Sovereign of the Ten Great Poisons
We had fled in a panic into the cave with Uncle Cheol-san of the Sichuan Tang Family and the warriors, yet not everyone reached safety.
The Tang warrior who had drawn too near the thing called the Poison Feather Bird and cast a stone at it inevitably fell behind. When Uncle Cheol-san dragged him into the cave by the hand, the man stared blankly at the realgar in his grip—now shrunk to the size of a grain of sand—before he snapped back to his senses and scrambled after us in a frenzy.
He kept his life, but every scrap of clothing had melted away and fallen from his body. Driving out the poison qi that had invaded him took a long and painful effort. According to Uncle Cheol-san, only the Tang Family’s poison arts had allowed him to survive at all; simply clinging to life was already a stroke of fortune. The realgar energy of those of us who had run ahead had, by sheer luck, flowed back to him and kept him alive.
Even we who had reached the safety of the cave could not relax. Though we had pressed ourselves into the deepest recesses, white smoke continued to rise, slow and persistent, from the realgar held against the chests of the Tang people. It no longer billowed like dry ice dropped into water, yet the fact that the realgar still smoked meant poison lingered. If the realgar melted away completely, we would be poisoned in turn.
“P-Poison Feather Bird!? Family Head, is it truly the Poison Feather Bird!?”
The deputy family head asked in a voice that refused to believe.
Uncle Cheol-san answered by reciting what sounded like a passage from an old text.
“When it spreads its wings, five chi. Its beak is copper-bright and sharp; its body is sheathed in purple-red feathers. When it unfurls those wings in fury, everything nearby blackens and dies, turning to pure poison. Upon its head rests a crown of gold—truly the bearing of a sovereign.
“This is called the Jim, or the Poison Feather Bird.
“That is all I know.”
Every word matched the scene I had witnessed. In a trembling voice I asked Uncle Cheol-san,
“C-Could that be one of the Ten Great Poisons?”
His head nodded slowly. An almost unbelievable statement left his lips.
“That creature sits at the very summit of the Ten Great Poisons. It is called the sovereign of every poisonous being—the Poison Feather Bird.”
“The sovereign of the Ten Great Poisons!”
Crazy! That’s badass!
My impression upon coming face to face with the Poison Feather Bird boiled down to a single word.
Awesome.
The venomous insects and snakes of my previous life had been cute by comparison. This was a walking catastrophe—something closer to a living bioweapon. Every pore on my body clenched. The memory of corpses, insects, and snakes melting away replayed endlessly behind my eyes: an eraser the size of a battlefield, wiping the world clean.
“A Poison Feather Bird on Hainan Island… It is said to feed only on the heads of the most venomous snakes. It must have been drawn here by the snakes that carried corpse poison.”
Uncle Cheol-san’s words pulled me back. I asked,
“I-Is it common?”
“Hardly. If it were, no one in the Central Plains would still be alive. Even a lifetime is rarely long enough to glimpse a Poison Feather Bird. I myself had only read of them; this is the first I have ever seen. Sightings are spoken of once in a hundred years, perhaps two.”
He was right. A creature like that roaming free would leave only mass graves. Staring blankly toward the cave mouth, I muttered,
“But… do you think we could catch it…?”
I had not really expected an answer; the words simply slipped out. Being the sovereign of the Ten Great Poisons, of course I wanted to try. Yet with venom like that, even approaching seemed impossible.
Uncle Cheol-san smiled.
“You want to catch it, Young Hero?”
To a man who had died chasing the Ten Great Poisonous Snakes, the Ten Great Poisons were both romance and lifelong goal. Still gazing at the cave mouth, I answered in a dazed voice,
“Yes. But poison that lethal…”
Catch it? I would melt before I got close.
Then came Uncle Cheol-san’s faintly mischievous tone.
“You were the same last time. You have quite a hunger for the Ten Great Poisons. In that case, a method does exist.”
My eyes flew wide.
“There’s a way!?”
“Of course. Three hundred years ago our Tang Family succeeded in capturing one.”
They had done it once. Three centuries was ancient history, yet the mere knowledge that experience and records existed snapped me fully awake.
“R-Really?”
When I pressed him, still half-disbelieving, Uncle Cheol-san only smiled. Looking toward the cave mouth, he spoke almost to himself.
“If one perfects the Tang Family’s poison arts, one becomes immune to the Myriad Poisons and can endure even the venom of the Poison Feather Bird. In all the world, ‘only’ our martial arts can block that poison…
“But what can be done…
“If one is not of our blood, we may not teach the arts. The family law forbids it… Haha. Truly. Even if I wished to help you, Young Hero, the rules…”
If martial arts alone could stop a bird like that, the technique would be the clan’s most guarded secret. I asked carefully,
“I-If I became a member of the family… could I learn it then?”
I needed certainty. Something that could nullify such venom would surely be reserved for the innermost circle. Family or not, what if they later decided I was too low-ranking to be taught?
Uncle Cheol-san smiled once more.
“Decide right now, and I will teach you without holding back. Of course. And I will prepare a proper gift as well. But if your hesitation stretches too long…”
Did Uncle reincarnate like me? Those lines sound exactly like mobile-game push notifications.
If he had been born in the life I left behind, he would have made a fortune in sales. He knew I had been wrestling with his earlier offer to join the Tang Family, and now he dangled the final benefit like a limited-time reward—impossible to refuse, vanishing if I waited.
From everything I’ve seen of him, he isn’t the type to bluff about this… Yeah. How long am I going to live alone in the woods? Hobbies can wait.
I was beginning to miss people. The chance looked too good to let slip. And living by my own romantic code had always been my way.
Poison Feather Bird—just you wait.
I answered Uncle’s proposal in a firm, ringing voice. First impressions mattered; new hires were supposed to greet their company with spirit.
“Very well! I’ll do it! I will become a member of the Tang Family! Please take care of me. Elder—no, Family Head!”
“Truly!? Hahahaha! Understood! Then from this moment you are ‘eternally’ our family!”
Uncle’s delighted laughter filled the cave—then turned solemn again the instant he remembered we still had to get out of here alive.
Only after a full day could we finally leave the cave. The faint smoke from the realgar had at last ceased. Another hour or two and the realgar would have been exhausted.
“Th-This is…?”
“M-My god.”
“The corpses…”
Outside, black earth stretched before us. For twenty or thirty meters around the former pile of bodies, the ground had become nothing but dark soil. Not a blade of grass, not a single insect remained. The once-lush plants, the trees, the heaped corpses—all had vanished. Only black earth and black stone met our eyes, as if yesterday’s horror had been erased like a dream.
“Is it safe to walk on this soil?”
“I dropped the last of the realgar as we came out. Strangely, every trace of poison was gone.”
I had feared the earth itself might still be toxic, but Uncle had already tested it. The poison, volatile or not, had completely disappeared.
Safety confirmed, the next duty was to pray for the dead. The Tang warriors searched the house on the mountainside, found an old wine jar, and with that wine we offered a brief memorial.
“May you be reborn in paradise…”
When the prayers were finished I asked the Family Head,
“Then… are we heading for Sichuan now?”
“We must.”
“First I need to stop at the Taoist temple and free all my friends. I can’t take them into the Tang Gate.”
“Understood. We will go to the temple first. You will need to gather your belongings as well.”
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
The Blood Hand Poison Claw manual recovered the day before was already in the Family Head’s keeping. I had half-expected them to burn so evil a text, yet the Tang Family prized practicality. They would take it home, keep what could be learned, and discard the rest. Even a demonic art, it seemed, held lessons worth studying. In the end it felt like looting drop items after killing Tak Un-yang—but since we were family now, whatever value it held might one day help me too.
Thinking thrifty thoughts, I was about to climb onto the Family Head’s back for the journey to the abandoned temple when something glittered in the center of the black plain. I pointed.
“There’s something over there.”
“Hm? That is…?”
We approached together. Lying alone on the scorched earth was a single feather—purple, yet flashing purple-green wherever the light touched it. How could I ever forget that color? It was unmistakably a feather of the Poison Feather Bird.
“Th-This is!?”
“A feather of the Poison Feather Bird!”
I longed to touch it, yet dared not for fear of residual venom. The Family Head drew gloves from his robe, carefully lifted the feather, and sealed it inside a small medicine case.
“We will examine this at the main family, then give it to you. You seem to covet it greatly. Consider it the first gift for becoming one of us.”
“Th-Thank you. Elder—no, Family Head!”
Together with the leg of the Azure-Spotted Centipede, this would become my second greatest treasure. I was already planning to fashion it into an ornament for my waist when the Family Head’s faintly dissatisfied voice reached me.
“Everything else is fine, but I dislike the form of address. Shall we change it after the ceremony?”
Ceremony?
Apparently some kind of initiation rite awaited. I could only hope it would be simple.
After months that had felt like a perpetual funeral, the gates of the Sichuan Tang Family finally stirred with life again.
The Myriad Poisons Divine Sovereign, Dang Mu-seong, had returned—bearing the medicine that might save Dang Hwa-eun, sole daughter of the Family Head.
Yet his appearance was far from reassuring. The greatest expert of the Tang Gate looked haggard; he had clearly poured every scrap of internal energy into light-body arts, racing home without rest.
“E-Elder!”
“Hwa-eun—how is Hwa-eun!?”
His first words were for his granddaughter. A lower-ranked warrior, voice shaking, answered the question no one else dared ask.
“S-She still clings to life! The medicine—d-did you obtain it?”
Every guard on duty fixed his eyes on the old man’s mouth. The Myriad Poisons Divine Sovereign smiled and gave them the answer they had prayed for.
“I have obtained the inner elixir of the Azure-Spotted Centipede.”
“““Waaaaaah!”””
Cheers erupted and rolled inward through the Tang compound. From the innermost pavilions—where the Family Head’s household resided—a middle-aged woman burst forth on light-body arts, face tight with urgency.
“What is this uproar!? F-Father!?”
She had come ready to scold the noise; the sight of the Myriad Poisons Divine Sovereign stopped her cold.
“Come, daughter-in-law! I have brought the inner elixir of the Azure-Spotted Centipede.”
“Y-You succeeded! Sob!”
Even the tears of Naeng So-ryeon, mistress of the Tang Gate, were said to be poison. The two of them raced at once toward the pavilion where Hwa-eun lay.
Inside that hall the Myriad Poisons Divine Sovereign found his granddaughter already dyed a deep bluish-purple from head to toe. Around the bed, Tang elders poured internal energy into her while cold sweat streamed down their faces. Exhausted as they were, they brightened at the sight of him.
“Elder!”
“You’ve returned!”
He answered none of them. His first concern was the girl. Her breathing was faint; the poison had advanced far beyond what he had feared.
“It was nearly too late. I am glad I hurried.”
“Q-Quickly—”
He drew a silk pouch from his robes, extracted a green bead the size of a walnut, and placed it carefully between his granddaughter’s motionless lips. Then he began guiding his internal energy. The long flight home had drained him, yet he wanted only to lift her free of suffering.
After the space of a single meal, a soft sigh escaped her mouth.
Soon the poisoned hue faded from her skin, returning it to the pure white of jade. It was a miraculous revival—made possible only by the inner elixir he would never have obtained without meeting a certain mysterious young hero.