I Became the Youngest Disciple of the Martial God

Chapter 85

We grouped up with the surviving young heroes.

It might be obvious, but they were not in good condition. They looked like theyd been living in a trash heap for the last three days.

Though rather than smelling of trash, it was more blood and sweat.

...Charon.

So you were here, Zeros.

Zeros Silver, who had always stuck with Charon.

The young hero was the core of Charons points operation, the one who had sold all sorts of outside goods by smuggling them in.

Where is Sinbar?

I dont know, but hes probably not dead. Hes a tough one.

While the two talked, Evan checked on Kariss injury.

...Evan?

Yeah. Its me.

...What a stupid hallucination. Shouldnt I see a beauty right before I die...

From the way he was speaking, I could tell thatwhile he wasnt going to die immediatelyit would be dangerous to leave him be.

Evan seemed to realize this as well as he looked up at me.

I gave a slight nod and handed him the potion I had gotten from Sharyl.ALL new hapters n nv()lbin(.)com

Thank you.

Hector was also talking to a young hero.

He was probably one of the nobles who was a member of Hectors faction.

As I looked over, he approached me with the noble and introduced him.

This is Eddy. Hes the son of House Piscol.

I have heard a lot about you, Sir Luan.

Just call me Luan, and dont use that cringy polite speech toward me.

At that, Eddy turned to look at Hector.

When Hector nodded, Eddy turned back toward me.

Got it.

How is Sellen?

Shes just unconscious.

Two of the young heroes were tending to Sellen, who was laid out on the ground.

Hector said, If she had such a powerful ability, why didnt she use it before?

I looked around as I replied, Who knows... Its probably restricted in some way. I think its a high-risk blessing of some sort.

Should we talk later? I dont think were safe here.

Yeah. Lets move to the area our group found and bunker down first.

We picked up the unconscious Sellen and the injured Karis and moved off.

***

The area that Eddys team had found was behind a huge rock.

The surrounding area had been dug up a little to disguise it. The disguise looked pretty solid with the brush and trees nearby.

We also had a light meal with the food Eddys team gave us.

Theres quite a bit of food here.

We invested a lot of points into food.

Even though it was just water and jerky, it was still precious in moments like this.

...Fuu. We somehow survived, Eddy mumbled with a hint of sadness.

It seemed he was starting to finally understand the situation now that his hunger had been somewhat sated.

Sir Hector, whats going on here?

Were trying to figure that out. One thing were sure of is that nows not the time to be worrying about the test.

Before the mood could become any heavier, I jumped in.

By the way, how did you guys end up in that state? Seeing how there were seven of you, it looked to me like you were all together before you were attacked.

...Youre right. Zeros was the only one who joined up in the middle. We originally had twelve people.

Three different teams were moving together?

It was a strange situation.

Hector also seemed to have no idea how this had happened.

Eddy apologetically replied, Im sorry, Sir Hector. It was the team captains order, so there wasnt much I could do...

Its fine. I was the one who said we shouldnt try and team up during the special test. Whos the team captain?

Eddys gaze turned to the unconscious Sellen.

Sellen Goodspring?

Yes.

Then why did she make this plan?

She said she knew a lot about the Forest of the Butterfly. She said there was a monster called the Queen Butterfly in the forest, and we would need more help to kill it.

Queen Butterfly? Do butterflies have queens as well? Like ants?

Its a monster.

As I turned to Hector, he gave a general explanation.

There is such a being in the forest. It is said that most of the butterflies in the forest come from the Queen Butterfly. The house knows that there is such a being, but even they dont know its exact location.

...Thats right. Although the story was absurd, since I had heard from you that something like that existed, I believed Lady Sellens words.

And believing those words, three teams joined together?

Eddy let out a sigh.

There were a lot of young heroes who were looking to make a comeback in this special test. Although I didnt completely trust her words, Sellen is still a Goodspring. She wasnt going to spout complete lies. Though... a lot of odd things happened afterward.

Odd things?

Before that, I have something to ask the two Bednickers. This is the first time Sellen Goodspring has come to this forest, right?

Hector nodded.

Of course. If not for the Blessing Ceremony, a Goodspring wouldnt have had any reason to come to our main house. Even when talks of marriage between her and Luan were ongoing, we only spoke through letters.

But why ask that question?

When she first entered the forest, she seemed familiar with it.

Other people backed up his words.

She knew a lot about the monsters found in the forest.

Ms. Sellen was the first to find the river as well.

She found some weird hidden altar as well.

That last sentence caught my attention.

Altar?

She then mumbled something in a language Id never heard before, and it became like this. And also...

Theres more?

...Right before the test began, Ms. Sellen was the one who told us to purchase as much food as possible. I was honestly a little displeased because of how inefficient it seemed.

But given the current situation, were relieved we did.

Sellen certainly seemed to have known this was going to happen.

But how?

Did she overhear someones plan?

My gut told me that wasnt the case.

Andalthough it was a baseless suspicionI suspected that Sellens secret was not something I could easily deduce.

I spoke to the female young hero tending to the unconscious Sellen.

How is she?

Her body is as cold as ice. Its as if...

She was like a corpse.

That was what shed wanted to say.

Although it was a common comparison in situations like this, the young heroes who had now seen real corpses would obviously have a hard time even saying the word.

* * * * *

I looked at Sellen.

She had been pale to begin with, but now she was completely white.

Lets see.

I softly held Sellens wrist.

I felt a chill as if I had dipped my hand into a winter lake.

Her yin ki is going on a rampage.

From the outside, her condition didnt seem that serious, but she was in a much more dire situation than Karis, who had coughed up cups of blood.

At this rate, Sellen would die in only a few hours.

I looked in the direction of Hector.

He seemed to be exchanging information with Eddy and Zeros.

What do you plan to do? We intend to go back to the camp.

Eddy let out a bitter smile.

The camp... Although we want to help you... Honestly, I dont think we will be of any help.

I see. Then well tell you where our hideout is located, so go and meet up with the young heroes there. Staying together will be more beneficial.

Understood.

Meanwhile, Karis was talking to Evan.

Evan, dont push yourself too hard.

Take care of yourself first.

Im fine now. That potion was amazing. I might even be able to join your little group.

Before their group left to join the others, I said to them, Could you leave Sellen to us?

Hm?

I think I can help her.

It was a relief that Sellens body was only being damaged by cold ki.

My fire ki should be able to neutralize it somewhat.

Also, if Sellen could be cured, she would be of great help to us.

I knew this better than anyone. Wed fought Hariba together.

Got it. Theres not much we can do for her anyway...

Well leave her to you.

Right. You guys should hold on to these.

Before they left, Eddys group handed us food and potions.

Six bags of jerky, a water bottle, and five potions.

Oh, thanks.

Be careful.

Eddys group left, and I turned to talk to those who remained.

Im going to focus, so please guard the area.

How long will you take?

Hmm... At least 30 minutes, an hour at most?

Sure.

With that settled, I put my hand on Sellens upper core, her forehead, and closed my eyes.

Sharp cold ki pierced my hand.

It was fiercer than Id expected and nearly made me clench the ends of my fingers... but of course, I couldnt let that happen.

I forcibly inserted my fire ki to drive out the cold ki.

Although traversing someone elses ki network was difficult, Sellen was unconscious, so she didnt offer any resistance.

I need to find the origin.

Since there was no way a normal humans body could be like this, the cold ki had to have originated from somewhere.

Shed already be dead if it was coming from her central inner core, so I suspected it was somewhere around her lower core.

Because Id started with the head, it would be a long way down, but since this entry method would only work where the cold ki was weakest, I just had to push through.

I continued to flood fire ki into her body and steadily moved downward, but I ended up getting stuck in the middle.

There, the force of the cold ki became multiple times greater.

It was like an intense snowstorm, so my fire ki had no chance of getting through.

What do I do?

If I had more time, I could find a different path, but I didnt have that luxury.

As I was considering exerting myself...

Fwoosh!

I felt an unexpected burst of heat.

The mystic bead?

I suddenly felt the presence of the mystic bead I had been keeping on my body since the start of the training camp.

I was a little surprised since this was the first time this had happened. Instantly, the heat of the mystic bead entered my body as if it was rampaging, and it roughly mixed in with my fire ki.

Did it react to Sellens cold ki?

Even though I was surprised, I controlled the new fire ki.

Although this was unexpected, it wasnt bad for me.

As a result, the strength of my fire ki increased multiple times, and with this empowered energy, I pierced through the extreme cold in her body and reached the origin of her cold ki.

However, I noticed something odd there as well.

Huh...

Inside Sellens body, the power that was twisting in her deepest point wasnt yin ki but yang ki.

...

Even though it was causing such a strong storm of cold ki, its true nature was yang ki.

It was peculiar.

Fwoosh!

In any case, I melted the core made of cold ki.

...Thats done for now.

Id gained something unexpected.

With what had just happened, my mystic bead had melted quite a bit.

It seemed to have decreased by about 10 percent, and the parts that had melted had added to my strength.