Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Childhood Memories
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He dreamed.
The young Heuk Do-san stood alone on a snowy mountainside, gazing up at a magpie's nest perched high on a tree branch.
'Why doesn't the magpie's nest fall even in the piercing winter winds when there's not a single nail holding it?'
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't figure it out.
'I should ask Father.'
Heuk Do-san turned and ran back.
His father knew everything. He could recite the difficult words of ancient sages effortlessly, and with his father, matters of astronomy, geography, everything went smoothly.
Sometimes people came from far away to borrow his father's wisdom. They called him a noble person, a giant among men, and regarded him with awe.
They spoke of wars and the state of the world. His father wrote them long letters that were beyond Heuk Do-san's understanding.
They disappeared into the evening sunset clutching the sealed letters like treasures.
From the village gossip, Heuk Do-san heard that the letters contained strategies for victory in battle. Strategies that never failed, they said.
"Father! Father!"
As soon as he entered the house, Heuk Do-san called for him.
But what greeted him was a burning house, villagers wielding sickles and axes, and mysterious swordsmen mercilessly cutting them down.
Screams echoed everywhere. The bachelor from the house behind, who had played with him just yesterday, charged with a sickle only to be struck by a sword, spewing blood as he fell.
Terror unlike anything he had ever known.
Heuk Do-san's vision went dark. Then he felt a firm grip seize the back of his neck. He didn't turn around, but he knew it was his father's familiar hand.
Dodging through the people, his father ran to the back yard, handed Heuk Do-san a gourd, and tossed him into the freezing well.
Whether he knew his young son couldn't swim or not, his father's hand showed no hesitation.
Splash!
He sank deep into the water, then resurfaced. Against the dizzyingly high round opening of the well, his father's face floated like the sun.
The sun spoke.
"Righteousness is precious and wise. Heaven created man and bestowed nobility and wisdom, so practicing righteousness is the law of heaven. Do not say it is arduous and avoid the straight path; do not say it is fearful and take the shadowed road. This is the will of heaven."
With those words, his father closed the heavy well cover.
Clinging to the single gourd, he endured alone in the pitch-black well. His body trembled like an aspen leaf, his teeth chattering.
That was when he first learned how precious the sun was, how grateful for fire.
Sensation left his body, and even consciousness faded. As thoughts of life or death grew hazy, the well cover opened, and a torch was thrust in.
The torch said,
"Are you Heuk Do-san?"
"..."
"Still alive?"
"..."
"Open your eyes."
"..."
"Enough. Open your eyes, please."
The torch's voice shifted from an old, gravelly man's to a sweet, soft woman's.
"Please open your eyes."
Heuk Do-san snapped his eyes open.
At once, biting cold and indescribable abdominal pain assaulted him. Before he could even register the pain, he looked around.
He was in a vast stone chamber.
Sharp stalactites hung from the ceiling like spears, suggesting it was a natural limestone cave.
In the center lay a pumpkin-sized glowing orb. Up close, it was an oil lamp carved from luminous stone, emitting real firelight.
Beyond the firelight, amid jagged stalagmites, he saw Yeom Jin-sang, Gong Cheon-ak, Dang Yak-ran, and Hyeon-gak sitting bound head to toe with ropes.
"Dang Yak-ran!"
Heuk Do-san tried to jump up but collapsed with a thud. His torso and ankles were bound with ropes of some unknown material.
He tried to snap them with force, but the thinner the ropes dug into his flesh, the more pain they caused.
"Are you okay?"
Helpless, he called out from afar.
But for some reason, Dang Yak-ran showed no reaction. Her eyes were open, sitting upright on her own, yet utterly still.
The others were the same. Their unfocused eyes stared into space, like soulless shells.
"Everyone, snap out of it!"
"It's no use."
Turning beside him, Bing-seol was also bound and trembling, looking at him. Fortunately, her eyes were clear, unlike the others.
"What happened?"
"More importantly, how's your body?"
"What?"
"You vomited up blood without staining your lips. In a way, that's fortunate. If you hadn't bled it out, Young Master Heuk would be dead."
"I took internal damage, but I can bear it."
"I know. But it's not from qi deviation—just blunt trauma. The momentary impact caused some internal bleeding, but nothing like ruptured organs, so it'll heal on its own with time. You came close to disaster."
"You got hit too?"
"No."
"Then how do you know my condition?"
"I'm a witch."
"Did you wake me?"
"Yes."
She must have probed his body with her spiritual power while he slept. Only now did he realize the hazy voice belonged to her.
"But why are they like that?"
"Caught in the freak old man's spell."
"Freak old man?"
"The old man living in this cave. He used a swarm of bats to cast spells on us—stronger than anything I've ever encountered. I woke up, but by then we'd already entered the cavern."
"But why'd he leave you alone?"
"He doesn't know I broke free. I acted like I was still under it."
It must relate to the formation technique at the cave entrance. As a witch of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, the spell hadn't fully worked on her.
Yet it had briefly seized even her soul, hinting at its terrifying power.
"Where are we?"
"Another stone chamber connected to the cavern. Seems like a prison for the living, from what I can tell."
"Prison?"
"You saw the corpses in the cavern, right? I don't know for sure, but the freak old man seems to practice sinister arts here in secret. Absorbs the vitality from the living, then dumps them in that cavern once they're dead."
"Hundred Thousand Great Heaven Art."
"What?"
"The technique he's cultivating. They say it's a fearsome one."
"How do you know?"
"The cavern corpses had bloodstain marks. Gong Cheon-ak said they're signs from practicing the demonic art Hundred Thousand Great Heaven Art."
"It really... said Hundred Thousand Great Heaven Art?"
"You know it too?"
"I heard the cult elders talk about it. For Hundred Thousand Great Heaven Art to reappear... I see. Now it makes sense."
"What do you mean?"
"After we intruded, the freak old man was pacing anxiously, like he was hiding something. His aura suggested an unimaginable master, so I couldn't understand his nervousness. Now I get it."
"Because of the Hundred Thousand Great Heaven Art."
"Yes. He hasn't perfected it yet. He thinks Central Plains martial experts have come en masse to capture him in that state. He sees us as scouts."
"With horsemen tribes everywhere in this remote area, a Central Plains martial artist showing up would spark misunderstanding."
"So he didn't kill us right away. To find out who we are, our identities, why we're here."
"But if he learns we're stragglers from the Righteous-Demonic Great War searching for the way back to the Central Plains, he'll kill us on the spot. Can't let word of himself or the Hundred Thousand Great Heaven Art spread to the martial world."
"Yes."
"Where'd that madman go?"
"Did the Ghostly Ten Fiends come with you?"
"The Ghostly Ten Fiends are all dead. Only Seop Dae-gang, Mo Yong-ak, and Hong Gong-taek came. But they're probably descending the snow mountain by now."
"As I thought. The freak old man's scouting the cave area while tailing them. To check if we have a main force."
"Seop Dae-gang proves useful sometimes. We need to escape before the mad old man returns."
Heuk Do-san abandoned his initial plan to meet the freak and learn the way back to the Central Plains. A single taste of the Hundred Thousand Great Heaven Art's power was enough, and he doubted the old man would let them live anyway.
"Any way out?"
"We'll make one now."
He tested moving his limbs a bit. The ropes were tied so tight, he might die from lack of circulation before the freak returned to kill him.
Not content with a spell strong enough to take Gong Cheon-ak and Hyeon-gak helpless, he'd used ropes too.
"Not your average thorough bastard."
"Or just overly paranoid."
"Either way, it's a pain. What the hell is this made of anyway?"
Heuk Do-san rolled to the lamp, twisted to examine the rope closely.
Incredibly, it was familiar.
"This is...!"
"You know it?"
"Muscle sinew rope."
"What's that?"
"Old ox tendons soaked in camellia oil, braided in layers, then dried stiff. Makes thin ropes tougher than bowstrings."
"So that's why it's so thin yet tough."
"Mercenaries wrap it around under their clothes, use it when needed. Replaces broken bowstrings, binds captured martial artists. Even coiled tight on the wrist, it blocks swords."
"That's practically a treasure. But I've never heard of muscle sinew rope. I'm no martial artist, but I've mingled with sorcerers and heard of most wondrous items in the world."
"Of course. I invented it."
"Huh?"
"Early in the war, I made a bunch and gave them to fellow mercenaries. Word spread, people brought money, I sold them for a while. Named it muscle sinew rope then."
"Weren't you a scholar? How'd you think of that?"
"Just seemed like it would work."
"That's ridiculous. Like an illiterate kid doodling in dirt and accidentally writing his own name."
"Hard to believe, but true."
"Maybe the freak old man got pulled here by the Nine Heavens Illusion Grand Ancestral Formation's energy, like us? If he was a mercenary in the Righteous-Demonic Great War, knowing muscle sinew rope isn't odd."
"Then how do you explain all those corpses outside? Plus, the blackened color means it's at least twenty years old."
"That's truly strange then."
"First, we get rid of these."
"You said swords can't cut it."
"That's for cutting."
Suddenly, cracks and pops echoed from Heuk Do-san's entire body. His arms shortened, shoulders narrowed, joints bent unnaturally.
'Bone Shrinking Skill!'
As the name implied, a legendary technique to temporarily shrink bones and alter the body's shape. A secret art passed secretly among thieves of the Thieves' Sect.
Bing-seol had only heard of it; this was her first time seeing it.
But how did Heuk Do-san know the Thieves' Sect secret art?
In truth, contrary to rumors in the jianghu, the Bone Shrinking Skill didn't actually shrink bones. Bones weren't rubber bands to stretch and contract at will. Impossible.
It merely dislocated joints and adjusted muscle positions temporarily to change form. In this situation, the effect was dramatic.
Heuk Do-san slipped out of the now-loose ropes. Then, with more cracks, returned to normal.
"Impressive."
Bing-seol said.
Heuk Do-san approached and untied her ropes completely. Then he said,
"We need to wake the others first."
"Impossible."
"Just do what you did to me."
"I tried communing with their spirits, but the spell's too strong—they won't respond. But Young Master Heuk's spirit was different."
"What do you mean?"
"Your spirit called me, not the other way around. I was fading from the cold when something caressed me. When I came to, your spirit was looking down at me."
He had no idea what she was talking about. If spirits meant souls, did that mean he'd been dead briefly?
"And your spirit body was bound by a blueish rope. Not something ordinary spirits have."
"What are you even saying?"
"Seems Young Master Heuk has secrets even he doesn't know. Maybe I can uncover a bit right here."
"..."