Episode 22: Rising from a Fall (4)
Light Novel: Volume 1 Episode 22
Manhwa: Chapter 21
Chapter 7 Episode 22. Rising from a Fall (4)
When Dam-ho opened his eyes, the first thing he felt was an unbearable pain. It was as if his entire body had been torn apart, and the agony dominated his senses.
“Am I… still alive?”
He tried moving his fingers first.
They moved.
He tried moving his feet.
They moved as well.
Only then did Dam-ho let out a sigh of relief. The pain was excruciating, but at least he could move.
He looked around, but all he could see was darkness—so thick that he couldn’t distinguish anything, not even an inch ahead.
“Am I buried under the landslide?”
But that didn’t seem right. He felt little to no pressure on his body, and breathing wasn’t particularly difficult.
Dam-ho remained lying down, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. How much time had passed? Gradually, as his vision adapted, the outline of his surroundings became clearer.
“Where am I?”
Dam-ho’s eyes fluttered open.
The place where he lay was an enormous underground cavern.
The wall on one side of the cavern had collapsed, and through the opening, an immense amount of earth and boulders had spilled in. It seemed that the valley’s collapse had caused this subterranean space to cave in as well.
Dam-ho must have been swept along with the landslide and ended up here.
“Heh…”
A bitter chuckle escaped Dam-ho’s lips.
There were no signs of life.
In this vast underground void, he was the only one left. It was no different from being entombed alive.
The overwhelming sense of solitude and loss was beyond words. No matter how strong-willed he was, even Dam-ho couldn’t help but feel the weight of despair in a situation like this.
His shoulders trembled involuntarily.
It was as if another earthquake had struck. The explosions that had begun deep within the valley had reached the entrance, causing the entire valley to collapse. It seemed impossible for anyone to survive such destruction.
* * *
“Those sneaky bastards! I never imagined they would choose mutual destruction.”
Sage Cheon-heo trembled with fury.
He hurriedly looked around. Several of the Wudang Sect’s disciples were nowhere to be seen. They had failed to get out of the valley in time and had been swept away by the landslide.
The situation was the same for the Southern Edge Sect and Mount Hua Sect. Several of their disciples were missing. The faces of those who had narrowly survived were filled with grief.
Yeom Zhong-hwa gritted his teeth.
“They were truly terrifying. The moment they were discovered, they chose to self-destruct.”
“The good thing at the very least is that we’ve put an end to their revival.”
Yeom Zhong-hwa gave a slow nod at Geum Han-su’s words.
“That’s true. With this, the remnants of the Demon Sect have been completely wiped out.”
Yeom Zhong-hwa’s gaze shifted slightly toward the Mount Hua Sect’s group.
The disciples of the Mount Hua Sect were gathered together, with Sage Hyun-so standing at the center.
“Ho…!”
Sage Hyun-so’s voice trembled.
He stared at the collapsed valley, his face frozen in disbelief.
Most of the Mount Hua Sect disciples had made it out safely, but there was no sign of Dam-ho anywhere.
Moo-gyeong responded in a somber tone.
“I’m sorry, Junior Uncle. We tried to save him, but we were too late.”
“……”
While Moo-gyeong was offering an explanation, Un-gyeong remained silent. He merely bit his lip and gazed blankly at the distant sky.
“How… how could this happen?”
Sage Hyun-so’s legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.
He stared at the ruined valley with an expression as if he had lost the entire world. No one could offer him words of comfort.
Won Ho and the other second-generation disciples silently paid their respects to Dam-ho.
They owed Dam-ho their lives. If they had tried to escape at the same time as everyone else, their lack of proficiency in lightness skills would have doomed them to be buried in the valley.
“Junior Uncle…”
Moo-gyeong clenched his teeth.
His face was filled with shame.
He had not even considered saving Dam-ho—yet here he was, offering excuses. The very thought disgusted him. But he couldn’t tell the truth now. His heart wasn’t ready yet.
So, all he could do was watch as Sage Hyun-so sat in silent devastation.
“No. Ho is not dead. He wouldn’t die so meaninglessly. He’s not the kind of child who dies so easily.”
With great effort, Sage Hyun-so rose to his feet.
“Junior Uncle.”
“I’m fine. I am… fine.”
Un-gyeong tried to help him stand, but Sage Hyun-so refused.
Like a stone statue, he stood motionless, staring at the collapsed valley.
“Dam-ho…”
* * *
Dam-ho opened his eyes.
He had no way of knowing how much time had passed.
It felt as if he had lost consciousness only for a moment, yet at the same time, it could have been days. In the oppressive darkness, sensing the passage of time was nearly impossible.
Lying helplessly, he stared blankly at the ceiling.
For a long time, his gaze was unfocused, as if he had lost all will to act. Only after what seemed like an eternity did his vision sharpen again.
A strange sight caught Dam-ho’s eye. There was a faint light coming from one side of the cavern.
Dam-ho squinted. He could see a small stone embedded in the ceiling. The stone was emitting a faint glow.
“Lightstones?”
Even for an enormous sum of gold, acquiring such a pearl was nearly impossible. Yet, there it was. But something about it felt unnatural.
“This wasn’t formed naturally. Someone placed it here… but how?”
The thought that human hands had altered this vast underground space was difficult to believe.
Then, a word surfaced in his mind.
“Celestial Forbidden Infernal Prison.”
That was what Eum Yoo-kyung had called this place. Dam-ho was now certain. This was the Celestial Forbidden Infernal Prison.
The very place where the Demon Sect’s members had lived in hiding. If that was the case, that meant the environment was habitable.
He needed to investigate and see for himself.
Dam-ho forced himself to stand up.
“Kugh…!”
A groan escaped his lips as pain coursed through his body, but he gritted his teeth and endured it.
Even taking a single step felt excruciating. Yet he moved forward despite the pain.
He needed to assess his situation accurately. Only then could he decide on a plan and take action.
The underground cavity was very large. As he explored, he found traces—clear signs that many people had once lived here. Scattered belongings were strewn across the cavern floor, as if the inhabitants had fled in a hurry.
“Did they really live here?”
Several passageways branched off from the central chamber.
Following one of them, Dam-ho arrived at another large space—smaller than the cavern, but still sizable. Here too, lightstones had been embedded into the walls, casting a faint glow.
There were footprints all over the hardwood floor. Dam-ho instantly recognized the marks as traces of someone practicing martial arts.
“Is this a training hall?”
Dam-ho’s brow furrowed.
As a martial artist, there was no way he wouldn’t recognize the footprints of combat drills left behind by other fellow martial artists.
He moved to the next area.
“Haa…!”
Exerting himself too much, his breath came out ragged and strained. But Dam-ho didn’t rest. No, it was more like he could not afford to rest.
‘I must survive… No matter what…’
To stay alive in this underground prison, he needed two things—water and food.
Dam-ho scoured the underground cavity, searching desperately. And finally, he found what he was looking for.
Inside a small stone chamber, wooden chests were stacked tightly together. When he opened one, he found it filled with small black pellets.
They smelled faintly of grain.
“Grain pellets.”
It was obvious that the Demon Sect’s martial artists had prepared such a thing for emergencies. There were quite a lot of them. Enough to keep him alive for the time being.
“This will do.”
In the endless darkness, a sliver of light had finally appeared.
His grip tightened around the wooden chest.
Dam-ho clenched his teeth.
Sage Hyun-so’s voice echoed in his mind like an illusion.
“All I need is an unyielding will…”
If he had that, then heaven itself would open a path for him.
SoundlessWind21’s Notes:
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