Mu-Yeon didn’t see them; he felt them first, trying to probe through the formation. He didn’t have enough time to think about a plan, so he unveiled his secret passage and told Soa to take Yong-Su and run away.

  He was not ready for the fight that would come, but he chose to stay behind and buy time for them to leave. So, with a heavy heart, he forced Soa down the tunnel as the creatures were rushing toward the hut entrance.

  Strangely, they stopped in their tracks as the man from the back called to them. For a time, he stood still, looking around and examining Mu-Yeon, giving him enough time to transmit a message to Soa, but he had to keep it short as he couldn’t spare any Qi from his reserve.

  Finally, the intruder spoke.

  “I know the boy is here. Just give him to me, and we’ll leave. Do we have a deal?”

  “How will I know you’ll keep it?”

  “You can’t. But I think it’ll be better for you if you accept. You don’t look so good.”

  “Deal…”

  The man had a satisfying grin on his face. He gestured to one of his creatures to go and investigate.

  “I knew you were a pragmatic person. There was no reason to die for a stranger.”

  As the creature lumbered past the entrance, its head popped as Mu-Yeon tapped it.

  The headless body took a few more steps before it stiffened. From its now-open neck, a black substance oozed.

  “But it’s not in my nature to let some unknown run-of-the-mill thug barge into my home and just let him go.”

  “You’ve just signed your death warrant!” He raged at Mu-Yeon’s actions.

  The last two creatures were on high alert and didn’t dare approach him anymore. Their two upper-body tentacles opened like a maw and began spitting nail-like objects toward him.

  Mu-Yeon quickly ripped the door from its hinges and used it as an improvised shield. This action saved his life, as it stopped the nails, but they still had the power to penetrate the wooden door. One nail stopped just millimeters from his left eye.

  The abominations continued their assault; they didn’t seem to run out of projectiles. The door wouldn’t last much longer, as it already looked like a pincushion, and Mu-Yeon had to take a gamble and get closer to finish them fast before their master intervened.

  He used his technique and forcefully pushed the door into one of them, pinning it to a tree and giving him enough time to approach the other one, which was bemused by its partner’s fate.

  The monster regained its composure in time to retreat so it could dodge his touch, but it wasn’t fast enough, and one of its tentacles exploded the same way the head of the last one had. It roared in pain, but it was still alive. It ran toward the other one to pry it free from the door.

  “They are faster than I thought. Where did you obtain such strange specimens?”

  “Obtain?” The man laughed maniacally. “I didn’t obtain them. I made them. That one in your dusty hut was a youngster, and those two were some beggars.”

  Mu-Yeon was lost for words.

  “What kind of man are you? Such a vile technique should be destroyed.” The doctor wasn’t a sage, as he killed others on a whim, but human experimentation was a taboo no one should break. “I was just going to cripple your cultivation and cut one of your hands, but I’ve changed my mind. I’ll erase you!” A few veins were popping on his temples from anger.

  As the creature was still trying to pry free its companion, Mu-Yeon took the chance and closed the gap between him and his assailant. The man stood unmoving, with no facial expression, as the physician approached him, his gaze fixed on the outstretched hand.

  He was mere moments from touching him when a flying object pierced his palm. Mu-Yeon recoiled and took a few steps back from the sudden pain. Unfortunately, the now-free creature had the accuracy needed to hit him in time.

  “Hurts like hell, doesn’t it?” The man smirked. “You should hurry.”

  Mu-Yeon removed the object and was left with a gaping hole in his palm no bigger than three centimeters, something he couldn’t fix. But as he tried to stop the bleeding, his medical techniques didn’t work.

  “You won’t be able to stop the bleeding. It’s coated with a special enzyme that stops the blood from coagulating. It will take some time, but you’ll bleed out.” His smirk widened.

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  “Don’t worry. I’ve healed worse wounds than this little scratch.” He used a bit of his Qi to create a barrier over the wound. This would only buy some time; now he had to finish this fight quicker than he wanted.

  The man clapped.

  “What an ingenious idea. Let’s see how much longer you can keep up. Kids, playtime is not over.” He snapped his fingers at the creatures.

  As ordered, the creatures began their ranged attacks again. Mu-Yeon had enough time to dodge the first torrent of nails, as the numbers were fewer; one creature now had a missing tentacle. But as the monsters frantically changed their positions using their flexible bodies, a few nails managed to scratch Mu-Yeon. These were shallow wounds, so he chose not to seal them, as his Qi would run dry quickly.

  With each step, he got closer to his goal, but each step came with another wound. By the time he returned to the hut, he was a bloody mess, his clothes in tatters, and every part of his body filled with bloody cuts.

  The assault continued, and the hut’s walls were struck every moment, nails piercing them and continuing their trajectory. The hut was already left in a mess from Soa’s search, but now it looked like a war zone.

  The attacks flew from different angles, either piercing the walls or going through the windows or what used to be the door frame. Mu-Yeon kept looking around as everything near him was destroyed.

  The unrelenting assault continued for a few minutes before the man raised his hand to signal them to stop. The hut now resembled a well-made Swiss cheese.

  “How are we faring? Still alive in there? Come out, and I might indulge in quickly finishing you.”

  No sound came from the ruined home.

  “I’ll take your silence as your answer.” He turned toward his creations, who were restless, waiting, and hungry. “Bring it down. You can eat what’s left of him, but finish quickly, I don’t have all day.”

  Hunger took over their minds, and they were ready to restart their attack, but in their hunger-cluttered thoughts, they didn’t have time to react to the two spinning objects shooting toward them at incredible speed.

  The one that had been pinned to the tree had its head cut clean off; its last thought was about food as its lifeless body fell. The one with a missing tentacle was luckier, as the trajectory of the object was off and only cut off its front right foot. But that luck didn’t last long, and heavy pressure appeared out of nowhere, pushing it down to the ground.

  As Mu-Yeon exited his former house, one hand stretched toward the creature, the pressure began to grow until the ground under it cracked and collapsed into a crater. The monster fell as its body was squished between the force and the ground, giving out a yelp as it waited for its master to save it, but he just stood there, his face showing no emotion.

  “Wow! I didn’t think you were still this strong.” He began clapping. “What are you waiting for? Finish what you started.”

  Mu-Yeon was puzzled by his words.

  “You thought I cared about them? You must be crazy. I can make more. What I lost today, I can remake in a few hours; it won’t put a dent in my plan. What are you waiting for? Should I do it for…”

  His speech was interrupted by the sound of the creature’s body popping under the pressure. The crater was now filled with the gore of what used to be a human, now transformed into an abomination.

  “See? Wasn’t that hard. Now let’s end this charade.”

  Mu-Yeon was already sprinting toward him as he spoke; he was using more and more Qi to put a quick end to this gruesome fight. The man just sidestepped Mu-Yeon’s attack and hit him in the chest, cracking ribs in the process. As Mu-Yeon rebounded from the hit and the pain, the man approached him, caught his injured palm, and flung him violently into the ground.

  All the air in Mu-Yeon’s lungs was forced out as he hit the ground, more bones cracking and organs damaged by the simple but effective attack.

  As the injured doctor tried to catch his breath, a hard and painful effort, as his broken ribs had pierced his left lung, he suddenly began laughing.

  Now the man was puzzled.

  “Did the pain make you go crazy?”

  “I was always crazy. I’m not laughing because of that. I’m laughing because I bought enough time.”

  “Enough time for them to escape? You really are crazy. I can just rush and catch them.”

  Mu-Yeon laughed even harder.

  “I felt this would be my last fight, so I made sure I’m taking you with me toward hell.”

  The surrounding air began to vibrate.

  “What did you do?” He grabbed Mu-Yeon by the collar. “What did you do?”

  “I’m feeling generous, so I’ll tell you. I didn’t risk getting injured to return to the hut to pick up some feeble weapons. No, I went back to modify the formation core to absorb all the Qi from the forest that it could endure and more, to push it over its limit and make it self-destruct.”

  The man let go of Mu-Yeon and rushed toward the crack he had made in the formation. Unfortunately, he managed only a few steps before he was forced to his knees by a powerful force.

  “That’s impossible!” He rasped. “You still have enough Qi!”

  “I made sure to keep enough so I could stop you from leaving. Enjoy hell. I’ll be waiting for you at the gates.”

  A powerful vacuum began to form in the middle of the formation, engulfing everything it could. The two of them were pulled toward it. Mu-Yeon had to let go of him and use his technique to keep himself locked in place. The man, freed, tried to resist the vacuum, but it was too strong, and the only thing he managed was to keep himself pinned. He began screaming angrily.

  Then, as if time had slowed for Mu-Yeon, he had enough time for one last thought.

  ‘I’m coming home, father.’

  Then the whole world caught fire. The explosion was so powerful that it erased a significant chunk of the forest and flattened the remaining trees. Today, the mysterious Jade Forest came to an end; what was left was an enormous crater and a dying forest, and its inhabitants.

  But after the aftermath, something was moving in the crater. It was none other than the man who had started the fight. He managed to get out of the ground, but his body was now charred beyond what a human could survive; he was missing a hand and had two stumps for feet.

  He wheezed as he tried to push some air into his burned lungs; even if he didn’t need it for survival, he had made a habit of breathing to seem human.

  “This body is beyond salvaging. What a pity, I was getting used to it.”

  A black sludge began oozing out of the charred corpse, forming an irregular shape. The discarded husk fell like a marionette without strings. It looked around to see if there remained anything of his foe's body. Then began climbing out, thinking that nothing could have survived that inferno.

  Under the collapsed tunnels of the ant colony, a few ants were dragging something through freshly dug paths toward the relocated queen chamber.