Arrival at Tang Family Mountain
I'd only ever heard tales of the Sichuan Tang Family and how vast the Central Plains truly were, but experiencing the Central Plains for myself proved just how immense that landmass really was.
From Hainan Island by boat to Qinzhou Harbor, then through Nanning, the journey lasting just under a month and a half—at last we arrived in Sichuan.
Even traveling by qinggong, the distance had been staggering. The Family Head, fretting over his daughter, had driven us along the roads at a mad pace, and by the time we reached Sichuan I looked nearly like a beggar. We'd barely been able to stop at inns along the way and had almost always slept rough. Since I spent most of the trip being carried on the back of either the deputy commander or the Family Head himself, I often threw up whatever I ate come morning.
I'd suggested resting when it got too hard, but what kind of newcomer shows weakness? When I insisted I was fine, the Tang people—oblivious as ever—praised my grit.
"I'm fine! A man doesn't flinch at something like this!"
"Indeed. You seem more than worthy to join our family. Grit like that..."
And so, gaunt and filthy, I arrived at the mountain entrance. We crossed the bridge spanning the river and came to a halt before the mountain itself. There, out of nowhere, stood the Nine Gates—nine successive gateways—and the plaque hanging upon them.
Sichuan Tang Family.
Who builds a grand gate and hangs a plaque right at a mountain trailhead?
Startled by the sudden appearance of the Nine Gates and the plaque, I turned around. Behind me, Deputy Commander Gu Pae smiled as he explained.
"This is the Sichuan Tang Family, young hero."
"This is the Sichuan Tang Family? But this is just the mountain entrance."
"This entire mountain is the Sichuan Tang Family, young hero. That is why we call it Tang Family Mountain."
"Hah!"
Now that he mentioned it, I had been so fixated on the gates that I had missed everything else. Scanning the ridgelines, I finally noticed the pavilions rising here and there along the crests, and the terraced rice paddies. It turned out that the whole mountain, with the village nestled against it, was the Sichuan Tang Family itself.
I had thought them nothing more than some rustic Sichuan household, but the Tang Family was far grander than anything I had imagined. On the way here the Tang people had spoken of the martial world's Nine Great Sects and One Alliance, of the Eight Great Families, and of how the Sichuan Tang Family was one of them—but hearing a man praise his own house was hard to take at face value. In my previous life, the internet had shown me plenty of lunatics, so I never believed anything I hadn't seen with my own eyes. This, however, needed no further explanation.
"So this is the Sichuan Tang Family..."
As I stood there, awed by the Tang Family's sheer majesty, Gu Pae beside me swept a hand toward the mountain and said,
"Yes, young hero. This is our Sichuan Tang Family. Soon it will be your Sichuan Tang Family as well."
Yours and mine—the Sichuan Tang Family? I like the sound of that.
Knowing I was about to become part of a place like this made my shoulders swell a little. With credentials this good, I could swagger anywhere I went.
Then the heights of the mountain grew noisy, and people began racing or flying down toward the Nine Gates.
When she opened her eyes, the first thing Dang Hwa-eun saw was her mother's face, streaked with tears.
"Mother... what happened to me?"
"You're alive. Hwa-eun."
And there was her grandfather, looking utterly spent, cold sweat beading on his brow.
"It is done now."
"Grandfather..."
She had pushed past the Ten Poisons Realm, greedy to reach the Hundred Poisons as soon as possible, and that greed had brought on qi deviation. She had been certain the poisoning symptoms that struck when she failed the final hurdle meant the end... yet Mother and Grandfather were looking down at her.
"Hic..."
The joy of being alive lasted only a moment before tears poured from Dang Hwa-eun's eyes. Surviving qi deviation meant she had lost all her martial arts—or become a cripple. From now on she would find even ordinary movement difficult, let alone martial cultivation. She had seen enough martial artists after qi deviation to know that was how most of them spent the rest of their lives. Ever since she was small she had watched warriors come to the Tang Clan seeking poisons and medicines to cure their qi deviation, and every one of them had ended the same way.
Despair seized her. She had wanted to show the elders of the family that she was more than a pretty face—that even without being a son she could achieve greater things through mastery of the family's arts.
"Hic... I'm sorry, Mother."
Her mother, the principal wife, had been unable to bear another child after Hwa-eun. Yet her father had refused every pressure from the clan to take a concubine, and her grandfather had supported that choice—though the collateral branches and other elders had been far from pleased. That was why Hwa-eun had wanted so badly to prove herself: to show that even without a son she was the one who could help the family most. That was why she had yearned to reach the Hundred Poisons Realm, the level at which one was recognized as a peak master beyond first-rate.
But now she was a cripple, a truly useless existence, and tears streamed endlessly from both her eyes.
That was when her grandfather's hand closed firmly around hers. In the warm voice he always used, he spoke.
"You little brat. Are you crying because you made your father and grandfather suffer so much? But you have reached the Hundred Poisons Realm you so desperately wanted. Stop crying and be glad."
"Hic... What?"
Her grandfather's claim that she had reached the Hundred Poisons Realm she had longed for. At first she could not make sense of the words. She looked back and forth between her grandfather and mother, both of them smiling. Dang Hwa-eun blinked, then blankly checked the state of her own body. Her senses were completely normal; every finger and toe moved. If this had been qi deviation, even moving should have been difficult—no, her bodily senses themselves should not have been normal.
Without even time for shock, Hwa-eun quickly closed her eyes and circulated the energy within her. True qi flowed without the slightest obstruction. And in her dantian she felt a colossal power. She finished the Small Heavenly Cycle in a frenzy, still unsatisfied, and completed the Great Heavenly Cycle as well. When she snapped her eyes open, her grandfather stroked her hair and said,
"Satisfied now? You have accumulated enough internal energy that you lack nothing for the Thousand Poisons. Once you gain the enlightenment, you may ascend to the Thousand Poisons Realm at any time."
"H-how?"
She had clearly collapsed from qi deviation... and yet this vast store of internal energy. When her eyes went wide at the claim that she held enough power to reach the Thousand Poisons, her grandfather spoke with a theatrical flourish.
"Of course. You ate the precious inner elixir of the Azure-Spotted Centipede."
"Th-the Azure-Spotted Centipede?"
"Yes, Hwa-eun. Your father and I nearly died catching it. You little brat. Aigoo, I must be getting old—long journeys are not easy anymore."
The Azure-Spotted Centipede was the enormous centipede recorded in the Tang Clan's secret text, the Record of All Venomous Creatures Under Heaven. It was not a martial manual, so she had only flipped through it for amusement, but she remembered it clearly.
"The Azure-Spotted Centipede is the one as big as a house. Y-you caught it?"
"Yes, you little brat."
Yes—according to Hwa-eun's memory, the Azure-Spotted Centipede in the Record of All Venomous Creatures Under Heaven was a spiritual creature that lived for hundreds of years. An inner elixir from such a beast could raise one's realm by an entire stage even while trapped in qi deviation. Only then did Hwa-eun understand how she had woken in perfect condition and how she had obtained this enormous store of internal energy.
"Th-thank you, Grandfather!"
She bolted upright from the bedding and threw her arms around him. He reeked of sweat and the sour smell of someone who had gone too long without bathing, but she did not care.
"Haha. That good, little brat?"
"Yes. But where is Father?"
Only then did she realize her father was nowhere nearby. She had clearly been told that he and her grandfather had gone together to catch the Azure-Spotted Centipede.
"Only now do you notice your father is missing?"
Hwa-eun flushed with embarrassment at her grandfather's words. After checking her pulse once more to confirm her condition, her grandfather began to recount the tale of their hunt for the Azure-Spotted Centipede.
"Your father will be a little late."
"Late? Why did he not return with you?"
"Ah, well then—shall I catch my breath and tell the story? The place I went to capture the Azure-Spotted Centipede was that distant Hainan Island."
"You went all the way to far-off Hainan Island?"
"Yes. Years ago we obtained information that someone had sighted an Azure-Spotted Centipede, and we raced there. Once we reached Hainan Island we even confirmed the location with the herb gatherer who claimed to have seen it, yet we could not find the creature. We searched for days on end. And that was when we met a certain mysterious young hero..."
The tale of the mysterious young hero that appeared in her grandfather's story was the sort that astonished everyone who heard it. As the day they would have to leave Hainan drew ever closer, her grandfather's and father's hearts had been burning with urgency. Seeking shelter from the rain in the mountains, they had stopped at an abandoned Taoist temple—and there they met a mysterious young hero living alone. When the young hero heard of the Tang Family's desperate plight, he told them a place where an Azure-Spotted Centipede was likely to be. They searched the spot, and miraculously the Azure-Spotted Centipede itself burst out from beneath a boulder.
"Then that young hero is my benefactor?"
The inner elixir had been obtained through the sacrifices of her grandfather, her father, and their warriors, yet without knowing where the Azure-Spotted Centipede was they never would have caught it. The young hero was clearly a benefactor of the Tang Family—and of Hwa-eun herself.
"Yes, Hwa-eun. That is why we intend to welcome that young hero as a guest retainer of our Tang Family. Your father remained behind in Hainan."
"Grudges carved in blood, favors carved in stone. The Tang Clan never forgets a debt of gratitude. If the young hero comes as our guest retainer, I will serve him with the utmost respect as my benefactor."
"Yes. That is as it should be. That is how a daughter of our Tang Family behaves."
Dang Hwa-eun resolved that if the young hero came as a guest of the Tang Family, she would treat him as well as a true older brother. He had not only granted her dearest wish—he had all but saved her life.
"Haa..."
The joy of attaining the Hundred Poisons Realm and of storing enough internal energy to reach the Thousand Poisons lasted only a moment. Dang Hwa-eun sat with a careworn face, her body submerged in water. Osmanthus petals floated on the surface, and various fragrant herbs lay steeping in the water, releasing their scents.
The reason she was soaking in herb-scented water from morning, rather than in the evening, was simple: starting the day after she escaped qi deviation, a strange stench began to rise from her body unless she washed herself several times a day. It was stronger than the smell of sweat, yet it appeared even when she had not sweated at all—an uncanny odor that made people frown and wrinkle their noses, seeping from every part of her. When she showed herself to her grandfather and the physicians they found nothing wrong with her body, and the cause remained unknown. Worse, the stench seemed to be growing stronger by the day, so Hwa-eun could not help but take it seriously.
Now that she had reached the Hundred Poisons Realm she ought to have been rapidly building the poison-arts cultivation she had never fully mastered and pressing toward the Thousand Poisons. Instead she was forced to bathe several times a day, scrubbing her poor skin raw for no reason.
And so, amid her sighs, she continued her bathing—until the maids outside began making a great fuss.
"Young miss! The Family Head has arrived! Come out at once!"
"Father is here!?"
Nearly a month had passed since her grandfather had returned to the Tang Clan. At the news that her father had finally arrived, Dang Hwa-eun quickly dried herself and threw on her clothes. Then she launched into qinggong and raced toward the Tang Family's Nine Gates.
There at the Nine Gates she saw her father's face, every line of it marked by hardship.
"Father!"
"Hwa-eun! You're alive!"
"Father! I'm so sorry!"
"No. You lived—that is enough. I am glad."
When she flung herself into his arms, tears of gratitude and apology welled up. Only after they had finished their tearful reunion did her father smile and step half a pace to the side.
"Hwa-eun, there is someone I wish to introduce to you."
Hwa-eun assumed the person her father meant to introduce was the mysterious young hero she had heard about from her grandfather. She hastily wiped away her tears and composed herself. Even if he was a young hero, a benefactor was a benefactor. She was determined to greet him with full courtesy.
Once she had straightened her appearance, a skinny, pitiful-looking boy edged out from behind the deputy commander, looking thoroughly awkward. Then came her father's introduction.
"Ah, young hero. This is my daughter, Dang Hwa-eun. What was it you called her? Grass smell? Grass fragrance? Ah! That's right—Weed! Yes, this child is that Weed of yours."
"What!?"
"What!?"
Her father wore a peculiar little smile after those baffling words, while the young hero and Dang Hwa-eun stared at each other in identical flustered expressions.