Ch. 34
Everyone seemed to think I was crazy for wanting to see the family head at that hour of the morning, but they couldn't just stop me, who was holding a large box with Pae Maseong, with blood dripping from my clothes, so they hurriedly delivered the message.
Lights were lit everywhere, and passing by the people who were looking at us with strange eyes, I met the family head with Pae Maseong.
He seemed to have come out of his bedchamber, wearing only a robe over his nightclothes, and he seemed surprised to see my clothes.
After roughly receiving our greetings, he asked.
"Are you hurt, Ya Socheong?"
"No. I'm not hurt."
"What is it that you wanted to see me at this hour? Where are you coming from? What is that?"
He seemed to have many questions, and I opened the box in front of him.
"This is the cargo that the Silver Wind Force lost. The Silver Wind Force is now all in closed-door training, so please have another martial force deliver this to the place that requested the security escort. Then you won't have to pay the penalty."
"How did you find this? Don't tell me..."
He looked at me as if it were absurd.
There were many reasons why he couldn't understand, but just thinking about the location of that mountain bandit stronghold, it would be unbelievable that we had subjugated it and were here now.
"Shouldn't I use the internal energy of the elixir you gave me at a time like this? The work is not all over yet, so I will go back. I would appreciate it if you could deliver this item without delay. Even if the security escort failed, if it becomes known that we found and delivered the lost cargo until the end, the number of people who entrust their cargo to the Danli family might increase a little."
The family head looked at me with a face that seemed to ask, 'Is that why you're doing this?'
"I'll be on my way now."
"Are you saying you're going back like this? Are you really not hurt?"
Then, as if he thought that he shouldn't just ask like that, he had his subordinate bring some medicine.
"It will heal well if you apply it to your wounds. It was made by a skilled physician with good ingredients, so use it well."
Then he looked at Pae Maseong and told him to take good care of me.
"I would have liked to give you new martial arts uniforms, but let's do that when you come back."
The family head said as he personally followed us out.
Whether it was because of what the family head had said, his subordinates also followed us out.
Their eyes were full of pity as they looked at me.
For some reason, it seemed that they now really thought of me as a member of the Danli family, but since that was not my intention, it was a little awkward.
After changing our clothes at the Silver Wind Residence, Pae Maseong and I went out and first slept outdoors.
We could have rested at the Silver Wind Residence for the remaining time, but I thought that if I slept in a comfortable place, I wouldn't want to come out, so I just came out.
When I told Pae Maseong that, he laughed, saying that he had been thinking the same thing.
"And I'm not very sleepy. I don't feel tired either. I've definitely realized that the strategy is important. I think this strategy was really good. Especially in a place like a mountain bandit stronghold. The conditions were right for a fire to burn well, and the buildings were packed closely together. People were sleeping packed together in one space. I think that's why the effect of the poisonous insects was also better."
Listening to Pae Maseong's words, I thought that it really seemed to be the case.
"What happened to the poisonous insects? Did you retrieve them all?"
"Yes, I retrieved them all. Should I give you a few?"
"That?"
Carrying poisonous insects around.
Just the thought of it was terrifying.
"It won't bite you, Pae Maseong? Did you learn how to control them separately? Did our master teach you?"
As I was talking, I even started to feel a little sad.
I had thought that Yeon Cheongha had not discriminated between Pae Maseong and me when he was teaching something, but I had never learned how to control poisonous insects.
Come to think of it, it wasn't that there was nothing he had taught only to Pae Maseong, but he had always asked for my opinion first.
And it seemed that only when I said I wouldn't learn it had he taught it only to Pae Maseong.
As if he could see that I was thinking that, Pae Maseong laughed.
"That's not something our master taught me. The elders of the Cho family taught me. I said I wanted to learn it. It was originally a secret technique that they wouldn't pass on, but since I asked so stubbornly, they seemed to think they had no choice. They probably had no choice because the family head stepped in and put pressure on them."
Pae Maseong's stubbornness seemed to have paid off then.
"It wasn't easy. There were no shortcuts."
Then Pae Maseong rolled up his sleeves and showed me his arm. It was dark, so I couldn't see it well, but even at a glance, there were numerous scars.
"You can see if you use your internal energy, right? Look closely."
At Pae Maseong's words, I enhanced my vision with my internal energy.
Since he had stepped up and told me to look, I looked, and until then, I had thought that his skin was dark because it was tanned, but I finally realized that that was not the case.
The skin was covered with all sorts of scars.
There were clear and neat marks that were clearly the tooth marks of something, and the moment I saw them, my head spun.
Now they were just scars, but Pae Maseong must have had to endure all that pain.
Seeing him smiling like this even so, I felt like I knew why people said that Pae Maseong was different.
I really didn't think I could be like Pae Maseong, nor did I want to be.
"What do you want to do, Socheong? Should I teach you?"
"Will that elder allow it? You said he barely passed it on to you."
"I'll get his permission. If you just say you want to learn it."
I was really worried.
If I just learned it, it seemed that it would be very helpful in the future, but I wasn't sure if I had to go that way.
But Pae Maseong spoke again earnestly.
"I hope you learn this. Let's go to Nether Shadow Valley together later. It would be good to bring stronger poisonous creatures and tame them."
To that extent?
Before I knew it, a cold sweat began to break out on my forehead.
It would be good if I did it, but I didn't think I could endure the process, so I couldn't decide on my own.
As I was doing that, Pae Maseong spoke first.
"If it's hard to decide, I'll decide for you. Learn it. It's good to learn. It will be helpful if you learn it. Right now, I can follow you around and help you, but if I go on a mission to another place, then you'll have to do it alone. The process is difficult, but it will definitely be helpful."
Then Pae Maseong fumbled in his pocket and took something out.
I tried to stop him.
I definitely tried to stop him, but there was no time.
Suddenly, my mind went blank, and my vision seemed to blur.
My body staggered, and I was about to fall to the floor, but Pae Maseong caught me.
'This crazy bastard... at least you should have listened to me before doing it!'
Without even knowing if it was a scorpion or something that had stung me, I was stung by a poisonous insect and lost consciousness.
* * *
Pae Maseong knew for sure what the purpose of this mission was, and he seemed to think that he could handle one mountain bandit stronghold on his own even without me.
That was not particularly his misunderstanding.
Pae Maseong took me, who was unconscious after being bitten by a poisonous insect, and hung me on a tree, and in the meantime, he subjugated one mountain bandit stronghold.
Although it was a little smaller in scale than Seowonchae, I was greatly surprised because I hadn't thought that Pae Maseong could do it alone.
But since I hadn't played a great role or actively helped when we subjugated Seowonchae, it seemed that it wouldn't have been entirely impossible.
I came to my senses when the flames were spreading in the dark.
A situation similar to Seowonchae had occurred, but what was different this time was that my body wouldn't move at all.
It didn't hurt anymore, but it seemed that the paralysis symptoms from the poison were not being released.
'Ha, you crazy bastard!'
I firmly resolved not to let Pae Maseong get that close to me again and endured that time.
I couldn't understand what kind of poison it was to be like this.
Am I not a person with internal energy?
The amount of my internal energy is not small.
If I try to detoxify using that internal energy and it doesn't work, it must mean that this is a really powerful poison.
Still, I didn't give up and tried to drive out the poison energy.
In doing so, I moved my energy in a different way than I usually did.
I tried to drive out the poison energy while using acupoints that I would not normally use, and that brought an unexpected effect.
'That's right. Our master said this was necessary. He said that even if not now, it would be necessary when practicing other martial arts later, so we had to keep opening the acupoints.'
As they say, 'kill two birds with one stone,' I took the opportunity to open the acupoints.
As I was doing that and trying to drive out the poison energy, at first it didn't seem to be detoxifying at all, but at some point, a reaction appeared.
It became possible to move my fingers, and I could also clench my hands a little.
'It's working now.'
I was proud of myself.
Thinking that I could completely discharge the poison energy if I did a little more, I moved my energy along the acupoints.
Then, a little later, I was able to move completely freely, so I went down to the floor.
If I had my way, I would have wanted to make Pae Maseong suffer alone, but since that guy was also doing it because of me, I went to the mountain bandit stronghold.
Then, as I swung my sword and went on a rampage, a commotion broke out again because of me, who had suddenly appeared.
Pae Maseong also saw me and went on a rampage with even more excitement.
Thanks to that, the work ended much faster than at Seowonchae.
This time, we also recovered the cargo, and as before, we hid the money and each took ten gold taels.
This time, I didn't take it in silver bills, but I also took it in gold taels.
I also gained the confidence that if I were as strong as this, I could protect ten gold taels, and it seemed that I could also hide that much money appropriately in the Silver Wind Residence.
"Pae Maseong, if you carelessly use a poisonous insect on me again..."
But my words stopped there.
Pae Maseong was faster, and this time it was a poisonous snake.
'Ha, you son of a bitch!'
The poison of the poisonous snake that had survived in Nether Shadow Valley spread through my body in an instant, and this time, my internal energy moved on its own and spread that energy along the acupoints.
'No, you have to detoxify. Why are you spreading it?'
As I was thinking that nothing seemed to be on my side, my consciousness disappeared again.
* * *
While subjugating four mountain bandit strongholds, I gradually gained tolerance to more and more poisons.
Pae Maseong could not hide his amazed expression as he looked at me.
"Socheong, you seem really strange. How did you wake up? It took me more than five days to wake up from the centipede's poison. I really thought I was going to die then."
And you threw that at me?
This bastard.
I was about to fight, but I lost my motivation because Pae Maseong prostrated himself and begged for forgiveness.
(End of Chapter)