Chapter 142
Chapter 142: South Korea’s First Long-Cherished Wish (1)
[Past Life Murim]
After slaughtering the Wunbo Trading House, I threw myself into circulating energy.
The cave of the Black Bear Demon Beast, which I had entered wagering my life.
The Divine Immortal Waste—one of the Eight Great Extreme Poisons—obtained there.
And the second of the Eight Great Extreme Poisons, the Bangu Blood Plasma, obtained from the Wunbo Trading House.
I consumed them and plunged into training to become a proper Poison Demon in earnest.
I was fifteen when I disposed of Myo Dan-u and walked out of Demon Wind Manor.
I was seventeen when I descended from the mountain after repeated training, returning to the ruins of the Sacheondang Family.
But the Eight Great Extreme Poisons were different in degree.
The process of consuming the poison and converting its energy into internal energy was unbearably grueling and exhausting.
I had only managed to gather two of them.
I had thought one year would be more than enough.
But even well past that year, no proper achievement showed itself.
The pain only multiplied many times over.
When I had descended to the Sacheondang Family, there had still been a faint trace of youth left in my face.
It began to collapse entirely.
My appearance had grown beyond hideous—it was horrifying.
At some point, I found myself hesitating even to scoop water from a stream to drink.
To become a Poison Demon.
To think it would poison even my heart.
I was at the age that should be called youth.
Yet I could feel that I was already dying.
My body destroyed me.
And also made me grow.
It was the path of the ‘Poison Demon’—a path written in only a few lines in the old texts.
Walking alone, teaching myself, down a road no one had walked or even attempted in over several hundred years—it was agonizing, and lonely.
Within the pain, I repeated only the Heavenly Poison Blood Divine Art over and over.
I was going mad.
……And so I could endure.
One day, amid the endless cycle of destruction and growth—
I finally realized I had fully absorbed both the Divine Immortal Waste and the Bangu Blood Plasma.
Sswig—.
Poison energy condensed at the hand I extended.
Passeuss—.
A boulder it touched melted away like snow.
The realm of the fully ripened Transcendent Peak.
"It is done."
I discarded my rotted-away clothing and put on leather garments made from the hides of beasts I had hunted.
I was twenty years of age then.
The coming-of-age.
But the boy who had howled in the ruins of the family was no longer there.
I descended the mountain, and the first place I arrived at was……
Poison Valley.
* * *
Poison Valley was a sect that walked the path of seekers.
My father had assessed it this way when he was alive.
[Though they belong to the unorthodox, their obsession with researching poison alone is worth acknowledging.]
Yet.
Poison Valley had not stopped at research—they had ultimately extended their hand toward the annihilation of our Sacheondang Family.
Had their research reached a dead end, perhaps.
Poison Valley had coveted the poisons of our family.
Neither the Murim Alliance Leader nor the Evil Path Alliance Leader had handed over the extreme poisons of the family.
But they had taken even those scraps and buried themselves in research.
Did the heavens find that sight admirable?
Though they had not achieved the Eight Great Extreme Poisons, they produced poisons of considerable quality.
And before long, Poison Valley had become one of the foremost sects in the Central Plains when it came to ‘poison’.
"Is anyone there?"
Wearing rough beast hides.
Wearing a well-worn wide-brimmed bamboo hat I had picked up somewhere, I knocked on the gate of Poison Valley.
"Who goes there?"
A martial artist of Poison Valley with a sharp expression came out.
There were no guards posted outside.
The walls of Poison Valley were over three jang in height—over ten meters—and were famous for their thickness.
And the inside was like a hell filled with poison.
I spoke to the guard who had come out.
"I am a passing traveler. I wish to meet with the Valley Master of Poison Valley."
The guard looked me up and down and sneered.
"Some wretch like you dares to meet the Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler?"
Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler, Gu Cheon-sa.
He was a martial artist in the late stage of the Transcendent Peak realm, fully versed in poison plants, poison insects, and poison beasts alike.
Add to that the unique capabilities of poison arts, and he was all but a full Transcendent Peak.
I spoke to the guard again.
"Tell him I wish to discuss the Seven Steps Soul-Severing Powder."
"You've got to be kidding—Seven Steps what?"
"Seven Steps Soul-Severing Powder."
Seven Steps Soul-Severing Powder.
One of the Eight Great Extreme Poisons.
The guard, apparently hearing it for the first time, cackled and closed the gate to go inside—then quickly opened it again not long after.
"P-Please, come in."
The guard's left cheek was flushed a burning red.
The Sacheondang Family's Eight Great Extreme Poisons—the Bangu Blood Plasma.
He had clearly been struck for running his mouth without knowing what he was talking about.
Now deferential, he led me into the inner grounds of Poison Valley.
It was exactly as I had heard in rumor.
The wide manor grounds and each building appeared packed with traps and formations.
One wrong touch, and poison would clearly burst forth immediately.
Poison energy flowing subtly throughout all of Poison Valley.
An ordinary person would soon be hacking with coughs, and before long bleeding from the nose—but for me, who was becoming a Poison Demon that consumes poisons, it was no different from a meal.
I drew a deep breath.
The building at the center was large and wide.
Even after entering it, I walked for quite a while.
I entered with one leg dragging limply.
The guard asked.
"Is your leg troubling you?"
I did not answer, and the guard pointed to stairs descending underground.
"Please go down this way. Then I shall take my leave."
Was he telling me to go in alone?
The corner of the guard's mouth rose faintly.
The underground space below was—reeking with the smell of deep conspiracy.
"……"
The underground of the building was filled with all manner of poisons.
Every medicine cabinet was packed with all sorts of poison plants, and from the jars lined tightly on every shelf came the smell of dried poison insects.
The medicine cabinets were fixed firmly to the floor.
Some jars clinked and rattled occasionally—there were clearly still living scorpions and centipedes inside.
Walking in like that for quite a while—
Kii-iick— Kung.
The stairs I had come down swiftly rose back up, and the path to the surface disappeared.
"……!"
I quickly scanned my surroundings.
Then, from various corners of the underground space, martial artists of Poison Valley emerged, oozing poison energy.
At their center stood him.
"Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler!"
He was in his late forties.
His complexion had originally been pallid, but from decades of living alongside poison, his skin had turned a sallow yellow with spreading purple blotches here and there.
More than half his hair had lost its black color and faded to a silver-grey, though strangely, only the tips retained a greenish hue.
Over a black robe, he had tied a green silk cord around his waist.
At the end of the cord hung a small skull ornament alongside a dried poison plant, adding to the eerie atmosphere.
His frame was neither large nor small, but he was gauntly thin—as if all his bones and muscles had contracted inward.
He walked toward me slowly, with a peculiar suppleness.
It felt like the bearing of a venomous snake coiling its body, poised to suddenly sink its fangs into the back of one's neck.
"What made you think you could walk in here of your own accord?"
He pointed at me with a dark, low voice.
"Dang Seon."
"……!"
He knew who I was.
"Hahaha. Wishing to discuss the Seven Steps Soul-Severing Powder, you say. I have laughed my hardest in recent times."
Deureu-reureu-reuk—.
One of Poison Valley's subordinates brought him a chair, and he swept his robe dramatically behind him and sat with great presence.
"Some years ago, I received word that Demon Wind Manor had been annihilated."
He picked at the corner of one blackened fingernail with another just the same.
"The one who had been imprisoned there was none other than you, Dang Seon. I, too, visited Demon Wind Manor, though belatedly. Poison energy was thick in the air."
He smiled pleasantly.
"Others all said you were dead. The Wolfish Heaven Marquis had pursued you, and below a cliff, poison energy and scraps of your clothing were found in the jaws of a wolf's shattered carcass. But I did not think so."
I said nothing.
The martial artists of Poison Valley had by now occupied all eight directions around me.
"The bloodline of the Dang Family is tenacious as poison. There was no way they'd be limply torn apart by some mere beast. So I tracked you, and some years ago I grew certain."
His eyes flashed as he asked with a meaningful expression.
"Wunbo Trading House. That was also your doing, yes?"
"……"
"And that leg you drag about—that injury is also from that time, isn't it?"
My face hardened.
"Puahahat!"
Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler burst into a roaring laugh as if he had been waiting for it, and spread his arms wide.
The martial artists occupying the eight directions each stepped one pace closer to me, tightening the encirclement.
Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler made a gesture, and one of the Poison Valley martial artists stepped up to me and roughly snatched off the wide-brimmed bamboo hat I was wearing.
Tuk—.
The tossed bamboo hat.
My horrifying appearance was laid bare.
"Huk! Dreadful."
Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler frowned and studied me closely, then snapped his fingers with a crack.
"Oh ho. The Poison Demon's Path, is it?!"
Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler recognized my condition at a single glance.
"Kuhahahat! Worth the wait! To think there's a moth throwing itself at a legendary realm. Hahaha! No wonder my dreams last night were remarkably auspicious."
He rose from his seat and cackled with delight at something.
"From the look of it, you haven't yet mastered even one of the Eight Great Extreme Poisons. Well, even I, having searched the entire world, found it difficult to obtain a single one. Tsk tsk."
He tapped the skull ornament dangling from his waist.
"How is it? Must be an effort just to move, and agonizing even to breathe?"
"……"
"Kil kil kil. All because you underestimated poison. Poison is like a drug. You must use the poison—you must never be devoured by it."
He shook his head at me.
"You seem well past saving. To have learned so little from your father……"
Ttak!
He snapped his fingers once more. The look of someone who had figured something out.
"Ah! That is why you came to me! To ask about the Seven Steps Soul-Severing Powder. Puahaha. No wonder you were so desperate. Heh heh heh. Very well, very well! I shall tell you. However……"
He pointed at me.
"After I capture you and dissect you."
Deureureuk— deureureuk—.
An iron torture device molded into the shape of a human was set beside him.
"Do not worry. I shall not kill you easily. First, I will drain all your blood here and put it to research."
Kii-iick—.
When the lid was opened, the steel spikes packed densely inside gleamed.
"Count yourself honored! Your flesh will serve as flesh, your bones as bones—precious research material for our Poison Valley."
Ttak!
He snapped his fingers, and—
Jeobeouk, jeobeouk.
The martial artists of Poison Valley drew their weapons, and with blackened, poison-soaked hands thrust forward, they pressed in close to me.
"Are you afraid? Kil kil kil. Your face is quite the sight."
"Are you quite done talking? Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler."
"……!"
My first words made his face go rigid.
"You've been chattering away quite impressively on your own. The one making a scene here is only you."
"What?!"
"My father's words were right."
I glared at Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler.
"Bookworms who know only research, not how to fight properly."
"This bastard dares—!"
"Don't be mistaken. Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler."
Deobseok.
I grabbed a medicine cabinet.
"It isn't me who is caught."
Sswig—, I tilted my head up and smirked.
"It's you lot."
I channeled my internal energy and heaved the cabinet I had grabbed, sending it crashing down.
Ujikkeun! Wajangchang—!
A violet poison liquid shot up like fireworks, and thick green ooze ran across the floor.
Pitch-black scorpions and relentless centipedes came swarming out in droves, scattering in all directions.
In that instant, the underground space became a hell painting all at once.
"Da-damnation!"
The martial artists of Poison Valley twisted their faces and staggered back.
I swiftly launched my body and began toppling every cabinet and shelf in sight.
The wooden supports bracing them against the walls shattered helplessly beneath the strength of one who was becoming a Poison Demon.
Peok! Peobeobeobeok! Wajangchang!
Poison energy from poison plants and poison insects flooded the sealed underground space.
"What are you all doing! Stop him at once!"
Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler's face turned ashen.
I had been dragging one leg.
This was why he had grown careless and lured me down into this underground space to prevent my escape—and that had been his fatal mistake.
The martial artists of Poison Valley hurriedly gathered their internal energy and activated their poison arts.
Some desperately poured antidotes into their mouths.
But it was no use.
I was already a Poison Demon who had consumed two of the Eight Great Extreme Poisons.
When the Heavenly Poison Blood Divine Art circulated through the meridians of my whole body, the drifting poison energy instead converged toward me.
And when I compressed the energy and exploded it outward in all directions—
"Keueaaaaak!"
The energy of the Divine Immortal Waste melted their eyes from their sockets, and the poison energy of the Bangu Blood Plasma scorched and tore away their skin.
Screams followed in succession, and the underground space became an inferno in an instant.
A Poison Demon consumes poison.
All the poison in the world becomes, in the end, my blade.
The poison energy that naturally converged on me became a black mist, extending from my fingertips like a blade.
"Aaaaaak!"
Crimson blood poured from their eye sockets and ran down their cheeks.
Their skin blistered as if thrown into boiling oil, then shriveled and charred.
Muscles turned a bluish-black as they rotted, exposing bone, and screams transformed into shrieks.
The floor, where flesh had melted away, was instantly covered in purple pus and black ooze.
"D-Damnation! Stop that bastard!"
Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler covered his mouth with his sleeve and caused an uproar—but the martial artists were fully occupied just holding back the poison energy spreading in all directions.
Some managed to barely channel their internal energy in spite of everything, but their meridians twisted in return and split their energy channels.
What I unleashed through the Heavenly Poison Blood Divine Art—the Divine Immortal Waste and the Bangu Blood Plasma.
On top of that, the poison energy filling this underground space had far exceeded their tolerable limit.
They died to the poison energy—while I only grew stronger.
Occasionally, those with blood-spewing faces would still charge at me.
Some, having lost their minds, even came at me with poison arts.
The signature technique and representative poison of Poison Valley.
"Ten Thousand Poisons Return to the Mountain."
I snorted and absorbed even the Ten Thousand Poisons Return to the Mountain.
"……!"
Those who realized that neither poison nor poison arts had any effect then came at me with fist and kick arts—
But the fist and kick arts I had honed over years of training were no pushover either.
Kwajik! Ududuk—!
I shattered their jaws, wrenched their shoulders from their sockets, and bent their joints backward.
The exposed bones began to dissolve in the poison energy shortly after.
Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler, who had looked down on me.
His arrogance had been his fatal mistake.
"Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler……"
I smiled darkly and moved my steps forward.
Even his lips were already cracking in the blue-grey poison energy.
"Uuuu-weoeo—."
From the mouth of Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler, who had two high-grade Poison-Warding Beads clenched between his lips, thick drool ran down.
I could tell he was desperate—but holding Poison-Warding Beads in your mouth while activating poison arts?
What a way to invite energy deviation.
Though he was a Transcendent Peak master, Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler—already broken in spirit—wildly swept his hands in all directions and stumbled backward before toppling with a kwadang!
A wretched sight.
A Poison Man is the lord of poison.
Other Transcendent Peak masters were one thing—but a Ten Thousand Poisons Ruler who wields poison was no different from a slave to a Poison Demon.
"Say it again."
Sswig—.
I cast my shadow over him and asked.
"Underestimated poison…… You were saying?"