Chapter 4 (Abandoned Disciple of Heavenly Demon)

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Episode 4: The First Encounter (1)

‘I’ve never read of something like this!’ Jin Myeong reached for his sword as he watched the figure appear, wandering around.

“Crrrrrrr!”

Growling at the sight of him. It was a tiger that he occasionally saw at the zoo or on TV.

‘What a big tiger….’ Jin Myeong swallowed hard and slowly began to draw his sword. All while trying my best not to upset tiger king.

“Kuaaaang!”

As soon as tiger sees Jin Myeong draw his sword. It immediately ran towards Jin Myeong and swung its front paw.

Phew!

“Ugh!”

Jin Myeong didn’t even think about blocking the attack and stepped back, putting some distance between himself and the predator.

‘Scary.’

As the tiger’s attack passed before his eyes, his hair stood on end. It was clear that if he got hit in the head by that big front paw, his head would be crushed.

“Krrrr.”

Although, Tiger King misses its attacks, it moved slowly while looking at Jin Myeong, who did not run away right away.

‘Are you treating me like prey?’

No.

Tiger King was now watching Jin Myeong and was on guard. Jin Myeong could tell.

‘What should I do?’ Jin Myeong continued to try to think of a way to overcome this situation. But no method came to mind. At the end, he made up his mind. He had to kill it.

‘But can I kill it?’

He doesn’t know. If there here martial artists, they could easily kill a tiger like that. But this is only possible after reaching a mature, first-class level.

And Jin Myeong wasn’t that kind of person.

‘It’s not like my body is without internal energy’, Jin Myeong knows.

He didn’t get tired at all even though he was climbing this mountain. Even though he was in a dark cave, he could clearly see the tiger’s appearance.

‘If only I could use it….’

There must be some hidden power dormant within his body. But Jin Myeong couldn’t get it out.

He kept trying, tried his best to utilize internal energy as he wants, while coming here, but couldn’t find a way to move the energy inside his dantian.

Since he can’t use the internal energy himself, he can’t help, but find other way to get out it.

‘It’s too late to regret.’

Jin Myeong can think about why the tiger, which wasn’t in the original, is here later. The same goes for the regret of not being able to find a way to move the internal forces.

The important thing now is to kill that tiger.

“Kwaaang!”

The Tiger King roared loudly and rushed at Jin Myeong.

Bang!

Jin Myeong couldn’t help but raised his sword to block the tiger’s attack, but his body was pushed back significantly.

‘It’s a tremendous force.’

The only person he ever fought here was the masked man he first met. So, Jin Myeong had no choice but to fight while comparing it to the masked man.

‘It’s tricky.’

It wasn’t easy to block attacks like the masked man and find an opening.

‘Was that Tiger King stronger than peak expert?’

He even had that kind of thought. Of course, it was a mistake, because of incomplete knowledge. The masked man who came to kill Jin Myeong was a master who was looking at the peak beyond first-class.

In other words, it was said that he could catch a tiger that was right in front of Jin Myeong.

‘I can’t predict the attack at all…’

However, that was precisely why Jin Myeong felt more difficult towards Tiger King. Jin Myeong could figure out the masked man’s martial arts just by watching his attacks, predict next attack, and find weaknesses.

But he doesn’t feel that way about Tiger King, so he finds it difficult compared to the masked man.

Phew! Phew!

It seemed that Tiger King felt that Jin Myeong was having a hard time with his attacks. The tiger kept pushing Jin Myeong without stopping.

“Hmm!”

Jin Myeong was trying to avoid it as much as possible, but it wasn’t easy to avoid all of the tiger’s attacks, which here faster than he thought.

So, he blocked the attack, but he couldn’t overcome the tiger’s strength and his body staggered greatly.

‘I never thought I’d end up fighting this tiger one-on-one.’

This is something he could never have expected in his past life. No one would want to fight such a big tiger without a gun.

“Khuuuung!”

The tiger rushed at Jin Myeong again. The creature quickly raised its upper body and attacked by swinging its front legs repeatedly.

Bang! Bang!

Jin Myeong, who had been blocking the attack, stretched his feet forward. He tried to kick the tiger in the stomach, but the tiger jumped back and dodged his attack.

‘How can such a big tiger be so fast?’

Jin Myeong frowned as he looked at the tiger, which was agile compared to its size.

‘I want to run away.’

If possible, Jin Myeong wanted to leave this place right away. It was because he somehow had a feeling that this cave wasn’t the one he was looking for.

‘There’s no way that’s possible.’

If Jin Myeong turn your back now, he will just become food for it.

‘Should I attack first? Should I take initiative?’

He was far from fighting. He didn’t know whether he should attack first or keep waiting for an opportunity like he did when he fought against masked man.

“Khuuuung!”

In the brief moment he was pondering, the tiger rushed forward again and swung its front paw.

“Ugh!”

Jin Myeong did not back down. Instead, he moved forward and next to the tiger.

“Khuung!”

The tiger seemed flustered when Jin Myeong, who he thought would step back again, moved next to him.

It tried to turn around right away, but Jin Myeong’s sword was faster.

Woof!

Jin Myeong felt something moving in his dantian. At the same time, it felt like his body was becoming more energized.

Phew!

However, Jin Myeong couldn’t continue to worry about it. He just quickly stabbed his sword into the tiger’s body.

“Khuuuung!”

As soon as he was stabbed by the sword, the tiger king started to throw a tantrum. Because of that, Jin Myeong couldn’t even draw his sword and had to let it go.

“No!”

Jin Myeong tried to draw his sword, but Tiger King had already moved away from him.

‘All I have now is this little knife.’

Red blood flushed from where the sword was stuck, soaking the leather, but the tiger’s gaze was focused solely on Jin Myeong.

‘The atmosphere has changed.’

But did it notice that he didn’t have any weapons?

The feeling of walking on thin ice like a little while ago has disappeared.

‘From enemy to prey.’

He too might be letting his guard down like the dead masked man. But what’s different now is that he has no weapon.

‘Will it be okay? There’s poison on this knife, right?’

Jin Myeong was not sure even as he reached for the dagger hanging from his waist.

“Krrrrrr.”

And then the tiger circled around Jin Myeong and then rushed at him again.

“Ugh!”

Soon, the tiger’s huge shadow appeared before Jin Myeong’s eyes. And then it’s huge body covered Jin Myeong.

“Khuuuung!”

Perhaps happy to have finally caught Jin Myeong, the Tiger King opened its mouth to bite Jin Myeong’s neck.

The tiger’s mouth gradually came closer to Jin Myeong.

Thud!

It was at that moment that the body of Tiger King, who was about to bite Jin Myeong, fell to the side.

“Phew.”

Jin Myeong crawled away from the tiger and frowned.

‘It smells really bad.’

When the tiger opened his mouth, Jin Myeong thought it was all over. But the poison on his dagger seemed to be more potent than expected.

‘I’m glad, it worked.’

While the tiger was attacking, Jin Myeong somehow managed to stab the tiger in the stomach with a knife.

If poison didn’t kill him right away, so the tiger might have been bitten him, but it seemed to have worked.

‘Is this really the end?’

Jin Myeong carefully examined the dagger he had taken out of Tiger King’s body.

As before, there was no trace of anything being buried.

Jin Myeong hung the dagger back on his waist and pulled out the sword embedded in Tiger King’s body.

‘This might not be the place.’

Jin Myeong’s face was crumpled as he put his sword away and looked around.

Because in the novel, there was no scene where the protagonist meets a tiger in the cave where he had a chance encounter.

‘Is it because the time is different?’

Maybe something happened to the tiger when the protagonist arrived. Jin Myeong had no choice but to hope that it would be so.

‘I don’t want to move anymore.’

He was extremely exhausted both physically and mentally while fighting a tiger that didn’t even appear in the novel. He wanted to quickly find a place to rest.

‘Let’s go in first.’

Jin Myeong continued to go inside and soon reached the end of the cave.

‘Thank goodness, this is the right place.’

Although it was clearly just a blocked cave, Jin Myeong couldn’t help but cheer inwardly.

It is because of the character ‘明’ carved on the cave wall.

‘He said there was a device to open the door here.’

The person who brought the main character in the novel said that he found the device next to the letters.

‘Of course, that device isn’t the right one.’

According to novel, protagonist found the mechanism to open the door, but for some reason it wouldn’t budge. In the end, the protagonist feeling exhausted, had to use his martial arts skills to break down the door.

Because of this, the protagonist’s life force became even more messed up.

“Huh? Then surely…….”

He suddenly became worried.

‘I hope it’s not broken….’

Jin Myeong placed his hand on the wall, praying inwardly that the device would work properly.

Knock! knock!

And soon he was able to find the device.

‘Can I just press this protruding thing?’

Jin Myeong immediately used force to push the protruding stone back in.

Click!

The stone went inwards.

Jin Myeong looked at the cave wall with eyes full of anticipation.

“Phew.”

But it didn’t take long for expectations to turn to disappointment. There was nothing he could do since there was no change.

‘It broke after all.’

Jin Myeong sighed and looked at the stone he had pushed in. Because he thought he could just take it out and put it back in.

But the stone that went in didn’t seem to have any intention of coming out.

“Hmm?”

Jin Myeong, who had brought his hand out to pull out the stone, brought his face close to the stone he had pressed down on.

He squinted his eyes and looked closely, and then saw something like a pattern.

‘What is this?’

It’s even smaller than the 10 won coin he had in my previous life. Since it is never mentioned in the novel, it is clear that the protagonist has not found it either.

Even though the visibility wasn’t good due to the darkness, it wasn’t as bright as in broad daylight.

‘It’s so small, if not looked carefully, anyone wouldn’t have found it.’

Besides, the main character was tired and the person who guided him was anxious. He broke the wall before he found this, so protagonist didn’t find it.

‘What the heck is this? It’s not like it’s some kind of magic circle.’

Inside that very small circle was engraved a completely unknown pattern. Jin Myeong frowned and put his thumb on the pattern.

“Oh, there’s blood.”

While fighting the tiger, the wounds he received from the masked man burst open again and started bleeding.

The blood got stuck on the pattern.

Woohoo!

Did it react to that blood?

Suddenly the pattern began to glow.

Kookookookook!

And soon the walls of the cave began to turn with a tremendous noise.

‘It’s bright.’

As he entered through the returned wall, it’s completely different from outside, as if it wasn’t the same cave.

It must be because of those things on the wall.

‘Is that a night pearl?’

It wasn’t even comparable to a light bulb, but it was brighter than Jin Myeong thought.

‘According to novel, it was very expensive?’

Every time they appear in martial arts novel, the main characters collect them and make money.

Jin Myeong also moved along the road, thinking that he would have to take it out later.

‘He’d finally arrived!’

As Jin Myeong continued to walk inside, a fairly wide space appeared before his eyes.

T.N.

明

General meaning- bright, clear, right.

Circumstantial meaning- light, clarity, enlightenment

First half of word represents ‘sun’ and second half represents ‘moon’. There’s also possibility it represents Sun & Moon, Yin & Yang or something with dual and opposite nature.

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