Chapter 8: Bizarre (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 8: Bizarre (3)
My palms were completely shredded and covered in wounds.
Because I’d lost my footing once halfway through, two of my fingernails were hanging by a thread.
It hurt like hell, but the desperate will to escape at any cost allowed me to push through the pain.
Rustle, rustle, rustle!
I ran like a madman, tearing through the thickets.
I didn't have much time.
It felt like it had taken nearly two sijin just to climb down this far.
Even with my body from my previous life, which had been somewhat trained, there wouldn't have been much of a difference in descending this steep mountain.
He told me to go and come back in two sijin? That crazy old man.
Just finding something to eat and returning would take over five sijin, even if I didn't get hurt.
-Sigh. It’s really frustrating that you can’t use internal energy.
‘Damn it. You think I don’t want to?’
I hated my childhood self for suffering that Qi Deviation so much it made me want to scream.
Even now, thinking back to that time, it remains a mystery.
But now wasn't the time for complaints.
I had to escape somehow to get out from under that old man’s thumb.
Swish!
In the blink of an eye, a shadow fell over me, and my vision darkened.
Since I was pushing through the brush, I figured the sunlight had just been momentarily blocked by the dense leaves.
But then, the Lesser Conversation Sword suddenly let out a sigh.
-Haaa...
‘What is it?’
-You’re screwed.
‘What? Screwed?’
It happened in that instant.
Whoosh!
Something massive and imposing landed lightly in front of me.
The moment I saw him, I froze as if I’d turned to ice.
The man blocking my path was the hairy savage, Bizarre Hae Ak-cheon.
“It seems you took my warning lightly.”
“N-no, that’s not it...”
“I assume you’re prepared to die?”
Thwack!
“Urgh!”
Stars spun before my eyes, and I lost consciousness.
*
When I finally came to, it was because of a pain so intense it felt like my face was going to explode.
“Uuuugh.”
My head felt heavy, and my face was burning.
The moment I opened my eyes, I recoiled in horror.
“A-aaaaaaah!”
The sight of mountain peaks spread out upside down made my head spin.
When I tilted my head up slightly, a bottomless abyss stretched out below me.
“Are you kidding me?!”
A curse flew out of my mouth instinctively.
Meanwhile, the pain of the blood rushing to my face was so agonizing I felt like I was dying.
I tried to move my arms, but they were tied behind my back.
What was even more absurd was that my ankles were tied too.
I was currently hanging upside down from a cliff, with my arms and legs bound.
“Aaaaaah! Help meeee!”
How many people could keep their sanity in this situation?
An ordinary person might have gone insane.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, first begging for my life and then hurling insults, but only echoes returned to me.
Creeeeeak!
As the wind blew, my body swayed like a pendulum.
It was pure, unadulterated terror.
“Aaaaaaaah! Cough, cough!”
Because I had been screaming for help so much, my throat was in agony.
My voice came out raspy, as if my throat had been shredded.
Blood rushed to my head, the rope swayed, and the heart-stopping sight continued. I felt like I was on the verge of death.
“Uuuugh!”
It was a strange thing.
When terror persists, the will to live seems to grow stronger.
I forcibly lifted my upper body to stop the pain of the blood pooling in my head and face.
“Pant, pant!”
My abdomen screamed in protest, but I didn't care.
As I crunched my upper body upward, the blood that had been pooling receded, leaving my face tingling.
“Ah...”
Fortunately, the rope was tied so tightly around my ankles that it didn't seem like I would fall.
“...Damn it.”
The problem was that both my arms were tied.
Even if I wanted to untie them, there was no way.
I tried to hold the position with my upper body lifted, but trying to keep a crunch while dangling in mid-air felt like my waist was going to snap.
“Huff... huff...”
After agonizing over it, I closed my eyes and lowered my torso again.
I couldn't bear to look at that precipice.
As my waist and abdomen relaxed, the blood rushed back to my face and head.
“Uuuugh.”
I couldn't even last a fraction of a gak like that.
Eventually, I crunched my waist again.
My face and head felt better, but the pain shifted back to my abdomen and waist.
“Ugh.”
Because of that, I had to lower myself again.
From a certain point, I had no choice but to repeat this action.
It was practically forced exercise.
My waist and abdomen screamed, but the pain of the blood rushing to my face was equally unbearable, so I had no other choice.
This repetitive motion continued for over a sijin.
In the process, I even had the rare experience of vomiting while hanging from a cliff.
“Huff... huff...”
It was too painful.
I even started to think I might die like this.
It was then.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Hearing a sound near my ear, I crunched my waist and looked up.
“Hic!”
I don't know when he’d climbed down, but Hae Ak-cheon was looking down at me, holding onto the cliff with one hand.
In my agony, I spoke to him as if begging, even though my hands were tied.
“P-please save me! Please, I beg you!”
My voice was so hoarse it sounded pathetic even to my own ears.
“Heh heh.”
Hae Ak-cheon let out his characteristic chuckle, then tucked me under his arm and rapidly ascended, coiling the rope with his other hand.
It didn't take long to return to the cave that served as his dwelling.
Thud!
He untied the rope and tossed me onto the cave floor.
It hurt, but I didn't even have the strength to scream.
My abdomen and waist felt like they were tearing apart, and my voice was gone—I was a complete wreck.
Son of a...
I cursed only in my head.
That damn old man was a literal demon.
I even thought it would have been better to just get beaten.
In the midst of that, I noticed the Song twins trembling in a corner of the cave.
‘What?’
I thought he was taking them away to kindly teach them martial arts.
But their condition wasn't much better than mine.
The older brother, Song Jwa-baek, was covered in bruises, and his fists were encrusted with dried blood. The younger brother, Song Woo-hyeon, had a raw, bruised spot on the crown of his head.
Song Jwa-baek looked at me with teary eyes.
He mouthed words without making a sound.
‘That guy is a demon.’
I nodded, looking at him as if he were a comrade-in-arms.
In this moment, I couldn't help but feel a sense of kinship.
‘Ah!’
That’s when I spotted the Lesser Conversation Sword lying on the cave floor.
I dragged my body across the ground, crawling to retrieve it.
-Waaaaah! I thought you were dead!
As soon as I grabbed the sword, it greeted me with a tearful, dramatic outburst.
It said it thought I was a goner when it saw him tie me up and drop me over the cliff.
Gurgle!
In the meantime, my stomach sent a signal that it was sticking to my spine.
I hadn't eaten properly all day, and I was starving.
It seemed the Song twins were in the same boat.
Munch, munch!
However, Hae Ak-cheon, sitting on a stone chair covered in tiger skin, was chewing on something.
It was a piece of dried jerky.
Fury flared up inside me. If he had stuff like that, why the hell did he tell me to go hunting?
“Are you hungry?”
At Hae Ak-cheon’s question, the twins nodded vigorously.
Hae Ak-cheon glanced at me, gave a smirk, and said, “Since this fellow spent his time running away instead of hunting and was punished for it, there will be no meal for you lot either.”
What a damn way to shift the blame.
Surely they won't fall for that.
“.......”
Song Jwa-baek trembled, seemingly in despair.
Then, he glared at me with eyes burning with resentment.
He really is a simpleton.
But he wasn't the problem.
“I’m... I’m hungry... I want to eat that... too.”
Song Woo-hyeon, who was clutching his bruised head, begged Hae Ak-cheon for jerky.
Startled, Song Jwa-baek tugged at his brother’s pant leg.
“You idiot! Endure it!”
Then, Hae Ak-cheon pulled something out from his robes.
Seeing it, I was taken aback.
-What is it? Why are you like that?
‘I’m going crazy.’
What Hae Ak-cheon held in his hand was a small flute.
The problem was, it wasn't just any flute.
If he played that, the Blood Drum inside the body would go wild, causing immense pain.
“You brats. I assume you know what this is? Heh heh.”
There was no way the twins knew.
As they looked on with puzzled expressions, Hae Ak-cheon put the flute to his lips and gave a short blow.
Tweet!
“Aaaargh!”
“Urgh!”
In that instant, the twins clutched their chests and collapsed, writhing.
Their faces turned red, and their bodies shook as if they were having a seizure. In that brief moment, I hesitated before collapsing to the floor like them, screaming.
“Aaaaagh!”
“Brats like you won't listen to words. Heh heh.”
Laughing while watching people in pain—he truly was a mad old man.
There was a reason everyone avoided him and called him "Bizarre."
Perhaps because he only blew the flute briefly, the twins soon regained their senses, breathing heavily.
“Huff, huff!”
I matched my breathing with theirs.
The Lesser Conversation Sword spoke to me.
-You... it doesn't hurt?
Since it was attached to me, it noticed immediately.
That was why I had curled up in the opposite direction so Hae Ak-cheon couldn't see my face while I screamed.
‘Exactly.’
I barely managed to suppress a grin.
I didn't feel any pain at all.
Normally, hearing that flute should have caused intense pain in my chest, but I was perfectly fine.
‘Did something really happen to the Blood Drum?’
I had thought it was strange when I didn't feel that characteristic discomfort or foreign sensation in my chest.
But now that I was fine even when the flute was played, I couldn't help but suspect that something had indeed happened to the Blood Drum.
‘What on earth is going on?’
At my question, the Lesser Conversation Sword spoke excitedly.
-What else could it be? You hit the jackpot!
I certainly hoped so.
But I couldn't be certain yet.
If I had internal energy, I could check for sure, even if it was painful.
It was a shame.
But right now, the Blood Drum wasn't the issue.
“Go out tomorrow at dawn and get some food. I’ll give you two sijin.”
I felt like I was going to lose my mind.
Even when my stamina and physical condition were fine, it took nearly two sijin just to climb down the cliff.
How was I supposed to pull that off?
“If you try to escape again or if you’re late, you’d better be prepared to hang from the cliff again. Heh heh.”
‘!!!’
At Hae Ak-cheon’s words, the Lesser Conversation Sword spoke in a gloomy voice.
-You’re screwed.
The second day.
I had to wake up in the early dawn and perform the feat of climbing down the cliff.
Because of the frantic climb the day before and dangling from the rope, I felt like my body was going to break. Surprisingly, however, when I woke up, the pain throughout my body had vanished as if it had been washed away.
It was strange.
But I didn't have time to dwell on it; I had to descend the cliff.
-Are you going to give up?
The sword suggested trying to escape one more time, but it was impossible for now.
After one escape attempt, there was no way that crazy old man wasn't monitoring me.
I needed time to put him at ease, at the very least.
For now, I had to do my best to avoid being hung upside down again.
But as expected, it took nearly two sijin.
I spent one sijin wandering the nearby forest to hunt.
Thanks to my experience doing all sorts of odd jobs as a low-rank warrior in the Blood Wolf Unit, I succeeded in catching a pheasant by digging a trap.
And the time it took to climb the cliff again was two and a half sijin.
Upon returning to the cave, I immediately had to hang upside down from the cliff for over two sijin.
Just like yesterday, my voice grew even hoarser from screaming.
The third day.
Just like the second day, the cliff-climbing ordeal began at dawn.
I desperately descended the cliff to try and meet the given time.
In the process, I almost fell to my death.
Even though my fingernails were torn and my palms were shredded and raw, I still couldn't break the two-sijin mark for the descent.
I even failed the hunt that day.
As soon as I climbed back up, I was beaten to a pulp by the crazy old man before being hung from the cliff.
Unit Leader Gu Sang-ung of the Raging Blood Unit, who had come to deliver extra Life Preservation Pills, clicked his tongue as he saw me dangling there.
.
.
The seventh day.
Mastering the cliff in two sijin was a difficult task.
For someone like me, who had never learned Lightness Skills and didn't even have internal energy, it was nearly impossible.
As I gradually climbed down the cliff, I was getting used to it, but even so, I had only managed to shave off about one gak.
As expected, I was hung from the cliff again.
However, as I got used to this too, the fear faded significantly.
It was just that the blood rushing to my head was still agonizing, so I had no choice but to keep crunching my waist and lowering it repeatedly.
I felt my abdomen gradually becoming firmer.
.
.
The tenth day.
I was slowly adapting to descending the cliff.
Since I was climbing up and down every day, muscle naturally began to build on my body.
My palms became tough with calluses.
I made a bow to shorten the hunting time.
I don't know why I hadn't done this sooner.
I succeeded in catching two pheasants in less than half a sijin.
Perhaps because he was in a good mood from having more food, even though I arrived late, he ended my cliff-hanging punishment after only one sijin.
I was so happy about this that I celebrated by myself.
Meanwhile, Song Woo-hyeon, the younger of the twins, had developed a large bald spot on the crown of his head.
I don't know what kind of training he was doing, but he kept coming back with a deep bruise on his crown, and because of that, hair wasn't growing in that spot.
.
.
The fifteenth day.
The day of action finally arrived.
After being obedient for about a fortnight, the ironclad surveillance had loosened.
Convinced that the crazy old man had let his guard down, I attempted to escape once more.
This time, I had even scouted the escape route.
And less than one gak after descending the cliff and running through the forest, I was knocked unconscious and dragged back by the crazy old man.
After being beaten within an inch of my life, I had to hang from the cliff for over half a day for the first time.
.
.
The one-month mark.
I had become very accustomed to descending the cliff.
The paths that were good for stepping down gradually became visible, and I could see the path for climbing up as well.
Because of that, I succeeded in shortening the round trip by half a sijin.
I still couldn't break the two-sijin barrier including the hunt, so hanging upside down was unavoidable.
However, unlike before, I spent the entire time doing sit-ups as if I were training.
Now, I even had a defined six-pack on my abdomen.
I felt like my stamina and strength were better after just one month than when I had trained as a third-rate warrior in my previous life.
It seemed to be because I spent all day climbing cliffs.
.
.
Another month passed.
-This is getting tedious. Does our slave’s day begin again today?
‘Don't pick a fight.’
-Yes, yes.
I shook my head at the Lesser Conversation Sword’s sarcastic reply.
Who would want to do this?
Now, I was doing it out of sheer spite.
‘I will survive no matter what!’
However, this hellish hardship brought unexpected benefits.
The muscles throughout my body had developed evenly.
My thighs had become thick enough to be reminiscent of a horse’s, and my abdomen was as hard as a rock.
Even when I was trained as a low-rank disciple, it hadn't been this intense.
I hadn't known that climbing cliffs would be such good training.
-What are we going to do about him?
‘Hmm...’
The younger twin, Song Woo-hyeon’s hair had taken on a unique shape.
The bald spot had become too large.
I’d never seen hair like that before. Was it baldness or partial alopecia?
‘I don't know. He’s not the type to care about his hair anyway.’
The only things in Song Woo-hyeon’s head were his brother and food.
He had no interest in anything else.
More importantly, my own life was the priority.
I didn't know how long I’d be held captive here, climbing up and down cliffs and hunting.
‘That damn crazy old man.’
I glared at Hae Ak-cheon, who was on the tiger-skin-covered stone chair.
That old man never slept lying down.
He was always sitting in meditation like that.
‘Maybe I should just stab him.’
In my current mood, I felt like stabbing him with a dagger while he was sleeping.
But suddenly, Hae Ak-cheon opened his eyes.
-He’s awake!
‘Hic!’
Terrified, I hurriedly turned my head away to avoid eye contact.
Then, Hae Ak-cheon stood up and spoke to me.
“Has it been about two months?”
“Pardon?”
After saying those cryptic words, he suddenly snatched me up, tucked me under his arm, left the cave, and used his Lightness Skill to ascend to the very top of the mountain cliff.
This was my first time on the mountain peak.
The peak at dawn was filled with mist, making it look like a place where immortals might roam.
Hae Ak-cheon scanned my body from head to toe.
“It’s finally ready.”
I had no idea what he was talking about.
I was scared. I wondered what kind of harm he was planning to do to me.
While I was feeling anxious, Hae Ak-cheon asked me an unexpected question.
“What would you do if there was a way to handle internal energy even without a Dantian?”
‘!!!’