Chapter 52

Jin Ja-gang stopped by a stream before fully descending the mountain.

There, he caught sight of his reflection in the water and involuntarily stiffened.

His entire body was caked in dried blood, a gruesome sight.

“Haha…”

Jin Ja-gang let out a bitter smile.

If it hadn’t been for that wild boar, he might have been consumed by his killing intent and gone on a rampage. In that case, the blood covering him now might not have been the boar’s.

“Hoo.”

Jin Ja-gang shook his head to dispel his thoughts and drank from the stream.

The cold, refreshing taste of the water was so invigorating that it made every hair on his body stand on end. The stagnant, toxic water he had been drinking in the mine shaft was so repulsive that just thinking about it made him feel nauseous.

A wry smile escaped Jin Ja-gang’s lips.

He never imagined that a single sip of water could make him feel so alive.

As he washed himself, Jin Ja-gang examined his body from various angles. Though it was under moonlight, seeing his own body directly for the first time in years felt incredibly unfamiliar.

Jin Ja-gang was no longer the soft, downy child he once was. He had grown a beard and body hair. His height had increased, and his chest, abdomen, arms, and legs bore well-defined muscles.

He was no longer an eleven-year-old boy but a fully grown adult.

A pang of sorrow struck Jin Ja-gang’s heart.

The image of himself as a child transitioning into adulthood was gone.

It was as if a part of his life had been severed, lost forever, never to be seen again.

For a long while, Jin Ja-gang awkwardly examined his reflection.

***
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Translated by Nine Heavens!

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***

Though it had been a long time, the path down to Tuanshan Village remained clear in his memory.

However, the sense of distance he had measured as a child was different now as an adult, making the journey feel somewhat shorter.

When he arrived at the entrance of Tuanshan Village, it was still early dawn, before the sun had risen.

Yet, at this hour, there should have been smoke rising from chimneys as people prepared breakfast. Instead, the village was eerily devoid of any signs of life.

After a moment of hesitation, Jin Ja-gang entered the village.

The village looked as though it had been abandoned for years, desolate and forlorn. All around were neglected houses, left to decay.

Relying on his memory, Jin Ja-gang headed to the home of the first child.

The house had become a dilapidated ruin. The broken, fallen door and the overgrown weeds in the yard clearly showed that no one had lived there for a long time.

Jin Ja-gang briefly looked around inside the house before digging into the soil of the yard to bury the child’s remains.

“I’m sorry.”

After creating a small grave for the child, Jin Ja-gang offered a brief prayer with clasped hands and left the house.

By the time he finished making the grave, quite a bit of time had passed, and dawn had broken into morning.

The situation at the second child’s house in the center of the village was the same. It, too, had become a ghastly ruin.

Jin Ja-gang found it puzzling, but at this point, there was nothing more he could do. All he could do was bury the child’s remains in the yard of that house as well and pray for their peace.

In truth, Jin Ja-gang had also been reluctant to meet the children’s families, feeling uneasy about facing them. However, he hadn’t wanted it to be like this.

‘What on earth happened here?’

Since so much time had passed, it was hard to even speculate. After all, Jin Ja-gang didn’t even know how many years he had been trapped in the mine shaft.

As Jin Ja-gang left the ruined Tuanshan Village with questions lingering in his mind, he noticed a figure by a wall that hadn’t been visible earlier.

It was an old woman in her seventies or eighties, dressed in rags like a beggar. She was so emaciated from whatever she had been surviving on that she looked almost skeletal.

The old woman was muttering to herself, speaking into the void, and as Jin Ja-gang listened, he realized her words were strange.

“When I was young, my mother used to braid my hair and call me pretty. But my children don’t give me food. They ignore me because I’m old. If only my husband were still alive, no one would dare treat me like this!”

The old woman, seemingly out of her mind, stomped her feet and rambled incoherently.

“I miss my husband. If he were here, I wouldn’t be in this state.”

The old woman sobbed and sniffled.

Jin Ja-gang watched her for a moment before continuing on his way. Though he felt pity, there was nothing he could do for a deranged old woman.

Limp, limp.

Though his limp was less pronounced than before, Jin Ja-gang still walked with an unconscious hobble.

However, as the old woman quietly observed Jin Ja-gang’s gait, her eyes widened, and her face contorted.

“That’s him!”

At her shrill cry, Jin Ja-gang turned his head.

Pointing at Jin Ja-gang with a trembling finger, the old woman screamed in a cracked voice.

“The limping brat! He’s the one who brought disaster to our village eight years ago!”

Jin Ja-gang felt a chill in his chest.

‘Eight years?’

He had vaguely thought a significant amount of time had passed, but he hadn’t realized it had been that long.

No, since this was the ramblings of a mad old woman, he couldn’t be certain if it was truly eight years. Jin Ja-gang took a deep breath to steady himself and looked at the old woman. She glared at him with fierce, bloodshot eyes.

“You brought misfortune to our village! We must tie him up and burn him alive, this cursed demon!”

As Jin Ja-gang approached to hear what the old woman was saying, she suddenly lunged at him.

Jin Ja-gang considered dodging but decided against it. The old woman bit down on his hand.

Crunch.

She bit so hard into the back of his hand that her teeth sank into the bone.

Jin Ja-gang merely furrowed his brow slightly, not letting out a scream.

How much time passed in that state?

Eventually, the old woman seemed to calm down a bit and released Jin Ja-gang’s hand from her mouth.

Her lips were drenched with Jin Ja-gang’s blood.

A flicker of sanity returned to the old woman’s eyes. She looked at Jin Ja-gang’s bitten hand and then at his face, before shrinking back in fear.

“Eeek. It’s not me. I was wrong. I… I…”

She was so terrified that it seemed pointless to say anything to her.

Jin Ja-gang sat silently beside the old woman and waited.

After some time, the old woman stopped trembling and cautiously glanced at Jin Ja-gang.

“Why… did you come back?”

It seemed she had regained just enough composure for minimal communication.

Jin Ja-gang spoke as gently as possible to avoid startling her.

“I brought the remains of the children who died.”

The old woman’s memory seemed stuck in the time from eight years ago. She blinked her eyes and soon recalled their names.

“Wang-sam and Dong-gu?”

“Yes.”

“Their parents are all dead.”

“Why did they die?”

“The Stone Forest Gang…”

The old woman’s pupils darted rapidly, and her eyebrows trembled uncontrollably.

“They killed them. Children and adults alike. Even my son and daughter-in-law… I… I was too scared and hid…”

Suddenly, the old woman burst into tears and screamed.

“Kiaaa! My grandson too! Everyone died!”

She tore at her graying hair, pulling out strands stained with blood.

“Kill me! Just kill me instead, you monsters!”

Jin Ja-gang waited until the old woman calmed down. Her voice gradually faded as her strength waned, and she stopped screaming.

“Everyone… everyone died, and only I survived…”

“That was eight years ago?”

“Yes… the snow came eight times.”

Had she been living alone like this for all eight years?

Jin Ja-gang’s heart ached.

He took the old woman’s trembling hands in both of his.

“You must have suffered a lot during that time, haven’t you?”

At those words, the old woman looked at Jin Ja-gang.

She muttered under her breath.

“My husband?”

Jin Ja-gang asked.

“Would you like to go see your husband?”

The old woman shook her head vigorously, like a child.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m scared…”

“Of what?”

“He’ll scold me. For surviving when everyone else died.”

“He’ll understand.”

The old woman trembled again. Then, with innocent eyes, she looked at Jin Ja-gang.

“Why did the Stone Forest Gang kill us?”

Jin Ja-gang held her hands once more.

“I’ll go ask them.”

“No, if you do, they’ll come back and torment us again…”

Her voice grew fainter. Not just her voice, but her body also began to slump. Her eyes lost their strength. When she had bitten Jin Ja-gang’s hand, she had already been poisoned.

The old woman suddenly collapsed, losing all strength. Jin Ja-gang held her to prevent her from falling.

The light of life was fading from her eyes.

“I’m scared… that the Stone Forest Gang will come back…”

Jin Ja-gang embraced the old woman.

“The Stone Forest Gang will never torment you again. Those b*st*rds…”

Jin Ja-gang gritted his teeth.

“Those b*st*rds will disappear from this world.”

Did she hear Jin Ja-gang’s words?

A faint smile appeared on the old woman’s wrinkled face as her breath ceased.

Thud.

A single tear rolled down Jin Ja-gang’s cheek, despite his efforts to hold it back.

* * *

Jin Ja-gang buried the old woman and left Tuanshan Village.

“Stone Forest Gang!”

Jin Ja-gang ground his teeth so hard it seemed they might shatter. Just repeating the name of the Stone Forest Gang made his anger surge, heating his chest.

Not content with burying people alive, the Stone Forest Gang had committed mass murder in Tuanshan Village to erase all evidence.

Even after eight years, nothing had changed.

The world was filled with far too much evil. Evil that would never disappear unless uprooted completely!

It must be eradicated.

Jin Ja-gang clenched his fists tightly.

Revenge.

It was time to begin the path of vengeance for his mother, grandfather, Hundred Flower Valley, and ultimately, the entire medicinal sect community.

Until his path of vengeance was complete, Jin Ja-gang would not stop, and the Stone Forest Gang would be the first example of his wrath.

* * *

The Kunlun Sulfur Jade Poison was the strongest power Jin Ja-gang could wield and an extremely potent poison, but having used a significant amount, very little remained.

Therefore, he had to conserve this poison as much as possible.

He knew well that he couldn’t rely on the Kunlun Sulfur Jade Poison forever.

Thus, he sought ways to become stronger on his own. Even in the mine shaft, he tirelessly practiced internal energy cultivation methods while chiseling, and even breathed in a meditative state while sleeping.

However, Jin Ja-gang’s body, with its completely blocked energy channels, couldn’t accumulate internal energy in his dantian, let alone practice martial arts.

Still, Jin Ja-gang did not give up. Over the past eight years, he tried every possible method among the secret techniques taught by the last survivors of the medicinal sects.

And finally, Jin Ja-gang discovered a new method.

A method to fill his dantian not with internal energy, but with poison!

There are countless poisons in the world.

Even roadside azaleas, if consumed in large quantities, contain poison that can lead to death.

Through the secret manuals of Hundred Flower Valley and the Medicine King Sect, as well as the knowledge from the last survivors of the medicinal sects, Jin Ja-gang learned about the effects and side effects of various plants.

Using that knowledge, Jin Ja-gang consumed plants imbued with toxic energy, allowing him to accumulate and utilize poison within his body.

Thus, now in Jin Ja-gang’s dantian, alongside the toxic energy of the Kunlun Sulfur Jade Poison, there was another kind of poisonous energy.

It was the refined toxic energy of cinnabar, contained in the plants and water he had consumed throughout his time in the mine shaft.