A Thousand Poison Needles and an Imperial Decree

The woman from the Five Poisons Sect pulled something from within her robes. She gripped a long cylinder, aiming it straight at Dang Nan-a. A string ran from the device, which she held with her other hand. Cheong had no idea what the object was. As someone from the modern world, however, he instantly understood that having a long tube pointed at you was extremely dangerous.

Startled, Cheong shoved Dang Nan-a aside and thrust his hand toward the cylinder. But Dang Nan-a recognized it at once. It was a type of hidden weapon called a needle tube. The mechanism used tension from drawn leather or sinew to fire the needles stored inside. On its own, it usually lacked much killing power. The real problem was that the needles were coated in poison.

As Dang Nan-a rolled across the floor from her seated position, she caught a glimpse of Cheong’s back in the spinning world as he took a single step forward. She also saw the hand glowing with sunset hues extending from beneath a pelvis far wider than her frame should allow.

Dang Nan-a screamed like a woman in a nightmare. “Run…!”

But it was already too late.

Thump!

The sharp sound of powerful tension slapping leather rang out. At the same time, thousands of tiny objects reflected off his palm in a glittering scatter and swept through the air in front of Cheong like a storm.

In that moment of hyper-focused concentration, where the world seemed to flow in slow motion, the shattered fragments of fine needles slammed into the woman’s body with a rapid thud-thud-thud. Her skin rippled from the impact as she was blasted backward, floating helplessly into the air. Then time snapped back to normal, and the flying woman crashed into the door and tumbled across the floor.

Dang Nan-a, who had rolled once and a half while still seated before springing to her feet, immediately snatched Cheong’s wrist.

“Hey! You! What the hell are you doing?! Do you even know what that thing is?!”

She yanked his long hand right up to her face and began prodding and squeezing it all over.

“It’s fine. I bounced them back.”

“You idiot! What if even one needle had stuck?!”

Dang Nan-a pulled his palm so close her nose nearly touched it, rubbing and fiddling frantically while her eyes darted everywhere. But the hands forged by Sosu Magong were not soft enough to be pierced by mere fine needles.

“What is this? Is she actually trying to die?”

The woman was now covered in what looked like cactus spines, densely embedded across every inch of exposed skin and clothing. Black, blue, and purple spots spread rapidly over her body. Blood poured from her mouth, nose, and ears, and her eyes had filled with so much blood that the whites had turned crimson.

“Senior Brother… I’m sorry. I couldn’t repay the grudge…”

“Is that what matters right now?!”

Dang Nan-a paid the dying woman no attention whatsoever, too busy frantically examining Cheong’s palm. Even so, the assassin stared this way with a face full of bitter resentment. Cheong waved his free hand with a gentle smile, bidding the dying woman farewell.

“Cough!”

The woman’s eyes bulged. She vomited a thick gout of blood, and her pupils went slack. It was, in its own way, a fitting end for a proud assassin. She had clearly explained why the target had to die while carrying out her mission, so this was the proper way of offering enlightenment even to an enemy. Moreover, even while dying in failure, she had kept firing her gaze until the very end in an attempt to kill the interloper. That could only be called splendid professional spirit.

The only flaw was that she hadn’t known a glare carried no calories and therefore could not kill anyone. This was probably because the physics of the Central Plains remained at a rather primitive level. At the very least, if she hadn’t shouted about avenging her senior brother, the targeted Dang Nan-a might not have been able to dodge the poisoned needles. But that was something a person seeking revenge could never, ever tolerate.

If one could abandon the sentiment of Know why you’re dying and regret it!, would they have charged into the heart of enemy territory to shoot hidden weapons in the first place?

After meticulously checking the palm for even the tiniest scratch no thicker than a fine hair, Dang Nan-a finally let out a long sigh of relief. Then she immediately exploded.

“That was dangerous! No matter how confident you are in your hand techniques, who in their right mind blocks something like that with their bare hand?!”

“Uh. Me?”

“Are you seriously saying that right now?!”

Dang Nan-a’s aura was positively ferocious. Therefore, Cheong decided not to mention that his side was stinging a little. It seemed a few needles had grazed him, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠since poison didn’t work on him anyway, it was probably just a couple of thorns embedded in his skin.

In Yunnan Province, two major ethnic groups made their homes. One was the Bai people, descendants of the old Dali Kingdom. The name “Bai” came from their fanatical preference for the color white. Their clothes were white, their finest houses were white, their Buddhist temples were white, and their palaces were white. They were regarded as country bumpkins who liked white better than the auspicious purple, but at least they weren’t treated as outright barbarians. Moreover, they had the Jeomchang Sect—the pride, self-respect, and dignity of the entire Bai people.

The Jeomchang Sect carried on the Daoist lineage while also walking a dual path of half-Dao and half-Buddhist through a unique fusion with Dali’s Bai Buddhism. As such, it stood as one of the proud symbols of the righteous Murim among the Nine Great Sects. For that reason, Bai parents sent their children to the Jeomchang Sect whether they had talent or not; it was simply what parents did. Thanks to this custom, the Jeomchang Sect, which only selected the absolute elite of the ethnicity as disciples, had a rock-solid road of prosperity stretching into the future.

The remaining ethnic group was the Miao people. If Cheong had heard the name, he might have thought no way, but in truth they were an ethnic group ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠whose features resembled those of Southeast Asians. The Miao were one of the representative barbarian tribes looked down upon by the Central Plains. They were short, had plump figures, and their skin tended toward either deep black or yellowish tones. Surprisingly, they had settled in the humid jungles, and both the Five Poisons Sect and the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace were Miao sects.

Of the two, the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace had zero interest in the outside world. They were too busy laughing and playing with their slightly fierce pets—tigers, bears, leopards, and the like—to care about anything beyond the jungle. The sect was also a popular destination for animal lovers from the Central Plains.

The Five Poisons Sect, however, was different. They were a ridiculous bunch burning with a sense of sacred duty to reclaim their ancestral lands. They claimed that in the distant, distant past, the Miao had been the masters of Dongting Lake. Thus, until just a month ago, the Five Poisons Sect Leader Hu Jeon-chi had spent every day with a heart bursting at the thought of reclaiming his people’s territory.

If things went well, even if they couldn’t reach all the way to Dongting Lake, the Miao could at least expand into Sichuan. It would also be an opportunity to slaughter the descendants of the hated invaders—the Han people—in great numbers, thereby soothing their ancestors’ grudges.

In any case, Dongting Lake was part of the Yangtze River. Since four branches of that same Yangtze flowed through Sichuan, the ancestors would probably forgive that much. And so the disciples had set out to accomplish the great task.

They returned in utter ruins.

The damage to the first-generation disciples was especially catastrophic. Their senior brother had died. The second, third, fifth, sixth, and ninth disciples had also died. Moreover, after hearing the news, their daughter had rushed out and—there had been no word of what happened to her—

“Big trouble! Hyeop-a, Hyeop-a…!”

“What about Hyeop-a?! Where is she right now?!”

“Well, the thing is…”

And just now, the Five Poisons Sect Leader Hu Jeon-chi learned the fate of his beloved daughter and fourth disciple of the first generation. The horrific news that she had attempted an assassination in the heart of the Tang Clan, failed, and had her naked corpse hung on the main road of Sichuan Province.

“Those, those bastards who deserve to be pickled and turned into wine! What sin did my Hyeop-a ever commit…! How could they do this?”

Attempting assassination was indeed a grave crime. Of course, to a father who had lost his daughter, it was a trivial detail. Deep blue resentment flooded Hu Jeon-chi’s eyes.

“…Tell the great one. If they will only allow us to make wine with the heads of those Tang Clan bastards, we will do whatever it takes.”

Tang Clan Lord Dang Tu-juk was also jumping out of his skin. His most precious daughter had been attacked in the very center of the family estate. Of course, thanks to the family’s benefactor happening to be with her, they had overcome the crisis without harm. However, the assassin had infiltrated the grounds without even trying to hide their identity, fully prepared to die together. They had even disguised themselves as a patient in order to attack the physician. It was a horrific atrocity that not even the bastards of the Demonic Cult would commit.

In the Tang Clan’s elders’ meeting, Dang Tu-juk brought up the agenda in a voice thick with the stench of blood.

“We can no longer tolerate this. We must wipe out the very seed of those Five Poisons Sect bastards.”

The way they had unilaterally treated the Tang Clan as rivals or whatever had been overlooked until now simply because it was cute. They were merely country bumpkins who ate poison bugs in a corner of the jungle. Had they been closer, the Tang Clan would have beaten them long ago, but since the distance was inconvenient they had simply watched. The Tang family members who regularly entered the jungle to gather poisonous creatures knew exactly how nasty that place was.

Still, the family head responsible for an entire clan could not make the decision to dispatch forces based on personal feelings of revenge. Therefore, the greatest elder of the Tang Clan, the Supreme Patriarch Dang Jae-un, opened his mouth. Since it was the opinion of the Supreme Patriarch who had remained silent for the sake of the current lord’s authority, even the master of the Tang Clan had no choice but to listen.

“They dared to target our child. Crush them thoroughly so that such a thing never happens again.”

Of course, the Supreme Patriarch’s entire life in old age consisted of watching his adorable granddaughter’s cute antics.

“That’s right. Since it’s already a suspicious time, we should use every last fire bomb and blow them to bits. There’s no point leaving them in storage.”

This was the opinion of the Grand Steward who managed all the clan’s warehouses. They had diverted resources from the saltpeter mines and possessed plenty of money to buy sulfur. Not making gunpowder? A man like that wasn’t a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠real man—his manhood should be removed at once. Gunpowder was a substance men yearned for, after all. However, the amount they had slowly accumulated had grown large enough to be awkward to keep. It was already a quantity the paper-tiger government office could not overlook. On the contrary, because the government was cultivating gunpowder as a countermeasure against martial artists, this was an issue that would cause even greater alarm. Therefore, the suggestion was to blow up the Five Poisons Sect this time and destroy the evidence along with them.

“That’s an excellent idea. Let’s pour the entire contents of Mt. Jeomchang on them and rot the land from the roots so they can never rebuild.”

“Will merely rotting the land be enough? An eye for an eye. Since those Miao barbarian bastards dared to target the water source of Chengdu, we should throw the Immortal Pavilion into their rivers.”

The high-ranking members of a sect were ultimately nothing more than a gathering of relatives. And since someone had touched the most beloved girl in the Tang Clan, far from anyone trying to stop the madness, they were all enthusiastically suggesting even more vicious methods. Thus the plan settled on poisoning the entire foundational city and sweeping it clean.

In this way, the Tang Clan displayed their spirit to once again engrave their famous family motto upon the Central Plains after a long time.

Return grace twofold. Return grudge tenfold.

Unfortunately, that plan fell through. It was because of an announcement issued under the imperial command of the Inspector General of the Censorate, who had personally descended to investigate the death of a member of the imperial family.