The Red-Eyed Woman
The moment the madwoman and the demonic heads all left, the Repentance Cave fell silent once more, echoing only with the hollow sound of dripping water.
“...I swore I would never be bound by ties of fate, yet I cannot hide this emptiness.”
Ever since the madwoman arrived, the once desolate Repentance Cave had felt almost like a place where people lived. Now that everyone was gone, the void they left behind felt unbearably vast.
‘Perhaps I should go watch the Lantern Festival from afar.’
Guyu Majon decided to indulge in a rare whim. He gripped the iron bars that had confined him. Hyeolbu Mak-ga had softened that section so they could leave whenever they wished. He bent the bars aside with ease and squeezed his aged body through the gap.
It had been so long since he last stood and walked that his steps felt awkward at first, but not impossible. He pushed open the broken side door and stepped out. A chill yet refreshing breeze filled his lungs.
In the distance, the silhouette of Shaolin Temple came into view. The Lantern Festival seemed to be in full swing; countless colorful lights pierced the darkness. From the front of the Repentance Cave, the temple grounds appeared small but perfectly visible. Farther away, following the ridges of Mount Song, the lanterns burned like ten thousand blooming flowers of flame, glowing a vivid red.
It was truly beautiful.
Since he had already come out, Guyu Majon walked a few more steps and settled onto a comfortable-looking rock to watch from a little closer.
“How pleasant. It wouldn’t hurt to enjoy such luxury once in a while.”
The breeze was refreshing, and the ethereal glow of the lanterns made everything feel perfect. That was when he felt a faint vibration beneath the ground.
‘...An earthquake?’
[Grrrrrr...]
The tremor that had begun as a small shake quickly grew stronger. Guyu Majon’s weakened body lost its balance and tumbled off the rock.
“Huk!”
He barely managed to stop rolling down the hillside. Fearing a landslide, he looked back up toward the Repentance Cave.
That was when it happened.
A massive explosion erased the entire spot where the Repentance Cave had stood.
Boulders the size of houses shot into the air like cannonballs. An enormous cloud of dust surged skyward, blotting out the moonlight.
“...!”
Startled, Guyu Majon quickly ducked behind a massive tree. The moment he hid, a rock larger than his own body slammed straight into it.
The sound of the rock shattering was followed by the sickening crack of the tree splitting apart.
Guyu Majon hurriedly covered his head with both arms and curled up on the ground. Rocks, stones, and dirt rained down everywhere, devastating the surroundings.
How much time had passed? He frantically checked his body to see if he was still intact. He had always thought death would come at any moment, but when disaster actually struck, his survival instinct roared to life. Fortunately, he discovered he hadn’t suffered any major injuries despite the massive explosion. Staggering, he forced himself to his feet and cautiously approached what he believed was the epicenter.
The dust made it impossible to see clearly, but the place where the Repentance Cave had been… was completely obliterated.
‘How bizarre. Mount Song is not a volcano, so why this sudden explosion…’
As he pondered this strange event, Guyu Majon spotted a human-shaped shadow emerging from the hazy dust and walking straight toward him.
“!!!”
From the very center of that enormous blast… a person? The scale of the explosion had been so great that not even an immortal could have survived at its core!
At that thought, Guyu Majon unconsciously stumbled backward several steps.
Step. Step.
What emerged from the dust was a young woman with snow-white bare skin. She was completely naked, without a single thread covering her. Her hair, which reached down to her waist, was red as blood, and her eyes were the same crimson hue. Her pale skin, in stark contrast to that vivid red, was… overwhelmingly, and unrealistically, striking.
A woman of perfect beauty with a somewhat languid expression. The moment their eyes met, Guyu Majon found himself unable to move.
‘...!’
Was this what prey felt when facing a predator? A terror engraved deep into human cells and the subconscious over thousands of years shook his very core, screaming at his survival instinct. Guyu Majon could not even remain standing; his knees buckled. No—his knees gave out on their own. He prostrated himself fully on the ground, bowing as if in worship. His instincts had forced him to do so before this alien being that transcended human comprehension.
“...Is Bodhidharma still alive?”
The woman’s voice sounded both languid and delighted. It was crystal clear at first, then turned sticky and sweet. Guyu Majon wanted nothing more than to escape this unnatural being as quickly as possible. He was the man who had once slaughtered hundreds of orthodox masters during the Great Righteous-Demonic War without a shred of fear. Yet now, terror had robbed him of his senses.
‘Bodhidharma? Is she speaking of Shaolin’s founding patriarch?’
To speak of a man who had died a thousand years ago was utterly bizarre, yet for some reason the question felt perfectly natural to Guyu Majon right now.
“If you are asking about the Great Master Bodhidharma, the founding patriarch of Shaolin… he entered nirvana a thousand years ago.”
“...Hah.”
The red-eyed woman let out a light chuckle.
“Bodhidharma was truly an amusing fellow. He kept his word after all. He bound me inside that Vision Manifestation Array for a thousand years.”
As if recalling an entertaining memory, the red-eyed woman smiled with her eyes before looking down at Guyu Majon, who was trembling on the ground.
“You said Bodhidharma’s descendants are Shaolin? Then is that place glittering with lanterns… where his descendants reside?”
“Y-yes, that is correct!”
“Can you deliver a message to them for me?”
“O-of course! This old subject will faithfully carry out Great Mother’s words!”
“...Old subject, you say. So you are willingly offering yourself as my vassal. Is that not so?”
“Y-yes, that is correct!”
The red-eyed woman clapped her hands cheerfully.
“Tell Bodhidharma’s descendants this: In three years, I will come to collect the ‘price of the bet.’”
Guyu Majon did not understand what she meant, but he swore to himself that he would faithfully obey the command.
Why? Because she terrified him beyond measure.
“Since you have called yourself my subject, I shall receive the price from Bodhidharma’s descendants… and take you with me then. Until that day, remain here.”
With those final words, the red-eyed woman leaped into the air and vanished from sight in an instant.
Thick clouds covered the moon, plunging everything into pitch-black darkness. Far below Mount Song, Shaolin’s lanterns turned the temple into a city that never slept, but the mountain path we were running along remained untouched by that light.
Yet our group descended the trail without hesitation, despite the lack of any landmarks in the gloom. Having lived in the dark Repentance Cave for the past two months, I had become completely accustomed to darkness—I was practically a nocturnal beast now. The dark posed no real problem. If even I, who had only been there for two months, could see this well, then the demonic heads who had been imprisoned there for years or even decades would have no trouble at all.
We ran down the mountain without pause until we finally reached a ridge where several paths diverged.
“This is where the paths split. It would be best if we part ways here,” said Cheondok Noong.
Hyeolbu Mak-ga nodded. “Can we take different routes and meet up again at Cheonju in Fujian Province? We’ll be imposing on you for a while.”
“Of course. We’re separating now to shake off any pursuit, so feel free to join us later.”
Gapjil Jijon added, “Since we’ll all see each other again in a year anyway, I won’t bother with farewells. I wish you all safety.”
I felt a surge of fresh emotion. We hadn’t completely escaped yet, but we had still left that hellish Repentance Cave. When I first fell into this world and got locked up there, everything had seemed hopeless. Getting out in the shortest possible time was incredibly lucky.
The demonic heads were exchanging goodbyes. Their faces revealed how deeply moved and complicated their feelings were. Of course I understood. If I felt this way, how much more must they—who had been trapped for years or decades—feel?
Since I would be traveling with Cheondok Noong for the time being, there was no need for a separate farewell between us. But with the others… well, we had grown somewhat attached. I should at least say goodbye.
I approached Ok-myeon Eum-ma, who was closest to me, intending to wish him well and say farewell.
For a perfect escape, we shouldn’t be lingering here. But… they say if you think positively, the entire universe will conspire to make positive things happen. It’s true. We had just escaped that shitty Repentance Cave and were about to part ways—surely I could afford this much leisure. This might be the last moment of peace we would have. From now on, we would have to flee like mad. That was why I had learned lightness skill, after all.
“Ok-myeon Eum-ma, you’ve worked hard these past months. Don’t get caught staring at women again and end up back in the Repentance Cave. Take care, and I’ll see you in a year.”
When I playfully teased him, Ok-myeon Eum-ma turned to look at me.
That was the exact moment it happened.
Like a cruel joke of fate, the clouds that had been hiding the pitch-black sky parted, and the moon peeked out. The bright moonlight shone down on our group like a spotlight on a stage… illuminating my face directly.
“Miss, you be careful t—”
Ok-myeon Eum-ma’s voice… suddenly stopped.
Beneath the moonlight, he stared at me with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open.
‘What the hell? Why did he stop mid-sentence? And what’s with that expression?’
As I wondered what was going on, Ok-myeon Eum-ma blurted out something utterly stupid with a dazed face.
“...Who… who are you?”
Was he talking to me? A joke at a time like this?
‘Did this bastard eat something weird?’