Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Jin Ja-gang woke from a short, restless sleep, his entire body throbbing with pain.

When he opened his eyes, the cave was bright. It must have been morning.

But the floor felt wet and sloshy.

“Ouch!”

The hot spring water had risen and was touching his skin, reddening the areas it touched.

Startled, he sat up and looked outside—the hot spring water had risen all the way up to the mouth of the cave.

The water level was much higher than the previous night.

Flustered, Jin Ja-gang looked into and out of the cave in turn.

He had to decide.

Should he swim out through the hot spring, or…?

But just touching the water was agonizing. The keratin on his skin would melt away instantly—he couldn’t even imagine trying to swim through it.

On top of that, he had no strength left in him. The hot spring wasn’t very wide, but if he lost strength halfway, he’d sink—and if that happened…

Jin Ja-gang shuddered at the thought. The idea of dying was frightening, but what scared him more was dying without doing anything.

He turned his body and crawled deeper into the cave. Luckily, the cave sloped slightly upward, which reassured him.

The hot spring water kept climbing, lapping at his feet as he crawled slowly.

Once he’d climbed far enough, the spring water stopped rising.

But the inner cave was still filled with sulfur fumes and steam.

He was desperately hungry now. His stomach growled, and he was parched. The swelling in his throat had gone down, and the hole there had mostly closed, but each breath burned his lungs and the stifling, acrid air remained hard to endure.

Dizzy, Jin Ja-gang collapsed onto the cave floor.

Crunch.

He felt something under his hand.

“Hmm?”

Thankfully, the faint light reflected in the water that had filled the cave reached the far end of the cave, giving him some visibility. Depending on that dim light, Jin Ja-gang checked what he’d touched.

It looked yellow, almost like a lump of sulfur, but with a strange, moldy, mossy appearance.

He tore off a piece with his fingers, and it split easily along natural lines—surprisingly familiar in texture. The stuff grew in steps along the cave wall and floor.

“A mushroom?” 

Hurriedly, Jin Ja-gang picked the mushrooms.

Even if they were poisonous, he could eat them. He’d survived Mang-ryo’s poisonous mushroom porridge, so these couldn’t be worse.

Just before devouring a handful, he forced himself to pause and took a small bite to taste first.

Sour, bitter, spicy, and a little chalky.

Despite the cave being full of sulfur fumes, these mushrooms had an especially sharp sulfur smell.

“Are these sulfur polypore mushrooms?”

Back in Hundred Flower Valley, sulfur polypore was sometimes processed for medicinal use. Usually, it grew on wood.

Naturally, eating it raw meant there was some toxicity, and his stomach burned. But it wasn’t so bad that he couldn’t handle it.

After waiting a while with his hunger gnawing at him and no severe reaction, Jin Ja-gang finished the remaining mushrooms in his hand.

Chomp, chomp.

They were soft and chewy—not unpleasant.

His whole stomach burned, but the hunger faded, and he felt a bit of strength returning.

With so many sulfur polypore mushrooms everywhere, food wouldn’t be an immediate worry.

But he was parched.

The hot spring water lapped at his feet, but after his experience the previous day, he knew he mustn’t drink it.

Still, temptation grew.

“Maybe… just a little wouldn’t hurt, right?”

He was so thirsty that he decided to risk it. He leaned down and dipped his hand into the hot spring.

Zing!

It immediately felt as if his skin was dissolving.

“Hrk!”

He jerked his hand out, feeling a burning pain.

The hot spring water was undrinkable. Forget the poison; it might literally melt his throat and stomach.

“I need water…”

Going without water much longer could be fatal.

A thought suddenly came to him.

If steam collected, then condensed into droplets, maybe he could drink those.

Holding his breath, Jin Ja-gang reached slowly up the ceiling. But the sulfur polypore mushrooms made the cave dry.

He crawled further in.

The cave grew narrower, until his shoulders almost stuck.

Plip.

He heard the tiny sound of a water droplet.

He spotted a small stalactite hanging from the ceiling. Beneath it was a tiny puddle.

There was barely enough water to fill a ladle.

Jin Ja-gang sniffed the puddle. It smelled surprisingly pleasant. Definitely a scent of sulfur, but not acrid or harsh—almost an auspicious, uplifting fragrance.

Just to be sure, he dipped in a finger and tasted a drop. It was slightly bitter but clean and crisp.

He waited a while, ready for any reaction, but nothing happened.

Only then did Jin Ja-gang bend down and take a full mouthful.

Gulp.

A refreshing sensation trickled down his throat into his stomach. The gentle fragrance of sulfur lingered in his mouth.

That alone quenched his thirst and soothed the stomach pain from the mushrooms.

It was remarkable.

But…

“Why do I feel so sleepy?”

In any case, this was a place no one would likely find.

For the first time in ages, Jin Ja-gang relaxed and let himself fall deeply asleep.

***

***

He survived by eating mushrooms and drinking the fragrant puddle water in the cave for a while.

For some reason, every time he drank the fragrant cave water, he grew very sleepy, falling asleep day and night. But every time he woke, he felt incredibly refreshed.

Feeling his body recover day by day, Jin Ja-gang continued this routine inside the cave.

He had plenty of experience with waiting and enduring. If need be, he was prepared to stay there until everyone had forgotten he existed.

* * *

A week passed since Jin Ja-gang’s escape.

Mang-ryo tore at a chicken drumstick, ripping the meat in big mouthfuls. The tender, boiled chicken skin tore apart easily.

Chomp, chomp.

He ate as if furious.

Sitting across from him was Hidden Dragon Bell Sa Heung-sam, who looked at Mang-ryo’s crude eating and tutted.

“Elder Mang, are you taking out your anger on your food? Let it go already. That brat’s dead, surely. After a week, he must’ve dissolved into a puddle of poison down there.”

“What? You think he’s dead?” 

Fire glinted in Mang-ryo’s eyes.

“He’s not dead! He’s definitely still alive! He’s hiding somewhere in the Mixed Spring Ground!”

Suddenly, Mang-ryo sprang up and hurled the chicken leg to the ground, spitting on it.

“Pah! Pah! Pah!”

Not satisfied, he stomped on it with his dirty boots.

Then he picked it up and tossed it into a small wooden bucket beside him, spitting on it again.

The bucket was already filled with discarded food—roast pork, boiled meat, all thrown away with barely a bite taken.

The disgusting sight made Sa Heung-sam lose his appetite. Frowning, he put down his chopsticks.

“Geez! If you’re going to eat, finish your food. What’s the point of that?”

He walked out, abandoning his meal.

Servants soon came to clear the dishes.

Mang-ryo pointed at the wooden bucket beside the table.

“Give that separately to Gwak-o to throw away.”

“Yes, Elder.”

Mang-ryo grinned, satisfied.

“Heh heh heh! Let’s see how long you last, brat. Even you’ll end up eating this when you’re starving!”

* * *

When Jin Ja-gang woke, he felt the cave grow hotter. It must have been nighttime, raising the earth’s temperature.

Conveniently, the hot spring water in the cave had almost completely drained, so for the first time in a long while, Jin Ja-gang crawled to the entrance for some fresh air. At night, the spring’s water level had dropped to beneath the cave floor.

Drip. Drip.

The sulfur crust, slowly melting, was breaking off and falling into the hot spring. As time passed, the floor grew hotter, and the rate at which sulfur and waste from the Extreme Poison Sect melted into the hot spring increased.

Plop, plop.

Sulfur and all sorts of waste dumped from the sect fell into the spring.

But then a savory smell caught Jin Ja-gang’s nose. Amid the ever-present sulfur stench, it was the only normal scent.

“Huh?”

Jin Ja-gang stuck out his upper body and looked around the hot spring.

It had been so long since he’d smelled real food that saliva pooled in his mouth.

A flat wooden bucket, half-broken, was floating nearby—emanating the savory aromas.

Inside were thrown-away scraps of food. The hot spring wasn’t wide, so if he stretched out as far as he could, he might just reach it.

“Urgh.”

Jin Ja-gang braced himself, grabbed a cow bone, and leaned out, drawing the bucket close.

Inside were leftovers. The bone of what looked like a whole roasted pig, picked clean, and a chicken stripped to the bones.

There was no meat left.

“They must’ve had a real feast.”

It had been so long since he’d tasted real food that just smelling the bones and roasted fat made his mouth water.

He put his nose to the bucket and inhaled deeply.

Even just the bones still carried the aroma of meat and fried fat.

“Chh.”

He wanted to eat, but there was nothing there.

Jin Ja-gang turned the bucket upside down, shaking out the bones, letting go of his longing, and rinsed the bucket with hot spring water.

“I was uncomfortable without a proper toilet anyway—this will do.”

* * *

It had been nearly a month since Jin Ja-gang began living in the cave.

For a while, nothing changed—he just ate, slept, and waited.

A month spent fumigated in steaming sulfur vapors in that tight cave.

His skin regularly burned, peeled, and scabbed.

But a few days ago, the scabs began to cover his whole body. Now, Jin Ja-gang found himself completely covered in hideous, pitch-black scabs.

He absently scratched his arm and peeled off a scab.

For someone like Jin Ja-gang, who had endured so much pain, the sting of peeling a scab was nothing.

But strangely, this time it didn’t hurt at all. Running his hand along his skin, the scab just sloughed off like an old snakeskin.

Even more surprising was what lay underneath.

Pale white skin.

“…There’s no blood.”

Just a few days ago, if the skin had come off, it would have revealed red flesh, oozing with blood.

He scratched somewhere else, and more black scabs peeled away, revealing the same pale, smooth skin.

He scratched his chest and stomach. Wherever scabs fell, only whiteness showed—no more dark marks from the Five Toxins, no scars from all the venomous bites.

The new skin was smooth and soft, almost like that of a newborn, with not a blemish or scar in sight—actually so pale as to seem almost sickly.

When he touched his face, he felt it was covered with scabs too. His hair felt odd—he realized his scalp was also crusted over, and as he rubbed the scabs free, clumps of old hair came off.

He was scared for a moment—but then, feeling his scalp, he discovered new, short hairs sprouting underneath where the scab and old hair had come away. His hair had all fallen out, but fresh hairs were growing in its place, which didn’t seem like a bad sign.

“…?”

“What is happening?”

☕ Support on Ko-Fi

Jin Ja-gang woke from a short, restless sleep, his entire body throbbing with pain.

When he opened his eyes, the cave was bright. It must have been morning.

But the floor felt wet and sloshy.

“Ouch!”

The hot spring water had risen and was touching his skin, reddening the areas it touched.

Startled, he sat up and looked outside—the hot spring water had risen all the way up to the mouth of the cave.

The water level was much higher than the previous night.

Flustered, Jin Ja-gang looked into and out of the cave in turn.

He had to decide.

Should he swim out through the hot spring, or…?

But just touching the water was agonizing. The keratin on his skin would melt away instantly—he couldn’t even imagine trying to swim through it.

On top of that, he had no strength left in him. The hot spring wasn’t very wide, but if he lost strength halfway, he’d sink—and if that happened…

Jin Ja-gang shuddered at the thought. The idea of dying was frightening, but what scared him more was dying without doing anything.

He turned his body and crawled deeper into the cave. Luckily, the cave sloped slightly upward, which reassured him.

The hot spring water kept climbing, lapping at his feet as he crawled slowly.

Once he’d climbed far enough, the spring water stopped rising.

But the inner cave was still filled with sulfur fumes and steam.

He was desperately hungry now. His stomach growled, and he was parched. The swelling in his throat had gone down, and the hole there had mostly closed, but each breath burned his lungs and the stifling, acrid air remained hard to endure.

Dizzy, Jin Ja-gang collapsed onto the cave floor.

Crunch.

He felt something under his hand.

“Hmm?”

Thankfully, the faint light reflected in the water that had filled the cave reached the far end of the cave, giving him some visibility. Depending on that dim light, Jin Ja-gang checked what he’d touched.

It looked yellow, almost like a lump of sulfur, but with a strange, moldy, mossy appearance.

He tore off a piece with his fingers, and it split easily along natural lines—surprisingly familiar in texture. The stuff grew in steps along the cave wall and floor.

“A mushroom?” 

Hurriedly, Jin Ja-gang picked the mushrooms.

Even if they were poisonous, he could eat them. He’d survived Mang-ryo’s poisonous mushroom porridge, so these couldn’t be worse.

Just before devouring a handful, he forced himself to pause and took a small bite to taste first.

Sour, bitter, spicy, and a little chalky.

Despite the cave being full of sulfur fumes, these mushrooms had an especially sharp sulfur smell.

“Are these sulfur polypore mushrooms?”

Back in Hundred Flower Valley, sulfur polypore was sometimes processed for medicinal use. Usually, it grew on wood.

Naturally, eating it raw meant there was some toxicity, and his stomach burned. But it wasn’t so bad that he couldn’t handle it.

After waiting a while with his hunger gnawing at him and no severe reaction, Jin Ja-gang finished the remaining mushrooms in his hand.

Chomp, chomp.

They were soft and chewy—not unpleasant.

His whole stomach burned, but the hunger faded, and he felt a bit of strength returning.

With so many sulfur polypore mushrooms everywhere, food wouldn’t be an immediate worry.

But he was parched.

The hot spring water lapped at his feet, but after his experience the previous day, he knew he mustn’t drink it.

Still, temptation grew.

“Maybe… just a little wouldn’t hurt, right?”

He was so thirsty that he decided to risk it. He leaned down and dipped his hand into the hot spring.

Zing!

It immediately felt as if his skin was dissolving.

“Hrk!”

He jerked his hand out, feeling a burning pain.

The hot spring water was undrinkable. Forget the poison; it might literally melt his throat and stomach.

“I need water…”

Going without water much longer could be fatal.

A thought suddenly came to him.

If steam collected, then condensed into droplets, maybe he could drink those.

Holding his breath, Jin Ja-gang reached slowly up the ceiling. But the sulfur polypore mushrooms made the cave dry.

He crawled further in.

The cave grew narrower, until his shoulders almost stuck.

Plip.

He heard the tiny sound of a water droplet.

He spotted a small stalactite hanging from the ceiling. Beneath it was a tiny puddle.

There was barely enough water to fill a ladle.

Jin Ja-gang sniffed the puddle. It smelled surprisingly pleasant. Definitely a scent of sulfur, but not acrid or harsh—almost an auspicious, uplifting fragrance.

Just to be sure, he dipped in a finger and tasted a drop. It was slightly bitter but clean and crisp.

He waited a while, ready for any reaction, but nothing happened.

Only then did Jin Ja-gang bend down and take a full mouthful.

Gulp.

A refreshing sensation trickled down his throat into his stomach. The gentle fragrance of sulfur lingered in his mouth.

That alone quenched his thirst and soothed the stomach pain from the mushrooms.

It was remarkable.

But…

“Why do I feel so sleepy?”

In any case, this was a place no one would likely find.

For the first time in ages, Jin Ja-gang relaxed and let himself fall deeply asleep.

***

***

He survived by eating mushrooms and drinking the fragrant puddle water in the cave for a while.

For some reason, every time he drank the fragrant cave water, he grew very sleepy, falling asleep day and night. But every time he woke, he felt incredibly refreshed.

Feeling his body recover day by day, Jin Ja-gang continued this routine inside the cave.

He had plenty of experience with waiting and enduring. If need be, he was prepared to stay there until everyone had forgotten he existed.

* * *

A week passed since Jin Ja-gang’s escape.

Mang-ryo tore at a chicken drumstick, ripping the meat in big mouthfuls. The tender, boiled chicken skin tore apart easily.

Chomp, chomp.

He ate as if furious.

Sitting across from him was Hidden Dragon Bell Sa Heung-sam, who looked at Mang-ryo’s crude eating and tutted.

“Elder Mang, are you taking out your anger on your food? Let it go already. That brat’s dead, surely. After a week, he must’ve dissolved into a puddle of poison down there.”

“What? You think he’s dead?” 

Fire glinted in Mang-ryo’s eyes.

“He’s not dead! He’s definitely still alive! He’s hiding somewhere in the Mixed Spring Ground!”

Suddenly, Mang-ryo sprang up and hurled the chicken leg to the ground, spitting on it.

“Pah! Pah! Pah!”

Not satisfied, he stomped on it with his dirty boots.

Then he picked it up and tossed it into a small wooden bucket beside him, spitting on it again.

The bucket was already filled with discarded food—roast pork, boiled meat, all thrown away with barely a bite taken.

The disgusting sight made Sa Heung-sam lose his appetite. Frowning, he put down his chopsticks.

“Geez! If you’re going to eat, finish your food. What’s the point of that?”

He walked out, abandoning his meal.

Servants soon came to clear the dishes.

Mang-ryo pointed at the wooden bucket beside the table.

“Give that separately to Gwak-o to throw away.”

“Yes, Elder.”

Mang-ryo grinned, satisfied.

“Heh heh heh! Let’s see how long you last, brat. Even you’ll end up eating this when you’re starving!”

* * *

When Jin Ja-gang woke, he felt the cave grow hotter. It must have been nighttime, raising the earth’s temperature.

Conveniently, the hot spring water in the cave had almost completely drained, so for the first time in a long while, Jin Ja-gang crawled to the entrance for some fresh air. At night, the spring’s water level had dropped to beneath the cave floor.

Drip. Drip.

The sulfur crust, slowly melting, was breaking off and falling into the hot spring. As time passed, the floor grew hotter, and the rate at which sulfur and waste from the Extreme Poison Sect melted into the hot spring increased.

Plop, plop.

Sulfur and all sorts of waste dumped from the sect fell into the spring.

But then a savory smell caught Jin Ja-gang’s nose. Amid the ever-present sulfur stench, it was the only normal scent.

“Huh?”

Jin Ja-gang stuck out his upper body and looked around the hot spring.

It had been so long since he’d smelled real food that saliva pooled in his mouth.

A flat wooden bucket, half-broken, was floating nearby—emanating the savory aromas.

Inside were thrown-away scraps of food. The hot spring wasn’t wide, so if he stretched out as far as he could, he might just reach it.

“Urgh.”

Jin Ja-gang braced himself, grabbed a cow bone, and leaned out, drawing the bucket close.

Inside were leftovers. The bone of what looked like a whole roasted pig, picked clean, and a chicken stripped to the bones.

There was no meat left.

“They must’ve had a real feast.”

It had been so long since he’d tasted real food that just smelling the bones and roasted fat made his mouth water.

He put his nose to the bucket and inhaled deeply.

Even just the bones still carried the aroma of meat and fried fat.

“Chh.”

He wanted to eat, but there was nothing there.

Jin Ja-gang turned the bucket upside down, shaking out the bones, letting go of his longing, and rinsed the bucket with hot spring water.

“I was uncomfortable without a proper toilet anyway—this will do.”

* * *

It had been nearly a month since Jin Ja-gang began living in the cave.

For a while, nothing changed—he just ate, slept, and waited.

A month spent fumigated in steaming sulfur vapors in that tight cave.

His skin regularly burned, peeled, and scabbed.

But a few days ago, the scabs began to cover his whole body. Now, Jin Ja-gang found himself completely covered in hideous, pitch-black scabs.

He absently scratched his arm and peeled off a scab.

For someone like Jin Ja-gang, who had endured so much pain, the sting of peeling a scab was nothing.

But strangely, this time it didn’t hurt at all. Running his hand along his skin, the scab just sloughed off like an old snakeskin.

Even more surprising was what lay underneath.

Pale white skin.

“…There’s no blood.”

Just a few days ago, if the skin had come off, it would have revealed red flesh, oozing with blood.

He scratched somewhere else, and more black scabs peeled away, revealing the same pale, smooth skin.

He scratched his chest and stomach. Wherever scabs fell, only whiteness showed—no more dark marks from the Five Toxins, no scars from all the venomous bites.

The new skin was smooth and soft, almost like that of a newborn, with not a blemish or scar in sight—actually so pale as to seem almost sickly.

When he touched his face, he felt it was covered with scabs too. His hair felt odd—he realized his scalp was also crusted over, and as he rubbed the scabs free, clumps of old hair came off.

He was scared for a moment—but then, feeling his scalp, he discovered new, short hairs sprouting underneath where the scab and old hair had come away. His hair had all fallen out, but fresh hairs were growing in its place, which didn’t seem like a bad sign.

“…?”

“What is happening?”

☕ Support on Ko-Fi

☕ Support on Ko-Fi

☕ Support on Ko-Fi