Nine Deaths and One Life (2)
At that moment, Seo Baek had fallen into the Jegal Clan's trap.
A mechanism formation trap where the ground beneath his feet gave way.
Seo Baek kicked off the crumbling floor and leaped upward, but a silver thread net descended from above, wrapping around his entire body and dragging him into the pit.
He tried to slice through the silver threads with his sword.
But he failed. The silver threads, crafted by the Jegal Clan's artisans, could not be easily severed unless infused with the inner energy of a transcendent master.
A net tough enough to deflect all but the most exceptional sword strikes.
Beyond the mist, he spotted tree roots protruding from cracks in the cliff face like twisting vines.
Would they hold firm without uprooting?
Could the silver thread net bind them securely?
An ordinary martial artist would have a whirlwind of thoughts racing through their mind. After all, life or death hinged on the decision made now.
But Seo Baek was resolute.
He believed there was no greater folly than hesitating and missing that one chance.
Seo Baek hurled the silver thread net toward the tree root.
Whoosh. Crafted thinner than a strand of hair, the net quivered at the slightest breath—yet it flew straight and true like an arrow, without a ripple.
Because Seo Baek had tied an Underground Hall crossbow bolt to it.
The Jegal Clan's silver thread net and the Underground Hall's crossbow.
Weapons from two factions that had nearly ended his life—now repurposed on the fly by Seo Baek.
'My deepest thanks. I'll be sure to repay this favor.'
Whirrr. Slash.
The bolt struck the cliff, and the silver threads coiled tightly around the tree root.
Seo Baek gripped the net and pulled. His descent shifted toward the cliff face.
'Success.'
But the force of his weight and falling speed tore the threads free from the root.
Seo Baek lost his balance and plummeted once more.
'Damn it.'
Uncharacteristically, a curse slipped from his lips.
Then another tree root came into view on the cliff. Unlike the first, this one was firmly embedded deep within the rock, not just poking from a crevice.
Seo Baek swept the silver threads across the cliff like a broom clearing the ground, shaking them left and right.
The threads snagged on the root and wound around it securely.
Scraaaape.
He yanked the net, swinging toward the cliff. At the last moment, he released it and thrust his sword upside-down into the rock with both hands.
But his falling speed was far greater than when he'd first crossed the cliff earlier. His body slid downward along the surface.
The blade gouged a long gash in the cliff, as if slitting open the belly of a hunted beast.
Grrrrrind.
After sliding three zhang with the sword embedded, Seo Baek's body finally halted.
"Huuuuh..."
He took a long, deep breath.
Maneuvering in midair without solid ground was several times more exhausting. Even with his profound inner energy, Seo Baek needed a moment to catch his breath.
But there was another reason. A sigh of relief had escaped him unbidden.
Escaping this peril had been nothing short of miraculous.
He looked up. The cliff loomed vertically, dizzyingly high, shrouded in thick mist that hid the top.
It truly felt as if he'd plummeted from the heavens.
This must be what they meant by cheating death.
Suddenly, he recalled the saying that when facing death, one's past life and memories flash by like a lantern show.
Yet nothing of the sort had come to Seo Baek—no memories, no recollections.
Did that mean this hadn't truly been a brush with death? No, that couldn't be right...
Though he'd saved his skin, a faint melancholy settled over him.
If it had been a real near-death moment, he would have wanted to see his master's wife and senior brothers' faces one last time, even if only in memory.
Finishing his deep breaths, Seo Baek shook his head to dispel the stray thoughts.
'Not time to relax yet.'
He'd stopped the fall, but he was still dangling in midair, sword jammed into the sheer cliff.
He had no idea how far the ground still was.
In other words, he faced the problem of descending this knife-edge precipice all the way down.
'Can I jump the rest of the way?'
To gauge the distance to the ground, Seo Baek looked down.
Thick mist enveloped everything, the depths invisible as if submerged in water.
Then the fog thinned, and his view cleared.
For an instant, Seo Baek couldn't help but chuckle.
The ground was right there—just one zhang below his feet.
'Worried for nothing.'
Even without martial arts, one could leap that height.
He'd nearly reached the bottom without realizing.
Too focused on halting his descent, he'd covered a vast distance and time in the fall.
Hitting the ground like that would have turned him into pulp, shattering more than just his bones.
Seo Baek yanked his sword free and dropped lightly to the earth.
His feet touching solid ground eased his mind. He truly felt how humans were meant to live with earth beneath them.
Having landed safely, the brief relaxation sharpened Seo Baek's gaze back to icy cold.
He'd remembered how the Underground Hall had fired that crossbow.
They'd cut Jin-mun's rope when he was crossing the cliff.
'No accident. They were biding their time.'
The Underground Hall had assembled a search party specifically to eliminate the Shaolin monk Jin-mun.
Instead of aiding Seo Baek's leap to save him, they'd fired a bolt—that was proof.
That's when Seo Baek realized the Underground Hall's secret.
'Spears fitted with crossbow-firing mechanisms.'
Every one of their members carrying such a weapon?
It spoke of immense wealth.
Meaning the Underground Hall wasn't just some minor faction surviving underground amid the revenant outbreak.
Dropping Jin-mun was likely part of a ploy to isolate Shaolin Temple from the Central Plains martial world.
Fortunately, when they cut the rope, Jin-mun had crossed more than halfway.
Hitting the cliff on the way down would have sent his body flying far out. No expert could survive a fall from such a chasm.
But Seo Baek doubted Jin-mun had plummeted straight down.
A Shaolin monk tasked with liaison duties amid revenant-infested lands wouldn't perish so easily.
'Amitabha. May you be safe.'
Seo Baek murmured the Buddhist chant Jin-mun often recited, praying for his well-being. Then he turned to search for the monk, who might be somewhere nearby.
That was when it happened.
Kieeeek...
A revenant's guttural cry echoed from somewhere beyond the thick mist. Seo Baek froze.
'Revenants.'
He immediately activated the Shika Heart Method, halting his breath.
'Where?'
He strained his ears toward the cry's direction.
Then a fierce valley wind howled between the cliffs, momentarily parting the dense fog and clearing his view.
Whooooosh.
For a split second, Seo Baek nearly broke the taboo of showing emotion before revenants, his brow twitching.
'...!'
Come to think of it, they'd said Song Mountain was overrun with revenants.
Kieeeek, kieeeek, kieeeek...
Hundreds, thousands of revenants snarled from every direction, all around.
The spot where Seo Baek had landed was smack in the middle of a revenant horde.
Song Hyeon's group waited for Jin-mun to recover his energy.
Not only had he sustained bruises all over from crashing into the cliff, but he'd clung to a tree root for a long time.
Seated in lotus position on the narrow stone ledge, he circulated his qi.
The ledge was so precarious that losing balance meant certain death, yet Jin-mun's form remained as steady as still water.
'How long do we have to wait?'
Wang Yi Sam's mouth went dry. He was worried about Seo Baek.
But after just one gak, Jin-mun finished and opened his eyes.
Wang Yi Sam swallowed hard. Jin-mun's gaze gleamed with a subtle yet fierce intensity, like a tiger encountered in the woods.
Jin-mun rose fluidly. His bruises would take time to heal, but his energy seemed fully restored.
'Regaining full strength in that short time... incredible inner energy.'
Wang Yi Sam was newly awed, having witnessed the true prowess of Shaolin's warrior monks firsthand.
Song Hyeon asked Jin-mun,
"Please explain how the paths in this area connect."
"To reach the opposite cliff, you'd have to loop around via the rope bridge. But it was severed."
"Undoubtedly the Underground Hall's doing. What of the other ledges?"
"Follow this one down, and you'll reach the surface. Though this isn't an official path."
Jin-mun explained:
The ledge before them wasn't the route linking Shaolin Temple and the Underground Hall. It was a temporary path the Shaolin monks had carved while scaling the cliff during initial construction.
"Even if makeshift, a martial artist should have no trouble descending."
"I see. Then let's head to the surface."
Wang Yi Sam interjected,
"Hold on. The surface is crawling with revenants, right...?"
"Indeed. Is there a problem?"
"No... We gotta find the kid ASAP, yeah!"
Wang Yi Sam gulped at Song Hyeon's indifferent reply, then steeled himself with a thump to his chest.
Joo Eun-ri shrugged at him, murmuring in surprise,
"Tucking tail in fear one moment, then recklessly brave the next—what an amusing fellow. Isn't he, Chorang?"
"Kyeng."
Chorang poked its head from her sleeve and barked.
"This way."
Jin-mun led the descent along the ledge.
Wang Yi Sam had shouted boldly, but as they started down, his legs trembled.
The path was riddled with gaps and half-finished sections.
What they called stone steps were irregularly spaced, like stepping stones across a river. Each leap made Wang Yi Sam's heart lurch.
Thus, Song Hyeon's group headed to the surface in search of Seo Baek.
Seo Baek slowly turned his head, assessing the horde's size.
Even in the wind-cleared patch nearby, hundreds of revenants clustered.
With fog obscuring the rest, the total easily topped thousands.
A desperate crisis.
Yet Seo Baek's eyes reached the pinnacle of detachment.
'...'
Seeing the revenants packed so densely that only the ground was visible reminded him of Shika Manor.
That day of escape, hadn't the horde surged like a tsunami just like this?
Dying here would be a dog's death.
He'd have no face to show his master, master's wife, and senior brothers in the afterlife—they who'd sacrificed without hesitation to get him out.
Seo Baek coldly scanned the horde.
Recklessness was forbidden. Blending naturally into the mass and slipping out of the revenant zone was the priority.
'There.'
He spotted a gap in the clustered horde to exploit.
Every revenant in sight was a mere Blood Ghost.
With careful breath control and expression, breaking through was just a matter of time.
His master's warning when imparting the Shika Heart Method:
—In dire peril, you may use it for up to half a shi chen. Remember, prolong it, and you risk qi deviation.
Time allotted: half a shi chen.
'Break through.'
Seo Baek stepped into footwork and walked straight into the horde.