Chapter 80. The Entire World is My Home
The ground shook along with a terrifying explosion.
A crack appeared in the ceiling for only a moment before the entire underground chamber collapsed. Jin-Jin and Dae-Woong, who had already been pushed to their limits, fainted simultaneously from the explosion's shockwave.
Woo-Moon’s eyes widened. He grabbed Ma-Ra and his parents as best as he could while strengthening his grip on his sword.
There was nowhere for them to escape, and there was only a single way left for him to survive and save his loved ones.
‘Think! Think, Song Woo-Moon! Find a technique in the Gentle Celestial Sword that can save us!’
He earnestly prayed as he concentrated as hard as he could, the life-or-death situation forcing him to break through every limitation as he reached the comprehension level of gods and demons.
In an instant, Woo-Moon’s entire body glowed intensely with a golden light. He then began to move his sword—and from the outside, it seemed as if he knew exactly what he was doing.
The technique that he was about to execute could be said to be the pinnacle of defensive sword techniques.
“Impenetrable Golden Wall!”
Finally, Woo-Moon had unraveled the third technique of the Gentle Celestial Sword!
Woo-Moon swung his sword with all of the strength and qi he could muster, driving his qi in the manner indicated by the technique. All of the defensive qi that coated his body shifted to his blade. Imbued with all of Woo-Moon’s qi, his sword spun at a ridiculous speed, creating thousands of afterimages.
A golden shield began to emerge, protecting Woo-Moon and those around him from the falling stones.
“Ugh! Cough, cough!!”
To construct the underground chamber, Hye-Ryeong had used great stones and boulders much heavier than those commonly found in the area. Thus, every time a rock fell on the Impenetrable Golden Wall, Woo-Moon felt as if his entire body would shatter into pieces from the force of the impact.
This was completely different from when he had dealt with the rocks in the canyon earlier.
First of all, not only were the size and weight of the falling boulders so drastically different that they were incomparable, but the circumstances were also different. Since they were all trapped at the bottom of a pit, he could not just push the boulders out of the way.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
More and more boulders fell and collided with the Impenetrable Golden Wall.
Cough! Cough!
Woo-Moon continued to spit out blood.
Still, even in the midst of indescribable agony and fear, he continued to endure, demonstrating superhuman mental fortitude.
Suddenly, Woo-Moon felt someone helping him. Ma-Ra placed her hands on his back and infused her qi into him. Thanks to her aid, he could hold out for a little longer.
But, the moment he began to think that things would be alright, a rock of entirely different size and weight plummeted downward.
BOOOOM!
“AGH!!”
Although they had held firm all this time, one of Woo-Moon’s legs gave out from the impact, bending at an unnatural angle as the sound of bones cracking filled the air. Another handful of blood spewed from his mouth.
He felt like giving up. It was too hard and too painful.
‘No. I can’t give up. No matter what.’
If he gave up now, he wasn’t the only one who would die. The more he held on to that conviction, the more the strength that seemed to have disappeared began to fill his body again.
‘I have to hold on for however long it takes!’
Fortunately, it seemed as though the only debris left were tiny stones, and there weren’t any other terrifying impacts like before. Still, that didn’t mean things were okay because they had passed the most significant hurdle.
Even without any new impacts, he had to endure the weight of the boulders alone.
Woo-Moon might have had an incredible cultivation that didn’t match his age, but even he had his limits. Even a spring would run dry if one siphoned more water than it could produce.
Seeing Woo-Moon begin to struggle from the weight, Ma-Ra stopped infusing qi into him and stood up. She dashed from here to there, carefully arranging stones and boulders and placing them on top of each other, even using some of the larger boulders as support pillars.
Surprisingly, the more she moved, the more the pressure that weighed down on Woo-Moon began to be relieved.
Assassins had to learn a variety of specialized skills.
Among those skills was digging tunnels to infiltrate the location of their targets. The most important tenet of excavation was proper structure and support to prevent collapses. Thus, Ma-Ra was able to leverage those skills to create a makeshift support system.
“Woo-Moon. Done,” she said, looking at Woo-Moon with emotionless eyes as dark as a void. Woo-Moon relaxed immediately, trusting her wholeheartedly.
“Huff, huff....”
It was just like she had said. Even as he relaxed and stopped holding the stones, the makeshift ceiling didn’t collapse any further.
Woo-Moon smiled and looked at Ma-Ra.
“Thank you....”
He immediately fainted, unable to hold out any longer.
Ma-Ra looked at the fainted Woo-Moon, Dae-Woong, and Jin-Jin in turn before starting with Jin-Jin. She took out emergency medication, bandages, and needle and thread from her sleeves and treated Jin-Jin’s wounds. Thanks to her extensive skills, she swiftly treated Jin-Jin.
Then, she turned to Dae-Woong.
Carefully, she pulled one of the swords out of his large back in a single motion before hurriedly pressing acupoints around the wound to stop the bleeding. Once the bleeding stopped, she sutured the wound before moving on to the next one.
Fortunately, it seemed as though not all of the swords had been driven that deeply, and it seemed that they hadn’t struck his vitals, leading Ma-Ra to assume that there was no danger to his life.
However, there was something that she failed to realize even as she treated Dae-Woong.
In truth, Dae-Woong’s wounds had been much more severe. The swords had been plunged deep into his body and had, in fact, pierced his vitals in more than one area. However, even while in a stunned state, Dae-Woong’s body had unconsciously moved, pushing the swords out of the dangerous areas by sheer muscular power and healing itself quickly.
In any case, Ma-Ra finished her treatment on Dae-Woong rather quickly.
Finally, she crouched next to Woo-Moon, holding his arm up and inspecting his body with her qi. Her dark, bottomless eyes scanned the wounded Song Family.
Although impatient and clumsy, Dae-Woong had incredible patience. Jin-Jin was someone filled with benevolence but had a side to her that was colder and stricter than anyone else when crossed. Woo-Moon was as free-spirited as the wind blowing through the leaves.
Ma-Ra looked down as the family, who treated her with the utmost love, were severely injured and unconscious.
Suddenly, the image of the mastermind behind all of this, Hye-Ryeong, appeared in her mind. Ma-Ra clenched her fists so hard that her fingernails tore open the skin on her palms and made her bleed.
“Ah.”
She opened her hand and looked at her palm. This was the first time something like this had ever happened to her.
‘Is this anger?’
Ma-ra's eyes filled with confusion.
***
Woo-Moon only felt excruciating pain.
Alongside the feeling that his entire body had been shattered, an unimaginable pain centered around his dantian as if someone was grasping it with both hands and wringing it like a wet cloth.
“Woo-Moon.”
Woo-Moon opened his eyes at Ma-Ra’s cold voice.
Probably because his dantian had been drained beyond its limits, he could see nothing but darkness.
Suddenly, something came to mind.
“Ma-Ra, in my robe... there’s a small bottle. Please feed me a single drop of the liquid in it.”
“Okay.”
Ma-Ra searched his robe and found the bottle of Pure Stalactite Milk. Opening Woo-Moon’s lips with her slender fingers, she used the dripper to feed him a single drop.
Gulp.
The moment he swallowed the Pure Stalactite Milk, he felt a refreshing sensation spread throughout his entire body, from his stomach into his extremities and down to his very bones.
He took control of the qi generated from the Pure Stalactite Milk and directed it into his dantian.
It was as if the first spring rain fell on the soil of his dantian, which was completely dried out and cracked due to having gone past its limits.
Then, Woo-Moon’s dantian came to life again and began to circulate qi once more. His qi roared to life and spread out through his entire body.
Although it had only been for a short time, the qi of the Forbidden Divine Art circulated through his entire body, as if the art itself was enraged at being unable to power itself. It excavated deep into his dantian, reconstructing it from its half-crippled state.
Just as it had changed his muscles, bones, veins, and meridians before, it began to change his dantian so that it would never become dried out and empty again.
A faint golden light began to radiate from Woo-Moon’s body.
When he opened his eyes two hours later, he could feel his body overflowing with qi, and he also felt that he had broken through another level of the Forbidden Divine Art.
Turning around, he saw Ma-Ra sitting guard right next to him.
“I’m okay now. Go get some rest, Ma-Ra.”
“Okay.”
Woo-Moon gestured toward the Pure Stalactite Milk in her hand.
“Drink a single drop. It’ll help.”
Ma-Ra consumed a single drop of the Pure Stalactite Milk without question and quickly began cultivating.
Woo-Moon moved over to his parents and used his senses to check their condition. Thanks to Ma-Ra’s timely treatment, neither of them seemed to be in a state where he had to worry.
‘What a relief.’
Woo-Moon placed a hand on each of his parents and began to infuse their bodies with qi. The gentle qi of the Forbidden Divine Art started to help them recover.
As he treated his parents, Woo-Moon looked up with a glint in his eyes.
‘Those bastards probably think we all died. However, there’s no way we would die that easily. No, I’ll get out of this soon enough, and it’ll be payback time.’
After a while, Dae-Woong and Jin-Jin woke up.
Dae-Woong, whose eyes seemed to betray an even greater depth than before, appeared to be relatively sparing with his words. Jin-Jin felt a little strange seeing her husband acting so unlike himself but didn’t bother him about it at the moment.
In any case, the most pressing matter was how they would escape from the underground stone chamber.
Fortunately, all four of them had cultivated to the point where they wouldn’t have any trouble breathing, even with the minuscule amount of air around them. Moreover, they would also be fine without eating or drinking water for a few days.
Having woken, the seriously injured Dae-Woong and Jin-Jin worked diligently to circulate their qi and recover.
While they did so, Woo-Moon began excavating a small hole in the collapsed ceiling using his sword aura, while Ma-Ra helped prevent collapses from the side.
As each worked to the best of their ability, time passed.
***
Five days later, a golden sword rose through the ruins of the collapsed shrine.
Crack!
A few minutes later, Woo-Moon, Ma-Ra, Dae-Woong, and Jin-Jin emerged one after another.
As soon as they escaped, they first went to the Leebi Merchant Guild Manor and regrouped with Si-Hyeon.
“Senior Brother! You don’t know how worried I was!”
As soon as Si-Hyeon saw that Woo-Moon and his family were safe, tears welled up in her eyes.
“How have you been, junior sister?”
At Woo-Moon’s ridiculously nonchalant words, So-Hyeon puffed out her cheeks and wiped her tears with her sleeve.
“Well, I’ve been doing fine. But just what in the world happened to you, senior brother?”
As there wasn’t much time to explain, Woo-Moon told her the situation in as few words as possible.
“...and that’s why we’re here. Oh, by the way, I need you to do something for me,” he said.
“What is it?”
He briefly glanced at his parents and Ma-Ra, who stood behind him.
“What I need you to do is...”
Thud! Thud!
“Wha...!”
Ma-Ra tried to shout ‘What are you doing?’
But before she could finish her sentence, she fainted as Woo-Moon pressed an acupoint. The same happened with Jin-Jin and Dae-Woong.
Woo-Moon skillfully pressed the acupoints of the three people simultaneously, knocking them out. He caught them gracefully, to prevent them from falling to the ground.
“I have to go somewhere for a little bit, so please take care of my family.”
Si-Hyeon wasn’t stupid and immediately realized Woo-Moon’s intention.
“It’s too reckless! How can you go there alone...!”
“No, no. I’m never reckless. What, you don’t trust me?”
“I can’t trust you! So please don’t go. We can talk about it later when Grandfather returns.”
Woo-Moon thought about his grandfather at Si-Hyeon’s words.
“My grandfather entrusted me with this as he left. I can do this myself,” he said with a wistful smile filled with happiness and longing.
Si-Hyeon realized that Woo-Moon had already made his decision.
‘But...!’
“Then I’ll go with you! Four hands are always better than two!”
“Can I say something hurtful?”
“Please don’t.”
“But I have to.”
“I’m not going to listen to it! Nananananananananana!”
Si-Hyeon covered both her ears and started to make sounds, trying to drown Woo-Moon out loudly. However, although she tried her hardest to ignore him, that didn’t mean she couldn’t hear what he had to say.
“It’ll be more dangerous to have you come with me than to go alone. I cannot fight and protect someone weak at the same time, junior sister.”
His cruel and straightforward words brought tears to her eyes.
Si-Hyeon knew he was right and understood he was deliberately being harsh out of worry. She knew Woo-Moon didn’t want to take her to a place where even he would be in danger.
Still, she couldn't help but feel sad.
It was impossible for Woo-Moon not to see her eyes fill with tears. He laughed brightly as he ruffled her hair and stroked her head gently.
“My smart little junior sister. I know you understand what I mean. I’ll be back soon, so please wait for me and just keep doing what you should be doing.”