Chapter 169 – The Wrong Path (1)

Swish!

The speed at which he was falling only increased.

When he was flying, it felt like the cliff was about 100 feet high, but that vanished in a second, and by the time he passed a couple more hundred, it only took half the time to cover the distance.

The ground was gradually approaching, and the time left was but the blink of an eye.

In that situation his consciousness vanished.

“Yaaah—! You fucking bastard—!!”

The AI cursed out.
It seemed like he too was aware of the situation.

But he didn’t try anything.
Even in the middle of falling to death, he did nothing.

Since the ground was already close, he felt worried about his body

-Come on, do something…

There were only ten feet left and as it was getting close, a phrase appeared in front of his eyes.

-What?!

One of the special skills was used.

-…!

And he saw it.

At seven feet there was light, and lighting was generated from his fist.
At five feet it touched the ground, and at three feet—

Black wind was created on the ground where the lightning hit, and it continued to expand.

Kwakwakwak

-It is dangerous!

A dark cloud-like storm moved for the AI who was falling to the ground, and this tornado was several times stronger than Supreme Wind God.

Not just that but there were countless streaks of lightning around him.

“Shut up… moron!”

Facing all of it, the AI cursed out again and moved his head straight up.

And activated—

Wheik!

At one foot from the ground, the airflow on the ground stopped.
No, to be precise, the airflow wrapped around the body of the AI as it began to fall and slowly move down.

-Wow…

He was speechless at this.

The airflow which reversed the flow of air.

The power of wind which created the storm and pushed it in all directions.
It was used to protect the body from falling.

Rather than the greatness of the AI, he was more shocked that it could be used like this.

“HHHHHH!”

And the AI who came to the ground to the point of touching it, shuddered.

The black wind flowed around in all directions.

Kwakwakwang!

There was a roar of storms.
Afterwards, it all died down, leaving the AI remaining in the middle.

What did I just see?

He was admitting it to him.

While falling, he created powerful winds to push the body gently enough and landed down safely.

However, it was not just wind, there was lightning in it too.
He used it carefully, and understanding the airflow, he was able to land without taking damage.

The shock of jumping from a cliff so high that the bottom could not be seen was crazy, but his body was fine.

“Fucking… insane.
You look like someone who will be hit by lightning.”

And the AI was a bit angry.

-Sorry.
I couldn’t help it, I had to call you out.

“Even if a man is insane there must be a limit to it.
To think you would do… this is my first time to live like this, with a guy who is tough to satisfy.”

-Well, curse as much as you want and then you can listen to me.

The AI spat out a few more curses.
Then as if he had calmed down, he looked at him.

“Phew.
Then let’s see… oh? Look at you.
Did you just use the Taiji Cultivation technique in the body to unite two energies? Did you do that all by yourself?”

After calming down, the AI suddenly looked surprised.

-Somehow…

“Huh.
An idiot like you did this? To realize exactly what I barely understood after coming back 3212 times.
You must be insane.”

Wait, 3212 lives?

Seol-Hwi immediately asked,

-You… you did simulations?

“Ah.
forget it.”

His words were flat out ignored.

“Why did you call me when this wasn’t even a fight?”

-There are more important things than fights.
There is something I cannot find the answer to without you.

He briefly explained the situation of becoming a secret warrior, using the technique, and the man from Mount Hua popping out.

“What? Goo Jong-myung was here?”

For a moment the AI seemed a bit confused.
He seemed quite shaken too.

-Right.
Do you know why that happened?

At that he sighed and asked,

“You brat.
Did you save that kid, Songhwa?”

-Uh.
Yeah, that’s right.

“You stupid brat.
Did I tell you to save him? You should have handed him up to those idiots!”

-But Songhwa is one of my subordinates…

“Well, that is something in the past.
So it is fine now.
So you didn’t hand over Songhwa and yet you still became a secret warrior? Did you have a dozen lives to risk?”

-Two lives and with the heart that I wanted to call the child…

“You called Yupae.”

-…!

Those words.

This guy really knew the future, and not just that, but he was aware of the previous choices I took and how the variables changed.

“Right.
If you called him then Goo Jong-myung would have come to the Supreme Pavilion.
And the two of you happened to meet… I see.”

-Can you explain it?

Seol-Hwi asked.

-What did I do for things to end up like this?

Judging from his reaction, it seemed to him that the AI was actually on a different path than the one he took.

“Songhwa.
That kid is the cause of everything that changed.”

-What do you mean?

The AI looked to the sky and sighed as he said,

“After Ma Taryong was caught by Mount Hua’s men, after a while, the Second Disciple’s men would come there.
After getting the information on the place Mount Hua established their base at, they would come and attack.”

-…

“But then you go and raid the place of Mount Hua and take Ma Taryong.
Because of that, Mount Hua there falls into confusion and chaos.”

-Is it that huge? Me taking Ma Taryong?

“It is.
Ma Taryong was not just a prisoner to them but a tool of negotiation to be handed over.
In addition, when getting him out, you even killed the elders who guarded the place, right?”

-Ah…

“The secret base who had their leaders disappear, would they have defended it properly? Of course they must have prepared someone but then the Second Disciple’s forces moved in and the ones who had originally promised to hold them couldn’t take action.”

The AI glared at me as he said,

“Actually, Mount Hua should have suffered irreversible damage, but that is because of the Second Disciple’s men, mainly Yupae pushing them into a corner.
The old men of Mount Hua and Yupae.
A fierce battle should happen between both sides, with them suffering severe damage too.
But your choices changed it all, twisted it all.”

-Twisted? How?

“You called Yupae to save Songhwa, and he withdrew halfway.
Because of that, Goo Jong-myung who was supposed to be tied up by Yupae ended up fine and he went to the sect because he is angry at what happened.
And then met you by chance.”

-Ah…!

It was then that it all fit together.

The child called Songhwa, not ignoring that one small variable brought in Goo Jong-myung

50… 49…

Uh?

But then he suddenly noticed the number decreasing in front of his eye, the time left with the AI.

In the past it only lasted 90 seconds, but now it lasted around 300 due to the rise in level.

With it being already so difficult to call the AI, the time remaining was not helping him.

-So what do we do next? Without having to meet Goo Jong-myung…

“Give up.
Your current life is ruined.”

-What do you mean?

“I can roughly guess what you are going to do.
You wanted to remove the Supreme Pavilion Lord, now you will do that early to not meet him.
But it will not end that easily.
If this story continues, Goo Jong-myung will move to the Second Disciple.”

The word “story” felt so troublesome, but he could roughly understand this.

In the meantime, the AI blinked a couple times and he said,

“And in the 5th and 6th missions, there will be a situation where you run into the same man again.
In the end, you have no choice but to face Goo Jong-myung and you will get defeated every single time.”

-Can I become stronger by training hard?

“Damn it! That guy is a monster who will not lose even to Yupae! Just throw away this life and try for the next one.
Oh! We have to take another way not this one.”

-No! This is all the life I have! I have just one left and I am living that…

He complained, feeling frustrated, but the AI responded by bursting into anger.

“W-what? You fucking moron.
Why do you have just one life? What were you up to?

-What was I up to? I was busy training, leveling up and fighting…

20… 19…

There wasn’t time there to explain.
The remaining time was ending.

“You really are an item dude.
Just avoid this.
I will say it again, no matter how strong you can become in a short period of time, you cannot cross him.
He is a monster who survives the fight against Yupae!”

-Well, then tell me how! If I can get an extra life…

“Life? Uh… let’s see.
You must have already killed Jeok Myung right?”

-Right.

“Who else? Ah right… it has been so long that I don’t remember…”

-Fast!!!

“Quiet asshole! Let me think!”

5… 4…

The time was running out when the AI frowned as he opened his mouth trying to remember something.

“Ah, there is one.
Wang Mu-ryeok.
Kill him.”

-Who is that?

“One of the warriors in the Hidden Demon Hall.
Rest assured that his skills will be the same as yours.
As far as I know, he should be around that Supreme Pavilion guy…”

That was the end.

The conversation time was over and it was the last conversation before carrying out the mission

Day 30

Seo Saeng was back in the early morning.

He visited to report the evaluation.

“Where are you?”

As always, Seol-Hwi was near the summit.

There he is.

Seo Saeng found Seol-Hwi cultivating near the cliff.
He tried to speak out, but he then changed his mind.
Instead, he decided to carefully observe.

Uh? It is.

In the middle of thinking about what to do, the captain got up.

Then he raised his sword and stood up.
Soon after, he sat down and put on his shoes.

What is he doing?

Not knowing what was happening, he continued to watch.

Putting the shoes on, Seol-Hwi got up and moved his head a couple times.

Once again he shook his head side to side and rocked back and forth.

“…”

Nothing happened.

The captain continued to repeat the action over and over again.

Why is he doing that?

It did not look like a martial arts movement.
It was strange that he was shaking his head like that, and at some point when he was in the middle of his thoughts—

—came the unknown.

Swish!

A spark on the sword appeared on the tip of the sword with ice surrounding it.

There was fire and ice at the same time, and it gradually spread.

And at some point—

Swish

Following the movement of the sword lightly moving, a part of air changed into a white hazy ice.

It turned the air into ice.

Kang!

A sudden burst of fireworks happened suddenly.

The white ice met with the sparks of flame.

“What…!”

Seo Saeng exhaled in shock at this.

He couldn’t help it.

This was the first time Seol-Hwi used it—

A combination of ice and fire.

It was because of the new power he obtained, the new technique.