Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 273 – Underground Prison (5)

-Crackle! Crackle!

Blue lightning spreading like the roots of a tree.

Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes gleamed as he watched this.

Since opening the Ghost Eye and gaining the ability to see the substance of energy, he had seen numerous types of energy.

This included demonic energy and spiritual energy.

However, the energy he was seeing now was completely different from the others.

‘…… Nature.’

The energy literally possessed a nature.

It had the power of lightning, or thunder, which he had never seen in ordinary humans or even those who had cultivated martial arts.

In the first place, could a human body handle such vast energy close to nature?

Suddenly, the words of his grandfather came to mind.

[Humans are born from nature and return to nature. Thus, the human body, like nature, maintains a balance of the Five Elements, even if only in a small way.]

Grandfather had said that if this balance was disrupted, the human body would not be able to endure it.

Yet, right before his eyes, there was a human being who was fine despite breaking that balance.

At that moment, the dazed Trainee Yeom Gyeong was grasping and pulling out something else from the back of the restrained prisoner.

-Swish!

In that instant, Mok Gyeong-un’s figure blurred.

Then, he instantly appeared behind Yeom Gyeong, grabbed his neck, and threw him towards a corner of the cell.

-Thud!

“Ugh!”

Yeom Gyeong, who had hit the cell bars, rolled on the floor and then held his head, looking around with a bewildered expression.

‘What the hell?’

Why was he inside the cell?

He clearly remembered pulling the food distribution cart and entering the cave.

But suddenly, his memory was cut off.

“Ah. One more was pulled out.”

“What?”

‘Wait…… That guy?’

Isn’t that Trainee Ahn Jong-hu?

He knew Ahn Jong-hu was assigned to the 3rd floor of the underground prison, so why was he here?

And the person in front of him was clearly a prisoner……

‘Huh?’

Suddenly, Yeom Gyeong noticed something grasped in his hand.

It was a pointed object with three prongs, but he couldn’t tell what it was.

Right then,

-Crackle!

In that instant, his vision flashed, and something blue popped out.

Along with it, the blue light spread throughout the entire cell, and Yeom Gyeong’s body once again collided with the iron bars of the cell.

-Crackle crackle crackle!

“Kkkkkkk.”

Convulsions spread throughout his body, and Yeom Gyeong let out a bizarre scream, then blood flowed from his eyes and nose, and he fainted on the spot.

Faint smoke rose from his unconscious body.

On the opposite side, Mok Gyeong-un had one hand extended forward.

-Crackle!

Blue streaks of lightning flashed in a root-like shape from his extended hand.

It was the power of thunder.

Mok Gyeong-un smirked while looking at his palm where the thunder power was sparking.

Suddenly, the power of thunder had spread from the body of the restrained prisoner, and the energy was no ordinary matter.

‘Tingling.’

His own energy, which had blocked the thunder power, had momentarily stopped as if paralyzed.

However, it didn’t last long.

‘Does it suppress the energy that activates the thunder power?’

Mok Gyeong-un immediately grasped the characteristic of this thunder power.

The moment the energy is suppressed by the lightning, proper energy circulation doesn’t occur.

This could be extremely effective against martial artists who manipulate internal energy.

However, the fortunate thing was that his own energy was on a different level from the ordinary.

The energy of the dead, or death energy, had the nature of dispersing energy, so it seemed to be temporarily affected by the lightning but quickly overcame it.

-Clang!

At that moment, the fully restrained prisoner rose from their position.

As they straightened their body, lightning continuously flowed from the shackles on their wrists and ankles, emitting blue sparks.

-Crackle crackle!

Seeing this, Mok Gyeong-un realized that the prisoner was trying to break free from the restraints.

Watching this, Mok Gyeong-un stroked his chin.

‘Hmm.’

At first, he had intended to dispose of them, thinking they might interfere with his business.

But was there a need for that?

Come to think of it, if this prisoner caused a commotion trying to escape, it would actually be more helpful by diverting attention.

‘A useful pawn.’

Mok Gyeong-un, with a smirk on his lips, grasped his sword fingers.

As he grasped the sword fingers, the surroundings rippled, and a sharp aura arose.

Mok Gyeong-un, generating the aura, then slashed the sword fingers towards the prisoner’s restraints.

-Slash slash slash!

The moment the aura cut through the restraints,

-Crackle crackle crackle!

The sharp energy and lightning overlapped,

-Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

Eventually, the shackles on the wrists and ankles split and fell off.

As the restraints were removed, the prisoner, who had been forced to stand bent due to the weights attached, straightened their posture.

‘…… Was it a woman?’

Due to the shaggy hair, blindfold, and gag, the gender was unclear, but the prisoner was a woman.

And her physique was more petite than expected.

-Crack!

As she moved her neck, the sound of muscles loosening could be heard, indicating her body was stiff.

The prisoner then removed the blindfold and spat out the gag that was in her mouth.

“Ptui.”

After spitting out the gag, the prisoner brushed her long hair back, revealing her face.

She looked rather disheveled from being imprisoned for a long time, but she had a very mature and beautiful appearance.

Judging by her appearance alone, she looked no older than her mid-twenties.

‘Young?’

Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes gleamed with interest.

According to his subordinate Mong Mu-yak, if she was from the Nine Blood Cult, she should be a very old monster.

But no matter how he looked at her, she was young.

As he was puzzled by this, the woman frowned while looking at the torch that had fallen on the floor.

It seemed her eyes were sensitive from not seeing light for a long time.

However,

‘Oh ho.’

It didn’t take long for her to adapt to the torchlight.

It could be seen from the stabilization of her pupils’ movement.

Having adapted to the light, she then looked at her own palm that had been freed from the restraints.

Then, she suddenly burst into laughter.

“Hahahahahahaha!”

She laughed like a madwoman, but she seemed genuinely delighted.

After laughing for a while, she snapped off her extremely long fingernails.

-Snap! Snap!

Just looking at those long, curled nails gave a sense of how long she had been imprisoned here.

As she broke off her elongated fingernails and toenails, Mok Gyeong-un said,

“It seems you’ve been imprisoned for a long time. I hope you can safely escape from here.”

There was no need for him to engage in conversation with her anyway.

He just hoped she would cause as much commotion as possible.

That way, all the attention would be focused on this woman.

With that thought, Mok Gyeong-un tried to leave the cell.

However,

-Whoosh!

Feeling a sinister energy from behind, Mok Gyeong-un turned his body using his movement technique and tilted his head back.

At that instant, a red-stained hand brushed past his face.

But it didn’t end there.

The red-stained hand unleashed a claw technique, aiming for Mok Gyeong-un’s neck.

-Swish swish swish swish!

It was a swift movement that was hard to believe came from someone who had been restrained until just a moment ago.

Mok Gyeong-un tried to retreat using his movement technique to avoid it, but she used a variation and attempted to grab his left arm using the Capturing Arm Technique.

-Swish!

In response, Mok Gyeong-un utilized the Bright and Evident Water Crossing Steps of the Great Heir Na Yul-ryang and moved at an extremely high speed.

In an instant, the distance between him and her widened to more than ten steps.

Stopping at that distance, Mok Gyeong-un asked with a puzzled look,

“Why did you attack? We can just go our separate ways.”

“You’re a little Embroidered Uniform Guard. Do you dare try to deceive me with your nonsense?”

“Embroidered Uniform Guard? Ah……”

Mok Gyeong-un scratched his head.

Come to think of it, the clothes he was wearing were the Embroidered Uniform Guard attire, even though he was just an apprentice.

From her perspective, someone in an Embroidered Uniform Guard uniform would be an enemy.

With this in mind, Mok Gyeong-un said,

“I understand the misunderstanding due to these clothes, but I have no connection to the Embroidered Uniform Guards. I’m just…”

-Whoosh!

Before he could finish his sentence,

She kicked the ground and launched her figure towards him.

Her speed was so fast that in the blink of an eye, she closed the distance to within three steps of Mok Gyeong-un.

As if seeing a blood-red jade, her two red-stained hands flickered with a blue light, and then claw energy burst forth.

-Swish swish swish swish swish swish swish!

The burst of claw energy instantly tore through the ground and pounced on Mok Gyeong-un.

Mok Gyeong-un let out a soft sigh at the tremendous power.

Judging by her momentum, it seemed she was determined to kill him on the spot.

-Swish!

Mok Gyeong-un widened the distance with high-speed movement, evading her charging claw energy.

-Boom boom boom boom boom!

The power was so strong that the floor where the claw energy had slashed was deeply gouged, leaving huge claw marks.

-Rumble rumble!

Even the cave passage trembled.

Being deep underground, it seemed vulnerable to impacts.

However, as if not caring about the trembling of the cave passage at all, she charged forward with a terrifying momentum, her red-stained hands infused with claw energy.

-Whoosh!

She instantly closed the distance, but this time, Mok Gyeong-un didn’t widen the gap.

If he increased the distance, she might release her strong energy and impact the cave, potentially causing it to collapse.

To avoid this, close combat was the only answer.

Mok Gyeong-un closed the distance with her as she charged and blocked her claw technique with his bare hands.

-Swish swish swish swish!

The woman, who had thought he would choose to run away, was surprised to see Mok Gyeong-un directly engaging her.

That was because, even though her body was not fully loosened after being restrained for a long time, this young man was properly blocking her while exchanging blows with her.

On the surface, he looked like he wasn’t even in his prime yet.

But when it came to martial prowess, that wasn’t the case at all.

With this,

‘He’s too valuable to simply kill.’

She thought she should make use of this Mok Gyeong-un.

If such a strong fellow fought against her comrades and caused a commotion, it would help her escape from this damn prison.

-Whoosh!

With this in mind, she used a variation and momentarily grabbed Mok Gyeong-un’s arm with the Capturing Arm Technique, then pulled him in.

Then, she precisely made eye contact with Mok Gyeong-un and flicked her opposite finger.

-Flick!

‘From now on, go and kill your comrades.’

She chanted a mantra in her mind and issued a command.

While being imprisoned here, she had honed her illusion techniques for a long time.

Now, if she stimulated both sight and hearing in close proximity, she was confident she could make anyone fall under her illusion.

However,

“Are you suggesting a staring contest?”

‘!?’

-Thud!

Mok Gyeong-un headbutted her face directly.

Being pushed back about two steps from the headbutt, she held her nose and made an incredulous expression.

‘What’s with this bastard?’

The illusion didn’t work.