Chapter 149

Chapter 149: There Exists Pain Greater Than Death (3)

Ting! Ting! Ting!

The impossibly fine needles clattered to the ground, blocked by some invisible wall.

Like the wings of a beetle, in the space of a single breath, Dam Ho's body had vibrated dozens, even hundreds of times with infinitesimal tremors. This made his figure appear to blur for an instant.

"Gah!"

At a feat he had never witnessed before, Jo Xin-chung drew a sharp breath.

In that instant, Dam Ho's body shot forward like a battering ram.

It was the Charging Step—originally designed to breach fortress walls built of ancient stone. Combined with the Fortress Breaking Fist, its power was magnified.

Kwa-crack!

The bars forged of Dark Iron shattered like straw.

In Jo Xin-chung's understanding, this was something that could not and should not have happened.

"S-stop him!"

Jo Xin-chung screamed, stumbling backward.

His followers launched another volley of Soul-Severing Needles. Over a hundred fine needles once again hurtled toward Dam Ho.

Needles too fine to be seen with the naked eye—needles that spelled catastrophe for any ordinary martial artist. But to Dam Ho, who had mastered the Shield, they were useless.

Whirrr!

Dam Ho deployed the Shield once more, and the needles, unable to pierce it, fell harmlessly to the ground.

Countless needles rolled across the stone.

Kwam!

The next moment, Dam Ho's powerful stomp drove into the floor. The scattered needles rose into the air as if swept up by a gale.

Whish!

Dam Ho expelled his internal energy through every pore. The floating Soul-Severing Needles were caught by the wind and sent hurtling in the opposite direction.

The warriors holding the cylinders were struck by their own weapons.

"Kraaah!"

"Argh!"

The warriors pierced by the Soul-Severing Needles screamed in agony. The skin where the needles had embedded itself melted away, exposing bone. The power was truly terrifying.

The hall became a slaughterhouse in an instant.

"Wha—what—?"

The guard stared in disbelief.

The sight of warriors before him dissolving into pools of blood felt utterly unreal.

Whoosh!

A powerful gust of wind, driven by Dam Ho, swept past him.

Pfft!

The guard's head shattered like tofu. His headless body flailed for a moment, then collapsed.

Until the very instant his head was destroyed, the guard had not even realized he was dead. Perhaps that was a mercy, for the deaths of the others were far less quick.

Kwam!

A single blow from Dam Ho sent a man's body crumpling like a sheet of paper and flying through the air.

By the time the surviving warriors gathered their wits to counterattack, Dam Ho was already standing in their midst.

"Wha—?"

In that moment, Dam Ho swung his palm—charged with enormous internal energy—toward the empty air.

Kwaaa-boom!

"Kuh!"

"Gah!"

Those within a three-zhang radius of Dam Ho suddenly found blood gushing from their ears and noses.

Severing the Void Wall.

A technique that delivered shockwaves through the very medium of air.

Inspired by the Shield, Dam Ho had refined it into an offensive technique.

He had theorized it was possible, but this was his first time putting it into practice.

In an instant, over twenty warriors lay dead, blood streaming from their ears and noses. Within the enclosed cave, with three walls sealed, the power of the technique was amplified further.

The Severing the Void Wall had not only claimed the warriors' lives. It had also dealt a devastating blow to the Demon Binding Chains that restrained his limbs.

Forged from Dark Iron—the hardest metal in the world—the chains had been torn and split like paper.

Dam Ho twisted his wrists, and the chains crumbled. The ones on his legs met the same fate.

The sole survivor was Jo Xin-chung, who had fled to the cave's entrance.

"Wh—how—how is this possible?"

Terror contorted Jo Xin-chung's face.

The warriors who had accompanied him were all top fighters within the Black Dragon Stronghold. They had been cut down without the chance to resist.

The nightmarish sight threatened to bleach his mind white.

His normally agile thoughts emptied, leaving him unable to judge what he should do.

During that hesitation, Dam Ho walked toward him.

He limped slightly as he advanced, the sight almost surreal. By the time Jo Xin-chung finally came to his senses, Dam Ho was standing before him.

Crunch!

Without warning, Dam Ho's fist struck him in the side.

"Gaaah!"

Pain lanced through his entire body, and Jo Xin-chung doubled over like a shrimp.

Jo Xin-chung's martial arts, though unknown to the wider world, were quite formidable. Within the forest, there were few who could truly threaten his life.

Yet this master could not even muster the will to resist.

It was not a gap in martial skill. It was the overwhelming presence and suffocating killing intent radiating from Dam Ho that had robbed him of his will to fight.

Jo Xin-chung gasped with his mouth hanging open.

Dam Ho reached out and seized his jaw. He then brought the bowl of gruel to his mouth.

"Ugh! No… don't—"

Terror blazed in Jo Xin-chung's eyes. He shook his head, trying to resist, but could not break free of Dam Ho's iron grip.

Through his gaping mouth, the gruel laced with the Blood Tear Intestine Severing Acid poured in. He could not close his mouth. In the end, Jo Xin-chung was forced to swallow every last drop.

"Guhhh!"

Dam Ho released him, and Jo Xin-chung collapsed to the floor.

Agony like being flayed alive by knives erupted in his gut.

"Kuugh!"

When he retched, a mixture of blood and shredded innards spilled out. Blood streamed from his wide-open eyes.

The Blood Tear Intestine Severing Acid had proven true to its name. The bitter irony was that the very man who had obtained the poison was Jo Xin-chung himself.

He was dying by the poison he had procured.

Jo Xin-chung raised his head to look up at Dam Ho.

"Save… save me…"

"Don't feel too aggrieved. You'll die more peacefully than Jo Yun-san."

Dam Ho walked past him.

Jo Xin-chung reached out, trying to grasp Dam Ho's leg. But his hand only trembled; he could not make it move.

"Gaaaaah!"

Dam Ho left Jo Xin-chung's agonized scream behind and moved on.

From the entrance of the Penitence Cave, beyond the narrow plank path that wound along the mountainside, a great number of warriors had gathered.

These were the reserves Jo Xin-chung had brought as a precaution.

From within the Penitence Cave, Jo Xin-chung's bloodcurdling screams echoed outward. The men outside wore anxious expressions, not understanding what was happening.

"What on earth is going on?"

At that moment, a figure emerged from the cave entrance.

The man who radiated an aura of sinister menace with every step, clad entirely in black, was none other than Dam Ho.

"Gah!"

"C-could it be that everyone who went inside has been slaughtered?"

Their anxiety swelled like a snowball.

"Everyone, calm down! We need only block the plank path!"

So Myung-woong, the leader of the reserves, shouted to quell the panic. But instead of calming, the fear spread through the group like a plague.

"Gaaaah!"

In that moment, Jo Xin-chung's scream reached a final, piercing crescendo, then cut off abruptly. The people's anxiety only deepened, and in the interim, Dam Ho was drawing steadily closer.

He was still limping.

His right foot struck the earth, and his left dragged behind.

That halting gait fanned the flames of their terror.

"Waaaah!"

"We—we have to run!"

Some warriors threw down their weapons and attempted to flee.

"You think the Chieftain will spare you if you run? We have to stop him whether we live or die, you bastards!"

So Myung-woong brandished his weapon and roared. Many warriors, shaken back to their senses, prepared to resist Dam Ho.

At that moment, Dam Ho raised his head and looked at them.

Black eyes that held not a single point of light.

Like the gates to hell, devoid of any trace of emotion—their bodies froze as if turned to stone the instant those eyes fell upon them.

Like frogs before a snake, like deer before a tiger—the predator-prey bond was forged.

Those who met Dam Ho's gaze trembled like leaves in a gale.

They did not dare flee.

In that instant, Dam Ho curled a finger toward So Myung-woong.

So Myung-woong hung his head.

The expression on his face was one of utter resignation.

As though under a spell, he walked toward Dam Ho. Like a cow that knew its fate, walking toward the slaughter.

So Myung-woong gritted his teeth and tried to resist. But Dam Ho's presence had seized his very soul.

Not only So Myung-woong. Every person present was paralyzed by Dam Ho's overwhelming aura, unable to so much as move.

Dam Ho spoke.

"Where is Jo Yun-san?"

"At—at the Grand Chieftain's quarters… P-please spare us. We—we have done nothing wrong."

So Myung-woong pleaded.

His trousers had grown damp. He had wet himself.

Yet So Myung-woong did not even notice this and continued to beg.

He did not want to die.

Or rather, he did not want to die a meaningless death in this nameless mountain village.

He had not been born to perish in such a place.

He believed he was a man of greater worth.

He had been born to accomplish something greater, and he had been confident it would come to pass. That was why he had followed Jo Yun-san, and until now, he had never once regretted it.

At least, not until he came here.

In that moment, Dam Ho's indifferent voice rang out.

"Back then, too."

"What?"

"The boy next door was like you. He begged you. To spare his life."

"Wh-what?"

"When you saw him wetting himself, you laughed. 'You pathetic thing! Show me you have the will to live a little longer!' That's what you said."

So Myung-woong could not comprehend Dam Ho's words.

Dam Ho spoke as though he had known him all along. But So Myung-woong swore he had never once laid eyes on him.

How could he forget a man with such a face, such an aura of terror?

A man you would remember for a lifetime after seeing him but once.

That man was Dam Ho.

"Seems you don't remember."

"That is…"

So Myung-woong's expression twisted as though he might burst into tears at any moment.

"Yes, that's how it goes. The victim carries the wound for life, while the perpetrator stretches out and sleeps soundly. And then he forgets as if it never happened."

"Great Hero! I truly do not know who you are!"

"My name is Dam Ho. You call me the Fist Demon."

"I know that, but—"

"I am also the sole survivor of the village on the slopes of Mount Taebaek that was massacred by the Black Tiger Band."

"What about it?"

So Myung-woong's head snapped up.

Only then did a memory from the very distant past surface.

At that moment, Dam Ho smiled.

"Now you understand, don't you? Why you must die."

"Gaaaaah!"

The instant So Myung-woong screamed, Dam Ho's fist drove into his mouth.

His teeth shattered, and Dam Ho's fist pushed deep into the oral cavity.

"Guhhh!"

"I told you back then. I would not leave a single one alive."

Dam Ho's hollow voice drilled into So Myung-woong's eardrums.

Only then did everything come flooding back.

The boy who had carved the wound on Jo Yun-san's face and killed his companions.

The fiend had become a monster and now stood before his eyes.

'S-spare me!'

He tried to plead, but his voice only echoed inside his mouth, never reaching the outside.

Kwam!

In that instant, his head burst open, and brain matter splattered in all directions.

"Waaaah!"

The warriors watching scattered like startled locusts.

It was the beginning of hell.