FVN Chapter 370: Forest Of Mists (3)
Chapter 370: Forest Of Mists (3)
A little later.
Ju Haemi scratched the back of her head, her face flushed.
She had cried out in alarm, worried Kang-hoo had been hit by the tree’s attack.
But the one exposed to the strike had been Kang-hoo’s clone, not Kang-hoo himself—a contingency he had prepared.
“I was emotional.”
“I’m disappointed, Haemi.”
“I’m sorry, Father.”
“In a place as unforgiving as the Forest of Mists, you must delay judgment as long as possible. The faster you decide, the easier you are to variables.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
What Celestial Assassin reproached her for was presuming Kang-hoo had been harmed,
and for raising her voice unnecessarily.
If you broadcast your presence, the cleverer hostile plants erased their traces entirely.
Just as Kang-hoo sometimes hid his presence for strategic reasons, high-intelligence plants could do the same.
Because she was his cherished daughter, Celestial Assassin gave her firm feedback—mistakes like this must not recur.
Meanwhile, Kang-hoo checked again to make sure the tree he had just subdued had truly stopped breathing.
Pook!
Ke-ek!
“As expected.”
Just in case, he thrust a dagger into what might have been its core, and a faint groan escaped.
It had been on the verge of death, but not dead; the coup de grâce ended it.
Then— judging there were no longer plants nearby that posed a threat, Kang-hoo was about to take a few steps when Celestial Assassin stopped him.
’Why?’
He had scanned the surroundings more than ten times with Empathy – Plants, and, per his master’s Law of Camouflage, had confirmed there were no camouflaged plants at the cross’s center.
Yet Celestial Assassin halted him—meaning there was still a danger he had missed.
“There’s an Eui-bing Flower.”
“Sir?”
“Look straight down.”
Dropping his gaze, he saw a single flower blooming prettily, a step away.
It looked exactly like a sea aster; he would have walked past without a thought. It seemed non-threatening.
But Celestial Assassin called it Eui-bing Flower—a name he had never heard.
Regarding North Korea’s flora, there was far more Kang-hoo didn’t know than he did, even with the original’s knowledge.
’From undiscovered monsters to odd ecologies and hidden dungeons... I scattered bait like a madman and never cleaned it up.’
Yes, call it karma.
To spark reader interest in the original, he had dropped an absurd number of North Korea “teasers.”
Anticipation had only grown with each chapter.
But in rushing to a quick ending, he had left a truckload of those threads unresolved.
North Korea was “spectacular“and “mysterious,“yes—but the original ended without saying why.
So of course, for Kang-hoo now, all the things he hadn’t covered were giant question marks.
“At a glance it looks nearly identical to sea aster. But this one uses its roots like tentacles and spikes its target.”
Pak!
When Celestial Assassin jabbed the ground with a twig he had prepared, the Eui-bing Flower’s roots moved at once.
Sseu-seut!
There was almost no sound.
But its roots had already bored into the twig; only a faint tremor betrayed the change.
“The frightening part is that the punctured area goes numb instantly, so you feel no pain.”
“Does it sip body fluids little by little?”
“If it were ‘little,’you could call it charity work. The problem starts next.”
Celestial Assassin raised an arm to block Kang-hoo and made him step back.
Then he casually flicked forward a beetle he had caught and tucked into his coat.
The next moment—
Fwaaaaa...
Pollen billowed from the Eui-bing Flower’s open calyx and wrapped the beetle in seconds.
Ki-gik! Kigik!
It hardened like stone on the spot; other than the occasional convulsion, it couldn’t move.
Thup!
The beetle dropped to the ground.
The Eui-bing Flower’s roots, which had been sipping the twig’s scant sap, unhesitatingly spiked into the beetle.
That was the end.
Its fluids were sucked out in an instant; only a shell remained—a pitiful death.
“Now then.”
“Does your skill finally register its hostility?”
“Yes, Master. Until it fully revealed its nature, it kept reading as non-hostile.”
“That’s why the farther north of Ground Zero you go, the more dangerous it gets. Eui-bing Flower is only the beginning.”
Kang-hoo clicked his tongue.
Empathy – Plants still did great work— but he had just learned it did not discern camouflage.
He had set out for North Korea with “justified confidence,“thinking, What could go wrong?
But if there were this many variables, then what he’d had was arrogance and rashness.
If he had come here alone with no knowledge of the Eui-bing Flower?
He would be like that beetle’s empty husk. The thought made his skin crawl.
Celestial Assassin continued.
“Since the Day of Judgment, there are far more areas worldwide untouched by people. You know this.”
“Of course. Even the former North Korean land is something neither Korea nor China dares to move into easily.”
“Because of that, plant monsters have become more dangerous. But there’s a strange bias—people treat plants as weak, so they get sloppy about plant monsters.”
“And the sheer number of plants, far beyond animals, induces fatigue toward vigilance.”
“That too. Without prior knowledge, North Korea can only be a land of death.”
“I was too flippant, Master. I regret it.”
“I learned these things only after long study myself—no need to beat yourself up.”
“How do we find Eui-bing Flowers?”
“Look for flowers with too much root exposed. If a ‘root’shows an unusual amount aboveground, be suspicious.”
“It needs to be ready to spike a target at any moment—so it’s pre-set, in other words.”
“If there’s no heavy rain or wind yet a lot of root exposure, suspect it, every time.”
“Thank you, Master.”
It was a superb tip.
Applied creatively, it would likely parse similar tree behaviors too—the mechanism was the same.
[Black Moon Slash]
Swash!
Using a quick form of Black Moon Slash, Kang-hoo cut down the Eui-bing Flower that had just fed on the beetle.
Yellow ichor—the beetle’s—leaked from between the severed flower and stem.
Perhaps because of that—
Ku-hu-hu...
One tree straight ahead reacted peculiarly.
Through the fog it was only a silhouette; after a few steps forward, its identity became clear.
“Kang-hoo, which tree is that?”
“Mongdal Tree.”
The Mongdal Tree— one of the most notorious trees north of Ground Zero.
“Mongdal” referred to trees and the like appearing in human form at night; true to the name, the Mongdal Tree had a trunk like a carved wooden person.
Its broad leaves made it highly effective at blocking sunlight.
Outwardly, they looked almost indistinguishable—cookie-cutter similar.
The problem was their main abilities.
Some Mongdal Trees, like the Eui-bing Flower, drank their target’s body fluids with roots.
Others bloomed fake flowers and ambushed targets who drew near out of curiosity.
A flower that looked fist-sized hid a structure dozens of times larger—essentially a carnivorous trap.
But this one—
“...!”
It wasn’t the usual case.
Sensing a flood of Dark Energy the Mongdal Tree couldn’t hold back, Kang-hoo quickly retreated, pulled Celestial Assassin and Ju Haemi behind him, and drew the relic Ilysia’s Prayer.
[Sanctuary Designation]
He instantly deployed one of the relic’s powers, Sanctuary Designation.
Within a 7-meter radius of the designated point, no Dark Energy could exert influence.
The next moment—
Wachang! Wachaang! Wachang!
With a sound close to a detonation, the Mongdal Tree shaped Dark Energy into lances and fired them at Kang-hoo without pause.
There were so many that Kang-hoo couldn’t count them all at once.
Ju Haemi flinched.
At that volume, “black rain” from the sky wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
Even if they didn’t dodge, they had to block it somehow. But Celestial Assassin stopped her.
“He’ll block it.”
“What?”
“Watch with peace of mind. You’ll be surprised.”
He already looked like a man who knew the future about to unfold. Ju Haemi couldn’t even guess.
Meanwhile, the lances of Dark Energy closed the gap and poured down like pitch-black rain on the party—or were about to, except—
Suiiiing! Suiiing!
Srrrrrr...
The instant they entered the Sanctuary, every Dark Energy lance unravelled.
Like ink in water, they dissolved and vanished, leaving no trace.
“Ah...?”
A silly exclamation, half surprise and half confusion, escaped Ju Haemi.
That much Dark Energy would have required force meeting force to stop; even Celestial Assassin would have started by evasion.
But Kang-hoo had stood his ground from the start, as if he’d planned to. He’d been confident.
“An intriguing item.”
Clap, clap.
Celestial Assassin applauded.
He seldom coveted others’ items or showed interest; this time was different.
The option Kang-hoo had used established an absolute zone— an area that suffered no interference from Dark Energy. A hard counter to Dark Energy assaults.
Wachaang! Wachang!
Even so, as if out of spite, the Mongdal Tree continued hurling Dark Energy lances at the party.
But once an area was designated a Sanctuary, Dark Energy simply had no way through.
Fweeee...
At last, with a bleak wind, silence returned. The Mongdal Tree’s attack stopped.
“Finished.”
A cold edge threaded Kang-hoo’s voice. Having received the attack cleanly, it was time to counter.
Papap! Pat!
In a blink, Kang-hoo closed the distance and drove Great Decapitation straight into the core.
Having poured every drop of Dark Energy into its barrage, the tree had none left for a follow-up.
All it could do was be sliced without letup—dismantled under the blade of vengeance.
[Credo of the Darklord]
He invoked Credo of the Darklord to triple Dark Energy rewards.
Unlike typical Mongdal Trees, this one had a whopping 35 Dark Energy bounty attached.
Chances to grow Dark Energy were rare; rarer still for the enemy to be disarmed like this.
Pook!
Kang-hoo plunged his dagger deep into the core again.
Kieeeeek!
The Mongdal Tree screamed.
It was large, and capable of handling Dark Energy richly.
Creatures like that had tough base endurance; they didn’t die easily. So what was the answer?
“I’ll split you.”
Jjjjjjaaaak!
There was only one.
From the core in its center down to the point where the roots branched low, he split the tree in two.
Crack! Crack-crack!
Jjuuuuuak!
Hell on earth unfolded.
Kang-hoo’s dagger, burning with Flame of Annihilation, cleaved the massive tree cleanly in half.
“...”
Neither onlooker spoke first.
Celestial Assassin and Ju Haemi were both struck speechless.
They wondered whether what Kang-hoo held was truly a dagger.
Or was it a chainsaw disguised as one?