Episode 24: Finding a Path in the Darkness (2)
Light Novel: Volume 1 Episode 24
Manhwa: Chapter 23-24
Chapter 8 Episode 24. Finding a Path in the Darkness (2)
Dam-ho suddenly opened his eyes. A cramped underground chamber, nearly a sealed room, came into view. Among the underground cavities, this was the most confined space, and it was his dwelling.
The underground space, bearing traces of someone’s use from a long time ago, was Dam-ho’s only place of rest.
Dam-ho slept on a bed carved out of stone on one side of the chamber, which had freezing cold air rising from it.
The bitter cold tormented him, so to endure the cold, he constantly had to circulate his internal energy.
Dam-ho turned his head to look at the wall next to him. There, he saw words carved as if someone had etched them with a sharp object.
Geom Yul-cheon, I lay my friends to rest here.
The inscription was left by the previous occupant of this place.
Since it was visible with just a slight turn of his head, Dam-ho saw it every time he opened his eyes. Similar inscriptions were scattered all over the walls.
Each was left by those who had once occupied this place. Some etched their despair, others their hope.
What became of them, Dam-ho did not know. And he did not care.
All Dam-ho cared about was the present. He had to survive no matter what and escape this place.
Dam-ho left the sealed chamber and headed toward the underground cavity.
Finally, he stopped before a massive boulder.
Among the rocks and soil that had tumbled into the underground space, this was the largest and hardest.
Like a gatekeeper, it stood firmly at the entrance to the underground chamber. But it’s massive form bore scars here and there. Not long ago, its surface had been smooth, polished like a mirror.
The reason soon became clear.
Boom!
Dam-ho’s leg struck the boulder. The impact shattered the surface, sending fragments flying in all directions.
It wasn’t his intact leg but his left leg. Yet, cracks spread across the boulder’s surface.
Dam-ho swung his leg again.
Boom! Bam!
The heavy sound echoed through the dark underground space. The reverberation lingered for a long time.
* * *
Crack!
A crack opened up in the massive boulder. The fissure that began at the base spread rapidly throughout the entire rock.
Rumble!
With a thunderous cry, the colossal rock crumbled.
Dam-ho gazed at the shattered remains with an indifferent expression.
There was no way the massive boulder had broken apart on its own. It was his fist that had destroyed it. Yet, despite having shattered such a massive rock, there wasn’t a single scratch on his hand.
Thick, hardened calluses protruded from his knuckles, resembling a hammer of steel.
Dam-ho flexed and uncurled his fingers repeatedly. It didn’t feel too bad.
Even though he had broken the massive rock, the sheer mass of earth and stone blocking his path remained unchanged. He had only just set foot at the entrance.
He had no idea how many more times he would have to swing his fists to obtain what he sought. But Dam-ho wasn’t worried.
In this desolate place, the only thing he had was time. And he was more than willing to keep swinging his fist for as long as it took.
Dam-ho’s fist struck the massive rock once more. Each time, the boulder let out a heavy, echoing wail.
Boom! Boom!
A single-minded determination to destroy.
The will to break free from everything that bound him was what drove him forward.
For a moment, Dam-ho stepped back.
Swish!
In an instant, his body shot forward, shortening the distance by a dozen zhang.
Charging Steps. His footwork surged forth like a battering ram breaking through fortress gates. Immediately after, Fortress Piercing Fist was unleashed.
Crash!
The enormous rock shattered, sending fragments scattering in every direction.
In the darkness, Dam-ho’s eyes gleamed ominously.
It was Charging Steps and Fortress Piercing Fist, techniques he had created alongside his master, Sage Hyun-so. When they first conceived these martial arts, the profound principles of the Mount Hua Sect were deeply embedded within them.
But now, the Charging Steps and Fortress Piercing Fist he executed contained neither mercy nor the essence of Daoist teachings.
At some point, the essence of the martial arts left behind by the Demon Sect had seeped into Dam-ho’s techniques.
The intricacies of the Triple Strike Cannon Shadow Fist had fused into the Fortress Piercing Fist, while the essence of the Demon Rebounding Kick had merged with the Charging Steps. The Expansive Suppression Palm had been reborn into a new technique, and the Heavy Sky Heart Technique had interwoven with the Demon Sect’s inner arts, evolving into something entirely different.
The martial arts of Mount Hua Sect and the Demon Sect, two disciplines that should never have coexisted, had become one within his body.
Dam-ho was a devourer.
If it meant growing stronger, he was willing to embrace even the demonic arts.
The techniques he had once developed alongside Sage Hyun-so had changed beyond recognition. Even if his master were to witness them now, he would not recognize them.
The gloomy, isolated environment had further shaped Dam-ho, making his personality more closed off, his aura heavier with killing intent.
His daily routine spun like a hamster wheel.
After a brief sleep, he circulated his internal energy, moved to the Ten Thousand Demon Vault to consume martial arts texts, then headed to a stagnant pool to catch and devour strange creatures.
Afterward, he unleashed his martial techniques against the boulders blocking the underground cavern.
The boulders were his enemies, and the earth and rock obstructing his path were his greatest hindrance.
He continued to destroy and destroy again.
Then, when exhaustion set in, he circulated his internal energy once more before falling asleep.
There was nothing else to do in this place.
Darkness drives people mad. Especially in such complete isolation, the risk of falling into inner demons was inevitable.
To keep from going insane, he had to dedicate himself fully, even to the most trivial of tasks.
‘Perhaps I’ve already gone crazy.’
Madness doesn’t always have to be expressed outwardly.
One can go insane with absolute clarity.
Maintaining a mind as cold as ice, yet able to unleash madness whenever necessary—
Dam-ho believed he was in that state.
After all, losing one’s sanity was the only way to endure this place.
Boom!
With a single strike of Fortress Piercing Fist, a massive boulder shattered.
Just as Dam-ho was about to instinctively launch another strike—
Bzzz!
Suddenly, from within the rubble, tiny black insects swarmed out and flew toward him.
‘Ants?’
The insects, smaller than grains of rice, were unmistakably ants. But unlike normal ants, these had wings.
Ordinary ant colonies did have winged ants, but they were extremely rare. Yet every single one of these ants flying toward Dam-ho had wings. That meant they were not ordinary ants.
As if to confirm that fact, the swarm lunged at him, attempting to bite.
Dam-ho swiftly retreated and unleashed Fortress Piercing Fist in defense.
Whoosh!
A technique powerful enough to shatter massive boulders in an instant. Yet, against these ants, it was utterly ineffective.
Though momentarily pushed back by the wind pressure, some ants managed to stealthily latch onto Dam-ho and bite him.
At that moment, deep wrinkles formed on Dam-ho’s forehead. From the places where the ants had bitten him, an excruciating pain and an unbearable itch spread through his body.
‘Venomous ants?’
He immediately leaped backward, but in that brief moment, he had already been bitten several more times.
The bite wounds swelled up instantly, turning red and inflamed.
“Hng…!”
A muffled groan forced its way through Dam-ho’s clenched lips.
His eyes widened, bloodshot with pain. The agony and itching that had begun from the bite sites rapidly spread throughout his entire body.
Bzzz!
The ants swarmed toward him once more.
Gritting his teeth, Dam-ho endured the pain with inhuman perseverance and retreated nearly ten zhang in an instant. Only then did the ants withdraw, hovering around the area where they had first emerged.
Without hesitation, Dam-ho sat down in a meditative posture and began circulating his internal energy. He had to expel the poison from his body.
Buzzz!
His internal energy surged through his body, trying to drive out the poison, but the venom was far beyond imagination, so potent that it refused to budge.
Crack!
Thick veins bulged across Dam-ho’s entire body.
“Keugh…!”
A painful groan escaped through his tightly pressed lips.
Pain was something he could endure. But the unbearable itching was another matter entirely, even for someone with his superhuman willpower.
Every fiber of his being screamed for him to stop his internal energy circulation and tear at his skin with his nails instead. He even considered peeling a layer of flesh, maybe then the itch would subside. But he knew that if he stopped, the lethal poison would attack his heart.
To continue meditating meant enduring unimaginable agony. But to stop meant certain death.
In the end, Dam-ho chose to endure and continued practicing internal energy circulation.
Red spots appeared on his face.
“Hoo-ah!”
Dam-ho let out a ragged breath and stuck his head out of the water. The red splotches that had covered his face had faded significantly.
He had been desperately circulating his internal energy for the past several days to drive out the poison that had entered his body. Perhaps ten days, maybe even fifteen had passed.
During that time, he had teetered on the brink of death multiple times.
It was as if he was trapped in a blazing inferno with knives scraping away his skin. That was how horrific the ants’ venom was.
Dam-ho gave the venomous insects the name Hell Blood Ants. They truly seemed like creatures that had crawled out of hell itself.
As he devoured a strange mutant fish, he contemplated his next move.
‘If I want to escape, I have to go through that place.’
The ground surrounding the Celestial Forbidden Infernal Prison was incomprehensibly dense. That was likely why the Demon Sect had chosen this place as a prison.
The only vulnerable area where it was easy to pass was where the earth had collapsed. But that spot was now home to the Hell Blood Ants.
If he disturbed them, they would attack without mercy.
The problem was that Dam-ho had no way to defend against the ants’ attacks. No matter how exceptional his martial skills were, he couldn’t kill countless Hell Blood Ants in one strike.
A reckless attack would only provoke another onslaught, and there was no guarantee he would survive a second time. But retreating was not an option.
Fortunately, there were still mutant fish left to eat. But eventually, they would all disappear into his stomach.
When that happens, it’s over.
There was no retreat. No time to hesitate.
He had only one choice. To move forward.
Dam-ho bit down on his lip.
‘A shield… I must complete my shield.’
* * *
In the following days, Dam-ho challenged the Hell Blood Ants dozens of times. But the results were always the same.
He was bitten, and he experienced hell.
There were moments when he thought it would be better to bite his own tongue and end it all. The pain and itching were far beyond human endurance and it drove him to smash his head against the rocks dozens of times.
His forehead split open, and blood soaked his entire body.
When he finally regained his senses, he forced himself to circulate his internal energy and then challenged the Hell Blood Ants again.
Through these relentless battles, Dam-ho grew thinner and thinner. Eventually, he was little more than skin stretched over bone.
He had no idea how much time had passed.
Buzzz!
The Hell Blood Ants swarmed toward him once more.
Dam-ho leaped backward, launching Fortress Piercing Fist. Many ants were crushed in the impact, but countless others were merely swept back by the wind before quickly regaining control and surging toward him again, like a relentless tidal wave.
At that moment, Dam-ho’s hand changed shape.
Until now, his hands had been clenched into a fist like an iron hammer. But now, his fingers spread wide open.
With a soft push, Dam-ho extended his palm forward. Just then, a gentle breeze arose and pushed back the Hell Blood Ants.
The Hell Blood Ants desperately tried to fly toward him again, but it was futile. Dam-ho’s eyes gleamed as he carefully observed the flow of his internal energy.
‘I don’t need a strong internal energy to deal with them. What I need is the delicate control of energy, like the Cotton Palm of the Wudang Sect.’
This was something he had learned through countless battles with the Hell Blood Ants.
There were some opponents for which brute strength was not enough. Such was the case with the Hell Blood Ants in front of him.
In the time he had spent fighting them, their numbers had multiplied exponentially. If left unchecked, these Hell Blood Ants would soon overrun the entire underground cavern.
This wasn’t just a battle for his martial arts advancement.
This was a fight for survival.
Dam-ho slowly curled his outstretched palm.
The nature of his internal energy changed.
Suck!
As the internal energy shifted, the air between his palm and the Hell Blood Ants suddenly vanished. A vacuum had formed.
Whooosh!
In an instant, the surrounding air rushed forward like a tidal wave, filling the void. The Hell Blood Ants were swept along by the air current, unable to resist.
Tens of thousands, no—hundreds of thousands of them were sucked together, forming a mass the size of a child’s head.
Once again, Dam-ho altered his energy flow. His fingers curled inward, and his hand twisted to the right.
Boom!
Bang!
The concentrated mass of Hell Blood Ants exploded.
The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the underground cavern.
Buzzz!
Five-Finger Dark Implosion.
This was a martial technique that Dam-ho had created specifically to fight the Hell Blood Ants. It was a ruthless technique that can momentarily create a vacuum, then trigger an explosive implosion.
However, the ants killed by the technique were only a small fraction. The remaining ones outnumbered the dead by hundreds of times.
The Hell Blood Ants swarmed toward Dam-ho once again.
A black tide of frenzied ants engulfed him. Their venomous mandibles opened wide, ready to sink into his flesh.
At that very moment—
Brrrr!
Dam-ho’s entire body began to vibrate violently. The vibration was so fast that it was imperceptible to the human eye.
His figure blurred, appearing as if he had split into two, then three overlapping images.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
The Hell Blood Ants that had lunged at him suddenly burst apart.
A defensive energy barrier utilizing ultra-high-frequency vibrations.
Inspired by the rapid wingbeats of a beetle, Dam-ho had created a technique of his own.
“Shield.”
A hoarse voice escaped from Dam-ho’s lips.
SoundlessWind21’s Notes:
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