Chapter 216: Hiding In Old Factory
Baek Jin-Woo didn't lower his gaze to the eighty armored guards closing the circle around us. He didn't look at the flashing, blood-stained sabers or the cruel faces of the men waiting to butcher us on the mahogany stage.
He stared straight up at the cavern ceiling.
Suspended sixty feet above the center of the amphitheater was the massive crystal chandelier. It was a staggering piece of opulent architecture, holding hundreds of heavy glass vials filled with burning, sweet-smelling whale oil, all anchored to the stalactites by a single, thick iron chain.
Jin-Woo gripped the hilt of his straight sword with both hands. He drew the blade back to his right shoulder. The deep blue Qi coating the steel didn't look like the calm, serene water of his Orthodox teachings anymore. It was jagged, frantic, and glowing with a desperate, blinding intensity.
"Crashing Wave: Sky Cleaver!"
Jin-Woo swung the sword in a violent, upward arc.
He didn't release a wide dome of energy. He condensed every single drop of his remaining stamina into a razor-thin, crescent-shaped blade of pure kinetic force. The blue projectile exploded from his sword, slicing vertically through the smoky, ash-choked air.
It hit the heavy iron chain dead center.
The sound of the thick metal links shattering was a sharp, deafening sound that echoed like a cannon shot.
Gravity instantly took over. The massive crystal chandelier plummeted.
The wealthy, scarred audience in the velvet seats shrieked, scrambling backward over the chairs in a blind panic. The eighty armored guards surrounding the stage looked up, their eyes widening in absolute horror.
The chandelier hit the polished obsidian floor directly in front of the stage.
The impact was catastrophic. Thousands of jagged crystal shards exploded outward like a terrifying wave of clear shrapnel. The heavy glass vials shattered simultaneously, unleashing a tidal wave of burning, boiling whale oil across the guards' front lines.
Screams of pure agony filled the cavern as the oil splashed over dark steel armor. Men dropped their sabers, dropping to the floor and desperately rolling to put out the flames. The sheer kinetic shockwave of the multi-ton fixture hitting the stone violently shook the entire amphitheater, throwing me off balance.
The blast radiated outward, slamming directly into the heavy iron-reinforced doors at the front of the hall. The massive impact snapped the internal locking gears with a harsh, metallic screech. The right door warped, blowing partially off its hinges and creating a narrow, jagged gap leading out into the tunnel.
"Move!" Jin-Woo roared, his voice cracking.
He grabbed the back of my heavy black wool cloak with his left hand, physically hauling me forward. I stumbled, my legs feeling like wet sand. The pure Yang energy pill he had shoved down my throat was a burning, white-hot coal sitting in my stomach, violently warring against the freezing ice of the Demonic poison in my veins. Every heartbeat sent a sickening, agonizing pulse of nausea straight up my throat.
We leaped off the stage, boots hitting the oil-slicked obsidian floor.
"Follow us!" Jin-Woo yelled to the thirty terrified villagers huddled behind the smoking remnants of the velvet curtains. "Run for the doors!"
The villagers didn't hesitate. They poured off the stage, a chaotic blur of sobbing children and desperate parents.
A half-burned guard scrambled up from the floor, raising his mace blindly toward a weeping woman. I didn't stop running. I lashed out with my right arm, whipping the heavy iron chain wrapped around my wrist. The metal links caught the guard’s kneecap. I jerked it hard, shattering the joint, and let my forward momentum carry me past him as he collapsed screaming into the burning oil.
We hit the warped iron doors. Jin-Woo slammed his shoulder into the heavy metal, forcing the gap just wide enough. We squeezed through, the heat of the burning amphitheater instantly vanishing, replaced by the freezing, damp draft of the cavern tunnel.
We ran.
We didn't stop when we reached the surface. We burst out of the tunnel entrance, abandoning the Abyssal Hall and plunging directly into the suffocating, smog-choked labyrinth of Yeomna’s lower slums.
The night air was thick with the stench of raw sewage and rotting garbage. The heavy mountain rain had finally broken through the smog, falling in freezing, relentless sheets that quickly washed the blood and ash from our clothes.
"Keep them together," I wheezed, stumbling against a damp brick wall. A ragged cough tore out of my chest, bringing up another thick spray of black, foamy blood.
"I have them," Jin-Woo replied, moving to the rear of the frightened group, his sword drawn to ward off any alley thugs looking for easy prey.
We dragged the villagers deep into the darkest, most decrepit sector of the Black Market. We navigated through a terrifying maze of narrow, twisting alleys, slipping in ankle-deep mud and stepping over the unconscious bodies of opium addicts.
After thirty agonizing minutes of running, my vision began to rapidly tunnel. The burning heat of the Yang pill in my stomach flickered, then died entirely.
The moment the Yang energy faded, the Abyssal Blood-Venom completely took over.
"Here," Jin-Woo whispered urgently, shoving open the rotting wooden doors of an abandoned, half-sunken dye factory.
The interior smelled overwhelmingly of stale ammonia, dried indigo paste, and wet rot. Huge, empty wooden vats lined the walls. Jin-Woo ushered the thirty shivering villagers inside, then grabbed the heavy wooden bar and slammed it across the double doors, locking us in the pitch-black room.