Chapter 153
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 153
Chapter Title: Chapter 31: Earthward Advance (3)
The Bait Incense was a lure designed to draw the white phase ants into the flames.
No living creature feared death not at all. Every living being instinctively rejected it.
The Bait Incense numbed even that instinct, compelling them to leap willingly into death. Thus, under its influence, the white phase ants plunged into the fire without realizing their own flesh was burning.
And that was when the Yi Cheon Myeol arose.
In a word, it was the odor produced as the white phase ants burned... and that smell carried extraordinarily potent toxicity. No, potent wasn't strong enough a word. It was lethally toxic.
There was no antidote for Yi Cheon Myeol.
The white phase ants themselves were rare creatures to begin with, and the sight of them burning was so exceedingly uncommon that most people never witnessed it even once in their lifetime.
In other words, since no one had ever experienced white phase ants burning, there had been no need to develop an antidote.
To this day, no antidote for Yi Cheon Myeol existed.
No one had ever researched one.
Deep within the Star Garden, the Yi Cheon Myeol erupted. And it spread gradually through the air, expanding its reach.
"Ugh!"
"Gah!"
Those who hadn't yet escaped the Star Garden were forced to inhale it, becoming its inevitable victims.
People died.
The Star Garden transformed into a land of death that repelled all human footsteps.
"Urgh!"
Four Thousand Four let out a groan.
He tried to pull himself together, but the world shook around him like a dream or a haze.
"Uuuugh!"
He gripped the ground hard with both hands.
Yet no strength entered them. He was surely touching the earth, but his palms flailed in empty air.
Yi Cheon Myeol paralyzed both body and mind simultaneously.
'Huuuup!'
This time, he shifted his thinking and tried circulating his qi. The idea was to use it to expel the poison.
Szzzz! Tzt!
His qi seemed to circulate for a moment. But soon it fizzled out weakly, like trying to light wet charcoal.
In the shaking world, he spotted two people collapsed nearby.
Vanguard and Hanbi weren't even flailing like he was. They had completely lost consciousness.
But why was he still holding on?
Because of the white phase ants... Their essence had merged with his qi and was flowing through him. The ants dissolved within his qi were protecting his meridians from the poison.
He wouldn't die. But the poison was too strong to avoid some temporary effects.
Four Thousand Four accurately assessed his own condition.
The problem was Vanguard and Hanbi. He might recover in time somehow, but the longer it dragged on, the worse off they would be.
"Ugh! Uuuh..."
Four Thousand Four thrashed with all his might. To reach Vanguard and Hanbi.
Even an earthworm inching along covers great distances.
Four Thousand Four wriggled along too, traversing what would normally be a single step in half a shichen—about an hour—drenched in sweat pouring like rain.
Thud!
His hand touched Vanguard's Gate of Life acupoint.
'This is the only thing I can do...'
Szzzzzz!
Four Thousand Four began injecting his qi into Vanguard's body.
He located the meridians through the Gate of Life and sent qi flowing into them.
Normally, to expel poison, one would pour in qi fiercely and powerfully. It had to be fast and strong to dislodge the poison clinging to the meridians.
Four Thousand Four sent his qi in very slowly and gently.
First, his own condition was poor. A poisoned body couldn't transmit powerful qi.
Second, he had no intention of expelling the poison at all.
The treatment of using qi to force out poison was often likened to pouring water into a bottomless barrel.
The qi input had no end, while the poison expelled was minimal. Even for minor poisons, this qi expulsion method was used only sparingly.
For something lethal like Yi Cheon Myeol, it was impossible.
Four Thousand Four had no plan to expel the poison either. Instead... he intended to use it to lure out the white phase ants.
Vanguard and Hanbi both harbored white phase ants within them too.
The ones that had pursued them had all been lured and dissolved by him, but the queen ants he'd originally implanted remained intact.
He planned to awaken those.
If they chose to bond with their host as a survival mechanism... perhaps, just perhaps, he could save Vanguard.
Ting!
Something—like ice cracking—rang out.
The queen ant! It was reacting. After sleeping as if dead, it was now awakening.
Four Thousand Four didn't know how he'd roused it. He'd infused qi, but he couldn't grasp how it worked.
Still, Vanguard's queen ant seemed to have awakened.
Four Thousand Four released the Gate of Life and began crawling toward Hanbi, collapsed beside them.
He intended to repeat the process, though he had no confidence it would awaken Hanbi's. He didn't know what had worked for Vanguard's.
"Hngh! Hnngh!"
Four Thousand Four crawled on all fours, exhaling ragged breaths from his mouth.
Ting!
Hanbi's queen ant awakened.
'Ah!'
In that instant, Four Thousand Four pinpointed where the queen ant had been dormant.
It clung to the back of the heart.
Lulled to sleep by the heart's beating, it awoke only when the heart stopped.
At that moment, the white phase ants in the Star Garden stirred.
Even separated by thousands of li, the white phase ants and their queens resonated.
Thus, those in the Star Garden would know which queen had awakened.
A queen awakening meant, conversely, that its host had died—a clear signal among the assassins of who lived and who perished.
So, what did an awakened queen do in a dead host's body?
It laid eggs. It nurtured white phase ants with the host's flesh and blood. It turned the host into an ant nest.
Of course, before that, people dispatched from the Star Garden would retrieve the body.
But now... the host hadn't died, the heart hadn't stopped, yet the queen had awakened.
Stimulated by the qi Four Thousand Four had infused.
It sensed an existential threat: another white phase ant—not its own offspring—invading its territory. And it detected the intruder's scent permeating the qi.
There was only one way for a white phase ant to enter qi: by dying.
The queen tried to kill itself to merge into the qi and fight the intruder. But in dying, it lost its life. It could enter the qi but not battle.
The queen didn't think that far. Driven by the instinct to fight unconditionally, it sacrificed itself.
'I see.'
Four Thousand Four not only discovered how to awaken the queen ant but also how to further strengthen his qi.
The queen ant dissolved into the qi reinforced the muscles and bones. It fortified the meridians, transforming them to withstand powerful shocks unscathed.
It granted Four Thousand Four the power that allowed him to instantly comprehend the Shadowless Steps—a profound shedding of the old form and rebirth into a new one.
The two didn't realize it, but they had encountered a tremendous stroke of fortune.
Four Thousand Four released his hand and slumped limply.
The world still spun wildly. No strength returned to his limbs. He couldn't stand even if he tried; on top of that, nausea surged.
"Hoo! Hooo!"
Four Thousand Four closed his eyes and took long, deep breaths.
"How are you feeling?"
"Dizzy."
"Same here. It's the poison's aftereffects—even after waking, the vertigo won't subside. We probably need to get out of here for it to fade."
"But this...?"
"......"
"What happened?"
"Did you sense the change?"
"What did you do?"
Vanguard's eyes widened as he asked.
"This... my qi's far more abundant now? Four Thousand Four, what the hell did you make me take?"
Hanbi's sharp eyebrows shot up even higher.
The two seemed to think Four Thousand Four had administered some antidote to neutralize the poison.
Four Thousand Four gave a faint smile.
"I did nothing. If anything, we should thank the Heavenly Annihilation Division."
"What're you talking about?"
Four Thousand Four explained everything about the queen ants in detail.
Vanguard and Hanbi were free from the white phase ants and blood ants. Not a single pursuer ant remained. So there was no need to worry about the queens.
The same went for Jaja and Fox.
But something they could completely ignore... who would have thought a discarded thing like that would bring such immense fortune?
"What a shame. If I'd known, I wouldn't have dissolved all the white phase ants."
Four Thousand Four voiced his regret.
He hadn't just absorbed the queen. He'd also taken in the pursuing white phase and blood ants. All of it had melted together, granting him comprehensive strength.
Vanguard and Hanbi had only absorbed their queens, so their gains were relatively lesser.
"Nah. Even this feels like ten years of cultivation handed to us on a platter. Anyway, let's get out of here quick. My head's pounding; I can't think straight."
Vanguard and Hanbi staggered to their feet.
The path into the Heavenly Annihilation Division lay deeper in the Star Garden. But they couldn't go further in. Escaping the Yi Cheon Myeol-filled area was the priority, so they had no choice but to retrace the known path out.
"What now?"
"Expel the residual poison first. I'll scout the surroundings meanwhile."
"Mm! Appreciate it."
Vanguard sat without hesitation, assuming the cross-legged position.
"Me too."
Hanbi sat beside him.
The two knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Even with the queen ant dissolved into their qi, its effects would fade soon. They needed to reinforce their qi within that window. To absorb the infused essence to the maximum.
Only if handled properly would it become true medicine. Ignore the process, and even the world's greatest fortune turned to waste paper.
Though infiltrating the Heavenly Annihilation Division was a concern, right now they craved meditation above all. Even assassins staking their lives felt the same. All warriors yearned to grow stronger.
Four Thousand Four suggested meditation first precisely because he understood this.
No, there was more.
Things to ponder.
He was a bringer of death. The assassin's code contained only the process of creating death.
Such a person... in a situation like moments ago, should have led to death, not life.
Killing Vanguard and Hanbi would have granted them true freedom.
They hadn't dealt with the escorts. They'd wanted to but couldn't even touch them. This was them acting in fear of the punishment their betrayal would bring.
Even without that, the situation just now warranted guiding them to death over life.
Yet why had he chosen life?
Because they were acquaintances? Because they would help him? Because they were infiltrating the Heavenly Annihilation Division together?
Four Thousand Four felt some kind of 'pull.'
Before thoughts of death could arise, a fierce pull had tugged at him, compelling him to pour qi into the Gate of Life.
What was it... this pull?
Second thing to consider: How did he know about the Bait Incense and Yi Cheon Myeol? Where had he heard it? From whom? Or read it somewhere? Why had those words come to mind?
Szzzz!
Vanguard and Hanbi sank into deep meditative silence.
Heat haze-like energy flickered above their heads. Their qi surged fiercely.
"Hmmm."
Four Thousand Four groaned as he surveyed the Star Garden blanketed in Yi Cheon Myeol.
His mind was foggy, shrouded in mist. Nothing clear in the slightest.