Chapter 46: The Sandstorm Calls for Blood (3)

With each footstep, the warriors slaughtering the laborers flinched in unison—as though their very hearts were responding to the sound of those approaching steps.

The corners of Jo Hyeol-san's eyes twitched.

A man emerged from the darkness.

Clad in a jet-black robe, he approached with a slight drag to his left leg.

All eyes fixed upon him. His overwhelming presence in the area made it impossible to look away.

*Shiver!*

Cold sweat trickled down the warriors' backs, though they were too tense to even notice.

Behind the man lay a mangled corpse. It had been one of the warriors about to kill the Geum father and daughter. His upper body had been crushed beyond recognition.

No one knew how the warrior had died. They had only heard a thunderous sound, and then seen his corpse.

All they could deduce was that this limping man who had just appeared had killed him. The method and technique were unknown, but the blood on the man's right hand proved it beyond doubt.

Everyone froze. The warriors of Seocheon Mountain Villa, Shim Ok, and the Golden Horse Ranch folk—all of them.

At that moment, someone darted out from behind the limping man and rushed to the Geum father and daughter.

"Are you alright?"

It was Bang Jin-bo who cradled Geum So-hye in his arms, comforting her. For a moment, Geum So-hye stared blankly between the limping man and Bang Jin-bo, then relief washed over her face.

"Waaah! Hyung!"

Geum So-hye's cries echoed across the ranch.

The suffocating atmosphere that had gripped the area loosened slightly. Only then did the warriors let out ragged breaths. Jo Hyeol-san was no exception.

Jo Hyeol-san drew a deep breath and stepped forward. His face was taut with tension.

"I did not realize we had an honored guest. If it would not be impolite, might I ask your name and title?"

"…"

The man in the black robe—Dam Ho—turned his gaze upon Jo Hyeol-san.

Tightly sealed lips, eyes sunken so deep into darkness they were indistinguishable from it, and deep shadows cast across his entire face—all combined to make his presence all the more intense.

Jo Hyeol-san found himself overwhelmed by Dam Ho's aura. Under that savage gaze flickering in the darkness, he felt as though his entire body were being torn to shreds.

*What manner of gaze is this…*

Dam Ho stared at Jo Hyeol-san without uttering a word. Jo Hyeol-san's lips grew parched. He wanted desperately to escape this silence.

*Please, say something—anything.*

Whether his desperate plea was answered, Dam Ho finally spoke.

"Who are you?"

"We are warriors of Seocheon Mountain Villa."

Jo Hyeol-san answered quickly.

He prayed desperately that Dam Ho had heard of Seocheon Mountain Villa. Only then might he buy a little time.

Dam Ho tilted his head. At that gesture, Jo Hyeol-san felt his heart plummet.

Jo Hyeol-san was a strong man.

He was not the sort to be cowed by an opponent's mere aura, to stand here breaking into a cold sweat. If he were, he would never have become Eun Ha-seong's trusted confidant or led Seocheon Mountain Villa.

But now, Jo Hyeol-san genuinely feared Dam Ho.

Dam Ho possessed an aura unlike any other warrior. The overwhelming presence of a savage beast, the raw killing intent that gnawed at the soul.

Of all the warriors Jo Hyeol-san had encountered, none had shaken a man's soul to its foundation like Dam Ho.

Jo Hyeol-san knew instinctively.

*This is not a man I should make an enemy of.*

If this man became an enemy, the consequences would be endless.

Jo Hyeol-san hastened to continue.

"We have come for that woman. If you allow us to take her, we will withdraw quietly."

Dam Ho's gaze turned to Shim Ok.

Shim Ok was drenched in blood. She gazed at Dam Ho with an exhausted expression.

Dam Ho recalled that he had seen her once before, though he could not remember when. But Shim Ok, in her harried state, did not recognize his face.

Then Jo Hyeol-san spoke again.

"She trespassed into our villa and committed a grave offense. If you allow us to take her, we will leave without further incident."

"As you please?"

"What do you mean?"

"You invade at will, slaughter all these people, and now you wish to leave as you please?"

His voice was like thunder rumbling from the depths of hell—rough and deeply resonant.

The killing intent contained in that voice constricted the hearts of all who heard it.

"Ugh!"

Several warriors groaned as though in pain. The laborers had long since lost their wits. Some had even soiled themselves.

They had known Dam Ho was no ordinary man, but the aura and presence he now displayed far exceeded anything they could have imagined.

Jo Hyeol-san bit his lip.

"Urgh! So you refuse the cup of wine and choose the cup of poison? You will regret this."

"Is that so?"

"We are warriors of Seocheon Mountain Villa."

"Is Seocheon Mountain Villa that impressive?"

"Now I see you are clearly insane. To dare look down on Seocheon Mountain Villa…"

In the end, Jo Hyeol-san could contain himself no longer and erupted in a shout.

Though he was genuinely overwhelmed by Dam Ho's presence, he judged that if he continued to lose ground, things would end badly for him.

"If you interfere with us any further, we will not let it stand. There will be no more warnings."

In that instant, Dam Ho's eyes flared with terrifying intensity in the darkness.

"Warnings are typically issued by the strong to the weak. But you do not appear particularly strong."

"Urgh! Attack! Kill him!"

Jo Hyeol-san roared the order.

At his command, the warriors charged toward Dam Ho in unison.

What gripped their faces was desperation. If they could not deal with Dam Ho now, there would be no future to speak of. That desperation drove them to fight with abandon.

Dozens of warriors rushing toward Dam Ho.

The murderous weapons in their hands. Their eyes, honed into daggers that stabbed toward Dam Ho.

Until that moment, Dam Ho had not moved.

"Be careful!"

Shim Ok's voice rang out.

In that instant, Dam Ho kicked off the earth.

*BOOM!*

A thunderous sound erupted, and a living person became a mangled corpse, hurtling backward.

There was not even a scream.

For the first time, people understood that a human being could die so utterly without meaning.

"What?"

Jo Hyeol-san's eyes went wide.

With his crippled left leg, Dam Ho kicked off the ground. In that instant, his body became a line that cleaved through the air.

Then came the roar that followed.

*CRASH!*

And the death that arrived on its heels.

The warrior who became a corpse and tumbled across the ground was someone Jo Hyeol-san knew well.

Gong Dal-cheon, whose smile had been exquisite, now lay dead upon the ground. On his face, the last expressions to surface were fear and confusion.

Charging Step followed by Fortress Breaking Fist.

The art of straight-line movement, focused solely on the path ahead.

The technique was crude, the footwork even simpler. Yet no one could evade Dam Ho's strike.

*BOOM!*

After the thunderous sound came, without fail, someone's silence.

Thus did death come to them without warning.

"Impossible. How is this possible?"

Jo Hyeol-san's teeth clattered together.

The warriors he had brought were among Seocheon Mountain Villa's finest. They were never weak enough to fall to such simple techniques.

From a distance like Jo Hyeol-san's, it seemed strange that the warriors could not evade Dam Ho's attacks.

But for the warriors directly facing Dam Ho, the pressure and terror they experienced were beyond imagination.

As though trapped in a massive swamp, their entire bodies felt powerless. Their feet were heavy as though bound by thousand-pound shackles, and their bodies would not obey their will.

Dam Ho, closing the distance in a single step while tracing a single line through the air.

There was no room to dodge, no possibility of blocking.

Dam Ho's charge transcended the bounds of their perceptual faculties. By the time they registered his attack, the Fortress Breaking Fist had already struck their bodies.

*CRASH!*

"Kuagh!"

As though crushed by a massive boulder, the warrior let out a terrible scream.

But he alone screamed. The others could not even manage that.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

Like fireworks, thunderous sounds erupted in rapid succession, and mangled corpses flew in all directions. The storm of death swept through the warriors of Seocheon Mountain Villa in the blink of an eye.

"Urgh!"

Jo Hyeol-san's pupils trembled.

In his eyes was a terror he could not hide.

At last, Dam Ho's frenzied charge came to a halt. No one had stopped him. He had stopped himself, for there was no one left to kill.

Dam Ho's entire body was drenched in blood. He had bathed in the blood of those he had slain.

Shim Ok could not bear to watch and turned her head away.

"Insane…"

That was her honest sentiment.

A sudden wave of nausea overcame her. Unable to hold back, Shim Ok doubled over toward the ground.

"Bleh!"

She had not eaten, yet she expelled everything within her. Without doing so, she could not endure.

What Dam Ho had just displayed was more shocking than any scene she had witnessed in her entire life.

"How can a human being kill another so easily?"

Dam Ho did not strike her as a martial artist.

In her eyes, he was a human butcher—and a consummate professional at that, one who knew how to maximize efficiency with minimal effort.

Dam Ho's gaze turned to Jo Hyeol-san.

Among those who had invaded the Golden Horse Ranch, only he and Shim Ok remained alive.

"Urgh!"

Overwhelmed by Dam Ho's gaze, Jo Hyeol-san involuntarily retreated step by step. But the distance between them did not increase at all, for Dam Ho was walking toward him.

When killing the warriors, Dam Ho had been like a tempest. But now he walked with a limp.

In ordinary times, one might have mocked a cripple. But Jo Hyeol-san could not. That image of Dam Ho was all the more terrifying for it.

"D-do not come closer."

Jo Hyeol-san's voice trembled of its own accord. But he could not halt Dam Ho's approach.

"I-I am the chief steward of Seocheon Mountain Villa. If you lay a hand on me, Seocheon Mountain Villa will never forgive you."

"Is Seocheon Mountain Villa that impressive?"

"It is! Seocheon Mountain Villa is the true overlord of Xinjiang. And that is not all—Seocheon Mountain Villa's reach extends to the Central Plains as well. To touch Seocheon Mountain Villa means you can never live in peace, even in the Central Plains."

"Is that so?"

"It is! Now that you know, let me go. I will not hold you accountable any further."

Seeing that his words seemed to be having an effect, a glimmer of hope appeared on Jo Hyeol-san's face.

At that moment, Shim Ok cried out:

"You absolutely must not let him go! Seocheon Mountain Villa has been kidnapping merchants crossing the plains and forcing them into labor!"

"That woman…"

Jo Hyeol-san glared at Shim Ok, who had thrown a wrench into his carefully laid plan. But Shim Ok paid no heed and continued.

"It is true! Even now, countless people are being held and forced to work. I saw it with my own eyes at the cliff atop the mountain."

She screamed until her throat was raw.

The first to react was Bang Jin-bo.

"How can this be…"

Bang Jin-bo's shoulders shook.

He had always harbored doubts about his father's death. Instinctively, he realized that Seocheon Mountain Villa was connected to it.

Dam Ho was no different.

Dam Ho's eyes began to flicker with an ominous light.

"So it was you."

His single sentence froze Jo Hyeol-san's heart.

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.