A Narrow Escape

“What, why is this guy here?”

“Shh! Quiet. I must lead the brothers—so you keep watch over him.”

At the murmuring voices, the unconscious Yun-seon slowly regained his senses. Pain surged the moment he awoke, nearly forcing a scream from him. He bit his lip and barely held back a groan. His vision was fogged as though veiled in mist, and he could not tell whether the drops falling from his eyes to the floor were pus-laden blood or tears.

“It would have been better if you had just died on the spot.”

Only after Hyeongjin left did Do-pyeong finally examine Yun-seon’s miserable state. Pus was still seeping from over a dozen burn wounds.

“Ugh, the stench…”

Pinching his nose with one hand, he waved the other in front of him. The gnats swarming to the stench of Yun-seon’s blood annoyed him greatly.

“Senior Brother Kwak…”

Yun-seon, clinging to a sliver of hope, called out weakly to Kwak Do-pyeong.

“Oh? You’re awake?”

Though he disliked Yun-seon, seeing him bound and bloodied stirred a flicker of pity.

“Senior Brother Kwak, p-please… help me…”

“What power do I have to help you…”

Embarrassed, Do-pyeong gave a loud sniff. He neither found Yun-seon pitiable enough to risk helping, nor was he in any position to commit such a grave act.

Yun-seon spat onto the ground, bringing up thick phlegm laced with blood.

“Have you heard why I’m here?”

Now that he thought about it, he had only been told to stand guard—never the reason. Seeing Do-pyeong’s puzzled expression, Yun-seon felt a spark of hope that his guess was right.

“Have you heard of the Commentary on the Explanation of Profound Secrets? That supreme martial arts manual…”

Do-pyeong’s eyes gleamed instantly. How could anyone in kangho not know of it?

“I have it. If you help me, I’ll give you the scripture.”

“What, you have it?”

Do-pyeong hurried to the cave entrance to check. Fortunately, the place was so hidden that not even an ant could be seen.

“My master, the Sword God Kang Yul-cheon, originally possessed it. He entrusted me to guard it and deliver it to my current master. But when I tried cultivating it myself, its power was truly overwhelming. Greed got the better of me…”

“Then when Sect Head found out…”

Swayed, Do-pyeong began nodding—then realized a contradiction. Enraged at the thought of being tricked, he slapped Yun-seon’s cheek with a sharp crack.

“You must be joking. You can’t even use martial arts…”

He couldn’t even perform the first form of the The Living Sword, yet claimed to have mastered a supreme art? Do-pyeong cursed himself for ever wavering.

“Come now, Sahyung. How else could I have deceived the Sect Head for four long years? To avoid Eldest Sahyung’s eyes, I had to act like a fool. You truly see one thing but miss the other.”

Each word sent stabbing pain through his ribs, but Yun-seon endured. Only by deceiving Do-pyeong could he open a way to live. Barely a few hours of torture had passed, yet it already felt worse than death.

“If you still won’t reveal the manual’s contents, there are harsher ways.”

Jo Yang spoke as he gazed at burned and battered Yun-seon. His face smiled kindly as usual, but each word from his lips was a knife.

“In ancient Gyeong Nation, there was a torture no one could withstand without speaking the truth.”

He drew a palm-sized knife and held it before Yun-seon’s eyes. The blade was sharp enough to cut thick leather with a mere graze.

“Torture too much, and the victim dies before you learn anything; hold back, and there’s a limit. The solution is simple: bleed the body slowly, inflict wounds just shy of fatal. The ancients discovered that peeling off flesh bit by bit—just the size of a fingernail—avoids death yet inflicts agony. They say one can last two days like that.”

Though rage filled Yun-seon, Jo Yang’s calm promise of torture chilled him. From a man so calculated and cold-blooded, it was no empty threat.

‘Once Jo Yang starts, it’s over. Even if I die, I can’t let it be in vain.’

Yun-seon looked to the wavering Do-pyeong and steeled himself. By any means, he must survive this. Even if it meant bowing to that fool’s feet, he resolved to endure with dignity.

“If you don’t believe me, I’ll show you.”

Though he had lost nearly a bowl of blood and broken three ribs, Yun-seon gathered his qi. His hands were tied behind the chair, but it was enough to shock.

“Taiyi gives rise to water, but in turn water aids Taiyi to form the heavens, and the heavens aid Taiyi to form the earth.”

As Yun-seon recited the formula, the air currents around them shifted at once. Shocked, Do-pyeong pressed himself against the cave wall.

“Sahyung, look at my arm.”

Closing his eyes, Yun-seon focused and poured qi into his right arm. The ashen limb reddened from the armpit, the color spreading downward.

“What the…?”

Do-pyeong’s eyes widened at the sight of such strange arts. Lacking knowledge, he mistook the simple manipulation of Fire Qi in the Taiyi Divine Art as some profound, otherworldly technique.

Yun-seon slit his eyes open to watch him. Seeing the reaction match his expectation, he smiled faintly.

“See? If I weren’t bound, I could show you a full palm strike.”

As Yun-seon sighed, Do-pyeong rushed closer, stammering with excitement.

“S-so Sect Head found out you had the manual, and that’s why…”

Up close, Yun-seon’s wounds were grotesque, making him squeeze his eyes shut. The Sect Head, usually so generous, enraged like this—perhaps the manual truly was extraordinary.

“If I help you?”

“If you let me escape, I’ll give you the manual. With it, you might surpass even our Eldest Sahyung—perhaps even Master himself. Do you not have that potential, Sahyung?”

Yun-seon decided to prod Do-pyeong’s inferiority complex. Do-pyeong had always liked showing off before his fellow disciples, including Yun-seon. Born the son of a district magistrate, lacking for nothing, he had entered the Emptiness Dhuta Sect purely out of excessive ambition.

But his natural aptitude for martial arts was extremely poor. Though he had joined long ago, he was constantly overshadowed by his brothers. Even his Eldest Sahyung treated him fondly but only assigned him chores, never recognizing him for martial skill.

That was why he had been so delighted when chosen to accompany the Dragon Gate Sect delegation. Yet even then, he had not been selected for the scouting party, instead being told to guard Yun-seon in the underground cave.

‘Still, isn’t this the legendary manual that promises all honor and riches? This could be the perfect chance to show up those who mocked me.’

Do-pyeong quickly made up his mind. The thought of soon becoming a first-class master made his heart pound with excitement.

“Fine. I’ll untie you. Let’s escape together. I know the way out.”

He hurried over and began untying the ropes binding Yun-seon’s hands. They had been tied so tightly it took several minutes.

“Sahyung, I will never forget this favor for the rest of my life.”

Though he planned to knock Do-pyeong out at the right time and flee, in this moment his gratitude was genuine. With any other guard, such an escape would have been unthinkable.

“Come, follow me.”

Do-pyeong, excited, took the lead. Beyond the cave where Yun-seon was kept, three passages opened. The forward one was unknown, the left led beneath the main hall where Yun-seon had hidden the night before, and the right unmistakably led to the crawlspace exit.

“Who am I, after all? The very first outsider to discover the Dragon Gate Sect’s crawlspace…”

As Do-pyeong rambled on, his words suddenly cut off and he slumped to the floor.

“Sahyung?”

Following behind, Yun-seon froze as if turned to ice. It had to be Jo Yang or Baek Hyeongjin returning. His last hope was gone.

“Well now, Young Warrior Kang. You’re truly resourceful. How did you trick this fool into freeing you?”

Jo Sang-won nudged the unconscious Kwak Do-pyeong with his toe as he addressed Yun-seon. Even as Jo Yang had tortured him brutally, this man had stood with arms crossed, face unchanged. Knowing clearly he was no ally, Yun-seon trembled in despair.

‘Ah… it’s all over.’

Yun-seon now had no choice. He could not bear even to imagine Jo Yang’s promised torture. His best option was to take his own life while his hands were free. But—

‘How bitter and unjust, to die without avenging my master and sahyung’s grievances against these villains!’

Yun-seon shifted his gaze to the dagger on Do-pyeong’s belt. He had to move quickly before Jo Sang-won noticed. He swore to finish everything within a count of three—strike the carotid, and there would be no mistake.

‘One…’

Yun-seon reached for Do-pyeong’s waist as he counted—but,

“Young Warrior Kang, far too slow.”

Jo Sang-won had already seized his hand, leaving him unable to move.

“Sect Lord, though we’ve just met, have pity on this junior—at least let me die by my own hand.”

Tears welled in Yun-seon’s eyes. He never wanted to bow his head, but in his desperation for death, he had no strength left to guard his pride.

“Tsk, tsk, Young Warrior Kang. Why do you assume I want you dead? I intend to keep you alive.”

Yun-seon was so dumbfounded that his tears stopped. That such a hypocrite, grasping for a few lines of a manual, could be sect leader of a so-called righteous sect—it was enough to make the dead lament in their coffins.

“Even if you tear me limb from limb, I will never tell you!”

Fearing he might babble under torture, Yun-seon resolved to bite off his tongue. Though afraid, it would be short pain compared to their demonic torment. He opened his mouth wide, mustering all his jaw strength to end it in one go.

“Young Warrior Kang!”

But again, Jo Sang-won was quicker. He thrust his forearm into Yun-seon’s mouth, stopping the self-mutilation. Blood welled from his arm in neat rows of teeth marks.

“That hot-headed nature—who did you inherit it from?”

Jo Sang-won grimaced, irritated, and chided him. Ripping off his other sleeve, he bound his bleeding arm while keeping a close eye on Yun-seon, ready to tie him again if need be.

“So—the manual’s contents are in your head, and Jo Yang doesn’t know them properly, is that it?”

He confirmed once more with Yun-seon, then broke into a wide smile.

“Then do as you please.”

Yun-seon’s willpower collapsed. Whatever happened, so be it. Only now did he realize that when driven to the very bottom, a person will abandon everything.

“Young Warrior Kang, why do you think the Five Great Mountain Swords’ martial tournament always falls prey to the Taiyi Divine Sect?”

“What?”

Yun-seon’s eyes snapped open at Jo Sang-won’s words.

“It means there’s a spy among them.”

Yun-seon recalled So So-jeong’s fervent words in the great hall last night. Without an infiltrator, the sects’ paths could never have been exposed. The spy was surely within.

“Exactly. That spy is me. I am the former Cloud Sword of Ryeo Nation, and the Heaven and Earth Envoy of Taiyi Divine Sect—Jo Sang-won.”

“What?”

Yun-seon gaped, staring blankly at Jo Sang-won in shock.

“By all means, be shocked. I’ve been waiting to see that look.”

His booming laughter reverberated throughout the cave.

절처봉생 (絶處逢生), A Narrow Escape:

A fortunate escape from a life-or-death situation.