When I opened my eyes again, Kyungah was sound asleep, leaning on my shoulder.
“……”
I carefully moved her head to rest against the nearby pillar and quietly got up from my seat.
‘How many hours have passed?’
Being underground, I had no idea how much time had gone by.
It felt like quite a lot of time had passed, but human time perception is relative, so I couldn’t trust it too much.
Grrr—
Just then, my stomach growled, reminding me that I had to eat. So, I headed over to the jar of Wallgokdan that Dokgorin had mentioned before falling asleep.
Next to the Wallgokdan jar, there was a well, probably filled with groundwater.
After drawing some water with a pail and quenching my thirst, I opened the jar’s lid and pulled out a piece of Wallgokdan.
“So this is Wallgokdan…”
It looked just like a beetle’s dung ball, but the reality was that just one could replace a whole meal as a super high-calorie food.
However, since this was my first time eating it, I eyed the Wallgokdan with a mix of skepticism before popping it into my mouth.
Munch munch.
The first taste was bitter, but perhaps because it contained honey, it was more tolerable than I anticipated.
Still, I could feel the inherent flavors of each ingredient, which I suppose could be described as feeling like I was eating health food.
The only downside was its extremely dry and crumbly texture from all the powders combined?
Even though I had just drunk water, I decided to have another sip right away.
After finishing that quick meal, I returned to my original spot, wondering what Dokgorin was up to.
So, when I went back to the place where Dokgorin had been reading, she was still there, lost in her book just as before.
The only difference was that she had turned quite a few pages back.
‘Could it be that she hasn’t moved a single time in all this?’
If that were true, I could only describe it as an incredible level of concentration.
Not wanting to disturb her, I was about to return to my original seat when Dokgorin suddenly looked up.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Ah, yes.”
Caught off guard, I replied, and then said with an apologetic expression, “I’m sorry. Did I interrupt your reading?”
“No, it’s fine. I was just thinking it might be time for a little break.”
As she said this, Dokgorin closed the book she had been reading and stretched her arms.
“So, did you find out anything?”
“Um, roughly?”
Saying that, Dokgorin waved the manual for the Nine Sky Mystic Sword that she had read two-thirds of.
“According to what’s written at the beginning, the person who wrote this book is our family’s founder, Dokgopa.”
“And?”
“Our family’s martial arts unique to Dokgo lineage, the Nine Mystical Sword Techniques, seems to be a version of the Nine Sky Mystic Sword that Dokgopa adapted to his preferences in his later years.”
“…Adapted to his preferences?”
“Yeah. Originally, the Nine Sky Mystic Sword combined the heart method using the upper dantian and the sword technique using the lower dantian, but Dokgopa excluded the heart method, keeping only the sword technique to create the Nine Mystical Sword Techniques. I guess he might have made it easier for his descendants to learn their martial art.”
“Made it easier? Is martial arts using the upper dantian harder to learn?”
“It usually is. There aren’t many martial arts focusing on training the upper dantian, even among Taoist sects. Just the Mosan and Kunlun sects perhaps?”
The upper dantian is connected to the brain, so if you aren’t careful, you could become a shell of your former self while learning your martial arts, which might be why it was purposefully excluded.
“…Indeed.”
“Interestingly, it’s written that Dokgopa learned this martial art from the Nine Sky Fairy he met in his dreams. Regardless of its truth, the notion that a fairy from a dream taught him martial arts shows our founder had a rather whimsical side.”
Hearing Dokgorin’s thoughts, I couldn’t help but smile wryly.
I knew in my mind that it was ridiculous for a fairy to appear in a dream, but if we were to judge that, then the fact that I was reincarnated in a novel after dying was already absurd to begin with.
‘Maybe fairies really do exist.’
Thinking that way, the Nine Sky Mystic Sword manual suddenly seemed quite magnificent.
If Dokgopa’s words were true, it could mean that the martial arts were taught directly by a celestial fairy.
“Anyway, it’s for sure that this is a far more incredible manual than we thought. Anyone who knows its value would probably pay a fortune to acquire it.”
I figured that must be the reason the people outside had attacked the Dokgo family.
As Dokgorin shared her speculation, she set the book down on her lap.
I glanced back and forth between Dokgorin and the manual before cautiously suggesting, “If it’s such an incredible martial art, why don’t you give it a try, Miss?”
“Me?”
“Yes. It’s said that the root of the martial arts you’ve learned is the Nine Sky Mystic Sword. Wouldn’t that give you a considerable advantage over starting from scratch?”
At that, Dokgorin stroked the cover of the Nine Sky Mystic Sword.
“I understand what Chilbok is trying to say, but the Nine Mystical Sword Techniques have been continuously altered by successive heads of household. Even if this martial art is the original Nine Mystical Sword Techniques, it would still be vastly different from what I’ve learned now.”
“Oh, I see.”
Since she said so, I hesitated to push the topic further.
So I awkwardly looked away, realizing a rumbling sound was coming from her stomach.
“Then let’s go eat something. We’ve been starving while reading.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
With that said, Dokgorin brushed off her clothes and stood up.
I followed her as we headed toward the spot where the Wallgokdan jar was.
*
After a considerable amount of time had passed again.
I wasn’t sure exactly how much time had gone by, but as I had eaten nine meals in total, I lost the tolerance to wait any longer and decided we should exit the secret training area.
“…Is there any chance that the young master might still be alive?”
Before leaving, Kyungah asked with a glimmer of hope, but I responded with a wry smile.
“As cruel as it sounds, if he were alive, he would’ve rushed here first to open the door to the secret training area.”
Yet, the door to the secret training area did not budge.
This meant there were no survivors from the Dokgo family.
Kyungah’s face soured as she reabsorbed the fact that Dokgoseok was dead, but honestly, there was nothing else we could do.
Getting our hopes up only leads to bigger disappointments.
To exit the secret training area, Dokgorin pressed the inverted scale on the eighth dragon’s neck among the nine dragons drawn on the wall, and we heard the sound of the stone statue that blocked the entrance moving.
“Let’s go, Chilbok.”
“Yes.”
In preparation for any potential ambush, Dokgorin took the lead, Kyungah followed in the middle, and I brought up the rear.
As we stepped outside, it was daytime, and as we climbed the stairs, sunshine poured down on us.
Having been in darkness for so long, I blinked repeatedly to adjust my eyes to the light and gradually turned to survey the surroundings.
“……”
It was truly a horrific scene.
Burnt-out buildings and corpses scattered about.
Some were charred black like charcoal, but there were also intact bodies that seemed to have escaped the flames.
If it were summer instead of winter, there would undoubtedly be a swarm of maggots crawling all over.
“Ugh!”
As I surveyed the surroundings with Dokgorin, I couldn’t hold back any longer and vomited bile.
It was inevitable because the cold corpses sprawled about were all people who had been vibrant and alive just days before.
What’s more, they weren’t unfamiliar faces; they were all people I knew.
Kyungah seemed unable to hold back her nausea either, as she sprinted toward a corner, her face pale.
Dokgorin was the only one among us still composed.
“……”
She looked around with a solemn expression, and once Kyungah and I had calmed down somewhat, she suggested we go to the shrine.
I nodded in agreement and roughly rinsed my mouth with the water we had brought from the secret training area.
After being confined underground for several days and only eating Wallgokdan, I had nothing more to throw up.
Once we moved from the main entrance toward the shrine, a scene unfolded that was even worse than before.
To be honest, if I could, I would want to shut my eyes tight.
However, I refrained from doing so to engrave this horrific sight in my mind.
Passing through mountain-like mounds of corpses, we finally entered the shrine, where the traces of the fierce battle that night were strewn throughout.
Shattered talismans, blood-smeared floors, and there lay Dokgojin and Tang Miryeong, dead with swords still lodged in their chests.
Dokgohyeok and his wife, Chae Yunsul, rolled on the ground with deep gashes across their chests, and finally, there was Dokgoseok, dead with a spear pierced through his abdomen.
As expected, there were no survivors.
“……”
As we walked toward the shrine, Dokgorin, who hadn’t once turned her gaze away from the horrific sights, finally spoke up.
“Chilbok, could you bring me a shovel from the storage?”
“Pardon?”
“I want to personally bury at least my family.”
I paused for a moment, contemplating whether or not I should leave this place, but soon I headed toward the family’s storage to fulfill her wish and retrieve a shovel.
