Prison Break

“B-Boss! Boss!”

Neung Je-gang’s eyes snapped open.

When he was asleep, the prisoners never dared to wake him. If they had the time, they would rather try to secretly catch another fish.

But now? Someone dared to wake him!

“What is it?”

As his voice rang out, Majil rushed in.

“B-Boss! It’s terrible, terrible!”

“What is it? What’s going on?”

“Th-the water…”

“Water?”

“I-I wasn’t trying to catch fish or anything but… a-anyway, the lake is shrinking. Boss, the lake is disappearing! We’re all doomed!”

Whoosh!

Like lightning, Neung Je-gang’s figure flashed across the air toward the underground lake.

In the blink of an eye, his form vanished, leaving Majil’s jaw hanging in shock.

“Damn… he could’ve at least said something before vanishing. Nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Neung Je-gang reached the lake’s shore and carefully inspected it.

Sudden changes always had causes. The underground lake was never stagnant water. If it had been, it would have rotted, making it undrinkable and unlivable for fish.

The fact it had not meant there was an underground stream flowing in and out.

But now things had changed. The water level had dropped by half. This meant that somewhere, a new hole had opened, draining the water.

And for the water to drop so suddenly, the hole might be large enough for a person to escape through.

“Hel-help! Hel—”

Glug.

Across the lake, someone was calling out. From the voice, it was clearly a person. A new voice — someone from the outside world.

Splash!

Neung Je-gang dashed across the water’s surface like a swallow. The prisoners watching were stunned, mouths agape.

“He… he’s going to kill him!”

“The Boss was such a master?”

“Idiots. Surprised by just that?”

Majil, who had slipped among them unnoticed, scoffed.

“What, you knew?”

“Fools, who am I? The one closest to the Boss! If you think that’s impressive, you don’t know a thing. That’s nothing compared to his real skill.”

Neung Je-gang pulled up an unconscious man from the water. Feeling his pulse, he found he wasn’t dead.

He infused him with inner energy, opening his airway and jolting his meridians so he could breathe.

“Cough, cough!”

Splash!

The man vomited out what seemed like a bucketful of water, then slowly opened his eyes. Seeing Neung Je-gang’s face, he spoke.

“Hoo… I’m alive. You saved me?”

“That’s right. You were in danger.”

“Thank you, thank you. Normally I’m a king underground, but when I meet water, I’m helpless. Anyway, I’m fine now, so could you put me down? Being carried by a man feels odd.”

“Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I’m fine. I’m a martial artist too. I won’t die from just this.”

“Very well. Be careful then.”

Neung Je-gang released him.

“Careful, what nonsense—”

Glug. Splash.

“H-help!”

Sighing, Neung Je-gang hauled him back up.

“Cough, cough! W-Waterwalking Technique?!”

“As I thought… I should keep carrying you.”

“Cough, cough! Yes, please, I’d be grateful.”

And so, carried in Neung Je-gang’s arms, the man barely managed to reach solid ground.

“Is this… the Forbidden Demon Prison?”

Standing safely on the ground, the man looked around, eyes glinting, and asked Neung Je-gang.

Around him, more than ten prisoners gathered, gawking like they were looking at some rare animal.

No wonder — he was the only one still wearing clothes.

“That’s right. But may I ask why you came here?”

Suspicion gleamed in Neung Je-gang’s eyes. To come here knowingly was suspicious indeed.

“I came looking for someone.”

“And who might that be?”

The man, Bibun the Golden-Furred Rat, swallowed nervously. The one who walked across water was a true master. One wrong word, and he could die here and become part of the prison’s soil.

“Neung Je-gang…”

Bibun turned his head, unable to meet his sharp gaze.

‘Damn that Nam Yeong. What? No martial artists in the prison? Don’t worry? Rescue Neung Je-gang and kill the rest? The bastard practically set me up to die.’

“Neung Je-gang is my name, but I don’t recall ever knowing you.”

“You… you’re Neung Je-gang?”

Bibun’s head snapped up in shock.

“That’s right. Why?”

“Then I’ve found the right man. I came here under the… coerc— ahem, request of your master, Nam Yeong.”

“My master?”

Neung Je-gang was shaken. He had never imagined his master would send someone to rescue him.

Though he sometimes missed him, their bond was not deep. They had rarely been in touch, both too caught in their own affairs. Sometimes Neung Je-gang even doubted if his master truly regarded him as a disciple.

But now, to send someone to rescue him, branded criminal as he was… guilt gnawed at him for having doubted.

“But let’s wait. The tunnel I dug still has water flowing in. We must wait until it drains… or dries completely…”

Bibun quickly corrected himself. Then, realizing the many eyes staring at him, he hesitated. Nam Yeong had told him to kill everyone else, but this could be troublesome.

“Come this way.”

Neung Je-gang led Bibun to his quarters. The tunnel would take time to dry.

But the other prisoners thought differently. With an exit open, did water matter?

“We’re free! There’s a way out!”

“We’ll live!”

They rushed to the lake, frantically swimming toward the tunnel where Bibun had nearly drowned.

“B-Boss!”

Only Majil, well-disciplined from past beatings, refrained and called urgently to Neung Je-gang.

But Neung Je-gang was already staring at the mad swimmers.

“Stop! If you rush in, the tunnel could collapse!”

Surprisingly, Bibun looked even more alarmed. Nam Yeong’s deadline was fast approaching. If the tunnel collapsed, his family—hostages—would die.

Whoosh!

Neung Je-gang soared through the air, plucking the swimmers one by one and tossing them back onto land.

Furious, the prisoners lashed out.

“You bastard! Who are you to stop us?”

“So what if you’re strong?”

In the face of freedom, their true natures burst out. They forgot completely how powerless they had been before him.

“What did my master say about the others? Surely he gave you instructions.”

Knowing Nam Yeong’s nature, Neung Je-gang asked coldly. His master was no man to forgive evil.

“To speak plainly… he told me to save you and kill the rest.”

The prisoners flinched, recoiling. They knew if Neung Je-gang willed it, none would survive. Their desperate rush had blinded them, but now reality sank in.

“My master must be at the tunnel’s entrance. He always prefers to clean up thoroughly…”

“That’s right. You know him well, without even seeing him.”

Bibun smirked — like master, like disciple.

Neung Je-gang turned back to the prisoners.

“You heard him. First out, first dead. I won’t stop you anymore — do as you like.”

With that, he returned to his quarters. Calm on the outside, but inside his heart pounded. He had steeled himself for twenty or thirty years of prison.

He had considered digging his own way out, but if the tunnel collapsed under the mountain’s weight, even Sun Wukong himself wouldn’t survive.

Back in his quarters, he looked around slowly.

“So much has happened here…”

There was nothing to take. His clothes had long since rotted; he had unraveled them into fishing lines. He had lived naked for years.

Luckily, there had been no women here. Otherwise, they would have had to cover themselves with rags.

His eyes fell on the Demon Doctor’s tools: needles ground from fish bones, knives and mortars from stone, and the large clay jar that had remade him.

If he could, he would have liked to take them all.

“Pointless, isn’t it?”

He sat cross-legged on the stone platform.

“Come in and rest.”

At his words, Bibun approached hesitantly, gazing in awe at Neung Je-gang seated there.

“I heard your inner power was sealed and your bones broken…”

As a martial artist, curiosity was natural. He had expected a cripple, yet this man was whole.

“I met the Demon Doctor here.”

“The Demon Doctor? So, that’s where he vanished…”

Any martial artist of age had heard that name. Bibun too had.

After all, a physician who knew no martial arts had killed more than three hundred people. Infamy was inevitable.

“So, he healed you?”

“He gave me a new life.”

Bibun could not understand what that meant.

“Don’t you want to leave here quickly?”

“Why do you ask?”

“You don’t seem impatient.”

“Didn’t you say we should wait until the water dries?”

“Was that all? After three years in here, I’d be desperate to leave.”

“I can only do as the digger decides.”

“Heh, hah! I can’t tell if you’re profound or detached.”

“Hehe…”

At his words, Neung Je-gang simply laughed. Neither profound nor detached — just that waiting a day or two more seemed meaningless after so long.