Chapter 218
Chapter 218. Verification
Myungdan's expression darkened.
However, there was no way to flee. Hundreds of pairs of eyes were fixed on him—those of the leaders of the fifteen sects and of the rising talents.
Myungdan could never escape from this training ground.
Swallowing dryly, Myungdan rose from his seat. Stepping forward obediently was the best course of action.
Step.
The gazes clinging to him burned.
Eyes mixed with suspicion and curiosity raked over his entire body.
When Myungdan climbed onto the dais, the Four Directions Hall Lord gestured toward a chair.
It was a seat that forced him to face the Alliance Members head-on.
It was an oppressive seat, but Myungdan endured the discomfort, pretending to be calm.
Yet, despite his effort to manage his expression, his face soon twisted.
Creeak.
The door of the training ground opened, and a woman entered.
She was the eldest daughter of the Tang Clan Head, the one who had fled after evading interrogation at the headquarters.
At the small noise, everyone's gaze turned backward. As if it were only natural, every face stiffened.
What was more, Tang So-hwa walked not to the Tang Clan's seats, but straight toward the dais.
Myungdan was bewildered by all of this.
He could not understand why Tang So-hwa was here, nor why she was coming up onto the dais.
At that moment, the voice of the Four Seasons Hall Lord drilled into Myungdan's eardrums.
"As I mentioned earlier, both the Five Minerals Powder and the antidote to Gu poison were made by Young Lady Tang So-hwa. We will now demonstrate the Gu poison antidote, so please watch closely."
"W-wait a moment."
A flustered Myungdan tried to rise. However, the Four Directions Hall Lord pressed down on his shoulder, seating him again.
"This is to help you, so do not be afraid."
Meanwhile, Tang So-hwa, now on the dais, grasped an item that had been placed on the table.
"Hall Lord! There seems to be some misunderstanding. I did not come here to eliminate Gu poison, but to prove my innocence—"
Tang So-hwa dipped a palm-sized needle into a small container. Then, while Myungdan was protesting to the Four Seasons Hall Lord, she approached and drove the needle into his hand.
"Ugh!"
The black medicine clinging to the needle was sucked swiftly into his body.
"Aaah!"
Myungdan began scratching at his chest and arms.
The Mount Hua Sect Leader, who had been watching the dais the entire time, rose from his seat.
Sensing the sect leader's agitation, the Four Seasons Hall Lord quietly shook his head.
It was a wordless gesture—an entreaty to please wait just a little longer.
Tang So-hwa watched the spot where the needle was embedded.
Black veins surfaced along Myungdan's arm. She stared at those dark lines, then pulled out the needle.
"Hrk."
Myungdan bent forward, grimacing as if in agony.
The Alliance Members watching also turned pale. Some exchanged glances, even nudging one another as if telling someone else to step forward and stop this.
Yet strangely enough, more than half of the sect leaders watched the scene with calm expressions.
The Emei Sect Leader even scolded her agitated disciples.
"Be quiet."
Even the disciples of other sects who had been whispering beside Emei shut their mouths as well.
Then, someone cried out in shock.
"T-that—what is that?!"
Black liquid was streaming down from Myungdan's arm.
"How can a person's blood look like that?"
"Ugh, is that the Gu poison the Hall Lord mentioned?"
The training ground grew noisy.
It was because the voices of the frightened overlapped.
Yet the face of the one removing the Gu poison remained perfectly composed.
So-hwa merely watched Myungdan's arm, without the slightest agitation.
Drip.
After all the black liquid had poured out, red blood finally began to flow.
Only then did So-hwa wipe Myungdan's wound with a clean cloth.
"...... What is this, exactly?"
Myungdan's voice brushed against So-hwa's ear.
His expression had hardened, as if overwhelmed by confusion.
Having finished stopping the bleeding, So-hwa checked Myungdan's pulse and spoke.
"Violate the restriction."
Myungdan flinched violently.
Judging by the Blood Sect having injected the Blood Demon's blood into Myungdan's body, they would have informed him about the restriction. Their purpose must have been to seal his mouth.
"I have removed all the Gu poison in your body, so as a test, please violate the restriction."
Unable to tell whether Myungdan was feeling repulsed or simply afraid, So-hwa added,
"I am not telling you to betray anyone, only to confirm whether the Gu poison has been completely expelled."
The muscles in Myungdan's jaw shifted sharply.
As if having made up his mind, he squeezed his eyes shut.
"The Blood Sect, under the orders of the Blood Demon, intends for all the martial artists of the Central Plains to—"
Murmuring in a small voice, he suddenly opened his eyes wide. Then he pressed around his chest again and again.
With an expression of disbelief, Myungdan felt over his own body.
"How is it?"
At So-hwa's question, Myungdan's gaze turned to her. She asked again, as if to confirm.
"Has all the Gu poison disappeared?"
"...... How did you do it?"
"All I did was inject the antidote with a needle. It is a medicine obtained from the Blood Sect's stronghold."
Myungdan, who had been about to say something, closed his mouth and shifted his head.
The Mount Hua Sect Leader was looking at him. His master Muso, his senior and junior brothers, and even his martial uncles were within his field of view.
Sensing their worry and confusion, Myungdan finally swallowed his words.
The training ground heated up, as if on the verge of exploding.
Everyone was either flustered or enraged, unable to believe what they had seen.
Sensing the agitation of the Alliance Members, the Four Seasons Hall Lord spoke in a calm voice.
"As you have seen, the Blood Sect's Gu poison can be removed this easily."
At the Hall Lord's words, the surroundings fell silent.
The Alliance Members were focusing on his words more intently than ever. It felt as though anyone who made a sound to interrupt would be gravely injured.
The Four Seasons Hall Lord continued in an even tone.
"We have prepared a sufficient quantity of the Gu poison antidote, but its viable storage period is extremely short. Therefore, we recommend that you come to the headquarters to receive treatment whenever possible."
"How long is the storage period?"
"At most, about one month."
"One month? Then even if we receive the medicine, we would have to use it immediately upon returning to our sects. That gives us maybe a week or two of usability."
"If there is anyone in Kunlun who requires the antidote, please send them to the headquarters."
The Four Seasons Hall Lord presented a simple solution, then added,
"Oh, and the treatment will be handled by Young Lady Tang So-hwa here."
"However, isn't Young Lady Tang So-hwa currently not supposed to be moving around like that?"
Someone spoke in a gentle voice.
An elder of the Zhuge Clan rose from his seat.
"I apologize for saying this to you, Tang Clan Head, but at present the most suspicious person is Young Lady Tang So-hwa."
It was Zhuge Hyang. For some reason, he had a cloth wrapped around his face, covering everything below his eyes.
"If we are to single out the one who seems most deeply connected to the Blood Sect here, everyone would point to Young Lady Tang So-hwa. Whenever something happens involving the Blood Sect, isn't Young Lady Tang So-hwa always present?"
Zhuge Hyang extended his hand and pointed at Tang So-hwa.
"Even now, look at this. How could she identify the Blood Sect's poison and then so perfectly produce its antidote at precisely this moment?"
"Then what exactly are you trying to say?"
Tang Min revealed his displeasure.
However, Zhuge Hyang did not suppress his dissatisfaction and answered back.
"How can we trust an antidote made by Young Lady Tang? On the contrary, this may be a scheme, carried out under the Blood Sect's orders, to implant Gu poison into the bodies of all Alliance Members."
"Are you saying, then, that the Four Seasons Hall Lord and the Four Directions Hall Lord are trying to turn the Alliance Members into hosts for the Blood Sect?"
The Tang Clan Head spoke for the first time.
His low voice was filled with killing intent.
"No. Rather than suspecting those two, I meant that even the Four Seasons Hall Lord and the Four Directions Hall Lord may themselves be deceived."
More than half of Zhuge Hyang's face was covered, yet he seemed to be smiling. His narrow eyes curved.
Chwaak.
All of a sudden, the sound of something cutting through the air spread across the training ground.
Zhuge Hyang touched his cheek, which had suddenly turned cool.
Startled, he tried to grab the falling cloth to cover his face. However, it was useless. The cut cloth did not reattach, and another pebble flew at him from the front.
Taat.
This time, Zhuge Hyang was not caught off guard and reached out to snatch the small stone.
Moments ago, he had failed to react because he had never imagined someone would attack so recklessly inside the headquarters.
Far from reflecting on his actions, the Black Sky Demon picked up yet another pebble from the floor of the training ground.
Zhuge Hyang was just about to erupt in anger at such a brazen act that ignored the headquarters' rules.
"Elder Zhuge Hyang. What happened to your face?"
An elder of the Namgung Clan seated beside him asked in surprise.
Flustered, Zhuge Hyang shut his mouth.
Because he had stretched out his hand to block the pebble, the cloth had slipped down below his chin.
Zhuge Hyang had wrapped the cloth around his face to hide the scar that remained there.
Had he left it alone, it would have healed quickly, but in his haste to treat it, he had applied various things, causing the wound to worsen. As a result, a red mark still lingered on his cheek.
The Black Sky Demon clicked his tongue and cut in.
"I thought our Young Lord had given you a proper warning that day, yet even after receiving such a pretty whisker mark, you still haven't learned your lesson."
At Tang Min's words, an uproar broke out.
"Young Lord?"
"Are you saying Young Lord Tang Hak left beard marks on the elder's face?"
At the murmuring voices, Zhuge Hyang's face flushed red.
Placing the highest value on his honor, he felt deeply humiliated.
Unable to endure it, Zhuge Hyang gathered his internal energy. He looked ready to strike at any moment.
However, Tang Min was not a man who cared about others' temperaments or feelings. Remaining seated, he sneered and provoked him further.
"It seems you still have the habit of wagging that little tongue of yours to suspect other sects at will, so perhaps I should leave a scar on that tongue as well."
Having lost his reason, Zhuge Hyang let loose a dense killing intent.
It was a moment on the verge of erupting into a fight, but people were too shocked by a different fact to pay it proper attention, busy chattering about it instead.
"So it's true... Young Lord Tang Hak really injured the elder's face......."
As if on cue, the martial artists of the fifteen sects fixed their gazes on the Tang Clan's Young Lord.
Yet the young man's face was immaculate. There was not the slightest sign of damage—on the contrary, his handsome features even gleamed.
Shock filled everyone's eyes.
And it was not only the young martial artists.
The sect leaders and elders likewise failed to hide their dismay.
'...... An elder of the Zhuge Clan was defeated by such a Young Lord?'
Just as Zhuge Hyang realized the surrounding reactions and was about to suppress his anger and voice his grievance—
"Is that the method Young Lady Tang found in the North Sea?"
The Emei Sect Leader cut off Zhuge Hyang's chance to clear the misunderstanding.
It was, moreover, a completely unexpected remark.
Not only Zhuge Hyang, but even the Black Sky Demon abandoned his wager and focused on her words. The Emei Sect Leader was not someone who spoke nonsense.
Most of the Alliance Members were confused by the Emei Sect Leader's statement.
What does she mean? The method the Young Lady Tang found? Does that mean the Emei Sect Leader knows something?
However, several sect leaders watched the Four Seasons Hall Lord with calm expressions. They understood the question, and their faces asked for the same answer.
Quietly reading the atmosphere, the Four Seasons Hall Lord opened his mouth.
"Yes. That is correct."
It was an extremely concise reply.
Spoken like that, no one should have been able to grasp the omitted context.
Yet the Emei Sect Leader nodded.
Amazingly, she seemed to have understood the answer.
The Emei Sect Leader's gaze moved to Tang So-hwa.
Keeping Tang So-hwa in her sight, she asked Zhuge In-hwi,
"If I understand the hardships Young Lady Tang has endured, then what should I do?"