Translator: bjgoofy

The first thing that caught my eye were the characters saying “never forget this grudge” but it seemed that wasn’t what caught Hwa-eun and Seol noona’s attention first.

That was because the stone wall had martial arts mnemonic verses and other writings inscribed on it.

“What is this!?”

“It’s the mnemonic verses of the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique, Soryong!”

“Why is this here?”

“This is the martial art Soryong trained in?”

Just as Hwa-eun said, these were clearly the mnemonic verses and advice necessary to master the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique.

As I was examining them with surprise, thinking they might be useful to me, I noticed an unbelievable phrase written at the very end.

"When you accumulate the Five Poisons and reach the realm of Ten Perfections, behead the five venomous creatures you have accepted, drink their essence blood, and with ginseng, angelica root, poria, and... boil for three days then form into pills and consume them. Only then can you truly achieve mastery of the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique."

‘No way, are these guys seriously insane!?’

Though the Beast Heart Technique forms the basis of this art, meaning the venomous creatures are spiritually connected, the advice says that upon reaching the realm of Ten Perfections, one must sever the necks of the creatures they’re mentally bonded with, drink their blood, boil their bodies like dog stew, and make pills from them, such madness.

No wonder these bastards were wiped out for carelessly treating beasts - they were truly horrible people.

“Hwa-eun, may I borrow your lantern?”

“The lantern?”

I borrowed the lantern from Hwa-eun, took out the oil lamp inside, and immediately scorched the inscription.

So that no one could ever read it again.

The characters darkened instantly from the flame and smoke.

Sure, back on Haenam Island I had eaten wild snakes out of hunger, but those were wild. These creatures are raised by hand, spiritually bonded, and even share emotions with you, yet they’re telling you to boil them and turn them into pills? Such evil content had to be erased.

‘This insane nonsense has to disappear. Drink their blood and boil their bodies, what kind of perverted martial art is this!?’

Since I had mastered the Beast Heart Technique itself, I could probably find another method. I felt no attachment to this one.

After rendering the inscription unreadable, Hwa-eun and Seol noona patted my shoulder with expressions saying, “Well done.”

“Well done, Soryong.”

“Yes, that’s how my brother should be.”

Then, as if only now noticing the first inscription I had seen, they looked at the words, seemingly written in blood, with serious expressions and their hands on their chins.

“Oh, and it looks like it's confirmed that there are survivors from the Five Poisons Sect.”

“Right. Hwa-eun, this definitely looks like it was written in blood....”

This was undeniable proof.

It felt like a vow of revenge left by those who were stranded on the other side, unable to return.

“We’ll have to be careful as we move forward.”

“Yes. And we’ll have to verify it, but from what this writing implies, it seems you can’t return unless someone opens it from the other side.”

“Indeed....”

A while later, after meticulously examining the surrounding mechanism formation, Hwa-eun spoke with a disappointed expression.

“As expected, there seems to be no way to enter from this side. I should’ve taken a closer look from the opposite side. It’s a shame.”

Hwa-eun seemed quite curious about how the mechanism formation worked, and now showed regret that she couldn’t confirm the principle from the other side either.

We checked the now-sealed stone wall and thoroughly examined the surroundings, but there were no traces anywhere of a mechanism formation capable of opening the door.

As Hwa-eun said, it seemed like it could only be opened from the inside.

And the devices that might reveal how it worked seemed thoroughly hidden.

“Then I guess there’s no choice but to continue forward? From the looks of it, the area ahead has been abandoned for a long time, but let’s proceed carefully.”

“Yes, Seol noona. Let’s go.”

In response to Seol noona’s words, Hwa-eun and I nodded and began to move forward.

However, we hadn’t taken more than a few steps before we had to stop.

What appeared before us was a vertical pit dropping more than ten meters down.

No wonder such precious martial art mnemonic verses were written on the wall, this space was practically a sealed chamber, as one could not return from the opposite side.

We were going to rely on Yohwa and Cho to help us descend into the pit and hurry along, but as soon as Hwa-eun stepped down, she grabbed my shoulder and said,

“By the way, Soryong, this cave feels a little strange.”

“Indeed, it’s a bit different from the natural caves we’ve seen so far.”

As we checked the surroundings again, just as Hwa-eun had said, the cave extending long beneath the pit was truly strange.

It didn’t feel like the natural formations we had been walking through so far, but it also didn’t exactly feel artificial, there was something off about it.

Considering the excavation technology of this era couldn’t be that advanced, it was bizarre that a circular tunnel about three meters in diameter continued on like this.

Moreover, the cave walls didn’t feel like soil, they were solid, almost like stone.

The surface rippled in one direction, and rather than appearing carved, it looked more like it had been melted.

“It’s like the stone was melted down, isn’t it?”

Just like Hwa-eun and Seol noona said, the walls of the cave gave off an eerie atmosphere.

But somewhere in the back of my mind, this scene felt familiar.

I had the feeling I had seen something like this once before.

Trying to recall where I’d seen it, a faint memory I had pushed to the corner of my mind began to surface.

‘I swear I’ve seen this somewhere before.... Ah! Could it be!?’

I quickly examined the ground.

Touching the floor, I could feel how solid it was.

But curiously, when I scraped the surface with the flying dagger I had on me, it scratched like rock.

It was definitely stone, but it felt like a slightly softer kind of stone.

That’s when I clearly remembered where I had seen this.

This place reminded me of the Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam, which I visited during a sightseeing trip after a foraging outing in my previous life.

‘If I remember correctly, the guide said Vietnam had a lot of soil mixed with limestone, making it easy to dig through. And once it dried, it became very hard and didn’t even require support structures, right?’

The Cu Chi Tunnels, a 250-kilometer underground tunnel system built by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, was one of Vietnam’s most famous tourist attractions. And the walls of this cave felt like they were made of the same dried soil mixed with limestone that I had seen there.

The soil composition reminded me exactly of that place.

And come to think of it, Nannuo was a mountain located near the border between Yunnan and Great Viet Kingdom.

I spoke to Hwa-eun.

“This was probably dug through soil mixed with limestone.”

“All of this by hand?”

Seol noona looked shocked at my words, but when you think about it, martial artists are the kings of manual labor.

Their bodies are practically human cranes. If this was dug with martial arts-trained bodies, it actually makes sense.

While the Viet Cong may have dug it with hundreds or thousands of people, just a few dozen martial artists could probably achieve similar efficiency, I thought to myself.

“This tunnel might be a lot longer than we expect.”

“Longer?”

“How long could it be if people dug it out by hand?”

They all brushed off my words lightly, but after walking until we were sleepy, everyone was whispering with expressions of fatigue.

[As our ancestors said, those Five Poisons Sect bastards really are insane.]

[They’re definitely not normal, Unnie.]

It felt like we had already walked tens of kilometers, and at this rate we might actually hit two hundred kilometers.

***

-Ping.

The spider silk in my hand suddenly let out a sharp sound as it was pulled taut from behind.

Immediately after, Hwa-eun’s flustered voice echoed from behind Seol noona.

[Ugh. Unnie, what is it?]

Hwa-eun had been following at the rear, but since Seol noona had stopped, it seemed she had bumped into her back.

Then, in the darkness, noona who had grown tired of the maddening tunnel-digging of the Five Poisons Sect and had been walking quietly for a while, spoke softly.

Because even speaking a little loudly would cause our voices to reverberate against the cave walls, she lowered her voice to a whisper.

[Ryong, how long do you think it’s been since we came in here?]

Then came Hwa-eun’s reply from diagonally behind us, followed by noona’s voice, which sounded worn out.

[Unnie, I think it’s definitely been more than two days.]

[It’s so dark and the path never changes... I feel like I’m going crazy.]

Just like Hwa-eun said, it was surely more than two days.

And it seemed like noona was starting to feel mentally exhausted, so I felt we really needed to take a break.

I cautiously suggested we rest.

[Let’s rest a bit. Get some sleep too.]

[That might really be for the best.]

[Yes. Let’s do that, Soryong.]

Then, from the darkness, came the voices of the two in agreement.

I also spoke to Cho, who had stopped crawling ahead of us.

[Cho, let’s take a break. Get some sleep too.]

-Tsurut!

The reason we had turned off all lights and were following the silk thread tied to Cho’s body was because we didn’t know what lay ahead or how far we had left to go, meaning we couldn’t use qinggong or raise our voices.

If there was going to be a fight upon arrival, we had to manage our internal energy wisely, and we couldn’t be sure how long this tunnel extended or whether the Five Poisons Sect bastards would suddenly appear up ahead, so we had to proceed with caution.

That’s why this cave exploration was progressing so painfully slowly.

Unlike our confident entry, it now seemed likely that the tunnel led all the way outside, so we had no choice but to remain careful.

We’d already seen writings filled with the venomous resentment of the Five Poisons Sect.

So we had extinguished all lanterns and were slowly moving forward, relying on Cho’s guidance.

-Fwhoom.

As we sat leaning against the cave wall in the dark, the sound of a lantern being lit echoed.

Soon the area brightened, and perhaps because we had been in darkness for so long, even the soft light of the lantern stung our eyes as if it were too bright.

[Ugh, my eyes hurt.]

[Yeah. Must be because we’ve been in the dark for too long.]

Once our eyes adjusted to the lantern’s light, we each pulled out some food from our bags.

In my bag, Hwa-eun’s, and Noona’s, all we had were some jerky and dried rice cakes.

Still, we had to eat something.

While we were eating and talking about how much longer this damned cave might go on, the conversation went there again.

[How much longer do you think this damn cave goes on?]

[Not sure. Unnie, I really hope it ends soon too....]

[It’d be nice if the exit appeared anytime now.]

[Ugh, more than anything, I want to eat something else. This stuff is too hard. And seriously, I just want to eat grilled meat!]

Clearly tired of the jerky and dried rice cakes, Seol noona grumbled while chewing on one of the rice cakes, nearly in tears.

She probably missed the grilled meat they often ate in the Beast Palace, where they hunted a lot of.

I was getting sick of the jerky and dried stuff myself and nodded in agreement, and just then, Hwa-eun looked toward the direction we were heading, tilted her head, and spoke.

[Let’s eat something nice once we get out. Hmm? But... doesn’t it smell savory from somewhere?]

[Savory smell?]

[I’m sure I smell grilled rabbit meat....]

With Hwa-eun’s sharp nose picking it up, Seol noona flared her nostrils.

A moment later, Seol noona nodded in confirmation.

[You’re right! That’s definitely grilled rabbit meat!]

Sure enough, I could smell the savory scent of meat too.

We exchanged glances and quickly moved toward the direction the scent was coming from.

If we were smelling grilled meat, that meant human presence.

And that meant an exit was likely nearby.

We wanted to escape this damned place, and since signs of people were appearing ahead, we had to check it out.

As we moved forward for a while, a faint light began to appear in the distance.

We instinctively extinguished the lantern we were carrying and carefully picked up our pace again.

[Let’s be careful from here on.]

[Yeah. Got it.]

[Understood, Soryong.]

When we finally arrived after proceeding cautiously, we came upon a dead end with a hole about three meters wide in the floor.

We hurried to it and carefully peered down, light was rising up from below along with a wisp of smoke.

All three of us cautiously held onto the edge of the hole and looked down.

What we saw were six rabbits roasting over a fire and a group of people sitting around it.

Hwa-eun checked their faces and widened her eyes in shock.

[Wha, what are those people doing here?]

Wondering why she was so surprised, I also looked down to check the faces of the people.

Then I understood why Hwa-eun was so shocked.

Those people… they were people we knew.

‘Wait, why are those people here?’