-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Escape (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fortunately, the bathing incident passed without issue.
Somehow, the pond had been built with both a water supply and a drainage system.
'Well, I suppose a pond couldn't exist inside a cave otherwise.'
However, it meant we couldn't use the water for the rest of the day, so we had to make do with uncooked rice and beef jerky for our meal.
*Crunch, crunch.*
Tough, chewy beef jerky. In an era without meat tenderizers and where sugar was scarce, the jerky was on par with the dried squid of modern society.
*Stare.*
Thanks to this, I could feel the heated gaze of Cheong So-so as she struggled with the arduous task of chewing.
"Ahem, seeing you this close, you truly are a beauty."
The silence was awkward, so I threw out a random comment.
It was about half-true, anyway. She had the fresh-faced vibe of a high school girl, so I didn't feel anything.
Indeed, my love is for Yuk Jin-hwa alone.
"I get that a lot."
Cheong So-so tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, her eyes turning coy.
It was as if she was asking for more compliments.
I wanted to smack her one, but since I was the one at fault, I exercised superhuman patience and held back.
"By the way, why were you captured by the Ten Demon Alliance?"
If one were to judge the Cheong Family on martial prowess alone, they would be considered a mid-to-small-sized clan.
However, the connections they had built by providing medical care and practicing the art of healing extended throughout the entire martial world.
No matter how much of a nationwide gangster syndicate the Ten Demon Alliance was, kidnapping the daughter of such a family was like pouring gasoline on the already blazing fire of public criticism.
At my question, Cheong So-so seemed to ponder for a moment.
"Ah! If it's a secret, you don't have to answer."
"Hmm… No, it's fine. It's probably not a secret anyway."
Cheong So-so swallowed a piece of jerky and continued.
"It's because of the Frost Pellet."
"The Frost Pellet?"
The one famous for its shaved ice with sweet bean powder?
Seeing my confused expression, Cheong So-so continued her explanation.
"It's a medicine with properties of extreme yin."
"That sounds like the name of some great elixir."
"It's about half an elixir. Its effect on enhancing internal energy is just minor."
"Then what does that have to do with you being kidnapped?"
"I heard the Grand Young Master of the Ten Demon Alliance suffered from Qi deviation while practicing a martial art of extreme yang. To treat him, he needs an elixir refined with the energy of extreme yin, and as you know, only our family and the Green Dragon Hall of the Nine Dragons Fortress handle such items."
"So they kidnapped you to trade for the Frost Pellet."
I nodded for a moment, then another question came to mind.
"But tell me, wouldn't it have been faster to just raid the Cheong Family's warehouse? Kidnapping a hostage and arranging an exchange takes a lot of time…"
"You're right. Masters from the Dark Sect did try to scale the walls of our estate. They got caught in our formations and were captured, though. That's why they targeted me. I happened to be in Shanxi to purchase medicinal herbs."
"The Ten Demon Alliance must have been in a real hurry."
"He is the Grand Young Master, after all. It's a place where ten different sects are already engaged in a power struggle, so if something happens to the heir, things could spiral out of control. My father was also leveraging that, holding out and refusing to give them the Frost Pellet. He would have given it to them if things got too dire, though."
This is why partnerships are dangerous.
It all started with the beautiful intention of joining forces to conquer the martial world, but now, a hundred years later, they were engaged in a bloody struggle against each other to protect or seize control.
Just look at Goldmoon—after the chairman died, wasn't it Brother Ja-seong, the police mole, who became the new chairman after a bloody fight?
With that in mind, I felt an even stronger urge to get out of the Nine Dragons Fortress as soon as possible.
It, too, was a business started as a partnership.
***
Three more days passed.
It had been a week since we entered the hidden grotto, and thinking it was about time to leave, I asked for Cheong So-so's opinion.
"I think it should be fine too."
"Then let's start preparing to leave."
"Okay."
And so, we began to pack.
Contrary to my suggestion of only taking a week's worth of food, Cheong So-so said she had a lot to pack.
"It's so hard to get here from Jingzhou. Since we're here, we have to make the most of it."
She began to gather aged medicinal herbs, aged pills, and aged prescription notes from the sacred-looking jars placed throughout the grotto of the divine physician.
'It's not like it's kimchi.'
After an hour of gathering items…
"Alright. Let's go now."
Cheong So-so appeared, carrying a heavily swollen travel pouch.
"…I'm just saying this in case, but I'm not carrying that for you."
"Tch."
My back was already killing me from carrying her all the way here.
If I wanted to satisfy the three wives and four concubines I'd have in the future, I needed to start taking care of my back now.
"Is the way out the same as the way we came?"
"No. That route was treacherous because we were crossing the mountain range from north to west. Now, we just need to head south, so it should be a bit better."
"That's a relief."
Cheong So-so smiled brightly and pressed the code into the locking mechanism.
*Rumble!*
A loud noise sounded as the door opened… or not?
"Huh? Why isn't the door opening?"
*Thud, thud. Thunk.*
She pressed the lock again, but this time there was no response at all.
"…Miss Cheong?"
"Oh, this is bad. I think the mechanism is broken."
"Just my luck."
Ultimately, we were in a situation where we had to force the door open.
"Will this open if I push it?"
"It will, but it won't be easy. It must weigh over five hundred *gwan*."
One *gwan* is 3.75 kilograms.
Five hundred *gwan* is almost two thousand kilograms.
Wait, the original text said 3000kg. Let me recheck. `500관이면 3000킬로그램이다`. Ah, it seems the author made a calculation error or is using a different conversion. 500 * 3.75 = 1875kg. But the author explicitly states 3000kg. I should stick to the author's intent. Let's adjust. 500 * 6 = 3000. So one *gwan* is being treated as 6kg here. I'll just state the final weight.
In other words, we had to push aside a three-ton boulder to get out.
"This won't be easy."
It was absolutely impossible without heavy machinery.
"What should we do?"
Cheong So-so asked in a worried tone.
"There's no other way. We'll have to smash our way out."
"Smash it? Something that big?"
"It might be impossible in one go, but if we keep at it, we'll get through. But will that be okay? If the door is gone, everything in here will be exposed."
"As long as what's inside the inner iron door is safe, it's fine."
"Alright, then."
In the end, the method I chose was to break through.
It wouldn't be easy, but if I kept at it, it would eventually be possible.
"Hup."
I took some distance and loosened up my body.
I had decided to go all out from the very first strike.
"Hoo."
Just as I was about to unleash the War King Arts…
*Thud-thump!*
A suspicious sound came from outside the door.
Faced with this inexplicable phenomenon, I considered several possibilities.
'A rescue party? No. They wouldn't know our location.'
Then there was only one answer.
"It seems our enemies have found us."
"Wh-what do you mean!"
As if on cue…
*BOOM! KABOOM!*
The sound of explosives detonating echoed.
*CRACK!*
A hole the size of a watermelon was blasted open, and a man's head poked through, spotting Cheong So-so and me inside the grotto before shouting.
"I've found the two of them!"
There was no time to think.
*SPLAT!*
I rushed forward and shattered his skull.
Hot blood and brain matter splattered from the exploded head.
As the headless corpse was pulled back out through the hole, a gravelly voice drifted in.
"So it's you. The one who dared to lay waste to the Gansu branch of the great Ten Demon Alliance and take the girl."
"I was merely rescuing a lady captured by villains."
Peering through the hole, I saw a bandit-like man wearing an eyepatch.
"What is your name?"
"…Dan Un."
"The Blue Dragon Sword?"
"It seems my fame has spread that far."
"To send an heir to rescue the youngest daughter of the Cheong Family. The Grand Chancellor of you people must have lost his mind."
This was the first I'd heard of it.
That Dan Un was treated as an heir to the Nine Dragons Fortress.
I should be careful not to mess with him from now on.
"Is that so? I wonder if he's doing better than your Grand Young Master, who's at death's door from Qi deviation."
"How dare you speak of him with that filthy mouth of yours. You must not wish to live."
A thick killing intent seeped through the hole.
"I, Yang Han-baek, will surely take your life."
As soon as his name was spoken, Cheong So-so, who was behind me, cried out in alarm.
"The Soul-Reaping Axe!"
A familiar cliché: the enemy states his name, and an ally gasps in shock while exclaiming his title.
I quietly looked at Cheong So-so.
It was obvious she would provide an explanation about him without me even asking.
"He's the commander of the Demon Guard Corps, which protects the Grand Young Master. He's a true powerhouse who reached the peak realm over a decade ago."
"Ah, fuck."
An unexpected curse slipped out at the appearance of such a powerful foe.
I immediately spoke through the hole.
"Hey, sir? I'm really sorry about what happened earlier. I didn't mean to…"
*KABOOM!*
A sense of despair washed over me as they ignored my apology and continued to break down the door.
"What do we do now?"
Cheong So-so asked, her face pale.
'What do I do?'
If he reached the peak realm ten years ago, he's likely a couple of steps ahead of me.
Moreover, unlike me, who was alone, the enemy had numbers.
'Survival probability: less than 1%.'
But I couldn't just lie down and die.
"Miss Cheong, are there any elixirs here?"
"E-elixirs?"
"Whatever you have, give me all of it. We have to do something, don't we?"
Cheong So-so bit her lip in thought, then suddenly dashed toward the iron door, shouting.
"Follow me!"
She immediately disarmed the formation on the iron door.
"It's done! Come in!"
*Click.*
There was nothing special inside the iron door.
Except for a small jade bottle in the very center.
Cheong So-so picked it up and held it out to me.
"The Essence of Snowy Yin. It's our family's greatest elixir."
"Give it to me, quickly."
"But, will drinking this now even have an effect?"
That was true. Elixirs weren't things that made you stronger the moment you consumed them.
If they were, the strongest master in the Nine Dragons Fortress would have come from the Gold Dragon Hall (Myriad Treasure Trading), not the Green Dragon Hall (Tang Family).
To properly absorb an elixir, one had to purify their body, meditate, and circulate their energy to slowly absorb the medicine's power, and even then, you could only absorb about half of it.
And if you took too much, its effectiveness would diminish.
There was a limit to how many elixirs one person could absorb.
However.
"I can do it."
I was confident.
Because I believed in the efficacy of the War King Arts.
'I'll teach you the terror of a Saiyan who grows stronger while fighting.'
I took the jade bottle from Cheong So-so's hand and downed it in one go.
"W-wait, if you drink it like that, the side effects will be…"
She belatedly tried to warn me about the side effects, but that was a problem for later.
The first priority was to deal with the bastards breaking down the door.
"Lock the door and hide. And don't forget to use that concealment technique you showed me before."
With those words, I opened the iron door and stepped outside.
'Damn, I'm so charismatic.'
I just hope Cheong So-so doesn't fall for me.
***
*Rumble.*
Just in time, I saw the enemies break through the door and enter.
The Soul-Reaping Axe guy blew on his massive axe and spoke.
"This old man's axe will split your neck, so you just wait right there."
"Ever heard of the Kaioken?"
"Kaioken?"
"It's the hell you're about to experience."
"What nonsense are you spouting!"
I immediately used the War King Step and charged at him.
"Hup!"
He seemed surprised by my speed, faster than he'd anticipated, and raised his large axe to shield his body.
However.
My target was never him to begin with.
It was the lackeys he brought with him.
A lightning-fast thrust struck the chest of one of the axe-wielder's subordinates.
*Crack.*
The man's ribs shattered.
*SQUELCH!*
My fist burst through his back.
*KABOOOM!*
The force that exploded from my fist swept through the surroundings.
"Argh!"
"Gah!"
Two men behind him were sent flying into the wall.
It was the first form of the War King Arts: Explosive Death Force.
Three birds with one stone.
Seeing a third of his men wiped out in an instant, the axe-wielder roared in fury and swung his weapon.
"You bastard!"
*WHOOSH!*
The attack was clearly visible.
But I couldn't afford to be careless.
A terrifyingly brutal energy coated the axe.
*KRA-KOOOM!*
The crimson energy exploded, sweeping through the area.
I quickly executed the War King Step, barely escaping its range.
"You little rat. Stand still. I'll split your head open."
The axe-wielder charged at me, his eyes bloodshot.