Chapter 46

Jin Ja-gang began distributing food inside the mine shaft.

The first prisoner approached to receive food. He was a young man with an emaciated frame, and when his eyes met Jin Ja-gang’s, he made a fearful expression and signaled with his eyes.

While handing over the food, the young man slipped a sharp stone fragment into Jin Ja-gang’s hand.

Jin Ja-gang took a deep breath and drew poison to his little finger. He cut near the nail with the sharp stone fragment to extract the poisonous fluid, then applied it to the stone fragment.

Then, when serving the next prisoner, he handed over the poison-coated stone fragment and received a new one. He continued creating poisoned weapons this way.

The items passed to him by the prisoners included not only stone fragments but also short skewers and small metal pieces.

Yun-ik, Gong Ga-bok, and the other members of Hundred Flower Valley also received poisoned weapons from Jin Ja-gang.

However, while continuing to distribute food, Jin Ja-gang sensed something strange.

The guards around them had disappeared. Feeling uneasy, he looked back to see the guards gathering at the entrance.

Even the guards who had been watching the lower part of the mine shaft were coming up.

It wasn’t for eating. Usually, the guards would eat after the food distribution was complete and the prisoners had been sent back down into the mine shaft.

Moreover, it was suspicious how the guards were talking amongst themselves while glancing at the prisoners from time to time.

‘Something’s wrong!’

Jin Ja-gang quickly looked at Yun-ik.

Yun-ik seemed to have noticed that something unusual was happening, as his eyes showed urgency.

Other prisoners quickly exchanged glances. Not even half of the poisoned weapons had been distributed, but there was no time to hand out more.

Jin Ja-gang gave up on distributing more weapons and quickly handed out only the food.

Then, concealing a sharp stone fragment in his hand, he walked toward the guards with the children.

“We’ve finished serving the food.”

“What?”

The guards looked at each other in confusion.

“What about the children?”

“I don’t know. There were no instructions about the children.”

“But if we just leave them…”

“Damn it, if they suddenly do this, what are we supposed to do?”

Jin Ja-gang felt a chill run down his spine.

‘Danger!’

Something had happened, whatever it was!

Jin Ja-gang quietly spoke to the two children from Tuanshan Village who were standing there dumbfounded, paying no attention to what was happening.

“When I tell you to go, run away as fast as you can. You need to run all the way home without stopping. Understand?”

But the children from Tuanshan Village weren’t as perceptive as Jin Ja-gang.

One snot-nosed boy just looked at Jin Ja-gang with a puzzled expression.

Jin Ja-gang lowered his voice again and said:

“Don’t you understand? When I tell you…”

The boy asked without any caution:

“Why do we have to run away?”

The boy’s voice wasn’t particularly loud, but it was loud enough for the guards standing right in front to hear.

All the guards looked at Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang froze.

A large guard approached Jin Ja-gang, gripping his sword hilt.

“You, what are you talking about? Huh?”

At that moment, Jin Ja-gang realized he had to act.

Jin Ja-gang lowered his body and slashed the guard’s shin with the stone fragment.

The guard’s shin was cut by the jagged edge of the broken stone. The guard angrily kicked Jin Ja-gang in the stomach.

“What are you doing!”

Thwack!

Jin Ja-gang, already light-bodied, was sent flying into the air.

“Ugh!”

Thud!

The prisoners hadn’t moved yet.

The large guard, breathing heavily, walked over and grabbed Jin Ja-gang by the collar.

“You little piece of…”

But the guard couldn’t lift Jin Ja-gang.

“…huh?”

The large guard’s eyes began to tremble. He staggered and couldn’t stand, falling on his backside.

“Wh-what?”

His shin swelled up, and then the guard began to convulse as if having a seizure.

“Ugh, uaaah!”

Jin Ja-gang got up and shouted:

“Everyone, now!”

The prisoners stopped hesitating and moved all at once.

“Yaaaaah!”

“Kill them all!”

“Kill them!”

The startled guards drew their weapons.

“Rebellion!”

“Don’t let them escape!”

But the prisoners didn’t back down. Several prisoners at the front fell, spraying blood from the guards’ sword strikes.

“Aagh!”

“Uaaagh!”

Though their movements were slow due to the shackles, the prisoners fought with their lives at stake. They stepped over the fallen prisoners and swung their sharp stone fragments and metal pieces.

The guards were unusually uncoordinated. Something seemed to be making them hasty, causing them to make mistakes and allowing the prisoners to attack. Guards who received even slight injuries were immediately poisoned. They quickly lost control of their limbs, becoming paralyzed and falling.

“Kuk. Keuuk.”

The fallen guards died, convulsing.

Just from being grazed.

“What, what is this!”

The guards were shocked and began to cower. Their response became more passive, and they started to retreat. While the guards couldn’t easily kill prisoners with their swords, the prisoners could kill with just a touch.

Some prisoners even started throwing stones from a distance. They knew the poison was potent enough to kill with just a wound.

Moreover, as they began seizing weapons from fallen guards, the situation rapidly changed.

“Poison! They’re using poison!”

The guards’ faces turned pale. They turned their backs and fled.

As the situation became favorable for the prisoners, Gong Ga-bok came to Jin Ja-gang and supported him.

“Are you alright?”

Jin Ja-gang was used to the pain from being hit.

But he was more anxious about something else. The guards’ attitude had been suspicious all along.

“Something’s strange, something’s wrong.”

Gong Ga-bok misunderstood Jin Ja-gang’s words.

“The Stone Forest Gang must have noticed our plan. If you’re alright, get up quickly. We need to escape…”

At that moment.

Rumble!

Suddenly, a tremendous sound came from the distance, followed by a massive tremor.

It was strong enough to make everyone stagger.

“Uaaaah!”

“It’s an earthquake!”

Rustle, rustle.

Stone fragments and dust fell from the ceiling of the mine shaft.

The prisoners lowered their bodies and protected their heads, but even in the midst of this, they could see the guards fleeing.

“No! Don’t let them get away!”

The prisoners desperately chased after the guards. Jin Ja-gang also got up and followed the prisoners. Due to their shackles, the prisoners were slow and quickly fell behind the fleeing guards.

Still, they had no choice but to keep running. Jin Ja-gang also ran as hard as he could with his impaired leg.

As the distance between the guards and prisoners widened, a distant entrance with bright white light came into view.

However, there was another group of people at that entrance, different from the guards. The prisoners gritted their teeth. They couldn’t stop anyway, so they had to push through.

The guards running ahead were even throwing away their weapons and waving their arms frantically.

“We’re still here!”

“Wait for us!”

The warriors outside the entrance seemed to hesitate for a moment. But seeing the prisoners swarming toward them, they instantly disappeared from the entrance.

The guards desperately shouted.

“No—!”

And immediately after, Jin Ja-gang heard a massive explosion as if heaven and earth were splitting in two.

BOOM!

A tremendous rumbling followed, as if their entire bodies were vibrating like drums.

CRASH! CRASH CRASH CRASH!

The impact was so severe that everyone running fell flat on the ground.

The guards who had been running ahead rolled on the ground. Even so, they continued trying to move forward.

Black masses began to fall on their heads.

THUD.

“Uaaaaaaah!”

The guards were crushed under boulders larger than their bodies.

The prisoners were horrified.

The entrance to the mine shaft was collapsing!

“We need to turn back!”

Instead of running forward, the prisoners hastily turned around and retreated.

Rumble.

Rocks fell from the cracked ceiling as everything collapsed around them.

Crash!

“Uaaah!”

Some prisoners had their heads smashed by falling rocks.

Jin Ja-gang also covered his head and ran back toward the mine shaft.

It seemed this wasn’t happening only in this one mine shaft, as sequential explosions and tremors kept coming. Some sounds seemed to come from relatively close by, while others seemed to come from far away.

The explosions continued for a while, then subsided as if nothing had happened.

The prisoners stopped and caught their breath.

“Cough, cough.”

“Huff, huff!”

Dust and small stone fragments filled the mine shaft with a hazy cloud.

Only then did the prisoners come to their senses and look toward the entrance.

“The entrance…”

An enormous pile of rocks filled the mine shaft near the entrance.

“…is blocked.”

The prisoners hurriedly ran to clear the rocks, but the mine shaft had completely collapsed.

They were dumbfounded.

The prisoners slumped to the ground in despair.

Jin Ja-gang also went to the blocked entrance, but there was nothing he could do with his strength.

“How could this happen…”

They couldn’t predict or understand why this had happened.

The only certainty was that this was definitely not a natural earthquake. The countless explosion sounds confirmed that.

Someone had deliberately collapsed the mine shaft.

“I’m scared…”

“Uwaang.”

Hearing crying, Jin Ja-gang turned to see the two children from Tuanshan Village. They were crouched in a corner. Even they were now trapped.

Jin Ja-gang felt overwhelmed, and all strength left his limbs.

After all the struggles to come this far, to end up trapped in the mine shaft like this…

* * *

Mang-ryo no longer cared about Wei Zong. Without even looking back, he rushed out of the room.

He summoned his internal energy to the extreme.

With each strike of his crutches on the ground, his body propelled forward. Without any special lightness skill, he was accelerating purely with internal energy.

Even as he headed toward the mine, the explosion sounds continued ceaselessly.

Rumble, CRASH!

The entire mountain was shaking. The Stone Forest Gang was collapsing all the mine shafts where medicinal sect prisoners were held.

Mang-ryo flew like a madman and arrived at the front of the mine he was managing.

RUMBLE.

Like a landslide, the entrance to the mine was collapsing. Warriors who had blown up the entrance were standing at a distance, watching the scene.

Mang-ryo’s mind went blank.

“AAAAAAAAH!”

Mang-ryo let out a terrifying scream. The warriors turned around in surprise.

Mang-ryo’s voice was almost a wail.

“I must kill him with my own hands! With my own hands!”

After all the effort to lure Jin Ja-gang here.

What had he been enduring all this time for!

All of it was crushed by someone else’s decision.

Mang-ryo threw away even his crutches and rushed to the collapsed entrance using only the strength of his hands.

He frantically dug through the rocks with his hands, breaking larger rocks into smaller pieces with his palm force. But no matter how much he cleared, more soil and rocks flowed down from above, filling the empty spaces, and the rocks wouldn’t clear.

“AAAAAAAH—!”

Mang-ryo’s roar echoed throughout the mountains along with the explosion sounds from other mine shafts.