***
No matter how good my memory was, I could not remember exactly which day the Wild Dog Ghost swarm attack occurred.
However, I could narrow it down.
It was something that happened to the 6th Squad, which was the squad right before ours, and it took place when we were about to go on afternoon duty—specifically, when the 6th Squad had gone out for their morning patrol.
The days we went out for afternoon patrol repeated once every four days. Therefore, as long as I prepared for that day when it had been about two months since my arrival, identifying the timing was not difficult.
However, even if I knew the day, preparing for it was a different matter.
I did not have the skill to face that many Wild Dog Ghosts alone, and I was not in a position to move people according to my will.
Therefore, the only people I could choose were these men.
People who would actually believe the nonsense that an immortal appeared in a dream and gave a revelation to stop the Wild Dog Ghost swarm.
Bae Jong-gwan charged in with his bare body and let out a mad laugh as he bounced the Wild Dog Ghosts away like pebbles.
"Uhahahahaha! They're light! Too light!"
He looked as joyful as if he had fulfilled a dream.
On the other hand, since I had lost weight and lacked mass, and had not yet trained my external arts as much as Bae Jong-gwan, I had to bounce the Wild Dog Ghosts away while wearing a steel vest to increase my weight.
If possible, I didn't want to use such a primitive method, but I had no choice because I had to push the Wild Dog Ghosts away in front of the 6th Squad members.
In the brief opening created as the Wild Dog Ghosts were swept away, I shouted toward the 6th Squad members.
"What are you doing?! Retreat quickly!"
Then, Won Cheong-won, the leader of the 6th Squad, who had been staring at us blankly before snapping back to his senses, shouted.
"Retreat! Run at full speed!"
And yet, he himself approached my side and shouted.
"Are you from the 7th Squad?! You guys should pull back too! That number is impossible!"
I was the one who knew that fact best.
Right now, we could sweep them away by ambushing their flank with the momentum of running from afar, but soon they would concentrate and lunge at Bae Jong-gwan, and he would inevitably be stopped and surrounded by them.
However, I had not come here trusting only in Bae Jong-gwan. I shouted in a loud voice.
"Sa-yeong! It's your turn!"
Then, Bi Sa-yeong, who had been waiting in the rear, cursed as he lunged forward.
"Damn it! To make me do this kind of crazy thing!"
Bi Sa-yeong used his dazzling speed to brush past the demons who had lost their balance because of Bae Jong-gwan.
Slap-slap-slap-slap-slap-slap-slap-slap!
He did so while slapping the demons' cheeks at ultra-high speed.
On the faces of the demons Bi Sa-yeong slapped as he passed, a red liquid was smeared.
It was Bi Sa-yeong's blood.
Bi Sa-yeong had slapped the Wild Dog Ghosts while having cut his own palms.
A characteristic of the unintelligent Wild Dog Ghosts was that once they focused on an opponent, they targeted them until the end.
In the Flying Dragon Unit, we were trained to use that characteristic to confuse and face the Wild Dog Ghosts in pairs.
And those things had another characteristic.
It was that they were crazed for human flesh and blood.
They were things created to prioritize eating humans over anything else.
Bi Sa-yeong had now smeared the scent of his blood on those things.
So that they could not possibly take their eyes off him.
The Wild Dog Ghosts who were slapped by Bi Sa-yeong and even smeared with blood jumped up and began to chase him as fiercely as a pack of dogs.
This included the mid-level Wild Dog Ghosts that I had emphasized he must lure away.
"Kya-a-a-a-a-a!"
"Kkia-a-a-a-a-a!"
"Kru-a-a-a-a-a!"
As as many as thirty Wild Dog Ghosts swarmed after him, Bi Sa-yeong began to run away while screaming.
"Ua-a-a-a-ak! Sunwoo Jiiin! You son of a bitch!"
I let his curses go in one ear and out the other as I gave a smirk.
Everything was going according to plan.
Bi Sa-yeong might be a bit scared, but as the eldest disciple of the Bi-jong Sect, and especially after receiving such intense footwork training lately, there was no way he would be caught by the likes of Wild Dog Ghosts.
Those things would never be able to catch Bi Sa-yeong.
...Probably, anyway.
So now, while Bi Sa-yeong was drawing their attention, we only had to deal with the remaining twenty or so Wild Dog Ghosts.
It wouldn't be easy, but since Bi Sa-yeong had taken the mid-level Wild Dog Ghosts away, it wasn't impossible either.
I said to Won Cheong-won.
"Leader Won, it seems you'll have to go in there with me and draw the attention of the remaining ones."
Then, Won Cheong-won, who had been looking at me with surprised eyes, soon nodded and bravely jumped into the midst of the Wild Dog Ghosts first.
The Ape Fist, a secret technique of the Cheongseong Sect, rotated like a whirlpool and bounced the Wild Dog Ghosts away.
Peo-peo-peo-peo-peo-peo-peok!
It was a magnificent sight worthy of the second best fist artist in the 13th Unit after Squad Leader Seol Poong.
However, neither he nor I knew how long we could hold out in there.
I could only hope that Young Lady Cheong-yeon would reduce their numbers quickly.
"Kkia-a-a-a-a!"
I caught a Wild Dog Ghost lunging at me with a grappling technique, threw it lightly behind me, and jumped in myself.
The Gale Eighteen Strikes, which I had been practicing while sparring with Squad Leader Seol Poong, finally had its time to show its true value.
"U-ha-a-a-ap!"
Pa-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bak!
I swung my hands and feet to strike and push back the Wild Dog Ghosts lunging like waves.
When it seemed I couldn't block, I took the hit with my steel vest, and when I lacked hands, I bounced them away with a body slam.
In any case, as someone who couldn't destroy them with Astral Qi like Squad Leader Seol Poong, this was all I could do.
Striking the Wild Dog Ghosts lunging from all directions and grabbing and swinging them, I caught a glimpse of my comrades.
I saw Bae Jong-gwan snatch the two arms of a Wild Dog Ghost I had thrown earlier out of the air.
"Young Lady Cheong-yeon! I have it!"
"I understand."
I gave a smirk even in the middle of the urgency of being surrounded by Wild Dog Ghosts.
A Wild Dog Ghost caught like that could not escape from the arms of Bae Jong-gwan, a muscular giant with Herculean strength, no matter how much it struggled. Even if it was a mid-level Wild Dog Ghost.
This was a conclusion reached after countless experiments every time we met a Wild Dog Ghost during patrol.
Furthermore, it would be useless even if the thing kicked Bae Jong-gwan with its free legs. Because anything other than claws or teeth would not be able to pierce Bae Jong-gwan's external arts.
So, all a thing caught like that could do was let out a shriek with its mouth wide open.
"Kkia-a-a-a!"
Then, Young Lady Cheong-yeon, who was waiting, would simply thrust her Sword Qi into it.
With a practiced strike that pierced through the roof of the mouth to the brain.
The time it took to handle one like that was only about three breaths. Our squad members, who had always handled Wild Dog Ghosts in this manner during every patrol, were now close to being skilled artisans.
We even used to leave only one Wild Dog Ghost on purpose when they attacked, using it to practice facing them or to conduct various experiments.
'To be precise, it was Young Lady Cheong-yeon, not us...'
She wanted to conduct various experiments on the Wild Dog Ghosts.
Experiments such as how effective Bae Jong-gwan's external arts were against them, or how much the skin of myself or Bi Sa-yeong had been trained.
All of this was possible because the Wild Dog Ghost was the lowest-level demon.
Aside from their tough skin, they were things like wild beasts that moved only according to instinct.
Soon, after this incident ended, new types of demons would appear, and at that time, we wouldn't be able to handle them so easily.
But for now, I could say with confidence.
That no one in the 13th Unit could handle Wild Dog Ghosts better than our squad members.
"U-ha-a-a-ap!"
I swung my body to bounce the Wild Dog Ghosts away and occasionally threw one toward Bae Jong-gwan as I drew out more strength.
From now on, it was a battle of endurance.
The sight that the six peak-level masters, including the 13th Unit Leader Pung Yang, saw after running at full speed was a very peculiar one.
"Ua-a-a-a-ak! I'm tired! I said I'm tired!"
The sight of Bi Sa-yeong screaming as he circled the forest with thirty Wild Dog Ghosts behind him, the sight of Won Cheong-won and Sunwoo Jin fighting desperately in the middle of the swarm of Wild Dog Ghosts,
And the sight of Bae Jong-gwan and Cheong-yeon handling the Wild Dog Ghosts one by one as if they were performing industrial division of labor, were all incredibly bewildering.
The peak-level masters, who watched the scenes blankly for a moment, immediately regained their senses and lunged toward the Wild Dog Ghosts.
To them, who could use Astral Qi such as Sword Astral Qi and Saber Astral Qi, even the mid-level Wild Dog Ghosts were merely somewhat ferocious beasts.
Sunwoo Jin was finally able to let out a sigh of relief as he watched them cutting the Wild Dog Ghosts in two with Sword Astral Qi and exploding their heads with Fist Astral Qi.
Though the people had no way of knowing, the Wild Dog Ghost swarm attack—in which every member of the 6th Squad except for Leader Won Cheong-won should have been slaughtered in Sunwoo Jin's past life—was coming to a conclusion with minimal sacrifice.
Afternoon training a few days after the Wild Dog Ghost swarm incident.
"Ugh, the smell."
Bi Sa-yeong was grumbling again today while applying the external art training liquid.
"The color is pitch black and sticky, and the smell is even terrible; that's why people don't want to learn. Sigh, seriously."
Bae Jong-gwan and I gave a slight smile as we watched him grumbling while slapping it all over his own body.
In fact, he had been participating in training quite actively since the Wild Dog Ghost incident.
Since he felt that he had grown and was now even receiving recognition from people, he seemed to be more excited.
However, he never kept that grumbling mouth shut.
"Look at that. All those people watching from over there would have lunged in to train with us immediately if it weren't for this liquid."
I replied to his words.
"Well, from what I saw, the moment they actually turned away was after seeing what comes next."
Just as he said, several members of other squads were watching us from a distance.
It wasn't just today; the number of people watching our external art training had increased quite a bit in the last few days.
All of this was the aftermath of the Wild Dog Ghost swarm incident.
When the news spread that Won Cheong-won and I had survived in the midst of twenty Wild Dog Ghosts using only close-combat techniques, the unit members had now started to seriously consider learning close-combat arts.
The best thing would be to quickly reach the peak realm and manifest Astral Qi, but that was a story as distant as saying one will become rich quickly to eat a delicious dinner tonight.
Even if they couldn't handle the Wild Dog Ghosts immediately, if it helped increase their survivability, there was no reason to refuse learning close-combat arts.
In fact, it seemed this issue would be handled seriously at the officers' meeting.
And the interest in external arts was for the same reason.
When testimonies spread that Bae Jong-gwan and I had sent the Wild Dog Ghosts flying with body slams, people began to look differently at the external arts that had been nothing more than a medicine seller's circus act.
Of course, after flinching once upon seeing the suspicious-looking training liquid being applied, everyone would turn away when they saw Bae Jong-gwan laughing brightly like a pervert while slapping us with bamboo...
Of course, even so, there were people who actively wanted to learn.
"Yo! Friends! You're working hard today too!"
The one approaching with a wave and a cheerful laugh was Won Cheong-won, the leader of the 6th Squad, whose long arms were impressive.
"I see you apply that every day. If I apply that, can I use that thing called the Iron God Meteor? I want to try too...!"
Being originally a fist artist and having fought alongside us, he seemed to sincerely want to learn external arts.
Except that the people around him did not want him to.
Gong Jong-hwa, the deputy leader of the 6th Squad, followed right behind him, grabbed his ear, and began to drag him away again.
She left us with a polite smile and a greeting.
"Hohoho! Excuse us!"
"Aaak! Deputy leader, what are you doing?! I said I really want to try using that!"
Then, the members of the 6th Squad, who appeared from somewhere, also grabbed each of Won Cheong-won's limbs and carried him away while greeting us.
"Keep up the good work!"
"You look cool covered in that mud!"
It was a sight truly worthy of the 6th Squad, which was the most unified and cheerful in the 13th Unit.
Though it was because that unity was well-directed toward stopping their own squad leader's actions.
A short while after the 6th Squad passed through like a storm, the members of the 3rd Squad passed by our side next.
I felt I could recognize them as the 3rd Squad no matter how far away they were.
Because the leader leading them was none other than the Sword Phoenix of the Tang Family, Dang Yeo-eun.
Her cold and intelligent beauty looked as if it were shining alone among the people.
The squad members and followers following behind her felt like mere shadows.
"It's Young Lady Dang."
"It's Young Lady Dang."
"Whoa, as expected."
We, who were in the middle of external art training, found our gazes stolen by her despite ourselves.
It was almost an instinctive action.
She was a face we saw once a day, but her beauty was such that admiration had to come out every time we saw it.
Personally, filled with private bias, I wanted to claim that our deputy leader Young Lady Na Seo-yu was the most beautiful, but as long as I had eyes, I had no choice but to admit defeat.
Coldly speaking, the only one who could be compared in terms of appearance was perhaps Young Lady Jegal Seo-yul, the Heaven-Blessed Sword Phoenix whom I had seen at the Sunwoo Clan.
At that moment, a well-built, brave man walking right behind Dang Yeo-eun suddenly approached us with a smile and spoke.
"Greetings! I've always seen you while passing by, but only now do I get to say hello!"
He was a man named Myeong Sa-hyeon, the deputy leader of the 3rd Squad, and he was a gallant man who was bold enough to state publicly that he had fallen for Dang Yeo-eun and was acting as her deputy leader.
Furthermore, because he had such a good reputation, he also played the role of the practical leader of the 3rd Squad on behalf of Dang Yeo-eun, who was somewhat uncomfortable with interpersonal relationships.
He approached with a likable smile and spoke to us.
"I'll say it now, but I used to think you guys were doing something useless."
Well, I could fully understand.
Because in my past life, even I, as his friend, had thought so.
"But you proved yourself otherwise—that the training is sufficiently valuable."
Having said that, he politely clasped his hands and apologized to us.
"So I really wanted to apologize. For ignoring you, even if only in my mind."
He was indeed a gallant man as rumored.
We clasped our hands in return and told him it was okay.
Then, with a playful face, he whispered as if telling a secret.
"And this is a secret, but if I get the chance, I also want to learn external arts from you. However, I am hesitating because I think my goddess would hate it."
At that moment, Dang Yeo-eun, who was walking some distance away, shouted toward him.
"Deputy leader! Are you not coming?!"
Then, he pretended to be startled and whispered to us with a smile.
"See that? Our goddess has quite a severe obsession, unlike how she looks. Well, I should be going now. See you next time."
As he was about to turn back, I hurriedly caught him without realizing it.
"Deputy Leader Myeong!"
"Hmm?"
"Ah, that's... nothing. Take care of yourself. I pray that we can surely train together next time."
"Huh? Hahahaha! Thank you! I pray for that as well!"
I watched with a heavy gaze as he ran toward Dang Yeo-eun with a cheerful laugh, and as Dang Yeo-eun waited for him with a pathetic expression.
A sigh escaped me involuntarily.
In my past life, he had died.
And by the sword of the woman he loved, Dang Yeo-eun.
Dang Yeo-eun had no choice but to kill him after he had been soul-possessed by the Blood Cult and turned into a puppet.
Out of pity, I wanted to warn him, but I myself did not know exactly when or how such a thing had occurred.
I only knew that Dang Yeo-eun had personally killed him after he was soul-possessed by the Blood Cult, and that Dang Yeo-eun had collapsed after that.
Right now, everyone in the 13th Unit thought that Myeong Sa-hyeon was just one-sidedly chasing Dang Yeo-eun, but it seemed that was not the case.
Dang Yeo-eun, who had to kill him with her own hands, could not regain her senses after that, and for some reason, she had one day become the woman of the 4th Squad Leader, Ma Yu-gyeom.
And she was treated almost as a plaything...
In the final moment, her last image, as she collapsed while sobbing in despair at the betrayal of Ma Yu-gyeom who had switched to the Blood Cult, remained vividly in my memory.
She was not the flawless ice goddess we saw on the outside.
As I couldn't take my eyes off them, Bi Sa-yeong teased me with a laugh.
"What is it? Jin, do you also have feelings for Young Lady Dang? This won't do. Give it up. An unrequited love that cannot be fulfilled makes the heart sick."
I gave a short laugh and shook my head.
"What are you talking about. Why would I harbor feelings for Young Lady Dang? I don't want to be stabbed and killed by all those numerous comrades. I just wanted to talk to her a bit..."
In fact, it wasn't that I wasn't interested in her.
Since the Wild Dog Ghost swarm incident had passed, the Iron Ghosts would appear soon.
To handle the Iron Ghosts, which could not be cut even with Sword Astral Qi and could not be broken even with Fist Astral Qi, I needed Young Lady Dang's help.
But it was true that I was agonizing over how to talk to her, since I had no connection with her at all.
Then, Bi Sa-yeong, who misunderstood my words, spoke with a serious expression.
"Huh? What? Was it for real? Were your feelings so deep that just being able to talk to her would be enough? You have feelings but were holding back because of your comrades?"
At that massive leap of logic, I was truly flustered this time.
I tried to ask back with my mouth agape.
"N-no. What kind of..."
"What? Really? Jin, you're in love with Young Lady Dang?"
When even Bae Jong-gwan joined in and spoke with a booming voice, I should have realized.
The fact that words without feet travel a thousand miles.
And that I should have cleared up the misunderstanding at the beginning.
Young Lady Cheon Ju-eun of our squad, who was approaching from behind to say hello, was shouting with a surprised face.
"Pardon?! Did you hear that just now?! They say Young Master Sunwoo is in love with Young Lady Dang!"
The ones she said that to were none other than Young Lady Na Seo-yu and Young Lady Cheong-yeon.
My vision was turning white.
"N-no! Young Lady Cheon, Young Lady Na! T-that's not it!"
But in my eyes, as I tried to make an excuse, only the face of Young Lady Na looking at me with a pitying gaze was fully present.
"Ugh!"
Unable to speak my true feelings, I only stared at the sky resentfully.