Chapter 17

“Where in the world is he hiding?”

So Yeowol’s expression was frozen, as cold as a stone.

She tried hard to hide her emotions, but a hint of irritation lingered in her eyes.

She wasn’t the only one.

All the children tracking Pyo Wol felt the same way she did.

All the surviving children were mobilized for the chase, but no trace of Pyo Wol could be found anywhere.

The children had all prided themselves on their tracking skills, but they were useless against Pyo Wol, who had vanished without a trace.

It was no wonder a sense of self-loathing washed over them.

“Just a little more effort. We can definitely find him.”

“That bastard! I never liked him from the start. I’ll find him, no matter what.”

The children gritted their teeth and intensified their search.

A few children mustered the courage to search Sector One, Pyo Wol’s dwelling. But not even a shadow of Pyo Wol was to be seen.

“You rat-like bastard!”

“Cowardly son of a bitch…”

Just as curses aimed at Pyo Wol erupted from the children.

Ppiiii!

Suddenly, a ringing sound echoed in the children’s ears.

At first, they thought it was an auditory hallucination.

They thought they were the only ones hearing it. But the ringing sound was heard equally in everyone’s ears.

It was then.

“Aargh!”

“Keuk!”

Almost simultaneously, all the children clutched their chests and collapsed.

They felt an excruciating pain in their hearts.

It felt as if an invisible hand was squeezing their hearts, and the children couldn’t even breathe properly.

‘Wh-what?’

So Yeowol’s body trembled as she curled up like a shrimp.

It was the first time she had felt such pain since coming to this place.

She thought she had grown accustomed to all kinds of pain, but this was on a different level.

The heart-squeezing agony soon changed into a pain as if insects were gnawing at her entire body.

There was not a single exception.

All the children had collapsed and were writhing in extreme pain.

Just then, a boy of their age appeared from somewhere.

It was Pyo Wol, who exuded an androgynous sensuality, a mixture of masculine and feminine features.

The children’s minds were so hazy that they didn’t even realize that Pyo Wol, whom they had been so desperately searching for, had appeared.

Pyo Wol looked at the children with a puzzled expression.

All twenty-seven of them, without exception, were rolling on the ground in agony.

Even someone unobservant could tell that something unusual was happening.

‘Is it because of that sound from just now?’

Pyo Wol had also heard the ringing. But unlike the other children, he felt nothing out of the ordinary.

It was just that his ears hurt a little. But the other children, unlike him, were all clutching their chests and rolling on the ground.

‘They’ve activated the Restriction.’

Pyo Wol’s eyes grew cold.

It was the moment his guess was proven to be true. But he also had a question.

Everyone was suffering from the Restriction, but he alone was fine.

He didn’t feel the pain like the other children, nor did any strange symptoms appear. Because of that, he couldn’t understand why the children were in so much pain.

Pyo Wol knelt on one knee and examined the children.

Their faces were deathly pale, and their eyes were rolled back. They looked as if they could die at any moment.

Pyo Wol closely examined Imin, who seemed to be in the most critical condition among them.

‘I have to find the cause.’

Pyo Wol carefully injected his Internal Energy into Imin’s body.

No matter how unconscious a person was, injecting one’s Internal Energy into another’s body was an extremely dangerous act. A single misstep could cause the Internal Energies to clash, leading to Qi Deviation.

Nevertheless, the reason Pyo Wol injected his Internal Energy into Imin’s body was that they had both learned the same Thunderclap Mind Method.

Unlike him, Imin had only learned it to a passing level, but he thought that since it was Internal Energy of the same nature, it wouldn’t cause a major clash.

Pyo Wol’s guess was correct.

Even after injecting his Internal Energy, no clash occurred in Imin’s body.

Pyo Wol carefully circulated his Internal Energy.

This was the first time he had ever injected his Internal Energy into another person’s body. That was why he had to be even more cautious.

Pyo Wol meticulously examined the inside of Imin’s body. But he felt no resistance or any sense of foreignness anywhere.

‘Then it’s not a problem with the Internal Energy…’

Pyo Wol removed his hand from Imin’s body and fell into thought.

‘What created this difference? The difference between them and me is…’

They had learned in the same environment, eaten the same food, and practiced the same Martial Arts.

Of course, he had learned one more, an unknown Sword Art, but it was a stretch to think he was fine because of that.

‘What is it? What is it that sets me apart from them?’

Pyo Wol went through the commonalities between them and himself, eliminating them one by one.

Food, water, Martial Arts—after erasing everything he could think of, only one thing remained.

‘Is it poison?’

Unlike them, he had a strong Poison Resistance.

It was because he had been consistently bitten by the unidentified snake.

That was the only difference between them and him.

If so, it was understandable that poison was powerless in his body. But the question was not completely resolved.

If they were truly poisoned, it didn’t make sense that they all had a seizure at the same moment.

It was impossible to trigger the poison latent in twenty-seven bodies all at once.

Moreover, the only sign before the poison acted up was the unidentified ringing in their ears.

It was a stretch to believe that the poison latent in their bodies was activated merely by a ringing sound.

‘There’s something more. It’s impossible to activate a poison with an external sound.’

Pyo Wol’s mind raced even faster.

Suddenly, the image of the snake eating the insect came to mind.

When the insect tried to move, the snake would deliberately make a sound to control it.

‘What if it’s not poison in our bodies, but a poisonous insect that’s Hiding in Wait?’

If so, the current situation made perfect sense.

It was incredibly easy to introduce a poisonous insect into the children’s bodies.

All they had to do was mix it into the water or food supplied from the outside.

‘It must be a type of Gu Poison.’

When hundreds of poisonous creatures are put into a single jar, they eat each other until only the strongest one survives.

The poisonous creature that survives in this way possesses various strange characteristics. Among them, one might have a nature that reacts particularly sensitively to sound. And the Gu Poison, stimulated by the sound, must have released its venom, poisoning them.

As his suspicion solidified, Pyo Wol’s mind became even more complicated.

‘Why would they activate the Gu Poison at this very moment?’

No matter how much he thought about it, there was only one reason.

It was because of him.

They must have been convinced that he had infiltrated the cave and activated the Gu Poison as an example to the others.

Just then, he heard the instructors’ voices from afar.

“Over there.”

“They’ve collapsed over there.”

The instructors had spotted the fallen children and were running over.

Pyo Wol hesitated for a moment.

If he wanted to, he could escape this place at any time. But if he did, it would be obvious that he had a resistance to poison.

It was not yet time to reveal that he was different from the other children. Having quickly organized his thoughts, Pyo Wol collapsed to the ground and pretended to be poisoned.

He used his Internal Energy to deliberately make his complexion pale, clutched his chest, and trembled.

Right after that, Im Sayeol and the instructors appeared.

“So you were here.”

Im Sayeol spotted the fallen Pyo Wol and approached him.

A faint Killing intent lingered in his eyes.

‘Wouldn’t it be better to just kill him now?’

Im Sayeol was conflicted.

Considering the various circumstances, it would not be easy to completely control Pyo Wol.

His tendency to move alone without mingling with the other children was a problem, but what bothered him most was that his mind was so deep that his inner thoughts could not be grasped at all.

They had been in the same space for a full six years, but Pyo Wol had never once revealed his inner thoughts to others.

It was something that could not be explained simply by saying he was patient or taciturn. That was why Im Sayeol thought Pyo Wol was extremely dangerous.

Sreung!

Im Sayeol drew his sword from its sheath.

Puk!

Im Sayeol unhesitatingly stabbed the sword into Pyo Wol’s shoulder.

Pyo Wol did not resist and took the blade.

Since he was only pretending to be unconscious, the sensation of the blade tearing through his muscle and entering his body was vividly transmitted.

Pyo Wol almost screamed and opened his eyes from the excruciating pain. But he forced himself to endure the pain and continued to feign unconsciousness.

With the sword still embedded, Im Sayeol whispered into Pyo Wol’s ear.

“What did you see in my room?”

Im Sayeol’s voice was thick with Killing intent.

No one could possibly know the terrible feeling he was experiencing right now.

Every time he saw Pyo Wol, he felt a fear of unknown origin.

He looked no different from the other children, but Im Sayeol knew that was not his true appearance.

From their very first meeting, Pyo Wol had been a different breed.

While the other children were dazed, unable to properly grasp the situation, he alone had understood what was happening and acted decisively.

The decisiveness he had shown at that time was still deeply engraved in Im Sayeol’s mind.

The resolve and determination Pyo Wol had shown back then were on a level that the other children could not dare to follow.

But at some point, he began to stagnate, descending to a level similar to the other children.

He only showed ability in miscellaneous skills like Infiltration or Stealth Skill, but made no progress in Martial Arts. That was why even people like Gu Sinhaeng and Sang Ilsin had let down their guard around Pyo Wol.

Im Sayeol thought it didn’t make sense.

He couldn’t believe that a being who had stood out so prominently had now become ordinary.

If so, there was only one conclusion.

Pyo Wol was hiding himself.

This young demon had clearly been hiding his achievements for a long time. But there was no way to prove it.

The fact that a monster was growing in this place was clear, but the fact that no one but him knew it frustrated him.

Now was the chance to kill Pyo Wol.

He thought it would be better to kill him cleanly to avoid future trouble.

Im Sayeol pulled the sword from Pyo Wol’s shoulder and tried to stab his neck again. But at that moment, I-geom Gu Sinhaeng stopped him.

“You can’t.”

“Let go!”

“His Infiltration skill is outstanding. We will definitely need his ability for the upcoming request.”

“The other children are enough.”

“You know very well that’s not true, don’t you?”

“Do you think it will be easy to control him?”

“As long as we have the Hell Flute, we can control him at any time. As you can see, he’s completely helpless against the poison emitted by the Gu Poison, isn’t he?”

At Gu Sinhaeng’s mention of the Hell Flute, Im Sayeol flinched.

Not just Pyo Wol, but all the children had lost consciousness and were writhing in pain. It was the power of the Hell Flute.

As Pyo Wol had guessed, the Hell Flute was an artifact that could control the Gu Poison latent in the body. The sound waves of the Hell Flute stimulated the Gu Poison, and the stimulated Gu Poison would release its venom and attack the heart.

The Poison Qi spreading from the heart would flow through the blood vessels and attack the entire body. That was why the children’s entire bodies were paralyzed, unable to move.

If they didn’t take the Antidote within at least two quarters of an hour after the Hell Flute was played, they would eventually die.

As long as the Hell Flute existed, it was impossible for the children to escape control and act as they pleased. That was why they had been left alone even when they acted willfully until now.

“Hah!”

Im Sayeol eventually withdrew the sword he was about to use to stab Pyo Wol. Then, Gu Sinhaeng gave an order to the instructors.

“Give the children the antidote.”

“Yes!”

The instructors hurriedly gave each of the children a pill of the antidote.

Not long after taking the antidote, the children’s complexions returned to normal.

The effect of the antidote was nothing more than temporarily relieving the poisoning. It could not kill the Gu Poison latent in their bodies.

Im Sayeol looked down at Pyo Wol.

‘It would have been a relief to just kill him now…’

It was a pity, but he couldn’t change his decision now.

“Umm!”

“Keuk!”

The children who had taken the Antidote regained consciousness one by one.

Pyo Wol also let out a groan and opened his eyes when he felt the timing was right.

“Keuk!”

He deliberately clutched the area where Im Sayeol’s sword had stabbed him and put on a bewildered expression. The instructors were completely fooled by Pyo Wol’s acting, but Im Sayeol alone did not let go of his suspicion.

“What happened? Why did I suddenly lose consciousness…”

“What in the world?”

The children still had confused expressions.

They had lost consciousness with a terrible pain the moment they heard the ringing in their ears, so they had no idea what had happened.

Just then, Sang Ilsin spoke in a loud voice so that all the children could hear.

“You are all suffering this pain because of Pyo Wol. If he hadn’t willfully infiltrated our quarters, you would not have suffered this pain. Bear in mind that if something like this happens again, you will all suffer the same pain as today.”

At Sang Ilsin’s words, the children glared at Pyo Wol with eyes full of anger.