Chapter 17 Spider Ghost (Jugu)-2

Chapter 17: Spider Ghost (Jugu)-2

We were running as if flying through the trees, entering the western forest.

Bae Jong-gwan shouted as he ran.

“Is it okay for us to go alone?!”

Bisea-yeong replied confidently.

“Why?! Are you scared?!”

“No, it’s not that, but the jungle’s been a bit dangerous lately, right?!”

“Hah! With the three of us and our external skills and divine techniques, a bunch of ghosts shouldn’t be a problem anymore?! Well, if it really comes down to it, we can always run away! Besides, the main ghost is in the eastern forest, right?!”

I had been thinking the same thing.

These days, I wasn’t even that scared of ghosts, let alone evil spirits.

Of course, since that thing only comes out at night anyway, there was no need to worry about it.

And I already knew she had been killed by a pack of Gan-gwi.

So, as long as it wasn’t the main demon, I was confident I could at least escape, even if I couldn’t defeat it.

But regardless of not fearing the demons, finding a single person’s whereabouts in the dense forest was never an easy task.

Even after running through the jungle for about an hour, I couldn’t find anything unusual.

Even searching my past life’s memories, nothing else came to mind besides the fact that she had met her end in the western forest while the squad leaders were searching for the demon in the eastern forest.

“Young Master Son!”

“Miss Son Harang! Are you nearby?!”

He moved while calling her name, but only birds fluttered up here and there, yielding no real results.

Finally, she stopped and told her friends.

“Let’s split up for now. Don’t go too far, but spread out at a set distance and search.”

Even though there was no guarantee Miss Son was exactly here, her friends nodded without hesitation.

I felt a fresh wave of gratitude for their trust.

That was when it happened.

A woman’s scream, as if being torn apart, suddenly echoed through the air.

It came from deeper within the forest.

“Kyaaaaaaaah!”

Startled, we exchanged glances and immediately sprang into action. A woman’s scream in this dense forest? It had to be Son Sojae.

“Let’s go!”

Our hearts raced.

Hearing a scream meant she must have encountered something.

Probably just a pack of ghosts, but what if it was a Blood Sect demon lord…?

Given that most Blood Sect demons possessed martial prowess at the top-tier level or higher, it was certain we couldn’t handle them.

But when we arrived at her location, we had to exhale a sigh of relief and disappointment simultaneously.

The sigh of relief was because her attackers were, as expected, a pack of ghosts, not Blood Sect demons or a spirit.

And the sigh of regret was because…

“Gyaaaah! Diamond Meteor!”

Bae Jong-gwan charged toward the pack of about twenty Gan-gwi.

It was a massive body slam, like a boulder fired from a catapult.

Puff-puff-puff-puff-puff!

“Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

“Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

The gathered goblins let out beastly cries and were flung away like pebbles.

Then, following them, I attacked the remaining goblins.

“Haah!”

Pah-bah-bah-bah-bah!

The goblins Bae Jong-gwan hadn’t managed to deal with were struck by my fist strikes and sent flying into the air.

Fist strikes swift as the wind and fierce as a typhoon—the Sunwoo Clan’s fist technique, the Whirlwind Eighteen Strikes.

Then, behind me where the space had momentarily cleared, Bise-yeong landed before a woman who appeared to be Lady Son So-jeo.

But upon seeing her, Bi Sa-yeong bit his lip, unable to bring himself to lay a hand on her.

“Damn it.”

She was already dead.

Her arms, legs, and even her torso had been savagely torn apart by the ghouls.

Biseoyoung’s muttering voice reached my ears.

“We were a step too late.”

Huh? One step?

At that moment, I sensed something was off.

Considering the screams I’d heard earlier, we were indeed a step too late.

But…

“Hah!”

Thud!

I kicked the charging ghost backward with my foot, then looked at her body more closely once more.

Then, her horribly torn body came into view.

Bae Jong-gwan was swinging one of the ghosts’ legs like a club in front of us, whacking the approaching ones, so we had a little time.

But…

Something felt off.

No matter how many ghouls there were, could they really tear someone apart that badly in just that brief moment?

Then, as I scanned her body closely, I suddenly noticed her neck, still intact.

For some reason, the neck and face the goblins hadn’t torn apart, and the four holes pierced into that neck.

…Four holes?

No way?!

He shouted urgently.

“Jong-gwan! Come back here immediately! We have to run!”

At my frantic voice, both Bae Jong-gwan and Bi Sa-yeong looked at me with puzzled expressions.

“We have to leave now! There’s a bloodsucker nearby!”

The four marks on Son Sojeo’s neck—they were the bite marks of a bloodsucker, something I had seen in my past life.

A demon?

Why on earth was it here?

But now was not the time to question it.

I had to escape as quickly as possible before it returned.

But just as I shouted for my friends to flee and was about to leap away myself, I froze solid.

It was already there, perched on a tree in the direction we had come from.

A naked Miao woman with dark skin was watching us and smiling.

Four sharp fangs protruding from her mouth stood out clearly.

I muttered without realizing it.

“Damn it…”

It was a demon.

The strongest demon in existence, one even peak masters couldn’t easily handle. The creature had already been targeting us.

Biseoyoung, who had spotted it around the same time as me, muttered with a pale expression.

“That thing… it’s laughing at us, isn’t it? For a demon.”

I swallowed hard too.

I couldn’t even begin to guess how high its intelligence was.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

That’s when the creature opened its mouth, still laughing.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The sound that came from its mouth was a blood-curdling woman’s scream.

The very same scream he’d heard earlier.

Bisaeng muttered, his face frozen in shock.

“That scream… it came from him? To lure us in?”

At that level, it seemed more like a monster than an animal.

I clenched my teeth and spoke quietly.

“On one, two, three, we all run south. Now, one, two, three! Run!”

As soon as the words left my mouth, Biseoyoung and I shot forward.

Bae Jong-gwan also threw away the goblin he’d been holding and swinging, then leaped off the ground.

When it came to running, we were confident we could match even the most elite masters.

So those Gan-gwi creatures wouldn’t even be able to keep up with our footsteps.

But…

Thud!

As we thrust off the ground and leapt toward the south, the creature launched itself through the air alongside us.

And at a speed nearly matching ours.

Startled, we pushed our speed to the limit, but he maintained a steady distance beside us, running at the same pace and laughing at us.

It was an utterly chilling smile.

In the end, we had no choice but to stop.

Biseaeng asked me with a pensive expression.

“This is impossible. It’s way too fast! What should we do? Should we split up?”

The three of us splitting up…

Judging it coldly, the creature’s speed seemed about as fast as mine, but not quite up to Biseaeng’s level.

So if the three of us split up, we might have a chance to survive.

But only two of us, at most.

But at least one would become the sacrificial lamb.

And that person would probably be…

Bae Jong-gwan suddenly spoke up.

“Run, friends. I’ll hold the bastard down.”

Behind him, smiling innocently as if telling us not to worry, we saw the madmen charging toward us like crazed beasts.

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

“Kyaaaah!”

And when I turned my gaze forward, there was the main demon, grinning with a blood-curdling laugh.

At times like this, the choice frontline workers had to make was clear. One person sacrifices themselves for another with a higher chance of survival. That was the unspoken rule of frontline duty.

Knowing this, Biseaeng also couldn’t meet Bae Jong-gwan’s eyes, clenching his fists tightly and trembling violently.

To save even one of us, we had to abandon Bae Jong-gwan first.

And my friend Bae Jong-gwan, as always, smiled innocently and said to us:

“Do well for me too. You must survive.”

He was like that in his past life too.

He sent me away, too weak to even stall for time, and stayed behind, smiling the exact same smile and saying the exact same words.

Something welled up inside me.

Blood was gushing from his tightly clenched lips.

Stay calm, Seonwoojin. You have to stay calm.

He assessed the situation as calmly as possible.

The pack of ghosts closing in behind us, the main ghost watching us as if toying with us, for some reason not attacking immediately.

A happy ending where the three of us joined forces to overcome this crisis together was absolutely impossible.

With all the squad leaders gone east, there was no one to come to our rescue.

Therefore, someone clearly had to stay behind and buy time so that the other two—no, at least one of them—could survive.

That was it. There was no other way.

Having made up my mind, I told Bae Jong-gwan.

“Jong-gwan, I’m counting on you to handle the Gangeui.”

Bae Jong-gwan smiled kindly and nodded.

“Alright, leave it to me. You go now. You need to hurry.”

But I turned back to Bae Sa-young and said.

“Go, Sa-yeong. I’ll handle the Jugeui.”

At that, Bi Sa-yeong, who had been bowing her head, suddenly snapped her head up and looked at me.

Bae Jong-gwan also cried out in surprise.

“…What? What did you say?”

I tried my hardest to analyze Ju-gwi as calmly as possible.

Why wasn’t the bastard attacking us right now?

I was guessing it was because he didn’t want to lose any of us three.

If not all three, then at least two.

So, if one remained and two escaped, he would chase after those two.

And if those two split up, he’d catch one of them and then come back for Bae Jong-gwan.

But there was no time to explain that now.

I drew my sword slightly and gripped the blade tightly in my hand.

Blood flowed out with a chilling pain.

I splattered that blood onto the demon and shouted.

Hwaak!

“Go, Sayoung! Bring the squad leader! Before I die!”

“Kiiiiii!”

The ghoul’s face twisted horribly upon smelling my blood. No matter how clever it was, once it caught the scent of blood, it could no longer contain its monstrous nature.

My horrified comrades shouted.

“Jin!”

“What the hell are you doing?!”

Now that it had caught my scent, I couldn’t run away.

He would come after me first.

Realizing what I’d done, Bae Jong-gwan lunged at the demons charging toward us.

“Gahhhhh!”

Puff-puff-puff-puff-puff!

“Kyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

“Kwaaaaang!”

Then he shouted toward Sa Young.

“Sa-young, hurry up and go! Call the squad leader and save Jin!”

Bisaeng gritted her teeth and let out a groan.

“Ugh!”

Tears streamed down his bloodshot eyes.

He kicked off the ground, leaping into the air as he shouted.

“Don’t you dare die, you bastards! If you die, I’ll follow you!”

I grinned and launched myself toward Jugeui.

You fool, do you think I’ll forgive you for such a stupid thing?

“Kyaaaaaah!”

Jugeui charged at me with the speed of a master at the peak of his powers.

“Haah!”

I unleashed the sword strike with all my might.

The first strike of the Sunwoo Thirteen Swords: Divine Response.

In an instant, a hazy sword aura filled the space like a great wing unfurling.

But that wing was easily torn apart by a single, howling gesture from Jugeui.

“Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Shwaaah!

It was regrettable that the sword technique was broken so easily, but I hadn’t deployed it to fight him anyway.

The moment it parried my phantom sword, I had already leaped over its head and fled.

Spotting me fleeing too late, the creature let out an enraged howl and gave chase.

“Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

This was my plan.

No matter how his physical abilities surpassed even the peak masters, understanding what the Illusion Sword truly was required genuine martial arts knowledge.

Dodging the demon dog hot on my heels, I fled with all my might, cheering inwardly.

‘I didn’t survive just to kill myself! I was confident in my plan!’

…….

Yeah, honestly, that was a lie.

I just acted on impulse.

Why?

After finally coming back and swearing I’d never lose friends again, if I left another friend behind, my second life would be a failure too.

I didn’t want to repeat that kind of life again.