Chapter 57
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Establishing the Sword of Justice (2)
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It was an idea he'd never heard of, never even imagined.
To cut poison—even to Cheon Muryang, who had conceived it, the notion was foreign.
But there was no other choice.
‘I can't lose the Heavenly Watch Corps Leader like this. You must watch until the very end.’
The Heavenly Watch Corps Leader was loyal to the Cheon Family, not to Cheon Muryang.
He was someone who would tell Cheon Muryang if his choices were wrong.
‘He's someone I need.’
He would help maintain a balance.
It was no longer a question of whether he could cut it or not.
‘I have to cut it.’
He had to.
That will settled into the Heavenly Light Sword.
In that moment, the Heavenly Light Sword was not a sword of slaughter.
It became a sword that brought forth life.
*Fwoosh!*
‘So this is what it means to be a famed sword, huh?’
Cheon Muryang smiled as he raised the Heavenly Light Sword.
It seemed the sword's caliber had risen after his victory against Namgung Sang-hyeok.
‘I'm glad we can grow stronger. Both you and I.’
*Chk!*
Cheon Muryang took his stance.
It was the same stance he used to cut the sky.
‘The poison is also a sky.’
He was confident in his ability to cut the sky, so Cheon Muryang thought of the poison as a sky.
‘All I have to do is cut this sky of poison.’
Perhaps because of this resolve, Cheon Muryang began to see the grain of the poison—something that shouldn't have existed.
‘Why?’
Poison was natural.
But the Tang Clan's poison was artificial.
Because the Tang Clan's poison was created by arbitrarily processing natural ingredients, it shouldn't have possessed any rules.
‘Poison is created for the purpose of killing someone... a collection of malice. Its meaning is clearly different.’
Even if natural poison and the Tang Clan's poison fell under the same category, their meanings were fundamentally different.
Natural poison wasn't solely for causing death.
But the Tang Clan's poison was meant for someone's death.
‘The Tang Clan's poison seeks death.’
So he thought.
That it pursued only blind death.
‘But, within it...’
Within the chaos, there was a rule.
It was so small and subtle that even Cheon Muryang almost missed it, but it was definitely there.
‘Unexpected.’
That small, subtle rule.
It was life.
Within death, life existed.
‘Is this what they mean when they say poison and medicine are not so different?’
He vaguely remembered.
A joke he'd once heard, that in the distant past, the Tang Clan had risen not as a family of poison, but of medicine.
‘If that's true...’
Then the Tang Clan's poison was also medicine.
In other words, the difference between the Tang Clan's poison and medicine was paper-thin.
‘It wouldn't be strange for it to harbor life.’
Though the current Tang Clan may have forgotten that value, the value of life they once pursued must have remained in their poison in some form.
‘It's just like justice.’
A value forgotten by the current martial world.
But wasn't there a time in the past when it was the sole value that existed in this Central Plains martial world?
*Fwoosh!*
Therefore, Cheon Muryang was certain.
The grain in the flow emanated by the Tang Clan's poison.
He drew the Heavenly Light Sword along the path of life.
*Fwaah!*
He cut through the malice.
He cut through the chaos settled in the poison.
Once he cut them away, all that remained was the spirit dormant beneath—the spirit of the past Tang Clan members who sought to achieve life through poison.
"Hmm..."
The poison's movement was strange.
He had cut its grain, so the poison energy should have scattered or flown away, yet it still lingered around the Heavenly Light Sword.
"What is this?"
However, the Tang Clan's poison showed no hostility toward Cheon Muryang.
It was as if it had a will of its own.
"Do you have something to tell me?"
The moment he said that.
The Tang Clan's poison energy flowed through the Heavenly Light Sword and into Cheon Muryang.
"Interesting."
Cheon Muryang did not resist the flow of poison energy and accepted it.
He even opened his meridians to it.
If it had intended to be hostile, it would have done so already.
‘What do you want to say?’
What Cheon Muryang had cut was all the malice and chaos imbued in the Tang Clan's poison.
The will of life dormant beneath seemed to have something it wanted to tell him.
The Tang Clan's poison settled in Cheon Muryang's heart.
‘Shouldn't you start talking now?’
The Tang Clan's poison, which had stopped its advance.
From it, a will was conveyed.
『Are you the one who will destroy the Tang Clan, or the one who will save it?』
Cheon Muryang wanted to ask what kind of ridiculous question that was.
‘What kind of bullshit is that?’
『One day, you will come to oppose the Tang Clan. You will have to choose whether to destroy it or save it.』
The word 'choice' was laughable.
Who was choosing what?
The choice was Cheon Muryang's to make; it was not for the Tang Clan's will to dictate.
‘Don't try to force my choice.’
『I am not forcing a choice. Just, when that time comes.』
The will of the Tang Clan was firm.
‘When it comes?’
『I ask that you show a sliver of mercy.』
Cheon Muryang couldn't understand the situation.
How could the will contained within the Tang Clan's poison speak of the clan's destruction?
‘I don't understand.’
『The current Tang Clan has gone down the wrong path. One day, they must pay the price for their choices. And only you can make them pay that price.』
‘I see.’
Cheon Muryang understood.
In the past, the Tang Clan must have also stood at a crossroads.
And because of their choice, what little goodwill remained was completely buried, and its place was covered by malice and chaos.
‘Alright. But why me?’
『Because you are the only one who has ever cut the Tang Clan's poison.』
That, too, was perhaps obvious.
Who would have ever thought of cutting poison?
‘That's quite an honor.’
Cheon Muryang was weak to praise.
But he had to take what was his.
If the other party was demanding something, wasn't it the law of the martial world that there should be a corresponding price?
‘The price of the deal has to be clear, right?’
『...』
It must have been his imagination that the will of the Tang Clan, now just a lingering thought, seemed to be at a loss for words.
『Absorb me. If you do, you will achieve immunity to all poisons that exist in this world.』
If he could have laughed, Cheon Muryang would have been rolling on the ground.
His immunity to poison had increased after undergoing his metamorphosis.
It was a state of the body often called 'Immunity to a Thousand Poisons'.
‘But, that's not perfect either.’
Immunity to a Thousand Poisons only symbolized that one's resistance to poison had become that much higher.
‘It doesn't make you invincible.’
Poisons that surpassed the category of a thousand poisons existed in nature, and the Tang Clan had likely already leaped far beyond that stage.
『I mean that I will help you achieve 'Immunity to Ten Thousand Poisons'.』
However, if he absorbed the will of the Tang Clan, he could achieve true Immunity to Ten Thousand Poisons.
‘This is a jackpot.’
He wanted to hide his inner thoughts, but since they were communicating through will, he couldn't.
『The deal is done.』
*Twitch!*
Cheon Muryang felt the Tang Clan's poison energy, settled around his heart, slowly begin to fuse with him.
‘Ah...’
The Tang Clan's poison energy coiled around his heart.
The vicious poison energy constricted his heart.
‘Kugh!’
For a moment, a pain so intense washed over him that he wondered if the Tang Clan's poison had deceived him and was trying to kill him.
‘W-Wait... you didn't say anything about this.’
The will of the Tang Clan belatedly replied.
『The bitterer the process, the sweeter the fruit. There will be a 'slight' amount of pain.』
*Crack!*
Despite the overwhelming pain, Cheon Muryang's brow furrowed.
It wasn't just because of the pain.
‘You son of a bitch! A slight amount of pain? This?!’
He felt like he was dying.
No, he might have actually crossed the threshold of death.
His heart, the source of his life force, was now covered in poison energy.
‘Ah...’
It was at that moment.
Perhaps the fusion was complete, because at some point, the seething poison energy started to feel warm instead.
‘Did it break through?’
The Tang Clan's poison energy, now flowing through the meridians of his entire body, merged with Cheon Muryang's internal energy.
『Medicine becomes poison, and poison becomes medicine. May our poison become your medicine.』
*Fwaaat!*
The will of the Tang Clan vanished.
Opening his closed eyes, Cheon Muryang clenched and unclenched his fists a few times.
"Perfect."
The Tang Clan's poison energy was gone.
It had fused perfectly, placing its will completely under the control of Cheon Muryang's internal energy.
As a result, he had only gained resistance to poison; the nature of his internal energy hadn't changed.
"Ah."
Cheon Muryang noticed the fallen Heavenly Watch Corps Leader.
Worried, he checked his pulse.
It was stable.
"Thank goodness."
Cheon Muryang smiled.
Should he thank the Heavenly Watch Corps Leader?
Or should he thank the Tang Clan?
This unexpected fortune ignited Cheon Muryang's will.
"Sorry, but you Tang Clan folks are in big trouble now."
He wanted to see it.
The look on their faces the moment their precious poison was neutralized.
"The Dragon and Phoenix Assembly... This should be fun."
Filled with anticipation, Cheon Muryang hoisted the Heavenly Watch Corps Leader over his shoulder.
He smiled and spoke to the limp Heavenly Watch Corps Leader.
"I worked hard to save you, so you'd better dedicate yourself even more to the family."
* * *
Although he had removed the poison, he left the Heavenly Watch Corps Leader at the medical pavilion, just in case there were any lingering side effects.
A commotion was breaking out near the main gate.
"What's going on?"
Wondering what it was, Cheon Muryang found himself moving toward the main gate.
A huge crowd had gathered in front of the Cheon Family's main gate.
"Ah, so that's why."
Next to the gate hung the severed head of the Thousand-Faced Lustful Demon, a known public enemy of the martial world.
Beside the head was a large poster detailing the Thousand-Faced Lustful Demon's evil deeds.
『The Heavenly Sword shall cut down injustice and villainy. The Great Young Lord of the Cheon Family, Cheon Muryang, has slain the Thousand-Faced Lustful Demon.』
A wooden plaque inscribed with the Cheon Family's new law was also set up.
"Did he really kill the Thousand-Faced Lustful Demon? And... it was the Cheon Family's mad dog Great Young Lord?"
"Hmph. Who knows? For all we know, that could be the head of anyone."
There were those who were skeptical.
So, Cheon Muryang decided to make things clear for them.
"Great Young Lord?"
"Ah, thank you for your hard work."
After lightly praising the guards at the gate for their efforts, Cheon Muryang stepped outside.
"...!"
He didn't even raise his internal energy.
But in an instant, everyone's eyes were fixed on Cheon Muryang.
*Fwaaah!*
The noisy atmosphere of the place fell silent in a flash.
In the silence, someone swallowed hard.
*Gulp!*
The silence was so profound that the sound was like a clap of thunder.
"I am Cheon Muryang."
Those few words radiated an overwhelming presence.
"The Thousand-Faced Lustful Demon was a villain who deserved to die."
His voice hammered into their ears.
"Since you've all gathered here, I will make one declaration before you."
"..."
"From this day forward, the Cheon Family's highest value will be justice."
He intended to make it official.
"There will be no compromise with injustice or villainy. Even if it is someone from the Cheon Family, they will not be forgiven."
That was the new law Cheon Muryang sought to establish.
"Therefore, keep this in mind."
*Fwoosh!*
Cheon Muryang drew his sword.
The sword soared toward the sky.
Those who faced the sword each had conflicting reactions.
"Hah!"
Some were overwhelmed.
"H-Hiiik!"
Some felt as if the sword were aimed right at them.
"..."
And others could only stare at Cheon Muryang.
"That my sword is always watching you."
*Paaat!*
Was it an illusion?
The azure light of the Heavenly Light Sword replaced the sun high in the sky.
The sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky all faded before the sword's azure light.
Only the Heavenly Light Sword existed in its entirety.
*Woooong!*
The sword of justice stood tall.
It was not newly established; it had existed in that place from the very beginning, as if it had always been so.
"Ah..."
Cheon Muryang had simply announced that fact to the world once more.