Returning To Simplicity And Truth (4)

Neung Je-gang made his body as light as possible. Even so, the speed at which his body fell did not change. In old stories, there were tales of people kicking off the top of one foot with the other foot and rising upward at times like this, but Neung Je-gang did not even dare try such a thing.

‘If I fall like this, I will die.’

A sense of crisis suddenly arose in him. No matter how strangely the Demon Doctor had made his constitution, it did not seem as if it would be of much use after he fell from this height and became a bloody pulp.

‘What do I have? Is there a way to escape this crisis?’

Neung Je-gang suddenly thought about what he had on him. One sword, the iron cudgel Pungroe sleeping inside his robe, and…….

“Ah……!”

One thing came to mind.

He put his hand inside his robe and took out something that filled one hand. It was a bundle of Heaven-Silk Fiber.

He tied it tightly around the sword’s hilt. Then he poured all his remaining strength into the sword and threw it fiercely to the side. The sword flew into the glass-smooth wall and embedded itself.

Slide.

He held onto the Heaven-Silk Fiber and endured. As expected of a well-made sword, it did not break even under the speed and weight of his fall.

However, the sharpness of the Heaven-Silk Fiber did not forgive his reckless action.

“Grrrk!”

The Heaven-Silk Fiber dug into his palm. Pain surged through him as if his fingers would be severed as well. His endurance of that pain was worth it, and the speed of his fall decreased greatly.

At that moment, Neung Je-gang struck Pungroe fiercely into the wall where the sword had embedded itself. Pungroe, which had received his inner power, entered and lodged itself into the wall as if encountering no resistance at all.

Clunk.

“Ghhk!”

A scream burst out on its own. It felt as though the shoulder of the arm holding Pungroe had been dislocated. Even so, thanks to Pungroe, the palm and fingers that had been holding the Heaven-Silk Fiber were not cut off.

“Will this attach itself on its own too?”

Neung Je-gang said while feeling the sensation of blood dripping from his palm.

“How far did I fall? Can I even climb back up?”

If he used the sword and Pungroe, it was not impossible to climb up.

“Would it be better to go down instead?”

If the bottom was not far away, that was also one method. Had he not fallen while trying to open the entrance from above? Even if he climbed back up as he was, there was no guarantee he would not fall again.

If so, it would not be bad to go down instead and think of another plan. If worst came to worst, he could dig his way out with Muto True Qi, which he also knew well. Of course, there had to be a guarantee that he would not starve to death.

Neung Je-gang hung from Pungroe and endured just a little.

“As expected!”

The wound on his palm healed on its own. Once he adjusted and set the dislocated shoulder back in place, he no longer felt pain.

Neung Je-gang grabbed the Heaven-Silk Fiber again and pulled out Pungroe. He stuck it slightly higher, then climbed up. In that way, he climbed to where the sword was embedded and retrieved it.

“How far is it to the end?”

He took out a few coins from his robe and dropped them.

Clink.

“There is not much left.”

Cold sweat trickled down Neung Je-gang’s forehead. If he had taken out the Heaven-Silk Fiber even a little later, he might have died. Also, if he had not had Pungroe, he might have died as well.

“This fellow has saved me several times. Damn it, the debt I owe to that old Black Cloud Demon keeps growing.”

In any case, finding one disciple to inherit Pungroe would repay it all, but Neung Je-gang felt that his heart would not be satisfied with only that.

Neung Je-gang drove the sword and Pungroe alternately into the wall as he descended. After descending that way, he finally set foot on solid ground a while later.

The darkness here, which had not been visible from above, came faintly into view once he descended. It was all filled with rocks. Unworked, natural rocks as they were.

He thought that if he had fallen onto one of those pointed places, he would already have turned into a corpse.

“But what if there is nothing to eat here?”

At a glance, it seemed there was nothing edible. It was truly the worst, even worse than the environment of the Forbidden Demon Prison.

“Where is there a somewhat flat place?”

First, he had to recover his strength through cultivation. Driving the sword and Pungroe into the wall looked ridiculous, but it had made him use quite a lot of inner power.

“This place looks good.”

There was a space where he could barely sit among the pointed rocks. He crouched down there, sat cross-legged, and circulated the Demonic Mara Energy Method. He felt his depleted inner power recovering.

Tsssss.

No, it did not end there. Even after all the inner power he had used was filled, even stronger true qi surged into his body without hesitation.

Neung Je-gang’s mind snapped alert. He could not simply accept it because it seemed good. Inner power beyond one’s ability could invite disaster.

After stopping his circulation, Neung Je-gang looked around with strength in his eyes. He was trying to find out why his inner power had suddenly increased.

“The rocks are strange.”

Only then did he realize that the nearby rocks were strange. Somehow, they seemed to be giving off a faint light. Also, when he touched them, he could feel a slightly tingling energy.

“What is this? Did this light possibly increase my inner power?”

Neung Je-gang pondered, but what one did not know, one would not know even if one died and came back to life. Thinking about it would only make his head hurt.

“If the energy of this place has the effect of increasing inner power, should I call this a fortuitous encounter?”

Of course not. A fortuitous encounter did not give death. But this was a place where he would die if he could not escape.

Rather than hastily trying to raise his inner power, Neung Je-gang decided to look around this underground world a little more. Perhaps there might be something to eat or a place to escape. If there was even water at least, he would have nothing more to ask for.

It was despair. There was nothing to eat. It was filled only with rocks and stones everywhere. There was no place that looked like an exit. The place was filled only with despair and frustration.

“Is this the end? I have only just learned who my enemy is, so must I be satisfied with this?”

Neung Je-gang thought of giving up. But his dead family and the people of his hometown came to mind. He could not give up like this.

“I will do what I can. I cannot give up like this. If there is no way out of this place, I will climb back up and try again. If I fall again, I will climb again. No matter what!”

Neung Je-gang made up his mind that way. Then, rather, his heart became comfortable. It did not matter if he did not succeed. He only had to stake the life he had left on trying.

But before that, there was one thing he first had to do.

“I will use the energy of this place to overcome my limit. Before I fell, I could only barely crack the stone platform blocking the entrance. But I will increase my inner power until I can smash it to pieces with one palm strike.”

Only then would the possibility of escaping this place become higher.

Neung Je-gang climbed onto a large nearby rock and sat down. A tingling energy rode up his tailbone from his buttocks and flowed into his body.

“How nice would it be if this energy also made me forget hunger? No, if it at least made me not thirsty…….”

While thinking such useless thoughts, Neung Je-gang finally half-opened his eyes and slowly began operating the Demonic Mara Energy Method.

Tsssssssss.

Flinch!

For an instant, an energy far too powerful surged in and startled him. Considering that the Demonic Mara Energy Method had not been much help in increasing inner power, this place could be said to be innately filled with qi.

Wooooong.

At some point, Neung Je-gang fell into a state of selflessness. No, he thought of only one thing. He was controlling the energy that entered his body and making it merge with his existing inner power.

Flash.

Light arose from his body. A beautiful five-colored light drove away the dark and dreary underground darkness. That light remained for a long while, then slowly faded away. With that, no further change occurred.

Even so, Neung Je-gang did not awaken. Then, at some point, a change suddenly occurred. Something was wriggling in Neung Je-gang’s dantian as if alive.

Sssrk, sssrk.

It moved slowly. It churned as if the dantian was too narrow. Before long, it attempted to escape outside. The thing that slowly revealed itself from Neung Je-gang’s lower-abdomen dantian was a red snake. No, it should be called a dragon. Unlike a snake, a large horn-like thing grew on its head.

That dragon wrapped itself around Neung Je-gang’s body and climbed up. Neung Je-gang remained motionless, as if he did not feel it. Only his lower abdomen wriggled at steady, regular intervals, showing that he was alive. If someone saw him, they might mistake him for a corpse.

The red dragon’s head poked up above Neung Je-gang’s head.

It was dangerous. The dragon was pressing its horn against Neung Je-gang’s Cheonryeong Point and rubbing it with force.

Only then did Neung Je-gang seem to sense the threat, and his face turned red. It changed into a face vivid with blood-red color, as if it would explode at any moment. If this happened during breathing cultivation, one would surely fall into qi deviation.

Pop.

It seemed as if a sound was heard. The snake’s—no, the dragon’s—head was no longer visible. At last, that thing had made a hole in Neung Je-gang’s Cheonryeong Point and burrowed into his head. Wriggling, not only its head but its body as well pushed inside.

Pop.

It felt as if another sound was heard. The dragon’s horn could be seen. It had burrowed into the Cheonryeong Point, pierced through the Jeonjeong Point right above the forehead, and emerged. Then it slid down the forehead, pierced back into the Yindang Point, and rose out through the philtrum.

Like that, it freely wandered through Neung Je-gang’s major acupoints, burrowing in and breaking out again.

After wandering in search of acupoints that way, it finally descended all the way to the very bottom and burrowed through the Yongcheon Point on the sole of his right foot. A moment later, it pierced through the Yongcheon Point on the sole of his left foot and rose out again.

Perhaps realizing there was nowhere else to go, it climbed back above his head. Then it burrowed into the Cheonryeong Point it had first pierced. Now it did not appear anywhere else until its entire body had burrowed inside.

Would Neung Je-gang truly end like this? Could the inside of his body perhaps become food for that unidentified dragon?

P-p-p-p-p-p-pak!

At that moment, a sudden, noisy sound came from Neung Je-gang’s body.

Ssssss.

Had it given birth inside Neung Je-gang’s body? From the acupoints throughout his entire body, very small red dragons rose one by one. Though their size differed, their appearance was completely identical to that dragon that had roamed through his body.

Those small dragons climbed above Neung Je-gang’s head as if competing with one another and gathered together. They gathered like a red cloud, then once again transformed into one large dragon and burrowed into the Cheonryeong Point.

The same situation repeated in succession. Each time that phenomenon occurred, the dragon grew thicker and longer.

By the seventh time, before the tail of the dragon that had burrowed into the Cheonryeong Point had completely disappeared, the small dragons emerging from each acupoint began gathering again at the Cheonryeong Point. In the end, the countless small dragons merged into one and bit the tail of the dragon that had still not fully seeped into the Cheonryeong Point.

Before long, it was the twelfth time. Now the dragon no longer had a distinction between head and tail. It had simply become like a long red band and moved without rest between the Cheonryeong Point and the other acupoints.

Papapat.

A change also came over the band made of red dragons. The red light gradually diminished. Instead, it turned white. And that light too slowly faded.

The last remaining faint light completely went out at the Cheongeuk Point behind his ear. As if proving that strange phenomenon, the hair behind his ear turned white.

Flash.

At that moment, Neung Je-gang opened his eyes. The light pouring from his eyes illuminated the underground darkness brightly.

“What happened?”

Neung Je-gang could not recognize what had happened to him. He knew something had changed. He did not feel hunger, nor was he thirsty.

Even more astonishing was the identity of the energy wriggling inside his body. Though it could not be seen, even now that his cultivation had ended, it was roaming around through his acupoints on its own.

Even so, it did not hinder him at all from moving freely or from raising his inner power. No, rather, when he raised his inner power, that energy immediately filled the empty space left by that inner power with new inner power.

This was another kind of wonder that could not even be compared to when he pierced the Gate of Life and Death.

“Have I reached a new realm?”

Clearly, he had. Though Neung Je-gang himself did not know it.

“Should I go back up and try to get out now? I do not know if I can succeed, though.”

Neung Je-gang sprang up from where he had been sitting.

Swoosh.

In that instant, his body suddenly shot about one jang into the air.

“Whoa!”

Neung Je-gang quickly regained his balance. His body was much lighter. Feeling as he did now, it seemed he might be able to escape this deep underground place in one breath.

He tried performing a movement art he knew.

Swoooosh.

His body soared into the air for a long while. Compared to before, it seemed he had easily jumped four or five times higher. That also meant his inner power had increased greatly.

Neung Je-gang came down as stably as he had risen and stood.

“If this goes well, I might be able to escape.”

Neung Je-gang went and stood before one wall. Pungroe was held in his left hand, and his sword was gripped in his right.

“Ah, right! If I want to find out what this is, I should take a little with me.”

Neung Je-gang searched around and picked up several small pebble-like stones of the same material as the rocks that contained the strange energy, then placed them in his robe. A tingling sensation again spread from his chest through his entire body. Even if their sizes were the same, the energy they contained was by no means weak.

Swoosh, thud!

He rose with movement art and drove Pungroe into the wall. It began from there. Alternately driving in his sword and Pungroe, Neung Je-gang slowly climbed upward. The end was not visible. But he thought that someday, the end would appear before his eyes.