Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Rising Where You Fell (4)

When Dam Ho opened his eyes, the first sensation he felt was excruciating pain. It was as though his entire body was being dismantled, an agony that seized every fiber of his being.

"Am I… still alive?"

He tried moving his hand first.

It moved.

His foot moved as well.

Only then did Dam Ho release a breath of relief. The pain was present, but there was no difficulty in movement.

Dam Ho looked around. But all he could see was utter darkness—he could not distinguish a thing even a foot ahead.

"Was I buried under the rubble?"

Yet if that were the case, he would have felt far more pressure on his body. Breathing was not particularly difficult, either.

Dam Ho lay still, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. How much time had passed? Gradually, as his eyes grew accustomed to the dark, the surroundings began to emerge.

"Where is this?"

Dam Ho's pupils trembled.

He lay in an immense cavern.

One wall of the cavern had collapsed, and through the breach, a massive quantity of earth and boulders had poured in. It appeared the gorge's collapse had caused the underground cavern to cave in as well.

Dam Ho himself seemed to have been swept in by the flood of debris.

"Heh heh!"

A bitter laugh escaped through his lips.

He could detect no sign of life.

In this vast underground space, he existed alone. He was, for all practical purposes, buried alive.

The crushing loneliness and sense of loss were beyond the power of words to express. No matter how strong his will, even Dam Ho could not help but despair in such circumstances.

Dam Ho's shoulders trembled with faint spasms.

It was as though an earthquake had struck. The explosion that began deep within the gorge had spread to the entrance, and the entire gorge had collapsed. It seemed impossible that anyone could have survived within.

"Cunning bastards! To think they would choose mutual destruction."

Cheong-heo the Sage gnashed his teeth.

He quickly surveyed his surroundings. Several of the Wudang Sect's disciples were missing. They had failed to escape the gorge in time and had been swept away by the collapse.

The situation was the same for the Zhongnan Sect and the Mount Hua Sect. Several disciples were nowhere to be seen. The faces of those who had barely survived were etched with grief.

Yeom Joong-hwa ground his teeth.

"Truly fearsome, those wretches. To choose self-destruction upon discovery."

"It is fortunate, at least. This way, we have prevented their resurgence."

At the words of Geum Han-su beside him, Yeom Joong-hwa nodded.

"That is true. With this, the remnants of the Demonic Cult are all but annihilated."

Yeom Joong-hwa's gaze shifted subtly toward the Mount Hua Sect's encampment.

The Mount Hua Sect's disciples had gathered in a cluster. At their center stood Sage Hyeon-so.

"Ho-a!"

Sage Hyeon-so's voice quavered.

He stared at the collapsed gorge with an expression of disbelief.

Most of the Mount Hua Sect's disciples had escaped, but Dam Ho was nowhere to be found.

Mu-gyeong answered with a somber expression.

"I am sorry, Martial Uncle. We tried to save him, but we were too late."

"…"

While Mu-gyeong made his excuses, Un-gyeong said nothing at all. He simply bit his lip and stared into the distant sky.

"How can this be?"

Sage Hyeon-so's legs gave way, and he collapsed on the spot.

With a look on his face as though he had lost the entire world, he gazed at the gorge, and no one could offer him consolation.

Woon-ho and the Second Generation Disciples felt gratitude toward Dam Ho.

They owed their lives to him. Had they escaped at the same time as everyone else, they would have been buried in the gorge due to their poor lightness art skills.

"Martial Uncle."

Mu-gyeong clenched his teeth.

His face was suffused with shame.

He was mortified that he had to make such excuses when he had not even entertained the thought of saving Dam Ho. But now was not the time to speak the truth. He was not yet prepared.

And so he could only watch Sage Hyeon-so in silence.

"No, Ho-a is not dead. He would not die so meaninglessly. That child is not so easily killed."

Sage Hyeon-so struggled to his feet.

"Martial Uncle."

"I am fine. I am fine…"

Un-gyeong tried to support him, but Sage Hyeon-so refused.

Like a stone statue, Sage Hyeon-so stood motionless, staring at the collapsed gorge.

"Ho-a."

***

Dam Ho opened his eyes.

He could not even begin to gauge how much time had passed.

It felt as though he had lost consciousness briefly, or perhaps days had elapsed. In a dark space, the passage of time was almost impossible to perceive.

Dam Ho lay on his back, staring vacantly at the ceiling.

It took a long while before any focus returned to his eyes, which had seemed devoid of all will.

An odd sight greeted Dam Ho's vision. From one side of the cavern, a faint light was perceptible.

Dam Ho sharpened his gaze. Then he saw it—a small stone embedded in the ceiling, emitting a dim glow.

"A night-luminescent pearl?"

Even spending a fortune would not easily procure a night-luminescent pearl. But the shape of this one seemed unnatural.

"Has a human hand touched this? How?"

He could not believe that human hands had reached this vast underground space.

A single word surfaced in Dam Ho's mind.

"The Thousand Gold Demonic Prison."

Eum Yu-gyeong had said as much. Dam Ho was now certain that this place was indeed the Thousand Gold Demonic Prison.

It was where the Demonic Cult's madmen had hidden and lived. If so, it meant the environment was habitable for others as well.

He had to verify it for himself.

Dam Ho forced his body upright.

"Kugh!"

A groan escaped him involuntarily, but he fought through the pain.

Even a single step was agony. Yet Dam Ho endured and moved.

First, he had to ascertain his situation with precision. Only then could he form a judgment and devise a plan.

The underground cavern was extraordinarily vast. Dam Ho found traces of countless people who had resided here. They must have left in great haste, for all manner of belongings lay scattered about.

"People lived here?"

Several tunnels radiated outward from the great cavern.

Following one of the tunnels, Dam Ho entered a space that, while smaller than the main cavern, was still considerable in size. A night-luminescent pearl was embedded here as well.

Footprints marked the solid floor in various places. Dam Ho recognized them as the traces of martial arts practice.

"A training ground?"

Dam Ho frowned.

He was a martial artist himself and could not fail to recognize the marks left by martial arts practice.

Dam Ho moved on to the next space.

"Huff!"

Overexerting himself produced ragged breaths, but Dam Ho did not rest. No—he could not afford to rest.

'I must survive. By any means necessary.'

What was needed to survive in this enclosed underground space was water and food.

Dam Ho searched the underground cavern thoroughly. And at last, he found what he had been seeking.

Inside a small stone chamber, wooden crates filled to the brim came into view. When he opened one, it was packed with dark pills.

A faint scent of grain drifted from the pills.

"Hunger-Quelling Pills."

These were undoubtedly the Hunger-Quelling Pills that the Demonic Cult's cultivators had stored for emergencies. There were quite a数量—enough to sustain him for some time.

"Very well."

In the endless darkness, a single ray of light had pierced through.

Dam Ho's grip tightened on the crate.

He clenched his teeth.

Sage Hyeon-so's voice seemed to ring in his ears like an echo.

"All I need is an unyielding heart…"

Then Heaven would open the way of its own accord.