget.In all my years, I’ve never seen a woman that beautiful.The moment my head started to fog from her beauty, I drove my Small Blade into my thigh and used the pain to clear my mind.The others did the same.But the ones who didn’t snap out of it in time were bewitched and followed the monsters.We chased to rescue them, but we were already too late.They were dead—drained of every body fluid, shrunken to skin and bone.In the middle of that, a few more teammates started drifting toward her under the spell, and we barely stopped them.You can’t let your guard down here. Not for a heartbeat.I wanted nothing more than to go back.Day Five.Maybe because none of us slept properly, everyone looked exhausted.If we could just finish today’s survey safely, we could go home.We had planned for five days from the start.But we didn’t have the stamina to keep going.With mind and body frayed, magi kept trying to infiltrate our bodies, and fighting that off alone was exhausting.We finally judged that pushing the survey further was impossible, and decided to pull out before time was up.Everyone looked relieved.All we had to do was reach the rift in one piece.But even getting to the rift wasn’t easy.We moved as carefully as we could, but it didn’t matter.On the way back to the rift, we lost two more teammates.Ten went in. Only three reached the rift and made it out alive.Next to the journal were drawings of what they’d seen in the Demon Realm:Monster-flowers and walking trees.A giant serpent and a wolf that breathed fire.A creature that lurked underground and opened its mouth to swallow passersby whole, and a bewitching monster that lured humans to their deaths.That was what they faced in five days.They hadn’t even gotten deep into the forest.Apex predators usually claim the depths, so the monsters they saw on the forest’s outer rim might not even count as monsters by this world’s standards.Yeon Woo Jin stroked his chin.There was more information on the Demon Realm after that, but most of it was the same.Which meant there was a hard limit to how far anyone could probe.Sama Cheon spoke as Yeon Woo Jin silently turned ideas over.“Absolutely not.”“Hm?”“You’re thinking of going into the rift right now, aren’t you?”Yeon Woo Jin looked at him like: How did you know?“It’s written all over your face, you brat.”“Heh.”“No. If anything were to happen to you…”Yeon Woo Jin knew exactly what he was worried about.“Master, there’s a saying: ‘Know the enemy and know yourself, in a hundred battles you won’t be imperiled.’ We need to know the enemy to prepare. What’s written here is only about the creatures in the Demon Realm.”“It’s still a no. We don’t even know how strong they are, and there’s no guarantee the rift will remain open.”“Do you really think a rift that’s been open all this time will suddenly close?”“It could. Do you think the rift was always that size in the past?”“It wasn’t?”“Look at the size of this building. Do you think they built it this big for a rift that small?”Yeon Woo Jin looked around.The building was indeed far larger than the rift.“In the past, it was much larger. This building was built to match that scale. But look now. It’s shrunk this much. It wouldn’t be strange if it vanished at any time.”“Then I’ll go for just three days.”“Woo Jin.”Seeing the look in Yeon Woo Jin’s eyes, Sama Cheon realized he couldn’t stop him.“…Fine. But you truly come back in three days.”“Understood.”“Are you going alone?”“Yes. I can’t bring others into a place when I don’t know what dangers are waiting.”“I still don’t like sending you alone. Take your guards.”“My guards?”“Ma Ryang, Cheon Ho Seong, and Jeok Seong.”“Ah…”“If you say you’ll go with those three, I’ll allow it. Otherwise I won’t let you set foot in there.”Yeon Woo Jin nodded at Sama Cheon’s firm line.“Understood. I’ll do as you say, Master.”Only then did Sama Cheon smile.“Good. With them, I can rest easier.”Those three had grown beyond comparison with the past.With them going together, Sama Cheon could feel a sliver of relief.He knew better than anyone how strong Yeon Woo Jin was—but that’s not how a human heart works. He couldn’t send him alone. ****Ma Ryang, Cheon Ho Seong, and Jeok Seong came the instant Yeon Woo Jin called.Their faces were flushed with excitement.The three were overjoyed simply to have something to do alongside Yeon Woo Jin.They were momentarily taken aback when they heard that “something” meant entering the Demon Realm through the rift, but their smiles returned at once.They were being called to a place that was truly dangerous and important.Which meant he trusted and relied on them.What could be better than that?Watching the three grin from ear to ear, Yeon Woo Jin shook his head with a helpless smile.Then he laughed too.Because being with them was always a pleasure.“If I’m with you, even if that place is hell, I’m in.”“Same here!”While Cheon Ho Seong and Jeok Seong beamed, Ma Ryang wore a different expression.Eyes blazing, he asked Yeon Woo Jin:“Those Demonic Race bastards we meet in the Demon Realm—may I take them in hand?”Having once suffered at the hands of the Demonic Race, Ma Ryang was the most eager of all.Yeon Woo Jin nodded with a smile.Cheon Ho Seong and Jeok Seong knew exactly why Ma Ryang was like this.“ Tch. Guess we’ll have to give way.”If they’d gone through the same thing, they’d be the same as Ma Ryang.With Yeon Woo Jin’s permission, a smile tugged at Ma Ryang’s lips.They wouldn’t be the same ones who had humiliated him, but they were still Demonic Race just like that man had been. His fighting spirit surged.Ma Ryang vowed to show them the greatness of humanity. ****A place where lightless darkness rippled.This was the rift that connected to the Demon Realm.Through this passage in the past, a Heavenly Demon and demons had emerged into the world and plunged it into chaos.They later learned that because the rift wasn’t stable, the Heavenly Demon and the demons hadn’t been able to come through with their full power.I was curious.Just how strong would demons be at full power?This was the most important part of the expedition.We needed to know their true strength if we were going to prepare.That’s why I wanted to go alone.With my power, I figured I could handle demons even at full strength.Honestly, I was too curious about how strong they were.Would they be foes I’d have to go all out against?Just thinking about it made my heart pound.If anyone was looking forward to the Heavenly Demon, it was Yeon Woo Jin.How strong would the Heavenly Demon be?Would I need to give everything to win?I wanted the Heavenly Demon to come through with full power.I’d even caught myself thinking that.Yeon Woo Jin stared at the rift, heart thudding.“Do you three not need acclimation training to the magi?”At Sama Cheon’s question, Yeon Woo Jin looked to Ma Ryang, Cheon Ho Seong, and Jeok Seong.All three nodded.“This much is nothing.”At their answer, Yeon Woo Jin grinned.Then he spoke to Sama Cheon.“Looks like we’re ready.”Sama Cheon shook his head.“I still don’t know if this is right.”“You only prepare properly by experiencing things yourself. Don’t worry.”“Urgh… If your grandfather hears about this, he’ll try to kill me.”“Grandfather will understand—he knows you can’t stop °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° me.”“Whatever you do, be careful. That place is nothing like the human world.”“Understood.”“Be careful what you eat. Some of the ones who went before picked up strange things and ate them and died.”“Understood.”With Sama Cheon seeing them off, Yeon Woo Jin’s party stepped into the rift. ****The first world they saw after passing through the rift was exactly as described in the book.An ashen sky, tinted forever like sunset.Magi pressing in from every direction.Yeon Woo Jin drew that magi into himself.Moments later—The magi stored in his body began to merge with him, and in an instant it became part of his internal energy.With that, Yeon Woo Jin’s body could now manipulate magi.HWOOM—Thick magi billowed from Yeon Woo Jin’s body.Anyone who saw him would have mistaken him for a native of this place.Yeon Woo Jin smiled.“The magi here is pure. And dense. The magi floating in the air is an elixir all by itself.”“R-really?”“Yes. If they live bathed in this every day, of course they’re strong.”“Can we absorb it too?”“I think so.”Come to think of it, adapting to magi would make moving here much easier.And if they converted magi into internal energy, they wouldn’t run dry in a fight.Yeon Woo Jin considered for a moment.What would be the best way to convert it?Then he remembered—the magi here was pure.“Just accept it.”“Pardon?”“The magi here is pure. Pure magi is the same as pure vital energy.”“But didn’t you say there were people who went mad because of magi?”“That’s because they tried to resist it. The invading magi probably clashed with their native energy and stimulated the Hundred Convergences acupoint. That’s what snapped their minds. If you don’t label it ‘magi’ in your head and accept it as pure energy, it’s different.”When he says it, it’s law.If he says so, then that’s how it is.The three asked nothing further. They immediately sat cross-legged where they stood and began circulating their breathing.It wasn’t safe, and it was the middle of the Demon Realm, but they started without fear—because Yeon Woo Jin was there.

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