Chapter 54
Chapter 54: The Genius Kang Ho-in Saves the Tower (2)
Previous Life in Gangho
Jang Pilsam, my attendant, once asked me a question.
"My lord, what was your dream when you were young?"
"A dream…… What a distant word. Why do you ask such a thing out of the blue?"
"I apologize. My son asked me the same question yesterday, and it made me wonder."
He scratched the back of his head.
I asked him in return.
"And what is your dream, Pilsam?"
"Mine is simply to serve my lord and live protecting my family."
"Your dream is greater than mine."
"Is that so. And yours, my lord?"
"Well."
I gave no answer.
Listen here, Jang Pilsam.
Why do you pour salt into an open wound?
When I was young…….
I wanted to become a Hwakhaek — a chivalrous hero.
What is a Hwakhaek?
As Sima Qian once wrote:
A chivalrous hero is one who keeps every promise without fail, and rushes to the aid of others in crisis without regard for their own peril.
In a word — a title that I, the Poison Demon, could never possess.
In my previous life, when I was still a child.
As most boys that age do, I dreamed of becoming a chivalrous hero.
The very word Hwa — chivalry — tells a story of its own.
A compound character formed from the meaning-bearing character for person, and the sound-bearing character meaning to be wedged between.
In other words — one who inserts themselves into the conflicts of others, and acts out justice.
Bold and righteous, able to clench a single blade between one's teeth and hurl oneself into the ranks of hundreds of enemies for the sake of a greater cause.
Ha.
Was that not magnificent?
The days when my heart would race at the mere mention of a chivalrous hero.
But I never became one.
"……Nothing but a revenge demon."
A symbol of pain and terror.
Far from living for others — I had lived only with my blade of vengeance in hand, eyes fixed on blood.
Anyone who stood in my path, I cut down, carved apart, and killed.
The dream of youth was nothing but a hollow thing.
In the empty chest where that unreachable dream had once lived, only venom and blood remained.
Well — on occasion I would sink into sentiment and look back on those days, murmuring to myself.
"A chivalrous hero……."
But my heart no longer stirred.
* * *
"Let's get some coffee."
I came to a café with Chief Han.
She ordered an Americano. I ordered a Caramel Macchiato.
We sat across from each other at a table.
She was dressed similarly to the first time I had seen her at the Black Market.
Jeans and a leather jacket — though without the baseball cap.
She was also wearing the necklace, the one she said had been her mother's keepsake.
It was Chief Han who spoke first.
"Thank you for your help last time."
She was referring to recovering the Iron Instrument God's sword.
"It belonged to the Republic of Korea. I merely returned it to its rightful place."
"I did think you were a patriot."
……Hm?
I said nothing.
"Thank you for all the help you've given me along the way. The strategy for clearing the 21st floor of the Tower was a tremendous help."
"I'm glad to hear it."
I was currently disguised as someone in my fifties.
She studied me for a moment before speaking.
"You're exactly as the Goryeo Sword Sect elders Choi Jae-jun and Choi Jae-hwa described."
"What did they say?"
I already knew, but asked anyway.
"Nameless Hero — a middle-aged man in his mid-fifties, thick eyebrows, tiger-like eyes, average height."
"I see."
"Two things are different, though."
"What do you mean?"
"They said you had rough hands."
She lightly swept her hair behind her ear, then pointed toward my hands.
"Your hands are smooth."
"Ah."
I quietly slipped my hands beneath the table.
Thinking I was embarrassed, she gave a faint smile.
It wasn't embarrassment — I was afraid of being found out.
Even so, to think that the Poison Spider, who always appeared so cold in the media, could smile like that.
And now she was speaking to me in full honorifics.
"Choi Jae-jun said it was impossible to tell whether the Nameless Hero was Korean or foreign. I understand that now."
"Oh?"
"You're somewhat exotic-looking."
That would be my disguise technique.
I thought I had corrected it as much as possible with the half-finished Human Skin Mask — but it seems it still looks a bit off.
Well, if she takes it as an exotic appearance, that works just fine for me.
"Impressive. To have identified me from that information alone."
"Only because you revealed your identity to me yourself. Truthfully, if we passed each other on the street, I wouldn't know you."
That was fair. She asked,
"You must have had a difficult time at the Red Dragon Gate?"
"Well — I suppose so."
Being forced to discipline those Jeoksapa lowlifes under the Red Dragon Gate's wing did count as difficult, after all.
"Where is Park Jeok-sa now?"
"Dead."
"……Was it Gate Master Lee Won-ryong who did it?"
"I wouldn't know."
I was actually the one who killed him.
Not knowing that, she made a pitying expression.
"You don't need to worry anymore. We have evidence that can deal with the Red Dragon Gate whenever we choose."
The picture was becoming clear.
When she raided the Red Dragon Gate, instead of finding traces of the Nameless Hero, she must have come across evidence of their crimes.
And having found that evidence, the reason she didn't arrest them immediately was likely because she intended to use them to find me.
"We were going to let them run, but corner them gradually. Lee Won-ryong would have no choice but to eventually seek out the Nameless Hero."
As I thought.
And now that the very person she had been searching for was sitting right in front of her, it seemed she believed the time had come to use that evidence.
I heard it and slowly shook my head.
"Please don't do that."
"Why is that?"
"The Red Dragon Gate is a massive sect. What worked before was a stroke of luck. Now, it won't be so easy."
"We've made thorough preparations in anticipation."
"Focus must be placed on climbing the Tower. A clash with them would provoke an armed conflict nearly on the scale of civil war. Unnecessary casualties serve no purpose."
"My goodness……."
The look in her eyes held something like deep feeling at my words.
She seemed to think I was a patriot, worried about Korean blood being spilled.
That wasn't it.
It was simply that I had a grand plan involving the Red Dragon Gate.
Well — people are free to misunderstand.
This worked out well. It was a good moment to bring up the real matter.
"Rather than suppressing them by force, we must make them kneel of their own accord."
"Do you have a way?"
Her eyes lit up — then she suddenly sneezed.
"Achoo—!"
"……"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I've been feeling like I needed to sneeze for a while now."
She pressed a tissue beneath her nose, looking embarrassed, when—
"Achoo—!"
"Ah-achoo—!"
The sneezing would not stop.
And it wasn't just her — every single customer in the café began coughing and sneezing.
"What on earth is happening? Oh dear."
Chief Han steadied her breathing and composed herself.
"I'm sorry. Please, go on."
I smiled faintly and brought up the subject.
"The 14th floor of the Tower."
"The Shadowless Divine Thief."
"That's correct."
Chief Han's expression darkened.
Hell's Darkness — the 14th floor.
The mission was to find the hidden Shadowless Divine Thief and kill them.
The Murim Tower, with its enormous rewards, drew challengers like moths to a flame.
Thousands and tens of thousands from every nation entered the Tower, and many died as they climbed floor by floor.
Floors where standard strategies had been established were manageable — but the 14th floor's Hell's Darkness was, in terms of survival rate, a place where the word ‘hell’ fit perfectly.
With sects rising and national Gukmubon institutions sparing no support, the average survival rate for floors below the 20th had climbed to nearly 90%.
But floors 14 through 16 — Hell's Darkness — sat at a mere 60%.
For every ten people who entered, only six made it out alive. That was the hell of the Shadowless Divine Thief.
"What about the 14th floor? Ah-achoo! Hmm-hmm."
"Too many people are dying on the 14th floor."
"That's true……."
Chief Han nodded, her expression heavy with thought.
"They were people full of dreams…… Everything from family breadwinners who wanted to provide for their families, to people who said they'd conquer the 37th floor and stop the Murim Tower's clock."
"Is that so."
"……Ugh-achoo! I'm sorry. Sniff."
I leaned slightly toward her and spoke.
"Shouldn't we be the ones protecting people like them now?"
"Pardon?"
Chief Han looked up in surprise, then quickly shifted to a meaningful expression.
"There's no method. It was recently cleared at Gold rank, but we have no idea how. All we know is that Ghost managed it. Achoo! Oh dear…… This is maddening."
The words flowed out casually — but they were a deliberate drop.
I felt a faint sense of unease.
She was watching to see if I'd react to 'Ghost'.
The Poison Spider…….
She'd even laced her words with Gold Claw Hand.
But it is I who sets the hook.
I held out a tissue toward her and asked,
"What if I had the method Ghost used to clear the 14th floor?"
"……!!"
She stared at me, forgetting even to wipe her nose.
"……You don't mean—?"
Thud.
I set a small glass vial on top of the table.
A fingernail-sized glass vial with its lid open.
"Purple Haze Dust Poison. A toxin that irritates mucous membranes and guarantees sneezing in anyone exposed."
Swoosh.
I leaned back in my chair and gestured with my chin.
The café had become a sneezing catastrophe.
"As you are currently experiencing firsthand."
A faint line of mucus had escaped beneath Chief Han's nose.
Forgetting even to wipe it, she stared at me with blank eyes.
"Achoo!"
* * *
So that she would suffer no further, I closed the lid on the glass vial containing the Purple Haze Dust Poison.
The discussion gained momentum rapidly.
The first thing Chief Han asked was this,
"Do you know who Ghost is?"
I nodded.
"Who are they? Is it an individual, or a group?"
"I cannot say. Please don't ask me any more about it."
She bit her lip.
"Let's talk about the Purple Haze Dust Poison instead."
"Understood."
"Upon entering the 14th floor, the Shadowless Divine Thief is present."
"And they hide themselves."
"If you fail to find them within ten minutes, their subordinates appear."
"The Shadowless Thousand Hands — thirty of them."
Saying the words Shadowless Thousand Hands, Chief Han swallowed hard.
The Shadowless Thousand Hands and the Shadowless Divine Thief.
They were the root cause of the 60% survival rate.
"Consider the reverse. If the Shadowless Divine Thief is killed within ten minutes?"
"Then there's nothing better. There are strategies for dealing with the Shadowless Divine Thief once they are found. But finding them is the impossible part — you know as well as anyone that it simply can't be done?"
"I don't know that. What I do know is that it can."
"How?"
Instead of answering, I pointed out the window toward the Golden Tower.
"Because Ghost already succeeded."
I folded my arms.
Chief Han looked utterly dumbfounded.
There was no contradiction in what I'd said.
She had already experienced the Purple Haze Dust Poison's effects firsthand.
Floors 14 through 16.
Once found even once, the Shadowless Divine Thief always reappears in the same location.
"How did you make this Purple Haze Dust Poison?"
"I combined medicinal herbs gathered from the Tower."
"So that's why you were after my Blood Cloud Blossom last time."
"That's correct."
"So when you said you were cultivating medicinal herbs from the Tower…… that was actually true."
She clicked her tongue in amazement. Then she asked again,
"I understand what the Purple Haze Dust Poison does. But the 14th floor's inn is large. It has five levels, doesn't it?"
She looked at the fingernail-sized glass vial as she asked.
I smiled and replied.
"Right now, with merely this small vial's lid left open, every single person in this café is sneezing."
"Then—?"
"What if there were this much of it."
I spread both hands to the width of my chest.
Chief Han's eyes trembled faintly.
'It's possible. Absolutely possible!'
That was what her eyes were saying.
Snatch!
The moment she reached for the glass vial, my hand was faster, snatching it away.
A flash of disappointment crossed Chief Han's eyes — brief, but unmistakable.
"Now, now — I can't simply hand over a treasure."
"Tell me your conditions."
I held up a single finger.
"First — the Purple Haze Dust Poison is not unlimited."
As the medicinal and poison herb field leveled up, its size expanded and I gained access to medicinal herbs and poison herbs with stronger effects — but even so, the materials for the Purple Haze Dust Poison, namely the Purple Mist Grass, Snow Bone Flower, and Life-Severing Vine, were limited in quantity.
Fortunately, the most important of the three — the Life-Severing Vine — I had managed to gather in great quantities near the mountain when I met the blacksmith on the 20th floor.
As for the Snow Bone Flower, substituting the newly accessible Shadow Root Grass would double its effectiveness.
The problem was the Purple Mist Grass.
Those purple-leafed plants, which carried the effect of dispersing easily through the air, were something I had no solution for.
And the Purple Mist Grass wasn't only used for the Purple Haze Dust Poison — it was an essential ingredient used frequently in creating many different poisons.
For my part, not having the Purple Mist Grass was especially frustrating.
If I had it in sufficient quantities, it would be a tremendous help in crafting the Eight Great Extreme Poisons of our Sacheondang Family going forward.
And once all Eight Great Extreme Poisons were assembled, I could become a Poison Demon once more.
"You'll need to procure the materials for making the Purple Haze Dust Poison first. And of course — the medicinal herbs needed for the antidote as well."
"Tell me what they are. I'll do my best to find them."
Rustle.
I set a cloth-wrapped Purple Mist Grass on top of the table.
"First, please obtain this herb. From the Murim Towers of the Republic of Korea — and beyond that, from Murim Towers across the entire world."
"……"
Chief Han said nothing as she looked at the Purple Mist Grass.
That was understandable.
I knew it wouldn't be easy.
Medicinal herbs and spirit medicines were notoriously low in drop rates, and on top of that, pharmaceutical companies from around the world had recently been sweeping them all up.
But then.
"This is Purple Mist Grass?"
She recognized the Purple Mist Grass easily.
"You know it?"
"Yes."
Chief Han smiled as she said,
"We have a lot of it. In the Gukmubon."
* * *
Her words were true.
In the photographs Chief Han showed me.
The storage room of the Gukmubon research lab was overflowing with Purple Mist Grass.
"This is—?"
"It seems the Nameless Hero hasn't made it to the 37th floor yet."
"……!"
"That's right. We gathered it from the 37th floor."
"Haaa……"
She explained.
The ruler of the 37th floor was the Poison Valley.
In order to clear the 37th floor — utterly impenetrable due to the overwhelming poison energy filling it — they had thrown every method they could think of at the problem.
The first thing that came to mind was naturally the development of an antidote.
What caught the researchers' attention was the Purple Mist Grass — plants that grew unaffected even in the midst of the Poison Valley's toxic fumes.
Medicinal herbs were notorious for low drop rates — but this Purple Mist Grass was said to drop in bunches during the battles fought on the 37th floor.
However, the research into creating an antidote from the Purple Mist Grass ended in failure.
And as a result of that failure, great quantities of Purple Mist Grass had been left sleeping in the Gukmubon's storage.
Ah, so things would fall into place so easily. Heh.
My chest swelled with excitement at having acquired the highly versatile Purple Mist Grass so effortlessly.
Chief Han said,
"Is it only the Purple Mist Grass you need? What about the other ingredients?"
"Please gather as many medicinal herbs and poison herbs as you can find."
"Are all of them necessary?"
"The Purple Haze Dust Poison can be developed further, and on the other hand, climbers will need to consume an antidote for the Purple Haze Dust Poison as well. And above all—"
I paused for a moment before continuing.
"I may be able to create an antidote for the 37th floor myself."
"Truly?!"
Chief Han shot to her feet.