Those Who Must Listen (1)
The resounding boom echoed magnificently as Dang Sang-ah was sent reeling backward.
That was all. She had only been pushed back; she wasn’t injured. At most, one of her sleeves had been shredded to tatters.
“Hoo…”
A hint of tension surfaced on Dang Sang-ah’s face.
“That was incredible. I’ve blocked it several times now, but your Thousand Poison Hand truly is…”
“Now you’re finally worth looking at.”
“Pardon?”
Dang Gwan relaxed his stance.
“You’ve nearly perfected your control over poison qi. Have you made progress with the Emperor’s Poison Scripture?”
Dang Sang-ah gave a bitter smile.
“I did gain a small insight.”
“That small insight will eventually guide you down the path of a true master.”
Dang Gwan nodded.
“Well done. Even the elders of our main family couldn’t block my Thousand Poison Hand so cleanly.”
Dang Sang-ah was flustered by her father’s praise.
“I don’t think I’m at that level yet…”
“It’s better than I expected. If you continue growing at this rate, you’ll be able to stand against the family elders within three years.”
“R-really?”
Dang Gwan nodded.
He wasn’t saying it simply because she was his child. On the contrary, he had always been stricter with his own blood. Even though their father-daughter relationship had improved, his characteristic severity had not dulled.
If Dang Gwan said so, then it was true. No—given how cautious he usually was, she might even reach that realm in a single year rather than three.
Of course, it would require the same grueling effort she had shown until now.
“I won’t comment on your progress with dagger arts. But I will continue watching your poison qi. To properly form a poison essence, you must undergo life-risking detoxification training.”
Detoxification training was exactly what it sounded like—inhaling extreme poisons and consuming trace amounts of antidote, then purging the poison qi using only internal energy.
Naturally, it wasn’t something just anyone could do. It was only possible because of the Tang Family’s unique internal cultivation method. Even the greatest internal arts in the world would fail to endure such extreme detoxification training without destroying the body.
Determination settled into Dang Sang-ah’s expression.
“Yes!”
“Engrave this into your heart. We are those who wield poison. Poison is death itself. We are cultivating the art closest to death in all of Murim.”
“……”
“That is why it is fast. That is why it is dangerous. You already know how many have died during detoxification training within our family.”
“I know.”
“Among them were many with far greater talent than me—or even you.”
Dang Gwan’s eyes deepened.
“Talent is important, but what matters even more is an utterly cold and unshakable mental fortitude. If you grow complacent even once, thinking it’s easy or that you’ll be fine, your life can vanish in an instant.”
“……”
“Never forget that.”
“Yes!”
Her reply was filled with resolve. Yet Dang Sang-ah’s expression was bright.
It couldn’t be helped. Her father had always been strict, but he had never been this attentive before.
As time passed, he was becoming more and more meticulous—and all of it was for his child.
To Dang Sang-ah, her father’s change brought her a hundred times more joy than any advancement in her own martial arts.
“That will be all for today’s training.”
“Thank you for your hard work, Father.”
“Mm.”
“If you don’t have any other plans… would you like to have dinner with me?”
Dang Gwan nodded.
“Let’s do that.”
Dang Sang-ah beamed.
This was another change in her father. In the past, even when they ate together, he had never responded so naturally.
It finally felt like they had become a father and daughter that others could envy.
Dang Sang-ah linked her arm with her father’s.
“Let’s go. I’ll cook for you today.”
“Let go of my arm. It’s heavy.”
“You’re such a complainer.”
Dang Gwan simply let out a small chuckle and no longer scolded her.
That was when the father and daughter returned to their residence.
“Patriarch Dang.”
An Open Beggar Sect disciple was standing at the entrance.
Dang Gwan tilted his head.
“You have business with me, beggar?”
Dang Sang-ah shot her father a glare. No matter how much he had changed, it seemed that particular way of speaking would never disappear.
The beggar disciple bowed his head.
“Urgent news has arrived for you, Patriarch.”
“Urgent news?”
“Yes.”
“From the main family?”
“No. It is a letter from the Black Dragon Department in Hunan.”
For a brief moment, Dang Gwan’s eyes flashed.
“That rude brat.”
The beggar disciple took out the letter from his robes.
Whoosh.
With a single gust of wind, the letter flew from the beggar’s hand and landed in Dang Gwan’s grasp.
The beggar’s eyes widened. It was his first time witnessing the art of seizing objects from a distance.
Dang Gwan unfolded the letter with a smooth motion.
A moment later.
“Even there, his rudeness hasn’t changed. Throwing me work disguised as a request from thousands of li away?”
Despite his words, not a trace of displeasure could be seen on Dang Gwan’s face.
Dang Sang-ah asked, “What is it? Did something happen to Young Master Yeon?”
“That bastard is the problem itself. The rudest punk in the world.”
Dang Gwan grumbled as he turned around.
“Let’s have dinner tomorrow instead.”
“Ah, yes.”
“And.”
Dang Gwan paused for a moment, his voice turning slightly serious.
“Yang-seon will arrive around noon tomorrow.”
“I see.”
“It will be a meeting, so guide him properly.”
“Yes!”
Dang Gwan looked at the beggar disciple.
“Beggar.”
“Y-yes?”
“Follow me.”
“Pardon?”
“The Western Region Divine Maiden is leaving soon. You need to send a separate message to your side as well, don’t you? Hurry up and follow before I poison you for real.”
“Cough! Yes!”
Wooooong.
Kang Liang opened his eyes.
‘Hm?’
He looked down at his legs.
In lotus position, a single sword rested across both knees.
‘A sword?’
While meditating, he had heard a strange resonance. And the source of that resonance had been the sword.
Kang Liang tilted his head.
He grasped the sword.
“……”
The sword remained completely still. No resonance could be felt at all.
Kang Liang clicked his tongue.
“Did I imagine it?”
Well, he had already skipped three meals while meditating.
Maybe the sound hadn’t come from the sword but from his stomach. Once he thought about it, he realized he was starving.
Kang Liang circulated his Ghost King True Qi.
Whoong.
A faint black-gray aura rippled across his entire body before vanishing once more.
“No abnormalities in my body. Damn it, let’s go eat.”
Kang Liang stood up and left the training room.
It was then.
“Where are you going?”
Kang Liang turned his head.
Jeon Hong was standing there.
After staring at him silently for a moment, Kang Liang turned his head away again.
“To eat.”
Jeon Hong’s lips twitched.
“You’re shamelessly freeloading.”
“At least I don’t feel sorry toward you.”
Kang Liang continued walking casually, as if he didn’t care about Jeon Hong in the slightest.
Jeon Hong’s face twisted.
In a voice thick with rage, he shouted, “You’d better watch your back. This is the Black Dragon Department. The cute little logic you learned from your destroyed sect won’t work here.”
Kang Liang still didn’t respond.
Killing intent flared in Jeon Hong’s eyes before sinking back down.
“You won’t last long.”
Scrape.
Kang Liang stopped walking.
He turned to look at Jeon Hong and said, “If you lost because you were weaker, shouldn’t you spend this time gritting your teeth and training to surpass me instead?”
“What?”
“Whether it’s the Dark Faction or the Orthodox Faction, this is a world where everyone stakes their life on a single blade. If you survived a life-or-death battle, you should train with the resolve to vomit blood so that such a result never happens again.”
Kang Liang’s voice was ice-cold.
“It’s fine to burn with rage while looking at me. It can become your driving force. But if you came here just to bark and whine, then you should rethink your attitude as a martial artist.”
“Shut your mouth!”
Wooooooong.
A thick killing intent erupted from Jeon Hong’s body.
“A remnant of a destroyed sect dares to lecture me?”
“That remnant of a destroyed sect is also training like a madman every day for revenge. And you—you lost an arm to that very remnant.”
“You—!”
“Do you even have time to waste on me? Shouldn’t you be training desperately just to survive against your senior brothers and sisters?”
Kang Liang chuckled and turned away.
“Don’t come looking for me anymore. You don’t even want a constructive conversation, do you? Why don’t you work on improving your eloquence instead?”
In that instant, Jeon Hong’s killing intent shot straight to the top of his head.
“You son of a bitch!”
Thud!
Jeon Hong kicked off the ground.
At that exact moment, Kang Liang’s body moved at an incomprehensible speed.
THUD!
“Kugh!”
Jeon Hong collapsed to his knees on the spot.
“Kuh! Kughhh!”
Clutching his stomach and writhing, Jeon Hong’s face had turned deathly pale.
He had been struck squarely in the abdomen by the scabbard. He couldn’t breathe, and the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. He had suffered internal injuries in a single blow.
Even amid the excruciating pain, Jeon Hong couldn’t hide his shock.
‘So fast?!’
It was on a completely different level from when they had fought at the inn.
Speed wasn’t the only thing. The power carried by that speed, and the delicate control of internal energy that stopped the force just short of piercing through his abdomen—it was all incredible.
This was an entirely different person. He couldn’t believe it was the same man.
Kang Liang looked down at the writhing Jeon Hong with eyes as cold as ice.
Srrrrng.
With a spine-chilling sound, the sword was drawn.
Shk.
Jeon Hong’s body flinched. The terrifying sharpness pressing against his neck made him forget the pain for a moment.
“You thought the world was easy?”
“……!”
“You’re a disciple of the King of Combat, Yang Cheon, yet you lived with that soft thought that he wouldn’t kill you? That’s why it was comfortable, wasn’t it?”
Woooong!
Ghost King True Qi flowed into Kang Liang’s blade.
The already razor-sharp edge doubled, tripled in lethality. Just the killing intent alone seemed capable of slicing through even an iron will.
“Take a good look at how that comfortable mindset of yours ends your life. My patience has reached its limit too.”
Thud!
Jeon Hong’s face flushed bright red. Kang Liang had stomped down on the back of his neck.
The coldness in Kang Liang’s eyes turned indifferent.
It was the gaze of a swordsman. A swordsman becomes indifferent when he wields his blade.
‘This bastard?!’
Jeon Hong’s eyes filled with terror.
‘Is this guy really—?!’
Kang Liang swung his sword with cold precision.
Clang!
The tip of his sword stabbed into the ground—just half a hand’s width away from Jeon Hong’s left earlobe.
Drip, drip.
Though the blade hadn’t cut him, the killing intent radiating from the sword itself had sliced Jeon Hong’s earlobe halfway off.
The indifferent light in Kang Liang’s eyes returned to normal.
“Scared?”
He lifted his foot from Jeon Hong’s neck and sheathed his sword in one smooth motion.
“Truth is, I can’t. No matter what, killing a disciple of the King of Combat—and inside the Black Dragon Department at that? No way. I still can’t handle Yang Cheon’s power.”
“……?!”
“Instead, don’t come at me again. Even if I won’t kill you, I know plenty of ways to cripple a person. The Black Dragon Lord won’t be able to say anything if you’re the one who attacked first, right?”
Kang Liang started walking away again.
“There’s someone else who would benefit if you get hurt. If you don’t want to be devoured, stop worrying about someone like me and pay attention to the successor position. The way those two look at you, it seems like they’re ready to boil you alive any second.”
With that, Kang Liang disappeared from Jeon Hong’s sight.
“Cough! Cough!”
After coughing several times, Jeon Hong glared at the spot where Kang Liang had vanished, his eyes bloodshot.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
Boom!
His fist slammed into the ground, caving it in deeply.
He felt like he was going insane with rage. He was so furious that he even felt killing intent toward himself for coming here.
“You dog! You piece of shit that wouldn’t even taste good if I chewed you up—!”
It was then.
“I really can’t stand watching this.”
Startled, Jeon Hong whipped his head around.
“……
Who are you?!”
Wooooong.
Within the darkness, a single shadow swayed gently.
“Me? Well… at the very least, I’m not someone you’d welcome.”