20 years passed.
Not with grand wars or dramatic heavenly tribulations — but through quiet, slow days, like dew forming on leaves.
At Unbound Peak, the misfits had changed.
Some had grown into powerful cultivators.
Others became instructors themselves.
All of them, even the strangest ones, had bloomed into something greater.
And at the center of it all stood Elder Kang Woo.
---
Golden Core Realm — 8th Stage.
The realm most cultivators dreamed of.
He reached it not through fancy manuals or rare pills — but through constant teaching, protecting, and disciplining his heart.
He woke up every morning at sunrise.
Gave lectures to students across all peaks.
He taught misfits, geniuses, and even elders who disguised themselves as juniors just to hear him speak.
He was strict.
He was sharp.
He was loved.
> "Don't call me Master," he'd say.
"Call me Kang Woo… or 'Oi.' Either works."
But everyone respected him.
His disciples called him "Old Man Woo" out of love. Even the Sect Leader joked that Unbound Peak had become its own school.
---
One quiet morning, he stood before the lecture platform at the base of Unbound Peak.
The sun shone behind him.
He looked older — wiser — but his eyes still carried that silent fire.
Three of his disciples weren't present.
> Li Shan, the loud-mouthed spear prodigy.
Xiao Lan, the girl who once chewed on sword hilts.
And Han Geon, the boy who used to sleep standing.
They had gone on a mission to assist an allied sect in the southern valley.
---
That same evening, a horn blared.
A demon cultist spy had been caught and dragged through the main sect plaza.
Crowds gathered.
The man laughed maniacally until his head hit the stone.
Everyone thought it was over.
It wasn't.
That spy's death triggered the cult's vengeance.
The Crimson Night Moon Demon Cult unleashed its wrath upon Cloudmist.
Ambushes.
Poison.
Rituals.
Within hours, sect disciples were being hunted. Not just attacked — executed.
---
Kang Woo arrived at the eastern pass too late.
His three disciples had been caught in the retaliation.
They fought until their spirit veins ruptured.
When their corpses were brought back…
> …they were unrecognizable.
But the tokens on their bodies told the truth.
Kang Woo stood over them.
He didn't speak.
He didn't cry.
He knelt… and touched their broken hands.
"...I told you not to die, you dumb bastards…"
The earth trembled.
His power surged uncontrollably.
Clouds blackened.
The very sky cracked with pressure.
The peak he stood on began to quake.
Elders came rushing in, terrified — not of the demons, but of him.
"Kang Woo—stop! You'll destroy your spiritual roots!"
But he didn't listen.
> "You took them from me…"
"Now I'll take everything from you."
---
What followed wasn't a battle.
It was a massacre.
Kang Woo — golden core stage 8th realm — pushed himself beyond his limit.
Spiritual fire erupted from his body like a sun bleeding rage.
He flew straight into the demon cult's hidden stronghold alone.
Two thousand demon cultivators died that night.
Their mountain vanished.
Their rivers boiled.
Their corpses were never found — only their shadows, burned into stone walls.
When Kang Woo returned, his robes were torn, his body barely standing.
But he held a single pendant — Li Shan's.
He placed it on the altar in Unbound Peak's courtyard.
And collapsed.
---
Aftermath
No one dared speak casually to him anymore.
Even other elders stepped carefully.
Disciples bowed from afar.
The Sect Leader himself came to visit — and didn't say a word when Kang Woo refused to speak for three days straight.
> He was no longer just the misfit peak master.
He was a storm disguised as a man.
People still loved him.
But now… they also feared him.
Even enemies in the cultivation world whispered:
> "Cloudmist's beast elder... the one who lost three and destroyed three thousand."