Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 271 – Underground Prison (3)

“This is properly done.”

Mok Gyeong-un, who had peeled off the face of Trainee Ahn Jong-hu to create a new human skin mask, nodded his head while looking down at the Prison Battlefield Map.

This Prison Battlefield Map belonged to the Chief Banner of the Embroidered Uniform Guards who died in the mechanism trap.

The map appeared identical to the other intact ones Mok Gyeong-un had seen before.

Thus, he did not particularly need to worry about the accuracy of the map he had memorized.

However,

“Hmm.”

Mok Gyeong-un stroked his chin while looking at the face of the Chief Banner.

He had prevented the incoming volley of arrows from hitting the face, allowing it to also be used as a human skin mask.

But soon, Mok Gyeong-un shook his head lightly.

Time was short, and he needed to hurry, so there was no point in further swapping faces.

After all, they would soon notice something strange anyway.

‘Let’s just move the Chief Banner’s corpse to a location with a different trap.’

That seemed more likely to both delay time and increase confusion.

***

Somewhere on the lower level of Eternal Hell Prison Battlefield.

-Click!

Yeom Gyeong, a disciple of Huashan Sect, stopped pulling the food distribution cart and unfolded the Prison Battlefield Map.

As Yeom Gyeong examined the map, he soon frowned.

‘Strange.’

He was clearly moving according to the map but had arrived at a completely unfamiliar place.

Originally, there should have been a passage on the right, but it was blocked, and the left side was open.

What was bizarre was that the path leading to the left was sloped and even more damp.

Somehow, it gave him an eerie feeling.

‘Damn it. Can’t a place like the renowned Embroidered Uniform Guards even draw a proper map?’

He seemed to have lost his way.

Yeom Gyeong pondered whether he should turn back the way he came.

However, having just finished one round of food distribution, if he returned like this, he might get scolded by the Chief Banner who had come as his supervisor.

‘Will he give me demerits?’

That would be troublesome.

In the end, Yeom Gyeong, after some deliberation, pulled the food cart and entered the left passage.

If the map was drawn incorrectly, this was the only path anyway.

He continued pulling the cart for quite a while.

-Whoosh!

‘What? There’s wind coming from inside.’

The torch in his hand flickered.

There shouldn’t be any wind blowing in such a deep underground cave.

Maybe that’s why it felt disconcerting.

Could it be that he had taken the wrong path?

Just then, a strange sound reached his ears.

-Screech!

‘Huh?’

-Screech!

It sounded like something was being scratched.

It came from deeper inside the cave. What could that sound be?

Maybe a prisoner inside the cell was scratching the wall?

As the puzzled Trainee Yeom Gyeong pulled the cart forward, he saw a red line drawn on the cave floor.

‘What is this?’

Among the many colors, seeing it drawn in red made it look like blood, giving him an eerie feeling.

At that moment, the scratching sound came from inside once again.

Judging by how much louder the sound was, it seemed to be getting quite close.

-Flicker!

Yeom Gyeong held the torch forward to illuminate the path.

About twelve steps ahead, a thick iron bar and a human figure inside could be seen.

‘Ah! Did I come to the right place?’

It didn’t seem like he was lost after all.

With this, Trainee Yeom Gyeong pulled the food cart and moved forward.

As he crossed the red line and walked,

-Screech!

The scratching sound rang in his ears.

In that instant, Yeom Gyeong’s eyes turned blank, and his pupils dilated.

-Thud!

Yeom Gyeong, with dilated eyes, let go of the cart’s handle.

Then, with vacant eyes, he walked towards the prison cell, holding the torch.

As the torch drew near, the human figure inside the iron bars gradually became visible.

The figure had their eyes covered with a blindfold and a thick leather gag stuffed in their mouth.

Both wrists and ankles were restrained with heavy shackles attached to weights, immobilizing them.

However, even in that situation,

-Screech!

As the restrained prisoner moved their fingers to scratch the floor,

-Tap! Tap!

Yeom Gyeong, with dazed eyes, began tapping on various parts of the iron bars, as if searching for something.

His actions seemed like he was trying to open the iron bars.

As Yeom Gyeong touched the upper part of the iron bars, characters were engraved there.

[One Hundred and Twenty-Six]

***

Somewhere else in Eternal Hell Prison Battlefield.

-Swish!

Blood dripped from Joo Woonhyang’s hand, which was grasping sharp iron spikes.

Although he had defended himself with his innate true energy, the force of the fall caused his palm to be torn by the spikes.

If someone other than him had fallen, they would have been impaled by the spikes and met with misfortune.

‘Fortunately, the torch fell first.’

It was a relief that he saw the spikes embedded below beforehand.

Had it not been for that, he would have fallen face-first into them.

“Phew…… Phew……”

Enduring the pain of his torn hand, Joo Woonhyang reached down with one hand, grabbed the torch that had fallen between the spikes, and lifted it.

Then he bit the handle with his mouth.

‘If I hadn’t learned Wind Cloud Steps from my master, I would have been in big trouble.’

Being able to do a handstand and maintain balance in such an unstable position was also thanks to the Wind Cloud Steps.

Otherwise, his face would have been punctured first.

Joo Woonhyang slowly focused strength in his waist and bent his elbows.

‘Ugh.’

His palms tore further, and it was painful.

But if he couldn’t endure it and let go, he would be heading straight to the afterlife.

-Thud!

Joo Woonhyang, who had bent his arms, exerted force and pushed his body away.

Like that, Joo Woonhyang’s body flew towards the floor without spikes and landed.

He dropped the torch he was biting and clenched his teeth while looking at his bloodied, torn palms.

‘My hands feel like they’re burning.’

It was an old spike trap that had been left unattended for a long time.

It wouldn’t be surprising if it was laced with iron poison.

‘Damn it.’

Enduring the pain, Joo Woonhyang took something out from his bosom.

It was a small amulet pouch, containing Blood Detoxification Pills he had brought just in case.

Though he wasn’t sure if it would work against iron poison, Joo Woonhyang chewed one-third of the pill, mixed it with saliva, and spat it onto his palms.

“Urgh.”

The pain was no joke.

Gritting his teeth, Joo Woonhyang rubbed the mixture onto both of his torn palms.

It stung and burned like hell, but he endured it.

“Ha…… Ha…… Fuck.”

A curse slipped out involuntarily.

Joo Woonhyang, breathing heavily, chewed another one-third of the Blood Detoxification Pill and swallowed it.

He saved the remaining one-third in the amulet pouch, just in case.

-Rip!

Tearing his sleeve further, Joo Woonhyang wrapped it around his palms like a bandage.

Strangely, at first, it hurt as if it was being burned by fire, but at some point, the pain disappeared.

It seemed the Blood Detoxification Pill had some effect.

Now that the bleeding had somewhat stopped, Joo Woonhyang returned to reality.

‘Ha……’

It was infuriating.

He didn’t expect Im Gyu-wol to prepare such a double trap.

Even if he resented him, he never thought he would give a fake map to another trainee like Yeom Gyeong.

Thanks to that, he had been thoroughly backstabbed.

‘Enough to make my head spin.’

He didn’t know this guy was so skilled in trickery.

It was a scheme that had read two moves ahead.

‘That punk Yeom Gyeong must have also suffered a mishap.’

If he had moved according to that incorrect map, he would be in danger as well.

But what mattered right now was not that guy.

It was himself.

‘Can I climb back up?’

Joo Woonhyang looked up while holding the torch.

To crawl back up there and break through the blocked ceiling again, he would have to retrace his steps back to the original path he came from.

However, it was quite high to do so.

He would have to remove all those spikes and then cling to the smooth wall and climb up for a long time.

‘If there’s a mechanism trap, it’ll be even worse.’

Just in case, Joo Woonhyang picked up a stone from the floor where there were no spikes and threw it to test.

Then, from the walls surrounding the spiked area, more spikes protruded.

-Thud thud thud thud thud!

‘This is crazy.’

If he hadn’t tested it, the moment he clung to the wall, he would have been skewered.

All he had was his body and this torch.

If only he had a hidden weapon, he could try something, but to enter the Prison Battlefield, he had to go in empty-handed.

‘What should I do?’

A sigh escaped involuntarily.

Since he didn’t know when and where a mechanism trap would activate, it seemed dangerous to move recklessly.

However, he couldn’t stay here forever either.

‘Should I just hold out?’

That was also an option.

Even though Im Gyu-wol had set a trap, he wasn’t a Thousand-men Commander named Mak Myeong-bo.

As the person in charge, if the trainees who went in as apprentices didn’t return, he would conduct a search to find them.

‘Until then, I could endure in this place without mechanism traps……’

-Swoosh!

At that moment, a strange sound was heard.

When Joo Woonhyang looked in that direction, smoke was rising from beneath the spike pit.

‘They really went all out.’

Seeing this, Joo Woonhyang clicked his tongue as if fed up.

He didn’t know what the smoke was, but there was a high probability it was poison.

Even with the Blood Detoxification Pill, prolonged direct exposure wouldn’t be good.

‘Damn it!’

Joo Woonhyang gathered as many stones as he could from the floor and ran towards the open passage before the smoke could reach her.

-Tap! Thud thud thud thud!

The mechanism traps were triggered once every two or three times he threw a stone.

With the traps viciously protruding, Joo Woonhyang couldn’t let his guard down for a moment.

‘Whoever built Eternal Hell Prison Battlefield, they really did a great job.’

Escaping from here seemed like a distant possibility.

Without a torch, it would be complete darkness itself, so how could one get out of here?

The mechanism traps appeared every twenty steps or so, driving him crazy.

‘Attempting to escape is certain death.’

After running for a while, triggering the mechanism traps along the way, Joo Woonhyang stopped.

He had already used up all the stones he had gathered.

From here, he couldn’t move recklessly.

‘……Hmm.’

Joo Woonhyang took off his outer clothing, tore it, and then twisted it to make a rope-like string.

He took off his shoes, wrapped the string around them, and tied it.

The length was less than 2 jang, but it seemed sufficient.

-Thud!

Joo Woonhyang threw the shoe with the string attached forward.

Then he slowly pulled the shoe back.

-Whirr!

At a certain point, the distinct sound of a mechanism activating was heard, and numerous crossbow bolts shot out from the walls, piercing the opposite wall.

‘Done.’

Joo Woonhyang pulled the shoe back.

A few bolts were stuck in the shoe, but he could remove them and use it again.

In this manner, Joo Woonhyang slowly moved forward, activating the mechanism traps and finding safe footholds.

As he struggled to move like this, Joo Woonhyang thought,

‘Ha…… Even for me, with a lot of experience, it’s like this, so Yeom Gyeong and Bae Ji-seok…… No, that punk must also be struggling, stuck in a mechanism trap……’

He almost fell forward.

Now was not the time to worry about others; the urgent priority was to safely escape from here.

***

At the entrance leading to the inner part of Eternal Hell Prison Battlefield.

Mok Gyeong-un, wearing the face of Trainee Ahn Jong-hu, looked around and thought.

For Mok Gyeong-un, who had memorized the map and could visualize it three-dimensionally in his mind, it was clear where he needed to go.

Thus, he easily descended to this point while avoiding all the mechanism traps and guard posts on the third floor of the underground prison.

However, there was one problem at this fork in the road.

To pass through the middle passage safely without mechanism traps, he would have to pass by one of the eight guard posts in Eternal Hell Prison Battlefield.

‘Hmm.’

Dealing with them was not a difficult task.

However, he had heard that each guard post had something to deal with enemy infiltration or escape attempts.

So it seemed best to avoid carelessly disturbing them.

With this in mind, Mok Gyeong-un moved his steps towards the left passage.

‘No choice.’

It seemed he would have to pass through one area with mechanism traps.

Once he got past here, he would be closer to Cell No. 130, where Holy Fire Priestess was imprisoned.

It was a bit troublesome, but it wasn’t impossible for him to pass through one mechanism trap.

Like that, Mok Gyeong-un entered the left passage, suppressing his presence.

It was when he had taken a few steps after entering the passage.

-Click!

-Clank clank clank!

The floor sank inward, and soon, mechanical sounds could be heard from inside the walls.

At the same time, numerous holes appeared in the ceiling, and a rain of arrows poured down.

-Swish!

At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un walked forward and waved his hand upward.

Then, the countless falling arrows stopped in midair, changed direction, and embedded themselves in the ceiling.

-Thud thud thud thud thud!

Mok Gyeong-un calmly walked forward.

-Clunk!

-Clank clank clank!

It didn’t end there; huge triple-layered blades protruded from the walls one after another.

The blades aimed to instantly cut Mok Gyeong-un’s body into four pieces.

However,

-Clang clang!

The blades stopped before even reaching Mok Gyeong-un’s body, unable to move properly.

Mechanical sounds came from between the walls, as if something was blocking them, making a racket.

This phenomenon occurred because the blades were held in place by profound true energy.

In that state, when Mok Gyeong-un flicked his finger at the uppermost blade,

-Clang!

The upper blade broke, shattering all the blades below it.

Mok Gyeong-un moved forward again.

After walking about five steps,

-Swish! Swish!

Hearing the sound of air being pierced from ahead, Mok Gyeong-un, without stopping, slightly tilted his head.

Then, two sharp spears that were flying to penetrate his shoulders bent and ended up stuck in the walls on both sides.

-Crash!

“Hmm.”

Mok Gyeong-un glanced at both sides and then walked forward again.

After walking another five steps,

Smoke began to rise from the floor.

The smoke was poison.

‘Judging by the root of gold-grass, it seems to be a paralysis-type poison.’

-Hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss!

The poisonous fog soon filled the entire passage, but Mok Gyeong-un walked forward unaffected.

In the first place, as he was the ultimate poison itself, this kind of poisonous fog had no effect on him.

Mok Gyeong-un, who had been walking slowly to deal with potential mechanism traps, opened his mouth and yawned.

‘Is this all?’

It was becoming more boring than he had expected.