Chapter 156
While Jaseong caused chaos at the Murim Alliance Conference, deepening the rift within the orthodox factions, at that same moment, something unexpected was happening in the depths of the Celestial Realm.
If the place where the Sword Immortal Lü Dongbin resided was filled with radiant golden light, this was a pitch-black hall that swallowed even light itself.
At the center of that vast hall, upon a throne made of bone and black jade, sat enormous figures.
They were the apex of demons who once drenched the world in blood before ascending as celestials—the Heavenly Demons.
Floating in the air before them was a black crystal sphere, its surface swirling with visions of the world below.
The dramatic scene of Jaseong bursting into the Murim Alliance conference, exposing the hypocrisy of the orthodox factions, and winning the support of the smaller sects, played out vividly.
"The Sword Immortal Lü Dongbin... again, that accursed Heaven's Mandate wielder stirs up chaos in the world."
An ancient generation Heavenly Demon sitting on the throne spoke coldly, his voice sounding as though scraped from the very pit of hell.
"The balance is being disrupted. That boy is dividing the orthodox sects and even trying to subdue the unorthodox as well. If things continue this way, the energies of the world will tilt entirely in favor of the Sword Immortal."
At those words, the fifth-generation Heavenly Demon replied with a cold sneer at the corner of his mouth.
"Senior, the Sword Immortal broke the balance first... There's no reason for us to remain idle, is there? If the Sword Immortal sends forth an agent to shake the board, shouldn't we unleash our own pieces as well?"
The two Heavenly Demons slowly extended their hands.
At their motion, the thick demonic ki that filled the hall swirled and gathered over their palms.
It was not mere inner force.
It was black authority, the power to twist causality on earth and overturn fate.
"Go. Find a vessel that can withstand my power..."
At that moment, the seventh-generation Heavenly Demon asked in a voice tinged with concern.
"Seniors, but what if that opportunity turns toward our archenemies, the orthodox?"
The seniors' answer was resolute.
"Orthodox, unorthodox, Demonic Cult—it doesn't matter."
"As long as someone can keep the Sword Immortal's Heaven's Mandate in check and break him, it matters not who it is. The greater the chaos, the stronger we become."
Kuuuuung—!
A ray of black light shot from the hands of the Heavenly Demons, piercing the crystal sphere and descending to earth.
Like a black meteor tearing through the night sky, it fell towards the heavens of Sichuan.
The balance between the Celestial Realm and the world had begun to shake violently once again.
* * *
Some time later,
Deep mountains of Sichuan Province.
Tang Tian-yue, head of the Sichuan Tang Clan and Myriad Poisons King, was filled with rage.
He was leading the clan's elite shadow hands to subjugate the Hao Sect.
'How dare those filthy Hao Sect wretches kill my only son... I'll wipe them out to their very roots.'
Tang Tian-yue's eyes were bloodshot, and poison mist shimmered around his entire body like a heat haze.
The death of his only son was a wound that could never heal.
So, forgetting even his arrangement to launch a joint attack with Murim Alliance Leader Namgung Cheon-rui, he pressed on along the treacherous mountain paths, burning with a single-minded desire for revenge.
But then—
Ssssss—
Suddenly, thick mist began to rise along the mountain slope.
This was no ordinary mountain fog.
It was so dense and sticky and black that one could not see even an inch ahead.
"Clan head! We can't see anything ahead!"
"Regroup! Don't get separated from each other!"
The Tang Clan's shadow hands shouted in panic.
Yet their voices faded as if swallowed into the depths of the mist.
"What sort of sorcery is this?"
Tang Tian-yue furrowed his brow and tried to disperse the fog by gathering his inner force.
But rather than clear, the mist only tightened around him, wrapping him up like a living creature.
"Wh-What...?"
Suddenly, Tang Tian-yue's consciousness became hazy.
All outside noise was cut off, and only the sound of his own heartbeat echoed in his ears.
And from the darkness, he faintly felt something calling to him with an uncanny pull.
'This way... One who seeks power... come this way...'
"This is... something... is calling to me...?"
As if entranced, Tang Tian-yue began to move his feet.
He could no longer hear the shouts of his subordinates.
It felt as though an invisible hand was pushing him forward.
He cut through the wild brush and pushed deep into the heart of the mountains, unhesitatingly moving along dangerous paths.
Who knows how long he walked.
Gradually, the fog thinned, and a hidden cave beneath a massive cliff revealed itself.
The cave entrance was covered with vines and moss, but the energy that seeped from within was anything but ordinary.
It was a powerful poison energy.
Had it been any ordinary martial artist, just standing at the mouth of the cave would have been enough to leave them poisoned and coughing blood.
But for Tang Tian-yue, who had lived his entire life with poison, that energy felt almost sweet.
With trembling hand, he brushed aside the vines at the entrance.
An old stone stele appeared behind them.
[Here rests Zhang Wuji, Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons.]
Tang Tian-yue's eyes went wide, tearing at the corners.
"Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons... Could that be the very legend, the one who was called the Poison Emperor of the ancient past?!"
Zhang Wuji.
A legendary demonic headman who, centuries ago, mastered every poison under heaven and terrorized martial world with his poison arts alone.
It was recorded that even the ancestors of the Sichuan Tang Clan revered him.
He had never imagined that the man's tomb actually existed.
Tang Tian-yue swallowed hard and stepped inside the cave.
Within, an otherworldly purple glow illuminated the space.
All sorts of poisonous herbs grew along the walls, and venomous insects crawled across the floor.
And at the center, atop a jade coffin, a fist-sized orb floated in the air.
The bead throbbed with a dark crimson light, writhing with energy within.
Inside, countless years' worth of poisonous energy spun in a vortex.
"That... That must be the legendary Millennium Poison Pearl...!"
A gasp escaped Tang Tian-yue's lips.
The ultimate poison treasure that Zhang Wuji was said to have spent his entire life forging.
If it was swallowed, it would render the body completely immune to poisons, and a single gesture could pollute the entire world with venom—one of history's fabled artifacts.
'It's this. With this alone...'
Greed gleamed in Tang Tian-yue's eyes.
His son's death, his anger towards the Hao Sect, and the humiliation of having to bow his head to the Murim Alliance Leader—all power to overturn everything at once lay before him.
Without hesitation, he reached out for the Millennium Poison Pearl.
"This power... is mine!"
Tak!
The instant his hand grasped the orb—
KWAANG!
Unimaginable pain swept his entire body.
It felt as if he had swallowed molten lava, every vein searing with agony.
Black poisonous energy surged up his arm, into his heart, to his dantian, and finally into his very brain.
"Guaaaaargh!!"
Tang Tian-yue screamed, writhing on the ground.
His skin rotted and regenerated over and over.
Blood-tears streamed from his eyes, and black foam spilled from his lips.
But he did not let go of the orb.
No, he could not.
The Celestial Realm's demonic ki held him fast.
—Accept it. Hatred, anger, and power.
An unfamiliar voice echoed in his mind.
Gritting his teeth, Tang Tian-yue endured the pain, swallowing it down.
An explosive reaction erupted within his dantian.
His inner force, once blocked by the wall of the supreme peak, fused with the Millennium Poison Pearl's energy and began to expand uncontrollably.
Uuuuuung—!
The entire cave shook.
The purple poison mists encircling his body turned black, then were fully absorbed into him.
Moments later,
Tang Tian-yue, who had collapsed onto the floor, slowly rose to his feet.
He no longer looked as he did before.
His once-white hair had turned jet black, and his wrinkled skin had become taut and young once more.
Most striking of all were his eyes.
The whites had vanished, his entire irises now ablaze with a deep blue glow.
Shhhhk—
With each breath, clouds of venom mist spewed from his mouth.
Where the mist touched, the stone hissed and melted away.
"Hoo..."
Tang Tian-yue looked down at his hand.
Surging power.
What coursed through his veins now was not blood, but lethal poison.
He was no longer human.
He had become a walking disaster—a Poison Man itself.
"Keukeukeu... Kuhahahahaha!"
Tang Tian-yue burst into mad laughter.
At his laughter, the venomous insects in the cave scattered in terror.
"With this power... I don't need Namgung Cheon-rui's help. This is more than enough to fight that old man head-on!"
He clenched his fist.
The air exploded and cracked with the force.
"Wait for me, Hao Sect. And you, the ones who killed my son."
There, he sat down cross-legged.
He needed to completely subdue the rampaging energy of the Millennium Poison Pearl and make it his own.
His level, which had remained only at the beginning of the supreme peak, was growing explosively by absorbing the Millennium Poison Pearl and Celestial Realm's demonic ki.
Transformation Realm.
That legendary level now flickered before his eyes.
"I'll melt you down until not a bone or speck of flesh remains."
In the deep heart of Sichuan, a new monster was awakening.
* * *
Three months later, Hao Sect Headquarters.
In the deep forest, a massive hall covered with vines and moss crouched in darkness.
With ancient trees several centuries old encircling it, even an overhead view would not reveal its existence.
This was where all the information of the martial world converged—a secret haven for the most elusive shadows.
But tonight, that haven had become a blood-soaked battlefield.
Shhhhk—
Breaking the midnight stillness, purple mist rolled over the forest.
Two hundred of the Sichuan Tang Clan's most elite shadow hands launched a sudden assault on the Hao Sect headquarters.
The poisoned mist they unleashed drifted into the hall on the wind.
"Urgh...!"
"Poison! The poison is spreading!"
The Hao Sect members on guard screamed and collapsed.
Black blood spurted from their mouths, and their skin rotted away in horrific fashion.
"It's an ambush! Report to the Sect Leader at once!"
Five Dragon Hall Leader Guo Wencheng shouted urgently.
He drew his sword and charged through the poison mist, but the concentration was utterly abnormal.
"This poison... it must be the Sichuan Tang Clan's!"
Soon, the Sichuan Tang Clan's top experts leapt over the wall and charged into the hall.
The elite of the Hao Sect fought back desperately but were utterly outmatched.
They were all suffering from poisoning.
The Tang Clan experts tore through the Hao Sect ranks like demons crawling out of hell.
Suddenly—
Flap!
A black robe swept through the night sky.
On the rooftop, a middle-aged man appeared.
His face was covered by a black mask, making it impossible to identify him, yet his forceful aura dominated the battlefield.
PARARAK!!!!!!!
When the man flicked his long sleeve once, a fierce whirlwind blew, instantly sweeping away the poison mist.
At that moment, the faces of the Hao Sect elites brightened.
"Leader!"
"The Sect Leader himself has appeared...!"
The highest expert of the Hao Sect, who left countless legends and rumors throughout the martial world.
The Hao Sect Leader.
At last, he had revealed himself.
GOOOO—
On his back, emitting overwhelming energy, hung a massive, mysterious blade.
"You mongrels have dared set foot in this place."
The Hao Sect Leader's uniquely grating, metallic voice reverberated among the Tang Clan's most elite.
"Let me tell you one thing. Do you know why my identity has remained a secret for so long in the martial world?"
"......?"
"It's because no one who faced me survived to spread rumors about me."
"......!"