Chapter 145: Laying the Mat and Waiting (2)

The Penitence Cave was a small hollow midway up the sheer northern cliff of the mountain. Its entrance was reached by a narrow plank path barely wide enough for a single adult.

Guard that plank path, and no one could enter or leave—a natural fortress of the highest order.

Dam Ho surveyed the interior of the Penitence Cave while wearing the Demon Binding Chains. The entrance was sealed with iron bars as thick as a man's forearm, and the space inside was so cramped that three or four adults would feel stifled.

"You will stay here until the Grand Chieftain gives the order to open the door."

A warrior of the Tyrant's Stronghold spoke with an expressionless face.

Dam Ho nodded and sat cross-legged on the cave floor.

He had spent twelve years in the Dark Prison. That place had been a hellish void where not a single ray of light penetrated from outside. Compared to it, this cave was positively comfortable—even sunlight filtered in.

After watching Dam Ho for a moment, the warrior closed the entrance and stepped outside.

He addressed the guards on the plank path.

"Keep close watch. Until the Grand Chieftain gives the order, you must never open it."

"Understood!"

The warriors answered with vigor.

Dam Ho heard their voices as well. But he did not particularly care.

The Demon Binding Chains on his limbs were somewhat cumbersome. Their weight was immense—enough to dislocate the joints of an ordinary person.

Dam Ho paid the chains no mind and closed his eyes.

He had survived in conditions far worse than this. A restraint of this level could not possibly cause him discomfort.

He thought of Jo Yun-san.

Jo Yun-san was a quintessential opportunist and schemer.

He had been hiding in the Black Dragon Stronghold all this time, keeping a low profile.

Starting as a common bandit, he had risen to Chieftain, and even after attaining that position, he had thoroughly concealed his existence. A man of patience and tenacity beyond ordinary imagination, Jo Yun-san had left his stronghold for the first time in years to come here to the mountain.

Was it merely to see Hwang Gyeong-mun? Or was it truly because of the Demonic Cult's reappearance?

An absurd excuse.

A man like Jo Yun-san never moved without purpose.

Once he moved, he had to achieve something commensurate with his efforts—it was simply his nature.

Dam Ho had laid the mat for Jo Yun-san.

He had even removed himself—Obstacle to Jo Yun-san's ambition—from the path.

Now, all that remained was to wait.

Dam Ho opened his eyes.

The Demon Binding Chains still clamped his limbs were irksome.

Without thinking, he began to perform the Shadow Fist.

Swish!

The chains kept throwing off his form.

He had believed that after thousands, tens of thousands of repetitions, he could perform it with his eyes closed. Yet even such a minor alteration revealed how frail the human body truly was, losing all its refined precision.

Fortunately, Dam Ho was a man of extraordinary patience. More patient even than Jo Yun-san, and possessed of an endurance that never flagged.

He had the stamina and tenacity to repeat a single motion more than ten thousand times. Above all, he despised wasting time above all else.

To others, this place might appear a prison. But to Dam Ho, it was the safest training ground in the world.

Dam Ho began to practice martial arts while wearing the Demon Binding Chains.

Swish! Swish!

The only sound echoing through the Penitence Cave was the rustle of Dam Ho's movements.

***

"Aaargh!"

Lee Ga-heun awoke with a scream.

Her face was swollen beyond recognition, and her broken wrist bore a dark blue bruise.

She was not alone in the room. Jo Yun-san, Gwak Sam, Oh Jong-sam, and others sat around her.

Gwak Sam asked,

"Are you all right?"

"Argh! That bastard! I'll kill him! I'll kill him!"

Instead of answering, Lee Ga-heun let out a string of shrieks.

Jo Yun-san and the others watched her ranting in silence.

"I'll carve out his flesh and fry it in oil! I'll feed his eyes to the dogs! That bastard! I'll fry him in a cesspit! Who does he think he is, breaking my arm? Huh! I'll kill him! I'll kill him in the most gruesome way!"

For some time afterward, she hurled curses too foul to repeat.

After the storm subsided, Jo Yun-san spoke.

"It's actually for the best."

"What do you mean? My arm is broken—how is that for the best?"

"Thanks to this, he's locked in the Penitence Cave. If he were still free, we would have had to postpone our plans."

At Jo Yun-san's words, Gwak Sam and the others nodded quietly.

Though Dam Ho was but a single man, the pressure and presence he exuded were beyond comparison with any other master.

They knew all too well what impact a single supreme master could have on the course of a battle.

"They call him the Fist Demon, but his temper is truly insufferable."

"I've never seen a man with such a wretched personality. All that talk of the Fist Demon, and it turns out he's a complete brute."

Gwak Sam and Oh Jong-sam each had their say.

They too had done much as Chieftains of the forest, dealing with all manner of people. But none among them could compare to Dam Ho.

Lee Ga-heun glared at Jo Yun-san.

"Surely you don't intend to leave him be simply because he's in the Penitence Cave? If so, I will no longer follow you."

"Of course not."

Jo Yun-san shook his head.

Even without her words, he had no intention of leaving Dam Ho be.

'That man knows who I am.'

The problem was that he did not know who the other was.

Those who bore grudges against him were as numerous as grains of sand on a beach.

He had led the Black Tiger Band, pillaging without restraint. In the process, he had killed countless people.

So many that he could not count them on his fingers. That those connected to them held grudges against him was understandable.

The problem was those eyes.

There was something familiar about that gaze. But he could not quite recall it.

Jo Yun-san habitually touched the scar on his cheek. Strangely, it ached.

***

Crackle! Crackle!

Bang Jin-bo's cleaver danced across the cutting board with a cheerful rhythm.

Fresh vegetables were sliced, and neat cuts were scored into the once-rough pieces of meat.

Sizzle!

On the searing hot griddle, lard melted and glistened. Trimmed vegetables were placed atop the oiled surface.

The wilted vegetables were heaped with sliced pork. Over it all, half a cup of liquor was poured.

Whoosh!

A blue flame erupted over the griddle and vanished.

Sweat poured from Bang Jin-bo's forehead like rain. It stung his eyes, but he did not so much as blink, focusing wholly on his cooking.

Hwang Hye-ryeong watched him from a corner of the kitchen.

The flames from the hearth turned the kitchen into a furnace. The oppressive heat made even breathing difficult. Yet Bang Jin-bo showed not the slightest sign of strain, absorbed entirely in his work.

'Jin-bo is truly remarkable.'

Though young, the sight of Bang Jin-bo carving out and walking his own path gave Hwang Hye-ryeong much to contemplate.

At last, the dish was complete.

It was a simple stir-fry of pork, but the aroma that刺激 the senses and the overall impression were far from ordinary.

Bang Jin-bo opened the lid of the container. Inside were rice he had prepared earlier and various dishes. When the stir-fried pork was added, the container was packed to the brim.

"Done."

Only then did a smile appear on Bang Jin-bo's face.

He carefully wrapped the container of food in a cloth.

"You really are something else."

Hwang Hye-ryeong shook her head.

The food Bang Jin-bo had prepared was for Dam Ho. In other words, he was tending to him.

"It must be hard on you."

"No."

Bang Jin-bo answered firmly.

The only food given to those confined in the Penitence Cave was thin, watery gruel. One could hardly regain strength on such fare.

A man must have a full stomach to wield his strength.

"Let's go."

Bang Jin-bo led the way with the container in hand.

Hwang Hye-ryeong nodded and followed. But the path to the Penitence Cave was by no means easy.

"Where do you think you're going?"

The man who blocked their path stood in the middle of the way.

It was Jo Yun-san, his scar across his left cheek unmistakable, staring at them.

"Chieftain Jo."

Hwang Hye-ryeong bit her lip.

Her pupils wavered.

She did not know the reason, but whenever she saw Jo Yun-san, her heart grew anxious and she could not find peace.

Jo Yun-san's gaze fell upon the bundle in Bang Jin-bo's hands.

"What is that?"

Bang Jin-bo hid the bundle behind his back. Jo Yun-san's eyes sharpened.

"Surely you are not planning to give food to a prisoner?"

"That—that is…"

Bang Jin-bo stuttered in surprise. Jo Yun-san smiled coldly.

"A prisoner may not be given any food other than what the stronghold provides."

"But…"

"He is a grave offender of the Eighteen Forest Strongholds."

Jo Yun-san's voice carried a frosty chill, and his eyes gleamed like a serpent's.

A sense of foreboding gripped Bang Jin-bo, and he retreated step by step. At that, Hwang Hye-ryeong stepped in front of him.

"Jin-bo is my guest. Do not treat him rudely."

"No matter that you are the Grand Chieftain's daughter, you cannot break the law of the forest."

"When did the Black Dragon Stronghold's rules become the law of the entire forest?"

At Hwang Hye-ryeong's spirited retort, Jo Yun-san's brow twitched. The atmosphere in the hall grew even colder.

"Are you siding with a prisoner now?"

"Jin-bo is not a prisoner."

"But he is the prisoner's brother."

"Is that a problem?"

"It is a problem. A very serious one."

"That's absurd."

"Whether something is absurd or not is not for you to decide. The law of the forest decides. Anyone born and raised in the forest must never break its laws. Ah, but you were not born in the forest, so perhaps it doesn't apply to you?"

Jo Yun-san muttered in a low voice, but Hwang Hye-ryeong heard every word clearly.

"What do you mean? I was born and raised in the forest."

"Do you truly believe that?"

Jo Yun-san's lips curled upward.

With an air that said, "I know something you do not," his attitude made Hwang Hye-ryeong's eyes tremble as if from an earthquake.

Jo Yun-san had always been this way.

He always condescended to her, acting as if he held some secret. That was why meeting him was always uncomfortable.

Jo Yun-san smiled faintly.

"If that is what you believe, then continue to believe so."

It was the kind of statement that could be interpreted in many ways.

Hwang Hye-ryeong's brows shot upward.

"Are you mocking me now?"

"Heavens no! How could I mock the Grand Chieftain's only daughter? The Grand Chieftain is still so健在."

"Does that mean if Father were not here, you would mock me?"

"You react too sensitively. You lack patience. Tsk, tsk."

At Jo Yun-san's words, Hwang Hye-ryeong bit her lip. She knew she could not win in a battle of words.

An overwhelming sense of humiliation gripped her. Jo Yun-san looked down at her with a smile—as though he were savoring her humiliation.

At that moment, Bang Jin-bo grasped Hwang Hye-ryeong's hand and spoke.

"If you've said your piece, would you mind stepping aside?"

"What?"

"You said it's the Black Dragon Stronghold's rules, not the law of the entire forest, didn't you? I need to bring food to my brother."

"How dare you—!"

"This is the Tyrant's Stronghold. If you came as a guest, then show some courtesy. You're just as much a guest as I am."

"You must have a death wish."

"If you can kill me, then kill me. But don't use those ridiculous forest laws as an excuse."

Bang Jin-bo glared at Jo Yun-san.

The fear that had been in his eyes had vanished without a trace.

He was the brother of Dam Ho, the Fist Demon.

He had faced threats like this countless times.

'That fat bastard dares—'

A revolting expression settled on Jo Yun-san's face.

The warrior vomited the pill he had been holding in his mouth along with blood. Jin Ja-gang killed the warrior and picked up the pill.

‘This is…’

Jin Ja-gang put the pill in his mouth without hesitation and checked its contents by taste.

It wasn’t poison but an ordinary poison-prevention pill that prevented poison and had some general detoxification effects. It was much inferior to Purple Gold Pills. It seemed to be a low-grade product distributed to ordinary warriors.

It wasn’t the answer Jin Ja-gang wanted, but it was helpful. Jin Ja-gang thoroughly imprinted the taste on his tongue and moved locations.

The tedious whistle sound rang out again.

Tweeeeet!

And then a strange sound was heard.

Ping!

Jin Ja-gang doubted his ears. It was a sound he shouldn’t be hearing in this situation.

Jin Ja-gang quickly threw himself to the ground.

His nerves were on edge.

Swish swish swish swish!

‘The sound of cutting through air!’

Jin Ja-gang rolled to the side.

Thud thud thud!

Sparks flew and burning branches and tea leaves suddenly fell from above as arrows poured down.

Pat! Pa pa pat!

Nearly twenty arrows rained down and continued to embed themselves in the ground. Jin Ja-gang had to roll for quite a while to avoid the storm of arrows.

He got goosebumps. They shouldn’t know his position at all, so how did they shoot arrows concentrated precisely at one point?

Tweet tweet! Tweet!

But avoiding them wasn’t the end. Warriors appeared in large numbers where Jin Ja-gang had dodged.

The warriors spotted Jin Ja-gang and approached shouting. With fire burning on the tea tree branches above their heads, the warriors also had no choice but to bend their waists halfway.

Jin Ja-gang drew needles and threw them. The warriors were startled and threw themselves to the ground.

In the meantime, Jin Ja-gang half-raised his body and fled.

Suddenly, with piercing killing intent, a sword thrust out from diagonally ahead. Jin Ja-gang twisted his body to the side while raising his arm. The sword grazed Jin Ja-gang’s side and passed between his right armpit.

His side was slightly cut, and he felt a burning sensation and stinging pain.

The warrior who had thrust the sword at Jin Ja-gang stopped the sword abruptly, then turned the blade direction toward Jin Ja-gang. Then he slashed horizontally just like that.

Jin Ja-gang was greatly alarmed and spun his body around. The sword that had been between his armpit followed along Jin Ja-gang’s armpit, but when Jin Ja-gang spun and flipped his body, the sword passed over his chest and stomach.

Jin Ja-gang gritted his teeth as he saw the sword pass precariously over his nose. Due to spinning his body rapidly, he lost his center and rolled sideways on the ground.

Roll roll roll.

Jin Ja-gang rolled on the ground while taking needles from his sleeve. However, the warrior who made eye contact with Jin Ja-gang quietly retreated backward and hid in the smoke.

Tweeeeet—

He tried to sense movement, but it seemed they had completely withdrawn as he couldn’t feel anything.

“Huff, huff…”

This was different from ordinary warriors. That killing intent belonged to someone who had learned considerable martial arts. Being able to stop mid-thrust wasn’t something ordinary warriors could do either.

‘There are warriors with much better skills mixed in among the ordinary warriors.’

Then they appeared from unexpected places to launch surprise attacks and disappeared.

Jin Ja-gang had to be even more tense.

“Waaaaah!”

“Uuuuu!”

Suddenly, continuous shouts were heard from the left and right sides, and the presence of warriors could be felt.

Jin Ja-gang was about to flee toward the direction where no sounds were coming from, but stopped when an eerie thought occurred to him.

The unpleasant feeling of being herded.

‘If I go like this, I’ll only be acting as they want.’

Only then did Jin Ja-gang realize he was trapped in a formation. He had dealt with several warriors and hadn’t been seriously injured yet, but he would gradually become exhausted and cornered.

However, he still couldn’t respond rashly. He had to observe their actions more and find a gap he could exploit.

* * *

Tweet!

Yi Rim heard the whistle sound and immediately waved flags appropriate to the situation to give commands. Because the flags couldn’t be seen due to smoke, the warrior beside him blew whistles again according to the signals to relay them to the warriors.

Tweeet!

Thanks to this signal system, Yi Rim was currently grasping Jin Ja-gang’s position almost in real time.

The Eight Gates of the Nine Palace Eight Trigram Formation aren’t predetermined. They are naturally created and then repeatedly dissolved as the Five Element units meet and separate through combination and dispersion.

The Five Element units sometimes form gates individually, and sometimes meet with other units to form gates.

For instance, the Metal Element unit could perform the role of the Open Gate by itself, but it could also meet with the Wood Element and Fire Element units to form the Warning Gate.

Only Yi Rim, who was operating the formation, could know this. The formation rotated so continuously that even the warriors of the Five Element units didn’t know their own roles.

Continuously generating and disappearing, endlessly dividing and combining and circulating.

This was the Fish-Form Taiji.

When numbers increased, it became increasingly subdivided into One Gate One Palace Four Symbols Five Elements, increasing the formation’s destructive power and operational subtlety. The maximum number that could be operated with the Nine Palace Eight Trigram Formation reached tens of thousands. Of course, the limit of operable numbers depended on the formation commander’s ability.

The limit Yi Rim could operate was about fifty people. However, just because the numbers were small didn’t mean the formation was weak. Even with few numbers, it was just a simplified miniature version of a giant formation, and the functions of each unit weren’t different.

If a gear was missing from this precise formation’s mechanism or someone died and it couldn’t mesh properly, it would immediately reveal this. At the same time, the enemy’s position would be known immediately.

Until just now, Snake Scorpion Poison King had been moving while killing warriors of the Rest Gate and Injury Gate, and had luckily avoided the arrow rain of the Wound Gate. He passed through the Wound Gate and his position was discovered at the changing Warning Gate, where he encountered a master from the Dui Seven Palace, which was the palace of the Warning Gate.

The master of Dui Seven Palace failed to eliminate Snake Scorpion Poison King, but afterward Snake Scorpion Poison King was being chased while driven into the noisy View Gate.

After frantically passing through the noisy View Gate, the Death Gate would be waiting next.

“He’s holding out better than expected, but let’s see what happens when he enters the Death Gate.”

Yi Rim waved his flags. The warriors beside him who saw Yi Rim’s signal noisily blew their whistles.

* * *

The fire and smoke passing overhead became increasingly severe.

Whoooosh…

Sparks also flew in all directions.

Crackle, snap.

On top of that, hot heat and suffocating hot air rose up.

Every time he breathed, he could clearly feel the dry air entering through his nose and throat into his lungs.

His breath was blocked and his lungs felt parched.

However, Jin Ja-gang had survived a month in the mixed heaven and earth, enduring heat that melted flesh and hot steam that burned skin. His skin had melted, peeled, and been stripped several times before being covered anew. Each time, the effects of Kunlun Sulfur Jade Poison made his skin tough.

Ordinary heat couldn’t greatly affect Jin Ja-gang. The heat Jin Ja-gang could endure was beyond what others imagined.

But the warriors were different.

Some couldn’t endure it and took shallow breaths, making breathless sounds, and unable to bear it anymore, they coughed.

“Huff, huff, hoooo…”

“Cough!”

Thanks to this, Jin Ja-gang could somewhat gauge the warriors’ positions.

‘They seem to keep following me?’

He killed two warriors he encountered on the way. Then whistle sounds rang out and he could tell the direction of the coughing sounds changed.

Jin Ja-gang crouched low in a place with severe smoke and listened carefully. The coughing sounds increased. Surprisingly, they were accurately gauging the direction Jin Ja-gang was moving and tightening their encirclement.

‘How is this possible…’

Jin Ja-gang recalled what Shin Yung had said.

—”The only way for you to survive facing the Zhuge family is to remember the Fish-Form Taiji. The life gate of the inner trigram is in the death gate, and the death gate is within the View Gate.”

Fish-Form Taiji refers to the shape of two fish circling while biting each other’s tails. It’s a form where yin and yang mesh together, with holes in the head parts like fish eyes.

The origin of heaven and earth is Taiji, the world is made of the harmony of yin and yang, and people live according to the Five Elements.

Yin-Yang and Five Elements were also fundamental in pharmacy and medicine, so Jin Ja-gang knew them to some degree.

However, understanding yin-yang and Five Elements in formations was insufficient. When he was in Lan Family Village, he had tried to learn about formations, but obtaining such books wasn’t easy even in that village.

‘Fish-Form Taiji is the continuous meshing of yin and yang, so this formation I’m trapped in also rotates like it’s continuously alive and moving. Then…’

Jin Ja-gang broke away from the method of avoiding warriors he had been using until now and tried moving in reverse.

‘Urgh!’

Jin Ja-gang felt tremendous pressure. Enormous killing intent was protruding sharply, seeming not to tolerate going in that direction.

At that moment, spears shot out from the smoke.

Pat!

Jin Ja-gang immediately rolled to the side. Several spears shot out and stabbed where Jin Ja-gang had been standing, then disappeared.

Jin Ja-gang tried moving in another direction.

Again, spears shot out from that direction too. Jin Ja-gang rolled forward then bounced up his body and drew a needle from his sleeve. He held the needle between his index and middle fingers and threw it with all his might.

The warrior who had thrust the spear raised it and blocked the needle with the spear shaft. The poison needle was thrown using the Flying Thread Twelve Branches technique without internal energy. The poison needle curved in a weak parabola.

The poison needle grazed past the spear shaft and embedded in the warrior’s stomach.

“Kugh!”

The warrior made a stifled groan and retreated. Jin Ja-gang was about to chase and not let him go, but stopped.

Pa pa pak!

Several spears shot out and disappeared. If he had chased blindly, he would have been stabbed by spears.

This formation allowed easy movement in the forward direction but didn’t tolerate going in reverse.

‘They’re driving me toward the Death Gate.’

Jin Ja-gang had to correct his somewhat ignorant thoughts about formations. He had thought that if he hid in flames and smoke and dealt with them one by one, he could handle about fifty people regardless of formations.

But fighting enemies within a formation was much more troublesome and difficult than expected.

Of course, that’s why he had set fires to create variable factors and chosen the tea tree field as the battlefield.

‘In the end, formations are composed and operated by people. I can break through!’

Jin Ja-gang gritted his teeth.

* * *

Yi Rim was satisfied that the formation was operating more smoothly than expected.

He had succeeded in driving Snake Scorpion Poison King into the inner trigram before the entire tea tree field burned down and the warriors became roasted.

Soon Snake Scorpion Poison King would enter the center of the formation, and the most skilled senior warriors from the Five Element units would attack him there.

That place was precisely the Death Gate.

The gate with the highest killing power among the Eight Gates.

Now Snake Scorpion Poison King could no longer flee.

Even if he broke through the Death Gate, the Wound Gate and View Gate would consecutively block him afterward. And the Injury Gate and Warning Gate would wait in turn, followed by the Death Gate again.

Snake Scorpion Poison King would continue to repeatedly circle the same place until he collapsed from exhaustion or died.

Tweeeeet!

The longest whistle sound yet rang out.

Yi Rim smiled with satisfaction.

The Death Gate had just been completed.

“Got him.”

* * *

The warrior of the Injury Gate Earth Element unit raised his internal energy to the maximum while glaring beyond the smoke.

His back was about to break from bending over in a place where flames were blazing everywhere. His face was completely red from the fires burning all around, and his lips were parched from the heat. His hair had also curled up from melting in the heat.

Even breathing wasn’t easy. Every time he breathed, the hot air felt like it was burning his dried nose and throat even more severely.

“Huff, huff.”

The warrior breathed heavily as if exhaling while preparing for battle.

The whistle sound just now was telling him the target was right in front of him. The warrior gripped his sword tightly.

Soon he raised his sword and leaped into the smoke.

Whoosh!

“…!”

However, there was nothing before his eyes.