Chapter 8
Chapter 8
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Promotion Exam
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"It's time."
With those words, Im Hyehyang headed toward the boiling pot of medicine. Inside the pot, an ominous purple liquid bubbled furiously, filling the room with a thick miasma of poison. It was the stench of death, born from the mixture of Seven Treasure Temple's venomous fangs and Fire Jade Lingzhi herb.
Without the slightest hesitation, Im Hyehyang grabbed the scorching handle of the pot with her bare hand. She must have been warding off the heat with her profound inner energy. Lifting the pot, she poured the dark red liquid into a porcelain bowl beside it. A sizzling hiss echoed through the air, like flesh burning.
"Drink it."
She nodded toward the bowl.
Swallowing dryly, I lifted the bowl with both hands. The searing heat seeped straight through my palms. It felt like I was clutching the pulsing heart of a living venomous serpent. The dark red liquid rippling in the bowl looked as sinister as the waters of a river from hell. And I was supposed to feed this to a person? It was my own idea, but now that it was right in front of me, a chill ran down my spine.
What I held in my hands was one man's life—and my own.
Im Hyehyang stared at me as if she could see right through to my core. Under her gaze, I felt utterly exposed. Her voice from moments ago, urging me to "confess" and prodding at my weaknesses, echoed in my ears. And my body, trembling on its own in response. Even the ugly lust I'd stirred up last night, recalling Bang Soso's hot, soft mouth. Did she know everything?
In her presence, I was nothing more than a naked child. Her cold eyes seemed to mock me, or perhaps they were observing a fascinating toy. It was the polar opposite of Bang Soso's warm, soft embrace—an icy sharpness, unyielding and firm. And yet, why was this happening? In this moment of submission to that chill, I felt a faint heat stirring in my loins once more. I despised myself for getting aroused even in a situation like this.
"What are you waiting for? The medicine will cool."
Im Hyehyang's icy voice snapped me out of my turmoil. I pulled myself together and followed behind her.
As the bolt slid open and the door swung wide, the corridor was already swarming with disciples like clouds. They whispered about me, their eyes filled with contempt, mockery, and a hint of curiosity. That madman's really going to feed him deadly poison. That's what they were all thinking. Probably.
I ignored their stares as best I could and trailed after Im Hyehyang. We arrived at an annex where the patient was isolated. Inside the room, several other elders waited with grim expressions. They were all heavyweights of the Healer Immortal Sect, here to witness this treatment today.
The patient lay on a stretcher, gasping for breath. He looked even worse than before. His face had turned ashen, as if death was moments away.
...Should I call it off now?
Without turning to look at me, Im Hyehyang spoke.
"This is your last chance."
Her voice froze the air in the room.
"Admit you were wrong now, and I'll spare your life. Of course, you'll be expelled from the Healer Immortal Sect."
It was an ultimatum.
"......"
Should I beg for forgiveness now? Even if I get expelled, I could survive out there.
...Probably.
The martial world is dangerous, of course.
I wouldn't have the Healer Immortal Sect's protection anymore.
And seeing Bang Soso would be tough.
But I could manage somehow...
No.
...Backing out now would make me a total coward.
I'm going to be with Bang Soso.
I'd rather chop it off.
"......"
Would she hate that?
...Anyway, no way I'm backing out.
"......"
All the elders' eyes turned to me. I looked down at the poison bowl in my hands. This dark red liquid would decide my future. There was no turning back.
I lifted my head and met Im Hyehyang's gaze squarely.
"Let's begin."
That icy smile flickered across her lips once more.
I approached the patient. Grasping his shoulder, I carefully raised his upper body. His skeletal frame was as light as a fallen leaf. A corpse-like foul odor wafted from his mouth.
I gripped his jaw and forced his mouth open. He weakly resisted, but his emaciated limbs had no strength. I tilted the poison-filled bowl toward his gaping maw.
Gulp. Gulp.
The sound of the dark red liquid sliding down his parched throat rang clearly through the room. One elder turned away, as if unable to watch. I poured every last drop into his mouth without spilling a bit, then quietly set the bowl down.
It was all over.
All that remained was waiting.
A suffocating silence filled the room. Only the crackle of candle flames, the patient's faint breaths, and the pounding of my heart could be heard. Each second felt like a year.
'Please... please!'
I prayed inwardly. That my hypnosis, my diagnosis, hadn't been wrong.
There was no change in the patient. He merely breathed faintly, just as before swallowing the poison.
As time dragged on, the room's atmosphere grew heavier. Disappointment and contempt thickened in the watching elders' eyes. It was all nonsense after all. The fool overstepped and killed a man. That's what their gazes said.
At that moment, Im Hyehyang wasn't watching the patient—she was watching me. From start to finish, she obsessively observed my every expression, every glance, every tiny gesture. As if this entire ordeal wasn't about saving the patient, but a stage contrived solely to test me.
And right then.
"Kuh... hack...!"
The patient's body, lying still as death, suddenly convulsed violently. A beastly, grotesque groan erupted from his mouth.
All eyes turned to him.
"Graaaah! Aaaagh!"
The patient glared wide-eyed as his entire body began to spasm uncontrollably. His skeletal frame stiffened like a log on the stretcher, then bent like a bow. Crack, crack, crack. The gruesome sound of his joints twisting sent chills through the air.
"Th-this... impossible! The poison's spreading!"
One elder cried out in shock.
"Detoxify him now...!"
But no one dared step forward rashly. The patient's condition looked beyond the reach of human medicine.
His face turned purple, white foam bubbling from his mouth. He clawed at his throat, screaming. It was the textbook image of someone dying from deadly poison.
My mind went blank.
Was I wrong? Was my diagnosis, everything about me, wrong?
Even in this life-or-death moment, Im Hyehyang watched me without flinching. Her eyes seemed to say, 'Look. This is the result you brought on yourself.'
The patient's convulsions grew more violent. It was as if he were battling something inside him.
"Grraaaagh!"
Finally, he let out a horrific scream that seemed his last, his upper body jolting upright.
Spluuurt!
Dark red blood sprayed from his mouth like a fountain. Black, foul-smelling vomit soaked the floor.
It's over. Everything's over.
Or so I thought.
Everyone saw it. Amid the black vomit the patient had spewed, something white writhed.
It was a worm whiter and thicker than a silkworm. About the length of a knuckle, it was nearly lifeless, feebly twisting in the dark red poison. Even as the Seven Treasure Temple's deadly venom melted its body, its desperate struggles to survive exuded a tenacious vitality laced with eerie malice.
The room's air froze solid.
The elders stared blankly, eyes darting between the worm on the floor, the gasping patient, and me—the one who had made it all possible. No longer was there contempt or mockery in their gazes. Only pure shock at an incomprehensible phenomenon, and primal fear.
"Th-that... that's the Silkworm Devouring Poison...?"
One elder muttered in a trembling voice, hollow as if he'd seen a ghost.
It was the same elder who, moments ago, had called me a madman and demanded I be dragged out. He staggered back, tripped over his own feet, and fell on his rear. But he seemed oblivious to the humiliation.
The patient, having expelled everything, lay gasping with a bloodless face. The spasms had stopped; the agonized screams were gone. Though he looked on the verge of death, he was undoubtedly alive. With the parasite gone from his body, a faint serenity settled on his features.
It was a miracle.
"He's... alive..."
"He drank deadly poison... and he's alive..."
Murmurs spread like waves.
I let out a quiet breath. Tension released, my legs wobbled. I barely kept from collapsing.
Even then, Im Hyehyang's eyes were fixed solely on me. The patient and the worm on the floor meant nothing to her. She pierced through me, dissecting the existence known as Shadowless. Her gaze demanded, 'What exactly are you?' Under it, I felt as if my deepest secret—the hypnosis—had been exposed, sending shivers down my spine.
Finally, she spoke. Her voice was still cold, but laced with the faintest tremor.
"You... were right."
She acknowledged it. In front of everyone. It was a declaration proclaiming my victory.