Chapter 111
Chapter 111
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 111
Chapter Title: Escape 1
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"How long has he been like that?"
"Since the moment we were first locked up here."
"Why is his body so emaciated?"
"Because he refused to kneel. For that reason, not only the Seventh Star Lord but everyone else was denied enough food."
"Refused to kneel?"
"Sea Dragon Gang tried to pry out of the Seventh Star Lord the location where he'd hidden his treasures. But the Seventh Star Lord had no idea where they were. Even if he did, he wouldn't have told them."
Gong Cheon-ak had been abandoned by his master and senior brothers. It was only natural that he wouldn't know the whereabouts of the treasures.
Would a bait tossed into enemy territory reveal the location of wealth that could raise or topple a faction?
"There seemed to be some internal issue within the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult around the time of the final decisive battle off the Shandong coast. Do you have any guesses?"
This was asking if she knew that Gong Cheon-ak had been abandoned. Bing-seol jumped in shock and asked back.
"How did you...?"
"I suspected as much, and it turns out I was right."
"I still don't understand why. That's why the Seventh Star Lord is so confused too."
"No, he knows. That's why he's confused. The conviction he guarded like his life has turned into a blade that cuts him down."
"......?"
Heuk Do-san approached the prison cell across the way. He stared piercingly at Gong Cheon-ak through the iron bars in the center.
Judging by the ragged breathing and trembling fingertips, he knew Heuk Do-san was there.
His mind was still sharp.
Yet he wouldn't lift his head to look at him.
It was due to despair.
When they had moved together in the altar squad, he had been the most loyal Demonic Cultist of all.
He revered his master, the Heavenly Demon, worshipped the Demon God, and held firm faith in the cult's doctrines. How many clashes had that caused with Hyeon-gak?
But now, he was no more than a discarded rag.
"Nice to see you like this."
"......"
"You never know what the world has in store. When we parted that day, I thought I'd die and you'd live, but here we are meeting again today."
"......"
"Have you decided to keep your mouth shut for life?"
"......"
"Do whatever you want. I'll do the same. And thanks for keeping your promise."
This referred to the promise to safely escort Dang Yak-ran to the Tang Clan of Sichuan.
Though he hadn't made it all the way to the Tang Clan of Sichuan, he had brought her to Tongmeng Fortress without mistreating her despite her being the enemy, so in a sense, he had kept it.
Paradoxically, he was now captured by that very Dang Yak-ran and suffering this ordeal.
Even with her hands bound by rope, Dang Yak-ran watched intently as the Mountain-Haired Monster, Bing-seol, and Gong Cheon-ak conversed.
He certainly seemed like a Demonic Cultist.
But something felt off.
It was as if he had spent a long time with them quite recently.
Especially when Bing-seol burst into tears the moment she saw him, an inexplicable strange emotion welled up in her.
Heuk Do-san examined the iron bars of Gong Cheon-ak's prison cell here and there. Bing-seol, reading his intent, spoke from behind.
"It's no use. There are no locks."
He had noticed the absence of locks the instant he saw the bars. No locks meant no keys were needed, and naturally, no swinging doors either.
They had never intended to let anyone out from the start. Once a person died and became a corpse, they could just hook it out, chop it up, and remove it.
He stroked the bars in front of him with one hand.
About as thick as an adult's arm?
The dark iron was coated thickly with tung oil to prevent rust, giving it a scorched appearance, but he couldn't identify the material.
He gripped one roughly and shook it, but it didn't budge, embedded deeply into the ceiling and floor.
Bing-seol spoke again.
"That's no use either. They're iron bars made from the ink steel of the Heavenly Mountains. They were taken from an old Heavenly Demon Divine Cult prison and relocated here. No treasured sword or saber can cut them."
"I'm not planning to cut them."
Heuk Do-san gripped two bars firmly in each hand and began to pry them apart with force.
Muscles bulged on his forearms, veins popped fiercely on his neck. As his qi boiled up, his shoulders swelled, and his hair rippled like it had been loosened in water.
In the blink of an eye, an indescribable intense energy erupted from his entire body, heavily pressing down the surrounding air.
It was such tremendous sword energy that those nearby found it hard to breathe. Yet at the same time, it was absurd.
In the past, there had been a Demon Army in the Divine Cult who yielded the top spot in raw strength to no one.
Indeed, many of the cult's peak experts had competed with him in feats of strength, only to lose without exception.
Emboldened by drink, he had let slip at a gathering that while martial arts were another matter, in pure strength alone, even the Cult Leader wouldn't be his match.
The tale spread and eventually reached the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Leader's ears. One day, the Heavenly Demon seized him and threw him into the cult's prison, saying,
"If you can break out yourself, I'll give you the throne."
Hyeok Cheon-ong, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King who hurled ox-sized boulders and toppled fortress walls, had been trapped in the prison for a full year, unable to bend even a single wrist-thick bar.
On a winter day when icy winds howled, the Heavenly Demon visited the prison. Before the dejected Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, he crushed a bar in one go and said again,
"Come out now. There's much to do."
From that day on, a saying circulated about the Divine Cult's iron bars: Under heaven, they couldn't hold one man, but excluding him, they could hold all others.
Now, this unheard-of mountain-haired monster was wrestling with those very bars that no one but the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Leader could crush or bend.
It was beyond ridiculous.
But...
Ddudududu tung... tung!
With a sharp sound, the two bars split wide open. People's mouths gaped open in tandem.
Bing-seol and Dang Yak-ran were dumbfounded.
A deathly silence, like mice frozen in fear, stretched on for a while, with no one able to speak.
Heuk Do-san wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and said,
"Whew, how many of these do I have to bend anyway."
How many of these did he have to bend?
In other words, he intended to bend all the bars in this cavern's prison cells to rescue everyone.
At Heuk Do-san's offhand remark, excited groans and voices began to flow from the cavern's nooks and crannies.
"I can get out of here!"
"We're getting out now!"
"We're free!"
Even Gong Cheon-ak, who hadn't so much as twitched in shock, slowly raised his head. Through his tangled, weed-like hair, hollow eyes peered out.
Heuk Do-san slipped between the pried-open bars and spoke to Gong Cheon-ak, who was staring down at him with limbs bound and plastered to the wall.
"Let's get out of here."
Then he began yanking out the iron chains one by one. Pulling out the chains was far easier than bending bars.
With just a bit of force, the iron stakes tore free from the wall with pops.
Moments later, Gong Cheon-ak collapsed in a heap.
"Stand up on your own."
Heuk Do-san quickly exited and bent the bars of Bing-seol's prison cell as well.
Unlike Gong Cheon-ak, Bing-seol wasn't bound by chains, so she was free in an instant.
The moment she emerged, she rushed to the opposite cell and helped Gong Cheon-ak out.
In the meantime, Heuk Do-san bent the bars of each prison cell holding people.
After bending over a dozen in the same way, his shoulders grew sore, and his whole body was drenched in sweat.
By the time he bent the last cell's bars, over fifty Demonic Cultists had all escaped their prisons.
Suddenly freed, the Demonic Cultists milled about in confusion. Then someone pointed at Dang Yak-ran like they wanted to stab her and shouted.
"It's Autumn Wasp!"
"That bitch locked us up!"
"Kill her!"
The shock of defeat and rage from three years of hellish life poured entirely onto the conveniently appeared Dang Yak-ran.
Infuriated Demonic Cultists charged at her like lightning, intent on tearing her apart.
Startled, Dang Yak-ran backed away frantically with her hands still bound by rope. But soon the wall blocked her path.
"Die!"
Someone picked up a stone and swung it hard at Dang Yak-ran's head.
At that moment, with a thud! Sparks flew from the Demonic Cultist's skull.
"Gasp!"
Heuk Do-san, having just bent the final bars and leaped over, had yanked a burning log from the brazier and struck the cultist.
The cultist collapsed unconscious on the spot.
Heuk Do-san positioned himself in front of Dang Yak-ran. He swept his cold gaze over everyone and said in an icy voice,
"Anyone who wants to die, come at me!"
"......!"
The people were stupefied.
Wasn't he a hidden expert of the Divine Cult?
He had risked his life infiltrating the Heavenly Demon Palace to rescue them, so why was he now defending this wretch they wanted to tear limb from limb?
The most shocked was Dang Yak-ran herself. Anyone who wants to die, come at me?
This went beyond mere protection—it was a fierce warning to the Demonic Cultists.
Then Bing-seol, who had helped Gong Cheon-ak out, spoke.
"Everyone, stand back."
After the Seventh Star Lord Gong Cheon-ak became a cripple, Bing-seol, effectively the Divine Maiden, had been leading the people.
Who would defy her words?
The crowd parted with a rumble, making way. Some even took Gong Cheon-ak from Bing-seol to support him.
Bing-seol looked at Dang Yak-ran, who still stood behind Heuk Do-san with a bewildered expression, and said,
"Thank you for everything."
"......?"
This referred to the time three years ago at Tongmeng Fortress, when she had been captured by Hua Mountain Sect and Moyong Clan experts rushing in on Sea Dragon Gang's urgent report—Dang Yak-ran had saved her.
Though she had lived like a beast in this prison, she had survived thanks to her.
And Bing-seol knew that the occasional unidentified herbs and meat mixed into the pig slop-like gruel had come from her too.
Dang Yak-ran said nothing. She merely stared at Bing-seol with a mix of bewilderment, awkwardness, and daze.
Bing-seol turned back to Heuk Do-san and said,
"What do we do now?"
At that instant, Dang Yak-ran's mind flashed alert. Back when they had acted together with them in the altar squad, there was one phrase everyone had endlessly asked one person.
-What do we do now?
-What should we do from here?
-Where do we go now?
And now Bing-seol was saying it. With the exact same expression and tone. Dang Yak-ran stared at the mountain-haired monster's broad back and fell into panic.
'No way...'
Then Heuk Do-san turned around.
He grabbed the frozen-faced Dang Yak-ran and shoved her into the prison cell. He stepped out and bent the bars so she couldn't escape.
"Stay well."
After staring at Dang Yak-ran for a moment, Heuk Do-san turned and began exiting the cavern. Bing-seol and the Demonic Cultists followed.
Heuk Do-san departed without leaving a single word behind.
Dang Yak-ran, her strength drained, slumped to the ground right there. The words he had said on the way here flashed through her mind like a lantern show.
'Seeing you carry Seven Steps Death in your bosom really drives home that you're from the Tang Clan of Sichuan.'
'My comrades are captured there.'
'Ignorance can be a blessing sometimes.'
'Whew... I swore I'd never enter a cave again while I lived.'
'I was trapped in that cave for three years.'
And the conversation between him and Bing-seol with the bars between them.
'You're really alive.'
'Didn't you believe I was?'
'I had a precognitive dream. But it was impossible... What on earth happened?'
'It's complicated to explain.'
'Thank you so much for coming like this.'
'What are you talking about? Of course I had to.'
'But your face...'
'We'll talk details later.'
Looking back now, he had been constantly revealing who he was. She just hadn't realized.
His final words lingered in her ears, refusing to fade.
'I don't trust women.'
He clearly thought she had betrayed him. Dang Yak-ran buried her face in her knees and wept torrents of tears.
"You're alive......"