Ep417 - I Became a Drunkard in a Martial Arts Novel.

A faint sound echoed incessantly in his ears. "Do you hear something?" Baek Woo-jin asked his team members, but all he got in return was denial. "I don't hear anything." "Me neither." "Nor do I." Among them, only the Blood Demon Sorceress gave a different answer. "I can hear it." Baek Woo-jin and the Blood Demon Sorceress. They were the only ones who could hear the sound. "So, that means..." "It's not a sound you hear with your ears. It's being conveyed through your mind." The sound they were hearing wasn't transmitted to their ears, but spoken directly to their consciousness. "Shall we go check it out?" "Yes." Baek Woo-jin slowly moved toward the source of the increasingly suspicious sound. As they moved in the right direction, the sound grew steadily louder. Yet, its meaning remained unclear, despite the volume being loud enough to comprehend. 'What exactly is being whispered?' With deepening curiosity, he continued onward. Finally, they arrived at a barren land where not even a single blade of grass grew. There, they confronted it—a fragile-looking tree that seemed as if it could wither away at any moment, relentlessly whispering to their minds. "......" It was barely worthy of being called a tree. Its trunk was only as thick as one of his fingers, and its height was merely at his knee. A bare sapling without a single leaf. It was there that something was incessantly whispering. Turning his head, Baek Woo-jin asked the Blood Demon Sorceress beside him, "Do you understand what it's saying?" "I'm completely unable to decipher its meaning." This sapling, what in the world was it trying to convey? Hoping to capture even the smallest clue, they listened intently. 'Hmm...?' The meaning of the words remained elusive. But they realized the sapling was inching closer to death with each passing moment. 'Its life force is continuously draining away.' Was it because of the chilling environment, or was there another reason? As he pondered over the dying sapling, someone gently tapped his back. Turning around, he saw Seol Soo-yeon standing there with a concerned expression. "Um, Hero, is it okay if I share some of my holy power with this sapling?" Ah, that’s right. She was the kind of person who felt compassion even towards a single dying tree. He held back the question of whether it could be saved, closing his mouth. 'That's not what's important to her.' Whether it could be revived or not was secondary. All that mattered was doing the best she could. Baek Woo-jin stepped aside to make way for her. "Thank you." Offering a grateful smile, she approached the sapling with determination. She could see it too. The life force seeping away from the branches, vanishing into thin air. 'It's no ordinary sapling.' The amount of life force being emitted was worlds apart from normal trees. Just how long had this sapling been shedding such life force? 'This is no time to ponder.' Breaking free from her thoughts, she focused intently. The energy she gained from her past life had transmuted into what this world called holy power. This transformation caused her various struggles, as while the energy itself resided in her dantian like a martial artist's, she had to follow the methods of this world to wield it. Enduring the conflict this created was challenging, and it remained so. Calmly, she directed the holy power to her fingertips, letting it flow slowly into the sapling. When life force escapes, it's because a significant deficit arises internally. If the sapling was no different, then the holy power should heal the deficit and stop further drain of life force. After what felt like a moment, the equivalent of an hourglass's turn of time had passed. A small smile appeared on her lips. 'It's slowly healing.' The amount of life force leaking from the sapling was decreasing, meaning the deficits within were being repaired. As she intensified her healing efforts on the recovering sapling, the voice conveyed to Baek Woo-jin's mind began to change. [...have...] What had once been completely unintelligible now began to convey faint meaning. 'Was it because it was dying that it couldn't convey its meaning?' Relieved by the realization, thanks to Seol Soo-yeon's righteous actions, he focused on the emerging significance. [...will...] As the sapling continued to heal, more words began to be transmitted. By the time Seol Soo-yeon's life force had nearly been depleted, the relentless outpouring of life force from the sapling ceased. Finally, the full, coherent will of the sapling resonated in the minds of Baek Woo-jin and the Blood Demon Sorceress. [I will not hand over my treasure to anyone.] An eerie chill ran down his spine, accompanied by an overwhelming sense of malice. Simultaneously, the surroundings began to tremble. Rumble! The ground cracked open, and from below, enormous trees surged forth, quickly filling the vicinity. "Kyaaa!" "Ugh...!" "What on earth is this?!" In the blink of an eye, the saplings shot up so swiftly that even masters of Hyungyeong couldn't react, shrouding the sky with their thick canopy. Soon, darkness enveloped them. By the time Baek Woo-jin realized he could no longer hear his team members' voices, they had vanished entirely. With a deeply furrowed brow, Baek Woo-jin took in his surroundings and came to a realization. The elusive sea of trees, which he had doubted even existed while he searched for it, had finally revealed itself. * * * A forest as vast and grand as the ocean. Here, the term "sea of trees" was not out of place, given its expansive reach and dense growth. Baek Woo-jin aimed a punch to break a branch blocking his path and realized something profound. Crash! "This isn't an ordinary forest." His light punch failed to snap the branch. Just because his heart was light didn't mean his punch was weak. Compared to his full strength, this punch was feeble, yet potent enough to leave deep marks on any ordinary steel. Nonetheless, the branch remained unbroken despite the impact. "A branch harder than steel." A place filled with trees harder than steel was anything but ordinary. Left with no other choice, Baek Woo-jin bent down to avoid the branches and moved on. With a bit more force, snapping them would be no problem, but something about the forest felt unsettling. Who could say if the forest's true master wasn't watching. "...This is no different from a maze." The narrow paths stretched between tall, thick trees. The multitude of paths, as endless as the branches, constantly tested Baek Woo-jin. Which way should he go? No matter how he observed his surroundings, everything looked the same. He expanded his senses widely to detect the team's presence. Voom! "……?" An indistinguishable force firmly blocked his energy from spreading beyond a certain area. He was, in essence, isolated. "...This is infuriating." Not knowing the fate of his teammates was maddening enough, but the constant obstacles only added to his frustration! 'Should I just cut them all down?' Branches tougher than steel. The trees, likely several times harder, would undoubtedly be a challenge to cut through, but not impossible. Yet, expending a significant amount of internal energy was inevitable. Given the uncertainty of when threats might arise, Baek Woo-jin kept his frustration in check and continued walking. How much time passed as he pressed onward? “Hoo.” The dense canopy overhead obscured the sky, making it difficult to determine if it was day or night. He could deduce only from the accumulated fatigue that a significant amount of time had elapsed. Still, he did not stop walking. Not until he confirmed the safety of his team members could he afford to pause. He forged deeper into the forest in a singular direction. Whoosh! Something sliced through the air between the thickly grown trees with a sharp sound. "……!" It moved so fast that even tracking it with his eyes was challenging. Baek Woo-jin calmly stepped back, drawing his sword to deflect the object that threatened his heart. Clang! The piercing clash of metal echoed through the forest. Baek Woo-jin narrowed his eyes as he looked at the object that met his blade. “…A branch?” Indeed, it was a branch. His gaze followed the path from which the branch had flown. Sure enough. It stretched long down the path it had traveled. The section he could see was over fifty feet long. ‘Just how long is this thing?’ But the branch’s length was irrelevant now. This was a lifeline extended to him. Baek Woo-jin immediately pursued the direction from which the branch extended. Surely something extraordinary awaited him there. After wandering around twenty more ayangs—ancient Korean units of distance—Baek Woo-jin finally arrived before a massive tree. A monstrous tree stood before him, its immense trunk vast enough that even if three people embraced it together, they would fail to encircle it. It was a world apart from the other trees chaotically scattered around. In the middle of this colossal structure, an intricate carving caught his eye. Painstakingly etched with care and precision—a face with sharp features and a slender visage. "…That's my face." Except for the color, the face carved into the wood was an exact replica of Baek Woo-jin’s own. The lifelike face, appearing as if it might step out of the tree at any moment, opened its mouth. [Break me...] --- **Author's Note** I'll see you in the next chapter. Thank you always for reading. Have a restful night. (_ _) P.S. A word of thanks for your support: To PIA1619207233247, Thank you for your support! I take it as encouragement to write even more earnestly and will continue to strive forward.