Chapter 176 (2/2)

‘Was it a hts surfaced in his mind as he experienced the i for now, and an hour passed like that The peak, however, remained as distant as ever Just to try it out, Chi-Woo drew his exorcisnificantly; the mountain peak drifted far away

‘shi+t?’ Releasing the energy, he found the peak back to its original position And when Chi-Woo tried slowing down and walking this tiain

‘shi+t!’ Now the situation was clear The peak would not come closer until Chi-Woo reached his liain once he reached his limit—it all depended on what his brother had decided It was a done deal whether Chi-Woo ran or used exorcis up a storht on thesweet in the back of his throat and ran out of breath, Chi-Woo finally reached the foot of the mountain and was able to climb it

Gasp! Gasp! Exhaustionon aon flat land The path was bu each step took double the strength than when he was running on flat land It was no wonder that Chi-Woo would be having such a hard ti—’ Chi-Woo’s heart pounded as if it was going to explode, and his stoh he did his best to breathe through his nose and en He couldn’t even tell whether he was running or frantically s He would have collapsed by this tietting up to wash up and staying at home until his stamina returned If he could, he wanted to i about anything However, his body continued running Only then did Chi-Woo realize the fundaressed

‘I…’ Even though he hadn’t set a goal for how long he should run, he had unconsciously set a li he had done enough even when his body could go, all because it was getting too hard In a way, he had fallen into the trap of self-contradiction On the other hand, his brother had set a clear goal for him—to just reach the top of theto his destination alone was extre tested to the li an endpoint for his, which were about to collapse, and got to the peak of the mountain

“Huff! Huff, puff! Ack! Huff!” Chi-Woo put his hand on the led to breathe Drool streaked down hisway down froo back, he was only halfway finished Bleak hopelessness overtook his heart as he thought about going through the saain But what could he do? Chi-Hyun told hily nicknaive up

‘Let’s die…Yeah…Let’s just die…’ Chi-Woo stu down theup He ran with full attention, but lost concentration when he alround level In an instant, Chi-Woo lost his footing and tumbled violently down the mountain without even the tih the soil, barelywith his limbs sprawled out Whether he was far from the finish line or not, he decided to rest for now He felt like he would really die if he ran any further

‘No…’ Still, Chi-Woo didn’t feel coot into the lotus position and circulated his energy Then he suddenly felt a coolness spread fro of his body, which had been boiling like an active volcano, cooling doas indescribably pleasant However, when the sensation reached his neck, Chi-Woo’s body floated up, and his eyes burst open He looked around and murmured in a daze, “…What the fuck”

No wonder he felt cool; he was subed in water The mountains had disappeared, and he was in the s, stunned, as if he couldn’t discern if this was a dream or real life

“Quickly coh” He heard his brother’s voice co from above his head Chi-Woo tucked in his chin and poked his head out of the water “…No way, you’re telling runtled expression, and Chi-Hyun shook his head

“No”

“Then what?”

“Swim”

Chi-Woo blinked at Chi-Hyun’s casual response After a ?”

“Hmm” Chi-Hyun crossed his ar you ood idea—”

“Ah!” Chi-Woo frantically moved before his brother could continue Of course, he didn’t forget to yell before he started swi, “You bastard! Are you for real!?”

Swi after a marathon ‘Is this a triathlon or what!? das up and down nonstop

–Wow!

Philip cackled as he watched Chi-Woo sith all hisand pulling

When they left the cave, it was around dawn But now the sun was setting, coloring the entire world Chi-Woo, who looked like a weta few steps—

Thud He fell flat on his face and didn’t move at all ‘Ah…’ Chi-Woo’s eyes autoround felt like a better bed than anything else in the world to Chi-Woo right now He didn’t even have the strength to lift a finger

Chi-Hyun stared at his younger brother, as flattened out like wet cotton He was surprised He hadn’t expected his brother to finish the course It was not a bad achievement for the first day Of course, they couldn’t just continue like this One of the funda as a hero was that hard as not always the solution Chi-Woo needed to work ‘well’ on the right path However, this was soure out by himself Thus, what Chi-Hyun needed to do as his older brother right noas…

“Don’t sleep” Chi-Hyun approached Chi-Woo and kicked him “It’s not over yet”

Chi-Woo opened his eyes with difficulty He wasn’t even angry anymore; he was just madly desperate for sleep “Whatin a dying voice, but was knocked down by another kick

Chi-Hyun said, “I only told you to not fall asleep You don’t have to get up” And what folloas Chi-Hyun’s indiscri, but a skill that healed a person with internal injuries, and this erous and difficult for the person who used it than the recipient Chi-Hyun gathered all his mana and hit his brother’s entire body Chi-Woo didn’t screay to even screaroan as he suffered intense pain

After a while, Chi-Woo was ordered to do purification breathing Only after forcing the awful dinner prepared by his brother down did Chi-Woo finally return to the cave Right before he closed his eyes lying on his sleeping bag, a despairing thought came to him

‘It’s so hard I want to die, but…it’s only been…’ One or two days since he’d first arrived here

1 Often used to describe kids who don’t obey their parents and do the opposite of what they’re told to do (FMI: Korean Tree Frog Folktale) ☜