Chapter 37
Chapter 37
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Wolves' Ravine
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The creatures bursting through the clumps of grass were blood wolves. The blood wolves kept emerging one after another along the path winding between the ravines.
"Why the hell are these bastards showing up like this?"
Yeom Jin-sang clutched at his throat.
"The demon deer herd must have fled because of the blood wolves."
Hyeon-gak said.
"They drove the demon deer ahead to lure us into the ravine. That's why even the Lady Saint couldn't sense their presence. But why this ravine of all places? No, how could blood wolves even come up with a plan like this?"
Dang Yak-ran said.
"Because it's their den."
Heuk Do-san said curtly.
Sensing something ominous in Heuk Do-san's words, the others hurriedly scanned their surroundings. Beast bones they hadn't noticed before littered the ground everywhere. Quite a few among them appeared to be tiger bones.
"Damn it all!"
Yeom Jin-sang groaned.
Only then did everyone piece together the full picture. Why the blood wolf pack had vanished so suddenly the night before, why the demon deer had charged madly ahead, why they themselves had ended up trapped in the ravine.
In the meantime, the blood wolves continued to multiply, nearing a hundred in number. It seemed every blood wolf in the white oak forest had gathered here.
"Swarming like a pack of dogs."
Gong Cheon-ak said.
"Dogs don't swarm like that."
Hyeon-gak said.
"Still picking fights right up to the end?"
"You think this is the end?"
"It's just a manner of speaking."
"Don't you know words take root? If we die here, it'll be all your fault. I didn't fancy going out mauled by wolves of all things..."
"Don't worry. Yours truly will make sure to kill you first—with my own hands."
Gong Cheon-ak gripped his stone axe once more. In that instant, the obsidian shard tied to the end of the handle came loose and fell with a 'thud.'
It had cracked when he'd ground the demon deer's horn with brute force, and now it finally dropped off.
"I'm gonna lose my mind."
He hadn't been able to grab his spear earlier while carrying Hyeon-gak on his back. And it wasn't just Gong Cheon-ak. Hyeon-gak and Yeom Jin-sang were empty-handed as well.
Only Heuk Do-san and Dang Yak-ran had weapons between them—an axe for him, gauntlets for her. Bing-seol did have the one dagger Heuk Do-san had given her earlier.
But for a woman who knew no martial arts, it could hardly serve as more than basic self-defense. And they couldn't very well take that from her either.
Heuk Do-san toed up a fallen bowstave from the ground and tossed it to Gong Cheon-ak.
"Cut the string."
Gong Cheon-ak snatched it lightly out of the air. Then, as instructed, he untied the bowstring.
With a sharp 'tang!', the bowstave—which had been bent like a crescent moon—snapped straight. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a horn spear.
"If I just had a proper spear, none of this nonsense would be necessary. What the hell is this every damn fight?"
"Everyone else, grab some rocks at least!"
Yeom Jin-sang scooped up two jagged stones and gripped one in each hand.
Hyeon-gak clutched stones and hauled himself to his feet as well. He didn't have strength left to twitch a finger, but he sure as hell wasn't going to sit there and get eaten alive.
Dang Yak-ran raised the spikes on her gauntlets too.
Just then, one blood wolf leaped onto the massive bull-shaped boulder in the middle of the ravine. It was a head taller than the others, its fur white as snow.
"What's that one?"
Gong Cheon-ak said.
"White wolf...!"
Dang Yak-ran said.
"So that's the leader."
Hyeon-gak said.
Everyone seeing the white wolf for the first time couldn't hide their shock. The creature from legend exuded an aura that was more than divine—it was utterly overwhelming.
Suddenly, it all made sense: how it commanded such a vast pack, how it had orchestrated such a cunning strategy. The problem was dealing with it from here on out.
Heuk Do-san glowered at the white wolf, his expression grave. His gaze locked with its own, where bolts of blue flame flickered in its pupils. For an instant, the hair on his neck prickled.
Master of the white oak forest.
King of all blood wolves.
'So we finally meet.'
Heuk Do-san spoke without breaking eye contact with the white wolf.
"I've heard the Tang Clan of Sichuan teaches its secret Wall-Walking Gecko Technique so members can harvest toxic herbs growing on sheer cliffs. That true?"
"It's called the Wall-Walking Gecko Hand."
"Hand of the lizard that scampers across walls. Fitting name. You know it too?"
"The Wall-Walking Gecko Hand is one of the basic techniques every Tang Clan of Sichuan member learns. But why bring it up?"
"So it's doable."
"Are you telling me to climb that cliff right now? I'm confident I can handle any wall better than anyone here with Gecko Technique. But that one's impossible. It's perfectly sheer—no toeholds or fingerholds anywhere."
"There's a streak of moss growing long from bottom to top. Moss means steady moisture. Rain or meltwater must trickle down through cracks in the cliff. Feet might be iffy, but you could jam a finger or two in."
Everyone turned to look at the cliff without thinking. Their eyes went wide.
Sure enough, about midway up, a long vein of moss stretched like a line of gold paint.
But their faces soon hardened. A crack didn't solve everything.
Dang Yak-ran was the first to point it out.
"Still impossible. The wolves won't just stand there watching us climb. We won't make it half a zhang before they latch onto our backsides like a dog pack."
"I'll call out positions from now on. Hyeon-gak and I take the left. Gong Cheon-ak and Yeom Jin-sang take the right. You and Bing-seol climb the cliff."
"What... what do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said. The men buy time. The women escape the ravine."
"No way!"
Dang Yak-ran cried out stubbornly.
"Then you stay behind. I'll take Bing-seol and go. I know a bit of Gecko Technique myself. Sound good?"
"Others could manage Gecko Technique just fine too. So why... me?"
"The Righteous-Demonic Great War was bound to end in victory for the righteous factions anyway. Gong Cheon-ak goes back, he's just a hunted man. Hyeon-gak's already been expelled—no one's rolling out the welcome mat. Yeom Jin-sang? He'll bully poor villagers the rest of his miserable days. Might as well not go back. I'm in the same boat."
Gong Cheon-ak fell silent, his face darkening. He'd denied it to himself all along, but Heuk Do-san was right. They'd launched a final counterattack on the Shandong Peninsula, but against the Righteous Alliance's relentless waves tens of thousands strong, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's chances of victory were next to nothing.
"I'm for it."
Gong Cheon-ak said.
"Rare to see horse and dog see eye to eye."
Hyeon-gak said.
The two men were content.
No one was getting out alive anyway. One survivor from the Demonic Cult side, one from the righteous—that was fair.
Yeom Jin-sang was the only one whose face twisted in disgust.
Tears welled up in Dang Yak-ran's eyes.
No one thought their own life worthless. Whatever the reasoning, Heuk Do-san was stepping up to sacrifice himself so she could live. Gong Cheon-ak and Hyeon-gak were doing the same.
In that moment, the white wolf threw its head back and let out a long howl.
Awoooo-!
The blood wolves filling the ravine began slinking forward, torsos pressed flat to the ground.
Heuk Do-san locked eyes with Gong Cheon-ak, Hyeon-gak, and Yeom Jin-sang in turn. Gong Cheon-ak and Hyeon-gak nodded back—as if to say they were resolved.
Heuk Do-san held out a tuft of grass sprouting white fuzz to Hyeon-gak.
"What's this?"
"Frost ghost herb."
"What good's that now?"
"If you're gonna die, better not mid-fight with the runs, right? Hate to waste it after picking it."
"Fair point."
Hyeon-gak took the frost ghost herb and chewed it raw.
"Good luck, everyone!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Heuk Do-san launched forward. Gong Cheon-ak, Hyeon-gak, and Yeom Jin-sang followed right behind.
Dang Yak-ran untied the climbing rope from her waist and handed it to Bing-seol.
"Tie this around your waist. Just retrace exactly where I step and grab. If you slip, I'll hold you—so don't worry."
Just as Heuk Do-san had said, moss trailed upward like tangled vines all the way to the top. Peel it back, and there were cracks big enough for two fingers.
As the name implied, Gecko Technique was the general term for any martial art used to scale sheer walls. It wasn't the exclusive property of any one sect. Names varied slightly from place to place, but every murim sect taught some form of it—and often made it a foundational skill.
There was no better training for building strength in all four limbs than climbing cliffs.
The Tang Clan of Sichuan had taken it a step further, developing a technique that let them treat vertical walls like level ground.
Master it to perfection, and you could dart in any direction—forward, back, left, right—at full speed. It looked for all the world like sprinting up the face of a cliff, hence the name Wall-Walking Gecko Hand. The "Hand" part set it apart from other Gecko Techniques by emphasizing the hands' role.
Blood streamed from the backs of her hands. The wounds from failing to adjust to her gauntlets the night before had reopened during the climb.
Dang Yak-ran clenched her teeth and endured. The cliff loomed some twenty zhang high, and she wasn't even halfway up—yet her limbs already quaked.
Below, the four men waged a desperate battle against the blood wolves.
The thudding impacts of fists on flesh rang out. Wolf howls echoed through the ravine. Curses from Gong Cheon-ak and Hyeon-gak drifted up now and then.
'I have to survive. I have to.'
That was when it happened.
"Aaack!"
A sharp scream pierced the air, followed by the rope around Dang Yak-ran's waist snapping taut. Bing-seol must have grabbed a loose chunk of stone and fallen. Dang Yak-ran hurriedly jammed her right hand into a crack as well.
Bing-seol's full weight transferred over, sending agony through her waist like it might snap in two.
"Hold on tight!"
Having barely averted disaster, Dang Yak-ran glanced down. Bing-seol dangled from the rope like a human pendulum.
Of all places, they were midway across a bulging section of cliff—no handholds anywhere Bing-seol could reach.
She could shake the rope to press her body against the wall, but that would leave Bing-seol hanging from what might as well be a ceiling. Beyond her abilities.
There was only one option.
Dang Yak-ran took a long, deep breath, then pulled one hand free from the crack. The weight she'd braced with both arms now hung from one alone, tearing at her like her wing might rip clean off.
Gritting her molars, Dang Yak-ran reached her hand downward.
"Grab my hand."
But then Bing-seol whipped out the dagger from her waist and held it to the rope. Dang Yak-ran panicked.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm no good."
"No time for this!"
"I'm nothing like you—not a martial arts prodigy, not some divine talent. Even if I make it up the cliff, I won't survive the journey back to the Central Plains."
As she spoke, Bing-seol shut her eyes. Clear droplets soaked her lashes and trickled down her cheeks.
"Wait!"
"...?"
"There might be a way to save the men. But I need your help to do it."
"What are you talking about?"
"Yesterday afternoon, you spent the whole time scanning the forest from the hilltop with that spyglass. You spotted the smoke from the northern murim folk. You remember where?"
"Why...?"
"Do you remember? Or not?"
"I stared at that forest for nearly half a day. Not on Heuk Do-san's level, but I got the lay of the land. I know the spot."
"You think you can find it?"
"..."
"Those guys won't go down easy. Buy us just one sichen. We get off this cliff, track down the northern murim folk, and bring them back. Deal?"
Bing-seol's face lit up.
"Hang on just a little longer."
She sheathed the dagger in a flash and seized Dang Yak-ran's hand. Dang Yak-ran hauled her up with every ounce of strength she had left.
The two resumed their climb up the cliff.