Demonic Qi
So-young was in a village in Sichuan.
“There’s really no one here.”
There wasn’t a soul in the village.
Or rather, there were traces that people had been here.
A farmer who had been tending his fields, a woman who had been hanging out laundry, a pair of lovers—a man and a woman. Even children who had been playing ball.
Only the scattered piles of clothing left behind proved that they had ever existed at all.
So-young picked up one of the garments lying on the ground.
“I can’t feel anything.”
It was an ordinary piece of clothing.
The others were the same.
She looked around a little more, just in case someone had survived in the village.
But, as if to be expected, there were no living people left.
And the water and money are still here too.
They hadn’t even bothered to take valuables.
Which meant money had not been the motive.
If it were those Heavenly Demon Cult bastards, this would fit...
The Heavenly Demon Cult. Commonly called the Demonic Sect by the world.
They were so secretive and so good at keeping themselves hidden that little was known about them.
But whenever something sinister happened in the martial world, most of the time it turned out to be their doing.
And whenever traces of the Demonic Sect began to surface like this, there was always only one possible outcome.
The Demonic Sect is making its move.
The assassination of the Sapae-ryeon lord.
And the sinister experiments in Sichuan.
The shadow of the Demonic Sect was writhing beneath the darkness of the martial world.
All to swallow it whole.
“Who are you?”
A strange voice came from behind So-young.
She turned around, a sword she had grabbed at random from Manryeongak in her hand.
There stood an ordinary-looking old man.
“Are you deaf? I asked who you are.”
“Just a wandering martial artist passing by. And you, sir?”
So-young had come dressed in plain clothes so she wouldn’t reveal that she was from the Tang family.
She had even taken off the green robe that marked the Tang Clan and put on a black one instead.
Perhaps because of that, the old man didn’t seem to doubt her when she said she was a wandering martial artist.
“A warrior, are you?”
The old man asked, glancing at the sword in her hand.
So-young nodded.
At that, the old man’s face seemed to brighten a little.
“Well, that’s fortunate! I’m the headman of the village next door. I was worried because something sinister happened in this village, so how about staying in ours and helping keep watch, miss?”
At his words, So-young nodded.
There was nothing more she could learn here anyway, so it wasn’t a bad proposal.
“Then I’ll be in your care.”
“In your care? Nonsense! We don’t stand on ceremony like that in Sichuan.”
The old man smiled warmly and led her away.
A smile touched So-young’s lips as she watched him.
Looks like this old geezer’s taking me for a fool.
Who would come to a village where something clearly sinister had happened and, with no reason at all, the headman from the neighboring village just happens to visit?
It was practically screaming, Please suspect me.
So-young was certain of it.
That old man was definitely connected to this incident.
“Don’t be shy, dig in!”
“Thank you.”
So-young had supper with the old man at his house.
It was a simple meal of rice and side dishes with an egg dish on the side.
It seemed he had tried to make an effort, considering she was a guest.
Of course, compared to the fine food served at the Tang Clan, it was lacking—but that was only natural.
Still, this is perfectly fine.
So-young finished the meal with some satisfaction.
“That was delicious.”
“Oh? Then would you like some tea as well? I’ll brew it for you.”
“I won’t refuse.”
The old man expertly took out a tea set and steeped the leaves.
From the aroma alone, it was clearly decent tea.
“If you’ve come to Sichuan, you have to try green tea. This is Mengding Ganlu from Mount Mengding.”
“It has a very pleasant fragrance.”
“Doesn’t it? Hahaha!”
At her praise, the old man laughed loudly, clearly pleased.
So-young smiled thinly.
I’ve drunk that Mengding Ganlu every day of my life.
No matter how poorly she might have been treated, she was still a child of the Tang Clan.
Mengding Ganlu was something she drank as casually as water.
If anything, the tea before her now seemed of somewhat inferior quality.
No need to say that, though.
What mattered wasn’t the quality of the Mengding Ganlu.
Something had been mixed into this tea.
It had no aroma, no flavor, no color.
Colorless, tasteless, odorless.
Poison? No. The only colorless, tasteless, odorless poison was the Tang Clan’s Invisible Poison.
There was no way some old man like this would have something like that, so it had to be simpler than that.
Then it’s a sleeping draught.
Whatever he was planning, he had slipped a sleeping powder into the tea.
It wouldn’t work on her anyway, thanks to her immunity to all poisons, but she decided to play along.
So-young rubbed at her eyes a little.
“I’m full, and now that I’ve had tea... I’m getting sleepy.”
“You must be tired after a long journey. Go on and get some rest.”
“Then I’ll excuse myself.”
So-young went straight to the room the old man had prepared and lay down.
She kept the sword within reach, closed her eyes, and waited.
After she had lain there a while, the old man entered her room.
He checked whether So-young was asleep, then casually moved the sword beside her far away.
“Heh, heh, heh... I’ve waited for this moment.”
Without hesitation, the old man lifted the blanket covering So-young.
A beautifully shaped body that didn’t suit her small frame at all.
Her face was so lovely she could have passed for a noble daughter from some wealthy household.
Her breasts rose and fell in time with her soft, sleeping breaths.
“You’re just shamelessly built, aren’t you!”
The old man finally showed his true face.
So what if she was a martial artist?
In the end, one sleeping draught was enough to leave her helpless.
A shame to taste her once and then throw her away...
Normally he would have enjoyed her once and then dumped her on a pack of beggars, but So-young was too beautiful for that.
Should I cut the tendons in her arms and legs and keep her alive?
He even thought it might be nice to put a leash on her and keep her like a bitch.
“Maybe I should just taste her once before deciding?”
It was a powerful sleeping powder that could put even a first-class warrior to sleep for three days.
Time was more than enough.
Who knew? Maybe this girl, moved by the sway of his hips, would come running to him of her own accord.
The old man’s hand reached toward her neck to strip away her clothes.
-Flash.
And in that instant, So-young opened her eyes.
“Hwaaah!”
Meeting her green gaze, the old man shrieked in terror.
So-young didn’t waste the moment.
She seized his arm and twisted.
“Aaaagh!”
The old man was slammed into the floor by her grip.
So-young sat on his back, still wrenching his arm.
“So, you’re finally showing your true colors.”
So-young smiled with cold delight.
Then she drew a throwing knife from her sleeve and drove it into the floor beside his head.
“Hiiik, spare me!”
“Answer my questions, and I will.”
“I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you anything!”
Surprisingly cooperative, this hidden mastermind.
Well, easy was fine.
“First question. What faction do you belong to?”
“Faction... what faction!? I don’t have one!!”
“Good. That’s how you want to play it.”
So-young’s smile deepened.
For someone who seemed oddly cooperative, he apparently had no intention of talking easily.
Without hesitation, So-young yanked out the knife and severed the old man’s right thumb.
“Aaaagh!!!”
“If you don’t want to talk, don’t. I still have nine more.”
“What are you talking about! I wasn’t lying!”
“I’m sure you weren’t.”
This time, she cut off his index finger.
“Aaaagh!!”
Eight more horrific screams burst from the old man’s mouth.
And only then did So-young realize that he was telling the truth.
“...You really only wanted my body?”
“I told you that from the start!”
“...Hah!”
She was dumbfounded.
So he had really just happened to come to the neighboring village, and inviting her over had been nothing more than an attempt to violate her?
“You really have nothing to do with the Demonic Sect?”
“I told you, no! If anything, aren’t you the one who has something to do with the Demonic Sect?!”
The old man was genuinely wondering if the woman before him might be one of them.
To sever all his fingers without even blinking...
She had to be a witch.
So-young fell into brief thought.
She had assumed he had some scheme, but the direction had been a little different.
How should I handle this?
While she was thinking, the old man started to let out a disgusting laugh.
“Heh, heh, heh. So you’ve finally realized what you’ve done, have you?”
“......?”
So-young looked at him, puzzled, and the old man said smugly, “You laid hands on someone from Sichuan! Sichuan is the Tang Clan’s land. The Tang Clan will come searching for you!”
“......Really?”
“Does that not seem real to you? The Tang Clan are vicious people. They won’t forgive anyone who dares lay a hand on one of their own. It would be better for you to bite off your own tongue and kill yourself right now.”
From his words, So-young could tell exactly what position the Tang Clan held in Sichuan.
It seemed the stories were true: in Sichuan, the Tang Clan ruled like the imperial court.
A thin, vicious smile touched So-young’s lips.
“Then you’re the one in bigger trouble.”
“What are you saying?”
“You had the nerve to try and rape the Tang Clan lord’s daughter. Death won’t be enough for you.”
The old man was horrified.
“Don’t lie to me! Why would the Tang Clan lord’s daughter be here without any guards!?”
He didn’t seem to believe her.
So So-young threw a Tang Clan badge in front of him.
“No way...”
Seeing the badge, despair clouded the old man’s face.
The Tang Clan badge was something only members of the Tang family carried.
He didn’t know whether So-young was truly the Tang Clan lord’s daughter, but she was at least undeniably a member of the Tang Clan.
There was only one judgment for someone who had dared to touch a Tang Clan member in Sichuan.
“...Please kill me.”
The old man sincerely begged for death.
Knowing how cruel the Tang Clan’s methods were, he had given up all will to live.
No—better yet, he should not be allowed to live.
If the Tang Clan didn’t kill you, it meant they would inflict something far more horrific than death.
So-young was about to cut the old man’s throat then and there.
“Aaaaghaaaaaagh!!!”
At that moment, the old man let out a grotesque scream and vomited blood.
“What the hell!?”
So-young slammed his thrashing head into the floor once, then put some distance between them.
The old man convulsed on the ground and then died, coughing up blood.
Only then did So-young notice the dark crimson mist scattered through the air.
Poison!?
No, not poison.
If it had been poison, her body—immune to all poisons—would have reacted first.
The sensation was one that pierced through the lungs and seeped along the meridians.
It felt as though the Eight Extraordinary Meridians had been turned inside out, wringing out the pain of reversed blood flow.
It’s the same thing as before!
It was the exact same sensation she had suffered so horribly in her past life.
The pinnacle of sinister malice that twisted the flow of qi and erased life itself.
Demonic qi.
“Cough!”
Even the blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
It was identical to the feeling she had grown sick of in her previous life.
So that bastard Yeon So-ha put demonic qi into my body!?
Only now could she grasp the truth.
She hadn’t even had her revenge yet; she couldn’t die here.
So-young immediately sat down in a cross-legged position.
Demonic qi was, in a sense, a kind of poison.
Because it took the form of qi, her body could not respond to it even with immunity to all poisons.
Then the method was surprisingly simple.
If it’s qi, I’ll counter it with qi.
She used twenty years’ worth of internal power, forged through Hyeoncheon Jinwon Shingong, to resist the demonic qi.
Once accepted, it was impossible to spit the demonic qi back out.
Unless it had never entered her in the first place, there was no way to extract it once it had slipped into her body.
That meant there was only one method.
She had to absorb it.
She opened the gates of her dantian.
You think I’ll fall for the same trick twice?
Demonic qi began flooding into So-young’s dantian.