Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Finding the Way in the Darkness (2)
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Damho suddenly opened his eyes. Then a basement space akin to a secret chamber came into view. Among the underground caverns, this was the narrowest one, serving as his dwelling.
This underground space, bearing traces of someone who had used it long ago, was Damho's sole place of rest.
In one corner of the secret chamber stood a stone bed carved from rock. Damho slept on this stone bed, from which a bone-chilling cold rose.
The bitter cold tormented him relentlessly. To endure the chill, Damho always had to circulate his qi.
Damho turned his head to gaze at the wall right beside him. Characters appeared to have been etched there with some exceedingly sharp object.
Geom-yul-cheon, burying friends here.
These were words carved by the man who had owned this place before Damho.
Visible just by turning his head, they met his eyes every time he awoke. Such inscriptions dotted the walls everywhere.
Each one had been left by former owners of this place. Some conveyed despair, others hope.
What had become of them, he did not know. Nor did he care.
Damho's concern lay with the present. Surviving the present by any means. And thereby escaping to the outside.
Damho left the secret chamber and headed into the underground cavern.
At last, he halted before a colossal boulder.
Among the rocks and debris that had poured into the underground cavern, this was the largest and sturdiest.
It sealed the cavern's entrance like a steadfast gatekeeper. Yet scars marred its massive bulk here and there. Until quite recently, its surface had gleamed smooth as a mirror.
The reason soon revealed itself.
Boom!
Damho's leg slammed into the boulder. The impact point shattered, fragments scattering in all directions.
It was his left leg, still not fully mended. Yet deep cracks spiderwebbed across the boulder's surface.
Damho launched his leg once more.
Boom! Boom!
Heavy thuds echoed through the dark underground space. The sounds reverberated long after.
***
Crack!
A fissure rent the colossal boulder. Starting from the base, it raced across the entire rock in a flash.
Rumble!
The massive boulder shrieked as it crumbled.
Damho regarded the shattered boulder with impassive eyes.
It had not collapsed of its own accord. Damho's fist had pulverized it. Despite demolishing such a behemoth, not a single abrasion marred his knuckles.
Thick calluses bulged from his fist like stone chunks, resembling an iron hammer.
Damho clenched and unclenched his fingers several times. Not a bad sensation.
Even after shattering the colossal boulder, the volume of earth and debris blocking his path showed no change. He had merely set foot at the threshold.
He had no idea how many more blows he would need to swing to claim his prize. But Damho harbored no worries.
In this monotonous place, time was all he possessed in abundance. He was prepared to swing endlessly.
Damho's fist crashed into another massive boulder. Each strike elicited a ponderous cry from the rock.
Boom! Boom!
Fueled by a singular intent to destroy.
The resolve to break free from all that confined him propelled him onward.
Damho fell back for a moment.
Flash!
His form shot forward, traversing a dozen zhang in an instant.
Chungbo—a footwork mimicking a battering ram sundering gates—unfolded, followed seamlessly by Paseongchu.
Crash!
The colossal boulder disintegrated, stone shards flying every which way.
Damho's eyes glinted fiercely amid the gloom.
Chungbo and Paseongchu, born of collaboration with his master, True Man Hyeonso. Back when they first devised these arts, the Mount Hua Sect's profound principles infused them.
Yet the Chungbo and Paseongchu he now unleashed held neither mercy nor Daoist truth.
At some point, the essence of Demonic Cult martial arts had permeated Damho's techniques.
The subtleties of Three Strikes Wave Shadow Fist melded into Paseongchu; Tanma Pavilion's quintessence unified with Chungbo. Gwangap-su reborn as a new art. Jungcheon Heart Formula advanced into another inner method, fused with Demonic Cult profundities.
Mount Hua Sect arts and Demonic Cult arts—utterly irreconcilable—had merged as one within his body.
Damho was a glutton.
For power, he embraced demonic techniques without hesitation.
The arts forged with True Man Hyeonso had transformed beyond recognition, to the point where not even Hyeonso could identify them now.
The dank, isolated confines rendered Damho's temperament ever more insular and laced with killing intent.
Damho's daily routine spun like a treadmill.
A brief slumber, then qi circulation; off to Manma-gu to devour martial manuals, then to the pool to consume monstrous fish.
Thereafter, unleashing his arts against the boulders obstructing the underground cavern.
The boulders were his foes; the vast debris, his impediments.
Shatter, and shatter again.
When exhaustion set in, qi circulation anew, then sleep.
Here, nothing else occupied him.
Darkness maddens the mind. In such profound isolation over endless years, heart demons readily took root.
To stave off insanity, utmost effort was required even in the pettiest tasks.
'Perhaps I've already lost it.'
Madness need not erupt outwardly.
One could descend into it with cold precision.
Preserving glacial reason, yet unleashing frenzy at will.
Such was the state Damho believed himself in.
No one could endure this place without madness.
Boom!
A massive boulder shattered beneath one Paseongchu strike.
As Damho reflexively readied another.
Whirr!
Abruptly, tiny black insects swarmed from amid the earth and rubble, hurtling toward Damho.
'Ants?'
Smaller than grains of rice, they were unmistakably ants. Unlike common ants, however, wings adorned them all.
In typical swarms, winged ants numbered but a scant few. Yet every one charging Damho bore wings.
Ordinary ants they were not. As if to prove it, they lunged en masse to bite.
Damho recoiled swiftly, unleashing Paseongchu.
Whoosh!
Paseongchu, capable of razing boulders in a single breath. Futile against the ants, however.
Briefly repelled by the gust, several bit Damho stealthily.
In that instant, furrows deepened between Damho's brows. From the bites surged pain and itch beyond imagining.
'Poison ants?'
Damho retreated with haste. Amid this, bitten several more times.
The sites ballooned instantaneously.
"Urgh!"
A hoarse groan forced its way past Damho's lips.
His glaring eyes bloodshottened. Pain and itch from the bites spread body-wide in a heartbeat.
Buzzz!
The ants bore down on Damho.
With superhuman forbearance, he endured the agony, retreating a dozen zhang in a blink. Only then did the ants wheel back to their origin, milling about.
At last, Damho assumed the cross-legged pose and commenced qi circulation, intent on expelling the venom with inner energy.
Hum!
Inner energy coursed through him, seeking to purge the ant poison. The toxin, inconceivably virulent, refused to yield.
Plop!
Coarse sinews erupted across Damho's frame.
"Grraaah!"
An anguished moan seeped from betwixt gritted teeth.
Pain he could abide. The itch, however, taxed even his inhuman endurance.
He yearned to cease circulation and rake his flesh with nails. Stripping a layer of skin might soothe it. But to do so invited lethal poison to assail his heart.
Circulation brought unbearable torment; cessation, mortal peril.
Ultimately, Damho suppressed the itch, immersing in circulation.
Crimson blotches mottled his face.
"Hah!"
Damho exhaled raggedly, head breaking the surface like one surfacing from water. The red blotches on his face had largely faded.
Over the preceding days, desperate circulation had banished the invasive poison. Ten days, perhaps a fortnight, may have elapsed.
In that span, death's brink had loomed multiple times.
Trapped in fiery hells, it felt as if knives flayed his skin. So vicious was the ant poison.
Damho dubbed them Hell Blood Ants. Fittingly hellspawn.
As he devoured a monstrous fish, Damho pondered.
'To flee this place, passage through there is mandatory.'
The bedrock encircling Cheongeum Ma-ok was unimaginably adamant. Thus had the Demonic Cult repurposed it as a prison.
The least formidable route lay through the collapsed debris. Yet now, the Hell Blood Ants nested there.
Disturbance guaranteed assault.
The crux: Damho lacked any defense against their onslaught. Superior though his arts, slaying hordes at once lay beyond reach.
Reckless engagement invited reprisal; survival therein no certainty. Retreat, equally untenable.
Strange fish lingered, fortunately, yet destined for his belly in time.
Then, true terminus.
Retreat or dawdle he could not.
Advance alone remained.
Damho bit his lip firmly.
'A shield... I must perfect the shield.'
***
Thereafter, Damho challenged the Hell Blood Ants dozens more times. Outcomes identical.
Bitten by Hell Blood Ants, plunged into hell.
Better to bite his tongue and perish, he reckoned. Human limits surpassed by pain and itch, Damho bashed his head against rock dozens of times.
Forehead rent, blood drenching his form.
Rallying barely, circulation resumed; challenge renewed.
In strife with Hell Blood Ants, Damho withered sharply. Latterly, bones sheathed in scant hide.
Time's passage, unknowable.
Buzzz!
Hell Blood Ants surged toward Damho.
Damho withdrew, hurling Paseongchu. Multitudes pulverized therein. Vast remainder, windborne, regrouped tidal upon him.
Abruptly, Damho's hand altered.
Hitherto hammer-fisted, now palm splayed wide.
Thus extended, he wafted it gently. Soft breeze repelled the Hell Blood Ants.
They strained to close; futilely. Momentarily contemplating his inner flow, Damho's eyes flashed.
'No need for ferocious inner energy against them. Rather, Wudang Sect's Cotton Palm-like delicacy.'
Gleaned from dozens of clashes.
Brute force faltered against some. Hell Blood Ants exemplified.
Prolifically bred, their numbers ballooned. Unchecked, they would overrun the cavern.
Beyond martial refinement, this was survival's fray.
Damho furled his splayed palm.
Inner energy's quality shifted.
Inhale!
Operation altered; vacuum yawned twixt palm and ants instantaneously.
Shrieeeek!
Regional air avalanched to his palm. Hell Blood Ants swept therewith.
Hundreds of thousands, millions clumped to child-head scale.
Damho's operation transmuted anew. Fingers curled, wheeling rightward.
Detonate!
Boom!
The spheroid ants erupted.
Shock roiled cavern air.
Buzzz!
Five Fingers Shadow Shatter.
Damho's creation for combating Hell Blood Ants. Vacuum inception, then detonation—a fiendish ploy.
Yet fatalities scant fraction. Hundredsfold survivors endured.
Hell Blood Ants renewed their charge.
Ebon tide engulfing Damho. As wrathful ants lunged to bite.
Shudder!
Damho's frame quivered abruptly. At velocity imperceptible to mortal sight.
His form doubled, tripled in illusory overlay.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Hell Blood Ants poised to bite burst asunder.
Ultra-vibratory Protective Qi Art.
Inspired by beetle wingbeats—Damho's singular innovation.
"Shield."