Chapter 80
Chapter 80
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Poison Blood Pool
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The youngest daughter of the Tang Clan Leader had safely completed her wedding ceremony.
The banquet that had lasted several days had ended, and all the people from other sects who had attended to celebrate the marriage had returned.
Yet the atmosphere among the Tang Clan leadership remained excited.
Thanks to the good news delivered by Dang Harin.
“The Poison Person research is almost at its end?”
“That’s right. They say it won’t take even a month from now.”
“Heh heh, not long ago they were saying it would take at least ten more years... Harin is no slouch when it comes to poisons herself, but I never imagined the Medical Pavilion Leader from the Murim Alliance would be that exceptional.”
“Ugh... Considering how he detoxified the Qingcheng Sect Leader’s poison in an instant, it seems so.”
The Tang Clan Leader’s sharp gaze turned toward the elder standing at the very back, as if hiding.
The elder who had boasted that he could detoxify Yucheon Immortal and demanded to be sent to Qingcheng Sect averted his eyes.
Dang Harin had failed and returned, but he was the only elder present...
Another elder smiled.
“Haha, Clan Leader, it’s true that our Tang Clan lost face, but isn’t completing the Poison Person research a tremendous achievement? At last, a Poison Person will be revived in our Tang Clan.”
“Indeed. We were worried because we couldn’t use the Heavenly Transformation Furnace for a while due to processing the Heavenly Fortune Stone, but I never expected the Medical Pavilion Leader to provide such great assistance with the Poison Person research.”
The Heavenly Transformation Furnace was the most precious custom-made furnace owned by the Tang Clan.
Watching the rejoicing elders, the Tang Clan Leader tried to steady his mind.
He knew better than anyone that his daughter had once strayed, but now Dang Harin had accepted reality.
It was a good thing for the clan.
So he thought.
“But the Medical Pavilion Leader excels not only in detoxification but also in medical arts. It’s a shame we can’t bring him into our Tang Clan, since Harin must become the Poison Person.”
“Exactly. And now even Soso has gone and gotten married...”
The Tang Clan Leader, who had been listening silently, grew displeased.
All the Tang Clan elders were blood relatives.
How could these kin, who knew full well what Harin had given up to become the Poison Person, so casually say such things?
“Enough! The meeting is over. Everyone, leave.”
It might have been prioritizing the Tang Clan’s future over Harin, but the offended Clan Leader ended the meeting.
And soon sighed.
‘Well, I’m no different from them.’
At first, he had opposed it too.
But gradually, he had adapted to reality. Now, he was just like them.
To soothe his complicated feelings, he headed alone toward Dang Harin’s laboratory.
A place he had passed by occasionally before.
“Uwaaaah! I almost died for real this time!”
“What are you talking about? I told you you won’t die.”
“Your eyes just glazed over, and your fingers stopped. You know that?”
“Really? I felt fine...”
“This time, if you push it to that state again, I won’t detoxify you, so take it easy.”
“Got it, got it. Rest a bit. I’ll make the record.”
Unlike usual, the non-sealed laboratory, left open for ventilation, was filled with unusually noisy sounds.
Passing straight by the laboratory toward the inner path, a small grave appeared.
The Tang Clan Leader paused in front of it.
‘Auntie devoted her entire life to Poison Person research, and now it’s finally coming to an end. I resented you for hurting Harin, but in the end, the Tang Clan of Sichuan will soar again thanks to your and Harin’s sacrifices.’
In the past two hundred years, Auntie had accomplished more than all the ancestors combined.
There were times he resented her, but he couldn’t deny her obsession and contributions to the Poison Person.
Even after transferring her full power to Dang Harin and meeting her death, she had asked to be buried here separately.
‘She said even in death, she wanted to witness the birth of the Poison Person...’
Passing the grave and heading deeper, a gate blocked by a high wall appeared.
Unlocking it and entering, a lush forest came into view.
Compared to outside the wall, there was something peculiar.
All the plants bore dark hues.
Because they had been corrupted by the poison qi seeping from within.
Plants unable to withstand the poison qi had long been replaced by toxic herbs.
The deeper he went, the darker the plants’ colors became.
When the Tang Clan Leader arrived at a place densely packed with pitch-black trees and grasses.
A small cave entrance appeared.
Poison Blood Pool.
The place one must enter to become a Poison Person. To clear his mind, the Clan Leader personally inspected the entrance.
But upon reaching the Poison Blood Pool’s entrance, he let out a cry of alarm.
“This can’t be!”
Unlike usual, a poison qi so vicious that even the Tang Clan Leader struggled to endure was seeping out from the entrance.
‘This vicious poison qi is proof that the Poison Blood Pool has reached saturation!’
Was it because, without a Poison Person and with lost secret manuals, they hadn’t neutralized the inside even once in the past three hundred years?
If the Poison Blood Pool saturates, it won’t last a month—no, not even ten days—before collapsing.
If that happened, no Poison Person could be born until they found a suitable Poison Blood Pool somewhere in the world.
The reason the Tang Clan’s founder had settled in Sichuan rather than the swarming southern wilds would vanish.
‘Heaven has abandoned our Tang Clan!’
***
Dang Harin’s expressions were varied.
She smiled well, made playful faces well, and knew how to look sharp.
Not long ago, someone had witnessed her grief-stricken face.
But Yuseong was seeing Dang Harin pale as a ghost for the first time.
Because of what the Tang Clan Leader, who had burst into the laboratory with a devastated expression, had said.
“Harin, the Poison Blood Pool has reached saturation...”
“W-what? It was fine just yesterday, and now suddenly?”
“I just came from there.”
Dang Harin dashed out of the laboratory in a panic, deploying lightness skill and vanishing down the inner path.
She had gone to check the Poison Blood Pool herself.
The Tang Clan Leader, surveying the laboratory with a hollow expression, finally noticed Yuseong’s presence and tried to compose his face, but it wasn’t easy.
Three hundred years was a long time, but they had steadily advanced the Poison Person research during it.
He had held hope that they would complete it someday...
With that hope on the brink of collapse, staying sane was no easy task.
“May I ask what it means for the Poison Blood Pool to be saturated?”
At Yuseong’s cautious question, the Tang Clan Leader just silently shook his head and left.
Soon after, Dang Harin returned staggering.
“Are you okay?”
At first, Dang Harin had looked shocked and listless, but after quietly looking around the laboratory, she stood up.
“Yuseong, sorry, but I have to complete this research no matter what. Can you help me for a few days?”
“I’m already helping.”
“True, but at this rate, we don’t have enough time. We’ll need to cut back on sleep. We just need to find three more poisons, and the research will be complete.”
The Tang Clan Leader seemed to have lost hope, but Dang Harin hadn’t given up yet.
Yuseong was the type who, once started, saw things through to the end.
He gladly agreed to help. A few days of catnaps would be fine.
And Dang Harin truly acted that way.
She handled meals in the laboratory, skipped proper sleep to nap during research.
Yuseong couldn’t return to his quarters and ended up stuck with Dang Harin all day.
His body recovered fatigue with the Healing skill, but mental exhaustion gradually accumulated.
In the meantime, he learned what Poison Blood Pool saturation meant.
“Even if we complete the Poison Person research, you don’t become a Poison Person right away. This research is to restore the Thousand Poisons Immunity Art, a poison art.”
“Thousand Poisons Immunity Art?”
“Yeah. You need to achieve great completion in the Thousand Poisons Immunity Art to enter the Poison Blood Pool and survive, and absorb the Poison Core. Ah, the Poison Core is like the source of poison in the Poison Blood Pool. You become a true Poison Person by absorbing the Poison Core’s energy.”
As Dang Harin had once mentioned, the Poison Blood Pool was a place of extreme poison that would kill someone of her current level instantly.
If one mastered the preceding poison art and achieved great completion in the Thousand Poisons Immunity Art, they met the minimum condition to enter and survive the Poison Blood Pool.
In that state, absorbing the Poison Core inside evolves the poison core in the dantian into a Poison Nucleus, birthing a true Poison Person.
Additionally, absorbing and stabilizing the Poison Core’s energy prevents the Poison Blood Pool from collapsing.
“Great completion... Even if we restore the Thousand Poisons Immunity Art, won’t there be no time to train it? You said the Poison Blood Pool will collapse in days.”
Whether martial art or poison art, achieving great completion wasn’t something solved in a day or two.
Even with talent, without sufficient time, Yuseong lacked confidence unless it was a mediocre third-rate art.
Let alone something like the Thousand Poisons Immunity Art, which seemed extraordinarily advanced...
At Yuseong’s reasonable question, Dang Harin just smiled faintly without answering.
‘Harin plans to enter the Poison Blood Pool the moment she learns the Thousand Poisons Immunity Art!’
Was it because she saw real potential to enter, or because entering had become her life’s goal?
Perhaps the latter.
“Why... go to such lengths to enter the Poison Blood Pool? Like you said, without great completion in the Thousand Poisons Immunity Art, you can’t survive inside, right?”
Dang Harin didn’t tell Yuseong what she was truly thinking.
‘Even if I can’t come out alive, maybe I can reach the Poison Core. Even if I can’t become a Poison Person, neutralizing the Poison Core would buy time for the future.’
The future meant the next generation.
If she completed the research and delayed the Poison Blood Pool’s collapse, the Tang Clan could produce a Poison Person again.
Yuseong silently watched Dang Harin, who seemed resolved and resumed the research.
Even without knowing the full story, he could tell she had no intention of coming back alive.
He considered not helping with the research to make her abandon her obsession.
But if Yuseong hadn’t appeared, Dang Harin had even contemplated testing extreme poisons on herself directly.
In this urgent situation, she might experiment recklessly with extreme poisons, achieve nothing, and die.
‘I’ll help with the research. But I can’t let her die on an impossible task.’
Truthfully, as an outsider to the Tang Clan of Sichuan, Yuseong couldn’t fully grasp how vital restoring the Poison Person was to them.
However.
Having spent time together, he had grown fond of her and come to pity her plight to some extent.
The problem was the Poison Blood Pool’s collapse in a few days.
If that could be resolved...
Yuseong spoke up.
“Then... aside from mastering the Thousand Poisons Immunity Art and absorbing the Poison Core, is there a way to stabilize the Poison Core? Assuming there’s a safe way to enter the Poison Blood Pool, that is.”