Chapter 87
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: Enlightenment Always Comes Suddenly
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No sooner had I knocked away the flying dagger aimed at my vital point than dozens of large needles swarmed over me.
I immediately unleashed the initial forms of the Nine Palaces Returning to Heaven Sword, batting away the large needles charging toward me one after another, using my trajectory as their target. I was confident I wouldn't lose to hidden weapons.
‘This time, a flying dagger?’
Before I could even properly regrip my sword, another flying dagger shot straight at my throat, scattering silver light as it flew. I hurriedly twisted my body to the side and swung my sword down at the incoming dagger.
My wrist throbbed from striking the heavy flying dagger. I wasn't sure about the relatively lighter large needles, but deflecting a flying dagger with my swift sword was definitely a strain on the wrist.
Tang Ha-kyung had merely slipped her hand into her sleeve for a moment, and now flying daggers were wedged between her fingers.
With a flick of Tang Ha-kyung's wrist, the flying daggers etched straight lines through the air. I swung my sword with all my might at her more refined flying dagger technique, appropriately interrupting the projectiles' paths.
Tang Ha-kyung blocked my sword with the flying dagger gripped in her fingers, then seized her flying sword with her other hand and slashed sideways at my throat.
I fiercely knocked away the hand blocking my sword and quickly stepped on a hidden projectile to widen the distance.
I dodged and deflected the incoming flying daggers and large needles by flicking them away with my sword, biding my time for an opening. The moment the flying daggers ran out in Tang Ha-kyung's hand, I unleashed the initial form of the Thunderbolt Sword, thrusting my blade straight forward like lightning.
She barely twisted her waist to evade my sword, but her palm unleashed a palm strike toward my face. I immediately twisted my sword into a feint.
Unable to dodge in time, the right sleeve of Tang Ha-kyung's robe was sliced deeply, and large needles rained down to the ground.
Suddenly, a flying dagger gripped in Tang Ha-kyung's hand traced a circular arc. My hair tie and a few strands of hair were severed, my bound hair coming loose and obscuring my vision.
At the same time, we leaped back from each other, widening the gap, then slowly circled while sharply scanning our opponent with our eyes.
“Shoot, a bust. I was hoping for the flying dagger side over the large needles.”
“Not bad. I figured at least one hidden weapon would have lodged in your body by now.”
Even as we exchanged words feigning leisure, our vigilance never wavered.
So far, Tang Ha-kyung had only used hidden weapon techniques, but the Tang Clan had something else: poison arts that handled and dispersed toxins.
The Sichuan Tang Clan wielded influence through poison arts rather than hidden weapons. Even if I'd blocked all of Tang Ha-kyung's flying daggers, that didn't mean I could take her lightly.
“Do you know why poison is so fearsome?”
Her out-of-the-blue question made me twitch an eyebrow.
I opened my mouth to reply with the immutable truth ‘because it kills you nine times out of ten if you ingest it,’ but Tang Ha-kyung preempted me with her own answer.
“Because it lurks undetectably until symptoms arise, and only then do you realize you've been poisoned.”
Tang Ha-kyung's lips curved annoyingly upward, and at the same moment, a sudden prickling in my heart made me gasp sharply, drawing in a huge breath.
The sensation in my arms and legs grew strangely numb. No, distorted.
“Damn it! When the hell...?”
I'd been on guard precisely because I didn't know when she'd deploy her poison arts, but it turned out I was already poisoned.
“Sprinkling separately prepared poison is something only amateurs do.”
Tang Ha-kyung raised her palm, clad in a half-glove, and a dull poisonous qi rippled from her fingertips.
The Sichuan Tang Clan ingested poison from childhood, accumulating it in their dantian. They then wielded that poisonous qi in the form of palm or finger strikes...
‘No way, that palm strike just now?’
I halted my whirling thoughts and barely dragged my unresponsive body to desperately dodge and deflect the once more lethally hurled flying daggers.
One flying dagger I couldn't evade tore through my clothes and deeply gashed my forearm. I couldn't even press on my bleeding arm to staunch it; I just gripped my sword tightly with my right hand.
Desperately churning my increasingly foggy mind, I delved even into memories I'd deliberately buried.
‘Think, think.’
I'd been poisoned before.
Back then, without me doing anything, the spiritual energy of the Self-Combustion Pill had circulated through my meridians on its own, devouring the poison.
The internal energy accumulated in my dantian now was just shy of one jia. It was more than enough to suppress the poison the same way as before. In fact, it was even milder than the Demonic Cult's poison, making it easier.
There was no Jinki Do-in to aid my qi circulation this time, but instinctively channeling my internal energy, I circulated it through my meridians, burning away the poison. In this dire crisis, it somehow worked.
My numb fingertips and prickling feet regained their normal sensation. My ragged breathing was returning to normal too.
I charged at the off-guard Tang Ha-kyung, exploiting her opening.
Evidently not expecting such a swift recovery, I swung my sword down at her wide-eyed shock and sliced into her side, blood seeping out.
Pressing hard on the wound in my left arm to belatedly staunch it, I eyed my opponent doing the same to her bleeding side.
“I underestimated your Little Sword Manor.”
Letting out a low chuckle, Tang Ha-kyung suddenly closed the distance and swung her Poison Palm.
I could take one hit, but not two! I infused my sword with internal energy and swept away all the poisonous qi pouring toward me.
Clicking her tongue, Tang Ha-kyung deployed her lightness skill and was suddenly right behind me. Feeling the sharpness of the flying dagger at point-blank range, I hurriedly gathered energy in my hand and smashed the sword hilt into my solar plexus with full force.
“Guhk!”
Tang Ha-kyung, suffering internal injuries, clutched her mouth and staggered. Grinning at her, I offered thanks.
“Thanks. Thanks to you, I finally broke through to first-class realm.”
I'd been stuck at second-class for ages, worrying, but as expected, breaking through realms was best done by hurling yourself into extreme situations.
Blood trickled from her gritted teeth, but Tang Ha-kyung ignored it and barely straightened up. Her remaining sleeve fluttered.
Sprinkling separately prepared poison is something only amateurs do, she'd said.
That's why you shouldn't run your mouth. Thanks for the reverse lesson.
I unleashed my final strike without flinching at the dozens of hidden weapons pouring at me with ferocious momentum or the poisonous qi blackening the surroundings.
Kwaaang! With the crash of metal clashing against metal, dust mixed with poison billowed outward in all directions.
As the obscuring dust cleared, Tang Ha-kyung, facing the sword tip pointed right at her throat, let out a hollow laugh and declared surrender.
“I lose.”
An astonishingly quiet silence fell. The sight of the Tang Clan guys standing there dumbstruck with shocked faces was immensely satisfying.
Thud thud thud thud. Turning my head absently toward the booming footsteps, I saw our Mount Hua Sect plum disciples charging toward me with arms wide open.
“Waaaaah! Great Senior Brooo!”
“We believed all along our senior brother would win!”
I slipped out of their attempting embraces, grumbling.
“I still have poison on me, you know? Wanna get poisoned?”
The moment I said that, I eyed my junior brothers jumping far away from me with incredulity. Wasn't their about-face a bit too extreme?
The only one left by my side wasn't even my fellow martial siblings from the roster—it was just my friend Namgung Seheon.
“Y-you, y-your wounds...!”
Seeing blood dripping between my fingers pressing the injury, Namgung Seheon grabbed my sleeve and urgently scanned the surroundings.
“Don't touch it. It's got poison, I said.”
“Who cares. Jeon Yuk-yoon! Hurry and get some water and clean cloth!”
Tang Ha-kyung watched Namgung Seheon bellowing for Jeon Yuk-yoon, then spoke up.
“Does your fiancée's side wound not catch your eye?”
“Would you quit with that damn fiancée crap?”
Ignoring Namgung Seheon's words lightly once more, Tang Ha-kyung approached me and abruptly offered a pill.
“It's an antidote pill. You should take it to flush out the remaining poison in your body.”
“Hey hey, don't eat it! You don't even know what that is, just taking it like—”
Before his shout finished, I tossed the pill into my mouth and crunched it. The foul bitterness spreading in my mouth made me grimace hard, and Namgung Seheon grabbed my collar, shaking me vigorously to spit it out.
“She said it's an antidote pill.”
At Tang Ha-kyung's flat statement, Namgung Seheon twitched his eyebrows fiercely and sneered.
“How can anyone trust you sneaky Tang Clan bastards.”
“We'll soon be one family, so how can you badmouth your future in-laws like that.”
“Arrrgh! You're driving me insane! My future family my ass! I'd rather die than stay in the Namgung Family!”
As Namgung Seheon teetered on the edge of madness, I reached to pat his head but realized the blood on my hand and quietly lowered it.
“Tang Hae-un!”
At Tang Ha-kyung's thunderous shout, a Tang Clan guy flinched and scurried over. The bravado he'd shown spitting in my face earlier was gone; he kept his eyes downcast, trembling.
“Apologize. Properly, with a deep bow.”
At her words, the Tang Clan guy snapped his head up and desperately clutched at Tang Ha-kyung's sleeve hem.
“Sis! You can't do this to me! How can I, a direct descendant of the great Sichuan Tang Clan, bow my head—”
“Don't make me say it twice. Do I need to personally explain whose fault it is that the Tang Clan's face is being tarnished right now?”
Her killing-intent-laden growl cut off his desperate plea.
Under her chilling gaze and crushing pressure, the Tang Clan guy clenched his fists so hard his nails dug into his palms, biting his lip.
Was he unable to come to his senses because his sister had taken the hits for him, sparing him worse? I stared steadily at the roughly panting Tang Clan guy, gauging whether to smack him once more.
As he faltered under our two pressing gazes and parted his lips, I suddenly recalled the root of this mess and raised my hand to stop him.
“Ah, hold on. Biryong junior sister! Come here!”
At my call, Biryong approached but stopped at a distance from me.
“Why are you staying so far?”
“You said you got poisoned, senior brother.”
“Namgung Seheon seems fine, so it should be okay to come closer.”
“Still feels iffy, so I won't go near until you've washed up, senior brother. Keep your distance a bit more.”
“…Sigh, whatever. First, receive the apology.”