She had long since lost interest in the old toy and now had her hands on a new one she desperately wanted.
She wondered what expression she might wear when she finally saw, touched, and dissected the body that had made her fingers itch even when viewed through clothing.
Jin Mi Yeon quickly laid Baek Woo Jin on the experiment table.
The most delicious things are best savored slowly.
But this time she couldn’t hold back. Completely indulging herself would come after extensive research, but she saw no problem with peeling back a little skin to take a look inside for now.
“Strip him.”
At her command, two women began to remove Baek Woo Jin’s clothes piece by piece.
“Well, isn’t this something? Women even undressing me like this.”
“Ha…!”
Every person who had lain on that cold experiment table, ten out of ten, a hundred out of a hundred, wore faces contorted with fear.
It was no surprise. The very thought of what they might witness at that table was enough to terrify anyone. Even Jin Mi Yeon, who had once lain on it herself out of curiosity, had found her nerves slightly shaken.
Yet he laughed as if none of it frightened him. His sincerity only deepened her interest, making her wonder where such unyielding mental strength stemmed from and how far it could endure.
Meanwhile, the two women had completely stripped Baek Woo Jin. His bare, solid body captured Jin Mi Yeon’s gaze.
“Ah… ah…”
It was beautiful.
Until now, among the severed bodies under her blade, there had been famed beauties from entire regions, as well as countless warriors who had reached far greater heights of martial strength.
When stripped naked, they were all human as well. Though they were exceptional compared to others, none had ever made her gasp in awe or stir her body like this.
“How can a human body be this perfect…!”
Extremely dense and defined muscles stood out sharply. It was impossible to fathom what kind of training had produced such a physique.
Though his form had been built solely for combat, it overflowed with sculptural beauty.
She was almost salivating. She struggled to catch the drool that almost slipped past her mask and managed to keep her composure.
“Hey.”
The man, no, the masterpiece Baek Woo Jin spoke to her and snapped her out of her daze.
“You’re not planning to kill me, are you?”
His voice carried a faint note of concern.
The voice she almost let slip was one filled with the tone of a woman in love. But it was quickly polished into a calm, collected one.
“Hoho… Don’t worry. I’ll only open you up for a moment, then close you back up neatly.”
Baek Woo Jin couldn’t hide his disbelief at how casually she compared cutting open a body to opening and closing a door.
“Well then…”
She picked up her scalpel. It was a tool she had honed over decades of experience; it was perfect for cutting through human skin and muscle.
“Let’s begin the dissection…”
Her first intention was to slice open his abdomen to examine his internal organs.
“Let’s begin…”
Her mind was set, and now it was time for her actions to follow.
“Hmm…!”
But her hand that was gripping the scalpel wouldn’t move. As if it was held back by some invisible force.
Jin Mi Yeon pulled her hand back.
“Ho… Hoho…”
A hollow laugh escaped her lips.
Her own body hesitated. She was reluctant to damage the flawless form in front of her. No, her body vehemently refused.
The thought of cutting into such a perfectly balanced physique, where even the slightest addition or subtraction could disrupt its harmony, made her feel as if she was committing a crime.
“It’s getting a bit cold now…”
Baek Woo Jin who was lying naked on the cold experiment table for far too long finally voiced his complaint.
After much deliberation, Jin Mi Yeon set the scalpel back in its place.
“… It seems I’ll need to change my plan.”
“Oh, you’re not cutting me open?”
Jin Mi Yeon’s gaze shifted to Baek Woo Jin’s face.
His face which was as exquisitely sculpted as his body dazzled her vision once again.
Whether they were heirs of prestigious clans, regional beauties, or martial arts masters of unparalleled skill, those who ended up on her table were nothing more than ordinary people to her.
He’s different.
For the first time, she acknowledged someone as a special being.
His handsome face, flawless physique, and unshakable boldness in the face of anything. It was impossible to call such a man ordinary.
“It seems your body, Young Master Baek, will serve a far greater purpose.”
With those words, Jin Mi Yeon gestured to the two women. They began dressing him again in the clothes they had removed earlier.
“Please wait quietly for a while. I’ll need some time.”
Overwhelming greed surged through her. It was a desire to keep him by her side forever. She wanted him to be her lifelong companion, someone who would faithfully follow and support her.
Fortunately, her recent experiments had made progress, and she had devised a preliminary method. The success rate was still unstable, which meant she would need a little more time.
“I believe there’s no need to bind your body with crude chains.”
In this place, more than ten shadows kept watch from over the shadow realm all night long. With his internal energy sealed, it was clear that there was no way for him to escape.
Because of that, she decided to grant him as much freedom as possible. Other than the sole exit, the only way out of this place, he was allowed to roam freely wherever he pleased.
Of course, they ensured the final safety measures were firmly in place.
“If you wear this on your arm.”
She attached thick rings about two inches in width to his free arms and legs. These were heavy iron rings, forged from a rare material called black iron, known to be several times heavier than ordinary metals of the same size.
“Oh, so this is what you’ve prepared.”
The weight was such that most would struggle even to lift a foot. Yet, even with these secured to his arms and legs, he merely laughed as though he had discovered something amusing.
His reaction was strange, but she didn’t think much of it. With the black iron rings now weighing him down, Baek Woo Jin’s movements had visibly slowed down. It seemed certain that escape would be impossible for him.
“You would be wise not to resort to something as trivial as suicide.”
Even that option had been thoroughly blocked. She had made it clear that if he attempted to take his own life, Tang Seon Yeong would be brought back to this place and subjected to brutal torture until her death.
“I’m not one to do anything so petty.”
“Hoho… Is that so?”
He meant it.
Though she appeared to be accommodating him under the assumption that escape was impossible, Baek Woo Jin was equally convinced that he could escape.
I’ve broken out of more than dozens of places like this.
As a skilled warrior, it wasn’t unusual for him to find himself imprisoned. He had even escaped from places considered to be actual manifestations of Hell, places from which escape was considered utterly impossible.
Even with his body torn and shredded from all manner of brutal torture, he had managed to escape before. Compared to those experiences, this was nothing.
“Well then, take him away.”
As the two shadow women led him away, he was still brimming with confidence.
***
I’m the one who escaped from the prison they called the Graveyard of Prisoners!
So what’s a mere laboratory like this? With a little effort, escaping here will be easy!
“At least, that’s what I used to think…”
It had already been a week since he arrived here.
Though it was impossible to tell the exact date in the deep underground where not even a sliver of light reached, he had asked the shadow woman who brought him meals at regular intervals, and that was the answer she gave him.
During that time, Baek Woo Jin had wandered around the cavern like an unyielding stray dog.
The huge cavern lined with grotesque corpses was filled with countless hidden rooms. If he exaggerated, it would seem that every section of the surrounding stone walls could lead to another place.
Usually, in a place like this, where things could easily go wrong, there would be at least one secret passage carved out as a precaution.
So, under the guise of exploration, he had carefully examined every nook and cranny and tirelessly searched for such a passage. However, he hadn’t found anything remotely resembling a secret exit.
The woman’s claim that the only way out was through the huge iron door might actually be true. This is what Baek Woo Jin thought.
“In that case, I’m stuck.”
When he had briefly assessed the shadow clan’s numbers before losing his internal energy, there were at least ten of them.
To break through their tight security, open that huge iron door, and escape without even a shred of internal energy? Even the legendary master of jailbreaks couldn’t pull off such a feat.
“Ah, what should I do?”
He was starting to long for sunlight.
It was while he was sighing deeply, letting out complaints, that the stone wall forming the door to his room slowly turned, revealing a familiar face.
“Please eat.”
It was one of the women from the Shadow Clan, the same one who had stripped him of his clothes and guided him to this place when he first arrived. Among them, she was the only one who had ever spoken to him.
She was carrying a table filled with a hearty meal. From the moment he asked for delicious food and liquor three times a day, they had, at the very least, fulfilled that request faithfully.
The food tastes good, but…
He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was like a pig being fattened up just before slaughter at a butcher’s yard.
“Hmm.”
Baek Woo Jin stared intently at her face as she set down the table.
“Hey, I’ve got something I’m curious about.”
“What is it?”
Her voice was stiff, but it wasn’t the monotone of someone who had completely lost their emotions. Unlike the other half-dead men he had seen before, her voice lacked emotion deliberately, not because she had lost it entirely.
This alone proved that she was a true member of the Shadow Clan.
“No matter how much I talk, the others don’t respond at all. So why is it that you answer me? Was it some kind of decision you all made together?”
It was a question born from idle curiosity.
She lowered her eyes briefly, then responded in a small voice.
“…Because you spared my younger brother. I’m simply repaying that debt. There’s no other reason.”
“Your younger brother?”
“That large boy you saw before entering this place, he is my younger brother.”
“……”
The burly man he had briefly clashed with before being brought here turned out to be her younger brother.
He had spared the man even though he could have killed him, thinking that perhaps he might belong to the Tang Clan.
I even hoped for it.
There had been a small wish mixed in as well. He was hoping that the man wasn’t a subordinate of Jin Mi Yeon but rather of the Tang Clan. Of course, it was later confirmed that he wasn’t, but at the time, that was what he thought.
In any case, his decision back then hadn’t been entirely meaningless. At the very least, it had resulted in someone willing to answer his questions.
“Hey, can I ask for one more favor?”
“What is it?”
“Would you mind lowering your mask just once?”
“…I don’t see any reason to do that.”
“No, it’s just…”
Baek Woo Jin awkwardly smiled and continued.
“I thought you might be pretty.”
“..…”
The woman froze in place like a statue, then shot him a sharp glare.
“This is as far as I’ll entertain such nonsense. Please just eat your meal.”
With that, she pulled a small pill from a pouch at her waist and handed it to him.
“Starting today, you’ll need to take this pill after meals.”
“…What kind of pill is this?”
“I don’t know either.”
The jet-black pill rolled around in his palm. Its appearance gave him an inexplicable feeling of danger.
“Well then, I’ll take my leave.”
As she approached the stone wall, it rotated once again and she disappeared.
“Hmm.”
Baek Woo Jin stared at the stone wall where she had disappeared.
Perhaps there’s a way to use that woman.
“Well, let’s eat first.”
Even a trip to the Vajra Mountain starts with a meal, so he decided to fill his stomach first before thinking any further. Recently, the constant strain of wearing weighted cuffs on his arms and legs had severely drained his energy.
Munch, munch!
After devouring an impressive amount of food, Baek Woo Jin finally held the remaining pill in his hand.
“This feels off.”
It was undoubtedly not a good pill. After all, why would they bother nourishing someone brought here as a test subject?
Throwing it away didn’t seem like a good idea either. Although the woman who had brought his meals had left, another member of the Shadow Clan was certainly keeping a close eye on him from somewhere.
It probably won’t kill me, though.
Baek Woo Jin recalled the greedy look in Jin Mi Yeon’s eyes as she practically drooled over the prospect of experimenting on him. That hungry gaze gave him enough confidence to believe they wouldn’t let him die so easily.
“At times like this…”
Even so, he still had one thing he could rely on. It was the treasure gourd strapped to his waist.
Although they had confiscated all his weapons and anything else he carried, this one item had been spared. On the outside, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary flask of liquor, so he had managed to protect it by throwing a fit, claiming it contained an expensive drink he couldn’t part with.
Baek Woo Jin began his act.
“I hate bitter medicine….”
He pouted like a child complaining about side dishes, then suddenly seemed to come up with a brilliant idea.
“Aha!”
Adding a little flair, he dropped the pill into his gourd.
“Hehe, if I take it with the liquor, it’ll taste less bitter, right?”
I’m a genius!
He praised himself and swallowed the liquor along with the pill it contained.
Since he could not use his internal energy, he could not completely dissolve the pill in the liquor like he could when he used the Drinking Wine cultivation technique. Still, he believed that the liquor would partially purify whatever harmful effects the pill might have.
Gulp, gulp!
“Ahh!”
The taste of the liquor hadn’t changed much. At most, the clean flavor of the refined spirit now carried a slightly bitter undertone.
“Hmm.”
The unusual sensation came shortly after.
His body grew feverishly warm, and a strange energy began to flow uncontrollably through his meridians before vanishing entirely as if it had never been there.
Baek Woo Jin immediately sat cross-legged and focused inward to observe his body.
What the…?
Summoning all his concentration, he searched for the source of the energy that had disappeared.
It hadn’t vanished.
It was merely hiding, buried deep within his body where it wouldn’t easily be detected.
However, Baek Woo Jin, with his extraordinary sensitivity to internal energy, was able to locate it. The discovery frightened him, yet he was familiar with what he had found.
This is demonic energy.
The demonic energy that demonic cultists, demons, and demonic beasts shrouded themselves in had infiltrated and concealed itself throughout his body.
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