Episode 51: Return to the Demonic Training Ground
“Gasp, gasp, gasp.”
Gok Bo-ok flailed his arms and legs wildly.
His heart raced so fast it felt like his feet weren’t touching the ground but slicing through the air.
Of course, he was using his light-footed martial arts to run, so it wasn’t entirely wrong.
But it didn’t feel like he was truly “running.”
In short, he felt like he was floundering.
He was too shocked.
“I should never have come here!”
He squeezed his eyes shut, filled with regret.
But regret, no matter how swift, is always too late.
He had already seen it.
Their true faces!
At first, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
When the bamboo hats came off, revealing their faces, Gok Bo-ok nearly screamed on the spot.
“What on earth was I thinking coming here? What is Instructor Sabigang up to?”
A curse slipped from his lips.
Suddenly, another thought struck him.
“Could the instructor be…?”
No, that couldn’t be.
Gok Bo-ok shook his head vigorously.
In that instant, he looked up and twisted his body in alarm.
“Gah!”
Whoosh!
He should have focused more on his light-footed technique.
His mind was so chaotic that he hadn’t been watching where he was going.
He didn’t notice the sharp wooden stakes until they were right in front of him.
He twisted his body quickly to avoid the obstacle, but his energy faltered, and he slipped.
Thud!
He was never confident in his light-footed skills to begin with.
In the end, he lost his balance and tumbled to the ground with a loud crash.
“Ugh!”
Groaning in pain, he lay sprawled on the ground.
“Gasp, gasp, gasp.”
As he panted heavily, his mind slowly began to clear.
But the faces he had seen wouldn’t easily leave his thoughts.
Decaying flesh, cheeks oozing pus and blood, a nose flattened as if melted, exposing the white bone beneath.
They looked like corpses freshly risen from the grave.
The moonlight’s shadows only made them more ghastly, like seeing a ghost.
No, a ghost would have been preferable.
“Damn it. Of all things… leprosy!”
Now he understood the curses carved along the path leading here.
Every word was true.
The people in this village were all cursed.
Getting close to them would mean sharing their curse.
“Why on earth is the instructor seeking out such people?”
He had been pondering this, but no answer came easily.
One thing was clear.
He needed to get out of here.
If he wasn’t careful, he would end up cursed like them.
Recalling the decaying faces once more, Gok Bo-ok shuddered and stood up.
“Damn it! If only it would rain and wash everything away!”
He had never wanted a bath more than he did now.
“It’s okay. I haven’t caught it yet. I didn’t touch any of them!”
The thought of physical contact with a leper was more terrifying than death.
But he had touched things around the village with his hands.
“Damn it! What should I do? What should I do!”
The image of his own face rotting away kept flashing in his mind.
Each time, Gok Bo-ok shook his head violently.
Once he got back, he would head straight to the stream and scrub himself clean.
**
Across the table sat Sabigang and Tang Yi-hyeop.
Around them stood men in black robes, packed tightly.
Tang Yi-hyeop’s face, revealed after removing his bamboo hat, was hard to look at.
Next to him, Mucheon, using a broken branch like chopsticks, had a similar face.
Mucheon was carefully peeling away the flesh clinging to Tang Yi-hyeop’s cheek with the makeshift chopsticks.
Each time a piece of rotten flesh fell, sticky pus and blood oozed out.
He would then gently press a white cloth to the cheek to wipe it clean.
“You don’t even blink at this sight.”
Tang Yi-hyeop spoke in a hoarse voice.
Sabigang shrugged nonchalantly.
“It’s not the first time I’ve seen it.”
“You’ve seen lepers before?”
“Of course.”
“You’ve had experiences beyond your years, it seems.”
“Heh. You shouldn’t judge everything by appearances.”
His response carried multiple meanings.
It hinted that Sabigang was much older than he appeared and that he didn’t judge people by their looks.
Tang Yi-hyeop chuckled and gestured toward the window.
“You had a tail earlier.”
“Don’t worry about it. If that kid has any sense, he won’t blab. And even if he does, it won’t matter.”
He was referring to Gok Bo-ok.
Tang Yi-hyeop and Sabigang were already aware of his presence.
Tang Yi-hyeop raised a hand to stop Mucheon, who was about to use the chopsticks again.
Instead, he looked intently at Sabigang and asked.
“Is it true you can cure leprosy?”
This time, even Mucheon flinched and glanced at Sabigang.
Not only him, but all the warriors in the room turned their eyes to Sabigang.
“Who said that? That leprosy can be cured?”
“What?”
Tang Yi-hyeop’s lips twitched.
Sabigang shrugged.
“I can’t cure that disease.”
Crash!
Bang!
The table shattered.
Tang Yi-hyeop’s fist was clenched with energy.
All the warriors around them drew their swords, exuding a menacing aura.
Sabigang glanced around.
“Heh. You’re all so impatient.”
“Are you toying with us?”
There was a subtle anger in the voice.
Sabigang slowly shook his head.
“Of course not. I don’t have a hobby of mocking the unfortunate.”
“You said you could lift our curse!”
“I did. But I never said I could cure leprosy.”
“Don’t play word games with us!”
“You’re not lepers.”
“What?”
Tang Yi-hyeop and all the warriors in the room flinched.
Sabigang continued.
“It’s very similar. At first, I thought it was leprosy too. In fact, you were the first to reveal it wasn’t.”
“What are you talking about…?”
“To cut to the chase, the disease you have is called ‘The Wailing of the Cursed.’”
Tang Yi-hyeop’s mouth hung open, unable to speak.
He couldn’t understand a word of what Sabigang was saying.
Regardless, Sabigang continued without concern.
“Well, it’s off-topic, but for your information, my past research shows that leprosy isn’t even contagious. It’s just bad luck.”
”…”
“You’ve been to Jomasan, haven’t you?”
“How do you know…?”
“You must have stumbled into a cave there and barely escaped with your lives. But as you can see, your bodies ended up like this.”
Sabigang shrugged and looked around at them.
Tang Yi-hyeop just stared at Sabigang in silence.
“In the cave at Jomasan, there’s a barrier called ‘Astrajin.’”
“Astra… what?”
“Anyway, there’s something like that. The barrier mainly uses poison.”
“Poison…”
“Yes, poison. You were affected by a poison called ‘Jiltain’ there.”
“That’s nonsense! If it’s poison, I know it better than anyone! Surely you know I was the heir of the Tang family. I swear I’ve never heard of such a poison…”
“You wouldn’t have.”
”…That’s right.”
“You wouldn’t know about poisons from another realm.”
“What on earth…?”
“Just listen. You can take your time understanding.”
”…”
“When you’re poisoned by Jiltain, you contract ‘The Wailing of the Cursed.’ This disease is so severe that even in the other realm, there’s no antidote. So you must avoid it at all costs. Of course, you won’t die immediately from ‘The Wailing of the Cursed.’ But the symptoms are exactly what you’ve experienced. Very similar to leprosy.”
“Fine. Let’s say I believe you. But how do you plan to cure a poison with no antidote?”
“I told you. It depends on you.”
Sabigang smiled faintly and pulled out two vials from his robe.
The vials shimmered with a mysterious light.
One had a peculiar dark gray aura, and the other glowed jade green.
They were the Tears of Hela and the Sap of Tamicon.
“These are the elixirs that will save you.”
Tang Yi-hyeop’s eyes lit up as he reached out.
“You should be careful. As they are now, they’re deadly poison.”
Tang Yi-hyeop paused, understanding, and nodded.
Every medicine can be a cure or a poison.
The reverse is also true.
Sabigang looked at Tang Yi-hyeop intently.
“So, I’ll ask again. If I cure this disease, will you become my sword?”
“If there’s a way to lift this curse, I won’t refuse.”
Tang Yi-hyeop replied with a fierce gaze.
Then he added.
“But if all this is a lie, I’ll kill you by any means necessary.”
“Good. I like that kind of determination.”
Sabigang stood up abruptly.
“I’ll give you two days. Make the antidote by then.”
Tang Yi-hyeop stared in disbelief.
He promised to lift the curse.
But now he was just handing over two unfamiliar vials and telling him to make an antidote?
And only giving him two days?
A curse was about to escape his lips.
“I’ll say it again: the final step is in your hands. All I know is that Hella’s tears need to be mixed at more than twice the concentration of Tamicon’s sap. And you’ll need to add the Danga’s Gopi Blood Poison. Oh, and after taking the antidote, you can restore your body with Danga’s Do-Ban-Sam-Yang-Gwi-Won-Gong technique.”
“How do you know all this…?”
‘Heh, you told me everything yourself.’
Sabigang swallowed that thought and continued speaking.
“You can experiment on rats. Luckily, this village seems to have plenty of them.”
Dangihyeop stared at Sabigang, bewildered.
Sabigang had certainly given him a lot of clues.
But that only meant there were more questions to ask.
As if reading his mind, Sabigang tossed a parting remark over his shoulder as he opened the door.
“Your head must be spinning. But focus on one thing: making the antidote. That’s where your concentration is needed. Of course, that’s assuming you trust me completely.”
Dangihyeop watched Sabigang walk away in silence.
Mucheon was about to say something, but Dangihyeop raised a hand to stop him.
The black-clad warriors stood silently, their eyes fixed on Dangihyeop.
Finally, Dangihyeop spoke slowly.
“Catch some rats.”
“Understood.”
In an instant, a gust of wind swept through, and the men in black vanished from the room as if they had never been there.
Meanwhile, just as Sabigang was about to leave the village, he paused and looked back.
‘Originally, you wouldn’t have created the antidote for another eleven years. But you said it yourself—if you’d known the ingredients, you could’ve done it in five days. Now that you know the proportions, two days should be enough, right?’